ZONE AFRICA

Leader

ZONE AFRICA

Muriel BENOIT

Sales Manager Europe/Africa

Xavier PERSONNIC

Expert Go to Africa

Africa is often rightly cited as a land of opportunity and therefore a market to be questioned by any company seeking to develop. Nevertheless, the subject is difficult to qualify because the commercial and operational models are in reality quite unknown to managers.

African realities are known through commonplaces dispensed by the "classic" media or through the points of view of organisations such as MEDEF Africa, CIAN, etc., which are very much oriented towards the macro-economy, regulatory environment and institutional strategies.

"It is not so easy to find a balanced approach between an "Afro-optimism" often tinged with naivety and an "Afro-pessimism" too often tinged with ignorance.

However, the point on which all the players agree is that the deployment of B2C / B2B solutions is impossible to "copy / paste" from the mature Western models even in an attempt to adapt their globalisation dimension from the example of the development of South East Asia over the last 25 years.

Besides the "business development strategy" aspect, there is a real need to share very specific supply chain and logistics operation models. The Africa chapters will bring this dimension.

Questioning this African market as a whole is a challenge. Indeed:

The continent's area is larger than the combined surface area of the United States, China, India, Japan, and all of Western Europe.
Among the 54 countries, there are significant disparities in size, economic situation, population, education system, political governance, financial system, and access to financing (with rates that are too often "usurious"), culture, food self-sufficiency, reserves of "global" raw materials, arable land and forest area, access to the sea, and finally, maturity in transport & logistics/supply chain, etc.
Seven countries accounted for ~70% of Africa's GDP in 2024; conversely, 37 countries accounted for only 12.5% of the continent's ~$3 trillion GDP (comparable to that of France).
The demographic outlook for the next 25 years is unique in the world (one generation to go from 1.2 billion inhabitants in Africa to 2.5 billion in 2050), with again significant differences in terms of demographic transition.
There has been a diversification of partnerships with the rest of the world, limiting its dependencies, but again with a wide variety of interests depending on the country.

Each country must therefore be addressed specifically. However, certain countries play a more central role due to their geographical and economic positioning. This regional perspective can therefore be a major factor in the development of certain sectors of activity.

It is important to note that the "Cost To Serve" in Africa is generally much higher than in Europe, the US, or Asia. This "Cost To Serve" is influenced by specific supply chain criteria and the "traditional" GO TO MARKET criteria presented below.

Criteria

Open chapters

OF THE AFRICA ZONE