Africa as a potentially attractive market

Abstract

The African plastic market seems to be utterly appealing to Company X which is operative in many areas of the world, partly also in this one. With around 1,3 billion Africans and a plastic consumption of 16kg per capita, the market is highly promising (Babayemi, Nnorom, Osibanjo, & Weber, 2019). Company X is looking forward to having information about the African market for plastic injection moulds. They are especially concerned about the actual market size, potential customers, doing business aspects as well as external and internal factors affecting countries’ performances. To make an informed decision about whether to enter this market, students at the University of Applied Sciences of Upper Austria were delegated to conduct research and formulate recommendations. The start point was a kick-off meeting with Company X. The purpose was to research if there is a profitable and sustainable market for a specific selection of rigid plastic products in the African continent. This report gives a profound overview by providing findings of conducted research about the target market, potential clients, business aspects, and PESTEL analysis for six selected African countries: Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Uganda (substitute for Morocco). These countries were chosen based on initial research about their number of identified potential clients, and political and economic stability. The aspects were given different weightings according to the importance to Company X. In the main research, by ranking the countries based on their performance for each category chosen in the country ranking (namely PESTEL, target market, potential clients, and cultural proximity). Egypt turned out to be the most promising one followed by South Africa and Nigeria. Mainly because of its huge market for plastic products and a lot of potential customers, Egypt outperforms other countries. Furthermore, although substituted by Uganda during the course of the research, Morocco turned out to be highly appealing. Thus, one should not miss out on this opportunity and find ways to overcome the language barrier