Since we started Crested Crane Connections in 2019, Ian (my business partner ) and myself have met many representatives of UK Manufacturers who are interested in doing business with Africa. From our close interactions with them, I noticed that most of them prefer to export to Africa rather than setting up there physical business ventures.
Though the quality of goods produced from the Western world is high and East Africans are not in doubt about it, we always find it difficult to convince wholesalers to directly order goods from the UK or from the EU. From my own research, these are the reasons:
1. Generally the market in East Africa is very sensitive to price. Whereas goods manufactured in US, UK, EU and elsewhere in the western world are preferred because of their high quality, the high cost which in some instances is associated with them, makes them lose competition to goods manufactured in Asia, UAE and South Africa.
2. Consumers in East Africa still generally prefer to buy locally after seeing and touching. If there is a store in one of the East African Cities selling high quality products from the Western world, buyers will go there and buy. But to order products from overseas based on a catalog, it is always difficult for most.
3. The combination of bureaucracy, paperwork, payment of import taxes, risks of transporting goods inland and other challenges associated with importing goods, discourages a lot of people from ordering from overseas. Wholesalers and retailers in East Africa prefer to order stock locally from a manufacturer or from a central distribution hub.
4. Travel Visa restrictions imposed by almost all Western countries during recent years have also contributed immensely on traders from East Africa to consider going to China, UAE, India, South Africa and other shopping destinations where it is not hard to obtain a travel visa.
WAY FORWARD
In my view the way forward for Western manufacturers who are interested in the East African Market is to consider either setting up local manufacturing or goods distribution hubs so that local wholesalers and retailers can have easy access. Chinese and Indians learnt this and it is the reason why they are prospering in Sub-Sahara Africa.
This information here is providing a professional & varied range of expertise being held by the
partners of Crested Crane Connections (CCC). I look forward to discussing an item for probable manufacture & then world wide distribution in the simple basic form, and then with secondary features built on as “we” grow.
The winning link maybe using a product that comes from Africa, together with converting it through various stages within the country, then giving the final vendor the option to customise on site, to fit the local demand opportunities. Complex, no simple, but I’m glad to be utilizing
Ian & Julius of CCC to get the project rolling