Africans Building Africa

 Welcome to episode 30 of Africans Building Africa Podcast! My name is Amadou Hanne, founder of Africans Building Africa and the host of Africans Building Africa Podcast.  In this Episode, I interviewed Ivy Barley who’s the founder of Developers in Vogue, an All-Girls coding trading program in Ghana solving the lack of African Women in Tech. While studying for her masters and teaching girls how to code in 2016, Ivy Barley came up with the idea to start an all-girls coding training program.  With just an idea, Ivy and her co-founder applied for many competitions which they won several of them including the Ethos for Girls which allow them to present their idea to the German Chancellor and generated about $25,000 in funding. Developers in Vogue aims at creating a community of highly skilled female developers who are passionate about using technology to revolutionize Africa. African women are not known to lead Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics fields, but Developers in Vogue is set out to change that with coding boot camps and career developments. The company have currently trained about 20 girls with 5 of them who already have full time jobs setup and 5 others are working as freelancers. In this episode, we discussed: How she started her organization, The challenges related to teaching girls how to code, and Why her company focuses on training only girls   This Episode is sponsored by: Abjel Communications “Abjel communications provides support in term of PR and media relations for entrepreneurs, startups and businesses that are innovating to help Africans. We started this because we realize that there was this missing presence of Africans when it comes to discussing really important issues around the world or when it comes to entrepreneurship or innovation africans entrepreneurs were missing in the conversation. So, what Abjel wants to do is to support these entrepreneurs, startups and most of these young people who came back from aboard busting with ideas and developing products to support and change the narative on the continent. We are hoping to suport them to help them with training on how to handle themselves when they go to speak to big media outlet. Half of all we do is pro-bono and what we charge we use it to reinvest and support other entrepreneurs or startups and we’re happy to say we’re the first social enterprise communications agencies. We hope that by supporting Africans Building Africa most entrepreneurs will get to know about us and come to us for support. We want to be part of there journey, we’re happy when an entrepreneur succeed. Come and talk to us if you need communications support at Abjel.com” ~ Adisa Amanor-Wilks   Website: www.developersinvogue.org/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/devinvogue/ Twitter: twitter.com/devinvogue   RELATED: Episode 15: How did a Ghanaian created a Bamboo Bike Manufacturer in his village  

 Welcome to episode 29 of Africans Building Africa Podcast! My name is Amadou Hanne, founder of Africans Building Africa and the host of Africans Building Africa Podcast.  In this Episode, I interviewed Ifeanyi Umejei who’s the founder of Ice Commercial Power, a renewable energy company providing electricity to small businesses in Nigeria. While Ifeanyi Umejei was struggling to stay motivated as an analyst at Morgan Stanley, he decided to take a trip to his home country, Nigeria. During his visit he realized one of the main reason why his country was not progressing economically is because of the lack of infrastructure more specifically electricity. About a year later, he left his well-paying job to start a company, Ice Commercial Power, with two of his friends. More than 50% of Nigerians are constantly living without electricity. According to the World Bank, Nigeria experiences the greatest number of power outages monthly. This problem is a greater burden on businesses. In fact, Nigerian businesses experience an average of 239 hours of outage every month.  To solve this problem, Ice Commercial Power focuses on providing sustainable energy to small businesses in Nigeria. The company has currently launched a pilot with an investment of $120,000 providing electricity to 15 businesses in Nigeria. In this episode, we discussed: How and why they started, Why they focus on providing electricity to small businesses, What it was like entering a complex and unknown industry   This Episode is sponsored by: Abjel Communications “Abjel communications provides support in term of PR and media relations for entrepreneurs, startups and businesses that are innovating to help Africans. We started this because we realize that there was this missing presence of Africans when it comes to discussing really important issues around the world or when it comes to entrepreneurship or innovation africans entrepreneurs were missing in the conversation. So, what Abjel wants to do is to support these entrepreneurs, startups and most of these young people who came back from aboard busting with ideas and developing products to support and change the narative on the continent. We are hoping to suport them to help them with training on how to handle themselves when they go to speak to big media outlet. Half of all we do is pro-bono and what we charge we use it to reinvest and support other entrepreneurs or startups and we’re happy to say we’re the first social enterprise communications agencies. We hope that by supporting Africans Building Africa most entrepreneurs will get to know about us and come to us for support. We want to be part of there journey, we’re happy when an entrepreneur succeed. Come and talk to us if you need communications support at Abjel.com” ~ Adisa Amanor-Wilks   Website: www.icecommpower.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/icecommpower Twitter: www.twitter.com/icecommpower   RELATED: Episode 5: How a young Rwandan started a Mobile Solar Kiosk company in Africa  

Welcome to episode 28 of Africans Building Africa Podcast! My name is Amadou Hanne, founder of Africans Building Africa and the host of Africans Building Africa Podcast.  In this Episode, I interviewed Chekwas Okafor who’s the founder of Onychek.com, an ecommerce platform selling luxury Made In Africa brands. In September 2016, Chekwas Okafor, left his full-time job as a Safely Leader at a manufacturing coming to start a Made In Africa luxury brands ecommerce, Onychek.com, which he named after his father. With limited experience in the industry, Chekwas managed to teach himself coding to build part of his website.  To start his business, he borrowed money against his 401K. His mission is to participate to the development of Africa by providing African luxury brand designers a platform to reach the diaspora. Onycheck.com has now about 13 luxury brands all Made In Africa including Maxhosa by Laduma (South Africa), Adele Dejak (Kenya), ENZI (Ethiopia), ZASHADU (Nigeria). In this episode, we discussed: The WHY behind his mission, How he managed to get African designers to display their products on his website, The supply chain challenges from shipping products from Africa to the US, and How he managed to bootstrapped his company.   Website: Onychek.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/ONYCHEK/ Twitter: twitter.com/ONYCHEK   RELATED: Episode 15: How did a Ghanaian created a Bamboo Bike Manufacturer in his village  

Welcome to episode 27 of Africans Building Africa Podcast! My name is Amadou Hanne, I am the founder of Africans Building Africa and the host of Africans Building Africa Podcast.  In this Episode, I interviewed Patricia Monthe who’s the founder of MedX, a digital hospital. While in school for her Masters degree, Patricia Monthe wrote a research paper about healthcare in Africa in 2017. After her graduation, we went to work for companies such as Home Deport and Siemens. However, there was something that kept pulling her back to the paper she wrote. With the help of her sister, Patricia went through the journey of self-discovery which led her to quit her job as an executive to start MedX Care. MedX is an online and mobile health platform integrating care, payment, and privacy to provide innovative solutions to emergent and growth countries. The company has currently over 9,000 care providers and 400 patients as subscribers. In this episode, we touched on Why she decided to leave her well-paying job to create a digital hospital, How she started, and the challenges she currently faces to get care providers and patients to sign up.   Website: MedX.care Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/medxehealthcenter Twitter: https://twitter.com/MEDxCare   RELATED: Episode 21: How a Nigerian Started a Scholarship Matchmaker App for African Students  

Welcome to episode 26 of Africans Building Africa Podcast! My name is Amadou Hanne, I am the founder of Africans Building Africa and the host of Africans Building Africa Podcast.  In this Episode, I interviewed Luke Kyohere who’s the founder of Beyonic, a mobile money company. With his software consulting company, Luke was able to spin off couple of businesses with the most recent called Beyonic. Luke used the services his team provided to their clients as a test ground for business ideas. Eventually, Beyonic was born because three companies paid him to build a similar product. Recognizing the business opportunity in Africa, Luke and his team build the same product for the fourth time with a unique goal of marketing it to other companies with similar needs. Beyonic is a mobile money payment system which makes it easy for companies in Africa to reduce cash risk by digitalizing their payment workflow. With 15,000 to 20,000 amounts of transactions weekly, the company is doing over $5 million in volume every month within 5 countries. The company has also raised a little under one million dollars to expand throughout Eastern Africa. In this episode, we touched on his story from idea to execution, what is mobile money and why is it such a hot topic in Africa, and what differentiates his company from other mobile money companies. Website: beyonic.com/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/beyonictechnologies/ Twitter: twitter.com/beyonictech   RELATED: Episode 12: What’s it’s like to start a FinTech Company in Africa?  

As Aissatou Khairy Diallo mentioned in French “Vous n’allez jamais recontrer une personne aussi patriotic que moi” meaning you will never find someone as patriotic as her, shows the love she has for her country, Guinea. Growing up in the United States, she has always represented her country from school to her participation in Guinean associations. A year after graduating from Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, Aisssatou has decided to go back to Guinea to start a company, Cabco Guinea, a transportation company with over 20 employees now offering general transportation services such as private vehicles for hire which operates from Guinea’s airport, malls, hotels, restaurants to her client’s destination and vice versa. With all the odds against her such as being a female entrepreneur, lack of capital, setting up the first call center in Guinea, and first time entrepreneur etc.. Aissatou has always found ways to motivate herself and come up with creative solutions to her challenges. In this episode, we touched on her journey from the States to becoming a business owner in Guinea, how she builds the first call center in Guinea, and how she managed to initiate her transportation venture with 17 vehicles. Website: www.moncabco.com  LinkedIn: Aissatou Khairy Diallo Facebook: @CabcoGuinee

As a young African who studied in the US and his home country, Ghana, just like many other Africans in the Diaspora, Ato Bentsi-Enchill saw the differences in education style among the two countries and decided to take action.  At his school’s Business Plan competition, Ato pitched the idea of a platform providing detailed answers to Africans in order to help them understand the Why behind every answer. His drive to make his platform come alive has taken him to win many competitions including the Tony Elumelu Foundation and the Georgetown African Conference Pitch Competition. Ato is the co-founder of RevisionPrep, a gamified online social learning tool that offers an alternative to traditional exam preparation in Ghanaian Junior High Schools for the national Basic Education Certificate Examination. In this episode, we touched on his journey as a Student/Entrepreneur, how he manages his company from the US given that his customer base is in Ghana, and his strategy to scale the business within other countries. Website: www.revisionprep.com/ LinkedIn:  Ato Bentsi-Enchill Twitter: twitter.com/RevisionPrep Facebook: www.facebook.com/revisionprep/

As a Cameroonian born in Germany, Erick Yong had always been passionate about Africa. Following his entrepreneurial journey, Erick has co-founded a Venture Capital company, Green Tec Capital Partners. Lack of capital is perceived as one of the biggest issues around entrepreneurship in Africa; However, Erick and his partner has a unique model of not only providing capital to the businesses they invest in, but they also become a partner to those businesses. Erick’s company is a long-term impact investor that joins forces with visionary startups and SMEs entrepreneurs combining impact and profit. His investment strategy is to target companies with a sustainable business model to create exclusive investment opportunities with economic, social, and/or environment impact in Africa. In this episode, we touched on his journey as a founder of a Venture Capital company, his company’s unique investment strategy, and what he looks for when investing in African businesses. Website: www.greentec-capital.com/ LinkedIn: Erick Yong Twitter: @GreenTecCapital Facebook: www.facebook.com/greenteccapital/

Dia Gaissiri est une jeune entrepreneure d’origine Sénégalaise et est la fondatrice de Waalam (www.waalam.com), une plateforme de financement qui met en contact des entrepreneurs en besoin de financement ayant des projets focalisés sur l’Afrique avec des investisseurs à la recherche d’opportunités d’investissement fiables et ayant un grand potentiel rémunératoire.   Dans cette épisode Dia Gaissiri nous explique entre autres comment son amour pour l’Afrique l’a conduite a quitter un poste dans une compagnie de trading à Londres afin d’établir sa structure au Sénégal et ainsi activement participer au développent de l’Afrique.

After receiving his Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from Wharton School and Bachelors of Science and Engineering from Princeton University, Muoyo Okome, like any other graduates from these elite schools, had aspirations of becoming a consultant within the top consulting firms. Even thought, he didn’t receive the consulting position he wished, he ended up working at Microsoft. While working at Microsoft, Muoyo started playing around with mobile game apps as a side hustle and eventually found himself hitting top 10 on the Apple chart with 80,000 downloads in one day. Later on, he left his job and sold his largest App portfolio making thousands of dollars. Today, Muoyo is the founder of DailySpark where he helps entrepreneurs on how to succeed in the mobile app world and host Daily Spark Podcast where he interviews successful entrepreneurs. In this episode, we touched on his story as an MBA graduate from Wharton to a Mobile App Guru, the lessons he learned from the success of his Apps, and the art of relationship building to succeed as an entrepreneur. Website: www.DailySpark.co LinkedIn: Muoyo Okome Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailysparktv/ Twitter: @DailySparkTV

Throughout his career, Abolade Lawal (Bola) worked 9 to 5 as a Business Consultant with companies such as Accenture, Shell, Phillips 66 and CononoPhillips. Because of the structure of corporate America which limits creativity and productivity, Bola didn’t feel like he was giving 100% to his employer. So, he set up to find his passion of helping young Africans. Today, Bola is the co-founder and CEO of ScholarX, a social impact startup that developed a mobile and web platform to helps African youths access quality education through scholarships and other related opportunities. In today’s episode, we touched on How and Why Bola started his company, how he built his team, his advice to African entrepreneur, and the broken education system in Africa along with his goals to help young African Students. Website: www.ScholarX.co Facebook: www.facebook.com/scholarxpage LinkedIn: Bola Lawal Twitter: @ScholarX2016

Forbes Africa called him the $100 million man because of the size of projects that Randy Koussou Sogan and his firm, Black Lion Holdings, manages. From the New International Airport in Benin worth it $100 Million to infrastructure projects in Cameroon and Togo worth it each $3 Billion, Randy Sogan has built a strong reputation as the man who get significantly large projects done.  Building relationships among different sectors such as Private and Public has significantly impacted the advancement of his company. Randy Sogan is the Founder and Chairman of Black Lion Holdings which is a Strategic Advisory Firm. From a background of Telecom engineer, Randy has managed to create an impactful company which participates to the development of Africa in multiple ways. In today’s episode, we touched on How Randy managed to create an investment advisory firm as an Engineer, how he used his relationship network as an asset to grow his company, and the investment landscape in Africa. Website: http://blacklion-holdings.com/ LinkedIn: Randy Koussou Sogan  

Tomi Davies is a futurist Techpreneur in love with all things Tech and Africa, especially mobile and Nigeria. As an IT systems analyst turned advisor, public speaker, author and angel investor, Tomi has worked with organizations such as Ernst & Young, Marks & Spencer, Elf, and the One Laptop Per Child project. Today, Tomi is the co-founder of the Lagos Angel Network (LAN) and the President of the African Business Angel Network (ABAN) which focuses on investing on African tech startups. Tomi’s personal goal is to inspire “maximizing the creating of social and economic value using technology”. In this episode, we touched on the definition of success, the difference in project management between the West and Africa, his advise for Africans in the diaspora looking to get involve in the growing African markets, and the main question of why you should not start a business with a family member in Africa.

Dans un continent ou le domaine de la téléphonie et de l’accès a l’internet est encore contrôlé par des multinationales étrangères, Diallo Telecom (www.diallotelecom.com) est l’une des rares structures opérant dans ce domaine crées et dirigées par un Africain. Dans cette épisode Africans Building Africa a eu le plaisir d’interviewer Mr. Aliou Badara Diallo, le fondateur et PDG de Dialotelecom qui a travers son courage, intelligence et persévérance a su outrepasser les défis pour être à la tête d’une compagnie innovante qui pas a pas est en train de se créer une place sur le marché Africain.

Dans un continent ou le domaine de la téléphonie et de l’accès a l’internet est encore contrôlé par des multinationales étrangères, Diallo Telecom (www.diallotelecom.com) est l’une des rares structures  opérant dans ce domaine crées et dirigées par un Africain. Dans cette épisode nous avons l’honneur d’interviewer Mr. Aliou Badara Diallo, le fondateur et PDG de Dialotelecom qui a travers son courage, intelligence et persévérance a su outrepasser les défis pour être à la tête d’une compagnie innovante qui pas a pas est en train de se créer  une place sur le marché Africain.

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10 years ago, Ben White Founded Venture Capital 4 Africa (VC4Africa.com) with a single hope of building an ecosystem of African Entrepreneurs across Africa. Today, VC4Africa have over 36,000 members from all over the world and have assisted over 100 African entrepreneurs across 26 countries to raise over $73 million in 2015.Ben is originally from New Mexico and he currently resides in Amsterdam; however, I consider him an African because he has contributed to the development of Africa way more than most Africans did.Ben has tremendous experience of working with African Entrepreneurs across the continent from Dakar to Kigali, as his main goal is to always figure out ways to add value to the African entrepreneur.In this episode, we chatted about the growth of the African entrepreneurship ecosystem he witnessed and helped build, how do we as Africans in the Diaspora can work with African entrepreneurs, his advice for entrepreneurs, and what motivates him to participate to the development of Africa.Today’s Episode is Sponsored by Senditoo. Use the code “ABA31” to send $2 Free Mobile Credits to your love ones anywhere in Africa. Make one of your family members happy today by sending them free mobile credit. 

One of the most important aspects of decision making in Business is reliable data. Because of the lack of data, most international companies count Africa out and most African Entrepreneurs make irrational decisions.  Yannick Lefang, founder and CEO of Kasi Insight, is set out to put a light on the continent by collecting data. Kasi Insight (www.kasiinsight.com) is Africa’s most innovative research and advisory firm that provides reliable consumer data and actionable insights from Africa within 2 weeks. Kasi Insight’s services range from consumer surveys to market insights.Yannick’s company has grown to 10 countries within 3 years. Yannick has also build a successful team with most of his team members being based in Africa while he’s in Toronto.In this episode, we touched on how he started his company in 2013, how he put together a successful team in Africa while being based in Toronto, the importance of data, and how the consumer market is changing broken down by country.Today’s Episode is Sponsored by Senditoo. Use the code “ABA31” to send $2 Free Mobile Credits to your love ones anywhere in Africa. Make one of your family members happy today by sending them free mobile credit. 

Kwabena Danso graduated from Kwame Nkruma University of Science and Technology and decided to go back to his home village to fight unemployment and migration of the youth to the city of Accra.  With his NGO, The Yonso Project, Kwabena and his team was looking for ways to create a sustainable organization away from grants and donations until they stumble on the Bamboo Bike idea.  By working with an expert on carbon fiber bikes from California, Kwabena was able to make his idea of Bamboo bikes come to life. Today, Kwabena is the founder and CEO of Boomers International, a social development enterprise, which provides over 35 jobs to the youth in his village not including the bamboo farmers. Kwabena was one of the $5,000 grant recipients of the Tony Elemelu Foundation (TEF), founded by the entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist Tony Elumelu. The grant was a major boost to Boomers International (www.Boomers.com) with its mission of producing high quality, affordable bamboo products which have booth economic and social benefits to customers around the world. In this episode, we chatted about how the idea of bamboo bikes came about, how they created the first prototype, and how the grant from TEF help boost his business. Today’s Episode is Sponsored by Senditoo. Use the code “ABA31” to send $2 Free Mobile Credits to your love ones anywhere in Africa. Make one of your family members happy today by sending them free mobile credit. 

Couple of years ago, Ibrahima Soumano went back home to Guinea to visit his family. As Africans living in the Diaspora, we’re usually expected to give away gifts to our family members and friends whenever we go back home. Ibrahima gave mobile credits to some of his family members and soon realize the huge impact it has on the people. So, there the idea of sending mobile credits electronically to anyone in Africa was born. Ibrahima went back to London, decided to start a company, and work on the idea. Today, Ibrahima is the founder of Senditoo (www.Senditoo.com), a new cost-effective and secure way to send mobile credits online to anyone in Africa. Ibrahima has managed to raise over $300,000 as seed capital within two months, which is quite impressive for a new startup. In today’s episode, we chatted more about how he started his company from idea to execution, and how he managed to raised capital within two months. Today’s Episode is Sponsored by Senditoo. Use the code “ABA31” to send $2 Free Mobile Credits to your love ones anywhere in Africa. Make one of your family members happy today by sending them free mobile credit.