<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="576" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/SDG-Media-1024x576.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-46381" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/SDG-Media-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/SDG-Media-300x169.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/SDG-Media-600x338.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/SDG-Media-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/SDG-Media-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/SDG-Media.jpg 1600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption>In 2018, the United Nations Secretary-General Mr António Guterres, launched an SDG Media Compact to leverage their resources to advance the Sustainable Development Goals. By disseminating facts, human stories and solutions, the Compact is a powerful driver for advocacy, action and accountability on the Sustainable Development Goals. Photo- UN</figcaption></figure>



When 17-year-old high school student Darnella Fraizer filmed the last minutes of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvW6PLIDsbI">George Floyd’s</a> life under the knee of police officer Derek Chauvin, she could not have imagined that her footage would reignite the explosive global question of racial inequality and the subsequent clamour for reforms in policing.



This act of filming validates the force of the media globally, we need a similar drive for urgent action in Africa. We need the continent’s media to help ensure the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are achieved and the life of every African afforded the opportunity they deserve.



“Around the world, success in achieving the SDGs will ease global anxieties, provide a better life for women and men and build a firm foundation for stability and peace in all societies, everywhere,” said the UN Deputy Secretary General, <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2017/02/552372-sustainable-development-goals-critical-better-future-all-deputy-un-chief-amina">Amina Mohammed</a>.&nbsp;



Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, a wave of demonstrations from Lebanon to Chile, from Iran to Liberia, was sweeping across countries. This was a clear sign that, for all our progress, something in our globalized society is broken.



The COVID-19 pandemic has struck the world like a bolt of lightning exposing the contours of deep inequalities. Media reports have helped reveal the interwoven threads of inequality and health, with poorer people suffering a strikingly disproportionate share of the fallout from the virus, either through infection or loss of livelihoods.



The global sweep of protests due to years of disenfranchisement and racism has made it clear that the world must change to offer equal treatment to all people. &nbsp;



Media can do the same for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Achieving the SDGs, and so improving the lives of millions of Africans, depends heavily on increasing public awareness, and on the focused action and funding that such awareness ignites.



One major shortcoming of development progress is the lack of widespread knowledge about the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda. We must look to the media to push the SDG discourse; what is reported and how it is reported helps shape policy and has implications for the millions of people whose lives are affected. Knowledge is power and if citizens are aware of the issues, they are empowered to help determine the national response.



Traditionally, development experts have failed to explain the relatively new concept of sustainable development to influencers such as educators, politicians, and the media. Doing so is key, so that easily understood narratives are developed to raise public support.



We are already a third of the way towards the 2030 Agenda deadline which 193 UN member states committed to. But at the current pace of change – notwithstanding the global pandemic &#8211; Africa is likely to miss out on the time-bound targets in key sectors &#8211; including health, education, employment, energy, infrastructure, and the environment.&nbsp;



Improved public awareness of the SDGs themselves, and of the actions needed and the bodies responsible for such actions is essential. By stepping up to address and explain the global quest for social justice and equality which the SDGs represent, the media can help galvanise civil society, business, international bodies, regional organizations, and individuals.



Pressure from an informed public, pushes policymakers into action, offering hope to millions of poor people.



Development is never far from the media agenda in Africa, so the opportunity to build understanding of sustainability is there. Sustainable development experts must explain why the SDGs are important, and why ‘business as usual’ in development is no longer viable in the face of increasing populations and climate change. Then, news outlets, who would then be able to develop compelling narratives to make the concept understandable by all can help raise the SDG profile, thereby raising public support.



We must “flip the orthodoxy”.



What is reported, how it is reported, and on what channels helps in shaping policy and has implications for the millions of people whose lives are affected.



To this end, the media must be brought into the conversation and be made to understand the role they can play towards the greater good.



The SDGs pledge that “<a href="http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/Sustainable%20Development/2030%20Agenda/Discussion_Paper_LNOB_EN_lres.pdf">no one will be left behind</a>” and to “endeavour to reach the furthest behind first.” In practice, this means taking explicit action to end extreme poverty, curb inequalities, confront discrimination and fast-track progress for the furthest behind.



The media can shine a spotlight on those left behind, for example by using COVID-19 to examine the wider issue of universal health coverage, the subject of SDG 3.



It also plays a critical role in holding governments to account for their Agenda 2030 commitments. Though these commitments demand that countries have clear reporting and accountability mechanisms, most nations still have no reliable data on their progress towards specific goals. This matters because countries can only unlock financing for the SDGs by disaggregating data to understand where resources are required. In Africa, where national commitments are rarely backed by adequate investment, this is particularly important.



Rapid mobile penetration in Africa offers unparalleled opportunities for content sharing on digital platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Though lack of affordable internet connections and poor connectivity remain a challenge, mobile technology is a powerful enabler across many sectors.



One in every six people on Earth lives in Africa; its problems are the world’s problems and solving them is the world’s responsibility. If Africa fails to achieve Agenda 2030, the implications will be felt across the planet through conflict, migration, population growth and climate catastrophe.



The media in Africa is a stakeholder in the achievements of the SDGs. Let us support the media and enlist their help in the quest for economic, environmental, and social justice across the world.



Siddharth Chatterjee is the United Nations Resident Coordinator to Kenya.&nbsp;He has served in various parts of the world with UNFPA, UNICEF, UNDP, UNOPS, UN Peacekeeping and the Red Cross Movement. A decorated Special Forces veteran, he is an alumnus of Princeton University. Follow him on twitter-<a href="https://twitter.com/sidchat1?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">@sidchat1</a>



The views expressed in this article are the author’s own.​​​​​

Sustainable Development In Africa Can Be Amplified By The Media

African media can reverse the downward spiral affecting
newsrooms across the continent, says APO Group chairman, Nicolas
Pompigne-Mognard.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



The media landscape has changed dramatically over the last decade. As a result, newsrooms have been forced to make monumental changes such as reducing the staff complement to keep up with the demands, or they have simply had to shut down. 



With some African newsrooms being written out of history, there has been an emergence of international media setting up shop on the continent. This interest serves as a double-edged sword for African media that often finds itself under-resourced.&nbsp; 



Nicolas Pompigne-Mognard, the founder and chairman of the APO Group, is of the view that the African media landscape has faced challenges that precede digital migration, which have compounded existing problems. An incident that stands out for him, before the digitizing of media, was a lack of access to information for African reporters, and that propelled him to start one of the foremost media relations firms on the continent.



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&nbsp;When he was a
journalist for online publication, Gabonews, and the deputy president of the
Pan-African Press Organisation in France, between 2005 and 2007,
Pompigne-Mognard says this was a recurring problem hampering the productivity
of African reporters.&nbsp; 



“If you wanted the right to attend an international press
conference, you would need an official card. 



“As an African correspondent, the only way for you to have
that card and get access was to prove that you were getting at least €1,000
($1,121) of earnings, and most of them didn’t have that,” says
Pompigne-Mognard.



“It was rooted in disparity. If you have two journalists and one of them has the right card and the other doesn’t, then of course, the other one cannot do his job. He cannot earn money or write articles.&nbsp; 



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“More than that, it reinforced the dependence of African
media on international media. They had no other choice but to rely on the
information provided by the biggest media.”



To remedy the circumstances that seemed to disempower his
peers on the continent, Pompigne-Mognard founded APO from his living room,
using $11,000 in savings. 



APO has grown since its inception as it provides a variety
of media offerings such as press releases, videos, photos, documents and
audio-files. 



The company has sources such as global Fortune 1,000 companies, reputable international and Africa-based PR agencies, governments and international institutions.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“I didn’t start it to make money. I didn’t start it as a business. I wasn’t an entrepreneur at the time. I was a journalist and I wanted to address a problem. At the beginning, I wasn’t even aware that companies were paid to distribute press releases.”</blockquote>



Pompigne-Mognard has since realized many things through the
medium of his company as APO delivered growth of 60% in 2018, representing a
turnover that has more than doubled in two years.



As a correspondent of Gabonews, before the inception of his
company, Pompigne-Mognard was covering Europe, and he had to report
Africa-related news and needed information. As a result, he would ensure he was
receiving as many press releases as possible; however, this came with its own
logistic challenges.



“That’s when I realized it was extremely difficult to
actually ensure I received all the press releases from institutions like the
United Nations, as an example. There was not one point where I could get all
the African information issued by the international system.&nbsp; 



“Journalists had to rely on information that was on
websites. It was very time-consuming to get access to all the content&#8230; 



“It got me thinking about how if international media was not
receiving information from our most important institutions, then what does that
say about our voices in the world?”



A single conversation propelled him to make decisive change,
Pompigne-Mognard says. 



“I had a serious meeting with the president of the African Development Bank at the time, Donald Kaberuka, and he told me something that was instrumental because that’s when I decided I wanted to do something about it. 



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“What he told me is that the destination of information about African economies contributes to the growth of the continent, because at the time everybody was talking about poverty, war and struggle.”</blockquote>



Over the years, Pompigne-Mognard has observed a similar
trend in the way press releases are compiled and disseminated. 



He feels this has contributed in transforming the narrative
on Africa. 



“Something that is specific with press releases is that 95
percent of them convey good news. Usually, when a company issues one, it is to
say that they are appointing a new CEO, they are opening a new branch, or they
are expanding into new markets. 



“We (APO) have been participating, for several years now, in
changing the African narrative. We are in a unique place where we have a chance
to influence the narrative and make sure that Africa has its own voice and is
not influenced by the bias of international media. 



Although information is accessible to those who seek it, he
says there is currently another challenge that African media needs to resolve
in order to maintain autonomy and make money to sustain itself. 



“I think there is a big problem coming towards us and it is
coming fast,” says a concerned Pompigne-Mognard.



“Nigeria is starting to watch more international media than
the local media. Think about the international companies which are willing to
expand on the continent. What if 10 years from now, the conclusion is that in
the most developed economies on the continent, the nationals are watching more
international media? Where exactly do we think the international companies are
going to spend on advertisements?



“As an international company, why would I deal with five
national TV stations in different countries, if I can approach a single
international station and get, not only those five countries, but also better
coverage?”



Pompigne-Mognard says the continent is ripe with potential and
international media companies, which have observed the budding possibilities,
are striking while the iron is hot. 



“They know the population is going to grow, the middle class
is growing and that purchasing power is growing.”



Finances remain a colossal inhibiter to the growth of
newsrooms, as many have had to retrench to make ends meet. 



The ripple effect is that the quality of the content
produced eventually suffers. 



“On a global scale, the media landscape is in a challenging
position. It has become very difficult to finance content and to find new ways
to make money. Africans also have the same challenges, but often they don’t
have the same means or resources. 



“I would prefer to be wrong on this matter, but if I’m right, in 15 years’ time, the media landscape in Africa will be completely different – in a bad way. 



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“I want Africa to have a strong media landscape. But in
order to do that, people need to understand that media companies need to be run
as businesses.”



But it’s not all doom and gloom for African media;
Pompigne-Mognard sees hope. He says the status quo can be reversed if there is
a joint effort to curb the problem.&nbsp; 



“One of the solutions is to create pan-African media,” he
says. “The person who is going to crack the code and make it happen could be
extremely rich. It doesn’t have to be [entirely] pan-African, even 30-35
countries are more than enough.



“There’s a thing about Africa which is a strength and a weakness; it’s that doing something here will always be more difficult. But the good news is that for those who manage to do that thing in Africa, they can do it anywhere.”

Nicolas

Rewriting The News On Africa

TLH_5464

Lights Camera Connie!

Nigeria’s advertising and media market is on the cusp of growth. Newly-affluent consumers, new products and communication channels abound but navigating them with a clear marketing and media strategy remains a major challenge. Two things that are not lacking though are enthusiasm and innovation within the Nigerian creative industry and it’s this nascent market that is the core of Dentsu Aegis’s long-term growth strategy.
Dentsu Aegis is a media agency that builds a communication channel between brands and the people who consume their products and services.
And the woman who is driving the company’s foray into the Nigerian market is Dawn Rowlands.
Rowlands took control of the group in 2010 as Chief Executive Officer and increased revenue and staff at the company by 200% within two years. Her key focus now is expanding the group’s reach into Africa with a focus on West Africa’s largest economy.
“The kind of opportunities offered to young creative people by markets like Nigeria is phenomenal,” says Rowlands.
“The South African market is not moving fast enough and consumers here are completely desensitized to the conversations that brands want to have with them. In Nigeria, the market is completely fresh. When banks cold call consumers in Nigeria, they actually want to hear what they have to say. The level of innovation that allows is great!
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-29892 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Dawn-Rowlands-standing-214x300.jpg" alt="" width="214" height="300" />
“There is still a lot of work to be done in getting the quality of communication and content and that is a result of a lack of global exposure and competition. We can get in there and make a big difference,” she adds.
Rowlands’ career was built on pioneering new markets and what she calls “a relentless pursuit” of what she believed is right.
Born in South Africa’s capital Pretoria, Rowlands considered pursuing journalism as a career but was dissuaded by the lack of press freedom in South Africa in the early to mid-1980s. She pursued advertising instead and attended the AAA school of advertising and entered the industry as a creative.
“The industry was a great deal more fun than it is now. People spent more time on building relationships and we had more fun,” she says.
Rowlands’ first job was as a media assistant at a small agency after which she spent two years at media agency Bates Wells before moving on to its larger competitor Ogilvy &amp; Mather in 1991. Her goal was to become a media director by age 26 – a position traditionally occupied by middle-aged men in the early 1990s. True to type, Rowlands became the youngest female media director at Ogilvy.
“I am one of those people that when someone tells you can’t do something, I stick to my guns,” she says, crediting Yvonne Johnston, former International Marketing Council of South Africa and Ogilvy &amp; Mather Group Media Director as her mentor at the company.
Rowlands went independent three years later by founding the first strategy-only agency in South Africa with partners Peter Vogel and Jim Taylor.
“When you pioneer something, it’s hard for people to see your vision. And that’s ok. Having the conviction to go on is the most important,” she says.
The business went on to flourish and was sold to the Tempus Group in 1999 with Rowlands staying on in the company until 2002. She went on to found an agency operating the outdoor advertising space, which at that stage was a largely disorganized market capturing just 3% of total media spend. The business was sold to Aegis, ultimately leading Rowlands to her current position. She says that the agency has allowed her to exercise her entrepreneurial ambitions.
“As an entrepreneur, you want to work with like-minded people and Aegis is very entrepreneurially wired.”
Rowlands was named Business Woman of the Year in 2012 by the Businesswomen’s Association of South Africa; she received a global STEVIE award for Women in Business in 2012 and has served as a judge at Cannes Lions and the Cristal Media Festival Awards.
She lives in Cape Town and is a mother to two teenagers and has been married 16 years.
“My life is my work and my family. I have no hobbies and no time for myself.  My family and my work are everything to me,” she says.

Dawn-Rowlands-standing

‘I Stick To My Guns’

It was not narcissism that saw Papa Kwesi Nduom name his company after himself. It was that desire to put his reputation on the line when it came to business; that strong belief, born of a brass neck and a steel backbone, to be accountable for his work.
Today, Groupe Nduom sits atop of a business made up of tourism, investment advisory and management, financial services, technology, media, management consulting, cross border trade and sports.
It is a modus operandi born in Nduom 47 years ago, when the first opportunity knocked.
“There are certain stages in life that you get to know things. I had the privilege of getting a scholarship and spending one year in the United States in 1970. Prior to that, I wanted to be a medical doctor. I went to the United States and was introduced to other things. Through that I got to know that you could also be in business. In just that one year I took so many different classes outside medicine which broadened my view in life and all sorts of opportunities became possible,” he says.
His uncanny ability to spot opportunities led to the formation of a business empire, based in Ghana, with 60 companies in its portfolio. When we meet at the Coconut Grove Hotel, on a warm Saturday afternoon in Accra, Nduom has a spring in his step, a broad smile and an energetic “good afternoon” for everyone as he ushers us into his inner office in the sprawling resort.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Forbes Africa TV Ep12: Papa Kwesi Nduom reveals how he lost $2 million in one day" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LE2a7A0mT9I?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<h5 id="eow-description">The final episode of the first season of My Worst Day with Peace Hyde features Ghanaian serial entrepreneur Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom &#8211; who shares his memories of the day he lost $2 million worth of business that threatened to end his consultancy business.</h5>
At 64, Nduom’s attention to detail is slightly intimidating; his demeanor is composed and authoritative. His gaze is attentive as he reminds us politely he is flying out later that evening to the United States to complete the acquisition of a new bank. Nduom’s intuitive timing has served him well over the years. That skill was born of the transition from medicine to business. 
“I ended up at the University of Wisconsin and that is where I did the Bachelor of Economics and PhD in service delivery systems. It is there that I actually went off course. I wanted to be a medical doctor and I took all the admission tests and everything and got to a point where I needed a lot of money to continue if I wanted to get into a high-quality medical school. But I found out that I could take some different courses and take a degree in economics and get to work quickly, so I took that path so I could finish and get to work and make some money.”
“I had to fend for myself. Some of the things I do to make a living today, like finding opportunities, comes from the fact that I had to do those things myself and scrape along to survive. I had to pay my own fees, pay for my rent and go to school at the same time,” says Nduom.
In those lean days, he packed canned beans in a factory; toiled for two weeks on a construction site, in the cold winter; and spent long hours as a parking lot attendant.
“I would do the third shift at work which was at midnight and when you come back there would just be enough time to take a shower and go to school. If they said a semester was 15 credits, I wanted to take 20 because I calculated how many credits I needed to take to get out of school early because it was money I had to pay.”
The search for new opportunities to make money taught Nduom two key business principles: the first was how to negotiate.
“One job I really liked was working second shift at a meat factory. It paid well per hour and you learned how to cut meat, and you were also able to take some of the off cuts home. So you had food. So the people I shared my apartment with at that time were two Somalis who loved meat, so I used the meat to trade for other necessities which I couldn’t afford myself.”
Second lesson: the power of perseverance.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-28153 aligncenter" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-AFRICA-Papa-Kwesi-1099.jpg" alt="" width="1023" height="682" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-AFRICA-Papa-Kwesi-1099.jpg 1023w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-AFRICA-Papa-Kwesi-1099-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-AFRICA-Papa-Kwesi-1099-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-AFRICA-Papa-Kwesi-1099-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-AFRICA-Papa-Kwesi-1099-1024x683.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1023px) 100vw, 1023px" />
“Right after university, my first job was with Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance in Milwaukee. I went there and applied with my Ghanaian name and the lady looked at the name Papa Kwesi Nduom and started asking all sorts of other questions. I got to a point where I couldn’t answer all the questions so I failed the interview.”
“I went back to the university and I carried a different identification because my passport had two names in it. So I went and changed my clothes and came back as Joseph Hubster Yorke Junior, which was my other name. The lady didn’t notice that it was the same person. So now, with my new name, she asked me completely different questions, which I answered and she gave me the job and I became a life insurance underwriter,” says Nduom.
Then, Nduom worked at the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wisconsin, a health insurance company, and then the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewage District, a county government institution. Here a rare life-changing experience, in an unlikely place, unfolded through a chance meeting.
“You never know where and when opportunity will make itself available so you should always be ready. I was on the fourth floor of my work building but on the seventh floor was a nice men’s room, which was big and had marble floors, which was really nice. So I would go and use the men’s room on that floor instead of going to the one on the fourth floor,” says Nduom.
“One day I was washing my hands and a guy comes also washing his hands and we strike a conversation. He asked if I would be interested in a job opportunity. He happened to be a recruiter who worked in the building and was looking for people that Touche Ross might be interested in. So we spoke and he set up the interview for me with the partner at Touche Ross and that is how I got the job. It was just an accidental meeting in the men’s room.”
Touche Ross later became Deloitte Touche, one of the ‘Big Four’ accounting firms with revenues of $36.8 billion, according to research company, Gartner. Nduom worked his way up to become a partner in the firm where he would learn his most important business skill, the art of selling.
“Every year they had a book that had all the partners in the US and in that book every partner’s production was there. In it were also the points that you earn as a bonus, so you see the entire top performing partners. So you knew where you were and what your business was supposed to do. So it is important for you to deliver. So you learn how to sell, you learn how to provide service and you learn how to satisfy the need of your customer.”
Nduom became a partner at Deloitte in 1986; with that the pressure to deliver increased. Ronald Reagan was president, Wall Street was booming and business was opening up around the world. Deloitte was in the thick of it.
“When you become a partner in the firm, you are a shareholder in the firm and basically you work for your own account. What you earn is strictly based on the business you bring in. The minimum amount you had to bring in terms of consulting fees was $1 million a year.”
Nduom moved to Washington when the firm merged the Milwaukee and Chicago offices. That put him in contact with the international division at Deloitte; another opportunity Nduom quickly took advantage of.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-28154 aligncenter" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-AFRICA-Papa-Kwesi-1159-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="683" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-AFRICA-Papa-Kwesi-1159-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-AFRICA-Papa-Kwesi-1159-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-AFRICA-Papa-Kwesi-1159-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-AFRICA-Papa-Kwesi-1159-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FORBES-AFRICA-Papa-Kwesi-1159.jpg 1023w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />
“One day, over Thanksgiving dinner I told my wife that I wanted to go to Ghana to see what it was like to work there because I had never worked in Ghana before. So I bought a ticket, came to Ghana and I wanted to spend about a month or so to look around,” he says.
It was this conviction to understand the Ghanaian market that lent Nduom his next big entrepreneurial break. Initially, he sought to offer his services for free to get a feel for the consulting market in Ghana. At the time, Deloitte had representation, with Haskins &amp; Sells, in Accra as well as an association with Akintola Williams in Nigeria. Nduom looked for another opportunity and his instinct paid off, yet again.
“One of the partners said Ashanti Goldfields was their client and it was time to go do an audit, so maybe I should go with them to do an information systems audit. I traveled with them to Obuasi and spent a week, did the analysis of their systems, wrote a report and spoke to the man in charge of the whole area. He said he liked what I was suggesting which was something they might like to do but I should go talk to the managing director of Ashanti Goldfields, which was Sam Jonah, but then he was based at Diamond House in Accra.”
This principle of perseverance, which Nduom had learned a lifetime ago, when he secured his first job as a life insurance underwriter, was to serve him well – just as well, as a frustrating time was ahead.
“So I tried to talk to Sam Jonah several times in Accra and it didn’t work. I went back to Obuasi and somehow somebody there accused me of messing up with their computer systems so they ordered me off the mine. So I left the mine but sat by the supervisor’s door all day and convinced them to let me in because I wanted to talk to him about what can be done to improve their systems. He let me in and I left with an agreement to come back and organize their information systems,” says Nduom.
The contract was for a complete systems overhaul of the gold mine, involving the change of computers, accounting systems as well as payroll. Nduom enlisted the help of Deloitte to deliver the projects. After this, Nduom delivered more projects, including overseeing the merger of Touche Ross and Deloitte Haskins &amp; Sells, forming Deloitte &amp; Touche.
“When they merged they didn’t have a management consulting section and that is what gave me the opportunity to set up Deloitte and Touche Consulting West Africa and brought some other people from the US and hired them to join the team,” says Nduom.
The team had nearly 100 people in Liberia, Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Zimbabwe. Ever the opportunist, Nduom spotted yet another gap in the market.
“While we were here, we realized that nobody was doing consulting work. So I took my own money because the firm said you are a partner in the US and not a partner in Ghana or Africa. They had no interest in setting up a branch of Deloitte USA in Ghana. Deloitte is set up as member firms. So they said we will give you two years after which you will get Africa out of your system and come back to the US.”
The two years taught him resilience. The new West African consulting business was inundated with work. Nduom secured major contracts with Texaco and Elf Oil in Nigeria, the African Development Bank and Malawi Oil. He was also responsible for setting up the computer software for Zimbabwe’s social security system.
“Eventually I became the coordinator for consulting for the African region for Deloitte and the time came for me to go back and I said there was enough work to do here so we set it up as a member firm of Deloitte. So when senior partners will get together every year to have their annual meeting, I would go as the senior partner for the West African consulting practise,” says Nduom.
Nduom became the chairman for the African region for Deloitte and held that position until the end of 2000. His says his success is down to focusing on long-term objectives, while staying flexible enough to solve day-to-day problems.
“We would look for a place to relax or do some work, we couldn’t find anything and so we set up Coconut Grove. We were looking for people to do some software work for us and we couldn’t find anyone, so we took a bus to Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and recruited some students, gave them computers, gave them software to tear apart and build again and then we started a software company. Out of that we set up a software company called TSS, then a hardware company called IBS, and out of that came corporate finance which became Gold Coast,” says Nduom.
The slogan of Groupe Nduom grew beyond expectation and owns a string of companies, from hospitality to entertainment. It has hotels, a football club and an artist management business. In media, it has newspapers, television, radio and advertising; it also owns primary and secondary schools and a university.
Nduom’s intuitive timing helped elbow out competition across his empire; a shrewd strategy that led to his worst day in business.
“I try to forget the date. It was 1995. It is the day I traveled from Ghana to Wharton to speak to graduate business school students about investments in Africa. I was one of the keynote speakers so I traveled from Ghana to Washington and my brother met me with faxes from Ghana, which said number one, I was on the Ghana Airways board at the time and I have been sacked from the board. I had consulting business with Ghana Telecom and it had been canceled. I was doing some consulting business with State Enterprise Commission and it said I was under investigation and in one day I lost over $2 million worth of consulting business,” says Nduom.
He believes this was an attempt by the government of the day to block his businesses for reasons he never found out. The event prompted a passion to be a part of the political system to prevent this injustice from happening to anyone else.
“I didn’t want anybody in Ghana to go through that experience where a government will just get up and, for whatever reason, decide that somebody should not be in business and that they should cancel their contract and just try to move him off the earth. There was a plan to do away with my businesses and everything I was doing in Ghana. They said they would smoke me out and get me to go back to where I came from. This was elevated to an extent that it became a row between the government of Ghana and the US,” says Nduom.
Nduom turned lemons into lemonade and expanded across Africa, leaving trading in Ghana until the impasse was resolved. It was, and 40 years on the business is riding high on its acquisition of Illinois Service Federal (ISF) Bank in Chicago, US. Nduom is older, wiser, with a clear eye for new horizons.
“Working here is like working in our own republic. We are governed by our own rules. You have to send a daily report, monthly report, quarterly report, a mid-year report and a yearly report. The idea is if something was to happen to you, anybody is supposed to look at your business and pick up where you left,” says Richmond Keelson, General Manager of Groupe Nduom Corporate Affairs.
What a journey – from packing canned beans in the United States to owning a bank there – a first for Ghana. The next couple of years will be spent trying to help the bank – the newest entrant into the group – find its feet in the business of its faraway owners.
Nduom is driven by the passion to have a business set up, thrive and succeed beyond Ghana.
That is the legacy Nduom is building; one opportunity at a time.

From Canned Beans To The African Dream Of Owning A Slice Of The States

It’s obvious Nachilala Nkombo has an abiding passion for Africa. Born and raised in Livingstone, Zambia, Nkombo’s interest in development work was influenced by the 1980s when there was a lot of rhetoric in the media about the importance of a free Africa.
“South Africa was the last on the fight for freedom back then, so from time to time, our town would get bombed and the reason why South Africa was bombing us was because we were supporting the freedom fighters. So it got me to develop a sort of consciousness early on in terms of commitment to social justice and understanding our history and how as African people we had equal rights and capabilities contrary to what the system at the time was telling us,” says Nkombo.
Her fight for social justice has seen Nkombo travel all over the world with a commitment to improve the lives of the underprivileged and the poor.
“I took the belief that we as Africans can change the world. When I was growing up, my role models at the time were politicians because they were doing great things and they were leading on big projects that were changing the communities.”
After university, Nkombo’s first role was an internship position in the United States with the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.
“It was like an organization focusing on human rights and it looked at areas where human rights were violated a lot, like the Middle East. Internally, we were challenging corporate personhood laws. In America, corporates had the same rights as individuals. And we were challenging this because there was no way a human being that was finite can compete with a corporate whose resources are never-ending.”
Then came her role with an American non-governmental organization back in Africa.
The role was to be part of the team going to set up the program in Africa and she was responsible for the pan-African women and youth program, which also had an element connecting with the United Nations.
“We developed curricula for young people in Africa that were leaders and we trained about 300 young activists from different parts of Africa who were already making a difference,” she says.
Nkombo’s continued passion for development work has led her to Denmark and Germany and today as the Executive Director of ONE Africa, her fight to combat social injustice wages on.
“As the ONE campaign, we have a plan that outlines the policy priorities that we are going to focus on in the next four years to deliver our mission that is to contribute to the end of extreme poverty and disease. My responsibility is two-fold, to lead the team in Africa to come up with strategies to deliver campaigns and advocacy that actually work in Africa but also my responsibility feeds into the global strategy so that what we are thinking about globally actually works and is relevant in Africa,” says Nkombo.
The organization has expanded their work in recent months and has teamed up with the Dangote Foundation (spearheaded by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote) to spread their work on advocacy in Nigeria. Nkombo believes making a stance to end social injustice is a mandate for all Africans and it is only by pulling together as one, that we can truly impact the future generation.

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The Chosen One

From the deserts of Rajasthan to the dunes of Dubai and the corporate dens of Africa, Rakesh Wahi has weathered the vagaries of life and business. When only 23, while serving in the Indian Armed Forces, he was electrofied and almost died. That early experience taught him to chase his dreams – and fulfil them, no matter what.
Wahi, founder of the Johannesburg-based ABN Group, including CNBC Africa and FORBES AFRICA, has been a leader in media, IT, telecoms and education. Also based in Dubai as Chairman of CMA Investment Holdings, prior to moving there, Wahi had served in the Indian army for about nine years, and for distinguished services to the country in peacetime, was awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal by the President of India in 1985.
Wahi has built companies in over 22 countries, employing a little over a 1,000 people. “Extremely passionate about education”, it is his vision to set up educational centers of excellence across Africa. His first university was launched in Ghana in 2013. He is also the co-founder of Murdoch University Dubai.
Here, Wahi talks about education, innovation, and his debut book, Be A Lion, which will be unveiled at the finale of the 2016 CNBC Africa All Africa Business Leaders Awards in Johannesburg on November 11.
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<h4>What is Be A Lion about?</h4>
It’s about people and the impact they have had on me. I think this entire journey I have made is about how people have influenced me. First, on your way up, it’s your parents who are your greatest influencers as that’s where you get your identity from; and then, over a period of your lifetime, it’s the people who come into your life and make an impact, some positively, some otherwise. And that is the greatest experience you can talk about.
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<h4>You own multiple businesses; what new innovative industries are you possibly looking at?</h4>
When it comes to innovation, the key is to focus on how the world is changing and how things are going to impact our existing businesses. You have to constantly think about how your consumers are reacting to your products and services, and constantly change and that’s what innovation is about; it’s about reaching your customers in a more efficient manner.
With regard to the education sector, it’s changing rapidly. The way children consume education is very different from our time. The traditional classroom environment is changing.
Now, is learning going to be classroom-based? Are holograms going to be the future of education? Can you superimpose a teacher sitting in New York into classrooms in core campuses across the world, and have concurrent teaching?  A lot is changing.
Online is a very important aspect of where education is going, but I don’t believe that is the answer to it; I think the hybrid kind of education is what is eventually going to come around. Face-time with teachers is critical, the social engagement with peers is critical, so therefore a lot of things are going to remain constant with education, and the rest of it will evolve in terms of where technology and innovation can be used to make it more efficient.
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<h4>What are your continuing goals for education in Africa?</h4>
We are setting up centers of excellence. In West Africa, with Lancaster University, we are going to be setting up an engineering college with strong laboratory-based learning. In East Africa, our focus is energy and a vast part of it will require simulators and modern training equipment, and we will be partnering with industry to make sure we get the best of breed. We will roll out energy programs in the rest of Africa, and encourage students from across Africa, Asia and emerging markets to come to Rwanda for instance, where we are partnering with the University of Aberdeen for our energy programs.
In southern Africa, we are looking to partner with one of the Scottish universities to set up a center of excellence for health sciences, including medical and nursing colleges.
We don’t want to bring in technology from the yesteryears just because it is cheaper, or because we think Africa is still an emerging market, we want to actually leapfrog and bring in the latest technical innovations into these centers.
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<h4>CNBC Africa turns 10 next year; what are the innovations in the media business?</h4>
The entire way in which people are going to view television is changing, so are distribution channels. What remains consistent is there will always be demand for high-quality content. Our focus on creating quality content, which stays with the values of CNBC globally, is going to be one of our core competencies, but how you distribute it is going to actually evolve in the next 10 to 15 years, particularly in Africa.
The viewing habits of consumers are changing, they are no longer watching channels; they are watching programs, and able to customize their own grids. What is relevant is you will be able to watch what you want, at the time you want, in a scheduled manner.
On the one side, we have to make sure we create best and compelling content; on the other side, we partner with distribution platforms able to cater to the needs of the consumers at an affordable price.
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<h4>How welcoming is the African economy today of innovation?</h4>
At conferences and workshops, people talk about innovation, but I am not very sure they are actually geared up for it. The practical elements of bringing innovation into your workplace, whether in government or large corporates, is about a change in mindset, when you have to change processes and the way you look at things. It’s about driving change, and also, the commitment of leadership.
You do find there are some leaders in Africa bringing about that change, and the one that I would single out is President Paul Kagame, which is why Rwanda is making strides the way they are. He has the ability to visualize the future. They also have restrictions in terms of the size of the economy, but when you are hungry, you are able to adapt faster.
Kagame has brought a culture of change in his country, and it is very visible in the way you do business in Rwanda. You can set up a company in six to 24 hours if you have your documents in order. Rwanda gives you the opportunity to adapt quickly.
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<h4>How do you balance profit and philanthropy?</h4>
I think these are closely related. There have been great leaders like Mother Teresa who have devoted their time towards a cause. And she has touched the lives of our family too – she was very close to my mother, and has been to our home. But eventually, even to enable what she was doing, required money.
Over time, our own CSR and philanthropy as a family has changed. When Saloni [Wahi’s wife] and I were starting out in our life, even when we didn’t have much, we were always engaged in making a contribution towards causes.
Over the years, we found we needed to have a cause of our own, and after we set up the ABN Education Trust, we rationalized what made sense to us as a family. We focused on financial journalism, and also, on helping destitute women and the girl child, a cause Saloni is very passionate about.
Money is an important contribution but you also need to make time. Saloni and I work as a team. The heart sits with her, while I become the machinery for generating the income.
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<h4>Your most prized possession is…?</h4>
Family. I am not a material person. If I were to pack my life, I could pack it all into one suitcase.
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– Interviewed by Methil Renuka; for the full text of this interview, visit www.cnbcafrica.com; All net proceeds from the sales of Be A Lion, published by Penguin Random House, will go to charity and  the ABN Education Trust.

The Entrepreneur’s Entrepreneur

Sixty one years ago, Peter Magubane took his first picture. It was another world in 1954, most of Southern Africa wasn’t free. South Africa was under the heel of JG Strijdom and apartheid divided the country. This was the uncertain and unequal world 22-year-old Magubane was thrown into with a camera around his neck.
Magubane was born in Vrededorp and raised in the multicultural suburb of Sophiatown, Johannesburg. He worked for DRUM; the magazine in everyone’s home.
”I began to read DRUM magazine, who were writing about social issues that affected black people in South Africa, then I said this is a magazine I want to work for,” says Magubane.
He was employed as a driver and given a camera by DRUM editor Thomas Hopkinson. He worked alongside other greats, like photographer Bob Gosani and chief photographer Jurgen Schadeberg. He looked through the lens and never looked back.
Magubane recalls going outside the country and documenting poverty in Africa.
“Someone wanted to stop me and I said ‘no, I am here to document, this is the truth of what is happening. Let my camera eat, it is hungry,’” he says
Magubane told the story to his inheritors, more than 100 students, young professionals and media houses at the Market Photo Workshop gallery in downtown Johannesburg. It was tough in his day as a photojournalist. Police kept him in solitary confinement for 586 days for taking pictures and sending them out of South Africa.
“I was arrested for doing my job,” he says.
He was so passionate about photography he remembers saying to himself that when he got out, he was going out with his camera again. Soon after Magubane was released, he was banned for five years and couldn’t work as a photographer. That wasn’t going to stop him.
Magubane used to dodge through back doors to take pictures and return under the cover of darkness. One night he came back to find his house on fire. He recalls looking at his house and saying: “damn, they’re fighting back.”
Magubane was quick, he had to be. One day he was sent to Zeerust, a small town in the North West province, to cover a trial ringed by the police. He knew before he left Johannesburg that he wasn’t welcome.
“I went to the nearest shop and bought myself a half loaf of bread, I scooped the inside of the bread, I put my camera in there and I walked around eating my bread taking pictures. The police were so dumb that I had this bread the whole day, and when I was through with that I went and bought myself a pint of milk, I threw the milk out and put my camera inside and I continued taking pictures,” he says.
Magubane used a Leica M3 camera, small enough to hide inside a loaf of bread, a box of milk or a bible. One of his undercover assignments was to photograph mineworkers. He went in with a dust coat, the camera underneath.
“I walked in there, I saw what was going on. Men were stripped naked, being examined. There was no need for them to be stripped, whatsoever. And I took my pictures, I shocked the entire South Africa with those pictures, because no one had ever gone into the mines and taken those pictures, but this son of Magubane did, because I was not afraid.”
Magubane spent years photographing during apartheid, and got caught up in it: the Treason Trial, where he was arrested in 1956 and released after four days; the Women’s March in 1956 on the Union Building in Pretoria for the abolition of passes for women, the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960 where 69 people were killed and over 200 injured, the 1976 Soweto Uprising, right up to the release of Nelson Mandela in 1990. Magubane became his personal photographer.
Post 1994, after all the blood and violence, Magubane took his camera to capture the beauty of South Africa, the colorful side that the world didn’t know.
He exhibited work internationally in the United States and Germany and also featured in National Geographic, The Times in London and LIFE magazine.
“My editor told me to never allow yourself to be told what to take and what not to take. And I was prepared to break the apartheid rules with all my might and I’m glad that I did. When I sit at home going through my pictures, I say ‘yes, son of Magubane, you have done justice to this country, you have done justice to yourself.’”

Fear, Truth And Daring In The Land Of Bread, milk  And CUNNING

It does not matter how amazing your business is, as long as customers don’t know about it, it is as good as a diamond buried deep under the earth.
Technology has led to radical changes in the market; traditional advertising is dying out, and the media companies’ revenue from this is declining. Yet, despite not investing much in advertising, the exposure of companies is at an all-time high.
Are we caught in a middle of a market evolution? Everyone is trying to predict what is going to happen. Reports by the likes of the World Economic Forum, McKinsey &amp; Company and PricewaterhouseCoopers are springing up everywhere. Some are correct, others are dismally wrong.
If you are an entrepreneur in Africa with a fervent drive to conquer a particular industry, whether or not you have a budget for advertising, you need to explore the most effective strategies to market yourself in a world where you can end up drowning amid the plethora of ads and messages in the media. It’s a mad show out there, all you have to do is take a walk along the street or browse the internet to realize this.
Let’s look at some of the effective ways to convert prospective customers to actual clients.
There is a model that many entrepreneurs don’t know about – the freemium model – which is one step below the paid for premium model. Freemium is where you offer your products and services for free and then make money on the other end. Facebook’s monetization strategy is selling advertising to other companies, on the back of the popularity of their service. Bear in mind that the high usage of their service is down to it being free.
Chinese ecommerce company, Alibaba, did the same thing to kill eBay when the American company tried to enter the Asian market half a decade ago. They invited eBay to follow their free model, knowing that the listed company’s shareholders would persecute its senior executives if it did so. Alibaba is now the king of the Asian ecommerce market, while eBay fizzled out.
You need to be creative to stretch a dollar in today’s economy, whether your company is big or small.
Referral is one of the most effective marketing tools for your business. It’s a form of trust transferred by another source you know and respect. Uber has used this method well. The taxi company offers free rides to their existing customers when they refer Uber. In this case, an incentive rewards existing customers for finding new customers.
There are products that go viral without monetary incentive. WhatsApp is the best example in this case. Existing customers were pushing the product themselves because they wanted to use WhatsApp to message everyone else in their phonebook. It helps that WhatsApp is cost effective as well.
Offering your product for potential customers to use over a trial period has been popular in recent years. Most anti-virus and software companies use this as a marketing strategy. It is not a new concept though. William, a young salesman in the 1930s, worked for a company that sold home appliances. He walked from door to door, allowing people to use particular products until he returned to collect them a week or so later. More often than not, when he returned, the majority of those people discovered that the items were useful and refused to give it back. They chose to pay him for the item instead. It led to him becoming the number one salesman in his company.
Some say print media advertising revenues are going down because many marketing campaigns are online. That cannot be the entire reason, only 9.8% of Africans are internet users.
Then internet is not the only answer to marketing these days. Many companies collaborate to leverage each other’s client base. Insurance, retail and healthcare based companies are good at this. Partner with a company that opens your business to hundreds, thousands, and even millions of clients; it could save you piles of money that would usually be spent on ineffective campaigns.

The Art Of The  War

I wrote an article for a business news website several months ago about South Africa’s need to develop industrialists. The need is simply unavoidable: we incessantly hear about the country’s high unemployment rate in the media. Much is stated yet little is done.
A reader commented on the article, making a rather brash statement, which he is entitled to. He was of the opinion that I was naive for stating that we need to produce A-grade industrialists, instead highlighting the fact that our government should rather focus on mitigating the capital outflows South Africa has experienced in recent times. Perhaps our stringent labor laws are to blame or maybe our sluggish economy has precipitated these outflows. I agree in part; ultimately my point, and the real issue, is that not enough great ideas are being cultivated. There are various reasons such as entrepreneurs continuing to find it difficult to access funding, and our high skills deficiency relative to other industrialized economies.
The tenuous relationship between the private and public sectors cannot be over-emphasized. This issue is constantly debated in the media, illustrated by differing ideologies that the public and private sectors have pertaining to the economy: what should be done and how it should be done. Unfortunately for the greater masses, and more importantly the economic welfare of our country, their issues remain unresolved. The situation with our capitulating mining industry is a perfect illustration of the tipping point that has been reached as far as relations between the state and business are concerned. It comes as no surprise that the sector has cut thousands of jobs and this trend is likely to continue in other sectors.
According to recent data from the Department of Trade and Industry, South Africa’s gross domestic fixed investment to GDP hovers around 20%, well below the fastest growing nations. We can no longer justify our lack of saving as a nation on the fact that we have a growing fiscal budget, placing greater pressure on our budget deficit. There are several countries that face similar challenges, and are considered developing countries by the World Bank, that have significantly higher national savings as a proportion of the national income. The Asian Tigers – Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea – owe some of the successes of their economic revolutions to substantially higher national savings, which enabled them in part to finance the industrialization of their economies through private investment rather than relying on foreign investment.
This brings me to my next point: South Africa needs to create world-class industrialists now and at a rapid pace. The ‘industrialist’ term has been misused by being prefixed by ‘black’ in recent government economic policy documents. The term has been used to describe what appears to be Black Economic Empowerment benefactors who will be moulded into billionaires. The ruling African National Progress (ANC) party has stated several times its need to create black billionaires. Few would disagree that the emergence of wealthy blacks, including all previously disadvantaged race groups, is necessary in the transformation struggle. The issue is not as much whether the emergence of black billionaires is wrong, but rather the manner in which the government plans to go about it.
The prioritization of creating employment opportunities remains pivotal in curbing the dependency of South Africans on state welfare and ultimately building a society in which the economic benefits of the country benefit everyone. For now, the prospect of higher employment amid the slowing economic growth is inconceivable. Great ideas need to be cultivated. Ultimately it was great ideas that birthed many of the largest corporations the world has ever seen and immortalized industrialists such as Andrew Carnegie and Cornelius Vanderbilt that transformed the concept of entrepreneurship.
The alternative of creating an elitist ‘black’ faction of billionaires through state procurement processes, better known as tenderpreneurship, will not only breed discontentment among the poor black majority, but will be a clear sign that the ANC has never, at its core, been a truly leftist party but is mutating  into a right-wing movement.

More Entrepreneurs, Less Tenderpreneurs

It’s a cold winter day in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. Chills run through the body like a quiet ghost, coming and going, making your hair stand on end. The cold has played a big part in Oyama Dyosiba’s journey to entrepreneurship. On this day, he is feeling a little under the weather; despite this his personality is like hot chocolate and marshmallows on a cold day.
As we meet, he sips hot water and feels the warmth of success born of years of struggle. The 31-year-old was one of GQ’s 2014 best-dressed men, is the founder of Oyama Management Agency; a social entrepreneur, and actor.
This is a world away from the cold and unwelcoming arrival in Johannesburg from East London in the Eastern Cape province. He was bewildered and penniless.
The problem was he had nowhere to go. So, it was a cold bench in Johannesburg’s Park Station.
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“I didn’t know anyone or where I was going. Every morning, I would sit on the benches and pretend as if I’m waiting for a bus. I would go to the bathroom, wash my face, brush my teeth and then go and look for a job. I wanted to be here so I had to be strong and resilient,” he says.
Dyosiba landed a call center job and moved into an apartment in Braamfontein. In the months following this breakthrough, he scored a full time job as a marketing manager for City Varsity, a media and art school.
After a few years, he lost motivation and was unhappy in the job.
“I started thinking that I didn’t want to work for anyone. If I can turn City Varsity to what it is today surely I can do something of my own. That’s when I decided to start my own business.”
There was soul searching and research. Out of it came Oyama Management Agency in 2010.
“Starting a business is not easy. There are a lot of struggles, hard work and effort needed in order to be successful,” he says.
Thinking he had made it was dangerous. A second tragedy struck and he found himself homeless for the second time in four years thanks to his new business venture.
“I lost my apartment because the business was not making money as often as I needed it to. Sometimes clients didn’t pay on time and I was in trouble.”
With nowhere to go again, he moved into a tiny storeroom and slept on boxes.
“It was difficult. I put my things in the small storeroom of a building I used to stay in. The building manager was kind enough to let me keep all my things there. I couldn’t even go to the bathroom at night. I was forced to hold it in, [urine] in a container or run to the roof of the building,” he says.
“People in Johannesburg only like people when things are well. I didn’t want people to feel sorry for me so I pretended as if everything was okay.”
The pressure of survival in the big city and the confines of a storeroom did not stifle his dream.
“No one ever knew I had no place to stay. I even hosted the launch for my company and I was hungry in the stomach but my brain was full of hope.”
“I knew what I wanted and I wasn’t about to stop.  I would go to a gym, close by, to bath every single day and no one knew. If you have a vision you have to keep going no matter what.”
Hard work prevailed and five years later he has swapped the storeroom for an apartment in Kyalami, north of Johannesburg.
Dyosiba not only hosts events packed tighter than two coats of paint but he is a businessman and TV actor. He has featured in TV shows such as ‘Tempy Pushas’ and ‘My Girl D’.
Oyama Management Agency has 37 fulltime employees and many more on contract.
When the agency first started, it concentrated on model and artist management. The company has grown over the years to include event planning and hosting events such as polo matches, brand activations, fashion shows and the music festivals.
He works with models such as Devon Muir and fashion designers who dress celebrities such as Weza Solange, Nomuzi Mabena and Dineo Moeketsi.
He knows the industry and is streetwise.
“I have turned down five clients this month alone because where there is no money there is no Oyama. In business you have to be strict. If you want the best job then you have to pay for it,” he says.
He counts Vodacom, Coca-Cola, MTN, beMOBILE and Peroni among clients.
“When clients trust you and know that you will deliver, it becomes easier because you get to a point where you don’t have to approach them and they approach you,” he says.
Fashion designer Quiteria Kekana of Quiteria&amp;George says Dyosiba is a shrewd businessman who never gives up.
“There are a lot of artists he works with. He also organizes a lot of events around Africa and they are always a success. He hosted a Fashion Without Borders event and people in the industry were all talking about it. It was a success, a big success.”
According to Kekana, Dyosiba’s models score big contracts and some of them appear on national TV.
If nothing, Dyosiba’s story proves that with a brain full of hope you can fill the stomach, no matter how cold it is on the bench.

“I Was Hungry In My Stomach But My Brain Was Full Of Hope”

Zain Verjee started her career on the radio before going on to become one of CNN’s most respected television journalists. Today, Verjee is an entrepreneur in the digital space in Africa.
What is remarkable is that Verjee sustained a high-profile career in television despite suffering psoriasis, a skin ailment that manifests in the form of red spots and patches covered with silvery scales. For years, she endured this privately, drawing strength from family. The odds were stacked against her.
Born and raised in Nairobi to a Kenyan family of Indian ancestry, her early education was in Kenya before moving to Montreal, Canada, to study English Literature and Development Studies at McGill University. Verjee returned to Kenya and enrolled for a graduate degree in environmental studies. Meanwhile, she heard of a job opportunity in radio.
“A new radio station opened up called Capital Radio at the time. I started reading the traffic news. Then I filled in for a love line show at night where I started learning how to become a radio DJ. I gave romantic advice on the radio at age 21/22 and read poems and was soppy and played sad songs on air, which was great. When the embassy was bombed in 1998 [Al Qaeda bombings of United States’ embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam], it was close to the Capital FM radio station, so I got involved in reporting the story and so that really forced me to become more engaged in hard news. So I did some work for the BBC. Then I started working for Kenya Television network and then I applied to CNN,” says Verjee.
Given her limited experience, Verjee’s application was a long shot. However, she was not willing to back down.
“The manager at the time told me I didn’t have enough experience, I had never done breaking news and that I shouldn’t bother applying. But I continued to apply and I begged for a screen test and eventually managed to convince her after at least 10 or 15 email exchanges where I was bordering on becoming ‘stalkerish’. So she said ‘OK, fine! Come to Atlanta, I’m not going to pay you, I’m not going to hire you, you are going to have to pay your own way, but we will do a screen test and then go away’. So I did the screen test and then she said to me ‘I’m going to do something I’ve never done before, I’ll offer you a job on the spot, but as a writer, not as an anchor, and we’ll train you and if you are good, we’ll promote you. If not, then you can go back to Kenya after three years’. And it was amazing. I learned how to anchor, I learned how to write. Everyone at CNN helped me succeed and gave me many opportunities. And the journey evolved from there.”
Verjee’s persistence earned her a posting to the Unites States’ State Department as a foreign policy correspondent. This was during the difficult days of the Bush administration with Condoleezza Rice as Secretary of State and the war in Iraq. She explains: “When I went to the State Department, I was very scared. I was very intimidated and nervous because I had no idea what to do. And I didn’t understand nor did I have sources and I didn’t have relationships that would give me information at the time. And I remember after making one phone call on a major story to the State Department spokesman at the time, I didn’t know who else to call so I was just pacing the corridors waiting for him to call me back because I didn’t know what else to do. I was really in a panic because the phones were ringing, there was pressure, there was information wanted, ‘match the story, break the story’; I was sweating bullets. But eventually I learned. The State Department press corps were fantastic. Condoleezza Rice was a great personality and powerhouse to cover. U.S. foreign policy was in an interesting moment at the time and CNN was really pushing me to be better than I thought I could be.”
All this while, Verjee had to manage her ailment whilst maintaining her poise in front of the cameras.
“Right before I applied to CNN in 1999, my skin condition was so bad I could barely walk properly. What happens is because it’s such a visually ugly disease, especially for a young woman, it psychologically has a terrible impact, and you get very afraid of exposing skin, you get afraid of close relationships, you are nervous; because now I was developing a profession in television, yet my face was the only thing I was projecting that was clear. So by the time I was at CNN, until I moved to London, I was in remission, so I was really more confident of myself. I was appreciating my own body, my own skin, my own freedom a lot more. And I didn’t have any struggles until I got to London when it inflamed again because I was stressed. It was a difficult adjustment for me at the beginning and it affected my immune system and my stability. So it became again very hard because on the one hand I was fighting my own body and trying to control it, and on the other hand, being glamorous and trying to present comfortably. And when my skin is bad, I become psychologically a bit disturbed and can’t focus. So I’m always having to cope with my skin as a way of personally dealing with the health issue, making sure that in my profession it doesn’t create the obstacle it once did.”
Of all the stories she anchored, Verjee singles out the brutal attack by Somali terrorist group, Al Shabaab, on the Westgate Shopping mall in Nairobi as the most challenging. The siege occurred in her backyard and most of the people and families affected were known to her. Verjee walked a fine line as she balanced her emotions covering such a personal story while upholding her professional responsibility.
Nairobi was also the scene of one of the scariest moments Verjee faced as a journalist. She was covering the protests that erupted after Kenya’s national elections in 2008 when an attempt to pre-empt a march by protesters resulted in Verjee being hit by a tear gas canister shot by the police.
“It was opposite Uhuru Park where the GSU paramilitary were. And they just started targeting journalists and they targeted me first because I was walking and talking. All of a sudden I heard a loud boom and a very sharp pain in my back, and my eyes started watering because it was teargas. It was in such close proximity that had that canister hit my face or my spine, we would have been having a very different conversation.”
In April 2014, Verjee made the decision to leave CNN. Her passion for Africa and desire to actively contribute to its growth led her to establish Akoma, a digital storytelling platform. With the new project, Verjee seeks to enable Africa’s digital generation to tell their stories.
“I believe it’s time young Africans who have access to smartphone technology and are increasingly connected to the digital world, get to say what they want. If they have an idea or an opinion, it should come authentically from us. It should come from something that is created by Africans that is just as good as the rest of the world’s innovations.”
A proud African, Verjee believes African women will shape the future of the continent. “I believe African women can set the benchmark for the world. The kind of passion, innovation, enthusiasm and opportunities that I have seen directly in the last six months engaging with many of these women leads me to believe that African women are shattering the glass ceiling and that some of the real innovation that will come will be from them.”
Verjee is surely leading the way.

CNN Digital Rebranding 2013

The News Anchor Who Begged For  A Screen Test

Kharkov, the second largest city in Ukraine, is the unlikely location where Oke Okaro was baptised in the world of business during the Soviet era. In 1990, Okaro left Nigeria, as a teenager, on a scholarship to study electrical engineering at the University of Kharkov. Since then, he has had a rollercoaster career that has seen him grow from a trader in consumer products, such as Sony’s Walkman and Nike high-top sneakers, to the C-Suite of global finance and media technology corporations.
Along the way, he branched out as an angel investor and technology entrepreneur. Today, Okaro is a hands-on investor in several fast growing start-ups in Nigeria, including Gloo.ng, an online retailer of household goods, and ACE (Africa Courier Express), a technology-enabled logistics company.
Okaro’s journey began when he decided to abandon his academic scholarship to study computer science in Britain.
“When I left Kharkov, I was 16 and only had $200 in my pocket. I moved to London with the understanding that I had taken the decision on my own account and as a result, I was fully responsible for personally supporting every aspect of my life; I had to make it work on my own and failure was not an option. I didn’t have anyone in London and upon arriving roughed it out day to day, figuring out where I’d sleep and find the next meal,” he says.
“I did pretty much every odd job you can think of. I worked as a bricklayer, cleaner, security guard, bouncer, nurses’ assistant, fast food and electronics sales person; pretty much everything. However, I never for one second lost focus of the prize which was to get my degree in computer science.”
After graduating in 1996 and working in Britain for a year, as a software engineer, Okaro, ignoring advice from friends, quit his job and moved to New York in pursuit of the American dream.
Once again, he didn’t know anyone in the city and camped out in the student hostel at Columbia University. Within a few weeks, he landed a job at a major financial securities firm, Greenwich Capital Markets, where he worked as a software engineer designing and building fixed income derivative trading systems. After three successful years, Okaro once again decided it was time for a new challenge and set his sights on an MBA. He applied and was accepted to the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.
In the summer of 2001, while on the program, Okaro took up an internship with Qualcomm and landed in the mobile sector just as the telcos in the United States (US) were starting to invest in their data networks.
“At Qualcomm I got the privilege of working on one of the first mobile apps in the US, and also the rollout of the first mobile application development and distribution platform, BREW, (Binary Runtime for Wireless). This was 2001, six years before the iPhone and seven years before the App Store. Back then, Japan was the market leader and the US market was in its infancy. People in the US hadn’t even got into texting much. Despite this, from seeing what was starting to happen in Japan and from my experience working hand in hand with the leading US telcos at the time, Verizon and Sprint, I knew mobile was going to be huge in the US and much bigger than in Japan. This was when I knew I was going to be the mobile guy.”
MBA degree in hand, Okaro went on to explore turnaround venture opportunities. However, this proved unsuccessful and he counted his losses and moved on. He then joined a global sport media company, where he started its mobile business and led the design, product and engineering teams. Okaro created a portfolio of pioneering and award-winning products that set the standard in the mobile content industry.
Within a few years, his products had gained a massive global audience and were generating annual revenues in excess of $75 million. Recognizing his trailblazing achievements, Apple’s executive leadership invited Okaro to join them onstage during the iOS 3.0 launch event at Apple’s Cupertino headquarters in 2009. After six years, Okaro moved to another global media company in 2010, this time a finance organization, where he started their consumer mobile and connected devices business and again produced outstanding results. In a short time, his creations amassed a monthly audience of 17 million unique users, generating multi-million-dollar revenues and winning a host of industry awards, including app of the year from Apple.
Though successful, Okaro had always wanted to be involved in Africa’s technology revolution. To test the waters, he developed the first football mobile application in 2007, and targeted it at Africa. Observing the encouraging uptake, Okaro sensed the opportunity and decided to get involved.
“The [football] app made it pretty clear to me, as far back as 2007, that people in several African countries valued quality content and a great experience. Having seen this at the start of the mobile content revolution in the US, I wanted to get more involved as an entrepreneur but couldn’t because I was employed full time. I struggled with this for a really long time then it finally occurred to me that the most effective way to play in the market was as an investor in talented entrepreneurs with exciting digital ideas,” he says.
Leveraging his network of contacts, Okaro sought and cultivated relationships with entrepreneurs on the continent which led him to make first-round investments in a number of startups.
From his vantage point, Okaro sees abundant opportunities for innovation in Africa, especially around mobile technology.
“Observing from the sidelines, the telco’s are well positioned to be at the forefront of the technological revolution on the continent, but it appears they don’t have the vision or talent in place to think through and execute in a way that has never been done. No market, except Japan when it started, has similar characteristics with African countries. Just like it was in Japan, the majority of people who come online in Africa, will come online on a mobile device and for many, their entire digital existence will be on a mobile device.”
“This presents an incredible opportunity. They need to understand that if they want to maintain their leadership position in the market and play a pivotal role as a broader participant in the economy, it is imperative that they create a frictionless enabling environment for entrepreneurs and new businesses.”
Declining to elaborate on his next challenge, Okaro offers a confident smile,  leaving no doubt  about its success.

‘Failure Was Not  An Option’

Johannesburg media personality Bonang Matheba is determined to showcase Africa as “the next big phenomenon”.
“My success is not about myself but about making our continent a hub of global cultural integration, in business and popular culture,” says Matheba.
It helps that Matheba is well-known. She has over a million followers on social media.
“We live in an era of social media, and that is where I have been able to influence the market effectively, as Twitter and Instagram have become a global mouth piece and radio is definitely my second-most influential media platform – it has allowed me to reach a broader audience.”
Where did it all begin for her? She first appeared on South African television at the age of 15, but it was popular music show Live that gave her stardom.
“There are many memories I treasure deeply on Live, this show was one of the platforms that propelled my career to where it is today.”
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She is now presenter on South Africa’s premiere lifestyle and magazine show Top Billing. In July 2013, she won the YOU Spectacular Award as the Best TV Presenter in South Africa. Her success in television has gotten her big brand endorsements, such as with cosmetic group Revlon, and this has allowed her to break boundaries in many ways.
Since the 1980’s, Revlon has sought to associate itself with the ‘Unforgettable Woman’.
Halle Berry and Emma Stone are currently brand ambassadors for the make-up brand, making Matheba the company’s only ambassador outside of the United States.
Fashion being a big part of her personality, she has often been hailed a style icon, having graced the covers of various glamor magazines, and receiving her fair share of awards.
Her fashion philosophy?
“Glamor is a state of mind, it not just about looking great and having a good income. It boils down to how you feel about yourself, what you do with your time and the company you keep.”
Currently she has a lingerie line –Distraction, available at Woolworths SA, and is producing two new shows under Bonang Matheba Entertainment this year. “Let’s activate greatness!” she says.

Bonang-Forbes-2

Bonang Unplugged

It was a touching story, even inspiring; the sad part, most of it wasn’t true.
Thirty-year-old Thulani Khoza told FORBES AFRICA, plus a clutch of television shows, radio and national newspapers, his plausible story of building a smartphone in Africa. He even had a snappy name for it, T-Touch Mobile. His former partner alleged that he bought the phone at a shop in downtown Johannesburg.
At our offices in Sandton, Khoza said he would be on the cover of FORBES AFRICA one day.
Khoza told us of his transition from Bushbuckridge, a small town in Mpumalanga, to obtaining a degree in computer science from the University of the Witwatersrand in 2006 and earning honors in software engineering from the University of Nottingham, in Britain, and a master’s in business administration at Baker University in the United Sates.
“The university can find no record on its database of a Mr Thulani Khoza having graduated from the university with a BSc degree in 2006,”says Carol Crosley, the Registrar at the University of the Witwatersrand.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-4455" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/DSC_0016-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" />
Emma Rayner, a Media Relations Manager at the University of Nottingham, said: “I can confirm that our alumni team and our student services department can find no record of Thulani Khoza ever being a student at the University of Nottingham.”
Khoza said he worked as a systems analyst for South Africa’s public broadcaster, the SABC. But the SABC’s human resources confirmed it doesn’t have a Thulani Khoza in its records as an employee or even a freelancer.
In his company profile Khoza claims to have registered with Neotel, a national operator for fixed-line telecommunication services.
“Neotel is unaware of, and cannot locate, any records relating to Thulani Khoza or the company, Thules Communications,” says Sandra Sowray of Neotel.
It also appears that Thules Telecoms, a company Khoza claims to be his, belongs to his ex-girlfriend Beatrice Mashego who grew up with him.
“We attended the same primary school in Bushbuckridge Shatale Township. In 1998, we were doing grade six, he left to stay with his mother in Vosloorus until he invited me on Facebook in November 2015.”
According to Mashego, the company was registered in September 2016, under her name, but no more.
“It was registered under my name until I approached the CIPC (Companies and Intellectual Property Commission) to deregister after hearing that he used me to get government funds.”
Mashego says the company wasn’t registered with any trademark association.
“I am not sure if the phone is there or not but I can confirm that there are no technicians whatsoever. I only know the one phone he’s been showing everyone.”
Khoza told us that he has 89 employees and has received orders from as far as the United States, Britain, Mexico, Portugal, and Ghana. His former business partner, Karabo Masenyadiloana, says no.
“He’s been promising jobs; that once this factory is up and running he’s going to employ 2,500 people. Thulani is too calculated to be mentally sick because someone who is mentally sick would have dropped the ball but this guy is always on his game. It is deliberate,” says Masenyadiloana.
According to Masenyadiloana, there is no such thing as T-Touch Mobile that was supposed to be registered with the regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA).
“I was submitting paperwork for my phone at ICASA, so I was having a conversation with the staff so I was like, ‘have you guys ever heard of T-Touch?’ They searched their system and there was no record of T-Touch. I then asked about Thulani Khoza, they searched again and there was no Thulani Khoza in their system. This guy doesn’t even know where ICASA is and what the paperwork looks like,” says Masenyadiloana.
“Thulani’s phone is cracked, don’t you think that if he really had a phone company he would have fixed that crack or got himself a new phone? &#8230;For him to go to a shop and buy a phone and tell media that he manufactured it himself shows that he has a skill in lying,” he says.
In November, Khoza received the government’s SA Man of the Year for Science &amp; Technology award that &#8220;acknowledges an individual that has played a significant role in ensuring community development in science and technology&#8221;. Khoza was going to be handed a R15,000 ($1,100) cash prize, but not anymore.
“He did lie to us. We withdrew the award in December as he failed to come forward to explain himself. We have also decided not to act in a way that would destroy him but to rehabilitate him,” says Bongani Ngomane, Chairman of the awards.
When FORBES AFRICA called Khoza on January 12, he said: “I’m in Mpumalanga and I cannot respond to your questions right now because you’ve caught me off guard. I will ask my PR company to send a statement and I have addressed everything in the statement.”
We phoned him repeatedly and, at the time of going to press, nothing, not a call nor a statement.

Tag: Media

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The News Anchor Who Begged For A Screen Test

‘Failure Was Not An Option’

Bonang Unplugged

The Charlatan Who’s No Longer Taking Calls