“The more money you have, the less happiness it buys you, and slow economic growth feels worse than actually being poor”
“THE rich are always complaining,” goes a Zulu proverb, and a new report by Deloitte seems to confirm this “law of diminishing returns”– young consumers in faster-growing (but relatively poorer in per capita terms) Nigeria and Kenya are more optimistic about their personal financial situation and that of their country, than the relatively richer South Africa and Egypt.
The survey interviewed 2,000 young people in the four countries to gauge consumer attitudes on brands, fashion and spending behaviour, and it turns out that young people in the four countries have very distinct attitudes towards money and the happiness it can buy.
Counter-intuitively, it also seems the richer a country is, the less swayed young people are by the latest fashion brands, and the more frugal and financially prudent they tend to become.
Africa’s consumer markets have become the darling of international investors everywhere – Africa is a “priority” market for investment in the next 12 months, say European consumer businesses in the report, and is expected to become the biggest market for investment by 2017, behind the EU itself.
Looking at the four countries, Kenya has the lowest per capita income at the moment by purchasing power parity at $2,180, Nigeria is second at $5,120, Egypt is at $10,600, and South Africa is the richest, at $11,970.
But Kenyan youth, it seems, are the most image-conscious, consumerist and “shallow” of them all, who even run the risk of falling into debt just to keep up with the latest trends, with one in three saying that “buying well known brands makes me feel good” – at 32%, the highest of the four countries surveyed.
They also report the highest percentage agreeing with the statement “I would spend a bit extra to keep up with the latest fashion”, at 25%.
But only 21% say they can afford the latest gadgets in the first place.
The “nouveau-riche” effect
Despite having the lowest per-capita income of the four, Kenyan young people gain the greatest emotional rewards from buying fancy international brands.
