AfricaX Podcast
AfricaX
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Here you can listen to interviews with changemakers in Africa and tales from a road trip through 20 African countries from Morocco to South Africa on an electric motorbike
Available episodes
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Jan 19, 2023
Cofundie: Crowdfunding affordable homes built with alternative materials
In this episode meet Chukwuemeka Ndukwe, co-founder of Cofundie, a real estate platform operating in Ghana and Nigeria. When we interviewed Emeka back in 2019 they were just about to fund their first project and deliver their proof of concept for crowdfunding real estate projects implemented with alternative materials such as rammed earth.
In the interview Emeka shares:
* Why traditional real estate investors in West Africa aren't meeting the housing need and why he moved back in with his parents after college
* How he combined becoming an entrepreneur and formal skill acquisition and how that has helped his company
* And why before launching Cofundie he interviewed and talked with about a thousand people about what they wanted to do
We also talked about what his advice for young Nigerians is and why helping others to generate more income was a key takeaway he had learned that helped him to build Cofundie.
Of course, since our interview Cofundie has come a long way and expanded its services from crowdfunding property deals to managing units across marketplaces such as Airbnb, Booking.com and Expedia as well as property management services.
There is a lot of gold in this interview from the beginning times of Cofundie and I hope you enjoy this interview as much as we did.
And now, without further ado, enter Emeka.
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Dec 13, 2022
Eat.Drink.Lagos: From Food Blog, to Festival to Event Tech Company with Nosa and Folayemi
In this episode, meet Nosa Oyegun and Folayemi Agusto, the Co- Founders of EatDrinkLagos, a food website that allows residents and visitors in Lagos to find places to eat and drink, and find information about Nigerian food, including restaurant reviews and articles.
Eat Drink Lagos also organizes food festivals in Lagos and Abuja that promote culinary talents such as mixologists, bartenders, professional and hobby chefs and they created an event ticketing system called tix.africa that is specifically tailored for small businesses after they noticed how cumbersome it was to sell tickets for their events.
In the interview Nosa and Folly share:
* How they transitioned from 9 to 5 into running their own business
* How the business has evolved from a simple media website, to an event business and then an event tech company
* And what challenges they faced on their journey.
They also talk about the strategies that they used to finance their venture and what their advice for young Nigerians is.
There is a lot of gold in this interview and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
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Oct 1, 2022
WeMove Technologies: Building Technology for Transportation in Nigeria with Chima Ezeokoye
In this episode, meet Chima Ezeokoye, co-founder at WeMove Technologies, a Tech Startup Building Solutions for Mobility and Transportation in Nigeria, including the possibility to hire agricultural equipment, cars, busses, trucks etc.
In the interview Chima shares...
* What his personal learning journey was from his first beginnings in business to becoming co-founder of the startup.
* How the idea for WeMove Technologies was piloted by his co-founder after a friend requested transport from him to move family to another state for a wedding
* What challenges the business faced and overcame
And what his advice to young Nigerians is.
He also shares why he describes himself as the guy that goes around, shakes peoples hands and smiles and how pricing happens on the WeMove platform.
There is a lot of gold in this interview and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did. And now without further ado, enter Chima Ezeokoye.
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Sep 26, 2022
IndiLang: Creating an indiginous content platform for children with Zamaswazi Mfusi
In this episode meet Zamaswazi Mfusi the founder of IndiLang, a platform for delivering indigenous content tailored to African children.
In the interview we did with Zamaswazi Mfusi, she shares:
* what inspired her to create content for children on the African continent
* what challenges she faced in launching her project
* and what her advice to young South Africans is
She also shares how she tapped into her network for support and enlisted the help of the talent within her community to get momentum. We hope you enjoy this interview and now, without further ado, enter Zamaswazi Mfusi.
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Sep 20, 2022
Bjorn Wiedow - Teaching Youth Coding, Design & Digital Fabrication with ROBOT School Namibia
In this episode, meet Bjorn Wiedow, the co-founder of ROBOT School Namibia. So at the ROBOT school Namibia the from about eight year olds are being taught the the curriculum from university in software, coding, design, robotics and digital fabrication.
In the interview Bjorn shares:
- How the Robotschool business model works and how they came up with the idea
- How they launched the business
- And why he would prioritize practical experience of a university degree
He also shares how they marketed the idea differently to parents and teachers vs. the kids and what his advice for young Namibians is.
There is a lot of good stuff in this interview and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did. And now, without further ado, enter Bjorn Wiedow.
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Jul 13, 2022
Sizwe Cele: Building things and solving problems around transportation and internet access in South Africa with Khomba and Socly
In this episode, meet Sizwe Cele, the co-founder of Khomba, a startup tackling the optimization of transportation with mini busses in South Africa. More than anything Sizwe seems to love to build products and solutions for all sorts of problems he comes across.
In his early twenties, he built a product to lend out heavy machinery that sits idle. He built an app for schools. And a host of other things. Even though he was excited about these products, getting someone to pay for them or use them often proved a challenge. So for some time he dedicated himself to building a digital agency before going back to building tech solutions.
In the interview Sizwe shares:
* Why in his mid twenties, he downgraded, moved back in with his parents and refused to do anything except things he was passionate about
* How him and his co-founder started working on Khomba and developed a deep understanding of the complexities of the mini bus transportation market in South Africa
* How to attract amazing talent to your startup or project
...and what his advice for young South Africans is. He also shares about how he gets to work and connect with anyone he wants to work with and how he manages his time, working on several projects in parallel.
We hope you enjoy this interview as much as we did. And now, without further ado, enter Sizwe Cele.
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Jul 4, 2022
UPCYCLING IN SENEGAL: How Selly Wane transforms trash into furniture with SWANE-Design
In this episode, meet Selly Wane, the founder of SWANE-Design, an upcycling business transforming trash into furniture and creating an ecological and social impact in the process.
As a child Selly had always been fascinated by people who were transforming trash into something useful. And being interested in sustainability but also design, it comes as no surprise that her interests eventually led her to start a business that would combine these two passions.
In the interview Selly shares:
* How she kicked off her upcycling business in a time when the term wasn't even known to people.
* How she overcame her fear of failure and dealt with the pressure after she had taken out a loan to ship her first container full of upcycled products
* How she worked with distributors to clear her stock and why she eventually set up her own cafe and show room
and what her advise for young people in Senegal is.
She also shares why in crucial moments she didn't take 'no' for an answer and the reasoning behind yet another venture of hers: An incubator for civil society initiatives.
Today Selly spends a lot of time between Germany and Senegal building bridges and connecting creators, entrepreneurs and artists.
There is so much gold in this interview and I hope you enjoy hearing from Selly as much as I did.
And now, without further ado, enter Selly Wane.
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Jun 18, 2022
Kaveto Tjatjara: Bringing Ecological Sanitation to Namibia with Worldview Technology
In this episode, meet Kaveto Tjatjara, the Founder of Worldview Technology.
With 54% of Namibians living without access to adequate sanitation, Worldview Technology is on a mission to provide sanitation for all, especially for the urban poor population by use of ecological, sustainable sanitation solutions.
In the interview Kaveto shares;
1. His experience with lack of sanitation while visiting across Namibia and how the lack of toilets kept him from enjoying a feast when visiting his ancestral home
2. The strategy he used to validate that indeed there was a sanitation problem and that he had a solution that could work
3. And how he transitioned from an accounting and economist career to a social entrepreneur
Kaveto also talks about how he financed his business, business challenges he faced and how even as a child, his entrepreneurial savvy helped him get through school.
There is a lot of gold in this interview. And while it was recorded back in 2019, the learnings are as relevant as ever.
We hope you enjoy this interview as much as we did and now, without further ado, enter Kaveto.
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May 9, 2022
Changing Urban Mobility in Namibia with founder of LEFA Transportation Services, Melkisedek Melkies Ausiku
In this episode, meet Melkisedek Melkies Ausiku, founder of LEFA Transportation Services, an urban mobility startup connecting passengers on the one hand with drivers on the other, to make moving around Windhoek and Namibia more convenient and safe.
In the interview Melkies shares about his first experience using Uber in South Africa and how the idea of bringing a similar service to Namibia stuck with him. However, it was not until he lost his job as an electrical engineer that he really made the leap and turned the idea for LEFA into reality.
In the interview Melkies shares:
* How a partnership with Namibian Breweries provided the perfect launch pad for LEFA and gave the fledging business initial traction
* How he got drivers to not only join but also stay active on the app, even while initially there were only few passengers
* And how he managed to set up LEFA without reinventing the Wheel
He also shares how cultural conditioning can be a challenge when launching a business and what his advice to young people in Namibia is.
There is a lot of gold in this interview and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
And now, without further ado, enter Melkisedek Melkies Ausiku.
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*YOU LIKED THIS PODCAST? *
*_Here is how you can learn more and support...: _*
👉🏾 Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/africaxproject/
👉🏾 Check out our Blog: https://www.africax.org/blog to listen to all of the episodes as a podcast and watch the videos
👉🏾 Donate and help us empower the next generation of young entrepreneurs and changemakers in Africa through https://www.yesfoundersfoundation.org with as little as 10 USD
👉🏾 Or last but not least GET THE AFRICAX BOOK HERE... and follow the epic adventure of Dulcie Mativo and Thomas Jakel as they travel the African continent overland with an electric motorbike, to interview over 100 inspiring changemakers in 20 countries, from Morocco and Mauritania to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and many more... Get access to the the charge map for the electric motorbike, the interviews with 100 changemakers, entrepreneurs and social innovators and our 10 'secrets' to travelling the African continent electric.
*_Here some of the 5 Star reviews of the book: _*
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "Now this adventure and story telling is something else!!! I’m now in Ghana. Completely grateful for Abo as well. Liberia was the epic best disaster." - a reader
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "Such an amazing read. Probably the first book I’ve read in a year - since 2020 I’ve mostly been doing audio books ; but this is so worth it. It’s made me crave a good read again, thank you." - a reader
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "A wild and captivating read that combines both a unique adventure as well as inspiring accounts about Africa's young leaders and social entrepreneurs. If you are into travel and inspiration, this book is for you. Thumbs up."
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "I started reading into this book without high expectations but then got really pulled into the story. So much so, that I found it hard to put the book down. It is a wild mix of pure adventure, fun storytelling that has you on the floor laughing, the inspirational vibe with all the interviews with African entrepreneurs and then the zen attitude this couple gives off, even when they are stuck in the mud between borders or lose their support vehicle. Great read. Can only recommend."
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Apr 25, 2022
How Sebastian Patel is driving financial inclusion in South Africa with the Franc Investment App
In this interview, meet Sebastian Patel, co-founder of Franc, an investment app in South Africa with the aim of promoting financial inclusion by removing minimum investment amounts and taking the complexity out of putting your money to work for you.
In the interview we speak about:
* How the business was born and how they financed the launch
* What makes Franc different and why financial inclusion is so important
* And what the teams biggest challenge was starting up
Seb also shares about his transition from working at an investment company to entrepreneur and what his advice for young South African entrepreneurs is.
We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did. And now, without further ado, enter Seb Patel.
_______________________
*YOU LIKED THIS PODCAST? *
*_Here is how you can learn more and support...: _*
👉🏾 Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/africaxproject/
👉🏾 Check out our Blog: https://www.africax.org/blog to listen to all of the episodes as a podcast and watch the videos
👉🏾 Donate and help us empower the next generation of young entrepreneurs and changemakers in Africa through https://www.yesfoundersfoundation.org with as little as 10 USD
👉🏾 Or last but not least GET THE AFRICAX BOOK HERE... and follow the epic adventure of Dulcie Mativo and Thomas Jakel as they travel the African continent overland with an electric motorbike, to interview over 100 inspiring changemakers in 20 countries, from Morocco and Mauritania to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and many more... Get access to the the charge map for the electric motorbike, the interviews with 100 changemakers, entrepreneurs and social innovators and our 10 'secrets' to travelling the African continent electric.
*_Here some of the 5 Star reviews of the book: _*
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "Now this adventure and story telling is something else!!! I’m now in Ghana. Completely grateful for Abo as well. Liberia was the epic best disaster." - a reader
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "Such an amazing read. Probably the first book I’ve read in a year - since 2020 I’ve mostly been doing audio books ; but this is so worth it. It’s made me crave a good read again, thank you." - a reader
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "A wild and captivating read that combines both a unique adventure as well as inspiring accounts about Africa's young leaders and social entrepreneurs. If you are into travel and inspiration, this book is for you. Thumbs up."
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "I started reading into this book without high expectations but then got really pulled into the story. So much so, that I found it hard to put the book down. It is a wild mix of pure adventure, fun storytelling that has you on the floor laughing, the inspirational vibe with all the interviews with African entrepreneurs and then the zen attitude this couple gives off, even when they are stuck in the mud between borders or lose their support vehicle. Great read. Can only recommend."
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Mar 6, 2022
How Ervina Nina Clinton is empowering young people with Liberian Threads
Meet Ervina Nina Clinton , founder of Liberian Threads Incorporated, a manufacturing company using local fabric to create products for the local market.
Ervina is using the business to also activate young people, to help them discover and develop their talents and see that they can do something, that they can contribute and that they don’t have to be idle or dependent on others.
Ervina herself got inspired by a young girl that sold groundnut candy. She saw this young girl selling the candy over many years on her way to school. And she saw that the girl somehow managed to do well with something as simple as selling those groundnuts. It inspired her and gave her courage to start her own business.
In the interview Ervina shares
* how she started her business from scratch with the savings from two salaries
* how she got her first customers
* which challenges she is facing in business and ...
* what her vision is to empower even more young people.
We hope you enjoy this inter…
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Dec 18, 2021
My Virtual Planning: Online Sexual Education in the DRC with Ulrich Kouesso and Flore Yemdjie
Meet Ulrich Kouesso and Flore Yemdjie, the co-founders of My Virtual Planning, a social enterprise helping youth to prevent unwanted pregnancy and infections by doing online sexual education, giving individualised advice and sharing safe practices.
In the interview they share:
* How they came up with the idea and why they chose an online format for sexual education
* How they launched their platform through Facebook Messenger before building their own app
* How they are monetising the platform
* And how they work together with doctors and clinical psychologists
They also share why they provide legal support through their platform and what their advice for young people in the DRC is.
Flore is also sharing some of her insights in French, so this one is a must for all you bi-lingual folks out there.
There are a lot of valuable insights in this episode, addressing a really important topic. So we hope you enjoy this interview as much as we did.
And now, without further ado, en…
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Dec 7, 2021
Nurturing Female Technology Entrepreneurs, Leaders and Creators with W.TEC founder Oreoluwa Somolu
Meet Oreoluwa Somolu Lesi the founder of Women's Technology Empowerment Center or short W.TEC a nonprofit organization based in Lagos, that aims at raising the next generation of female technology entrepreneurs, leaders and developers through technology camps, school clubs and mentoring.
In the interview Oreoluwa shares
* How she came up with the idea
* How she learned to run the non-profit like a business to increase their impact and scale
* How she has handled wearing many different hats both in the non-profit as well as in her other business and with her family
* And what her advice to young women in Nigeria is
She also shares what she did whenever she thought she had plateaued in her venture and how she build out different revenue streams for W.TEC aside from grants.
There is a lot of gold in this interview and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
And now, without further ado, enter Oreoluwa.
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*YOU LIKE THE AFRICAX PROJECT? *
*_Here is how…
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Nov 12, 2021
YouFarm: Providing funding solutions for small scale and commercial farmers with John-Paul Matenga
Meet John-Paul Matenga, the founder of YouFarm. YouFarm was started with the idea of a platform that provides farmers with access to collateral free finance by getting people to invest in crops and livestock through YouFarm. And then when the produce goes to market the farmers, the investors and YouFarm share in the profits.
In the interview JP shares
* How he came up with the idea after his mother acquired a farm in Zimbabwe and then asked him to make the land productive
* How he got YouFarm up and running
* And why he believes that self-awareness is the most important thing as an entrepreneur
JP also shares how he went about launching the platform, what he found out regarding the challenges of farmers during his research and what his advice for young Zimbabweans is.
There is a lot of good stuff in this interview and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
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*YOU LIKE THE AFRICAX PROJECT? *
*_Here is how you can learn more and support...: _*
👉…
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Nov 12, 2021
YouFarm: Providing funding solutions for small scale and commercial farmers with John-Paul Matenga
Meet John-Paul Matenga, the founder of YouFarm. So YouFarm was started with the idea of a platform that provides farmers with access to collateral free finance by getting people to invest in crops and livestock through YouFarm. And then when the produce goes to market the farmers, the investors and YouFarm share in the profits.
In the interview JP shares
👉🏾How he came up with the idea after his mother acquired a farm in Zimbabwe and then asked him to make the land productive
👉🏾 How he got YouFarm up and running
👉🏾And why he believes that self-awareness is the most important thing as an entrepreneur
JP also shares how he went about launching the platform, what he found out regarding the challenges of farmers during his research and what his advice for young Zimbabweans is.
There is a lot of good stuff in this interview and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
_______________________
*YOU LIKE THE AFRICAX PROJECT? *
*_Here is how you can learn more and suppo…
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Oct 27, 2021
Donate-ng: How Aheeb Afeez helps connect charities and projects with donors
Meet Aheeb Afeez, co-founder of crowdfunding website donate-ng, a portal that connects charities and projects needing funds to people wanting to donate.
Afeez got into the project because a childhood friend contacted him and asked him to vet and manage the first fundraiser that was to go live on the site, which was for a little girl battling cancer. He did all the ground work, supported the parents and the girl and, in the end, they were able to raise a large chunk of the funds needed for her treatment. From this first campaign that kicked off their journey, donate-ng has come a long way as they report over 1900 projects realised to date.
In the interview Afeez shares
* How the vetting process of donate-ng works and how to aim to eliminate fraud and ensure funds are used correctly
* Why crowdfunding is deeply embedded in the Nigerian culture
* And how donate-ng is building trust in a low-trust environment
He also shares what keeps him going and what his advice for young Niger…
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Oct 20, 2021
Jini: How Hammi Boukhari and Lamana Elkanti launched a Ride Hailing App in Ad-Dakhla
Meet Hammi Boukhari , the founder of Jini Ride Hailing App and Lamana Elkanti, his business partner. Hammi saw the need for a local ride sharing service for Ad-Dakhla, when he witnessed his mom having challenges to catch an early morning flight from the airport as neither taxis nor busses were driving that early.
And so he set out to research solutions and thinking about how he could create something that would work in the local context. In the interview Hammi and Lamana share:
* How they piloted the first version of Jini
* How they got the word about the app out and the app into the hands of both taxi drivers as well as riders
* And how they want to differentiate themselves from services such as Uber
They also share about their professional backgrounds and what their view on the opportunities arising from digital tools for young Moroccans is.
We hope you enjoy this interview. And now, without further ado, enter Hammi and Lamana.
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*YOU LIKE THE AFRICA…
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Oct 1, 2021
DreamGirls Academy: Connecting Girls in South Africa to Economic Opportunities with Ezlyn Barends
Meet Ezlyn Olivia Barends, the co-founder of DreamGirls Academy an organisation in South Africa, dedicated to shifting girls and young women from a space where they are economically dependent to connecting them to economic opportunity, through mentoring and education.
In the interview Ezelyn speaks about:
* How a quarter life crisis led her to explore how she wanted to be of service and ultimately culminated in the idea for DreamGirls Academy
* How she and her team came up with ways to open up revenue streams beyond grants to support their programs
* Why they decided to go deep vs. wide with their program and how this decision is reflected in the results they get for the girls
* And how they have designed a social franchise model to help scale they idea to other regions.
Ezlyn also shares her thoughts on what to do when you want to find your purpose and what her advice for young South African girls is.
There is a lot of gold in this interview and we hope you enjoy it as muc…
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Sep 22, 2021
Kepya: How Marcio Castro and Arão Guerreiro help Angolan Farmers with Reliable Offtake and Logistics
Meet Marcio Castro and Arão Guerreiro co-founders of Kepya , an online market place that connects farmer directly with offtakers and freight companies and helps them to get higher prices for their produce and farm with increased predictability.
In the interview Marcio and Arão share
* How they came up with the idea for the venture
* How they tested the model for Kepya and matched their first farmer with an off taker
* What challenges they faced on their journey and how they overcame them
* And what their advice for young Angolans is
They also share a lot of insights around the challenges farmers face and how the solved the challenge of getting smallholder famers to use technology and actually work through the Keypa online platform.
There is a lot of good stuff in this interview and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
And now, without further ado, enter Marcio and Arão.
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*YOU LIKE THE AFRICAX PROJECT? *
*_Here is how you can learn more and s…
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Sep 17, 2021
How her Daughter Inspired Zodidi Gaseb to start Holistic Skin and Hair Care Company African Naturals
Meet Zodidi Gaseb, the founder of African Naturals a Namibian company producing skin and hair care products, made from plant based, organic ingredients.
In the interview Zodidi shares:
* How her daughter led her to start the company when Zodidi realised that to teach self-acceptance she had to live it for herself
* She shares how she launched the business from her kitchen and what her approach to product development is
* And she shares how she got into hosting events and building a platform for other entrepreneurs in the space
We also talk about her remote and in person hair consultations and what her advice for young Namibians is.
There is a lot of good stuff in this interview and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
And now, without further ado, enter Zodidi Gaseb.
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*YOU LIKE THE AFRICAX PROJECT? *
*_Here is how you can learn more and support...: _*
👉🏾 Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/africaxproject/
👉🏾 Check out…
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Sep 13, 2021
Snapslip: Digitizing Receipts to Save Paper and Provide Consumer Insights with Lynton Naicker
Meet Lynton Naicker, the co-founder of Snapslip a digital receipting and analytics platform that allows for endusers to receive digital receipts on their purchases and for stores to save money on receipt printing while also giving them detailed consumer insights and analytics.
In the interview Lynton shares:
* How him and his co-founder managed to pilot the business in one store
* Why they picked a challenge for their pilot and did not go for the low hanging fruits
* And how he managed to slowly transition out of his job as an employee to become an entrepreneur
He also shares about how they got their first paying customer, what the value of using snapslip analytics are for the stores and what his advice for young South Africans is.
There are a lot of insights in this interview and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
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*YOU LIKE THE AFRICAX PROJECT? *
*_Here is how you can learn more and support...: _*
👉🏾 Follow us on Instagram: https://www.…
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Sep 7, 2021
BezoMoney: Digitizing Traditional Savings Groups & Driving Financial Inclusion with Mubarak Sumaila
Meet Mubarak Sumaila, co-founder of BezoMoney, a business in Ghana that is Digitizing Traditional Savings Groups, helping group members to build a favourable credit history and getting access to formal financial products and services.
They also run a financial literacy platform that provides practical information on how to grow and manage your finances.
In the interview Mubarak shares
* How he came across the idea for the business when he started paying attention to his mom's savings group and developing an interest for how it worked and what their challenges were
* How design thinking helped him and his team in the process of launching the business
* And how both traditional banks as well as Microfinance left room for innovation and improvement of financial services.
He also shares a lot about how the traditional savings groups function as well as the benefit to people and what his advice for young Africans is.
There are a lot interesting insights in this interview and we h…
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Sep 4, 2021
The Nut Place: Bringing Healthy Affordable Special Diet Food Options to Nigeria with Chigozie Bashua
Meet Chigozie Bashua, the founder of The Nut Place, a nut processing company in Nigeria that processes edible nuts into gluten free products for middle and low income earners and helps people that are on a special diet to have access to healthy and affordable food options.
In the interview Chigozie shares about:
* How she came across the idea while grocery shopping during a vacation abroad
* How she launched the business from a corner in her mom’s kitchen
* And how by developing processes and SOP’s for her staff she manages to continue her 9 to 5 job as an engineer in tech while at the same time growing her business
She also talks about the benefit of pursuing a purposeful idea, how she got a practical education in how to process nuts by visiting processing plants in the UK and what her advice for young Nigerians is.
There is a lot of gold in this interview and we hope you’ll enjoy the conversation as much as we did. And now, without further ado, enter Chigozie Bashua.…
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Aug 28, 2021
How Macoumba Diagne Cleans up Senegal & Transforms Waste into Wealth with Proplast Industrie
Meet Macoumba Diagne the co-founder and CEO of Proplast Industrie, a company that helps collect and recycle plastic to then help create new products from this recycled plastic for the local market.
In the interview Macoumba shares:
* How he transformed himself from a manager in the corporate world to a social entrepreneur and the head of a waste management company
* How he entered the field of waste management after he had the idea to help transform an NGO into a sustainable enterprise
* And how Proplast Industrie is trying to close the loop and build a circular economy model by not only recycling collected plastic but by also offering the products made from the recycled material at its collection points
He also talks about the challenges him and his team faced in building up Proplast and what his advice for young people in Senegal is.
There is a lot of good stuff in this interview and we hope you enjoy learning from Macoumba as much as we did.
And now, without further ado,…
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Aug 23, 2021
LiFi-Led: Bringing Light and Internet to rural regions in Côte d’Ivoire with Cédric Doffou
Meet Cédric Doffou the co-founder of LiFi-Led an Ivorian company bringing light and internet to rural areas in Côte d’Ivoire. In the interview Cédric shares
* How their products and solutions tackle two challenges of the rural areas at the same time
* How an experience of his co-founder and mentor Ange Frederick Balma led them to start work on LiFi-Led
* And how partnering with telco operators allowed them quicker access to market
He also shares what his advice for young Ivorians is and how having a strong WHY helps them push through challenges.
There is a lot of good stuff in this interview and we hope you enjoy the conversation with Cédric as much as we did.
And now, without further ado, enter Cédric Doffou.
_______________________
*YOU LIKE THE AFRICAX PROJECT? *
*_Here is how you can learn more and support...: _*
👉🏾 Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/africaxproject/
👉🏾 Check out our Blog: https://www.africax.org/blog to listen to all…
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Aug 17, 2021
Saving Water and De-Risking Agriculture Using Soilless Farming with Mevis Aiyeju
Meet Mevis Aiyeju, the co-founder of M.E. Solutions, a company modifying and experimenting with technology to solve problems in the Nigerian Agricultural Sector, with their farming solutions ranging from a reengineered soilless farming technology adequate for the often low power supply in the Nigerian context, to low energy consuming irrigation systems, to the development of an off taker network for the produce from their soilless farming systems.
*In the interview Mevis shares about: *
👉🏾 How she took a leap of faith, quitting her job working for multinationals, without a backup plan and without any savings
👉🏾 How she and her co-founder designed their business model in a way that allowed them to start-up and pilot their solutions almost without any capital
👉🏾 The different types of soilless farming and the immense potential of this technology to safe water and de-risk the business of farming
👉🏾 And what her plans are to create jobs, empower smallholder far…
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Jul 26, 2021
How Heinrich Hafeni connects Tourists with Local Communities in Townships
Meet Heinrich Hafeni, the founder of Hafeni Tourism Namibia a business focusing on Cultural township tourism
Or as Heinrich puts it taking tourists to townships and introducing them to the real Namibia.
Heinrich grew up in a township himself and then worked his way up from dish washer to waiter to cook and finally overland tour guide in 14 African countries before he set out to start his own enterprise.
In the interview he shares:
* How his mom and grandmother inspired him to become someone that contributes to the community
* Which difficulties he ran into in the beginning when he organised the first township tours and how he overcame them
* And how he uses tourism as a platform to uplift local businesses and create jobs and income opportunities in townships
He also shares how his passion for developing his community drove him to create a local restaurant and a hotel to enhance the cultural township tourism experience.
As Heinrich says “when you go to a township, you want…
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Jul 19, 2021
How Chérif Tall started The Hub Dakar and House of Jouvence
Meet Chérif Tall, the founder of production company House of Jouvence and The Hub Dakar an Art & Culture Club, Café, Lounge and Gallery in the heart of Senegal's capital.
In the interview Chérif shares about
👉🏾 How his journey led him from a childhood dream to build a school for the arts to founding The Hub Dakar
👉🏾 How his mentors influenced him to become a changemaker
👉🏾 Why at some point he saw more potential for his development and making an impact in Senegal than in the US
👉🏾 And, from his own experience, how Mental health and business are inseparable and what his own challenges taught him
He also talks about what young people should look out for or avoid when adopting role models and what his advice for young people in Senegal is.
There is a lot of gold and food for thought in this very candid conversation and we hope you enjoy the interview as much as we did.
And now, without further ado, enter Chérif Tall.
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*YOU LIKE…
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Jun 24, 2021
Creating Wood for Floors and Walls from Palm Waste with Mohammed Harakate from Alternative Solutions
Meet Mohammed Harakate, the co-founder of Alternative Solutions, a startup in Morocco that transforms palm fronds, a renewable source and byproduct of the date cultivation, into wood.
In the interview Mohammed shares:
* How reverse engineering helped them to build their own machine to convert palm fronds into wood blocks
* How in depth research helped him and his team to turn a problem into a solution and create wins for local communities, palm tree owners and off takers
* And why he didn’t pay much attention to the opinion of his friends when they thought it was a bad idea to become a social entrepreneur
He also shares why he reduced his hours working in his startup and took a job at a foundation driving social change and what his advice for young Moroccan entrepreneurs is.
There is a lot of gold in this interview with Mohammed Harakate and we hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did.
And now, without further ado enter Mohammed...
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*YOU L…
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Jun 18, 2021
How Onyeka Akumah started the Crowdfarming Platform Farmcrowdy & Impact Funding Platform Crowdyvest
In this episode meet Onyeka Akumah, a serial-entrepreneur and the co-founder of Farmcrowdy and Crowdyvest.
Farmcrowdy is a digital agriculture platform in Nigeria that connects small-scale farmers with investors for the purpose of boosting food production, while Crowdyvest became a platform where members get access to impact-driven investment opportunities.
In the interview that we did with Onyeka back in 2019 he shares about:
* How he came up with the idea for Farmcrowdy
* Why raising funds is a continuous process in their business
* How him and his co-founders piloted their business
* And what his advice for young Nigerians is
There is a lot of gold in this interview and we hope you learn as much as we did.
And now, without further ado, enter Onyeka.
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Jun 4, 2021
How Ebou Lawrence Mendy Started Software Company Kameko & Ride Hailing App Ryde Africa in The Gambia
Meet Ebou Lawrence Mendy founder of the software company Kameko Gambia, a company that builds customs solutions for small and medium enterprises.
However, besides doing client work, Ebou and his team are also spinning of their own solutions as for example the ride hailing app Ryde Africa and a lightweight accounting solution for Gambian businesses.
In the interview Ebou speaks about
* 👉🏾How his mothers was able to put him through university thanks to her business activities despite having no formal education and how she inspired him to become an entrepreneur
* 👉🏾 How a robbery propelled him to launch Ryde Africa
* 👉🏾 And How setting himself a deadline by when to start his business made him take the leap, even though he had a comfy and well paying job
He also speaks about the role a mentor has played in his life and what his advice for young Gambians is.
There is a lot of gold in this interview and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did. And now, without fur…
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May 29, 2021
How Mikaïla Issa engages and impacts rural communities through ICT tools with WÀTU Digital Lab
In this episode, meet Mikaïla Issa
, the co-founder of WÀTU Digital Lab
based out of Dakar, Senegal.
WÀTU Digital Lab is a digital communication agency that connects, engages and impacts rural communities through ICT tools to empower the youth and women in the agriculture sector.
WÀTU Digital Lab also helps its clients to strengthen their network of partners, develop digital tools for knowledge sharing and management and manage the online communication and promote the results of projects in the space of agriculture and sustainable development.
Originally from Benin, Mikaïla first came to Senegal because his girlfriend was living there and soon discovered his passion for entrepreneurship there and decided to stay and start his own company.
In the interview he talks about
* 👉🏾 How he and his team started with a leap of faith and the little resources they had
* 👉🏾 How his family responded to his plans of starting a business and what made him act on his drea…
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May 25, 2021
How Muinat Atunnise created a purpose driven design and manufacturing company with Atunnise Clothiers
Meet Muinat Atunnise, the founder and creative director of Atunnise Clothiers, both a design and clothing brand as well as a production hub for designers that specializes on manufacturing ready to wear garment for women and children all the while empowering people through training and development and designing a work environment that gives people another chance of building something for themselves.
In the interview Muinat shares
* 👉🏾How she initially got into sewing to make clothes that actually fit her and how her passion for that helped her to sponsor herself through university
* 👉🏾 How she ran out of money in the first month of starting her business and how a mentor shared a crucial story with her that helped her push on
* 👉🏾And how she transitioned her business from a design company that created one off pieces for clients to a manufacturing company producing in large quantities for designers
She also shares about what her advice for young Nigerians wantin…
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May 17, 2021
Making visions and aspirations reality: How Kebba-Omar Jagne built MOVAAR in The Gambia
Meet Kebba-Omar Jagne the founder of Movaar, a social enterprise in The Gambia that runs and builds programs and platforms for skills formation and specialisation for those that want to hone in on particular skills. And they also have an incubator program for businesses and income generating activities.
In the interview that we did with Omar back in 2019, Omar shares:
* How he was able to bring the movers and shakers of The Gambia together to support his programs
* Why the education systems built around “cram and exam” style learning are failing young people to stand on their own and discover what they are capable of
* How his idea for Movaar went through several iterations until it became what it is today
* And how we can overcome the challenges of today and tomorrow
He also shares what to do when the power goes off in the middle of a critical presentation and how a team of young people put The Gambia on the map in a robotics competition.
There is a lot of good stuff i…
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May 13, 2021
How Tolu Williams Pioneers the Acceleration of Electric Mobility Technology in Africa with Savenhart Technology
In this episode, meet Tolu Williams, the founder of Savenhart Technology a company that is focussed on renewable energy technology and electric powered transportation, selling sell electric bikes and scooters and customising them to meet local road requirements.
When Tolu got into this industry it actually started out as a hobby. Initially he just bought an electric scooter for himself. When people started noticing and showing interest in it, he started to customise vehicles he’d import from China and sell them locally. And so he slowly traded up from one to two, then five, then ten e-bikes and scooters until he was able to fill containers.
In the interview Tolu shares about:
* How he went from practicing law and working in startup companies to starting his own enterprise
* Who his customers are and why they buy EV’s from him
* And how he creates his own line of EV’s by assembling parts from different manufacturers
We also speak about his vision for electric vehicles in…
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May 7, 2021
Green Gold Social Enterprise PART 2: On Sustainable Agriculture & making dreams reality with Femke Matorwmasen-Akkermans
In this episode meet Femke Matorwmasen-Akkermans, co-founder of Green Gold Social Enterprise, an agriculture company focused in growing moringa and using moringa as a cash crop to support rural communities. Recently they developed their systems into restorative agriculture to make their production sustainable for both humans and nature.
In the last interview we shared with you guys, you heard from Clement Matorwmasen, Femke’s partner in life and in business how he got into Moringa. In this second part we hear from Femke about
👉🏾 What brought her to Ghana
👉🏾how her career shifted from being a doctor towards becoming the co-founder of a sustainable agriculture business in Ghana and
👉🏾what her advice for anyone with a dream and big vision is…
… We also speak about how she, Clement and their children planned to relocate from city life to a rural setting in Ghana and so much more.
We hope you enjoy this interview as much as we did. And now, without further ado,…
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Apr 28, 2021
Green Gold Social Enterprise: How Clement Matorwmasen empowers rural communities with Moringa
In this episode meet Clement Matorwmasen, the co-founder of Green Gold Social Enterprise, an agriculture company focused in growing moringa and using moringa as a cash crop to support rural communities.
Clement started with moringa over 17 years ago because he saw the potential for this plant to change people's lives and he saw that because of the nutrients in the plant it could really help eradicate poverty and malnutrition in rural settings.
When he started out he actually went to communities and offered to put all the children with symptoms of malnutrition on a moringa diet, just to prove his point.
In the interview Clement shares
* How him and his business and life partner Femke which you’ll hear from in the next interview set up Green Gold Social Enterprise
* How he moved from growing up on the street to become the architect of a rural center for empowerment, which is called Dream Village
* What helped him build a strong and empowering belief system that is enabling hi…
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Mar 10, 2021
Hustlenomics: How Nhlanhla Ndlovu Provides Sustainable Housing in South African Townships
Meet Nhlanhla Ndlovu the founder of Hustlenomics, a for-profit impact driven social enterprise that's dedicated to replacing informal backyard shacks in the South African townships with formal durable houses for low-income households.
So Nhlanhla himself grew up in a township having to share a living space with 12 other siblings and relatives. When he built his own shack in his family’s backyard to escape the crowded living arrangement he got to experience himself the poor living conditions in such an informal backyard shack.
In the interview Nhlanhla shares
* How he managed to build a social enterprise while many of his childhood friends either went to prison or died
* How learning how to learn anything helped him become a computer expert as well as identify business and grant opportunities
* How competition in his market drove him to become ever more innovative with his enterprise and building techniques
* And how he and his team plan to convert informal backyard shacks…
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Mar 3, 2021
Wireless Technology Lab: How Joseph Pambu Brings Technology Access to Rural Communities in Liberia
INTERVIEW - In this episode meet Joseph S.K. Pambu Jr. the founder of Wireless Technology Lab, a social enterprise on a mission to bring computer awareness and literacy training to young people in rural Liberia.
So Joseph got introduced to computers early on in his life through his uncle and has developed his fascination for the devices into a deep understanding of technology and passion to pass on the opportunities computer literacy have provided him to other young Liberians.
In the interview Joseph shares:
* 👉🏾 How he overcame challenges from getting his laptops stolen to having to close down his business during Ebola
* 👉🏾 How he manages to make computer literacy training attractive and affordable to low income rural households
* 👉🏾 And how helping Nigerian UNMIL soldiers after the war put him on track for starting Wireless Technology Lab
He also shares how he developed partnerships to design an irresistible offer and what his advice for young Liberians i…
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Feb 18, 2021
How Albert Diouf Helps Senegal's Farmers Increase Their Income with Agri-Foodtech Startup AfrikaMart
In this episode, meet Albert Diouf, the founder of AfrikaMart, an Agri-Foodtech Startup in Senegal, that is working on efficient ways to aggregate and move local produce all the while ensuring a significantly higher payoff for the smallholder farmers, supplying fresh local quality products to supermarkets in urban areas and using an integrated supply chain system to keep the system in flow.
In the interview Albert shares how
* He started his entrepreneurial journey when studying in China
* How much of an impact the AfrikaMart model can have on farmers
* What some of their biggest challenges are
And what his advice for young people in Senegal is.
There is a lot of gold in this interview for budding entrepreneurs and change makers and we hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did.
And now, without further ado, enter Albert Diouf…
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Feb 11, 2021
MAX.NG: How Chinedu Azodoh helps Nigerians beat traffic with a safe and affordable delivery service
In this episode, meet Chinedu Azodoh, the co-founder of MAX.NG a Nigerian company that is aiming to make motorcycle taxis and transport safe, affordable and accessible.
They achieve this by training the drivers on their app, regulations and giving drivers a safety score by measuring how they drive in real time, which helps them to identify drivers who are not driving safely and, if need be, take them off the road.
At the time of this interview in September 2019, MAX.NG had a fleet rolling both in Lagos as well as in Akure with plans to roll out to further cities.
In the interview Chinedu shares about:
* How they grew into their current business model step by step
* What measures they take to increase road safety
* How MAX.NG helps in telling a different story about Africa
* And what moved him to come back to Nigeria after studying abroad
He also shares about MAX.NG’s plans for electrifying part of their fleet, how fleet financing works and what his advice for young Niger…
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Feb 5, 2021
How Fa Diallo trains women as early childhood professionals with Institut Académique des Bébés
Meet Fa Diallo, the founder of Institut Académique des Bébés a social enterprise that trains mostly unemployed young women as early childhood professionals and helps them find jobs as caretakers for baby’s.
Initially when coming back to Senegal from France, Fa had planned to start a business in Finance. However, when she had challenges finding someone with training and qualification to take care of her two newborn, she decided that she wanted to change that.
And this is how she started Institut Académique des Bébés.
In the interview Fa shares:
👉🏾How she finds the unemployed young women to train them to be early childhood professionals
👉🏾 How she finds them paid jobs after they have completed their training with her
👉🏾 How she manages to take them into her Academy, even when the young women don’t have funds to pay for the program themselves
👉🏾And what the reaction of her friends and family was when she made the leap, plus why I didn't keep her f…
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Feb 1, 2021
MACQUARIE MEDICAL CARE: How Armid Azadeh & Tosaline Auene decentralize healthcare with telemedicine
In this interview meed Armid Azadeh, the founder of MACQUARIE MEDICAL CARE and Tosaline Auene, Response Coordinator at MACQUARIE MEDICAL CARE, who speak about how they provide health for remote communities and lodges in Namibia through telemedicine and digital health innovation.
It all started when Dr. Armid, after his return to Namibia around 2010 and 11 started to visit remote parts of Namibia and noticed that a lot of employees at lodges or remote sites had no access to healthcare.
So initially they just started by providing a doctor on call. However, that service quickly developed into a full service model that helps to decentralize healthcare.
In the interview Armid and Tosaline share
* How they developed their telemedicine offer from a doctor on call to a full service model
* How they price access to their telemedicine offerings
* Which procedures and strategies enable them to treat a vast majority of calls they get remotely
* And what plans they have for growing thei…
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Jan 25, 2021
How Hakeem Jimo & Bola Adeyanju started Nigeria's First Plant-Based Food Tech Company Veggie Victory
Meet Hakeem Jimo, the co-founder of VeggieVictory, a Lagos based company that was the first to introduce vegan meat substitutes into the Nigerian market on a commercial scale.
Hakeem and his wife Bola Adeyanju started VeggieVictory as a vegan restaurant, after Hakeem, himself a vegan for many years, came back from a trip to Asia where he found many vegan restaurants through the app _HappyCow_. Back in Lagos, he didn’t find a single one. So he and Bola decided to change that.
Once the restaurant had taken off, they wanted to reach more people and decided that instead of starting more restaurants, they would bring out a product, a 100% plant based meat substitute on soy and wheat basis that is suitable for the Nigerian cuisine and unlike many more premium priced meat alternatives abroad, is actually cheaper than meat.
In the interview Hakeem shares about
* How he came up with the idea
* How they developed their Vchunks Plant-Based Meat
* And why he believes the Nigerian marke…
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Jan 20, 2021
How Karima Grant Creates Changemakers and Systemic Change in Education with Kër ImagiNation & ImagiNation Afrika
Meet Karima Grant, the co-founder of Kër ImagiNation Playschools & founder of ImagiNation Afrika.
Karima’s vision is a world where African children become changemakers to solve the problems of development.
With Kër ImagiNation she and her team design, test and implement innovative educational programs and environments that integrate play-based learning, hands-on approaches, problem solving, as well as local culture to help children develop their creative and critical thinking and become changemakers.
When we visited her in Dakar they had just run a program with the theme ‘mad scientist’ where the children got to explore robotics and a whole bunch of hands on STEAM activities around the theme. Kër ImagiNation also runs children’s exhibitions and programs for parents.
With ImagiNation Africa, the sort of bigger umbrella organization, Karima tackles the ecosystem aspects of changing education to achieve systems change and redefine how we see the potential of children and ho…
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Jan 16, 2021
How Yaya Kone encourages Ivorians to sort their plastic waste and recycle with Coliba
Meet Yaya Kone, the co-founder of Coliba, a startup specialized in collecting and recycling plastic waste in Côte d’Ivoire.
Yaya had worked as a teacher in France, when, during a visit at home in Abidjan, he noticed how much waste was going unrecycled and what the negative implications were.
So he and his co-founder Genesis decided to do something about it.
Together with their team, they set up a mobile platform which connects households and companies with formal collectors that pick up sorted plastic waste.
The collected plastics are then turned into flakes which are sold off to manufacturers that can use them to make new products.
In the interview Yaya speaks about:
* How he turned himself from teacher into social entrepreneur
* What challenges he and his team encountered setting up Coliba
* How they set up partnerships with the likes of MTN and Coca-Cola
* And what his advice for young Ivorians is
There is a lot of good stuff in this interview and we hope you enjoy…
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Jan 11, 2021
Chekkit: Protecting Consumers & Companies from Counterfeit Products with Tosin Adelowo & Dare Odumade
In this episode, we speak with two entrepreneurs, Tosin Adelowo & Dare Odumade, that have built a business that is dedicated to making sure that you and your loved ones are staying healthy in the new year.
Their business Chekkit is an anti-counterfeiting platform that helps consumers make sure that the goods they are consuming, be it medicine or beverages or cosmetics are authentic i.e. with USSD or QR codes and that helps companies make sure that their products are arriving at their intended destination without having been tempered with.
Now this is not a small issue.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of people die due to #counterfeited drugs and Africa is heavily affected.
Chekkit tackles this by a solution built on a blockchain for maximum security and transparency that allows both consumers and manufacturers to track the products end to end from factory to retail point using a variety of techniques to ensure that the products moved with Chekkit are tamperproof.
In the intervie…
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Dec 6, 2020
How Amine Slimani launched Epicerie Verte, Morocco's Premiere Marketplace for Organic and Natural Products
Meet Amine Slimani, the founder of Epicerie Verte, a marketplace specialized in organic and natural products, both food and cosmetics.
Before starting Epicerie Verte Amine was a management consultant. He did a big project for a major foundation in Morocco, a study on entrepreneurship in the country.
Through the study he met around 600 entrepreneurs mostly in agriculture and he noticed that there was a lot of potential in terms of organic and natural products but that many of the producers had difficulty accessing the market, while at the same time in cities such as Casablanca, Rabat and Marrakesh there is a growing demand for these types of products.
So that is when Amine decided to make a match between the offers of the producers and the demand in the cities through Epicerie Verte.
In the interview Amine shares:
* How he launched the business from scratch
* How they manage to grow fast by integrating different solutions and outsourcing to partners
* And how he managed to la…
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Nov 27, 2020
How Ropafadzo Musvaire & Bekithemba Ngulube help increase informal retailers' margins with Kweza
In this interview meet Ropafadzo Musvaire & Bekithemba Ngulube, two co-founders of the Kweza founding team.
So Kweza is sort of a last mile logistics solution that is working with informal retailers in South Africa. The team noticed that the informal retailers, called spaza shops in South Africa, often pay a premium for their products.
So the solution that they came up with is to source the best pricing from a wholesale level, aggregating the demand and buying power from the spaza shops while allowing the the spaza shop owners direct orders at a steep discount through the Kweza mobile app and delivering their orders directly to their stores.
In the interview Ropa and Beki speak about
* How they initially tested their idea in the offline world going out to wholesalers and spaza shops doing their research
* How they work as a panafrican team, how they got to know each other through the MEST incubator program
* And what drew them into entrepreneurship individually
We also speak…
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Nov 23, 2020
How Adama Kane creates access to Medicine through Health-focused Digital Payment Platform JokkoSanté
In this episode, meet Adama Kane, the founder of JokkoSanté, a social enterprise and health focussed digital payment platform, that allows people that don’t have money to buy medicine to get access to meds despite their limited financial resources. And it allows NGOs, government entities and private companies as well as individuals in the Diaspora, to buy points online which can then be exchanged for medicine in partner pharmacies.
Adama got the idea when he realised that there was a large amount of safe and unused meds stored in family cabinets that simply expired while others in need of the meds could use them. This realisation set him on the path to start JokkoSanté. According to WHO each year more than 150 million people face crippling high medical expenses relative to their income.
In the interview Adama shares:
* How he came up with the idea
* How a supportive and open minded culture at his former employer helped not only launch JokkoSanté but also other initiatives a…
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Nov 13, 2020
How Dieudonne Kwame Agudah gets families in Accra access to affordable bio digester toilets with WASHKing
Meet Dieudonne Kwame Agudah, the founder of WASHKing, a social enterprise working to supply bio-digester toilets to low-income urban households in Ghana with the aim of ending open defecation and at the same time focussing on giving employment to young people while equipping them with transferable skills.
In the interview Dieudonne speaks about:
* What a bio-digester toilet is and how it works
* How Dieudonne and his team manage to make toilets affordable through demand aggregation and linking customers to subsidy programs and financing options
* And how an entrepreneurship program that he enrolled in helped him make his idea real and actually get his first customer.
He also speaks openly on why his family did not welcome his decision to become an entrepreneur and why he is still happy he made the leap.
There is a lot of good stuff in this interview with Dieudonne and we hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did.
And now, without further ado,
Enter Dieudonne.
_____…
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Nov 9, 2020
How Danielle Benedict Moreau started Sakura, a business producing natural fruit juices in Gabon
Meet Danielle Benedict Moreau, the founder behind Sakura, a fresh natural juice company in Libreville Gabon.
Danielle started the company after she got inspired by her little niece. She observed her little niece being independent and quite active for her young age. At that phase in her life, Danielle did not find a job, despite a university education and trying her best. Taking an example from her niece, she decided that it was time to get independent and active.
Since fresh homemade juices were something that had helped her overcome an illness herself, she decided for that to be her product to go to market with. Today, she sells her drinks through gas stations, a number of restaurants and shops in Libreville, is employing staff and has been able to grow even during the Corona Virus situation.
In the interview she speaks about:
* How she launched her natural juice business with not much more than a cooling bag, fresh juices and determination
* How she managed to reinvest the money…
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Nov 2, 2020
How Alfred Mbinglo produces Biodegradable Sanitary Pads in rural Ghana with PRIDE Sanitary Pads
Meet Dr. Alfred Mbinglo, founder of the Research and Counselling Foundation for African Migrants, short RECFAM and the initiator of Pridepad, a social enterprise initiative producing organic biodegradable sanitary pads made from banana plantain fibre for rural schoolgirls and women who lack access to menstrual products in impoverished communities.
But it is not that Pridepad is just selling to the women in those communities.
Instead it is an inclusive approach where pride sanitary pads empowers women at every step in the process through job creation, leadership training, education and social entrepreneurship.
In the interview with Alfred we speak about:
* How he and his team came up with the idea
* How they came up with their unique innovation, improving upon something that already existed in the market
* And how he overcomes the challenge of talking openly about menstruation as a man in rural communities
We touch upon finding the right fit of investor for social enterprises…
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Oct 29, 2020
How Elohor Thomas matches vetted Software Engineers from Africa with Recruiters sourcing for Tech Roles through CodeLn
Meet Elohor Thomas, co-founder and CEO at CodeLn a panafrican tech startup that helps companies find their IDEAL pre-vetted software developers on the continent and at the same time helps software engineers find their dream jobs.
They do that by automatically efficiently and consistently testing the skills of the software engineers before making recommendations to the hiring companies. On the other hand, they send interesting job opportunities to the software engineers, that match their skills and interests. And if they get a go from the developers they suggest the candidate to the hiring company.
So essentially, CodeLn automates part of the tech recruitment process.
Elohor was working as a tech recruiter, as well as a developer before. At one time, she worked as a tech trainer for a government program, that was designed to teach young people how to code. The training was for 3 months and the promise was that at the end of the 3 months each of the attendees was going to get a job. E…
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Oct 21, 2020
How Cedric Singa brings GPS Tracking Solutions for Personal Security and Fleet Management to the DRC with Kintrack
Meet Cedric Singa, the founder of Kintrack, a business that creates solutions around GPS Tracking, like Fleet Management, Fuel Consumption Monitoring, Vehicle Tracking for businesses and as anti-theft measure but also tracking for school kids to provide parents and children more safety from an increasing threat of kidnapping, especially in the Eastern DRC.
In the interview Cedric shares
* How he came up with the idea for Kintrack
* How he financed the launch of his business
* And what brought him back to the DRC after working abroad for some time
We also speak about the vision Cedric has for Kintrack and how he uses his know-how to empower young people in Kinshasa through training on technology.
We hope you enjoy yet another inspiring interview with a true change maker from Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo. And now, without further ado, enter Cedric Singa.
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Oct 14, 2020
How Aime Lebon uses pencils from recycled materials as an advocacy tool with Papersmart Industries
In this episode, meet Aime Lebon, the co-founder of Papersmart Industries in Windhoek Namibia, a company manufacturing products from recycled paper, first and foremost, pens and pencils.
When Aime first had the idea to use recycled paper in pencils, he didn’t think about building an enterprise around it.
Instead, he just wanted to use the pencils from recycled newspaper as a communication tool, to tell a story and to remind everyone that he got to reach with his story that we can all do our part to save the environment.
That first idea has turned into a company, Papersmart Industries, that at the time of this interview produced up to 50.000 pencils from recycled newspapers each day, according to Aime.
In the interview we speak about
* How he came up with the idea
* How he taught himself to make the pencils and to build a fledging business
* And how he funded the startup initially
We also speak about learning in general and what Aime’s advice for young Namibian's is.
Th…
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Oct 6, 2020
How Adepeju Jaiyeoba saves lives by reinventing rural maternal healthcare with Mother's Delivery Kit
Meet Adepeju Jaiyeoba, the founder of Mother's Delivery Kit a social enterprise working in rural maternal healthcare, that is supplying birthing kits at affordable rates to health centres, hospitals, traditional birth attendants as well as maternal and child health organisations across Nigeria to tackle high maternal and infant mortality rates in rural areas.
Adepeju felt moved to start Mother’s Delivery Kit after she lost a close friend at childbirth. And while her friend had access to proper healthcare, her death made Adepeju wonder what was happening in rural communities with people who do not have the finances, who do not have the right information, who are not educated and who do not have access to sterile supplies, access to facilities and access to quality health care practitioners.
At the time of this interview Adepeju shares that they have trained over 4000 birth attendants across 346 communities in Nigeria and have been able to distribute over 500.000 kits.
In the interv…
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Oct 2, 2020
How Vannel Dzigba brought Ghana's Abossey Okai Car Spare Parts Market Online
In this episode, meet Vannel Dzigba, the founder of Abossey Okai Online, a business with the aim of revolutionizing automobile parts trading across Africa and bringing more convenience to car owners in Ghana and West Africa.
According to Vannel if you drive in Ghana, chances are that you know Abossey Okai because that is the place to go to get spare parts for your vehicle.
Matter of fact people travel all the way from the northern part of Ghana, from Ivory Coast, from Burkina Faso and Togo to come get spare parts from Abossey Okai.
That is, until Vannel took Abossey Okai Online to allow anyone in West Africa to have the price of spare parts at the click of a button and to get the spare parts delivered to them.
In the interview with Vannel we speak about:
* How he came up with the idea for Abossey Okai Online
* How he launched his initial version of the platform with a simple facebook page and
* How his team delivers car parts all across the region.
We also speak about Vanne…
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Sep 27, 2020
How Tomisin Adeshiyan brings Payment Security to Online Transactions with Nigerian Fintech Vesicash
Meet Tomisin Adeshiyan, co-founder of Vesicash, a company that is focused on providing payment security for people in online transactions, with their flagship product being a digital escrow service that allows people to make sure that they get the value that they've paid for.
The idea for the business stems from a personal need of Tomisin and his founding team. They had worked as freelancers and they've had instances where they delivered gigs to clients but then had difficulty getting their money for what they delivered.
On the other hand, an escrow service can also effectively protect buyers from getting ripped off.
For example: When we bought a drone in Lagos for aerial shots on our AfricaX trip, we got to experience how tricky it could be to pay cash on delivery. In the end, we met the seller in a busy café and handed over a shoebox filled with cash taking about thirty minutes just counting bills before the deal was sealed.
So you can imagine that e-commerce needs better paymen…
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Sep 22, 2020
How Aldred Dogue Launched Africa Foods Mill to Help Farmers in Benin Reduce Post Harvest Loss
Meet Aldred Dogue, the founder of Africa Foods Mill, an enterprise in Benin that was created to help smallholder farmers in the country reduce post harvest losses. Aldred had learned many of the smallholder farmers were incurring losses because they couldn’t get their produce to market on time and he saw this an an opportunity to help out and add value.
With Africa Foods Mill he purchases produce like carrots, cabbage and green beans directly from the smallholder farmers and then transform them into ready to use, packaged convenience food, distributed through supermarkets in Cotonou.
In the interview we speak about how he got the business up and running, how he entered a market dominated by food imports from abroad and what his advice is for succeeding as an entrepreneur in Africa.
We also talk about how the Anzisha Prize, Africa’s premier award and accelerator for the continents youngest entrepreneurs has impacted his journey and how he managed to get into their program.
There…
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Sep 8, 2020
How Blessing Achu Empowers Designers in Lagos With Fashion Business Accelerator 360 Creative Hub
Meet Blessing Achu, the founder of 360 Creative Hub in Lagos Nigeria.
With her business she provides a co-working space for fashion designers, aka a co-sewing space, she brings together young designers with professionals in the field and she runs a fashion design accelerator that helps young designers understand the business of fashion, how they can grow a sustainable fashion venture and how technology can impact their business.
In the interview we speak about how she came up with the idea, how she transitioned from her lucrative job in IT to launch 360 creative hub, her biggest learnings from the launch and how she is making an impact for young designers in Lagos.
We also speak about the challenges of the startup phase of her business, what keeps her going when things get tough and what her advice for young Nigerian entrepreneurs is.
There are a lot of things to be learned from Blessing and so we hope you stick around for the full interview.
And now, without further ado, enter Bl…
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Aug 31, 2020
How Simon Mokgotlhoa & Lesego Ndlovu Started BallTalent to Give Local Sport Talents Global Exposure
In this interview meet Simon Mokgotlhoa & Lesego Ndlovu, the founders of BallTalent, an online application that showcases young talents in sports and let’s international scouts and clubs, get information like videos and stats on local players.
The two of them came up with the idea when they saw many young talented people in their neighbourhood but observed, that none of them got discovered and drafted into pro-leagues. Thinking that this could change if they gave their neigborhood talent more exposure, they set out to create BallTalent.
In the interview we talk about
* how they set out to create the app, starting from scratch with no funding,
* how they managed to get the first scouts and players onto the platform and
* how a partnership helped them with getting the matches of the players recorded with professional cameras and drones
We also chat about mental hygiene and the belief systems that the two have adopted in tackling their vision, how family support has played a r…
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Aug 16, 2020
How Kamal Yakub is opening up mechanized farming to smallholder farmers in Ghana with TROTRO Tractor
Meet Kamal Yakub, co-founder of TROTRO Tractor, sometimes called the 'Uber for tractors' in Africa.
TROTRO Tractor is an agricultural technology company that makes it possible for smallholder farmers to access agricultural machinery services ranging from tractors to combined harvesters, planters etc. as well as post harvest machinery, like shellers and treshers.
*Why that is a huge deal?*
According to Kamal, the average smallholder farmer in Ghana has about three acres of land and thus far getting access to agricultural machinery for land preparation and other services has been difficult to impossible for smallholder farmers in Ghana, which make up the majority of farmers in the country.
Through TROTRO Tractor, the very smallholder farmers, that were mostly left out from mechanized farming now have the option to order mechanized farm services via USSD short codes from their phones, a service that has meet a real need. At the time of the interview in August 2019 TROTRO Tractor alrea…
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Aug 4, 2020
How Sinenhlanhla Ndlela is serving Scoops of Love with vegan ice cream brand Yococo in South Africa
Meet Sinenhlanhla Ndlela, foodpreneur and founder of Yococo, an artisanal vegan ice cream brand in South Africa with the mission of serving love in scoops, all the while doing their best to be good guests to planet earth.
After quitting her job, realising that the 9 to 5 grind, that barely allowed her to cover her rent was not how she wanted to spend her life Sine entered an incubator program, that pushed her to get her idea out of her head and into the world within just two weeks.
Testing her ice cream innovations on unassuming strangers that she caught at the elevator in the apartment building she lived in, she managed to create a product that has become her way of contributing and serving people love.
In the interview with Sine we speak about:
* How she came up with the idea
* How she launched her business out of her apartment within days
* Her guiding principles in business and why being authentic to herself means a different growth journey than the one usually taught in…
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Jul 24, 2020
How Ifeanyi Umejei tackles the electricity problem in Nigeria with ICE Commercial Power
In this episode, meet Ifeanyi Umejei, co-founder of ICE Commercial Power in Lagos, Nigeria.
He and his co-founders are on a mission to solve the power problem in Nigeria through solar micro grids. By creating these grids for SME's, small and medium enterprise clusters, they are able to provide power for businesses, saving them money, allowing them to hire more people, creating more jobs, allowing them to produce more products that they can sell and ultimately helping to drive economic activity.
But not just that, they are also working on solving two additional challenges that, once solved, could lead to much better access of electricity in Nigeria.
And just to give you some context, of how big this problem that Ifeanyi and his team are tackling is, let me use his words:
Nigeria as a whole has 200 million people and has less electricity than Edinburgh, Scotland which has about half a million people. So the country just doesn't produce that much electricity and it is powered essentia…
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Jul 18, 2020
How Sename Agbodjinou produces Smart Citizens with Digital Fabrication Lab Network WoeLabs in Togo
★★★ Meet Sename Koffi Agbodjinou founder of Woelab in Lomé, Togo and Ashoka Fellow. Before you jump into the full interview, let us just say, that Sename is working on one of the biggest visions we have heard of so far. He himself calls it a utopia. And yet, while some of the ideas he has remain utopian, there are some very tangible results that were already achieved.
So the idea of WoeLabs is to have a network of innovation spaces covering Lomé and potentially other West African cities. So you’d have one innovation space in each neighbourhood in Lomé and use that network of WoeLabs to train a big number of smart citizens, that can then tackle challenges in the neighbourhood through entrepreneurial solutions.
The labs are open to everybody, free of charge and anyone can get trained on technology. Each lab is working on and launching projects that can make a change in the immediate environment of 1 square kilometre. So a network of spaces like this all over the city would r…
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Jul 10, 2020
How Mamoudou Touré turned Typha from a Problem into a Solution with HABIDEM in Mauritania
Meet Mamoudou Touré, agricultural engineer by training, who with his friend and business partner, turns the plant Typha into a material for construction with their business HABIDEM in Mauritania.
In the south of Mauritania there is a lot of Typha and it presents a challenge as it is spreading rapidly and blocking irrigation channels for the fields.
Mamoudou came across this problem himself when he worked as a project manager in the south of Mauritania. He relates, that they used to spent a lot of money to fight against the Typha so that the water could reach the fields.
So when his friend working in the construction sector told Mamoudou about the idea to use Typha as a material for construction, he saw, that this presented an opportunity to turn a problem into a solution that could create job opportunities for young people in Mauritania as well as further the use of sustainable construction materials and make construction in Mauritania more affordable.
One of their breakthroughs c…
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Jun 30, 2020
How Mahmud Johnson built a Social Business around Eco-Friendly Palm Kernel Oil with J-Palm Liberia
In this interview meet Mahmud Johnson, founder of J-Palm Liberia, a social business, contributing to employment opportunities for young people in Liberia as well as higher incomes for farmers, by increasing productivity in and yield from sustainable palm oil and palm kernel oil production.
But that is just part of the impact. The other aspect is that Mahmud and his team put significant effort in producing skin and hair care products developed specifically for Liberians and Africans, products that as Mahmud puts it "represent us in ways that we would like to be represented”.
Mahmud grew up in a time in Liberia, when there was social conflict and most of the conversations he remembers from after the civil war, whether on radio or TV, were about rebuilding, economic development, economic transformation and there was a sense for him, that all Liberians should be a part of that rebuilding process.
After studying abroad on a scholarship, an opportunity, Mahmud calls improbable, he decid…
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Jun 20, 2020
How Nkem Okocha uplifts low income women in Nigeria with FinTech Social Enterprise Mamamoni
★★★ Meet Nkem Okocha, the founder of FinTech Social Enterprise Mamamoni, whom we interviewed in September 2019 in Lagos.
Mamamoni is dedicated to eradicating poverty and uplift low income women from poverty through multiple vehicles which are
* #1 capacity building which their foundation is in charge of that
* #2 access to finance, which they realise through their own digital lending platform and
* #3 creating employment opportunity for low income women, that can’t or don’t want to start their own enterprise, through their own factory that is producing liquid dish wash
Nkem Okocha shares that she had a tough childhood and that Mamamoni is the vehicle for her mission to help women in a similar situation that her mother was in, when Nkem grew up.
Keep listening to learn how she started Mamamoni, what her advice for young Nigerian women is and how she managed to upskill close to 7000 women and counting.
There is a lot of gold in this, especially since Nkem actually la…
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Jun 9, 2020
How Pedro Da Fonseca started the LED manufacturing business Black Gold Engineering from his Garage
In this episode, meet Pedro Da Fonseca, the founder of Black Gold Engineering, a Namibian LED light manufacturer and distributor, that has a patented LED solution for streetlights that provides up to 70% in energy savings compared to conventional solutions.
At the time of the interview in November 2019, Pedro shares, that his patented LED is 'the most powerful output light in the world' and that they have won thirteen international awards with this product.
In the interview we speak about
* Pedro’s journey from employee to entrepreneur
* the challenges he had to overcome on his way and
* how he pushed on, even when he ran out of money and got eviction notices and creditors came to reposes his furniture
We also spoke about the importance of a personal support system, how his father gave him the mental tools to overcome difficulties and how a mentor changed his life and helped his business towards a breakthrough.
There is a lot of gold in this interview and whether you are a…
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Jun 1, 2020
BANTUMAKERS: Launching impact businesses through a startup studio in Luanda, Angola, with Vanda de Oliveira & Ricardo Figueiredo
In this interview, meet Vanda de Oliveira and Ricardo Figueiredo, the two founders of Bantumakers, a startup studio in Angola.
In our interview we chatted about how they launch businesses, how they financed their first two startups, the first Angolan crowdfunding platform called DEYA and a micro job platform called SALO, their personal journey as founders, going way back from when Ricardo was selling bootlegged DVDs in Highschool, to starting a software company to eventually joining Vanda on her vision to solve social problems through a series of startups that the two want to launch through their startup studio Bantumakers.
We asked them about their advice for young people on the continent and how they managed to turn their business around when they ran out of money.
We chatted about the challenges and joys of their entrepreneurial journeys as well as their insights about building a business in Angola.
There are a lot of insights one can take away from the shares of the two. So, wi…
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May 23, 2020
How Sobel Ngom's Social Change Factory reached millions of Youth with an inspiring TV show & why he got quoted by Obama
Meet Sobel Ngom, founder and director of the Social Change Factory. Sobel’s changemaker journey started, when during an internship in rural Senegal, he experienced first hand, the injustices in the education system. It was then that he decided, that he would have to do something.
Together with a group of friends that he asked to join him, he spent his vacation and worked for an entire month straight, morning till evening, to help about 150 youth, to pass their exams.
From this single decision to be of service and to help young people, Sobel’s changemaking journey has led him to launch the Youth TV program ‘Voix des Jeunes’ that has reached over 15 million young people in Sub-Saharan Africa and to establish the social enterprise Social Change Factory, that is helping Youth directly but also pushing for systemic change.
Sobel has been quoted by President Obama several times, and while he doesn’t see this as an achievement, it did motivate him to focus fully on working toward…
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May 14, 2020
How Samira Arjdal is promoting e-mobility and sustainable tourism with RIVE Maroc
In today’s episode we speak to Samira Arjdal, an environmentalist at heart and the first African woman to have participated in WAVE, the world’s largest e-mobility rally in Switzerland.
Together with her partner Silvia Brutschin, Samira organises a similar event annually in Morocco called RIVE Maroc. And the interesting thing is, that they did not just create a really unique happening promoting e-mobility but also use this very same event to create a charging infrastructure in Morocco.
Our interview with Samira was short but inspiring. Stay tuned to hear about:
* RIVE Maroc and the goal behind the project
* The different partnerships the team has set up to create the necessary charging infrastructure without spending money on their own
* How they are using the rally and a partnership to donate refurbished laptops to schools
* How you can participate in RIVE Maroc, whether or not you have an electric vehicle
And so much more.
We hope you enjoy this episode. Enter Samira…
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May 4, 2020
How Desmond Koney founded Complete Farmer, a crowdfarming platform in Ghana allowing anyone to become a farmer from the comfort of their home
How Desmond Koney founded Complete Farmer, a crowdfarming platform in Ghana allowing anyone to become a farmer from the comfort of their home
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In today’s episode, we speak to Desmond Koney, CEO and cofounder of Complete Farmer.
Complete Farmer is a crowdfarming platform founded and based in Ghana that makes it easier for industries to source for quality farm produce in the African market and at the same time, allows anyone to fund a farming cycle as a crowdfarmer from their smartphone, get regular updates about the farm, sign up for an in person farm visit and yes, also to participate in the profits from the farming cycle. When asked how he came up with the idea to start it, he shares that he was exposed to the frustrations of smallholder farming since his father was a smallholder farmer growing pineapples.
After coming back home to Ghana from his studies in The Netherlands, he got the idea to apply his engineering skills to build more efficient farms on the continent.
In the i…
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Apr 28, 2020
How serial entrepreneur Adulai Bary helps create an entrepreneurship ecosystem from scratch in Guinea-Bissau
In today’s episode, we speak with Adulai Bary, a serial entrepreneur from Guinea-Bissau.
He was named as one of the most influential young people in West Africa and when you listen to this interview, you will begin to understand why.
One of the things that struck me in the conversation with him, and that we have observed with many change makers, is how purposeful he started out.
From what he shares, he always had a clear intention to think independently and be independent economically. With this aim in mind, he got into the field of ICT.
While working his job as an engineer, he used his salary to start a business on the side and employ people to do sales for him. Eventually he made the shift into full time entrepreneur with his first venture, BIG Technologies, and from there helped launch several businesses, one being InnovaLab, a social enterprise, that functions as an accelerator of innovative youth enterprises in Guinea Bissau and Ubuntu 2S, an enterprise aiming at bringing el…
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Apr 19, 2020
How Satta Wahab started Liberia's first hair care company for African natural hair with just 100$
Meet Satta Wahab, the founder of Naz Naturals in Monrovia, Liberia
Satta started her hair care company for natural African hair with just a 100 Dollars.
She noticed there was a gap in the market, after she ‘went natural’ herself. Trying to find the products she needed for this transition, she realised that the products for natural hair in Liberia were all imported and super expensive. So she did her research and started making her own.
Things started picking up, when her friends at university started asking her about the products. At first she gave her friends the products for free, but then eventually turned it into a business, when people didn’t stop asking for more of her creations.
As of today, Satta has upped her production, onboarded and trained a whole team of brand ambassadors and Naz Naturals has become the Go-To-Brand for every young women wanting to go natural in Liberia.
In the interview with Satta, we speak about goalsetting, mentors, personal growth, her sales…
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Apr 6, 2020
How Oduwa Agboneni reinvented a male dominated industry with Nenis Auto Care in Lagos
In today’s episode, we speak with Oduwa Agboneni, the founder of Neni’s Autocare in Lagos.
Actually, Oduwa was already a serial entrepreneur before starting her own car repair shop in the bustling Yaba district of Lagos.
She had worked as an engineer for a telco company, started a side hustle doing online ticketing and reservations and then built a travel agency before setting out to to start Neni’s Autocare, breaking into a heavily male dominated industry and essentially reinventing how it is done.
With a strong focus on preventive maintenance, excellent customer service, customer education, hiring almost exclusively female technicians and catering to a female clientele, she has attracted not only B2C customers but even household names such as Uber.
A true changemaker, Oduwa is using the non-profit arm of her business to empower girls with technical skills and automotive training, in line with her mission to promote a positive representation of women in Engineering and incre…
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Mar 24, 2020
How Murendeni Mafumo started Kusini Water, a Water Business with Social Impact, in South Africa
In this episode, meet Murendeni Mafumo, the founder of Kusini Water, a social impact water business in South Africa.
Kusini Water makes water purification and distribution systems from locally sourced materials such as Macadamia nut shells and uses renewable energy to supply clean water to communities most affected by the lack of access to safe drinking water. In our interview with Murendeni we discuss:
* How he came up with his idea and how he developed the business model for his social impact water company
* How he transitioned from working full-time for the municipality to being a full time entrepreneur
* How he financed his first product
* How a corporate partnership put Kusini Water on the global map
* Why every single day he feels like giving up and what keeps him going AND
* How he managed to step into the water market, a market, dominated by a few big corporates
Also, we speak about ‘Black Tax’ and why Murendeni kept his entrepreneurial journey a secret from…
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Mar 15, 2020
How Evariste Aohoui leveraged co-creation to build an e-waste management company in Abidjan from scratch
An Ashoka Fellow and previous French Teacher, Evariste Aohoui started PARO-CI in 2011 because he was tired of how dirty Abidjan was. Initially, they did small and specific activities like cleanups as volunteers, taking the opportunity to sensitise people about keeping the environment clean.
Later on is when they started to focus on e-waste and today, they recycle electronic equipment that would otherwise turn into waste.
Translated to English, PARO CI stands for Waste Management and Recycling Programme.
Listen to the full interview to discover
* How Evariste went from teacher to CEO of an e-waste management company
* The challenges he encountered in the process
* Why he credits his success in the business to cocreation
* And how he thinks other young entrepreneurs without resources can benefit from leveraging partnerships
In our opinion, this interview is a gold mine, especially, if you want to start a business in waste management or anything technical.
You see, e-waste m…
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Mar 10, 2020
How Wiatta Thomas helps launch dozens of privat sector impact businesses through non-profit incubator Dare to Innovate in Conakry, Guinea
Wiatta moved from the US where she was born and raised to Conakry, Guinea in 2011.
She moved because she had decided to make it her life’s work to invest in the continent and to convince other Africans to do the same. Her in was with the Peace Corps as a Community Economic Development Volunteer, where she worked on an entrepreneurship training programme to reduce unemployment in West Africa.
Through this programme she realised that the ecosystem was so highly underdeveloped that it was hard for young people to launch a business with only that initial training.
Those that do manage to launch their businesses fail after one cycle, or survive but struggle to make real revenue.
In her experience, this is because they lack the resources to manage the whole value chain from input to market. Thus, Wiatta co-founded Dare to Innovate in 2013 to provide a solution to the question: how do we develop the African ecosystem in a way that supports entrepreneurship?
So far they have started ove…
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Mar 6, 2020
How Ariana Oluwole helped develop the early childhood education industry in Sierra Leone
It’s very common to observe something in society that is not working and complain about it, complain that it needs to be solved. Less common so, to take accountability for whatever isn’t working, be proactive in finding solutions that work for you and in so doing, fix the problem for the society as a whole. This is something that Ariana Oluwole has done in founding Narnia Daycare. Narnia is a children’s daycare founded in 2013 in Freetown, Sierra Leone, that has to date catered to over 900 children, all inspired by the desire for a mother to care for her child.
When Ariana got her first child, she realised that there were not many early learning centres for children in Freetown. Knowing the value to children of early education and being in a nurturing and engaging environment, she decided to quit her job so that she could support her son's development. In doing that, she had the thought to extend that care to people around her.
Listen in on this episode, to learn how Ariana got…
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Mar 1, 2020
How Richard Brandt started Codetrain, Ghana's biggest Code School from his kitchen table
Richard Brandt started Codetrain, Ghana’s biggest commercial coding school from his own kitchen after quitting his freelance role as a consultant, to focus on teaching young Africans the coding skills full-time and matching them with companies for employment opportunities.
In the interview he shares about the beginnings of his journey into entrepreneurship and education, the challenges he went through building up Codetrain, how he keeps himself motivated and driven in tough times and we discuss the opportunities that the young generation has in an, on many aspects, more and more level playing field.
Also, you can enjoy the full interview with Richard through our AfricaX Youtube channel or the AfricaX Blog.
*_Social Handles of Richard Brandt and Codetrain: _*
* Twitter: @codetraingh
* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/codetrain
* Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/codetraingh/
* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/codetraingh
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*YOU LIKE T…
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Feb 25, 2020
How a deadly mudslide moved Alhaji Siraj Bah to start his impact business with 20$ in Sierra Leone
Many people that want to start a business, but haven’t, will tell you that they need more money or a better point in time. Alhaji however, couldn’t afford to wait for more money or a better point in time to kick off his business Rugsal Trading in Sierra Leone.
Born in Kono district, Sierra Leone, his dad died when he was 12 years old and Alhaji moved to Freetown to further his education. To survive, he took on odd jobs around the city, all the while living on the street or staying with friends.
One morning, coming home from work, he learned, that all 7 members of his adopted family had died in a mud-slide that killed over a thousand people, sparing Alhaji only because he was working a night-shift in a water bag factory.
On television he learned, that the situation was caused or at least aggravated by the deforestation and poor waste management in the capital. That is when the then 17 year old, decided to look into the environmental reasons for the mud slide and the floods and do…
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Feb 22, 2020
How Regina Honu is teaching thousands of girls how to code and create technology
Regina Honu is a Ghanaian computer scientist, founder of Soronko Solutions, a software enterprise and a Changemaker, that has taught thousands of girls how to create technology and to code through Tech Needs Girls Ghana and Soronko Academy.
Now Regina might seem like an unlikely entrepreneur. Like many of us, growing up, she believed that entrepreneurs were special kind of people. That entrepreneurs were born and not made.
She on the other hand was socialised like an average Ghanaian girl as she says and that meant:
_“A good Ghanain girl must be seen and not heard. Just follow the rules, check all the boxes. And I was that girl, that followed all the rules and checked all the boxes.”_
However, Regina’s path seemed to change, when she decided to become a computer scientist.
She noticed how computer science was so male dominated and in her first jobs, working for two banks in Corporate Ghana, she was the only woman in the IT department, and experienced discrimination, sexism a…
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Feb 17, 2020
How to start a reusable sanitary pad industry from scratch in Liberia with Naomi Tulay-Solanke
Naomi Tulay-Solanke is the case in point, that you can achieve anything if you put your mind to it. Pregnant at the age of 14 in Liberia, she experienced stigmatisation, naming and blaming. Social expectations were, that she would drop out of school. Naomi however, decided to prove everybody wrong. “I always knew that I was going to be somebody that would contribute to society” she says in our interview with her.
Working hard, determined to write her own life’s story and contribute, she achieved her Masters degree and eventually became a nurse.
However, at some point, she realised that for her “being a nurse was great, but that she needed to be greater”, she relates. And what that meant to her, was to not only cater to people when they were sick but prevent them from getting sick in the first place.
So she quit her job as a nurse and started a mobile clinic, signing up her friends who were health professionals to work with her. Three months into this intervention, Liberia…
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Feb 13, 2020
Youness Ouazri: Reviving traditional construction methods with a twist in Morocco I Meet a Changemaker
Join us as we learn from Youness Ouazri, founder and CEO of Ecodome Maroc. Ecodome is a profitable enterprise that constructs ecological houses called 'Ecodomes' for the development of rural communities.
In this episode, Youness discusses the advantages of the ecodome over modern day construction, how he set up the enterprise and built a team, his road to profitability, the challenges that he had to overcome, and expansion plans. He also gives a word of advice to fellow changemakers.
Learn more about Youness and his sustainable construction company in Morocco on Instagram, Facebook and by going to ecodomemaroc.com
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Feb 3, 2020
Momarr Taal: Tropingo Foods I Meet a Changemaker from The Gambia
In our first episode, we speak to Momarr Taal, the founder of Tropingo Foods in Gambia. Momarr has a particularly interesting story because he founded three successful businesses without ever intending to be a business person. His current business, Tropingo Foods, is not only a mango processing and exporting company and the first of its kind in Gambia, but a direct response to the breakdown in market linkages that have resulted in Africa importing back finished products for which she exports the raw material used in production. He speaks candidly on the cultural challenges he had to overcome, the different failures and resultant lessons that led him to setting up his mango factory, the role of mentorship in his success, and how he handles the mental fatigue that comes with entrepreneurship. Listen out for his golden rule that he believes every entrepreneur lives by, whether or not they know it!
Learn more on https://www.africax.org
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