TECHONOLOGY
Tech titans unfazed by Africa’ s commodity slump
The titans of Silicon Valley are undeterred by the economic slump afflicting much of Africa.
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Facebook, Google, Oracle and Uber Technologies are at the leading edge of turning the world’ s frontier markets digital. As the commodity crash buffets the continent’ s biggest economies, the interest and investments couldn’ t come at a better time. Almost half of foreign direct investment projects in Africa last year were in technology, telecommunications, financial services and consumer products. The amount dedicated to oil, gas and mining dropped to 6 percent- from almost a quarter in 2005- according to EY, a consultancy firm.
“ There’ s been a big shift from an almost exclusive focus on extractive sectors to those such as consumers and renewable energy,” said Michael Lalor, the Johannesburg-based head of EY’ s Africa Business Centre.“ There’ s a growing base of consumer demand as that happens.” African growth has slowed since 2014 as waning demand from China hammered prices of raw materials from oil to copper and coal. Of the three biggest sub-Saharan economies, Nigeria’ s is shrinking and South Africa and Angola are barely growing.
2016 | Business Times Africa 65