Leveraging the World Cup: Are You Buying or Selling in Africa?

One of the great advantages of doing business in industrialized nations is the great foundation of infrastructure that we enjoy.

What I mean by this is the many government and corporate entities that provide fundamental services that enable other parts of the economy to work. Communication systems, postal service, data centers and trucking companies are good examples. Most of the time we simply take these for granted… but we shouldn’t… especially when moving into new markets.

In particular, when considering new markets, like Africa, whether that be in South Africa, Egypt, Angola or other nations on the continent it’s helpful to get a few basic reference points in place to make sure there is sufficient infrastructure and a worthwhile market for the products you want to sell.

One of the places I look to for basic information on a country is the CIA Factbook. The CIA is an agency of the United States government and provides a very nice online resource that is concise and usable.

The information they gather covers 266 countries and includes such things as geography, demographics, transportation, communications systems and economic outlooks. This is really quite helpful if you’re just trying to get a sense for what the country looks like and whether or not it is a viable market.

As an example, South Africa, host of the FIFA World Cup has an average life expectancy of 49.2 years. Median age for the country is 24.7. In contrast the United Arab Emirates has a life expectancy of 76.3 years and a Median age of 30.2 years. This becomes critical information if your company sells a product or service that is geared toward affluent members of society that are 65 and older.

However, let’s assume your company doesn’t want to sell into African nations, but instead you want to invest in emerging markets, and sell or service industry sectors in your home market. In this case you’re buying and Africa can offer opportunities for investment and growth as has occurred in other nations around the globe. We have seen this play out in India, Ireland, China, Argentina, Costa Rica and the Philippines to name a few. These countries have targeted specific industry sectors or skill sets and successfully created vibrant economies through their focused efforts.

China is known to be the manufacturing capital of the world. Ireland has been a great software packaging and development center before the days of the Internet and software-as-a-service (SaaS). India, Costa Rica, Argentina and the Philippines have all developed excellent reputations for inbound and outbound call center operations.

If your company is looking to Africa for growth opportunities or if you are looking to leverage emerging markets in order to service industrialized nations, Africa is worth looking at. Although the World Cup draws attention to South Africa, other nations and companies can take advantage of this event to attract investment capital to their home country or to build brand awareness for their company as they expand into new markets across Africa or setup shop in Africa to support home countries.

The world is coming to South Africa – the question becomes– will you explore the rest of Africa while you’re “in the neighborhood?”

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