For continental traders like Robert Mensah and Nomkhosi Shongwe who sell organic soaps made of cocoa, the border bans induced by the pandemic have meant undelivered products and a backlog of work.



Ghana, the beautiful country in West Africa, famous for its cocoa, is one of the world’s largest exporters of the natural product. The humble bean is also used to make organic black soap, favored by many for its dermatological benefits.



But the current Covid 19-induced lockdown in the country has meant that Accra-based traders like Robert Mensah are not seeing any monetary returns for their esoteric organic cocoa products.



The brand he founded, named Akwaaba, produces and supplies ‘raw African black soap’, organic cocoa butter and even shea butter (another West African specialty) to overseas markets.



Mensah’s entrepreneurial journey had initially even included a stint in South Africa, when he sold djembe drums in the quaint old suburb of Yeoville in Johannesburg, but then, decided to return home to Ghana for good and start selling the soap.



“I left South Africa about three years ago to set up this organic black soap business to sell locally and internationally. The business has been operating for over two years, employing three people; two of assist with packaging and the remaining one is a dispatch driver,” he says.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="768" height="1024" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Robert-Mensah-768x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-44381" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Robert-Mensah-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Robert-Mensah-300x400.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Robert-Mensah-600x800.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Robert-Mensah-225x300.jpg 225w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Robert-Mensah.jpg 810w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" /><figcaption>Robert Mensah</figcaption></figure>



Like most other countries in Africa, Ghana too has travel restrictions, so this means Mensah cannot make deliveries to other towns.



“International trading is one of our biggest challenges as all borders and airports are closed.”



Mensah had orders that were meant for overseas deliveries but at the moment, his goods are stuck, although production is ongoing.



“It’s very tough, that is how the world has come to be, for now,” he says.



All he can do, for now, is mentally travel back and forth in time.



In 2018, when his business was still new, he recalls receiving an order online from Nomkhosi Shongwe, a South African curious about his organic skin products.



Shongwe, an advertising professional in Johannesburg, who is now Mensah’s business associate, had been researching organic products when she stumbled upon the black soaps.



“I just saw the benefits of African soap and shea butter online and searched for an African supplier and Mensah’s name popped up. I ordered the soaps to try them out and possibly sell. People liked it and I promoted the business on social media and I now sell it nationally.”



From Ghana to South Africa, her woes are the same as Mensah’s.



She says business has also been slow since the lockdown effected in South Africa from March 27. She is unable to collect the supply delivered prior to the lockdown because of travel restrictions. &nbsp;



“The product is in high demand globally and locally; customers locally have even made deposits in case they run out of money post the lockdown.”



Luckily, Shongwe has another source of income so is not solely reliant on the sales of the organic products.



But the business is dependent on social media promotions, as she regularly posts and educates people about the organic products.



“I am comfortable knowing that the information about the product is out there and whoever searches for skin solutions might come across my page and all the information is there. So the business manages itself while I am still busy with my nine-to-five [other job],” she offers.

Nomkhosi Shongwe

The Dark Patch In The Black Soap Business

The drive to Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, is slippery in light winter rain. The sky is full of rich grey clouds; on the ground, the country is paved with cracked roads, poverty and struggle.
On the way, many businesses are boarded up, their paint peeling and doors closed. As we arrive in Harare, many shops are packed with imported goods, but, in Workington, an industrial suburb in the south west of Harare, there is a stubborn survivor – a factory that has been producing Zimbabwean products since 1978.
Rank, founded by Amish and Ketan Naik’s grandfather, is the leading stationery supplier in Zimbabwe. It also distributes paper and board to the printing industry and manufactures plastic goods. Their grandfather arrived in Zimbabwe, via Zambia, from India in the late 1960s.
Business in Zimbabwe thrived until the country hit hyperinflation in the early 2000s. Although the factory is stacked with goods and 102 employees, like many businesses here, the lack of money in the banks threatens its survival.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-5098" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/DSC9345-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />
The company has ample money in the bank but it can’t take it out to buy raw materials.
“We are being optimistic because if we are being pessimistic about this whole thing it won’t end well. We have been breaking even for the last six months, last year we were 3.5 percent down. We believe this year we are going to be 20 percent down or probably more,” says Ketan.
The company will cut the number of goods they produce to survive. They say they will try managing their overheads, because their staff is the last cost they want to cut.
“We will work within our means; effectively we will produce what we can in terms of what we can purchase in terms of raw material. It also means we have narrowed our gains down, guided by our industry,” he says.
It’s been a struggle over the last decade to keep the doors open.
“We had to scale down to the minimum. We were down to almost 10 percent, or less than 10 percent, because we were trading simply to pay wages. In the past, during high inflation, it came down to where our staff would just come in to have a meal because by the time they got their money, and went home, it was worthless,” says Amish.
The Naik brothers say their biggest threat is the weak economy. In a way, the recent ban on basic goods imports, which everyone is complaining about, may help companies like them.
“We estimated, for example, that in the exercise book industry, 40 percent was being imported from South Africa and 60 percent bought here. The tariff protection came in August 2015 and there has been a shift, we can say nine to ten percent or so increase, on our manufacturing, and the statistical growth shows it boosted our production,” says Amish.
Another Zimbabwean entrepreneur, Frank Buyanga, with a finger on the pulse, featured in FORBES AFRICA in 2013 when he had an Interpol notice imposed on him by government. He is back in business in Zimbabwe and thinks that the ban on imports is sensible as it protects home-grown industry.
“The advantages of doing business in Zimbabwe are the highly educated and generally honest workforce, good infrastructure and sophisticated business climate, especially when compared to other countries in Africa, except Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. The main disadvantage is the increasing level of corruption,” says Buyanga.
Ketan agrees the ban could work; but not with a weak economy.
“It doesn’t help as much because where there is a shortage created by us not having raw materials, the smugglers start because they now see an opportunity. If there is a shortage in the market of the product, the pricing would mean 50 percent mark-up”.
Even Rank’s suppliers are not happy.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-5104" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/DSC9723-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />
“Our suppliers are saying to us that, ‘Guys we have supplied the goods you need to pay for those’. We have sort of done a reverse circle where initially we had to pay upfront; we built our relationships so that they provide us with credit facilities. Now we are ok, the credit facilities need to be reduced to zero and start paying upfront because we are not able to sustain them,” says Ketan.
Making a bit of money through exports into neighboring countries is not an option because it is expensive to manufacture products in Zimbabwe.
“A Malawian manufacturer, for example, would buy raw materials from the same places as us. But, we would pay let’s say $300 for a job yet they would pay less than $100 for that same job. How do we compete? Their expenses become lower, therefore their goods are cheaper.”
Rank is not the only Zimbabwean company running a tight ship.
On the other side of Harare, Melissa Mafunga, Managing Director at Hamilton Finance, says 30 to 50 people walk into their offices each day seeking to borrow money, most of these, struggling small business owners.
“Sometimes they come borrow money because they want to buy stock or pay a little bit of salaries. From here, I see that many small businesses are run on credit. Due to the cash challenges the country is facing, the default rate has risen by 75 percent this year. So we make sure we hold collateral before we lend out money,” she says.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-5100" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/DSC9405-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />
Joyce Nousenga, General Manager at Hamilton Insurance, says business is slow because insurance is at the bottom of the list for companies.
“Even companies are slowing down on their purchase of insurance and most people opt for minimal cover, of which most of it is statutory. Business is tough for everyone, so much that they can’t even protect the little they have through comprehensive insurance,” she says.
We leave Amish and Ketan with hope that they will carry on breaking even in a country that is struggling to do so.

The Breakeven Blues

Every day, African entrepreneurs are faced with the same problem. On the one side we have a financier looking for ventures to invest his money in; on the other we have a business owner unable to push their products at the pace they would like.
It is not that business owners don’t ask for financial assistance and it is not that funders don’t receive proposals; but a fundamental problem exists. You can have two companies that both sell the same electronic gadgets, but money flows to one business and not the other. Often, it come down to packaging.
Entrepreneurs haven’t come to terms with packaging their businesses for far too long. A bank’s main product is money, but why do we choose one over the other? Again, it is the packaging. Our choices are made around the value added services the banks have around their product, such as technological advancements or insurance services.
I have sat in many meetings and listened to investors saying, “we have money, but we just don’t come across the best investment opportunities”. At the same time, they acknowledge there are many entrepreneurs with brilliant products and services. These entrepreneurs have pitched their ideas, only to have them declined. It is likely that their proposal was not correctly packaged.
Legendary venture capitalist, Tom Perkins, knew about the two Steves (Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs) in the early 1980s, but did not invest in Apple. It was not that the concept lacked substance, it was how the idea was put across.
The South African government established the Small Enterprise Finance Agency (Sefa) in 2012. It has a Youth Fund worth $145.71 million which was supposed to be spent within five years, but two years later, there is still $119.9 million in the fund’s coffers. Less than a quarter of the money, meant to kickstart small businesses, has been spent. Are they struggling to find bankable business cases because the new ventures are not packaged in a way that will attract investment? I suspect so.
This is a matter that needs urgent attention!
A product’s packaging needs style and a unique design. It needs to evoke emotion and needs to appeal to the relevant niche market.
Companies need to package an experience in their products and services. People are emotional beings driven by feelings; often our spending power is propelled by sentiments rather than reason.
In order to connect to a customer, you need to tap into their emotions by creating an experience through your product. At the end of the day, what matters is your unique selling point.
Functionality is a key factor beyond packaging a product. For example, the software inside a tablet matters more than the design. Reviews for this type of product will focus more on functionality than what it looks like.
Although I have emphasized how packaging your business’ products and services will determine the appeal they have on the market, the approach will vary for different companies. It is important to know what your market expects in the segment you operate in; however Henry Ford and Steve Jobs have a different view to this.
“Customers don’t know what they want until you show them,” said Jobs.
“If I asked the people what they want, they would have said a faster horse,” said Ford.
Great entrepreneurs dictate what the market wants and then improve their products as they receive feedback.

YOUR PACKAGE could be worth millions

With the bewildering bevy of skincare and anti-ageing products on the shelves, and new ones popping up weekly, plus celebrity endorsements to boot, how do you choose solutions that are tried, tested and true? We look at the six ingredients that should be a part of your skincare regime now:
&nbsp;
Retinol
Retinol is the undisputed gold standard and top of the list of anti-ageing heavyweights. It is a Vitamin A derivative and considered the best anti-ageing multitasker, as it addresses fine lines, wrinkles, enlarged pores, pigmentation and loss of firmness. It stimulates cellular repair and boosts collagen and elastin repair, sloughs off dead cells and increases blood circulation for a healthy, youthful glow.
Says cosmetics guru Paula Begoun, author of Don’t Go to the Beauty Counter Without Me: “It helps skin cells create better, healthier skin cells while increasing the amount of skin-support substances and has been shown to increase the skin’s collagen production and glycosaminoglycans content, resulting in firmer skin with an improved texture and enhanced barrier function.”
How to use it: Although several retinol products claim they can be used during the day, it’s best to use it at night, as it does make skin sensitive to sun and irritation. Always use a sunscreen if you use retinol.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-29861 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Protection-50-Sport-SPF50-125x300.jpg" alt="" width="125" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Protection-50-Sport-SPF50-125x300.jpg 125w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Protection-50-Sport-SPF50-300x720.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Protection-50-Sport-SPF50.jpg 426w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 125px) 100vw, 125px" />
Find it in: SkinCeuticals Retinol 0.5 Refining Night Cream Pure Retinol; Optiphi Rejuvenating Revitalizer; Dermalogica Multivitamin Power Firm; DermaQuest Retinol Peptide Youth Serum; Theravine Ultravine Contouring Retinol Eye Pads; Neutrogena Ageless Intensives Serum. We are very excited about Neoretin Discrom Control GelCreamSPF50 Pigment Lightener, which uses RetinSphere technology in a Whitening Booster system, for the first time combining retinol and sunscreen. It has aesthetic doctors raving about its effects.
Hyaluronic Acid (HA)
Dry skin is ageing skin. Period. HA takes top position with retinol as an anti-ageing ingredient. It is a naturally-occurring polysaccharide in the human body and provides moisture, plumpness, firmness and suppleness to skin.
It is a moisture binding humectant and the molecule attracts and retains more than a thousand times its weight in water. It activates the skin’s own wrinkle-fighting mechanism to plump up wrinkles from the inside out. It is also the star ingredient of dermal fillers like Restylane, Juvederm and Emervel. With age, HA diminishes in skin.
How to use it: Apply as a topical serum or cream. Be aware though, warns Leslie Baumann in her book The Skin Type Solution, that “…in very dry climates, this waterbinding ingredient can’t draw moisture from the environment, so it may actually start to pull moisture out of the deeper layers of your skin”.
Find it in: Eucerin Anti-Age Hyaluron-Filler Eye Treatment SPF15; SkinCeuticals Hydrating B5 Gel; Rodial Dragon Blood Hyaluronic Mask; Kiehl&#8217;s Dermatologist Solutions Hydro-Plumping Re-Texturizing Serum Concentrate; Esse Serum; Comfort Zone Action Sublime Serum Visible Rejuvenating Serum.
&nbsp;
Antioxidants
Antioxidants fight strongly in the frontline against free radicals – harmful molecules which form due to sun exposure, UV rays and environmental and air polution that destroy collagen, elastin and DNA. Not only does it repair the damage done by free radicals and reduce inflammation, it also prevents future damage.
The best known antioxidants are Vit C, Vit E, CoffeeBerry, idebenone, green tea, pomegranate, CoQ10 and grapeseed oil extract, also known as resveratrol.
How to use it: Apply an antioxidant serum or cream daily after cleansing and toning.
Find it in: SkinCeuticals CE Ferulic Combination Anti-Oxidant Treatment; Estée Lauder Daywear Advanced Multi-Protection Anti-Oxidant Crème.
&nbsp;
Alpha hydroxy acids (AHA)
If you are after radiant, fresh skin, AHAs are your go-to products. The acids contained in them (like glycolic acid) break down the bonds between dead cells and reveal fresh, new glowing skin. You can use at-home AHA formulas or have regular salon peels to experience the rejuvenating benefits of these acids.
How to use it: Use at-home AHA products or peels not more than twice a week, depending on how sensitive your skin is.
Some cleansers like Dermaquest Skin Therapy C-Lipoic Cleanser contain glycolic acid.
Find it in: Uriage Hyséac K18 For Oily Skin With Blocked Pores unclogs pores with 18% AHAs and BHAs combined with liquorice extract. It makes pores tighter and fades blemishes.
&nbsp;
Peptides
Peptides are the amino-acid chains that make up protein. Palmitoyl peptapeptide-3, known commercially as Matrixyl, has been shown to stimulate collagen production in the skin – it signals cells to restart collagen production, which results in skin firming with regular use. Other potent peptides are Argireline, which works somewhat like Botox, relaxing wrinkles.
How to use it: Apply as a serum, day or night cream.
Find it in: Dr Gobac Cosmeceuticals Day Balance Cream; Olay Regenerist Micro-Sculpting Cream; Placecol Extreme Repair Night Cream.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-29862 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/COMFORT-ZONE-action-sublime-serum-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/COMFORT-ZONE-action-sublime-serum-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/COMFORT-ZONE-action-sublime-serum-300x451.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/COMFORT-ZONE-action-sublime-serum-600x901.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/COMFORT-ZONE-action-sublime-serum.jpg 681w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />
Sunscreen
Harmful UV rays destroy collagen and elastin fibers and damage DNA. Sunscreen, which contains UV filters that absorb or scatter UV rays, keeps skin from wrinkling, sagging, hyperpigmentation and more serious problems such as skin cancer.
How to use it: Choose a broad-spectrum (UVA and UVB) sunscreen with an SPF of no less than 30. Use enough – a teaspoon is the right amount for your face. If you’re outdoors, reapply every two hours.
Try: Heliocare Advanced SPF50 Compact in Light; Dermalogica Protection 50 Sport SPF50; Juliette Armand Sun Film SPF30 and Cetaphil Daylong range.

Tag: Products

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

The Dark Patch In The Black Soap Business

The Breakeven Blues

YOUR PACKAGE could be worth millions

BETWEEN YOUTH AND ME