If you are an Africa connoisseur (or if you have followed this blog), you will know that Africa is not a single entity. And neither are African regions: not all countries in one region are the same. This is more obvious in Western Africa where the anglophone/francophone distinction is immediate. It may be less obvious […]
The Chinese presence in Africa
Chinese economic presence in Africa comes in for a lot of criticism: the projects to which they contribute financing favor foreign companies while leaving local contractors behind – or so the critics say. The Chinese are also known for bringing in their own people to do the work. In Kenya, for instance, there has been a recent […]
Intra-Africa business travel
As a part of my learning trip, I arrived yesterday to Accra, Ghana where I will be for one week. Travelling from Nairobi to Accra would have been as easy as travelling from Barcelona (where I was last week). But that’s not the case for most of intra-Africa business travel. There are very few flight […]
Agriculture in Kenya
One thing is to know that the agricultural business represents roughly 50% of Kenya’s GDP (including indirect contributions), and another thing is to observe how this is created. Last week I joined a group of IESE MBA students in their visit to two companies in this industry: Vegpro, and Kreative Roses. Both of them quite […]
The informal economy
Several African business leaders have warned me that we foreigners may easily misunderstand some clues that are critical for business. In particular, we may easily miss the role that the informal economy plays in most African countries. Official statistics may be misleading as they don’t include informal economic activities. Let me give you an example. […]
