Temie Giwa-Tubosun supplies blood to hospitals and oxygen to Covid-19 patients in Nigeria. The special deliveries arrive with doses of compassion and hope.



Life cannot be interrupted, can it? Hence, Temie Giwa-Tubosun’s business clock runs 24 hours a day, all year, delivering life-saving medical products to hospitals across Nigeria. “We never close our doors. In the past four years, I don’t remember a time when we have not had our doors open; Covid or no Covid, Christmas Day or no Christmas Day,” says Giwa-Tubosun, matter-of-factly, in an interview with FORBES AFRICA. Long before Covid-19 and the reimagined focus on access to health into Africa’s remotest corners, Giwa-Tubosun had decided that if she was going to make a success of anything, it was going to be by using the power of data, technology and logistics to deliver essential medical supplies in Nigeria. In 2016, she founded LifeBank, a healthcare delivery solution that represented the culmination of her own personal journey of heartache, tenacity and commitment. The Nigerian-American started with supplying blood, and now delivers everything from oxygen to insulin for those in critical need of them. And now, also ventilators for serious Covid-19 patients. “We knew we needed to be of use to our country when the coronavirus hit. I was very worried about the access to ventilators and I was doing a lot of work around making sure ventilators are available. We called all the hospitals and put a list together to make them available to those who needed it. “Then after that, I felt like we needed to do more testing and we partnered with other agencies and pushed for the first mass-testing drive through testing centers in Nigeria. We have done two and we are working on doing two more,” says the LifeBank CEO. Her latest venture is an oxygen delivery service called AirBank for Covid-19 victims. According to Giwa-Tubosun, about 40% of Covid-19 patients need oxygen and only 5% need ventilators. “The reason people don’t talk about oxygen is because in the West, access to oxygen is not a problem so there has not been a focus on it, but in Nigeria, access to oxygen is a major problem so we thought we need to make sure oxygen is available to [everyone] across the country. So, we then started what we called AirBank and started delivering oxygen to isolation centers across the country.” Born and raised in Nigeria, in her formative years, Giwa-Tubosun shifted to the United States (US) with her five siblings when her mother won the US visa lottery, allowing the family to escape a life of poverty in Nigeria. “It was a nice childhood but things got bad when my parents stopped getting paid as teachers and we got really poor,” recalls Giwa-Tubosun. Her new life in the US, the land of dreams, gave her purpose. After obtaining a Masters in Public Administration from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, Giwa-Tubosun joined the World Health Organization (WHO) in Switzerland, where she worked on health financing, before moving on to a firm in Minnesota back in the US where she was responsible for health systems and technologies. Then came a fellowship with Global Health Corps, a non-profit organization founded by Barbara Bush, the daughter of former US president George W Bush. Here, Giwa-Tubosun was part of a group of young leaders in global health for about a year before joining the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Uganda, where she worked on health supply chains before moving to Nigeria, to get married. After a stint working in healthcare with Lagos State as an operations manager, she decided to give motherhood a try. “I went back to Minnesota to have my child but it was a very difficult pregnancy. I had a lot of complications; he was born very early and I was on bed-rest for a while and it was through this period that I started thinking more about my health.” And the health of other mothers like her. After doing some research around maternal health, she found that the number one cause of maternal death was postpartum hemorrhage, a condition in which a woman bleeds heavily after giving birth. “It is a very big problem and has the highest [incidence] of maternal death. Other causes of maternal death take about five hours but this one is very quick,” says Giwa-Tubosun. “The data is that eight out of 10 women who have postpartum hemorrhage in Africa could be saved with access to blood.” LifeBank uses a supply chain system that can make cost-effective deliveries of critical supplies round the clock in every village, town and city across the country. “We have saved over 5,000 people. And you will see little cards on the walls [in our office with] the names of the persons we saved and the date we saved their lives, so this impact is one of the most important things for me,” says Giwa-Tubosun, who recently was also adjudged sub-Saharan Africa winner of the 2020 edition of the Cartier Women’s Initiative. But she has no time to rest on her laurels. She says she continues to seek ways to reach out to those who do not have easy access to good healthcare services. “It’s been incredibly gratifying to do this work,” says Giwa-Tubosun. Indeed, her words matter, at a time when passion and compassion must surely overtake commerce.

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Banking On Life: Commerce With Compassion

Famed for its hip and happening nightlife, Nigeria’s bars and entertainment venues have fallen silent, and its DJs are now pumping up the volume online.



Life as he knows it has completely changed for Obi Ajuonuma. The noise of the nightclub had been music to his ears. They were his echoes of success, and now, so suddenly, the venues have all gone quiet, and the silence is getting louder.



As one of Nigeria’s top-rated DJs, who had at one time set a world record for a 240-hour marathon on the decks, he is now faced with an uncertain future, one in which Nigeria’s bars and entertainment venues may never come alive as they used to.&nbsp;



Covid-19 has almost decimated the F&amp;B industry, and with that, a slew of jobs that depended on it.



Ajuonuma, who has been a DJ for the past 16 years since graduating with a degree in broadcast media and entertainment from Westfield State University in Massachusetts, had relocated to Nigeria in 2012 for his career. This was after his father passed away in the Dana Air crash in Nigeria that claimed the lives of 159 people.



“It was a decisive time for me because I was struggling between being a DJ or doing what I went to school for, which was broadcast media and journalism. But I decided to stick to DJing because it made more money and gave me more control of my schedule,” says Ajuonuma.



That turned out to be the best decision of his life. Since relocating, Ajuonuma, who famously goes by the moniker ‘DJ Obi’, has become one of the most sought-after DJs in the Nigerian entertainment scene, with a handful of brand endorsements to boot.



He is a resident DJ in the most exclusive spots in Lagos as well as the go-to name for upscale weddings and birthday parties.



Everything was going swimmingly well until the Covid-19 pandemic hit.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“Thanks to platforms like Instagram Live and Facebook, YouTube and Twitter Live, we have had to move the party online. So, we are taking the music to the people. So, if you can’t come to me, I will come to you.”</blockquote>



The marauding virus has been disrupting lives and businesses in Nigeria since the country first introduced measures to mitigate its spread on March 30, with a total lockdown of the commercial capital, Lagos, and neighboring Ogun and Abuja. The total number of Covid-19 cases is rising, forcing many small businesses to reimagine new ways of staying afloat.



For many, it has meant taking a significant drop in payment for their services.



“I think my industry is one of the obvious sectors hit because human beings are meant to socialize and, in my industry, profits are made when human beings come together to party and enjoy themselves and put together events. That is one of the first things that shut down in terms of no social gatherings, no meetings, and as DJs, this is how we make our money, so if we can’t have people coming together, then we can’t make a living,” says Ajuonuma.



The crisis has pushed entrepreneurs like him to be creative by going digital.



“Thanks to platforms like Instagram Live and Facebook, YouTube and Twitter Live, we have had to move the party online. So, we are taking the music to the people. So, if you can’t come to me, I will come to you,” he says.



Luckily, platforms like Cash App, PayPal and Venmo have made it easy for DJs to receive tips, which has become the new form of payment for playing sets online. For those like Ajuonuma with an established reputation, another revenue source is brand endorsements. Cîroc for example was one of the first sponsors of his live sessions.



“For drinks brands, it’s difficult to translate advertising into products being purchased because now, people are not buying 20 bottles in the club because they are at home and they have priorities now because the world has changed.”



On the plus side, Ajuonuma increased his Instagram following from 59,000 to about 70,000 in the two months since the lockdown. And he is not the only one.



“There are DJs who have boosted their followers from 48,000 to 1.2 million on Instagram. We have also taken the whole Instagram experience to TV,” he says.



Zoom has also provided a new revenue stream for Ajuonuma.



“I have done like three Zoom birthday parties… So now, I can plug into Zoom and have a party with people all over the world.”&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="731" height="1024" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/REX-IDAMINABO-731x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-47115" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/REX-IDAMINABO-731x1024.jpg 731w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/REX-IDAMINABO-scaled-300x420.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/REX-IDAMINABO-scaled-600x840.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/REX-IDAMINABO-214x300.jpg 214w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/REX-IDAMINABO-768x1075.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/REX-IDAMINABO-1097x1536.jpg 1097w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/REX-IDAMINABO-1463x2048.jpg 1463w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/REX-IDAMINABO-scaled.jpg 1829w" sizes="(max-width: 731px) 100vw, 731px" /><figcaption>Rex Idaminabo, the founder of Achievers Media</figcaption></figure>



Other entrepreneurs within the events space have also had to rethink their value proposition. Rex Idaminabo is the founder of Achievers Media, which creates high-end events and networking opportunities for a specially-curated clientele. The ban on major gatherings has reduced sponsorship moneys, which used to be the main source of income for his business.



“What we have done is explore online connecting opportunities. We have moved to a retainership model with a number of clients where we do specific programs online. We have also organized global virtual conferences where clients can also network with various leaders across the world,” says Idaminabo.



The growing impact of the threat to economic livelihoods is also being felt in other areas of the economy in Nigeria. At the former end of the F&amp;B spectrum, is the food business, and with Covid-19 set to radically aggravate food insecurity, the issues are at many levels.



In spite of Nigeria’s dependence on oil, agriculture remains an important mainstay for the economy, providing employment for millions, especially in the informal sector. And higher up in the value chain of the food business is the hotel and restaurant industry, confounded with an unprecedented dip in profits and job losses for the millions it employs.



For now, the restaurants are finding it difficult to put food on the table.

IMG-5262

Pulling The Plug On The Live Party And Moving It Online

Nigerian agripreneur Shola Ladoja, the founder of Simply Green, says the pandemic-induced lockdown brought with it logistic adversity, but also more local sales.  



With the marauding coronavirus disrupting lives and businesses in Nigeria, the financial stability of a majority of the country’s 200 million inhabitants has been severely affected.



The significant toll it has taken on economic activities has forced many small and medium enterprises to reimagine new ways of staying afloat. Covid-19 is also set to radically aggravate food insecurity in Africa. In spite of Nigeria’s dependence on oil, agriculture remains an important cornerstone for its economy, providing employment for millions especially in the informal sector.



The threat of starvation is so present that in a public address in May, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari, urged Nigerian farmers to produce enough for the country to eat, saying that the country has “no money to import” food.



But every cloud has a silver lining. The food shortage has presented some agripreneurs in Nigeria with serendipitous opportunities.



Shola Ladoja is the founder of Simply Green, which is a farm-to-table company specializing in vegetables, fruits, juices, spices and herbs. The border lockdown has meant that many of the retail and supermarket chains can no longer import foreign produce into the country.



But this hurdle created a new opportunity for Ladoja.



“[Previously], I tried to get my juices into local stores in Nigeria but they all turned me down and most of them wanted to buy imported juices. The lockdown meant that they had to buy a local brand like mine because they could not get them from abroad anymore. We are now able to sell a lot more during this time than previous years,” says Ladoja.



On the logistics side, however, Ladoja has also felt the pinch of the pandemic like most business that require consistent movement of goods and services. The lockdown scenario prevented his workers from coming in and as a result, the company’s daily delivery of juices, has come to an abrupt stop. &nbsp;



Ladoja has had to start thinking outside the box to make ends meet.



“We have come up with a fruit and vegetable box, which we sell directly on our website to our customers. So, they can now buy lettuce, kale and carrots, which we have never done before. So, this period has forced us to think about how we can expand the business and this time we actually created a new line of business, which was not in the plans for this year,” says Ladoja.



According to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), even before the Covid-19 crisis, farmers had not been able to satisfy the demands of Nigeria’s population.



“I feel like the government should give out grants and loans and support for small businesses so that they don’t crash. I have friends who have complained they are going to shut down their businesses because they haven’t been paid for two months. A lot of people cannot sell their produce in Lagos because the markets are closed which is going to affect a lot of farmers at this time,” says Ladoja.



Nigeria used to import over a million tonnes of rice from Thailand annually. That number has been significantly reduced with the implementation of high import taxes. This has led to an abnormal increase in food prices in Nigeria since the onset of the coronavirus with the UN estimating the number of people facing acute food security stands to rise to 265 million globally in 2020 as a result of the economic impact of the pandemic.



Nigeria has substantially increased domestic rice production in the pandemic but is still a long way from reaching the levels needed for the country to sufficiently feed itself. Coupled with the decline in global oil prices, it is safe to say the adverse economic impact of Covid-19 on Africa’s most populous country is going to be felt for a long time to come.

YJ1A0739

Farmer Forays: ‘Creating A New Line Of Business’

Ghana and Nigeria brace for the economic nightmare ahead, even as the region’s billionaires, entrepreneurs and innovators chip in for the fight against Covid-19.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



The Labadi Beach Hotel, set amidst landscaped tropical gardens in the heart of Accra, is unusually quiet on the Tuesday morning FORBES AFRICA visits in mid-March. The usual bustle of the morning breakfast buffet frequented by the city’s elite has all but disappeared, and in its place, an air of uncertainty about the future of one of Accra’s longest-running hotels, at least in the interim.



You cannnot enter without going through the new mandatory protocols in place: hand-sanitizers, individual temperature screenings and metal detectors.



“Unfortunately, we are no longer accepting outside guests and the hotel will be closing until further notice,” says the bartender. The usually-packed lobby has only two in-house guests already scheduled to leave the hotel.



Ghana’s thriving hospitality industry was one of the first victims of the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, once President Nana Akufo-Addo banned mass gatherings and ordered the closure of airports. Hotels in the Greater Accra region closed down, sending thousands of workers home, and leaving management to contend with the challenge of paying salaries and taxes sans customers.



It’s in stark contrast to 2019, when Ghana’s international PR campaign, The Year of Return 2019, brought in an additional 237,000 visitors representing an estimated $1.9 billion into the economy, according to Barbara Oteng Gyasi, Ghana’s Minister of Tourism. Most of the money was spent on the hospitality sector with the average spend per tourist estimated to be around $2,590.



And now, with the slow demise of the hospitality sector, a host of ancillary services are also feeling the pinch. Rashad McCrorey is the founder of Africa Cross Culture, a travel company that helps African-Americans reconnect to their roots by visiting countries on the African continent. He was one of those seduced by Ghana’s call to reconnect with the continent on the 400th anniversary of slaves landing in the United States, and so he arrived in Ghana with the goal of promoting his tourism business.



Ghana imposed a lockdown on movement in its two largest cities, Accra and Kumasi, from March 30, and effected a travel ban on people traveling from countries overseas with cases of Covid-19. In addition, the United States (US) State Department advised its citizens to return home immediately or face staying abroad for an indefinite period. “I was shocked. My initial thoughts were fear and panic. I was seeing all the development in the US, and New York has the highest amount of cases. The National Guard and US army had been deployed in the streets and my home was basically ground zero for the deadly virus,” says McCrorey.



After weighing his options, he made the decision to stay on in Ghana instead of returning home.



“At the time, ticket prices surged from $500 to about $6,000 and I was scared of exposing myself more to the virus. Also, going back meant that I risked spending the pre-paid money of my customers and that was also not ideal,” says McCrorey.



Gregory Lamptey, the founder of Black Cab, a logistics company providing transportation services to customers and businesses in Accra, is facing a similar conundrum. “Business has all but stopped since the lockdown in Ghana last week. I do not think we will be able to make it to the end of the year and I have had to start looking at other alternatives to make ends meet,” he rues.



In Ghana, there were 4,700 confirmed cases with 22 deaths as of May 12. Ghana has undertaken 160,501 tests since the outbreak as of this date, a figure the president lauded as the highest per million people than any other country in Africa.



But as elsewhere on the continent, it’s the workers in the informal sector that are most at risk.



“They face a very difficult choice: keep going to work and risk contracting or spreading the virus, or stay at home and risk their family starving,” observes Nana Kwame Bediako, the founder of Kwarleyz Group, an umbrella company which encompasses Wonda World Estates and Petronia City Development that has designed and developed over 500 residential and retail units in Ghana. The company is currently negotiating to pledge one of its premier properties, Number 1 Oxford Street, five-star luxury serviced apartments, as a quarantine location, isolation center, temporary hospital or safe place for nurses, doctors and other medical personnel should the need arise.



“This is the most challenging economic downturn globally,” says Franklin Cudjoe, President of Imani-Africa, a leading think-tank in Ghana. “This is going to affect businesses all over the world in a much more significant way than ever before.”



This was perhaps the rationale behind Ghana easing its lockdown restrictions in less than a month to allow people to return to work. There is, however, still a ban on public gatherings and a national requirement for face masks to be worn by everyone.



But Kwame Ofori, a financial analyst with the Ghana Stock Exchange, is currently on the fence on how the Ghanaian economy will recover.



“Everything depends on how long this period lasts, but if it goes on for a long time, it’s going to be a big financial and economic crisis for Ghana. Most businesses in Ghana cannot realistically afford a lockdown,” avers Ofori.



It is within this context that Ken Ofori-Atta, Ghana’s Minister of Finance, said in a Financial Times interview that Africa has reached a “break the glass moment”.



Through a partnership between the ministers of finance and economic planning on March 30, a series of strategies were outlined, which includes fiscal measures to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic including the Coronavirus Alleviation Programme. Consequently, the government estimates of the immediate impact of Covid-19 is a decline in GDP growth from a projected 6.8% to 2.6%.



Along the pristine coastline of the Labadi Beach, sits a five-storey apartment complex boasting beautiful ocean views, underground parking for tenants, a gymnasium, two restaurants and a supermarket. The developer, Kofi Appiah, is a British-Ghanaian architect who relocated to Ghana two years ago.



“I started building and selling a couple of years ago in Ghana and things were great. Right now, we cannot even get anyone to come and look at our developments. I have had to lay off the entire sales team and we are now depending on social media to attract buyers,” says Appiah.



“Buyers need to imagine themselves living in the apartments and this is very difficult to imagine with just videos and pictures on Instagram. I don’t imagine we are going to be selling any of these units at least for the next six months.”



About 40 minutes from Ghana, Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, is also battening down the hatches. With plunging oil prices caused by the price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia, and the novel coronavirus outbreak, Nigeria is in a much more precarious economic position.



Nigerian stocks have gone through weeks of losses with the fall in oil prices from $57 to $30 per barrel subsequently leading to an increase in external debt and a depreciating currency. This year, Nigeria’s budget stood at $37 billion based on oil prices staying at $57 per barrel. With the sharp decline in these prices, Nigeria cannot currently fund its budget.



“Nigeria might very well be in trouble here. Even though Parliament recently granted President Muhammadu Buhari’s request for $22.7 billion in foreign borrowing, the significant fall in global oil prices will erode any boost from this stimulus. Many analysts are of the opinion that the Nigerian naira has deteriorated markedly and remains set for a sharp fall this year if current conditions persist,” says Ofori.



One of the major side-effects of this in the country is a US dollar shortage that is creeping up with the informal dollar dealers on the black market. Nigeria’s official exchange rate which is fixed by the central bank, has stayed at around N360 to the dollar since the country emerged out of recession in 2017. Today, the rate is N445.



“Everyone is currently hunting for dollars and we don’t have any more. Even the agents we get them from are not releasing the dollars because they believe the rates will go even higher so this is becoming a big problem,” says Audu, a black-market agent.



The coronavirus is simply adding insult to injury for Nigeria’s economic woes. As of May 12, there are over 5,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Nigeria. The country issued a nationwide lockdown between March and April but similar to Ghana, has eased restrictions on movement to enable its 200 million population to return to work while practising social distancing.



Billionaire Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, announced a donation of essential medical supplies to help fight the pandemic. Along with making global headlines, his actions have also galvanized other private businesses and Nigeria’s most successful entrepreneurs to utilize their assets and funds for social good amid the devastating outbreak.



Tony Elumelu, Chairman of Heirs Holding and United Bank for Africa (UBA), announced N5 billion ($12.8 million), through the UBA foundation, to kick-start a comprehensive pan-African response to the fight against the coronavirus. The donation is aimed at providing significant support to Nigeria and other African countries through the provision of critical care facilities and materials.



“I believe we all have a part to play in this global crisis and I hope that this is the time the private sector and government work together to help the most vulnerable people to battle the virus. We need to act fast and we commend the work the government is already doing to ensure we stem the spread of this global pandemic,” says Elumelu.



For African countries, this virus is expected to overwhelm an already insufficient healthcare system and reverse the economic growth that many countries have been experiencing in recent years. The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) has revised Africa’s growth, falling from 3.2% to 2%.



“We need to deal with the human crisis first before we can begin to address the economic impact of the virus on us. I am confident we will pull through this crisis just like we have in several other adverse situations that have come before,” says Oscar Onyema, CEO of the Nigerian Stock Exchange.



Nigeria’s richest woman, Folorunso Alakija, is also stepping in to help fight the pandemic. Through her Famfa Oil, one of the leading indigenous exploration and oil production companies in Nigeria, she has pledged N1 billion ($2.56 million) to support Nigeria’s fight against Covid-19.



“These are truly difficult times for us. As the world rallies to deal with the health security, economic and social implications of the coronavirus, it is clear we feel the effects more deeply than most of the developed world. Managing a crisis of this magnitude means that the strength of our response will determine our ability to weather the storm but I believe with God, nothing is impossible,” says Alakija.



“Millions of Nigerians are under 30 and live from hand-to-mouth and quite frankly, cannot afford a lockdown. They depend on going out each day to earn a living on the streets as well as buying food from crowded markets. If this lockdown continues, there could be a mass unrest which could further cripple Nigeria,” says Idrisu Bello, a Nigerian economist.



President Buhari in an address in March ordered financial intervention schemes to be rolled out for the most vulnerable.



“This represents about 10,695,360 individuals in 35 states across the country as the poorest and most vulnerable Nigerians,” says Bello.



The Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF) has also pledged N200 million ($516,000) to support the current effort of the Nigerian government to fight the disease.



Zouera Youssoufou, Managing Director and CEO of ADF, says the donation is part of the foundation’s cardinal objective of partnering with governments to combat the disease.



“The Dangote Foundation has been at the forefront of helping Nigerians fight against diseases and providing economic development for Nigeria. At this very difficult time, we are committed to providing the much-needed support to help the government provide help to millions of vulnerable Nigerians,” says Youssoufou.



As corona cases continue to rise, Nigeria, along with other African countries, has also shut its airports and air travel.



The International Air Transport Association (IATA)&nbsp; estimates that around 330,000 jobs and $1.2 billion are at stake in Ethiopia’s economy, around 190,000 jobs and $3.8 billion in South Africa’s economy, around 138,000 jobs and $1.1 billion to Kenya’s economy and 91,000 jobs in Nigeria with $650 million lost.



Then there is the worrying problem of medical care.



Lagos-based air ambulance and offshore medical solutions contractor Flying Doctors Nigeria, founded and run by entrepreneur Ola Brown, is calling this a true pandemic.



“Africa has to be cautious because of the challenges we have in our healthcare. There are significant deficits and a huge lack of medical and financial resources which means we face an unprecedented time ahead,” says Brown.



However, in spite of the insurmountable challenges, a number of local entrepreneurs are providing innovative solutions to help the government in its fight against the disease.



Accra-based company DTRT Apparel is gearing up to manufacture a range of personal protective equipment (PPEs) to supply Africa and the rest of the world. DTRT supplies products to major US and EU-based brands via a global network spanning three continents. The company employs over 2,000 people in West Africa, procures textiles from Asia and exports primarily to the EU and US markets.



“Now is the time for companies all over Africa to work together for the greater good of the continent. We want to do our part to ensure we are contributing to the fight against this pandemic by providing resources to the healthcare system,” says Salma Salifu, Managing Director of DTRT.



In Nigeria, Bamigbose Adams, a furniture-maker, has begun turning old metal drums into custom hand-washing basins to be sold in Lagos.



Around 157 million Nigerians lack access to proper hand-washing facilities, according to a 2018 report by WaterAid Nigeria and Adams saw this as an opportunity to innovate to survive.



“Business has been slow for a while so I was looking at different ways of making money to feed my family. I got the idea to use the drum from my local area where some people use them to store water. I created the first drum and it worked and then the publicity began to create a demand,” says Adams.



His main clients are local businesses that want a temporary solution to help combat the spread of the virus.



As governments rally to find solutions to help their economies, it is very clear that the way we live and do business will not be the same. Ever again.

GHANA-HEALTH-VIRUS

Fast Virus. Slow Growth: Ghana And Nigeria Brace For The Economic Nightmare Ahead

The Nigerian entrepreneur and banker, a former FORBES AFRICA cover star, has founded a think tank to catalyze his country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.



It was not until February that Atedo Peterside, Founder of Stanbic IBTC Bank and Chairman of Anap Jets and Anap Foundation, began to take the global coronavirus pandemic seriously. Until then, he had received several reports from his Vice President at the Anap Foundation, a non-profit organization committed to promoting good governance in Nigeria, but like many others, believed this was a foreign issue that would not make its way to Africa.



He is of the view that Nigeria should have acted sooner in its Covid-19 response.



“This is a race against time. If Nigeria had stopped international flights coming into the country maybe two weeks earlier than we did, it would have been 520 people who would not have entered the country,” says Peterside.



“There is a saying that when Nigeria sneezes, the rest of Africa catches a cold and this is true. With falling oil prices coupled with the Covid-19 pandemic, we will be lucky if we have anything close to the 2008 financial meltdown,” says Franklin Cudjoe, founder of the IMANI Center for Policy and Education.



To curb the spread of Covid-19, the Nigerian government imposed lockdowns and curfews but the restrictions were short-lived as it put pressure on many of the country’s 200 million inhabitants, who were struggling to survive.



“I think it is important to emphasize that a complete lockdown is not sustainable in Nigeria. I believe we are dealing with a marathon and not sprint. If it is a marathon, a complete lockdown is not sustainable because people will not cooperate after a while. They will die of hunger,” says Peterside.



According to him, the science suggests that the fight against the coronavirus may last between 15 to 18 months and the only way to control the spread is by ramping up testing.



“The Covid-19 fight in Nigeria is a campaign to get people to change their behavior and you cannot achieve that in one day or one week. It is something that has to be sustained. There is a reason why the governor of New York is on TV every day. In most of the countries where this has been successful, there has been effective communication and it is not enough to just come out to threaten people with a full lockdown,” says Peterside.



That need to change behavior and provide a solution that will help contain the spread of the virus is one of the reasons behind the Anap Foundation Covid-19 Think Tank.



“We established the Anap Foundation Covid-19 Think Tank on the 22 of March 2020, as a catalyst to help Nigeria respond to the coronavirus disease. The Think Tank is comprised of 18 members drawn from across the six geopolitical zones and the diaspora (US and Germany),” says Peterside.



Collectively, the Think Tank has a wealth of expertise in medicine and logistics amongst other areas of specialization that Peterside hopes will aid the government’s fight in testing and best practices to tackle the pandemic.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">&#8220;The Covid-19 fight in Nigeria is a campaign to get people to change their behavior and you cannot achieve that in one day or one week. It is something that has to be sustained.&#8221;</blockquote>



“Lagos cannot feed itself so you can never have a complete lockdown. The reason why a complete lockdown worked in China is because the Chinese government can deliver everybody’s needs to their door. If you cannot do this, then we can’t have a complete lockdown. This means we need Think Tanks like these to come up with other innovative solutions that are specific to our individual needs,” says Peterside.



One of the areas where the Think Tank is hoping to make an impact is to act as a mediator between the government and private sector to resolve certain key issues that will aid in its fight against the pandemic.



“We entered this battle without having enough doctors and yet it seemed as if our doctors were rejecting offers of health from Chinese doctors. We have one of the lowest doctor-to-patients ratio for any large country in the world. Italy, a country with a very large doctor-to-patient ratio, still took doctors from Cuba and China to help in its fight and Nigeria must also accept help if it is given to us,” avers Peterside.



A key goal for the Think Tank is to advocate the adoption of all health measures and behaviors necessary to ensure that Nigeria keeps the infection rate down, a feat that may prove difficult given the many infrastructural and health challenges facing many countries in Africa.

_W0A3614

Atedo Peterside On Covid-19: ‘Nigeria Must Also Accept Help If It Is Given To Us’

Textile artist Nike Davies-Okundaye worked as a construction laborer and carried water and firewood to survive. The art of adire gave her global fame and she is now educating generations of women in Nigeria.



There was no way Nike Davies-Okundaye could look the other way. For after all, she too had been a victim in her early teens.&nbsp;



Too many women were being pushed down the traditional path of marriage and child-rearing in her country.



Born in 1951 in Ogidi-Ijumu, a small village in western Nigeria known for its spectacular rock formations and traditional art industry, Davies-Okundaye resolved to fight this practice four decades ago.



“By the age of 13, they wanted to marry me off because my father had no money. I had to run away from home and join a traveling theater. I said I didn’t want to marry and wanted to pursue art,” recalls the internationally-renowned Lagos-based artist.



Not wanting to become one of six wives to a minister, Davies-Okundaye found her escape through adire, the name given to the Yoruba craft of tie-and-dye where indigo-dyed cloth is made using a variety of resist-dyeing techniques. Growing up in a predominantly art and craft household, Davies-Okundaye is a fifth-generation artist who decided to take the craft seriously due to poverty.



“I had no money to go to school and the first education parents give you is to teach you what they do. So, when I finished primary six and I had no support to go to secondary school, I said to myself, ‘let me master art so I can teach other women to also use their hand to make a living through their own artwork’.”



Davies-Okundaye was forced to work in the male-dominated construction sector, carrying concrete in pans to builders in order to save one shilling, just enough to buy a yard of fabric to create what she called wall-hanging art.



Her goal was to use the traditional wax-resist methods to design patterned fabric in a dazzling array of tints and hues. The adire design is the result of hand-painted work carried out mostly by women and through that, Davies-Okundaye saw a way to help women to become economically empowered. After all, her first break in life came as a result of that.



“There was no other job I was doing apart from adire. I was lucky the American government came to Nigeria to recruit an African who will teach African Americans how to make traditional textiles or crafts in the state. That is how I was lucky and got picked.”



Davies-Okundaye was the only woman in a class of 10 men who were flown to Maine in northeastern United States in 1974. That is where her whole outlook on life changed.



“Before I went to America, I used to carry three drums of water every day and carry firewood to be able to survive. It was like a breakthrough in my life when I reached America. I said ‘is this heaven?’ I was the only woman in the class and all the men were learning women’s looms and I kept telling them ‘this is for women’ and they said ‘yes, in America, what a man can do, a woman can also do’.”



This was in stark contrast to what she knew to be true in Nigeria at the time.



“If your husband is an artist, you are not allowed to do art. In the 1960s, if your husband has a PhD, you are not allowed to also have a PhD. You had to give room for your husband to be your boss.”



She decided to beat those age-old stereotypes.



As one of 15 wives to her then-husband at the time, Davies-Okundaye, with her newfound knowledge gained in America, started a revolution at home. She encouraged the other wives to create their own art business using adire.



“I said ‘if you learn this, you can earn a living by yourself and get your power because your money is your power’ and that is how they also started learning it. I didn’t stop sharing the knowledge there. I gathered girls on the streets who were selling kola nuts and peanuts and started training them. I said ‘if this textile can take me to America, let me teach other people’,” says Davies-Okundaye.



And that has been her calling ever since. Davies-Okundaye is the founder and director of four art centers, which offer free training to 150 young artists in Nigeria in visual, musical and performing arts.



One of the centers is the largest art gallery in West Africa comprising over 7,000 art works.



“They used to get the police to arrest me because they said I was trying to teach feminism in Nigeria because I went to America. They said I was going to corrupt our Nigerian women but I believe God sent me to liberate a lot of women who have the passion for what makes them happy but are afraid to do it because of what people will say. I say do what makes you happy always!”

Nike Davies

The Art Of Survival: The Art Of Adire Gave This Textile Artist Global Fame, She Now Educates Generations Of Women In Nigeria

Nigerian filmmaker and animator Niyi Akinmolayan is using the most creative way to explain the pandemic to young Africans.



Niyi Akinmolayan was home in Lagos, Nigeria, after the state issued a lockdown for businesses and schools due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has brought global economies to the brink of destruction. He had his two children, aged five and three, both at home, who did not understand why they could no longer go to school, an activity they thoroughly enjoyed.



“The three-year-old was okay but I needed to explain to my five-year-old why she could not go to school and I found it tough trying to do this. How do you explain to a child that there is a virus when they cannot see it and also how do you tell them to constantly wash their hands?”



Beleaguered with this dilemma, Akinmolayan remembered his passion for animation.



“I started out as an animator in 2003, but it was a small industry then so I moved on to feature films instead and by 2010, I released my first feature film. I’ve gone on to make films over the years including the highest-grossing Nollywood film The Wedding Party 2 as well as a couple of films on Netflix.”



Akinmolayan founded the animation arm of his company, Anthill Studios, where he serves as both CEO and Creative Director, about six years ago. Prior to that time, most people were using animation for advertising and montages for TV shows, however, he wanted to use animation as a new way of telling authentic stories.



Anthill Studios originally sought to fill the void of a dedicated post production company for Nollywood but has, over the years, ventured into everything from content production, music videos and motion design. Due to the lack of investment for animation content in Nollywood, Akinmolayan has focused more on the commercial viability of filmmaking in Nollywood, where he also wears the hat of film director, to cover the bills.



“But last year, we did something that was quite big and went viral and it was an animation called Malaika, which was a 17-minute short film loosely based on Queen Amina and that was what led to this new animation. So, I set up a team where we can tell really creative African stories with animation. Because there is the issue with funding, we only do short experimental projects to test the audiences.”



One of those projects was a short two-minute explainer video about what the coronavirus was, which immediately went viral. The content was mostly targeted at adults and was done in four languages namely English, Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo.



“But when it hit me was when the schools locked down. I had to find a way to get the message to my children. It felt like I was doing a lot and it wasn’t sinking in. So I started thinking about it differently and said ‘think about this big virus out there and if it gets mummy and daddy you are not going to see mummy and daddy for a long time; no more chocolate, no more icecream and the only way we can beat this virus is to wash our hands every day’. And it was a joke at the time but I started thinking how else are other parents explaining this to their kids?”



With that Eureka moment, Akinmolayan reached out to all the animators in his company and arranged for them to pick up the workstations in the studio and take them home and begin proving to people the potential of the great work they had been doing in animation for the past six years. They worked remotely for four weeks on the project.



“Initially, we just wanted to make one explainer video so I put it out for free on multiple platforms like Africa Magic, Ebony Life TV and also social media platforms. In 48 hours, we had over 400,000 views. The animation is in four languages and has been made available for people to download and if they want to rework it in any language, they can do it.



“But what it has achieved so far is that it has been shared everywhere including churches and schools and I am proud of it. I have received so much feedback from parents saying that they are running out of soap because their kids cannot stop washing their hands,” he says.



The goal is for other NGOs and government institutions to take up the animation content as part of their coronavirus education strategy for children. He hopes the content will also help parents to engage with their children and explain complex things about the current pandemic.

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How This African Animator Is Handling The Virus

Self-made Ghanaian entrepreneur Nana Kwame Bediako bought his first car by age 16 and made a million pounds in the United Kingdom before he turned 21. The fearless, unabashedly ambitious property tycoon is now on a mission to transform Accra’s skyline.



The bigger the risk, the maximum the return.



That’s the mantra of Nana Kwame Bediako, a real estate mogul who has had stints in the United Kingdom (UK) and Ghana over the past decade, and who has always believed in hunting for opportunity in the midst of a crisis.



Take, for instance his decision to drop out of the University of Westminster in the UK after six months, only to make a million pounds by the age of 21. Bediako, who turned an entrepreneur by age eight, when he started his own poultry business to support his cash-strapped single mother, continues to stay undeterred in the face of challenges.



Meeting Bediako is like having an encounter with a young presidential aspirant. He is fearless, ambitious and revolutionary in his foresight of building an Africa the world has never seen before.



And then there is his belief in a higher power. Bediako attributes his lucky streak in business to an inner voice which he says has steered him in the right direction ever since he was a child. His company Wonda World Estates is on a mission to not only change the skyline of Accra but also to show the diaspora community that they too can return home and add value to the development of Africa.



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That mission has birthed a real estate portfolio that boasts over 560 homes in Ghana and one of the most ambitious projects in the West African region, Petronia City, an industrial park, which will become a petrochemical cluster in Africa. The project, once completed, will be a 2,000-acre city development project that will provide the first fully-integrated business hub for West Africa’s oil, gas and mining industries, according to the 40-year-old entrepreneur.



“To secure the land, I had to convince 60 families, six chiefs and three sub-division chiefs to embrace my vision,” recalls Bediako.



Feats like these and other remarkable landmark projects have made him a household name in Ghana. But even while Bediako became a name to reckon with in the country, it hasn’t been smooth sailing all the way. A mix of factors such as luck and ambition has paved the way for Bediako to succeed. Above all else, he credits that inner voice, for helping him identify the right moves to make.



A voice he first heard in Kumasi, a suburb of Ghana, located 300km from Accra. “My mother was broke and penniless but my father had money. One day, he gave both my brother and I money and I told my brother not to spend it and use it to help my mum. The next thing I saw, he had gone out to buy bread and eggs, which was a luxury at the time, with his money. I was very angry with him,” says Bediako.



His anger at his brother quickly turned into a hunger to make money. He decided he would buy a hen and cock with his money and start a poultry business to help his mother.



Very soon, the business was producing over 200 eggs a month.



Then came the second instruction he heard.



“My father was extremely rich and my mother was broke so I heard a voice again that said I should pursue my father to get a better education. So, I moved to Accra and started going to secondary school before I went to London to attend Waltham Forest College,” says Bediako.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="1024" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/FJC331-1024x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-44977" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/FJC331-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/FJC331-scaled-300x300.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/FJC331-scaled-100x100.jpg 100w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/FJC331-scaled-600x600.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/FJC331-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/FJC331-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/FJC331-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/FJC331-2048x2048.jpg 2048w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/FJC331-80x80.jpg 80w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



As he grew older and succeeded in his ventures, Bediako began to credit that voice to ‘God’. One of those directions led to him selling clothes from the back of his car in college and turning a tidy profit in the process.



“I was selling Versace jeans and YSL shirts which were fake and I was buying them from a guy called John who used to bring them from China. The whole school was buying from me and that’s where I started making my ends meet and bought my first car by the age of 16.”



Another moment of crisis would prove instrumental in creating real wealth for Bediako.



“They clamped my car in college three times. The first and second time I paid £45 and by the third time, I was angry and I thought the security was taking advantage of me. So, I loosened the tire and removed the clamp out of the tire and out of anger, I took the clamp with me and put it in the boot of my car. At that time, I had a white friend called Peter Smith who was a locksmith and he offered me £65 for the clamp.”



That was the Eureka moment for Bediako.



The scrap metal industry remains a vital sector for the UK economy. It is estimated that about 10 million tonnes of scrap metal is recycled in Britain every year. According to a report published by metal recycling specialists, Maxilead Metals, the UK scrap metal industry is worth an estimated £5 billion.



“So, I thought if I could get a clamp, I get £65 but then later on I realized I needed the steel itself, not the clamp. I started buying scrap from scavengers and crushing them and turning them into the steel yard and selling it,” says Bediako.



An idea today is a fortune tomorrow. Bediako dropped out of Westminster because he felt he had nothing more to learn about business. The young blood serial entrepreneur moved swiftly from selling scrap metal into the telecommunications sector with his next business idea, Global Telecommunications and Utilities (GTU). Fortune was soon to follow. The year was 1999 and the internet, which was widely known as the Global Market at the time, was still in its bubble stage.



Bediako created a company that billed people when they went online to carry out transactions. Helped by the dotcom sensation, an Indian investor soon approached him to buy his company for £327,000.



“My lawyer told me to refuse the offer and the investor came back with £410,000 which I took and then just added it to my savings and it shot up. That’s how I made my first million pounds and it inspired me to go ahead. I realized that if you build a company and do it well, you can make a lot of money. Then God told me to come to Africa.”



That final instruction is what has made Bediako the property tycoon he is today. His rapid growth and success is based on one simple principle, maximization.



“From the beginning, when I got my first land, something told me ‘why don’t you build two houses on one plot instead of one house on one plot’? I had four plots of land. So, when I did that, eventually’ I built eight houses on one plot instead of four houses and subsequently sold them and that’s the secret of my business.”



Today’ his company easily builds about 108 apartments on 1,500sqm of land. His passion is to free the mindset of African entrepreneurs from their limiting beliefs in order to strive for excellence. After conquering the property sector in Ghana, Bediako has his eyes firmly set on Hollywood where along with his new moniker, Freedom Jacob Ceasar, he hopes to show America’s A-listers, that Africa is the next bastion of economic development.

Nana Kwame Bediako CV-20192

Nerves Of Steel: This Ambitious Property Tycoon Is On A Mission To Transform Accra’s Skyline

One of only two female billionaires in Africa, with a net worth of $1 billion, Nigeria’s oil baroness Folorunso Alakija elaborates on the state of African entrepreneurship today. 



The 69-year-old Folorunso Alakija is vice chair of Famfa
Oil, a Nigerian oil exploration company with a stake in Agbami Oilfield, a
prolific offshore asset. Famfa Oil’s partners include Chevron and Petrobras.
Alakija’s first company was a fashion label. The Nigerian government awarded Alakija’s
company an oil prospecting license in 1993, which was later converted to an oil
mining lease. The Agbami field has been operating since 2008; Famfa Oil says it
will likely operate through 2024. Alakija shares her thoughts to FORBES AFRICA
on what makes tomorrow’s billionaires:



What is your take on the state of African entrepreneurship today? Is enough being done for young startups?



There are a lot of business opportunities in Africa that do
not exist in other parts of the world, yet Africa is seen as a poor continent.
The employment constraints in the formal sector in Africa have made it
impossible for it to meet the demands of the continent’s working population of
which over 60% are the youth. Therefore, it is imperative we harness the
potential of Africa’s youth to engage in entrepreneurship and provide adequate
assistance to enable them to succeed. 



Several governments have been working to provide a conducive
atmosphere which will promote entrepreneurship on the continent. However, there
is still a lot more to be done in ensuring that the potential of these young
entrepreneurs are maximized to the fullest. Some of the challenges young
startups in Africa face are as follows: lack of access to finance/insufficient
capital; lack of infrastructure; bureaucratic bottlenecks and tough business
regulations; inconsistent government policies; dearth of entrepreneurial
knowledge and skills; lack of access to information and competition from
cheaper foreign alternatives.



It is therefore imperative that governments,
non-governmental agencies, and the financial sectors work together to
ameliorate these challenges itemized above. 



The governments of African nations should provide and
strengthen its infrastructure (power, roads and telecom); they should encourage
budding entrepreneurs by ensuring that finance is available to businesses with
the potential for growth and also commit to further improving their business
environments through sustained investment; there must also be a constant push
for existing policies and legislation to be reviewed to promote business
activities. 



These policies must also be enforced, and punitive measures
put in place to deter offenders; government regulations should also be flexible
to constantly fit the dynamics of the business environment; corruption and
unethical behavior must be decisively dealt with and not treated with kid
gloves. We must empower our judicial system to enable them to prosecute erring
offenders with appropriate sanctions meted out. There should be no “sacred
cows” or “untouchables”. The same law must be applied to all, no matter their
state or position in the society; non-governmental organizations can also
provide support for them through training and skills acquisition programs that
will help build their capacity; they could also provide finance to grow their
businesses; more mentorship programs should be encouraged, and incubators of
young enterprises should be supported by public policy aimed at improving the
quality of these youths and their ventures; and also, avenues should be created
where young entrepreneurs will be able to connect, learn and share ideas with
already successful well-established entrepreneurs.



What, according to you, are the attributes needed for tomorrow’s billionaires?



There is no overnight success. You must start by dreaming
big and working towards achieving it. You must be determined to succeed despite
all odds. Do not allow your setbacks or failures to stop you but rather make
them your stepping stone. Develop your strengths to attain excellence and be
tenacious, never give up on your dream or aspiration. Your word must be your
bond. You must make strong ethical values and integrity your watchword. Always
act professionally and this will enable you to build confidence in your
customers and clients.&nbsp;

DK6Q2712b

How To Become A Billionaire: Nigeria’s Oil Baroness Folorunso Alakija On What Makes Tomorrow’s Billionaires

There is a new shift to agriculture in Nigeria, but in its semi-arid rural parts, the feud for land and resources between farmers and nomadic herdsmen continues to threaten its future.



IN 2018, DANIEL JAMES WAS seated in St. Augustine’s Church in the rural middle belt of Nigeria. By his side in the congregation were his two sisters, and a handful of family members. They were mourning the demise of his father, Paul James, a 70-year-old farmer who was shot in the head in the dead of night when Fulani herdsmen attacked his village. 



“We woke up in the middle of the night to gun shots. They entered my father’s hut and we heard multiple shots and we immediately hid under the bed and waited until they left the area,” says James. 



His father fought for his life in intensive care for two weeks before succumbing to his wounds. The clashes between armed herdsmen and farmers in Nigeria have been escalating for years. The increasingly violent episodes are as a result of a battle for scarce resources that have invariably stirred up long-held tensions over religion and ethnicity. 



The alleged disputes between mostly Christian farmers and Muslim herdsmen have been exacerbated by climate change and desertification, which have caused herdsmen to migrate south in search of resources to feed their cattle and livestock. 



Their quest for survival has in turn angered the local population, leading to attacks and reprisals. Jonathan Ajioko, a local churchgoer, also mourned his mother and brother in a similar attack in 2018 in Mbalom, Benue State. 



“My village is a quiet village and nobody thought something like this would ever happen. They were in church when the attack happened. About 30 people died that day including women and children,” remembers Ajioko. 



Two days later, a group of men from his village, armed with guns, set up road blocks and gunned down anyone they suspected of being “Muslim or Fulani”. A total of 10 people died, according to Ajioko. The conflict is reportedly getting worse by the day. 



“This has become very rampant in local villages and it is still ongoing. These people are living in fear of attacks every day. The clashes have taken over 500 lives across various villages in Nigeria,” says Malo Usman, a leader of the Adara ethnic group. 



The competition for land is intense. On the one hand, herdsmen believe that the available grazing land has shrunk because farmers have settled on land that they have used for hundreds of years as grazing routes to move their cattle seasonally. 



On the other hand, farmers want swift and severe punishment to Fulani trespassers who trample on their soil with their herds of cattle. Even though agriculture still remains the largest sector of the Nigerian economy and employs two-thirds of the entire labor force according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the ensuing conflicts have led to major production hurdles for Africa’s most populous economy. 



According to the President of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, the African continent is spending about $35 billion on food imports alone resulting in a significant loss of jobs. By 2030, the size of the food and agriculture business in Africa will be worth a whopping $1 trillion. 



The sector has been hyped as Nigeria’s new salvation, ushering in a new era away from oil and embracing the power of its land resources. But therein lies the problem. The massive expansion of farming in Nigeria’s middle belt to meet this growing demand for food has cut access to grazing land for nomadic herders.



 “Land is always going to be static and will not increase, therefore, the competition is only growing bigger. So, the importance of raising grazing reserves and encouraging these herdsmen to settle down in them cannot be overemphasized,” says Ibrahim Abdullahi, Communications Manager for the Nigerian Association of Miyetti. 



The practice he refers to dates back to colonial times where areas of land were preserved for exclusive use by livestock. The Nigerian government’s Grazing Reserve Act of 1964 was aimed at tackling the problem of alienation of grazing land being faced by the pastoral population at the time. Under this act, an area would be created mainly in the northern part of Nigeria, exclusively for the Fulani herdsmen to graze their cattle. 



However, desertification of these rich lands led to encroachment by the Sahara Desert, leading to a scarcity of grazing pastures. Experts believe that in spite of these challenges, there needs to be federal and local government participation to map out a coherent policy to find new areas running throughout the country, exclusively for grazing. 



Thus, a new explanation for the violent clashes began to emerge. The growing violence, once traditionally blamed on religious or ethnic divisions, was now seen as a simple clash over resources, which according to Amnesty International, has claimed the lives of more than 3,600 people since 2016.



“We lived very well with the Christian community before but after the 2011 elections, the Fulani villages were attacked. They killed the Fulanis and destroyed our huts and cattle,” says a Fulani herdsman named Abdullahi.



 FORBES AFRICA reached out to Nigerian government sources but they were unavailable to comment on the issue. 



“The shift towards farming not only reflects Nigeria’s rapid population growth, but also successive governments’ efforts to diversify the economy away from its heavy reliance on oil,” says Adesina.



Furthermore, the plunge in oil prices, which sent the country into recession in 2016, means Nigeria has no choice but to return to the land and make agriculture the driver of economic diversification. But with nearly 200 million inhabitants, Nigeria’s population boom is putting pressure on its natural resources.



According to the Armed Conflict Location &amp; Event Data Project, clashes between herding and farming communities in 2018 have killed more people than the conflict involving the Islamist insurgent group, Boko Haram. This rural conflict is a raging issue that still awaits resolution. Without any apparent political will, the reconciliation between herders and farmers remains a distant prospect.

Men seen on a farm close to the bank of River Benue in Makurdi

Cattle, Crops, And Killings

Chika Uwazie helps small and medium businesses find the right people and scale up with more sophisticated human resource systems in Nigeria’s booming economy. 



Nigeria is projected to add no fewer than
200 million people to its current population of 196 million between 2018 and
2050. The country is also expected to surpass the United States (US), according
to a 2019 Nigerian economic outlook report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
With such a swell in its population, the need to find the right talent has
become a strategic imperative for organizations. 



That is where Chika Uwazie comes in. The
31-year-old tech entrepreneur helps SMEs automate their human resources (HR)
tasks to ensure they have the right processes in place to help them scale and
be successful. Her own journey to success has been far from easy. The
Georgetown University graduate, who spent 10 years as a competitive cheerleader
in the US, made the decision to relocate to Nigeria after her little sister
died due to complications from sickle cell anemia. 



“When everything happened with my sister, I
was at a crossroads. I had finished Georgetown and when you finish from a big
school like that, you go into consulting with one of the big four. I said I
don’t want to do that because that was not enough. I used to always get excited
and light up when I spoke to my sister and we spoke about potentially starting
something in tech and building a tech company,” says Uwazie.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-medium"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="233" height="300" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/53743431_10101002861460225_7087836493951008768_n-1-233x300.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-42567" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/53743431_10101002861460225_7087836493951008768_n-1-233x300.jpg 233w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/53743431_10101002861460225_7087836493951008768_n-1-300x386.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/53743431_10101002861460225_7087836493951008768_n-1-600x772.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/53743431_10101002861460225_7087836493951008768_n-1-796x1024.jpg 796w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/53743431_10101002861460225_7087836493951008768_n-1-768x988.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/53743431_10101002861460225_7087836493951008768_n-1-1194x1536.jpg 1194w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/53743431_10101002861460225_7087836493951008768_n-1.jpg 1492w" sizes="(max-width: 233px) 100vw, 233px" /><figcaption> Chika Uwazie. Photo provided</figcaption></figure></div>



After her sister’s death, Uwazie decided to
take the leap and build a company that was not only profitable but also made an
impact. She started a tech company called TalentBase, a HR software company
that provides an affordable and easy-to-use HRM platform solution enabling HR
managers and growing businesses to simplify and organize their HR processes.
Uwazie was determined not to let the vision she shared with her sister die. But
first, she needed funding.&nbsp; 



“As you know, it is very hard for black
people to raise money in the US, the bars are extremely high. I felt it would
not necessarily be easier in Africa but I felt I would have more support if I
came back to Nigeria to start a tech company and so that is why I came. And I
felt like I wanted to have an impact. Tech is so oversaturated in the US and I
felt like in Nigeria, there are so many things that need to be done.”



After almost a year of knocking on the
doors of prospective investors, Uwazie got her big break through a colleague at
Google who connected Uwazie with 500 Startups, a Silicon Valley-based venture
capital firm, which provided funding and support. The program required Uwazie
to stay in San Francisco for six months, after which she was able to
successfully raise more angel investment a year later to scale her business.
This year, Uwazie stepped down from the CEO position at TalentBase to move on
to her next venture, Career Queen.



“In Africa, and not just Nigeria, there is
a human capital problem. Throughout the time I was running TalentBase, everyone
kept complaining to me about how it was difficult to find good talent and this
is why I started Career Queen, which is my second wind of entrepreneurship. It
has been a crazy growth cycle and I didn’t realize how challenging recruitment
is in Africa,” says Uwazie.



She spends most of her time recruiting
C-suite executives and executive assistants for organizations in Africa, with a
particular focus on women. And according to Uwazie, the numbers don’t lie.



“It has been proven, companies that hire
women are 30% more profitable than those who do not have women in the team. The
aim is to also get women a seat at the board table. A huge part of my vision
now is starting this movement among women, making an impact in organizations
and finding great talent for organizations.” 



Only if there were more who thought like
her.

GettyImages-1135564516

Female tech entrepreneur helps SMEs automate their human resources

Charles Oronsaye started out with a career in law and music before the fashion business, and is now painstakingly growing his brand to craft couture for all Africans.  



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Charles Oronsaye chose fashion as a career not because he was passionate about it, but simply because he didn’t want to become a lawyer. A rebel since his early years, he tried his hand at various professions, including music. 



“I wanted to prove to my parents that I was not a good for nothing,” says Oronsaye. 



And that is exactly what he did. His original dream was to study in Malaysia but due to his parents’ break-up, an outcome of financial misfortune, Oronsaye had to find other ways to make ends meet.



“My dad wanted me to go into the sciences but I never liked it because I was more interested in the arts. My dad said if I was going to the arts, I should go to the apex, which is why I studied law at the University of Benin. I wanted to explore three things: music, law and computer science.” 



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">&#8220;I saved a little and with my uncle&#8217;s money, I decided I was going to start a fashion business, but I didn&#8217;t know how.</blockquote>



Music turned out to be his first love. Oronsaye created his
alter ego, Tony Cream, and began taking part in music competitions and even got
shortlisted as a finalist to be an MTV video jockey. The popularity he gained
from his creative endeavors landed him a gig on the local radio station where
he began to leverage his position as an intern to make ends meet while still
pursuing a law degree at university. 



“I got exploited on the radio. I was not getting paid because there was a culture that you don’t get paid as an intern and I worked there for two years without being paid,” says Oronsaye. 



But what he lost in earnings, he gained in a strong fan
following. With an audience of about 5,000 followers on Blackberry Messenger at
the time, Oronsaye decided to monetize his platform. His opportunity came when
his uncle gave him N100,000 ($276) to complete his final year at university.



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/entrepreneurs/2019/10/02/owning-the-african-narrative/">Owning The African Narrative</a>



“Growing up, I still had a sense of fashion. I could tweak everything I saw to my style and people would love it. I understood early that almost all ideas are not original. I saved a little and with my uncle’s money, I decided I was going to start a fashion business, but I didn’t know how.”



The plan was simple. Oronsaye noticed there was a need for
personalization in the fashion industry. He knew that fueled by social media
and the Generation Z effect, luxury was rapidly becoming not about what you
have, but who you are, and all that helps you project that image. 



Buyers in 2010 no longer wanted monogrammed collections of
expensive things, but instead, unique pieces that offered them exclusivity.
Thus, Tony Cream Fashion was born. Oronsaye’s idea was thus: “So, I will go to
the market and ask ‘who is the best person here’, and I say ‘this is my idea,
can you do this for me’ and they say ‘ok’. I would ask ‘how much will they
charge and I will double the price on the one condition, that ‘you will train
me also’.” 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="637" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/IMG_7938-1-1024x637.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-42435" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/IMG_7938-1-1024x637.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/IMG_7938-1-300x187.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/IMG_7938-1-600x373.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/IMG_7938-1-768x478.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/IMG_7938-1-1536x955.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/IMG_7938-1.jpg 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



With over 5,000 contacts, Oronsaye had no need for a physical store. He would simply take the photos of his new creations and post them online, and the orders would come thick and fast.



“I started making money and kept developing from the online
base to real-time base. People began to know me but people needed to have a
brick-and-mortar place where they could find me. I couldn’t do it in Benin so I
needed to go to a place where I could flourish, so I moved to Lagos,” says
Oronsaye.



Lagos is currently one of the most exciting fashion
destinations in Africa, with the likes of Michelle Obama, Solange, Beyoncé and
Lupita Nyong’o all supporting Nigerian designers. 



To thrive in this competitive environment, Oronsaye had to
create a bigger vision. And Africana Couture was born.



“So, I took my iPad and my [photo] collection that I shot myself, and I would go to luxury hotels like Sheraton and Oriental, and I would approach everybody I met that I felt was my ideal client. When I approached them, I would say ‘hey, this is what I make’. Of every ten people, five would give me their cards and three would order and maybe two or one out of empathy, would make an advance payment to just support me.”



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/life/2019/10/31/conscious-fashion-so-much-more-you-can-do-with-discarded-clothes/">Conscious Fashion: ‘So Much More You Can Do With Discarded Clothes’</a>



His formula worked and soon, people began to talk about Oronsaye’s products. The business, which began on Blackberry Messenger, is today on course to become an established Nigerian fashion brand with the opening of its flagship retail store in Abuja.



“We are launching our Africana X which will be the Africana experience store. Because couture is quite expensive, I built a brand of kaftan that’s more affordable but without the same level of detailing&#8230; The goal is to build stores across Africa and change the narrative, which is clothes for Africans by Africans,” says Oronsaye. 



Pieces are from $400 for a bespoke kaftan and Oronsaye has
added new creations including an innerwear line as well as his own fabrics. But
the journey has not been easy. 



Like many industries in Nigeria, Oronsaye is plagued by the
power crisis as well as a lack of technical knowhow in the sector and negative
consumer behavior.



“The average African will give value to Gucci and Zara
because they come from overseas but then when it comes to you, because they can
see your label, they begin to devalue you.” 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="803" height="1024" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/IMG_7913-1-803x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-42436" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/IMG_7913-1-803x1024.jpg 803w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/IMG_7913-1-300x382.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/IMG_7913-1-600x765.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/IMG_7913-1-235x300.jpg 235w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/IMG_7913-1-768x979.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/IMG_7913-1-1205x1536.jpg 1205w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/IMG_7913-1.jpg 1506w" sizes="(max-width: 803px) 100vw, 803px" /></figure>



In spite of all these challenges, Oronsaye is more
determined to provide quality products with a global vision.



“Africana means Africa is beyond the jungle of lions and
mountains. “Africa is a spirit. I chose Africana because I have a vision to
clothe Africa in the long run.”&nbsp;

Photo Credit George Okoro1

Haute And Happening

Stephan Eyeson started a basketball business at the age of 19. That venture failed, so he tried the data business instead. He is working and playing hard.



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First, the facts.



Africa has a data problem. For all the talk about data being
the new oil, the continent comprises about 12.5% of the world’s population but
only accounts for less than 1% of research output, according to global
information and analytics firm, Elsevier. 



And Survey 54, an AI mobile survey platform solving the problem of data collection on the continent, wants to offer a solution. Founded by Stephan Eyeson, Survey 54 focuses on providing good quality data essential for governments and private businesses to accurately plan, fund and evaluate their activities.



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/entrepreneurs/2019/10/02/owning-the-african-narrative/">Owning The African Narrative</a>



“Data in Africa is such a prevalent problem, in a sense of
when you are going to start up a business, it is hard for you to get consumer
data on say ‘how many people eat out in Lagos every day? what is the
transactional value? what are the types of things that people eat? what do they
want to eat etc?’ All these things are available in the West but for people who
want to move into Africa for business, how do they get their data to make their
decisions and how do we make it really easy for them and not just for a startup
but for even governments and larger businesses,” says Eyeson.



Fresh out of a master’s program in innovation and management from Loughborough University in the United Kingdom (UK), Eyeson joined Survey Monkey, an online survey development cloud-based software as a service company, as part of the team responsible for building their enterprise function in London as well as looking after customers in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa). After learning the ropes, he decided to branch out to start his own company to offer a more robust and tailored solution for the African market.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"> &#8220;For people who want to move into Africa for business, how do they get their data to make their decisions and how do we make it really easy for them?&#8221; </blockquote>



“The problem around data in Africa and emerging markets is a
massive one. So, for us, it’s about how do we become a data platform not just
for a company but for governments to help them understand their people easier.”



Data is the first step. Then you need intelligence around
that data to enable you to make objective analysis that will shape your
decision-making process, as well as provide the foundation for policy-making
and budgeting.



“Instead of hiring an agency to go to Ghana and do a face-to-face interview, for example, we look at how governments can get mobile data faster and then how they are able to manipulate that data to get the results they need,” says Eyeson.



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/entrepreneurs/2019/10/07/the-100-trillion-opportunity-the-race-to-provide-banking-to-the-worlds-poor/">The $100 Trillion Opportunity: The Race To Provide Banking To The World’s Poor</a>



Due to the dearth of knowledge, Eyeson’s unique
understanding for the data space is relied on by many startups and larger
businesses who depend on his expertise to drive results in Africa. 



“Stephan has great expertise in strategy and high-level
corporate business development. Survey 54 has and will be instrumental for
companies to make decisions within Africa and emerging markets, making it
easier to use and understand consumer data. A platform like Survey 54 is
essential for companies operating on the continent,” says Nana Adomako, head of
UK &amp; Ghana growth at Taptap Send.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="683" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/BYRIGBY-980-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-41956" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/BYRIGBY-980-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/BYRIGBY-980-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/BYRIGBY-980-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/BYRIGBY-980-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/BYRIGBY-980.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



Born to Ghanaian parents in London, Eyeson’s first stint at entrepreneurship began in his early years at university, when his dream to become a professional basketball player was shattered.



“I had a scholarship into America for basketball and that
scholarship was taken away due to some technicality with my results so I
couldn’t go and so I started a basketball business instead when I was 19. It
helped Americans play in Europe and Europeans play in America. I made the
system easier. So, players paid a monthly fee to get seen and coaches paid to
get access to talent.” 



But unfortunately, the business failed to take off because the market was not big enough for Eyeson to remain profitable. 



The data business, on the other hand, is huge: worldwide
revenues for data and business analytics are forecast to reach $189 billion
this year and $274.3 billion by 2022, according to technology market research
firm IDC. Even though Survey 54 is in its first full year of business, the
company has already secured contracts with multinationals like Colgate, amongst
many others.



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/entrepreneurs/2019/04/30/a-germ-of-an-idea/">A Germ Of An Idea</a>



“I was one of Survey 54’s first clients and it has been a
pleasure watching Stephan grow the company into what it is today, working with
some of the world’s largest brands. 



“There is a significant lack of data in the region so the
need for a sophisticated data insight product is essential and I believe
Stephan’s mission-driven leadership style will enable the company to become one
of the largest software businesses driving investments to the content,” says
Yvonne Bajela, Principal and Founding Member at Impact X Capital.



The company has recently secured a spot on the coveted
Startupbootcamp platform in Cape Town. While Survey 54 is trying to secure a
first-mover lead in data on the continent, challenges remain. As the company
scales, they will need to overcome the language barrier across the African
continent and learn to interpret data by bringing the cultural context into the
surveys organizations are seeking.



Eyeson has his eyes set on moving into the US markets as a
long-term plan, but for now, the goal is transferring the abundant and
ubiquitous asset of data in Africa into millions for his startup.

BYRIGBY-990

Having A Ball With Data

The founder of some of Nigeria’s best-known startups on the
mistakes and the millions that made him click in the technology business.



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Sometimes, the simplest business ideas can come from strange
places, or even strangers. 



In his first year studying law at Waterloo University in
Canada, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji was approached by a stranger who asked to stay in his
house.



&nbsp;“I was like ‘I don’t
know you, you have long hair and you are white; I don’t know about this’, but I
said, ‘ok cool’, and he stayed over and we became good friends.”



About a year later, Pierre, the friend, decided to head to Silicon Valley for his cooperative education term. 



READ MORE | <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Entrepreneurship Funds In Africa: Distinguishing The Good From The Bad (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2019/05/09/entrepreneurship-funds-in-africa-distinguishing-the-good-from-the-bad/" target="_blank">Entrepreneurship Funds In Africa: Distinguishing The Good From The Bad</a>



“He told me about this amazing world of Silicon Valley, tech
and investments, and I was sold. A few months later, we decided to start our
own tech company called bookneto.com,” says Aboyeji.



It was a platform that enabled students to download past
examination questions and work with a team of people at the school to help
answer them.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 



The company did decently for three years until it got sued
by the university, but at least that marked a turning point in Aboyeji’s
entrepreneurial life.



It turned out that the intellectual property for past examination questions belonged to the professors at Waterloo University, a fact that was “unknown” to the pair of entrepreneurs and they were found “guilty of piracy”. The venture was eventually sold to a professor who wanted to teach students not enrolled on campus, for a small fee.



READ MORE | <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="$10 million for Africa’s next great entrepreneurs (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/entrepreneurs/2019/03/30/10-million-for-africas-next-great-entrepreneurs/" target="_blank">$10 million for Africa’s next great entrepreneurs</a>



“We had it for three years, and by this time, I had
graduated and looking for a new adventure and I was pretty sure I did not want
to run another business in Canada, so I had started looking at other markets
and Africa was a big one for me, Nigeria in particular,” says Aboyeji.



After graduating, he returned to Nigeria in 2013. 



His proclivity for identifying opportunities inducted him
into the world of massive open online courses (MOOCs). The dominant players at
the time were Coursera and Udacity. 



According to a report by Component, globally, the MOOCs
market is estimated to hit $20.8 billion by 2023. Aboyeji wanted in. He set up
a company in Abuja called Fora.com focused on incorporating MOOCs into the
university environment especially for courses that were relevant but not provided
by Nigerian universities due to a lack of quality resources.



“I was very naïve. I imagined that it would be a breeze to build that business and learned the hard way that anything regulated doesn’t operate rationally. So, the regulators didn’t give me any approvals and universities were skeptical and didn’t want to be laid off so it didn’t work out. We ended up pivoting that business and ended up selling online MBAs instead. Our typical clients were young bank managers who wanted to get an MBA or advanced degree courses to improve their chances of being promoted,” says Aboyeji.



READ MORE | <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Why Now Is The Time To Invest In African E-commerce (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/opinion/2019/05/23/why-now-is-the-time-to-invest-in-african-e-commerce/" target="_blank">Why Now Is The Time To Invest In African E-commerce</a>



The firm began to gain some traction. People were paying for
the application courses and Aboyeji decided to pilot a loan program where
financial institutions would offer loans to students.



“So, we were making money but it wasn’t popping off. I went
to New York with the team because we had just gotten some new funding and we
had to meet the new investors. I had met a guy named Jeremy Johnson when he was
in Nigeria earlier so I pinged him and told him what we wanted to do. I wanted
to learn from his experiences. He agreed to meet for coffee in New York.”



During their meeting, Johnson expressed his idea about a new
form of education geared towards skills rather than degrees. Aboyeji also
talked about unemployment in Nigeria and how that represented a massive
opportunity. 



It was a match made in heaven.



“One of the things he told me was that he could not find a
sales force engineer for $150,000 in New York. They just didn’t exist so I said,
‘man, I can train you sales force engineers’. And he said ‘if you decide you
are going to pivot, what you are doing or adding to it… I would fund you and I
will be chairman and we can do this together’. So, I said ‘someone is going to
fund you to do a new business, why not’.”



Aboyeji had just stumbled on a new gold mine and Andela was
born. He started with one person and began teaching him how to code. He
repurposed the team from Fora into coding masters, bid masters and operational
staff, and shifted the focus of Fora because they had the flexibility to do it.



“I don’t think at the time we had any idea how big what we
were doing was. We did the first one, it was semi-successful, we trained the
next four, which was really good. We put out a job description saying no
experience required, we will pay you to learn how to program and we had over
700 applicants off Twitter and we knew we had something.” 



They whittled down to about four or five people that completed that program. To find work for his new coders, Aboyeji used Upwork, the popular freelance jobsite, to bid for jobs. 



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“We didn’t know anybody, so we bid for jobs, executed it and before we knew it, we had about 150 people in the room. That was how the transition happened from Fora to Andela,” says Aboyeji.</blockquote>



The company has since gone on to raise $180 million in
venture funding from the likes of Mark Zuckerberg and other notable investors
from Silicon Valley. Aboyeji left the company after three years in search of
his next adventure but is still a major shareholder in Andela. 



That voyage led him to co-found Flutterwave, an integrated
payments platform for Africans to make and accept any payment, anywhere from
across Africa and around the world. Under his watch, the company processed 100
million transactions worth $2.5 billion. 



Turning his eyes firmly on future opportunities has led
Aboyeji to set up his own family office called Street Capital, with a focus on
identifying passionate and experienced missionary entrepreneurs with the
integrity and courage to flawlessly execute in Africa. 



With a solid track-record of unearthing diamonds in the
rough, Aboyeji hopes to empower the next generation of African entrepreneurs to
achieve their fullest potential and help build some of Africa’s fastest-growing
and most-impactful tech businesses.

Iyinoluwa-Aboyeji-2-1-2

The Maverick In Tech

In the alphabet soup of regional African trade blocs, will
the AfCFTA ease the cost of doing business on the continent?



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



Ghana has been named the host of the African Continental
Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) following four years of talks to form a 55-nation
trade bloc. It will be the base for the AfCTA secretariat.



The opportunities for Africa with this new trade bloc are immense. The Economist Intelligence Unit estimates that the AfCFTA will create the world’s largest continental free-trade area, provided all 55 African Union (AU) members join, and has the potential to create an African single market of 1.2 billion consumers whilst eliminating about 90% of tariffs on goods over the next five years. 



So far, 44 African countries have signed up for the historic agreement, the world’s largest free trade area since the formation of the World Trade Organization.



READ MORE | <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Amid Trade Wars, What Africa Must Do (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/technology/2019/07/26/amid-trade-wars-what-africa-must-do/" target="_blank">Amid Trade Wars, What Africa Must Do</a>



The AfCFTA is expected to boost the economies of African
countries through employment creation and the promotion of made-in-Africa
goods. But Kayode Akindele, a partner at TIA Capital, a pan-African investment
partnership focussed on credit-based investing across sub-Saharan Africa, is
not opening up the bubbly just yet.



“We already have ECOWAS [Economic Community of West African
States] which doesn’t seem to be working and so why don’t we sort that out
first before we enter a continental trade agreement for Africa?”



And he is not alone in his concerns. 



“There are other factors we need to also consider. Firstly, with the implementation of the AfCFTA, goods made in other continents could be disguised as made-in-Africa to qualify for duty free treatment. There could also be a reduction in government revenue and also this trade bloc also threatens the profitability and survival of infant industries,” says Vincent Acheampong, an economist based in the United Kingdom.



READ MORE | <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Ghana Hopes To Benefit From Hosting Africa’s Free Trade Area Secretariat (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/travel/2019/07/23/ghana-hopes-to-benefit-from-hosting-africas-free-trade-area-secretariat/" target="_blank">Ghana Hopes To Benefit From Hosting Africa’s Free Trade Area Secretariat</a>



Of the regional blocs in Africa, including EAC (East African
Community) and SADC (Southern African Development Community), the ECOWAS has
some way to go in terms of performance, according to Muda Yusuf, the Director
General of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in an interview with
CNBC Africa. But he believes there is still reason to be optimistic.



“A continental trading bloc is going to build on the success
of the regional blocs like ECOWAS and other blocs across Africa. So, this
integration is going to build on those blocs. In terms of performance, of
course ECOWAS is the least performing because East Africa is doing very well
and South Africa is doing far better also. But there is no perfect time for
things like this, what is important is for us to get a conviction that economic
integration will work for us and also if we can get our institutions to make it
work,” says Yusuf.



Amongst the many challenges of the ECOWAS is its failure to
implement its vision of a single currency, the ECO, which is part of its plans
to make Africa a more integrated continent. That vision has been postponed
several times by the 15-member group with the newest target date set for 2020
although most experts believe the date to be unrealistic.



The success of the AfCFTA requires not only a trade policy but also a manufacturing agenda, competition, industrial policies and property rights to work well according to Vera Songwe, the Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, in a statement at the launch event that took place in Niamey, Niger. 



READ MORE | <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Trade Wars: We’re Next, European Investors Fear (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/current-affairs/2019/01/30/trade-wars-were-next-european-investors-fear/" target="_blank">Trade Wars: We’re Next, European Investors Fear</a>



The ninth edition of the flagship Assessing Regional
Integration in Africa report (ARIA IX) stipulates that AfCFTA’s success will be
due to its ability to actually change lives, reduce poverty and contribute to
economic development in Africa. 



In support of the new trade bloc, Ghanaian President Nana
Akufo-Addo pledged to donate $10 million to the AU to support the operationalization
of the secretariat of the AfCFTA.



Although the AfCFTA will be economically transformative for
Africa in the long-term, the immediate benefits will be restricted due to the
macro-economic uncertainties of regional trade.



“Most African countries are currently not producing the
goods and services that their neighbors import, as a result we do not trade a
lot with each other. It is easier for an African country to trade with a
country in Europe than a country that lies right next to it and these low
levels of intra-African trade need to be addressed before we can reap the full
benefits of the AfCFTA,” says Acheampong.

Author: Peace Hyde

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA