1. Into Africa: Languages and Emerging Economies
This article was originally published on the Acclaro blog.
Category: Global Trends, International Business
The African continent is one of the most linguistically diverse places in the world. According to
Wikipedia, over 2,000 languages have been identified among its 54 countries, with over 500
languages actively spoken in Nigeria alone.
Economically, as of 2008, the McKinsey Global Institute reports that the continent’s combined
GDP of $1.6 trillion is expected to surpass $2.5 trillion by 2020, with consumer spending
forecast at $1.4 trillion by the same year. Eighty
percent of the continent’s GDP in 2005 was shared
between 15 of its countries, chiefly among natural
resources, commerce, farming, and
telecommunications. Private foreign capital spiked
dramatically from $10 billion to almost $90 billion
from 2003 to 2007.
In addition, McKinsey suggests that “four groups of
industries together will be worth $2.6 trillion in
annual revenue by 2020. These are consumer-facing
industries (such as retail, telecommunications, and
banking); infrastructure-related industries;
agriculture; and resources.”
Being an emerging economy with a wealth of spoken languages, how does African commerce
communicate?
All African countries, with the exception of Morocco, are part of the African Union (AU), an
intergovernmental organization. Article 25 of the Union’s Constitutive Act lists six official
languages in total; Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish and Swahili. Other African
languages are included on an ad-hoc basis, while and the AU’s sister organization, ACALAN, the
African Academy of Languages, focuses on the revalorization and empowerment of indigenous
languages.
The AU is further divided into regional groups within the African Economic Community (AEC).
Page 1: Into Africa: Languages and Emerging Economies Copyright © Acclaro 2012

2. One of these, the East African Community, includes Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and
Rwanda, who claim five official languages between them, including English and Swahili. Its 2004
GDP, per the CIA World Factbook, is estimated at $104 million, with emerging business
strengths in natural resources and financial services.
The 15 member states of the Southern African Development Community, by contrast, claimed a
2004 GDP of $737 million (GDPs quoted are PPP and not nominal). Countries in this region
include South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique and Namibia. Working languages include English,
French and Portuguese.
Outside of the AU, Morocco’s official language may be Arabic but the language of business is
French. In fact, France is the region’s largest trade partner. With an estimated 2010 GDP of
over $150 billion, mostly funneled into agriculture, natural resources, and tourism, it is the fifth
largest African economy by GDP.
These African countries and their economic potential are just the tip of Mount Kilimanjaro.
Potential foreign investors should, of course, understand African governmental politics in
addition to African language politics. A localization partner can help with the latter.
With over 300 million new cell phones in service over the last decade, people on the African
continent are talking…are you part of the conversation?
About Acclaro: Acclaro is an international translation and localization company that
helps the world’s leading brands succeed across cultures. We specialize in website
translation, marketing translations, document translation and software localization to
give clients an authentic voice in key language markets.
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Page 2: Into Africa: Languages and Emerging Economies Copyright © Acclaro 2012