This Element is an excerpt from Africa Rising: How 900 Million African Consumers Offer More Than You Think (ISBN: 9780132339421) by Vijay Mahajan. Available in print and digital formats.

Africa’s tremendous diversity--and how it affects your business strategies and operations.

While recognizing that markets across Africa have much in common, we cannot gloss over their differences. There is tremendous diversity of economic, political, and social conditions in the 53 nations that make up this huge continent. Although there are opportunities across Africa, they often are realized locally. Companies ignore Africans’ sense of national identity at their peril.