Business Savvy Alsu Odemwingie Gives Us Insight About Starting a Business at the Age of 18

Women Who Lead: The Naija Careerist is on a journey to highlight women in business and professionals who are impacting Africa. We want to inspire women from all walks of life whether their passion is in fashion, technology, or becoming a social entreprenuer. We hope through these narratives African women will be able to find their own voice to become whoever they want to be. Our first interview is with Alsu Odemwingie a tenacious women who started a business ecosystem in South Africa and now has spread all over Africa. She started her business at the age of 18 and has helped thousands of businesses flourish on the African continent. Want to get solid business advice? Read more for the exclusive interview.

Can entrepreneurs transform Africa's brand?

This meeting, held this year in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, is about Africa’s Transformation. And there is no greater transformation taking place than in the continent’s entrepreneurial realm where Africans are showcasing their immense skills and creativity, and transforming the brand that is Africa. We will see a lot of this on display at the meeting!
I am often asked about the “poverty” in Ethiopia and Africa. People are amazed when I answer that there is no poverty in Ethiopia or Africa. What there has been is a poverty of ambition, one wherein we were never supposed to dream big and execute grand ambitions – such as building global companies and global brands that employ thousands at prosperity wages, all from the place where we were born and raised .
This happened because endless numbers of entities monopolized Africa’s image, our brand. They insisted that we Africans were incapable of doing it for ourselves. And they still craft imagery and stories that support this, a never-ending presentation of our shortcomings coupled with their never-ending attempts to counter these “failings”.

African Innovation Needs Real Venture Capital

I came across this Forbes article today by Mfonobong Nsehe in which he decries the absence of venture capitalists to support the technology innovators on the continent:

Africa has its own Mark Zuckerbergs, Andrew Masons, Mark Pincuses, Larry Pages and Sergey Brins. But it lacks its own Yuri Milners, John Doerrs, Vinod Khoslas and Y Combinators.

He adds:

Africans can create hugely successful tech products that will sweep the world off its feet. There are several entrepreneurs out there waiting to break through, but their ideas might never see the light of day because of a lack of seed finance. This is the reason Africa might never produce a Facebook, Groupon, Zynga or Google: There are no venture capital firms in Africa to fund these ventures.

Nsehe is right. When it comes to African technology, there is no, or little venture capital available to African entrepreneurs. The financing that is available generally comes from “social’ or ‘development’ type funders, not from venture capitalists wanting to get a huge return on investment. As a result, the funding comes in very small increments of $10,000 to $25,000. This is a lot of money in Africa but it cannot help African innovation compete at a worldwide scale.
Ushahidi is a perfect example of this. This revolutionary technology, whose founder is Kenyan woman entrepreneur Ory Okolloh (pictured). The technology has received worldwide acclaim and has been used around the world. But their funding mostly came from this social/development community. In fact, the funders listed on the Ushahidi web site almost all end in “Foundation.”

What Africa's Entrepreneurs Can Teach the World

It's becoming ever clearer that entrepreneurship is the answer to the vexing economic questions facing Africa today: job creation, capital formation, skills acquisition, taxation-based self-sufficiency, quality of governance-demand, and of course social inclusion. But how has it actually evolved in Africa? Are there peculiar features of African entrepreneurship we may consider relevant to big global debates on development and sustainability? 

I spend a significant amount of my time associating with a pro-business think tank that has been building an impressive database of entrepreneurs, small businesses, start-ups, and innovation-driven enterprises in Africa. Sifting through case studies, anecdotes, questionnaire responses, and many other snapshots of entrepreneurial activity in Ghana and a few other places on the continent I was drawn to two major characteristics of African entrepreneurship. I will call them hyper-entrepreneurship and excess diversification.
Until recently, my attitude had been quite negative about both of these. I was looking for reasons why the grand take-off of the African economy has been slower than predicted by the super-optimists (the continent is growing by 5% annually rather than the 10% or more seen in recent years in China and India). African-style hyper-entrepreneurship and excess diversification are so different from the standard models of business success that prevail in the West that I figured they must be the problem.

On hyper-entrepreneurship, the insight was that the staff turnover rate appeared extremely high within the entrepreneurial segment of the economy (start-ups, small businesses, non-public businesses, innovation-led businesses, sole proprietorships etc.). Workers in the businesses we were looking at showed a much higher propensity than their counterparts in the West to leave their current job to set up a business, as opposed to looking for a a waged position elsewhere. This appeared to point to a serious deficit in quality followership in Africa, one that meant a dearth of vital managerial talent.

Who Runs The World: 10 Young Nigerian Women to Watch

To be a young woman in Nigeria today is at times exciting, exhilarating, frustrating, but always promising. For the group of 10 young women featured here, aged between 20 and 30, the word, “trailblazer” aptly embodies who they are. These young and gifted female talent are breaking barriers and paving an empowering future for the next generation. Ladies, I salute you!

Ify Aniebo: The Cool Scientist

At 27, Ify Aniebo is the scientist, whose goal is to make science cool for young African women. Her professional dream is to find a cure for malaria and her interest in the disease began when she suffered bouts of malaria as a child and in her early teens. To this end, she has undertaken field research on malaria in Thailandand later this year, will embark on an HIV/AID research in Swaziland.
In 2010, Aniebo was crowned Scientist of the Year and Young Person of the Year at The Future Awards, one of Nigeria’s premier awards, which recognises the contribution of young people making a difference in the country. An Exxon Mobil and Wellcome Trust Scholar, Aniebo is currently studying for an MSC in Global Health Science at Oxford University. She is the founder and editor of African Health magazine, an all-important online resource that aims to redefine the health of the average African. A firm believer in the power of education, she says it has given her the independence and freedom that cannot be attained elsewhere. “I find that knowledge is powerful. The right information is a determinant of success,” she says. It is Aniebo’s view that young African women will add tremendously to the growth of the continent in years to come. Her message to her contemporaries is to “work hard work because persistence pays off. Never give up on your dream no matter the circumstance you find yourself in.”

Entrepreneur watch: Those who can, teach

Being a successful entrepreneur in your twenties is not a common reality in Africa. Imran Khan, however, is an exception. Khan is the founder and owner of Attitution, a South African tutoring company that offers extra lessons to school-going youths – and university students in their first three years of studying – in and around the Johannesburg and Cape Town areas. With ample competition in the region, Attitution has managed to stand out by transporting tutors to those who need extra lessons, rather than the other way around.

Imran Khan

After just over three years of running Attitution, Khan has made the finalist list for the 2012 Sanlam/Business Partners Entrepreneur of the Year award in the emerging business category. How we made it in Africa asks Khan about his sprint – as a young entrepreneur – to the top.

Why talent is a major concern for African CEOs

African companies have to fork out more and more money to attract and retain high-quality professionals. According to a new report by professional services firm PwC, over 50% of African CEOs say that talent-related expenses have increased more than anticipated over the past year.

Philip Odera,

“Because there is such a scarcity of labour in the market, you find that salaries are higher than they should be,” explains Bernice Kimacia, country senior partner for PwC in Rwanda.
In addition to attractive salaries, employers also need to create exciting and stimulating work environments. “Managing and retaining talent is a challenge because it is not so widely available, it is up for grabs. If you’re not creating an environment that is interesting, entertaining and meaningful – it’s not just about how much you pay people, it’s about creating an environment where they will thrive – if you don’t have the capacity to create that kind of environment, you run the risk of losing that talent,” says Philip Odera, managing director of Stanbic Bank Uganda.