In 2015, with a few friends, I tried a simple exercise: reading the continent’s challenges through Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The idea is well known. People feel a higher need only once the one below it is reasonably met: first survival (food, water, shelter), then security, then belonging, then esteem and finally self-fulfilment.
Where most people stand
Our rough reading at the time was that a large share of Africans were still working to meet the most basic needs. Only part of the population, essentially a growing middle class, had secured the first three levels. A much smaller group reached esteem and recognition, and a very small elite could focus on self-fulfilment.
Eleven years on, the picture has moved in places. Mobile phones and mobile money have reached people who never had a bank account. Several economies have grown fast; Benin has posted some of the strongest growth rates in West Africa in recent years. But inequality has not disappeared, and for many households the daily priority is still to eat, stay healthy and keep children in school.
Why this matters for anyone building a project
This is not a moral lecture; it is a market lesson. Many projects designed for Africa fail because they answer a need their target does not yet feel. A brilliant service for self-fulfilment will struggle if your audience is still solving for security.
Before you launch, ask yourself:
- Which need does my product or project actually serve?
- Is that the need of my target, ideally of the majority, or only of people like me?
- Is my solution designed for local realities, or copied from Europe or the United States?
- What would make it affordable, reliable and trusted here?
A minimum of balance
My conclusion in 2015 still holds. When we reach a minimum of balance ourselves, we have a responsibility to help others reach theirs, through the businesses we build, the jobs we create and the solutions we design. Not perfect equilibrium; a minimum of balance, for more people.
