The share of investments in the water sector in SSA is relatively small at 9.7% compared to other infrastructure sectoral financing according to the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa (2016). The region’s water access flounders at 40% (World Bank 2017). Whereas industrial wastewater is aiding the deterioration in water quality, resulting in reduced biodiversity in rivers, lakes and wetlands by about one-third in the region, finds a UN brief on Water Management (2017). This overall, complicates Africa’s development efforts to achieve both industrialization and sustainability. Primarily, a combination of water technologies and investments can implicitly unlock much of Africa’s stagnant efforts, largely driven by the private sector. However, something was missing. At africon we studied what additional forces could attract more technology providers to enter the market. Our findings show that countries equipped with engineering capacity and environmental legislation had a favorable environment for water technologies. Added to that, water scarcity coupled with industrial activity and investment trends were stark signals of strong market demand for water solutions. As a result of our market analysis, the top 5 countries were: South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and Ethiopia.

1. Demand for water technology in sub-Saharan Africa
With rising industrial activity, environmental legislation and engineering
capacity, water technologies are becoming more demanded.
© africon GmbH 2018
• The demand for water technology per country has been calculated by an
individual formula compiled by:
• Trade data
• Industrial activity
• Presence of engineering companies / technological readiness
• Environmental legislation framework
• Other conditions such as water scarcity and investment trends in
the water sector.
• The above mentioned points are key market forces which have to be
analyzed and coupled with the individual understanding of the local
markets for a successful market entry.
• Countries like Nigeria and Kenya exhibit adequate environmental
legislation combined with industrial activity, such as in the Cement and
the Food & Beverages sectors.
• Much of Ghana‘s and Zambia’s industrial water is driven by mining.
• In South Africa and Ethiopia, water scarcity has induced engineering
skills into emergence in line with positive trends towards water
investments.
Market share water technology products*
in sub-Saharan Africa
(in %, 2017)
Comments
Source:africonanalysis(2018)
*Note: Analyzed products were technology related to water filtration
43%
18%
15%
7%
7%
3%
South Africa Ethiopia Nigeria Ghana Kenya Tanzania
$392m