Unofficial estimates put East Africa's combined population at about 97 million, with both Rwanda and Burundi reigning as Africa's most densely populated states.

Demographic forecasters give varying, but doubly shocking, statistics of East Africa's demographics by 2050, some 42 years to come.

Uganda alone will have a population of about 137 million people, with a top end of 150 million, while most conservative estimates by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) put it at 103 million people, a figure by all arguments it could not fall below.

Ethiopia, coming in at 187 million, in fact getting to the top 10 most populous countries in the world. The DRC pushing 183 million. Kenya will only boast some 87 million, a paltry number in relative terms. Somalia's is not fully estimated, but it currently has one of the fastest growth rates in the world.

In short, this region will be teeming with human beings fairly soon enough to make India and China go back to the drawing board. What are the economic implications of such an explosive soaring in human numbers?

Some are positive, some negative. First, the positive. Clearly, a vast and deep regional market will emerge making certain economic prospects look tantalising. A profound hinterland for consumer products manufacturers and agro-processors.

With millions more bodies to clean, mouths to cleanse, hair to keep and skins to shine this sounds like a long term bonanza for the consumer behemoths of East Africa. The Bidcos, Mukwanos, Unilevers, Sara Lees, and Kapa Oils have it all to themselves to parcel out and lay out the parties. But that is not to say the field is all stitched up.

The burgeoning size and sunny prospects will no doubt catch the eyes of major world players, Proctor and Gamble no less.

What with the massive millions of stomachs to be filled twice or thrice everyday?

Cargill, Monsanto and Parmalat where are you? Indeed, milk processors and grain handlers have a chance to gain global scale and technologies right here without going anywhere. Baby products manufacturers dig in, there are many new cuddly customers coming.

Broad and profound opportunities for providers of consumer finance. Credit cards and microfinance products businesses should have no reason not to smile especially as more informal sectors get formalised into the money economy.

Just a small chunk of the coming demographic hinterland will consistently ensure a compounding of sales and profits for a long time coming. A wider tax base and greater justification for extensive infrastructural investments.

Governments will have more heads to tax, more consumption tax sources and more corporates to tax. By the same breath, they will have a more compelling case for ambitious long term infrastructural developments instrumental to accelerated economic growth backed by the growing number of users as well as growing numbers of taxpayers on whose shoulders the ultimate funding burden lies.

Some negatives too. It will result in intensified pressure on land and fresh water resources, exacerbating the environmental complexity already afflicting the region.

Naturally, rural East Africa will be a major casualty as plots of lands get parcelled into even tinier, uneconomic lots; more vegetation cleared to give way to new settlements and more water drawn from rivers and wells and an inexorable encroachment on catchments areas.

The remnant of standing trees will come down to fire boiling pots in many a rural hat and hamlet. The environment and its ability to hold life together will be severely undermined.

In closing, these hard realities pose an urgent challenge to governments in the region. How prepared are they for this? Will hospitals cater to the new numbers?

Most importantly, will there be jobs for the new adults, or will society feel secure from the numerous millions unemployed being churned out of our schools 10 times faster than we can have them engaged gainfully?