African’s new middle class faces a high cost of living, precarious employment and vulnerability to shocks, according to an economist in a FinancialTimes report.

There is agreement that rising inequality is playing a significant role in keeping large chunks of the middle class fragile while boosting the richest of the rich, the report said.

Individual members of Africa’s middle class could easily revert to poverty — for example because of a death in the family — said Mthuli Ncube, chief economist at the African Development Bank. A move into Africa’s new middle class is not one way, “it is a revolving door,” Ncube said.

Millions of people in emerging markets have moved from poverty into the consuming class over the past 30 years. But with slowing growth, their fates are now one of the biggest challenges confronting governments, the report said.

Africa’s middle class, which numbered 115 million in 1980, has grown to 326 million in the past 35 years, AfDB estimates. But less than 14 percent – about 44 million – are secure in that status, earning $10-to-$20 a day.

The lower middle class earns $4-to-$10 a day. The rest conform to what the AfDB calls the “floating class,” bringing home $2-to-$4 a day and barely living barely above the poverty line.

Despite the rapid growth, Africa still has the smallest middle class as a share of total population of all emerging regions. According to the AfDB, the middle class accounts for 33 percent of the population compared with 56 percent in developing Asia and 77 percent in Latin America.

In Africa, rising inequality is slowing the number of poor from moving into the ranks of the middle class, FinancialTimes reports. While economic growth in the continent has averaged nearly 6 percent over the past decade, the upper middle class – those earning $10-$20 per day – has grown at a rate of less than 2 percent.

Nevertheless, Africa’s growing middle-class consumers are why retailers such as Shoprite now has more than 150 stores in 16 African countries outside South Africa. For many multinationals and local entrepreneurs, African families emerging from poverty and into the consuming middle class represent one of the biggest opportunities in global business.

Companies want to sell to them and build shopping habits now for the decades of growth ahead. It’s a model that worked successfully in other emerging economies from
Thailand to Colombia.

The template has an added advantage in Africa, according to the consultancy Deloitte. In a Deloitte report titled “The Rise and Rise of the African Middle Class,” it notes the continent’s disproportionately young population – more than 60 percent of Africans
are under the age of 25.

“There is, therefore, a guaranteed consumer base for years to come,” Deloitte said.

Until now, the model worked well. Economic growth and improved governance in many countries – supported by high commodities prices – heralded a new chapter for the continent.

A new wave of consumerism emerged. For example, Shoprite sold more cans of the Red Bull energy drink in five shops in Angola in 2013 than in all its 382 outlets in South Africa.

But after a decade of strong growth and huge investments, the “Africa Rising” theme is starting to wear thin. Some consumer goods companies are beginning to sound more cautious. In Nigeria, the most recent results for Unilever, the maker of Flora margarine and Dove shampoo, and Nestlé, the world’s largest food group by sales, showed a significant slowdown in turnover and profit.

Industry executives and officials give different reasons for the recent downward trend. Explanations include so-called jobless growth — sectors generating little employment, such as natural resources — growing competition and higher costs.

“If you talk to the $2-to-$10-a-day middle class, it is like there is an economic crisis – but meanwhile, the economy is booming,” says Andrew Alli, CEO of Lagos-based lender Africa Finance Corp. “I think inequality is the answer.”

As Yvonne Ike, an emerging markets specialist and CEO for West Africa at Renaissance Capital, said, “Sexy economic growth numbers do not directly translate into real economic development.”