AT THE airport the other day, I bumped into a banker employed by one of the world’s best-known financial institutions who told me he had been asked by a rapidly growing African company to join it and was on his way to sign the deal. The conglomerate needed someone with international credentials to help it “corporatise” its operations, he said.

The growth of African companies and multinationals north of the Limpopo is one of the most notable features of Africa’s changing fortunes. These new players are starting to shake things up with their successful exploitation of their home markets and growing regional footprint. The foundation of success is their local and continental knowledge, strong networks and high tolerance for risky operating environments.

Typically, these firms start out as small, family-owned concerns, seeing opportunity in the many market gaps around them. A number of them have taken their successful model across borders, developing regional and continental strategies to become household names in Africa — cellphone companies Safaricom, Glo and Econet, banking groups such as Ecobank and United Bank for Africa, and conglomerates such as the Dangote Group, which has interests in cement, sugar, telecommunications, oil and gas, property other industries.

Many others are almost unknown outside their immediate networks, despite sizeable assets and presence across multiple sectors. They include enterprises owned by well-connected, wealthy families that tend to operate below the radar, exploiting the thin grey line between business and politics. Presidential family businesses are not unusual. Take the Kenyattas of Kenya, for example, whose empire includes sizeable assets in agriculture, hotels, timber, property and finance. The Dos Santos family in Angola is another. There are many more, including one notable family much closer to home.

The rapid growth of the private sector in key African economies is the cumulative result of an era of market-driven reforms and economic freedom. The drivers of expansion partly mirror those of South Africa’s corporate expansion across the continent: a search for new markets as a result of pent-up capacity, increasing competition in local markets and natural ties with the region in an era of deepening regional integration. But they also highlight the existence of significant opportunities that locals can easily exploit by having a home-grown understanding of their potential markets and customers.

The growth of African economies is providing new opportunities, incomes are rising, new elites are becoming more demanding in their needs and economic reform is allowing companies to mushroom and become more competitive.

Opportunity is luring back experienced African businesspeople from western multinationals to build local companies as part of a new corporate nationalism not seen in Africa before. Expatriates are well placed to sell the African story from senior positions in international funds, investment banks and global companies. Their job has been made easier by a rising number of success stories.

Locally grown companies have become a target for private-equity companies looking for promising assets. The tendency for companies to be family-owned, often being run by a patriarch such as Aliko Dangote or Mike Adenuga of Glo, means that, as interest grows in competitive African assets, companies need outside help to move to the next level.

To be able to compete internationally, they are increasingly seeking assistance to attract professional managers from the international community and introduce international standards of corporate governance as they move into a world of global competitors and suppliers.

The number of mergers and acquisitions in Africa has risen sharply over the past few years, reflecting the increased desire for local assets from investors outside the region but also the improving number and quality of acquisition targets.

South African companies have picked up on this growing trend, picking up good assets in Nigeria, Kenya and other countries.

This trend is a key building block for “brand Africa”.

• Games is CE of Africa @ Work, a consulting company focusing on African business.