The gentle sea breeze, the glint of classic cars, swaying sugarcane plantations, and horses trotting around – while this might seem like the description of a picture postcard, this is the everyday life of Viju Gowreesunkur, an entrepreneur in the island nation of Mauritius.
This sugarcane planter, who has a vintage car collection that is the pride of the island, also knows a thing or two about horses. He grew up with them, and today, even owns a few.
Mauritius occupies a significant place in Africa’s horse industry. The country boasts an average racing population of 450 horses, and has an important equestrian link with South Africa. All of the nation’s racehorse imports – 150 every year – come from South Africa.
“A lot of South African jockeys ride in Mauritius. The traveling time to Mauritius is only three hours by air. The horses adapt well with our climate. A lot of South Africans are immigrating to Mauritius, and horse racing can be a main social activity for the expatriates,” sums up Gowreesunkur.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/sport/2013/08/01/racing-into-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Racing Into History</a>
In South Africa, the horseracing industry contributes R2.71 billion ($226 million) annually to its GDP. Efforts are on to ramp up those numbers.
And as with the expatriates taking to horse racing in Mauritius, here too, it’s no longer the pastime of only the privileged few.
“These days, horse racing is no longer the domain of royalty, and with this shift came the glorious possibility that anything is possible and that the richest races could be won just as easily by a working man as by a multi-millionaire,” says Adrian Todd, Managing Director of SA Equine Health and Protocols NPC, in South Africa.
Mick Goss, the CEO of Summerhill Stud in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province, says while owning racehorses can be an aspirational endeavor, it can also arise from a deep-seated connectivity with animals in general, or horses in particular.
“The result is that racehorses are owned by people from across the social and economic spectra, from the wealthy to the determined,” says Goss. In its 40th year, Summerhill Stud is one of the country’s top horse breeders, and it has produced several champion racehorses.
<div id="attachment_35865" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35865" class="wp-image-35865 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AHS-114-1024x681.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="681" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AHS-114-1024x681.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AHS-114-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AHS-114-600x399.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AHS-114-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AHS-114.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Approximate annual cost to maintain a horse on a styud farm in South Africa: $5,000. Photo supplied.</div>
Goss had humble beginnings starting the stud farm. He came from a family of generations of horsemen and was previously a lawyer, when after 17 years, he gave up law to start out with nothing in the horse business but “a deep-seated will to make it work”.
“I inherited the horse ‘disease’, for which there is no known vaccine,” he jests.
Today, his farm runs a school of management excellence in equine studies, the only one of its kind in the southern hemisphere, he says, and the results have been “extraordinary”.
Goss says South Africa is set for a record year.
“2018 will be a game-changing year,” he says, with respect to the efforts now being made to rejig the racing and breeding industries “with substantial investments towards the normalization of export protocols with international trading partners”.
There is significant demand for South Africa-based horses in the international market for their quality and affordability. A case in point being that in the past, at the $10 million Dubai World Cup, the richest day in international thoroughbred racing held in March every year, South African-trained horses have won at many levels.
“We have produced winners at the highest level in almost all of the major racing jurisdictions of the world. It is little surprise that our horses are as sought -after as they are internationally, more so as they cost a fraction of their counterparts from other major racehorse-producing countries,” says Goss.
But there are challenges, including strict export restrictions, quarantine controls and prevalence of the African Horse Sickness (AHS).
“The current onerous export restrictions make it difficult for the racing and breeding industry to expand and very hard for our horses to travel and compete internationally,” says Todd.
The country has been severely curtailed in its ability to export horses due to AHS.
South African horses have to endure a quarantine of up to six months before they reach their country of destination.
“Compare this with the delivery of 30 days of horses acquired in countries like Australia and New Zealand, destined for South Africa,” says Goss. “From this, you can deduce the obstacles South African horse people face in the export of their products.”
AHS is a vector-borne viral disease, and has affected South African horse exports since the 1960s.
Goss says he has only suffered one loss to AHS in 40 years on his farm, but says, if properly managed, the losses can be avoided.
“Proliferation of game farms around the country has meant concentrations of zebra in close proximity to horse farms, which has exacerbated the problem,” says Goss.
“The reason is many zebras are carriers of the virus, though they have an inbuilt immunity against it, and while the disease itself is not contagious, it can be carried from one animal to another by a vector.”
Thankfully, there have been breakthroughs in its detection.
“The latest technologies mean that we are able to detect AHS within a matter of hours nowadays and with the quarantine protocols we now have in place, we can guarantee we are unlikely ever to export infected horses,” says Goss.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/sometime-in-africa/2013/11/01/love-mountain-hate-horse/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ: Love The Mountain Hate The Horse</a>
“With new scientific developments and a new Polymerase Chain Reaction test to detect AHS within hours, South Africa is busy working towards a much shorter period of quarantine of possibly 16 days. This will obviously open the door to the world market and allow the entire horse industry to grow to its full potential,” says Todd.
This test has been developed by Professor Alan Guthrie and colleagues at the Faculty of Veterinary Science’s Equine Research Centre in the University of Pretoria, which has improved the lab diagnosis of AHS by increasing the sensitivity of detection and shortening the time required for the diagnosis.
Equine experts like Todd are optimistic the strides taken by the industry will make this year more successful for the horse industry.
Currently, horses are exported from Cape Town’s Kenilworth Racecourse, which serves as a quarantine, transit and export station. The horses are required to serve a three-month quarantine period in Mauritius on top of the three weeks already spent in quarantine in Cape Town, before going on to their final destination.
“The opening of export protocols will allow the industry to unlock a potential billion rand market. This in turn will lead to an expansion of the industry and a significant increase in rural employment…,” says Todd.
The platforms and opportunities are plenty.
In December, FORBES AFRICA visited the Turffontein Racecourse in the southern suburbs of Johannesburg for the glitzy Gauteng Sansui Summer Cup. Dating back 128 years, and along with the Durban July and the Sun Met in Cape Town, it’s one of the big three races on the South African horse racing calendar, with a prize money of R1.25 million ($104,373) up for grabs.
In South Africa, horse-lovers come from all walks of life.
“From rural communities who use horses for transport, to families who buy ponies for their children to ride for fun, to show jumpers and wealthy [South African] businessmen like Dr Richard Maponya who loves horseracing,” elaborates Peter Gibson, the CEO of Racing South Africa.
Prices range greatly depending on the breed and what it will be used for, but buying a thoroughbred racehorse could set you back by an average of over R300,000 ($25,000).
Furthermore, it takes R50,000 ($4,000) to R60,000 ($5,000) a year to maintain a horse on a stud farm.
“Thoroughbred studs are cash guzzlers, and you need to surround yourself with people that are capable of contributing towards the capital needs of the business by way of their support as clients, as well as developing strong relationships with the financial institutions that support you,” says Goss.
“The horse breeding and racing industries by their very nature are among the most labor-intensive activities in South Africa, and according to a recent audit of the industry by Grant Thornton, it employs in excess of 100,000 people, either directly or in those businesses that provide services to racing and breeding.”
Hopefully, in the years to come, the “cash guzzlers” will repay the favor, in leaps and bounds.

Brave-Tin-Soldier-retouched-cover-pic-online

The South African Horse Industry: A Potential Billion Rand Market

Africa’s biggest platinum industry faces one of the most bruising years in its history. Unions and management have drawn battle lines for pay talks and a cloud of question marks hangs over the mining laws – dual uncertainty that could deter foreign investors from putting money in a country that produces 70% of the world’s platinum.
In July, pay talks for a new one-year deal began. Unions for 130,000 workers in South African platinum mines, sat down with the big three: AngloPlats, Implats and Lonmin. They are likely to prove tricky and drag on for weeks. The majority union, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), wants a 15% pay rise; the second largest, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), wants 20% across the board. Both unions are eyeing the recovering platinum price nosing above $1,000 an ounce for the first time in years. In August 2011, it was over $1,900.
<div id="attachment_5133" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5133" class="size-medium wp-image-5133" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Peter-Leon-017-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" />Peter Leon</div>
Demand for platinum, thanks to jewellery and automotive manufacturers, rose 10% in the first quarter of this year, according to the World Platinum Investment Council, while supply dropped 11%. It promises profit for South African mines if they can keep costs down; wages make up almost half of costs.
Amcu has 61% of the membership at AngloPlats, 62% at Implats and 82% at Lonmin. It holds the aces and will play a mean game for a minimum wage of R12,500 (around $860) a month. This wage has been the rallying call from Amcu ever since the bitter Marikana strike of August 2012. At the announcement of its demands in July, FORBES AFRICA questioned R12,500, saying it should be more like R20,000, taking into account four years of inflation.
“If we say R20,000 for the lowest paid, the employers are going to run away so we will go for R12,500 and work up from there,” says, the president of Amcu and part-time preacher, who appeared bullish and ready for action.
“We are applying for a pay rise here, not a strike. If the employers apply for a strike we will give it to them.”
The platinum employers are likely to be a tough nut to crack; inflation, at around 6%, is on their side. They are also struggling against years of falling commodity prices and productivity. On the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, AngloPlats shares lost two thirds of their value last year and Lonmin, kept afloat by a shareholders’ bailout in 2015, lost 99%.
Aside from the industrial problems, South Africa faces many more months of uncertainty over the country’s mining laws. Amendments to the Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act – which governs mining – have spent four years going back and forth through Parliament; questions have been raised over the constitutionality of the amendments. Investors take a dim view of plans to make resources – like iron and coal for the steel industry – designated minerals under the law. That would mean miners accepting government prices and maybe having to ask permission to export. This could lead to a trade law complaint at the World Trade Organization (WTO). China suffered a WTO ruling against it recently in a similar case concerning rare earth.
Then there are concerns about the discretion the law hands to the minister, giving him the power to cancel mining licences and prosecute.
“It is open to discretion, with unclear rules, which makes it very difficult to invest with that level of uncertainty and that is the long and short of it,” says Peter Leon, a mining lawyer with Herbert Smith Freehills, at a briefing in Johannesburg in June.
“We are going to a third rewrite without solving the problems of the first two.”
The bill is on its way back through the legislature and a number of bodies, including the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa. Leon and his colleagues say the chiefs came up with one of the best ideas yet – an independent body to allocate the state-owned mineral rights.
With Parliament adjourned for the August 3 municipal elections, mining experts fear it could be well into next year before South Africa’s mining code is fixed. Investors seek stability and regulatory certainty; with every passing month there is a risk more of them will turn away.

Platinum Blues

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-4514" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/shutterstock_319973618-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />
I recall from my first venture to the World Economic Forum in Davos, in 2014, the brightly colored scarves hanging from the necks of political leaders and captains of industry as they spoke on television. These scarves were in the colors of the national flags of two of Africa’s powerhouse economies – Nigeria and South Africa.
They performed two functions – much needed warmth and a sign that Africa was firmly on the international stage.  Africa was open for business; that was the message that rang clearly and loudly from the peaks of the snow-capped mountains.
Fast forward to January 2016; where the beautiful ski resort, nestled in the Alps, once more played host to more than 2,500 delegates from around the world as global markets saw a rickety start to the year.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-4516" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/shutterstock_366100388-300x194.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="194" />
China was changing its growth model and posted a slowdown in GDP. The United States increased interest rates in December 2015, despite its marginal economic growth. Then there was the slump in commodity prices, with oil reaching 12 year lows. Gold, platinum, iron ore and copper were also weaker. Emerging and frontier markets bore the brunt with no end in sight.
How was Africa going to see increased investment in its economies when it was in the eye of a perfect storm? Well that’s where charity begins at home. This seen in the launch of a new deal on energy, focused on power, potential and partnership to secure universal access to electricity on the continent by 2025.
“More than a century after Edison invented the light bulb, half of Africa is still in the dark,” said Akinwumi Ayodeji Adesina, President of the African Development Bank and FORBES AFRICA Person of the Year in 2013.
This new move to power up the continent was in line with the theme for this year’s gathering &#8211; the fourth  industrial revolution, which focused on robotics, artificial intelligence and how electricity can grow economies.
“We talk about the fourth industrial revolution, but it all starts with the need for electricity, which is like blood in the system. If we don’t have it, we can’t live,” says Adesina.
To help keep Africa on the world economic map, strong delegations came from a number of states. Several African leaders were in Davos:  Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda, Hailemariam Dessalegn, Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Nigeria’s  Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma &#8211; despite several questions about his low profile at the Forum.
Members of the private sector too were there to allay fears that Africa may no longer be rising.
Oscar Onyema, CEO of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, remains confident that Africa plays home to equity markets which continue to see interest from investors, regardless of the global market conditions.
“We just have to ride the cycles,” he says.
Feeling the same was Nicky Newton-King, CEO of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the largest bourse on the continent that has won awards for the way it runs.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-4515" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/shutterstock_366100406-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" />
“We have got to understand that there is a new normal out there, low growth in an uncertain global world, good investment opportunities will come, but we still have a chance to compete with our global peers,” said Newton-King.
Fellow members of the private sector with a strong focus on the continent, add that they too are concerned, but not shaken, by the headlines.
“I think it depends really on your time profile for your investments, I think there’s a growing interest from people who have a five to ten year view of what they want to be investing in to actually go to Africa,” said Geoffrey White, CEO of Agility Africa.
Ralph Mupita, CEO of Old Mutual Emerging Markets says: “We are long term investors, with our roots in Africa – South Africa to be exact. Despite the challenges at a macro level, we see the needs of the consumer and we are providing them with the service, we will roll out capital prudently.”
While the challenges are clear. Africa is still on the agenda for many &#8211; albeit with reservations. Power, partnerships, and certain regulatory frameworks are the sturdy lifeboats we need to ride out the economic storm.
And whilst many do agree that the short to medium term will be worrisome our future is not dim… perhaps we need to cast our eyes slightly further out on the horizon. After all Rome wasn’t built in day; neither will Africa be.

Brrr…its cold for African optimists in the Alps this year

<ol>
<li>
<h3>How long did it take to get to the top?</h3>
</li>
</ol>
Nearly two decades. I began my career at sea as a cadet in 1996. I then worked on cargo ships, shipping bananas between Ecuador and California, before starting my career in the cruise industry in 2001 as third mate. I worked my way up the ranks, from second officer, first officer navigation, first officer deck, first officer safety, chief officer safety to staff captain (deputy captain, second-in-command). I then joined Celebrity Cruises in July 2015 with my promotion to captain.
&nbsp;
<ol start="2">
<li>
<h3>You have made history as a female captain…</h3>
</li>
</ol>
I honestly did not expect the overwhelming response of support and sheer enthusiasm for my promotion, but I meet people on a daily basis who tell me how much it means to them to see me in this position. It is a very humbling experience, and I really enjoy sharing the story about where and how it all started – with my dad, who told me I could be anything I wanted in life. I meet fathers who let me know that they tell their daughters the same thing. I meet grandmothers who have so much faith in their granddaughters and want to share my story with them. I enjoy speaking to young women and watching their faces and reactions as they come to the realization that becoming a captain of a cruise ship is a possibility for them.
<ol start="3">
<li>
<h3>What is your greatest high on the high seas?</h3>
</li>
</ol>
The ability to actually maneuver the vessel – the arrivals and departures from ports are an adrenaline rush!
&nbsp;
<ol start="4">
<li>
<h3>What is the roughest weather you have encountered at sea?</h3>
</li>
</ol>
I have found that the term ‘rough’ is relative as everyone has a different definition, but one of the most important lessons I’ve learned is not only applicable to going to sea, but also on land: Mother Nature is to be respected. There are several things that we can control but Mother Nature is not one of them. However, we have great, expert means of being able to make predictions and plan accordingly. The safety of our guests and crew always comes first, and we do not take chances.
<ol start="5">
<li>
<h3>How is it like to be away from family for months?</h3>
</li>
</ol>
My contract is three months onboard and three months at home. I have the opportunity to invite my family to come sail with me when possible. Onboard, I have a family of 950 crew members. You can say we are a support system of our own. More than 65 different nationalities and backgrounds working together and supporting each other – they are truly special relationships.
When I am home, I can do anything I want, including travel, visit friends and family or learn a new hobby – there are plenty of those on my list! Also, communication has evolved so much since I began sailing; it is easier than ever to stay in touch with loved ones, they are only just a click or phone call away. Life onboard, doing what I love, is nice. Many things are taken care of, such as laundry, meals, cleaning, scheduling. When I go home, it takes a bit of time to adjust to making my own bed, sitting in traffic or going to the grocery store to buy ingredients to cook a meal.
&nbsp;
<ol start="6">
<li>
<h3>What’s your typical day aboard the ship?</h3>
</li>
</ol>
Days at sea are great for me to meet as many guests as possible. I like to walk throughout the ship, go where great events are taking place, talk to everyone and find out where they are from and how their cruise experience is going.
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<ol start="7">
<li>
<h3>Would you recommend this career for other women?</h3>
</li>
</ol>
Women are in the ranks. They have been since I began sailing. The opportunities are increasing for everyone, with more ships being built and positions opening up, and I believe you will see more female captains in the cruise industry soon. It is an incredible career, and I recommend it for anyone who has wanderlust in their veins, enjoys meeting new and interesting people, and experiencing the world by an awe-inspiring mode of transportation – cruising. Think about how you feel when you witness a perfect sunrise or sunset, now that is what it feels like to be at sea every day.

Kate-etch

7 Questions With…

Africa’s music industry is young and vibrant. From Dakar to Mombasa, Lagos to Cape Town, creative communities are producing music that draws from our millennia of heritage, while incorporating modern instruments and the latest technology. The industry itself contributes to Africa both economically and culturally. But it faces challenges to its ongoing development and expansion, and will require both structural and cultural support to counteract these damaging trends.
The difficulties faced by the African music industry are long-established and well-documented. The fundamental challenge is the predominance of an informal economy operating supply chains without proper regulation or observation; the issue of artistes receiving remuneration for intellectual property impacts both physical sales and digital platforms, with content piracy stealing livelihoods from would-be musicians and creatives.
Across the continent, piracy is perceived as a victimless crime. Without proper education as to its impact, not only on creative industries but also on society more widely, this scourge will go unanswered and will continue to undermine the efforts of those working to promote African music. Empowering musicians requires legal frameworks to be reinforced and expanded in order to safeguard intellectual property, a fundamental building block in constructing a robust music industry.
While Africa’s music industry challenges are well known, positive steps are being made to counter these obstacles, and technology is at the heart of those solutions. Internet penetration in sub-Saharan Africa stood at 2% in 2010; by 2014, Africa’s entire figure had risen to 27%. This increased access has fostered the proliferation of international services such as iTunes, and Shazam, as well as Nigeria’s Spinlet and Kenya’s Mdundo. This represents a prime opportunity for a more regulated distribution chain for artistes.
Although physical sales revenues outweigh digital by a considerable margin across Africa, digital sales are growing as a percentage – a trend predicted to continue, with my home country Nigeria estimated to see over 50% of music revenue through digital streams in 2015.
Unsurprisingly, Africa’s music industry does not have significant economic impact on the bottom line of the continent’s exports balance sheet. Findings from US-based research agency PolitiFact found that the music industry accounted for “less than 0.1% of Africa’s export revenue”. Compared with commodity-rich sectors such as fuel, gold or diamonds, and softer commodities such as timber, sugar, or grains, our music industry’s economic contribution is dwarfed in absolute terms by this more tangible production.
There is, however, an intrinsic value to Africa’s music industry, one which is not measured in dollars, naira or any other currency.
It is the value of a diverse yet shared cultural heritage, one which places musical creativity at the heart of storytelling. The tonal nature of many African languages creates a strong connection between musical and verbal communications, meaning for many African communities music is woven into the fabric of society.
Many are already aware of the impact African music has had on global music, from historic links to blues, soul, and jazz, all the way through to contemporary rap and hip-hop. This feeds back into Africa’s musical exports over the past 50 years; from the Nigerian greats of old like Fela Kuti and Osadebe to Mali’s Ali Farka Touré and Cameroon’s Manu Dibango (who’s still alive) with Senegal’s Youssou N’Dour and Nigeria’s Femi Kuti and William Onyeabor the next to take on the mantle, right through to younger breakthrough acts like Kiss Daniel and Yemi Alade; the love around the world for African music is huge, even if the profits are not. And with the younger generation, we’re seeing artistes incorporating western musical influences to create the eclectic and exciting fusion of sounds we’re hearing today.
The legal and governance frameworks which surround African music are in their infancy, but the continent’s musical heritage is as rich, time-honoured and robust as that of any other continent on earth. It has an exciting future, a future of challenges but also of opportunities, most notably through the emergence of digital platforms. Properly protected and nurtured, African music can continue to go from strength to strength. No one can doubt that the whole world would benefit from that.

CY_Apr232014_0194

The Value Of African Music

Kenya’s nascent mutual fund industry is becoming an important component in the country’s financial landscape. With increasing international focus on frontier economies, the country is slowly emerging as an investment destination for foreign investment funds seeking exposure in East Africa.
Moreover, the emergence of a thriving middle class is also creating capital flows for local asset managers. The industry, which is regulated by the Capital Markets Authority (CMA), now commands $430 million in assets under management, having grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.2% since 2010, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) Africa Asset Management 2020 report.
For a long time, growth in Kenya’s mutual fund industry was subdued due to an underdeveloped capital market. Until 2006, equity transactions were still being done through the floor-based open outcry system, share certificates still served as proof of ownership, trading hours were limited to two hours, trade settlements took four days and less than 50 entities were listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE). As a consequence, by the close of 2005, only five investment funds operated and total market capitalization accounted for less than a third of its gross domestic product (GDP). This state of affairs seriously hampered Kenya’s capital markets as an important investment destination.
However, since 2006, all this changed drastically with the number of listed companies increasing to 63 and the total market capitalization rising to nearly 41% of GDP by the end of last year. Between 2006 and 2014, equity turnover doubled to $2.15 billion, Kenya managed to successfully issue its first sovereign bond which raised a total of $2 billion, the number of operating investment funds grew to 71 and the NSE received approval to demutualize and self list on the exchange. In April, the top foreign investment funds investing in Kenya had at least 25% of their funds allocated in the country, according to PwC research.
Despite this growth, the fund industry has a long way to go as it still accounts for an extremely small share of GDP at 0.7% and 0.8% of total financial sector assets. Among other reasons, a poor savings culture in the country has been blamed for the small size of the industry. The World Bank puts Kenya’s saving rate at around 12 to 13% of GDP which is half the average for all low-income countries (at 26% of GDP) and slightly lower than Africa’s rate which stands at around 17%. Furthermore, with wealth distribution highly unequal, the fund market has relied almost entirely on institutional investors. The young industry also has to deal with rising competition from other alternative investment vehicles such as the real estate sector and private equity.
Nonetheless, a combination of certain fundamental factors are likely to drive the mutual fund industry’s speedy growth in the coming years. These factors are stable economic growth, strong market performance, widespread adoption of mobile technology which makes delivery of new products cheaper, introduction of new asset classes, cross listings, loosening of regulations, political stability, investor education and the emergence of the middle class. The latter, which now stands at 44.9% of Kenya’s total population, is projected to grow at an average of 5% every year. The expansion of this group will be instrumental in driving demand for mutual fund products such as equity and fixed-income funds.
In addition, government’s agenda to grow the financial sector as stated through the Vision 2030 development program will also boost the mutual fund industry. Through the recently launched Kenya Diaspora Policy, funds can expect to tap into the ever increasing diaspora remittances. Since the CMA has been keen to market Kenya’s financial markets through diaspora conferences, mutual funds can expect to be a major beneficiary. According to the CMA, remittances inflows have risen from $408 million in 2006 to $1.43 billion in 2014, or the equivalent of a CAGR of 15%. Average monthly remittances now stand at over $100 million. Kenya’s government estimates that 15% of the remittances are used in productive investments.
The future is indeed bright and there is little doubt that Kenya’s mutual fund industry will grow to become a strong player within the finance sector and the economy at large.

Growing In Leaps  And Bounds

The alcohol industry in Africa is an industry dominated by men for the male consumer. Wrong. Triya Govender, the new Brand Manager of Glenlivet single malt whisky in South Africa, says (surprisingly)some of the whisky brands in South Africa are managed by women.
Govender is 31 years old and has been in the alcohol marketing space for four years. According to her, women bring a different perspective to the whisky industry.
“I think the way women understand people [whisky drinkers], or rather, what insights they draw from them differs to men. My inferences about consumers are framed by, but not limited to, my perspective as a woman, which is different to a man. Neither is wrong or more accurate, they’re different and I think diversity of insight and perspective is a good thing because it helps stimulate debate and get the best idea on the table.
“The whisky category in this country is proliferated with brands appealing to more or less the same consumer need and doing so in very similar ways. Cutting through the clutter in order to be seen or heard by the consumer, let alone convincing them, is a big challenge,” says Govender.
She is seeking to expand her market, particularly the female franchise.
“Female franchise refers to the growing female whisky-drinking population in South Africa. These women are changing the face of what is widely considered an ‘all boys club’.”
Born in Durban in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal, Govender completed a Bachelor of Arts degree and post-graduation in Marketing Management at the University of Cape Town. She was employed by Microsoft as an online ad operator, followed by managerial positions in British American Tobacco, Brandhouse, Distell and Pernod Ricard where she holds her current position.
“At the time I moved into the alcoholic beverages industry, I was looking for an opportunity to grow my skills in terms of brand building. I felt brand management in this industry really focused on turning consumer insight into relevant brand propositions and this was the area of professional development I was seeking. Plus, it’s a pretty fun industry to be in,” says Govender.
Whether as marketers or consumers, are women in the whisky industry associated with empowerment?
“I’m empowered because I have the freedom to work in any industry I choose. I’m empowered because my voice is heard and I’m empowered because my gender does not dictate my skill, competency or the opportunities I have access to. Being the Brand Manager of Glenlivet is a result of the fact that I’m empowered. I believe the idea of legacy is a powerful personal motivator, it can motivate women [and men] to empower themselves if that’s what it takes to live a life worth remembering for the right reasons,” she adds.
This ethos is one she adopts even in her life as in 2012 she co-foundered the Young Professionals Effect, an organization offering free consulting to NGOs. She is also a manager of the Emagqabini Education Academy in Khayelitsha, a township in South Africa.
“I believe that we will not see any progress in society if we don’t work to improve the lives of all. The positive change I hope to bring about through my involvement in these organizations is the legacy I wish to leave behind.”

IMG_5348-28

‘It’s A Fun Industry’

The music industry in South Africa for local artistes is not easy to navigate. LeAnne Dlamini should know, having been in it for almost 20 years now, she has done it all to find her own niche. Yet, does she have it all?
“In South Africa, I think people get so used to seeing your face and hearing your voice, that you are almost nothing to them anymore, and when you go outside the country, you get appreciated more which is so sad,” she rues.
Dlamini lived in Dubai and Los Angeles for a number of years before realizing the harsh truth that people back home were soon forgetting her.
“When you are out of sight, you are out of mind, that’s why I needed to come back.” But she also saw opportunity in returning home.
“I saw the potential. Other places are developed already, they have everything they need. I needed to come back to SA and be the next best thing in RnB because it is lacking [here]. Africa is definitely where it is happening. It doesn’t matter if everyone in LA knows you if back home no one knows who you are,” says Dlamini.
Growing up in a middle class family in Eldorado Park, one of Johannesburg’s infamous colored neighborhoods, Dlamini’s career began at the age of 13. She was part of the church choir, and also started a girl group in high school called Cherry.
“We wanted to be the Destiny’s Child of South Africa, but that didn’t happen, we hustled, went to record labels, everyone thought we were crazy,” says Dlamini.
The group did not make it but at least Dlamini’s solo career took off. She started singing for famous local artistes, one of them being Loyiso Bala.
“That’s when I was bitten by the bug, just being around Loyiso, just being in that studio environment, I loved it,” says Dlamini.
When she was only 22, Dlamini married her producer, Sipho Dlamini. While being a mother (she has two children) and wife will always be her first priority, it did somewhat lead her away from the path to stardom.
“I felt like my career needed a boost. But I wanted to do something that was out of my comfort zone. I didn’t want to record a track with a hip hop artiste or a house DJ, I wanted to do something I wouldn’t necessarily do here [in South Africa],” says Dlamini.
And she chose an offbeat route to make a comeback. In 2012, Dlamini packed her bags and headed to the United Kingdom, to enter the X Factor reality show. She received praise from the judges and qualified for the next round, almost making it to the final stages of the competition.
“Just for me to be there and hear the producers and judges tell me that was great, it was a boost,” says Dlamini.
It was just what she needed.
“I am now 30 and I can fully dive into my career and I feel like now is when my life is fully beginning. It feels like this is the first album that I’ve ever done. It’s insane,” says Dlamini.
And she proved just how ready she was in 2014 when she participated in Strictly Come Dancing South Africa. Dlamini made it to the semifinals, before she and her dance partner were sent home.
She is now working on her third album and hopes to release it later in the year.
Determined to be the superstar, Dlamini’s journey has been a long one and if she were to do it all over again, she would, she has no regrets.

LeAnnePublicityPromo2

If Not Destiny’s Child, Then What?

Eric Lawson portrayed the Marlboro Man – the iconic strong rugged man, with cowboy hat, piercing eyes and chiseled jaw, who was always holding a cigarette. This year, Lawson  became the third Marlboro actor to die of a smoking-related disease. The world has changed since smoking was advertised as the cool thing to do. Today, there is an increase in healthy options, even in fast food restaurants. Coffee shops are filled with the ‘athletic mum’ and her ‘workout friends’; healthy living is now a booming multibillion-dollar industry.
Companies realize the importance and profitability in marketing a healthy lifestyle. This lifestyle has become synonymous with strength, responsibility, sacrifice, and success. Companies sponsor athletes who embody these values to attract consumers to their products.
As with any partnership, sponsorship should be mutually beneficial. The athlete must be able to focus on training and competition, and sponsorship can provide the security they need. This ensures that their living costs are covered, including buying training equipment or travelling to competitions. In return, the sponsor receives brand enhancement and product awareness that could develop new or niche markets. It differentiates themselves from their competitors, increases overall sales and even contributes to goodwill in the community.
These are all valuable, but there are also pitfalls to sponsorships from both perspectives.
&nbsp;
Sponsor’s Perspective
<ol>
<li>Athlete integrity: With increased social media, athletes are under the microscope more off the field than on it. Without integrity, the potential for a negative image created by an athlete’s behavior is increased.</li>
<li>Athlete effort: An athlete has to put work into marketing their sponsor. An idle athlete (or athlete’s manager/agent) can create high costs for the company with little return.</li>
<li>Lack of control: With injury, illness, or a sudden lack of performance or drop in rankings, a once high profile athlete may no longer be an effective marketing tool. However, a good role model can continue representing a company even after they have retired from playing sport.</li>
<li>Brand diffusion: Do other companies or individuals sponsor your athlete? Are they reputable? Are there too many sponsors involved that limit the effectiveness of your athlete’s brand? Are you the main sponsor that receives the most benefits?</li>
</ol>
&nbsp;
Athlete’s Perspective
<ol>
<li>Sponsor’s integrity: Just as important as an athlete’s integrity and as with many of these points, it works both ways. As an example, if an athlete is endorsing a company that is found to be using child labor, the athlete will be seen as promoting it.</li>
<li>Sponsor’s demands: These must be realistic and allow the athlete to focus on what they are supposed to do – train and compete. The athlete must also learn to manage their time to accommodate their obligations to the sponsor.</li>
<li>Sponsor’s technology: I was under contract to swim for a swimsuit company because they had the best product at the time. My contract stated that should my rankings drop, so would my income. The sponsor failed to keep up with technology and its competitors came out with a better suit. Despite that, I remained loyal and went on to break the world record.</li>
<li>Other athletes: The sponsor may have five other athletes and choose to market them more than you. Due to your exclusive relationship with the sponsor your branding could take a back seat. It is important that the athlete does not solely rely on the sponsor for marketing, but builds marketing campaigns and branding efforts to increase their own visibility and value.</li>
</ol>
Great sponsorships are the result of strong relationships backed by good communications. A clear contract should be developed with the above considerations taken into account, including exit strategies for ‘what if’ scenarios.
The increasing trend for active and healthy lifestyles places greater importance for athletes to endorse products. Companies need to find an athlete that fits with their philosophy and shares their values. Companies can find these athletes by looking for those with a winning record or great potential, but companies should choose these athletes based on personality, uniqueness, being a good role model, and their relationship with fans.
This will avoid any potential pitfalls and allow the magic of sport to keep us entertained.

The Good And Bad Of Being An Ad

JJ Milner was an IT geek and never had to make a conscious effort to learn about the industry he is in today. It was a hobby that came naturally. He knew this hobby would turn into a business when he was just 17 years old. Today, 25 years since its inception, Global Micro Solutions is making a mark in cloud servicing and business in the IT industry.
In 1990, Milner and a friend founded Global Micro Solutions with $400 each, selling computers out of his parents’ garage.
Today, Global Micro Solutions is making money many businesses can only dream of. Working with a broad spectrum of companies in South Africa, Milner provides IT solutions to small and medium sized organizations as well as enterprises and multi-nationals.
But it hasn’t been smooth sailing for this entrepreneur.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-3530" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/IMG_6836-300x203.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="203" />
Micro Global Solutions offers the latest advances in the information, communications and technology sector but when the United States-based WorldCom (now known as MCI) decided to pull out of a $400,000 deal with Micro Global Solutions, Milner had to dig deep to save his business.
“Our biggest challenge is people not keeping their word, in one form or another. Whether in breaking a contract or breaking the spirit of the contract; when not delivering when they say they’re going to deliver; renegotiating something that was agreed when they understood that was not the basis when they went into the deal,” says Milner.
Global Micro Solutions was doing well and he wanted the business to grow out of its comfort zone and that involved putting down his hard-earned money, as well as his time and effort.
Around 1995, Global Micro Solutions had a deal with UUNET, a subsidiary of WorldCom. UUNET partnered with Global Micro Solutions to offer the first multi-tenant hosted exchange platform in Africa. It was made possible through a close relationship with Microsoft.
“We went to them and spent six to eight months planning what we were going to do, like build some new services. We built the first multi-tenant host exchange solution in the world with Microsoft on Exchange 2000 Beta,” says Milner.
UUNET was based in Johannesburg and at the time the US-based telecommunications firm, WorldCom, was the second largest distance phone company and had partnered with Global Micro Solutions on this project.
Milner and his team spent over eight months building the data center at UUNET’s offices and connecting all the wires to make this a success, spending around $400,000 on the project.
It was around this time that a WorldCom representative from the US came to South Africa. Everything was set, all the connections made and Milner was just waiting for the green light to unveil the project.
“We kept asking them when we are going to launch and the guy turned around and said we’re not sure if the service is going to work,” remembers Milner.
After months of hard work, this was a sickening blow.
“Yes, with all the equipment in their data center,” he says.
WorldCom was going to sell UUNET, which meant that the management team would change affecting relationships already built between Milner and the companies. At the time, Milner didn’t know what was going on with WorldCom in the US.
“And literally after I was funding this myself and every month we were there, there was R300,000 finance fees going out for the business. I had to start pushing buttons quite hard to find out what was going on,” says Milner.
Global Micro Solutions were given a million reasons why WorldCom was pulling out of the deal and none made sense to Milner as there was a signed agreement.
“It was a hard thing to deal with, because normally when someone is having a dispute with you they defend their position. There are three sides to every story right? When someone says to you ‘I just changed my mind’, how do you argue with that?” asks Milner.
He could have sued WorldCom, but he didn’t.
“You’ve got to fight the battles you can win,” he says.
Even with a Law degree, Milner felt helpless.
He was worried about the salaries for the 18 people who relied on him to survive. The equipment cost around a few hundred thousand rand every month, but there was no revenue coming in.
“You have a multi-million-rand hole and you’re 24 or 25 years old and the largest telecoms company in the world is telling you to whistle and you don’t have a customer yet and you’ve moved on from what was a good customer service because it was time to spread your wings and do the next thing,” says Milner.
“It’s not a bad decision to be in, but it makes you stronger.”
Milner went on and reached out to everyone he knew including Microsoft. They couldn’t help him but they set up a meeting with South Africa’s biggest landline provider, Telkom.
“I went to Telkom with Microsoft. We gave them an incredibly soft deal. We had to. They had no risk, we put everything down and to Telkom’s credit they took the opportunity. They were incredibly cushioned. I shouldn’t sound surprised by it, we priced it right,” he says.
Telkom launched the hosted exchange project within three months, also becoming Global Micro Solutions first major reseller of its services. The deal got Milner’s company out of its debt woes. Today, Telkom remains a client.
Since then, Milner has been taking risk and expanding his business. The company has evolved into one of the most experienced IT providers of diverse, comprehensive and business-related managed technology services in South Africa. Global Micro Solutions also boasts a number of South African firsts, including: first deployments of hosted Exchange and federated hosted Exchange, hosted Citrix, n-Tier provisioning, Hosted Hyper-V, and Hosted OCS.
He says this has all happened because he took risks. Milner compares his personality as a bussinessperson to Discovery Holdings’ Adrian Gore. He says that becoming an entrepreneur is like jumping out of a plane with silkworms instead of a parachute and hoping that they’re overachievers.
“I can’t think of a better definition than that because I do that a lot,” he says.
“I’ll often go into something and just trust the team we’ve got and trust that we will figure out the answers. It’s served us well. I hope I’ve got overachievers with me.”
Cloud computing is quickly becoming an indispensable part of the IT industry. Milner, along with his team, offers insights into cloud technologies, email management, server architecture, and enterprise communication strategies which has made Global Micro Solutions a leader in its industry.
Milner is one of the most respected voices in the industry today and his company, Global Micro Solutions, is spearheading many of South Africa’s top technology projects. And he will not allow another deal to set him back.

The Deal That  Short-Circuited

Stafford Masie brought Google to South Africa and paid a hefty price. With 20 years in IT, Masie worked with some of the biggest names in the industry. And if ever you want insight into his tenacity, you have to go back to Bloemfontein in the 1990s.
“When I came back to South Africa, I worked at Telkom as a network analyst. I then became an instructor; they sent me to Cape Town and Durban to do a training course and then they sent me to Bloemfontein. It was a five-day course; I was prepared to do it and then these white guys walked in, asked if I was the instructor and walked out. They refused to be taught by someone of color. I was confused and angry; I didn’t know what to do. A lady came to me and said ‘look this is the situation, we are dealing with it, please go back to your hotel’. So I went back to my hotel distraught. I remember calling my dad and he said ‘You have to choose between two paths, you could be the victim or you could go back in there tomorrow morning and make sure you are the best of the best,’” says Masie.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-3403" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/CTP1676-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" />
“I went back in and today some of those guys are my best friends.”
By 2006, Masie had traveled and lived abroad, and held one of the top positions at his then company Novell SA. His success, however, kept him away from his wife and children. Just when Masie thought it was time to rekindle his relationship with his family, he was given the biggest opportunity in his career – Google SA. Stafford did it all; he developed Google Search, Maps, Street View and he hired staff.
It was three years too many for his family and his personal life ‘hit the wall’. Masie was forced to leave Google SA to spend time with his crumbling family.
“I left Google reluctantly, I left Google negatively, I left Google unwillingly, I was hoping to salvage a marriage and spend time with my children again,” says Masie.
But it was too little, too late. His marriage ended.
“I got lost over all the years of giving so much to my career. I lost family and a marriage.”
Masie, the husband, lost, but Masie, the entrepreneur, was determined to win. He threw himself into his work. Masie sent shockwaves through the payment space, creating Payment Pebble, a device that turns your smartphone or tablet into a mobile card machine to receive credit or debit card payments on the go. It was a world first through his founding company, Thumbzup, founded in 2010.
“I have the greatest team, that’s what I have. So whatever anyone else is building out there, I don’t care. I’m not building a product to compete, I am building a team to be sustainable,” says Masie.
The idea of Payment Pebble came to Masie in an unexpected way that he will never forget. While waiting to see a mayor in the Gauteng province, a woman with a baby strapped to her back with a towel was rushed into the mayor’s office in tears. Stafford asked the receptionist what was going on, she explained that the council had turned off the woman’s utilities because she hadn’t made payments. The woman had the money, but wasn’t able to make the payments because she had just given birth to twins and fell ill during childbirth. With no lights or water in the middle of winter, one of the twins died.
Masie knew he had to do something.
“The Payment Pebble wasn’t a technological thing; my love for IT is personified by this. IT can solve that woman’s problem. That guy could have showed up at her house, if he had a payment pebble, he could have accepted her card payment and there could have been a full reconciliation of payment. He would have left and not switched off the lights and the child would be alive today,” says Masie.
“The Payment Pebble is a good example of African innovation solving African problems, it’s a great product,” says Mark Walker, the Regional Director for Africa at the Industrial Development Corporation.
Stafford took his idea to the banks.
“We spoke to all the banks and we realized that all the banks wanted a product. What we liked about Absa was that they wanted a partnership,” says Masie.
Four years later, the Payment Pebble is the largest mobile point of sale in Africa and is launching in one of the largest financial institutes in Australia and Latin America.
Masie believes his leadership style is the reason for his success as an entrepreneur.
“First of all, I am not a boss. I think I am more a leader, someone who is in the trenches shooting with the soldiers. Even though I may be a higher rank, I am in there with them. It is the only way I can be,” says Masie.
Lydia Paledi, an office manager at Novell SA, worked under Masie during his time at the company and has high praise for the entrepreneur.
“He was the best boss I’ve ever had and I wish he could come back.”
Despite his success, Masie dwells on his mistakes. He admits that he thinks of quitting at least once a day.
“It’s a constant battle with yourself; when you invent something, it’s nice to see it on billboards. When you pass Melrose Arch there is this massive billboard, when you look on the TV, it’s on CNN. It’s an incredible feeling but it’s short lived. You are always looking for the next big thing,”
he says.
Masie’s dream was to become a rescue helicopter pilot. Even though that didn’t happen, he is settled with his Payment Pebble and his microlight and six-seater Jabiru planes that he flies privately.

The Smile That Says  I Survived

Is there still easy money to be made in South Africa’s cellular industry? For more than 15 years, the sun shone on the country’s two big mobile operators, Vodacom and MTN. The companies enjoyed an effective duopoly – despite the launch in 2001 of Cell C. Their shareholders reaped the dividends.
But about five years ago, the market began changing. Consumers started using their phones more to access the internet and data services, and proportionally less for making calls. Smartphone sales began to boom, and a new breed of over the top (OTT) providers – companies like Skype, owned by Microsoft, and WhatsApp, owned by Facebook – began providing (often free) alternatives to the network operators’ historic profit centers of voice telephony and text messaging.
They did this by leveraging the operators’ data networks. WhatsApp has decimated person-to-person SMS messaging; Skype, Viber and similar voice dialing services that route calls over the mobile operators’ data networks promise to do the same as next-generation 4G/LTE networks expand and as supported handsets proliferate.
The operators have found themselves in a quandary. By building these next-generation, high-speed data networks, they are effectively erecting the infrastructure on top of which the dreaded OTT providers can compete with them head-on in their most profitable business areas.
Industry bosses, like MTN South Africa CEO Ahmad Farroukh – who has warned that operators and OTT providers have to reach some sort of agreement if the former are to continue investing billions each year in network infrastructure – are adamant they won’t become ‘dumb pipes’. This is industry jargon for operators that provide low-margin telecommunications infrastructure in a utility-type model without profiting from the value-added services that flow across this infrastructure.
Operators want to retain their historically high profit margins by tapping into this value-added services business as voice margins decline. They’re looking to provide services like streaming media and mobile banking and e-commerce – taking them into competition with media companies and financial services institutions.
Both MTN and Vodacom have launched mobile banking solutions – the former recently concluded a deal with Pick n Pay, while the latter has relaunched M-Pesa – and both are looking at video-on-demand (VOD) services similar to America’s Netflix. But neither company has experience in the media industry or financial services and profitable success is far from guaranteed.
While all this has been happening, competition from more traditional competitors — the smaller network operators — has hotted up dramatically.
Cell C has taken advantage of falling termination rates — the fees the operators charge each other to carry calls between their networks — to slash call prices. Vodacom has been quick to respond to the challenge; MTN followed later, but only after it lost significant market share to its smaller rival.
Voice tariffs have probably now fallen as far as they will. Cell C, the instigator of the price war in mobile voice, seems to be back-pedaling a little on previous aggressive price cuts, especially in data, where it’s recently hiked out-of-bundle charges. Vodacom, although reacting to Cell C’s aggressive moves, has been able to hang on to higher prices than its rivals in voice and data services, perhaps because it has a superior network.
Cell C, burdened by debt that some industry insiders say runs into well over $850 million, is in a difficult position. Although it’s won market share in recent years, it is still short of the 25% target its former CEO, Alan Knott-Craig, said it needed to ensure its future success.
Telkom, meanwhile, has effectively given up on the idea of being an infrastructure competitor in the mobile market, with its plans to outsource management of its radio access network to MTN. Unless something spectacular goes wrong, that deal should be wrapped in early 2015.
The future of Cell C is what will determine the shape of the industry for the rest of the decade. Are its shareholders prepared to continue fighting a war of attrition against Vodacom and MTN? Or will they look to sell the business? And who would buy it? France’s Orange, perhaps? Or India’s Bharti Airtel? A sale to a well-funded foreign investor keen to shake up the South African market could up the stakes dramatically.

Is There A Future In Cellphones?

When you meet her, you are immediately struck by the assertive, determined woman she is. But beneath the tough exterior is a woman with a story, a story of adversity and abuse that has led to her becoming one of Uganda’s top travel and tour operators.
Jackie Kemirembe Rubuubi, the Founder and Managing Director of Platinum Safaris, started small. She began her career in the airline industry as a security officer with Sabena Airways, now known as Brussels Airlines. She worked there until the company, which she calls “a very professional workplace”, ran into operational troubles. It was forced to temporarily close down and change names. She had to make ends meet so she found a temporary job at the Kenya Airways office in Uganda’s capital Kampala.
Soon, a new airline, Africa One, made an entry in the Ugandan airspace. And Rubuubi was headhunted for a top managerial position. The offer came with many promises including tempting bonuses. This made her give it her best, but after some time on the job, Rubuubi started noticing the cracks.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-6275" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Jackie-Kemirembe-Rubuubi-while-climbing-Mt.-Rwenzori-in-Uganda-243x300.jpg" alt="" width="243" height="300" />
“Suddenly, I had multiple directors to report to instead of the one that was indicated in my appointment letter. I also never got the bonuses despite signing lucrative deals,” she says. One of the male directors particularly got meddlesome in her duties, unilaterally issuing holiday breaks to members of her team. This upset operations in the section that Rubuubi headed. Frustration set in.
“It was pure harassment and lack of professionalism,” she says.
At the height of it, she decided to have a one-on-one with the female director about the state of affairs. It was going to be a conversation she would never forget – for a long time.
“The director I sought to confide in and the one I was actually supposed to be reporting to told me that as long as I remained employed with them, it wouldn’t be strange if she asked me to go and make their beds! In her view, I was to do anything they wanted me to do despite being a manager. I immediately made up my mind to resign, bringing an end to two daunting years. It turned out to be the worst job I ever had.”
That conversation gave Rubuubi enough reason to leave – and consider starting something on her own. She retreated to London where she found a job as an accountant in a retail food chain.
Within a year, she returned to Uganda on maternity leave. She never returned to London though she kept being paid her salary. She used the money to open a garment shop. The new venture wasn’t doing well but she wanted to avoid being employed again.
It was not easy.
At one point, when she traveled to Dubai to source garments for her shop, she met a Turkish couple who convinced her to open an employment agency to recruit people in Kampala and connect them to odd jobs in Dubai.
The couple turned out to be imposters when they vanished with the $27,000 Rubuubi had given them to process visas for the 230 recruits that had registered.
Her attempts to involve Interpol in tracing them were met with numerous death threats from the couple. She finally gave up and devised a new plan.
With an International Air Transport Association (IATA) qualification under her belt, Rubuubi decided to open a travel and tour company. She registered Platinum Safaris in 2002, starting operations in a small room.
Her first client was an official from the International Criminal Court who not only became a regular but also brought in other customers. The business prospered and she registered it with professional bodies. This brought more opportunities until she shifted office to a new location.
Today, Platinum Safaris is a leading tour and travel service provider in the East African region known for services such as air-ticketing, safaris across the Great Lakes region, honeymoon packages, visa advisory, conference planning and bookings for white-water rafting and gorilla-tracking.
Last year, Platinum received an accolade from Amadeus, a firm that provides travel software and technology solutions for the global travel industry, for its high adoption of solutions. The company also has a raft of honors from other industry players including airlines.
Rubuubi’s vision is to venture into luxury tourism similar to what is offered in Morocco. She is in the final stages of acquiring speedboats that will introduce a new tourism circuit connecting major islands on Lake Victoria, Africa’s greatest lake and source of the Nile.
She says that what she went through made her realize women surely deserve better at the workplace.
“No one expects women to perform better than men. But the fact is many women are stronger than men,” she says.

No More Suffering The Boss

It has since dawned on some in the tourism industry that unless they use their stature and influence to lobby their governments to do more to protect the species and by extension, their business, they stand to lose out. Their argument is that if there are no rhinos to see, they cannot sell the Big Five to potential tourists.
The world’s most powerful women should be getting into something that some might say is not exactly their business: the physical, emotional and sexual abuse of women less powerful than themselves.
There are businesswomen’s associations that help to fund halfway stations where women recovering from or fleeing their abusive partners can learn business principles that can help them be independent once they leave their tormentors. Such associations should lobby their governments to improve conditions of girls and women and tighten punitive measures for those who hurt, abuse and marginalize women.
The logic is simple. The more women do not need to depend on men, the less they will tolerate abusive men. The more women there are in business, especially if they are confident in their femininity, the greater the chances of the feminine motif becoming the norm in the business world and in the executive suite.
It is not enough to assume that being a woman means you can understand the plight of a woman in an abusive relationship. Even if you did, unless there are programs in place in your  business that recognize the debilitating effects of patriarchy on productive capacity and therefore the bottom line, you are no better than those who see or hear no evil.
I am not holding my breath that business is ready for such a leap of faith in the interest of abused women and marginalized girls. Far too many still go with the logic that the business of business is business. Everything else is someone else’s business – the preacher, the teacher or the politician.
I continue hearing about how women boast about what they have had to go through, implying that others who want to attain the same status must also grin, bear and get on with it. And still some insist that having a female boss is better for one’s self-worth.
I don’t know if it is just me, but one hardly sees powerful women – except in their capacity as government officials or public representatives – become champions of the anti-woman abuse movement. The rest of the time, it is the less glamorous women in non-governmental organizations, academia or in the arts, who are left to make the big deal of this social scourge and drain to the economy.
It seems to me that powerful women do not want to risk their power reputation by associating themselves with what they might see as being weak or the doormat at home.
I can see why some women would not want to contaminate their reputation as tough task masters who drive a hard bargain by confessing to have been pushed around like British TV personality Nigella Lawson. But it is the recognition that there are many other Nigellas and that businesswomen’s associations can become socially relevant and inspirational to the women who do not yet own a power suit or have not yet been invited for high tea.
There is also the economic impact of women who are prevented from earning a living and being financially independent by abusive partners, or who are forced to divert their earnings into areas that are not as productive as they could have been.
Women should not be forced to buy make-up only if the intention is to hide the marks and scars on their faces if they could be investing that money into areas that grow their wealth and independence.
There is also the denialism in the top echelons of business that makes top businesswomen or executives pretend that abuse is only suffered by others with a less net worth than themselves or who hold mundane jobs.
Some may say that I am blaming the victim by not addressing the patriarchal power that places women in these situations. Perhaps I am. What is clear to me though is that it is those who feel and have known the discomfort of a stone in the shoe, who are best placed to remove the stone. Demanding that whoever placed the stone there remove it, might slow you down.
The stories we hear about women needing to juggle being wives, partners, parents and business executives should not be used as a demand for sympathy or a self-pat on the back. It should be a catalyst for change that is driven by those who understand the pain and unnecessary hurdles it has brought and ensure it does not happen to other women.

Get The Stone Out Of Your Shoe

The exponential growth of Africa’s middle class has been heralded as a key driver of economic prosperity by many analysts. Their spending capacity and disposable funds are cause for optimism among investors keen to cash in on Africa’s economic momentum. But while the super-rich can splash out on palatial homes and properties, the underbelly of Africa’s middle class (many of them state employees such as teachers, police officers and health care workers), struggle to become homeowners. Their dilemma: they earn too little for banks to risk providing them with credit, but too much to qualify for state assistance.
This applies to countries such as South Africa, where the government provides assistance that enables people to enter the mortgage market. But one company, International Housing Solutions (IHS), has turned this cris-is into an investment opportunity. A member of the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association, IHS is the only private equity company that focuses on affordable housing in Africa. It partners with financial institutions, real estate developers and local government authorities to provide equity finance for housing projects.
“I have always believed that one can do good business while also doing good,” says IHS managing partner Soula Proxenos.
A self-styled ambassador for Africa, Proxenos has been in the affordable housing industry and development sector for 18 years. She believes that if you want the “big dollars” to roll in, you need to find a profitable business. Although she hails from South Africa, Proxenos is based in Washington DC, close to her investors.
As a woman in the mortgage and development sector, she is candid about prevailing attitudes towards her gender. She says the sector is “pretty male-dominated”.
“One is not invited into the room, while at the same time one is not exc-luded from the room,” she explains.
While many women are involved in the non-governmental sector in housing, Proxenos believes they are selling themselves short if they only work for non-profit institutions. “Women still say: ‘we didn’t do this for the money’.” They need to get over this, she urges, arguing that charity, while noble, is not always sustainable.
Her company is a pioneer in recognizing the potential of affordable housing (so-called gap housing) in developing markets. It has opened up a valuable new sector for investors. Simulta-neously, IHS helps thousands of families afford a home and start the journey to wealth creation through property ownership, the bedrock of sustainable middle classes the world over.
IHS’s first fund, the South African Workforce Housing Fund, has committed more than $230 million to providing affordable housing in emerging markets, while also generating superior risk-adjusted returns. Buoyed by the success of her South African venture, Proxenos is now venturing into the rest of Africa.
The International Finance Corp-oration (IFC) and South Africa’s National Housing Finance Corporation (NHFC) have also recently announced investments of more than $63 million in IHS’s second fund. IHS Fund II will support the development of affordable housing in South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. The financial commitments are timely, and come as IHS prepares to expand its footprint.
“With our second fund, our thesis remains the same&#8230; Because of urbanization and the growth of the middle class in Africa, the need for housing across the continent vastly outstrips supply, especially in the category of affordable housing.
“In countries with a functioning mortgage market, that need translates into market demand. This offers investors the opportunity to achieve superior risk-adjusted returns.”
She says the second fund will consist of two sleeves. One will invest in South Africa and the other will invest in Ghana while also targeting other sub-Saharan countries.
“Demand outstrips supply in many markets in Africa, and where the right conditions exist, the sub-Saharan sleeve of Fund II will invest in some of these markets. Our main focus will remain South Africa, but the sub-
Saharan sleeve will start to proactively source deals in Ghana, Botswana,  Namibia and Mauritius,” she says.
“There are many great opportunities for affordable housing investments across Africa, and we’re optimistic that Fund II will deliver excellent returns for investors, as our first fund is showing.”
However, operating in Africa is never hassle free. Nigeria, the second-largest economy on the continent, presents particular challenges for the mortgage market. These include sec-urity of tenure and ambiguity around title deeds, which makes investors risk-averse, Proxenos points out.
Prior to the removal of Mohammed Morsi in Egypt, that country had to spend millions building out its systems, trying to rationalize land and property that had to be titled.
“In Egypt there is a 12 percent tax to have your property re-titled!” she exclaims. And in Nigeria, under former president Olusegun Obasanjo, some measures were introduced but they did not yield the required dividends, she says.
However, the opportunities in Ghana leave her optimistic. While much of the land is traditionally owned, it is also clearly titled. Ghana is stable and the rule of law is entrenched and respected, which makes it an ideal growth opportunity.
“We are excited about Ghana. In Ghana, 5.7 million rooms need to be added to existing homes. There is a robust mortgage market in many countries on the continent. Namibia, Botswana and Mauritius are all examples and Ghana is taking the same direction,” Proxenos says.
Quality housing is a key deliverable for many African governments, which are tying their infrastructure rollout programs to economic growth. But without private sector buy-in, governments cannot deliver on their promises.
Saleem Karimjee, the IFC’s senior manager for Southern Africa, says: “Providing affordable basic services, such as access to quality housing, is a priority for IFC in Africa. IHS Fund II offers an attractive opportunity for private investors to gain access to a fast-growing market with significant positive social impact. IFC’s commitment will stimulate investment growth and job creation in sub-
Saharan Africa, demonstrating that our support can help catalyze additional fundraising.”
So far IFC has committed $25 million to the fund.
On the South African front, where housing remains a challenge almost 20 years into democracy, the IHS Fund II could not have come at a more opportune time. The general elections are just around the corner and the country’s public and private sectors have come to the housing party, enabling thousands to share in the joys of homeownership.
Samson Moraba, who heads up the NHFC, says the corporation is committed to ensuring that all South African households within the affordable housing market have greater access to appropriate homes, in terms of both size and location.
“Our goal is to enhance the well-being and quality of life of the low- to middle-income households with the security of a home, as well as an opportunity to create wealth. We firmly believe that our deliberate strategic partnership with IHS will unlock the delivery of housing at scale, and ultimately lead to the creation of sustainable and attractive communities, where people can live, play and pray.
“We are delighted with this investment because not only will it accelerate delivery of housing, but it will also contribute toward foreign direct and private sector investment, as well as job creation,” he says.
Among global investors, the narrative about Africa’s middle class is one of optimism. Proxenos says there is a buzz about the continent in the world’s capitals, including London, where many investors are based. She is adamant that countries such as South Africa, where the market is “huge”, need to get the fundamentals right.
“Don’t score own goals! We need to put a united foot forward that includes the government and the priv-ate sector. The trust deficit needs to be overcome.”
Proxenos singles out South African ambassador to the US, Ebrahim Rasool, praising his efforts to get investors excited about Africa. Because, ultimately, she says, “you can’t close the deal without an investor”.

Tag: Industry

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA