Multinational companies and governments around the world are increasingly looking to Africa as a new business destination. Africa's economy has grown at a rate of around 5.3% per year over the last decade and six of the world's ten fastest growing economies are located here. These countries have a fast-growing middle class that contributes to rapid urbanization that is increasing faster than their cities' infrastructure can keep up. It is a common misconception that many economies in Africa are heavily dependent on energy production. In reality, the oil and gas sector accounted for only 11% of Nigeria's GDP in 2014, while the construction sector accounted for 20%.

When considering doing business in Africa, it is not a matter of choosing just one country or all 54; A regional approach makes more sense. Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, refers to sub-Saharan countries such as Angola, Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria. Many companies already doing business in Africa are separating their businesses in North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa due to the stark economic, linguistic and cultural differences between the two regions. Here are our top 5 African countries for doing business:

Mauritius
Mauritius is known for offering an extremely favorable business environment for investment and business growth. The process of incorporating a company and starting new business activities in Mauritius is believed to be straightforward and relatively easy. Mauritius' economy is mainly based on textiles, tourism, sugar and financial services, although recently other sectors such as renewable energy and information technology are expanding rapidly. The World Bank ranked Mauritius 49th in its Doing Business 2017 ranking, largely due to its pro-business approach to dealing with building permits, enforcing contracts and protecting minority investors. Another ranking of African countries places Mauritius first based on factors such as law and security, economy, human development and human rights.

Rwanda
Despite nearly a decade of Rwanda's civil war, the country's leaders and citizens alike have worked to achieve a healthy business climate and a strong overall economy. According to the World Bank, Rwanda is the second easiest place to do business in Africa and ranks 56th in the Doing Business ranking. This is because the procedures for registering a property, obtaining credit and trading across borders have been greatly simplified. Tourism is currently the fastest growing sector in Rwanda. According to our research, businesses can be incorporated and operating in as little as three days.

Botswana
Since gaining independence, Botswana has had one of the fastest per capita economic growth rates in the world. As the government works to diversify the country's profitable industries, the mining of diamonds and other precious metals is currently the main contributor to the country's economy. Recently, Botswana has managed to reduce the time it takes for various processes including import and export and business formation procedures. In addition, technological upgrades have reduced the average court length for commercial disputes to 625 days (from 987 days in 2008). Thanks to these improvements, Botswana ranks 71st in the World Bank's Doing Business 2017 ranking.

South Africa
South Africa's key industries are automobile manufacturing, tourism, mining and information and communication technologies. South Africa has managed to simplify its import and export procedures, resulting in less time and fewer documents required. In addition, the South African authorities have simplified tax legislation, reducing the number of hours required to prepare tax reports. The World Bank ranked South Africa 74th for ease of doing business in 2017.

Kenya
Another country to keep an eye on is Kenya, which is currently making huge investments in sectors such as telecom, transport and energy. With a tech-savvy workforce and high-speed internet, Kenya stands out as one of the top countries in Africa for tech startups, while its diversified economy, strong ownership rights, excellent tourism sector and improving infrastructure make it a great location for general start a new company. If you have further questions about company formation or banking in Africa. Please contact us now.

Adult literacy rate in Macedonia is 97.8%. Male literacy is 98.8%. Female literacy is 96.8%. Therefore, male literacy and female literacy differ by 2%. The education index of Macedonia is 0.642 - formal education levels in the country are average, but most of the population has a secondary school education at least; higher education is possible and not uncommon. People in Macedonia speak the Macedonian language.

Germany is a social market economy with a large capital stock, a highly qualified workforce, a high level of innovation and low levels of corruption. It is the largest economy in Europe and the fourth largest nation in the world in terms of nominal GDP. In addition to the intelligent economy and productive market structure, Germany also offers investment opportunities in its real estate segment.

What influences the German real estate market?
The volatility of the real estate market can be explained by numerous macroeconomic and social factors in the country. Due to the zero interest rate policy of the European Central Bank, mortgage interest rates remain at record lows and offer historically favorable financing conditions. In addition, the quantitative easing (QE) policy being pursued by the ECB is leading to increased liquidity, increasing investment pressure as investors look for potential investment opportunities with above-average returns in relatively safe sectors. QE is also weakening the euro, making the German real estate market even more attractive to investors from outside the eurozone.

New projects and construction activities lag far behind the growing demand, which leads to rising property prices. The German Property Index (GPI), which measures the return on all real estate investments in Germany, reached 14.7% in 2016, a record level since German reunification. The demand for high-quality real estate is increasing due to the demographic and overall economic development in Germany – ongoing urbanization and growing metropolitan areas. Germany is experiencing a positive reversal in birth rates and other demographic factors. The birth rate rose from 1.39 to 1.50 per woman between 2011 and 2015. In addition, Germany has a persistent migration surplus, which can partially compensate for the demographic imbalance.

Commercial real estate, especially office space, is also in high demand due to record employment and the low unemployment rate, and is also benefiting from increasing purchasing power and high consumer spending. Logistic and warehouse real estate is crucial for growing businesses and therefore in high demand due to the increase in wholesale and retail trade. Below you will find an overview of the most important sectors of the German real estate market.

Residential real estate
The residential real estate market has recovered from the financial crisis and market stagnation in the years since 2009. Residential property construction projects have risen steadily in recent years, resulting in around 277,000 completed residential units in 2016. 2015 Residential real estate With a total investment of EUR 170 billion, 60% of the total construction volume in Germany went into construction. Despite a significant increase in building permits issued (375,400 permits issued in 2016) and a record level of completed projects, demand still significantly exceeds the volume of completed housing projects.

Future prospects call for applications for new building permits to increase to 272,000 units per year by 2020 and further slow down to 230,000 units per year by 2030. Meanwhile, the number of residential properties could increase to 380,000 units in the short term due to increased immigration.

However, the demand for residential real estate differs greatly from region to region. In some regions, the gap between demand and supply could close soon, especially in eastern Germany. In some regions, especially in prosperous metropolitan areas, the available housing units will remain very scarce.

Along with the insufficient supply, the asking rents have risen accordingly. In large cities in particular, the trend towards rising rents is quite dynamic. For example, the annual growth rate of residential rents in Germany has been around 1.7% since 2004. In the meantime, rents in Berlin and Munich have risen by 3.9% and 3.5% annually, respectively. Both cities recorded an annual growth in purchase prices of 6% in this real estate sector.

Office properties
Similar to residential real estate, the office real estate market is in good and forward-looking shape, mainly due to a positive migration balance and historically low unemployment rates. In 2016, around 3.9 million square meters of office space was let in the top 7 cities in Germany. This means growth of 12% compared to the previous period. A particularly dynamic development was observed in Frankfurt, Cologne and Stuttgart with growth rates between 25% and 48.4%. Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Munich and Berlin have meanwhile experienced a slowdown in take-up compared to previous years.

The overall office vacancy rate has declined due to several factors: dynamic demand, slow space expansion and high pre-letting rates. In the top 7 cities mentioned above, the vacancy rate fell by 0.7 percentage points to 4.9%. In the top 7 real estate locations in Germany, the top office rents are between EUR 21/m2 and EUR 37.50/m2 and offer attractive yield potential. This applies in particular to Berlin, where rents have increased by more than 17% compared to 2015 to EUR 28.7/m2. The highest office rents are currently being achieved in Frankfurt and Munich (EUR 37.50/m2 and EUR 35/m2 respectively).

Local investors retain the dominant market position, accounting for around 60% of all transaction activity in the office real estate market. Foreign investors now account for around two fifths (or EUR 20.9 billion) of the transaction volume.