Business
The rise of the African consumer
A Shopper in Kampala, Uganda. PHOTO/Panos /Mikkel Ostergaard
Africa’s large, fast-growing population, combined with rising consumer disposable income, offers companies an enormous opportunity, a new survey by McKinsey shows…
The report, “The rise of the African consumer“, sampled 13 000 individuals from 15 cities in ten African countries in 2011 and 2012 and says Africa’s consumer-facing industries are expected to grow by more than US$400-billion by 2020, accounting for more than half of the total forecast revenue increase in business on the continent.
Africa’s economic growth accelerated in the years following 2000, making it the world’s second-fastest-growing region after emerging Asia and equal to the Middle East.
By 2020, more than half of African households are projected to have discretionary income, rising from 85-million households today to almost 130-million in 2020.
With 40 percent of its population living in cities, Africa is more urbanized than India (30 percent) and nearly as urbanized as China (45 percent). By 2016, more than 500-million Africans will live in urban centers, and the number of cities with more than a million people is expected to reach 65, compared with 52 in 2011.