Rethinking Africa’s Place in Global PR Strategy

Mojisola Saka

For many years, Africa featured in global public relations strategy in a careful, sometimes cautious way. It was recognised as important, yet often approached indirectly. Included in plans, but frequently interpreted through external lenses. That positioning is gradually evolving.

Nigeria and the wider continent, the communications environment has become more visible, more interconnected, and more consequential. African businesses are expanding their reach. Global organisations are increasing their engagement with African markets. At the same time, public expectations around transparency, accountability, and social impact are rising.

In this context, communication is no longer just about delivering messages. It is about understanding environment, history, and perception. Nigeria illustrates this clearly. Its media landscape is diverse and influential. Public opinion is shaped not only by formal institutions, but also by civil society, community leaders and online conversations. Corporate actions are often evaluated through questions of trust and credibility, not simply performance. These dynamics require ongoing interpretation and local sensitivity.

Historically, many global PR strategies involving Africa were developed outside the continent, with execution managed locally. While this model offered efficiency, it sometimes struggled to reflect the nuances of African markets. Context was filtered, and assumptions occasionally travelled faster than understanding.

As Africa’s economic and political relevance grows, these limitations are becoming more apparent.

In response, global PR networks are beginning to reconsider how African expertise is integrated into their structures. Increasingly, independent African consultancies are being included not only to extend geographic reach, but to contribute insight at the strategic level.

Boucles Africa’s recent admission into the International Public Relations Network (IPRN) reflects this broader rethinking. For global networks, the value lies in closer proximity to local realities. For African firms, it represents an opportunity to help shape how global strategies are informed.

African agencies operate within the environments that define reputation on the continent. They observe how narratives emerge, how trust is built, and how social and cultural context influences perception. These insights are becoming more relevant as global conversations around governance, sustainability and geopolitical risk intersect more closely with African markets.

For network leadership and board-level decision makers, this moment calls for measured reflection. As organisations become more interconnected, the effectiveness of communication strategy increasingly depends on where insight is sourced and how authority is distributed. Strategies that are informed by lived context tend to be more resilient, more credible and better aligned with long-term risk management.

For Nigeria in particular, this shift carries strategic significance. As the country continues to play a leading role in Africa’s economic and cultural story, the way its narratives are understood, tested and communicated globally has implications for investor confidence, public trust and institutional reputation.

Africa may once have been treated as a peripheral consideration in global PR strategy. Today, it offers an opportunity for more grounded thinking about how trust is built, how risk is anticipated and how credibility is sustained across borders.

In an era of heightened scrutiny, the question for leadership is no longer whether Africa should shape global communication strategy, but whether global strategy can remain credible without it.

—Saka is the CEEO, Boucles Africa