I read a press release from the International Trade Administration this morning. Its an old one, dated June 14th, 2012 but the information is still relevant. In thepress release the World Bank's "Doing Business in a more transparent World" document is cited as evidence that 36 out of the 46 economies in Sub-Saharan Africa have improved business regulations this year and 6 of the world's 10 fastest economies are in this area as well. Hopefully this translates to better export opportunities for our businesses. The point here is simple. This COULD be the next big market for your business.
I know many of you are thinking do not put too much thought into this area. Asia occupies most of the commercial "bandwidth" out there and Latin America follows as our business are far more adept at conducting business in those countries than in sub-Saharan Africa. For this same very reason this is why it could be a potential market, the competition might be less fierce and the opportunities might be more abundant. Obviously this is just food for thought, a proper market research needs to be conducted before ANY business decides to take this leap but the facts are there, this area is growing, its growing fast and many are not paying attention.
You can read the press release at the following link:
http://blog.trade.gov/2012/06/14/growth-and-opportunities-in-sub-saharan-africa/
I look forward to your comments.
Very good points. The sub-Saharan African region is a prime market for the less competitive. Thank you for sharing the press release.
ReplyDeleteJerry,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your input. I agree, a less competitive market might be ideal for those small businesses trying to break into exporting. Sadly I think the Department of Commerce does not take its own advice too seriously. In the trade leads section (http://export.gov/eac/trade_leads.asp) of Export.gov only ONE trade lead is posted for the whole of Africa...the same lead since at least February of this year.