SA Ablaze With Marijuana, Mobile Money Everywhere and 4x Tourism in Morocco

a QCX Africa publication

Hi QCX People!

Africa marches on with technology proliferation and ongoing urbanisation, not to mention blazing ahead in new industries like the hemp trade.

Today we’re highlighting some insightful marketing tips to take full advantage of your activities in Africa.

Marijuana Central: African Cannabis trade steps up (AllAfrica)

• Why it actually matters: The status quo of agriculture is poor countries produce and export to rich countries. This may sound morally reprehensible, but in practicality it is a boon for poorer African, Asian and South American countries… With South Africa taking major steps to legalise Marijuana production, the scope of the agricultural status quo looks set to expand - a major boost to the economy.

• Summary: South African President Ramaphosa plans to accelerate hemp and cannabis commercialisation, address sector conditions, and create jobs. The planned policies favour industrial scale over independent farmers, which has been controversial, but the prospects for African Cannabis production are looking golden right now.

Marketing Insight: Running SEO for hemp/CBD oil sites can be highly effective in boosting organic search visibility and driving targeted traffic to the websites. Major advertising platforms like Google and Facebook often have stringent guidelines and may limit or prohibit the promotion of hemp/CBD products.

Industry tip: build 2 brands 1 information site for PPC and a different eCommerce site for SEO due to policy compliance issues.

You get remittances, you get remittances… Everybody gets remittances!! (TechSafari)

• Why it actually matters: You’ve read stories left, right and centre (from us and others) about mobile money and payments across Africa. MFS’s story is yet another - an incredible scale - and it just goes to show that mobile money, global money transfers (remittances) are now par for the course and widely available.

• Summary: MFS Africa, founded by Dare Okoudjou, has connected over 400 mobile money wallets globally. They recently raised $200 million in a Series C round and aim to enable the seamless transfer of money across borders. MFS Africa's platform allows interoperability between mobile money wallets and other services, and it has worked closely with telecoms to launch mobile money services across Africa.

Marketing Insight: Ensure your site can effortless receive payment from the regions your are marketing in, accepting local mobile payments can increase customer conversion rates. Emerging markets might want to make mobile e-Commerce payments upon delivery or over Whatsapp.

Quadrupling (yes, that’s 4x!) tourism capacity in Morocco (AfricaNews)

• Why it actually matters: “Double digit growth” is laughable compared to Morocco’s plans (now signed and agreed) for it’s national airline. 4x growth in the carrier’s carrying capacity means Morocco is not going to so just double digit growth in tourism, but something on the order 400% growth in carrying capacity, which spills over into nominal tourism.

• Summary: Morocco's national airline Royal Air Maroc (RAM) intends to quadruple its air fleet by the end of the next decade, in order to support the development of the tourism sector. Morocco expects to play host to over 65 million tourists annually by 2037.

Marketing Insight: Morocco has become a global holiday destination, consider targeting airports locations to target a global customer who is interested in future holidays to other locations Africa.

Fact: ‘Q’, ‘C’ and ‘X’ are the English denotations for the 3 most common linguistic clicks in African languages. If you can say all three clicks, three times in a row fast, you can legally call yourself African.