International media organizations are dangerously distorting business narratives in Africa, according to a new report from Africa no filter and AKAS, an international audience strategy firm.

Published on Wednesday, the Business in Africa Narrative Report, said keywords, stories, frames and narratives associated with business on the continent are dangerously misrepresented.

These narratives hamper Africa’s future potential, according to the report.

Report author Richard Addy said, “This groundbreaking report offers a detailed analysis of the narrative data around doing business in Africa.”

“This rigorous research is important because narratives, settings and histories are the lenses through which we perceive and experience Africa. They inform beliefs, behaviors and ultimately dictate policy,” he said.

Research shows that 70% of business coverage in Africa refers to foreign powers, including China, the United States, Russia, France and the United Kingdom.

He added that negative references continue to dominate business coverage on the continent, with “corruption” being mentioned in almost 10% of stories about business in Africa.

Similarly, around 50% of stories about business in Africa in the global media only cover South Africa and Nigeria, crowding out business stars like Mauritius who are currently the highest ranked African country in the world. World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index, according to the report.

Other results show that women made up only 29% of protagonists in articles on the subject and 12% of experts or sources used, despite Africa having the fastest growth rate of women-led businesses. in the world.

The African Continental Free Trade Area is the largest free trade area in the world by number of participating countries, the report notes, but it accounts for “less than 1% of business news and analysis, while mentions of foreign direct investment fell from 3.2% in 2017 to an even lower coverage of 1.9% in 2021.”

Methodology

According to the researchers, the report has been compiled using eight research approaches to analyze frameworks including big data analysis, sentiment analysis, trend analysis, content analysis, link analysis, literature reviews, primary surveys, secondary survey analysis, index and social network survey. media analysis.

“The adoption of these approaches has seen the analysis of 750 million stories published between 2017 and 2021, on more than 6,000 African news sites and 183,000 sites outside the continent.”

“We wanted to understand why Africa is considered a high-risk business destination and why the cost of money is high,” said Moky Makura, executive director of Africa No Filter.

“The report gives us insight into why. It shows that business opportunities on the continent are both underrepresented and misrepresented, and now that we know that, we can work to educate the media and change the discourse around business in Africa,” he said. he adds.

“Silencing Creativity”

The report said Nollywood is the second largest film industry in the world, and music genres like AfroBeats and AmaPiano influence pop culture globally, but creative businesses have only been featured in 1% of all business news stories in African and global media.

Moreover, while 22% of Africa’s working-age population started new businesses between 2011 and 2016, the highest rate of any region in the world, African start-ups received reduced coverage, according to the report. research.

He added that youth and women are underrepresented in business stories, even though African countries claim the top three spots in the Mastercard index for the highest concentration of female business owners in the world.

The report says business information and analysis on gender equality issues has declined.

Furthermore, Africa also has the youngest population in the world, but “online media coverage of young people declined between 2017 and 2021” and “stories about African youth around the world are often framed by negative stereotypes , conjuring up images of inactivity, violence and criminality”.

The study revealed that issues of governance, politics and regulation still dominate the news.

For example, 54% of economic news in 2021 was framed by government action and policies. “Furthermore, African media have focused more on government-related themes than on entrepreneurship-related ones,”

“Yet, African countries account for six of the top 10 countries whose populations were most likely to research the topic of entrepreneurship in 2021,” the report said.