The share of investments in the water sector in SSA is relatively small at 9.7% compared to other infrastructure sectoral financing according to the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa (2016). The region’s water access flounders at 40% (World Bank 2017). Whereas industrial wastewater is aiding the deterioration in water quality, resulting in reduced biodiversity in rivers,…
After growing its expertise in the African packaging markets throughout the last 5 years, africon supported a leading aluminium foil supplier to the flexible-, laminated carton, cigarette- and blister packaging industry with the development of its Africa strategy. 53 key industrial players were interviewed, including 11 packaging manufacturers in South Africa and 12 packaging manufacturers…
In 2017, we analysed the market for automotive filtration in Kenya and Tanzania in detail. During the project, 60 senior level industry players from authorities, key automobile traders and leading parts distributors, more than 300 consumers, around 70 workshops and 100 parts traders in Kenya and Tanzania were interviewed. In terms of vehicles in operation…
During a recent project conducted by africon with focus on the wood working machinery market in Nigeria, africon GmbH identified 107 furniture manufacturing companies and 14 machine distributors focusing specifically on the furniture manufacturing market. By holding expert interviews with a big number of manufacturers and distributors it became quite clear that the furniture manufacturing…
During a period of 3 years africon GmbH conducted more than 140 interviews with manufacturers of plastic pipes as well as distributors, hardware stores, construction companies and contractors in 11 countries in west and east Africa. Through all these interviews africon gathered extensive knowledge on the local manufacturing market of plastic pipes, the importation as…
africon GmbH has made over 130 interviews with sub-Saharan African steel manufacturers between 2016-2017. In these interviews, one of the key issues holding back Western manufacturers was the risk perception of management, reflected in the preferred payback periods of the machinery. The management of steel companies was hesitant to make too large investments in machinery…
In two different projects, both concerning the automotive industry in Kenya and Nigeria, africon has been conducting more than 65 interviews with vehicle assemblers, coach builders, repair garages and distributors of vehicles. Aim was to understand the current maintenance of windscreens in Africa to develop a go-to market strategy for a leading adhesives company. These…
During 2016 – 2017 africon GmbH conducted over 130 interviews with the management of sub-Saharan African steel manufacturers. In these interviews, we were able to discover that the current steel plant equipment and machinery market is dominated by low-price segment mainly consisting of Chinese and second-hand equipment. However, discussion with top managers on future investments…
Within a large independent aftermarket (IAM) project in the automotive sector for Nigeria, africon GmbH had the chance to interview more than 50 experts and found that the IAM market in Nigeria is strongly dominated by fake products. A good example is the spark plug market where fakes in 2015 were at 65% but increased…
The slide of the month January showed that Western Africa is a very active region for hotel development. The rise of the construction sector also drives the need of interior design and sanitary products. Two thirds of the total Nigerian turnover in sanitary products come from retail business. Only a third of the products are…
