Monday, January 9, 2017

By Robert Rogers


There is a wind of entrepreneurship sweeping through Africa and the entire world. The youths want to become business owners and job creators other than be employed. While this is the desire for most people, the common excuse you get is lack of capital. Have you ever thought what the most successful African entrepreneurs started with and where they got their money? Here are some of the most inspiring stories on entrepreneurship.

Fomba Trawally fled Liberia to become a refugee in Gambia when the civil war broke in 1989. When he returned in 1991 he started trading in rubber slippers with a capital of only 200 dollars. In about fifteen years, his business had three stores in Monrovia and had diversified to cosmetics imported from allover the world. He transitioned into manufacturing and now owns a paper and toiletry company raking a million dollar and more in a year.

Bethlehem Alemu grew up in the poor Ethiopian neighborhood of Zenabwork. These poor environs inspired her dream of establishing SoleRebels, a footwear company selling shoes allover Africa and the world. With a capital of 10,000 dollars that she borrowed from friends and relatives, she started recycling materials into shoes and is now raking in excess of one million dollars per year.

IrokoTV would not be a sensational name were it not for its Nigerian CEO and Co-founder Jason Njoku. The station specializes on Nollywood Movies. The impressive growth witnessed has attracted capital from global investors. His contribution was a noble idea. His partner and other investors are putting in 90,000 pounds to transform it into biggest online movie streaming company in Africa.

A lot of entrepreneurs will relate to bootstrapping. Adii Pienaar is a South African entrepreneur who best exemplifies this idea. He worked overtime as a consultant and student to start WooThemes by the age of 23. Without an office, workers or capital, he set up a tech company that sold for 30 million dollars to an American online tech giant. The company was started while he was still in the university.

For most people, the age of 19 is spent in reckless partying or in the library pursuing some mundane university degree. For Patrick, this is the year he made his first trip to China armed with a loan of 1,800 dollars partly from his mother and partly from a friend. The Tanzanian grew the business and now runs one of the biggest solar companies in Eastern Africa. His turnover is over fifteen million dollars in a year.

What comes to mind when you see an empty water bottle or disposed plastic container? Lorna Rutto from Kenya saw a remedy for the fast depleting forests in the name of providing wooden poles. With SEED funding, he has built a million dollar company that is in full scale manufacturing, employing thousands and conserving the environment.

The stories of successful entrepreneurship in Africa are endless. What of the celebrity pig farmer of South Africa called Anna Phosa? Have you read the rise and continued rise of Aliko Dangote who borrowed 500,000 Naira from his grandfather? There is another bootstrapping Ghanaian entrepreneur called Fred Deegbe. They all demonstrate that success requires more than huge capital. It is sheer passion and hard work.




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