Africa is the new India
..is what I said to a friend in R&D who was suffering from reduced financing for his global mobile innovation outreach campaign, and needed to defend the funding for his existing projects in sub-Saharan Africa. If you would cut technology investments in Africa now, you will surely fall out of the loop. Just like those tech companies who didn't bother with China or India (not to point the finger at anyone).
Did you know that in year 1000, Africa's GDP was 20% of the world's GDP? Today it's 7%. This is just to give a long-term perspective on things. Things do change, so don't think for a minute that because you and I were born to an age where US led western countries have the advantage, that we would be eternal winners in this game. China has had its moments in the history, and by looking at who is the biggest net lender in the world today, China will have a thing or two to say in the future as well. (remember the cool tool in history fast forward).
But back to Africa. An indication that Africa is the new rising power of financial growth, is of course newly emerging investment funds. I live in Finland, so Nordea bank is my direct link to the phenomenon. The Nordea Africa fund invests 14% of its funds in packaged consumer goods, and equally 14% in IT. 30% of the funds are in the financial sector, which is a sel-feeding cycle of growth opportunities and investments. Cautious Nordea mostly operates in South-Africa.
Iceland's Icecapital (yes, they're still standing) has an Africa fund that invests in Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, and Morocco, mainly in the finance sector. The Finnish FIM Group offers a Sahara fund, providing investment opportunities in South-Africa, UAE, Bahrain and Qatar (playing it super-safe, as Finns do).
According to Kauppalehti (March 27), IMF estimates the African GDP - excluding South-Africa - to rise 4,5% this year. How many markets have received this prognosis recently? I mean, really, 4,5%. Makes you think.
Addition March 28:
I wrote the above yesterday. This morning when I opened the paper, for the third time a topic that I covered in this blog was in the news the next day. Could there be a conspiracy going on, all the newspapers picking stories from my blog ... ha ha.
Vihreä Lanka newspaper writes the following: "Nollywood is the next Bollywood". There's a thriving movie industry in Nigeria. These quickly made camcorder films are full of black magic, drama, and absurd plots, and they are super-popular throughout Africa. The article says that there are two things you can find in any village anywhere in Africa: Coca-Cola and Nigerian films.
The article states that financially measured Nigerian film industry is 3rd biggest in the world, after Hollywood and Bollywood (personally I find this surprising, and some people would agree). Their strength is speed. The movies are completed in record time, and distribution is massively effective. This way the official dvd copies can beat black market copies, and new films are on the market before the pirates hit the streets. Clever!
Now the Nigerians will try to take their movies into international distribution. I'm not quite sure how I feel about this. All the best for Nigerian economy, but will the world really need more badly written, acted and produced camcorder movies? Isn't YouTube enough?
Did you know that in year 1000, Africa's GDP was 20% of the world's GDP? Today it's 7%. This is just to give a long-term perspective on things. Things do change, so don't think for a minute that because you and I were born to an age where US led western countries have the advantage, that we would be eternal winners in this game. China has had its moments in the history, and by looking at who is the biggest net lender in the world today, China will have a thing or two to say in the future as well. (remember the cool tool in history fast forward).
But back to Africa. An indication that Africa is the new rising power of financial growth, is of course newly emerging investment funds. I live in Finland, so Nordea bank is my direct link to the phenomenon. The Nordea Africa fund invests 14% of its funds in packaged consumer goods, and equally 14% in IT. 30% of the funds are in the financial sector, which is a sel-feeding cycle of growth opportunities and investments. Cautious Nordea mostly operates in South-Africa.
Iceland's Icecapital (yes, they're still standing) has an Africa fund that invests in Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, and Morocco, mainly in the finance sector. The Finnish FIM Group offers a Sahara fund, providing investment opportunities in South-Africa, UAE, Bahrain and Qatar (playing it super-safe, as Finns do).
According to Kauppalehti (March 27), IMF estimates the African GDP - excluding South-Africa - to rise 4,5% this year. How many markets have received this prognosis recently? I mean, really, 4,5%. Makes you think.
Addition March 28:
I wrote the above yesterday. This morning when I opened the paper, for the third time a topic that I covered in this blog was in the news the next day. Could there be a conspiracy going on, all the newspapers picking stories from my blog ... ha ha.
Vihreä Lanka newspaper writes the following: "Nollywood is the next Bollywood". There's a thriving movie industry in Nigeria. These quickly made camcorder films are full of black magic, drama, and absurd plots, and they are super-popular throughout Africa. The article says that there are two things you can find in any village anywhere in Africa: Coca-Cola and Nigerian films.
The article states that financially measured Nigerian film industry is 3rd biggest in the world, after Hollywood and Bollywood (personally I find this surprising, and some people would agree). Their strength is speed. The movies are completed in record time, and distribution is massively effective. This way the official dvd copies can beat black market copies, and new films are on the market before the pirates hit the streets. Clever!
Now the Nigerians will try to take their movies into international distribution. I'm not quite sure how I feel about this. All the best for Nigerian economy, but will the world really need more badly written, acted and produced camcorder movies? Isn't YouTube enough?
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