Picking up the FDI pace - go Ghana! 01/31/2012
At Markets Speaking, we're thrilled to take part of the GIPC's (Ghana Investment Promotion Agency's) fresh data estimating that FDI inflows increased by 500% from 2010 to 2011! Further, the GIPC estimates that the number of new jobs created from the registered projects is 46,761. Imagine that we were impressed with the modest 100% FDI growth recorded between 2009 and 2010! Considering the fact that the average FDI inflow to Africa dropped post-recession, this is even more impressive. The value of Ghana's FDI for 2011 was estimated at USD 7.68 bn. Add Comment Happy New Year! 12/31/2011
Wishing all our readers and friends a happy new year filled with joy and success. Looking forward to a promising 2012! /Ylva, Peter and Geraldine Are you planning to launch a new product or service in Ghana? Is your target group young, urban, aspiring consumers? Let this short guide give you a head start! Markets Speaking is happy to share some free research-based tips that will help you create a successful marketing strategy.* 1. Make use of role models in campaigns - footballers, successful business women, musicians, renown leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama or Kofi Annan. 2. Incorporate popular music in your adverts. Even ladies that would never be caught dancing at a club, do so in their homes, listening to the radio. 3. Make an effort to develop a catchy tagline - they tend to stick. Many, due to lacking access, don't read a lot of books aside from The Book. However, celebrity quotes, catch phrases and slogans are spread eagerly and enjoyed widely. 4. Appreciate that religion and traditional values are central to Ghanaians. This is reflected in how advertising is accepted. It doesn't take a lot for an ad to come across as "immoral", thus backfiring. 5. Don't be afraid of online advertising. Official stats will suggest only a few percent of all Ghanaians have internet access. However, for urban, young, educated Ghanaians, the figures change dramatically. Even though we're not looking at broadband access at home, most have easy access to internet through cyber cafés in their neighborhood, or at campus if they're students. We'll throw in a bonus 6th tip: do your research! Not surprisingly, a research company would tell you this. On a more serious note, letting the "markets speak" before making a major investment is always worth it. * based on recent focus groups and consumer surveys focusing on 20-30 year olds in Accra  We're now 7 billion people. If you're in your fifties, this is the 5th "billion milestone" you're experiencing. Markets Speaking's founders have only been around for the last 3 milestones, but this has still enabled us to witness the world change dramatically. Comparing with the 80's, our world is all at once more fair, yet less fair; wealthier, yet poorer. All along, we humans love pretending that we know where our planet's heading. However, who questioned the dollar's position as the world's currency of choice until recently? Now, considering the current state of affairs, who'd still agree that the US "is and always will be a triple-A country"? Predicting successful business ideas seems to be none the easier. Who'd imagine that a Finnish video game in which egg-stealing pigs are destroyed by revenge-seeking birds, would be the #1 downloaded app in 64 countries, driving the company's value up to 1 USD billion in 2011? Consequently, we can't help but wonder if the next Microsoft, Google, Facebook or Groupon could be African. When even angel investors such as (ex-Dragon) Doug Richard play down the importance of outside funding for start-ups, maybe we should start viewing innovation and motivation as more valuable sucess factors than cash. With growing numbers of African teens acquiring tertiary education and gaining unprecedented access to technology through the recent digital revolution - there are reasons to believe that future tech entrepreneurs will come from cities like Lagos, Accra or Nairobi. Looking for evidence? At the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology in Accra, gifted Ghanaians develop own software applications together with international executives and MBA students from top ranking universities. Out of the seven incubator companies, one has already been awarded a Best Business prize in the US - competing with 100 Silicon Valley start-ups (NandiMobile). Moving across the continent, Kenyan company Pesapal offers a platform for online payments, and has been listed as one of the 20 Hot International Start-ups to watch by US business site Business Insider. Yet another example is the Ghanaian social network company GSocialize that was founded last year and today has over 20,000 users in over 40 countries worldwide. The company's primary target group is Africa, although users are found in Europe, the Americas and Asia. Integrating more interactive features such as video streaming, conference services and chat rooms has won the network many new followers. The next population billion mark won't occur for at least another 14 years, years during which we believe that African entrepreneurs will demonstrate that great innovations are exported from rather than imported to the continent. Change begins from within 08/20/2011
 After a summer blog break, we are back on track and happy to report about an applaudable initiative as a reaction to the famine in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia. The "Kenyans for Kenya" initiative was created by the Kenya Red Cross Society and is supported by the Kenya Commercial Bank, Safaricom Foundation and the Media Owners Association. This joint private sector + NGO campaign creates awareness among citizens and companies and simultaneously offers simple means for making donations. What makes the campaign stand out is that it encourages local citizens to make a difference - and refrain from relying on donations from abroad. Read more about the initiative at the Kenyans4Kenya website and view the NTV video! Sustainability: a luxury for Africa? 05/29/2011
 Sustainability as an integral part of doing business has become increasingly widespread in the advanced economies. Transparency is generally high, customers demand high ethical standards, the media is keen on reporting on lacking assumption of responsibility, and, perhaps most importantly, the private and public sector have the financial means to plan beyond the next quarter. While sustainability means one thing to a biologist and another to a CxO, most would agree that it entails behaving in a way that minimises overconsumption of resources and maximises long term benefits for people and planet. Many would also agree that the countries in greatest need of sustainable business, political, financial or technological solutions are indeed the countries in emerging and developing markets. However, what sometimes is lost in the debate is that these very same countries have the least means to introduce, invest in and implement new practices. Let us re-examine the conditions common in advanced economies that enable sustainable practices and translate these to African markets. Firstly, transparency is generally low in the private and public sector - not necessarily intentionally, sometimes just due to lacking technology - obviously blocking scrutiny effectively. (Read about other consequences of lacking transparency in our blog post: Beneath the Radar). With relatively few listed companies, the incentive to share corporate information is low - whether it's financial, operational or strategic. Further, pricing is lacking, leaving room for negotiation and bartering. Secondly, customers cannot set demands when influence or purchasing power is inadequate. Consumers aren't organised and have few rights. What's worse, in most cases there simply doesn't exist credible sustainable alternatives on the market. Individuals and companies are left to choose between affordable, but socially or environmentally unsustainable products, or few and unaffordable green/fair trade goods. This situation is reflected in a number of sectors, ranging from heavy industries to FMCG. Thirdly, the media is not uncommonly "sponsored" by the highest bidders or even censored. Last but definitely not least, the bottom line is that without the means, even the best intentions will remain unrealised. This is strongly interlinked with point 2: who's to blame the consumer if he or she cannot afford to buy the product that in the long term is the best option for our planet? Who's to say that a family should not use charcoal for their cooker when there is no alternative for making food or cleaning water? Who's to say that a government-owned construction company should be buying a truck with European emission standards for the same price they can be buying 3 Chinese trucks that are unlikely to pass such standards? Many African cities are expanding rapidly, putting huge pressure on urban housing development and improved infrastructure. On top of this, many governments are struggling with inherited debts. With this in mind, most decision makers in the public and private sectors would opt for 3 trucks for the price of 1 without hesitation. There are no simple answers to this issue. Without doubt, sustainability and responsible conduct must become a stronger priority among African leaders. Climate change continues to destroy the livelihoods of rural Africans and poverty is not declining as quickly as the global community had hoped. Meanwhile, leaders in the West must also recognise that what we have is very far from a situation in which a well paid consultant in Stockholm or Chicago can choose to pay an additional $5 for organic cereal.  Africa has passed Western Europe in terms of mobile connections, with 547.5 vs. 523.6 million mobile connections per region. Although the absolute figures provide more of a motivational milestone than a sufficient progress indicator, the growth figures do not fail to support the notion that we are witnessing impressive development. Growth in the African market boasted a near 20% increase between Q4 2009 and Q4 2010, the equivalent of 20 times the growth rate for Western Europe. Read the full story here, at IT News Africa. The increase in mobile connectivity has, as we have seen during the recent and ongoing uprisings in Northern Africa and the Middle East, played an important role in enabling the rapid spread of information among civilians. Thus, we must not forget that increased connectivity is not only an indicator of increased business potential in a market, but also a booster of transparency and potentially a prerequisite for democratic development. Beneath the radar 01/18/2011
 Why does Africa's development and progress come across as so paradoxical? How come we are witnessing unparalleled GDP growth figures paired with seemingly unchanging GDP per capita figures? Why do we see companies of all sizes booming but yet slums persisting to exist? Why do some allegedly booming economies still “look” poor? The answer is as simple as it is complicated. The simple part of the answer is that, yes, growth is occurring. The complicated part is that it is occurring unevenly and, most importantly, beneath the radar. The informal economy contributes to hiding (and hampering) growth in many African countries. Yet as it can employ over half of a country’s working force, its impact cannot be neglected. The informal economy silently sustains millions of households all across Africa. Millions of people run unregistered businesses and save money in unregistered, trust-based, banks. Long before microloans became a buzz word, people were helping each other finance housing, school fees and business investments. They still are today. The difference is, today we expect to find information about these people online. We expect to find graphs illustrating how much more Patience and Yonas are saving 2010 compared to 2006. When we don’t, and we have images of slums, riots and inflated bellies fresh in mind, we assume nothing is happening. This brings us to the second sense in which African markets operate beneath the radar. Africa’s progress cannot be revealed and understood by using a search engine. It will not disclose itself to you through the measures of finger taps on a key board. In the West, we are used to being able to look up information alone, discretely, and in the comfort in our homes or offices. We have grown accustomed to the notion that if something exists, it’s on the internet. In short, we assume full transparency. Lack of transparency does not necessarily equal a corrupt state of matters (even though it offers suitable breeding grounds). It just means that whatever’s going on – you’re not going to find out if you don’t abandon your laptop. It won’t matter a great deal if you are looking at plastics manufacturers in Ghana or TV-show preferences in Ethiopia – you need to be where it’s happening. There are two lessons to be learned here. The first is that Africa indeed holds large potential for those investors who don’t fall for the temptation of underestimation, and instead learn to ask the right questions in the right places. The second is that Africans who are contributing to growth need to begin making their success stories more readily available using company websites and social media. We’ll round off this post with an anecdote. Birru is a 33-year old Ethiopian running a small transport service business in Addis Ababa. He has after years of diligent work recently upgraded to a larger and newer vehicle. In order to do this, he needed a loan. But his loan to value ratio (LVR) was 50% and he saves money every month to pay off his debt and build a foundation for a future family. Today he rents a one-room flat, which he spends little time in due to work. Birru is by Western measures not rich. But, with the recent financial meltdown in mind, why is an American with a LVR 115% home loan still a more attractive customer than he is?  In the November issue of PC Tech magazine, Markets Speaking's CEO Geraldine Joseph is interviewed by PC Tech Magazine. We like this article. Aside from the obvious reason that it provides a good introduction to what we do and why - we like it because it's published in an all-African tech magazine! You can dowload the November issue for a limited period of time here. Enjoy! Facebook gaining faces in Africa 10/06/2010
 According to Facebook's own stats, the number of users is now more than 0.5 billion worldwide. Despite the low levels of internet connectivity in many African countries, the number of Facebook users is growing 5-10% monthly in countries such as Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana. (With exceptions, of course - Nigerian growth was over 20% between May and June this year.) Walk into any internet café in Accra, and you'll find most of its occupants browsing on Facebook. Our own research shows that Facebook is by far the most visited website among urban Ghanaians, with over 40% reporting it as their top site. If you're looking to advertise in Ghana - especially if your target group is the metropolitan 20-somethings - don't get fooled by the official online access numbers! Thanks to internet cafés and mobile internet access possibilities, more people are online than you'd think. Thanks insidefacebook.com for additional figures! | AuthorsThe Markets Speaking Blog is run by the market research company Markets Speaking AB. Visit the company website at www.marketsspeaking.com. Speaker's Corner!
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