Ever woken up with a great idea that would make you lots of money? Then, assuming that it’s not the right time, you push it aside and before you know it, someone else beats you to it. This was almost the case with Maya Whitehead’s Cash Cloud.
Whitehead was born in Bulgaria and lived in 22 countries before she moved to South Africa. She was frustrated that she couldn’t open a bank account, and her unexpected divorce made things much harder.
“I have been here for 16 years and for the first 10 I didn’t have anything—no bank accounts and no ID book, so it was very hard… You can’t even get a job because people don’t want to pay you cash.”
Whitehead thought about leaving the country, but instead of running away from the problem she found a solution. There were many others who struggled to secure a bank account; among them the blacklisted, foreigners and those who were turned away from the banks.
“People will have an alternative because the system is very strict. I mean, you make one small mistake and that’s it, it’s over for you. You can’t take out a cellphone [contract], you can’t open an account, you can’t do anything. And it takes you years to clear that up and it’s always against your name, it’s like you’ve been to jail.”
With an idea in mind, the next step was how. Then the smartphone application Instagram came into the picture—Whitehead was intrigued and confused.
“I was talking to my brother and said maybe it’s a way they will allow us to move money faster. We were shocked. Someone had stolen my idea and we had to go check it out.”
Whitehead was relieved to find that Instagram was not an inexpensive banking business but a photography and video sharing website and smartphone app.
“I thought, ‘Oh Instagram, maybe somebody made something where you instantly move money’. Because I was thinking of MoneyGram&#8230; that’s what I was using the entire time,” laughs Whitehead.
It was a moment that turned her dream into reality. Along the way she encountered a few doubting Thomases, along with legislation and red tape.
“The problem with me is when someone tells me that no there’s no way, then I have to go prove them wrong.”
With a background in the food industry, Whitehead knew she didn’t have the skills to execute the business and that’s when she called on her professional contacts.
Cash Cloud launched in April and with backing from Absa, Visa and Nedbank. It set out to give the banking giants a run for their money, with a particular focus on those who have never received a letter that started with “Dear Valued Customer”.
With no formal marketing strategy, the company makes use of Facebook and local agents.
“The strategy is to be close to the people and utilize relations. Our field agents live where they sell… We targeted the township areas and medium businesses with existing relations. It was very important for the agents to communicate to the customers in their language.”
Cash Cloud’s clients range from a biscuit factory in Soweto, to a limousine company in Sandton and a vegetable shop in Fourways.
With its corporate package, the company is a major benefit to industries where employers pay employees cash in hand. For many people it is a risk to carry cash. The corporate package allows the employer to pay its employees through Cash Cloud.
Whitehead often has to explain to her clients how to operate an ATM.
“Some people haven’t had bank cards before and that’s nothing to be ashamed of. Our business is 80% education and 20% the rest, because people need to know what they are paying for.”
Whitehead believes that this banking system was a long time coming. She feels that she got lucky because she was at the right place at the right time, which was combined with the frustration she experienced in not having an account.
“I haven’t been conditioned to the point which other people have been, in believing that such things are impossible. I was exposed to outside influences, saw similar processes in Europe. And through asking questions I realized that this was possible.”
With the first phase of Cash Cloud—the debit card—underway, the second phase—an online banking and mobile application—launched at the end of July. Whitehead is most excited about the third phase of the company—the money transfer system—which will be in full swing by the end of the year.
The lucrative money transfer system will operate in six countries: Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Tanzania, Botswana and South Africa.
Whitehead hopes to go into car finance, lending solutions and cellphone contracts, based on the same principle and by targeting the same customers.
At the time of writing, Cash Cloud had sold 26,000 cards.
Not bad for a company that has only been in operation since April.
Whitehead often finds it hard to believe how she even got here. She thought that she was going to be a doctor, then dabbled in the hospitality industry and has a range of health foods, called Skinny Foods.
When she is not busy with Cash Cloud you will find Whitehead sitting under an umbrella in the sun with a big smile on her face at one of her five restaurants. As the cloud appears, blocking the sun’s rays, she smiles. Then comes the rain and a tumble of cash.

Send Your Blacklisted  And Foreigners

It is a hot day in Lagos when we talk and yet you can feel the chill when Eryca Freemantle tells you of her worst day that left her body crushed and mind shattered. It was very cold on that day; December 14, 1990, in Brixton, London. A raw wind gnawed into Freemantle’s cheek as she tried to keep warm at the pay window of a busy petrol station. She knew how cold the streets of the capital could be as she was born in London of parents who emigrated from Jamaica in the 1950s.
“I was putting petrol in my car. I walked over to the kiosk to pay for the petrol and a lady came in with a Volvo Estate car and instead of putting her foot on the brake, she put her foot on the accelerator and made me into a human sandwich between the kiosk and her car,” says Freemantle.
“The glass from the kiosk shattered across my face. My body went into shock, my hair fell out there and then and my left leg was broken in five places.”
By cruel, or as it turned out, fortuitous coincidence, Freemantle’s father was near where his daughter lay in agony.
“My dad happened to be across the road in the pub, the Angel in Brixton, having a pint and he came out because there was a crowd around me. Someone had said to him: ‘A woman has just got run over at the petrol station. He had turned around to say: ‘Stupid. How can anyone get run over at a petrol station?’ At the same time, his left leg started twitching, he told me later.”
When the cold realization set in, Freemantle senior was beside himself with grief.
“He went over to have a look and saw me lying on the ground. He went into shock and started screaming. Everyone kept on saying ‘She’s dead, she’s dead!’ And he said: ‘God, why have you taken my only daughter?’ and in my semiconscious state, I could hear him. My father and I were very close and I remember thinking I don’t want to upset daddy, I have to get through this.”
Within minutes the ambulance came to take Freemantle away.
“My hair was on the ground and my dad had picked it up and put it in his pocket. He followed the ambulance to the hospital in my car. I was taken to the King’s College Hospital in South London, where they informed my mother. She was told they’d have to amputate my left leg. My dad said: ‘No way, before you amputate her leg, you will have to cut mine off.”
Freemantle spent months in hospital, luckily the surgeons did not amputate and she was left to heal. On release, she underwent physiotherapy every day for two years as she learned to walk again.
“I was also told I would also have a crooked walk,” she says.
Doctors told Freemantle her hair would never grow back again. For a while, the scars meant she had to cover her face. It was then that the demons of her traumatic childhood, at a tough London school, crawled from her subconscious and bared their teeth.
“I had been called ugly while I was at school and had always been teased about my looks. So, when this accident happened to me later, I took that as confirmation of all the things I had been called by the bullies at school,” she says.
Freemantle’s parents could not get her out of the house for nearly two years. Her scars held her prisoner.
“Now, this was the early 1990s, when there was no make-up for women of color and what was available was Derma-blend. I however went out and got some mud which I mixed with some water and put all over my face to cover my scars—that was my first ever encounter with make-up. Of course, that only lasts for so long but that gave me a bit of confidence, even if it was only for five minutes,” she says.
“My parents noticed  my new interest and thought it might be a good idea to send me to a make-up school, which was an idea that was frowned upon back then, in the West Indian culture, as you’d rather become a doctor or an accountant.”
Freemantle went to college to learn the trade and passed with distinction. She completed teachers’ training and the next thing she knew she was writing make-up classes for London College of Fashion. Her courses were endorsed by the British Association of Beauty Therapy and Cosmetology.
One day, the newly qualified Freemantle was invited by a friend, who was a model, on one of her photo shoots.
“When I got there, I immediately knew I could do a better job than the person who was working on her. I ended up doing her make-up and there was someone there from Island Records, who engaged me on the strength of my work at the shoot. Before I knew it, in a week’s time, I was doing celebrity make-up for names like Seal and Soul to Soul, Loose Ends. Whitney Houston would come into London a lot and I assisted her make-up artist,” says Freemantle.
“Seal was lovely, he used to wear his hair on his face because he used to have locks. He’s a very intelligent man, who was ahead of his time. I understood why they asked me to do his make-up, as he also had some scarring on his face.”
A pharmaceutical company, which had heard Freemantle’s story, approached her to create a make-up range. She said she would get involved only if it was a range for women of color. That is how Keromask was born.
Nearly a quarter of a century after the crushing accident that changed her life, Freemantle is in Lagos setting her sights on the world’s great emerging markets in Africa.
“There are many brands that are afraid to enter the market as they don’t know anyone on the ground… Africa is huge and many brands are looking to come in here presently. I see the biggest markets for make-up in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa,” she says.
“Training is the way forward. In Lagos there are 500,000 make-up artists. A high proportion of them are not trained or are self- trained. So, there is scope for certification and international recognition.”
Anyone with the courage to claw their way back from being a shattered heap on the cold stone floor of a London petrol station is surely worth listening to.

Bloodied, Scarred And Unbowed

Annual meetings of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Africa’s premier financial institution, are no longer what they used to be. While Africa remains the world’s poorest continent, the narrative and attention it receives has changed in the past decade. And nowhere is this more visible than in the conversations at the annual meetings of the AfDB, rated AAA by all the major rating agencies—Standard &amp; Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch. 
In Marrakesh, Morocco, this year, a record 3,000 delegates showed up, ranging from the owners of the bank—the finance ministers of the 53 African countries—to non-governmental organizations and the ubiquitous consultants from around the world. Africa’s newest country, South Sudan, is not yet a member. 
The mood was buoyant, as befitting a continent that is growing faster than any other. The bank forecasts economic expansion across Africa will average 4.8% this year and climb to 5.3% next year. If you exclude South Africa, the continent’s largest economy, the advance tops 7% at a time when most of Europe is in recession, the United States is battling anemic growth at around 2% and the Chinese locomotive is slowing. 
“Now is the time. After 10 years of improved stability, sound macroeconomic policies and blossoming trade links, growth has made African nations freer than ever to choose their own development paths and implement active policies for economic transformation,” says the bank’s vice president and chief economist Mthuli Ncube. 
This is a far cry from the doom and gloom of the two decades ending in the 1990s, when the London-based Economist published its now infamous `Hopeless Continent’ cover, which to be fair, was recanted years later. 
According to the International Monetary Fund, seven of the 10 fastest-growing economies are African—Mozambique, Zambia, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ghana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania. Growth has been broad-based, with 27 of the region’s 30 largest economies expanding since 2000. Mckinsey &amp; Co. notes that Africa already has a bigger middle class than India. 
While some suggest this is due to China’s resurgence, there is little doubt that painful economic and political reforms carried out in the 1990s and Africa’s new leaders are responsible. 
The private sector believes in the reforms and sustainability of the continent’s new growth path and is, in many instances, outpacing government initiatives through investments on the ground. Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, is pouring $7.5 billion in his businesses in the next four years. 
Acha Leke, a director at Mckinsey &amp; Co. in Johannesburg, says that Africa has gone from battling to generate growth, to the challenge of how to improve the quality of jobs and ensure that the rising tide carries all boats. 
This was reflected at this year’s meeting, the theme of which was Africa’s Structural Transformation; it aimed to ensure that future growth is equitable and sustainable. While economic expansion has lifted some people out of poverty, the majority of Africans remain desperately poor, according to AfDB. 
“Structural transformation is about improving the quality of African growth by diversifying the sources of that growth, and expanding economic opportunities for all. In many ways it is about turning natural wealth into created wealth,” says AfDB president Donald Kaberuka. 
The governors, economists and other delegates addressed how to use wisely the continent’s vast natural resources; how Africa’s cities of the future might look and strategies to take advantage of the world’s youngest population. 
To ensure the current economic growth is sustained, the AfDB approved a 10-year strategy, built on infrastructure development, regional economic integration, private sector development, skills, technology and improved governance and accountability. 
“The strategy reaffirms the bank’s strategic choices around infrastructure, economic integration and the private sector. It charts the way towards inclusive growth that spans age, gender and geography,” says Kaberuka, who is in his second and final term. 
The 2013 meetings were also notable for the launch of the bank’s Africa50 fund. It will address Africa’s infrastructure funding gap, which is estimated at more than $50 billion annually. 
Africa’s positive economic outlook is set to further improve, especially with new mineral discoveries. But some warn that Africa must guard itself against the Dutch disease, a conflict fuelled by the fight for resources, which would set it back and dash both Kaberuka and Ncube’s dreams of making Africa the new workshop of the world.

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The house in Mbalenhle Avenue, Secunda, in Mpumalanga, is a monument to May Mahlangu’s maternal grandmother, Joanna. She brought up the football star and his younger brother, Bafana, after they were orphaned.
“It was a tough time, and it builds your character. There is no one to look up to—no mother or father to advise you. My grandmother was there to inspire us. She told us that nothing comes easy. You have to work very hard to be successful,” says Mahlangu.
Mahlangu built the house for his grandmother after glory at the Africa Cup of Nations in January.
In this tournament, Mahlangu grew into one of Africa’s most exciting attacking midfielders since Steven Pienaar. His equalizer against Morocco ensured his country safe passage to the quarter-finals.
“I dedicated that goal to her and I am happy she saw me scoring that goal. She raised me from an early age and I would not be here if it were not for her. She also allowed me to join Remember FC in Secunda, at age 12, and Stars of Africa Football Academy at 15. I owe her my life as a professional soccer player,” says Mahlangu.
Teko Modise was another pivotal figure in Mahlangu’s life; he inspired Mahlangu to pursue football professionally.
“I always watched him, while he played for Orlando Pirates, Sundowns and Bafana. He was my childhood hero,” says Mahlangu.
For the past two seasons, Mahlangu, a Bafana Bafana midfielder, has been linked with several top European clubs, but his Swedish side Helsingborg IF has managed to hold on to him. The 2011 Swedish Player of the Year has been a revelation for South Africa during the past six months.
Gavin Hunt, former coach of SuperSport United, considers him and Dean Furman to be the best midfield-combination for the national team.
Boebie Solomons—a former Bafana Bafana under 20 coach and current assistant coach at Bloemfontein Celtic—agrees.
“May and Dean have been the biggest difference between the current Bafana Bafana team and the national group under its predecessor Pitso Mosimane. Take those two players away, and we are back at square one.”
David Nyathi, current under 19 coach at Ajax Cape Town and former Bafana Bafana stalwart, adds  Reneilwe Letsholonyane to the mix, calling the three midfielders: “a pleasing triangle”.
Farouk Khan, director of the Stars of Africa Football Academy, says Furman plays the defensive role as midfielder, while Mahlangu is the offensive spark, with Letsholonyane excelling as distributor and organizer.
Khan saw Mahlangu evolve at the academy, when the young 15-year-old player joined. Mahlangu’s speed and endurance made him the best amongst the academy’s intake at the time.
“His bleep test [or 20 meter shuttle run test to estimate an athlete’s maximum oxygen intake] was a 16 or 17,” says Khan.
Solomons says Mahlangu’s awareness and vision separate him from the rest.
“He has the ability to determine, almost immediately, when he receives the ball, whether to counterattack and initiate a speedy build-up with turn over possession to release the strikers, or not. He can keep the ball glued to his feet while looking up, almost like a Zinedine Zidane. May is a three-in-one player: an initiator, a participator and a finisher,” he says.
Mahlangu must still improve his final pass, according to Hunt.
Lucas Radebe, former Bafana Bafana captain, says that Mahlangu is not a total player until he improves the defensive side of the game.
No player becomes a part of the elite without pain and some luck. Mahlangu has to survive setbacks and injuries for years if he is to become one of the greats.
“What impressed me about May, is his character. He is a born leader, with no fear of failure, with self-belief, confidence and a coachable spirit. He is the epitome of a complete modern-day footballer,” says Khan.
Mahlangu has already overcome tragedy and poverty—surely he can take anything life throws at him.

MAY TALENT TRIUMPH

Borussia Dortmund and FC Bayern Munich—these two German Bundesliga clubs surprised many by making it an all-German final at the UEFA Champions League at Wembley in May.
Bayern has reached the final three times in four years. On the other side of the coin, Dortmund embodies the change in Germany that is making this footballing nation great again.
With a little help from the directors of Dortmund’s youth team, manager Jürgen Klopp has hand-crafted a great team. Dortmund have shown that with the right people in place, sustainable success is possible. Klopp has nurtured rising talent, showing that spending lots of money is not the be-all and end-all of professional football.
The youth academy of FC Barcelona, La Masia, has more than 300 young players. It has been praised, since it opened in 2002, for being one of the best in the world. La Masia has been cited as a factor, not only in FC Barcelona’s European success, but also in Spain winning the FIFA World Cup in 2010. It trained all three finalists for the Ballon d’Or award in the same year: Andrés Iniesta; Lionel Messi and Xavi Hernández. The club scouted Messi in Argentina and signed him when he was 13.
The question of how clubs in Africa can do the same is a complex one. African players are sought-after. Every year, they sign for clubs in England, Spain, Italy and Germany.
African players are prized for their flair and physical attributes, but have been criticized in the past, in a broad generalization, that they do not possess the technique of players from Europe. That is something that can be taught, but the general feeling is that it should be done from an early age.
It is for that reason that many European clubs now have some sort of academy set-up in Africa; be it their own facility, or in partnership with an African club. This allows them to uncover gems from the age of six and nurture them through their teens with a view to transfer them to a European academy at the age of 16.
It is a long-term investment that bears little fruit. Only one in 10 players end up in Europe—a number that varies from country to country. This process has received both praise and criticism. The praise is for the opportunities it gives young footballers through professional careers in Europe. The criticism: it is seen as a depletion of Africa’s scarce resources in return for little.
The reality is that these academies do not come cheap. Most clubs in Africa cannot afford a truly professional academy set-up, with world-class training facilities and coaches, without the patronage of a team in Europe. Any amount of money and expertize is good for the African game.
The success of African clubs, in setting up their own structures, has been limited; it has come more by fluke than design.
Perhaps the greatest example is the Asec Abidjan Academy in Cote d’Ivoire that produced a golden generation of stars. The academy is known as the crown jewel of African football. It was founded by Roger Ouégnin and Frenchman Jean-Marc Guillou 20 years ago.
The two saw enormous natural talent among the club’s youngsters, but little tuition outside of football. The students at the academy are given a football education, and are also taught maths, history, geography, physics, French, English and Spanish.
The students live in dorms during the week and have two training sessions a day, while getting top-notch medical care. Graduates include Bonaventure Kalou; Didier Zokora; Emmanuel Eboué; Gervinho Kouassi; Salomon Kalou, Koffi N’dri, known as Romaric, Didier Ya Konan, and the Touré brothers, Yaya and Kolo.
It has been an enormous success and continues to develop top players with a simple recipe—bring structure and organization to the lives of these youngsters, then let their natural talent shine.
The question of why there are not many more such successful set-ups around the continent probably comes down, largely, to money. There certainly is a fair share of fantastic institutions, but financial issues aside, it is also a matter of the desire from club owners and consistency in what you are trying to achieve.
You cannot have a top program for two years, then let standards slip. It is also a question of expertise in some parts of the continent; football is a universal language that can be taught easily.
Running a professional academy is a huge undertaking and requires skills that go far beyond the football pitch. These are not always readily available—certainly at a cost that makes them affordable—and as with any business, an academy will live or die by virtue of the people running it. There is no quick route to success, you have to be in it for the long haul.
If you look at Ajax Amsterdam’s association with Ajax Cape Town in South Africa, that is now 14 years old, it has unearthed only two players—Steven Pienaar and Thulani Serero. Despite this, Ajax remains committed, for the moment, because there is always the promise of another Pienaar. It is this long-term thinking that needs to apply.
With Zambia, whenever the Chipolopolo camp is in Johannesburg, they always play practice games against a South African Youth Academy called Africa Sport that is run by former Bafana player Harold Legodi. He is doing a great job and has gathered real talent.
It’s always encouraging to see players being groomed. Chipolopolo have played with them four or five times and it is heartening to see skill that surely should lead to a bright future.
If you open an academy tomorrow and start with players at under-7 level, it may take you a decade before you get your first professional player. It is a long-term investment for which few have the patience.
We need more academies on the continent but we need good ones. That will be the key to growing the game in Africa.

Wanted: Entrepreneurs With Deep Pockets And Patience

When gold is poured it doesn’t glitter. It drips out in thick globs of orange. If a small amount splashes you, it will burn a hole right through your hand. Yet, the moment it is out of the furnace, you can feel your hand drawn toward it. This is the allure of gold: the most sought after commodity in the world.
In the sooty recesses of the 93-year-old Rand Refinery, to the east of Johannesburg, South Africa, almost 50,000 tons, a third of the world’s gold, has been melted by craftsman clad in singed overalls. In a place that never sees the light of day, where the churning of machinery can deafen you and the light and gas from furnaces can blind you if you don’t wear safety glasses; no one leaves without a full-body x-ray.
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It takes 15 minutes to pour 10 bars, each worth R5.7 million ($570,000). By the time it’s cooled, the rising price of gold makes it worth a million more.
“In this industry no day is the same as the previous day, especially right now when gold is so volatile,” says Howard Craig, CEO of Rand Refinery.
The refinery turns raw gold, flown in from the mines by a fleet of heavily armed helicopters and trucks, into bullion. In churning out the wealth of nations, these men are able to do what machines cannot; pour molten metals into casts to a perfect weight of 12.6kg. The refinery makes its money by this smelting and refining of the metals.
In October, things were cooking when gold was selling at $1,790 an ounce. Since then, the gold industry has hit a downward spiral of fluctuating prices, ending $300 lower at around $1,400.
“I’m still very bullish about gold and a lot of people panic when they see the gold price drop by $150, like it did in the last couple of weeks. But for me what was really encouraging was [when] people came into the market and we have seen such massive purchasing and demand as a result of the price going down. I think, as a leader at a gold refinery, you have to believe in it. But I think there are some good fundamentals that underpin that belief,” says Craig.
Adrian Saville, an investment analyst from Cannon Asset Managers, believes that, this year, gold’s role as a buffer against economic uncertainty has waned.
“First, the US has a much firmer footing in its economic recovery. Second, through 2012 there was a huge question mark over the survivorship of the euro, especially surrounding Greece and the so-called Grexit [Greece’s possible exit of the Eurozone]. Today, some of this anxiety has been taken off the table and the euro appears to be on firmer ground. Third, in early 2013, investors have been encouraged by Japan’s massive liquidity boost, which has helped reflate the Nikkei and restore some lost confidence,” says Saville.
The analyst says that, as the price has decreased, the historical relationship with other precious metals has revived.
“At first glance gold has no inherent investment value. Gold has no real industrial application; it is a lump that people want or desire. In this way, the gold price is largely sentiment driven, which is hardly the basis for successful investing. But, at the same time, when countries are wildly printing money, gold offers people a stable store of wealth and that makes it very appealing. In 2000, two million Zimbabwean dollars would have bought you a wheelbarrow of gold. In 2008, you would have had a wheelbarrow full of paper,” says Saville.
They say, get too close to a fire, or molten gold, and you will get burned. It seems, for the moment, the allure of the shiny yellow metal is worth the risk. The trick is, getting out before you get a hole in your hand.

Is The Golden Bubble About To Burst?

When you talk to Ben Magara, the fifth child in a family of nine children from rural Zimbabwe, you can’t help but think that the open and friendly person smiling at you may be just too nice to be taking on a tough and thankless job.
Magara takes up the role as CEO of the world’s third-largest platinum miner, Lonmin, on July 1, and a rocky road lies ahead.
Worker relations at Lonmin and across the South African platinum sector are a bubbling cauldron. On June 3, a National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) official working at Lonmin’s Western Platinum operation, 120km north west of Johannesburg was shot dead. It led to talk of a peacekeeping force for the mines, which would have been unthinkable just two years ago.
It is a sign of troubled times. There was mistrust even before the Marikana tragedy in August. Between August 11 and 16, clashes between police and striking workers led to the deaths of 44 miners. More than 70 people were injured and around 250 people were arrested.
A public inquiry into the deaths and the reasons why the strike had been so violent will continue this month. It will also ascertain why police, security guards and miners, who did not strike, were killed. The hearings are slow and findings may only emerge next year.
What seems clear from the inquiry, so far, is that a breakdown in NUM leadership and failure by unions to direct their members, may have contributed to the massacre. Government, police and mining companies are also likely to shoulder the blame.
Since August, the unpredictable South African mining industry has been plagued by wildcat strikes. At Lonmin, the majority of the unionized workforce belongs to the Associated Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), around 70%, according to management. AMCU has been around for some time, but last year came to the fore as a rival to NUM, which is accused of being out of touch with its members. At the platinum sectors two other major employers, Impala Platinum and Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), AMCU members also make up the majority of unionized employees, leaving NUM on the back foot.
This has made South Africa’s platinum mines a political battleground as NUM struggles to regain its power base. There is much on the line for both unions and the ANC. To a degree, the platinum sector wage talks that will be held in July will be as much about the politics of the country as they will be about miners looking for wage increases.
In May, Lonmin caught  up on lost production after last year’s violence, but lost even more production as infighting between NUM and AMCU supporters led to strikes. The company’s share price has fallen 33% year-on-year on the London Stock Exchange, where the company has its main listing.
“We have to make sure the assets are working optimally. We will be rising from a low base and need to keep the cash flow running,” says Magara.
Forty-six-year-old Magara is just as imposing now as when he was elevated to CEO of Anglo Coal South Africa seven years ago. He rises at 4AM to go to the gym and appears to have lost none of his verve and enthusiasm.
We meet at the Melrose Arch hotel, in Johannesburg. Magara is keen to talk about his hopes for Lonmin and the South African mining industry.
Magara says that the mining industry has to work together in communities around mines. And referring to a long running area of contention between miners and companies, he says the industry cannot merely apologize for silicosis. The debilitating lung disease can cause premature deaths. It is caused by crystalline silica dust inhaled by miners with inadequate protection. Today, the protection has improved and many of those suffering from the disease contracted it years ago. South African mining companies have been shying away from paying decent compensation to miners who contracted the disease.
“We have to deal with it,” he says.
Magara, who has a mining engineering degree from the University of Zimbabwe, acknowledges he will have his work cut out at Lonmin. His last job was executive head of engineering and capital projects at Amplats. He clearly knows the platinum business; while his job at Amplats was an executive one, at Lonmin the buck will stop with him.
Heads of resources companies in the 21st century need broad skills, it is no longer just about getting the ounces out of the ground, it also requires political poise.
“Everyone wants to have skin in the game,” says Magara.
He is a good communicator and as the quote above suggests he gives the impression that he is unlikely to be an immoveable object when it comes to negotiations. He knows his ability to communicate is a key attribute. Asked why he was selected as the person for the Lonmin job, he says much of his work at Amplats involved community relations. He had to help the company secure mining licenses.
At Amplats’ Mogalakwena mine, near Polokwane, two communities had to be relocated, often an uneasy task. When Magara took up his position with the company, the people were refusing to move. He went to the communities each week, meeting with 17 sub-committees to discuss their grievances.
“In six months we had the licence,” he says.
It is Magara’s view that on occasions mining companies may be too quick to revert to the law.
“Actually, it is about building relationships. It’s about respect,” he says.
Magara has always been close to the ground and early to rise. Back home, in Bikita, Masvingo, he would rise at 4AM to tend vegetables with his siblings and father, before heading off to school. In those days, Magara dreamed of being a bus driver.
Now as head of Lonmin, Magara steers a company with a market capitalization of $1.97 billion, albeit carrying significant debt, where he has to unite the divided. Already, as part of the South African Chamber of Mines collective bargaining process for wage talks in the gold and coal sector, NUM has tabled a demand of 60% for entry-level workers, with the overall demand about a 15% increase. Taking into account that unions aim high in wage negotiations, even an agreement to a fraction of these demands could prove ruinous. Wages make up half of mining costs.
Magara knows what he has to do with the operations at Lonmin.
“It’s all about efficiency… Lonmin has an excellent resource base,” he says.
That is just one aspect of what might be called the Lonmin success equation. If Magara steers the Lonmin bus onto the clear highway, he will have to have all the parties with “skin in the game” on board. Before he can settle into the driver’s seat, he will have to pull off quite a feat; an entente with labor that should lead to increased productivity and efficiencies.
Given the country’s history, NUM’s loss of footing and rivalry with AMCU, the trauma mining communities have suffered in the last year, it is a job that could drive an angel to drink.
Magara, though, as an African with significant experience in South Africa and Zimbabwe, some believe, is better equipped to negotiate this rough tough job than most.

A Rough Tough Job

The appointment of Ben Magara as CEO of Lonmin is the best decision made by the Lonmin board since they got rid of former CEO Brad Mills in September 2008. 
Mills, a self-confessed mechanization zealot, whose attempts to mechanize Lonmin’s mining operations were unsuccessful, stepped down by mutual consent and was soon followed by his chairman, John Craven, who retired in January 2009. 
Prior to this, Craven had famously declared Mills had the full support of himself and the Lonmin board for his policies. 
Mills was replaced by former chief financial officer Ian Farmer, who made major changes. He was making good headway when he resigned last year because of ill-health at precisely the same time the labor mayhem erupted at the group’s Marikana mine. 
Forty-six-year-old Magara is a highly-experienced mining engineer and, up until now, an Anglo American Corporation ‘lifer’. He worked for the group for 22 years, starting on the Wankie Colliery, now known as Hwange, in Zimbabwe, before coming to South Africa in 1994. 
He has occupied a string of top positions in Anglo’s coal division and is currently head of engineering and capital projects at Anglo American Platinum (Amplats). Magara will assume his position at Lonmin on July 1. 
The obvious question is: why is Magara leaving Anglo? You don’t have to look too far for the obvious answer. Sources indicate he was overlooked for the top position at Amplats, where last year Chris Griffith was appointed to replace former CEO Neville Nicolau. 
That’s the second time Magara has been overlooked for a top spot at Anglo, after being shifted into Amplats during a group management reshuffle in 2009, from his previous position as CEO of Anglo’s South African coal operations. 
Magara ticks all the boxes for the top position at Lonmin starting with his profession, because a criticism frequently voiced by analysts over mining company CEOs with a financial background, is that they don’t have the technical background to stop their mine managers pulling the wool over their eyes. 
But he also comes with plenty of experience in the areas that have been increasingly crucial to running a mining group in South Africa—black economic empowerment (BEE), safety and health issues and, arguably most important of all, dealing with politicians. 
In his position at Amplats Magara was responsible for bringing the group’s Unki platinum mine in Zimbabwe on stream. It was developed successfully and with little confrontation with the Zimbabwe government over indigenization. 
At Anglo Coal, Magara made his name running the New Denmark Colliery, where he introduced a new and highly successful safety program dubbed “Smarty”—an acronym for ‘safety must always relate to yourself’. He was also closely involved with the creation of Anglo Inyosi Coal—a BEE joint venture setting up a major domestic coal company, which holds the contract to supply the new Kusile power station being built by Eskom—South Africa’s national power supplier. 
Magara is also no stranger to crisis management, having been appointed head of the working group created to deal with the coal supply crisis early in 2008, when Eskom’s mismanagement of its coal stockpiles triggered a temporary shutdown of the South African power grid. 
He pulled no punches at the time declaring in an interview that: “Had Eskom placed orders for extra coal sooner, we could have done something about it sooner.” 
I singled out Magara in the 2010 edition of Rainmakers and Pot Stirrers: Your Guide to the 100 Most Influential People in SA’s Mining Industry as a man destined for bigger things. 
So I am not surprised to see him moving to the top slot at the world’s third largest platinum producer. He faces some huge challenges but I have no doubt he’s going to crack it

Ben on the button

In an allusion to the disruptive impact of the internet on business, former American senator John Sununu said: “Not since the steam engine has any invention disrupted business models like the internet.” 
The internet has spawned new industries and has changed the nature of human interaction. Digital marketing pervades the internet; all of its users are potential targets of online marketing campaigns. It offers more return on investment on marketing spend, with positive implications for corporate profitability and growth. 
Since the dotcom bubble, firms provide marketing services online, with email marketing and search engine optimization constituting the earliest forms of digital marketing. With time, these services have come to include: affiliate marketing; display advertising; search marketing; and social media platforms. 
In the United States, companies allocate sizeable portions of their marketing budgets to digital marketing activities. Technology research firm Gartner, reports in its 2013 US Digital Market Spending Report that $25 million was spent on digital marketing for every $1 billion in revenue. It claims that mobile marketing, commerce experiences, social marketing and content creation are top priority digital marketing investments for large companies in 2013. 
In Nigeria, digital marketing is on the rise. Companies seek to take advantage of the growing online population, which is estimated at more than 45 million, according to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Events in the Nigerian online space reflect this growth, while pointing to prospects for online marketing and the way companies carry out business. 
The vast number of internet users means that companies can leverage the intenet to execute more effective marketing campaigns that reach larger audiences than conventional mediums. Social marketing—such as Facebook and Twitter—allows for targeted marketing to demographics whose population sizes are known or can be determined. More Nigerian companies are placing advertisements online, especially on heavy traffic websites. 
Advertising firms are establishing digital marketing units, alongside specialized digital marketing agencies. One such agency is House of Kaizen, created by a merger between US-based Net X and UK-based Web Liquid. The firm’s managing director, Dayo Elegbe, previously worked with companies such as Ericsson and News International, in the United Kingdom, to execute digital marketing strategies. He observes that the growth in digital marketing in Nigeria has been impressive. 
“Quarter one last year, when you looked at the mobile internet traffic off Inmobia’s ad network, we [Nigeria] were on something like 1.6 billion impressions, while South Africa was doing 2.1 billion impressions. By the third quarter, we were on 4 billion impressions and we are still growing. So, we went from being, literally, the second largest mobile advertising internet market in Africa, to the largest in two quarters, and we are still growing.” 
Elegbe adds that the potential for further growth is underscored by consumers’ attraction to digital technologies. 
“The thing that really stands out for me is the excitement that people still have about digital. I’m not just talking about practitioners here; I’m talking about people in general. The excitement that people display when they see new forms of advertising online—and we know this based on the comments that they give or the level that they interact with it—I still think it’s way above anywhere else in the world that I have experienced. That, to me, is good because it means our population is still highly engaged and responsive [to] the medium.” 
Similarly, the marketing manager of OLX Nigeria, Adeyemi Okanlawon, notes that digital marketing can measure the effectiveness of campaigns, unlike traditional marketing approaches. 
“Businesses, especially SMEs, have found that digital marketing works because you can track leads and monitor campaigns with tools that are available online. With traditional marketing, you can’t track as much; especially in a country where data is very hard to find, this is invaluable for smaller companies, some of which don’t have marketing budgets.” 
Consequently, there are positive implications for the growth of local businesses as a result of digital marketing. As more Nigerian companies embrace digital and subsequently allocate more resources to online marketing, to the detriment of traditional methods, a new vista of opportunities will be created as the industry takes shape.

HOW THE INTERNET CAN MAKE YOU MONEY

Firms like to talk about investing in Africa. But what they are really looking at is a jumble of 54 sovereign countries, with their own laws, regulations, cultures and languages. Only a few people are knowledgeable about all the countries. Among them is Riaan Manser.
Forty-year-old Manser grew up in Richard’s Bay, on South Africa’s east coast, where he spent most of his childhood roaming the outdoors. He studied human resources because he wanted to work with people. Manser took a job with private healthcare provider Prime Cure in Cape Town, selling insurance.
“One Sunday afternoon, I realized I wasn’t completely happy. I did my job just to make money. I decided my life was going to be much more than that. I made the decision to change my life,” he says.
A year later, in 2003, Manser mounted his bicycle and went on a 26-month ride across Africa, peddling 37,000 kilometers through 34 countries. He got to know Africa and its people slowly, learning important lessons in life.
“When I left South Africa, I wasn’t very organized. I had zero visas in my passport. I had to negotiate everywhere I went. I would have to remain calm and negotiate in extremely stressful situations, when I was freaking out inside,” he says.
With every country he explored, Manser came to understand different cultures and dynamics, over time he  developed exceptional people skills. He gained wisdom that can only come with experience and, as he firmly believes, trial and error.
“I want people to understand that success comes from failure. We like to learn from other people’s mistakes very much, but the problem is that you normally don’t learn as astutely as you would if you learnt on your own. You’re generally most successful if you are willing to take a calculated risk.”
His insights have attracted the attention of numerous major multi-nationals from the mining, retail and financial services sectors, which Manser—who meanwhile also paddled 5,000 kilometers around politically unstable Madagascar and circumnavigated Iceland—now consults on how to expand into remote parts of Africa. Among them are mining giant Anglo American Platinum, heavy machinery manufacturer Bell Equipment, South African supermarket chain Shoprite and Zurich Bank International.
“I speak to CEOs but also to staff, who will be deployed to African countries, telling them what they can expect on the ground—be it regarding infrastructure, cultural issues, bribing or how to make business decisions in a foreign cultural context,” he says.
Manser, who remarkably never paid a single bribe during his adventures, says integrity, morality and patience are the keys to unlocking Africa’s potential.
“You must make [it] clear upfront that there is no room for negotiation about bribes. The most important thing is not to seem desperate. Desperation can be smelled a mile away. Even when I was panicking inside, I didn’t show one ounce of desperation,” he says.
Instead of paying kickbacks to smooth the rocky road of expansion, companies, especially those exploring natural resources, should focus on building good relationships with both national governments and local communities, suggests Manser.
“It’s vital that companies stop regarding Africa as a place where you can just take out resources. There has to be some giving… a generator for a village, digging a well. Communities don’t want to hear promises of better infrastructure five years down the line. They want to see improvements to their lives right away,” he says.
Manser knows how customs officials must be approached in Ghana compared to Angola, how to deal with government departments in Nigeria and how to open negotiations in Mauritania. Although his advice often seems almost obvious, at least in hindsight, it’s based on insights that can only be gained from having been there and having done it.
Patience, however, is key to commercial success in almost all African countries, says Manser.
“Don’t rush people. Don’t try to bulldoze them. The humility that comes through patience will lead to trust and ultimately to respect for each other. It’s the basis for building good relationships,” he says.
But the decision to be patient can’t be made in a boardroom. It’s something managers have to learn in a foreign context, on a day-to-day basis, says Manser.
Another key requirement for successful expansion is selecting the right people to do the job, Manser believes. In the small island nation of Madagascar, that has been experiencing years of political turmoil after a coup d’état in 2009, consolidation is seen as much more important than expansion.
“People just want stability. They want short discussions with firm results. So whoever negotiates on behalf of your company needs to know that,” he says.
In the end, it all comes down to good leadership: a lesson—and probably the most difficult one—Manser learnt when his travel partner Dan Skinstad, who has mild cerebral palsy, fell out of the boat when they circumnavigated Iceland in a two-man kayak, and almost drowned in the icy waters.
“You need clarity of thought in difficult situations. If there is a crisis, you have to make a decision with clarity, not in a panic. You take stock of what you promised, of what you want to achieve and then implement what is necessary to get you there,” says Manser.
Good leaders acknowledge other leaders. When Manser returned from Africa, former president Nelson Mandela was so impressed with his feat, he requested a meeting with him, saying Manser was an inspiration to the continent. Manser has made that his goal.

Two Wheels Two Years  34 Countries 37,000km

It was a surreal night of luxury, to the clink of expensive glasses and the strains of jazz, high on Northcliff Hill overlooking Johannesburg. The valley below spreads out like a carpet of twinkling lights, cooled by a cutting wind from the west. On this night the news on the television is grave; it speaks of hungrier times, strikes and inflation.
At the top of the hill, these fears are far from the thoughts of the diners, who each paid $3,000 to sip on the finest and most expensive wines in the world. Around the table, millionaires chat of bouquet and burgundy. Hands, adorned with sparkling diamond rings, swirl balloons of wine. This is The White Club.
<div id="attachment_1941" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1941" class="size-medium wp-image-1941" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/586-5-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />The White Club, Northcliff, Johannesburg; 23 May 2013 &#8211; Photo by Brett Eloff</div>
It took inspiration from the London-based Whites, a club created by Francesco Bianco in 1693. It was at his house, which was later painted white, that members indulged in chocolate and bought tickets to the King’s and Royal Drury Lane Theaters. In 1773, The White Club became a place where wealthy men conversed over cigars and fine wine.
In 2009, René Dehn, founder of Gratis Denmark, stepped down as CEO, and took the idea on the road. Now, the Dane travels around the globe, accompanying his well-aged companions. Among them: a 1959 Dom Pérignon Rosé and a 1959 Château Lafite. The uncorking of the bottles always poses a challenge.
“It’s the only little part of the job that I don’t like. You’re a little bit excited but at the same time you are nervous… I’ve gotten over the fact that it feels like I am killing the bottle.”
It’s not easy moving vintage wine around the world. The bottles must be packaged in temperature-controlled cases that are shock absorbent to prevent damage.
For those who wish to join, there is only one way in.
<div id="attachment_1942" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1942" class="size-medium wp-image-1942" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/586-61-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />The White Club, Northcliff, Johannesburg; 23 May 2013 &#8211; Photo by Brett Eloff</div>
“You cannot buy your way into the club; it’s strictly by invite only. You have to attend one of the smaller dinners around the world in order to be considered for member status,” he says.
The qualities that make for the perfect White Club member include: the ability to be a good dinner partner, who is comfortable and easy going and, above all, willing to share. It’s about creating a sense of community, based on one common bond: the love of expensive wine.
“There was a South African member who missed a dinner in Switzerland. He sent a bottle from his private collection to the people around the table, for them to enjoy… that is the mindset and thinking of sharing that gives me a high.”
In May, The White Club made its third visit to the African continent, bringing along some of the most sought-after and rarest wines in the world. The star of the night was a $24,000 bottle of Château Pétrus, from 1947.
Two teams, each consisting of a wine sommelier and a renowned chef, competed for the best wine-dish pairing.
“I’ve done a springbok fillet, which is wrapped in slightly smoked springbok, served on a bed of butternut rösti… I’m serving it with a piece of foie gras, so it’s going to be something very classic, something very French,” says Coco Reinharz, a French chef from Sel et Poivre restaurant, in Sandton.
<div id="attachment_1946" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1946" class="size-medium wp-image-1946" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/586-129-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />The White Club, Northcliff, Johannesburg; 23 May 2013 &#8211; Photo by Brett Eloff</div>
Dehn believes that everyone wants to belong to an elite social club and that Africa is the right place, right now.
“It happens in countries where you have a new merging culture of being wealthy, where people have an idea of things they want to spend on.”
In this world of recession, how do White Club members keep to their luxurious pastime?
“In the level that we are doing it, recession doesn’t mean anything. There is always a percentage of people that are above the recession,” says Dehn.
On this night, hard times were far from the minds of the people who had the money to dine like kings and queens on the top of a hill, in the middle of Johannesburg.

Wine At $6,000 A Glass

He was living the London dream—dining in the best restaurants and wearing Armani suits, while he worked as an investment portfolio manager at the London Stock Exchange, without any qualifications. He gave it all up to become a small-town brewer in the sugar cane fields 115km outside of Durban, South Africa.
This is the life of Richard Chennells, a journey that began and ended in Eshowe, a small town of 14,000 people in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. His father’s hotel business was struggling, after he graduated, Chennells helped build a backpackers lodge behind the hotel to revive the business, and then introduced tours to attract tourists.
Chennells got on well with the backpackers who came to the hotel, and they sparked his interest in travel. One day, he took R1,000 ($100) from his father’s till and headed to London. After converting his cash at Heathrow Airport, he headed to a friend’s house.
“After I got to my friend’s place from the airport in a taxi, I had £40 ($61) in my pocket,” says Chennells.
To make money, he waitered at a restaurant and then, when two of the chefs resigned, he became a reluctant chef working in the kitchen. After a while, he dropped his day shifts and took on work at accounting firms. Then, he got a lucky break and took a job at the London Stock Exchange’s finance and accounting department for a few months.
This started his career in banking and for the next four years he worked at various investment banks. For most of his banking career, he dealt mainly with payments and trades. He says they paid good money but he found everything a bit of a bore.
“You are just another number in a cubicle. I was matching trades, authorizing massive payments and doing a few… currency exchanges, looking after big clients, nothing too special. I didn’t have a clue about banking but I learnt as I went. I was doing relatively well, money was not a problem. It was all fun and games, but it didn’t make me tick,” says Chennells.
His search for adventure and purpose saw him take off the Armani suit after work and get his hands dirty at a brewery in London. He spent his weekends visiting pubs and breweries to learn more about beer.
“My friends thought I was crazy. They were climbing the corporate ladder, but I was doing a complete U-turn,” he says.
And then he took a bold step. He gave up his job to go to the United States to study at the American Brewers Guild in California. He planned to further his studies in Germany—the beer capital—but had to return home because his mother had been diagnosed with cancer. He initially thought that he would stay by her side through a few weeks’ course of chemotherapy, but she passed away suddenly.
A few weeks became a few years and saw the creation of a brewery that is as unusual as the career of the man who runs it. It is housed in the premises of the old Zululand Stock Exchange and is also the smallest brewery in South Africa. It produces 3,000 liters of beer a month, from six canisters—two for fermentation and four for storage.
Chennells says the idea behind the brewery was to get people to visit Eshowe and to encourage them to drink at the George Hotel. He says he never thought the idea would take off. Then, somebody took notice.
Chennells was on holiday with his family when his phone rang. It was an events manager from the United Kingdom, asking if he would be one of the guest brewers at the 2010 JD Wetherspoons Real Ale Festival. It is one of the giants of brewing in the United Kingdom, with 833 branches.
Chennells says the phone call was surreal and his family didn’t believe him. But he accepted, and at the festival, his beer sold faster than he could pull a pint. His Zulu Blonde beer was crowned the ‘Nkosi’ (king) beer of the festival. Within three hours, at three different JD Wetherspoons pubs, the beer sold out.
“I wanted to get some mates to have my beer with me. We went to the first place, and it was sold out, and at the second, and the third. Eventually I called a guy at another pub where they had a keg available but he hadn’t put it on tap. He kept it for me so I could drink my beer with my friends,” Chennells says.
After the festival, he returned home thinking he could rest on his laurels. Little did the brewmaster know that he would take center stage when the 2010 FIFA World Cup came to South Africa.
While the footballers were heading to Africa, he flew out to London. He had been invited to brew a further 120,000 pints of Zulu Blonde at Everards Brewery, in Leicester, to supply JD Wetherspoons’ 833 pubs, with an African beer during the FIFA World Cup. In 2012, he went back to the JD Wetherspoons Real Ale Festival, where he brewed 100,000 pints at the Caledonian Brewery in Edinburgh. To this day, Zulu Blonde is drunk and talked about throughout the United Kingdom.
When the dust settled after the FIFA World Cup, Chennells balanced his books. He had made a turnover of R10 million ($1 million) in less than eight weeks.
“After that, we started getting orders from Australia, Canada and Portugal. They were ordering 40 containers a month but there was no beer. This is when I started to realize that something is going on here. They hadn’t tasted it before but they wanted it. I realized that this is bigger than me. How do I make it work?” he says.
When demand exceeded supply, Chennells spoke to a few Russians who had connections with a brewery in the Czech Republic, another brewing nation. But the deal stalled when the brewery in the Czech Republic was sold, putting an end to the possibility of brewing and selling his highly sought-after beer in Eastern Europe. Chennells lost an anticipated monthly income of R4.8 million ($480,000).
This was not Chennells’ only disappointment. He once staged a beer festival in Eshowe, featuring every beer brewed in South Africa. The Great Zululand Beer Festival cost him R50,000 ($5,000) and only 400 people turned up for the weekend. In 2007, he put together a television show, which was aimed at promoting locally brewed beer. The 12-part series, titled the Wandering Keg, also went flat.
“The idea was to get the message of beer across South Africa—trying to get people to try other beer brands instead of what is in the mainstream market. The entire thing of the television gig cost me around R250,000 [$25,000] from my own pocket. The show never saw the light of day because I didn’t have producers,” he says.
Setbacks have failed to kill his entrepreneurial spirit, they date back to the days of the Armani suit. One of his biggest mistakes, as a portfolio manager, fortunately came with a bit of luck.
“I remember buying £150,000 ($230,000) the one day and selling euros, instead of buying €150,000 and selling pounds. Luckily, the market moved in my favor and I made the desk £9,000 ($13,562) in a few hours instead of losing&#8230; Also, once by mistake, I made a payment of about $180 million a day late that cost the company about £24,000 ($36,165) worth of interest. I got into big trouble for that one,” says Chennells.
Chennells has resilience. He used to take his Land Rover loaded with beer barrels and a tap installed between the tail lights, to golf days in Johannesburg, where the golfers would queue, club in hand, for a drink. This exercise brought golf days to Eshowe, where Chennells offered unlimited volumes of beer for the weekend. His beer is also being packaged in the United Kingdom for distribution abroad. And in September, Chennells plans to open a bar in the buttoned-up business district of Sandton, near Johannesburg.
The Chennells family is trying to give back some of the fortune made from the hops. They have donated funds to help build more than 3,000 classrooms near Eshowe. In 2008, Chennells and 15 of his friends raised around R1 million ($100, 000) for Rotary International, where his father served as president, by cycling from Eshowe to Cape Town.
Chennells’ dream does not end at beer. He plans to start producing Brazilian rum called Cachaça, which is made from the sugar cane that grows around his brewery. A distillery and cane sugar crusher will be delivered in September.
He lives by this motto: “Your fortune is on your door step.”
He says he has learned from other people’s mistakes—especially that of his grandfather who was a farmer in Canada and sold his farm for pittance, only to find out later that underneath it was an oil field.
“He was the first Chennells to make that mistake and it won’t happen again,” he says.

How To Brew $1 Million  In Eight Weeks

They grew up in different worlds: he in a Nigerian palace; she in Accra. Together, through their media group, this multicultural couple proves that inter-African relations are lucrative. An $8,000 investment has multiplied into millions in profits. Now, they have set their sights beyond Ghana.
Theresa and Iyiola Ayoade met in Accra, the Ghanaian capital, 17 years ago. Those were tough times—politically and economically in West Africa—with most of the sub-region under military rule or boiling with civil strife. Today, West Africa is an emerging economic bloc and the Ghanaian-Nigerian couple has found favor, fame and fortune in the land of Ashantes.
Theresa and Iyiola’s alliance began with friendly chit-chat, lunching and discussing business ideas, politics and football; they fell in love and got married. Today, these seasoned entrepreneurs exemplify the geo-political dynamics of their respective homelands.
“I saw a big potential in him. I liked his sense of discipline, his approach to work, the way he applied himself. I saw a lot of promise. Doing business with him was actually a gamble because we were just friends. I don’t think it was just because of love that I got involved with him,” says Theresa.
They make a succesful team.
“She is not a shareholder in the business because she is my wife. I tell you, even if we were not married we would still have been in business together. She made a cash investment and that obviously made me take her more seriously,” he says.
Iyiola left Nigeria for Accra in the early 1990s. He started his business with $8,000, years later. His lucky break came via two companies—Coscharis Automobiles Ghana, the Ghanaian subsidiary of the Nigerian-owned Coscharis Group, and the Agricultural Development Bank of Ghana (ADB).
“I had delved into management consultancy along the way and Coscharis had asked me to give them a market penetration strategy. They liked my plan, and I organized the first auto fair in Ghana in 1997.”
It was while organizing the auto fair that he met Theresa, who was then a marketer at Joy FM radio station, in Accra.
The ADB opportunity, in 1999, required him to present audio-visual content for a campaign. He delivered the winning concept—a television game show, the first of its kind in Ghana—within two days. Soon after, he opened Charterhouse Productions, a television production company and launched the Ghana Music Awards. His staff payroll grew from six to 18. Theresa quit Joy FM in 2000 to join him.
By all accounts, Iyiola, Theresa and their Ghanaian business partner Philip Ayensu, have done well. They have created jobs promoted cross-border business ties and built a multi-million dollar business that straddles the marketing, advertising, entertainment and media sectors in Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
The trio own Multiple Concepts Group—it includes Multiple Concepts, a marketing company; Charterhouse, an events management and audio-visual production firm founded in 1999; MediaEdge-gsm, a mobile content provider founded in 2006; and GhOne, a television channel launched in 2011.
Their story is one of risk, resilience and taking advantage of opportunities. Their reputation and bank balance are healthy.
“Those guys are involved in almost every event happening in Accra,” says Ben Arthur, a Ghanaian business journalist.
“We do about GHS15 million [$743,000] in revenue per annum averagely, I believe this is large for our industry,” Iyiola says.
The group employed around 120 people by December, and opened another office in Cape Verde earlier this year.
Iyiola was born and raised in Ife, in south western Nigeria.
“I grew up in the palace. My mum was the ninth born of the late king, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adesoji Aderemi. I had over 500 cousins, so many role models to choose from,” he says.
Among his cousins were lawyers, bankers, accountants, doctors, lecturers, thespians and intellectuals. He studied economics and statistics at the University of Benin, in Nigeria, and worked as an investment and financial analyst in Lagos.
“I came to Ghana with almost nothing. But, at least, I knew I was not going to fail. I had my brains and I was lucky that a few people I’d met in Accra, during my early years in the city, believed in my ideas, my work ethic and my judgment,” he says.
He credits his success to strategic decision making, clients’ goodwill and Ghana’s tranquil environment.
“One thing, I think, I did very well is that I didn’t paint this business green-white-green. A lot of businesses come here from Nigeria and they are so Nigerian. There is market resistance, however subtle, to that kind of thing, but then again, Nigerians are not very easy people to deal with also. The average Ghanaian is somewhat reserved. They are generally peaceful people and it is that peace that gives us the security that we enjoy here.”
He is bullish about Ghana-Nigeria trade and the subject of Africans investing in Africa.
“We have a 250 million market in West Africa and the market is open to everybody, not just Nigerians and Ghanaians. In fact, I really don’t get it when people talk about Nigerian companies coming to Ghana to take away business from the Ghanaians. Then I ask, ‘Excuse me, is Standard Chartered bank a Nigerian company? Is Barclays bank Nigerian? Is Ashante Goldfields Nigerian? Is Goldfields Nigerian?’”
He says that while Ghanaians accept foreign companies doing business in their country, they resist Nigerians.
“Meanwhile, they stand to gain more from Nigerians because we are one of you, our cultural and geographical affinity should be a plus. There is plenty of opportunity for us all to grow and try to unify the West African market. We need to do more [business] between ourselves. That’s the only way we will develop and grow the region.”
Sometimes success comes when you look beyond your borders and team up with your African neighbors.

Author: Forbes Africa

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