Business in Africa

My aim from when this blog started has been to make the content as international as is possible for an English-speaking blogger to do.

Even with that caveat, it’s easier said than done. There is such a preponderance of North American sites in the results of any searches I do on business blogging that I have to take some extra steps to seek out the others.

The challenge of finding business blogs outside North America is partly explained by the recent Edelman study A Corporate Guide to the Global Blogosphere (free download at present) – put simply, it seems that corporate blogging or business blogging has just not caught on as widely in other countries as it has in the USA and Canada.

So I was very pleased today when I picked up on a Google alert link to a rather grandly titled and absorbingly readable blog dedicated to business in Africa. And with links to other blogs sharing, to a greater or lesser degree, that area of interest.

Grandly titled? I think so, and it got my attention. The Benin Epilogue – Part I: Africa Ready for Business has been set up by Benin Mwangi with the express aim of promoting interest in and sharing information about doing business in Africa.

The purpose of this site is to reach out to businesspeople who have never been to Africa and therefore have no idea as to how well other business people are doing there – right now. In educating you as to why Africa is quickly becoming one of today’s hottest business destionations, the whole world benefits. 

I imagine that I’m not the only person in the developed world whose “picture” of Africa is clouded by the stories and television footage of poverty, starvation and war. How could business and entrepreneurship, except that of the most opportunistic and unstable fashion, flourish in those conditions?

The Benin Epilogue etc acknowledges these issues but provides an alternative source of news and inspiration.  And while there is a lightness of touch and a pervasive sense of humour in the writing, the posts are not light weight. Recent posts have included one on the World Bank, with an apparently optimistic view of investment prospects, and one on the culturally and politically sensitive subject of corruption.

There is a very extensive blogroll and a separate, short list of related sites, including:

Timbuktu Chronicles – “seeks to spur dialogue in areas of entrepreneurship, technology and the scientific method as it impacts Africa”

Chippla’s Weblog - “thoughts on issues”

The Sudanese Thinker – edgy, witty

Africa Unchained – a site dedicated to analysing and contributing to the issues and solutions raised by George Ayittey’s latest book ‘Africa Unchained’.

Any links to fresh sources of information on business blogs in other regions and countries will be very welcome and will help to build a more global picture.