Uncategorized – African Business News

Leveraging The Growing Demand For African Nutraceutical Ingredients

September 2, 2016 by AJ

As consumers around the world continue to increase consumption of a wide array of nutritional supplements and nutraceuticals, many are wondering how to profit in the increased demand for African nutraceutical ingredients.

Several ingredients originating on the African continent such as such as African Mango have been promoted as weight loss supplements on popular US television shows, causing a surge in demand.

But weight loss ingredients aren’t the only African herbal remedies getting attention from the worldwide supplement markets. Indeed, many Westerners looking to bulk up and put on muscle are seeking out little known, all natural muscle building ingredients.

There is in fact a strong cultural narrative has been propagated extensively that basically says that in addition to doing strength training exercises and eating right athletes should also be taking bodybuilding supplements to help there bodies build muscle. Apparently the “fitness advice for men” industry has convinced a large segment of the population that using nutraceutical supplement should be an integral part of the routine of anyone who wants to build muscle and keep the mass that they have gotten from working out.

That said, many scientists have studied how supplements can be used to provide the body with nitrogen, proteins, and other essential nutrients that are helpful to those wishing to gain strength, recover from a workout, and/or gain mass. Recovery is, many agree, just as important as the exercise itself when it comes to gaining mass and strength. Therefore, the public’s interest in this type of supplementation does seem to have a basis in scientific fact.

Apparently, during recovery, your muscles grow and regain the lost cells during the workout. Once your muscles have recovered by getting the proteins and nutrients they need, you can hit the gym and lift more often, and as you can probably imagine, the more often you lift weights, the faster you will get the results that you have been looking for.

Another type of supplement getting a lot of attention in recent months are those that provide multiple antioxidants and vitamins such as “green health drinks” that contain numerous drink fruits and vegetables. As we know Africa is home to a diverse supply of powerful botanicals not yet discovered by the west, so I think we can probably rest assured that there will be many more African ingredients that will also become popular with major nutraceutical producers in coming years.

Resources:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22260513
http://naturesmagicgift.com/natural-health/patriot-power-greens-review-facts-on-dr-lane-sebrings-superfood-drink/
http://naturesmagicgift.com/fat-loss/african-mango-plus-review-is-it-the-real-deal/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPdrvdKy0NI

Revealing The Hidden Potential In The African ED Market

March 29, 2016 by AJ

african doctor with ed meds — Untapped ED potential…

Everyone knows that the world wide erectile dysfunction (ED) market is enormous, and that it continues to grow by leaps and bounds every year. In fact, a new report from Transparency Market Research estimates that the global market will reach 3.4 Billion by 2019. Bear in mind that the 3.4 Billion figure is just an estimate of the market size for ED drugs, so that doesn’t take into account an estimated 2-3 billion more up for grabs in the ED supplement market (unfortunately market data for supplements in notoriously lacking and unreliable.) So we are talking about some serious money here.

However, smaller markets like those on the African continent are often overlooked when we talk about the ED market. Historically, the 4 main market sectors for these products have been North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the rest of the world (RoW). Because ED is not life threatening, products used in its treatment are rarely covered by health insurance and can be costly which effectively limits their widespread use in less affluent African countries.

This is one reason why the black market for these drugs has boomed in recent years. In particular South Africa has become a world leader in the consumption of black market ED pills, many of which have bogus ingredients and dangerous side effects. There is no question this is a hungry market, the issue is how to shut down fly-by-night companies taking advantage of African consumers by selling them unregulated product.

However, these ravenous ED pill consumers are are just one piece of the African ED market’s potential. As I see it, the true potential in this market is on the supply side. As we’ve seen a massive increase in the demand for OTC supplements, a niche market for traditional herbal remedies such as the Erections On Demand (EOD) tonic discussed on PUABooks.net has taken off. Consumers, particularly men in the USA and Europe (two of the biggest ED markets hands down) are seeking out natural treatments using ingredients that have been proven both safe and effective for the treatment of ED, over decades of use by native peoples.

While the aforementioned EOD tonic is apparently based off a traditional Peruvian formulation, there is no place on earth with more traditional ED remedies than Africa. The list of plants and extracts used traditionally by African tribes to cure ED is staggering, but perhaps the roots of Eriosema species of plants hold the greatest promise for the treatment of both ED and impotence. For more information on this and other traditional African ED cures see the National Center For Biotechnology Information.

Clearly a product based on these traditional treatments would be a popular addition to the endless assortment of ED treatments currently available. The real trick is finding a way to make it affordable to African consumers.

Beginners Tips For Paying Taxes In Africa – What To Expect

December 11, 2015 by AJ

If you are from the US or Europe you may be accustomed to a fairly well ordered (albeit overly complex) and bureaucratic system for paying your taxes. Maybe you are used to sending some numbers over to your accountant and letting him do all of the heavy lifting. Yes, in America and much of Europe it is a fairly straightforward process, for the most part. So, if you have recently moved and set up shop in Africa you may find that things are a little different. While the systems that are in place to collect taxes range widely from country to country we can probably all agree that Africa is the continent with some the most unorthodox tax collection practices in the world today.

The frustrating thing is that it can often be difficult to tell just much taxes various African countries are collecting because they simply are not reporting data which can be taken at face value.

With such poor, unreliable data (or even no data at all) coming out of so many countries it can be difficult to estimate what your tax debt will be ahead of time. This being the cases it is easy to see why many question African countries’ ability to spend foreign aid monies properly.

And when they do come to collect from you, you’re not going to be able to turn to a US based tax preparation company to tell you what to do. Oh no, its not that simple at all! Instead you are going to need to hire a local tax expert who specializes in the tax laws of whatever african country you are residing in. The good new is that because most african countries are less sophisticated when it comes to taxes, a qualified tax expert should be able to save you a ton of money. Just be sure that you check references, and if at all possible get a referal from someone you trust, ideally someone who understands your business and tax preparation needs.