Widely regarded as one of the best business leaders to have emerged from Africa over the past 20 years, there is not the slightest embarrassment on the face of this self-taught entrepreneur as he admits to having no investments—none whatsoever—other than the shares he has in Discovery Holdings, the company he formed over 21 years ago and built into a global diversified financial services group with an annual income of more than $4 billion (R40 billion).
With glee, he says he doesn’t subscribe to the conventional investment caveat of not putting your eggs in one basket. So, he is invested to the hilt in Discovery, now the largest health insurer in South Africa, of which he owns about 9%, part of a personal fortune of close to $300 million (R3 billion).
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Welcome to the world of, the sometimes maverick, Adrian Gore.
It is a day after Gore released more than respectable annual results for the year that ended on June 30. The results showed that the group had achieved a 20% increase in normalized headline earnings, to almost $281 million (R2,8 billion), while cash generated from operations was up by 45% to over $201 million (R2 billion). All this with a 15% rise in new business to $1 billion (R10 billion), mainly in Britain, China and the United States.
An ebullient Gore intimates that taking on the rest of the African continent could be in the offing in another three to five years.
“You don’t have to be first. I see a massive opportunity. Health insurance requires private health systems not yet present in Africa.”
Not that he hadn’t tried before; the company had to reassess its strategy following a couple of dud acquisitions.
“Ours is about building a product—not buy a business and bring costs down to make a profit. We create value for customers,” he says.
Gore’s contemporary, Barry Swartzberg, with whom he left Liberty to start Discovery and remains an executive director, was asked recently how the two complemented one another.
“He’s more thoughtful, works on aspects, takes a long time to mull over ideas.”
An actuary by training, Gore has spent the past 21 years changing the world of medical insurance in South Africa. Today, the company is a fully-fledged financial services entity after adding insurance and life asset management to its portfolio.
Gore now wants to change the world, and looks like he’s very much on the way—one country at a time.
In China, Discovery has a 25% stake in Ping An Health Insurance, the country’s largest private health insurer. It does business with companies like Volvo, Unilever and Goldman Sachs. In Britain, the company has created the fourth largest insurer in an alliance with old stager Prudential. It also has ties to Humana Inc in the United States, and the AIA Group in Singapore.
“China remains a huge growth market, with the estimated total healthcare spend expected to rise by over 90% by 2020. Private healthcare spend is expected to grow even stronger over this period. Ping An has established itself as the leader in Critical Illness Insurance and related spend, a strong position to be in given that approximately 65% of deaths are classified as non-communicable diseases. By increasing their stake, Discovery has identified this opportunity,” says Nick Crail, a portfolio manager at RMB Private Bank.
“Getting into these markets is brutal,” Gore says.
“There’s no easy way or short cut. Each market takes time.”
The market appears to approve of the AIA deal in Singapore. On the day it was signed, Discovery shares shot up 6.6%.
“The AIA deal entrenches Discovery’s footprint across the growth markets of Asia, excluding Japan, giving them access to 17 markets in the region with total assets of approximately $147 billion. Discovery has entered this market through their offering in Vitality. This will therefore be a cost exercise for them for the first few years, but should realise profits into the future,” says Crail.
“I think, judging by the rally in the share price, that the market has already priced in much of these ‘blue-sky’ ventures. Their recent trading update unsettled markets somewhat and we would expect investors to be more cautious in driving up the share price too strongly. Therefore we wouldn’t expect much more in the share price to year-end. Having said that, we like Discovery and believe in their long-term outlook.”
In Britain and the United States, Discovery entered markets that were already established, with a great deal of certainty, facing a myriad of competitors and very tight regulations. It made it difficult for Discovery to innovate as much, or as well, as it would have wanted. A developing market like China, on the other hand, while posing lots of possibilities, is a frontier that still calls for a fair amount of learning and cautious optimism.
Tenacity from the pioneering years of their South African operations has made Discovery able to withstand pressure and adapt.
“South Africa is a small but more sophisticated market than we are getting credit for,” says Gore.
Paul Theron, CEO of asset managers Vestact, says Gore’s character has been one of the key factors behind Discovery’s success.
“His growth has been amazing. It wasn’t a completely unique product that he was selling, coming out of Investec to start Discovery. But to go from that tiny firm to span into a global expansion has been brilliant.”
“They had some problems in the US. But in the UK they have been able to offer a good product around Vitality. The intellectual property is certainly something that will do well there. Incentivizing people with a healthy lifestyle will certainly take off. Along with the operational expertize having been around for a good number of years. Many people can come up with a good idea, but to actually make it work and have it run successfully over a number of years is an entirely different matter,” he says.
Discovery’s latest foray is into Singapore. It was announced in July, but Gore has little to say months later.
“We haven’t divulged the details of the transaction,” he says.
It is a trait of Gore that he has little to say about his missions until they are accomplished. This has been since the day he left Liberty Life, after developing the itch to start a small medical insurance unit within financial services group FirstRand, through the listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange to unbundling from the parent company. It led to Discovery claiming more than half of the South African health insurance market. A story of more bite, less bark from the man who keeps to himself.
Laurie Dippenaar, who is 23rd on the FORBES list of the 40 Richest Africans and the father of FirstRand, was the man who gave Gore his shot. He has a clear memory of their first meeting.
“You could immediately see this guy was different. He was not the typical chartered accountant nerdy smart. You could see he had intelligence but he also had business sense, all the qualities that make you a success. I think he is actually one of the smartest business people I have ever met.”
According to Dippenaar, Gore’s first pitch didn’t go as well as he planned. The life insurance scheme was too much like others.
“To this day he says I got it wrong. A year later he comes up and says he’s got something completely different. From life insurance he had gone to a health insurance. He started to describe what he had in mind and I could immediately see he was onto something.”
This something was Discovery.
“When he described that medical savings account, it was a pioneer move in South Africa. I remembered when I was a bachelor and paying all these premiums for health insurance. You are young and healthy you don’t need to claim. All you do is pay premiums. Here was a product where you could carry forward some of the premiums if you were not claiming. In theory you could get into a situation where you didn’t have any premiums to pay,” says Dippenaar.
Gore left his job and Dippenaar gave him three months to draw up a business plan, in Dippenaar’s own offices.
“He never had any hesitation. He came up with the numbers. We liked it. So we backed him,” he says.
Gore is undoubtedly a darling of his shareholders, as well as share speculators, but that’s not to say he is liked by all. He has made enemies and detractors. He stands accused, for example, of squeezing competitors out at every opportunity, a charge Gore denies vehemently.
“I don’t think that is fair. We are strong competitors and more competition is good for society. We do nothing unfairly.”
It’s not only competitors who are unhappy. Doctors have taken issue with Discovery’s payment rates, where practitioners are forced to cap their rates and accept smaller fees. Gore’s defence? Nothing wrong with the practice.
“After all, we are the paymaster.”
What about the hundreds of thousands of people covered by Discovery Health? Some of them think Discovery is making huge profits on the back of above-inflation medical rate increases, while bombarding them with peripheral benefits like gym contracts.
Furious customers, writing on a business news website on the day of Gore’s announcement of financial results, complained bitterly about forever shrinking benefits, while others used words like “robbery”, “rip off” and “gimmicks” to describe Vitality, Discovery’s rewards-for-healthy-living scheme.
“These are natural issues,” Gore says, “they see the money we make.”
It doesn’t bother him much, though, as experience shows that customers stick with Discovery.
“The customer satisfaction rate is very high,” he says proudly.
Honesty and optimism have been driving forces at Discovery from the day it was established, says the man who prides himself for being, in his own words: innovative and prudent.
“Building insurance around making people healthy may be quite soppy”, he says, but it has been the key to success in international markets.
“We know where to be bold, and when to be reticent. We are pushing hard on the ground, taking no prisoners. We are ruthless.”
Gore’s steely, and ruthless, determination is often likened to that of Steve Jobs, the late genius who founded Apple and who was liked and hated in equal measure; depending, of course, who was telling the story.
There are two framed pictures of Steve Jobs in Gore’s office. One is from a business leadership article and the other is from a cover of the Economist magazine.
Gore is at pains to explain that Jobs graced the cover in the same edition that carried a story about Discovery. In the piece, the Economist hails the innovation of Discovery’s Vitality program as an example of how quickly new ideas are starting to flow out of emerging markets to challenge the world.
As for Jobs, Gore finds him very inspiring—especially for his obsession with one product.
“The obsession with a solution for society,” says Gore, who says he uses this belief at Discovery.
“Every organization must be started by someone,” Gore says, “owner-manager culture has a certain drive to it, a certain authenticity.”
Discovery’s success owes much to its founding team, most of whom are still with the company.
“But what’s most exciting about Discovery is that the future is ahead of us,” Gore says.
That future, though, may be under threat. At least, according to analysts.
The private health care industry is nervous about the announcement by the South African government—the continent’s biggest economy and a huge contributor to Discovery’s profits—that it is planning to introduce National Health Insurance (NHI). It will be funded through taxes and administered by the state; the NHI will strive to give health care to all.
Some analysts believe it will make a huge dent in medical insurance industry profits, big enough to send a few of them under. They single out Discovery as one company on the risk list because of high administration and managed care charges.
“We will have to adapt in some way, but I don’t think it’s threatening at all,” says Gore.
Gore says while NHI was excellent and rational and could strengthen the public system dramatically, it won’t supplant the country’s private health system and will take much longer to introduce than the 12-13 years the government has given itself.
If history is anything to go by, there can be no doubt Gore and his team—called the best brains in the industry—are busy preparing, which probably explains Discovery’s involvement in at least one NHI pilot project.
“Status quo is undesirable. You can’t have huge portions of the population with no access to proper health care. It’s not good for the country. I don’t think a great business exists on the back of dysfunctionality. You can’t exist at the expense of society. You’ve got to be part of society,” says Gore.
But what is he doing for that society? That is, when not ensuring that everyone is covered, or spending time with his wife, his two university student daughters, and the son he takes to school every day.
Driven by a philosophy that only entrepreneurs create jobs, Gore chairs Endeavor South Africa, the local chapter of a global non-profit organization that seeks to identify and nurture young entrepreneurial talent. It’s where he hopes to find, mentor and offer a break to future Gores – perhaps in pretty much the same way Dippenaar did for him 21 years ago. First lesson, don’t take prisoners.

A Maverick  In Rude Health

On December 1, 1997, David Kinjah won a cycle race in Kenya on a day that was to change his life and help shape the future winner of the Tour de France.
As Kinjah sat high in the saddle, flushed with victory, Jane Froome walked up with her 12-year-old son, Chris.
“The mum was introducing the boy to the guy who won the race,” says Kinjah.
Froome said she tried to enter her son, but found there was no junior category. She asked Kinjah to train young Chris.
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That moment sowed the seed of a Tour de France victory and turned Kinjah into training a string of Kenyan cyclists.
A week later, Froome went to visit Kinjah in Muguga, his village—a 20-minute drive from Nairobi.
“The mother was a bit unsure and afraid about bringing Chris to the village. Chris was shy and not such a strong rider. But he loved bikes and soon opened up and enjoyed the village life. With time, the mother was now a bit more comfortable with him coming to the village,” says Kinjah.
In the steep hills around the village, Froome gathered the power that was to drive him over the finish line in Paris. By the time he went to school in South Africa, the cycling world was opening up.
“He saw how big a sport cycling is and he connected with what we were doing here. When he came back to Kenya for school holidays he was much more energized and we would spend weeks camping and riding,” says Kinjah.
On July 28, Kinjah and the Safari Simbaz team rode to Muguga, to celebrate Froome’s victory.
“There has been a lot of buzz in the local and international press wanting to know what we are doing after a Kenyan born rider went on to win the tour,” says Kinjah.
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Kinjah, 41, was born in Kenya’s Rift Valley, in the town of Eldoret, where his dad worked as a manager at a textile firm. He was the fourth born in a family of seven. When he was six, the family moved to the coastal town of Mombasa.
“I was never interested in bicycles because I played a lot of table tennis and was an altar boy at a catholic church in Mombasa,” he says.
In his free time, he played beach soccer and volleyball. The only problem was the beach was 20km from home.
In 1994, Kinjah spent $11 pocket money on a BMX bike, so he could pedal to the beach.
“Slowly the other cyclists on the road started to be my competition. I used to ride harder and faster so that they [were] not passing me. I used to enter into all these unofficial competitions on the road,” he says.
Kinjah began fixing and modifying his own bike. His father, who was a manager at a steel factory, helped him with spanners and spares, but that is as far as it went.
“My dad was harsh when I started cycling. He never supported my cycling. But even though my mum did not have money she was curious to see what I was doing with the bike,” he says.
On the road, he met cyclists like Patrick Tindi and Sabry Mohammed, who competed in races in Mombasa.
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“Tindi is one of the guys who had confidence in me and he paid for my ticket to attend my first national race,” he says.
Matthews Maina was another Kenyan cyclist who taught Kinjah racing strategy. Despite this, his first race proved a disaster.
“The race was 120 kilometers but I was naïve and started off very fast and by the 70th kilometer I was burnt out, so I blacked out in a bush,” he says.
Kinjah went on to win national races and competed in the 1995 All Africa Games, in Zimbabwe. He rode professionally in Europe and rode a 2,500km race in Australia.
In 2000, he founded the Safari Simbaz, which trains around 20 youngsters aged between 15 and 23. One day, he hopes to set up an academy with Froome.
For now, Kinjah’s star pupil is covered in Tour de France glory and his once skeptical father is now his number one fan.

The Kenyan Who Powered  A Shy Boy To Glory

Do you remember the second man to land on the moon? How about the sprinter who was second behind Usain Bolt at the London 2012 Olympics? That’s what I thought. So last year when Christopher Froome came second behind Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France, the world took little notice. This year it all changed when he rode into the history books and became the first African-born cyclist to win the prestigious race in 110 years.
Place yourself on the back of Froome’s bike for a second. It’s the last stretch of one of the toughest cycling races in the world. You’re hemmed in by thousands of cheering fans who watch in awe as you zoom past. Any slight mistake can cost you the race. With one last push, you cross the finish line and are engulfed by the crowd. In the midst of the mobbish crowd you look up and see two familiar faces, fiancé Michelle Cound and former schoolmate Matthew Beckett.
“We were standing in the grandstand waiting for the finish just counting down to the three km mark. The entire last day is a procession and you’re never going to lose the tour on the last day… but until he passes the three km mark you can’t actually breathe that last sigh of relief…  [When he crossed the finish line] I gave him a big hug and had a bit of a cry,” says Beckett with tears in his eyes.
Since the Lance Armstrong doping scandal, which saw him stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned from the sport for life, the controls on the sport have tightened. These days riders carry blood passports and are required to log onto an internet site and state where they are for an hour every day. This allows for random doping tests. If a cyclist misses three tests they are banned from racing for two years. In the 23 days of the tour, Froome was tested 27 times and passed.
It was a cycling career born on the hard roads of Nairobi, Kenya, where a young Froome peddled for fun. Little did he know then that it would lead him to Paris.
Froome left Nairobi at the age of 14 when his parents relocated to Johannesburg, South Africa. He completed high school at the elite St Johns College, where he accelerated his passion for cycling by joining the schools club.  Alan Lion-Cachet, the school’s sports director, remembers Froome as a humble pupil who always had a smile on his face.
“He was spinning in the gym one day and some of his mates came into the gym, showered him with leaves and water, as if egging him on in the Tour de France, and chanted inspirational cries of ‘Go Chris go! You’re leading the TDF [Tour de France],” says Lion-Cachet.
Since 2008, thanks to his British passport, Froome has ridden under British license. In 2010, he joined Team Sky and has become one of their key riders. But things haven’t always been easy.
In 2006, twenty-year-old Froome rode for Kenya at the Road World Championships in Salzburg, Austria.
“He paid for himself to go. He was his own mechanic, own team manager, he was his own everything…” says Beckett.
Minutes into the race Froome crashed into an official, sending both men flying. He got back up, finished the race and learnt one of the greatest lessons in life: If first you don’t succeed, dust yourself off and get back on your bike.
In seven years, life has changed beyond recognition. Now he has a manager, support team and his latest win earned him €450,000 ($596,000) and a brand new Jaguar V6 F-Type, worth £67,000 ($103,000).
Froome dedicated his win to his late mother, Jane, who died from cancer in 2008.
In an interview in Britain’s Daily Mail Froome said he hopes his win will inspire.
“I hope it sends a message to a lot of young Africans to inspire them to achieve their dreams even though it may seem very far away. If they want something badly enough then they can find a way to make it happen, as I did,” says Froome.
No one can say what went through Froome’s mind as he crossed the finish line in Paris. Though, you can be sure that film makers have it in mind. Imagine, on a dusty Kenyan road, a young boy peddles his bike, with a small sticker that reads Made in Britain. There is a South African flag on his left handle and a Kenyan flag on his right handle. As he stares out into the warm sunset he says: “One day I’m going to win the Tour de France”. Indeed, I feel an advertisement is in the air.

Kenyan-Born South African-Raised British Claimed

A tattered flag bearing a blue ace has seen better days. So has the team it supports, Mpumalanga Black Aces. In the fading light of a Friday night at the Mbombela Stadium, on the outskirts of Nelspruit in the north eastern South African province of Mpumalanga, the new mice to the South African Premier Soccer League (PSL) run out against fat cats Kaizer Chiefs. Chiefs, who are awash with cash from sponsors and the sale of thousands of shirts, throng into the stadium. Aces don’t even have a stadium.
The biggest contrast is what you can’t see. Holding the flag stubbornly is Njabula Simelane, a die-hard Aces fan. Simelane is Mandlesive High School’s art teacher and wanted to see his side so badly he brought exam papers with him. He marked them in his seat, shoving them in his backpack just before kick-off.
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“I would not have missed this game for anything. Aces playing Chiefs; I’ve waited two years for this,” says Simelane.
Aces are one of oldest clubs in South Africa, a club long in history but short on budget. They clawed their way back into Africa’s richest football league after two years in the wilderness of the first division.
Simelane personifies the kind of loyal support upon which African football has been built. Sadly, in the modern game of 2013, it’s the corporate box that rules. Any club that hopes to stand a chance of competing needs cash as much as a fleet-footed striker.
The way Aces started this season is a sign of the desperate times. Two days before their season opener, the club was homeless. Black Aces had to rent Mbombela Stadium far from home. Aces’ home, in Witbank, is a 220km drive away from Mbombela. Roelf Koetze, Mbombela Stadium’s manager, says the game drew a bigger crowd than expected. Twenty-two thousand fans flocked in at short notice.
Finding a home ground for the homeless PSL side is Gordan Masondo, Black Aces’ communication manager, a man with a rich history in South African football clubs, from Manning Rangers to Durban Bush Bucks. Masondo spent two weeks, with two cellphones in each hand, driving across the province trying to find something. The wheeling and dealing paid off. Masondo says Aces settled for two home clubs instead of one. The club announced that its main home ground would this time be a 100km drive from Witbank, at the Kees Taljaard Stadium, in the small town of Middelburg. Aces’ second ground would be at Mbombela, to cater for any bigger games like against Orlando Pirates later on in the year.
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If fans want to see the stars there is a heavy price for talent. Black Aces hired Clive Barker to coach this year and he signed 19 new players. The most expensive is former Ajax Cape Town striker Mabhuti Khenyeza. According to statistics website Transfermarkt.com, the Zimbabwean born Khenyeza is worth R5.5 million ($544,000). Chief’s most expensive player is South African national, Bernard Parker, worth R13.8 million ($1.4 million).
In Mbombela, Chiefs’ starting 11 averaged R99 million ($9.8 million), in contrast to Aces’ R19 million ($1.8 million).
Overall, Chiefs has a squad worth $13.8 million. Aces has less than half of that with $6.2 million.
The action may be in the corporate stands, but this is an unmistakably African night. The smoke from the open fires in the township outside reflects light for miles; the waves of yellow and blue shirts undulate as shots flash past the post; the faint echo of taxi hooters floating in from the parking lot. The loudest cacophony comes when Parker scores the winning goal in the sixth minute. Aces fans dream of the day, when they too can swarm into a stadium with thousands of vuvuzelas.
But so goes the story of a few aces among a deck of Chiefs. This is still a dream—and an expensive one at that.

A Tattered Blue Banner  In A Sea Of Gold

From the deep well of Africa springs forth a steady stream of talent. In Europe, these shining African stars, with quick boots and level heads, dazzle the world.
Certainly it is much easier for youngsters these days. When I went over to Belgium, in the mid-1980s, I felt like a pioneer.
Now it is commonplace to find a player from Africa in every major league. That is great for the development of the game on the continent.
There are a number of young stars from Africa who are set to shake up the world this season.
These are my super six from Africa.
<div id="attachment_2153" style="width: 225px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-2153" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-2153" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/174562576_10-215x300.jpg" alt="" width="215" height="300" />VILLACH, AUSTRIA &#8211; JULY 27: Victor Wanyama of Southampton and Veli Kavlak of Bestikas compete for the ball during the preseason friendly match between Southampton FC and Besiktas Istanbul at Stadion Villach on July 27, 2013 in Villach, Austria. (Photo by Sebastian Patter/Getty Images)</div>
Egyptian striker Mohamed Salah looks as though he has all the attributes to be a top international striker. He has scored 15 goals in 21 starts for Egypt and is joint top-scorer in the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers as they enter the final round of group matches this month. The striker plays for FC Basel in Switzerland, but is being tracked by a number of top European teams. His reputation was enhanced when he was named CAF’s Most Promising African Talent of the Year for 2012.
Then there is Kenyan midfielder, Victor Wanyama, who signed for English top-flight side Southampton. He was at Glasgow Celtic last season and scored the winning goal against Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League. That is some way to announce your talent to the world and I think he could eventually take the English Premier League by storm. It will be a tough transition for him in a league were the football is played at 100 miles per hour. His previous stints in Sweden, Belgium and Scotland will have done little to prepare him for that, but if he is given the right support by the coaching staff and time to adapt by the fans, he could be a real hit.
Wanyama will join Zambian Emmanuel Mayuka, who had a slow start to his career at Southampton last season. I believe Mayuka, if given the chance, could make his name in England this season. His record at Young Boys in Switzerland, where he scored 32 goals in 55 games, was simply outstanding. Quality always shines through.
Richmond Boakye, who was born in Agogo, in Ashanti, and began his career with Bechem United, is an international for Ghana. He is a star of the side that finished third at the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Turkey. He is worth an estimated €6 million and is likely to play quite a few games for Juventus this season. It is likely to be tough for Boakye to break into a side that has won the Serie A title in Italy for the last two seasons, but he does offer an alternative to the other forwards: Carlos Tévez, Fernando Llorente and Fabio Quagliarella. Don’t expect him to feature right away, but as the season wears on he should get his chance.
Boakye’s teammate in the Ghana junior set-up, Ebenezer Assifuah, was top scorer at the Under-20 World Cup with six goals and it will be interesting to see how his career progresses. He is still playing at home in Dansoman, Accra, with Liberty Professionals, but surely not for long.
<div id="attachment_2152" style="width: 240px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-2152" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-2152" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/171690519_10-230x300.jpg" alt="" width="230" height="300" />KAYSERI, TURKEY &#8211; JUNE 27: Ebenezer Assifuah of Ghana (L) in action during the FIFA U-20 World Cup Group A match between Ghana and USA at Kadir Has Stadium on June 27, 2013 in Kayseri, Turkey. (Photo by Steve Bardens-FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)</div>
Nigerian defender Kenneth Omeruo, born in Kaduna, showed that he is a star in the making at the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, earlier this year, followed by fine showings at the FIFA Confederations Cup in June. He will return to his club, Chelsea, this season after spending last term on loan at Dutch Eredivisie side ADO Den Haag. Here, he could slot into the right-back position.
Looking beyond the African continent, there are a number of young stars who could become global icons this season.
Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior, a superstar at home in Brazil, will test his ability at Barcelona. The FIFA Confederations Cup confirmed his status as arguably the biggest young talent on the planet. His next challenge is to form a partnership with Lionel Messi, a player with whom he is compared. I think it will be exciting to see them play together.
Stephan El Shaarawy, who has an Egyptian father and Italian mother, revealed himself to be a star in the making at AC Milan last season and broke into the Italian national team. In Italy, they view him as the next Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo. Again, time will tell.
Mario Goetze’s move from Borussia Dortmund to Bayern Munich is a top purchase from the European champions and he should find a coach in Pep Guardiola, who will appreciate his playmaking skills.
Bayern paid €37 million (R4.9 million) for his services, making him the most expensive German player ever, but it could be money well spent on the winger, aged 21, who has years of improvement ahead of him.
Isco, who was signed by Real Madrid from Malaga in the last transfer window, is a player in the mold of Andres Iniesta and arguably the hottest property in Spanish football at the moment. He has made his debut for the senior national side and at Real Madrid. They believe he can have the same impact as the great Zinedine Zidane.
All of these are young players with great promise, but in truth they have achieved nothing yet and it is only with hard work and discipline that they will truly reach their potential.
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Football history is littered with stories of great youngsters who showed prodigious talent in their late teens, but fell by the way side by becoming more interested in what happened off the pitch, rather than concentrating on their career on it. As each year goes by, the standard of the game is improving. The current generation of players certainly have a lot a lot of responsibility on their young shoulders. Responsibility to maintain and enhance the beauty of the beautiful game.

A Dozen African Feet, Ready To Shake The World

The latest bid to become the economic hub of Southern Africa has come from KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), on the east coast of South Africa.
The Dube TradePort (DTP) in Durban is earmarked to be the catalyst of this transformation and is under consideration to be classified as a Special Economic Zone (SEZ), owned by the provincial government and managed by a corporation. The DTP aims to expand trade, encourage economic development, create jobs and increase foreign direct investment (FDI) by linking transport to connect the province to international economies. It is part of the province’s 20-year plan with R560 billion ($56 billion) worth of projects in the pipeline. It’ll employ up to 35,000 people.
The KZN MEC for economic development and tourism, Mike Mabuyakhulu, says that India and China’s large populations make them attractive destinations for South Africa’s exports. The province is looking for opportunities to increase trade with other southern African countries as well as increase tourism.
The DTP is home to the R7.8 billion ($ 780 million) King Shaka International Airport and lies between the Richards Bay and Durban ports. It is situated on the N2 development corridor that connects the Eastern Cape with Mozambique.
According to Mabuyakhulu, seaborne trade accounts for almost 80% of South Africa’s imports and exports. The port of Durban handles most of the trade in southern Africa, handling around 2.7 million TEUs.
The DTP zones are separate projects that interlink. Dube iConnect is a 24 hour telecommunications and IT service provider that will be using 36 km of fiber optics and a 10 gig pipe to service all the DTP zones.
The Dube Cargo Terminal is a three-year-old state-of-the-art terminal with the capacity to handle 1,000 tons per annum, with plans to increase it to 2 million tons by 2060. The terminal houses Customs, the departments of Agriculture as well as Health, the South African Revenue Services and South African Border Police—200 meters from the Dube TradeZone.
The TradeZone houses logistics, warehousing, light manufacturing, assembly, processing and high value cargo. It also includes the R28 million ($2.8 million) state-of-the-art flight kitchen facility. There has been a recent buzz among investors who are expected to sign contracts soon.
Dube Agrizone is 20 hectares that include a greenhouse hydroponics facility. Sixteen hectares of greenhouse produce 40 tons of fresh produce—including cucumbers and tomatoes—for large retailers, while a separate greenhouse is being developed for cut flowers and pot plants. The next question is what this will mean for the small farmers in the province?
The MEC says efforts will be made to integrate them into the new project. The idea for the zone dates back to 1994, when new ideas were sought to increase agricultural output and stimulate exports.
At the center of the R5 billion ($500 million) Dube City, three minutes from the airport, is Dube Square. The city will have accommodation, conference facilities, restaurants, retail and offices.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Indian conglomerate, Action Group, has been signed for $217 million to build a mini city nearby that is expected to attract close to $2.2 billion in FDI.
The provincial government will retain ownership of the DTP and investors will be given long-term leases.
According to senior managers at Deloitte and Touché some of the challenges facing the DTP are the uncertainty around the SEZ regulations and the inaccessibility to rail. They feel that “government can play a significant role in helping the DTP realize its potential of becoming an economic hub”, through training of workers and offering greater flexibility with government incentive packages for specific projects. Deloitte and Touché warns that final SEZ legislation must meet the needs, of not only the zones for which it is being created, but also the expectations of foreign investors.
This could be a thin tightrope to walk on the way to the promise of prosperity.

Africa’s next hot spot

Having lived in Nigeria for most of my humble life, I can comfortably say that there is at least one huge ‘all family and friends’ party going on everyday in this country. A couple of hedonistic folks have even suggested that the concept of African celebration was a Nigerian idea, complete with beer, wine, gourds of palm wine (a local brew), jollof rice and spicy chicken.
Consumer behavior such as this often becomes a trend. Very few folks, are therefore, totally surprised that, almost overnight, Nigerians have redefined the essence of celebration, and our affection for the eponymous produce of the Champagne region has become a sub-culture, a puzzling and dynamic social phenomenon with a deepening impact on the cultural and economic ethos of the land.
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To comprehend the contemporary culture of champagne consumption in Nigeria, you would have to recognize one simple fact: Nigerians are showy, ambitious, possibly more ambitious for their own pockets.
Anyone who disagrees with this view should simply go grab a magnum of the latest bubbly stuff available. And that would be ‘Taste of Diamonds’ by luxury champagne brand Goût de Diamants.
Designed by UK-based, Nigerian luxury designer Alexander Amosu, this one-off drink for ‘very private’ clients is reputed to be the most expensive champagne in the world; the asking price for one bottle and its liquid content is $1.9 million.
But why would a French vinery approach a Nigerian to help it project its expensive brew to its target markets? The answer is somewhere between personal recognition and social economics: Amosu has a track record of co-creating and helping to launch luxury goods. He once showcased the world’s most expensive suit to high society in Lagos and in London, UK. Secondly, it helps that Amosu identifies with his Nigerian roots. In a place like Nigeria, poverty and affluence could be twin brothers.
The United Nations says 63% of Nigeria’s 160 million people are technically poor, existing on less than $2 a day. The country also has some of the world’s wealthiest folks. For instance, Aliko Dangote and Mike Adenuga, two of Africa’s wealthiest moguls (worth $20 billion and $4.7 billion). Dangote and his ilk on the Forbes rich list can afford bodyguards, bullet-proof cars, private jets, luxury yachts, authentic designer goods, stadium-size parties, little islands, and several cases of ‘Taste of Diamonds’. But will the Dangote’s of Africa spend so much lucre on one bottle of liquid lust? Who knows?
The point here is that a ‘struggling giant’, Africa’s most populous economy, has become the destination of choice for the world’s champagne brands. Already acknowledged as big spenders in the retail zones of Europe, North America and the Middle East, Nigerians at home have now been recognized as one of the fastest adopters of champagne drinks globally.
Adeoye Omotayo of R&amp;B Public Relations Ltd in Lagos observes that the Nigerian environment is, without a doubt, easily part of the global champagne culture.
“Whilst a bit of pocket power may be required to constantly savor the exquisite experience of drinking champagne, one thing that can be said about Nigerians regardless of their socio-economic status is that they are largely appreciative of the fine things in life, one of which is certainly sparkling wine from the best champagne houses of Europe,” he said.
A recent report by Euromonitor, the research firm, identifies the West African nation as having the fastest growing rate of new champagne consumption in the world, second only to France, and ahead of rapidly growing economies like Brazil and China, and established markets such as the USA and Australia.
In 2011, in value terms Nigerians might have gulped as much as $50 million worth of the sparkling French liquor, and in volume terms they allegedly drank more champagne than Mexicans, Russians and South Africans, three nationalities well known for their contributions to global drinking culture. By 2017 champagne consumption in Nigeria is expected to reach the 1.1 million liter mark, competing favorably with annual beer and soft drinks purchases.
“I am not surprised by this piece of news. It is actually not a revelation to me. Nigerians have exquisite tastes, they are always willing to explore new drinks, trust me, I know what I am talking about,” says Roger Chedid, a Lagos-based Lebanese businessman who trades in wines, spirits and champagne. “Nigerians who really drink champagne don’t just take any brand; they always go for the particular brands they like. They are brand loyalists and image conscious.”
Chedid’s liquor store cum mini-bar, in the posh Lagos neighborhood of Ikoyi, reflects the avuncular character of champagne consumers; friendly talk and soft jazzy music often fills the air as patrons stroll in for a cup of cappuccino and friendly company; a few minutes later, they stroll out with their stash, business done. After 14 years of doing business in Nigeria, Chedid’s clientele come from all over the country. Increasingly, customers now order their cases of ‘sparkling wine’ via email and over the phone. Similar establishments are opening shop all over Nigeria’s urban centers.
My expedition into the local champagne ecosystem revealed the top 10 champagne brands consumed by Nigerians, as Moët &amp; Chandon, Don Pérignon, Veuve Clicquot, Lauren Perrier, Nicolas Feuillatte, Louis Roederer, Lanson, Taittinger, Ayala and Ruinart. The cheapest item on this list is about $100, for a pony sized bottle. That would buy you about 100 bottles of pop soda (soft drinks).
“We like to live the life, and our penchant for acquired taste is legendary,” says Ebi Atawodi, an events and sponsorship executive for a Nigerian cellular operator. “Increasingly, our social and private parties are like champagne and wine competitions.”
Omotayo, the PR executive whose firm also represents some of the leading champagne brands in Nigeria, agrees with her.
“Indeed, Nigerians can be somewhat ostentatious, but even champagne, like cars, has its various grades and quality brands will continue to dominate the liquor landscape,” he says.
Champagne cognoscenti believe that technology, education, global hip hop culture, the runaway success of the local music and movie scene, the coming of age of the ‘Facebook and YouTube’ generation and the expansion of the elite middle class have helped to grow the local champagne market. Clearly, the social arithmetic of champagne consumption reflects the ‘aspirational realities’ of the bold, wealthy and the adventurous.
“There are millions of Nigerians who are well traveled and have experienced the best of all worlds,” says Kayode Oguntayo, wine connoisseur, business man and owner of 1662, a ritzy wine bar in Lagos.
He reckons that, despite the waning popularity of a Nigerian music genre, the ‘Highlife Culture’ of enjoyment, has remained with us.

$1.9 Million a Pop

Outdoor activities have always been a rich part of the South African way of life. This year’s annual Association of Motorcycle Importers and Distributors (AMiD) lifestyle show in Johannesburg, South Africa, offered a feast for two- and four-wheeled enthusiasts, as well as those who prefer the water.
According to Gauteng Transport MEC, Ismail Vadi, motorcycles are helping to ease traffic congestion. He says government has instituted a 25-year integrated transport plan to address projected increases in population and the subsequent traffic congestion.
“If we do nothing about it, we are looking at a gridlock situation here. The system is going to choke over time. We are seriously looking at other possibilities from a planning point of view. Rail is of course the most important but thereafter we are looking at cycling and motorcycling. From a traffic point of view, motorcycling is clearly an important option for us,” he says.
This is borne out by a study conducted in Belgium, which found that a 20% shift from car to motorcycle commuting would result in a 40% decrease in congestion.
A first for the AMiD show was the announcement of the winner of the inaugural Pirelli South African Bike of the Year award. Sixteen motorcycles were pitted against one another for the title.
Making up the entourage of contesting two-wheelers were the Triumph Trophy SE, Triumph Daytona 675R, BMW 1200GS (liquid cooled), KTM 1190 Adventure, MV Agusta Brutale 800, Kawasaki Z800, Aprilia Caponard 1200, Moto Guzzi California 1400, Suzuki Inazuma 250, Honda Integra DCT, Honda NC700 DCT, Yamaha FJR 1300, Yamaha XJ6 Diversion, Victory Boardwalk, Hyosung 650GT and Benelli 600.
The bikes were tested over two days–day one, at the Midvaal raceway and day two on the open road, along a 100km loop from the Vaal Dam to the Magaliesburg.
Thirteen South African motorcycling journalists, along with some professional riders, put the bikes through their paces. The contenders to the throne were apparent from the beginning: the BMW GS 1200 and the KTM Adventure. The outcome was uncertain until the last vote was cast, but the winner was the Bavarian mean machine.
The 2013 GS 1200 has improved on an already class dominating formula with some innovative additions. First among these is a water-cooled Boxer engine, which results in a high level of heat absorption and dissipation. Not that it does away with air-cooling altogether; the liquid cooling, however, is specific to those parts of the engine that are exposed to thermal stress.
The GS also makes use of a wet clutch with anti-hopping functionality, as opposed to the dry clutch of the previous incarnation. A secondary drive now runs through the cardan shaft on the left-hand side of the motorbike.
For the first time ever, an electromotive throttle actuator has been introduced to a GS model. Rider inputs are picked up by a sensor in the accelerator twist grip and sent to the engine management system and the throttle valves are electronically regulated. This translates into greater control and predictable responses. Five riding modes allow both rider and bike to respond to changing road conditions for greater comfort and safety.
These modes work best when combined with the optional Automatic Stability Control, which communicates with the standard ABS braking and (optional) semi-active ESA (Electronic Suspension Adjustment). This Dynamic ESA monitors the vertical travel of the front and rear wheels and adapts the damping accordingly, while also taking into account riding conditions and the maneuvers being carried out.
The GS 1200 has also been fitted with a new tubular steel bridge frame with a bolt-on rear frame. Riding stability and steering precision has been markedly increased thanks to a recently designed Telelever (front) and Paralever (rear) suspension. Stopping power on the BMW comes in the form of revised Brembo Monobloc calipers and ABS.
The two-wheeled offerings weren’t the only show stoppers at AMiD. Using the expo as a launchpad was Vanderbijlpark-based Broderick Marine. Their Cobalt R5 was produced in response to the demand for a mid-sized boat, 24-foot, that nonetheless could offer smoothness, aggression and the extravagances of a swim platform and sun pad. The elegance of the Cobalt R5 speaks of the attention to detail the manufacturers have tried to embody: a console door finished in wood grain and a helm adorned with oil-rubbed ebony Makasser. Aluminium dash panels, stainless steel switchgears and a sound system courtesy of audiophiles Rockford Fosgate ensure that whiling away the hours on this vessel becomes an envious pastime.
If sport is more your game, but you don’t want to settle for the mediocre, then the Response TXi and Wakesetter 23 LSV from Malibu Boats is the perfect tool for the job. Boating International imported only two of these special-edition crafts into the country, which were created as 30th anniversary benchmarks.
“We’ve pulled out all the stops for these models, with the addition of pearl metal flake and special touches throughout that bring style to our celebration of Malibu,” says Malibu CEO Jack Springer.
The boat show at AMiD was also host to the South African Maritime Safety Association (SAMSA), which hoped to educate.
“Our organization is responsible for the issuing of skippers licenses in South Africa. Many people aren’t aware that anyone operating a boat on South African waters is required to be in possession of a skipper’s license,” says Marketing and Communications Officer Tebogo Ramatjie.

Bikes, Boats And Congestion

While Harvard Business School nurtured his entrepreneurial spirit, even as a youngster Chinedu Echeruo wanted to change the world. He believes that technology is the key to doing just that.
Fresh out of business school, over a decade ago, Echeruo teamed up with several partners to set up a financial services company to trade money market instruments. The venture failed to meet their aspirations, leaving Echeruo and his partners to rue what could have been.
He took a job at AM Investment Partners, a New York-based hedge fund, until he left in 2005 to establish HopStop. It was the decision of a lifetime. This online city transit guide offers door-to-door subway and bus directions as well as maps for more than 140 cities. This time, Echeruo steered the company to a million-dollar valuation before it was sold to Apple in July this year.
Within this time, he also co-founded Tripology of which he was CEO, before it was acquired by Rand McNally, the 157-year-old American maps and navigation company. Having had a few shots at batting in the global leagues in the world of technology start-ups, Echeruo has proved to be a heavy hitter, who has scored two home runs.
“It feels great because you also remember that a few other ventures I was also involved in didn’t quite go as planned. The very first venture I did right after business school was a company called Afridaq, and our goal was to create a marketplace for financial securities such as FX and money markets in Africa, but that didn’t work out quite as well. So there have been good successes and there have also been setbacks, but it’s still part of the journey.”
Born in Nigeria, where he attended secondary school at King’s College in Lagos, Echeruo recalls, with much laughter, his earliest entrepreneurial effort: to breed rabbits to solve food shortages in Africa.
“I had read somewhere that rabbits procreated a lot, and I thought if I could create a farm to [breed] rabbits, that would solve Africa’s food problem. So I convinced my mum and was able to start with two rabbits and we built a cage and all. They ended up dying though so it was a big failure, but that was my very first effort.”
In the early 1990s, Echeruo moved to the United States, where he studied finance and accounting at Syracuse University; the college counts American vice-president Joe Biden and Saudi Royal Investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, with a net worth of $20 billion, as alumni. After graduating, he worked at J.P. Morgan for two years as an analyst; before gaining admission to Harvard Business School’s MBA program.
His experiences on Wall Street shaped his understanding of world finance that helped seal deals with Rand McNally and Apple.
“Billions and trillions of dollars are moving in world financial markets and most people don’t really understand the impact they have on their personal lives, but it’s very significant. So it kind of broadened my view of the global economy.”
Yielding to the entrepreneurial urge, which he harbored from childhood, Echeruo founded HopStop with seed capital from the bonus he received after exiting the hedge fund. The years he spent running the company brought different experiences to those in the financial sector, and allowed him to identify his strengths as an entrepreneur. In 2009, Echeruo stepped aside as CEO of HopStop to pave the way for someone else to lead the company.
“What I thought, and I persuaded our board to consider, was that at that time I thought that another CEO would be better at running it going forward. I think that’s a decision that many entrepreneurs struggle with because usually the company is something they’ve invested lots of money in, their personal time, lots of things go into the early stages of starting a business and to give that to a stranger is something that is very difficult to do. But from my perspective, I thought it was the best decision for the company, and I think the new CEO has done a very good job of growing the company since I left.”
Looking back, the decision was a wise one—the company has continued to grow under the new management team of which Echeruo is chairman. Their performance caught the attention of the folks at Cupertino California, Apple’s homebase. While Apple declined to disclose how much it paid for HopStop, analysts estimate the deal to be worth a few million dollars. The HopStop deal and the acquisition of another company, Locationary, are viewed as Apple’s response to Google’s recent acquisition of Waze, an Israel-based company that provides traffic information based on crowdsourcing.
Echeruo is smiling all the way to the bank, however, he admits that his primary motivation is to solve problems.
“What I’m doing right now, in Lagos, is taking that approach and looking at the several problems that we have in Africa and specifically in Nigeria and seeing how I can apply technology to solve those problems. What we are doing at Constant Capital [a private equity firm where Echeruo is a partner and head of investments] is that we are essentially incubating a few ideas, which we think will resonate with the Nigerian marketplace to start, then evolve, then grow those businesses. I currently look at all the problems in Africa as an opportunity to leverage technology to solve them. We are working at a few companies right now to address some of those problems.”
He is a firm believer that technology holds the key to solve most of Africa’s problems.
“If you look at every sector of the African economy, and Nigeria specifically, you see inefficiency. What I really look forward to doing is exploring how we can use technology to solve those problems. If you look at it from every perspective: from governmental, corporates, consumers, lots of the challenges that people face have to do with information and information technology. People could definitely argue that the rise of mobile phones in Africa has contributed to probably 3-5% increases in annual growth rates in these economies. I don’t think you can underestimate how the ability to exchange information contributes to economic growth. But from my perspective I think of the challenges I am facing in Nigeria in the process of running a business, in my personal life, all these are real opportunities for entrepreneurs to fix and find business models to exploit them profitably, so that’s what I am focused on.”

From Failed Rabbit Breeder  To Millionaire

The idea came on an errand. The grandparents of Sizwe Nzima asked him to walk to the clinic to collect chronic medication for them. It was not far from their home in Khayelitsha, 35km outside Cape Town in South Africa. The trip changed his life.
The errand was a symptom to the problem that faces many public hospitals and clinics in South Africa. They are choked by long queues.
Nzima thought to himself, on that day, how a team on bicycles could deliver medication faster and more efficiently.
The World Health Organization says that of the 36 million people in the world, who died from chronic disease in 2008, nine million were younger than 60. Ninety percent of them were premature deaths that occurred in low- and middle-income countries, such as South Africa.
“We did some research at the clinic. We asked the Khayelitsha Health District to find out what people think of the introduction of the new service,” says Nzima.
This was the birth of Iyeza Express, a medicine delivery business that opened in Khayelitsha last year. Nzima completed a six-month entrepreneurship course at the Raymond Ackerman Academy of Entrepreneurial Development. Ackerman is the founder of South Africa’s second largest supermarket, Pick ‘n Pay, and is on the FORBES list of the continent’s 40 richest people.
Nzima was rejected the first time he applied to the academy in 2011, but he kept applying and was accepted in 2012 and won R10,000 ($1,000) for the best entrepreneur.
“I bought those two bicycles I started off with and bought a few t-shirts. I bought a phone, printed a few business cards and a few pamphlets. I saved the rest of the money for transport and for traveling and started using it for repairs,” says Nzima.
“I combined the experience I had in having to wait in those long queues, waking up early in the morning and going through that whole process at the hospital and leaving late.”
Nzima delivered medication to doorsteps for clients, who were too busy to collect them or too weary to stand. He charged them R10 ($1) for the service.
In one year, he has grown his customer base from his grandparents to more than 200 clients. He has four people pedaling with him thanks to seed capital from the South African Breweries Innovation Awards.
“I won a R100,000 grant that helped me buy more bicycles, buy more uniforms, buy bags and build my apartment, where I can live here and keep my bikes,” says Nzima.
For now the headquarters are a little corrugated iron shack in his grandparents’ backyard, where he keeps the bicycles safely and does the books.
He is buying more bicycles and needs people to pedal them. Nzima hopes to gain a subsidy from the health department after reading the objectives in the government’s 2020 health plan booklet. For now, every day Nzima and his four-man team flits through Khayelitsha’s alleys and roads with a backpack filled with goods that will ease the pain and may save the lives of their customers.
Right now, they are far from making a fortune from their daily runs but their name Iyeza means it’s coming.

The Pedal Power That Could Save Lives On The Road To Riches

A consortium of Ghanaian and foreign firms look set to transform Ghana into a modern, tech-friendly, hub for innovation in Africa.
Multi-million dollar information communication technology (ICT) schemes in the investment pipeline include the Ghana Cyber City, Appolonia City, King City and Hope City projects.
The $40 million Ghana Cyber City, Appolonia and King City projects are being promoted by Gateway Innovations (Ghana), Xalles Limited (Washington), Ernst &amp; Young (now EY, New York), Technolopolis (Finland) and Russia-based investment bank, the Renaissance Group. However, the Hope City project—a $10 billion technology park with residential and office accommodation including the tallest buildings on the continent—is the grand vision of one man: Roland Agambire, founder, chairman and CEO of Ghana and Dubai-based AGAMS Holdings.
An incurable optimist, Agambire, 39, is no stranger to ambition.
“This is turning out to be my biggest and most exciting challenge yet. We have a three-year plan to finish building Hope City. Any investor who invests in Hope City will recoup his investments within the first five years, including also making a projected turnover of over 250%,” says Agambire.
Hope City is expected to provide office and residential space and facilities for more than 50,000 people.
“I am extremely passionate about transforming Ghana into a knowledge-driven economy. My ultimate desire is to create opportunity for every African… we must also begin to explore the issue of how Ghana can begin to export services and ICT to the rest of the world,” he says.
Hope City will be located in the Dokuna district a few miles north of Accra, the Ghanaian capital. Agambire is optimistic he will raise the cash from the local and international markets to make his grand idea a reality. He will also add $2 billion of his own funds to the project.
His unwavering efforts have already made him one of Ghana’s wealthiest businessmen.
For a man whose early years were spent in poverty, Agambire’s current cozy lifestyle is a far cry from his humble beginnings. He shies away from any reference to his personal net worth. He, however, tells FORBES AFRICA that through AGAMS Holdings. He employs more than 500 permanent staff and 10,000 casual workers with an annual turnover of about $2 billion. AGAMS Holdings has interests in oil, construction, computing and telecommunications, financial services and trading.
His story proves it is possible to be lonely in the middle of a crowd.
Born in Sirigu, a farming community in northern Ghana, his father reportedly had about 50 children and his mother is the sixth of his father’s 10 wives.
For most of the seventies and eighties, Ghana’s economy was in the doldrums and village life was all about subsistence farming, fishing and survival of the fittest. Success was defined by the number of wives and children a man could muster. Agambire recalls how 10 people would sleep on the same mat, like prisoners in a crowded jail, wake up in the morning and eat from the same bowl. He says his success came from this start in life.
“At that time, going to school was a struggle, all they wanted you to do was to grow into a shepherd boy, to be part of the domestic services, but I broke out of that.”
By the age of six, his survival instincts led him to picking up coins dropped by much older folks, drunk on liquor, in the open air drinking holes in the market.
“I was going from one pito bar to the other to pick up money. This was how I made money to feed myself,” he says.
One day, his granddad accused him of pilfering. He told the old man that revelers obviously had too much money to spare. Why else would they throw it away every day and who would be identified as the owner of the money if he were to take the ‘lost and found coins’ to the village chief? The old man had no reply.
Soon, a few older folks noticed and joined him in the coin gathering exercise, so he changed tactic by going earlier to pick the pennies.
Soon, Roland the teenager was selling kuli-kuli (a local snack made from peanuts) and ferrying much sought after cigarettes, kerosene and petrol across the border between Ghana and Burkina Faso.
Agambire worked his way through the Navrongo Secondary School. He would often travel down south to Accra, during vacations, to push trucks and wash dishes in bars to make money to pay his school fees.
By the mid-1990s, his trading activities had expanded and he had dabbled into cash crops exportation. He completed various courses in export and marketing with the Ghana Export Promotion Council, put himself through a regime of Business Administration courses at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) at the University of Ghana and earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration.
A trip to Japan in 1999 opened his mind to the social impact and business potential of ICT. In 2000, he invested his first $200,000 into an internet café business in Accra; the dotcom age arrived and soon he was importing computers from the United States, and providing after sales support and computer networking services to Ghanaian businesses. He has never looked back since.
AGAMS’s leading subsidiary, RLG Communications, with offices in Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Dubai and China is helping to transform West Africa’s personal computing and mobile phone landscape. The firm has a technology training institute and a mobile phone assembly plant and will commission a $100 million facility, Ghana’s first PC and mobile device manufacturing center, in 2014.
The Ghana News Agency once described Agambire as “a personification of determination”. Having conquered poverty, he now wants to put West Africa’s second largest economy on to the global technology map, permanently.
Not bad for someone who used to pick up pennies.

Penny Picking On The Way  To $10 Billion

Ladi Delano always had his eye on the horizon. In his mid-teens, he asked for two years’ pocket money from his mother, to buy a few pairs of cheap designer boots to sell to his school mates. At 19, he sold services to universities. By 22, he had founded a top selling liquor company. Many dollars and a few hard lessons later, Delano couldn’t be more sure of himself. You may choose fancy words to describe his business acumen, but one will suffice; entrepreneurship. This is the story of a born businessman.
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Delano was born-and-bred in England to parents he calls part of a generation of unsung heroes. He might easily pass for a full-blooded Brit, with an accent you could cut with a knife, but he is as much a Nigerian. As we sit at his homely residence in a leafy Lagos suburb, overlooking the gray ocean, Delano is as warm as his sofas; his memory, as fresh as a daisy.
“In my household, London started when you walked out the front door and Nigeria started once you walked back into the house. We had three square meals of Nigerian food everyday and spoke lots of Yoruba,” he says.
Delano’s grandfather, Isaac Oluwole Delano, is a Yoruba novelist who compiled a dictionary of his mother tongue. Despite growing up in London, rather than Lagos, Delano’s Yoruba is far from shabby.
“I was born to parents who essentially sacrificed everything in order for their children to have a better chance and start in life; because they gave up everything they knew in order for us to access better opportunities,” he says.
One opportunity was a head start in business. Delano’s father is a corporate executive and MBA lecturer.
“Growing up with my father was incredible because the time we spent together, were literally MBA classes. Most of our conversations were on dissecting businesses, understanding how they work and how different products come to market. We would have CNN on in the background and Business Today would come on. Our two biggest pastimes were Michael Jackson, we went to two concerts together, and business. As long as I can remember, that was our thing,” he says.
The path may have been well lit, but hardship lurked around the corner. In his student days, Delano found he suffered from mild dyslexia and deafness in one ear. Learning became more and more difficult and the idea of school waned. Despite this, with the help of extra lessons, Delano made it to a top university on a day he describes as glorious. The novelty soon wore off and academia became Delano’s nemesis. In his second year of a political science degree, he made up his mind.
“It became quite clear that I didn’t have a passion for my course. I think that lead to me being easily distracted and that, ultimately, culminated in me thinking that rather than flogging a dead horse, it would make more sense to do something I was more comfortable with. There are two types of education and each form of education is equally as valuable. The academic approach to education is vital, no business can operate and be successful without those who have spent the time to understand the academic side of anything. However, that approach to education is not necessarily for everybody. And in my case it wasn’t. So, I decided to withdraw from university,” he says.
Delano’s decision didn’t go down well at home, but there was no stopping him. At least university had planted the idea of becoming an entrepreneur.
“We wanted to look at things like career advice for students, get recruiters to advertize their industries to students and M-commerce retail structures where students could use their mobile phones to make purchases,” says Delano.
Think again. In six months, Delano had lost the thousands he had borrowed.
“I was 19, I was confused. I knew my degree wasn’t for me, I knew college wasn’t for me. I tried my hand at the only other thing I knew I could do, which was business, and this happened. I was extremely upset, disheartened and discouraged,” he says.
Delano had always had a fascination with Asia: his father’s family home had a Bruce Lee poster; one of the London homes the family lived in was in a predominantly Japanese area and he had used chop sticks at a very young age.
So, with a plane ticket, a clouded mind and very little money, Delano flew off to figure out life—in Asia.
“I moved around, worked in bars mainly to earn some cash and fund more travel. I was being exposed to a lot, meeting lots of new people and learning more.”
Delano traveled from Thailand to Malaysia and Hong Kong, for eight months, before joining his family in their new home in Chicago.
In the States, it was time to find a job. He called cinemas, record stores, and department stores. His parents encouraged him to go back to college.
“It dawned on me while I searched, that I met this guy while I was in Hong Kong. He was a Goldman Sachs broker and we had struck up a casual conversation—he told me that when he came out of high school, he went into the city and knocked on every single door until he got an apprenticeship, from which, he worked his way up to being a stock broker and he’s been in banking for many years ever since. This made me think to myself, I don’t want to work in a department store. I thought I’d emulate what he did. So I started calling every single investment bank in downtown Chicago for weeks. After about three weeks, I got an interview for an internship with Merryl Lynch,” he says.
In Chicago, Delano felt at home.
“This was the most interaction I had ever had with any type of financial institutions in my life. I was consistently reading the Wall Street Journal all this time, to beef up my day-to-day business knowledge,” he says.
Soon he was cold calling investors to free lunches for wealth plan pitches—a task he found boring. After a couple of weeks, he decided to approach his bosses.
“I went home and polished up a presentation of a business I had been working on, called—the Minority private client initiative ( MPCI)—This was a strategy to target high net worth ethnic minorities and talk to them about moving aspects of their private wealth portfolios and businesses to our team. My bosses loved the idea and gave me an opportunity to do it. I traveled around the United States trying to make this materialize,” he says.
Delano returned to London, with a burning desire for a radical career change.
“I had an idea, I didn’t have a laptop and I had to spend a lot of time at the internet café not too far away, where I spent time writing my business plan. I just had to get it all out. Myself and two friends went to raise £216,892—we raised this money through a group of high net worth individuals I had been fortunate to know. After all my travels and time spent in bars, I had realized and identified the need for an independent alcohol brand; my mates saw this too,” says Delano.
Delano was 21. Out on the streets of London a vodka revolution was taking place; Delano and his mates wanted to supply the shots.
“So, that’s how we started our vodka brand—we had no idea what we were doing but we all shared the same vision. I was the commercial guy, my friends, the operations and creative guys, respectively. It took us six to seven months to put the product together and get our first consignment… It was to a certain extent, trial and error, but we were lucky enough to have more successes than errors at the beginning.”
By the eighth month, Solid XS vodka was ready. Delano hopped from bar to bar in London, for a year, selling the new drink from a bucket. The brand prospered, but the business proved bittersweet.
“We had managed to identify a niché and introduced the first Magnum Vodka in the world which subsequently opened a whole new area as we now started selling in Paris, St. Tropez to high end clientele and clubs. We now had a team of 16, but it was clear that our margins weren’t healthy as we were spending a lot of money on marketing. Our bottom line just wasn’t there. Although, we were alive, every month was difficult and every quarter even tighter.”
There was only one way out—duty free.
“I got on a plane and went to Orlando, Florida, for the biggest duty free trade show in the world, where I met the former country head for the largest wine company in China at the time. He told me about this fantastic place called China where volumes are high and costs are extremely low. He was starting a new distribution company and asked if I’d be interested in bringing our product on his portfolio. The next six months were spent on a Chinese strategy. It took almost a million pounds from investors and launched within a year.”
Delano took language lessons and traveled the country to sell. After six months, volumes were not rising but the marketing budget was dwindling. It wasn’t looking good.
“One of my team members in London and I, packed up our bags and moved to Hong Kong where we opened an office and started to figure it all out by ourselves,’’ he says.
In three years, they had six provincial offices around the country,  staff of 200, the vodka was sold in 33 cities, controlling up to 70% of the market in China.
Business boomed as China drank vodka like water. This was encouraging, but Delano had other interests and sold a chunk of his shares so he could invest. He opened a night club, a restaurant, and was opening a hotel in Shanghai. The vodka business was expanding, as the world economy contracted.
“I underestimated the impact of the global financial crisis and what that would have on all my businesses. On the real estate side, all the commitments for project finance became e-mails of no appetite, all the negotiations became unanswered e-mails and phone calls. The world just came to a stand-still and to top it off, there was a spike in oil prices and as we were importing our vodka and our glass bottles were hand blown in a different location so our costs just skyrocketed. There was a great amount of uncertainty and that translated to less disposable income which subsequently meant less people were going out and less vodka was being bought. Our volumes dropped, costs went up and by the time we realized what was going on, it was too late,” says Delano.
“Always prepare yourself for the storm.”
China may have ridden the storm, but the business didn’t. Troubled times saw Delano move to Indonesia; from here, he took trips to Nigeria, over two years, where he saw opportunities.
“It became very clear to me that Nigeria is not too far behind on the developmental curve. Natural resources, light and heavy manufacturing until you get to the point where you have a very diversified economy. I said to myself, it is time to go home—I was 29 and I just knew it. I was ready and willing to do it. I had also witnessed the impact the Indonesian diaspora had on its economy,” he says.
“I went back to Asia and pulled together a consortium of investors made up of high net worth families and some financial institutions in the private equity space. My pitch was: ‘Nigeria is the new Indonesia’.”
With a promising consortium of investors, Delano went into Nigeria. The skills shortage proved a new thorn in his tender side. Delano sought a partner to bridge the gap.
The Bakrie family and the Bakrie Group make up one of the largest conglomerates in Indonesia. Through a joint venture with Delano, the Bakrie Group will invest $1 billion, over five years in Nigerian mining, agriculture, oil and gas.
“Ladi has a charming, gently-spoken manner. However, this is underpinned by a strong work ethic and a careful and rigorous approach to understanding the issues that underlie commercial decisions,” says Richard G. Blunt, a partner at Baker McKenzie in London.
In April 2012, Delano moved back to Nigeria—a country with 60% of the population under the age of 35 and a youth unemployment rate sitting at 43%.
“I just love Nigeria… I want to provide jobs and help the youth develop themselves. It’s an honor to be able to contribute to the economy in this way,” he says.
The first contribution will be made through a mining asset acquired in May.
“We now have $100 million to spend on the asset in order to get it to production. We anticipate that the asset will be in production within the next year or so and we’re hoping that this will kickstart the mining revolution in Nigeria,” he says.
“We recently advised Ladi on completing his first mining deal where he energetically drove the process and discussions with multiple stakeholders through to a successful outcome. Ladi is already focused on several opportunities and we see him doing very exciting things going forward,” says Raj Khatri, head of metals and mining for Macquarie Capital, Europe.
From London, to Chicago, to China and West Africa; through vodka, mining and hotels; it has been a roller coaster ride for Ladi Delano in his first 31 years and you get the feeling he has only just got started.

I HAD AN IDEA,  I DIDN’T HAVE A LAPTOP

It all began rather inauspiciously. Vivian Reddy grew up in one of Durban’s poorest neighborhoods, on South Africa’s east coast, as the youngest of nine children. His father, a schoolteacher, was earning a meager $3.70 a month—which was a pittance, even in the 1950s.
“Times were really tough. And when you’re one of nine siblings, you’re always fighting for things. Those were very humble beginnings,” says Reddy.
Being the youngest he had to fight for his place, which toughened him up. After a somewhat mundane childhood, he joined the Boy Scouts at the age of 12, where he learnt about teamwork, self-reliance and leadership. The group sparked his ambition to succeed in life.
“It’s an amazing organization that helped to shape my future,” he says.
It also led to one of the most defining moments in Reddy’s life. When he was 16, he was chosen to head the South African delegation at an international Boy Scouts jamboree in Japan where he encountered a man who would become his life-long inspiration: astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon.
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“He made an indelible impression on me. When I talked to him, he told me about his life, and how important it was to persevere. I still remember his words: ‘Perseverance prevails when all else fails.’ He also told me: ‘If you can dream it, you can achieve it.’ His words stuck with me. They were my source of inspiration for many years to come,” says Reddy.
As if Armstrong had a hunch, perseverance was indeed a character trait Reddy would need in his professional life. He had trained as an electrician and found a job with an electrical company in Pietermaritzburg, 60 kilometers north of Durban. A few years later, he was promoted to branch manager. His career prospects looked good, but when his bosses held a corporate Christmas party in the late 70s, during the height of Apartheid, in two separate rooms—one for the white management, the other for the black workers—he could not keep his mouth shut.
“I have always been very radical in my views, and I could not tolerate injustices. So I took the workers over to the other side. The white managers were very upset. On Monday morning, I was called into the office and fired. I was very angry and I told the managing director that, one day, I would have an electrical company bigger than his, even though I didn’t have two cents in my back pocket,” he says.
Freshly unemployed, Reddy was about to face some tough times. Word had spread in the industry that he was a troublemaker. His job applications were met with silence. That left him with only one option: to open his own business, Reddy Electrical.
The first contract he netted was an electrical installation worth $5,300, which was a substantial sum of money at that time. Reddy had just got married to his first wife, Mogi Naidoo, with whom he would have three children, still lived with his parents and was saving up for their honeymoon. He worked day and night to finish the job. But when he went in his ramshackle pick-up truck to collect his money, he found a note on the company’s door that sent a chill down his spine: ‘Company in liquidation. Contact our attorneys.’
“My whole world fell flat. I was shocked to the core. I couldn’t believe it. I had the naïve expectation that if you deliver a service, you will be rewarded. Then I was confronted with the real world. I realized how important it is to have securities in place before you do a job. I was a good tradesman, but I had no financial experience. I had to learn the hard way to become a good business person,” he says.
When he lay in bed that evening, wallowing in depression, the words of Neil Armstrong came back to his mind. He realized it was time to live up to his ideals. He had to persevere and work towards achieving his dream of becoming the biggest electrical company in South Africa.
“I got up at 2AM and started to make a plan about how I was going to overcome this. And I tell you what: it inspired me. I decided I was going to succeed. The first thing I did the next morning was to go to see everyone I owed money and told them the truth, that I was unable to pay them back,” Reddy says.
There was very little sympathy. He received threats and legal letters from all of his suppliers but one, while his bank pressured him to settle his small overdraft. Only when Reddy proved month after month, that he was paying back his debt in small installments, did his debtors relent.
“Only one company allowed me to continue trading. I still do business with them. I’ve given them billions worth of contracts because they stood by me,” he says.
Today, as Reddy has made billions with his diversified Edison Corp, many may wish they had done the same.
It would be a long journey. Reddy borrowed $53 from his sister and launched into rebuilding his business. He worked 18-hour-days. Within five months, much earlier than he had hoped, he paid back all of his debts.
“One thing I learnt from this experience is financial discipline. One of the problems in business today is that start-ups overspend. They have a business plan and think it’s going to work immediately. But it takes at least three to four years before you can even turn a profit. That’s a reality a lot of people don’t want to see,” he says.
The first years were hard. Whenever he tendered for contracts, Reddy didn’t receive a reply. Then he realized: it was his firm’s name, Reddy Electrical, that was detrimental to his business as long as apartheid ruled South Africa. His luck changed when he renamed his company Edison Power, after the inventor of the electrical light bulb, Thomas Edison.
“I realized that because my name indicated that I am Indian, people were not going to give me work. I decided to masquerade as a white person. People used to phone and ask to speak to Mr. Edison. So I said: ‘Mr. Edison is not in. Can I help you?’ It was the only way I could succeed at that time,” he says.
The ruse worked until the firms found out. They retaliated by delaying payments and sabotaging contracts wherever they could, Reddy says.
“They did everything to make us lose money, but we persevered. I kept on investing in my staff, training them. We became perfectionists. Our workmanship became so good, that after four years, we became an exemplar company. We even had to turn away work,” he explains.
Reddy’s business really kicked off in the early 1990s, towards the end of Apartheid, when Nelson Mandela, the leader of the African National Congress (ANC) was released and activists, like President Jacob Zuma, returned from exile. Reddy became a major benefactor of the ANC and a close friend of Zuma’s.
“I wasn’t politically active, but I was always conscious of Apartheid issues, so I got involved. I financially supported the ANC, and have been very consistent in my support since then. It’s not a new-found relationship,” Reddy says.
Reddy, who in the South African media regularly gets tongue-lashed for his controversial funding of politicians and involvement in various empowerment deals, insists that his success in business is based on excellence in service delivery, not on political connections.
“We win tenders because we are good at what we are doing. We are the biggest electrical business in the country. A ‘tenderpreneur’ is someone who gets a tender because he knows someone, not because he is good at his job. I believe that when you have friends that are of influence, it is morally wrong to use that relationship to prejudice them in your favor. I’ve never made any demands,” he says.
Today Edison Corporation, which employs 7,500 people, has become a diversified, family-owned conglomerate with interests in property, casinos, wind and solar energy as well as medical waste management. It is the oldest surviving electrical company in South Africa and, with a multimillion US dollar turnover, the biggest in Africa.
“I have achieved my dream by working towards a policy I called BABA, which stands for biggest and best in Africa. We are very dependable. We still have the same clients we had 30 years ago. Building relationships is very important,” Reddy says.
Over the years, Edison Corp has netted countless lucrative electrical engineering contracts, including the $750 million Durban’s Dube Trade Port, international airports, casinos, hotels, shopping malls, convention centers, theme parks and golf estates.
“He is charming, persuasive and extremely self-confident. Whatever he sets his mind to, he makes happen. He is an achiever,” says Durban lawyer Ashwin Trikamjee, an old family friend who has known Reddy for more than 40 years.
Reddy, who is estimated to be worth billions, but does not want to disclose his net worth, says with a wink of an eye: “If I give millions of my personal money to charity, it means I can afford it.”
There is certainly no restraint to his cash flow. It’s no secret that Reddy, whose trademark are lightly-colored, tailor-made suits, likes to lead a lavish life of travel, luxury and style. He bought a huge, modern mansion in one of Durban’s most exclusive suburbs where he lives with his second wife, TV and radio personality Sorisha Naidoo, and their children, Saihil, four, and Kalina, two. In the garage are parked a fleet of luxury cars, including a Rolls Royce Ghost and a Bentley Continental GT. He is also a family man who loves to play chess with his wife, spend time with his children and grandchildren and watch soccer. His other hobby, is gambling, and that one he has turned into a flourishing business. In 1994, when gambling was legalized in the newly democratic South Africa, Reddy smelled opportunity and launched himself into a sector that, at that point, he knew little about.
“I love gambling. When I told people I wanted to own a casino, they laughed at me. But I knew casinos are all about good management, so I went in with the right partners, an international management company. We put in a bid, scored the highest points and won the license,” he says.
By 1999, he opened his first casino, Monte Vista, in his home province KwaZulu-Natal, which would over the next decade be followed by two multi-million dollar casinos in Durban, Suncoast and Sibaya, and interests in many others. Reddy has cast his eye even further. His next goal is to open five casinos on the continent, expanding into Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Kenya and Zimbabwe.
Reddy says it’s a myth that one can only be successful in a business sector one has specialized in. It’s all about doing in-depth research, selecting the right partners and learning as you go along, he says, adding that only entrepreneurs who are willing to take calculated risks and explore new opportunities will enjoy major success.
“You’ve got to go beyond your borders. You’ve got to remove the blinkers from your eyes. That’s what life is all about,” he believes.
From the casino business, he branched out into real estate. Most recently, Reddy built a $53 million shopping mall in Newcastle, and is about to finalize a posh shopping, medical, office, hotel and residential complex outside of Durban.
“Property is one of the easiest businesses. People just make it sound difficult. I don’t understand why more people don’t invest in real estate. I see great investment opportunities all over Africa. People must just go out and grasp them,” he says.
Like every good entrepreneur, Reddy is never content with what he has, always on the lookout for new opportunities, ways to innovate and expand.
“You have to constantly evolve your business. When you’re in business, you have to do research. Business is all about knowing what’s happening next, how the market evolves. That’s what innovation is all about, and that’s what we do. I’m always planning five years ahead. And I diversify,” he explains.
What helps him to reach new horizons, he says, is a second philosophic principle he came up with, called CANEI, or ‘constant and never-ending improvement’.
“It simply means that today must be better than yesterday, and tomorrow must be better than today. You’ve got to strive for improvement, whether it’s in business, sports or your private life. This principle is the mantra of my business,” he explains.
It’s a principle Reddy applies not only to grow his own business. It also forms the basis for his entire supply chain. In the past three decades, Reddy has kick-started dozens of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) businesses and dished out millions to previously disadvantaged subcontractors. Through his involvement in development and mentorship programs to help grow South African businesses, he has been credited for ensuring that small and medium-sized firms get a piece of the BEE cake.
“My goal is to empower people. I started implementing BEE policies 35 years ago, from the time I started. Whenever we give out contracts, we pay attention to BEE. It’s very, very important to me. We have very strict internal policies that we apply. I know what it is like to start from scratch, to be struggling,” says Reddy, whose Edison Corp is a Level 2 BEE Contributor, which means that the group has reached somewhere between 85 and 99 points on the 100-point scorecard.
Empowering people is also a motto Reddy, whose real first name is Vathasallum, which means ‘child of peace and tranquility’ in Hindu, applies to his staff members. It starts with creating a work environment in which people feel appreciated to help them rise to their full potential. Edison Corp’s offices have a quiet room, where staff can relax, and every once in a while, the computer screens are automatically turned off for a few minutes, to ensure people take breaks. Reddy also regularly organizes staff lunches to create team spirit.
“He wants people to feel comfortable at the workplace and enable them to grow in their work. He takes an interest in everyone, from the office cleaner to the top executive. He doesn’t micromanage but makes sure people meet their targets,” says Edison Corp’s brands and communications manager Roderick Ephraim.
Reddy also places emphasis on Edison Corp’s social responsibility section, which has a strong focus on assisting children. To share some of his wealth more permanently, he launched a private foundation on his 60th birthday in February, which he celebrated with an event for 10,000 disadvantaged children—apart from a glamorous $1 million, two-day birthday bash with hundreds of guests, including family members, friends, business partners, royalty and politicians. The Vivian Reddy Trust, to which he pledged $10.6 million of his own money, focuses on improving the lives of poor children. In five years time, when Reddy plans to retire, he will even go further and donate half of his wealth to charity, he says.
Meanwhile, the electricity tycoon is grooming his 32-year-old son from his first marriage, Santhan, to take over the chairmanship of Edison Corp. Despite the fact that Reddy has built a business empire that includes the biggest electrical company on the continent, there remains a lot to accomplish and conquer.
“The legacy I leave for my son is a $300 billion opportunity to electrify Africa. If you look at a satellite image of Africa at night, it’s still largely a dark continent. The opportunity is massive.”

One Small Step For Neil Armstrong, One Giant Leap For Vivian Reddy

The picturesque Republic of The Gambia is covered with beach resorts and more than 300 species of birdlife. It’s one of Africa’s smallest countries and is surrounded by Senegal and the North Atlantic Ocean. The former British colony gained independence on February 18, 1965. Incumbent president, Yahya Jammeh, led a successful, bloodless military coup in 1994 and has been in power since winning the elections in 1996. Each term is five years and the constitution has no restriction on the number of terms allowed.
The country has few natural resource deposits and is heavily reliant on foreign aid. A third of the population depends on the agricultural sector, with one sixth of the country’s land being arable, and tourism is big due to its ecosystems, white beaches and close proximity to Europe.
The country wants to become West Africa’s regional center for processing, manufacturing, assembly and distribution. Currently a low income country, it wants to reach middle income status by 2020, using its Vision 2020 master plan.
It’s currently a net importer—exporting peanut products, cotton lint, palm kernels and fish, while importing foodstuffs, fuel, machinery and transport equipment. The majority of the country’s exports consist of re-exports to other African countries.
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While its human rights record is poor, The Gambia’s contractionary monetary and fiscal policies from late 2003 restored macroeconomic stability after inflation rose to a two-decade high of 17% in 2003—following uncontrolled and unbudgeted expenditures, a decline in tax revenue, a rise in domestic debt and a drought.
The general economic growth outlook for 2013 seems to be positive.
The country began to rebound in 2012; real GDP grew from -4.0% in 2011 to 6%. Growth is expected to continue on the back of recovery in the agricultural and tourism sectors. Inflation has remained in the single digits and is projected to climb to the central bank target of 5%.
The country suffered an agricultural harvest failure in 2011 and implemented the Program for Accelerated Growth and Employment (PAGE) 2012-2013, a new poverty reduction strategy. It takes 27 days to start a new business and the country has now dropped four places in the ease of doing business rankings, to sit at 147. It also ranks at 165 on the Human Development Index.
The Gambian financial system has evolved over the last several years, and is now liberalized. The country has moved to an indirect system of monetary controls using open market operations, increasing competition in the domestic financial system.
Treasury Bill yields are between 12.6% and 16.09% per annum.
Earlier this year, The Gambia introduced a 15% VAT. This led to some confusion among the locals and sharp increases in prices. These increases were also seen in non-taxable items such as rice and sugar. The introduction of the VAT is in compliance with ECOWAS’s tax reforms for its member states.
Structural changes have been made in the country and there are a number of projects underway. The government wants to find ways of enhancing domestic participation in mineral exploitation, improving education and improving infrastructure.

From A Coup  To A Rosy View

The theatre was packed. Everyone wanted to see the opening film at the Durban International Film Festival [DIFF], Of Good Report, in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. As the lights dimmed, director Jahmil XT Qubeka and producer Faith Isiakpere settled into their seats to enjoy the fruit of a year’s labor. They couldn’t believe what appeared on the screen.
“This film has been refused classification by the FPB [Film and Publication Board] in terms of the FPB Act 1996. Unfortunately we may not screen the film Of Good Report as to do so would constitute a criminal offence.”
The two men stared at each other in disbelief.
“I thought it was a joke because Qubeka and I always play jokes on each other. When the director of the festival came on stage to speak about it, that’s when we realized it wasn’t a joke,” says Isiakpere.
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Of Good Report is the second collaboration for the two men, who often tackle issues faced by Africans.
In 2010, Isiakpere and Qubeka received rave reviews for A Small Town Called Descent, a film about xenophobia in South Africa.
The film in question tells the story of a forbidden relationship between a high school teacher and his 16-year-old student, played by a 23-year-old woman. Minutes into the film preview, a sexual encounter between teacher and student did not impress the classifications board and forced them to switch it off.
On that night, at the DIFF, as Isiakpere and the team stood on stage to defend their film, he recalled a conversation he had with Qubeka a few days before.
“I am very proud of you because you made a film for people who will think… But are South African’s ready to think?”
The matter of the banned film was taken to the appeals court where Isiakpere and the team fought to have their film released. Isiakpere believed the outcome would answer his question.
It normally takes 30 days for the appeals committee to make a decision.Because of the high public interest it took three.
According to Sipho Risiba, a spokesperson from the FBP, the classifications board’s legislation states that “as soon as you encounter a scene showing unwarranted content [in this case child pornography] you must immediately switch it off.”
This made it a crime to show, possess or watch Of Good Report in South Africa. Risiba added that the gap in the legislation was the fact that it was not aligned with the constitution, which states that in order to make an informed decision on film classification: “films should be watched in context and not in isolated scenes”.
“I don’t know if the film publication board ever thought about the aesthetics of the film, that the film is a certain genre. It’s an art form. And when the film like that is screened at an international film festival you realize that film festivals are platforms to be risqué [and] a platform for you to push the envelope,” says Isiakpere.
Of Good Report won the case and received a rating of 16SNV. It was premiered on the final day of the festival. All the talk around the banned, later unbanned, film lent great publicity and calls from international film festivals. Another good sign for adventurous filmmakers is that the FBP is in the final stages of reworking legislation.
So you could say the frenzy around the film, deserves an A+ for highlighting the protection for freedom of expression of filmmakers in South Africa; a good report indeed.

Tag: September 2013

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I HAD AN IDEA, I DIDN’T HAVE A LAPTOP

One Small Step For Neil Armstrong, One Giant Leap For Vivian Reddy

From A Coup To A Rosy View

He Thought It Was a Joke