Insights

Introduction: More Than Just a Morning Drink  To the outside observer, Africa is synonymous with coffee. It is the birthplace of Coffea arabica, home to the legendary coffee ceremonies of Ethiopia, and the producer of some of the world's most prized speciality beans from the volcanic hills of Rwanda and...

Nigeria's transition toward a cashless economy remains incomplete. Despite the Central Bank of Nigeria's decade-long push for digital payments, cash still dominates commerce across the country. Walk into any market in Lagos, Kano, or Port Harcourt, and you'll find traders, retailers, and small business owners conducting business in naira notes,...

Across Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and beyond, brands are abandoning traditional ad spend in favour of immersive, participatory experiences. As we move deeper into 2026, marketing events and brand activations have become non-negotiable pillars of brand growth strategy, not as supplementary tactics, but as core drivers of consumer trust, loyalty,...

Picture this: A thriving retail business in Lagos spends ₦500,000 monthly on Facebook advertising, yet struggles to track which campaigns actually drive sales. A growing e-commerce startup in Nairobi invests heavily in influencer partnerships without knowing which partnerships yield the highest return. A service-based business in Accra continues promoting products...

Last year, a young Nairobi-based software engineer refused to buy from a fast-fashion retailer because the brand wouldn't disclose its labour practices. That same week, a small family business in Lagos pivoted to selling refurbished goods instead of new imports. In Johannesburg, a beauty influencer built an empire promoting locally-sourced...

Africa's financial revolution is not coming. It is already here. While the rest of the world spent decades building branch-based banking systems, Africa leapfrogged them entirely. Today, Africa processes more mobile money transactions than anywhere else on earth, accounting for 74% of the world's total volume and over $1.4 trillion...

For years, social media has become a cornerstone of brand-consumer relationships. Yet many marketing leaders still rely on global benchmarks that fail to capture the unique behaviours of Nigerian audiences. That gap is now closing. The Nigerian Social Media Benchmarks report by Marketing Analytics Africa is the first comprehensive study...

From loadshedding-driven ultra-high-temperature (UHT) loyalty to private-label defection, the forces rewriting consumer behaviour in South Africa's dairy market are more complex than any single brand strategy can encompass. In an average South African household, milk is not considered a purchase. You need it. You buy it. It sits in the...

While Instagram captures much of the conversation around social media in Nigeria, our latest report reveals that true competitive advantage comes from understanding platform-specific roles and allocating resources accordingly. Analysing 83 leading brands across five key sectors, the research exposes both underutilised opportunities and proven pathways to higher engagement on...

Walk into any branch of Equity Bank in Nairobi, GTBank in Lagos, or Standard Bank in Johannesburg, and within seconds, before a single word is spoken, you know exactly where you are, who works there, and whether you feel comfortable handing over your money. That instant recognition is not accidental....