Johnson @Silicon Valley: Africa has surprising buying power

Remmy Nweke/DigitalSENSE Business News:

African continent has been described as a continent of massive needs and surprising buying power by the Nigerian Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson.

Addressing an Investors’ Forum during her visit to Silicon Valley, Bloomberg West, San Francisco in the United States on Monday, Mrs. Johnson, noted that with Africa is a massive market for any investor worth the salt.

According to her address made available to DigitalSENSE Business News, Africa comprises of 54 countries of different ethnicity, culture, language, and at different levels of development and is the second largest and second most populated continent in the world.

Population, she said, is also on average the youngest in the world, stressing that significantly sized diaspora are willing to engage to bring expertise to the continent and expand market into other parts of the world

She pointed out that although the continent faces significant challenges; significant opportunities also abound particularly with about 60 per cent of the world’s unused agricultural land is in Africa.

Emphasising that Africa is rich in a broad range of resources including large market with increasing disposable income, insisting that Africa is a place to achieve growth in a challenging environment.

“Despite the challenges it faces, Africa has recorded progress in a number of areas,” she declared, outlining the fact that over the past decade, Africa has grown to become the second fastest growing regional economy in the world after Asia.

As said by her, Africa records on average of annual growth of 5 per cent, even as its home to more than half of the world’s 10 fastest growing economies.

Internal structural changes, she said, have spurred the broader domestic economy; reducing dependencies on resource booms, in addition to better educated workforce, than at previous times.

As a result of increasing access to education at all levels, she said, skill acquisition and capacity development outside of formal education is being pursued by many Africas and Nigerians particularly.

She further said that well-being is improving in general and extreme poverty is reducing, whereas, there is an increasing consumer class with increasing disposable income.

‘Estimates are that since 2000, 31 million African households have joined the world’s consumers class and with income to make purchases other than food and shelter,” Johnson said, stressing that Nigeria is a key part of improving the African scenario.

... Making SENSE of digital revolution!
Pix: Mrs. Johnson