As an entrepreneur, your first duty is to care about what happens outside your world. Observing the view from a foreign perspective is an essential action that allows you even come up with business ideas to increase your income. Do not sit lamenting about Africa’s poor infrastructure. While you do that, western companies are strategically planing how to enter into the African market irrespective of the existing infrastructure. Get up, quit lamenting, stop complaining, take action. Begin to brainstorm and come up with ideas to start either a full business or a side business. You can join my 6 Key program to get the knowledge and support you need to develop an idea.
This is the fact – Africa’s population is on the rise.
Africa is the second-largest and second most populous continent on earth with an estimated population in 2016 of 1.2 billion people. Based on the 2050 prediction, Africa might make up half of the world’s population by 2100. How does this affect the current SMEs ecosystem? I would say, this means opportunity for us!
Africans might make up half the world population by 2100.
Increase in population can be viewed from different perspective, but my focus for this article would be restricted to the economical value for the continent. Many could view the rapid population growth as a threat and claim that there is not enough resource out there for this kind of growth. The truth is that resources are not used and managed responsibly at the moment and that is why the fear for a population rise is justified. But does Africa actually profit from the squandering of ressources today? No!
There is enough resources, but how is it managed?
Take for example, there is a large amount of food waste every day, not to even talk about how European retail standards encourages store owners to get rid of fruits and vegetables that do not conform to a specific “aesthetic” look. Imagine that for a second, then imagine this! Mama John is a road side fruit seller in Liberia. Mama John sells her “not so sexy” bananas to happy customers everyday. She barely earns enough to eat, let alone educate her children properly. At the other end of the world, million tonnes of food is being wasted. In the EU, around 88 million tonnes of food waste are generated every year with associated costs estimated at 143 billion euros.
Bananas like Mama Johns would never be sold because they do not look sexy enough. The resources to produce and to mange the waste of mass foods is terribly expensive. Waste management contributes to about 8% of Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions destroying our natural environment, leading to hunger in many regions. Quick explanation here – the earth is supposed to be a lot cooler than it is now. It has become about 40% warmer than it should be due to too much increase in these type of gas solution caused by many factors including food production, the associated consumption lifestyle and waste. I included a link above, so you can check it for more details about this solution issue.
Africa on the rise should mean, we have the chance now as entrepreneurs to learn from the experiences and mistakes of the western world and sieze this opportunity of a growing continent to do it better. business ideas that revolve around up cycling, re-use, lending services, co-sharing, recycling, biodegradability etc. are viable sectors that could even get you lots of extra funding from local and international governments and foundations. I will introduce lots of ideas in the future, so make sure to have a membership as I only send these exclusive business insights to our members.
Digest these facts. Then think of a new business idea!
Here are some facts for you to digest before you think of a new venture to start. Africa now has over 1.2 billion people and about 41% is under the age of 15. Which means that if you start today to create a solution targeting youths and children, you will never go out of business in the next decade to come. All done well, You could literally build a family empire.
There is an up and down side to the lack of infrastructure, limited technology, health system and services, name it. The downside is that developing businesses would be challenging and probably not efficient at all. Now, the upside is that you now have space, as Africans to develop new solutions, replicate best-practices and create sustainable solutions for a rising population. Before you rush into a brainstorm session for new ideas, kindly take 20 minutes to watch my FREE tutorial welcome series about understanding wealth.
In future blogs, I will introduce a good number of business ideas for a rapid growing population in Africa and also create video tutorials that might assist you into venturing in one or more of these businesses ideas. Stay connected by subscribing to our newsletter at the footer beneath this blog article. you know, I love us to interact and discus. Please drop a comment, question, feedback beneath this article.
Cheers, Joana
