Sub-Saharan Africa: Short Market Guide

Africa, even if there are some differences related to countries or areas, is presenting a high data friction. It means process related to collection and updating data related to companies is in general complicated both in term of rules related to registration, public bodies in charge and data availability itself.

If Africa can be divided into 3 areas, North, Central and South, there are some common topics that are affecting information on companies and related collection processes. Very often, there is a deep discrepancy between laws and what it’s really happens in companies registration processes.

All African countries, even if at different level, can present public data sources acting at local level only without any connection each other and with central department collecting all national data playing a very limited role. Different Chamber of Commerce or Courts located in a specific province or town, aren’t connected with same bodies located in other provinces or town. It means than find out a company isn’t an easy task and requires an in depth knowledge of processes and territory. In this scenario, combine so called ‘public sources’ to ‘informal sources’ is mandatory. It means interview of commercial partners to collect fresh information, have a good networking and also take into account that oral communication culture is still in place and a very good method to get information.

Key information are usually not published for private companies, like financial statements or shareholders: only company at stock exchange can present an higher number data available. But of course they’re quite few if compared to overall economic scenario.

Level of digitalization is very different from country to country, for some countries is an on going process, but a common point is related to the fact that updating of companies registries isn’t automatic but a manual process is always required.

In addition, political instability, economic turmoil or also weather conditions must be taken into account when a Credit Report on an African company is required.

SkyMinder, having in mind this scenario, is able to offer Credit Report working with the best local providers on all African Countries and Territories, without any exclusions. Every economic entity acting on the market, regardless legal form or other firmographic indicators related to its dimension, can be requested via SkyMinder. Credit Report is produced thanks to a fresh investigation flow leveraging on official and unofficial sources and local data. Thanks to this accurate and high quality process, also evaluation data like rating and credit limit are available to best assess the company creditworthiness. Based on Credit Report but with a synthetic content, Slim Reports are available on the great part of Sub-Saharan countries. They’re including basic official and unofficial data and evaluation information like rating and credit limit. Credit Report and Slim Reports have the same level of updating and data quality.

In a country where economic and political conditions are mutable, is also important to have an overview on how a company is changing over the time. This is why via SkyMinder is possible to combine to reports also Planned Revision, a service able to verify periodically is something new is affecting company. This is a very powerful tool to understand how a business partner is acting in a scenario where data collection isn’t automatic and based a very critical flow.

African economic is moving ant it means that African economy and companies are more and more interconnected with business in different continents: it’s now important understand company structure and shareholding. Thanks to KYC Report is possible to obtain information via SkyMinder. Also financial crimes, bribery and corruption and terrorism are topics to take care when evaluate a company, both in term of risk management and reputation. In this case, SkyMinder has a double offering with two products, Compliance Check Report and Extended Report, able to verify if company required or shareholders and principals are connected to financial crimes.

Finally also Cyber Risk can be underlined using KYND Cyber Risk Report in a complex evaluation process.

Even if Africa is presenting high data friction, via SkyMinder is possible to obtain products based of high quality level and updating thanks to local partnership with companies acting in each African country.