africon CEO Mr. Marc Zander – Interview  » Investors lack info »

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CT Executive Search Specializes in senior recruitment in the emerging markets, leveraging its proprietary research capacities in Moscow at a network of partners in Asia, Africa and Eurasian Economic Union. CT Executive interviewed africon GmbH CEO and Partner Mr. Zander last October to share insights about investors information and relations in Africa.

The interview started by covering African countries with most financial demand and highest potential. Mr Zander outlined the most important factors that drive Foreign Direct Investment FDIs, and  emphasised on the African regions that promote those factors. The interview then covered how to best enter the African market. Mr Zander recommended a detailed study of the market in order to enter with best fit African Market Entry strategy.

For the full interview please use the link below to gain more insights about investors lack of information in Africa: Interview https://www.ct-executive.de/download-file?file_id=472&file_code=de37e6d523

Automotive projects conducted by africon

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Over the past years, more and more automotive firms have shown increasing interest in Africa. Even though OEMs like VW and Nissan have dominated the news with their announcement of establishing assembly plants in Africa, the largest immediate automotive business potential lies elsewhere: in the automotive aftermarket.

With more than 12,7 million vehicles on the road in Nigeria, more than 6 million in Egypt and almost 2 million in Kenya, more and more automotive parts are sold in Africa. The main challenge especially for global aftermarket leaders from Europe and Japan: the sector requires large amount of data to efficiently and effectively increase sales. With data availability in Africa being a major challenge, africon has successfully plugged this gap and supported aftermarket firms from around the world and in different product segments on their Africa strategy.  Amongst other points, we supported firms with market sizes, details on vehicles in operation, suitable import partners and even research on specific part numbers. For the upcoming years, africon has set an increased focus on the sector and expects more companies to follow current early movers to the continent.

africon interviews 184 IT partners for the communication sector

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africon was contracted to carry out a suitable go-to market Africa strategy for a major international player in the two-way radio communication industry (LMR). The project covered 7 countries where a total of 184 interviews were conducted with relevant players in the industry. The results concluded from the analysis of all interviews and market data was clear; South Africa dwarfs its counterparts in terms of market size with at market of more than 30 mio Euro. Nigeria, Kenya and Angola on the other hand offer the greatest growth potential going forward. Quality was found to be the key determining criteria for consumers when purchasing two-way radios. This was due to fact that the main users of two-way radios use them in critical situations where quality cannot be compromised including law enforcement, private security, mining, oil and gas. Customers in these sectors are willing to pay a premium for the guarantee of a reliable products. These still hold a market share of more than 80% compared to cheap products from China. Another finding has been that local system partners are key to success where africon identified more than 30 locally in key markets

Mr. Zander moderates « High-Level forum Africa“ in Vienna

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The largest Africa event in Austria was hosted on the 19th of December 2018 bringing together more than 1.000 people from Africa, Austria and Europe. The aim of the forum was to elaborate on the potential economic relations between Africa, Europe and Austria.
A side event themed “Disruptive Collaboration” – Africa and Euro in the digital age” was organised by Ecotec from Austria who invited Marc-Peter Zander, CEO and Partner of africon to moderate a part of the side event.

The result of the fruitful discussion has been that Africa drives its digitalisation strongly resulting in great chances for African and European companies.

africon active in training and education in the African context

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Beside the longstanding partnership with the Hochschule Bonn Rhein Sieg, the engagement in the TVET initiative in Kenya and the permanent supervision of student’s thesis, africon continues its engagement in the field of training and education also in the city of its new headquarter Bremen.

In November 2018, Sonja Mattfeld was invited to speak in front of a class of international students at the Hochschule Bremen in the study program of Global Management. In her presentation she raised not only the awareness for the huge business potential in Africa and motivated the students to look for careers in that growing market, but also shared insights of research projects and taught some research and analysis techniques. The lecture was part of their business administration curriculum and will in close cooperation with the professor directly enable the students to apply their knowledge in their exams. 

africon is always happy to assist international students and universities, give lectures and support with mentoring of projects related to Africa. For any questions on this please do not hesitate to contact our HR development manager Lena Schwoerer. 

africon CEO moderates the African Investment Day in Erkrath

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Marc-Peter Zander, CEO and Partner of africon GmbH has been invited to moderate the African Investment Day which was held on the 29th of November 2018 to discuss the opportunities and challenges for investment in Africa.

The platform of distinguished African speakers gave a platform to the audience to discuss the first-hand access to investment, find out more about upcoming chances and also things to observe when investing in Africa. Key learning from the discussion steered by Mr. Zander was that investment in Africa needs strong local information basis, involvement with all stakeholders in African countries and the readiness to be locally present. In addition, it was summarised that there are great chances for investors at this moment in time as countries like Rwanda, Nigeria and Kenya offer great opportunities for European investors.

africon named official foreign representative for the BVMW

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Since October 2018 africon GmbH is the official foreign representative for the BVMW “Bundesverband der Mittelständischen Wirtschaft” (German Association for the SMEs) for the countries of Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia. The BVMW has 18.000 direct company members in Germany and 700.000 indirect contacts within Germany. At the moment the BVMW is strengthening their presence in Africa together with the help of their foreign representatives and a new alliance they formed called the “Mittelstands Allianz für Afrika” (The SME Alliance for Africa).

The SME Alliance for Africa will cover all industrial sectors and will be supporting the German-African business network in order to form sustainable development of their effective economic cooperation. This Alliance has the target to act as a service provider for the German government and German companies in realising projects locally in Africa.
africon GmbH already ventured into first discussion with local African associations that are very interested in partnering with BVMW to form effective partnerships to connect their members with the members of BVMW.

It seems “The SME Alliance for Africa” as well as the local business associations are both eager to present Africa as a continent full of potential business opportunities and business partners. And africon is more than happy to be the matchmaking party in between and let our broad African network come into play.

Slide of the month (SOTM) October. Trade fairs in East Africa

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Trade Fair in East Africa

As official representative of Messe Dusseldorf in East Africa we are today taking a closer look at the trade fair market in East Africa.  Kenya has developed as hub for exhibitions and conferences during the past years and serves as gateway to a vital region. However, the neighboring countries are hosting various types of trade fairs from small niche events with less than 100 visitors to big exhibitions with thousands of visitors.

Please do not hesitate to contact us for any details about the trade fair market in East Africa and of course the engagement of Messe Düsseldorf in the region!