1. Africa’s mobile industry is a success story that remains one of the best investment opportunities on the continent, with subscription numbers set to jump by 50% to 930 million by 2019, according to Sweden’s Ericsson. Penetration rates have exploded faster than anywhere else in the world, climbing to more than 75% by the middle of last year from around 1% in 2000 – fast closing in on the global rate of more than 90%. Revenues from the industry are set to rise from $60 billion in 2012 to $119 billion by 2020, which will be around 8% of Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP), higher than comparable regions. The industry’s also an important employment-creator: jobs generated are expected to rise from 3,3 million at present to 6,6 million in 2020. The trend’s largely been driven by rising incomes and falling costs, while mobile telephony has leap-frogged over fixed-line coverage. Mobile payments are also booming, with money transfers set to exceed $200 billion this year. Kenya’s biggest mobile operator, Safricam, has an annual transaction volume equivalent to one-quarter of the country’s GDP, while Zimbabwe’s Econet offers the cheapest services in the world and has become the first telecoms company in sub-Saharan Africa.
2. The value of African share offerings last year surged to $11 billion – roughly the same amount raised over the previous two years – while the capital raised through initial public offerings (IPOs) more than doubled to $1,7 billion, compared with 2013. The rapid pace of increase is being driven by the expansion of the continent’s economies, which have notched up average growth of 5,5% over the past 20 years, making Africa the second-fastest-growing region in the world, after Asia. Liberalisation of stock exchange regulations, together with regional harmonisation, have also been key. SA remains dominant, but only accounted for 44% of total IPO capital raised in 2014, as investor appetite for other markets on the continent improved.
3. Africa’s middle class is booming, offering an increasingly attractive market for consumer goods and services provided by both global and domestic companies. Consumer spending already accounts for nearly two-thirds of the continent’s gross domestic product and is expected to double to $1 trillion by 2020, reaching $2,2 trillion by 2030. There are already 900 million consumers in Africa and the region’s total population is expected to more than double to 2,4 billion by 2050, making it bigger than that of either India or China. Estimates vary, but Standard Bank believes the number of middle-class households in 11 key sub-Saharan African countries rocketed to 15 million from 4,6 million in 2000. The total’s expected to grow to 40 million households by 2030.
4. Confidence isn’t an issue for Ugandan Proscovia Oromait, who became Africa’s youngest Member of Parliament in 2012 at the age of 19, after winning the Usuk County election for the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) in the Ugandan government with more than 54% of the vote. The youngest legislator in the world at that time, Oromait decided to run for the Parliamentary seat previously filled by her father a few months after he died. However, she isn’t exactly following in his footsteps – he wasn’t a member of the NRM, but was an independent, and her focus is on the environment, education, health policy and gender issues. Opposition parties scornfully described her ascent as “juvenile politics”, but in a country where nearly half the population are under 25, it can be argued that she’s ideally positioned to reflect the views of Ugandans. At present she’s juggling her Parliamentary duties with studying for a Bachelor of Mass Communications degree at Uganda Christian University near Kampala.
5. Nigeria’s Nollywood has become one of the continent’s best-known phenomena since it evolved into a booming industry in the late 1990s, gaining markets in the country and elsewhere. It’s now the world’s second-largest film industry after India and ahead of the USA, valued at more than $7 billion, or around 1,4% of the economy (excluding the black market). Hollywood films have been nudged off the shelves, outsold by Nigerian productions in the country and distributed in some of the most remote areas on the continent, despite their relatively higher prices. Around 1 200 movies are produced annually in genres ranging from action to romance, gospel and horror. Some attribute their appeal to a greater family orientation, although the use of English – rather than local languages – has helped fuel their success.
6. Work is underway to transform Kenya’s booming information and communication technology (ICT) sector into a purpose-built hub dubbed the “silicon savannah”, with a price tag of $14,5 billion. The government hopes Konza Techno City, which is being built on 2 023ha of land 64km south of Nairobi, will create 200 000 jobs in business outsourcing by the time it’s completed in 2019. With Konza hosting a science park, convention centre, hotels and international schools, the long-term aim is to make it a world-class destination for ICT business, education and research. Kenya’s made solid headway towards achieving this ambitious goal: the country’s ICT sector already contributed 12% to GDP last year, compared with 9% in 2006. Critics say the techno city’s being placed too far from existing tech labs in Nairobi, but the World Bank’s funding the construction of a dual-carriage highway between the two centres, while China’s Huawei Technologies and Korea’s Samsung have already committed to a presence there.
7. The increasing number of Africans who’ve come up with home-grown innovations and inventions which could benefit the continent can showcase their ingenuity at Maker Faire Africa, an annual event which aims to identify, support and propagate their work. Launched in 2009, it’s been held in Accra (Ghana), Nairobi, Cairo (Egypt), Lagos (Nigeria) and Johannesburg, displaying ideas to tackle challenges in agriculture, health, education and power relevant to tiny African villages or big urban centres. In 2012, four teenage schoolgirls won international acclaim for inventing an electricity generator that runs on urine – not a completely new idea, but one with huge potential for a region where many people lack electricity and power shortages have become a way of life. Other innovations have ranged from corn-planters to machines for making rope from grass, a prototype for solar-powered traffic lights and craft jewellery from discarded bones.
One of Africa’s homegrown creations.
8. Mosunmola Abudu is often described as ‘Africa’s Oprah Winfrey’, but the glamorous Nigerian talk show host, TV producer, human resources management consultant and entrepreneur may have accomplished even more. Her TV talk show, Moments With Mo, was the first of its kind on African regional TV when it was launched in 2006 and is now available to eight million viewers across 48 countries. In addition to showcasing Africa, Abudu’s hosted guests as diverse as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, International Monetary Fund Chief Christine La Garde and former South African President and Nobel Laureate FW de Klerk. Two years ago she launched EbonyLife, Africa’s first pan-African TV channel, which targets 18- to 34-year-olds in the continent’s growing middle class. “Not every African woman has a pile of wood strapped over her head and a baby strapped to her back!” she declared at the time.
9. Mozambique design collective Piratas do Pau (PdP) – which employs and trains under-privileged youth in Maputo – has launched a premium furniture collection made of scrap wood. It uses a combination of pinewood from recycled pallets and umbila, a local hardwood, to create coffee tables, cupboards and shelving units. All products are sold locally and PdP both reduces waste and encourages people to consider recycling, rather than buying new or imported items.
A creation by the Piratas do Pau design collective
10. South African fast food chain Nando’s is one of the continent’s most successful retail brands, expanding to more than 1 000 locations in 30 countries and five continents since opening its first restaurant in 1987. Its sales had climbed 10% to more than £535 million in the UK alone by February 2014. Part of its appeal among young consumers can be attributed to its witty and often controversial commercials, including one which depicted Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe reflecting on happy moments as he dined with fallen dictators. Advertising Age magazine named Nando’s as one of the world’s top 30 hottest marketing brands in 2010.
11. Like an increasing number of other African designers, Ghanaian-born Akosua Afriyie-Kumi has created a luxury product inspired by her background, employing local craft workers with traditional skills. Her AAKS design label is the brand for a range of colourful, eclectic handbags woven by women in the rural community of Bolgatanga, in the northern region of the country, for export to the UK and SA. The handbags are woven from locally sourced raffia, an organic, natural, biodegradable fibre. Afriyie-Kumi markets them online, a strategy she believes is necessary to popularise African products.
12. Tourism is becoming increasingly important to the economies of many sub-Saharan African countries, with the number of visitors growing by 300% to 33,8 million from 1990-2012. Receipts from hotels, tours and other attractions rose to more than $36 billion and contributed around 2,8% of the region’s GDP, according to the World Bank. Faster growth as well as improved foreign perceptions of the region, are helping to drive the trend, although there are stubborn obstacles such as land ownership and transfer rights, access to finance, taxes on tourism investments, lack of security and daunting bureaucracy. The most popular destinations are South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda, Swaziland and Tanzania.
13. Highlands Trout in Lesotho has literally burst onto the commercial fish-farming scene since it began harvesting trout in 2012, producing larger amounts than its neighbour SA and exporting hundreds of tonnes of fish to Japan for gourmet sushi. Located 2 200m above sea level in the Maluti mountains near the Katse Dam – the continent’s second-largest – the fish are hatched from eggs imported from Denmark and fed on pellets imported from France until they reach approximately 2,8kg in weight, when they’re processed. The company’s fish harvested for exports have grown from 500 tonnes in 2012 to more than 1 500 tonnes last year and it expects this amount to rise to 4 000 tonnes by 2018. Japan takes 80% of its produce, while 15% goes to SA and the remaining 5% is sold locally. It aims to become the largest trout aquaculture project in Africa, uses environmentally sustainable farming methods and employs about 100 people, nearly all of whom are locals.
14. Swaziland’s House of Diva is one of the few fashion labels to be designed with curvaceous women in mind. Started by Phiwase Nxumalo, the ready-to-wear garments are inspired by fabrics sourced from the DRC, Malawi, Zambia, Kenya, Swaziland and SA. Her “Under the Sky” range of colourful dresses and skirts are available in sizes 30-52, with the main focus on women wearing sizes 40 and above. Nxumalo also designs jewellery made from materials such as wood, bright buttons and pearls. Although the clothes are only available in small quantities, they’re also affordable to middle-class Africans. “The fuller figure isn’t just yada yada – it’s what we do,” she said in a recent interview.
15. The number of dollar millionaires in Africa is growing faster than anywhere else in the world, increasing by 150% between 2000 and 2013. This 150% increase can be compared with a global growth rate of 73%, according to UK-based New World Wealth. Overall, the continent has 165 000 high net-worth individuals with a combined wealth of $660 billion. SA is the leader, with 48 800 millionaires, followed by Egypt with 23 000, Nigeria with 15 900 and Kenya with 8 400. However, the number of millionaires in Ethiopia, the Ivory Coast and Zambia is expected to grow the fastest over the next few years. Ghanaian capital Accra is likely to be the African city with the most rapidly growing group of millionaires, expected to increase by 8% annually until 2020.
16. Oliver ‘Tuku’ Mtukudzi is a Zimbabwean musician, businessman, philanthropist and human rights activist who’s arguably the most internationally recognised cultural icon to have emerged from that country. He sings in Zimbabwe’s dominant Shona language about political violence and the hardships of everyday life (without directly criticising the regime of President Robert Mugabe), incorporating different musical traditions and amassing a following across Africa and elsewhere after a series of overseas trips. Mtukudze’s released more than 45 albums which have sold millions of copies. He’s also a Unicef Goodwill Ambassador for eastern and southern Africa.
Picture: Getty Image
17. The DRC has introduced unique solar-powered, humanoid robots across Kinshasa in a bid to decrease the number of road accidents across high-traffic areas of the capital, and to replace corrupt policemen. The 2,4m robots, operated by the country’s National Commission for Road Safety, regulate traffic by raising and bending their steel arms and helping pedestrians to cross streets safely. Equipped with rotating chests and surveillance cameras, they’re made locally and designed by engineer Therese Izay, who runs a women’s technology co-operative in the DRC. She hopes the robots will be installed in cities across Africa and beyond, to create jobs for female engineers.
18. Linah Mohohlo has been Governor of the Bank of Botswana since 1999 and is known for both her skilful handling of the country’s monetary and financial policies and her outspoken, sometimes controversial views. During a panel discussion of top African officials in Johannesburg a few years ago, she said one of the biggest obstacles to the continent’s development was its work ethic. She also told a journalist at a dinner hosted by former SA Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni that women did most of the work in Botswana. Mohohlo’s received a number of national and international awards and was named Central Bank Governor of the Year for Africa by both the Financial Times and Euromoney in 2001, 2003 and 2008, respectively. Forbes magazine ranked her among the 10 most powerful women in Africa in 2011.
19. Skateboarding in Uganda has literally grown in leaps and bounds, despite traffic, potholed streets and cracked sidewalks, and is now spreading to Tanzania and Kenya. Jackson Mburo kicked off the trend in 2006, when he personally built a skateboarding park in Kitintale, a suburb of Kampala, using cheap mortar and leftover bricks. To avoid paying a construction fee, he and his friends told the authorities they were building the enclosure for a pet crocodile. He went on to found the Uganda Skateboard Union, which aims to give the country’s youth access to a sport which will ward off boredom and demoralisation. Last year the organisation won the Skate-Aid award for 5 000 euros, presented at the annual Bright European Skateboard Awards in Germany.
20. ‘Black diamonds’ may have become the catch-phrase for SA’s rising African middle class, but in Namibia it refers to the black pelts produced by the country’s Swakara brand and derived from its Karakul sheep industry. Swakara experienced a recent rise in demand from big European fashion houses, with 64 462 pelts sold at a bi-annual auction in Copenhagen, Denmark, last year. A black pelt fetched a record price of N$2 964 from Elena Furs of Moscow. Namibia produces 140 000 pelts per year, harvested from new-born Karakul lambs which originate from the desert regions of Central Asia. Brought to the country by German colonists, they cost so little to rear that a producer can take home 90% of sale proceeds.
THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED IN THE MAY 2015 ISSUE OF DESTINY
2. The value of African share offerings last year surged to $11 billion – roughly the same amount raised over the previous two years – while the capital raised through initial public offerings (IPOs) more than doubled to $1,7 billion, compared with 2013. The rapid pace of increase is being driven by the expansion of the continent’s economies, which have notched up average growth of 5,5% over the past 20 years, making Africa the second-fastest-growing region in the world, after Asia. Liberalisation of stock exchange regulations, together with regional harmonisation, have also been key. SA remains dominant, but only accounted for 44% of total IPO capital raised in 2014, as investor appetite for other markets on the continent improved.
3. Africa’s middle class is booming, offering an increasingly attractive market for consumer goods and services provided by both global and domestic companies. Consumer spending already accounts for nearly two-thirds of the continent’s gross domestic product and is expected to double to $1 trillion by 2020, reaching $2,2 trillion by 2030. There are already 900 million consumers in Africa and the region’s total population is expected to more than double to 2,4 billion by 2050, making it bigger than that of either India or China. Estimates vary, but Standard Bank believes the number of middle-class households in 11 key sub-Saharan African countries rocketed to 15 million from 4,6 million in 2000. The total’s expected to grow to 40 million households by 2030.
4. Confidence isn’t an issue for Ugandan Proscovia Oromait, who became Africa’s youngest Member of Parliament in 2012 at the age of 19, after winning the Usuk County election for the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) in the Ugandan government with more than 54% of the vote. The youngest legislator in the world at that time, Oromait decided to run for the Parliamentary seat previously filled by her father a few months after he died. However, she isn’t exactly following in his footsteps – he wasn’t a member of the NRM, but was an independent, and her focus is on the environment, education, health policy and gender issues. Opposition parties scornfully described her ascent as “juvenile politics”, but in a country where nearly half the population are under 25, it can be argued that she’s ideally positioned to reflect the views of Ugandans. At present she’s juggling her Parliamentary duties with studying for a Bachelor of Mass Communications degree at Uganda Christian University near Kampala.
5. Nigeria’s Nollywood has become one of the continent’s best-known phenomena since it evolved into a booming industry in the late 1990s, gaining markets in the country and elsewhere. It’s now the world’s second-largest film industry after India and ahead of the USA, valued at more than $7 billion, or around 1,4% of the economy (excluding the black market). Hollywood films have been nudged off the shelves, outsold by Nigerian productions in the country and distributed in some of the most remote areas on the continent, despite their relatively higher prices. Around 1 200 movies are produced annually in genres ranging from action to romance, gospel and horror. Some attribute their appeal to a greater family orientation, although the use of English – rather than local languages – has helped fuel their success.
6. Work is underway to transform Kenya’s booming information and communication technology (ICT) sector into a purpose-built hub dubbed the “silicon savannah”, with a price tag of $14,5 billion. The government hopes Konza Techno City, which is being built on 2 023ha of land 64km south of Nairobi, will create 200 000 jobs in business outsourcing by the time it’s completed in 2019. With Konza hosting a science park, convention centre, hotels and international schools, the long-term aim is to make it a world-class destination for ICT business, education and research. Kenya’s made solid headway towards achieving this ambitious goal: the country’s ICT sector already contributed 12% to GDP last year, compared with 9% in 2006. Critics say the techno city’s being placed too far from existing tech labs in Nairobi, but the World Bank’s funding the construction of a dual-carriage highway between the two centres, while China’s Huawei Technologies and Korea’s Samsung have already committed to a presence there.
7. The increasing number of Africans who’ve come up with home-grown innovations and inventions which could benefit the continent can showcase their ingenuity at Maker Faire Africa, an annual event which aims to identify, support and propagate their work. Launched in 2009, it’s been held in Accra (Ghana), Nairobi, Cairo (Egypt), Lagos (Nigeria) and Johannesburg, displaying ideas to tackle challenges in agriculture, health, education and power relevant to tiny African villages or big urban centres. In 2012, four teenage schoolgirls won international acclaim for inventing an electricity generator that runs on urine – not a completely new idea, but one with huge potential for a region where many people lack electricity and power shortages have become a way of life. Other innovations have ranged from corn-planters to machines for making rope from grass, a prototype for solar-powered traffic lights and craft jewellery from discarded bones.
One of Africa’s homegrown creations.
8. Mosunmola Abudu is often described as ‘Africa’s Oprah Winfrey’, but the glamorous Nigerian talk show host, TV producer, human resources management consultant and entrepreneur may have accomplished even more. Her TV talk show, Moments With Mo, was the first of its kind on African regional TV when it was launched in 2006 and is now available to eight million viewers across 48 countries. In addition to showcasing Africa, Abudu’s hosted guests as diverse as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, International Monetary Fund Chief Christine La Garde and former South African President and Nobel Laureate FW de Klerk. Two years ago she launched EbonyLife, Africa’s first pan-African TV channel, which targets 18- to 34-year-olds in the continent’s growing middle class. “Not every African woman has a pile of wood strapped over her head and a baby strapped to her back!” she declared at the time.
9. Mozambique design collective Piratas do Pau (PdP) – which employs and trains under-privileged youth in Maputo – has launched a premium furniture collection made of scrap wood. It uses a combination of pinewood from recycled pallets and umbila, a local hardwood, to create coffee tables, cupboards and shelving units. All products are sold locally and PdP both reduces waste and encourages people to consider recycling, rather than buying new or imported items.
A creation by the Piratas do Pau design collective
10. South African fast food chain Nando’s is one of the continent’s most successful retail brands, expanding to more than 1 000 locations in 30 countries and five continents since opening its first restaurant in 1987. Its sales had climbed 10% to more than £535 million in the UK alone by February 2014. Part of its appeal among young consumers can be attributed to its witty and often controversial commercials, including one which depicted Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe reflecting on happy moments as he dined with fallen dictators. Advertising Age magazine named Nando’s as one of the world’s top 30 hottest marketing brands in 2010.
11. Like an increasing number of other African designers, Ghanaian-born Akosua Afriyie-Kumi has created a luxury product inspired by her background, employing local craft workers with traditional skills. Her AAKS design label is the brand for a range of colourful, eclectic handbags woven by women in the rural community of Bolgatanga, in the northern region of the country, for export to the UK and SA. The handbags are woven from locally sourced raffia, an organic, natural, biodegradable fibre. Afriyie-Kumi markets them online, a strategy she believes is necessary to popularise African products.
12. Tourism is becoming increasingly important to the economies of many sub-Saharan African countries, with the number of visitors growing by 300% to 33,8 million from 1990-2012. Receipts from hotels, tours and other attractions rose to more than $36 billion and contributed around 2,8% of the region’s GDP, according to the World Bank. Faster growth as well as improved foreign perceptions of the region, are helping to drive the trend, although there are stubborn obstacles such as land ownership and transfer rights, access to finance, taxes on tourism investments, lack of security and daunting bureaucracy. The most popular destinations are South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda, Swaziland and Tanzania.
13. Highlands Trout in Lesotho has literally burst onto the commercial fish-farming scene since it began harvesting trout in 2012, producing larger amounts than its neighbour SA and exporting hundreds of tonnes of fish to Japan for gourmet sushi. Located 2 200m above sea level in the Maluti mountains near the Katse Dam – the continent’s second-largest – the fish are hatched from eggs imported from Denmark and fed on pellets imported from France until they reach approximately 2,8kg in weight, when they’re processed. The company’s fish harvested for exports have grown from 500 tonnes in 2012 to more than 1 500 tonnes last year and it expects this amount to rise to 4 000 tonnes by 2018. Japan takes 80% of its produce, while 15% goes to SA and the remaining 5% is sold locally. It aims to become the largest trout aquaculture project in Africa, uses environmentally sustainable farming methods and employs about 100 people, nearly all of whom are locals.
14. Swaziland’s House of Diva is one of the few fashion labels to be designed with curvaceous women in mind. Started by Phiwase Nxumalo, the ready-to-wear garments are inspired by fabrics sourced from the DRC, Malawi, Zambia, Kenya, Swaziland and SA. Her “Under the Sky” range of colourful dresses and skirts are available in sizes 30-52, with the main focus on women wearing sizes 40 and above. Nxumalo also designs jewellery made from materials such as wood, bright buttons and pearls. Although the clothes are only available in small quantities, they’re also affordable to middle-class Africans. “The fuller figure isn’t just yada yada – it’s what we do,” she said in a recent interview.
15. The number of dollar millionaires in Africa is growing faster than anywhere else in the world, increasing by 150% between 2000 and 2013. This 150% increase can be compared with a global growth rate of 73%, according to UK-based New World Wealth. Overall, the continent has 165 000 high net-worth individuals with a combined wealth of $660 billion. SA is the leader, with 48 800 millionaires, followed by Egypt with 23 000, Nigeria with 15 900 and Kenya with 8 400. However, the number of millionaires in Ethiopia, the Ivory Coast and Zambia is expected to grow the fastest over the next few years. Ghanaian capital Accra is likely to be the African city with the most rapidly growing group of millionaires, expected to increase by 8% annually until 2020.
16. Oliver ‘Tuku’ Mtukudzi is a Zimbabwean musician, businessman, philanthropist and human rights activist who’s arguably the most internationally recognised cultural icon to have emerged from that country. He sings in Zimbabwe’s dominant Shona language about political violence and the hardships of everyday life (without directly criticising the regime of President Robert Mugabe), incorporating different musical traditions and amassing a following across Africa and elsewhere after a series of overseas trips. Mtukudze’s released more than 45 albums which have sold millions of copies. He’s also a Unicef Goodwill Ambassador for eastern and southern Africa.
Picture: Getty Image
17. The DRC has introduced unique solar-powered, humanoid robots across Kinshasa in a bid to decrease the number of road accidents across high-traffic areas of the capital, and to replace corrupt policemen. The 2,4m robots, operated by the country’s National Commission for Road Safety, regulate traffic by raising and bending their steel arms and helping pedestrians to cross streets safely. Equipped with rotating chests and surveillance cameras, they’re made locally and designed by engineer Therese Izay, who runs a women’s technology co-operative in the DRC. She hopes the robots will be installed in cities across Africa and beyond, to create jobs for female engineers.
18. Linah Mohohlo has been Governor of the Bank of Botswana since 1999 and is known for both her skilful handling of the country’s monetary and financial policies and her outspoken, sometimes controversial views. During a panel discussion of top African officials in Johannesburg a few years ago, she said one of the biggest obstacles to the continent’s development was its work ethic. She also told a journalist at a dinner hosted by former SA Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni that women did most of the work in Botswana. Mohohlo’s received a number of national and international awards and was named Central Bank Governor of the Year for Africa by both the Financial Times and Euromoney in 2001, 2003 and 2008, respectively. Forbes magazine ranked her among the 10 most powerful women in Africa in 2011.
19. Skateboarding in Uganda has literally grown in leaps and bounds, despite traffic, potholed streets and cracked sidewalks, and is now spreading to Tanzania and Kenya. Jackson Mburo kicked off the trend in 2006, when he personally built a skateboarding park in Kitintale, a suburb of Kampala, using cheap mortar and leftover bricks. To avoid paying a construction fee, he and his friends told the authorities they were building the enclosure for a pet crocodile. He went on to found the Uganda Skateboard Union, which aims to give the country’s youth access to a sport which will ward off boredom and demoralisation. Last year the organisation won the Skate-Aid award for 5 000 euros, presented at the annual Bright European Skateboard Awards in Germany.
20. ‘Black diamonds’ may have become the catch-phrase for SA’s rising African middle class, but in Namibia it refers to the black pelts produced by the country’s Swakara brand and derived from its Karakul sheep industry. Swakara experienced a recent rise in demand from big European fashion houses, with 64 462 pelts sold at a bi-annual auction in Copenhagen, Denmark, last year. A black pelt fetched a record price of N$2 964 from Elena Furs of Moscow. Namibia produces 140 000 pelts per year, harvested from new-born Karakul lambs which originate from the desert regions of Central Asia. Brought to the country by German colonists, they cost so little to rear that a producer can take home 90% of sale proceeds.
THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED IN THE MAY 2015 ISSUE OF DESTINY
