piece of the action and have set up offices
in Kenya with the recent one being
Amazon that has set up a tech hub in
Kenya. They are eyeing part of the talent
and the willingness of the people to test
new things which makes the country a
good tech laboratory.
Mobile money has been most successful
in Kenya than anywhere else in the world.
Agriculture is also one of the major
beneficiaries of improving technologies
with Twiga Foods who deliver groceries
to the doorstep of small grocery shop
saving the owner’s time they would spend
to go the market early in the morning by
delivering ordered products at the shop
while cutting out the middlemen by
contracting farmers directly.
It appears that the cheetah generation
is leading from behind by doing small
things, one day at a time and doing them
well. This means that any business would
be missing in action by not incorporating
them in new strategy directions.
The Asian Tigers dared to dream, the
African cheetahs are daring to dream
beyond their existing resources. They will
therefore create so much new value in
future that was never known to exist.
Africa official statistics are also quite
misleading or unavailable but with big
data capabilities serious investors can
make sense of the place based on the
social media posts by African cheetahs.
The number of Cheetahs is growing and it
is not a fad, they are here to stay.
The Hustlers Resilience Is
Adorable
The other groups that have shaped the
last decade are Hustlers and here we
should include side hustlers. The resilience
of this group is just adorable; most earn
income daily while others have occasional
gigs. I was reading a report of how the
rural farmers and urban poor households
finance their families’ education from a
Financial Sector Deepening (FSD).
The interesting thing was that the average
number of a family’s sources of income was
around ten. That large number of sources
of income helps them navigate through
difficult times through the portfolio
effect of the many income streams. I have
always been an advocate of Bottom of The
Pyramid and why marketing efforts should
not miss out on these hustlers.
The other aspect of the hustlers you
should not forget is the large number
of businesses they run: according to the
last census by Kenya National Bureau of
Statistics (KNBS) released in 2017 there
were about 1.6 million licensed MSMEs
(Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises),
and 6 Million unlicensed ones. This is
a big army of foot soldiers or available
market resources that should be a part of
your route to market.
At my office we also have some of the
most recent retail census results and we
continue to collect new data with national
coverage to help support business with
actionable route to market information
and strategies.
The Hustlers and Cheetahs will continue
to excel in the 20s decade with some
disrupting the market. Don’t be, Missing
in Action.
Boniface Ngahu is a seasoned
marketing research expert and
runs the Talking Point column in
Marketing Africa magazine. He
is the Marketing Director of SBO
Research. You can commune with
him on this or related matters via
email at: BNgahu@sboresearch.
co.ke, or follow him on Twitter @
bngahu
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