1. The Challenges in Conducting
Market Research in Africa
Presentation By:
Neal Sandin
Senior Project Director
SIS International Research
September 2008
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2. Table of Contents
Foreword …………..………………………………………...…...3
Infrastructure …………..…………………………………….......4
Cultural Barriers ……………..……………………………...….12
Government Bureaucracy ………………..…………………..18
Security Issues...………………………………...... …………...20
Informal Economy ……………………………...... ……………22
Limited Financial Resources …………………….. …………..23
Limited Technical Resources …………………… …………...24
Recommendations ……………………………….. …………...25
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3. Foreword
Foreword
• Market research in developing countries has a variety of
interrelated barriers.
• By knowing the challenges of gathering and analyzing
market intelligence, business opportunities come to the
fore.
• Africa is taken as a lens; the learnings here can be
applied to other developing and emerging regions.
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4. Infrastructure
Infrastructure
• It is estimated over 80% of the populations in sub-Saharan Africa is rural based.
– Poor transport and road system
– Lack of ICT (telecommunication, electricity, et al.)
– Low levels of literacy.
• Africa lags behind in the use of ICT, has low telephone penetration, access to internet
and high tariffs. African research is still largely dependent on face-to-face interviews.
• “Studies shows that 97% of the population in the rural villages surveyed already knew
about mobile telephony, and 50% had used a mobile phone. By contrast, only 33%
knew what a computer was and only 3% had ever used one.” Ericsson survey
Tanzania 2005.
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5. Primary Road Map
Primary
Road
Network
Data are from 2003 or later
Source: African Marine Atlas (http://iodeweb2.vliz.be/omap/OMAP/index.htm)

6. Secondary Road Map
Secondary
Roads
Data are from 2003 or later 6
Source: African Marine Atlas (http://iodeweb2.vliz.be/omap/OMAP/index.htm)

7. Population Density
7
Source: Wikipedia.org

8. Telephone Infrastructure
• Africans wait ~5 years for a fixed telephone, in some countries 10+ years.
• ~ 2.5 million Africans are currently on waiting lists for fixed telephone lines
• By early 2007- mobile users constituted almost 90% of African telephone
subscribers
– Building cell phone infrastructure relatively less expensive than rolling out
landline connections to every home
– In Kenya mobile telephony Giant Safaricom established a joint venture in May
2000 by October 2007 the company had over 8million subscribers and made a
profit of a quarter a Billion USD, it has become the largest company within the
East African region in only 6 years of operation.
• Still has one of the world’s lowest mobile penetration rates
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Source: http://www.marketresearch.com/product/print/default.asp?g=1&productid=1587984

9. 1976-2001 % Growth in Telephone Penetration
(Per 100 Inhabitants)
Negative
0% – 200%
More than 200%
9
Source: http://www.ifpri.org/PUBS/ib/ib32.pdf

10. Top 10 Internet Countries in Africa (March 2008)
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11. Internet Penetration in Africa (March 2008)
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Source: www.internetworldstats.com

12. Cultural Barriers
Cultural Barriers
• The varied country-to-country cultural practices and norms in the
continent pose a challenge in many areas and in particular rural
Africa.
– In Djibouti and other Muslim countries it would be difficult to for a man to
conduct FGDs with women.
• During the Holy month of Ramadan for Muslims, research should be
suspended in predominantly Muslim countries.
– In 2008, this falls within the month of September.
• Depending on the information required one may hold back vital
responses to a survey as it may be in conflict with their cultural
beliefs
– Common among the Bantu in Sub-Saharan Africa, it is considered bad
manners in many African cultures to disclose your wealth or the number
of children in your household.
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13. Ethnic & Language Barriers
Ethnic & Language Barriers
• High percentage of rural populations rely on tribal
dialects.
– Forcing market research agencies to translate the questionnaire
into different languages
• Respondents may not be receptive to an interview from
a person perceived to be from an ethnic group.
– Market research agencies need to widen the variety of field staff
according to their tribe.
– In Kenya, after the recent poll violence, regional teams have had
to be reshuffled with regard to interviewer ethnicity
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14. Language Diversity
• Over 1,000 languages
– However, there are populations of people that speak English, French and
Portuguese
– 4 major language families native to Africa
1. Afro-Asiatic
2. Nilo-Saharan
3. Niger Congo
4. Khoisan
14
Source: Wikipedia.org

15. # of Languages Spoken by Country
15
Source: http://www.ethnologue.com

16. Literacy Levels
– In 2000, the average literacy rate in Sub-Saharan Africa was 52
per cent for women and 68.9 per cent for men.
• Gender disparities prevailing in 75 per cent of the countries in
the region.
– Western African countries have lower literacy levels, with
Southern African countries being the most literate, which forces
reliance upon face-to-face interviews.
• Increases operational costs, although the wage costs for
carrying out research fieldwork average at 20USD per day.
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17. Africa Literacy Map
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18. Government Bureaucracy
Government Bureaucracy
• In most countries, it is a requirement by law to obtain a permit before
conducting a study.
– Especially when it comes to demographic, religious and governance questions.
– Examples: Sudan, Djibouti, Eritrea and Zimbabwe requires that a questionnaire
to be reviewed by a government agency and in some cases may insist on
accompanying the interviewers.
• Permits may take up 21 days to be issued.
• Cases of corruption are rampant, illegal searches and confiscation of study
materials are quite common
– e.g. In the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola, one needs a different
“permit” to conduct the same survey in every regional city.
• Few African countries conduct regular population census or social economic
surveys with the exception of South Africa and North Africa.
– Difficult to determine appropriate methodologies or developing sample.
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19. Human Development Index
HDI: Avg. life expectancy,
education index, adult literacy
index, GDP at PPP Index, and
gross enrollment Index
By comparison,
all of Western
Europe, North
America, and
most of South
America is above
0.900.
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Source: 2007 Human Development Repot by the UN- based on 2005 data

20. Security Issues
Security Issues
• Hot spots:
– Darfur in Sudan
– The Nigerian Oil Delta
• Increasingly becoming a problem in the low income (slums)
dwelling areas
– Soweto, South Africa
– Kibera, Nairobi
– Lagos slums
• Slums are characterized by a severe lack of government security
and are controlled by criminal gangs who extort money from traders
and do not tolerate outside interference.
• Yet, important research needs to be done is such environs.
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21. Areas of Unrest
• Despite peace accords from
civil wars, parts of western
Sudan remain volatile
• The Democratic Republic of
Congo still in civil war
• Sections of Algeria are off-
limits
• Barundi, Zimbabwe, Sierra
Leone, and Liberia should
also be considered with
caution
21
Source: http://www.africatravelguide.com

22. Informal Economy
Informal Economy
• Particularly within Sub-Saharan Africa, the informal retail
market accounts for over 50% of all retail trade in all
categories.
• Continued existence of the barter trade
• Challenge in:
– Estimating market size, volumes and trends
– Identifying their product route to the market
– Tracking and monitoring consumer habits and behavior
• In Tanzania, the total milk productions stands at over 1.1
billion liters, however only 14% finds its way to the formal
market channel
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23. Limited Financial Resources
Limited Financial Resources
• A large percentage of financial institutions are very cautious in
financing service-related institutions.
• Most agencies are hampered in expanding developing operations.
• With the exception of multinational affiliated agencies, most
research agencies are forced to bill fees to finance operations with
little resources left over for key aspects such as:
– Staff development
– R&D and innovations
– Technical upgrades on software and hardware
– Networking and expansion
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24. Limited Technical Market Research Resources
Limited Technical Market Research Resources
• The technical ability of research agencies remains low, with notable
exceptions within Northern Africa, South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria.
It remains necessary in most countries to accompany, train and
supervise fieldwork at local level to ensure quality in delivery.
• Poor access and technical ability in handling hardware and software
forces agencies to process data at a central location regardless of
location of study.
• The number of local companies engaged in research for their
markets remains low.
• The industry at present performs below expectations with local
research revenue driven by multinational agencies such as Unilever,
Coca Cola and Diageo. The other players include bilateral and non-
governmental agencies within Africa.
• Few institutions offering studies at a university level in market
research. Kenya has only one institution offers training on MR.
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25. Recommendations
• Communicate with the field team by SMS text, not by email.
• Face-to-Face methodologies should be considered first.
• Do not rely upon government statistics; NGOs (e.g. IRC) have excellent
reports on social movements and situations.
• Contact NGOs who have completed research in the area. Find out who
they worked with and difficulties involved.
• Be aware of social mores when assigning interviewers.
• Timelines must be flexible, and projects on a best efforts basis.
• Monitor political and social situations closely.
– If there is an election, wait until it is over before starting or resuming research
– A holiday in a current (or recent) conflict area should be observed closely
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