This will average 18.8 per cent year-on-year, as spending in­creases to US$1.5 billion in 2029.

According to Fitch Solu­tions, this is due to largely rising stability of the cedi against the US dollar.

In 2025, the UK-based firm forecast the SSA region to spend US$14.8 billion on personal care products across 10 selected mar­kets (South Africa, Kenya, Ugan­da, Ghana, Namibia, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Botswana, Zambia and Gabon).

Despite not being the largest consumer market in terms of a purely demographic size, South Africa’s more developed econo­my and consumer market mean that it leads spending on personal care products, at US$4.7 billion in 2025.

East African markets, Ken­ya (US$4.5 billion) and Uganda (US$1 billion), are the next largest spenders in 2025, followed by Ghana at US$986.3 million.

For the region, spending growth over 2025 will come in at 4.1 per cent year-on-year, following a 4.8 per cent year-on-year contraction recorded in 2024. This was largely a result of exchange rate volatility.

Over its medium-term fore­cast period (2025-2029), Fitch Solutions projects personal care spending in SSA to grow at an average annual rate of 8.0 per cent year-on-year, taking total spending to US$20.9 billion by 2029.