Monthly briefs, strategic perspectives, and macroeconomic analysis for African SMEs navigating growth, trade, and market complexity.
At least fourteen African countries have restricted the export of unprocessed minerals since 2023 — Ghana's GoldBod refining mandate, Zimbabwe's full export ban, DRC cobalt quotas. Most coverage treats this as geopolitics. It is also construction: each mandate forces a services and supply ecosystem into existence, and local content rules require it to be built locally.
This brief maps the country-by-country picture and sets out four concrete categories where African SMEs — not mining companies — fit: approved-supplier goods contracts, corridor logistics, compliance services, and the consumer markets forming around new processing workforces.
Africa's manufacturing sector holds just 11% of the continent's GDP and under 2% of global output. The constraint is working capital locked up for 79 days or more on a single cross-border shipment.
Mobile money is everywhere. Credit is not. Africa's fintech sector has solved the payments problem while the financing gap for the continent's 44 million SMEs has barely moved.
Fourteen African governments are building a processing floor beneath their minerals sectors. This brief maps where local suppliers, corridor operators, and compliance specialists fit.
Africa's manufacturing sector holds 11% of GDP and under 2% of global output. The constraint isn't equipment or skills — it's the working capital locked up in every cross-border shipment.
Mobile money is everywhere. Credit is not. This brief maps why Africa's fintech revolution hasn't closed the $330 billion SME financing gap — and what businesses can do about it.
A $1 trillion market. A $106 billion annual financing gap. Three in four agri-businesses locked out of formal capital. This brief maps why — and what to do about it.
Five years in, the AfCFTA is real — but the businesses that benefit earliest will be the ones that understand what works, what doesn't, and where the real opportunity is building. The intelligence most SMEs are still missing.
The naira, cedi, shilling, and rand are not just currencies — they are variables that determine whether your margins survive the year. Four exposure patterns. One practical framework.
Africa's SMEs are the continent's economic engine — making decisions every day that would occupy Fortune 500 strategy teams for weeks. The problem is they are making those decisions without the intelligence that large companies take for granted.