The storm clouds are gathering. “It has been such a long expansion in the US,” says Souleymane Ba of African private-equity firm Helios Capital. “If that pops, it will hit everyone.” In the first nine months of 2018, global merger and acquisition activity hit feverish levels last seen on the eve of the 2008 financial crash.

You won’t have missed the nationalist mood engulfing big economies around the world: the US, Britain, Brazil, France and Germany are all stained by proto-fascists in and around power. Politicians in these countries talk of taking back control of borders; they are keen to identify those who should and should not receive state support.

The Boston Tea Party that led to US independence is a reminder that governments and companies should not underestimate consumers who have a political message to send. The same holds true in Africa today.

One in every five Africans is between the ages of 15 and 24 years old. That is a quarter of a billion young people who are coming of age. Much has been made of the lack of jobs on the continent, and nearly two-thirds of Africa’s unemployed are young people. Even in South Africa, one of the most sophisticated economies, 55% of youth do not have a job.

Nigeria, Algeria and South Africa all go to the polls in 2019. Together, they represent nearly half of Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP). We probably will not see a hat-trick of reformist governments emerge, but the trio illustrate three big, interrelated trends that will govern Africa’s macro­economic landscape in the coming year: governance, debt levels and the role of commodities.

An unexpected drag on the global economy in recent years is the increasing cost of software developers and coders. A developer can cost between $50 and $200 per hour’s work. Companies worldwide are real­ising they need to upgrade legacy computer systems to stay competitive, governments are building ever more massive data-management systems, consumers are spending more and more time and money on their smartphones.