Africa’s Workforce Will Enhance Automakers’ Profitability, says Edward T. Hightower’s Book “Motoring Africa”

The veteran auto executive’s book explains how global business leaders can benefit from Africa’s doubling population.

In his new book, “Motoring Africa: Sustainable Automotive Industrialization – Building Entrepreneurs, Creating Jobs and Driving the World’s Next Economic Miracle,” Edward T. Hightower, former vehicle line executive chief engineer, reveals how global business leaders can benefit from Africa’s doubling population, soon the world’s largest workforce, by building factories and manufacturing cars across the continent. Automotive CEOs looking for profitable growth and cost-effective new market access and heads of state in Africa looking to encourage investment and create jobs will find “Motoring Africa” to be a comprehensive roadmap.

China’s growth serves as a model for shaping Africa’s manufacturing future, according to Hightower. From 1990 to 2015, China’s automotive industrialization period, the country went from manufacturing 500,000 cars to more than 25 million cars annually. China’s GDP increased nearly 30-fold during this 25-year period. “Motoring Africa” posits that investing in the manufacture of complex products that require technical and industrial skills, such as automobiles, in six selected African countries, is the most viable way to serve these markets, while creating vast opportunities for entrepreneurs, investors and job seekers.

The auto industry creates more jobs than almost any other industry, including technology. Industrialization creates the conditions for efficient and profitable local manufacturing. Sustainable industrialization creates these conditions while maximizing the positive impact on communities and minimizing negative environmental impact. Sustainably industrializing automotive production also gives rise to a multiplier effect on jobs. To build an automobile, some 30,000 complex parts must each be designed, engineered and manufactured, in part by individual suppliers, creating more opportunities for business owners and workers. As an added benefit, skills developed for the auto sector can be applied to other less complex consumer and industrial products.

“Motoring Africa” is a forward-looking and actionable business book written from Hightower’s perspective and decades of auto industry experience. Hightower, who served as a global engineering and business leader at GM, BMW and Ford, has led automakers to success in China, India, South Korea, Mexico and Brazil, and witnessed and contributed to the positive transformational impact of automotive industrialization on these nations. Hightower is managing director of Motoring Ventures LLC, a private capital investment and operations advisory firm.

“Motoring Africa” is published by FastPencil Publishing.

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