Ask most brands for their Africa strategy and, in my experience, you get one slide.
That slide usually has a map, a population figure and the word "emerging". It sits near the back of the deck, and it treats 54 countries and around 1.5 billion people as a single line item.
I'm Mustafa Akindele, a brand partnerships consultant in London, and I've spent more than 20 years working across music, luxury, hospitality and sport. The partnerships that work start with knowing exactly who you're talking to, and on Africa most brands don't. They're looking at a continent and calling it a customer.
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The mistake starts with the map
Africa is the second-largest continent, at more than 30 million square kilometres. The United States, China and India would all fit inside it with room to spare. Nearly one in five people alive today lives there.
Then look at what sits inside that number. There are around 2,000 languages, though counts vary with how dialects are defined. There are thousands of ethnic groups, and nobody has a definitive total. A shopper in Casablanca, a graduate in Lagos and a homeowner in Johannesburg share a continent. They don't share a language, a climate, a currency or a set of tastes.
No brand would write one plan for Madrid, Moscow and Manchester. Africa gets that treatment all the time.
"Black" isn't a segment either
The diaspora gets flattened in the same way. Brands often file African audiences under "Black consumers" and assume the job is done.
The US National Human Genome Research Institute describes race as a social grouping, with more genetic variation within groups than between them. People in Africa are reported to be more genetically diverse than the rest of the world combined. And one major study found African Americans average around 73% African ancestry and 24% European.
For a marketer, the takeaway is practical. A Nigerian family in Peckham, a Ghanaian family in the Bronx and a Black British family whose roots go back to Jamaica may tick the same box on a form. Their food, music, faith, celebrations and spending are not the same. The label describes skin colour, and it won't tell you what any of them want to buy.
Start with the hard numbers
I'm not going to pretend this is a simple good-news story. You can't partner with a place you've only romanticised.
45% of people in Sub-Saharan Africa live on under $3 a day.
Around 600 million have no electricity.
36% of Africans are online, against 74% worldwide.
Adult literacy in Sub-Saharan Africa is around 69%.
Malaria killed about 610,000 people in 2024, 95% of them in the WHO's African Region.
Sudan's war left more than 11 million people internally displaced at the end of 2024, the highest number ever recorded for one country.
These numbers shape how you reach people, what you can charge and where you can deliver. They also explain why broad-brush thinking fails. A continent where nearly half of people in one vast region live on under $3 a day also has 122,500 dollar millionaires and 23 billionaires. Averages hide both groups. Any useful strategy has to choose who it's for.
There's progress too. By April 2025, 20 African countries had introduced malaria vaccines.
Why this matters now
Africa's median age is 19. 28% of the world's under-25s live there today, and UN projections take that to 46% by 2100. The brands those young people adopt now could stay with them for decades.
Brookings projects $2.5 trillion in household consumption by 2030. Treat that as a forecast, but the direction is clear.
The foundations are being laid as well. African tech startups raised $4.1 billion in 2025. Meta and its partners completed the core of 2Africa, a 45,000km subsea cable. Dangote's 650,000-barrel-a-day refinery has trained Nigerian engineers to run it, and Kigali has become a base for tech hubs.
Brain drain hasn't gone away. But there's more to stay for than there used to be.
The diaspora is already in your market
If Africa feels too far away, look closer to home.
In 2019, 42% of Sub-Saharan African immigrants in the US held a degree, against 33% of the US-born. Their households still earned less: $58,000 against $66,000. That gap is worth a brand's attention, because it describes highly educated people the market still undervalues. By the second generation the picture shifts: a 2021 study found Nigerian Americans out-attaining the other groups it studied.
The wider Black tech community is building too. AfroTech drew more than 35,000 people to Houston in 2024, and its own highlights count 168 companies and brands in the room.
Nigeria shows how specific you need to be
Nigeria alone has around 237 million people, more than 250 ethnic groups and 520 living languages. One campaign in one voice won't travel across a single country, never mind a continent.
Its people are also everywhere. There are 270,768 Nigeria-born residents in England and Wales and around 477,000 in the US, and those counts leave out their children. Nigerians abroad sent home $19.8 billion in 2024.
The biggest insight, though, is cultural. This is a culture built on occasion.
The Yoruba trace their spiritual home to Ife, which flourished from the 11th century. Today, owambe parties bring aso ebi, with family and friends dressed in one matching fabric. At Yoruba and Igbo celebrations, guests spray money on the people being honoured. From the Igbo to the Itsekiri of the Warri Kingdom, celebration is a statement.
Think about what that means commercially. A single celebration can create demand for fabric, tailoring, beauty, jewellery, travel, hospitality, drinks, music and photography. When Davido married Chioma in Lagos in 2024, a former president was on the guest list, and their Miami white wedding reportedly cost $3.7 million. That's the extreme end, but the instinct runs through the whole culture.
Most brands plan around seasons. Here, they should be planning around occasions.
Africa has been shaping culture all along
The global fashion industry knows this, even when it doesn't always say so.
In Brazzaville and Kinshasa, La Sape took European tailoring and made it an art form of its own. Ghana's kente joined UNESCO's heritage list in 2024, and Morocco's caftan followed in 2025. In Abidjan, Pathé'O made the shirts Nelson Mandela wore on the world stage.
Louis Vuitton has borrowed more than once: from the Maasai shuka in 2012, the Basotho blanket for its 2017 menswear, and the checked Ghana Must Go bag, a name that comes from Nigeria's 1983 expulsion of migrants. Each of those carries a lesson. The inspiration was obvious, but questions followed about who gets credit and who benefits.
Music has made the same journey. Black Coffee became the first African DJ to win a Grammy. Wizkid, Davido, Rema and Asake took Afrobeats global, and Nigerian artists drew 30.3 billion Spotify streams in 2025. South African soprano Pretty Yende has sung at the Met and at King Charles's coronation. Nollywood is the world's second-biggest film industry by output.
In 2026, that reach landed on the biggest stage in sport. Burna Boy performed "Dai Dai" with Shakira in Mexico City. Tyla sang South Africa's anthem there, then performed in Los Angeles. And Burna Boy returned for the first World Cup final with a halftime show.
Some brands are paying attention
In 2025, On signed Burna Boy to a multi-year partnership and named him its Clubhouse President. It's a premium brand putting real weight behind an African artist with a global audience, and I think it's a step in the right direction. It's a long-term role rather than a one-off campaign, and that's a good place to start.
The wider money is significant. McKinsey projects Black American consumer spending of $1.7 trillion by 2030, and Statista puts Africa's luxury goods market at nearly $8 billion, counting large companies only.
The gap nobody's filling
Here's what I found most telling while researching this piece.
How many African weddings happen in the UK each year? How much do Nigerians spend on luxury? How many Africans sit in senior roles at S&P 500 companies?
I couldn't find a credible number for any of them.
Those are basic questions for any brand serious about this audience. The answers may exist in private datasets, but I couldn't find them in public. And that's the opportunity. You can't win a market you've never measured, so the first brand to measure it has a real head start.
What I'd do
1. Delete the one slide. Replace it with a shortlist of cities and communities. Lagos, Nairobi, Johannesburg, Casablanca, Peckham and Houston are all different briefs.
2. Start with the diaspora. It's closer to your existing stores, teams and media plans, and easier to test with. What you learn there can inform a move into the home markets.
3. Plan around occasions. Weddings, naming ceremonies, milestone birthdays and festivals are when people spend on being seen. Ask what your brand would add to that room.
4. Commission the data. Sponsor research on the numbers nobody publishes, then use it. The insight is valuable, and owning it makes you part of the conversation.
5. Partner with credit. Bring in the designers, artists and craftspeople whose culture you're drawing on, and make sure they share in the upside. Pathé'O is a better model than a runway reference with no name attached.
6. Respect the realities. Connectivity, power, payment and logistics vary hugely. Design around them from day one.
Lessons for marketing leaders
Geography isn't a segment. A continent is too big to be a target audience.
Averages hide your customer. Poverty and wealth sit side by side, so the headline figure won't tell you who to reach.
Culture is the way in. Music, fashion and celebration already travel. Find where your brand genuinely belongs.
If it isn't measured, measure it. A gap in the data is often an advantage waiting to be claimed.
Frequently asked questions
Why is Africa overlooked by brands?
In my view, it's because it's too often treated as one market. A continent-wide view hides the specific cities, communities and occasions where a brand could win. The lack of public data on diaspora spending makes it easier to ignore.
How big is Africa's consumer market?
Brookings projects household consumption of $2.5 trillion by 2030. That's a forecast, and it varies widely by country.
Where should a brand start?
With a specific community, not the continent. For many UK and US brands, the African diaspora in their existing cities is the most practical place to begin.
How much do Africans spend on luxury?
Statista puts Africa's luxury goods revenue at about $7.84 billion in 2025, counting large companies only. I couldn't find a credible figure for spending by Nigerians or by the wider diaspora.
Is this case study affiliated with the brands mentioned?
No. It's independent commentary and isn't affiliated with or endorsed by any brand named.
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Case Study: The Overlooked Continent on YouTube
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Work with me
I help brands build partnerships that earn culture rather than rent it.
Mustafa Akindele is an independent brand partnerships consultant in London, with 20+ years' experience across music, luxury, hospitality and sport. CIM-accredited.
Independent commentary. Not affiliated with or endorsed by any brand named. The video uses AI narration, and its footage belongs to its respective owners.
