Investing In Africa:

The New Land Of Opportunity

In 2019, the 5 fastest-growing economies in the world were in Africa — expanding at more than 2X the rate of the worldwide average

Now Is The Time To Invest In Africa

• Big Tech Expanding In Africa

• Google AI Lab — Accra, Ghana

• Focus on 

• Applying new AI solutions to local challenges

• Diversifying the datasets used to train AI

• Improving Google Translate’s ability to capture African languages 

• Facebook Offices — Lagos, Nigeria

• Plans include 

• New tech hubs for startup development

• 37,000 km of underwater internet cable encircling the continent

• Microsoft Africa Development Center (ADC) & Microsoft Africa Research Institute (MARI) — Nairobi, Kenya

• In its first 5 years, the ADC plans to invest $100 million in new tech

• MARI is focused on improving productivity using AI and cloud tech

• Africa makes up 16% of the world’s population and just 3% of global GDP — But that disparity won’t last long

• Today, Africa is growing faster than any other region — By 2025

• 65% of African households will be middle class

• The working-age population will surpass both China and India

• Nearly half of the continent’s population will live in large cities

• Africa’s GDP growth will reach $4.5 trillion

• Africa is the only continent poised to achieve double-digit economic growth in the next decade

Today, more Africans are engaged in entrepreneurship than anywhere else in the world

Entrepreneurship & Opportunity

• 22% of Africa’s working-age population are starting businesses

• Nearly 70% of African students pursuing MBAs in the top 10 US and European school plan to return home after graduations

• Most talented young Africans plan to return, and many will start their own businesses

• Uganda has the highest percentage of female-owned businesses in the world — closely followed by Botswana

• 27% of African women are engaged in early-stage entrepreneurship

• African women are 2X as likely to start a business as women elsewhere in the world

• BUT, African women still face barriers to success, including lower wages, less venture capital, and starting as industry outsiders

• The gender wage gap costs sub-Saharan economies $105 billion a year — 6% of GDP

The Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AFCTA) is a newly signed deal across Africa* to create

a single continental market for goods and services, with free movement of business persons and investments *except for Eritrea

• Core Industries & Opportunities

• Agriculture: 60% of the world’s arable land is in Africa — Yet, sub-Saharan Africa imports $15 billion in food crops every year

• Yields could triple with investments in infrastructure and agricultural inputs

• Up to 12% of harvests are lost  — largely due to poor storage conditions

• Healthcare: Africa has 16% of the world’s population and just 2% of the world’s doctors

• High demand for healthcare has created a growing market for health tech

• By 2024, the African healthcare sector will reach over $37.1 billion

• Education: In sub-Saharan Africa, more children are finishing primary school in sub-Saharan Africa than ever  — 1 in 5 are still out of school

• 2020 brought a 97% increase in child users of ed-tech

• There’s still room to grow — Just 28 million of 450+ million children are currently benefiting 

[Call Out: If all 15-year-olds completed basic education, Ghana’s economy would grow by over 3,800% — South Africa’s by more than 2,600%]

• Energy: Many African countries are far ahead of Western countries in terms of sustainable energy use

• UK & US source only 11% of their energy from renewable sources

• Kenya sources 13% from geothermal 50% from hydroelectricity

• Finance: By 2022, banking revenue in Africa will reach $129 billion — Mobile payments outpace traditional banking

•  80% of African people have access to a mobile phone

•  In 2019, mobile transactions in sub-Saharan Africa valued $456.3 billion

Foreign investments in Africa show higher returns than any other developing region

• Twiga Foods (Kenya)

• Business-to-business marketplace platform that sources products directly from farmers and delivers it to urban retailers

• $107 million in funding

• Farmcrowdy (Nigeria)

• Digital platform that connects investors to farmers through sponsorship packages to fund higher yields for a share of the returns

• $15 million deployed to farming in the past 3 years 

• iProcure (Kenya)

• One of the largest supply chain platforms in Africa, connecting small-scale farmers to manufacturers of agricultural inputs such as animal feed, fertilizers and permitted plant protection products for use in organic farming

• $15.1 million in sales

• Khula App (South Africa)

• App that creates “one big virtual farm” consisting of multiple emerging farms to crowd-source and deliver on bulk orders from supermarkets, restaurant chains and for home delivery by geolocation

• Paystack

• 60,000 customers

• Acquired by Stripe

• Flutterwave

• Raised $170M

• now valued at over $1B

Start Investing In Africa Today

• In 2018, total startup funding in African grew by 4X — and funding deals doubled

• In total, startups raised $725.6 million in 458 deals — setting a new record high

• The top 30 startups are receiving rounds of over $5 million

• Empower Africa Business Network

• Gain exposure and present your products and services

• Find partners to implement, operate, and expand your business

• Source expertise and capital to expand your operations
  
  

Be a part of meaningful growth in Africa.

Become a member today!

empowerafrica.com/network