Welcome to Green Rising – Africa’s green economy has grown from tiny startups and nimble innovators. 

For many years, sustainable business on the continent was mostly the work of midgets, tinkerers and enthusiasts that called themselves visionaries. 

They ran crammed booths at the back of convention centres during climate conferences – their abilities flagrantly lagging the size of the problems they aimed to solve. 

Recall the first solar home systems in Africa, the early prototypes of electric bikes, the wonder of seeing a mini-grid in the wild. 

This is how most observers knew the green economy. Wags posited it was the “business of the future, and always will be”. 

Foreign investors came on enterprise safaris, benignly listening to green executives they would have ignored at home as irrelevant, in between stays at luxury camps to see actual wildlife. 

A shipping container with a solar panel on top! And it has the internet! And it’s helping children in Africa! Cute! 

This picture is from 2014. Fast forward to now. Green projects powered by marketing budgets rather than market needs are still common. 

Yet, the landscape has shifted around them — dramatically. 

We’ve written about the startups that are grown up now, having become sophisticated multi-country operators. We recently shed light on African companies defying a trend of local businesses remaining stuck at small scale. 

But an aspect often overlooked – change being incremental – is the growing role of foreign multinationals in Africa’s green economy. 

It’s not as if Volvo and GE weren’t already on the continent. They arrived decades ago. 

But what they do here has evolved over time and with limited awareness. Plus, there are plenty of new arrivals from Big Green Industry in China, Europe, etc

Some of the world's biggest, hairiest industrial beasts are inching their way into Africa’s green economy: 

• Ford chose South Africa as its global starting point to produce a hybrid version of its iconic Ranger truck. 

• The globe’s largest EV maker, BYD of China, has opened showrooms in more than a dozen African nations. 

• Battery giant Gotion is investing $6.4 billion in a Moroccan gigafactory.

Traditional energy companies are flocking to opportunities in Africa’s nascent “green hydrogen” sector. Siemens, BP and Total are investing in cutting-edge production facilities, using renewables to create industrial exports. 

They are joined by Arab energy investors with a global footprint. ACWA Power invested $7 billion in renewable energy and water projects across Africa. Masdar has committed $10 billion to develop 10 gigawatts of installed renewables capacity on the continent by 2030. 

The environmental benefits of Bigfoot roaming among African solar farms and electric vehicle factories is obvious. 

So should be the economic benefits. Prosperity in developing nations has often been tied to the arrival of foreign corporate behemoths. Why?

• They have unrivalled access to capital. Europeans account for over 60% of African green bond issuance by value.

• Multinationals also create a disproportionate number of green jobs. Gotion’s Moroccan battery plant will employ 25,000.

There are downsides too. 

• Foreign giants can have outsized power in weakly governed nations. Local officials are rarely a match for armies of foreign lawyers.

• Decision-making is guided by global, not local considerations. Chinese EVs flood into Africa due to rising tariffs elsewhere. But will that last? 

• Profits rarely stay on the continent. Shareholders naturally prefer to repatriate gains.

How can Africa get the best out of Bigfoot?

The list of things needed to attract foreign multinationals is long – and well known. It’s not so different from what locals need: Sound regulation, infrastructure, blah blah. 

The same goes for coping with the downsides. Insist on technology transfers. Make production local. Strengthen governance systems. Etc etc. 

But there is one thing that matters disproportionately to foreign multinationals. Borders. Bigfoot hates them. 

A continent with 1.4 billion people may be a good market. But add in 55 country borders and it looks a lot less attractive. 

The green economy – having grown up some – now joins the club of supporters for a single market in Africa. Bigfoot needs scale. 

Number of the week 

… of African banks have tailored environmental and social (E&S) policies specific to high-risk sectors like mining, agriculture or energy, while 72% of banks mention sustainability as a strategy.

Network corner

Top green jobs from…

• Conservation International: Policy director (South Africa)

• Burn Manufacturing: HOD - Global Sales (Kenya)

• Koko Networks: Head of Operations (Rwanda)

• One Acre Fund: People Division Lead (Burundi)

• Shift EV: Drivetrain Engineering Manager (Egypt)

• M-Kopa: Backend Engineering Team Lead (Ghana)

• Powergen: International Supply Chain Manager (Nigeria)

• Water Mission: West Nile Regional Manager (Uganda)

• ARC Power: Distribution Manager (Mozambique)

• Int’l Food Policy Research Institute: Field Coordinator (Zambia)