“Africa’s population is growing so quickly, it has surprised a lot of investors”, according to Guinness Global Investors CIO Edmund Harriss.
The chief investment officer made these comments at the investment management firm’s conference in September.
However, the issues surrounding Africa, from an investment perspective is that the average age of someone living in the continent is 19.
Harriss said: “No one is spending a lot of money at 19.”
This is in stark comparison to Europe where the average age is 44.
Harriss does believe that Africa is still in its early stages but in 15 years, investment wise, it will “pick up”.
He is also head of Asian & Emerging Markets (EM) investments and said that in Asia, certain EM have transitioned to developed markets.
Numerous EM are located in Africa, such as Egypt, Ghana and South Africa.
Thus far, in 2025 the MSCI EM equity index is up 17.5% to the end of June.
At the same conference, former chancellor of the exchequer Sir Jeremy Hunt said both technology and defence are the best sectors in the UK to invest in.
He added that these two sectors will see a large amount of growth this century, with the UK holding a strong position in both.
Additionally, the UK has the biggest defence sector in Europe, Hunt said.
He also outlined that defence feeds into tech, a point he makes in his second published book ‘Can we be great again?’
Harriss has been working for Guinness since its very first day in 2003.
He has managed the Guinness Best of Asia strategy since 2003 and the Guinness Asian Equity Income strategy since its inception in 2006.
He is also an associate of the Society of Investment Professionals.
