“There is no greater asset to Africa than its youth,” a statement that has been repeatedly proclaimed, but the continent still has a long way to go. Despite robust economic growth over the past two decades, a 1 percent increase in growth between 2000–14 was associated with only 0.41 percent growth in employment. This figure suggests that employment stood at less than 1.8 percent a year, far below the nearly 3 percent annual growth in the labor force. If this trend continues, 100 million people will join the multitudes of the unemployed in Africa by 2030.



With this in mind, researchers, youth representatives, business leaders,
and policymakers have joined over 350 stakeholders in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt,
to significantly move the needle on youth empowerment.&nbsp; 



The annual African Economic Conference (AEC), is jointly
organized by the African Development Bank, the Economic Commission for Africa
and the United Nations Development Programme, to discuss pertinent issues
affecting the continent. 



The 2019 AEC is held in Egypt and hosted by the
Bank on the theme; “Jobs, entrepreneurship and capacity development for African
youth” and runs from 2-4 December.



Turning the youth bulge into opportunities has been
the focus of the African Development Bank’s game-changing approach to job
creation, entrepreneurship, and capacity development. In recognition of the crucial
role that entrepreneurship plays in the creation of high-quality jobs, the Bank
developed its Jobs for Youth in Africa (JfYA) Strategy&nbsp;(2016-2025). The
Strategy aims to create 25 million jobs for African youth over the next decade as
well as equipping 50 million youth with a mix of hard and soft skills to
increase their employability and their entrepreneurial success rate. 



The impact is already being felt. Since its launch
in 2016, over $20 billion has been invested by the Bank across 318 projects.
These investments are directly making a difference in the African youth skills,
entrepreneurship, business development, and job creation.



In parallel and working closely with its partners,
the Bank is helping strengthen entrepreneurship ecosystems in Africa. &nbsp;The flagship Youth Entrepreneurship and
Innovation Multi-Donor Trust Fund&nbsp;(YEI MDTF) program provides&nbsp;interventions
that equip the African youth, women-led start-ups, and micro, small, and medium
enterprises (MSMEs) with skills and financial support to run bankable
businesses. 



The program also assists regional member countries (RMCs)
in their implementation of economic and social reforms toward job creation. 



In just one short year, the Trust Fund’s resources leapfrogged
from USD4.4 million (in 2017) to almost USD40 million (in 2018). By providing
technical assistance through enterprise support organizations and financial
institutions, the Fund is anticipated to reach more than 480 youth-led startups
in Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Togo, and Zimbabwe.



The Bank has also been very active on the education
front, supporting higher education institutions to deliver innovative training
curricula that are adapted to the changing demand of the labor market and the private
sector. &nbsp;Academic incubators—also known
as innovation centers of excellence, have been established. 



One great example of success is the &nbsp;African Institutions of Science and Technology
(AIST) Program, whose mission is to deliver quality postgraduate education and
build collaborative research capacity in various fields of Science,
Engineering, Technology and Innovation (SETI). With funding from the Bank, a
total of 1,477 PhD and MSc students have graduated, out of which 676 are women.
Additionally, a total of 35 partnerships have been brokered with the private
sector to enhance the quality and relevance of research.



Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) has
also been acknowledged by the Bank as one of the main drivers of human capital
development alongside enhanced basic education that generates knowledge and
skills more broadly. As such, the Bank’s TVET project in Tanzania, has bolstered
TVET and teacher education with an investment amounting to $52 million. The
expected outputs include expanded infrastructure of 13 institutions targeting
about 8,000 trainees, expanded and extensive use of ICT in instruction at 53
institutions, and increased capacity for teaching, policy formulation, planning,
and quality assurance.



The insights and thoughts provided by other African
stakeholders, youth representatives, and political leaders on the debate on
youth jobs, skills, and entrepreneurship capacities during the AEC 2019 are
immensely important in helping the continent move forward. 



Now, more than ever, we must listen to the voices of the African youth.



&#8211; Hanan Morsy, Director, Macroeconomic Forecasting and Research at the African Development Bank Group.

WhatsApp Image 2019-11-30 at 07.51.13

Op-Ed: Fostering Jobs, Entrepreneurship, And Capacity Development For African Youth: The Time For Disruption Is Now!

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



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First, the facts.



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

BYRIGBY-990

Having A Ball With Data

South African filmmaker and producer, Kutlwano Ditsele, takes pride in re-telling the African narrative in a way that empowers and represents the continent as progressive. There’s also always a twist in the plot. 



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“A Japanese man on holiday with his wife in South Africa falls in love with a…”



An incomplete idea is stored and filed away in the digital
pages of a smart phone. 



The author is not only a creative director but also the
co-founder of South African production company, Seriti Films. 



By merging his passion for celebrating African stories through film and television with entrepreneurship, Kutlwano Ditsele’s story is on its way to a happy ending. 



 READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/entrepreneurs/2019/08/14/the-maverick-in-tech/">The Maverick In Tech</a>



He debuted his career as a filmmaker with a music video for
South African mega-star AKA in 2010, shot in the heart of Johannesburg’s
Central Business District.



The initial production cost was a humble R20,000
($1,360).&nbsp; 



A serendipitous bicycle race on a Sunday afternoon saved
them from paying heavily to close off certain main roads and public areas
downtown, during the filming of the music video. 



Ditsele recalls the silence and how the emptiness edified
the aesthetics of AKA’s song, Victory Lap. 



An artist owning the streets of the country’s economic and
financial hub for a day, even if it is by chance, opened a world of
opportunities for Ditsele, who was propeled into the limelight after the video.




Today, ideas constantly fall on his lap, even when he is on
the move. 



As he scrolls through his phone, he stumbles upon a
never-ending list of ideas he forgot existed (such as the one at the beginning
of this story). With surprise, he recites various plot lines. 



“Crime family show, three sisters and a kid brother with a grandmother… Whenever I am on a train, plane, car or even a jog, a small idea will come into my head,” he says.  



 READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/personal-finance/2019/09/30/the-one-thing-i-want-to-do-before-i-die/">‘The One Thing I Want To Do Before I Die’</a>



Kutlwano’s relationship with film goes back to when he was
eight years old; setting up a make-shift cinema for his cousins at their family
home in the mountainous parts of Rustenburg, in the North West province. 



Despite limited resources (television and electricity), what
little exposure they had to the enchanting effect of those screens would
inspire the young Ditsele and his cousins to re-enact those scenes, with him
assuming the role of the director. 



“Your responsibility is for that single mother who wakes up
at 4 o’clock in the morning, who has to get water outside, boil that water, get
the kids’ food ready, get on a train for an hour or two to be the first to get
into the office and having to leave at three or four o’clock, to sit in front
of the television at eight in the evening, to forget about her problems for the
hour,” he says. 



Intellectual property is a commodity in the local film
industry that leaves filmmakers like Ditsele working twice as hard to build a
name and fix the misrepresentations that were previously normalized before
African filmmakers had the means of production. Globally, the industry has
created more opportunities for black filmmakers. 



In 2005, Ditsele was awarded the opportunity to study at the
New York Film Academy. 



The cultural exchanges he shared with students from
Singapore, Indonesia, China and Brazil taught him that filmmaking is not only
about learning in class but exploring one’s environment. 



Learning in Hollywood placed him in a privileged position when he returned to South Africa in 2008. 



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"> “Your responsibility is for that single mother who wakes up at 4 o’clock&#8230;to forget about her problems for the hour.” </blockquote>



He took it upon himself to re-tell the African narrative by
documenting positive representations of the continent. However, this becomes a tightrope
walk for local film producers who need to ensure their work has commercial
appeal. 



A contemporary challenge is that story-tellers, like
Ditsele, have to compete for a seat in the mainstream industry.



“It is more about the African narrative other than just the
South African narrative. I think that it is hard for us to ignore that the
biggest propaganda machine, America, is in the films. How we view America is
from everything they have done. 



“Aliens are coming, and America will save them (humans). They have told this incredible narrative about themselves and it has gone out into the world. The narrative around Africa has been quite the opposite. A narrative of poverty, jungle, primitive and they keep telling that narrative and they shy away from progressive stories,” he says. 



The filmmaker highlights that although the local industry
developed over the last 25 years, the number of those waiting in line remains
high, and those who fortuitously manage to float to the top and become brands
are few and far between.&nbsp; 



READ MORE | <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2019/09/11/side-hustles-the-entrepreneur-employees/">Side Hustles: The Entrepreneur Employees</a>



Despite being behind the camera, Distele says there are
industry inhibitors that prevent creatives from owning their intellectual
property. 



In a bitter twist of irony, many local stars who are
celebrated far and wide will die without a cent to their name to the extent
that their families are forced to crowdfund for burial costs.



“What you create is owned by someone else and they can make
as much money as they want. I think it is wrong because Picasso should decide
how much his painting is worth, not somebody else,” he says.



A simple idea, like the 2018 South African Film and
Television Awards (SAFTA)-nominated production, The Herd, achieved immense
commercial success as the story lines are often merged with the topical issues
of the day.&nbsp; 



For Distele, South African productions about love, power and
wealth are an example of how the production company keeps the African narrative
relatable to all viewers. For instance, the plot twist of a young girl thrust
into power in a modern world; cultural ceremonies are portrayed in a way that
the millennial audience can immerse themselves in.



The proliferation of social media and digitalization has
given the audience agency to comment in real time and engage and be critical of
the content given to them and directors like Ditsele are paying close
attention.

KutwanaD_GL

Owning The African Narrative

Under 30 alumni, born on the same day and with similar stories of entrepreneurship, are collaborating to disrupt industries and shape the future of Africa.

The road to entrepreneurship is cold, lonely and riddled with potholes. It helps if you are walking it with someone else.
Millennials Siya Beyile and Thato Kgatlhanye are doing just that.
Together, they are redefining business and shaping the future
of Africa.
“Entrepreneurs always talk about collaborations but we don’t do it enough. We want to resource Africa’s future. Resources go beyond natural resources, which is where the world has been focused. Our ideas, our people and the way we do things has value, so we must take advantage of it,” says Kgatlhanye.
Beyile and Kgatlhanye have big dreams, but a year ago, they were strangers, treading a path of hardship and pain.
At just 25 years old, Beyile has a resume most would envy.
In 2013, he founded The Threaded Man, a fashion blog for men, inspired by his mother, who often called him “umfana othungiweyo”, the ‘threaded man’ in isiXhosa.
He worked with major brands such as Adidas, Stuttafords, American Swiss, TITAN watches, H&amp;M, SAB, Hugo Boss and Pandora. He styled stars like Nomuzi Mabena, MsCosmo, Khuli Chana, AKA, DA LES, Amanda Black and Somizi Mhlongo.
At the age of 22, he was appointed Fashion Director of the South African Music Awards and MTV Africa Music Awards, he was named one of the seven leading voices of African men’s fashion by GQ and he graced the cover of GQ Style.
Beyile was adored by many, but beneath the stylish exterior was a story that was less flattering.
A slew of bad business decisions saw him lose money and his credibility, and the setbacks almost cost him his life.
“I had to shut the business down because of depression. I tried to commit suicide many times. I had made a lot of money but I had not touched it. It had gone to pay loans and also buy my company back. I never got to enjoy it. I shut down,” he says.
It took a toll on his confidence. He tonsured his head and spent six months in a rehabilitation facility, where he worked on rebuilding himself.
“I lost a lot of public value. People started unfollowing me [on social media] and just didn’t like me. People in the industry that I respected even turned on me. I would go to places and people would whisper around me and look at me with shame. It was embarrassing. I would go home and cry.”
He closed his business and moved back home to Cape Town to rethink and rejuvenate.
With a new attitude towards life, he relocated yet again to Johannesburg to start over. In February, he connected with Kgatlhanye, a FORBES AFRICA 30 Under 30 alumni and award-winning entrepreneur.
“When we met, we realized we had the same vision of disrupting. She was tired of being known as a bag entrepreneur and wanted to make sustainable luxury and wanted to get into fashion and I wanted my fashion to be sustainable and wanted to run a factory but didn’t know how. She had the experience of running a factory and I knew all things fashion,” says Beyile.
<div id="attachment_37746" style="width: 693px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37746" class="wp-image-37746 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Thato-n-Siya-712-683x1024.jpg" alt="" width="683" height="1024" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Thato-n-Siya-712-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Thato-n-Siya-712-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Thato-n-Siya-712-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Thato-n-Siya-712-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Thato-n-Siya-712-768x1151.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Thato-n-Siya-712.jpg 1366w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px" />Thato Kgatlhanye and Siya Beyile. Photo by Motlabana Monnakgotla.</div>
<a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2016/02/01/ceo-rethaka/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: CEO, Rethaka</a>
Kgatlhanye is the founder of Rethaka Group, which started in textile manufacturing and waste management. She became known for collecting and recycling plastic waste into solar-powered school bags for poor children.
“We started like that so we could get an understanding of the nuts and bolts of manufacturing. Most of the time we don’t own the value chain of products. Take clothes, for example, people just go somewhere to buy things but don’t know the suppliers of zips and buttons and you end up cutting into your margins by virtue of not understanding the value chain. So we collaborated to form a new company, where we bring in the ability to build and make things in a sustainable way and then sell them on our platforms,” says Kgatlhanye.
Beyile and Kgatlhanye founded 712 Group, which now houses both their brands. The company is named after their birthday; they were both born on December 7.
“We are building a global powerhouse with African brands. Those brands will be spread across technology, manufacturing, fashion and sustainability. Africa right now has become a focal point but a lot of the brands we consume on a daily basis are not African. We have a lot of talented people in these spaces but we don’t see them opening stores around the world and disrupting. We feel like our market has been hijacked. There is no corporate structure that supports our brands,” says Beyile.
The pair agree there is more power in collaborating than working in silos.
“Working together helps. We know our strengths and weaknesses. For example, I know that I can’t be CEO. In the last five years, I have been in business, I have learned I am not capable because there are certain things I don’t think about. However, I have also learned I am a visionary.  I am good at coming up with concepts and connecting people but I am not good at implementing. However, Thato is good at taking the idea and having it live in the world, which is a nice balance,” says Beyile.
Kgatlhanye concurs: “There were a lot of loopholes in our individual businesses that we were struggling with. It would have taken us longer to try togrow our businesses individually than it will take us now as a combined unit. I was a master in something he needed and he was a master in something I needed.”
Beyile says they have both learned not to rush, but rather to build a solid foundation, generate cash reserves and work on growth.
<blockquote>“A lot of businesses led by young people will ‘grow’ but when you look at their growth metrics, staff turnover and profitability, those things are not solid,” says Kgatlhanye.</blockquote>
Beyile agrees.
“The biggest lesson from my journey is that business is not a friendly sport. If you have ambitions to be a billionaire and to be on the cover of FORBES AFRICA magazine, to get there, you will suffer.”
Given the current market, Beyile says their business structure is different.
“When I look at media companies, their staff turnover is low. This is because young people are frustrated. They don’t want a nine-to-five. They want to build their own businesses and have their own lives. We can’t expect to hire young people full-time and expect them to be happy and to work for us for 20 years… Young people need to be put in positions of empowerment, so we work with freelancers and businesses owned by young people on a project-by-project basis.”
They say the additional benefit of collaborating is it helps them save money on office space, speeds up project turnaround times, ensures quality work and gives them faster and more effective growth and team results.
It is true: teamwork makes the dream work. The future is bright for these young entrepreneurs born on the same day in the same year and with the same vision for Africa.

Thato-n-Siya-733

Two’s Company; 30 Under 30 Alumni Collaborate

Hungry in London with a stomach dreaming of home? From the smoky to the sensory, the city offers distinct African culinary encounters.

The unfussy algorithm of a well-known review website has decided there are 105 ‘African’ restaurants in London. Search for ‘European’ restaurants, and you’ll discover 2,654 – now your gut might be telling you something is amiss in the capital’s gigantic foodscape.
‘European food’ seems rather a strange and empty phrase (bouillabaisse and chips, anyone?), but an equivalent suspicion of categorization seems not to apply to dishes from Africa, a continent boasting 54 countries to Europe’s 50. London may indeed be aggressively cosmopolitan, but it might be a while before this ravenous city can really consider itself fully ‘woke’.
Thankfully, word-of-mouth is still a solidly reliable guide to the thousands of eateries in the city, so let this small slice of recommended eats from the African continent – Ghanaian, Senegalese and South African – serve as a modest appetizer, should you find yourself hungry in London with a stomach dreaming of home.
“For me, it should be seamless – the tradition is in the flavor profile of the dish,” says Zoe Adjonyoh, author of Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen, of the challenge of reinventing Ghanaian flavors for a new audience.
“The reinterpreting is in the creativity of how to rebuild the dish through different cooking methods, or blending its inherent ingredients in new ways.” Try her ‘Suya Cauliflower Florets’, featuring the smoky notes of the Nigerian and Ghanaian suya spice blend, by way of tasty example.
<a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/entrepreneurs/2018/10/22/the-foodies-with-a-drive-for-business/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The Foodies With A Drive For Business</a>
Through her increasingly popular pop-ups and residencies, Adjonyoh tries to avoid “preaching or teaching” what Ghanaian food should or shouldn’t be.
“I’m highlighting what’s possible, and giving people the motivation to do more with these amazing flavors and ingredients to maximize their taste and longevity,” she says. The cookbook features “traditional Ghanaian recipes remixed for the modern kitchen”.

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				<a href='https://www.forbesafrica.com/life/2018/11/19/taking-a-bite-out-of-africa/attachment/suya-cauliflower-from-zoes-ghana-kitchen/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Suya-Cauliflower-from-Zoes-Ghana-Kitchen-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" aria-describedby="gallery-1-37676" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Suya-Cauliflower-from-Zoes-Ghana-Kitchen-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Suya-Cauliflower-from-Zoes-Ghana-Kitchen-100x100.jpg 100w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Suya-Cauliflower-from-Zoes-Ghana-Kitchen-600x605.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Suya-Cauliflower-from-Zoes-Ghana-Kitchen-768x775.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Suya-Cauliflower-from-Zoes-Ghana-Kitchen-1015x1024.jpg 1015w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Suya-Cauliflower-from-Zoes-Ghana-Kitchen-80x80.jpg 80w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Suya-Cauliflower-from-Zoes-Ghana-Kitchen.jpg 1489w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a>
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				Suya Cauliflower from Zoes Ghana Kitchen
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				<a href='https://www.forbesafrica.com/life/2018/11/19/taking-a-bite-out-of-africa/attachment/ikoyi-plantain-raspberry-smoked-scotch-bonnet/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Ikoyi-Plantain-Raspberry-Smoked-Scotch-Bonnet-150x150.jpeg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" aria-describedby="gallery-1-37674" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Ikoyi-Plantain-Raspberry-Smoked-Scotch-Bonnet-150x150.jpeg 150w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Ikoyi-Plantain-Raspberry-Smoked-Scotch-Bonnet-100x100.jpeg 100w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Ikoyi-Plantain-Raspberry-Smoked-Scotch-Bonnet-80x80.jpeg 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a>
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				Ikoyi Plantain Raspberry Smoked Scotch Bonnet
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				<a href='https://www.forbesafrica.com/life/2018/11/19/taking-a-bite-out-of-africa/attachment/carrots-from-hammer-tongs/'><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Carrots-from-Hammer-Tongs-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" aria-describedby="gallery-1-37672" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Carrots-from-Hammer-Tongs-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Carrots-from-Hammer-Tongs-100x100.jpg 100w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Carrots-from-Hammer-Tongs-80x80.jpg 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" /></a>
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				Carrots from Hammer Tongs
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“I’m very keen to champion and promote the next generation of female chefs cooking cuisines from across Africa,” she says. “I see it as part of my challenge and responsibility to keep encouraging them to fall in love with their heritage again through food, and tell their own cultural stories – to be the masters and makers of this food revolution.”
A short bus ride through East London brings us to Little Baobab, a monthly food and music pop-up above a vibrant corner grocery in Hackney. It’s a bright late afternoon, and Senegalese chef Khadim Mbamba is making his ‘Lamb Mafe’ – lamb in a tomato and peanut sauce (a traditional base sauce in Senegal), with rice and salad. It is creamy and tangy-sweet; hearty, but fresh on the palate. He makes me a gift of a home-made chilli paste that celebrates the spice’s medicinal punch but marries perfectly with the roasted umami of the nut gravy.
The events are themselves a marriage of music and food; guests share starters, and then choose from ‘Thiebou Dienne’ (fish casserole), ‘Chicken Yassa’ (chicken with onions and olives), ‘Lamb Mafe’, or ‘Vegetarian Thiou’ (tomato-based vegetable stew). Mbamba’s band – he plays bass – rounds out the sensory smorgasbord while the guests tuck in. It’s an experience close to Mbamba’s heart, full of the joy of community so integral to the Senegalese culinary encounter.
“There is a lot of soul in our food,” he says. “The love you have, making the dish – when people eat that dish, they will feel that love.” Little Baobab began life as a restaurant, with live music every night, but Mbamba and his team are now focussed on pop-ups and catering (especially for weddings).
Westward now towards the financial center, and Etienne Pansegrauw’s Hammer &amp; Tongs braai restaurant in Farringdon. Braai dishes seem perfectly suited to British culture: the locals crave an evolved barbecue civilization of their own, but wage constant war with a climate that seems hell-bent on wrecking any carefully-planned Sunday afternoon cook-out. What better, then, than letting a South African do it all for you?
Pansegrauw, from South Africa’s Eastern Cape, has invested in state-of-the-art extractors that allow chef Rodrigo Navarro to prepare a succulent array of locally-sourced fresh meats, vegetables and seafood on fires fed with sickle bush wood imported from Namibia.
This elevates the food to much more than barbecue (indeed, South Africans might argue that braai and barbecue are not the same thing at all; that the braai is closer to something like a cultural state of mind). ‘Mutton Chops in Cape Malay Curry’ are tender and sweetly charred; ‘Prawns with Lime Salt’ are juicy and moreish; and ‘Pork Belly with Apple Cider Compote’ gains most from the sickle bush smoke, the layers of pork fat richly infused with the fragrant nuttiness of the wood. The surprise star of the menu, though, is the ‘Honey Fried Carrots with Chilli’ – the plump, crunchy carrots are cooked in honey before being finished on the grill, giving them a caramelized meatiness equal in textural complexity to anything fish or flesh. These are the big, bold flavors of the camp fire, but prepared with panache and an attention to the subtle combinations of flavor and aroma that are the hallmark of great grill cooking.
“If you go back five years, even, if you had opened up a wood fire place, I don’t think that many people would have gone,” says Pansegrauw. “So the timing has been important. I wanted to see if British people would be receptive to this kind of food; that’s why I opened up in an area near the city, rather than South West London for example, which has a large South African community. For every group of 20 Brits that come, there’s usually one South African that drags them here! But then they all come back.”
Our final destination is two miles west, but a galaxy away. Ikoyi is the first ‘African’ restaurant in London to have earned a coveted Michelin star, but the continental label seems even more incongruous here – the irony is that the Ikoyi concept plays with the African association as readily as it flirts with the aesthetics of costume design, science fiction and pop art. This thrilling challenge to expectations is almost an affront – one isn’t completely sure if the menu, and the intensity of its creators, Jeremy Chan and Iré Hassan-Odukale, isn’t just some bizarre but delicious practical joke (chef Chan likens his food in the press pack to the paintings of Mark Rothko, a correlation that some will think pretentious &#8211; I found it endearingly ballsy and appropriate).
The ‘Plantain, Raspberry &amp; Smoked Scotch Bonnet’ starter is like something from an Eiko Ishioka fantasy costume sketch: there is a magenta slash of plantain, encrusted with a tart-sour raspberry salt, and a saffron-yellow quenelle of citrusy chilli mayonnaise. The plantain is dense and sugary, the raspberry salt reminiscent of a child’s fizzing candy powder, but with a bass note from the emulsion of Scotch Bonnet warmth. It’s odd, exhilarating and a little bit Star Trek – you might be served this if you were an alien ambassador at a private function on the USS Enterprise.
“The dishes have to lure you in,” says Chan. “You have to look at the dish and think – I want to destroy that! So, for example, a pork chop that looks more like a pig than the animal did – a cartoon version of itself. It’s about aesthetics and deliciousness, but unified. This dish is your kill, your prize!”
<div id="attachment_37673" style="width: 750px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37673" class="wp-image-37673 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Ikoyi-Jeremy-and-Iré-photo-by-P.A-Jorgensen.jpg" alt="" width="740" height="987" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Ikoyi-Jeremy-and-Iré-photo-by-P.A-Jorgensen.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Ikoyi-Jeremy-and-Iré-photo-by-P.A-Jorgensen-300x400.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Ikoyi-Jeremy-and-Iré-photo-by-P.A-Jorgensen-600x800.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Ikoyi-Jeremy-and-Iré-photo-by-P.A-Jorgensen-225x300.jpg 225w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Ikoyi-Jeremy-and-Iré-photo-by-P.A-Jorgensen-768x1024.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" />Ikoyi Jeremy and Iré. Photo by P.A Jorgensen</div>
Childhood friends Chan and Hassan-Odukale were inspired to open the restaurant by a visit to Lagos (Chan is from the north-west of England, Hassan-Odukale is Nigerian-born), but Chan insists that these are “purposely not Nigerian dishes. They have to be completely innovative. That’s the rule”.
The ‘Smoked Jollof Rice’ is a sensuous love song to the crab – the perfect al dente rice has been cooked in a crab broth, and is finished with an unctuous crab cream; the entire crustacean is used in the preparation. It’s sophisticated comfort food, demonstrating Chan’s instinctive understanding that juxtapositions tradition and experimentation at the core of everything good emerging from 21st century multiculturalism.
“The dishes have to be driven by a creative interpretation of the ingredients,” says Chan, in a suitably enigmatic coda to a week of great eating from Africa. “It’s about a primal connection with the guest. Everything is stripped of any preconceptions.”
&#8211; By Alastair Haggar

Khadim-Mbamba-from-Little-Baobab

Taking A Bite Out Of Africa

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Bio Burials And Life After Death

Two taxi commuters who went on to become friends and tenacious business partners selling gourmet cuisine out of a food truck.

Look right, look left. You may well be sitting next to your future business partner.
That’s what happened to Hezron Louw, the Johannesburg-based co-founder of Sumting Fresh, on one of his taxi commutes years ago, and one that set him off on another journey altogether in a food truck.
“I met this guy in the taxi. And he was reading a magazine about cakes and we started talking about cakes. And every day for about two and half years, we would meet in the same taxi line and we would talk about food,” recounts Louw, when we meet him at Grant Avenue, a trendy street in the garden suburb of Norwood in Johannesburg.
This is where Sumting Fresh is rustling up and selling taste. The gourmet food company also sells out of a food truck at Johannesburg’s vibrant food markets.
The guy Louw met in the taxi, chef Andrew Leeuw, would go on to found Sumting Fresh with him in 2012. But before that, the friends-turned-business partners had hurdles and hiccups to overcome.
“We had 12 years apart in between before we saw each other again,” says Louw, the self-taught chef and media personality.
Louw and Leeuw grew up in the suburb of Ennerdale four blocks from each other but never met until the day destiny connected them at the taxi rank.
<div id="attachment_37499" style="width: 693px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37499" class="wp-image-37499 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Hezron-297-683x1024.jpg" alt="" width="683" height="1024" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Hezron-297-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Hezron-297-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Hezron-297-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Hezron-297-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Hezron-297-768x1151.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Hezron-297.jpg 1366w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px" />Hezron Louw; the background illustration has co-founder Andrew Leew on the right.</div>
They were students at the time – Louw was studying for a BCom in accounting while Leeuw was studying to become a chef.
Though Louw dropped out of his course to work in the banking sector, Leeuw completed his studies and worked at resorts.
The common ground in their friendship was their deep, abiding love for food.
“One day, I was driving down the road with my brother and I see Andrew. I shout ‘hey my guy’, he shouts ‘hey my guy’. We had forgotten each other’s names,” he says.
They went to have a beer and three months later, Sumting Fresh was born with merely no capital.
“We had a trailer and we would use my brother’s VW Golf to pull it… We were situated at Becker Street in Midrand for about two years,” says Louw.
Armed with no market research, the risk-takers parked their vehicle there in the hope of one day luring enough clients and becoming successful.
Besides their love for gastronomy, all they had between them was R20,000 ($1, 366) and some pots and pans they received from family.
Reality kicked in soon after.
“Yho! It was dismal,” exclaims Louw.
They were selling lunch to middle-income employees for R35 &#8211; R50 ($2 &#8211; $3) per meal at the time, and their cost price was also as much. They weren’t making any profit.
“Here we were out on the streets selling expensive food at low prices. Our business was a complete loss. Sometimes we would split R175 ($12),” says Louw, reminiscing the cash-strapped days.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/entrepreneurs/2018/10/18/no-wasted-opportunities-for-swazi-entrepreneur/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: No Wasted Opportunities For Swazi Entrepreneur</a>
Fortunately, they had a support system at home including family members and partners.
“I was literally a working poor person. I was extremely poor!” says Louw.
Things got worse. Both co-founders had children and families to look after.
“The business was on its knees, we couldn’t afford milk, nappies [for the children]; we just couldn’t afford anything.”
But the ambition to succeed was strong.
“What was very fortunate was Andrew and I are very optimistic people. We always knew we wanted Sumting Fresh to work. Even though the situation was depressing and hard, when he was down, I would pick him up, when I was down, he would pick me up,” says Louw.
As they leaned on each other, they learned determination.
<blockquote>“The main reason our business is still around is persistence. We would knock on doors and we would insist on getting customers.</blockquote>
“What a lot of entrepreneurs always miss out on is that they always paint the perfect picture [of their business]. They go out and tell how great things are and how great their businesses are. Then people [potential investors] think ‘why do you need my help’?” says Louw.
Their fortunes changed after an encounter with South African entrepreneur Miles Kubheka, the founder of Vuyo’s selling modern African cuisine.
“He used to have a restaurant in Braamfontein. He was driving past, and tasted our chicken wings,” says Louw.
Kubheka was impressed and approached them to work for him. They kept declining.
“We would say ‘no, we can’t’, we are living our dream. He came every day for three months and offered us a job and money so we would quit Sumting Fresh… But this one day, we were so broke we couldn’t anymore,” says Louw.
They shut the trailer and became employees.
“It was great, there was fire and they would tell us at 1 o’clock, it’s lunchtime.”
It took just three days for them to quit because the feeling of working for someone was “strange”.
This time, their return to business would change their financial fortunes.
“Now you are charged up and you see what is possible… [working for Vuyo’s] was a motivation to push us,” he says. The pair continued to work for Kubheka at Fourways Farmers Market on Sundays, until the idea came to also sell on their own at the food market.
It took three months until they received approval to sell their fried chicken strips with cheese. They were soon shoveling money with a bucket yet it had a hole in it.
They made money at the market and lost it all at Becker’s Street during the week, until they decided to close the store. But this was the beginning of new ideas and business opportunities. They expanded to the Neighbourgoods Market, where they met customers from all spheres of life.
“Where we are from, where we started and what we planned for our business is completely different. We thought we would be street food giants. It took us so long to open our eyes and see that,” says Louw.
They took on corporate clients and yet again made the mistake of expanding when not ready.
<blockquote>“Chasing the money can cost you money… that is one thing we need to learn as entrepreneurs. Not every customer is your customer,” he says.</blockquote>
Sumting Fresh finally found its niche.
It now turns over R6 million ($410,033) annually compared to the R600 ($41) monthly profit seven years ago.
They have parked their food trailers at festivals such as the Bushfire Festival in Swaziland, the OppiKoppi music festival in South Africa, and cater for private parties and corporate companies, in addition to running the restaurant in Johannesburg.
Louw is currently one of the judges for the Standard Bank campaign, My Fearless Next, encouraging budding entrepreneurs to turn their side hustles into their main businesses.
The founders of Sumting Fresh have shown how good company and good food can eventually spice up the bottom line.

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The Foodies With A Drive For Business

One of West Africa’s richest men and a formidable force in banking, Jim Ovia conveys some key lessons for Africa’s entrepreneurs in his first book.

In Africa’s business and banking world, a man like Jim Ovia is a textbook case study.
As the founder and chairman of Zenith Bank, and with a net worth of $825 million according to FORBES, Ovia’s prolific banking career spans almost three decades.
His book, Africa Rise and Shine: How a Nigerian Entrepreneur From Humble Beginnings Grew A Business To $16 Billion, launched in August, which marked his debut as an author, details this trajectory, building the bank from the ground up, brick-by-brick. Ovia started with a single branch in Lagos on the ground floor of an impoverished residential duplex that he shared with a private tenant.
“At the time, there were no high-rise office structures in the area and we were not able to afford any standalone structures,” says Ovia to FORBES AFRICA when we meet him at the iconic Civic Centre building located on Ozumba Mbadiwe in Victoria Island, Lagos.
The sprawling high-rise office structure we occupy on this rainy Saturday morning is a far cry from the early years.
Ovia recalls erecting a signage and the company logo in the impromptu commercial space where they could carry out the banking business.
<div id="attachment_37227" style="width: 693px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37227" class="wp-image-37227 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Jim-Ovia-Forbes14545-683x1024.jpg" alt="" width="683" height="1024" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Jim-Ovia-Forbes14545-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Jim-Ovia-Forbes14545-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Jim-Ovia-Forbes14545-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Jim-Ovia-Forbes14545-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Jim-Ovia-Forbes14545-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Jim-Ovia-Forbes14545.jpg 1365w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px" />Photo by: Kelechi Amadi-Obi</div>
He worked at Barclays Bank in Lagos from the age of 18 for three years as a clerical officer before enrolling to study business administration at Southern University, Louisiana, in the United States, and subsequently proceeding to the University of Louisiana, Monroe, where he completed his MBA.
After graduating, he joined Union Bank to complete his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). Ovia subsequently joined the Merchant Bank of Africa, which was then owned by Bank of America, and worked for over three years before applying for a banking license. And with that, came the birth of Zenith Bank.
“We knew it was going to be a bank that was well run. We knew it will be a bank that will be very efficient and we knew it will be a bank that will offer good and excellent service because that is one of the reasons we set up the bank in the first place,” recalls Ovia.
From those days, he had decided Zenith was going to be run differently from any other bank.
“When you go to many Zenith Bank offices, you will still not see any crowds in the banking hall, yet we are still providing the best quality service,” says Ovia.
The banking major is a London Stock Exchange-listed company with operations in the UK, China, the UAE, Ghana, Gambia, Sierra Leone, and with more than 400 branches and business offices in Nigeria.
The institution has become a byword for credibility in the Nigerian banking industry.
Many of his peers and competitors call the Zenith Bank success story one of hard work, grit and focus.
But what distinguishes Ovia from them is an abiding belief in his entrepreneurial instincts, one that has been validated many times over.
But that is not the reason he has a spring in his step these days. In Ovia’s new chapter as an author, he chronicles the key lessons entrepreneurs can learn from the meteoric rise of Zenith Bank.
<blockquote>“Among the most important of those lessons may be my experience that it is not necessary to be born rich or in influential circles in order to achieve success,” says Ovia.</blockquote>
It augurs well for a man who for 30 years has constantly adapted to changing environments and opportunities, whether it was being an early investor in the internet space, through his company Cyberspace in 1995, or setting up his telecommunications company Visafone and his expansive real estate portfolio. Ovia’s intuitive timing is something a lot of Nigerian entrepreneurs who look up to him as a mentor have been reading about in his book.
Says Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, in a blurb on the back of the book: “Jim Ovia’s entrepreneurial flair demystifies Africa. Africa Rise and Shine shows his meteoric rise from humble beginnings to building a formidable bank. This is a wonderful African success story,”
Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote, founder and president, Dangote Group, also echoes those sentiments.
“Jim Ovia has been my friend and a trusted banker over the last twenty-five years. Africa Rise and Shine lays bare the secrets to Zenith Bank’s success from one of Nigeria’s most respected businessmen. Jim’s inspirational tale of success against all the odds is an important lesson of how adversity can always be surmounted. His principles of doing business can be applied globally as demonstrated by Zenith Bank’s London Stock Exchange listing. This book is an essential read for anyone that wants to do business in Africa.”
Ovia believes it is imperative to rely on one’s own instincts in taking stock of one’s capabilities, and in evaluating new business opportunities.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/entrepreneurs/2018/08/02/36923/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The Nigerian Who Runs His Business On Luck</a>
The book seeks to encourage entrepreneurs to seize the opportunity to invest in Africa by abiding by guidelines such as prudence, due diligence and being able to respond quickly by cultivating the capacity to react effectively.
“I think the readers of this book will gain the spirit of commitment, empowerment, focus, hard work and discipline. They will learn that if you are disciplined and work hard, definitely you will do well. The book is about passing on these principles and documenting how it is to do business in Africa, particularly Nigeria,” says Ovia.
He hopes his book, which is more like an entrepreneurs’ manual than an autobiography, will guide the next generation of industrialists and game-changers to change the narrative of Africa from a hopeless continent to a rising continent.
From boardroom deal-making to creating an impact in the lives of Nigerians, Ovia is a business icon who continues to evolve.
His book is a call to tomorrow’s titans to follow their gut instincts, so hopefully one day, they too can reach their zenith.

Photo by: Kelechi Amadi-Obi (www.kelechiamadiobi.com)

‘Not Necessary To Be Born Rich’

Tim Hogins’ concept of the outdoor gym is to make health and wellness accessible to all.

Tim Hogins was 11 and selling sweets on the streets when he would look longingly at the queues of people waiting to board the bus to the plush Sun City resort in South Africa.
It was a forbidden world of play and luxury and he was quietly determined to one day build one of his own everyone could access.
The former delivery boy and security guard who grew up in dusty Randfontein in South Africa is today the CEO of Green Outdoor Gyms (GOG), an outdoor health, wellness and lifestyle company growing in size.
<div id="attachment_37215" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37215" class="size-medium wp-image-37215" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-83-1-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-83-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-83-1-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-83-1-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-83-1-1024x684.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-83-1.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />A GOG lifestyle park in Lanseria, Johannesburg</div>
When we meet him, the 39-year-old entrepreneur, who once sold koeksisters (sticky spicy treats), offers a table laden with sweets, savouries and fruit. Hogins helps himself to a slice of banana bread as he begins to tell his story. 
“Growing up poor is actually a good thing. It gave birth to ambition, it gave birth to my desire to be successful,” he says.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/entrepreneurs/2018/04/09/painting-houses-building-1-95-billion-development/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: From Painting Houses To Building A $1.95-Billion Development</a>
“The outdoor gym concept was born because I saw kids doing push-ups and pull-ups in the park.” 
Hogins’ parents died when he was in his 20s. “That is where the Tim Hogins story started,” he says. 
He invested capital with a friend to launch his pet outdoor gym project. GOG’s first park was in the township of Soweto.
“GOG is for the everyday person who cannot afford commercial and expensive gyms. It also doesn’t hinder the high-earning people from using it. South Africa is a family-oriented country, and soon we will have people at the gyms from all walks of life,” he says.
To date, GOG has installed 388 outdoor gyms in South Africa. The company has built two lifestyle parks in Gauteng with a third to follow at the end of the year.
“The health and fitness industry is the largest in the world and it grows year-on-year. I saw an opportunity from a health and fitness perspective. People want to live longer, they want to live healthier so they spend money on health and fitness,” says Hogins.
Growing up, he was no stranger to entrepreneurship.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-37214 alignright" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-14-300x194.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="194" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-14-300x194.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-14-600x389.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-14-768x498.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-14-1024x664.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GOG-Park-Gym-Equipment-03.08.2018-14.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
“My dad was trying to survive. We had a café. But as you know a café does not make much money. On the side, he tried to do some construction, and my mom, because of the circumstances, decided to sell too. All my life my parents were selling something. My mom sold koeksisters and cakes; she became a caterer. There were always people at my house buying something, be it sweets, be it toffee apples…We sold whatever,” he recollects.
In his quest to build outdoor wellness areas, many a time it meant turning dusty pieces of land into landscaped spaces.
<blockquote>“In many instances, we literally transformed a dumping site into an outdoor gym. One instance you see a dumping site and the next you see kids on swings and gym equipment all around,” he says.</blockquote>
Engaging the community, GOG also uplifts the areas it operates in.
With hopes to list on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange next year, Hogins will give his staff an opportunity to invest in his vision.

09.05.2018-65

Turning Dusty Spaces Into Green Gyms

Accenture is on the hunt to find Africa’s top tech start-up superstars – the digital pioneers solving critical challenges with technology across the continent. It’s a search for Africa’s big thinkers and big doers – visionaries who fearlessly push the boundaries of progress to shift African innovation to the next level.
Around the world, diverse players are coming together – forming new ecosystems to solve social and business problems. Africa is no exception. Some of the most pivotal parts within these ecosystems are the disruptive tech solution providers – those creating new ways of solving problems, supplying innovative products and offering faster development times and cost-effective delivery.
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The Africa top 30 tech start-ups initiative, powered by Accenture Africa alongside publication partner Forbes, runs as part of Accenture’s market-leading focus on open innovation. “Open innovation allows a path for collaboration between established businesses and innovative start-ups with great products, but no direct route to market,” says Sandiso Sibisi, Open Innovation Africa Lead at Accenture South Africa. “African start-ups often struggle to find an opportunity to plug their great technologies into established client value chains. Yet, with the right support, this all becomes possible, opening the doors to amazing opportunities for value creation, benefiting Africa and its people.”
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About the initiative
The initiative is open to start-ups from across Africa who are solving the continent’s challenges in business, government, civil society and more. All qualifying entrants are welcome (see rules below). Accenture is also particularly interested in entrants working in the spheres of artificial intelligence, blockchain and security, big data and analytics capabilities, Industry X.0, DevTech and Automation as well as extended reality.
Through careful research and field surveying, Africa’s Top 30 tech start-ups will list and fairly reward Africa’s best. The judging panel will include directors of VCs, tech incubators and accelerators from across the continent, academics as well as corporate sector specialists familiar with open innovation and the integration of start-up technologies into established value chains.
In addition to media exposure, listed companies will also participate in the Accenture Africa led Corporate Market Access Week taking place in Johannesburg in February 2019, where they will have an opportunity to showcase their offerings, sell their ideas to corporates, learn how to pitch for new business, and co-create solutions based on issues faced by Accenture clients. They will also get a chance to display their offerings within the Accenture South Africa’s Liquid Studio for a year and be part of the global Accenture Open Innovation network.
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The judging process
Entrants will undergo two rounds of judging. Round 1 will involve quantitative assessments and questionnaires, after which a longlist of top candidates will be decided upon.
Round 2 will identify the final top 30, with judging including a set of qualitative survey questions and analysis of key business metrics, among others.
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Rules, important information and how to enter
Applications for Africa’s Top 30 start-ups opened 07 September and will close 07 October 2018.
List of top start-ups will be finalised November 30th and announced alongside the survey results in the Feb/Mar 2019 edition of Forbes Magazine.
Highlights and results of the research process will be published alongside the Africa’s top 30 tech start-ups.
To qualify, start-ups must:
<ul>
<li>Be an African start-up, founded by an African</li>
<li>Be a registered business</li>
<li>Have been in operation for less than 9 years</li>
<li>Demonstrate innovation</li>
<li>Target and fill a significant market gap</li>
<li>Demonstrate exponential growth</li>
<li>Provide a product or service unconstrained by geography</li>
</ul>
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Additional evaluation criteria will include, but not be limited to, businesses’ financial metrics and performance, innovation measures, team experience, knowledge and media attention. Number of employees, impact creation, representation of diversity, patents, business models and more will also be factored into the judges’ final decision.
To enter, visit <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__platform.younoodle.com_competition_africas-5Ftop-5F30-5Ftech-5Fstartups&amp;d=DwMFaQ&amp;c=eIGjsITfXP_y-DLLX0uEHXJvU8nOHrUK8IrwNKOtkVU&amp;r=O_d6gfGZe3omUngrk9mlhituvBHT9ju2h9DEa9g5Cz0&amp;m=nM3PXdtowo-SBRBnVFCCn4XtlFK2k3XKKVannZYiWZg&amp;s=-c_g_4vPlaGntyIhl__p_gXbqJW076fRaPXJOQWBqeQ&amp;e=">https://platform.younoodle.com/competition/africas_top_30_tech_startups</a> and follow the instructions.
Fire Starters don’t wait in line. They see further and reach further, always going beyond to solve the challenges they know they can find unique solutions to. Accenture seeks to recognise these unique start-ups and accelerate the transformation of how Africans everywhere work and live.
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Accenture

Africa’s Top 30 Tech Start-Ups Opens for Entries

Two entrepreneurs, time zones apart, are working on building cutting-edge blockchain tech and communities in a big office they call the world.

Typical of the times we are in and the digital industry they promote, these two entrepreneurs work closely together, but in separate time zones.
Their work? Creating an open-source blockchain that will change the way we purchase and use digital assets.
We meet Riccardo Spagni in Johannesburg at 6.30 on a cold Johannesburg evening. Spagni, dressed in a pink t-shirt with an imprint of a pony on it, in his Woodlands office, is the lead maintainer of the Monero project. Dialing in for this meeting is his colleague and co-founder, Naveen Jain, who is based in Oakland, California.
This is an everyday mode of communication, in building their open-source blockchain protocol to help businesses and people manage, transfer and use digital assets. And they’ve called it Tari. For the uninitiated, the open-source model is a decentralized software-development model that encourages open collaboration.
<div id="attachment_37103" style="width: 750px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37103" class="wp-image-37103 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Riccardo_GL-1024x682.jpg" alt="" width="740" height="493" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Riccardo_GL-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Riccardo_GL-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Riccardo_GL-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Riccardo_GL-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Riccardo_GL.jpg 1985w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" />Riccardo Spagni. Photo by Gypseenia Lion</div>
<blockquote>“I like to see myself as the Elon Musk of South Africa, because I’m from South Africa as well,” says Spagni.</blockquote>
He has had a knack for cryptocurrencies ever since 2011 when he found himself mining around in the ecosystem. In 2013, he founded Monero, which provides increased privacy through encryption of transactional information by using robust and recent encryption tools available to safeguard investments. It basically protects any transaction by offering parties absolute anonymity.
Jain got involved in Monero as a miner and also fell in love with cryptocurrencies.
“So when Naveen said to me ‘wouldn’t it be cool to like put natively digital assets on a blockchain’, I was like ‘hmm why’,” recalls Spagni.
Through research and understanding the advantages, Spagni changed his mind.
“I came to realize there was nothing in the market that fit the needs for a highly-scalable and highly- robust native digital assets protocol. So that’s basically what we set out to build,” he tells FORBES AFRICA.
The Tari project will exist to allow companies transfer assets such as loyalty points, gaming points and tickets from one platform or user to another without losing value.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/cover-story/2017/09/04/bitcoin-blockchain-billions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Bitcoin, Blockchain And Billions</a>
“The people issuing loyalty points remain the people issuing loyalty points. And the people writing games remain the people writing games. We are not disrupting any of that. What we are disrupting is them having to provide all that infrastructure on the backend for the issuing of their natively digital assets,” says Spagni.
The team already has investors backing them but they are working two years ahead of the actual launch.
“The real secret of sophisticated software systems is it takes long to build over time…We are doing something that hasn’t been done before, so we are not expecting this to be a walk in the park and our real mission right now is to build the best team in the world that wants to overcome the challenges along the way,” says Jain, on the call from California.
They aim to build a global team able to contribute and work on the project with them, which is one of the stages they are currently at.
“From our point of view, blockchain systems are global systems, they are not geographically focused in any way, shape or form, the network is a global network and so it’s very important that we take a global perspective from the beginning of the project,” says Jain.
Their key focus recruiting contributors has been in Johannesburg.
<blockquote>“There’s an incredible wealth of untapped talent in South Africa,” offers Spagni.</blockquote>
There’s a huge opportunity to bridge the gap and create a Tari lab in Johannesburg where developers can come and work on cutting-edge blockchain tech.
But the developers in Johannesburg will only be a segment of the team. The rest would be scattered around the world creating not only an ecosystem of blockchain but an ecosystem of a working community through online interactions.
“It’s weird because there are people all over the world and there are tons of people in this space that I respect and they are scattered all over the globe so we are constantly talking. It’s like being in a big office with some of the brightest minds on the planet,” says Spagni.
“Sharp people like to work with other sharp people and when you are exposed to that global community of people who are all throwing in and developing this open-source software that’s pretty amazing,” he adds.
One of the biggest industries the team aims to tap into is the gaming industry worth $10.3 billion in the United States alone.
Usually users would buy a game, play it and accumulate points. Once they get bored of the game, they play another and the points they accumulated in the first game goes to waste. But with Tari, the user would be able to transfer their end-game wealth into another game.
“Then nothing is ever wasted and they don’t have to build up infrastructure in one game to abandon it. So that excites me a lot,” says Spagni.
Similar to Bitcoin, Tari’s software will be open-source as well, meaning anyone would be able to have access to it. Jain believes this will allow them to gain the trust of users and businesses.
<div id="attachment_37105" style="width: 650px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37105" class="wp-image-37105 size-full" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Naveen.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="960" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Naveen.jpg 640w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Naveen-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Naveen-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Naveen-200x300.jpg 200w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" />Naveen Jain. Photo Supplied.</div>
“The most powerful mode you can build is community so if you have a large group of people that are philosophically and ideologically aligned with your mission, and then you don’t really need to keep the software itself under lock and key,” he elaborates.
“You can open-source it with a highly permissible licence. Because anyone can use it and what it does is it creates trust. I think we’re in a new world.”
Although to some businesses, this may be a problem as they choose to keep their intellectual property, open-source is seen as a disruptor many have an appetite for.
A survey done by Black Duck Software and North Bridge in 2015 found that 78% of companies run on open source. What may have sounded as crazy a few years ago for businesses to put out their data has now became the norm. They found that open-source systems are critical to reducing potential security, legal, and operational risks while allowing companies to reap full benefits.
“To actually create this kind of a system, to earn people’s trust, that’s just a huge challenge and tremendous amounts of fun. I wake up every day, really excited about this incredible opportunity that we have within the Tari community to pull this off and make it happen,” says Jain, before ending yet another call to his colleague in Johannesburg and beginning yet another day of building an open-source world.

Tari-online

Building Blockchain Tech With The World As Their Official Address

TLH_2018

The Two Faces That Mean Business

Perhaps most famously, Route 128 and Silicon Valley in the United States developed around the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford universities, while key European knowledge regions developed at the Sophia Antipolis high-tech park in Côte d’Azur, France, and the Leuven region in Belgium.
In Africa, however, it is a relatively new phenomenon. But some universities on the continent are working towards setting themselves up as catalysts of innovation and entrepreneurship. Notable mentions must go to the University of Nairobi and the American University in Cairo, but South Africa is leading the charge.
The likes of Stellenbosch University, the University of Cape Town (UCT) and University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) are focusing more than ever on equipping their students to be entrepreneurs, primarily in response to unemployment issues in the country. Almost 50% of those aged between 15 and 24 in South Africa are without a job, and some tertiary institutions are adapting by equipping them to become job creators.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/30-under-30/2018/06/04/under-30-technology/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Forbes Africa Under 30 Technology Entrepreneurs</a>
Bakang Moetse is Impact Investing Project Manager at the Bertha Centre, a dedicated entrepreneurial unit within the Graduate School of Business at UCT. She says high youth unemployment had made the promotion of entrepreneurship an imperative for many African governments.
“Whilst government may be responsible for creating an enabling environment for the development of businesses, universities play a key role in delivering skills and expertise, as well as creating enabling environments for incubation of entrepreneurs,” says Moetse.
Universities also stand to gain. At a time when the relevance of university degrees has come into question due to the number of unemployed graduates and lack of employment readiness of those graduates who do enter the workforce, promoting entrepreneurship provides a way of ensuring universities continue to be recognized as key to the development of societies and economies.
“For universities interested in taking on a more active role in this regard, there is a competitive advantage to be gained in becoming leaders within this field of research, which can further bolster their credentials,” says Moetse.
Stellenbosch University runs its own incubator – LaunchLab – and also invests in some student-run tech startups. Head of Incubation Brandon Paschal says universities that do so will produce more employable and resilient graduates, and their reputations will grow as such.
“Also, with the current student fee climate, if universities are not backing and pursuing commercializing university technology, their financial sustainability and broader access to tertiary education is in jeopardy,” he says.
So how have startups incubated by universities benefitted? G-J van Rooyen was an associate professor at Stellenbosch, and launched his bitcoin-based anti-piracy startup Custos Media Technologies out of LaunchLab. He says it had been a great space from which to grow an early-stage company.
“At a startup, you&#8217;re constantly juggling concerns and issues. Being in a supportive environment where space and facilities are one less thing to worry about makes a huge difference,” Van Rooyen says. “Since LaunchLab is a hub for startups and investors, it directly impacted our fundraising efforts, and introduced us to our angel investor.”
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-36756 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/edit-launchlab-12-of-94-1024x679.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="679" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/edit-launchlab-12-of-94-1024x679.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/edit-launchlab-12-of-94-300x199.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/edit-launchlab-12-of-94-600x398.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/edit-launchlab-12-of-94-768x509.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/edit-launchlab-12-of-94.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />
Michael-John Dippenaar’s on-demand storage space startup Sxuirrel first encountered LaunchLab after winning a competition run by the incubator, earning funding and support.
“Amongst other intangibles thereafter, and in the period leading up to then and now, we gained help in the form of advice, community and networks,” Dippenaar says.
“We had support in finding lawyers, connecting to additional entrepreneurs to learn from, and access to soft-skill building resources.”
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2018/06/05/investment-marketplace-coming-to-africa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Investment Marketplace Coming To Africa</a>
Training students – and professors – in entrepreneurial skills and providing them a safe space from which to launch their ideas in one thing, but universities also need to ensure they have solid links with corporates and funders to help incubated startups scale. This can be a challenge.
However, Tine Fisker Henriksen, Senior Project Manager, Innovative Finance, at Bertha Centre, says the credibility associated with university brands lends itself to bringing in new partnerships and streams of funding entrepreneurs on their own would not be able to tap into.
“We are seeing increased interest from the corporate sector to get involved in supporting entrepreneurship, and we have managed to establish partnerships that have been valuable in this regard,” she says.
“From our point of view, there is great potential to expand this beyond mere sponsorship of events and once-off fundraising, as is commonly the case, and move in the direction of more sustainable partnerships approaches for rising entrepreneurs.”
The initiatives at places like Stellenbosch and UCT are well developed, with a track record of helping startups launch and raise funding for their next stage of development, but are enough universities following their lead?
Paschal says there is some evidence of this, but it takes time to transform very traditional and conservative institutions. Part of the challenge is that “startup skills” are intangible, EQ-related things that you cannot learn in a classroom.
“The push for universities spinning out companies, and supporting startups and SMEs, is disrupting the traditional role of universities. The trend is going in this direction, but generally universities are battling to get beyond the academic side,” he says.
Henriksen agrees more needs to be done.
“We have seen the top universities develop more entrepreneurial courses, hubs and initiatives. But there is definitely room for greater involvement, and coordination of efforts in this space to create a synergized impact,” she says.
&#8211; Tom Jackson

BANNER-LaunchLab-12-of-67

Africa’s New Silicon Valleys

Where most youngsters would opt for a business degree before stepping into business, Ropafadzo Zimunya and Munashe Musarurwa did it the other way around.
In a small town named Mutare in Zimbabwe, just out of high school, the now 20-year-olds looked inwardly for inspiration, and found it in their backyards.
The co-founders of a company named Greenit Diversified Group, they make baking flour out of bananas. Such unconventional thinking came from need, and their research on alternative foods – most likely, the future of food in Africa.
“I think alternative foods are the next big thing on the market because of the way Africa itself is going,” says Musarurwa, also the operations manager of Greenit.
The two finished high school in 2016 and was dabbling with some business ideas when they came across alternative products for bananas.
“My partner was like ‘there’s something called banana flour, have you ever heard of it’?” Zimunya, Greenit’s CEO, tells FORBES AFRICA.
“I was like no, ‘but let’s do it, let’s try it out’. And we have bananas in our backyard, so why not?’”
So the two harvested the green bananas, dried them and crushed them into powder, not sure if this was going to end up as a disastrous science lab experiment. Thankfully, it didn’t.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2018/05/12/save-jobs-or-save-energy-the-dilemma-of-going-green/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Save Jobs Or Save Energy? The Dilemma Of Going Green</a>
“It’s not something we invented, it was there traditionally. The thing is the traditional one does not outperform wheat flour,” says Zimunya.
The pair played around with different ingredients, and permutations and combinations until they came up with a breakthrough product that morphed into better flour.
Immediately, Zimunya wrote down a business plan. With their final product, they reached out to a local baker as prospective suppliers. “Am I seriously going to use banana flour to make cupcakes?” he asked them.
Eventually, the pair were able to convince him. The baker prepared a batch of cupcakes with their flour and they were a success.
“We were actually surprised at how well it came out, because I was sceptical at first,” says Zimunya.
<div id="attachment_36532" style="width: 235px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36532" class="size-medium wp-image-36532" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Banana-Flour-02-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Banana-Flour-02-225x300.jpg 225w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Banana-Flour-02-300x400.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Banana-Flour-02-600x800.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Banana-Flour-02-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Banana-Flour-02.jpg 1536w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" />Farmers collecting bananas to manufacture banana flour. Photo provided.</div>
They later advertised their product to other bakers, farmers and the community.
“We were looking for millions, and in our dreams we thought it would happen in a day, but when we started going around telling people, they thought we were crazy!” says Zimunya.
Word got around in the streets of Mutare and that’s when the funding came in.
“We really tried to sell across the nation because that’s our aim, and it’s the most difficult thing to do if you are a Zimbabwean manufacturer,” says Zimunya.
In a country heavily reliant on imports on account of failing food production, Greenit had the opportunity to produce a low-cost alternative food option locally. They sold their first batches at $3 for 500 grams making it the cheapest alternative flour in Zimbabwe.
“We have now reached about 600 people in five months and made around $800,” says Zimunya.
One of their aims is to become wheat flour’s biggest competitors. But to do this, the boys were going to need a lot of goodwill – and financing.
Their first investment came from $5,000 which they won after applying for the Celebration Church Mutare Padare business forum last year.
This happened to be the same church the boys first met in and solidified their friendship.
Early this year, they won another $10,000 from the Youth Entrepreneurs Program financed by CBZ Bank in Zimbabwe.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2018/03/16/new-wave-disruptors/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The New Wave Of Disruptors</a>
Despite Greenit’s infancy, the two admit they have been able to achieve a lot in a short time. Their products now retail in some supermarkets and small shops in Mutare.
Their priority though is to use the money to set up a factory to be able to keep up with the demand. The duo aim to even sell their products outside of Zimbabwe.
“Since then we have been able to produce two tonnes of the banana flour and have sold over 1,000 units since,” Musarurwa says.
But as with any business, they have had challenges, and some costly learnings along the way. Despite their eagerness and professionalism as business owners, they still face prejudice as young people.
“The most difficult challenge we face is that people don’t take us seriously at times,” says Musarurwa.
They are also more cautious when it comes to making promises or signing agreements, and have learned not to trust easily.
“Everything that you do has to be written down,” says Musarurwa. “No matter how small it is, if you want to do something with someone, put an agreement to that.”
Zimunya hopes to study business management while Musarurwa wants a marketing degree. They also plan to expand their production in the alternative food sectors, producing banana porridge for infants and adults, and diversifying to fertilizer production with banana peels.
They were also invited to attend the 10th African Union Private Sector Forum in Egypt early May. They want to expand their network beyond Zimbabwe as Africa is in need of more alternative food sources.
Zimunya says he won’t rest until he sees their names on FORBES AFRICA’s Under 30 list one day.
<div id="attachment_36533" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36533" class="size-medium wp-image-36533" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Banana-Flour-01-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Banana-Flour-01-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Banana-Flour-01-600x399.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Banana-Flour-01.jpg 756w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />The final product of banana flour created by Ropafadzo Zimunya and Munashe Musarurwa</div>

Ropa-Munashe-White-Bckgrnd

Zim Duo Find A Fortune In Their Backyards

The 2018 FORBES AFRICA Under 30 is our authentic and most definitive list of Africa’s most promising young change-makers. This year is our fourth edition of the list and for the first time, inspired by the growing number of young men and women entrepreneurs, we have expanded it to bring you 30 game-changers, all under the age of 30, in each the three sectors – business, technology and creative. The 90 in total are challenging conventions and rewriting the rules for the next generation of entrepreneurs, creatives and tech gurus.
We put in months of rigorous research, sifting through over 600 nominations, vetting them for weeks, verifying and investigating them. We favored entrepreneurs with fresh ideas and took into account their business size, revenue, location, potential, struggles, social impact and resilience. A panel of judges then debated the final 90. You may not know many of their names now and they may not be richest people in Africa, but they could be the billionaires of tomorrow gracing our future covers. This compilation is exciting, inspiring and offers a sneak peek into Africa’s future. Meet the class of 2018. The list is in no particular order.
<ol>
<li><a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/30-under-30/2018/06/04/under-30-business/">Under 30 Business</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/30-under-30/2018/06/04/under-30-technology/">Under 3o Technology</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/30-under-30/2018/06/04/under-30-creatives/">Under 30 Creatives</a></li>
</ol>

Tag: Entrepreneurs

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA