Sir Nigel's Journey…

Interesting 

The full McKinsey Report ‘Lions on the move: The progress and potential of African economies‘ - MGI_african_economies_full_report

Continuing to read my book – Africa Rising. My current mind set (i.e. Africa is the future) is being confirmed steadily. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in Africa and Her progress. Interestingly though, I do put the book down at times and go online to research a bit. I found this interesting link. This is an extract from an article posted by the reputable firm – McKinsey: -

‘Africa’s collective GDP, at $1.6 trillion in 2008, is now roughly equal to Brazil’s or Russia’s. While Africa’s increased economic momentum is widely recognized, less known are its sources and likely staying power. Among the key findings:

Africa’s growth acceleration was widespread, with 27 of its 30 largest economies expanding more rapidly after 2000. All sectors contributed, including resources, finance, retail, agriculture, transportation and telecommunications. Natural resources directly accounted for just 24 percent of the continent’s GDP growth from 2000 through 2008. Key to Africa’s growth surge were improved political and macroeconomic stability and microeconomic reforms.

Future economic growth will be supported by Africa’s increasing ties to the global economy. Rising demand for commodities is driving buyers around the world to pay dearly for Africa’s natural riches and to forge new types of partnerships with producers. And Africa is gaining greater access to international capital; total foreign capital flows into Africa rose from $15 billion in 2000 to a peak of $87 billion in 2007.

Africa’s economic growth is creating substantial new business opportunities that are often overlooked by global companies RMGI projects that at least four groups of industries-consumer-facing industries, agriculture, resources, and infrastructure-together could generate as much as $2.6 trillion in revenue annually by 2020, or $1 trillion more than today.

Today the rate of return on foreign investment in Africa is higher than in any other developing region. Early entry into African economies provides opportunities to create markets, establish brands, shape industry structure, influence customer preferences, and establish long-term relationships. Business can help build the Africa of the future.

The rise of the African urban consumer also will fuel long-term growth. Today, 40 percent of Africans live in urban areas, a portion close to China’s and continuing to expand. The number of households with discretionary income is projected to rise by 50 percent over the next 10 years, reaching 128 million. By 2030, the continents’ top 18 cities could have a combined spending power of $1.3 trillion’.

For further info: – Link here

 …the title is very misleading I assure you. Ha! I wanted to share and indeed give some sort of progress report on my blossoming love affair with this social media tool they call ‘Twitter’. I have to thank my dear sister for helping (well actually pushing) me join Facebook initially. Having said that though, I was an original hi5 jammer I must admit but never quite understood how this sort ‘online interaction’ was ever going to add real value to my life. Ha funny how that sounds now huh? I was young, rich, dangerous and naïve then. Now, well now I know. I have ‘met’ some very interesting and wonderful people whose daily musings I look forward to. Some inspire my very blog entries and many blog themselves – some extremely funny and thought provoking blogs I might add.

 I came across Twitter early last year, this time without the assistance of ‘dear sister’. I ventured out on my own and signed up as you do. It wasn’t until the second half of the year that I started to interact more with other Zimbabweans a.k.a. ‘Twimbos’ (in the Twitter world) that things started to get even more interesting. The Twimbo group and I say ‘group’ is spread across the globe with varying ages, occupations, socio-economic backgrounds and locations. This does present an opportunity for interesting discussions amongst say the ‘Twimbo’ community. Interestingly I believe Twitter has helped Twimbos themselves break down certain barriers (social, economic & otherwise) that exist in the ‘real world’ especially living in Zimbabwe where class still carries significant weight.. These same observations may also be relevant for any other group I belong to I might add. There seems to be a genuine camaraderie amongst ‘my people’ on Twitter. This is one of the aspects that I absolutely love about Lady T.

The other advantage is the ease at which information from all over the world is shared on one open source. I now receive my news updates from Twitter as opposed to the typical mainstream sources I used to use in my past life. I don’t watch as much SKY or BBC news as I used to. I simply follow them on Twitter. I am now able to add their ‘tweets’ to my favourites and read them at my leisure. This applies to any of my interests really. I follow the people and organisations that I want and need taking care to see who they in turn follow just in case this group could be of interest to me. In summary Lady T has been a blessing for our various business projects. This is one of the reasons why I love her so much.

What I find strange is the little attention Zimbabwean and indeed some African businesses pay to social media tools like Twitter and/or Facebook. It is the easiest and cheapest way to keep in touch with their customer base. It ‘really’ doesn’t take that much honestly. A coffee shop/retail outlet could be on both and tweet daily specials or updates and create a loyal following. Research has proven in an experiment conducted on a café in the US that Facebook in this instance didn’t add any new business but rather increased the number of visits by the existing customers. I have spoken to a few social media experts and I have been assured that the trend is changing and soon more Zimbabwean and African businesses/organisations will be in love with social media just as I am. With increased internet connectivity in Africa the trend will certainly shift. I look foward to the future…

I thought this was interesting. Somali twins in New York City living their dream. Inspiring…

I found this on www.ted.com. I read about this Nigerian lady some time last year; the work she did and continues to do in Nigeria even to this day. Inspiring stuff really, I’m humbled after watching that. She made a number of points in her TED presenatation about some of the things I spoke about in my previous blog entry and/or Friday Tweets on Africa.

In between all the madness of ZimBizForums and discoverZim I try to make time to catch up on some reading. As I mentioned a few months ago I am reading a book by Moky Makura entitled Africa’s Greatest Entrepreneurs.In the same breath I stumbled across this on youtube yesterday. This is a very inspiring story: – Africa Open for Business – Nigeria 

Africa’s Greatest Entrepreneurs sold here

The youtube.com link here: – Africa’s Greatest Entrepreneurs by Moky Makura