A Ticking Clock
The first generation of post-independence African entrepreneurs — those who built businesses in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s — is aging. Many are in their 60s and 70s. Their businesses, some of them among the largest employers in their countries, are approaching a moment of transition that most are wholly unprepared for.
Estimates of the aggregate value of family businesses facing succession in Africa over the next decade exceed $1 trillion. The majority have no formal succession plan.
Why African Family Businesses Are Different
Concentrated ownership. Most African family businesses are controlled by a single patriarch or matriarch with no independent governance structure. Decision-making authority is personal, not institutional. When the founder steps back, the business often cannot function.
Taboo conversations. In many African cultures, discussing succession is tantamount to wishing someone dead. This cultural barrier means the conversation often does not happen until it is forced by illness or death.
Multiple heirs, no framework. African families tend to be large. When a founder has children by multiple partners and no legal framework for ownership transfer, the death of the founder can trigger debilitating legal battles. Lawyers, not children, often inherit.
Founder-dependent relationships. Many businesses are built entirely on the founder's personal relationships with clients, suppliers, and government officials. These relationships rarely transfer automatically to heirs.
What Good Succession Looks Like
The businesses that navigate succession successfully share several features:
Early formalisation. The founder begins the process of institutionalising systems, processes, and relationships 10-15 years before expected transition. The business learns to run itself, not to run around its founder.
Independent governance. A board with credible independent members who can guide the transition, protect against family conflict, and hold management accountable.
Transparent communication with family. Heirs who understand the business, its finances, its obligations, and the plan for their role are far better prepared than those who learn about everything at the reading of a will.
Professional management layer. Hiring and retaining professional management that can operate the business independent of the founding family creates optionality — the family can stay involved or step back without either choice being fatal to the enterprise.
The Advisory Opportunity
For professionals in law, accounting, HR, and management consulting, succession planning for African family businesses is one of the largest untapped practice areas on the continent. The need exists everywhere. The supply of good advisors is thin. This is a business to build.
The founders who built Africa's great companies deserve to see those companies outlive them. With the right planning, they can.