Africa Business Communities

[Survey] Africa holds huge potential for German companies

German companies are known in Africa for quality and German companies are believed to be strong in manufacturing. Approximately half of African business professionals have little to no knowledge of German organizations or companies, and one out of five African business professionals are unfamiliar with German business markets.

African companies did less business with German companies in 2015 than in previous years but at the same time, 88 percent of African business professionals would like to do more business with German organizations.

These are the main conclusions drawn from a survey conducted by the Africa Business Panel for Afrika-Verein. 961 African business professionals participated in this survey.


German organizations are known in Africa, but apparently there is room for improvement. Only nine percent of African business professionals have a decent amount of knowledge about German organizations. 51 percent are somewhat to very familiar, while 49 percent are partially or totally in the dark.

Of the 80 percent of African business professionals who are to some extent familiar with German organizations, 45 percent have actually done business with German organizations.

35 percent of African business professionals who are doing business with German organizations said that in 2015 they did the same amount of business as in the preceding years. 25 percent said more business was transacted, and 40 percent stated that they did less business with German organizations in 2015 than in the preceding years.

At the same time, 88 percent of the African business professionals were unequivocal in their desire to have more business transactions with German organizations.  This implies that there is a huge potential for German companies to start or expand businesses in Africa.

German organizations have a good reputation in Africa. Asked what German organizations stand for, Quality (76%), Reliability (66%) and Competence (60%) generated the highest scores. At the same time the qualifications High Prices (21%), Different Culture (15%) and Difficult Negotiations (8%) generated low scores.

Which sectors do you believe Germans are strongest in? If you direct that question to an African business professional, Manufacturing is the first field that comes to mind. No less than 72 percent answered Industry. Following that is ICT/Telecom (36%), Logistics (33%) and Health (26%). Relatively low scores for Agriculture (19%), Banking (16%), Food & Beverage (16%), Maritime (11%) and Oil & Gas (11%) were revealed.

Some final survey results, stressing the potential for German companies in Africa:

43 percent of African Business Communities opine that doing business with German organizations often brings about cultural challenges; 46 percent find German organizations easy to do business with; 67 percent hold the belief that doing business with German organizations is profitable and 86 percent would do business with German companies should they get the opportunity.

www.afrikaverein.de
www.africabusinesspanel.com


 

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