Fueled by global sales of iPhones, Apple Corporation just recorded a record-breaking fiscal year, earning $1 billion a week in profit, MGAfrica reported.
Founded in a garage by Steve Wozniak and the late Steve Jobs, the company now has a $750-billion market valuation, making it perhaps the most valuable company in history.
MTN invested $870 million ahead of the launch of the iPhone 6S and iPhone S6 Plus in South Africa, CajNews reported in October.
Apple made $53.4 billion in profit for the year, surpassing oil giant Exxon Mobil’s previous record annual profit of $45.2 billion in 2008 — the largest annual corporate profit ever recorded.
Mail&Guardian Africa has attempted to provide some perspective by looking at Apple from an African perspective — by the numbers.
Source: MGAfrica, CajNews, WorldBank, Forbes
If Apple were an African country, it would be Africa’s 10th largest economy out of 54 countries in nominal GDP terms, based on annual profits. World Bank ranks Tanzania as the continent’s 10th-largest economy for 2015. The continent’s nine largest economies include Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, Algeria, Angola, Morocco, Sudan, Kenya and Ethiopia, MGAfrica reports.
Source: MGAfrica, WorldBank.
Apple has a $203 billion cash reserve. That’s about how much it would cost to pay for 427 light rail systems similar to the one that opened recently in Addis Abbaba, M&GAfrica reported. Ethiopia opened the first-ever light rail system in sub-Saharan Africa in September, built at a cost of $475 million. Apple could pay for about eight such rail systems for each African country, each with its own dedicated power grid.
Source: M&GAfrica
Total foreign direct investment into Africa in 2014 amounted to $87 billion, according to the Africa Investment Report. If Apple Corp. devoted all its 2015 profit to investing in Africa, the company would account for up to 60 cents of each dollar spent in FDI on the continent in 2014, M&GAfrica reported.
Source: M&GAfrica
If Apple split its $53.4 billion record-breaking profit equally between the continent’s estimated 1.16 billion people, each person would get $46.
Source: M&GAfrica
The international definition of extreme poverty is living on less than $1.25 a day. If each African spent $46 over 30 days, it would equal about $1.53 a day in income per person, theoretically ending extreme poverty on the continent for a month.
Source: M&GAfrica
Apple’s profits would pay all of Africa’s total annual debt repayments 2.5 times over. Countries in the continent spend at least $21 billion a year repaying local and foreign debts.
Source: M&GAfrica
Apple’s $750 billion total market capitalisation exceeds that of Africa’s 10 largest companies by 217 percent as of Dec. 31 2014. Some of these companies include Dangote Cement, MTN, mining giant BHP Billiton, and media company Naspers.
Source: M&GAfrica
The combined net worth of Africa’s 10 richest people is greater than Apple Corp’s annual profits, M&G reports. According to the 2015 Forbes rich list, the 10 richest Africans have a combined net worth of $59.6 billion.