It has been 22 years since he led South Africa to glory in the African Cup of Nations. In a new book, Clive Barker recounts his career as a salesman by day and taxi driver by night, and to FORBES AFRICA, that he is not done with the future of African football.

We are in Melville, a charming suburb in Johannesburg, and finding house number 55 is not as easy as Google Maps makes it out to be.
Finally, we arrive, there are two dogs by the gate, we ring the bell, and Clive Barker’s son answers the door.
The small room has a larger-than-life presence – Barker is on a couch watching a World Cup match repeat. It’s the right time and place to watch world soccer, in the company of a legend.
Standing up, shaking hands, the genial septuagenarian directs us to the patio not too far from the television and facing a landscaped yard.
The first South African coach to qualify for the World Cup in 1998, before that, Barker had led South Africa to victory in the African Cup of Nations in 1996.
For a country going through reconciliation and healing since the end of apartheid only two years earlier, it was historic. That moment changed a country’s destiny in sport, as also Barker’s life.
“People often say to me, ‘what was the biggest moment in your football career?’ And I say ‘it was when Nelson Mandela became the president of this country, he promised to come and watch us play football’. In those days, nobody came to watch us play besides the supporters and on his big day, South Africa’s greatest day, he decided to come watch us play against Zambia and of course we won. He gave us a speech which went on for 25 minutes and the Zambians blamed that for the reason they lost,” says Barker, a tear rolling down his cheek as he speaks about his interactions with Mandela.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/entrepreneurs/2018/05/07/from-football-to-fashion/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: From Football To Fashion</a>
Barker made his professional debut at the age of 17, and has had a long history in the game, from being close to starting an international career with Leicester in England to now unearthing soccer talent in South Africa’s townships.
“I played football professionally and of course, everybody has a dream to play overseas. I was on track to do that. Unfortunately, over an Easter weekend, we played in Johannesburg against a team called Rangers. I injured my knee very badly and in those days, you could do the cartilage operation but you couldn’t do the ligament operation and so I had my first setback and three years later, when the other knee went, that’s when I decided to go into coaching,” says Barker.
Without throwing in the towel after the injury, Barker decided to go into business to make ends meet. The failure of his venture did not keep him down. To avoid bankruptcy, and to avoid losing his family home, more sacrifices had to be made.
<div id="attachment_37083" style="width: 750px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37083" class="wp-image-37083 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/CliveBarker_GL-5-1024x649.jpg" alt="" width="740" height="469" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/CliveBarker_GL-5-1024x649.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/CliveBarker_GL-5-300x190.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/CliveBarker_GL-5-600x380.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/CliveBarker_GL-5-768x487.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/CliveBarker_GL-5.jpg 1654w" sizes="(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" />Clive Barker. Photo by Gypseenia Lion</div>
“I had to make that decision. I was going to lose my house and of course my family stayed there. I thought the only thing I could do was work during the night and I found that driving taxis was good. And I became a taxi driver. A salesperson by day and a taxi driver by night. We were able to do our shopping on Saturdays with the money we earned during the week. I paid off the creditors because I did not want to cross the street and someone tells me I owe them money.”
Football is similar to business, he says. “You start out as an individual, you have an idea and you develop it.”
Starting his coaching career after working as a driver for almost a year in 1973, Barker has groomed and trained a number of soccer stars such as Andre Arendse, Shaun Bartlett and Steve Komphela who continue in their coaching careers.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/sometime-in-africa/2013/09/01/tattered-blue-banner-sea-gold/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: A Tattered Blue Banner In A Sea Of Gold</a>
This undiscovered talent in townships brought to light by Barker over the years shaped legends in South African football.
“Thank goodness I went to the townships because I would have never known what was going on in South Africa,” he says.
Coaching patterns have changed drastically from the classic tracksuit-wearing coach paying close attention on the 90-minute game while shouting at the referee from the sidelines.
“In the olden days, you were more refined and were looked up to as a father figure, making all these runs, turns and somersaults and obscenities to the referee, there was a pattern emerging. My pattern emerged when we [AmaZulu] played Kaizer Chiefs in KwaMashu [a township in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal Province]. We won by 3-2, and the team hoisted me up at the end of the game and they pickpocketed me, from there on, I learned tracksuits are nothing more than tracksuits.”
Barker is looking forward to set his feet on the green pitch – he has been on a break.
“At the moment, I’m recovering from an illness that I had. I am starting to feel better. It’s the reason why I hadn’t been coaching for the last year-and-half but I’m certainly feeling well and when I am recovered, I am hoping to go back to coaching.”
In South Africa, soccer has always been more than a match, it’s a heady mixture of emotions and the shrill vuvuzelas (plastic horn). In Barker’s time, players had signature moves or tricks to keep the spectators entertained. This is one element that remains unique to South African football.
“If we copy the likes of Brazil, we could never beat them; if we copied the Italian style of football we could never beat them. If we developed the style of football that we had, then there was a pattern to it. Imagine me going to Doctor Khumalo or ‘Shoes’ Moshoeu saying ‘you can’t dribble, you can’t back-heel the ball’. If I took the nice part of football away from them, we would end up with robots.
<blockquote>“I think we lost out on a great opportunity to make a huge imprint in football not only in Africa in particular but throughout the whole world”.</blockquote>
With the non-stop action and unpredictability of the 2018 World Cup in Russia, African representation has declined drastically nearing the final stages.
The 74-year-old patriot, with great disappointment, tells FORBES AFRICA he feels sad in many ways as he had always been one to root for an African country to be world champions. However, according to Barker, not all hope is lost for Africa.
“Once we go back to the drawing board, and have a look at why we are not dominating&#8230; I know the better players get pulled over to Europe, and they could control the destiny. If you look at the World Cup and the countries that qualified, I can tell you now that France is going to win. I think because they add a bit of the African flair.”
Coach, a book on the life and times of Barker, was launched in July.
“The game has been so good to me, the people of South Africa have been good to me. Always encouraging, even the reaction to the book is fantastic. I wasn’t sure if I was going to recover from my illness and I decided that the best time to write this book is now,” says Barker, set to return soon to coaching more soccer stars, and shaping a future that will one day bring the World Cup to Africa.
&nbsp;

CliveBarker_GL-2

The Cab Driver, Coach And The Cup

Kevin Anderson had the biggest match of his career in the recent Wimbledon final, becoming the first male player to feature in the decider under the South African flag since 1921. 
With over $13 million in career prize-money, he speaks to FORBES AFRICA about new goals.

South African Kevin Anderson’s run to the 2018 Wimbledon final cemented his reputation as one of the leading players in the game today as he produced a shot that reverberated around the world of tennis.
Deep into his remarkable five-set semi-final with American John Isner, Anderson conjured a moment that will be remembered at Wimbledon for years to come and embodied all you need to know about the lanky star as a person and a player.
The weary 32-year-old was knocked off his feet by a power serve from Isner, his racquet falling from his hand as he fell onto his backside.
But as the ball came back to him, he instinctively reached down and grabbed the racquet with his weaker left hand, produced an excellent forehand and won the point – a moment that appeared to knock the last bit of fight out of his opponent as Anderson claimed the fifth set 26-24 in the second longest singles match in tennis history.
Anderson had shown calmness under pressure, the ability to adapt when the moment seemed lost and the skill to make the shot with his weak hand.
<blockquote>&#8220;Tennis can take you places you might never have dreamed of. I am the living proof of that.&#8221;</blockquote>
It was all the culmination of hard work put in years earlier to get him to that point and would earn him the biggest match of his career in the Wimbledon final, the first male player to feature in the decider under the South African flag since 1921.
“My Mom and dad both played tennis and ever since I can remember, I had a racquet in my hand,” Anderson tells FORBES AFRICA days after his final loss to Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic.
“I used to play swing-ball with my brother Greg for hours and hours.”
Anderson and his brother were coached in their early years by their father Mark, who always demanded his sons gave their all on the court.
“He would push us pretty hard to keep on working and improving, but at the same time, I really embraced it. I can’t ever remember wishing that I was doing anything else than playing tennis. I loved the game as an eight-year-old and still do.
“There is just something about the game that appeals to me and I have always been a hard-worker, that aspect comes quite naturally. From a young age, you find out that the more time you spend practicing, the better you become.
“By the time I was 10, tennis was my main sport and I was already fully-focused on the game, training probably three hours every day and traveling all over South Africa to play in junior tournaments.”
Fast forward 22-odd years and that hard work would pay off in a big way for Anderson against Isner.
“I had elbow surgery at a pretty young age and instead of resting for three or four months, my father made me play left-handed. It was tough, but I would never have thought then all of that practice would help me into a Wimbledon final.”
Anderson admired former American great Pete Sampras growing up, although he admits they are nothing alike.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2018/01/16/top-sport-stars-2018/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Top Sport Stars In 2018</a>
“He was my role model, our games are totally different but I could admire even then his commitment to excellence.”
After completing his schooling at St Stithians College in Johannesburg, whose other notable alumni include Academy Award-winning director Gavin Hood, singer Dave Matthews and current South Africa cricketer Kagiso Rabada, Anderson won a scholarship to the University of Illinois in the United States.
“I knew I wanted to have a pro-tennis career and so it made sense early on to base myself in the United States, because it was so much cheaper to travel to tournaments than from South Africa.
“I also thought I could develop quicker in the college system as you have exposure to better players than you would face back home,” Anderson says, adding he was a regular competitor with Isner while the pair were in college.
It was also at college that he met his wife, Kelsey O&#8217;Neal, who he married in 2011. The couple share a home in Delray Beach, Florida.
He now has over $13 million in career prize-money and a career-best top-five ranking, but above all says he also has a burning desire to be an inspiration to others.
“Tennis is an individual sport, so sometimes it is tough to find that connection [with young people]. But I feel like one of the big impacts I can make in South Africa is as an inspiration to show what is possible. With hard work, dedication and drive, tennis can take you places you might never have dreamed of. I am the living proof of that.”
Anderson will now hope to go one better than his loss in the final of the US Open in 2017, also to Djokovic, when he plays the final Grand Slam of the season in August and September, and his Wimbledon adventure has given him the confidence to believe he can do so.
“That is two Grand Slam finals in a year now and although I did not win either, it feels like it is really close,” he says.
“I know I can do it and it is now about setting new goals and challenges for myself.
“I want to keep on playing for as long as I can. I feel like I can still improve a lot as a player and that is my goal for the immediate future. I am as hungry as I’ve ever been.”
&#8211; Nick Said

Day Thirteen: The Championships – Wimbledon 2018

Chasing The Grand Slam With Kevin Anderson

Don’t tell Akin Alabi there isn’t enough time in the day to do everything. He just might tell you off.
At 41, he has built multiple businesses and is making money and time for more.
Alabi is the founder of NairaBET, Nigeria’s first and leading sports betting platform, a company he started in 2009 after he identified what he calls “a starving crowd”.
By that, he means a customer base willing and able to pay for services enough for him to make a sizeable profit.
Besides NairaBET, Alabi owns a small football club, has a book-writing business, is into digital marketing, business coaching and seminars, and is also contesting for a seat in parliament in the 2019 Nigerian elections.
The entrepreneur-investor likes to spend his days identifying specific gaps in the market and providing solutions to address them.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/sport/2018/05/23/nigeria-where-football-is-life/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Nigeria; Where Football Is Life</a>
Over the years, he has identified many ‘starving crowds’. He found the first one just after completing a diploma in business administration in 2001. At the time, there was a growing desire for Nigerian youth to travel abroad, especially to Canada, in search of greener pastures.
According to data from the Canadian immigration service, as many as 27,625 immigrants from Nigeria were residing in Canada by 2011.
Alabi tried his luck too.
In 2001, after his visa got rejected, he decided to collate his experiences navigating the complicated visa application process and sell that knowledge online to first-time applicants.
<blockquote>&#8220;So anything I learned, I created the information pack and I put it online and sold it,&#8221;</blockquote>
“I started downloading information tutorials and videos about the Canadian application process. I put all the information together and said some people will be interested in this so let me put it out there for sale. So in January 2003, I launched my first business, which was selling information products, and the first information product was this Canadian visa package,” says Alabi.
The guide was an instant hit. Alabi was selling it at N10,000 ($28) per copy and over 100 copies later, he knew he had struck a gold mine. It was time to find other crowds. Alabi decided to share his experiences making money online through his new startup in another how-to guide, which also found demand. After the success of the two digital products, Alabi decided to register his company at the Nigerian Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
“I went there myself and I did everything myself and I was surprised I didn’t need a lawyer. So I created another information product – how to register your business with the CAC without a lawyer in 21 days or less. I put that out and people were buying. So anything I learned, I created the information pack and I put it online and sold it,” says Alabi.
He had stumbled on a booming industry. According to Stratistics MRC, the global e-learning market accounted for $165.21 billion in 2015 and is expected to reach $275.10 billion by 2022 growing at a CAGR of 7.5% during the forecast period. The flexible learning, low cost and easy accessibility of the market bolstered by the increasing proliferation in the internet during the dotcom boom, presented Alabi with a hungry market eager to grab anything offered online.
<div id="attachment_36929" style="width: 224px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36929" class="size-medium wp-image-36929" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/EM5A1322-214x300.jpg" alt="" width="214" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/EM5A1322-214x300.jpg 214w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/EM5A1322-300x420.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/EM5A1322-600x840.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/EM5A1322-768x1076.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/EM5A1322-731x1024.jpg 731w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/EM5A1322.jpg 1071w" sizes="(max-width: 214px) 100vw, 214px" />Akin Alabi. Photo provided.</div>
Alabi’s story is one of organic growth. Setting goals and achieving them is a prominent theme in his new book Small Business, Big Money: How to Start, Grow, and Turn Your Small Business Into a Cash Generating Machine, where he presents a practical guide for startups looking to scale.
“As early as I can remember, I wanted to be rich. I was fixated on wealth because I did not experience wealth growing up. It is something I believe gives you freedom. Freedom to do things you really wanted to do and freedom to impact this world. You can help the less privileged and also give your family the basic comfort of everything they want,” says Alabi. “I know money is not the most important thing in life but it is reasonably close to oxygen in terms of importance.”
After the success of his digital offerings, business began to slow down, but Alabi wanted more growth. He decided he would venture out of Nigeria to the land of milk and honey, in search of that elusive wealth.
“I got to the UK and wanted to work. I looked at the potential of what I could make and after four months, reality dawned on me. I didn’t want to become an illegal immigrant and felt I was better off doing what I was doing in Nigeria. So I said ‘I had something going for me, it might not be big but there was potential’. I said ‘let me go back and make it bigger’. I was not investing in the business so it was time to do it properly.”
But before leaving the UK, a chance encounter with the bookers would lead to the serial entrepreneur’s most lucrative venture yet. His brother called him from London while he was in the town of Milton Keynes to make a bet in an online sports shop for a football game so they could win some money.
“So I played and I made some money and then I played again and I lost and I played again and I won. And I said ‘wow, anybody can do this and people in Nigeria will love it’. So I wrote down on paper, how to make money from football betting. It was just 14 pages and I put it online and I called my friend in Nigeria to help me go and run an advert in the local newspapers,” says Alabi.
He invested N200,000 ($555) in the advert and made N450,000 ($1,248). That demand was going to progress from online content to a new customer base wanting a platform to bet on sports.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/entreprenuers/2017/08/02/success-bag-entrepreneur/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Success Is In The Bag For This Entrepreneur</a>
“So those that bought the information product from me started reaching out to me that the website I recommended they should bet on did not work in Nigeria. And I was like ‘wow, you people are actually taking this seriously’. They wanted to place bets from $100 to $750. So I got thinking, these people are actually sending money to me abroad to place bets for them. Isn’t there anyone in Nigeria that has a business like this? And there was no one. So I said to myself ‘I have to create this platform’.”
That was almost a decade ago. He could not afford the software to create the platform at the time, which cost almost $1 million so he used a local developer to create his first platform. Today, NairaBET, a major player in the online sports betting market, has steadily transformed itself from just a football betting platform to a 360-degree sports booking platform covering digital, SMS, apps and retail betting. And, they have a new million-euro software upgrade in place, according to Alabi.
The total value of the global sports betting market is difficult to estimate because of the lack of consistency in how it is regulated in some parts of the world. Betting makes up about 30% to 40% of the global gambling market, which also includes lotteries, casinos, poker and other gaming, according to a report in Reuters.
This has led to challenges regulating the sector in Nigeria with issues arising from double taxation from the Lagos State government. But Alabi is hopeful these issues will be resolved once there is proper legislation of the sector. In the meantime, he is betting on a career in Nigerian politics and the corridors of power.

EM5A1324

The Nigerian Who Runs His Business On Luck

Chad le Clos recently returned from the Commonwealth Games on Australia’s Gold Coast, where he grew his legend further with three gold medals, a silver and a bronze.
He has now set his sights on the World Swimming Championships in Hangzhou, China, in December, as well as the next Olympics in Tokyo in two years’ time, where he expects to face greater challengers as a new group of young swimmers emerge.
The 26-year-old’s favorite medal from the Commonwealth Games did not come from his individual haul of golds, but was rather the bronze he collected in the 4 x 100-meter medley race, which gives an insight into his psyche. Swimming is mostly an individual sport, but Le Clos is clearly a team player.
“Truthfully, the best race for me was the relay on the final day when we got the bronze,” Le Clos tells FORBES AFRICA.
<div id="attachment_36525" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-36525" class="wp-image-36525 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/GettyImages-628143522-1024x729.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="729" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/GettyImages-628143522-1024x729.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/GettyImages-628143522-300x214.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/GettyImages-628143522-600x427.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/GettyImages-628143522-768x547.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/GettyImages-628143522.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /> Chad le Clos is thinking of life outside of the pool and hoping to launch swimming academies across South Africa. Photo Provided.</div>
“We had guys that weren’t meant to be swimming in those events, they were specialists in other disciplines.
“Earlier, we had finished sixth or seventh [in the heats], so to touch in third ahead of Scotland in the final was amazing and it felt like a gold medal to me.
“It was really tough, but the guys put it together when it mattered and that makes it really special.”
Le Clos confirmed his status as South Africa’s premier athlete in the pool with golds in the 50-, 100- and 200-meter butterfly events, as well as a silver in the 100-meter freestyle.
“The butterfly treble was great because nobody has done that before and it was a big goal of mine. To win my third consecutive 200-meter butterfly gold was also very special as it means I have now been Commonwealth Games champion for eight years, which is a big achievement.
“So from a personal point of view I was happy with my individual achievements, though I also believe that we should have medalled in the 100-meter freestyle relay.
“But it was maybe not the team that should have gone, none were specialist 100-meter freestyle swimmers and although everybody did great times, it wasn’t enough, which was a big disappointment for me.”
Le Clos is already South Africa’s most decorated Olympian with a gold and three silver medals, a haul he is looking to add to in Tokyo, something he says will be increasingly difficult with a new generation of swimmers coming through.
“You can see them emerging and wonder how good they will be in two years,” Le Clos says.
“There is an 18-year-old Hungarian boy [Kristóf Milák] who is already just one second off the world record in the 200-meter butterfly. I think I will have to swim pretty close to the world record to get gold.
“But it is also exciting for world swimming and the sport. You need new stars and as an individual that pushes you to work even harder. It is a major source of motivation.”
Le Clos is no veteran, but he has already been in the South African swimming team for close to 10 years and is thinking of life outside of the pool with the recent launch of the Chad Le Clos Academy in his adopted hometown of Cape Town.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2015/03/01/swimming-against-the-tide/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Swimming Against The Tide</a>
His dream is to have academies all over South Africa, as well as internationally, with five more planned to open before the end of the year.
“It has been a passion project of mine for the last five years and finally we have managed to get it off the ground,” he says.
“We want to start with kids as young as five years old, initially showing them how fun swimming can be before later on developing individual programs that will help them achieve their swimming goals.
“And those goals don’t have to be to make it to the Olympics. It might just be to swim for their school, or make it to the national finals. But obviously it is a dream of mine to develop boys and girls to swim for South Africa at the Olympics, that would just be unbelievable and something I would cherish for the rest of my life.”
Le Clos has helped develop the swimming program for the Academy, the first of which is based in Claremont in the Mother City, which he says is very different to how kids are traditionally trained in South Africa.
“I have always been of the opinion that we push kids too hard in their early years. So by the age of 17 or 18 they are burned out in the pool, or they have left the sport before then because it is all too much.
“The example I always use is if you have two boys, both aged 11, one is a swimmer and the other a rugby player.
“Traditionally, that swimmer would be in the pool doing 65 kilometers a week, the same training schedule as myself, Cameron van der Burgh or Tatjana Schoenmaker would do when we train for the Olympics.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/life/2015/08/01/how-far-would-you-swim-to-conquer-your-fear/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: How Far Would You Swim To Conquer Your Fear?</a>
“But you would not ask that 11-year-old rugby player to train against The Beast [Springbok Tendai Mtawarira], it would be madness.
“So it is all about pacing the training correctly to ensure that our swimmers peak at the right age and continue to have the love for swimming. They must want to get into that pool, not see it as a chore and something they dread.
“We also teach the kids respect for the sport and respect for their coaches, no matter what background they come from or how talented they are. That is very important to me.”
The ongoing drought in Cape Town has scuppered plans for a purpose-built facility for the first academy, but that will come, according to Le Clos.
“There has been an amazing response so far and it is the program that we will franchise out. Hopefully we will have another five opening in the next six months all over South Africa.
“We will be training the coaches according to our program, and the hope is to take it international, but for now we just want to have it running smoothly in South Africa first.”
Le Clos believes he has another “six or eight” years left to compete in the pool and hopes one day to perhaps have one of his pupils as a national teammate.
“I said to my Dad [Bert] the other day how it would be a dream of mine to walk a kid to the Olympics. It would mean so much to me. Maybe that will happen while I am still on the national team, and we swim together, wouldn’t that be something?”
&#8211; Nick Said

OMEGA House Rio 2016 – Day 10

More Olympians In South Africa’s Pools

By the time the next World Cup rolls around, Nigeria captain John Mikel Obi will be 34.
Considering coach Gernot Rohr’s deliberate moves to lower the average age of the Super Eagles (Nigeria’s national football team), it’s doubtful if the silky midfielder will still be suiting up in green-white-green by then.
It would appear that Russia 2018 will mark one final top-level hurrah in Mikel’s illustrious career, one that has seen him win everything in European club football and represent his country at all levels and in every major competition.
Like many former Super Eagles’ captains before him ahead of a major championship, Mikel, who now plays in the Chinese Super League with Tianjin Teda, is coy about his post World Cup plans.
“I don’t know what I will do after the World Cup,” he tells FORBES AFRICA.
“I think we have to focus on doing well first and making the country proud.”
Despite all he has achieved, there is still some debate as to whether the former teenage prodigy has fulfilled his potential, but Russia presents him with an opportunity to forge a legacy and grow his legend further.
It’s a sign of how highly he was thought of when he first burst on the scene that this is even a debate after he has racked up an impressive collection of trophies, including multiple Premier League titles with Chelsea, the FA Cup, UEFA Champions League, Europa League, and the Africa Cup of Nations titles.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/cover-story/2018/05/02/big-money-big-dreams-africas-chances-at-the-world-cup/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Big Money, Big Dreams: Africa’s Chances At The World Cup</a>
At Mikel’s first international game, an African Under-17 World Cup qualifier against South Africa in Kaduna, visiting coach Serame Letsoaka said of the emerging starlet:
“Your number 10 is a special player, he has the potential to be a great player.”
Letsoaka was not alone. By the time the country returned from an ultimately unsuccessful 
FIFA Under-17 World Cup Finals in 2003, Mikel was already marked down for greatness in Nigeria.
Less than two years later, that attention went global when he became the subject of a three-way transfer controversy involving Chelsea, Manchester United and Norwegian club Lyn Oslo.
By the time the dust settled, Mikel ended up at Chelsea, where many Nigerians still believe his creative juices were squeezed and stifled by manager José Mourinho.
For Mikel himself, the argument is moot and he seems satisfied with his achievements, though leading Nigeria past the quarter-finals of the World Cup would perhaps even be the highlight.
“I think I have been lucky. I have had a good career, played for one of the best football clubs in the world, with some great players and won a lot of titles. I think that is a great honor for me.”
And he has gone from budding starlet to senior player in a captaincy role that always comes with great expectation and responsibility.
It is something that he has taken on and he knows that leadership on and off the pitch will be as important as anything else in Russia.
“I remember when I came into the national team as a young player, a lot of the older players helped me. Now, we have a young team, time has gone so fast and I have to help these guys too.”
Promoted from the Under-20 squad after helping Nigeria to a silver medal and winning the Silver Ball behind Lionel Messi at the FIFA World Youth Championship in 2005, Mikel was named in Nigeria’s squad for the 2006 Africa Cup of Nations and announced himself with a goal and assist after coming on as a substitute.
Already heightened expectations went into overdrive. With midfield legend Austin Okocha (Nigerian former professional footballer) on his last legs, Mikel was immediately installed as the next Jay-Jay.
Mikel, with a more direct, technical skill-set, is the direct opposite of Okocha’s more flair-oriented toolbox, which not only made that characterization unfair, but also spawned that unending debate about (un)fulfilled potential.
And it is. Since being named captain two years ago, Mikel has shown a level of leadership and drive that few believed he had.
Those qualities, both on and off the pitch, contributed in large parts to Nigeria’s uncharacteristically drama-free World Cup qualification campaign.
On the pitch, and unshackled with the freedom to roam handed to him by Rohr, Mikel drove the team forward almost by sheer force of will, with his goals against Algeria and then Cameroon major turning points in Nigeria’s qualification run.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/sport/2017/11/29/grounded-super-eagle-wants-fly-next-world-cup/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The Grounded Super Eagle Who Wants To Fly To The Next World Cup</a>
Off the pitch, Mikel’s quiet diplomatic approach with officialdom to resolve team issues contrasted with the confrontational methods of the past and helped forge harmony within the squad.
“He is our captain and he is very important for us,” Rohr never tires of saying at every opportunity, clearly delighted to be working with a personality he feels is similar to his own.
Such is the respect Mikel commands within the squad that he is almost like a centrifugal force whenever he is present. And even when he is not, his aura still hovers around the team.
In two recent friendlies against Poland and Serbia in March, there seemed to be a general consensus that the team lacked cohesion without the captain.
In his absence, the Super Eagles struggled to maintain any semblance of fluidity or create opportunities.
Which may be why he almost feels a heavy responsibility to guide this young side, who will have one of the lowest squad average ages, to a good tournament.
But it hasn’t just been words. He has done it already, dipping into his own pocket to pay the team costs as they prepared for the Olympic Games in 2016.
Not many expect Nigeria to go beyond their best previous World Cup outing of the Round of 16. But if there is one thing that Mikel’s career has shown, it is that collecting trophies have become second nature.
His first World Cup tournament ended in a first-round exit, albeit by a drawing of lots. What odds that his last, where Nigeria faced Argentina, Iceland and Croatia, would finish at the other end of the spectrum?
&#8211; By Colin Udoh

FBL-OLY-2016-RIO-HON-NGR

Nigeria’s John Mikel Obi Counts Himself Lucky

In a summer of cricket that produced many exciting new discoveries, the one with perhaps the most long-term potential is that of fast bowler Lungi Ngidi, who has overcome tough times to take his place in the country’s Test side.
Ngidi is potentially the long-term successor to Morne Morkel, who announced his retirement from the international game in February, and is likely to form a fearsome attacking duo with Kagiso Rabada in the coming years – both are able to clock speeds of 150 kilometers per hour.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2016/12/01/cricket-rwandas-new-unifying-force/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Cricket: Rwanda’s New Unifying Force</a>
The 22-year-old is part of a new wave of black cricketers earning their stripes in South Africa’s national side, with the sport finally able tap into a segment of the population that had been excluded from the game for so long.
Aside from Rabada and Ngidi, Temba Bavuma and Andile Phehlukwayo have played Test cricket in the last year, while Khayelihle Zondo recently made his debut in the One Day International format, and Junior Dala and Aaron Phangiso played as well in the Twenty20 games against India in February.
It is a radical change from the days when Makhaya Ntini furrowed almost a lone career as South Africa’s only international black cricketer, joined ever so briefly in the national team by the likes of Monde Zondeki, Mfuneko Ngam and Thami Tsolekile.
Much needed transformation within the sport has had some role to play, but few would argue that all the recent recruits to the national side have not deserved their elevation and most grabbed the opportunity with both hands.
Ngidi, perhaps more than anyone, took advantage after he became an injury replacement for Dale Steyn in the second Test against India in Pretoria in January.
On a wicket more suited to spin bowling, he returned excellent match figures of 7/90, including the prized wicket of the best batsman in the world, Virat Kohli, with a vicious in-swinger that trapped the Indian captain leg before wicket.
It was not Ngidi’s first appearance in the national team; his promise was spotted 12 months earlier when he was selected for three Twenty20 clashes against touring Sri Lanka.
And he excelled there too, taking 4/19 in second match as the bounce extracted from his tall frame and good pace left the visitors hopping around the crease.
But a back injury immediately after that kept him out of the game for six months, and took him from an incredible high to a desperate low.
It was during that time that he struggled to keep his fitness levels at the required level, leading to some tough words at his franchise team, the Pretoria-based Titans.
“It was very difficult but it was worth it in the long run and a lot of credit must also go to the trainer and physiotherapist at the Titans for the work they did with me,” Ngidi told reporters.
“And the coach [Mark Boucher] as well – we had some hard but honest chats behind closed doors and that also helped me much in the long run.
“That was probably one of the biggest challenges of my career… coming from a high to a low in a short space of time. Being selected to play for South Africa and then getting injured, it was tough.”
&#8220;I thought I was doing all the right things but it was not going my way. During my time away from the game I got a lot of time to reflect and now I realize that I am actually stronger than I thought.”
Ngidi has his roots in Durban – his mother Bongi was a domestic worker and his father Jerome a caretaker at a local school. His life changed when he was selected for a scholarship to the prestigious Hilton College, a school known for producing international sportsmen in all codes.
“From a young age he was a natural talent, not just a cricketer, but a very talented rugby player and a swimmer,” Hilton College Executive House Master Sean Carlisle told FORBES AFRICA.
Aside from Carlisle, Ngidi was also under the tutelage of former Zimbabwe international all-rounder Neil Johnson, who had many years as a top professional.
“There was obviously lots of raw potential there at school level. He was probably a bit frustrated then as at school he suffered a lot of injuries, but the natural ability and the massive potential was clear for everybody to see,” says Carlisle.
“What was evident too is that he stood up in pressure situations. When things were tight in match situations, he came to the fore and that gave you an indication that he could handle bigger pressures later in life.”
Carlisle believes that it is Ngidi’s calm and grounded personality that will see him successful. He is not prone to flights of fancy or the belief that he does not have to work hard to achieve his goals.
“That is probably one of his greatest assets, that he is humble and down to earth. Right from the start, he was very grounded and really was one of those all-round, well-mannered and well-groomed guys. You could say he was, and is, a real good guy.”
Carlisle is rightly proud of his former pupil, even if he himself admits he is a little bit surprised at how well Ngidi has taken to international cricket.
“We have been following him and seeing how well he has done at Tuks [the University of Pretoria], and then in the Twenty20s. But to be honest, all of us are slightly taken aback at how quickly and how well he took to Test cricket.
“He is just an incredibly rounded, humble man and we could not be prouder. The cricket side is fantastic, but for me it is the human element that will make him special.”
With Morkel out the picture and the future of Steyn in serious doubt, Ngidi has the opportunity to lead South Africa’s pace attack with Rabada for the next decade or more if he can stay fit.
“I’m so proud of him, he’s already a role model for millions of South Africans,” Ngidi said of Rabada, just a year his senior. “I’d love to emulate his achievements one day but, for now, I’m just happy to be chasing him.”
&#8211; By Nick Said

CRICKET-RSA-AUS

The Speedster That Bounced Back

For the past decade, AB de Villiers has been achieving records on the cricket pitch. Now South Africa’s ODI captain and world number one ODI batsman, is set to achieve yet another milestone off the field. Renowned for his innovative batting and sharp fielding, De Villiers is now setting a trend off the field. The innovative batsman has partnered with US-based tech company, FanHero, to become one of the first sportsmen in South Africa to develop a personalized fan engagement app. This will allow fans from around the world to interact with him on a more personal level.
<blockquote>I have been looking for a way to engage on a more authentic level with my fans across the world and FanHero has offered me the perfect platform to do that.</blockquote>
It will be my life in a bundle, something that I haven&#8217;t been able to get across on traditional social media, says De Villiers before the launch of the app. FanHero, a tech start-up that has been running for just over a year, has already produced several apps in North and South America. They specialize in sports teams and celebrities, allowing them the opportunity to engage exclusively with fans without the constraints of other social media platforms. FanHero allows the fan to get closer to De Villiers. Supporters will get access to De Villiers&#8217;s personal and professional life. With live streaming, pictures, videos and updates from the global cricket star, fans will be able to see De Villiers behind closed doors, learning what it takes to be a professional cricketer and what makes him tick. In addition, fans will be able to ask questions, which AB can respond to.
<blockquote>I want to give away as much as possible, and allow people to understand exactly what it takes to be a professional cricketer.</blockquote>
While South Africa is still a developing country in terms of technology, AB de Villiers is a superstar both on the field and online. He is one of Africa&amp;#39;s biggest sporting brands and represents everything we were looking for in terms of a partnership,” says Johan van Wyk, Director of FanHero South Africa. The app launched at the end of March, just before De Villiers set off for England to play in the upcoming Champions Trophy. De Villiers has temporarily stopped playing Test cricket so he can focus on ODIs. Nearing the end of his career, the South African is looking to win an elusive ICC international trophy with South Africa. Fans can look forward a direct line to one of South Africa&#8217;s favourite sportsmen, bringing the fan and hero closer together.

CRICKET-SRI-RSA

AB de Villiers Uses App To Connect With Fans

It was not narcissism that saw Papa Kwesi Nduom name his company after himself. It was that desire to put his reputation on the line when it came to business; that strong belief, born of a brass neck and a steel backbone, to be accountable for his work.
Today, Groupe Nduom sits atop of a business made up of tourism, investment advisory and management, financial services, technology, media, management consulting, cross border trade and sports.
It is a modus operandi born in Nduom 47 years ago, when the first opportunity knocked.
“There are certain stages in life that you get to know things. I had the privilege of getting a scholarship and spending one year in the United States in 1970. Prior to that, I wanted to be a medical doctor. I went to the United States and was introduced to other things. Through that I got to know that you could also be in business. In just that one year I took so many different classes outside medicine which broadened my view in life and all sorts of opportunities became possible,” he says.
His uncanny ability to spot opportunities led to the formation of a business empire, based in Ghana, with 60 companies in its portfolio. When we meet at the Coconut Grove Hotel, on a warm Saturday afternoon in Accra, Nduom has a spring in his step, a broad smile and an energetic “good afternoon” for everyone as he ushers us into his inner office in the sprawling resort.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Forbes Africa TV Ep12: Papa Kwesi Nduom reveals how he lost $2 million in one day" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LE2a7A0mT9I?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<h5 id="eow-description">The final episode of the first season of My Worst Day with Peace Hyde features Ghanaian serial entrepreneur Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom &#8211; who shares his memories of the day he lost $2 million worth of business that threatened to end his consultancy business.</h5>
At 64, Nduom’s attention to detail is slightly intimidating; his demeanor is composed and authoritative. His gaze is attentive as he reminds us politely he is flying out later that evening to the United States to complete the acquisition of a new bank. Nduom’s intuitive timing has served him well over the years. That skill was born of the transition from medicine to business. 
“I ended up at the University of Wisconsin and that is where I did the Bachelor of Economics and PhD in service delivery systems. It is there that I actually went off course. I wanted to be a medical doctor and I took all the admission tests and everything and got to a point where I needed a lot of money to continue if I wanted to get into a high-quality medical school. But I found out that I could take some different courses and take a degree in economics and get to work quickly, so I took that path so I could finish and get to work and make some money.”
“I had to fend for myself. Some of the things I do to make a living today, like finding opportunities, comes from the fact that I had to do those things myself and scrape along to survive. I had to pay my own fees, pay for my rent and go to school at the same time,” says Nduom.
In those lean days, he packed canned beans in a factory; toiled for two weeks on a construction site, in the cold winter; and spent long hours as a parking lot attendant.
“I would do the third shift at work which was at midnight and when you come back there would just be enough time to take a shower and go to school. If they said a semester was 15 credits, I wanted to take 20 because I calculated how many credits I needed to take to get out of school early because it was money I had to pay.”
The search for new opportunities to make money taught Nduom two key business principles: the first was how to negotiate.
“One job I really liked was working second shift at a meat factory. It paid well per hour and you learned how to cut meat, and you were also able to take some of the off cuts home. So you had food. So the people I shared my apartment with at that time were two Somalis who loved meat, so I used the meat to trade for other necessities which I couldn’t afford myself.”
Second lesson: the power of perseverance.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-28153 aligncenter" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-AFRICA-Papa-Kwesi-1099.jpg" alt="" width="1023" height="682" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-AFRICA-Papa-Kwesi-1099.jpg 1023w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-AFRICA-Papa-Kwesi-1099-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-AFRICA-Papa-Kwesi-1099-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-AFRICA-Papa-Kwesi-1099-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-AFRICA-Papa-Kwesi-1099-1024x683.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 1023px) 100vw, 1023px" />
“Right after university, my first job was with Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance in Milwaukee. I went there and applied with my Ghanaian name and the lady looked at the name Papa Kwesi Nduom and started asking all sorts of other questions. I got to a point where I couldn’t answer all the questions so I failed the interview.”
“I went back to the university and I carried a different identification because my passport had two names in it. So I went and changed my clothes and came back as Joseph Hubster Yorke Junior, which was my other name. The lady didn’t notice that it was the same person. So now, with my new name, she asked me completely different questions, which I answered and she gave me the job and I became a life insurance underwriter,” says Nduom.
Then, Nduom worked at the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wisconsin, a health insurance company, and then the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewage District, a county government institution. Here a rare life-changing experience, in an unlikely place, unfolded through a chance meeting.
“You never know where and when opportunity will make itself available so you should always be ready. I was on the fourth floor of my work building but on the seventh floor was a nice men’s room, which was big and had marble floors, which was really nice. So I would go and use the men’s room on that floor instead of going to the one on the fourth floor,” says Nduom.
“One day I was washing my hands and a guy comes also washing his hands and we strike a conversation. He asked if I would be interested in a job opportunity. He happened to be a recruiter who worked in the building and was looking for people that Touche Ross might be interested in. So we spoke and he set up the interview for me with the partner at Touche Ross and that is how I got the job. It was just an accidental meeting in the men’s room.”
Touche Ross later became Deloitte Touche, one of the ‘Big Four’ accounting firms with revenues of $36.8 billion, according to research company, Gartner. Nduom worked his way up to become a partner in the firm where he would learn his most important business skill, the art of selling.
“Every year they had a book that had all the partners in the US and in that book every partner’s production was there. In it were also the points that you earn as a bonus, so you see the entire top performing partners. So you knew where you were and what your business was supposed to do. So it is important for you to deliver. So you learn how to sell, you learn how to provide service and you learn how to satisfy the need of your customer.”
Nduom became a partner at Deloitte in 1986; with that the pressure to deliver increased. Ronald Reagan was president, Wall Street was booming and business was opening up around the world. Deloitte was in the thick of it.
“When you become a partner in the firm, you are a shareholder in the firm and basically you work for your own account. What you earn is strictly based on the business you bring in. The minimum amount you had to bring in terms of consulting fees was $1 million a year.”
Nduom moved to Washington when the firm merged the Milwaukee and Chicago offices. That put him in contact with the international division at Deloitte; another opportunity Nduom quickly took advantage of.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-28154 aligncenter" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-AFRICA-Papa-Kwesi-1159-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="683" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-AFRICA-Papa-Kwesi-1159-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-AFRICA-Papa-Kwesi-1159-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-AFRICA-Papa-Kwesi-1159-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-AFRICA-Papa-Kwesi-1159-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-AFRICA-Papa-Kwesi-1159.jpg 1023w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />
“One day, over Thanksgiving dinner I told my wife that I wanted to go to Ghana to see what it was like to work there because I had never worked in Ghana before. So I bought a ticket, came to Ghana and I wanted to spend about a month or so to look around,” he says.
It was this conviction to understand the Ghanaian market that lent Nduom his next big entrepreneurial break. Initially, he sought to offer his services for free to get a feel for the consulting market in Ghana. At the time, Deloitte had representation, with Haskins &amp; Sells, in Accra as well as an association with Akintola Williams in Nigeria. Nduom looked for another opportunity and his instinct paid off, yet again.
“One of the partners said Ashanti Goldfields was their client and it was time to go do an audit, so maybe I should go with them to do an information systems audit. I traveled with them to Obuasi and spent a week, did the analysis of their systems, wrote a report and spoke to the man in charge of the whole area. He said he liked what I was suggesting which was something they might like to do but I should go talk to the managing director of Ashanti Goldfields, which was Sam Jonah, but then he was based at Diamond House in Accra.”
This principle of perseverance, which Nduom had learned a lifetime ago, when he secured his first job as a life insurance underwriter, was to serve him well – just as well, as a frustrating time was ahead.
“So I tried to talk to Sam Jonah several times in Accra and it didn’t work. I went back to Obuasi and somehow somebody there accused me of messing up with their computer systems so they ordered me off the mine. So I left the mine but sat by the supervisor’s door all day and convinced them to let me in because I wanted to talk to him about what can be done to improve their systems. He let me in and I left with an agreement to come back and organize their information systems,” says Nduom.
The contract was for a complete systems overhaul of the gold mine, involving the change of computers, accounting systems as well as payroll. Nduom enlisted the help of Deloitte to deliver the projects. After this, Nduom delivered more projects, including overseeing the merger of Touche Ross and Deloitte Haskins &amp; Sells, forming Deloitte &amp; Touche.
“When they merged they didn’t have a management consulting section and that is what gave me the opportunity to set up Deloitte and Touche Consulting West Africa and brought some other people from the US and hired them to join the team,” says Nduom.
The team had nearly 100 people in Liberia, Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Zimbabwe. Ever the opportunist, Nduom spotted yet another gap in the market.
“While we were here, we realized that nobody was doing consulting work. So I took my own money because the firm said you are a partner in the US and not a partner in Ghana or Africa. They had no interest in setting up a branch of Deloitte USA in Ghana. Deloitte is set up as member firms. So they said we will give you two years after which you will get Africa out of your system and come back to the US.”
The two years taught him resilience. The new West African consulting business was inundated with work. Nduom secured major contracts with Texaco and Elf Oil in Nigeria, the African Development Bank and Malawi Oil. He was also responsible for setting up the computer software for Zimbabwe’s social security system.
“Eventually I became the coordinator for consulting for the African region for Deloitte and the time came for me to go back and I said there was enough work to do here so we set it up as a member firm of Deloitte. So when senior partners will get together every year to have their annual meeting, I would go as the senior partner for the West African consulting practise,” says Nduom.
Nduom became the chairman for the African region for Deloitte and held that position until the end of 2000. His says his success is down to focusing on long-term objectives, while staying flexible enough to solve day-to-day problems.
“We would look for a place to relax or do some work, we couldn’t find anything and so we set up Coconut Grove. We were looking for people to do some software work for us and we couldn’t find anyone, so we took a bus to Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and recruited some students, gave them computers, gave them software to tear apart and build again and then we started a software company. Out of that we set up a software company called TSS, then a hardware company called IBS, and out of that came corporate finance which became Gold Coast,” says Nduom.
The slogan of Groupe Nduom grew beyond expectation and owns a string of companies, from hospitality to entertainment. It has hotels, a football club and an artist management business. In media, it has newspapers, television, radio and advertising; it also owns primary and secondary schools and a university.
Nduom’s intuitive timing helped elbow out competition across his empire; a shrewd strategy that led to his worst day in business.
“I try to forget the date. It was 1995. It is the day I traveled from Ghana to Wharton to speak to graduate business school students about investments in Africa. I was one of the keynote speakers so I traveled from Ghana to Washington and my brother met me with faxes from Ghana, which said number one, I was on the Ghana Airways board at the time and I have been sacked from the board. I had consulting business with Ghana Telecom and it had been canceled. I was doing some consulting business with State Enterprise Commission and it said I was under investigation and in one day I lost over $2 million worth of consulting business,” says Nduom.
He believes this was an attempt by the government of the day to block his businesses for reasons he never found out. The event prompted a passion to be a part of the political system to prevent this injustice from happening to anyone else.
“I didn’t want anybody in Ghana to go through that experience where a government will just get up and, for whatever reason, decide that somebody should not be in business and that they should cancel their contract and just try to move him off the earth. There was a plan to do away with my businesses and everything I was doing in Ghana. They said they would smoke me out and get me to go back to where I came from. This was elevated to an extent that it became a row between the government of Ghana and the US,” says Nduom.
Nduom turned lemons into lemonade and expanded across Africa, leaving trading in Ghana until the impasse was resolved. It was, and 40 years on the business is riding high on its acquisition of Illinois Service Federal (ISF) Bank in Chicago, US. Nduom is older, wiser, with a clear eye for new horizons.
“Working here is like working in our own republic. We are governed by our own rules. You have to send a daily report, monthly report, quarterly report, a mid-year report and a yearly report. The idea is if something was to happen to you, anybody is supposed to look at your business and pick up where you left,” says Richmond Keelson, General Manager of Groupe Nduom Corporate Affairs.
What a journey – from packing canned beans in the United States to owning a bank there – a first for Ghana. The next couple of years will be spent trying to help the bank – the newest entrant into the group – find its feet in the business of its faraway owners.
Nduom is driven by the passion to have a business set up, thrive and succeed beyond Ghana.
That is the legacy Nduom is building; one opportunity at a time.

From Canned Beans To The African Dream Of Owning A Slice Of The States

Just in case you haven’t noticed – the personality of the top-end sports car has changed drastically in a few short years. Size does count… and the smaller the better.
Well that’s what the manufacturers tell us as virtually every new model emerges with decreased engine size but, miraculously, better top speed, acceleration, fuel consumption and emission figures.
And the clue is in those last two words. Environmental regulations have shepherded us into a sterile new world where normal aspiration is no longer the norm and turbocharging is de rigueur.
If you are suffering from displacement envy, you could still go for a Ferrari F12 TDF 6.3-liter V12 or even a Dodge Viper 8.4-liter V10. But, I fear, they are a dying breed.
And how can you logically argue in favor of cubic centimeters when one of the fastest production cars on the planet is the Tesla Model S P100D – an all-electric family four-door sedan!
The new Porsche 718 Cayman, and it’s virtually identical topless twin, the 718 Boxter, follow the genes of the new generation and are now turbo fours rather than flat sixes and are trimmed down to a mere two liters.
In a weird way it echoes the ethos of the man who founded the company back in 1931.
“In the beginning, I looked around and could not find the car I&#8217;d been dreaming of: a small, lightweight sports car that uses energy efficiently. So I decided to build it myself,” said the late Ferdinand Porsche.
But don’t confuse economy with performance – the new 718 will whisk you to 100km/h in under five seconds and the S (with a 2.5-liter engine) shaves off another half second.
Turbo lag is fast becoming a part of ancient history and, thanks to a crafty fellow called Dynamic Boost, the new models are practically as spontaneous as their predecessors.
The Helshoogte Pass in the Western Cape linking the winelands of Stellenbosch and Franschhoek provided a fine test of the retuned chassis for dynamic cornering and the more direct steering.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-4639" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/bodrumsurf-Shutterstock-Inc-540731077-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />
What you may miss are the gutsy aural tones of old and the subliminal thrust of the bigger engine. But get over it; you are helping to save the planet in a vehicle that is technically superior in every way.
So now that performance across the spectrum is merging closer and you can no longer brag about your brutish motor, we can get to the real selling point – looks.
And that can be dangerous ground. How do you compare a Ferrari 488 with a Lamborghini Huracán, a McLaren 570S with a BMW i8?
The difference I see with Porsche design is that they retain a more understated, almost sculptured design throughout the range. And that includes the more “modestly” priced 718 Cayman.
Porsche assert that the 718 embodies the shapes and proportions of legendary mid-engined racing cars like the 550 Coupé , the 718 GTR Coupé and the 904 Carrera GTS, which is all rather romantic.
Yet the new Cayman certainly catches the eye with a front end that is wider and more muscular in appearance, the narrow front indicator lights winking above the enlarged air intakes, and completed by the newly designed bi-xenon headlights with integrated LED daytime running lights.
And the derrière, which really seemed to be unfinished before, gets a major makeover through an accent strip in shiny black with the Porsche badge emblazoned on it and very fancy see-through tail lights.
The interior is everything you would expect from Porsche with all the controls (apart from the hard-to-find hazard button) at your fingertips amidst a tasteful, if safe, blend of leather and metal.
Although the familiar environment has been upgraded with new elements, the instrument cluster could have been blessed with a stronger dose of new age technology. Like the Audi TTS Coupé which has emerged with what is claimed to be the technological benchmark and is certainly impressive.
The virtual instrument cluster is in the form of a high resolution LCD screen that switches between a classic view with round instruments, to a futuristic full-screen view at a touch on the multifunction steering wheel.
It seems that some marques have remained conservative when it comes to forsaking the classic dials and embracing modern virtual displays.
Hopefully Porsche will lead the way in developing the future sports car with their Strategy 2025. The aim is to blend the history and values of the brand with innovative technologies. And they state clearly that digitalization, connectivity and, of course, electromobility will play a major role.
Let’s not forget that Porsche is one of the most profitable car manufacturers per unit in the world and makes more money for Volkswagen than the VW brand itself. Although VW sell about 25 times more cars!
In 2015, Porsche deliveries were up 19% up on the previous year with revenue rising by 25% to $3.6 billion. And in a tough year for global automakers, Porsche managed to keep the Zuffenhausen flag flying high in 2016.
Driven by Ferry Porsche’s dream of the perfect sports car, the company follows a plan called the Porsche Principle – basically to get the most out of everything.
“From day one, we have strived to translate performance into speed – and success – in the most intelligent way possible. It’s no longer all about horsepower, but more ideas per horsepower. This principle originates on the racetrack and is embodied in every single one of our cars.”
So reads the website blurb. And it is the way you feel behind the wheel of every Porsche.

Defending The Cayman

It is April 16th, 1964; the day before the launch of the Ford Mustang.
For three years, motoring mastermind Lee Iacocca had nurtured plans for his “baby” – a sleek and exciting sports car that would sell for less than $2,500.
Ford runs commercials on the three major television networks at 9.30 that night.
The next morning there is a buying frenzy at showrooms around America. Ford sell 22,000 Mustangs that day and 418,812 models that year. Wilson Pickett’s Mustang Sally adding to the equine fever.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-4875" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Rob-Wilson-Shutterstock.com--300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />
It is one of the casebook success stories of motoring history. Forget the fact that it was based on the compact Falcon, the Mustang was to become the American standard. Once again, the production plant in Dearborn, Michigan was pushed to the limit.
On the famous date of the Soweto Uprising, June 16th, but way back in 1903, the company was founded by Henry Ford after a sequence of financial flip-flops in the evolving motoring world.
Even in those early days, the ability to optimize production under the stress of burgeoning order books became a part of the Ford work ethic.
Starting with the Model A, the designers energetically worked through the alphabet and the engineers and mechanics sweated blood to piece together 10,000 Model T Fords in 1909.
The basics of an assembly line were slowly developed and by 1920 Ford were turning out a million cars a year! From then on, assembly lines ruled. The 200 carmakers in the United States (US) were trimmed down to just 40 over the next two decades.
More than a half century after the first pony car stunned the US, the Mustang has arrived in full livery on South African soil – the first country to get the right-hand drive version.
Apart from a clichéd ride down Sunset Boulevard in a hired topless Stang more than a decade ago, I can’t claim to have the stallion’s blood running through my veins.
We were on a trip to interview the modest New Age guru Deepak Chopra in La Hoya and there was a certain irony in showboating in Los Angeles. It was hard to be humble when driving the new Mustang 2.3 Ecoboost convertible around Sandton streets – especially the Race Red version with black cloth roof. Although, it does snap closed in a few seconds if you are feeling the heat of glaring motorists – possibly tinged with envy.
The Mustang has often been referred to as a muscle car, but the sixth generation would definitely be earmarked for a steroids test. Angry headlights, angry grille to host the iconic emblem, and a fastback rear that screams catch me if you can.
That galloping horse, uniquely running right to left, will not only light up your life – it will light up your feet as well. A bright image of the pony shines on to the tarmac as you open the door.
You will be greeted by a stylish black and silver interior with a clinical instrument layout and a battery of controls on the steering wheel. The class and design, dare I say it, more German than American. The clumsy handbrake nestling by the passenger seat, however, is surely the relic of a bygone era.
The speedometer in the entry model reflects an optimistic ‘ground speed’ of 260 kilometers per hour (kph), and to get yourself in the right mode you can choose normal, sport, race or snow/wet. Pothole dodging would be useful addition in South Africa.
What you can’t fault the new Mustang on is being conservative with is detailed feedback. It will tell you about every facet of that churning turbocharged engine, from inlet air temperature to the air/fuel ratio. Maybe I’m not a dyed-in-the-oil petrolhead but I can’t imagine myself checking out the cylinder head temperature on the way to work.
But you are probably not all that interested in the cockpit and coachwork, or the user-friendly MyFord touchscreen, and want to know what is under that long, sleek bonnet.
Well, let’s face it, most long sleek bonnets are a lie these days. With the revolution of small turbos replacing the naturally aspirated gas guzzlers with magically enhanced power and performance, you could no doubt fit most engines into the nose of an old VW Beetle.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-4874" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Radu-Bercan-Shutterstock.com--300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />
I had a nervous feeling of anticipation before flooring the right-hand pedal of the six-gear auto. In terms of stats and performance, it does not disappoint. With faultless response you are thrust back into your body-hugging seat in less than the six-second mark.
It is silky smooth and doesn’t drown out the infectious cacophony that is playing on the radio.
The fact is the 2.3 Ecoboost is a beautiful, stylish vehicle that is not really going to boost your pulse rate or adrenalin levels. Even the terms Ecoboost and Mustang don’t really belong in the same sentence – or the same world.
Or do they?
Although we might always envisage fire-breathing V8s in the lineage of the Mustang, and the pony wars with the Chevrolet Camaro, a teensy engine is nothing new for the marque.
The Mustang II, influenced by designer Ghia in the early seventies, came out with a 2.3-liter in-line four-cylinder engine because of the fuel crisis. Not exactly an Italian Stallion! The third generation in the eighties was almost killed due to diminished sales despite (or because of) the offer of the Ford Pinto pint-sized “power” plant.
Then it was back to the brawn and punch of the big guns – the 2005 fifth generation going back to the Stang shape and spirit with a four-liter basic right up to the awesome GT500 housing a monster 5.4-liter supercharged V8.
Right now, if you still have a vestige of the boy racer in you, you can opt for more ponies under the bonnet with the 5.0-liter V8 which will whisk you to 100kph in less than five seconds.
Naturally you get more of a punch in the kidneys and aural excitement than with the Ecoboost. But not, according to many scribes, matching the trembling thrills of some AMG, M and RS badges.
So, you are looking at a healthy degree of refinement since Henry cobbled together his first auto in his Detroit garage 120 years ago. It’s all part of the dream of making the Mustang a world muscle car not just for red-blooded Americans – described by one hack as putting Bruce Springsteen on stage in a bespoke suit. It’s also available in colors from deep impact blue to triple yellow.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-4876" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/shutterstock_392074144-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" />
By the way, that famous quote that customers can have the T in any color as long as it’s black didn’t apply to the early Fords. It was only after the elementary assembly lines came into operation and they found that ‘Japan black’ was the only paint that dried quickly enough.
While your Mustang may emanate from Flat Rock in Michigan, you are supporting a company that has massive financial interests in South Africa with plants in Port Elizabeth and Pretoria.
Now the Gauteng operation has been boosted with a $170-million investment for local production of the Everest SUV and expansion of the all new Ranger program. Creating 1,200 much needed jobs in the process.
It might surprise you that in the incestuous modern motoring world, Ford has owned four other luxury brands – Volvo, Land Rover, Jaguar and Aston Martin.
But now the largest family-controlled business in the world is much more focused – if you’ll excuse the expression. They are really built for the road ahead. Have you driven a Ford lately?

A Muscle Car On Steroids

Poor access to food and malnutrition remain widespread and deep-seated in Africa’s second largest economy. The South African National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey shows 25% of South Africans – 13 million people – are hungry. Another 28% of the population is at risk of being hungry. Put simply: more than half of the Rainbow Nation’s population has to worry about where their next meal comes from.
The hallways at Alpine Primary School in Mitchell’s Plain, a township 35 kilometers from Cape Town, are filled with shrieks and bursts of laughter as the boys and girls make their way to the exit. Sixty to eighty youngsters will remain behind for another two to three hours, to participate in the aftercare program organized by Run4Schools. Founded 10 years ago by Dutch athlete Leslie Pangemanan, the organization provides a safe space for children at four primary schools in Mitchell’s Plain. Gang violence is common here, and children often get caught in the crossfire.
“Criminals are constantly trying to recruit kids as drug dealers and new gang members,” says general manager Frank Steyn, a past beneficiary of Run4Schools.
Run4Schools wants to prevent this by offering better alternatives: sports and food.
“We give the kids a sandwich, some juice, and a piece of fruit,” Steyn explains. “&#8230;For many of them, this is the last thing they will eat until they return to school the next day. The other schools we work with have feeding schemes. Many children rely on those school meals. We want to give them something extra. Some will go for a second helping, to give to a sibling at home. Hunger is a fact of life in Mitchell’s Plain, because of poverty.”
The most recent Child Gauge, released in 2014 by the University of Cape Town’s Children’s Institute, estimates that 2.5 million South African children (aged 0 – 17) live in households where hunger is part of day to day life. Child hunger is most problematic in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces, where respectively 20% and 16% of children are living in households where there is not enough food.
Chronic hunger can have severe and potentially fatal implications. One of them is stunting, where a child is too short for their age.
“Over 25 percent of South African children under the age of three are stunted. This is a direct result of undernourishment in terms of energy and micronutrient intake,” says David Sanders, founding director of the School of Public Health at the University of the Western Cape.
Stunting is not just a matter of height. According to the United Nations Fund for Children (UNICEF), it is associated with an under-developed brain, which can have long-lasting harmful consequences. These include a diminished mental ability and learning capacity, poor school performance in childhood, and increased risks of nutrition related chronic diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, and obesity.
Vitamin A and iron deficiencies are some of the most common nutritional shortcomings in South Africa.
“Data suggests that 44% of children under five years old are vitamin A deficient. This compromises their immune systems, and makes them extra susceptible to potentially fatal infections,” says Sanders.
The most alarming statistic, says Sanders, is that 64% of deaths of children under the age of five in South Africa can be attributed to malnutrition.
The situation is not a result of inadequate food production.
“South Africa can feed itself with what it produces… The main problems here are inadequate distribution, affordability, and access to good food. A large section of South Africa’s poor has to survive on cheap, unhealthy diets which largely consist of refined starches, refined carbohydrates, a lot of sugar, very little good protein, very little dairy, and very few micronutrients. Some of the poor can’t even afford that,” says Sanders.
The promotion of unhealthy foods, such as fast food and sugary beverages, is not helping. Sanders is concerned about the aggressive marketing of soft drinks.
“Township businesses are often offered a Coca-Cola sign with their shop’s name on it. When you visit any given township in South Africa, you will see those red and white signs everywhere,” he says. “The data we have shows us that South Africans consume three times the global average intake of Coca-Cola. It is often cheaper than milk.”
A stone’s throw from Cape Town International Airport and stuck in between highways, runways, a cemetery, and Coca-Cola signs in surrounding townships, lies Freedom Farm. Like most informal settlements in South Africa, this place – home to 600 families – is anything but what the name suggests.
Clean water, adequate sanitation, and social services such as healthcare and waste management are nothing but a pipe dream. In the meantime, hunger and malnutrition are ripping though this community like a knife through table cloth.
Every first Sunday of the month, a temporary faint light appears at the end of the tunnel. That is when Stephanie Benjamin and her soup kitchen team, known as Ladles of Love, pull in.
“We feed between 300 and 500 people that day. Children eat first,” she says. “I would like to do more but I am largely financing this out of my own pocket. Luckily, a local supermarket is helping me out. They give me food that is edible, but can’t be sold. Bread that has been pressed too hard, for instance, which would have been thrown away.”
Throwing away edible food seems surreal in a country where half the population doesn’t have the security of regular meals. It is however a harsh reality.
“We rescue 400,000 tons of food per year worth R100 million ($7.1 million) from partner retailers and wholesalers,” says Andy Du Plessis, Managing Director of Foodbank SA.
“This food, after it’s been checked and made sure it is fit for human consumption, is distributed among 450 community organizations across South Africa. They in turn pass it on to 110,000 beneficiaries. The food we rescue, translates into 12.7 million meals per year.”
These staggering figures are the tip of South Africa’s food waste iceberg.
“It is estimated that we landfill R60 billion ($4.2 billion) worth of food every year,” says Du Plessis.
Based on this figure and the Foodbank SA’s stats, one can conclude that South Africa throws away 7.62 billion meals per year, or 20.82 million meals per day. This is enough to provide each of the 13 million hungry South Africans a meal and a half per day for an entire year.
“These are alarming statistics, but what makes it even more alarming is that this situation can be avoided, as a large portion of this food is dumped before it even reaches the stores,” Du Plessis says, pointing fingers at supply chain issues such as overproduction, incorrect labelling, and damaged packaging.
Another way to alleviate South Africa’s levels of food insecurity is to change the country’s food security and agriculture policies; for instance, enabling South Africans to grow their own food and assisting small farmers, says Sanders.
According to the UN, only 2% of South African households are involved in agriculture for their personal use. In Malawi and Zambia, this is respectively 90% and 60%.
“Generally speaking, South Africans purchase most of the food they consume. In many other African countries, however, people tend to survive on what they produce on the land,” Sanders says. “I would say that many of those counties, at least those I know, have more programmes in place to support small farmers. In South Africa, there is very little of that. Here, small farmers are completely neglected. An added problem is that government has done inadequately in terms of land reform.”
As the food wastes away, so do the frames of the country’s hungry.

Hunger Yet $4.2 Billion In The Bin

The gun cracked. The runner shot forward. Her breathing was normal. She soon found her rhythm as they hit the first bend. The group at the front was bunched. The woman in green and gold held steady. As they neared the 400-meter mark, she could feel the Kenyan, Janeth Jepkosgei, breathing down her neck. As the bell went for the last lap, she increased the pace but the Kenyan went with her. That’s when it happened. Two hundred meters to go; it was like a second gun exploded. Eighteen-year-old Caster Semenya surged forward with her long, powerful strides as she tore away from the field to win her first world 800-meter title in a remarkable time of 1:55.45—a glorious victory.
It was the 800-meter women’s final at the 2009 IAAF World Championships in Berlin, and Semenya had just become the first South African to win the event.
The world was at her feet. Then the gender controversy began. Suddenly, Semenya was known for her deep voice and muscular build, not normally associated with a teenage girl, rather than her running. She was subjected to a long and public gender verification saga by world athletics. People argued over her case; petty politicians used her as a political football. Semenya was withdrawn from competition until July 2010, before she was cleared to run again—a long and painful exclusion. Many would have given up—she could have, but she refused.
<div id="attachment_806" style="width: 484px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-806" class="size-large wp-image-806" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/124075220_10-685x1024.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="709" />FRANCE &#8211; AUGUST 26: The 9th Athletics world championships in St Denis In Paris, France On August 26, 2003 &#8211; Maria Mutola (Moz) wins gold medal in the 800 meters. (Photo by Pool BASSIGNAC/DUCLOS/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)</div>
Semenya came back to defend her title in 2011 in Daegu, South Korea, and was beaten narrowly in the final straight as she came in with a time of 1:56.35—a commendable performance, considering the events leading up to the race. Now Semenya plans to go one step further—she wants gold at the Olympic Games in London.
The odds, for the first time, are stacked in her favor. Since her win in Berlin almost three years ago, she has been in contact with former Olympic Gold medallist in the 800-meters at the 2000 games, Mozambican Maria Mutola.
No stranger to gender controversy herself, although all was proved unwarranted, the 39-year-old Mutola recently replaced Semenya’s coach, Michael Seme, at the end of last year. Legend has it that Mutola was caught masquerading as a man when she played in a football cup final back home in Maputo. Amid the furore, a coach spotted her running talent and the rest, as they say, is history.
Mutola dominated the two-lap race during the 1990s and into the next century. During this time, she became a seven-time world indoor gold medallist and she also added three world 800 meters gold medals to her tally.
Mutola and Semenya make a powerful team gunning for gold in July. Mutola trains the now 21-year-old prodigy in Pretoria, north of Johannesburg.
“Me and Caster have been talking since she won the World Championships in Berlin, so we’ve been in contact ever since,” she pauses with a glint of pride in her eye.
“Any time she needed advice, she would call me and then we would talk a little bit. It’s been a long-term relationship. I’ve known Caster since then, it just fell into place, so it wasn’t anything strange when she approached me and asked if I would train her.”
Since then, the duo have been specific in their targets, and Semenya recently ran her second Olympic qualifying time at a Yellow Pages Meeting in Pretoria on April 21, guaranteeing her place at the Olympics showpiece.
She ran 1:59.58 and in so doing, at high-altitude, became the first South African woman to run under two minutes on home soil in 21 years.
Now Mutola has her sights firmly set on the top honor: the Olympic gold.
“[I think] very good advice is to be in shape, to stay healthy and go to London in shape, to be able to win it.
“[Judging from] all the Olympics I have been through, it is going to take under two minutes to be able to win it. You have to produce 1:55/1:56 to be able to win the race because everyone is training for the same event—to be an Olympic champion.”
Now Semenya heads overseas to begin her final preparations by competing in Europe.
“The most important thing is to have confidence in oneself going to these European track meets. You have to be able to win over there, run good times and go to the Olympics with a lot of confidence. That is a very important thing for athletes.”
Semenya was expected to qualify sooner for the showpiece, but now that she has run the time, everything is back on track, according to Mutola as she alluded again to the gold medal.
“In terms of her preparations, I have to say it is going very well at the moment, I was a bit concerned at the beginning but I see that we are improving, we are doing the right thing. Everything is going well at the moment.
“The most important thing is for her to stay in shape and believe in herself. When she gets to the Olympic Games, anybody who qualifies for the finals has a chance of winning gold.”
Mutola believes Semenya could be the best ever. She says the world record set in 1983 by Czech runner Jarmila Kratochvílová looks set to tumble if Semenya stays on course. “I always thought she would be the one to break the world record because when she was 18, she was running 1:55’s and I think when she is about 25, and more mature, she would probably break the world record.
“If you are 18 and run a 1:55, that means that if you are 20-something, you would be able to run between 1:52 and 1:53 and that indication I see in Caster. I hope and I know she can be the one to break that world record that has been standing for a very long time.”
One thing is for sure: with the troubles of her past behind her, the Mutola-Semenya southern African team will be the hot favorite come the end of July. The history books await.

Tag: Sports

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA