It made a thundering entry in 2010, turning heads with those iconic gullwing doors and wheel-spinning performances without the hint of a turbo.
I loved its raw, rumbling power and obnoxious presence. I smiled modestly when crowds gathered at shopping centers – only to find out that they really wanted to see the gullwing doors in full flight.
And then they giggled rudely as I extricated my two-meter frame from the low-slung cockpit.
The SLS, in various guises from Blackbird, to Roadster to the Final Edition last year, sold well and still seemed to have many more years before its sell-by date.
But she has gone. So goodbye SLS and hello AMG GT.
But here’s the good news. AMG have developed their second in-house sports car, with matching performance and more refined driving and racing features, which will leave you with about $75,000 in your back pocket.
The difference is that you won’t be driving a so-called supercar, which comes as a huge relief because it is the most difficult word to define.
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So a Nissan GT-R, with the performance to embarrass virtually all the Italian hotties, is a mere sports car while it seems anything with a price tag of $250,000 or more is a supercar?
The two-seater AMG GT, kicking off at a shade over $120,000, puts you squarely in the classic sports car fold where the Porsche 911, the Jaguar F-Type R, the Audi R8 V10 and the daring BMW i8 are just some of the rivals in hot pursuit.
And thank goodness the AMG GT doesn’t feature those fly-through doors – after all, that look goes back to the 1950s. And they’re bad for your back!
It is being labeled as the 911 fighter and it could give you a headache trying to decide between the two. That’s if having a couple of back seats isn’t a major consideration.
While most sports car manufacturers have busied themselves with making their steeds look more menacing with toothy bear grilles, the Porsche people have focused on classy, flowing lines. This is not a physique that lays down the gauntlet at the lights.
The Merc does have a more macho look with sculpted and slanted LED high performance headlights nestling next to the three-dimensional “diamond” radiator grille and above the daunting Airbus A380-like air intakes.
Head of Design, Gordon Wagener, calls it a “setting in which the driver can experience the consummate combination of beauty and intelligence.”
The design ethic extends to the interior with the cockpit and controls being compared to a fighter jet – albeit a lot more sophisticated and comfortable!
As you pour yourself into the hip-hugging driver’s seat, you are embraced by the high wing-like center console and fairly close windscreen which make you feel like an integral part of the GT’s DNA.
The controls are conveniently spaced on the inclined V-shaped center panel and it’s a huge relief that Merc didn’t opt for the gear lever on the steering wheel. So wrong for a performance car!
I couldn’t understand why some scribes complain that the gear lever it is set too far back on the center panel… then I remembered that my seat is virtually pinned to the boot! So perfectly designed for me – if not for my wallet!
But it’s under the protracted bonnet that the real difference between the SLS and the GT is discovered.
Out goes the naturally aspirated 6.2-liter V8 and in comes the new 4.0-liter bi-turbo produced under the “one man, one engine” principle.  In sheer calculation, it’s not quite such a powerful brute, but test it on the track and you are left in no doubt that the GT is ferociously fast and the handling is much more precise.
With a dab of your right foot you are rewarded with a kick in the back akin to lighting the boosters of a Lightning fighter jet. The GT will hurtle you to the ton in four seconds and the S shaves off an extra two-tenths of a second.
I hope you don’t test the top speed of 304 km/h along Sandton Drive. You have to keep a beady eye on the speedo with this Merc as it tends to gallop when you think it is at a canter – and the traffic cops don’t see this as a valid excuse…
What is a sports car without an aural accompaniment and the throaty roar, which makes Metallica sound effeminate, certainly hasn’t been lost in AMG’s second production.
Turbochargers don’t always improve the exhaust notes, but some careful tuning and variable exhaust flaps (activated at the flick of a switch) make sure that you keep the neighbors awake – and green with envy.
But the GT is also quite happy to quietly poodle along to the golf course on a Sunday morning. And, believe it or not, two sets of clubs can fit in the hatch-like boot.
What is in short supply is visibility. So if times are tight, scratch the Burmester high-end surround sound system at $5,500 off the extras list and get the reversing camera at a mere $400.
The Merc AMG GT is going to demand attention wherever you go and hitting a trolley at the shopping center is going to spoil the show.
The GT is just the start. A Roadster is on the drawing board, possibly a GT3, and expect more exciting variants to boost the division towards a target of 70,000 performance cars by 2017.
But the classic sports car niche is also competitive.
Jaguar has left behind any remnant of its conservative, regal image with the F-Type R V8, which has jaw-dropping looks and also blurs to 100 in around four seconds. It is in the performance and price range of the AMG GT.
And that’s where the Audi R8 V10 is just on the fringe of the classic pack. Audi has launched a new offering which is futuristic, angular and very Star Wars, which we will only see later this year. While the all-wheel drive car is bound to be swift (3.5 seconds or less) it will probably also push the classic sports car budget at a price of around $190,000.
So many decisions… so little time. And to present you with even more of a dilemma there is the BMW i8 gliding quietly onto the starting line.
It is the bravest production from BMW for many years with a galactically molded shell made from carbon fiber reinforced plastic. And the interior is just as evolutionary and exotic. You are given the alternative of going green or putting your right foot down and engaging all the horses – much to Al Gore’s disgust!
So there you have it. Spoiled for choice and what an enviable decision to make.
My virtual money is on the AMG GT. I was in love with the SLS and the GT comes in at an extremely combative price. All that was good about the SLS is enhanced and refined. What was questionable, like those gullwing doors, is siphoned off.
Maybe that’s why it is the World Performance Car of 2015.

Beauty And Intelligence  With A Kick

Alonely dirt road leads to a rustic farmhouse with old-fashioned shutters, wooden beams and creeping vines. By the entrance are a few ageing oak barrels, still sturdy and red from years of storing wine.
It is a fitting prelude to the man you are about to meet.
We are at Vriesenhof, a farm nestled between the Stellenbosch and Helderberg mountains in the Paradyskloof Valley of South Africa’s Western Cape. These winelands are rife with grapes and gossip, and boast a colorful cast of characters, mostly wine farmers who relate the valley’s stories, and often are stories themselves.
This is a world where wine and winning are spoken of in the same breath.
And in this cavernous house, a remodeled 18th century cellar, Jan Boland Coetzee, the renowned Springbok rugby player and venerable vintner, exemplifies both.
Within seconds of meeting him on this impromptu visit, Coetzee shows he is a true son of the soil. It is a warm April. Barefoot and brisk, in beige shorts, he darts from the living room, to the kitchen, to the backyard – where his elder daughter Hanle, who lives close by, is earnestly laying out tables for an evening do at the house.
In the kitchen – shelves laden with wine bottles – there are sizzling sounds on the stove, followed by the aroma of – possibly – deep-fried fish cakes. Coetzee is issuing instructions to a few laborers at the back. He soon returns to sit at the large yellowwood dining table, decked with flowers in vases set like a Vincent van Gogh painting.
Originally Dutch, Coetzee says his ancestors came to the Cape in 1679. It is here, in this valley at the foot of the Stellenbosch mountains, that he learned the game of rugby and the art of making wine.
Coetzee purchased Vriesenhof in 1980 – “for its south-facing slopes on the cooler side of the foothills” – and has been here since, cultivating plantings of cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot, pinotage and pinot noir, sold under the labels of Vriesenhof and Paradyskloof.
“I love to take pride in what is ours, what is South African,” says the valley’s doyen of pinotage.
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“I focused on pinotage when I was young, as it is the only grape variety since its birth that has really taken on a commercial collective in the world of wine. And if it is doing well, it means we are proud of it, because it is born under the African sun, it is performing under the African sun, and we take pride because we believe it is ours.”
Coetzee pauses between words and sentences, but when he speaks, he makes you feel the earth around you: the air, the sun, the soil. Clearly, it is his territory – and terroir.
“Wine is a mirror of the environment first and foremost, because it is a product of the soil. In that, lies our future. Man needs to understand the soil, the plant, to put it in its right place in the right environment to give it its best. And the more you care, the better it gets,” he says.
The man has a deep love for the farm, and is happy just to be in it – with his glass of chardonnay.
“I love what I am doing, I love the farm, and I love drinking good wine. It’s as simple as that,” says the sprightly 70-year-old whose days on the 85-hectare farm begin at 4AM.
Coetzee studied oenology and viticulture at Stellenbosch University.
“I didn’t become a vet so I became a viticulturist. It’s amazing how many winemakers wanted to become vets,”
he laughs.
“I still have the record for writing the most exams before I passed. So I have a very broad knowledge. Like the wooden barrel, it’s [like] the un-opening of old wine.”
While still a student, Coetzee became captain of the university’s Under-18 rugby team.
“Everyone in South Africa plays rugby from a young age,” he says.
He played for his provincial team, Western Province, from 1967 to 1979, and played flank for the national team, the Springboks, from 1974 to 1976.
He stopped playing when a tour was cancelled in 1979 on account of apartheid when South African sport also took a hit.
“From a South Africa point of view, things were bad in terms of international rugby because of apartheid. We were isolated… When the tour was cancelled, I stopped playing and went to France in 1981 to work in a wine house in Burgundy for a year,” says Coetzee.
That was the tipping point. He returned wiser, and helped lift the profile of wine in Stellenbosch. Today, he sells his wine all over the world; Scandinavia is his biggest market.
Coetzee may have stopped playing rugby, but he uses it well in his wine analogies.
“We used to export 74 percent of our crop, but now try and get as close as possible. We do 50:50 local and export. Rugby has taught me to have two legs. If you kick [with] one leg, one can hopefully stand on the other,” he says.
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Coetzee vividly remembers that tear-jerking moment when Nelson Mandela handed the trophy to Springbok captain François Pienaar during the 1995 World Cup final. Coetzee was present, as a spectator.
“It was a special day, not only for sport but also for mankind. I remember that moment clearly. I can still see it.”
Coetzee has ensured his legacy – in both rugby and wine – lives on.
“My grandsons [between the ages of five to 10] all play rugby. They also made their first wine in 2015. Each of them has a barrel from the vintage of the year they were born in,” says Coetzee.
Divorced, Coetzee lives by himself. Fortunately, his four children are all into farming in some way, and visit frequently. His daughter Hanle says the most remarkable thing about her father is his humility.
“He has 40 years plus of experience of harvests and climates in the wine industry. He has seen good vintages, and bad. The new, younger winemakers are well-traveled, whereas in his time, the exposure and material were limited. He has old-world knowledge. If he drops dead tomorrow, it’s all gone, I don’t know how to capture it,” she says.
How much is he worth? Coetzee thinks long and hard, before answering: “I actually can’t put a number to it; we are not [into] numbers. We want to be loving and caring people, and that you can’t measure in currency. Money is an evil necessity. I am a big believer of the barter system – milk farmers and cheese farmers must drink wine, and I must eat cheese. They must produce meat, and they must drink wine. I try to convince all my farming colleagues in the mutton, beef, cheese, fish and lobster businesses to [barter].”
And are they listening? For sure, he says with certainty.
Coetzee has many admirers in the valley, across generations. About three kilometers from his Vriesenhof farmhouse, at the Kleine Zalze estate, its owner Kobus Basson, another Stellenbosch success, says Coetzee was instrumental in exposing him to the lifestyle around the wine business. He turned the rugby-playing lawyer into one of the region’s top wine farmers.
“Jan Coetzee is one of the characters of Stellenbosch, you can’t tell a wine story without him,” says the 57-year-old Basson of the senior entrepreneur.
“He is the type of guy [who] if there is snow in the mountains, would still walk in his short pants, with muscles like he has. He is a Stellenbosch legend, one of the five wine personalities that built this industry.”
Basson’s father was a figurehead in the local rugby club and that was his first connection with Coetzee. Plus, Basson’s initial 10-year legal practice ensured he interacted with most of the wine farmers.
“When you work with them, it’s like a friendship. Jan was the guy who spent a lot of time in France, and knew all the wine areas well. In 1996, I went with him and a few other prominent guys – while I was still a legal guy – on a trip to Argentina, and that gave me a completely different perspective of the industry. They were much ahead of us.”
Basson says South Africa’s wine industry matured only in the last 20 years. After he finished his law degree at Stellenbosch University, Basson took a year off to go to central Europe to be a rugby coach.
“I went there to play and coach and work on relationships, in what they called the European B-League rugby countries. It actually exposed me to other things – to wine, food and the lifestyle around it… I understood how the Germans, Dutch and French work in a different way with wine… I immediately got this idea about lifestyle and food and wine combinations.”
Returning to Stellenbosch, he practiced as a lawyer, and got into the wine business more by default than design.
“My wife came from a wine family, and told me she wanted to live on a farm. I said ‘forget it, I am not farming’. Eventually, in 1996, her brother was running the family farm, and was looking for an opportunity with a winery, and I told him about Kleine Zalze [that I had heard] was on the market. He asked me for money to pay the deposit, and that’s how I got involved. He said ‘in the meantime, you can have 50 percent share of it’, and before I realized, I was sucked into it, because this is a business that sucks in money, in terms of capital investment.”
They bought the 40-hectare farm and after the first harvest, signed up with importers from Britain, who had high expectations.
“I thought, ‘either you do it properly or bail out’. In retrospect, I can see how the year in Germany helped, how my friendship with Jan Coetzee formed me,” says Basson.
During the nineties in South Africa, golf and wine tourism was just starting, so he thought: “Why do we go to Tuscany and Provence, when we actually have everything here? Why can’t we create it here?”
It was hard work. Every day, for a decade, Basson woke up at 3AM.
“I had no choice. It was crazy and difficult years, the interest rates went up between 1998 and 2002. I had to invest my shares and everything I had. Cash flow was the challenge during those years; we had to slowly and steadily build this up.”
Today, Kleine Zalze is 280 hectares, including the wine estate, an 18-hole golf course, a 47-bedroom lodge and the award-winning Terroir restaurant with chef Michael Broughton. Basson says all the businesses are doing very well.
“We are doing well in terms of exports [too]; I would say we do more than 200,000 cases of Kleine Zalze wines a year. And we have won several awards,” he says.
Chenin blanc is the brand’s specialty.
The last season for wine tourism in Stellenbosch was wonderful, adds Basson, who is also a director of the Stellenbosch Wine Route.
“If we stay calm and focused, it’s a very exciting period ahead… We have done research and the interesting thing is they compared different regions, and Stellenbosch has by far the highest visitor return rate. We have guys who have come to Stellenbosch 18 years in a row. You won’t find [a place] more beautiful. You have no idea how sexy Stellenbosch is.”
And like any good sportsman, he says his greatest asset is his team.
“You need strong players in your team… [The wine industry] is a little bit like top-end sport. It’s so competitive, if you don’t play with your best team, you are not going to win.”
What is it they say about wine and winning in the valley? It’s the same thing. And Coetzee agrees.

Electrifying

The journey to a million dollars can start in Ikot-Ekpene, a town in southern Nigeria famous for its palm oil, kernels, yams, cassava, taro, corn and raffia. As a child, Mark Essien watched his father, a graduate of the social sciences with no vocational training, build makeshift machines for communal use, such as excavators to pump sand out of the river. A proclivity to build was sown in Essien. It bore fruit decades later and thousands of miles away, in Germany, where he was attending university.
Essien got a job as a night watchman. He had to closely observe the bodily movements of a paralyzed man, which could possibly be fatal. During these long nights, Essien taught himself computer programing. He soon developed a file-sharing software that was bought by Bertelsmann Media, a German multinational mass media corporation. Essien was also hired by the company. Soon, his skills were in high demand. He made a living, and financed his university studies, by selling software to Orange SA (then known as France Telecom), Walt Disney and the United States Armed Forces. Soon, he got bored.
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“I wanted to get out of buying and selling software products and move into start-ups. Start-ups are a different beast,” Essien says placidly while sitting in his office, a recently remodeled colonial building in Yaba, a suburb in Lagos.
This time, in between wrapping up his Bachelor’s degree and waiting to begin his Masters’, Essien, in collaboration with friends, launched a start-up based on iPhone apps. This was around the time when the iPhone was first introduced to the world. The business performed fairly well, but Essien sought a new challenge and handed the reins of the start-up to his co-founders.
He was looking for a bigger challenge – one that would allow him to play a role in the technology space on the continent. In January 2012, Hotels.ng became this challenge. The online business was formed as the infant tech industry was taking off in Nigeria, and in Africa. In a few years, a content streaming service, a flight booking platform, online malls, car dealerships, real estate directories and more have sprung up in Nigeria. Hotels.ng joined their ranks, providing online solutions for people in need of temporary accommodation in Nigeria, from Ikot-Ekpene in the south, to Sabon Gari in the north.
Hotels.ng was started with financial contributions from family and friends, as well as Essien’s personal money. Starting the business was easy, making it a success would be more difficult.
“We were very lucky that we had some capital available and we were able to raise it pretty quickly. We were able to raise $75,000 after three months of operations,” says Essien.
Usually, start-ups are not this fortunate. It is believed Essien had an unnamed investor when he launched. However, in the tech ecosystem, local investors are still hard to find. Essien thinks this is because they are not seeing other investors make massive returns. He also doesn’t think much of those running start-ups in the country today.
“Investors don’t invest in ideas, especially in Nigeria when there’s so much execution risk. Every start-up has been done somewhere else successfully so the idea is good but can the person build it? I don’t think enough smart and resourceful people are in the start-up space.”
It would seem Essien doesn’t belong in this category. A few months after launching, he was made an offer by Jason Njoku, founder of successful content streaming service, iROKOtv, and start-up incubator, SPARK. He turned it down, stating he wouldn’t need investment for the next six to twelve months as he had enough from his first seed round.
“There’s a philosophy I have that every start-up should follow. You must be able to build a business with what you have. If you are dependent, your business will be vulnerable. I’d rather take no money than take bad money,” says Essien.
Hotels.ng managed to grow independently and, in 2013, Essien decided to sell 35% to SPARK for $225,000. This year, Hotels.ng raised $1.2 million from the Omidyar Network, the investment vehicle of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, and EchoVC Pan-Africa Fund, a seed-stage technology fund.
The investment was a result of a six-month search, involving 60 to 70 investors who were interested in Africa. Essien insists, however, that the investment is not a magic wand and while some problems will disappear, bigger ones will take their place.
“Scaling a company up is extremely difficult. I have gone from me and one guy, to me and 49 people. You have to build structures, management. We need to understand what it means to have regional offices across Africa. We are going to start in Ghana. The stage we are in the market is still early. We have a bit of leeway to be slow on things. When you are faster than the market, it’s the quickest way to kill your business.”
Essien makes an interesting comparison. Before YouTube, there had been a number of video file-sharing platforms that were just as innovative. However, there was no global internet penetration to support their success. There were not enough people online, or even aware, to enjoy these sites. YouTube came at just the right time. Essien believes Hotels.ng must perfect such impeccable timing.
Although Essien’s journey, and that of his start-up, has only just begun, he knows where he is going.

Millions  That Came To The Entrepreneur Who Waited

When Henri Nyakarundi shut down his trucking business in the United States, he decided to return home to Rwanda. Back on the continent, his entrepreneurial instincts drove him to a novel business venture – solar-powered mobile phone charging kiosks.
Rwandans that return home with dollars in their pocket usually venture into businesses with a degree of comfort. Others prefer white-collar, eight-to-five jobs that the rapidly expanding Rwandan economy offers the western-educated young professionals.
Despite the pitfalls that start-ups face in Africa, Nyakarundi chose a different path. He is at the forefront of developing an energy business that few of his fellow Rwandans understand.
The light-bulb moment that gave birth to his latest venture occurred at an unlikely place for the 37-year-old metropolitan entrepreneur. In 2011, he noticed the difficulties that people in rural areas faced while trying to charge their mobile phones. The supply of electricity is expensive and often unreliable.
“Not only did it hit me that charging mobile phones in places that were not served by the national electricity grid offered me a unique opportunity to serve our people, I also realized that the lucky ones  to be connected to the national grid were finding the power supply to be expensive,” he says.
In Rwanda, electricity consumers are charged $0.22 per kilowatt hour (KWh). This is one of the highest electricity tariffs in the East African region where tariffs are usually between $0.08 and $0.10, according to the World Bank.
Rwanda’s high energy costs are partly attributed to the country’s dependency on expensive thermal resources. Experts say that Rwanda depends on diesel and heavy fuel oils for approximately 40% of the country’s 110MW installed energy capacity. The country imports 14.5MW. Hydropower accounts for 59% and methane gas 1%.
Armed with the statistics of the challenging energy situation in his country, Nyakarundi’s instincts told him that something needed to be done to help rural businesses.
After visiting family in rural areas, he decided to start the green energy company African Renewable Energy Distribution Co Ltd, otherwise known as ARED.
“My company seeks to offer stable and reliable energy solutions, using innovative solutions such as mobile solar cell chargers,” he says while sitting in his office in Kiyovu, a leafy suburb in Kigali.
His belief in his new venture was so strong that he invested more than $120,000 of his hard-earned cash into developing four prototypes of his solar-powered mobile phone charging kiosk.
“My solution serves as a one-stop kiosk for people who want to start a business but are unable to,” he says as he leads FORBES AFRICA to one of ARED’s latest prototypes, recently brought from the company’s contracting manufacturer in China.
To drive sales, ARED developed a cheap franchise model for its clients, who are largely low-income earners.
“The franchise model seeks to empower those languishing at the bottom of the economic pyramid using a technology that is simple, cost effective and has a flexible acquisition plan,” he says.
The mobile kiosk generates its own power, enabling a franchisee to sell airtime as well as provide other telecoms services such as the transfer of mobile money. The charging of phones or other electronic items is done for a minimal fee.
With the success that ARED has had so far, the next prototype will introduce extra features such as internet Wi-Fi technology. ARED charges franchisees $1,000 for the business unit. This includes the mobile kiosk, a point-of-sale system, phone charging accessories and a branded overall.
Franchisees are also given hands-on business training and offered transport. After acquisition of the kiosk, franchisees are expected to pay ARED a $50 monthly fee for after-sales services.
Although breaking into the market was not easy for Nyakarundi, he stuck to his guns. He knew he had something unique and vital to offer Rwandans.
His tenacity is paying off. ARED signed its first commercial deal with pan-African telecom operator Airtel. This will allow ARED to spread across Africa.
Nyakarundi expects to sell more than 500 units of his product over the next three years.
“Though the model has a social component attached to it, the business aspect was designed to be scaled for the entire continent,” he says.
Nyakarundi is part of a growing army of entrepreneurs emerging on the continent.
“Entrepreneurship is gaining momentum in Africa. Innovation is being scaled up and advances in ICT, and what telecoms operators are offering, is testimony that Africa’s enterprise culture is improving.”
He is fortunate that Rwanda is able to offer him a favorable launch pad for his business. Nyakarundi hopes to increase his mobile kiosks from 20 to more than 100 by next year.
Nyakarundi has grand visions for ARED. With the telecom sector booming in Africa, he is set on selling over 50,000 units over the next five years. South Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Kenya are his key target markets.
Like the sun shining over Africa’s plains, Nyakarundi’s future looks bright.

Charged With An Idea  To Make A Fortune

Aschool bag that doubles as a solar-powered light? You could expect the inventor to be a scientist.
Think again. Thato Kgatlhanye is a 22-year-old who studied art in high school and obtained a brand management degree at Vega School of Brand Leadership without studying a day of science. Kgatlhanye’s company, Repurpose Schoolbags, has won about $40,000 in competitions.
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“The start-up capital came from a business grant of $23,433 that I won in the first competition. I entered the business into the South African Breweries Foundation Innovation Awards and we came second. I’ve recently been selected as a sub-Saharan Africa finalist for the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards, so in September I’ll be in Paris to attend that,” she says.
Kgatlhanye grew up in Mogwase, one of the townships near the mining town of Rustenburg, in South Africa’s North West province. Her father is a taxi owner and her mother is a nurse.
The idea for her bag came in the second year of college when her class was tasked to find ways of doing more with nothing. She decided to make a bag out of recycled plastic bags. The solar-powered light idea only came after a conversation she had with her mother where she was told to channel her creativity towards helping others.
“My mother told me about how she grew up and used candles to study. If she had one candle for the week and it burned out on Wednesday, she wouldn’t be able to study on Thursday and Friday. That inspired the idea,” says Kgatlhanye.
Her company in Rustenburg, which employs 17 people, designs schoolbags out of recycled plastic and integrates a solar cell which can be charged during the day and used as a study lamplight in the evening.
They make these bags for banks and companies who give them to schools. She doesn’t make more than 500 bags at a time, with one bag costing $20.
“Some of our giving partners include Red Bull, Standard bank, PricewaterhouseCoopers, SAB, ABSA/Barclays, MTN Foundation and CPSI,” says Kgatlhanye.
At a time when power cuts, so-called load shedding, loom in South Africa, Kgatlhanye’s company is well timed.
“Thank heavens for what’s playing out,” chuckles Kgatlhanye.
“Load shedding has made the business an easier sell. The big guys that sign the cheques that didn’t understand before the kind of environment we were talking about, now understand because guess what, their child gets affected by load shedding. They’ll be like ‘oh because of load shedding’ and I’m like, almost, except they don’t have electricity at all,” says Kgatlhanye.
Kgatlhanye is looking to shed light in 24 African countries.
<h4>A Spark In The Nick Of Time</h4>
The flow of renewable energy from the REIPPP couldn’t’ve come at a better time, says energy expert Chris Yelland. Eskom’s aging fleet of power stations, many built more than 30 years ago, cannot meet the demand. They have also been burdened by delays in other power generating projects in South Africa, like the Medupi and Kusile coal-powered plants.
“When Medupi and Kusile are online they will add 25% capacity to the grid. This is great. The only trouble is it should have happened 10 years ago. Between 1999 and 2004, there was a delay as a result of policy decision. Construction started in 2007 and 2008,” says Yelland.
When Medupi’s first unit came online, it was four years late. The cost keeps growing; initially it was expected to cost $2.5 billion, but is now forecasted at more than $23 billion. Kusile (4,800MW) has also failed to escape. Its first unit was expected in 2013, but has been pushed to 2017, and will cost around $92 billion, excluding the interest on delays.
Yelland is a Johannesburg-based electrical engineer turned energy journalist and entrepreneur. He has had a lot to talk about over the last 10 years, but his favorite story is the work of renewable energy dreamers.
“That’s the only success story we have to tell. The success stories are not government success stories, they are private: private capital, private technology – built, owned and operated privately, and generated into the grid,” he says.
Yelland warns that renewables should not be South Africa’s only solution.
“It costs less to produce coal-fired electricity than renewable if you compare apples with apples. If you look at the existing fleet of power stations, the cost per kilowatt hour is certainly lower than the cost to produce renewable energy. But the cost of electricity from a new power station, like Medupi, is a lot higher than the average costs. Because that capital cost is higher.”
For Africa, energy at any price is welcome.

How Dying Candles Kindled A Bright Idea

Tucked inside Kenya’s Rift Valley are the Olkaria geothermal fields. A mix of a national park (Hell’s Gate National Park) and steam wells, the fields are powering Kenya’s growing electricity demands.
The first steam wells, also known as geothermal wells, in Kenya were built more than 30 years ago. Then, there was little regard for geothermal power – energy generated from natural steam from the earth. It was regarded as one of the many expensive ventures by the government.
Today, the focus on renewable energy has never been greater in Kenya. Several billionaires attended the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in July in Nairobi to explore investing in renewable energy in the East African nation.
“Investors in this initiative have chosen Kenya because the government is ready to listen to ideas and help implement them,” said Sir Richard Branson who led a delegation at the summit.
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Energy demands in Kenya are growing. This is largely due to renewed investor confidence in the country as well as the government’s improving retail consumer connectivity. This has seen the government work on an ambitious strategy to generate 5,000 megawatts (MW) by 2018.
Out of this, renewable energy is expected to take center stage as hydroelectric and fossil fuel generation are cut significantly.
In 2006, Kenya created the Geothermal Development Company to speed up the development of geothermal resources. The firm took shape through funding from the national treasury to offset the cost of drilling steam wells.
However, much of the work has been done by listed state corporation, Kenya Electricity Generation Company, popularly known as KenGen.
“Kenya is taking off and energy is the anchor engine. As a power generating firm, we have now developed a robust strategic plan heavily hinged on geothermal power,” says Albert Mugo, the Managing Director of KenGen.
According to government statistics, Kenya has a total power demand of slightly more than 1,500MW. The installed capacity is 2,000MW. Out of this, geothermal power contributes around 579MW, which translates to 44% to the national grid.
“We have a potential of 10,000MW of geothermal power in this country. We can still do more in terms of contribution to the national grid,” says Mugo.
The challenge in boosting geothermal power is financing. It is estimated that drilling one well costs between $8 and $10 million. To date, Kenya has more than 260 geothermal wells, mostly in Olkaria.
“The greatest challenge in this geothermal business is the perceived risk in exploring the steam wells,” says Mugo.
Apart from KenGen, other geothermal power producers have joined the fray, such as OrPower and Akira.
Kenya is ranked eighth in the world in geothermal positioning and first in Africa.
However, the focus is not only on geothermal energy. There is also interest in wind energy and solar power. While the two are at a nascent stage, Kenya has commissioned its first large-scale wind power project.
The Lake Turkana Wind Power Project (LTWP) farm site covers 40,000 acres and is expected to contribute 300MW to the national grid. When complete, it will become Africa’s largest wind power plant. Another wind project, managed by Aeolus Kenya, is expected to take shape soon. Located in central Kenya, it is expected to feed 60.8MW to the national grid.
The government, through KenGen, is also prospecting on a 400MW wind farm. This is scheduled for implementation in early 2016. Like the abundant geothermal energy sites, Kenya also has an area close to 90,000 square kilometers with excellent wind speeds of at least 6m/s.
Solar power is taking root with a number of companies entering the household market. This has seen many homes, especially in rural areas, replace the national power grid with solar energy.
“This growth in use of solar energy by household is largely attributed to the cost advantage. Solar power is much cheaper than national grid power,” says Robert Pavel Oimeke, the Director of Renewable Energy at the state-run Energy Regulatory Commission.
It seems that Kenya’s green energy growth plan is leading the way in Africa.

Full Steam Ahead

Wind, solar and hydro energy have all been highlighted as sources of energy that help meet Africa’s growing power needs. Ghana’s Dela Wosornu is using garbage.
Decomposing organic material, known as biomass, releases gas that can be used to create energy in the form of biofuels. In Ghana, a country with a vast amount of degradable material, it is a viable option for alternative energy.
In Ghana, energy is costly and scarce; this hinders economic growth.
Biomass, such as wood and charcoal, is Ghana’s main energy source, supplying around 60% of the total energy used in the country. Biomass resources cover about 20.8 million hectares of land mass in Ghana. Most of this land is made up of crops and plants that can be converted into solid and liquid biofuels. Wosornu, a renewable energy entrepreneur, is taking advantage of this by transferring landfill gas to energy.
He is involved in the Oti Sanitary Landfill Gas-to-Energy Project, which eliminates the emission of harmful greenhouse gases as well as the spread of disease from the waste. The project reduces the reliance on producing power from fossil fuels by producing energy from the waste that would have otherwise been buried in the landfill.
The solution is quite innovative.
When organic material, such as food waste, is buried in the landfill, it is deprived of oxygen. In this condition, the organic material will decompose and turn into methane gas. The methane will slowly be released into the atmosphere, causing global warming. The project at the Oti landfill doesn’t let this happen. They cover the landfill with soil and drill holes into it. Pipes are then inserted and the gas is sucked out into a generator which makes heat and electricity.
“It’s really a matter of just bringing pipes to where the gas has collected and pumping it out through a vacuum process and then directing that gas to a generator,” says Wosornu.
According to Wosornu, the project is the first of its kind in Ghana. As cities grow and produce more waste, the environmental impact from open dumps becomes increasingly intolerable. The conversion of dumps to engineered landfills like the Oti project is essential.
“Our solution can be applied at any landfill that has received at least 400 tons a day of municipal solid waste and is in reasonably good shape. As there are many landfills in Africa and around the world that are not capturing gas, the future for landfill gas to energy projects is bright,” says Wosornu.
Landfill gas to energy projects have underperformed relative to projected gas and power output. Bearing this in mind, the projected output of the Oti project has been discounted by 70% so that its actual output will meet or exceed the projected output. The Renewable Energy Act in Ghana ensures that there are set prices for each class of renewable energy. It also offers an opportunity to redirect future investments into green energy.
The challenge for Wosornu, is finding reliable buyers for the project’s output. The high cost of doing business in Africa also makes the development costs of these projects higher than the rest of the world.
“There is no doubt that, if properly exploited, renewable energy resources in Africa can make a significant contribution to the continent’s energy supply. In particular, the potential of biofuels on the continent is huge. Within the context of the current financial crisis, stakeholders including policy makers, international partners and the UN should lead the debate on and collectively seek strategies for scaling up renewable energy use so as to increase access to energy and enhance energy security among the many potential benefits of these technologies,” says Kandeh Yumkella, Director-General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).
Wosornu is playing his part.

From Junk To Power

When Luke Callcott-Stevens, Gavin James and Doug Jenman first talked to FORBES AFRICA in 2012, they struggled to imagine what their $274-million 100MW wind farm in Dorper, South Africa, would look like. A big project with big risk.
“We built a wind farm, we installed it. All those are effectively at the cost of capital. Now it’s done… Every three days a wind turbine is being installed in South Africa,” says Jenman.
Forty wind turbines and two and a half years later, this trio from Rainmaker Energy can not only take pictures of Dorper, a tiny town in the Eastern Cape province, they are now imagining that they can cover the rooftops of London with solar panels.
“The cities of tomorrow will produce their own electricity. We won’t need power stations,” says James.
With this bold idea, the trio set up shop at 81 Rivington Street, an old electrical showroom, in London’s tech hub Shoreditch, and also, by coincidence, labeled with a fitting coat of arms “More Light More Power”.
“A lot of our growth is happening in the solar field, and it’s out of South Africa. We’ve set up a separate company in the UK, Solar Stone Energy; effectively we are trying to create a utility scale solar project on rooftops. So we are aggregating a bunch of rooftops to build a big solar power plant,” says Callcott-Stevens.
It gets even more pie in the sky – especially when we are talking about a city where the sun doesn’t shine often – the trio want to give solar panels for free.
“We cover the costs of the installation and on-going monitoring and maintenance. There is absolutely zero cost to you. You then get to enjoy the immediate benefit of reduced energy costs because the electricity, which is produced on your property’s roof is yours to use, for free. By generating electricity on your roof, we receive a Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) through a government-backed subsidy program. This is how we fund the solar installations and make a return on investment. It’s a win-win for everyone.”
They feel it could find favor with London’s 8.3 million people.
“If you look at what’s happening in the States and in Europe, in solar and wind energy, people are putting solar on their roofs and creating their own power. That is not a total solution, but it cuts back on the need to create new power plants, it changes the game. The utility business is now losing out on its most profitable market. That demand is now gone,” says Callcott-Stevens.
“Solar has gotten cheaper. Next storage is going to get cheaper. That’s not to say you won’t have coal or nuclear power stations. It just changes the game. It changes the dynamics,” says James.
Back home in sunny South Africa, where 39 renewable energy projects contribute 1,800MW to the grid, the trio’s 100MW wind farm in Dorper has been humming for more than a year. Although James says it will take another 16 years to see a profit, it couldn’t have come at a better time. Eskom, South Africa’s power supplier, regularly cuts the power – a legacy of under investment and delays in coal-fired power stations, such as Medupi and Kusile. The work of renewable energy dreamers has been a saving grace.
“Eskom’s troubles are our blessings in the whole [renewable] industry. It’s been good. The government has put its weight behind the program,” says James.
“They are seeing results and they are happy with it, so the whole fear that renewables is erratic and unreliable actually is false. Apparently the first projects have reduced power cuts by half. We would have double the power cuts if it wasn’t for the renewable projects,” says Jenman.
The competition for new projects is stiff. Last year, Eskom announced that 77 bids were received for Round 4 of the program, for a total of 5,804MW. Of these, 13 were accepted as preferred bidders, for a total of 1,121MW installed capacity at a cost of R23 billion ($1.8 billion).
“By the fourth round, the tariff prices have halved. The game’s changed. The perception of risk is gone. In Round 1 there was no market in South Africa; people were taking a lot of risk without knowing if there was going to be a market. They needed higher returns. Where we are now, the return expectation is lower, as it should be, as the market grows and matures,” says Callcott-Stevens.
“Without getting those high returns in the beginning we wouldn’t be in a place where we are established,” says Callcott-Stevens.
Hope of more business in Africa is in the wind. The trio has a further 330MW of wind and 290MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) projects under development in South Africa.
“Africa is the future – solar is all over. There is potential everywhere. Sub-Saharan Africa is obviously closer to home so it’s easier to look at. The [solar rooftop] model works really well in a deregulated market. In South Africa, we are still highly regulated,” says James.
“The rest of Africa is highly regulated. Either badly regulated, or highly regulated. We don’t want to just get on a plane and go find a site. We like to have an angle before we choose a market. There needs to be a reason before we can just go into that market. We can’t just go into a country and just say we are building a solar plant. We need to have relationships, we need to know people, we need to understand the market first,” says Callcott-Stevens.
From the dream of a small windy farm in the middle of nowhere, in Africa, to the reality of free solar panels on the rooftops of London where the sun hardly shines. What next?

The Cities Of  Tomorrow  Won’t Need Power Stations

She is the fresh face of renewable energy in Africa. By a twist of fate, this young lawyer, who grew up with her grandmother by candlelight, is now spearheading Africa’s dash for energy.  Sometimes it hurts.
“It feels like I haven’t slept for four years, I have been so busy working on deals. But it was the deal of a lifetime.”
So says Linda Olagunju on her deals to put two wind farms and two solar photovoltaic (PV) farms onto the barren landscape of De Aar in the Northern Cape. Two deals she patched together that will contribute 254MW to South Africa’s energy grid.
“The wind projects reached financial close and are currently under construction. It’s a partnership between China Longyuan, Mulilo and DLO Energy Resources in De Aar. It’s been almost one year of signing documents. The legal fees on these sorts of transactions can go up to R20 million ($1.57 million) if you are lucky.”
It’s the fruit of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Procurement (REIPPP) program. In short, Eskom, the country’s power generator, attracted bids for private business to apply for tenders. Under it, investors generate electricity for sale at a tendered rate. This brings the total committed private sector investment in the REIPPP, since 2011, to $13.25 billion (R168 billion). It is fierce competition.
“There about 85 solid IPP [independent power producers] developers in South Africa. In Round One to Four, there was 5,200MW on offer, the next rounds are 6,300MW. It’s a bloodbath. You are competing with international companies that are coming in dirt cheap,” says Olagunju.
This may be a drop in the ocean but it’s a very important one. Renewables have been a saving grace. According to Olagunju, 39 of these projects are up and running, supplying 2,050MW to the grid.
“It’s the first successful program since democracy. It’s not that there haven’t been any independent power producer programs on the continent. It’s just that this one is the largest one of its scale and being backed by government.”
Olagunju’s childhood was far from electricity. She grew up in Matatiele, a village in the Eastern Cape 782 kilometers from the boardrooms of Sandown where she now works and lives with her Nigerian-born husband.
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“It was rural, like candle rural… [My grandmother’s village] only got electricity in 2005,” says Olagunju.
This was in time for the power cuts of 2008, when Eskom admitted that it had run out of capacity to supply electricity. At this time, Olagunju had left home to follow in the footsteps of her father and study law. At the University of Cape Town she studied laws governing fossil fuels rather than green energy.
“I’ve always known I was going to go into resources. I just didn’t know if it was going to be mining or oil and gas. The biggest thing for me is why Africa, which is so well endowed in resources, remains the poorest continent. I always hated injustice, growing up in apartheid South Africa,” she says.
Olagunju struggled to find her niche and ended up as a lawyer for Mulilo, a startup renewable energy company in 2008.
“Mulilo needed a lawyer, but couldn’t afford any. So I said I would do the services in return for shares. I still had to pay for them. At the time, the company [owed] R11 million ($870,000) and the company is now valued at R5 billion ($394 million)… in three years,” she says.
This sparked her idea of entrepreneurship.
“I always felt the way to change things is through entrepreneurship. Through law I had the opportunity to see how government makes these decisions on large scale projects… I said ‘hang on a minute, we have a lot of wind in South Africa and we have a lot sun in South Africa, so why haven’t we put renewables on our grid?’ I started doing research,” she says.
The business of renewables can take years to see a profit.
“There is a lot of risk, anything can go wrong. You are in a contract for 20 years, governments can change and I know there are laws to take care of that risk. The wind may not blow for as long as you thought it would. Your sun may not shine as brightly as you thought it would. They are long-term projects.”
“You identify the land. You go into lease agreements. Do an environment impact assessment (EIA) process that can take three years if you are lucky. You then bid your process with a construction period. If everything goes right, [a farm] will be up in 20 months.”
“Then you start seeing a trickle dividend. A trickle dividend at connection in the first seven years is very minimal. It’s nothing to write home about. It’s not even enough to pay your operational expenses.”
Then, there are the hiccups.
“We have existing infrastructure. And then we have the [REIPPP]. The grid infrastructure hasn’t been expanded to accommodate the increasing demand on that particular infrastructure. It’s not Eskom’s fault necessarily. It’s a matter of planning.”
“One of the points we raised before we began these projects is getting the grid contacted properly before you have a program. But it’s always difficult how you spend on infrastructure not knowing where those programs are going to be awarded.”
“Eskom said that they have developed a map where they now know where the hotspots are for energy projects and where now they are doing their best to upgrade in those regions in anticipation of the other [REIPPPs] being built.”
Olagunju believes gas, coal and nuclear could all go the same way.
“You can go and leverage an asset and try and participate. The key thing about these deals is to learn from them. Once you do one, you have built a portfolio. You can go and knock on a door in Nigeria, rather than say you have an idea,” she says.
If you are Olagunju, at the tender age of 31, you could also argue it’s good to have a foot in the door.

A Bloodbath In The Wind

From the boardwalks of Cape Town to the streetlights of Kigali, billions are being made out of renewable energy. It brings business and government together; it could end the days of smoke-belching coal-fired plants. It could answer Africa’s most burning question – power.
In 2011, many experts scoffed at the thought of Africa running on towering wind turbines and miles of solar panels. It was too expensive; it was inefficient and couldn’t stay charged. But, armed with new technology, a pack of young entrepreneurs dug deep to harness the wind and the sun of Africa, to power future generations.
In this continent, South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Programme (REIPPP) has moved the fastest. In a few short years, South African entrepreneurs have invested $13.25 billion to sell electricity back to Eskom, the country’s hard pressed power generator.
It is fierce competition. According to South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma, 1,800 megawatts (MW) are on the grid and in the next two and half years, 92 projects will generate up to 6,327MW. Further investment into hydro, gas and nuclear power are also on the cards, says Zuma.
The faces driving this investment are fresh. Thirty-one-year-old Linda Olagunju who grew up in an African village by candlelight is now calling the shots in boardrooms. Homegrown entrepreneurs Luke Callcott-Stevens, Gavin James and Doug Jenman threw in their safe jobs for the cutting edge of renewable energy generation. These are a few of the young and restless generation of investors who are taking risks to charge Africa.
It’s a story that breezes through the wind turbines in South Africa to the landfills in Ghana to the underground heat of Kenya.
Some old heads, like nuclear physicist Kelvin Kemm, say that nuclear may yet have a bigger say. He believes three quarters of African countries can become nuclear within the next six years.
It all adds up to an exhilarating story of youth, vision, risk and reward. This month, FORBES AFRICA dedicates our cover story to it.

Power For The People By The People

It’s the last place you would expect to find a woman making a career: lying in the dirt on the edge of a cliff. Hunkered under the rock five meters from me is Justine Wintjes, archaeologist and Fine Art lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Under her keen eye is a rare rock art panel of stooped over black figures frozen for hundreds of years on the stone. Every now and again, her short cropped hair, black with a stripe of dyed pink fluorescent, bobs up and down as she sketches in the damp.
“In Africa, you can’t walk two meters without finding an artefact,” says Wintjes.
Below is a sheer drop to the village of Quthing, 183 kilometers South of Maseru, the capital of Lesotho. The squawks of chickens and barks of dogs drift up as people go about their daily lives. In many ways it was a mundane day in a strange place to be on the verge of an ancient art discovery.
“I just always loved old things. I was fascinated by ruins and abandoned buildings and old stuff. At some point I realized that through rock art I could combine my background in fine arts and archaeology.”
Wintjes and her team may have a host of digital gadgets to help guide them, but they still had to do good old-fashioned leg work in Quthing. They needed the help of the people to find the locations.
“Nowadays, because of online digital data, you can do a lot of preparatory fieldwork. Fieldwork on the internet, looking through books, through archival material you have collected digitally. You get a really good sense of where things are. But you are never entirely certain. You get errors in the archival system, or things that are slightly misleading. For example the two sites that we visited on this trip had the same name in the catalogue, but were in two very different sites. They were not even particularly close. Those are the sorts of things you can only find in the field,” says Wintjes.
“It’s a very exciting field particularly in Africa, given the antiquity we have on the continent. But there aren’t enough archaeologists, or art historians. There aren’t enough people interested in these fields. They really are important.”
So ends the discovery between a rock and a hard place to find.
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The Goat Path To Glory

The millennials, also known as Generation Y, are the early adaptors of technology and a demographic companies simply cannot afford to ignore. In Africa’s booming wedding industry, estimated to be worth $3.35 billion, millennial couples – understandably – comprise more than 83% of customers.
Which means that what worked for bridal marketing 10 years ago is no longer relevant, given that couples today have completely different – and often stratospheric – expectations. To differentiate requires finesse.
And that’s what Tamara Jonah-Goka, CEO of Lionheart Events, excels at.
At her office, tucked away in a cul-de-sac off the road leading to Accra’s biggest exhibition center, Jonah-Goka is hard at work planning yet another Gen Y wedding. Lionheart, set up six years ago, is Ghana’s leading event management company.
Born to successful entrepreneurial parents, Jonah-Goka has business acumen encrypted in her genes.
She is the daughter of Sam Jonah, former chief executive of Ashanti Goldfields in South Africa and one of Africa’s wealthiest men.
“I think because I have a successful dad, it drives me a lot more. It is more of a weight on your shoulders and I know I cannot fail,” she says.
Jonah-Goka grew up watching her mother organize social functions and events at home, which led to her own love for events planning. After high school, she studied sociology in Kingston University in the United Kingdom. She took a year off after graduation to figure things out.
She wanted to do something creative, but wasn’t sure what.
Her brother suggested she take an online psychometric test to see which career would be best suited for the creative person in her. Over two hours and a hundred questions later, Jonah-Goka had her moment of truth. It turned out she had a strong affinity for people and planning. Armed with this knowledge, she decided to invest in a Master’s program with special focus on hospitality, tourism and events. She soon relocated to South Africa to work for a start-up wedding planning company, where she worked on a number of high-profile weddings, most notably that of Nelson Mandela’s granddaughter.
“I knew South Africa was always going to be temporary, Ghana was always home and the plan was always to relocate,” says Jonah-Goka.
On her return to the thriving cosmopolitan city of Accra, she quickly got to work, attending events.
“One thing I noticed was everything seemed very generic and I felt like there wasn’t a lot of design to weddings in Ghana.”
She began by paying a company to carry out market research to identify competitors, trends and insights into the events industry in Ghana. This was the first step at differentiation.
“My vision was always to create events that spoke about the personality of who my clients were instead of me.”
Her customers had to be 100% satisfied. Today, the company has hosted over 300 major events including weddings, corporate events and private functions, providing turnkey solutions for any budget. Every Lionheart event also comes with its own signature.
“I remember we flew in an ice sculpture from South Africa at no extra cost to the client because he wanted something he had never seen before and I felt that would be a nice touch,” says Jonah-Goka.
Going above and beyond for her clients has earned her a reputation for delivering quality, which does not necessarily translate to expensive; she works to all budgets.
But Jonah-Goka’s journey has not been without challenges. Tragedy struck when her brother, who influenced and supported her career choice, passed away.
On the work front, she was faced with a paucity of skilled labor. It was tough looking for people who bought into her vision. Consequently, she was heavily dependent on vendors. Chairs, flowers, décor…everything had to be outsourced.
“I knew I had to control my entire production line in order to deliver the quality and standard I wanted to see.” Eighty per cent of Jonah-Goka’s customers are repeat customers.
“The challenge with repeat customers is they know the value you bring and there is always a new pressure to wow them again and deliver something better than what you did before.”
Her’s is not a normal nine to five job. Like her businessman father, Jonah-Goka is up at 5AM every day. With her work, she hopes to create a sustainable hospitality industry in Ghana focused on imparting training to people passionate about the events sector, thereby creating jobs. Jonah-Goka is leading the pack of young entrepreneurs in Ghana, growing rapidly, just like their country.

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The Online Test That Made A Party Queen

Have you ever been a victim of fraud or identity theft, where some of your personal documents were stolen and the data used fraudulently? Today, with online shopping and social media being a way of life, you cannot afford to be complacent about protecting your financial information. In today’s ‘virtual’ world, we are much more vulnerable than ever and must be more vigilant in safeguarding our finances. Here are some tips to minimize the risk or damage of this happening to you.
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Are your sensitive documents kept securely,
Where are your certificates and other important documents? Are they lying around in unlocked drawers or are they locked away securely in a fireproof safe? Apart from securing the physical documents, scan and secure them electronically.
It is not enough to just casually discard old financial statements; they can become prime target for thieves. Invest in a paper shredder; a personal one for home use is not very expensive and with this you can effectively destroy documents rather than simply tearing them up.
Secure your devices
Are your smartphone, laptop or other devices password protected? If your password or PIN is compromised, this could lead to devastating losses should someone gain access to your financial information. Do not share your passwords or PINs with anyone. If you think you might forget them and absolutely need to write them down, then store them securely and change them periodically using different passwords for different accounts or devices. Set strong passwords; be creative with your choice and avoid easy-to-guess passwords such as birthdays and names of family members.
In addition, secure your devices with a firewall and security software packages that have anti-virus and anti-spam features. If you are technologically challenged, get an IT specialist or a tech savvy friend that you trust to help you download and install this.
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What’s in your wallet or handbag? Sensitive documents should be kept securely in a bank deposit or a home safe, particularly those with your name and address on them. Make a photocopy of your current cards, driver’s license, and any important documents; these copies will come in handy if you need to cancel quickly or need to order replacements. Have your bank emergency numbers handy so that you can make those calls if you need to.
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Beware of scams
Your bank and other legitimate companies will never request for sensitive information such as bank details, passwords and PINs by telephone or email; these are usually fraudsters attempting to defraud you. Contact your bank directly and report such incidents.
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Do you use public computers?
Avoid using public computers for sensitive transactions as your information could be compromised. If you do use a public computer, be sure to clear your history before you log out completely, otherwise other users can intercept your information. Free wireless internet hotspots are often not at all secure. Use secure websites for your online shopping. The address will usually start with ‘https’ and there should be a key or closed padlock in the status bar. Shop only with trusted retailers.
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What are you sharing on social media?
Do you share personal information on social media, such as your address or telephone number?  It seems so natural to put seemingly innocent information about yourself and your family out there but it makes it possible for fraudsters to authenticate your identity. Geo-tagged photos inform people of exactly where you are; this could expose you and your family to crime.
Even if you put all these measures in place, there is no guarantee that your financial information will be completely secure. However, by protecting yourself, you limit access to sensitive information and protect your personal finances from fraud.
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For more personal finance tips, follow Money Matters With Nimi on Twitter: @MMWITHNIMI and Facebook: MoneyMattersWithNimi

IS YOUR INFORMATION SECURE?

Freddie Achom does not look like the stereotypical investor or entrepreneur. Sporting dreadlocks that tumble to his shoulders, he is dapper, yet relaxed, in a blazer over a shirt and jeans. Achom is articulate and humorous as he recounts his journey to the pinnacle of global enterprise. He might not have got there if he wasn’t encouraged to take a chance while moving from studying medicine to business while at university.
“I started working for a stationery company and it was then that a more senior member of staff said to me, ‘you are really good at business development. How long have you been doing it?’ And I said, ‘this is my first job. I’m just here for the summer and when university starts again, I’m off.’ Then he said to me ‘you should consider it. Your bosses are not telling you that you are doing something really special.’”
“There was a commission sheet where you recorded what you brought into the company and for me it was never enough so I had to flip it over and fill it out all the way to the bottom of the next page. I did that week in, week out. He said ‘I’ve been here five years and I’ve never seen anyone do that, so you should consider it.’ He actually encouraged me which is strange because here’s a man getting all the accolades of training me and he’s telling me, ‘you need to get out of here.’”
Aware of his talent, Achom moved to work for a surveying firm. While there, he was headhunted to join a professional business development firm, an experience which he credits for developing his self-confidence.
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“The director was pretty quirky but he had a lot of faith in me. I think I got most of my conviction and belief there because he was self-made; an interesting guy from up north (of England)… He said I could do whatever I wanted. He said ‘you should set yourself a target where you can touch things.’ And he said to me ‘what watch are you wearing?’ I said ‘just some regular watch.’ So he said ‘buy yourself a Rolex watch. How long do you think it’s going to take you?’ I said ‘I don’t know.’ He said ‘just set yourself that target and do it.’”
Six weeks later, Achom saw the director sitting in his office and showed him his watch.
“He went ‘you’ve bought the watch already!’ I said ‘yes, I bought it a couple of weeks after I saw you.’ I set my target and I checked how much it was and I think I bought it about a fortnight after he told me. He was genuinely impressed.”
The next phase of the journey saw Achom establish his first company in partnership with a group of associates. They built a consultancy and strategic funding agency and sold it after three years. Cash in hand, Achom went on to explore other ventures that led to the establishment of his private fund and flagship company, Rosemont Group Capital Partners. Achom serves as the chairman of the group which holds a diverse portfolio of companies including Communication Power Engineering Company (CPEC), a renewable energy service company and one of the oldest listed companies on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Other companies under the group include BWC Management, a wine brokerage company and Hershey Pascual Fashion, a high-street women’s fashion brand. Achom’s interests also reach into the restaurant and nightclub industry where he holds stakes in a number of leading spots, including Jalouse in Mayfair and the famous Scotch of St. James in Westminster.
Recently, Achom has diversified his interests by switching his focus to the technology industry. Never one to play small, he announced plans to invest in 20 start-ups by 2017, an excursion that will see him invest around $9.2 million. Considering the skyrocketing valuations in the industry, he is aware of the pitfalls that lurk beneath opportunities.
“The technology space is almost like back in the Wild West where everyone has got their tools out searching for gold. And we all know that though everyone went out, only few came back with lorries of it. Everybody wants to be the next Google and Facebook, but that is not going to happen. But, if you have the right kind of mechanisms in place, if you are looking at the market with your entrepreneurial brain fully on it, I think you’ll do ok,” he says.
“What I find is that the early technology entrepreneur success stories are stumbled upon. Those guys are always guilty of labeling themselves as entrepreneurs and they then embark on this continuous journey to replicate their success, disregarding the fact that the first one was an accident. It just doesn’t work. The people that are really replicating success within the tech space are those that are genuine entrepreneurs and have criteria that they follow and a philosophy that really works for them.”
Achom is also keen to have an impact in Africa where he believes there is significant opportunity.
“We specialize in is renewable energy, so we are looking at Ghana, Nigeria, because West Africa will be our focus. Secondly, technology. We look at what we are learning here in the tech space and at some point it will be our ambition to create an incubator where we nurture ideas at the early stage. The telecommunications infrastructure has laid the foundation. The fundamentals and the user base are there, so this will be hugely profitable.”
Achom was born in Nigeria in the 1970s and moved to Britain in 1982. His parents ran an insurance firm together and sent all four siblings to boarding school. Achom credits the love and support shown by his parents with imbibing a sense of responsibility. They often flew to visit the children at short notice. With two children of his own now, Achom is determined to raise kids with these strong values.
His sense of responsibility extends to society. Achom recently launched the Rosemont Group Foundation. His aim is to encourage young people to believe in their dreams and focus on their passion despite potential distractions.
“About six years ago, I was driving a Lamborghini and I was at the petrol station filling it up. These kids came past on their bicycles and they were like ‘wow!’ I thought to myself, ‘ok, kids love cars,’ but I didn’t think there was anything special about the guy driving the car until they asked me what I did. I said ‘I’m an investor.’ They went ‘wow! How did you get into that?’ And I said to them ‘study hard, stay in school.’”
“They asked me again, ‘you are not a footballer?’, and I said ‘no’. And I thought to myself, ‘is that the only way they think you can drive a car like that?’ That’s when it hit me and I started to think I could do something to change that perception.”
“I wanted people to learn from my experience doing business in the UK, where the cards are stacked against you, where the pitfalls are, how you maintain your focus, your dignity, your true God-given character, because I come from Africa and we don’t succumb easily.”
“I’ve experienced prejudices doing business, where people had preconceived ideas of me but spent a few minutes with me and those perceptions changed. The foundation was about letting people know that people exist that you can look up to and call up if you need to and draw from and learn from their experiences, and I hope I can contribute a little towards that.”

Category: Technology

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