Invest South Africa

We want to assist you with Investing in South Africa. Get Business Opportunities in South Africa as well as to search for and connect with leading Companies and Investors in South Africa. We also provide a list of key Government trade advisors who assist you with doing business in South Africa and other relevant business information on South Africa. Specifically, we offer three digital portals that are FREE to use and will be of interest to you: the Africa Business Community, Africa Business Opportunities Dashboard and our closed AFSIC African Investments Dashboard.

The Africa Business Opportunities Dashboard is an award-winning free digital platform with millions of impressions that allows you to promote your own business, make “calls for business” or look for business and investment opportunities in Africa. Business Opportunities that have been uploaded to our Africa Business Opportunity Dashboard will be promoted to global users of our Africa Business Community using our proven technology. Want investment, or to find a business partner, are you selling real estate etc, do you have goods, products or services you want to promote? If so our Africa Business Opportunities Dashboard is for you. View some of the business opportunities uploaded by our Africa Business Community here. Institutional Investors looking for investment can add themselves to our closed AFSIC African Investments Dashboard – after you have uploaded information about your investment opportunity we can send it directly into the inbox of many of Africa’s most important investors. To benefit from any of these options join our Africa Business Community today FREE !

Our team runs AFSIC – Investing in Africa, perhaps Africa’s most important investment event. To keep updated on AFSIC and forthcoming business and investment trips to South Africa please Subscribe to our Mailers below.

Contact Us for More Information on Investing in South Africa, and Doing Business in South Africa

Knowledge

Invest South Africa
Invest South Africa

Country overview: South Africa is located on the southern tip of the African continent bordering both the Indian and Atlantic Ocean. South Africa surrounds Lesotho and it shares borders with Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe to the north, and Mozambique and Eswatini (Formerly Swaziland) to the east. South Africa attained majority rule on 27 April 1994 after minority rule that followed the amalgamation of four British colonies: Cape Colony, Natal, Transvaal, and Orange Free State) and formed the Union of South Africa on 31 May 1910.  It is a Parliamentary Republic with the President sitting as the Head of State and government.  Its administrative capital is Pretoria, the legislative Capital is Cape Town and judicial capital is Bloemfontein. It has an administrative structure divided into 9 provinces. It runs a Unicameral legislative system of government. South Africa’s main ethnic groups consist of black African (majority), people of European ancestry, coloured (multiracial) ethnic group and Indian/ Asian ethnic group. There are 11 official languages including the English language which is the main language of business. Christianity is the major religion. It has a mixed legal system of civil law influenced by the Roman-Dutch model, English common law and customary law. It has an area size of 1.22 million sq km.  South Africa is often referred to as the “rainbow nation” to describe the country’s multicultural diversity. South Africa has a highly developed economy and advanced infrastructure. It is the second biggest economy in Africa after Nigeria.

Demographic Information: South Africa has an estimated population of 56.43 million comprising mostly of middle age population, those in the age bracket of 25-64 years makes up of about 49.2% of the population, younger age group (less than 25 years) makes up about 44.7% of the population, and those above 65 years age group makes up about 6.1% of the population. Average population density is estimated at 49 inhabitants/km2. In terms of human development indicators, it has a life expectancy of 66.2 years (Women) and 63.4 years (Men). It achieved universal primary education with a 98.54% Primary enrolment rate in 2018 and overall literacy level of 87.0% as at 2017.

Broad Economic Overview: South Africa is rich in natural resources and is the world’s biggest producer of gold, platinum, chrome and manganese. It is the second largest palladium producer and the fourth largest producer of diamonds in the world. It produces 80% of the world’s platinum and has 60% of the world’s coal reserves. South Africa has diverse manufacturing industries and is a world leader in several specialised sectors, including railway rolling stock, synthetic fuels, mining equipment and machinery. Agriculture contributes about 1.9% of the country’s GDP and employs 5% of the workforce unlike other African countries where agriculture dominates the economy. South Africa’s agricultural sector is highly diversified, market oriented and it is the world’s sixth largest producer of wine. It has an advanced services sector, particularly financial and healthy banking system. Service sector employs about 72% of workforce and contributes 61% of the country’s GDP. South Africa is a popular tourist destination, and a substantial amount of revenue comes from tourism. The economy has grown at a decelerated rate in recent years as weak public accounts, state-owned enterprises, persistent labor market rigidities and politicization of economic decision-making continue to constrain growth. Real GDP grew at an estimated 0.2% in 2019, down from 1.4% in 2018. It managed to achieve a modest compound GDP growth of 1.1% in the past 5 years. Its currency is South African Rand which is free floating currency. Main export includes diamonds, gold, platinum, machinery and equipment, other metals and minerals etc. Major imports include petroleum product, foodstuff, machinery and equipment, chemical etc.  

Investment Opportunities: South Africa has a vibrant financial sector that promotes economic diversification and a well-functioning capital market. South Africa offers a combination of developed first world economic infrastructure and favourable market access to global markets and rest of Africa market. With the commencement of African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which creates a single continental market for goods and services in Africa, South Africa is set to be the main beneficiary given its advance industrial base as new export markets are created for its’ goods. Key priority sectors that is being promoted by the country for investment according to recently launched South African Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan include aggressive infrastructure investment, energy sufficiency, tourism sector growth and development of Green economy. Other sectors with investment opportunities include manufacturing sector, mining sector (Gold, Platinum, Manganese, Chromite), Service sector (Business process outsourcing, film, TV & documentaries), Aquaculture, Agro-processing, Forestry, Green Industries (Clean Energy, Waste economy, Green transport), Advanced manufacturing (Fuel Cells, Pharmaceutical, Aerospace and defence, Medical devices, Chemicals and Electronics etc)

Growing US-Africa Trade

In support of Prosper Africa goals of increasing two-way trade and investment between the United States and Africa, Africa Events Limited is mobilising our network and platforms to assist a substantial growth in trade between the US and Africa. Prosper Africa is a whole-of-government initiative that leverages the services and resources of 17 US Government agencies. If you are a US company looking to grow your import/export trade with Africa, or you are an African company looking to increase your trade with the United States please visit our portal focused on US-Africa trade.

List of Companies – Invest South Africa

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