<h2 id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Global stock indexes and major cryptocurrencies dived on Thursday while commodities like oil and precious metals rallied as Russia’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2022/02/23/russia-orders-special-military-operation-in-ukraine/?sh=72e111fc2321">invasion</a>&nbsp;of Ukraine sent shockwaves through international markets.&nbsp;



<h2 id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



European stocks tumbled as markets opened on Thursday morning, with key indexes including London’s FTSE 100 down 2.46%, Germany’s Dax 3.48%, France&#8217;s CAC40 3.01%, Spain’s Ibex 2.58%, Euronext 100 2.62% and Euro Stoxx 50 3.37%.



The slump mirrors falling stocks in the Asia Pacific region Thursday, with Japan’s Nikkei down 1.81%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng 3.21%, Australia’s All Ordinaries 2.95% and Shanghai’s Composite 1.70%.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



U.S. markets are on a similar path for when markets open, with the Dow down 1.38% in pre-market trading, Nasdaq 2.57% and S&amp;P 500 1.84%, with the latter&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sergeiklebnikov/2022/02/23/sp-500-falls-deeper-into-correction-territory-as-ukraine-declares-state-of-emergency/?sh=793035b35e67">continuing</a>&nbsp;a days-long downwards trend.



The Moscow stock exchange, which uses the Russian ruble, suspended all trading Thursday amid enormous volatility in the currency and benchmark index MOEX was down nearly 40%.



Oil prices, meanwhile, jumped past $100 a barrel with the highest prices since 2014—Brent crude rose nearly 7% to $103 a barrel—and safe haven&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/gold-rises-escalating-ukraine-crisis-spurs-safe-haven-bids-2022-02-24/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">assets</a>&nbsp;like gold, silver platinum and palladium grew between 1.5% and 3%.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Major cryptocurrencies also crashed in the wake of the invasion, with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/digital-assets/assets/bitcoin-btc/?sh=23274a6d4357">bitcoin</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2022/02/23/bitcoin-falls-below-35000-as-putin-orders-military-operation-in-ukraine/?sh=56d6315f4a3a">down 8%</a>&nbsp;in the last 24 hours,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/digital-assets/assets/ether-eth/?sh=6457a2717b0e">ether 12%</a>, Binance’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/digital-assets/assets/binance-coin-bnb/?sh=6b8afc44ae78">BNB 11%</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/digital-assets/assets/ripple-xrp/?sh=38a7ebe1535a">Ripple’s XRP 13%</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;



<h2 id="h-what-to-watch-for">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h2>



More sanctions. World leaders have&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2022/02/23/russia-sanctions-tracker-first-barrage-of-penalties-span-japan-to-us/?sh=3379f45c149a">already imposed fresh sanctions</a>&nbsp;on Russian banks, lawmakers and oligarchs and President Joe Biden warned Thursdays’ G7 meeting would yield more “<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2022/02/24/russias-invasion-of-ukraine-draws-international-condemnation-and-threats-of-more-sanctions/?sh=3f2fd15c7b3b">severe sanctions</a>’ on Russia.&nbsp; The sanctions—which could be severe given the scale of Russia’s incursion—could cripple Russia’s economy and bar it from key markets. European&nbsp;<a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-russia-new-sanctions-package-ukraine/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">leaders</a>&nbsp;have already scheduled an emergency meeting to discuss the measures on Thursday evening.&nbsp;



<h2 id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2022/02/24/russias-invasion-of-ukraine-draws-international-condemnation-and-threats-of-more-sanctions/?sh=3f2fd15c7b3b">Russia’s Invasion Of Ukraine Draws International Condemnation And Threats Of More Sanctions</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2022/02/23/russia-orders-special-military-operation-in-ukraine/?sh=72e111fc2321">Russia Orders ‘Special Military Operation’ In Ukraine</a> (Forbes)



By <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/"></a>Robert Hart, Forbes Staff

Oil Prices Moving Down

Global Stocks Plummet And Oil Soars As Russia Invades Ukraine

During her time away from Malawi, Joyce Banda served as a distinguished fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center in the United States, and has just finished writing a book, From Day One, on the issues around women and the girl child.
What are you looking forward to and how does it feel?
I am so happy I have done all I wanted to do and am going home. There’s much excitement in Malawi&#8230; I guess I am the only one not excited… It has been a week of hype and I am totally surprised and humbled because I didn’t know just how much Malawians love me.
We don’t have any female presidents on the continent at the moment… why are there so few women in politics?
Women’s leadership is under attack globally. Start from Australia, look at what happened to Julia Gillard. And you go to Thailand and look at what happened to the former Prime Minister… 
I’ve been speaking a lot in the US and the question I always ask is ‘tell me why [as] the oldest democracy for 200 years, [why] you have not managed to have one woman in state house’?
Coming back to Africa, we haven’t done badly, at least we had four women. We went to Beijing in 1995; we agreed that it was part of the work plan that we are going to come back and get into leadership. I remember asking Mrs Gertrude Mongella, who was the Secretary-General of the UN Fourth World Conference on Women, ‘because men are already sitting in the seats, how can we go to parliament?’ They said ‘go and push them if you have to’. And we went home, tried our level best and got into leadership.
In Africa, go one by one, and check how they left, go and see what Catherine Samba-Panza is going through in Central African Republic; see what is happening in Mauritius to our friend who just left a few weeks ago. So at the end of the day, you ask, why is it we don’t have any more female leaders in Africa? My answer is we have done well as a continent, we have found ways of getting our women into state house, but perhaps what we have to do is learn how to keep them there. And Africa hasn’t done badly.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2014/10/01/malawians-should-not-shed-blood/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: ‘Malawians Should Not Shed Blood’</a>
Somebody asked me, what can I say about feminism? I said ‘no, Africa shall have it all; it shall design its own because we can’t copy what’s happening elsewhere unless we are convinced it’s working there’. But how can we copy other models where women are still not getting equal pay, where women can’t even go on maternity leave, where for 200 years, there’s no female president? The continent with the highest number of women in parliament is Africa – three countries have 40% women in cabinet. And the time I was head of state, I took advantage of that position to appoint my fellow women… The advantage of us cutting into state house is we focus on social issues; we want people to have electricity, clean water and fuel every day. We want hospitals to have medicines, we want schools to have school materials but the challenge is how do we keep women in state house?
Is the patriarchal mind-set to blame?
It is. In fact I think the death of Mama Winnie Mandela and all that has been revealed these past weeks has opened the debate and women are sitting down and saying, ‘how could we not have seen?’ Because we never did… That’s what her daughter said when she spoke at the funeral: ‘why did you people wait until my mother is gone, to vindicate her?’ That is the kind of pain women are going through and nobody seems to care. I don’t know why the media doesn’t seem to dig more into this misogyny, and abuse to women leaders…
Do you have presidential ambitions again?
No. It is not up to me. I don’t care about going to state house… I am just going back home.
Are you returning to politics?
I am not planning anything. From this far, I don’t know the political landscape on the ground. I am highly experienced in politics. And I was very fortunate. When my husband retired [as chief justice], I decided I can enter politics. So I did at age 54, I was late… the president didn’t allow me to join the national executive committee so he sent me down to the grass roots. So I came from the grass roots as a treasurer in the village. I had the opportunity to study and I was fortunate when elected head of women in 2003 in my party…
What have you been up to in the last four years?
…In the time I have been away from home, I’ve spoken 37 times, received 12 international awards, written two papers, written a book, been appointed to five international awards and received an honorary doctorate. Everybody who has been with me in the US know I’ve run non-stop. It’s been time well spent. At the Woodrow Wilson Centre, they even assisted me to draw up a tool kit. I can now go into any country and speak with authority about how I feel women should be treated, how the space should be created at the table for women to participate in leadership.
In Malawi, what are your plans for women and children, through your foundation?
The Joyce Banda Foundation is bigger than Joyce Banda. I established it in 1997 when I received the Africa Prize so it cuts across all parties. It has 500,000 women beneficiaries in micro finance, it has sent to school 6,500 girls, it has a sponsorship program, and a youth program. We have five pillars in the Joyce Banda foundation: one is income, we believe that in the rural household if there is income the woman is in control and can provide better health and nutrition and even send girls to school and will also make decisions about her life; she can make choices to stay or leave an abusive place.
The second pillar is education for the girl child, because if she doesn’t go to school, then she is exposed to all harmful traditions. The third is maternal health. My research has shown that those that have died giving birth are between the ages of 11 to 19. So there is a connection with education. This girl child should go to secondary school. The four years in secondary school is not just about her future, it is also about her health.
The fourth pillar is leadership. I believe we must find ways; hence my research, find ways of allowing more and more women to enter politics and participate in leadership. And the last one is human rights which is a cross-cutting pillar.
What is the current investment climate in Malawi?
I believed the day I left office, I needed to step aside and look the other way. And provide an opportunity for the sitting president to freely show his capabilities. He is my president because I conceded and I accepted that he can become president, so the last thing that I want to is poke my nose into what he is doing right and not. 
I just feel sad and surprised when they say people are going 36 hours without electricity… I don’t understand some of the hardships my Malawians are facing because I say this boat is connected when you ask about the investment climate. There is nobody who is going to invest in a country that has 170MW of electricity. That doesn’t happen.
– Interviewed by Methil Renuka; for the full interview, visit www.cnbcafrica.com

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‘Women’s Leadership Is Under Attack Globally’

For years, I’ve been a silent observer of the World Economic Forum (WEF), reading about it on the internet, editing reams of copy on it or watching it on TV. But one question has always remained in my mind. What drives thousands of people each year to a small alpine town in Switzerland to live out Professor Klaus Schwab’s dream, who founded the forum in 1971?
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After traveling almost 13,000 kilometers from the tip of Africa to Davos, a semblance of an answer began to emerge.
The answer was not to be found in the sub-zero temperatures that left the entire body numb with cold nor in Responsive and Responsible Leadership, the theme driving the WEF Annual Meeting 2017. Instead it was to be found in the Congress Centre, or on the streets and hotels of Davos-Klosters.
It was to be found among the people – the 3,000 delegates that gathered for the event and the thousands of support staff.
The draw card – the opportunity to mingle and be seen with the most influential and powerful people in the world. Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, crossed my path several times at Davos. Mauritius President Dr Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, after sharing her plans for attracting investors to her country on a cold winter’s night, agreed to a photo with me.
Singer and songwriter Shakira shared her passion for early child development advising us that “today’s babies will drive tomorrow’s business. Their capacity to contribute will shape tomorrow’s societies, will solve tomorrow’s problems”.
Anne-Sophie Mutter, one of the world’s most famous violinists, entertained the crowds. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former Finance Minister of Nigeria and Board Chair of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, discussed plans to immunize up to 300 million more children all over the world by 2020.
The allure of Davos is that it gives delegates a platform to discuss the most pressing issues of our time, such as the refugee crisis, climate change and can-women-have-it-all?
It offers an arena to do business deals with the richest, to form new contacts and exchange business cards. It provides purveyors a glimpse into where the world stands, shifts in geopolitics and the ironies and contradictions of the world. It allows those present to see who controls the vast majority of wealth and intellectual capital and how this has changed.
WEF 2017 was a world in which the largest bankers, infamous for the financial crisis, such as JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, could be heard offering their views on Trump making America and stock markets great again, while Ugandan-born Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director at Oxfam, was decrying that eight men own the same wealth as the 3.6 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity, according to a new report published by the agency.
It was an arena that brought into stark contrast the plight of Africa, and the developed world when simultaneously it hosted a panel discussion with CNBC Africa on Powering Africa, while meters away, some of the leading minds in technology were debating what role artificial intelligence should play in our futures; and that the 48 countries that make up sub-Saharan Africa generate almost the same amount of electricity as Spain.
Davos 2017 was a gathering where UK’s Prime Minister Theresa May declared that Britain’s decision to leave the European Union was not a rejection of its friends in Europe but simply a vote to restore its “parliamentary democracy and national self-determination. A vote to take control and make decisions for ourselves”. Juxtapose this with Xi Jinping’s attendance. Jinping, the first Chinese president to attend WEF, led the country’s largest-ever delegation to the ski-resort town to make a statement that China wants to assume a global leadership role as the world struggles with isolationism, populism and polarization. In a speech at the event, he stated: “It is true that economic globalization has created new problems, but this is no justification to write economic globalization off completely. Rather, we should adapt to and guide economic globalization, cushion its negative impact, and deliver its benefits to all countries and all nations.”
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– Vanek is news editor of CNBC Africa and CNBCAfrica.com; she lives and breathes business and financial news, and is now slowly developing a passion for artificial intelligence.

Why The Richest And Most Powerful Go To Davos

It has been half a year since 195 countries came together in Paris for the adoption of the first-ever universal and legally binding global climate deal. In short, the accord, which will enter into force in 2020, aims to limit global temperature increases to below two degrees Celsius. While some are skeptical, Adnan Amin, the Director General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), is optimistic.
“Paris has made a huge step-change in people’s expectations regarding the reality of energy transformation,” says Amin.
Amin predicts that the agreement will be a turbo boost for the world’s renewable energy sector.
“The political ambition we achieved in Paris was only possible because renewable energy solutions have become mature enough to be implementable and viable,” says Amin.
The growing value of renewable investments prove this.
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“Between 2014 and 2015, global investment in new renewable energy capacity jumped from $270 billion to $330 billion. This was before the Paris Agreement. In addition, renewables installed capacity has jumped by 120 percent since 2000, and the costs of technology has fallen dramatically.”
When it comes to alternative energy, Africa is expected to be on the forefront of what Amin calls an energy revolution.
“Renewables deployment in developing and emerging economies has overtaken that in developed markets, including fast-growing economies like the United States,” he says.
“As the electricity demand in mature markets has more or less stabilized, it is soaring in the developing world. The energy demand in Africa for instance, is expected to double, or even triple by 2030,” says Amin.
Amin points to South Africa, Morocco and Kenya as countries to watch.
“The commitment South Africa is making to renewable power generation, and the fact that some projects are delivering solar and wind power that price-wise are more or less on par with coal-generated power, is remarkable.”
While solar PV uses solar panels to capture the sun and convert it into energy, Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) uses mirror structures, known as heliostats, or lenses to concentrate the sun’s rays onto a central point. This concentrated light is converted to heat, and then into electricity.
“South Africa has started to integrate storage components in CSP plants, which is reducing prices even further. CSP is not competitive with coal, South Africa’s main source of electricity, but it is getting there,” Amin says.
He notes that the country is also proving itself in terms of policy innovation.
“I have spent some time with officials there, going through their procurement process. All I can say is that these processes are some of the most rigorous, effective, and transparent I have seen.”
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Then there is Morocco, which recently inaugurated the first phase of the Ouarzazate CSP plant. Upon completion, it will have a 2GW power generation capacity.
“Morocco has gone from very little to no investment in renewables four years ago to $2 billion last year,” says Amin.
“The country has produced some of the most interesting wind and solar projects in the world. Their latest utility-scale wind investment is yielding power that costs $0.03 per Kwh. That is the lowest we have seen anywhere so far,” he says. “The government has bene very clear that this was achieved without incentives and subsidies. Morocco is a game changer in Africa, and is beating everyone else hands down.”
Kenya is doing well too.
“We will see geothermal development move very fast, with very cheap base-load electricity. Kenya is also investing in wind, with the wind farm in the Turkana District going online hopefully later this year,” says Amin, referring to the 250MW wind project, which is the largest in Africa.
Apart from individual countries tapping into renewable energy sources to improve national energy levels, what is more important is the formation of a so-called renewable energy corridor.
“Interconnections have been realized and are being built between markets in eastern and southern Africa,” he explains. “If we can achieve integrated markets with strong regulatory frameworks and transparent policy, we will start attracting financing and investment at a scale we have not seen before in Africa.”
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Going Green  To Light Up  The Continent

It was a warm day in Sandton, Johannesburg. As we meet, Vital Sounouvou crouches, leaning heavily on his cane, as he greets us. It is a bad day for him, he is in pain. Pain has played a big part in his journey to entrepreneurship.
“When I was six years old, I had malaria and the doctors gave me an injection that cures it but it also attacked the bones and killed the nerves. I was almost paralyzed on my left leg and had to use a walking stick since then,” he says.
Treatment didn’t help. Life was never the same; his peers mocked him and his elders pitied him.
“I had to go to school with metals attached to my body. This had a positive side though because instead of playing outside I was forced to be indoors, read books and daydream. This had an impact on the man I have become.”
Time opened his eyes and he saw opportunities for entrepreneurship. He graduated from high school at 16. A year later, he opened his first business.
“I feel I was blessed to be born in Benin. Poor country? Yes, but it is the most stable in the region. All our neighbors were in war but not us. We are blessed by nature. Trade is part of our culture. There is a shop in front of many houses and most people from my city (Porto-Novo) become entrepreneurs of some sort,” says Sounouvou.
The 25-year-old says 85% of the youth in Benin are unemployed.
“When I started college, the first thing the professor told me was that I won’t find a job after completing my studies.”
The gloomy professor’s sobering words spurred him on. Sounouvou founded Exportunity, a site that promotes export opportunities for Africans by connecting producers with traders. It allows a farmer in Benin to sell his produce to a buyer everywhere from South Africa to the United States through a cell phone.
“There was a huge information gap between the offer, demand and the market. We wanted to promote products made locally. It was very hard to find producers but it was even harder to compete with international brands locally,” he says.
Sounouvou built a mobile application that works on all types of devices, including non-smartphones. Farmers are the target.
“Almost 70 percent of whatever crop is produced in Africa is wasted because the producers have no way to get the product to market. There are many problems ranging from the costs of locating a buyer, to dealing with middle men in cash, to suffering losses due to scams,” he says.
The computer science graduate was inspired by eBay.
“We are like eBay for wholesale. Imagine if Alibaba conducted a proper due diligence on every stakeholder before accepting them on the platform. People don’t just come on Exportunity and just register and start trading, they apply and we do due diligence before allowing them on. We had to adapt to the producer in Africa because some don’t use a lot of technology. We had to create Exportunity trader tablets for people without access to high technology so they can have access to international trade,” he says.
Buyers and sellers pay a membership fee to trade.
“People traditionally have to travel with large sums of money to trade but this site cancels the travelling costs and the risks associated with carrying large sums of money.”
Exportunity has externalized most of its management to Temple Corporate Services in Mauritius and has 17 permanent staff.
“In May 2014, global rice prices plunged to a historic $403.59/metric ton, the lowest since January 2008’s 393.48/metric ton. Jumping on an unprecedented opportunity, Exportunity-Benin, acting as a middle man, helped Neodis Trading-Benin buy from an Indian-based supplier 1,672 metric tons of rice at a price of $413.59/metric ton, filling 727 20-foot containers. We made a net profit of $69,150 out of the deal,” says Sounouvou.
Through the trade events, Sounouvou claims Exportunity has engaged with over 750 clients, and built a database of 85,000 companies globally trading with Africa.
“There are currently 13 transactions in the pipeline, over 450 suppliers trading on the platform, over 120 buyers  and over 2 million others are immediately reachable through our deal with UBA Bank.”
Running a successful business is not Sounouvou’s only pride. He was one of 500 young African leaders chosen to be part of President Barack Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative in 2014, he was selected for the inaugural group of the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme with a $10,000 grant, and has been recognized as the Ambassador of the Global Youth Innovation Network by the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
“Every time my leg hurts, I remind myself that I shouldn’t let it be my story. My story is to be great. My disability does not define me,” he says.
If nothing else, Sounouvou’s story proves that what hurts you can make you.

Pain, Pity, Opportunity

Vusi Thembekwayo loves to talk. He says he will do for talking what Muhammad Ali did for boxing. Ali told the world he was “The greatest”. So does Thembekwayo.
To him, great public speakers, like boxers, are not trained, they are born. His wit is the glue that binds his diverse audiences. John Howard, former Prime Minister of Australia called him the “rock star of public speaking”; global strategist and scenario-planning guru Clem Sunter said he was “simply riveting”; Sir Bob Geldof said “Vusi is a f*cken great speaker,” according to Thembekwayo.
Thembekwayo has always been an overachiever. At 21, he ran a successful consulting firm, then South Africa’s only black-owned Forensic Marketing agency. At 25, he was the youngest director of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, a bourse turning over $1.3 billion a year. At 29, he delivered 214 presentations, in 21 countries charging up to $8,000 a time. At 30, he influences over $300 million in seven companies he holds shares in. His companies operate in Kenya, Uganda, South Africa and Nigeria.
As a child, Thembekwayo studied by candlelight and used to wake up before dawn to prepare for school. His father had started a business with their house as collateral.
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“The bank was about to repossess our house so my mother and my siblings had to move in with relatives. We stayed in a small backroom and had to wake up very early, make fire and make porridge to eat,” he says.
“One minute we had a home and were being dropped off at school in our father’s car and the next we were suffering commuting kilometers in taxis to school. That experience shapes how I look at the world and my understanding of risk. I understand that whatever it is you have, tomorrow it could be all gone.”
His father resolved the debt situation but couldn’t escape tragedy. Thieves shot him nine times leaving him to bleed to death at the side.
“This was a very difficult time in my life. My dad and I were best friends. We did everything together and went everywhere together. The only reason I wasn’t with him that day is because my mum was ill and I stayed with her at home when my dad was shot for his cell phone.”
At this moment, a tear forms in Thembekwayo’s eye. “South Africa has a violent past and that narrative continues to find expression in modern South Africa, we condone violence because we find reason to defend why it’s ok to do it and we have a justice system that isn’t sufficiently punitive for people who perpetrate the act. We need to come together as a society to say no matter the reason it is not ok to take a life.”
Left with a single mother, at the age of 15, his big mouth got him into trouble long before it became his fortune. He was forced to take up public speaking as punishment for misbehavior in high school. He was booed off the stage for what everyone thought was a male chauvinistic speech titled: What Women Want.
“The best way to get me to do something is telling me I can’t do it. When they booed me off stage I started working harder to get to where I am,” he says.
Thembekwayo studied for a BCom degree at the University of the Witwatersrand but dropped out because of money. He believes entrepreneurship is practice more than theory.
“Some of the people who get the education are the people who will not move the dial in any meaningful way. The education system in South Africa is and continues to be archaic. I also did a course at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) which was supposed to be a year but took me three years because they didn’t understand how I think. South African business schools are behind on how you educate a Vusi.”
“You don’t need too many things to start a business. Start where you are. South African young people are really challenged. They have access to DSTV and they see the world in a particular way but the reality doesn’t reflect the world they see. You must recognize what’s around you and build with what you have. If you have a vision for the future, it is important to know nobody starts where they end up.”
This is not just advice for him. It is exactly how he started building his fortune after receiving a standing ovation for a speech for which he was paid a mere R35 (less than $3).
“Former president Thabo Mbeki was the keynote speaker at the event and he gave me a hug and endorsed me at that event telling people to give me more work,” he says.
He used the R35 to make phone calls to all the people he met at that event. He says entrepreneurship is starting something that other people don’t see and getting them to see it, believe in it, buy in it and help you build it.
Even when he became a well-known figure, life has not always been milk and honey. When he decided to start his company, My Growth Fund (MGF), it ushered in six of his worst months as an entrepreneur.
Thembekwayo failed to acquire funding for the company. When he had money, in the 2011-2012 financial year, he invested $274,000 in a steel company. Excited, he neglected to do proper due diligence. The investment went into a black hole. There were neither contracts nor legal documents to save him.
“I wasn’t thorough. I didn’t check if the company I was buying into had legacy liability or legacy issues. I was over eager. The entrepreneur convinced me that everything was going to go well, only to find out my money was used to pay off her debts. She had creditors and suppliers who she owed and she did not disclose this to me. She also had the South African Revenue Services coming after her.”
Part of this $274,000 was supposed to pay his own staff.
“I didn’t know what to do. All that I had was gone. What was I going to tell my staff? They also had their own lives and bills. But this situation taught me that if you are honest with people they understand. I told my staff the truth about what had happened and they worked hard, booked me for more speaking jobs and I was able to pay them,” he says.
“I learned an important lesson to take my time. Where you are going is guaranteed. There is no doubt, so don’t rush, follow the process.”
Thembekwayo started over.
“No matter how much you trust the other person when doing an investment, make sure the numbers support it, make sure you cover your basics, and the legal side holds water,” he says.
Today if he buys into a business he moves all the capital and operating capital into a separate business to make sure there is no history to infect the investment.  Public speaking is one of the ways he makes money as an entrepreneur.
“Vusi is a very funny guy when he gives his talks. He is always well informed on the subjects he talks about such as business and investment opportunities. I always watch his YouTube videos and follow his advice,” says Thato Mokoena, a South African small business entrepreneur.
Thembekwayo studied by candlelight, his father was brutally killed, business schools didn’t understand him, he was booed off stage, he lost millions, but survived to tell the tale from the stage where he was once scorned.

He survived failure, tragedy and lost millions

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

Buy A Rolex And The Lamborghini Will Follow

Various consumer brands are facing overwhelming challenges. Slowing global sales are placing pressure on companies aiming to expand their footprint and achieve real sales growth in sub-Saharan Africa, a region boasting a growing middle class and strong economic growth.
Financial results of two of the world’s largest breweries, SABMiller and Anheuser-Busch InBev, show declining global sales, and many other companies are feeling the pinch as well. These consumer brands are affected by getting their products to the African consumer and inefficiencies in the supply chain is a thorn preventing them from succeeding on a continent with over a billion people.
Some other challenges could be that despite strong distribution strategies, products are simply not available and brand visibility is inconsistent due to stock exchange. South African food and clothing retailer, Woolworths Holdings, cited difficulties in their supply chain among other reasons for closing down three stores in the continent’s most populous nation, Nigeria, in 2013.
According to Jeremy Haysom, the Vice President of Business Development and Supply Chain Solutions for DHL in the Middle East and Africa, the greatest challenge facing consumer brands as they venture into Africa is establishing an efficient route to the consumer.
“With growing urbanization, city populations have shown exponential growth in recent years and are expected to grow by over 25% over the next 10 years. There has been an explosion in the number of supermarkets and convenience stores established in cities to serve the customer,” he says.
“While these stores are located in prime locations, the back-end of the supply chain serving this retail revolution is in its infancy. This results in inconsistent stock availability and regular outages, a lack of brand visibility and most importantly product availability.”
Retailers handle their own international supply chain, which is managed from a distribution center, quite well. But the problem lies at the back of shop where manufacturers have to manage their own deliveries into the retail outlets. This causes a number of issues, including multiple deliveries from multiple suppliers at any given time causing considerable congestion at the back of retail outlets.
“Unless there is collaboration between a retailer and a consumer manufacturer you will continue to see inefficiencies at the back of shop and you will continue to have the knock-on effect that has on congestion and other issues around these developing cities,” says Haysom.
He adds that this is a general challenge seen in sub-Saharan Africa, excluding South Africa. The South African market is mature and has ironed out many challenges and multiple deliveries into retail outlets do not occur anymore.
“You’ve got consolidation, collaboration between consumer manufacturers and retailers to ensure that multiple deliveries of one vehicle going to a retail outlet. Therefore pretty much the brand and the brand market can be taken onto the shelf, where you’d expect everything to arrive at the shop and there would be a certain high percentage of on-shelf availability in the retail store,” says Haysom.
“What you see outside of South Africa is different. Consumer manufacturers are having to undertake a part of the supply chain deliveries from their side onto a retail side and inefficiencies occur and on-shelf availability is affected.”
So what must be done in 2015 for retail to deliver on Africa’s promise? Haysom says there is little or no collaboration between the supermarket and the supplier which results in regular out-of-stock situations. Retailers, both multinationals and regional, need to invest in bolstering the back-end or supply chain serving this retail revolution. Consumer brand companies that are keen to translate Africa’s latent potential into real success need to recognize the relative immaturity of the African supermarket industry and put in place strategies that will successfully navigate inventory management.
In his book, Africa’s Future Darkness to Destiny &#8211; How The Past Is Shaping Africa’s Economic Evolution, Duncan Clarke says the state of Africa and its economies today marks the departure point for the future. We know the past has shaped the present: for the future, what do we really know? And those words couldn’t be any truer.
The key to winning in Africa is through the little things that are done in 2015 which will help retailers overcome supply chain inefficiencies.

African Retail  Needs To grow up

Modernization, mechanization and regulation are some of the key aspects that need to be looked at for South Africa to build a globally competitive and sustainable mining industry.
Earlier this year, the mining sector experienced a five-month crippling wage strike. It follows the 2012 unprotected wage strike outside Lonmin’s Marikana mine, where 34 miners demanding a wage increase, were shot dead by police. Strikes pose risk and uncertainty for investors. It is often perceived, when long protracted strikes take place, that conversations about mechanization comes to the fore.
Mechanizing mines is seen as a solution to securing a steady stream of revenue and could cut significant costs for mining companies.
Speaking at the Joburg Indaba on mining, Mineral Resources Minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi says strikes are not a uniquely South African phenomenon.
“But when they run into periods exceeding five months; that should raise attention to all stakeholders. It puts the efficacy of regulatory institutions into question,” says Ramatlhodi.
“The cost to the industry and economy has been beyond words with recent figures revealing that in the first quarter, sales of total minerals declined by 24.7 percent. This narrowed to 9.6 percent in the
second quarter.”
He says the cost to the industry and economy has been beyond imaginable proportions.
Chairman of Anglo American Platinum, Valli Moosa, says that the recent strikes in South Africa are more of a major social uprising and revolt than purely labor relations disputes.
“We can say that it was a result of educators from the ultra-left influencing workers… but workers would not have gone on a five-month strike without pay, unless they wanted to send us a serious message. I feel ashamed that miners did that,” says Moosa.
“Workers want a fundamental change of what is happening in this industry. They didn’t achieve that much in as far as their demands are concerned.”
Moosa added that there needs to be a fundamental change and questioned whether mechanization could be the silver bullet to drive the future of South Africa’s mining industry. He believes that the country needs to move to a higher degree of modernization because it will improve productivity.
The rest of the world has experienced unprecedented growth of their economies following mechanization.
“We should not take ourselves back to the dark ages. Technology will be the biggest driver of growth in South Africa in the foreseeable future,” says Moosa.
The Chief Executive of diversified miner, Exxaro Resources, Sipho Nkosi, agrees but notes that education is critical.
“We need to go back to educate our people in the correct areas. And if you look at technological areas around the world, its mind boggling,” he says.
Industry experts say that the mining sector is a sunset industry, but Nkosi says that we cannot focus on that. He believes that government must be clear on its policy and that the industry needs to know what its role is in helping to grow the economy.
But trade unions fear that mechanizing the mines will result in massive job losses. Moosa believes that where there’s a reduction in the labor force, mining bosses have a responsibility.
“We have a moral responsibility for that. Unless we take responsibility we will not get to where we want,” says Moosa.
Norman Mbazima, Chief Executive of Kumba Iron Ore, says mechanization does not necessarily result in job losses as perceived by many, especially labor unions.
“Unlike before, when we solely relied on labor, now due to mechanization we rely more on planners who might incorporate even injured miners,” says Mbazima.
Chief Executive of Lonmin, Ben Magara, in support of Mbazima, says unlike what is generally perceived, no mine could retrofit as every mineral deposit had an appropriate method.
“If we achieve mechanization within 10 years, we could have achieved it in the shortest term possible, 20 years would be medium term and 30 years long term,” says Magara.
To have a stable economy, South Africa needs to grow at 6%. In September, the International Monetary Fund lowered this year’s growth to a mere 1.4%.
All stakeholders must come together and find solutions that make sense.

Machines OVER MEN?

Positive news is flowing out of Africa these days. The global consultancy Ernst &amp; Young, now EY, ranks Africa as the world&#8217;s second-most attractive market after North America.
If anyone had asked me, I would have pointed at China as the world&#8217;s second-most attractive market after the United States (US).
Okay, forgive me. China is the world’s biggest factory yard. Can Africa be a base for a global factory and one day rival China’s manufacturing might? Yes it can.
Let’s start with the obvious. African governments certainly need to invest more in healthcare, education and innovation. They need to promote more public and private capital into infrastructure – roads, modern railways, power plants etc. These steps should – all things being equal &#8211; further facilitate intra-Africa trade which also needs to grow. Presently, African nations conduct only about 10% of their trade with each other, according to the World Bank, which also reports that the continent’s share of global trade in value terms currently stands at less than 5%.
A substantial share of the world’s timber, diamonds, gold, cobalt, copper and platinum come out of Africa. Transforming Africa’s raw materials into finished goods before exporting them to the rest of the world would also help.
South Africa already exports German technology (BMW sedans) to the US. Ethiopia has excellent leather and coffee. Kenya produces world-class tea and horticulture. Beyond its crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to international markets, Nigeria’s movie and music industry has practically displaced European and American pop culture across the continent, helping to rekindle African pride, local talent industries and worldwide appetite for indigenous African content.
Foreign firms are all over Africa, scrambling for opportunities. In China’s case, its direct investment in sub-Saharan Africa has jumped from virtually nothing in 2002 to $18.2 billion in 2012. The EYs and McKinseys of this world are only stating the obvious: Africa is a very safe bet for Western and Asian companies, European private equity firms and fund managers from Silicon Valley looking for superior return of investment (ROI). The counterpoint to this fact is to ask how well Africa will harvest its ROI delivery capabilities.
Will Africa take advantage of its unique spot in global trade to improve its society and environment?
Africa’s business and political leaders attending the US-Africa Summit in Washington last August came away with more than $14 billion in investment pledges by American firms.
According to the Brookings Institution, cumulative foreign investment in sub-Saharan Africa grew from $33.5 billion in 2000 to $246.4 billion in 2012. Former New York City mayor, Mike Bloomberg, says it is now factually incorrect to refer to Africa as an emerging region.
“Africa has finally emerged,” he says.
We all, however, need to look beyond the continent’s sweet and sour stories to see this emerging reality. The harsh reality of life in Africa for so long has been one of stagnated growth and arrested development fueled by endemic graft, penury and scarcity in the midst of affluence, painful and unprogressive politics, career militants, religious and ethnic strife, wars, cross-border epidemics, currency constipations, illicit trade, human trafficking and the sheer reluctance of Africa’s elite class to confront the bogey of nepotism.
Thankfully, these harsh realities are being attenuated – at national and sub-national levels – by positive exemplars of economic and social progression and by a new wave of afro-centric thinking which seeks to locate and redefine Africa’s role and position in the evolving global polity.
Practically every corner of the African continent today is adding value to Africa’s new growth story. A McKinsey report released in August 2014 states that the continent is home to eight of the world&#8217;s top 15 fastest-growing economies between 2000 and last year, with growth topped only by East Asia, which includes China.
Several sectors – the entertainment, financial services, telecommunications, information technology and agriculture sectors – have helped to galvanize this growth spurt.
Responsible for most of the foreign investment streaming into Africa, their cumulative contributions to social and economic transformation will continue to spur growth and new jobs. They have been the most receptive to the disruptive influence of innovation. They have helped to define the new picture of Africa rising out of the development woods.

Africa Is A Safe Bet

Calling the american dream

I have not worked a day in my life, because I love what I do. The daily adrenalin rush of live television is a necessity and I thrive on the pressure. Recently, CNBC Africa went global with an exclusive interview with President Jacob Zuma. To prove my mettle as a financial journalist, I asked a number of tough questions. The more challenging aspect was that CNBC Europe had booked a satellite link the following morning, directly into their live shows. We would cross ‘live’ six times during the morning into the global CNBC network and introduce segments of the president’s interview live from Parliament in Cape Town, South Africa.
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Each of the first five live crossings to London was a nerve-wracking two-minute ad lib leading into the interview. It was as though this is what I had been training for the last 13 years. Five crossings down, and congratulatory emails started streaming in from our global network affiliates, the most notable from CNBC Europe’s Head of News and Programming, Patrick Allen: “Watching from New York, very happy with the outcome, interview good, report great, you and shot look great, bravo.” But in the live television business, it is not over until it is over.
Our biggest moment was still to come – our live link directly into Squawk US. The controllers out of the US spoke to me: “Bronwyn, this is New Jersey, we are linking you into Squawk US. This is CNBC US, the biggest financial broadcaster in the world, they have a very different broadcast style, no mistakes tolerated. You must conduct a precise 45-second ad lib, then throw forward to a 15-second sound bite from President Zuma.”
My heart was pounding and my knees shaking, as
I waited for the cue from Becky Quick, the CNBC US anchor. Then it happened.
“Thank you Becky – emerging markets are out of favor and their currencies are all under pressure. South Africa has one of the most volatile currencies in the emerging market space having fallen some 17% against the dollar over 2013. Many economists in South Africa feel ongoing allegations of corruption against the ruling party and unrest in the mining sector are fueling further rand weakness. In a CNBC Africa exclusive, I sat down with South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma and asked him what he thought was behind the rand’s fall.”
And just as suddenly as it began, it was over. South Africa’s minute of fame on the world’s biggest financial network had come and gone. How did it go? The broad smile on my producer’s face and her thumbs-up indicated it was a clean execution. My reputation intact, I was ready to face another day in the world of live broadcasting.

‘I Have Not Worked  A Day In My Life’

Under the scorching African sun, in Sudan, a seven-year-old boy stands at attention. His fragile frame struggles to hold the AK47. The blank stare on his face betrays the atrocities he has lived through so far. At the command of his superior he runs into the bush. His mission is simple: no prisoners; kill them all. The stutter of the firing gun drowns out the screams. This is one of millions of boys who will never know what it feels like to play with Lego and toy trucks. With each passing day his hardening heart stifles a distant dream of a joyful childhood.
That boy, Emmanuel Jal, now in his thirties, has a made a career by telling his stories though music as a hip-hop artist. But the memories of death and destruction stick with him like the bullets in the chamber of an assault rifle.
“Everything I do today is mostly inspired by my past. I consider myself a soldier, but I fight with a microphone instead of an AK47. The battle that I’m fighting now is not because I am bitter; I am fighting to create change and I’m using dialogue and ideas instead of using force.”
In many ways Jal is still one of the lost children. He doesn’t know when or where he was born, but he thinks it was in the early 1980s. At the age of seven, after both his parents died, Jal went to a refugee camp in Ethiopia where he was recruited by the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).
“Just as we approached the SPLA training facility, some members jumped out of the bush and started beating us… The next day we were shown how to attack towns, make weapons, make houses for ourselves and how to cook. The training was harsh and I thought that once we had finished I was going to kill my trainer.”
When Jal was around 13 years old, the SPLA began to turn against each other. During this time, a group of them plotted their escape. The plan was to walk to a place called Waad. They thought it would take one month, but it took three. Only 16 of them survived.
Jal was taken in by a British aid worker who smuggled him into Nairobi. After her death, he was on his own again. The night terrors of his time in Sudan became worse and often left Jal on his knees. He may have left Sudan; but it never left him. Although he had dreams of being a pilot or a doctor, music was where he found peace.
In 2005, Jal released his first album Gua, meaning peace. The album focused on life as a child soldier, government corruption and the future of Africa. Although Jal’s music connected with many; it was too real for others.
“Music with a message behind it is very dangerous because you are educating the public; you are letting people know their rights… The system is scared of highly intelligent people who have more information about life because once they know, they can’t turn away.”
Jal’s music has seen him perform alongside the likes of Bob Geldof, the Soweto Gospel Choir and Josh Groban. In 2008, Jal performed in London for Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday.
In 2008, a documentary on his life, War Child, received international praise. It was shown at various festivals including the Tribeca film festival where it won the Cadillac Audience Choice Award.
From child soldier to musician and activist, Jal has one mission. It’s highlighted in the lyrics to his song War Child: “I believe I’ve survived for a reason to tell my story to touch lives&#8230;”
Through his music he is doing just that. With the mic as his weapon, he fires words of hope for those who suffer in silence.

Music To Dull The Nightmares

Africa has experienced stellar growth over the last decade. This growth has been supported by improved political stability, prudent macroeconomic policies, robust commodity demand and a growing consumer base. These factors are set to continue propelling African growth in years.
In the next couple of years, Africa is expected to be a key driver of global growth. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects sub-Saharan Africa to grow by an average of 5.4% between 2012 and 2013, compared to average growth of 1.6% in advanced nations over the same period.
Africa’s contribution to global growth is not going unnoticed. Cash-laden investors, benefitting from developed economies’ loose monetary policies, are looking towards the continent for investment opportunities as markets in developed economies offer less attractive returns.
Many reckon that Africa can capitalize on the economic and fiscal woes of the developed world to claim a bigger share of global growth. This argument is highly plausible. Europe, given its fiscal austerity measures which will constrain growth, is expected to remain in the doldrums for the next decade.
<div id="attachment_617" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-617" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-617 size-medium" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Kofi-Anan-300x182.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="182" />CAPE TOWN SOUTH AFRICA, 05MAY11 &#8211; Kofi Annan, Secretary-General, United Nations (1997 &#8211; 2006)</div>
The opportunity is undeniable for Africa, but with opportunity comes responsibility. As such, WEF’s theme this year could not be more appropriate. Africa is on the brink of major transformation and how this transformation is handled will shape the future of millions of hopeful Africans.
To attain the aspirations of the continent will require out-of-the-box thinking; generating creative ideas that can propel Africa to greater heights. However, ideas, no matter how grand, will remain just ideas if not coupled with bold and visionary leadership. There is no better time than the present for Africans to become doers as opposed to merely talkers.
With the flood of ideas, it is up to African leadership to come to the fore—only when African leaders realize this fact and accept the honor and responsibility of leadership, will these ideas translate into tangible results on the ground.
Unfortunately, Africa leaves a lot to be desired in the leadership category. Political developments in some parts of the continent are evidence of this. This mentality could change with the memories of the Arab Spring still fresh. Recently, the masses in Mauritania protested against President Abdelaziz and his government’s ‘anti-democratic policies’. There is a real risk for unrest in sub-Saharan Africa as people grow increasingly frustrated with poor leadership, which perpetuates underdevelopment and poverty.
Strong leadership is the foundation of Africa’s transformation. Africa needs to invest heavily in both social and economic infrastructure. In terms of social infrastructure, Africa needs to direct significant resources towards health and education. Growth and development will only occur in conjunction with a healthy and skilled population.
According to the World Bank the number of people living in extreme poverty halved in 2010. But more needs to be done, especially in Africa where the challenges are greatest. Robust investment in health and education will go a long way to achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Equally important to social investment is investment in capital infrastructure. Africa needs to direct enormous resources towards infrastructure development to ensure economic growth in years to come.
Regional economic integration has also been highlighted as key to the growth of the continent. According to a 2010 McKinsey &amp; Co. report, intra-African trade accounts for just 12% of the continent’s total exports. By comparison, regional trade in Western Europe accounts for 61% of exports. African leaders need to take the opportunity to boost economic ties between their counterparts and work towards enhancing trade networks to take advantage of the continent’s growing consumer market, thought to be worth at least $860 billion.
African governments have already taken heed. Almost each and every country on the continent has earmarked significant resources in their budget for infrastructure development. South Africa, the continent’s biggest economy, has budgeted R845bn ($108 billion) over the next three years for capital expenditure.
Infrastructure development will be wasted if not accompanied by regulatory enhancements that improve the ease of doing business on the continent. Africa lags behind the rest of the world in terms of the ease of doing business and governments need to eliminate red tape to ensure that their economies are conducive for business. This will ensure that business invests in that economy, which will translate into job creation, in turn denting the continent’s worryingly high youth unemployment.
The fact that 2012’s WEF on Africa being held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is in itself significant. Ethiopia is the second most populous country in sub-Saharan and a prime example of Africa’s fastest growing economies—according to Ernst &amp; Young, Ethiopia is set to grow an average of 7% over the next decade; well above the average growth of 5% predicted for the rest of the continent. WEF Africa will attract global and pan-African leaders who will help shape Africa’s transformation to ensure that the continent takes its rightful place in the global economy.

The Time For Africa To  Cash In Is Now

He tells his investor relations teams to discourage “the wrong kind of investors”, wants more global environmental regulation and taxes and believes that companies have an overwhelming responsibility to their supply chains. Sunny Verghese has an unusual outlook on business.
The Olam CEO has overseen the remarkable growth of the agricultural producer and processor from a sideline operation in Nigeria to a global business spanning 65 countries. The company’s success has come in part by turning social responsibility into a competitive advantage, making a solid business case for the kind of social investment that is only now finding its way into mainstream corporate culture.
Olam began with modest goals in 1989 as an offshoot of the Kewalram Chanrai Group, which had been operating textile factories and cotton spinning operations in Nigeria since the 1960s. When the oil price slumped in the late 1980s, the country began to suffer from an acute shortage of foreign exchange, and businesses struggled to find hard currency to buy inputs and spare parts. In response, the Kewalram Chanrai Group looked for a sector with quick export potential. They began with cashews, and expanded from there.
“When we looked at what was required for us to win in this business, it became evident that the large players were already very well entrenched and we were late to this game,” Verghese says from the company’s Ivorian headquarters in Abidjan. Despite the fragile political situation in Côte d’Ivoire over the past few years, Olam has continued to invest, opening the world’s largest automated cashew processing factory in February in the northern city of Bouaké.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the industry was undergoing huge change, as West African economies liberalized and broke up the state monopolies overseeing their commodity exports. The cocoa and cotton boards disappeared and were replaced by a fragmented, poorly structured industry of traders and license-buying agents, who had previously bought at the farm gate on behalf of the government. The rules of the game were changing, and Verghese saw an opportunity to take on the existing players.
“[Before] they could sit in London or New York or the major commodity trading hubs and source their raw material from the government monopolies, without really having to come here, dirty their hands or manage the emerging market risk,” Verghese said. “When the government monopolies started dismantling and disappearing, they started facing significant counterparty risk issues.”
The new traders were not able to manage pricing risk, so when the markets turned against them, they would default, leaving international customers without supplies.
“It was difficult for the customer overseas to come and enforce his contractual obligations in these markets. So counterparty performance and forward selling premiums became big issues under those circumstances,” Verghese explained.
“That’s when we realised that we had a significant opportunity to develop supply chain infrastructure and build counterparty credibility that was very high, so that in other countries, given the volatile pricing environment, we were still able to deliver reliably on a contract.”
Olam thrived in the new African markets, spreading across the continent and into major commodities, such as rice, cocoa and cotton and in niche products, like cashews. To do that, he explained, “we started at the origin and we resorted to buying at the farm gate, or as close to the farm gate as possible.”
But this was only part of the struggle. Creating supply security meant building loyalty and improving the lots of the smallholders that make up the majority of growers.
“Buying from the farmer directly, helping him improve his productivity, providing him [with] microfinance—in terms of loans—or agricultural inputs and market access, helping him to upgrade the quality he was producing, allowed him to dramatically raise his income and his livelihood, and therefore become a loyal supply partner for us.”
Verghese talks in terms that are becoming common in emerging markets and agribusiness. Companies, from brewers to traders, have begun to articulate what the Olam CEO calls “mutuality” to their investors and shareholders.
The reasons, he says, are relatively straightforward. Beyond it simply being “the right thing to do”, being welcomed into a country and being sensitive to its context is fundamental to being able to work there unimpeded.
“We believe in emerging markets it’s relatively easy to get a license to operate from the government but it is tougher to get a license from the community to operate in those markets,” he says. “You can only build a sustainable business in these markets when the community gives you license to operate. If they see you as a foreigner, as an exploiter of their resources, as not adding any value, they don’t want you there.
The growing trend towards consumer activism and responsibility has added momentum to the requirement.
“Our customers, like Nestlé or Unilever, in turn have demand from their consumers who are not satisfied in snacking on a bar of chocolate or drinking a cup of coffee without asking searching questions about where this coffee or cocoa is coming from. Is there any child labor involved? How environmentally sustainable is the supply chain for this product being used in their chocolate or their coffee?”
The company is creating its own “Olam standard” of sustainability, and is in the early stages of an environmental footprinting exercise to work out the carbon impact of its individual products and supply chain.
Verghese can rattle off statistics about the threat that climate change poses to the world’s population, and the links between global energy, water and agricultural supply. He talks about the water requirement per kilogram of meat in the same terms that most CEOs talk about their financial statements. His sense that there is an imperative to act, despite the high cost, is strong, although he acknowledges that to do so alone risks unilaterally imposing a drag on the company. The competition could gain short-term advantage by avoiding unlegislated “obligations”.
“It’s a catch-22 situation,” Verghese says. “We believe that the long-term solution is that carbon should be priced and carbon should be taxed because you cannot influence behaviour if that is free.
“I think stakeholder pressure will intensify to a level where everybody will have to comply with the minimum standard. So we are taking the view that it is the right thing for the sustainability of our business so we should do the right thing here, because if you want a business that is enduring, then we can’t take [that] view.”
The issue of “enduring” business, and the kind of long-term view that encourages corporate responsibility, is difficult in the current funding environment. Olam listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange in 2005 and the demands of “typically transient” shareholders with short-term investment horizons frustrates the strategist in Verghese.
“When we are investing in plantations, say a rubber plantation, the first yield is [after seven years]. The first maturity is [after] 12 years. The cash flow break-even is in 14 years,” he said. “As a CEO there is very little incentive for you to think that far ahead, because analysts are looking at the next quarter and getting upset if you [deliver] below expectations.”
“The problem with the current capital market structures and CEOs and their time horizons persuade people to be very short-term in their outlook.”
Despite this, he has no intention to change tack.
“I tell my team your job is not to go and market the company, your job is to go and de-market the company,” he said. “You have to tell them ‘are you sure you want to invest in us? Because here is the deal: we’re going to be cash flow negative for five years’. Most people would fall off their chair.”
Continuing with the heritage of the company’s early days and trying to improve its footprint “from seed to shelf” is going to become a competitive advantage all over again, as best practice in sustainability becomes more widespread and pervasive.
“One of the reasons why we have succeeded is the way that we have innovated our business model,” he says.
“We feel that benchmarking best practice is an important first step, but is lousy strategy, because at the end of the day, everybody is trying to follow best practice, so if you achieve that goal, you will at best be at the middle of the pack.
“You can never be a leading company, or a very successful company, by just being middle of the pack. If you want to be exceptional, you need to create the next practice.”

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