Zafar Siddiqi, the co-founder and chairman of CNBC Africa, passed away on Friday, February 23. He was 76.



An entrepreneur in media and education with an impeccable record across three continents – the Middle East, South Asia and Africa, Siddiqi was also the Chairman of Lancaster University Ghana and Curtin University in Ghana.



In a letter to the staff of the ABN Group, which includes both CNBC Africa and FORBES AFRICA,



Dr Rakesh Wahi, the founder and publisher of FORBES AFRICA, said that Siddiqi’s “leadership, wisdom, commitment, values and support will be missed and will leave a gap in our lives”.



“Twenty years ago, Zafar and I embarked on a journey to set up CNBC Africa. An ambitious project that was seen with scepticism as no one had attempted a Pan-African Business News Network for the African continent,” Wahi said.



Before starting his journey in media, which would span over 30 years, Siddiqi started as an accountant for global auditing firm KPMG and later as the Managing Director of one of its consultancy practices. He spent 18 years with KPMG in Oman and Pakistan.



His introduction to TV began in Pakistan specializing in providing business programs to overseas broadcasters. He later founded the CNBC Arabia network across the Middle East, the first international brand to broadcast in Arabic. This was followed by CNBC Pakistan and CNBC Africa.



“Nothing broke our will to succeed and succeed we did, with the support of all of you (management and staff) and armed always with each other’s strength and belief in what we had embarked on. We never gave up and vested our lives both physically and financially, into our beliefs,” Wahi added.



Siddiqi firmly believed in Africa and the future of broadcast journalism on the continent. “I believe Africa is on the verge of explosion as far as investment is concerned. There are not many places in the world that have the resources Africa has,” he stated in a 2018 interview with FORBES AFRICA.



His passion for TV was evident in his 2019 book, TV News 3.0: An Insider&#8217;s Guide To Launching And Running News Channels In The Digital Age, which was an authoritative study of the media world.



“In 2002, I launched CNBC Arabia, over the whole of the Middle East, which was 26-odd countries,” Siddiqi also told CNBC Africa in an interview in 2019. “The dialects were different, traveling was different. Media was just about opening up after the Gulf War… and that&#8217;s all changed. It&#8217;s changed so much. And I think technology has changed all of that. Social media has changed all of that. And I think that African countries are moving very quickly towards this integration, because you&#8217;ve got to keep up with what&#8217;s happening in the rest of the world. So that is why I firmly believe that these economies will move closer together. And hence, I believe that CNBC Africa will play a very important role.”



In the interview with FORBES AFRICA, as an entrepreneur, Siddiqi had this valuable piece of advice on the power of networking: “Remember to be yourself and be original, that’s how you succeed. Originality [always] comes through!”



His passing is a loss not just for the ABN Group but to the industry to which he was passionate about.

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Remembering Zafar Siddiqi: The Formidable Entrepreneur And Investor In Media For Over Three Decades

Eleven years of CNBC Africa…on a personal level, what has the journey been like for you? 
They have been 11 very good years. Looking back to when we first moved to South Africa to establish it, we had challenges from a regulatory point of view and a distribution point of view. But all that is now behind us. We are looking at business confidence picking up in South Africa and the rest of Africa. We are looking forward to the future.
What is the future of the media industry in Africa? 
There are challenges in emerging markets. I sincerely believe universities and educators look at the curriculums across Africa. The whole environment is changing. We have digital coming in a big way globally. Print media is dying and how you give birth again to what was print on digital is quite a challenge even for television stations. There are challenges for media moving forward. The owners, from the management perspective, also have to consider what they would do with digital.
With that in mind, what are your plans for CNBC Africa? 
Luckily, we are a niche channel. Niche channels, up to now, have been alright. Whether you have a food channel or a fashion channel, music channel or news channel, you will have to look at how you mix both the digital part and TV part moving forward. Having a business channel depends on how the economies are moving. I believe Africa is on the verge of explosion as far as investment is concerned. There are not many places in the world that have the resources Africa has. People are looking at these things.
How are you looking to growing the company in the near future? 
When I started off [in the Middle East], we did the whole of Arabia, which was 37 countries, I did Africa and I did Pakistan – these are the three CNBC franchises, and we learned from each of these franchises, and we have an excellent relationship with CNBC. Moving forward, we are looking at various ways to grow. You need to target your demographic. On the digital side, it has to be millennials. Forget about the over 50s, and mobile is the way to go if you want to target the millennials.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/30-under-30/2018/06/04/under-30-technology/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read More: 30 Tech Entrepreneurs Under 30 </a>
What advice would you give young people trying to break into the media space? 
Go digital. Take advantage of the technology and keep your costs down when you start. You don’t have expensive cameras because you can use mobile. Also use citizen journalism, stick to quality and concentrate on demographics.
Should we be following global trends in the media space as a continent? 
People want things to drop from the sky. You have to market yourself well, make sure there are transparent rules and regulations for foreign investors who want to come in and make sure you have a level playing ground in the countries that make up the African Union…
How significant is the power of networking for young entrepreneurs? 
Networking works but remember to be yourself and be original. That’s how you succeed. Originality comes through. We know when a young person is trying to ‘network you’.
What lies ahead for CNBC Africa? 
We are looking forward to the next five years. We are positive both in Nigeria and South Africa. We might be going more digital and taking advantage of other niche channels we are thinking of partnering with outside of Africa.

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How CNBC Africa Plans To Go Digital

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FORBES AFRICA has told many spellbinding business stories in its five years. The story of its own difficult birth is one of the most riveting.
The idea of the pan-African business magazine was born in the heart of a financial crisis which wiped out many investors and left businesses lucky to survive. The media suffered the most.
In the depths of the downturn in 2007, soon after launching CNBC Africa, a business and finance TV channel, the two founders, Rakesh Wahi and Zafar Siddiqi, wanted a magazine. It was the worst time to launch.
“The whole publishing market was collapsing around us. To launch a new title at that time; people externally would have said you are foolish. Some of our other shareholders did not want to invest in the publishing business owing to the economic downturn,” says Wahi.
The pair refused to throw in the towel.
“I had a strong feeling this was going to work. When I told Zafar about it, he only asked if how I felt about it and I told him that the brand would be an instant success and after his thumbs up, we ran with it.”
Towards the end of 2009, a meeting in New York sparked the interest in joining the worldwide FORBES family. The magazine has a string of franchises around the world, from FORBES MEXICO to FORBES INDONESIA.
Wahi followed his gut, in the face of scepticism.
“Every time we spoke about FORBES, people’s eyes would light up,” he says.
It was the right time, he believed. The pair waited for the market to turn around slightly and made their move.
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“We didn’t like that very few African business leaders had made it into the international version of FORBES… people didn’t understand that there is so much entrepreneurship going on in the continent,” says Wahi.
It wasn’t easy. Building a pan-African magazine was expensive and complicated; but the gap in business and finance reporting in the continent was there to be filled.
It took about two years to complete the legal agreements of the franchise. The most difficult challenge was hiring the right people to steer the magazine to the top. Wahi’s 13 years in the Indian army, where he had become one of the youngest to receive the Vishisht Seva Medal (a military decoration in India) in 1986, helped.
“The army teaches you about looking after people. The core of it is that you have to do things together and you have to inspire people.”
He brought these principles with him to the world of entrepreneurship.
“When we were looking at finding an editor for the magazine, I searched around trying to see who would be the right fit… I was impressed by the experience people brought to the table but something was always missing… Chris Bishop’s name came up because he had done a great piece of work for me a couple of years before that, and impressed, so we took him on… He said he would even do this job for free,” recalls Wahi.
Magazines were in trouble everywhere. In the United States, according to MediaFinder, 152 closed in 2011 and 82 in 2012. In South Africa, Heat, Seventeen, FHM, Sports Illustrated and Shape are a few magazines that shut down because of declining advertising, circulation and competition from online.
Despite this, on September 28, 2011, on a night of glitz and glamour in Johannesburg, billionaire Patrice Motsepe unveiled the historic first cover of FORBES AFRICA.
It turned out that Wahi’s decision to hire Bishop was the right one. In just five years, the team has turned FORBES AFRICA into the leading business magazine in Africa against the odds.
The magazine came out ahead of its competitors in the IPSOS Affluent Survey Africa in 2014 and 2016. The independent research study, released on August 4, shows FORBES AFRICA reached 163,000, or 4.7%, of the 3.4 million qualifying adults, aged between 25 and 64, across seven markets.
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“What we have managed to achieve in just five short years is truly remarkable. Our success is attributed to the hard work and dedication of our teams from across the continent,” says Sid Wahi, Executive Director at ABN Publishing (FORBES AFRICA).
The IPSOS 2016 figures show a 7% increase from the 2014 survey.
“As the founding editor of this magazine it gives me immense pride to see our circulation figures increasing; all this at a time when magazine circulation around the world is falling. I think this is a tribute to the hard work and determination of our young band of highly talented journalists,” says Bishop.
FORBES AFRICA’s work has been recognized by various accolades awarded to the journalists and the editor. The hard work is also appreciated by readers. In Zimbabwe, entrepreneur, Blessed Mushamiri, says he drives around the city looking for a copy each month.
“Sometimes I have to drive to five different uptown shops to bump into one but I don’t stop looking. If I can’t find one, I ask people in South Africa to send me some copies. When I read FORBES AFRICA it engages me in an affair of pure pleasure, an exciting brush with business in Africa that shows me, as a young entrepreneur, that I can participate in something rare and thrilling. It is a must-read for every businessperson,” says Mushamiri.
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In West Africa, Emeka Akano, CEO and Co-Founder of Jara Mobile Ltd, says reading about entrepreneurs from different backgrounds who make it to the FORBES lists has inspired and motivated him.
“Features in the prestigious FORBES AFRICA magazine have gone a long way in giving me much more exposure to a credible audience, increased my personal profile beyond measure, opened doors for new business opportunities and business connections,” says Akano.
No matter the praises, Wahi says there is still more work to be done. He wants to grow the magazine to an even bigger success story, as with many of his other businesses.
Wahi is a smart entrepreneur and risk taker. An audacious one, five years ago, put this magazine in your hands.

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