Sub Saharan Africa middle class total daily spending more than $400 million, study
A groundbreaking study on the world's fastest growing middle class, by the University of Cape Town Unilever Institute and research house Ipsos, estimates that the Sub-Saharan African middle class now consists of over 100 million people, excluding South Africa, with an aggregate spending power of over $ 400 million per day.
Titled African Lions, the study is arguably the most comprehensive to date into middle class consumer behavior on the continent; The research spanned in cities and took almost two years to complete.
"With economies like Ethiopia growing by over 9% annually, there is a lot of interest in the emerging consumer classes on the continent. There have already been a number of reports about the Sub-Saharan Middle Class, but estimates of the size and spending Power varies enormt, for det meste fordi det ikke er en enkelt definition af hvad som udgør middelklasse, "siger Paul Egan, fungerende direktør for UCT Unilever Institute.
Perhaps the most quoted study is that produced by the African Development Bank in 2011, which reported that 1 in 3 Africans is middle class. This study defined middle class as anyone earning between $ 2 to $ 20 per day.
The UCT Unilever Institute / Ipsos study defined middle class as anyone earning over $ 4 per day and less than $ 70. A further filter was added to also exclude those with minimal or no disposable income.
Met behulp van deze definitie, ongeveer 60% van de mensen die in de tien steden zijn opgenomen, als onderdeel van de studie zouden worden geclassificeerd als middenklasse. De proporties varieerden over steden. Lagos was home to the highest proportion of middle class at 68% and Nairobi, the lowest at 49%.
Med en gjennomsnittlig inntekt på $ 12 per dag og en gjennomsnittlig husstandsinntekt på $ 17 per dag, den sub-Saharanske middelklasse overlever på inntektene mye lavere enn sett i utviklede verden. Videre, kun en tredjedel af middelklassen havde en fuldtidsjob. Derfor er andelen av personer som er i stand til å stole på en månedsløn også relativt lav, hvilket betyder at de fleste indkomster vil være konstant fluktuerende fra måned til måned.
A common factor binding middle classes across the continent was the preparedness to embrace entrepreneurship. Even de individer die zich houden, zijn vaak waarschijnlijk ook aan het draaien van bedrijven aan de kant. Indeed, starting one's own business was seen as the best route to improving one's circumstances.
An increasingly important enabler is the cellphone. 77% of middle-class respondents had access to a smartphone and 80% accessed the internet via their smartphone. Nearly half regularly used Facebook.
De smartphone is uitgegroeid tot het gereedschap van het doen van zaken, van het promoten en verkopen van producten naar bouwwerken en in veel delen, tot transacting. 4.5% of Kenya's GDP went through MPesa last year.
Veel in de middenklasse zijn geconfronteerd met dagelijkse uitdagingen die door infrastructuurdeficits zijn ontstaan. For example, 80% of people in Lagos had a generator, due to an intermittent power supply, while in many parts, water had to be purchased from tankers.
Slechts 20% van de huishoudens hebben warm water in de woning en minder dan de helft had een ingebouwde keukenzink. På trods av dette, er den midterste klasse optimistisk om fremtiden, og forventer at deres materialforhold skal forbedres over de neste fem årene.
Selv om der har været en hurtig udvidelse af formelle butikker (f.eks. Supermarkeder), er den uformelle sektor stadig forblevet dominerende i de fleste dele, selv om næsten halvdelen af de mellemste klasser siger, at de ofte foretager supermarkeder på en regelmæssig basis.
"The United Nations forecasts that the Sub-Saharan African population is set to explode over the coming years, a phenomenon which economists refer to as the demographic dividend. Combine this with a number of economies growing at a rapid pace, we can expect the burgeoning Consumer class in sub-Saharan Africa to keep growing both in terms of numbers and spending power, "says Paul Egan, Acting Director of the UCT Unilever Institute.
