We are at Barclays Africa’s steel-and-glass offices in Africa’s richest square mile, Sandton, talking about a world far, far away – in rural Africa.
A world where Zimbabwe-born Sazini Mojapelo, Group Head of Corporate Citizenship at Barclays, raised by a single mother, first started, in the remote communities of her home country where subsistence farming, women-headed households and rural to urban migration were the norm.
Her work with an NGO led her to a Master’s degree in Development Studies from the University of Cape Town and subsequently, a job with the government.
“It became quite important for me to get into policy and understanding the way public-private partnership works, how policy frameworks are developed and governments function,” says Mojapelo.
She soon founded Hand in Hand, and grew the organization beyond South Africa to countries including Swaziland, Lesotho and Zimbabwe helping women grow their small businesses and supporting them with micro-financing.
A corporate career was on the cards.
“For me, it was important to have experience from government, civil society and the private sector. I wanted to get into all three areas of private-public partnership; the tri-sector conversation. To make a sustainable and meaningful contribution in the areas we operate in, it does not take one player alone.”
For Mojapelo, it had to involve the communities as well – the voices of the people.
“When I worked in government I did really feel the responsibility of caring for the people and their livelihoods. The sense of purpose is very strong, but the inefficiencies that come within that space are very crippling, where things don’t move forward, and the political element does not help as well,” says Mojapelo.
When she got the opportunity to join Barclays in 2015, she wasted no time.
“At Barclays, we look at how we can be good corporate citizens in the communities we operate in… We have introduced a strategy founded on the principles of creating shared value. Basically what that means is how we are able to have a commercial competitive advantage while driving the social agenda and creating impact.”
The bank’s Shared Growth strategy was launched in 2016, looking at education, enterprise development and financial inclusion across Africa.
For education, Mojapelo categorizes the youth as employed, under-employed and unemployed.
“If you look at the employed, most young people do get employed but you find they are under-employed – where a doctor is working at a call center; they have a job but they are not doing the job they studied for. And then you got those who are Not in Education Employment or Training who fall in what we call the NEET category; who are unemployable, because either they have dropped out of school, they do not have a skill that can enable them to move into the next phase of their life and that category of young people is where the most focus should be, and the ability to start looking at how we use technology to create and open opportunities for those young people,” says Mojapelo.
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She also admits to several anxious moments when she moved to the corporate world.
“I had some anxiety on my side in terms of my ability to land effectively and be able to achieve the agenda that I really want to drive from a corporate perspective. The biggest part for me was literally looking at the agenda, that I have a personal agenda of creating a meaningful change in people’s lives and creating that kind of social impact. So it was key to change the strategy and introduce a way of working that made business realize that the social agenda is a business agenda.
“So in Barclays, you find that big corporate clients will work with us based on how you treat the ESG (environmental, social and governance) element. It has become very important within the business.”
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One of Mojapelo’s passions is financial inclusion – especially of women.
“For Barclays, I think it’s a space we dream about disrupting and in its entirety that is integrated banking but it’s really from a shift in the mind-set of asking what the customer wants and how do we service them better.”
Far from the farms and fields of Zimbabwe, to the smart Sandton boardroom we are in, this Harvard Business School graduate has her sights set on one dream – a better Africa.

‘The Social Agenda Is A Business Agenda’

The World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions takes place on an annual basis in China, alternating between the cities of Dalian and Tianjin. The forum is affectionately known as the Summer Davos and is quickly building in stature attracting business, government, academic and civil society voices from across the globe. The event focuses on technology and innovation. CNBC Africa first attended the Summer Davos in 2013 with just a handful of African delegates. This year, however, saw a much bigger African contingent with representatives from Rwanda, Mali and South Africa out in full force. This despite the Ebola epidemic which caused many delays in the granting of Chinese visas and resulted in a number of cancellations, most noticeably from the usually sizeable Nigerian delegation.
The gathering involved three days of intense debate over the latest and greatest technological solutions aimed at creating a better world for all. Many of the innovations are specifically focused on solving some of the developing world’s most pressing problems such as health, education, energy and infrastructure deficits. With many of the globe’s brightest young minds wrapped up in intense conversation, the event itself is nothing short of an innovation frontier.
With hundreds of technological innovations on display it’s easy to reach the conclusion that developing economies have the opportunity to leapfrog the developed world by deploying new state of the art technology solutions rather than upgrading old, existing infrastructure. This is particularly true when it comes to solving the energy deficits in emerging markets. Global energy infrastructure is dated in many developed markets, having been rolled out as far back as the 1960s and 1970s. When it comes to deploying new, efficient and cost effective solutions, emerging markets can deploy best-of-breed solutions from the outset. Smart grids, nano batteries and off the grid renewable energy solutions are trail blazing when it comes to electricity provision.
The digital world we now live in is fast paced and ruthless. You simply can’t ignore the tsunami of technological innovations facing both individuals and businesses on a daily basis. Adapt or die was the phrase often repeated at the Meijiang Convention Center where the conference was hosted. New businesses have appeared out of nowhere, think Alibaba, Amazon and Uber, all of which challenge traditional models and use digital savvy to come out on top. Traditional business models, now more than ever, face extinction. Businesses are scraping at the coalface, trying to stay close to their customers where innovation is forcing a consumer revolution. Customers have the upper hand in a world where information is ubiquitous and fast eliminating competitive advantage.
One of the key discussion points in Tianjin focused on the skills needed to survive in this ever changing world, where robotics are becoming the norm and automation a necessity. Science, technology, engineering and maths skills (STEM skills) are a must for children growing up in this digital jungle. It’s all about blended learning of practical applications for the real world and less about reciting facts day in and day out as many traditional education systems are premised on and that have very little to do with equipping an individual for this dynamic work environment. Don’t forget this is a world where a couple of kids in a garage piece together a new app that, overnight, launches them into the billionaire stratosphere.
Everywhere automation is impacting traditional jobs, but just as those jobs are being lost they are being supplemented by job creation in the digital and technological space. The revolution in the retail market has been created by online shopping. McKinsey recently released a report indicating that 80% of all purchases are now researched online before they are bought. Widespread comparisons are quickly being made and prices are being forced down – the customer, now more than ever, is king.
Innovation is also forcing companies to look at how they are internally wired. Digital supply chains are improving internal efficiencies and fast eliminating hybrid supply chains, consisting of part paper and part digital elements. Information is ubiquitous and in some instances carries very little value because it is so widely disseminated.
For me, perhaps most striking is the reality of 3D printing. Imagine being able to print a bicycle and cycle off into the mountains. Brace yourself, this is our new reality.

Tag: Civil society

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

‘The Social Agenda Is A Business Agenda’

Brace Yourself For A New Reality