The small-towner started off as a model, then ventured into fashion, constructing Afro-urban clothing the unconventional way. Lebogang Makgale is a creative on a mission.



In Johannesburg’s cultural and creative nerve center that is Newtown, a chic district in the inner city with bustling clubs, cafés and art galleries, Lebogang Makgale’s fashion studio is an apt adornment.



The curious, vibrant young passers-by outside his door often stop to inspect his garments but to the 27-year-old fashionista, the uncontested center-piece in his bright blue studio is a hard-working sewing machine he bought for $34. It stands as a symbol of hope that gave fresh impetus to his life – and continues to be his career’s biggest investment, carefully-positioned in a corner enveloped by photographs from his first fashion collection. 



The space is otherwise strewn with clothes, fabric and accounting books. He is at ease with each of these objects. After all, his journey started studying accountancy at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), a venerable higher learning institution located close to where he is today.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Long before that, in high school, the Soweto-born creative artiste called himself ‘MacGale’, a play on his surname, which he artfully inscribed on classroom desks. The name stuck.



It must have been ordained. Today, that’s also the name of his fashion brand.



“A bookworm, shy and not very social” in school, fortunately, his interest in sport and athletics ensured he always had a coterie of friends and followers. But he also had another quality that endeared him to them – his interest in fashion and his distinct sartorial sense.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



&nbsp;He wanted to be a sports star, and his parents wanted him to become a chartered accountant, but this was the only talent – like his self-styled sobriquet – that stuck, and carried him through his growing years.



&nbsp;He pursued an extended diploma in accounting, but Makgale felt out of place; accounting was dull and gloomy in comparison with the myriad colors of the fashion world.



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“About seven months into the course, a classmate told me that I am tall and had style and advised me to take on modeling. I took it seriously and joined an agency. They [the agencies] told me I am not tall enough, not masculine enough, but I persisted despite everything being shut out,” recalls Makgale when we meet him one warm January afternoon in Johennesburg.



Floyd Manotoano, known in South Africa’s emancipated fashion circuit as Floyd Avenue and winner of the GQ Scouting Menswear Competition in 2017, gave Makgale the modeling platform, and he didn’t look back.



His trips to designers’ studios for fittings and fashion shows only grew his innate love for couture.



“I was still enrolled at UJ but not going to class, I was going to studio. My transport fare and lunch money were used to buy fabric. We always had a plan showcasing across Johannesburg and always buying fabric. A friend also taught me how to thread a sewing machine. I was also introduced to styling and started consulting to make outfits for matric dances,” says Makgale.&nbsp;



The networking and mingling in the fashion world helped. He thereby met a tailor who sold him his sewing machine for $34. Now, all he needed was to perfect his craft.&nbsp;



He turned to technology, and characteristically for a youngster in the digital age, sought the help of online tutorials to learn to sew. He debuted with an ethnic Ndebele print collection.



In 2013, reality kicked in. His father asked for his varsity results. He had to break the news to him. That he was not keen on accounting, and he had been bunking classes. His concerned father asked him: “There are a lot of designers, how are you going to make money?”



He had enrolled at a fashion school with little knowledge and experience of the industry. But he was beginning to make an impression with his clothes.



Two years in, Makgale dropped out to focus on the business side of fashion. Being blogged about and being known on the streets wasn’t paying the bills; he had to make ends meet.



“I disappeared and disconnected from the street to focus on the brand, MacGale. I had to start from scratch. I had to create a client base, a target market. I slowly established myself as a professional fashion designer. That’s when the true identity of the brand evolved, in 2015,” he says.



During his off-grid period, he worked on a collection for BackToTheCity, South Africa’s biggest annual hip-hop and street culture festival. 2015 was a definitive year for him; he tailored an African-inspired street wear collection and incorporated it with plastic.



Soon after, fashion photographer Chris Saunders approached him. He was shooting for an international magazine profiling the coolest kids in Johannesburg. Saunders selected Makgale and that became part of a showcase at the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam.



&nbsp;Business started trickling in; Makgale was making matric dance suits, whilst polishing his designing skills.



“There was a time when that was the only kind of work I would be getting. It wasn’t fun, but it made business sense because the matric boys would refer everyone to me,” he recalls.



In 2015, he was also introduced to cycling by a long-time friend and athlete. His original love for sport was stoked. But there again, his love for fashion prevailed.



“Cycling equipment and kits are expensive. The color combinations didn’t make sense to me, so I made [comfortable clothes] I could cycle in that would also look cool. I started with jackets with pockets at the back, then shorts with tights that go underneath. I then decided to make a fashionable active wear collection,” he says.



About a year later, this got the attention of Moja Nation, an advertising agency working on the ‘Let Wonder Out’ campaign for Oreo cookies. This was going to be Makgale’s first corporate gig.



Despite the challenges he faced, Oreo loved his work and asked him to work on their second campaign. This time, he was more experienced and able to execute the whole order by himself.



He worked on it whilst helping Floyd Avenue with his 2017 South Africa Fashion Week collection.



“I worked with Lebo when I won the GQ award. I’ve known him for a long time; I even made his matric dance suit that was inspired by Kanye West. I’ve seen his growth; he has invested in his craft. I knew him as a student at UJ. Years later, we started meeting at fashion events and started working together,” says Floyd Avenue.



In 2017, Makgale was also part of a TV show, 100 Percent Youth, on SABC1, which documented his sourcing and creation processes.



“I came across striped fabric and fell in love with it. I made a striped jacket live on camera. Little did I know that was the beginning of an era, I started my stripe journey,” he recalls.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The stripes inspired his tailored suits, not of the traditional kind, but also motivated by waistcoats, and women’s wear like corsets and dungarees. This was his third official collection.&nbsp;



After 100 Percent Youth was aired, he started receiving more orders for his suits and he was soon appearing in season two of SABC’s fashion reality TV show Raw Silk. He made it to the top five and that too got him traction and customers.



By this point, he had developed working relationships with hip and happening local celebrities such as Khetsiwe Morgan, also known as DJ Doowap. Most of the women’s garments that Makgale creates are for her. He had never seen himself crafting womenswear until Raw Silk happened.



“I don’t like shopping at the mall; I’m about creating things that no one wears, so I was trying to find a tailor for the longest time. My boyfriend told me about Lebo’s collection, I met him and he is super-easy to work with. He is super-honest and tells me when something isn’t going to work. The first garment he made for me was for the Metro FM Awards in 2017, he made a three-piece garment using Swati fabric,” says DJ Doowap.



Makgale has expanded his business since and is working on costume design for local and international advertising campaigns. His journey started in an accounting classroom. But today, he is a passionate fashion entrepreneur on his way up. He may not be balancing books, but he is certainly on the money.

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The $34 Investment That Fashioned A Career

Edith Cooper, who spent more than 20 years as an executive at Goldman Sachs, knows what it’s like to stand out in a workplace. Being one of few people of color in a sea of white faces over the course of her career hasn’t been easy. But rather than dwell on this reality, Cooper, who now sits on the boards of Etsy and Slack, has championed her differences. That’s what helped her rise through the ranks at the bank to eventually head its human resources department, an accomplishment she says was a result of her ability to connect with people of all backgrounds.



That quality would continue to work to her advantage: As Goldman Sachs evolved, so did its staff. Diversity was reflected not only in employees’ skin colors and genders, but also in their ages and geographical origins. Cooper was awakened to the fact that if the company was going to thrive, it would need to create an environment wherein its multifaceted staff could feel comfortable embracing their differences and, in turn, learn from them.&nbsp;



“If you can figure out an environment where people can thrive together, it’s powerful,” Cooper says. But it’s a process that takes time, especially if newer, more inexperienced employees aren’t equipped with the proper skills to navigate this balance between professionalism and open expression. 



That is in part what inspired Cooper’s new startup,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.withmedley.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Medley</a>, which she launched with her daughter Jordan Taylor, a former chief of staff at Mic and Harvard Business School Baker Scholar, to provide a community in which young professionals can gain the skills they need to bring their most authentic selves to work without fear. In light of the heightened tension surrounding ongoing racial injustice that’s inevitably seeping into workplace communication, it’s an ideal time to learn this skill.



Taylor has also had her fair share of experiences being the “only one in the room,” but as an emerging leader, rather than an established executive like her mother. Graduating in the top 5% of her class and being one the first 20 Black students to be named a Baker Scholar meant she was constantly figuring out how to relate to peers in predominantly white spaces. She figured it out, but Medley is a platform she wishes had been around when she was finding her voice among people whose backgrounds were much different than hers.



Medley groups young professionals in their 20s and 30s with other like-minded members whose workplace values, concerns and priorities align. The professionals that make up these eight-person groups differ, however, in terms of gender and ethnic background, which Cooper and Taylor hope will translate to increased empathy that members can apply within their respective workplaces.



“This idea of people being able to bring their true selves to work and to be able to talk through what that looks like is at the core of what Medley is offering,” says Cooper.



In addition to full access to workshops, panels and conversations led by experts across industries, members commit to a 90-minute virtual meeting each month, facilitated by a Medley-certified coach and focused on addressing and reflecting on ongoing experiences in their personal and professional lives. Cooper credits Medley’s robust network of coaches to the guidance she gained from Merche Del Valle, former global head of coaching at Goldman Sachs and a certified lifestyle, nutrition and wellness coach.



Merging personal wellness and professional development in group discussions is a priority. “You can’t just look at your career in a vacuum,” says Taylor. “In order to meet your potential, the ability to have a more holistic approach is incredibly important.”



To ensure that people of all socioeconomic backgrounds have the ability to join the community, Medley offers a sliding scale fee ranging from $50 to $250, depending on the financial situation of prospective members. Cooper and Taylor are also in conversations with companies interested in partnering with Medley to give their staff reimbursement for membership.&nbsp;



With the help of investors including Away cofounder Jen Rubio, dtx company founder and CEO Tim Armstrong and MIC cofounder and former CEO Chris Altchek, who contributed more than $1 million to the project, Medley was ready to launch in May 2020 as an in-person membership hub in New York City. Shelter-in-place mandates halted the launch, but also presented an opportunity for Medley to instead be virtual and incorporate international members. The more springing corporate workers that can benefit from the community’s aim to build the next generation of confident, communicative professionals the better, the mother-daughter team notes.



“Medley gives people an opportunity to be a better human in relation to the people they work with and quite frankly in society,” Taylor says.



&#8211; <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/briannegarrett/">Brianne Garrett</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/leadership">Leadership</a>

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The Mother-Daughter Duo Behind A New Inclusive Community Teaching Budding Professionals How To Better Engage At Work

With a deadly virus still lurking in the streets and tougher times ahead, traders in South Africa’s colorful townships desperately look to resuscitate their businesses with creative offerings online. 



It’s almost two months into lockdown in South Africa and the country’s townships, once bustling hubs of trade, are slowly bracing themselves, with every ounce of willpower left in them, for the unprecedented reality that is ‘the new normal’.



For many, the national shutdown and closed shutters have meant lost jobs, stalled incomes and empty pockets, not to mention a deadly virus stalking them in every street and alley. The small entrepreneurs here – the lifeblood of any economy – now on their last pennies, are still hopeful their re-evaluated strategies and revamped resilience will see them through this fearful nightmare, as the restrictions ease and the townships will slowly crawl back to life again.



Behind the respectful veneer of the lockdown, some of the smaller traders hustle on illegally, under the radar, dodging police patrols and armed surveillance. They have no choice but to stick to their street-smart ways, to survive and feed their families.&nbsp;



In the township of Soweto, bigger, popular establishments such as The Box Shop on Vilakazi Street – the historic stretch home to Nobel Peace Prize winners Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the country’s former President Nelson Mandela – are looking to the future with great uncertainty, and have been forced to devise alternative digital strategies as lifelines for the present.



Sifiso Moyo founded The Box Shop, a lifestyle and retail outlet with his business partner, Bernard Msimango, and today, the street it’s located on, which attracted thousands of local and international tourists every day prior to the pandemic, is eerily quiet.



It will be a while until planes of international visitors land again, so the duo have chosen to go to them – online.



“For The Box Shop, we built hype around online and have taken the entire offering that existed in our physical infrastructure into a digital platform and that has made us into an innovation space, giving us access to a global audience. We are beginning to see our products being sold in places like Switzerland and the United Kingdom and we now have started harnessing partnerships,” says Moyo.



The website was launched in May, but the bigger vision for the entity was to start as a retail outlet and work backwards into the manufacturing space.



Moyo says the coronavirus taught them two things – to adapt digitally, and to work in the value chain.



The shop now also makes face masks, sold to public hospitals and NGOs.



A short drive from Vilakazi Street is a restaurant named Sancho, selling African cuisine and founded by Thato Mothopeng, a serial entrepreneur who also founded the popular annual Soweto Camp Festival.



Mothopeng is one of the few entrepreneurs in the tourism sector without a formal degree or training, but has had a roaring business nevertheless and is quite well-known in the circuit.



Mothopeng says all SMMEs are at a standstill because business thrives on human contact. But business also needs to be flexible, he adds.



“There are opportunities in the harshest environments. I am using this time to review my strategies. I am also not panicking because the country is managing the crisis; this is an opportunity for SMMEs to reflect because our people are sober now.”&nbsp;



He had to let go of a few employees and is working remotely.



Further in the township of Soweto, Thembeka Nkosi, the founder of Le Salon, has also developed her own coping mechanisms.



Her shop is shut, but people still seek her grooming advice. As per South Africa’s Level 4 lockdown restrictions, salons and beauty parlors are not allowed to operate.



“This [lockdown] is very stressful, more especially now because other businesses are operating. I still can’t make money, I still have to stay at home and not work,” rues Nkosi.



In addition to getting to spend more time with her five-year-old son, she has recently started sharing her haircare tutorials on social media.



“Now that shops are open to buy hair products, I send video clips to my clients and that brings me joy, knowing that I am still useful to them; even though it’s not making me any money yet, at least I am interacting with my clients,” she says, looking at the bright side.



Ronewa Creations is yet another small business in these parts.



Founded by Lesego Seloane and Dinah Kgeledi, the business offers landscaping services, garden maintenance and water harvesting solutions, and employs seven full-time workers. None of these services are allowed in the current phase of lockdown.



“Now that our province is still on Level 4, it is really difficult to focus because when we were working out our plans, there was so much uncertainty and we didn’t know how they could actually be implemented,” says Seloane.



She is grateful the duo have been active on social media, running a garden makeover campaign and offering landscaping designs for free.



“We are using a three-dimensional technology that revamps the look of gardens to give people an idea of how their gardens could potentially look like in the end.”



Despite the challenges, the two keep sane by spending time with family.



“If the business fails, I fail. If I don’t come out of my down moment quick, then I will fail and the entire organization fails,” says Seloane.



You can detect the determination in her voice to overcome this period, come what may.



Like many around her staring fear in the face, she has no other choice.

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Empty Roads, Occupied Minds

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.



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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.

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

When Jay Wilkinson, founder and CEO of marketing, printing and website-development company Firespring, was 15 years old, he attended a leadership summer camp with his high school’s student council. While there, he learned about Stephen Grellet, a Quaker missionary whose words would change his life forever: “I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.” It was this quote that motivated him to become an entrepreneur.



Since launching&nbsp;<a href="https://www.firespring.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Firespring</a>&nbsp;in 1992, Wilkinson has worked with clients in 50 states and 14 countries, growing his staff to 180 and revenue to $25 million in 2019. That’s not to say the Lincoln, Nebraska-based business hasn’t seen its fair share of struggles: In 2002, Wilkinson was fired as CEO by the investor-led board of directors after refusing to lay off employees amid the economic downturn that followed 9/11. But four months later, with the help of family and friends, he bought out the venture capitalists, and within two years, the business was profitable again. “We climbed out of it, and we survived,” Wilkinson says. “The culture that we have today was forged in the fire when we were just trying to save the company.”



That tenacity has proven essential in the current economic environment, not to mention it’s propelled Firespring onto <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maneetahuja/2020/05/12/forbes-small-giants-25-companies-that-believe-smaller-is-better/">Forbes’ annual Small Giants list</a>. The 25 companies that make up the 2020 list all value greatness over fast growth and are weathering the coronavirus crisis in their own way. 



While much of corporate America has been affected by Covid-19, small businesses have been especially hard-hit, with 31% stopping operations as a result of the crisis, according to Facebook’s State of Small Business&nbsp;<a href="https://dataforgood.fb.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/SMBReport.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a>. And in the marketing and advertising world, where global ad budgets are expected to drop 36% in the first half of the year and eight in ten marketers have delayed campaigns as a result of the pandemic, according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://wfanet.org/knowledge/item/2020/05/13/Survey-Covid-19-global-response-April-2020" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a>&nbsp;from the World Federation of Advertisers, many businesses are struggling to stay afloat.&nbsp;



Firespring has seen an increase in demand for its quick activation marketing programs, such as creating digital fundraising campaigns, as well as virtual strategy sessions, of which it has done more than 200 over the past couple of months. It has also worked with clients to adjust their campaigns so that they are reflective of the times. “We’re very mindful of making sure that we are messaging everything with the Covid-19 restrictions in place so that we don’t come across as being tone-deaf and that our clients don’t, as well,” Wilkinson says. “It’s going to be critical for marketers moving forward and out of the pandemic to understand how different things are going to be, in terms of the way people connect with brands.”



The firm primarily serves purpose-driven organizations and nonprofits, which Wilkinson says are uniquely positioned to navigate the changing marketing landscape, as they always keep clients at the center of their work. But the pandemic has disrupted many nonprofits’ fundraising events, hurting them financially. In an effort to help its nonprofit clients during this challenging time, Firespring partnered with GivingTuesday, a nonprofit known for its advocacy of its namesake charitable holiday for the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. The initiative, called Giving Tuesday Now, raised $3 million for nonprofits over the course of May. 



In Birmingham, Michigan, <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://brogan.com/" target="_blank">Brogan &amp; Partners</a>, another full-service marketing agency and 2020 Small Giant, has been supporting its surrounding community by working with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to produce an ad spot promoting the wearing of face masks to flatten the coronavirus curve. Thanks to the ad and accompanying hashtag—<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/zrj5CzpqjMfOKMQ9t4BY6m" target="_blank">#MiMaskChallenge</a>—Brogan &amp; Partners was able to get the word out to more than five million Michiganders, including celebrities such as musicianKid Rock. “I don’t want to make money off of Covid-19. That’s not my business,” says Ellyn Davidson, owner and CEO of Brogan &amp; Partners. “I want to help and be part of the solution. As much as possible, we want to give back.”



An hour south, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Jim Hume, founder and principal of 2020 Small Giant marketing advertising agency&nbsp;<a href="https://phiregroup.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Phire Group</a>, has also been working with clients to craft their coronavirus messaging. He believes the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of trends such as authentic storytelling. “True authenticity includes vulnerability and putting yourself out there and just becoming more human as a brand,” Hume says. “Everything that we do has to be pointed toward making companies, organizations and brands more human, more accessible, more real.”



That authenticity, he says, is important in every aspect of Phire Group’s business, including how it communicates with clients. “It’s an important time to reach out to customers to let them know you’re there for them, but also to just be transparent with what’s happening,” Hume says. “Just let them know that you’re doing fine, you hope they’re doing fine, and you’re there for them.”

Businesspeople at big creative agency

How 3 Small Businesses Are Navigating Covid-19 In The Marketing Industry

By Uzoma Dozie, Chief Sparkler



Nigerians are some of the world’s most creative, energetic, and entrepreneurial people. We are rich with talent, enthusiasm, and passion.



Nigerians are a global force bursting with potential and an enviable track-record of success. But in a more complex and fast-paced world than ever before, many of us struggle to find the time or have the ability to fulfil their potential.



Ultimately, this comes down to the lack of effective solutions in the market to support the lifestyle and finances of Nigerians and our businesses. For too long, we have been underserved by the traditional physical retail environment, which is limited by bricks and mortar infrastructure and legacy technology – the weaknesses of which have been laid bare by the Covid-19 global pandemic.



Unlocking Nigeria’s digital economy



While Nigerians are being underserved by current circumstances, there is also an exciting opportunity to start filling a gap in the market.



Nigeria’s digital economy is thriving, but it remains informal. Nigeria has a population of 198 million people – 172 million have a mobile phone and 112 million have internet access.



Many of us access social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram through our phones and use them as valuable sales tools, especially female entrepreneurs. Data and digital applications have the potential to revolutionize the daily lives of millions of Nigerians.



Therefore, new digital-only solutions are required. These should not just focus on finances though – they have to be intrinsically linked with everyday lifestyles, rather than thinking about linear processes and transactional outcomes.



Let us take one example. Chatbots powered by artificial intelligence have long been used to provide financial advice. But these chatbots could do so much more and evolve to provide support for more sophisticated usage, such as a personal adviser or lifestyle concierge.



Furthermore, these solutions should not just support Nigerians at home, but the ever-growing diaspora across the world.



Introducing Sparkle



The opportunity to play an integral role in transforming Nigeria’s digital economy and lead the charge in growing the digital economy across Africa inspired the creation of Sparkle.



Sparkle was founded with five core values – freedom, trust, simplicity, inclusivity, and personalization. We are adopting these values and embedding them in everything we do.



We will be leveraging technology and data to create and apply new digital-only solutions which bring more Nigerians into the formal economy thereby benefitting Government, businesses, and individuals.



Starting with the launch of a current account, we will co-create with our customers and collaborate with our partners to improve our services and increase our user base. We embrace collaboration and we are



working with some of the world’s biggest companies, including Google, Microsoft, Visa, and PwC Nigeria, to achieve our vision.



In addition, we want to create a more inclusive economy and break down barriers by accelerating the role and influence of female entrepreneurs, many of whom already operate in the informal economy with the help of Instagram and other social media apps.



At present, we are facing a global crisis in the shape of the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 has shown us that we need a strong digital infrastructure to ensure the economy continues to function. It will likely completely change the way we operate and conduct business in the future.



COVID-19 has only reinforced our belief that new digital solutions like Sparkle are required now more than ever before to serve Nigerians, boost the formal economy, and unlock potential in the digital age.

High resolution digital render of Nigeria flag.

Op-Ed: How Nigerians Can Unlock Their Potential In The Digital Age

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="auto, (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

Tech entrepreneur Mandla Ngcobo dabbled in everything from poultry farming to selling airtime and electricity, until he found his niche in telecom – and his connections are growing.



Mandla Ngcobo represents everything the digital age stands for.



He’s young, happening and ubiquitous, with hopes and ambitions in every sector: from the poultry business to IT and everything in between.



&nbsp;Born in Newcastle, in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province, Ngcobo is the founder of Accelerit Technologies that’s heading forth in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector.



“Entrepreneurship is something that has always been around me,” he says resolutely, taking a sip of his drink, when we meet him at an upscale restaurant in Sandton, Johannesburg.



“My father was a taxi owner. My mother was unemployed but used to sell clothes and plait people’s hair from home. She was a firm believer that one must have multiple streams of revenue. My mother used to do whatever it took to put food on the table.”&nbsp;



This attribute made him resourceful too, as he saw it work. He was employed but was inspired to start his own business.



His job for six years at a global technology and consulting firm in Johannesburg exposed him to the inner workings of the ICT business.



The computer had been a loyal companion since high school.&nbsp;



In the mid-1990s, his brother bought him his first TV game console, then gave him his old Pentium One computer with 133 megabytes of data.



“I was fascinated by the fact that you could program a computer to do certain things,” says Ngcobo.



Graduating from the University of Cape Town in South Africa with a BSc in 2005, he wasn’t particularly passionate about theory, but was driven by formulae.



“I also did business as an elective because I was thinking about the trade. So, varsity was mostly about computers and business and that’s where it all began.”



Two years later, he ventured into the chicken feed business as his mother had started a chicken farm.



He ran the business for five years with a fair turnover and employing three.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“That money was able to pay for my car; I saw it had legs. I tried so many businesses; I even sold prepaid airtime and electricity around where I grew up.”



The chicken business didn’t take off but at least he was now lured into the art of making money.



In 2011, the 36-year-old serial entrepreneur registered Accelerit Technologies, a small and medium enterprise providing turnkey ICT solutions. He needed to have licences to run a telecom business to do business with other companies and consumers.



He was still an employee with the company he worked for, but time had come to go on his own.



“I had to be billable as a consultant, so I had to work. There was a project I worked on that absolutely almost broke me; I didn’t enjoy it at all, so I was in a space knowing I didn’t have to do what I was doing. If I could dedicate a little bit of my time to pursue my own venture, I could make it work and that was it, I was done, and I resigned in 2013,” he says.&nbsp;



Having tasted entrepreneurship, he knew he could do it, but this time, he had to be fully present and committed.



“I sold my fancy white Audi TT car, and moved out of my lavish apartment in Sandton. I had to downgrade my life, I needed to bring it back to a level where I could manage my month’s expenditure and align with the fact that I was no longer an employee,” he says.



He shared office space but had a business address; it was time to get his first customer.



He set up a Wi-Fi base station at his sister’s house and sold vouchers; expanded to Greyhound Lines, an intercity bus carrier; then a student commune around the Johannesburg CBD, and within months, Ngcobo was turning over R10,000 ($617) a month.



“That made me feel chuffed,” he says. His sister was his first employee and two other friends soon were on his payroll.



“I was coming from a job that paid me R60,000 ($3,700) a month, and the R10,000 ($617) had me super excited. I knew I never had to work [for someone else] a day in my life. If I put in 10 times the effort, then I would be making R100,000 ($6,168) a month and that is how the journey started.”



Business was growing and within 24 months, Ngcobo set up Wi-Fi base stations in estates around Midrand still using the voucher system; at the time, it was massive.



In early 2017, Accelerit Technologies moved to fiber optic technology delivering high-speed data.



“That made us very competitive; we went from north Johannesburg to providing services nationwide, turning over R900,000 ($55,512) at the end of the 2018 financial year.”



Currently, Ngcobo is projecting R30 million ($1.85 million) for the financial year 2020 and employs 20 full-time staff.



It’s big numbers and wired ambitions, but as always, he is sure he can make it work.

IMG_5448

The $600 That Sparked A Telecom Trade: This Entrepreneur Represents Everything The Digital Age Stands For

Yele Bademosi is passionate about helping his home continent of Africa. Born into a missionary home in Ibadan, Nigeria, Bademosi’s mother and father used to deliver medical services and bibles to the Yoruba tribes-people in the forests surrounding&nbsp;his home-town, often going from hut to hut. When he and his sisters were old enough, they helped. “That is my earliest memory in terms of thinking about how to give back,” he says, “But as I grew older, I changed my views to thinking about, how do you actually help people at scale?”&nbsp;



Last year, Bademosi became a director at the venture capital arm of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance, which trades $1.5 billion in crypto assets each day. And today he is excited because he’s launching Bundle, one of six African startups the Malta-based crypto exchange is now funding, and the first it launched. The startup is being run by Africans in an effort to get Africans to use cryptocurrency, not as an investment vehicle, but as a global means of exchange. Bundle is essentially a social payments app, similar to Venmo or Square’s Cash App.



It lets users send, receive and spend bitcoin, ether, and Nigerian naira with little more than the recipient’s phone number. Unlike Square though, Bundle will also let users spend Binance coin (BNB), the exchange’s native cryptocurrency, which has been doled out to loyal and active traders using its crypto exchange. In the near future they’ll be able to spend and (more importantly) save Binance U.S. dollars (BUSD), stablecoins backed by U.S. dollars and regulated in the United States.



Bundle joins numerous tech giants working on ventures in Africa. Facebook <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeldelcastillo/2020/04/16/libra-compromises-undermine-original-facebook-promise/#41334dc02737">intends</a> to co-launch a cryptocurrency targeting the unbanked and Square’s founder Jack Dorsey recently announced plans to immigrate to the continent. “Regardless of your geography, you should have access to the best financial services. And unfortunately, your geography today defines the quality of financial services that you have,” says Bademosi, who is also Bundle’s CEO. “The same way the internet created freedom of information, I think blockchains create freedom of quality of financial services.”



Born in 1991, the only boy among five sisters, Bademosi always knew entrepreneurship was in his future. Perhaps rebelling from his bossy sisters, he knew he didn’t want to work for others. Bademosi’s first experience with a computer was at an internet cafe. As a child, he’d walk up a flight of stairs to the second floor of his local shopping center, push open a sliding door and frantically scan for cheat codes to his favorite computer games in 30-minute chunks, before his money ran out.



It wasn’t until 2007, when Bademosi was 16-years-old, that he finally got his first computer, an Acer Aspire One Series his parents got for him when he started classes at Lansdowne College, a preparatory school for University, similar to a high-school, in Westminster, England. For the first time, he had unlimited online access and an outlet to focus his burgeoning interests. By the time he graduated two years later, the 6’ 6” Bademosi had not only competed on the school’s football and basketball teams, but studied biology, chemistry, psychology and mathematics. “There&#8217;s a huge difference between what you learn in college in a structured environment and what you can learn online,” he says. “It felt like what I imagined the Enlightenment period felt like for people who lived when the printing press was first available.”&nbsp;



Growing up in Nigeria, he says, meant that students who did well in school were pushed into the sciences. When his youngest sister decided to go into economics, or what he called “liberal-type accounting,” he was in shock. In spite of his entrepreneurial aspirations, he knew he would be expected to either to become a medical doctor like his father, an engineer or an architect. He hated physics though, so passed on engineering, and architecture was out because as he put it, “I couldn&#8217;t draw straight lines.” His father convinced him that even if he didn’t end up practicing medicine,&nbsp;the University of London’s accelerated three-year program meant he’d have extra time afterwards to find a path of his own, and he enrolled in 2009.



In his first year of medical school his father died of kidney-failure. His father’s death gave him the courage to rebel. He had always found that he was more interested in computers than medicine so he dropped out of medical school with plans to build apps for Apple’s OS.&nbsp;After a few unsuccessful months building a social media app Bademosi flew back to Nigeria.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5ea0b91d8c2caa0006e71892/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Yele Bademosi, Bundle"/><figcaption>Bademosi works in his company&#8217;s office.&nbsp;BINANCE / YUSUF</figcaption></figure>



There he got a job as manager of Starta, devoted to helping African companies get off the ground by providing education, tools, and networking opportunities. After developing a taste for helping startups get off the ground, Bademosi founded his own angel investing firm called Mircotraction. His venture had well connected backers: Nigerian energy and real estate tycoon, Tunde Folawiyo; the CEO of Y-Combinator, Michael Siebel, and Google’s head of ecosystem for sub-Saharan Africa, Andy Volk.



Lagos-based Microtraction is now among the most active investors in Western Africa, having funded 15 companies, including 54gene, an African genomics research startup that recently attracted $15 million from Adjuvant Capital, Y-Combinator and others.



Bademosi had learned about bitcoin in college but it wasn’t until 2017 after he read a book called Master Switch by Columbia professor Tim Wu, that he began to see blockchain as a way to let networks of individuals compete against the likes of Facebook, Amazon, Google, and Apple using a shared technology infrastructure. “We’re not there yet,” he says. ‘But I believe that blockchain and decentralized technologies can open up the internet again, and create a new playing field that new entrants could play on.”



While the jump from medicine to blockchain may seem big , Bademosi sees them as strongly related. “The similarity really is the fact that you have individual organisms, whether that&#8217;s a cell or a human or a computer, acting in their own best interests towards what&#8217;s still a common goal, and there are a bunch of rules they all have to obey.”



Just a few months after founding Microtraction in August 2017, Bademosi bought his first bitcoin and as its price fluctuated wildly he became hooked on crypto asset investing. That led him to Binance, which was, founded in China, and is now doing business from Malta. In November 2018, Binance published a ten-point <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://medium.com/@benjaminrameau/10-reasons-why-binance-labs-is-fully-committed-to-africa-3aeaaa32fe9e" target="_blank">thesis</a> on why it was dedicated to the continent and launched a subsidiary in Uganda. Number four on Binance’s list was Bademosi’s childhood mantra: scalability. 



“For me, blockchains are as big as the internet,” says Bademosi. “And can you imagine Bill Gates or Larry Page or, Mark, Zuckerberg coming to Africa less than one year after the company was started?” He was impressed. So much so, that by January 2019, he had pitched his vision for what Binance should be doing in Africa and instead of taking him up on his advice, the company hired him, making him the first director at Binance Labs focused on investing in Africa-based blockchain startups and leading the Africa chapter of the organization’s incubation program.



So far Binance Labs has invested in five African startups, one from South Africa, one from Kenya, one from Ghana and three from Nigeria, all serving different aspects of the content’s growing crypto economy. Notably, Lagos-based Yellow Card is a way to buy bitcoin even without a bank via local agents, and Flutterwave is the same fiat-to-crypto bridge that lets Binance customers buy cryptocurrency with naira.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5ea0b97cbed92b0006690434/960x0.jpg?fit=scale" alt="Bundle team"/><figcaption>Bundle backend engineer Kenny Shittu (left) meets with blockchain engineer Oluchi Enebeli, user experience designer Ugo Ifezue, backend engineer Seyi Ajonibode and operations associate Chinny Eze at Bundle&#8217;s offices on March 9, 2020   BUNDLE / YUSUF</figcaption></figure>



Binance and its new Bundle have Western competitors in Africa. Facebook’s Libra has its sights set on banking the unbanked. Another potential competitor using cryptocurrency to serve the unbanked is Akon, the Senegalese-American musician whose Akoin project announced recently that it would be the exclusive currency of the Mwale Medical Technology City in Kenya.&nbsp;“Our goal is for akoin to be the official currency of the continent,” says Akon.



To give an idea of the total market up for grabs here, even if the average account holder might only own a fraction of what Western banks require to open an account, the World Bank estimates that 1.7 billion adults around the world are without such access. Fifty-seven percent of adults in sub-Saharan African, or about 350 million people, don’t have bank accounts, according to the World Bank. To help close that gap nearly&nbsp;$700 million was invested in fintech in Africa last year, according to media firm WeeTracker.&nbsp;Of the 1.2 billion people living in Africa, Bademosi estimates only 1.4 million are already using crypto.&nbsp;



In two weeks Bundle expects to add BUSD, a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar, created by blockchain startup Paxos, regulated by the New York Department of Financial Services, and spendable anywhere in the world. One possible financial product that could eventually be offered using this technology would be what amounts to a savings account denominated in U.S. dollars for people living in Nigeria, and eventually other African nations. Instead of Nigerians losing 12% to inflation at current rates by keeping their cash in a savings account, they could be paid interest denominated in U.S. dollars for funds held in custody elsewhere. “Being able to save in stablecoins and earn interest per annum is huge,” says Bademosi. “And we can offer that up to anyone anywhere.”



Users will also be able to cash in and cash out using local fiat currencies. Longer term plans include a physical debit card and the ability to purchase U.S. stocks, Nigerian mutual funds and agriculture debt, and unspecified incentive programs designed to jumpstart the cryptocurrency economy in Africa, according to internal documents provided to&nbsp;Forbes. The documents compare Bundle to Mosaic, the internet browser invented by Marc Andreessen, and credited for weaving together the previously esoteric processes required to use the internet into a single, intuitive browser.&nbsp;



In September 2019, Bundle quietly raised $450,000 from Binance, Pave Investments and other African investors. “We believe Bundle can become one of the key projects that will support Binance&#8217;s mission of scaling the adoption of crypto on the continent,” says Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ). To help do that, Bundle will be free at launch, with plans to eventually charge 0.5% to 2% per transaction on all short term trades and 3% of assets under management on yearly gains, for longer-term investing. While the finer details of how that works have yet to be announced, we can look to Binance for some intriguing clues.&nbsp;



After creating BNB in July 2017, the asset has grown to a total market value of $2.2 billion, making it the eighth largest crypto-asset according to&nbsp;CoinMarketCap.com, the widely used cryptocurrency markets site Binance recently acquired for a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/billybambrough/2020/03/31/bitcoin-and-crypto-world-rocked-by-massive-400-million-binance-bid-for-coinmarketcap-report/#34f2d302247f">reported</a>&nbsp;$400 million. But it’s the way Binance uses that asset, which users acquire in exchange for making transactions on-site, that Bundle perhaps has the most to learn from.&nbsp;



Binance’s users are allowed to pay their fees on the site using the same BNB cryptocurrency they are rewarded for being regular users, and a new platform, called LaunchPad, lets users raise capital via initial coin offerings (ICOs) also payable in BNB, establishing what cryptocurrency news site CoinDesk <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.coindesk.com/the-unbelievable-brilliance-of-binance" target="_blank">called</a> “a virtuous cycle by which its users were incentivized to stay within its platform.” Bademosi, it would seem, has learned his lessons well, a promising sign for the future. “Bundle does an excellent job of putting fiat and crypto side by side,” he says. “And then nudging the user to use some of these digital currencies or assets in innovative ways.”



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeldelcastillo/">Michael del Castillo,</a>Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/crypto-blockchain">Crypto &amp; Blockchain</a>

Binance Spinoff Aims To Be Bitcoin-Powered Venmo Of Africa

Assumpta Uwamariya makes wine out of beetroot and has become a sparkling role model for other Rwandan women. 



The beautiful hill country of Rwanda is typically not known for its wine industry, but is reputed for its innovative entrepreneurs. And 30-year-old Assumpta Uwamariya is one such, making red wine from an unconventional source – beetroot.



Based in Rubavu district in western Rwanda, Uwamariya started off farming different types of vegetables, and at first, decided on making juice out of beetroot.&nbsp;



August 2015 marked the beginning of what she describes as a “tough journey”. She had no working space of her own and could only produce 20 liters of juice.



The turning point came in 2016 when she was chosen the best young innovator at the YouthConnekt Africa Awards, bagging $5,000. That enabled her to hire labor, buy new equipment and acquire more knowledge through training.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="805" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Assoumpta-Uwamariya-arranging-bottles-of-wine-in-her-wine-shop-at-Mahoko-Centre-in-Rubavu-District-on-Thursday-January-19-2017.-Emmanuel-Ntirenganya-1-1024x805.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-44547" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Assoumpta-Uwamariya-arranging-bottles-of-wine-in-her-wine-shop-at-Mahoko-Centre-in-Rubavu-District-on-Thursday-January-19-2017.-Emmanuel-Ntirenganya-1-1024x805.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Assoumpta-Uwamariya-arranging-bottles-of-wine-in-her-wine-shop-at-Mahoko-Centre-in-Rubavu-District-on-Thursday-January-19-2017.-Emmanuel-Ntirenganya-1-scaled-300x236.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Assoumpta-Uwamariya-arranging-bottles-of-wine-in-her-wine-shop-at-Mahoko-Centre-in-Rubavu-District-on-Thursday-January-19-2017.-Emmanuel-Ntirenganya-1-scaled-600x472.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Assoumpta-Uwamariya-arranging-bottles-of-wine-in-her-wine-shop-at-Mahoko-Centre-in-Rubavu-District-on-Thursday-January-19-2017.-Emmanuel-Ntirenganya-1-768x604.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Assoumpta-Uwamariya-arranging-bottles-of-wine-in-her-wine-shop-at-Mahoko-Centre-in-Rubavu-District-on-Thursday-January-19-2017.-Emmanuel-Ntirenganya-1-1536x1207.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Assoumpta-Uwamariya-arranging-bottles-of-wine-in-her-wine-shop-at-Mahoko-Centre-in-Rubavu-District-on-Thursday-January-19-2017.-Emmanuel-Ntirenganya-1-2048x1609.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



For a long time, she was making wine from beetroot but later, expanded production to also make wine from fruits such as pineapple and banana. Beetroot wine remains her principal product with the highest demand.



But it was a journey filled with impediments.



&nbsp; “For many, it was too good to be real and their assumption was that I imported [wine] from other countries and just packaged it,” she says.



Even more discouraging to her were comments that a woman had no place in the wine business.



“Money knows no gender. Is it profitable, am I passionate?” That is all that matters, she says.



“I was subjected to mockery from people who consider agriculture an area of the backward and the primitive.”



That didn’t dampen her spirit as she had already had a taste of the industry and knew how profitable it was. She says more young people should be encouraged into the sector.



&nbsp;“We recently went for a field trip to Kenya where a group of 80 young people traveled to visit industries with the government footing the bill.”



Uwamariya sees agriculture as the cornerstone of Rwanda’s economy.



“When you try agriculture, there’s no turning back. I also never thought I would stay in it this long but now I’m proud and determined.”



Her brand, Karisimbi Wines, is also available in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uwamariya’s aspiration is to expand the reach of her products across the globe in the next five years.



Prior to wine-making, she had tried her hand at various businesses. Today, she produces 300 liters of wine every week and has bigger ambitions.



The entrepreneur takes pride in having made money at a young age but her greatest satisfaction lies in showing others what young women are capable of.



“I believe that men and women are equally able and I think it’s high time people started to see that women can be broad-minded, self-reliant and visionary just like our male colleagues,” asserts Uwamariya.



&nbsp;The positive feedback from her consumers motivates and keeps her going in the face of challenges.



When asked what she would have done differently if she could turn the clock back, Uwamariya says she would have entered the agricultural sector even sooner than she did.



But she has invested her time well.



&#8211;Steven Muvunyi

Assumpta Uwamariya showing a beetroot ( in her right hand) at Mahoko Centre in Rubavu District, on January 20, 2017 (Emmanuel Ntirenganya)

Red Riches: This Entrepreneur Makes Wine From An Unconventional Source – Beetroot

At the 2020 FORBES WOMAN AFRICA Leading Women Summit in Durban on March 6, for the first time on the same stage, South Africa’s minister Dr Naledi Pandor and her entrepreneur-daughter Dr Aisha Pandor revealed their secrets to continued success.



It’s not often we get to witness a famous mother and daughter on the same stage sharing their lessons on success and legacy. And this duo was certainly doing so for the first time.



At the 2020 FORBES WOMAN AFRICA Leading Women Summit in Durban, South Africa, on March 6, Dr Naledi Pandor, the country’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, and Dr Aisha Pandor, CEO and Co-founder of SweepSouth, engaged in a stimulating and thought-provoking panel discussion titled ‘How To Raise A CEO’.



“Thank you very much to FORBES WOMAN AFRICA for the opportunity to be here with Aisha. I don’t often get a chance to see her. So it’s lovely to see you Aisha,” opened the much-loved minister, to laughter from the audience in the large ballroom at the international convention center in Durban.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="517" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Forbes-LWS2020KZN-2778-e1586614377306-1024x517.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-44166" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Forbes-LWS2020KZN-2778-e1586614377306-1024x517.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Forbes-LWS2020KZN-2778-e1586614377306-300x151.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Forbes-LWS2020KZN-2778-e1586614377306-600x303.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Forbes-LWS2020KZN-2778-e1586614377306-768x388.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Forbes-LWS2020KZN-2778-e1586614377306-1536x775.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Forbes-LWS2020KZN-2778-e1586614377306.jpg 1623w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>Gugu Mfuphi, Dr Aisha Pandor, and Dr Naledi Pandor </figcaption></figure>



The panel’s moderator Gugu Mfuphi began with a comic disclaimer that Dr Naledi has four children and that Dr Aisha is certainly “not the favorite”. As the audience lapped up the moment, the minister, with a broad smile, shook her head in disagreement, saying: “They are all my favorite!”



<figure class="wp-block-pullquote"><blockquote>“It was very clear – just nurture them in a wide range of things. That’s really important.”<cite>&#8211; Dr Naledi Pandor</cite></blockquote></figure>



There was more laughter and life lessons in store, as the audience got to see the lighter side of the minister.



“As a mother, what I tried to do is nurture her where she wished to grow, but also, to encourage her to have as much experience in a range of areas as possible. We would encourage academic work. We also encouraged sport, creativity; all my kids had to do speech and drama at school, it was very clear – just nurture them in a wide range of things. I think that’s really important,” said the senior Pandor.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="711" height="883" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Forbes-LWS2020KZN-2806-cropped.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-44176" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Forbes-LWS2020KZN-2806-cropped.jpg 711w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Forbes-LWS2020KZN-2806-cropped-300x373.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Forbes-LWS2020KZN-2806-cropped-600x745.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Forbes-LWS2020KZN-2806-cropped-242x300.jpg 242w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 711px) 100vw, 711px" /></figure>



While she mapped out her daughter’s career path, she later came to an important realization.



“She was really good in science. I love science but I’m bad at it. So I thought ‘God gave me Aisha, she’s going to achieve you know, because she was good at math and science’. And so she did very well at school, and went into the science faculty, did very well at the undergraduate level, was invited to carry on with an honors degree. She did very well and was asked to proceed to her Masters prior to finishing the honors. So, I was over the moon. It’s my dream, right? She continues from Masters into the PhD track, and completes her PhD with much fanfare and celebration on our part because now I’m thinking ‘here’s our senior research partner’. All these things I’ve been talking about science and technology, my child is going to live the example. Well lo and behold…”



The minister went on to offer more life-changing anecdotes about her daughter.



“One day, Aisha comes with her husband – who happens to be a software engineer – they tell us about this plan they’ve cooked up; that they’re going to start this tech start-up. And so I say to her ‘what about your research career?”. And she goes ‘this is what I want to do”. I say ‘what, but you’ve got a PhD, you could be a professor at the University of Cape Town, what are you talking about?’ And she says, ‘no mom, we’ve designed this program, we’ve started our company’. They began to tell me and her father all about it. Both of us were livid. I must tell you we thought ‘these kids are going to be a problem for us, they’ll be coming to beg for money and everything’. Few years down the line, and here we are! I’m very proud of her. I’ve learned my lesson. Let your children go where they wish to go!”



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="681" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Forbes-LWS2020KZN-2807-1024x681.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-44169" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Forbes-LWS2020KZN-2807-1024x681.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Forbes-LWS2020KZN-2807-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Forbes-LWS2020KZN-2807-600x399.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Forbes-LWS2020KZN-2807-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Forbes-LWS2020KZN-2807-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Forbes-LWS2020KZN-2807.jpg 1623w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>Dr Aisha Pandor</figcaption></figure>



Aisha, along with her husband, learned quickly that being a CEO will require significant sacrifice.



“I lived with my parents for probably four years after starting our business. We eventually ended up selling everything we had, to fund the business,” she said.



“Our parents brought us up to have the right moral compass. Education and the idea of learning and knowledge have been very important. My parents gave us freedom in the decisions we made based on the fact that they knew they had given us that grounding.”  



Watch the full panel discussion below: 



<figure class="wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" title="#LWS2020KZN: Mother &amp; Daughter - How To Raise A CEO" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kqJiWcLTgGY?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>

Forbes LWS2020KZN-2791

How To Raise A CEO: A Mother And Daughter Share Lessons

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

The namesake star of Nickelodeon’s preschool hit&nbsp;Ryan’s Mystery Playdate&nbsp;appears on set in a bright orange space suit ready to embark on an imaginary interplanetary adventure with his parents.&nbsp;



With a snap of the clapboard his mother, Loann, offers up the skit’s opening line — “Spaceship to aliens&#8230;” — before her then-7-year-oldcuts her off: “It’s ‘Mothership&nbsp;to aliens…,” her son corrects, stopping production and the 58-member TV crew behind it.



“Ryan, never correct the mother ship,” gently chides executive producer Jeff Sutphen from the director’s chair.



Ryan shrugs off the admonition. He routinely memorizes everyone’s lines, and will sometimes be caught on camera mouthing dialog along with his parents — forcing the occasional re-shoot. His father, Shion Kaji, jokes that if he hesitates even slightly with his delivery, he worries Ryan might steal his lines.



“I have a lot of words,” Ryan says in his own defense.



Not that he needs to defend himself. One of the leading child influencers on the planet, his Ryan’s World YouTube channel boasts 24 million subscribers, and Forbes estimates he earned $26 million in 2019, enough to make him the country’s<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2019/12/18/the-highest-paid-youtube-stars-of-2019-the-kids-are-killing-it/#64bd924a38cd">&nbsp;highest paid YouTuber.</a>



Kaji’s mindshare among preschoolers is so big that ViacomCBS network came running to him in its bid to stem the outflow of child viewers. T<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dawnchmielewski/2020/02/24/viacomcbs-has-lost-its-children-nickelodeon-is-looking-for-them-on-youtube/#572ad1597a70">wo years ago Nickelodeon turned to Pocket.watch</a>, a digital studio devoted to turning YouTube stars into global franchises, to bring Ryan to the kids’ TV network that’s been home to such iconic children’s characters as SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer.



Welcome to the new world of children’s television. Once the domain of educators, pediatricians and psychologists concerned with fostering child development and school readiness, the D.I.Y. culture of the internet has thrown open the doors to anyone with an attention-grabbing idea. Sure, you can still find Big Bird on TV (though the feathery&nbsp;Sesame Street&nbsp;icon has moved his nest to HBO) and reruns of&nbsp;Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood&nbsp;online. But those classics are getting crowded out by shows like JibJab’s Gregg and Evan Spiridellis, whose StoryBots monochromatic robot characters were born on YouTube and now live on Netflix, or the husband-and-wife duo, Derek and Cannis Holder, who created the popular YouTube channel&nbsp;Little Baby Bum, a collection of nursery rhymes.&nbsp;



These home-grown shows have attracted global audiences in the millions. “If you were a creator in the ‘80s, you&#8217;d walk into Nickelodeon and Disney and hope that the executive in charge of making decisions thought that you had something worthwhile,” says Gregg Spiridellis. “That person is no longer relevant if you&#8217;re a creator with the ability to actually make something. You can put it out into the world and get validation. These open platforms — YouTube, Instagram — give you the opportunity to go prove the worth of your content in a way that was never possible before.”&nbsp;



A digital native, Ryan grew up on YouTube, singing along to nursery rhyme videos and watching “unboxing videos,” one of the peculiar genres of the platform, in which objects — toys, electronics, you name it — get unpacked to great fanfare. The breakout began one spring day when Ryan, age 3, asked his mother: “How come I’m not on YouTube?”



On a lark, Loann drove him toTarget and bought a Lego Duplo train set, which Ryan unpacked in his first “unboxing” video. Shot onan iPhone without edits, attention to lighting or animation, the video looks painfully amateurish today. Her son loved them, though, and so did family members in Vietnam and Japan, who enjoyed watching him grow up from a distance. “YouTube was this great platform for us to broadcast Ryan’s growth,” Shion recalls.



A single video changed the trajectory of the home-movie project and thrust the Kajis into the vanguard of YouTube’s burgeoning tribe of family vloggers. A student of the new medium, Ryan had noticed a novel twist to the unboxing genre, which featured kids cracking open giant eggs with multiple toys, instead of ripping open one box at a time.



The Kaji version became “GIANT Lightning McQueen Egg Surprise,” a seven-minute video, in which Ryan is roused from his Lightning McQueen race-car bed to extract toy cars, trucks and airplanes of various sizes from a giant red egg. The resulting video has been watched more than 1 billion times. Suddenly they found themselves accidental successors to TV legends like Fred Rogers,&nbsp;Sesame Street&nbsp;creators the Children’s Television Workshop (now the Sesame Workshop) and Muppet-maker Jim Henson.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“After four months, we were one of the top kids’ creators,” says Shion, in an interview conducted from the family’s 9,000-square-foot production facility in Texas. Still, as  improbable as it seems, no one in the family thought about cashing in on all that traffic until Loann stumbled upon a post about monetization while seeking tips on improving the quality of the videos. 



“I was like, ‘Hon, you can make money on YouTube.’ Shion’s response, recalls Loann, was&nbsp; ‘Are you sure?’”&nbsp;



She was, and she set a goal of $20 a week, enough to cover the cost of buying a new toy for Ryan to unbox each week, like a never-ending birthday celebration. When the first check arrived, for $100, “I was so proud,” she says. It was nothing, in retrospect: By the fall of 2016, the charismatic 4-year-old with an infectious smile and affinity for&nbsp;Thomas &amp; Friends&nbsp;trains and cars had amassed an online following of 4 million subscribers.&nbsp;



Shion and Loann quit their day jobs that year and devoted themselves full-time to the family’s budding media empire. They hired a video editor so they could focus on that aspect of production they enjoyed most: spending time with Ryan, playing around and filming. To shelter their son from burnout, they drew inspiration from Japan’s Virtual YouTubers, which feature anime-style cartoon characters who attract sizable online followings. The Kajis created animated alter-egos like superhero Red Titan (Ryan drew the stick-figure prototype himself), and an adventurous alligator, Gus the Gummy Gator. Today they have a roster of six virtual “friends” for Ryan, each depicting a facet of his personality.



As the output expands, so does the team. Twenty-eight animators, video editors and other creatives working for the family’s production company, Sunlight Entertainment, now generate the steady flow of educational videos, kid-friendly science experiments and cartoons that populate the eight channels that comprise Ryan’s World.&nbsp;



It’s not been a completely smooth ride, all things considered. The consumer watchdog Truth in Advertising filed a complaint last August with the Federal Trade Commission, accusing the Kajis’ YouTube channel, previously known as Ryan ToysReview, of deceptive advertising, saying it’s difficult for preschoolers to discern Ryan&#8217;s “innocent antics” from paid endorsements. The complaint cited as an example one June 2019 video, in which Ryan operates a make-believe Hardee’s drive-through window and delivers a “Star Pals” meal to his father. It’s the same month that the fast food chain announced a toy promotion featuring Ryan.



The regulatory agency hasn’t announced any public action against the YouTube channel, though this month the FTC said it would begin reviewing its guidelines concerning influencer marketing on social media, potentially ensnaring the Kajis and other online influencers in a cultural and political scrum over the commercialization of childhood.



Shion says he welcomes direction from regulators and works with a legal team to help identify online content that’s advertising. “The one thing that was very difficult for all the influencers (is) there was no clear guidance from FTC until recently,” he says.



Sorting it all out will be critical to keeping the millions flowing, even as Shion and Loann strive to balance the demands of Ryan’s budding entertainment career with their desire to give their son the life of a typical elementary-school kid. He attends public school and maintains a crowded calendar of after-school activities that includes playing&nbsp;Fortnite&nbsp;and&nbsp;Roblox&nbsp;with friends online, swimming (he’s perfecting his backstroke), computer coding, Taekwondo (he’s working toward earning a green belt) and gymnastics, where Ryan’s kinetic energy is expressed through headstands and flips.



In a room surrounded by scores of toys that bear his image, the child phenomenon reflects about the quirks of internet celebrity, and how complete strangers will approach him, and call him their best friend.



“They&#8217;re like ‘Ryan I saw you on my iPad and your mom and dad on my iPad too,’” Ryan says, nervously tugging on the long sleeves of his green shirt and swiveling back and forth on an office chair. He says he’s found it easy to make friends at school. “Some knew me just from who I am. Some people know me from YouTube.”



Put him in front of a camera, though, and he comes alive. Posing for photos, he offers up a fresh expression with every shutter click, sporting a big grin and thumbs up, an eye roll with a tongue out, another confidently grinning with arms folded, poking a finger at the lens, shrugging. It may be a hint of things to come. At the end of his first season on Nickelodeon, he penned a thank-you note to the director.



“Next season,” he wrote. “I want to direct, too.”

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Colorful baskets ready for sale

The Baskets Holding Them Together

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="auto, (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.

Tag: Entrepreneur

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