Côte d’Ivoire is back in the committee of nations after post-electoral violence plunged the country into civil war in December 2011. The commodity-rich West African country is the world’s largest cocoa producer and net exporter of crops including coffee, banana and pineapple to the European Union (EU).
Côte d’Ivoire is also a leading agricultural economy with oil deposits. It accounts for 45% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the eight West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) countries.
The return to political stability and the economic optimism in the country have been great motivation for corporate high-flyers like Fabrice Sawegnon— Côte d’Ivoire’s brightest spark in advertising and CEO of Voodoo Communication. Now he, along with others, can dream and plan big about expanding enterprises and taking Africa to the next level of economic growth.
It almost did not happen though, for Sawegnon. His company was headed to the scrap-heap, along with many other casualties who also suffered in business, as a result of the post-election uprisings. Voodoo lost about 80% of its revenue in that period. A contract came just in time to avert the demise. The sizable deal was from President Alassane Ouattara’s office for the production of presidential campaign billboards.
“We won the contract to produce billboards during the campaign. The communication strategy deal for President Ouattara continues to date,” said Sawegnon.
Voodoo currently leads the pack in Côte d’Ivoire’s advertising industry with an annual revenue of $20 million. The company is expanding and recently opened offices in Benin, Cameroon, Gabon, Mali and Niger. Another office is due to open in the DRC.
On the day of his interview with FORBES AFRICA, Sawegnon—the pioneer of Afro-centric advertising concepts in Côte d’Ivoire—sits in a plush office fitted with all the décor suited to an executive’s taste. He is ebullient and speaks passionately about advertising. He cuts an image of a CEO on top of his game.
This is a long way from 1999 when, at 28, he set up office determined to be a non-conformist in an industry dominated by Western views and opinions. He used the name  ‘voodoo’, derived from fetish cult worship in Benin, to provoke and draw attention.
“I have always been an inveterate entrepreneur. The idea to start my own company came when I was an employee at McCann Erickson. Prior to 1999, the advertising and marketing industry was dominated by Europeans. The name ‘voodoo’ was meant to give a clear African cultural reference point, ostensibly to position the company in the industry. We believe that advertising hinges on two things: technique and cultural bias. Success did not come on a platter,” explained Sawegnon.
Several European advertising firms approached him for partnerships. He turned them down because he believed an Afro-centric ad company should guard its “independence jealously”.
Voodoo has 300 employees across Africa. The thrust of the engine is a crop of enthusiastic creative and artistic employees who, under the leadership of Sawegnon, have powered the company to its current success. Sawegnon, a quintessential ‘local’ breed businessman, is giving the multinational advertising giants, such as McCann Erickson, a run for their money. Voodoo holds big accounts such as France Telecom (Orange)—which operates both fixed land lines and mobile telephones in Côte d’Ivoire; Western Union; Castel beer and Attijariwafa bank—a subsidiary of a Moroccan bank.
Work teams are structured to achieve optimal effectiveness. A dedicated team of marketers and creative staff is assigned to each account. Sawegnon said the team approach had helped them to deliver sterling performance to clients across the continent. Adding, “I believe in using raw talent that can be molded to produce the desired results. Talent can be cultivated when the environment is conducive.”
To demonstrate his determined commitment to Africa, Sawegnon recounted how he queried “made in America” ad campaigns that promoted a soft drink company showing white children playing in the snow at Christmas while the target public in Africa did not necessarily identify with the cultural ethos.
“I was told that it was appropriate to show such ads in Africa since experiencing snow was considered to be an aspiration of African youths; and that African people dream of visiting countries that experience snow in winter. Of course, I did not believe a word of that assertion.
“I told my colleagues at Voodoo that if a Chinese firm beat us to the game in Africa, it would be because we had lost our cultural finesse. Foreign companies might have a capital base to play with, but they couldn’t know Africa better than us,” he said.
Sawegnon considers his high work ethic as central to his rise from humble beginnings to a successful entrepreneur. He also received personal satisfaction from seeing his staff enjoy the fruits of their labor, saying, “I feel proud to watch my executives drive sleek cars and living the dream.”
He lives by the philosophy of passion and teamwork. The latter because he believes “a person working alone cannot succeed”. Sawegnon encourages young entrepreneurs to participate in creative ventures, However, he concedes that, “although you need teamwork, you equally require visionary leaders capable to chart the course for the team.”
Sawegnon views the sharing of experiences as one way to encourage entrepreneurs to forge ahead in hard times. He is convinced that there is space for Africa’s emergence. He said that youths needed to “show ambition” and aim to reposition the continent. He believes that there was still hope that talent could still be cultivated and that a new crop of corporate leaders could be developed.
Formidable success in advertising has not been a cause for Sawegnon to take things easy. In 2009, he diversified into publishing, with two magazines titles: Tycoon, a soft sell magazine, and Life magazine, which spotlights Ivorian celebrities.
“Tycoon features profiles of business leaders. It is a qualitative magazine which does not touch on the monetary aspects as this is deemed to be culturally unacceptable in our country. Highlighting values is closer to my heart. I am the publisher but I sometimes write the preface or editorials,” he explained.
Sawegnon also invested in an event management company that specializes in billboard advertising. As if that were not enough, he is poised for his next project: the launch of Côte d’Ivoire’s first television station, Life TV, once the Ivorian government issues audiovisual licenses later this year. The plan is ready for him to branch into private television programming and production in a country ripe for business following 12 years of political and civil strife.
The success he has achieved in business makes Sawegnon more keenly aware of the responsibility to give back.
“Those of us who have succeeded owe it to society to give back, especially towards empowering youth and helping to spur micro development initiatives in Africa. As entrepreneurs, we create wealth through job creation and add value to the microeconomic effort. I sincerely believe that if all of us entrepreneurs played our part, our efforts would snowball into a powerful force that would propel Africa forward.”
Sawegnon is a graduate of the prestigious École Supérieure de Commerce of Abidjan, where he majored in marketing. He joined the ranks of Young &amp; Rubicam in 1994 as product manager at Metallivoire Jal Afrique (roofing materials, roofing sheets and paints).
The battle for the soul of advertising in Côte d’Ivoire is not yet over, but Sawegnon has made his intentions clear—to conquer the country and the rest of Africa.

A New Lease on Life for Advertising Bright Spark

There are few dreams bigger than competing at the Olympic Games and for the Investec South Africa Women’s hockey team, that dream was nearly shattered.
Despite winning the Africa Cup in 2011 and meeting the International Olympic Committee standards for qualification, the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) decided the competition had not been good enough and they should qualify again for the Games, which start in July.
What a crushing blow to the team and management. The message they were given could be summed up as: “Sorry, we’re not sure you’re good enough, so you’ll have to try again.”
SASCOC’s stringent qualification requirements, however, were standard across all sports to ensure those representing the country are genuine medal contenders.
So much for the underdog and outsiders having a chance. It leads one to wonder if SASCOC has ever heard of upsets in sport. Any child excelling at an Olympic sport would simply like the opportunity to participate in the Games. To have a local set of double standards is fair neither on the individual nor the team.
The women’s hockey team, to their credit, did not let the disappointment get to them as they went out to re-qualify in a gruelling nine-day tournament in Delhi in February. Again, they made it.
Led by 28-year-old captain Marsha Marescia, who was named Player of the Tournament, the South Africans prevailed in the final over a strong Indian side that had beaten them in the past. “I think if you were given the opportunity to go to the Olympic Games and all you had to do was win one event, you would give everything,” said Marescia before the tournament.
“All the teams participating are going to go flat out, but I think that with our mix of youth and experience, we are feeling confident.”
Teammate Kim Hubach said it was a relief when her side made it over the final hurdle and hinted at SASCOC’s curveball. “It was a feeling you can’t describe; months of hard work had finally paid off. The road to London has not been easy but we have grown as a team and beaten the odds.
“I would go to war with these girls. We have grown so close; they’re like a second family.”
The men’s team found themselves in the same situation. They too won the Africa Cup last year, but were forced to take part in a similar qualifying tournament in Japan at the end of April. As with the women, the men were playing for the only spot available to book their place in the Olympic showpiece.
For SASCOC’s sake, it’s lucky they made it, beating Japan 2-1, or the sporting body would have been left trying to explain how a team a fraction outside the top 10 (South Africa is ranked 12th in the world)—and which previously qualified—was not good enough to go to London.

Moving The Goalposts

Runners Kipchoge Keino and Pamela Jelimo are divided by age, but united by the fact that they are both Olympic champions. The contrast in their Olympic lives tells the story of half a century of change for African athletes.
Keino—known as “Kip”—ran when athletics was an amateur sport. Jelimo burst onto the scene as a professional athlete. For her, the Olympic medal meant ‘increased personal brand value’—as the marketing men say these days.
Kip, 72, a two-time Olympic gold medallist, is chairman of the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOCK). He has kept his lean, athletic, whipcord frame that propelled him down the track to glory in Mexico.
Kip won the 1,500 meters gold in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, amid the energy-sapping, thin air caused by the altitude, on a day he defied the doctors, who recommended that he pull out. Legend has it that Kip was stuck in Mexico City’s notorious traffic before the race and had to run a mile to the stadium to make the starting line-up in time. In the race, Kip beat United States track star Jim Ryun by more than 20 meters—a record, before going on to win the silver in the 5,000 meters. He was just 23.
<div id="attachment_816" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-816" class="wp-image-816 size-medium" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/50438922_10-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" />Kenyan track star Kipchoge Keino (L) finishing ahead of teammate Ben Jipcho (574) in the 3,000-meter steeplechase final at the Summer Olympics. (Photo by John Dominis//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)</div>
Four years later, in the 1972 Olympics in Germany, he won gold in the 3,000 meters steeplechase and silver in the 1,500 meters.
“To be an Olympic champion takes a lot of dedication from an individual,” he says.
“The Olympic gold was for you, the country and the continent of Africa. There were very few athletes from Africa in those days and it is not like what you have today.”
Kip says his biggest problem was getting time off from work.
“Sometimes being on duty meant missing meals and then you had to go train, even without a meal. There was nothing like nutrition,” he says.
“During our time we had no coaches. It was up to you to personally work on your skills in your own free time. We were not allowed to go out for more than 28 days a year because of a rule put in place by the International Association of Athletics Federations. In those days, we had amateur status, not like today.”
Kip was a police officer from the late 1960s, rising through the ranks to become chief inspector. He retired from athletics in 1973.
Jelimo embodies the renaissance of Kenyan women in athletics: for the first time, they have better prospects of bringing home gold than the men.
Jelimo, 22, the reigning 800 meters Olympic champion, is also a police officer. But unlike in Kip’s day, there are more flexible working hours to allow for international athletics events.
Also unlike Kip, Jelimo has a number of trainers—including Bryan Engelherdt and other runners like Daniel Sirima—to help her prepare. She is expected to be one of the hotshots at the London Olympics as she runs for a second gold in the 800 meters.
It hasn’t been easy. Jelimo may have gone back to winning ways this year, clinching gold at the World Indoor Championships in Turkey in March, but injury, namely a strained Achilles tendon, has been her biggest opponent.
“I have suffered for three years because of many injuries, but I pray that I will continue working hard and keep the spirit burning, so that by the end of June, I will be in my best competitive form.”
<div id="attachment_817" style="width: 484px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-817" class="size-large wp-image-817" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Forbes.Africa-Dr.Keino-12cm8cm@300dpi-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="316" />Kip Keino</div>
The Olympics is her main objective. “I know that I am the defending champion, but the main objective will be to run under two minutes in the Kenyan qualifying rounds to make it to the Olympics.”
Jelimo, then 18, won gold at the Beijing Olympics in 2000, which was the icing on the cake for a very successful year. She became the first Kenyan to win the $1 million Golden League Jackpot that very year. Those earnings were a just reward for the years of toil in which her parents struggled to put her through school.
“Athletics is like a cake and everybody wants to have a piece of it.  Sports is very rewarding and people should take it seriously [if they have the] talent,” she says.
Kip was actually one of the athletes at the forefront of making the sport professional. “We were not being paid for running. So the year after the Munich Olympics, we decided to form an International Track Association (ITA), where the athletes would run in field events and make money. The athletes would be paid like in other sport such as tennis. The IAAF [International Association of Athletics Federation] realised that ITA would overtake them and so IAAF also started paying athletes the money.”
The prize money has made athletics more lucrative as a sport and as Jelimo works her way back from injury, she acknowledges the increasing competition in the sport.
“It is hard coming back, after being out, to compete with people who have been training for three months. You cannot take a race and say it is simple. There is no race which is that simple,” she says.
Some of her main challengers for the Olympic gold are fellow Kenyan runner Janeth Jepkosgei and the South African, Caster Semenya.
“I don’t fear anybody when I am in the field. When I am in shape, I am in shape because you know everybody is fighting for it and you should be fighting for it. It is all mental,” she says.
Kip says there is rising competition and that victory is hard these days.
“Well, for Kenyans it can be natural, but what about the other people in the world? They can also be nurtured to compete. Anybody in the world can do anything with the talent God has given them,” he says. “There is nothing special about Kenyan athletes. The only thing that is special is their training. They prepare themselves physically and mentally.”

A Tale Of Two  Runners

The gun cracked. The runner shot forward. Her breathing was normal. She soon found her rhythm as they hit the first bend. The group at the front was bunched. The woman in green and gold held steady. As they neared the 400-meter mark, she could feel the Kenyan, Janeth Jepkosgei, breathing down her neck. As the bell went for the last lap, she increased the pace but the Kenyan went with her. That’s when it happened. Two hundred meters to go; it was like a second gun exploded. Eighteen-year-old Caster Semenya surged forward with her long, powerful strides as she tore away from the field to win her first world 800-meter title in a remarkable time of 1:55.45—a glorious victory.
It was the 800-meter women’s final at the 2009 IAAF World Championships in Berlin, and Semenya had just become the first South African to win the event.
The world was at her feet. Then the gender controversy began. Suddenly, Semenya was known for her deep voice and muscular build, not normally associated with a teenage girl, rather than her running. She was subjected to a long and public gender verification saga by world athletics. People argued over her case; petty politicians used her as a political football. Semenya was withdrawn from competition until July 2010, before she was cleared to run again—a long and painful exclusion. Many would have given up—she could have, but she refused.
<div id="attachment_806" style="width: 484px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-806" class="size-large wp-image-806" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/124075220_10-685x1024.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="709" />FRANCE &#8211; AUGUST 26: The 9th Athletics world championships in St Denis In Paris, France On August 26, 2003 &#8211; Maria Mutola (Moz) wins gold medal in the 800 meters. (Photo by Pool BASSIGNAC/DUCLOS/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)</div>
Semenya came back to defend her title in 2011 in Daegu, South Korea, and was beaten narrowly in the final straight as she came in with a time of 1:56.35—a commendable performance, considering the events leading up to the race. Now Semenya plans to go one step further—she wants gold at the Olympic Games in London.
The odds, for the first time, are stacked in her favor. Since her win in Berlin almost three years ago, she has been in contact with former Olympic Gold medallist in the 800-meters at the 2000 games, Mozambican Maria Mutola.
No stranger to gender controversy herself, although all was proved unwarranted, the 39-year-old Mutola recently replaced Semenya’s coach, Michael Seme, at the end of last year. Legend has it that Mutola was caught masquerading as a man when she played in a football cup final back home in Maputo. Amid the furore, a coach spotted her running talent and the rest, as they say, is history.
Mutola dominated the two-lap race during the 1990s and into the next century. During this time, she became a seven-time world indoor gold medallist and she also added three world 800 meters gold medals to her tally.
Mutola and Semenya make a powerful team gunning for gold in July. Mutola trains the now 21-year-old prodigy in Pretoria, north of Johannesburg.
“Me and Caster have been talking since she won the World Championships in Berlin, so we’ve been in contact ever since,” she pauses with a glint of pride in her eye.
“Any time she needed advice, she would call me and then we would talk a little bit. It’s been a long-term relationship. I’ve known Caster since then, it just fell into place, so it wasn’t anything strange when she approached me and asked if I would train her.”
Since then, the duo have been specific in their targets, and Semenya recently ran her second Olympic qualifying time at a Yellow Pages Meeting in Pretoria on April 21, guaranteeing her place at the Olympics showpiece.
She ran 1:59.58 and in so doing, at high-altitude, became the first South African woman to run under two minutes on home soil in 21 years.
Now Mutola has her sights firmly set on the top honor: the Olympic gold.
“[I think] very good advice is to be in shape, to stay healthy and go to London in shape, to be able to win it.
“[Judging from] all the Olympics I have been through, it is going to take under two minutes to be able to win it. You have to produce 1:55/1:56 to be able to win the race because everyone is training for the same event—to be an Olympic champion.”
Now Semenya heads overseas to begin her final preparations by competing in Europe.
“The most important thing is to have confidence in oneself going to these European track meets. You have to be able to win over there, run good times and go to the Olympics with a lot of confidence. That is a very important thing for athletes.”
Semenya was expected to qualify sooner for the showpiece, but now that she has run the time, everything is back on track, according to Mutola as she alluded again to the gold medal.
“In terms of her preparations, I have to say it is going very well at the moment, I was a bit concerned at the beginning but I see that we are improving, we are doing the right thing. Everything is going well at the moment.
“The most important thing is for her to stay in shape and believe in herself. When she gets to the Olympic Games, anybody who qualifies for the finals has a chance of winning gold.”
Mutola believes Semenya could be the best ever. She says the world record set in 1983 by Czech runner Jarmila Kratochvílová looks set to tumble if Semenya stays on course. “I always thought she would be the one to break the world record because when she was 18, she was running 1:55’s and I think when she is about 25, and more mature, she would probably break the world record.
“If you are 18 and run a 1:55, that means that if you are 20-something, you would be able to run between 1:52 and 1:53 and that indication I see in Caster. I hope and I know she can be the one to break that world record that has been standing for a very long time.”
One thing is for sure: with the troubles of her past behind her, the Mutola-Semenya southern African team will be the hot favorite come the end of July. The history books await.

African Power Sisters  Strive For Gold

For eight months, Equatorial Guinea’s Eric Moussambani trained in the only swimming pool he could find. The hotel pool in Malabo was 20 meters long and had no lane markers. He did not meet the qualifying standards for the Olympic Games.
But Moussambani was invited to be part of the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000 through a wildcard program. It was started to allow athletes from poor countries a chance to compete.
Moussambani had never swum a distance of more than 50 meters and had never even seen a pool that long. A race of 100 meters was a tough ask for the then 22-year-old. He completed the distance in 1:52:72, more than twice the time it took all the other swimmers to finish.
<div id="attachment_799" style="width: 484px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-799" class="size-large wp-image-799" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/57122822_10-1024x670.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="310" />MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA &#8211; MARCH 18: Edwin Ekiring of Uganda plays a shot during his badminton at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre during day three of the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games March 18, 2006 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)</div>
Moussambani, who became known as Eric the Eel, won hearts that day as the crowd cheered him to the finish, no matter how long it took.
Today, his story is only remembered for its novelty value, but it carries a deeper meaning. It illustrates a problem that has plagued Africa for as long as it has competed in the Olympic Games—under-achievement. Poor facilities and lack of funds are cited as the main reasons for the scarcity of medals and those two triggers have more intricate undertones. Olympic sports can be elitist and require specialized equipment and coaching, which are not always available in countries struggling to provide for their people.
Every four years, Africa sends a proud, hopeful contingent to the Olympic Games, which the continent is yet to host. Although they often return with little gold, sometimes a success story shines through the clouds. London 2012 could bring more of these rays of hope. Most of them are expected to be in the track and field events where Africa is strong, or in the pool, the ring and a few unlikely places.
Kenya, South Africa and Egypt are Africa’s three most successful teams, with 22, 20 and 10 gold medals respectively, thanks to their runners, swimmers and weight-lifters. Algeria excels at boxing and athletics, where the teams have won all four of their medals. Eritrea is known for its runners and Mali for its footballers, who made it to the semi-finals of the African Nations’ Cup earlier this year.
The running track is still likely to be the key to success for Kenya, but South Africa can rely on an array of sports, including women’s football and hockey teams and a BMX rider, Sifiso Nhlapo.
Egypt will bank on judo, archery and handball and has a team of synchronized swimmers. Algeria has high hopes for its judo pair, Soraya Haddad and Amar Benikhlef.
<div id="attachment_802" style="width: 484px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-802" class="size-large wp-image-802" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/84051727_10-732x1024.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="663" />BEIJING &#8211; AUGUST 22: Wania Monteiro of Cape Verde competes in the individual all-around qualification of the rhythmic gymnastics at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing on August 22, 2008. in Beijing, China.(Photo by Bob Thomas/Getty Images)</div>
For the first time, Eritrea has entered a non-runner in the Olympics. Daniel Teklehaimanot has qualified in the men’s road race cycling event, while Mali will be looking for medals in taekwondo, with double champion Daba Modibo Keïta part of the team.
Sport is enriched by the personalities who take part, and the African medal hopefuls have plenty of characters among them. Take Botswana’s Amantle Montsho for a start. When she was 12 years old, her grandfather told her she ran like a boy, but her father allowed her to stick to her running style. She is now the reigning 400-meter world champion and could secure Botswana’s first Olympic medal.
Triumph over adversity is also theme of South Africa’s 800-meter champion, Caster Semenya, who was subjected to a series of gender tests after her victory at the World Championships in Berlin in 2009. She was toppled, faced the possibility of never competing again and was humiliated. Now she has bounced back to qualify for London Olympics, with a point to prove.
Wania Monteiro is Cape Verde’s rhythmic gymnast, an unusual category for an African athlete. She was the country’s flagbearer in Beijing. Benjamin Boukpeti is the holder of Togo’s only Olympic medal—a bronze in the slalom canoe K-1 class.
Angola’s basketball team is the top ranked team in Africa.
Molla Getachew is the only member of Ethiopia’s team who is not a runner. He is a fly-weight boxer and does not even own his own pair of gloves, but will compete using borrowed ones from the gym. Malawi will have a 14-year-old swimmer, Zarra Pinto, while the Ugandans have the continent’s best badminton player in their ranks, Edwin Ekiring.
Somalia is only able to send two athletes: one male, one female, both runners. Abdinasir Saeed and Samiyo Yusuf hope their courage at the games can repair their country’s war-damaged image.
<div id="attachment_803" style="width: 484px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-803" class="size-large wp-image-803" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/122834516_10-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="316" />DAEGU, SOUTH KOREA &#8211; AUGUST 29: Amantle Montsho of Botswana celebrates with her country&#8217;s flag after winning the women&#8217;s 400 metres final during day three of the 13th IAAF World Athletics Championships at the Daegu Stadium on August 29, 2011 in Daegu, South Korea. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)</div>
Moussambani made records for all the wrong reasons in 2000, but there are some African athletes looking to write their names in Olympic history in London. Some of them are searching for milestones of endurance. Angolan long-distance runner Joäo N’Tyamba is hoping to become the first male athlete to compete in seven Olympic Games.
Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry will aim to win her third 200-meter backstroke after she successfully defended her title in Beijing, an achievement that saw many Zimbabwean babies christened ‘Goldmedal’ in her honor.
Then there are the achievements that represent personal growth. Brimin Kipruto, Kenya’s 3,000-meter steeplechase runner, completed the distance in the second fastest time ever, something he will want to better. Keninisa Bekelel holds the world record and Olympic record for both the 5,000 and 10,000-meter events. He too will want to better this by living up to the mantra of top athletes: I am my own biggest competitor.

Go Africa!

In the game of life, there are always seats reserved for fame, fortune, luck and divine intervention. Add grace and fortitude to the mix and you’ll get a great rags-to-riches story. This has been the run of play so far for Kanu Nwankwo, the Nigerian soccer star who has written his name across world football.
In his 35 years, Nwankwo has become a shining star; a poor boy from the streets who became a global champion and authentic African hero. Now in the twilight of his career, he plays out his footballing days with English club Portsmouth. He is also a devoted husband and father of three, who is fashioning himself into a savvy investor in Nigeria. His £10,000 a week for kicking a ball are being poured into real estate, the hospitality industry, art, photography and philanthropy.
On the soccer field, Nwankwo can do no wrong. His admirers cheer his moves on the field, expecting his every touch of the ball to lead to magic; easily forgiving him when he miskicks or falls down during one of his numerous tricky sorties goal. And when he howls or winces in pain on the pitch, they cry and howl in solidarity. When he scores and breaks into his peculiar two-finger salute and dance, swaying from side to side and flapping his arms in jubilation, they laugh and fall in love with him all over again. That’s blind loyalty for you. Crazy, but that’s what loyal devotees of the game do for their gods.
“Papillo”, as he is fondly called by his fans, is adored by soccer enthusiasts from across Africa and worshipped in his homeland. A level head and obvious sense of propriety off the field is earning him more respect.
Nwankwo’s posh and polished lifestyle is a far cry from his early days. Surrounded by the social accessories of achievement—security guards, butlers, personal masseurs and hairstylists, mansions in the ritzy parts of Lagos
and London, first class air travel, chauffeur-driven SUVs and sedans, you get the picture—he maintains an easy, friendly mien. “I always remember how and where I started,” he says during his FORBES AFRICA interview.
Nwankwo and his three siblings grew up in eastern Nigeria. His older brother, the original “Papillo”, also played soccer in secondary school, until a knee injury shattered his career.
So “Papillo’s brother”, as Nwankwo was then known, gradually earned the name through sheer soccer brilliance, playing his way out of his rustic beginnings into the bright lights.
“My parents were not rich but they were modest, hardworking people,” he told FORBES AFRICA. “They always encouraged us to work hard, pray and do our possible best in whatever we were doing,” he says.
“They never discouraged me from playing football. It’s kind of funny, but everyone believed in me then… I was always winning, throughout my primary and secondary school days. I was always being picked to play for our school teams and later representing my state in age group competitions, and I was always team captain.”
His natural talent for the game earned him many friends early in life, and of course, some extra cash.
“I was having fun, going to school and making some money from football; everyone wanted me to play for their team,” he says.
One of his first clubs, semi-professional Federal Works, used to send a scout to fetch him from home and seek his parents’ permission ahead of their weekend fixtures.
“So I used my talent to support my upkeep…I used the money to buy clothes and books,” he says.
Talent always travels. He didn’t stay at Federal Works, where he scored nine times in 30 games, for too long. Richer, bigger clubs noticed him. In 1992, he laced his boots for Nigerian club side Iwuanyanwu Nationale, playing for slightly over a year before signing for AFC Ajax of Amsterdam for €207,047.
“Ajax was where I had my first taste of international pro football and became a man, soccer-wise. My dream of playing professional football abroad had come true.
“I was happy… It was also a difficult time for me. Suddenly, I found myself in Europe. Everything was new and strange–the environment, the food, the weather, the people, the culture, but I had no choice but to cope,” he says.
Beyond these niggling issues, his star shone brightly at Ajax. His skills matured as the team won three Dutch league titles, the UEFA Champions League trophy, the UEFA Super Cup and the Intercontinental Cup.
Back home, he was captain of the “Dream Team”—the name of Nigeria’s soccer team that travelled to the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. Nwankwo helped to demolish soccer giants Brazil and Argentina, winning Nigeria’s first-ever gold medal from Olympic soccer.
A promising future beckoned. He was young, at the top of his game and famous—the perfect blend of talent and tactical discipline. Football and fortune featured in his
future plans.
Just before the 1996 Atlanta Games, Internazionale Milan had shown serious interest in the young man. That summer, for about $4.7 million, Ajax released Nwankwo to the Italian Serie A club. A few weeks later, in Rome, disaster struck. A medical examination revealed he had a potentially life-threatening heart defect.
His reaction was disbelief and denial. Nwankwo and many of his fans were in shock. He had no family history of heart disease. He wondered how the ailment could have been undetected by his previous clubs. He sought varied medical opinions, hoping to debunk the diagnosis.
“Finally, when I realized that ‘oh yes, I may not play football anymore’, I knew that I still had a lot in me. I just put myself in God’s hands. At that time, I was like, well, okay God is going to do it for me. Doctors said I could fix the heart problem later on, but I would not be able to play football. Or, I could do corrective surgery right away and see how things turn out. I felt it was better for me to do the operation rather than wait to do it later. It was the lowest point for me in my career,” he says.
The rest of the story is part of the Nwankwo legend. He had successful heart surgery to replace an aortic valve in the USA in November 1996, recovered well and was back on the practice pitch six months later. “Coming back from that episode was wonderful, you know; I had to be tough, but growing up as a kid toughened me up, so my background growing up in Nigeria helped, it gave me hope that I can achieve under whatever circumstances,” he says.
Nwankwo is forever grateful to Inter Milan president Massimo Moratti for his support during this period of his career.
“Moratti and the rest of the Inter Milan team were fully behind me, they didn’t once stop paying me… they were constantly praying for me to come back. I wish every club president was like him; that’s a huge lesson in loyalty for the rest of the sports world,” he says.
Going under the knife to fix a faulty heart artery did not in any way affect Nwankwo’s football wizardry. He stayed with Inter Milan for another year, and moved on to Arsenal in 1999, playing with panache for the English club for the next five seasons. He has also played for other English sides— West Bromwich Albion and Portsmouth, signing a new three-year contract with the latter in August 2010.
Nwankwo’s illustrious international soccer career with Nigeria spanned 16 years at the national team level and 21 years at the club level. He is clearly one of Nigeria’s most celebrated footballers, with a Nigeria Premier League trophy; three Dutch League titles; a UEFA Champions League medal; a UEFA Cup medal; one English Premier League Cup; three English FA Cups; an Olympic gold medal; and the FIFA U-17 title to his name. He has also featured in several FIFA World Cups and African Cup of Nations tournaments.
He was voted CAF African Footballer of the Year in 1996 and 1999, and the BBC African Footballer of the Year in 1997 and 1999.
Nwankwo succeeded teammate and friend Austin ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha as captain of Nigeria’s national team, the Super Eagles, between 2006 and 2010. He won 86 caps and scored 13 goals for his country and is the joint most capped Nigerian player of all time alongside mid-field maestro, the late Muda Lawal.
He holds the record for most substitute appearances in English Premier League history, appearing from the bench 118 times. As the season came to a close, Portsmouth was struggling to avoid relegation at the bottom of the English Championship. Beset by financial problems, the future of the club is uncertain. Nwankwo says he will stick with Portsmouth through thick and thin.
Back home in Nigeria, there is much to do. Inspired by his near-tragic experience, he set up the Nwankwo Heart Care Foundation in 2000. Funded mainly by the soccer legend and a small coterie of friends, he says the foundation has sponsored over 450 indigent children from all over Africa for surgery in England, Israel and India over the last decade.
“I kind of carry the burden of Africa on my shoulders; everyone prayed for me when I was ill,” he tells FORBES AFRICA.
“We get letters from all over Africa. The demand for medical aid from across the continent is huge and our aim is to help any poor African kid who has any medical problem. It’s been very difficult raising funds.”
His grand vision for the foundation is to have specialist hospitals for kids in several African cities. “It’s a very big task, a huge hurdle, and we hope that governments and the private sector in Africa and the Middle East can come to support our noble cause,” he says. The first of such facilities will be a N5 million cardiac hospital for under-12s in Abuja, Nigeria’s administrative and diplomatic capital.
“As a kid, I wanted to be the best man in football. But now, it’s a mixture. FIFA has given me a gold medal for my contributions to football, so I think that now, everyone will at least remember me as ‘Kanu the great footballer’. But what I would really like to be remembered for is as the man who gives hope and joy back to those who need it through our work at the Kanu Heart Care Foundation.”
<div id="attachment_795" style="width: 778px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-795" class="size-full wp-image-795" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/KX0P1956.jpg" alt="" width="768" height="1017" />Portsmouth &#8211; Portrait &#8211; kanu &#8211; 24/11/2006</div>
<h3>Kanu On African Football</h3>
Kanu Nwankwo bade farewell to international football with a testimonial game in April 2011. The match featured ex-Nigerian stars and Nwankwo’s colleagues and friends playing in Europe and Africa. 
Now, as a UNICEF Ambassador for Sports, he gets to go to big cities and to the nooks and crannies of the continent, preaching football, giving speeches at town hall meetings and inspiring young folks to attend school as well as play soccer. 
On football administration and management, and the future of the game in Africa, he says: “For me, the most important thing about football in Africa is the administration. The people in charge need to rev up their act. If we don’t have the right people in football, we will keep going round in circles. The game is undergoing an interesting time in Africa. No country is an underdog anymore in Africa… every team has to work very hard, football in Africa is growing so fast…” 
On the matter of foreign coaches versus indigenous coaches: “It all depends on management, but we just can’t sit down and condemn our local coaches. It’s all about constant retraining and refreshing. The football federations need to invest in their human resources; we have seen cases where our African coaches have done well even with little support, while foreign coaches who get all the attention and support of their FAs (football associations) fumble when it matters most.” 
He is modest about his net worth, maintaining that his life has been a blessed one. So which Kanu does he prefer to hang out with: is it Kanu the footballer, Kanu the philanthropist, Kanu the businessman or Kanu the family man? “I would say, Kanu the family man, because family comes first. My family is the key to whatever I have achieved in life. God has blessed me with a wonderful wife, Amarachi…our match is made in heaven.” 
His relationship with food can be described as indigenously continental. “I eat all types of food. I can’t stay for long without eating Nigerian food: I either go out to a Nigerian or African restaurant to eat it, or I buy the ingredients. I have to eat African food at least once every week. That’s why we tend to eat Chinese – it’s the closest thing to hot and spicy jollof rice.”

Braveheart

It’s a painting so recognizably Hodgins, this ambiguous portrait of power—the oversized suit; the patterns; the Matisse-ish blocks of bright color on the face; the thin moustache, its shape echoed in the shoestring tie; the festive bunting against an otherwise plain background. The portrait, A Gentleman from Mexico, is coming up for auction in Johannesburg this month. Sales estimates are as high as R600,000 ($76,600) .
When I think of Robert Hodgins, I think of the line from TS Eliot’s The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock: “There will be time, there will be time, to prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet” because it prefaces the wonderful book simply titled Robert Hodgins; because he was 63 when he started painting seriously; because I called him about a year before he died—I wanted to do a video interview with him and he complained that his face was too wrinkled and nobody would want to look at it; because I’d met him at an exhibition and knew his face (he was wearing, I think, black-and-white striped trousers, he looked spry); and because the faces in his paintings are so often disguised, or only broadly suggested—they are brutish, they speak of baseness, they are ape-like, distorted, grotesque.
Hodgins captured something real in his paintings; a bit like Francis Bacon, but not the same: tortured but funny and sad too, something real about the world and about our particular Garden of Earthly Delights.
It’s how I’d buy and how first-time buyers are advised to buy: buy what you like, then if it doesn’t sell, it doesn’t matter; you’ll experience the intangible joy of owning an artwork to look at, to think about. But I’ll not be bidding at the next auction—the pace is too fast, the pressure too great. I’ll be merely watching the collectors, the experts, the investors—those who’ve been studying price histories as an indication of both how much to pay and how much to expect in future—auction databases are particularly useful for this, some going back as far as 1652.
Part of the anticipation around A Gentleman from Mexico is linked to the records Strauss &amp; Co has lately set for a Hodgins: starting with his A Seated Figure, Red Room that sold for R356,480 in May 2011; followed by Greenpiece ’99 No 3 (A Godson of the Godfather) selling for R612,700 in September 2011; and culminating in Igor Stravinsky &amp; Four Women that sold for R724,100 ($87,785) in February.
According to the fine art auctioneer’s managing director, Stephan Welz, the auction is likely to raise between R30 and R40 million ($3.6-5.1 million). Irma Stern’s Arab could fetch as much as R9 million ($1.15 million). Strauss &amp; Co sold Stern’s Two Arabs for R21,166,000 ($2.7 million) last year, the highest price achieved for any painting at auction in South Africa. Out of a total of 305 works on offer, 280 will be local, Alfred Thoba’s 1976 Riots among them.
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The auction takes place on Monday, June 11 at the Johannesburg Country Club in Woodmead.

Five Million Dollars  At The Drop Of A Hammer

When you think about entrepreneurs, most would think of stocks and successful initial public offerings (IPOs). However when building and growing companies, access to debt finance is even more important.
Historically, most African economies have relied on bank financing, and to a lesser extent, on the equity markets, to fund investments. Except for countries like South Africa and Nigeria, corporate bonds are almost unheard of in the region.
But bonds and bond markets are as important, if not more so, than stock markets, for the efficient allocation of a nation’s resources. In major economies, it is not uncommon for bond markets to be substantially larger than equity markets. But that’s not always the case in Africa.
Today, about half of sub-Saharan African governments have recognized credit ratings.
The bad news is that many African governments borrow little from outside sources. This, in turn, means a limited amount of government debt is available for trading on secondary markets. Don’t go looking for a deep and liquid secondary market for African debt. For businesses trying to issue bonds, this is a problem because a government-bond market is such that it sets interest rate benchmarks for corporate bonds. This is why some countries issue sovereign bonds to replace maturing ones—even when the funds aren’t needed—to maintain benchmarks across the yield curve.
Yet, to have a corporate bond market, companies need to issue bonds. In many African countries, companies have traditionally relied on bank loan financing; international donor financing and in recent years financing from the Chinese.
It will take some persuasion to change that. Today, even if a corporate bond option existed, African companies would still head for the bank or ask its friends in Beijing for money.
Why? In short: cheap money. Companies can borrow at low, government-determined interest rates, irrespective of the risk of the loans. The risk is assumed by the government, which must periodically bail out banks by taking over their non-performing loans. Companies are further encouraged to seek bank financing as state-controlled banks almost always automatically roll over maturing loans at low rates. This is of course a classic case of moral hazard. Costs and risks are absorbed by state-owned banks, which ultimately pass them on to the government.
All of the above makes a convincing argument for the development of an African corporate bond market. Such a market would serve several functions: first, it would enable companies to raise funds even if they are not favored customers of the banks. Africa has some of the world’s most entrepreneurial economies but entrepreneurs aren’t usually well-connected. So, even as new companies are constantly being established, and many have succeeded and created jobs, they tend to be, and stay, small because they lack access to funding for further growth. A corporate bond market could remove this constraint and enable Africa to create more world-class companies and, even more importantly, jobs for tens of millions of people.
Secondly, it allows for fewer systemic risks. Typically, bank loans are of short to medium-term, and therefore need to be rolled over to cover the life of the project funded. This lends an air of uncertainty to business planning. Worse still, loans can be called in before schedule, leaving companies in dire financial predicaments.
Recourse to bond financing would eliminate any mismatch between the lifetime of assets and the duration of liabilities.
Thirdly, as the number of African pension funds, social security funds and insurance funds proliferate, bond markets are key to ensuring that these funds can match their future payment obligations with assured future income. Without a long-term bond market, such funds, increasingly important to Africa, will be at risk.
A well-regulated corporate bond market open to private companies can fund the jobs Africa needs for social stability. Together, government and corporate bond markets can stabilize Africa’s financial landscape by properly matching assets to liabilities and at the same time provide risk capital to entrepreneurs who build businesses, employ people and create economic growth.
Developing African bond markets will unlock Africa’s huge medium-term growth potential.

Why Africa Needs A Bond Market

Consider the following: a billion-dollar budget; 6,102 hectares of prime real estate in the capital of Africa’s largest market; an affiliation with the World Trade Center’s Association and a leading conglomerate with a history of success across multiple sectors of the Nigerian economy. By combining these facts, one thing that can be inferred is a property development project of seismic proportions: The World Trade Center Abuja.
Born out of a vision to transform Nigeria’s urban landscape with elevated building designs, the real estate arm of the Churchgate Group, a conglomerate that operates in the industrial, trading and building sectors in Nigeria, has obtained the rights to build and operate a World Trade Center complex in the Nigerian capital. Located on Constitution Avenue, the major thoroughfare in the city’s CBD, the multi-purpose complex will consist of seven towers containing office buildings, shopping malls and 37 floors of luxury residential apartments.
Described by the group as the premier address for retail, office and residential spaces, the luxury residences, known as The World Trade Center Residences, will be housed in what the promoters have termed “the most iconic building in Nigeria”. The fully serviced apartments will have concierge services, underground parking, tennis and squash courts, fitness centers and outdoor swimming pools. In addition to the apartments, penthouses with views of the metropolis will also be for sale.
The group has appointed Fine &amp; Country, the luxury real estate marketing company, to market the 132 bespoke residences. Fine &amp; Country won the Bloomberg and Google International Property Award for Best International Real Estate Marketing Agency last year.
That a luxury project of such grand scale is being undertaken in Nigeria reveals a confidence in economic growth and the increased flow of private equity in and across the African continent. According to a recently published wealth report by Knight Frank and Citibank’s private banking division, the highest increases in the prices of luxury real estate occurred in Kenya—both in Nairobi and on the coastal fringes. With increases of 25% and 20%, these locations brushed aside competition from destinations including Miami, the emerging markets of Bali and Jakarta in Indonesia, and traditional heavyweight London, to rank first and second on the Prime International Residential Index in which Cape Town regularly features.
Also worthy of a mention is the fact that the report identifies Nigerians to be among the top five nationalities to watch with respect to the demand for luxury real estate. The market for luxury property developments in Nigeria seems to be maturing, which implies positive benefits in terms of the flow of capital and the multiplier effect on the economy.
Although much still needs to be done to sustain this growth, one thing is certain—a new dawn is spreading across the continent, and this is not lost on the local and global elite.

World Trade Center  To Tower Over Abuja

It shouldn’t surprise anyone familiar with the ethno-cultural dynamics of tipple in West Africa that what you expect to see in a bottle isn’t always what you get to drink. This is especially so with wines. So let me now welcome you to the ‘social viticulture’ of West Africa. The agronomical version of this ‘culture’ doesn’t
exist around here. Grapes, you see, don’t do too well in desert or near-desert heat.
The bottle could, for instance, contain palm wine, the very affordable, hugely popular brew tapped from the trunk of the tropical palm tree and best consumed from a drinking gourd. The sweet-and-sour milky draught reputedly has prophylactic properties. Over the last 20 years, several entrepreneurial attempts to commercialize, commodify and transform this indigenous beverage into a bottled retail product have failed. Its fermented variant is an acidic, bitter brew best avoided by those who seek to protect their social reputations and their health. Urban and rural folk living anywhere between Liberia, Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria and Cameroon refer to it as the ‘toxic tantalizer’.
Wine could also mean bottled fruit juice, sweet and sparkling, best served chilled and for those who lead ‘alcohol-free lives’ or love any colored fizzy stuff.
And of course, wine could mean ‘foreign wine’, the grapey drink from the vineyards of the world’s wine-growing regions. How French, German, Spanish, Swiss and Flemish wineries made the palm wine- producing belts of West Africa (and South America) and the rest of the world their target market is another story, for another day. It’s safe to say, though, that the spirit of the UN is actively in charge of proceedings in most wine shops worldwide. In West African shops and supermarkets, as elsewhere, wines from the ‘New World’ jostle for space with the ‘Old World’ wines.
Of course, the African Union member states don’t—or can’t—say much. As keen members of the international consumers’ club, they can only observe the fare as they ponder their growing affection for imported wine and its intended effect on their trade balances and fiscal positions. South Africa (the only wine producer in the AU) coughs up a tipple point once in a while, and let me reveal that the wines from South Africa are the most pocket-friendly in Nigeria and Ghana.
South Africa and China (another ‘New World’ wine producer) are two interesting case studies in global viticulture. While SA Inc., through SA Tourism, is only too eager to sell and showcase its wine portfolio to the rest of the world, China’s fast-expanding connoisseur class prefers ‘Old World’ wine (preferably French) to their homegrown variety. The Chinese have massive vineyards, but I haven’t yet seen any ‘Made in China’ wine in any shop in Cotonou, Lomé or Accra, despite having spied vodka made in India in downtown Lagos! Strange:
the Chinese don’t usually hoard anything salable.
In any case, a stroll into any wine shop in many Ivorian, Ghanaian, Senegalese, Gambian, Cameroonian, Gabonese or Nigerian cities will reveal racks of liquid warfare, symbolic of the silent but ongoing battle of the wine bottles going on between France, Germany, Spain, America, Italy, Chile, Argentina, Australia and, of course, South Africa (for their share of our disposable income).
In these parts, palm wine may have already lost the battle of the bottles. Don’t ask me for figures. The fact is, while varietals like chardonnay, riesling, sauvignon blanc, shiraz, merlot, cabernet sauvignon and pinot noir are measured in hector liters, nobody has been able to guesstimate how many gourds of West African palm wine are consumed.
According to those who should know, a healthy palm tree could have a fruitful lifespan of 10 years or more. But no one knows how many kegs of this indigenous wine are filled daily by traditional palm wine tappers. These guys are busy, for the present, but their numbers are thinning. No forward-thinking person wants his child to learn how to climb a palm tree. Palm-tree tapping is a collarless profession.
Wine retailers in central Lagos tell me that tons of international viticulture finds its way into Africa’s most-populous country in regular bottles, magnums and wooden cases daily, via formal and private channels. But few folk—and they must be connoisseurs—really worry about the geographical origin of their drinks. “Why bother?” someone asked at 1662, a ritzy wine bar in highbrow Ikoyi. “Most of the world’s winemakers don’t have a clue where Abuja is on the map.”
“Quite true, but why should they care?” another patron quipped.
“Ah, my brother,” the chap returned. “It is good to know what you don’t know. That’s the beginning of knowledge, after all. You know, a flute can mean different things. It is a musical instrument. It is also the appropriate glass to use for champagne.”

How Merlot Can You Go?

In this age of trust funds, favored sons, fat corporate bonuses and bling, how refreshing it is to read of an entrepreneur who has fought his way up from the very bottom of the barrel with courage and humility.
This is the story of Herman Mashaba—who was the April FORBES AFRICA cover story—told in a colorful but straightforward way. A man who struggled to raise 25 cents every year for his school fees, who went on to make millions. It charts his fairytale rise from a person growing up in the middle of nowhere, who made his fortune with a hair-care product, Black Like Me, on his way to the black business ball. You could argue that Cinderella had it far easier.
The overall impression you are left with is that life was grim at the bottom of the heap in apartheid South Africa. Mashaba grew up in Hammanskraal near Pretoria, without electric lights or running water. These were dark days of little food, bullying teachers and draconian laws enforced by ruthless policemen. When Mashaba talks of his fear of walking past a police roadblock, you almost feel as though you are walking with him.
In telling his tale, Mashaba appears to resist the temptation to airbrush his past, as is the wont of a lot of people who have made it. He admits he took and sold drugs and says he was no angel when it came to women.
This is a story of survival and Mashaba leaves us in no doubt that he did what he had to in order to keep going: whether it be running illegal dice games, where there were stabbings every now and again, or selling stolen welding equipment to the township gangster.
As a professional storyteller, I can commend Mashaba for his straight telling of the tale. There are no frills here, or flights into fancy; it is told with an almost business-like, dead narrative that lends power to the richness of the story. He talks of his roots with warmth, but without sickly sentiment; Mashaba speaks of the injustices he faced growing up under apartheid with a quiet anger. In particular, he writes bleakly about his determined mother, Mapula, who was a poorly paid domestic worker—she virtually had to escape from the house of her employers so she could make the long journey to spend time with her children. There are also aching words over the loss of his elder brother, Pobane, who died in a car accident, and the loss of his first child after just 16 hours of life.
Mashaba also pays generous tribute to his wife of nearly 30 years, Connie, who has stuck by him on the often fraught journey from township to luxury townhouse.
In short, Mashaba took his chan-ces, refused to give in and enjoyed a lot of what he says all entrepreneurs need to make it—good luck.
This modest little book could almost be a textbook for the young and hopeful in this, the entrepreneur-themed issue of FORBES AFRICA.

322-197

A Grim Fairytale

There is an old adage that says people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
But the good news is you can live in a glass house and make money. Hidden in the hot Kitengela plains of Kenya is a 30-year-old factory that uses recycled glass to transform homes, hotels, offices, churches, museums and other buildings into spectacular sights.
Kitengela Glass is located on the outskirts of Kenya’s capital and borders the Nairobi National Park. The factory stands out like an oasis in the desert. It’s home to glassblowers, glasscutters, artists and sculptors who turn the recycled glass into amazing works of art.
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The studio is owned and run by 68-year-old Nani Croze. A muralist turned glassblower, Croze has been in the business for over three decades. “I am still a German, although I feel completely Kenyan. I am waiting to be given an honorary citizenship,” she says. Croze came to Africa with her first husband in the late ’60s. “We studied elephants in the Serengeti. We planned to go back after four years in a VW van we had converted for our three children. But by that time, my eldest son had grown too big to fit into the van, so we decided to stay.”
Her scientist husband got a job at the University of Nairobi, where he taught animal behavior. The family lived in Limuru, in the highlands, in a rented home. When the owner died, the house was sold to people who felled the trees in the compound. “I decided to look for somewhere with no trees so I could plant my own and no one would be allowed to cut them down,” says Croze. The search for land took them to Kitengela, an environmentally protected area where her husband had previously worked.
“He went to Geneva for a conference and his colleague said: ‘Excuse me, Dr Croze, I think you have a tick on your neck!’ We were living in the bush and he could not take it any longer.” Divorced and with three children to bring up, one of her architect friends advised that she try her hand at stained glass. “I was not going to make enough money to pay for my children’s education painting murals,” said Croze.
She went to the UK for a three-week course. She was told she would need 30 years to learn. So she learnt through experience. “The major milestone for us was that importing colored glass is very expensive, heavy and fragile—it breaks very easily. So I thought, ‘Why don’t we make our own?’ Slowly, we built a furnace with the help of a Finnish glassmaker, and I started collecting waste glass.”
Croze soon discovered that not all glass was compatible as it melts at different temperatures. “It took a long time but I am happy we invented glassmaking in East Africa!” Croze’s son, Anselm, joined her and now does his own glassblowing. She credits a Dutch Catholic priest in Uganda for teaching her some of the tricks of the trade. “I visited him because he also made stained-glass windows in the 1970s. He made his own lead and tools and imported glass from France. He showed me how to make glass in the bush.”
Kitengela Glass prides itself on being the pioneer glassmaker in East Africa. Glassmaking traces its roots to Egypt and part of the Middle East in the second millennium BC. “To my knowledge, glass was never made in East Africa. My interest is in a new craft for East Africa—making glass from recycled glass. We make colored sheets for stained-glass windows locally. We import only what we cannot make.”
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From waste glass, Kitengela produces vessels—anything that can hold a liquid—bowls, flower vases, tumblers and glasses as well as sculptures, jewelry, chimes and chandeliers.
But Kitengela Glass is perhaps best known for making dalle de verre (French for glass blocks), a new technique of making stained glass. “My work with dalle de verre can be seen in various buildings in Nairobi like the Barclays Plaza, CFC Bank and the American Embassy canteen wall. Dalle de verre is popular with banks because it is secure—made of thick glass, concrete and metal reinforcing.”
Used bottles and waste window glass are taken to Kitengela Glass to be smashed and melted before they are blown into vessels, beads or flat glass or cast into dalle de verre blocks. The difference between dalle de verre and stained glass is that dalle de verre is an inch thick and set in concrete, with metal reinforcing for stability. Traditional stained glass is much thinner and can be painted and fired. It is attached piece by piece with strips of lead which are soldered at the corners, then puttied for stability.
“I made traditional stained glass long before we started melting glass. I realized the cost and difficulty of importing colored glass and therefore started to make our own.”
Croze compares glassblowing to flying an airplane. “You must do it all the time to be good at it.” She is currently working on a major project that involves making a centerpiece mural from dalle de verre for a new Catholic church in Tanzania. “The foreground in the lower section is to have images of creation like the savannah grassland, the acacia tree, some footprints to represent Africa as the cradle of mankind and above this will be a scene of the Holy Spirit hovering over the earth.”
Dalle de verre is also used for making staircases, tables and memorials. “We made a memorial in honor of Dan Eldon, a Reuters correspondent killed in Mogadishu, Somalia. The memorial has a lens, representative of his profession, in glass. It looks nice when the sun shines through. Glass needs light from the opposite side.”
Kitengela Glass also decorated the Kenyan home of the French billionaire businessman, art dealer and racehorse breeder, Alec Nathan Wildenstein, who died in 2008. Croze is presently making a memorial piece for Kenyan Nobel Laureate, Professor Wangari Maathai.
“Our handmade glass is like the early medieval glass with bubbles and striations. No-one knows about medieval glass anymore. It is like the taste of tomatoes: people have forgotten what an organically grown tomato tastes like,” she says.

The Fragile  Business Of Glass

Tanzania, the most expensive buffalo in Africa, is getting ready for a wedding night that is going to cost $31,000; the issue of this union will be worth even more.
People still cannot believe how much was paid for this cow—in a land where the average buffalo costs between $44,000 to $70,000. Jaco Troskie bought the huge and powerful cow for a staggering $2.5 million.
Troskie, the son of South African filmmaking mogul Boet Troskie, who made the film The Gods Must Be Crazy, outbid one of Africa’s richest men, Cyril Ramaphosa, for the East African buffalo. The buy broke records. In 2010, Piet du Toit and Cyril Ramaphosa bought a bull, Bayeto, for $1.2 million. In 2011, Peter Bellingham bought a bull, Senatla, for $2.2 million. Troskie, who made his money trading in game parks, beat the lot.
Tanzania is the biggest buffalo cow held in captivity in Africa, and possibly the world, and her horns span 43 inches long.
Troskie admits he did not think he would end up paying as much as he did. People said he was crazy and joked that he must have been drunk during the auction.
“I don’t even drink a drop of alcohol,” he says.
“I didn’t want to lose her… There are only a handful of buffalos with 50 inch horns or wider. You do not find one around every corner.”
Troskie spent $8.1 million that day and walked away with 10 buffalos.
“My investment is long-term. My idea was to keep her, take very good care of her and nurse her. If I don’t make my money back in eight years, then there is something wrong… Returns on investments [are] about 36%. There’s no investment in this country that gives you that kind of return on a year-to-year basis. It’s a sound business to get involved in and will be for some time.”
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Many in the business believe these sky-high prices cannot last. Piet du Toit disagrees.
Du Toit bought Tanzania for $324,000 last year from insurance billionaire Douw Steyn, and cleared $2.2 million from the recent auction. The 41-year-old began breeding game in 2001, and started focusing on rare game in 2006.
“There is [a lot of] money [to be made] in top genetics because there is nothing like it elsewhere. The breed is top class and investing in them will triple your money,” he says.
The former science and physical training teacher is now one of the country’s, if not the continent’s, top rare game breeders. The auction, held on his farm in the North West province of South Africa, where Tanzania, among other rare game, was sold, made almost $19 million on the day through the sale of 250 animals. The list of registered buyers reads like a board meeting. Among them, South African businessmen Ramaphosa and Steyn, and the Head of SAB Ltd in SA, Nicholas Adami, among others.
With an average return on investment of more than 70% over four years, du Toit is not planning on to quit anytime soon, but is also attempting to preserve the species.
“We are trying to get them as close to where they were in the early 1800s, when the settlers found [the buffalo] here [in Africa],” says du Toit.
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According to the New World Encyclopedia, the population of
African buffalo was once tens of millions, but has dwindled to around 900,000. Most of them are in East Africa. They’ve been hunted and their habitat has been squeezed by farming, drought and disease.
Top-class animals like Tanzania are more expensive because of their size, strength, health and horn length. Another rare and prized buffalo bull in captivity is Bayeto, co-owned by du Toit and Ramaphosa. They bought Bayeto, who is currently staying on Ramaphosa’s farm, in 2010 for $1.2 million and sold his first calf this year for nearly $900,000. But Tanzania will be mated with her equal, Matetsi, an equally rare and thoroughbred East African bull worth $400,000. He will be united with Tanzania to produce an heir to their throne—expected to fetch even more money.
Is there even more money to be made in the game game? Forget about the tip of the iceberg, the people in the game business prefer their own analogy. The prices paid so far merely reach the ears of the hippo as it raises its head from the water.

The Two Million Dollar Buffalo  Is The Queen Of The Game

The talk radio scene in South Africa is set for a shake-up. In December, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) awarded an FM frequency commercial license to Power 98.9 FM. Power FM is set to take to the airwaves by September, becoming the first fully black-owned and operated talk radio station in the country. A consortium led by MSG Afrika Investment Holdings and Khanyi Dhlomo’s Ndalo Media, along with other investors, own the station. The provincial license means that the station will only broadcast in Gauteng, where Primedia’s Talk Radio 702 leads the market, followed by the SABC’s SAfm, which has a national platform. “That’s good enough for now,” says MSG Afrika’s CEO, Given Mkhari.
Mkhari came up with the idea for Power FM over a decade ago. He wanted a station that was owned and run by black people; a station that addressed the issues of the majority of South Africans. Mkhari has risen steadily in the broadcasting industry on air and off.
Born and raised in the small town of Tzaneen, in Limpopo Province, north of South Africa, Mkhari grew up with the radio. “There was no TV back then; all I had was the radio,” he says. But even when TV eventually arrived in his hometown, Mkhari was still enthralled by the airwaves. He received a bursary to study teaching at the University of the North, formerly known as Turfloop University. It was here that he had his first encounter behind the mike. The university was the first in the country to receive a campus radio license.
But it wasn’t only about playing the latest tunes. Mkhari believed the station had a big role to play in keeping students informed. “It wasn’t just about entertaining students, it was more of an information source to bridge the gap (between the university and the rest of South Africa),” he says.
During term breaks, Mkhari would travel to Johannesburg to find holiday work. He became a fan of Metro FM and made it to the finals in a DJ competition the station hosted. His failure to win didn’t stop him. He is proud of his determination and perseverance. “You win some, you lose some; but you have to fail somewhere along the way in order to be more successful,” he says.
After graduating with a teaching degree in 1996, Mkhari wrote an essay on the developmental trajectory of South Africa, which won him a scholarship to study in New York. “I struck a deal with my lecturers to attend class two days and work for a local radio station the rest of the week,” says Mkhari. “I started making coffee and then worked my way up to become a producer on WBLS.” He helped produce the famous Les Brown Breakfast Show.
Even though he was living the dream, Mkhari missed home. His mom had died just before he left for New York and he felt that he needed to be at home with his five siblings, of which he is the eldest. When African American rapper Tupac died in September 1996, Mkhari seized the opportunity to make his big break in South Africa. Mkhari called Metro FM and offered them the story. Metro jumped at the offer but didn’t anticipate that he would become a daily feature on the station.
Mkhari did. “When I signed out, I said: ‘This is Given Mkhari reporting live from New York; catch you tomorrow same place, same time’. And that was that, Metro FM was stuck with me. They made space for an entertainment report every morning during their breakfast show.” The entertainment reports earned him a reputation with radio executives and Mkhari was soon offered a post in South Africa.
He came home, worked on Metro FM, did a short stint at Kaya FM and then disappeared. He entered the advertising world and bought a stake in The Jupiter Drawing Room, one of South Africa’s leading communication and advertising firms. He then started MSG Afrika with his longtime friend and partner, Simphiwe Mdlalose.
“Simphiwe and I are like brothers; we grew up together, we studied together and we’ve been in business together since we started on campus radio.”
Together Mkhari and  Mdlalose run MSG Afrika. “He (Simphiwe) maintains the organizational structure and pays attention to the detail, while I’m the creative, strategic thinker. We complement each other perfectly.”
The partnership has certainly paid off. The men developed a plan that won them the first commercial broadcast license in Limpopo in 2008. A local women’s consortium funded the operation. It took six months to get the station running. Three months after launching, Capricorn FM drew 45,000 listeners. Today the station boasts an audience of close to 1,5 million listeners.
Work has now started on their latest win, Power FM. The director of Media Monitoring Africa, William Bird, says it’s a wonderful progression. “It not only indicates his personal drive, but also how the broadcasting sector has sufficiently transformed to enable him to achieve these things.” Bird adds that Mkhari’s rise says much about his love of the industry and praises radio that retains skills and expertise. “We are in the unusual position where you have a very senior person who knows the business from many sides,” says Bird.
“The majority of our on-air staff will be fresh talent. The idea is to develop new people and to grow the current pool of talent,” says Mkhari. Some industry experts argue that this may be an approach that will take longer to grow an audience. But Mkhari says that the idea behind Power FM is to make a difference. “There’s no point in pulling in talent from other stations who will say the same things they’ve been saying for years; we want a new, different perspective and the only way to do that is to develop new people.”
Mkhari wants the content to drive the profile of the station. “It’s about addressing the issues of poverty, race, inequality and the diversity of South Africa, and getting people to engage with and debate these issues that still affect the black majority of South Africa.”

Talk To Me

Ganiyu “Tarzan” Balogun, managing director of Tarzan Marine Enterprises in Lagos, Nigeria, is not a poker player and he’s never taken big business risks. His success story is riddled with serendipity so that he now owns one of the oldest boat companies in Lagos. Tarzan was born in 1943 and spent most of his early childhood in Tarkwa Bay, close to Victoria Island. As a boy, he took a 15-minute boat trip to and from school. After completing his studies, he worked for the African Insurance Brokers Company (AIBC) as a driver. His father, then an engineer for the Nigerian army, was unhappy with Tarzan’s career choice and forbade him to continue working as a driver. It took an AIBC senior management official to convince the old man that it was in his son’s interests to work for them. Nine months later, AIBC bought Tarzan a boat.
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Soon after acquiring the boat, Tarzan began ferrying passengers. He soon realized there was good money to be made from the waterways. A cargo ship about to dock, gave him an idea: the crew would make excellent tourists. Captains and crew rented his boat to go ashore and his bus to tour Lagos. “I used to take them to night clubs and wherever they wanted to go to have fun and take them back to their ship of around 11,” says Tarzan. He expanded his business. By 1990, he had opened his first boat yard in Eleke Crescent, home to 65% of Nigeria’s foreign embassies. Tarzan ferried diplomats visiting the country.
He later moved to Lekki Expressway where he still conducts his business. The old building on Ozumba Mbadiwe-Lekki Expressway waterfront is deceptive. It hides Tarzan’s success story. He carries 4,000 passengers a week. In a good month, this company could generate more than $50,000.
Tarzan has now been operating for 30 years. Many times, he could have given up. He tells an anecdote of the impact of government policies on his business. “I have been beaten so many times by the Nigerian army and police because I used to buy fuel with the 20-liter jerry can for my boat,” says Tarzan. The government had banned the sale of fuel in jerry cans to curb the practice of hording petrol and later selling it at a higher price. This, however, had unintended consequences for boat operators who relied on these cans to refuel their boats. Today, fuel stations have been built in Cross River State and Rivers State but they are still to be built in Lagos. Rather than close shop in the face of the challenges, Tarzan persevered.
A tourism industry, which could help companies such as Tarzan’s expand, is still in its infancy. The industry suffered during the recent military and civilian governments. Despite the government’s declaration in 2002 that it intended to make tourism one of the six key areas for economic development, Nigeria is not a popular tourist destination. Countries such as Kenya, with its vast game reserve, have invested heavily in tourism making it one of the most popular tourist destinations in Africa. The West Africa sub-region has lagged behind attracting only 770,000 tourists representing 10% of the 2,6 million international tourist arrivals in 2009. Six of the 14 countries in the region recorded 100,000 international tourists. Paradoxically, Nigeria was ahead of the pack attracting 30% of the sub-regional market.
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If waterways business in Lagos was a game of luck and timing for Tarzan, then for Soji Adeola, CEO of Salmon Multiservices, it was about risking it all. Despite the challenges in the industry, Adeola believes there is potential in Nigeria’s waterways. “A city the size of Lagos cannot survive on a single mode of transportation,” says Adeola. The population of Lagos is estimated to be 18 million and it’s growing at about 8%, which means that the city is growing faster than Los Angeles and New York. The World Bank predicts that Lagos will be the third largest city in the world after Tokyo and Mumbai by 2015.
This is why Adeola is betting on the waterways. While working as a banker, he bought a boat. After completing his MBA studies in 2009, he resigned and focused his efforts on his new company. He operates two boats that ferry corporate officials in the Marina-Apapa Channel. He believes there is potential for his “emerging company”. “As of today, we had 1,4 million Lagos residents using the waterways each month. This is projected to increase to 4 million and perhaps, a lot more than that,” says the optimistic Adeola.
Adeola sees his company as being strategically positioned to provide water transport solutions and meet leisure challenges in Nigeria’s coastal areas. He is proposing a $100 million plan to the Lagos State government to build jetties around Lagos. There are about 60 jetties in the city so far, but these would be insufficient should the market reach the projected 4 million.
Currently, the world’s biggest hotel operators are the only serious investors in Lagos’ waterfronts. The Oriental, Four Points, Peninsula Resort and Radisson Blu hotels got in early to line the picturesque Ozumba Mbadiwe-Lekki Expressway waterfront.
For investors looking for returns, your next trip should be to Lagos–there is plenty of opportunity in the waterways.

Tag: June 2012

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Talk To Me

Tarzan: King of the Water