McKinsey on Africa | Can Africa continue to grow?

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» Sizing Africa's business opportunities
Strong prospects await global companies that invest in the continent’s consumer, agricultural, natural-resource, and infrastructure sectors.

Africa’s economic growth is creating substantial new business opportunities that multinational companies often overlook. New projections from the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) show at least four categories that together could be worth $2.6 trillion in annual revenues by 2020 (exhibit). In Lions on the move: The progress and potential of African economies, MGI reviews the prospects of the continent’s consumer-facing sectors (retailing, telecommunications, and banking, among others), agriculture, natural resources, and infrastructure.

» The China – Africa business connection: An interview with the CEO of Standard Bank
Jacko Maree describes his experiences working with a Chinese investor—the giant Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

» Assessing Africa’s business future: An interview with the CEO of Absa
The CEO of one of South Africa’s largest financial-services companies discusses the state of business in Africa.

» South Africa in the spotlight: An interview with Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe
The ANC veteran discusses the state of the South African economy, the country’s progress in fighting HIV/AIDS, China’s role on the continent, and the important part that values have to play in the business world.

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South Africa, Cape Town

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A panel of regional business leaders discusses its prospects.

Gross corruption, constant wars, and irrational economics long made Africa a poor, troubled continent where natural-resource companies were almost the only multinationals that dared or cared to do business. But in the 1990s, the picture improved. The wars started subsiding. Many governments balanced their budgets and created a better, safer environment for companies, both foreign and domestic. And the African consumer began to stir. Now 80 million households earn at least the equivalent of $5,000 annually, the point where discretionary spending commences—an increase of 80 percent in eight years. Meanwhile, the continent’s GDP has been rising steadily, at around 5 percent a year, for the past decade, reaching $1.6 trillion in 2008. Last year, Africa was one of just two regions (the other was Asia) where GDP rose.

Is all this good news sustainable? At the 2010 Fortune Global Forum, in Cape Town, South Africa, McKinsey Publishing’s Rik Kirkland spoke with Absa’s Maria Ramos, Coca-Cola’s Bill Egbe, and McKinsey’s Norbert Dörr to find the answer.

Watch the video, or download a PDF of the transcript.

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