The Facts
Thebe Ikalafeng is the founder of Brand Africa which is best known for its annual Top 100 Most admired African brands index. Over the last three decades he has established himself as a leading authority on African brands and international brands in Africa His new book ‘The Traveller: Crossing borders and connecting Africa’ is part biography, part-travelogue, and offers insight into the corporate life of some of Africa’s top brands.
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What’s the central theme of the book? It’s the significance of crossing African borders to highlight shared experiences and unity rather than division. I emphasize the importance of authentic African storytelling. Having been to every country on the continent, and over 120 countries in the world, I have crossed a lot of borders, but the borders that have been more significant for me have been the African borders. And in crossing those borders, I was able to connect Africa in terms of what makes us what brings us together more so than what divides us.
Does Africa have a brand narrative problem? As a result of negative coverage of the continent Africa pays an additional £3.2 billion ($4.1 billion) for interest on their sovereign debt. We need to make sure we have an authentic narrative about our continent as Africans we don’t travel our continent.
What’s the link between stronger African brands and economic prosperity? In my study of brands over the last 15 years on average only 20% of the brands Africans admire in Africa are made in Africa which means there’s an 80% reliance on non-African brands. And 80% of what we trade within Africa is not from Africa. You can easily see the deficit we have. You can’t have prosperity if 80% of you are importing 80% of your ideas and exporting 80% of your resources.
What should African countries be doing about this? The thing I’m pushing now is the Buy Africa Act. I’m setting the agenda and sharing it during the World Economic Forum in Davos. I’m going to be mobilizing key influencers and probably work with the Africa Continental Free Trade Area. My goal is that by 2050, when Africa is supposed to represent 40% of the world population, 50% of the goods that Africans admire and buy will be Africa-made. This will be comparable to how the rest of the world works.