2024 Africa CEO Outlook

As we celebrate the 10th year of KPMG’s Global CEO Outlook, I am excited to introduce the inaugural Africa CEO Outlook edition. For the first time, we’ve engaged with over 130 CEOs and business leaders across Southern, East, and West Africa to gain insights into the region’s dynamic business environment.

Our commitment to Africa remains strong as the continent presents numerous growth opportunities in the business environment. Insights from our CEOs highlight both the opportunities and challenges their organisations face. These insights explore important areas such as how businesses have evolved to navigate the shifting landscape while managing complex economic and geopolitical challenges.

This year, we place a particular focus on geopolitics, given the recent surge in political tensions over the past year, which has impacted the economic side of business. Despite these challenges, the report confirms that African CEOs can unlock opportunities through effective geopolitical risk management, which is crucial for boosting Africa’s economy.

This leads to further exploration of the economic impact resulting from the challenges identified by the CEOs. While examining the continent's economic outlook, the results show a parallel trend. This highlights the resilience needed to build and grow a successful business through turbulent times, with a focus on technology and generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), ESG, and evolving talent. This serves as a testament to the integral role these areas have played in shaping the business environment in Africa, both now and into the future.

The emergence of Technology and generative AI has created growth opportunities, as the survey reveals a consensus among CEOs on the importance of applying the correct strategies.

With the evolving workforce dynamics across the African continent, people-related issues remain a key focus for leaders. CEOs have identified an interesting link between skills, technology, and the reality of ageism, all while navigating a changing environment.

Global warming has led to significant environmental changes, prompting a vigorous dialogue on ESG and making it a top priority. In this survey, African CEOs share their views on the opportunities and risks of ESG, emphasizing its critical role in business strategies.

Insights from these business leaders are paramount because of how the world has evolved over the past decade. We are just as pleased to see that independent business organizations echo and are as supportive of the views from business leaders, for positive change to be seen in big business.

As KPMG in Africa, we are proud to work closely with the voice of business in different sectors to share these insights with you.