In our latest report, Emerging Consumer Lifestyles in Africa, we took a detailed look at how much time pressure consumers were under across under. As a general rule, across world, when incomes rise then the pressure on consumers tends to go down – they work fewer hours, they have more conveniences in the home, and they have more control over their commutes to work.
For the majority of workers in African countries the high level of informal employment, relatively low productivity and low incomes all mean longer working hours than average workers in, for example, Europe or the US. The average worker in Egypt expects to put in 55 hours per week – nearly twenty more hours than his or her counterpart in Sweden.
Commuting adds to the pressure. There are some countries where commutes are still quite short, but in general African consumers spend twice as long getting to and from work than their counterparts in developed countries. The situation is getting worse, not better for many of them – their incomes may rise as they head to towns and cities to work, but the poor quality of infrastructure and public transport means more pain.
Another factor is how much women work. Here, the picture is less uniform. In Islamic countries far fewer women work. These are the exceptions. Across Africa, the majority of women work, and in some countries as many as nine out of ten women work. In fact, women bear the brunt of the work – not only earning money, but collecting water and firewood, looking after children, cooking. The story of productivity and free time is primarily one about productivity and free time for women.
Improved productivity will bring huge lifestyle changes for African consumers… eventually. But it is a long road ahead for the vast majority of Africans. When we looked at the data we found consumers in Mauritius had the most time. But the country where consumers had it hardest was… Tanzania.
