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AITCO - 2020
The Fastest Growing Translation Market?
Africa International Translation Conference
Arusha, Tanzania
I am originally from New Zealand, but now live in Argentina.
I have a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Auckland (New Zealand) and have completed numerous post graduate courses in Argentina (Universidad Austral) and the USA (Harvard University).
I have spoken frequently at international events in the translation industry in Argentina, Germany, the USA and other countries at events such as the American Translators’ Association Annual Conference and the European Society for Technical Communication Annual Conference.
I am the President of Translation Back Office, a multilingual translation company with offices in Argentina, Peru, Thailand, the Ukraine and Vietnam.
So where are you all from?
How many countries do we have in the audience today and who has travelled the farthest?
Africa, some statistics:
Breakdown: 54 countries, 4 territories.
Population: 1,250,000 (2nd in the world), median age of 19-20 – expected to double by 2050.
Size: 30,370,000 km2 (larger than the USA, Canada and China combined).
Average GDP per capita: $1930.
Economic Growth: Fastest in the world.
Africa, language industry statistics:
How many languages are spoken in Africa?
Main Languages: Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, Swahili…
Multilingual Magazine subscribers:
Eqypt: 59.
South Africa: 12.
Cameroon: 4.
Kenya: 4.
Ethiopia: 1.
Morocco: 1.
Senegal: 1.
Globalization and Localization Association Members in Africa:
7 providers in Egypt.
2 providers in South Africa.
1 provider in Nigeria.
Plunet clients in Africa:
Egypt: 2.
South Africa: 1.
Africa: The Fastest Growing Translation Market?
Current research indicates that the translation industry is growing at a brisk pace of 10+% per year, amounting to just over $60 billion US dollars.
But just how much of this growth and this market share is attributable to Africa?
Not a single company Africa is in any international ranking of translation companies and not a single African language is in the top 20 languages.
MARKET ANALYSIS
My position is that the future is very bright for the translation ecosystem in Africa:
- Translators.
- Translation companies.
- Universities.
- Translator professional associations.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
Why?
Despite some sluggish countries, economic growth in Africa is the fastest on the planet.
Population growth is also the fastest in the world.
Expanding communities of African immigrants in Europe and especially the United States and Canada, are a driving force behind increased demand for African languages in those countries.
Europe and Africa at night
What is needed to capitalize on this opportunity?
Since Africa is growing at a faster pace than any other continent on the planet and is “coming to the party” when the translation industry is already technologically, academically and economically quite mature, the challenge now is do everything that other regions have done and more (!) and much faster (!).
FEATURES
What are the potential obstacles to growth?
It’s mostly about perceptions.
And I refer to perceptions and in some cases prejudices in other parts of the world, where clients are usually located, such as:
Will the quality be good?
Will the translators deliver on time?
Are the translators well trained in Africa?
These are the EXACT SAME PERCEPTIONS AND PREJUDICES that I faced when I started out translating from Latin America in 1999.
FEATURES
How can growth be achieved?
I refer specifically to the rapid adoption of modern “real life” practical oriented university programs for the translation industry, the proliferation of Computer Assisted Translation tools, the rise of Machine Translation Post Editing and working with international standards such as ISO 17100:2015.
A world of work awaits.
Charles Campbell
https://www.translationbackoffice.com
https://ar.linkedin.com/company/translation-back-office
recruitment@translationbackoffice.com
vm@translationbackoffice.com