For a continent that has grown about 5%, annually, since 200, it has got a lot of momentum. And this is just the beginning. The ten largest markets in Africa are exceedingly fascinating and good for business. The pace dwarfs the rest of the continent. It is just acres of opportunities and diamond.

The middle class is coming up with consumption, private, exceeding $270 billion within a decade. This compares well with even the BRICs of India and Brazil. Africa has a good projection as more people are moved up the pyramid. With estimated 130 million making more than $5,000 in 2020, from about 85m today, the continent is on the rise.

A MM report summarizes it thus:

By 2040, the continent is also expected to boast the world’s largest working-age population, and another 500 million children could be born by 2030, providing marketers a youthful, aspirational audience in the long term.Supporting these shifts is the move towards urban living, with an extra 15 cities in Africa containing a minimum 1 million residents emerging in the past ten years, and a further 19 due to join this group by 2020, taking the total to 71.

 

Overall, 117 million people have migrated to metropolitan centres in the last ten years. The ten busiest cities, including Alexandria and Cairo in Egypt, Algiers in Morocco, Johannesburg in South Africa, and Lagos in Nigeria are projected to yield over $1trillion in GDP collectively by 2020.
85% of local shoppers would be willing to receive mobile advertising, including listening to brand messages. Currently, over 400 multinational corporations claim at least $200 million in annual revenue from Africa, and although challenges remain covering a lack of talent and infrastructural development, the potential cannot be ignored.

 

Mobile phones sales have boomed in Africa, with more handsets likely to be in circulation than there are people to use them by 2015. Penetration has already attained such a benchmark in Gabon, and is nearing the same level in South Africa, while even in Sudan, a country troubled by war in recent decades, it has reached 45%.

Africa is doing just fine in the mobility business. More people are buying phones, and mobile internet usage is expanding. But this could have been better if Africa has improved its literacy rate, say ten years ago.  Illiteracy is the #1 factor that will stymie the growth of mobile internet in Africa. People that are not educated cannot just Internet and finding a way to close that hole will require the efforts of many stakeholders.

We are a voice continent – we talk a lot and that is in our DNA. We are not going to start writing. Yet, the value added service companies must not depend on airtime to stay in this business. They must move to the domain of getting more Africans to use Apps and spend money on music, games, web, emails and others. That is the only paradigm that will help them reap great profits and remain profitable.

The profitability could compare to the dawn of the mobile era in Africa if a firm differentiates itself by offering products and services that delight the customers. This will mean bundling internet, voice, TV, music, film and others in packages. And on top of that, build interface for health management, mPayment, other other auxiliary services. They should figure out how to reduce the cost of international money transfer by expanding networks. A new dawn must evolve integrating African banks and foreign ones via phones.
Africa is the next frontier – ignore it for own business peril. It will grow even in the old media, like TV, where ITU predicts about 40% reach. McKinsey expects middle class population to add extra 50% within ten years.

But for mobile internet, some of these numbers may  not make sense, if the people are not educated to use it. Maybe, the telcos can see mass literacy as a way to stay in business and give a helping hand to government and NGOs.