The Africa Report published recently their list of Top-500 African companies in terms of turnover (2015 figures). Let’s focus on the Top-10. As the tables below show, at the level of the continent there’s hardly any variation relative to the previous rank, while sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) shows more action. Top climbers: Energies Nouvelles (#233), construction, […]
The Costs of Gender Inequality
Nigerian women present an interesting contrast: they are strong and powerful but at the same time their social status is that of their husband. Gender inequality remains a big issue in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) – as in so many other countries, for that matter. One step at a time, the situation may improve. Organizations like […]
Not Every Country Is Equally Corrupt
A couple of weeks ago, one regular reader of this blog sent me an e-mail. He had been looking for commentaries about corruption in Africa, and he couldn’t find that many. “Why so?” was his question. And my answer: “You’re right in that I don’t talk much about corruption in my blog. The reason is […]
Regional transport infrastructure improvements
Integration may bring important benefits to Africa. It will foster higher growth and development (see Intra-African trade and transportation, Agenda 2063 (II): Connecting Africa through high-speed trains, Regional integration in Africa). Needless to say, regional transport infrastructure improvements play a key role in this. Africa’s infrastructure deficits, that include transportation and energy access, have been […]
Reforms that make doing business easier
These days I’m teaching a course on Managing Corporate Growth in IESE’s Executive MBA (EMBA) program. One of the issues we’ve discussed is international expansion. We touched upon the difficulties of getting data in the African context. We discussed the shortcomings of official statistics — if you follow this blog regularly, you may know that […]