By 
What would you say if I told you that there is a bigger African nation in terms of GDP than Nigeria?! Before I tell you the name of this nation, here are its own economic statistics: GDP estimated at $650bn with the population estimated at around 60m. Unemployment amongst this nation group is low, estimated at less than 3%. Most are educated, and they speak many different languages. So who are these people?
Case Study: See opportunity at home and across the world.
It is @AfricanDiaspora! In this post, I am talking about the Africans, mostly first-generation, now living and working outside their home countries. In this case study today, I am including those who work within Africa, and excluding US African Americans whose own cumulative income is $1.6Tn+!
These guys in the @AfricanDiaspora send home about $82bn a year (AfDB 2018). Nigerians alone, as the second-largest group after Egypt ($29bn), send home around $26bn a year!
Whilst many of our citizens who decide to leave home often struggle greatly to build a new life (especially at first) the @DiasporaNation is actually the single largest source of foreign exchange into Africa, sending money home that we generally call “Remittances”. These Remittances (money transferred to family and friends in home countries) dwarf the amount coming from Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
FDI into Africa was about $46bn in 2018 but @DiasporaNation is by far Africa’s largest investor!
The Diaspora Nations’ members are amongst the richest Africans in the world, and they have amongst the highest disposable incomes…
As an entrepreneur have you ever considered doing business with @DiasporaNation?
If you research African nations in terms of their economic size by GDP (in today’s prices – Feb 28, 2020), here are the top 10 economies: (Source – IMF. Link: https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/NGDPD) (There are different measures at different times as currencies fluctuate, but I’m just giving you the IMF stats today).
1. Nigeria – $494.83bn
2. South Africa – $369.85bn
3. Egypt – $353bn
4. Algeria – $178.64bn
5. Morocco – $124.54bn
6. Kenya – $109.13bn
7. Ethiopia – $103.61bn
8. Angola – $88.98bn
9. Ghana – $69.76bn
10. Tanzania – $67.24bn
Increasingly, many innovative African entrepreneurs are now consciously developing and marketing products to @DiasporaNation. With the emergence of digital marketplaces and eCommerce, it is easier than ever to reach them!
For those of you who watched the judging of the $1m Africa Netpreneur Prize competition which I did with Jack Ma last November, you should remember the presentation by a talented entrepreneur from Mali, Moulaye Taboure, co-founder and CEO of Afrikrea (https://www.Afrikrea.com/) who studied in Paris the set up his business in African Nation-Côte d’Ivoire. He sells beautiful Africa-inspired fashion products to @DiasporaNation!
In this series, I want to focus attention on #Afripreneurs who are into business between African Nations and @DiasporaNation. If you live in any African Nation country and have a business that sells products to @DiasporaNation, I want to know about it, and vice versa!
Yes, you can be an entrepreneur sitting in the US and your business is into Africa, or an #Afripreneur at home on the continent, scaling your markets to @DiasporaNation abroad. Tell us about it! This is your chance to shine.
“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an ENTREPRENEUR sees the opportunity in every difficulty”. (Paraphrased from Winston Churchill)
Credit: Strive Masiyiwa (Founder & Executive Chairman, Econet Group)
Comments