Illegal employment instead of billions in development aid? A black market economy as a means of fighting poverty? Leading scientists and business authors claim it can work. The film explores this theory and analyses the possibilities and the limits involved in what is a surprising idea. The conclusion it reaches? Black markets are a successful means of combating poverty and are developing into a booming mini-economy in their own right. This is what is happening right now all over the African continent. The "Lion" is waking up, just as the "tiger states" of Southeast Asia did a few years ago. The dark continent has skipped the Industrial Revolution and is now ushering in the digital one instead - and triggering an African boom over the next ten years, with new sales markets for hundreds of millions of African customers and entrepreneurs. And it's all happening right now - in the colourful and crazy black markets of Africa.
Investigative reporter, Robert Neuwirth is the film's main protagonist. He takes the viewers by the hand and leads them into the black economies of the world's poor states. Citing Nigeria, Congo and South Africa as examples, Neuwirth shows how the shadow economies there function, the unwritten rules they have to follow, and the sophistication of the people who live within them. But Neuwirth goes even farther. The camera is present when Neuwirth meets black marketeers, experiences the way in which they do business, and studies their behaviour. The viewers are plunged into the exotic world of a life within System D - what it is like to work there, earn money and plan for one's future - and they also realize the huge opportunities these countries represent for the industrialised West. A sales market of one billion people, forty percent of them below 15 years of age. A vast number of new, experience-hungry consumers - who are also buyers at the same time.