African Business Stories

Joycee Awosika is the Founder and CEO of ORÍKÌ.  In pursuit of purpose, Joycee  left her job with Constellation Energy, a Fortune 100 company in New York and moved to Nigeria in 2011.  She held a few roles in the power sector including serving as the Technical Adviser on Research, Analysis and Informatics (Performance Monitoring) to the Honorable Minister of Power. Working in the public sector wasn't all she had imagined it to be so she decided to pursue her passion and launch an agro-beauty company. She launched ORÍKÌ in 2015, the first and only all natural farm to skin brand to operate a fast-growing premium product & wellness spa on the Continent. ORÍKÌ has developed 6 spas in four years and distributes products globally. Based on her experience and success, she has set up a new business called SOAR. SOAR is an operations and business process consultancy that works closely with businesses and individuals for sustainability, consistency and standards. 

Joycee is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper Alumni, a nominee of The Future Awards Prize in Public Service, 2013 & 2016, and selected into the African Leadership Network. She sits on the board of Oxfam's Work in Progress Program and on two other charity organizations and is a Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Program Fellow.  She was selected as one of Nigeria’s 100 most inspiring women in 2015 and as a 2017 woman of the Year for 'Her Network.' 

Joycee's African Business Story is dedicated to impacting and supporting SME's to be sustainable and scalable and helping them realize  that they form the backbone of any economy. 

On the show I interview a mother-daughter duo. Petra and Joseline Kateeba. We talk about executing an effective succession, bouncing back from loss and what scaling means to a second generation Ugandan business.

Mrs Petua Kateeba is the Co-founder and a shareholder in Crest Foam Limited. She trained as a midwife and co-founded the company with her late husband in 1984. Following her husband’s death in 1992, she stepped into the leadership role and led Crest Foam from a small market player to a #1/#2 market leader. During her tenure, Crest Foam was named one of the Top 50 Brands in Uganda by Private Sector Foundation in its Proudly Ugandan campaign; she also won the Entrepreneur of the Year Award from UWEAL. In 2015, she handed over the reigns to her daughter Joseline.

Joseline Kateeba joined Crest Foam Limited in 2014 and in February 2015, she became  the Managing Director. Prior to Crest Foam, Joseline worked for nearly four years with global power company Cummins and four years at global strategy consulting firm Bain & Company. She holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Warwick, an MPHIL in Management Studies from University of Cambridge and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Joseline is a Non-Executive Board Member of Uganda Manufacturers Association, NCBA Bank Uganda Limited, Biyinzika Poultry International Limited and a member of the Advisory Board of Total Uganda Limited.

Petua and Joseline's African Business Story is one dedicated to building a legacy brand.  Putting structure and systems in place to enable them scale both geographically and product wise. 

Flora Mutahi is the Founder & CEO of Melvin March International owners of Kenya's largest flavored tea brand. In 1995,  Flora heard about the planned deregulation of the tea industry in Kenya. She saw this as an opportunity and with very little industry knowledge and resources, she decided to go into the tea business. While enjoying a cup of tea one day, she had a light bulb moment and discovered a gap in the market. This led her to create Kenya's first flavored tea brand -  Melvins Teas. Today, the product range has expanded to include not only flavored teas but herbal and fruit infusions.

Flora has extensive local and international experience in strategic leadership, business development, market penetration and marketing. She also has interests in real estate.  While she was at the helm of Kenya Association of Manufactures she spearheaded a new chapter for Women In manufacturing (WIM) aimed at encouraging more women to join the industrial sector. She is currently chairperson of WIM. She has also begun a mentorship program for young women in the manufacturing space under Melvin Marsh International Ltd. 

She holds an MBA from University of Cape Town and an B.Sc. in Finance and accounts (UK). Flora sits on several boards:  Kenya Anti-Counterfeit Agency – Chairperson; Kenya Private Sector Alliance – Board Member; UN Global Compact – Kenya Board Member; UN Global Compact New York – Board Member; SBM Bank – Board Member. She has won several awards for her business and on a personal level during her entrepreneurial journey. 

Floria's African Business story is one of passion and drive. She is passionately building a world class company and at the same time passionately training and mentoring young entrepreneurs across East Africa.

Yoadan Tilahun is the founder & CEO of Flawless Events. A corporate events company based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  Yoadan went to the United States for college and for 15 years did not visit her home country. On a family trip to Addis in 2007, she felt so at home she never went back. A friend knowing she did events as a side business in the United States, asked her to help organize a conference and Flawless Addis Ababa was born!

Starting the company with no clear strategy or a business plan, she was successful in organizing events but soon realized that knowing how to run an event does not mean you know how to run a company, or build a legacy brand. Coming to this realization helped her elevate her game and set the company on a path to actual growth.

Flawless Events organizes corporate events and conferences throughout the African continent. Her team has hosted events in Ethiopia, Cote D’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Gabon, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Mauritius. In 2015, Flawless won the “Event Planner Africa” award at Meetings Magazine’s Women in MICE celebration.

Yoadan serves as the president of the Ethiopian Events & Exhibition Organizers Association. She is an enthusiastic advocate for professionalizing the MICE industry in East Africa. She is the recipient of the 2017 MeetingsNet Changemaker award for her trailblazing role in the Ethiopia events industry and the UNDP Seasoned Entrepreneur of the Year 2018 award. She has also been featured on Forbes Afrique and on How We Made It in Africa. She holds an MBA in International Business and is fluent in Amharic, English and French. Along with her husband, they are raising three growing boys.

Yoadan’s African Business Story is one dedicated to providing quality service and elevating the corporate event space in Africa by building a brand that can compete on the global stage. 

Amal Hassan is the Founder and CEO of Outsource Global. A leading business process outsourcing company based in Nigeria and serving countries in Africa, the United States, UK and Japan. Her passion to unlock Nigeria’s development potential through technology-driven innovation and value addition led her to build, capitalize and restructure a series of  technology-related businesses that succeed in developing talents and creating employment for young Nigerians.
 
 Over an 8 year period she tried 4 times to start a business processing company in Nigeria, a country not known to be an outsourcing destination. She beat all the odds and today Outsource Global with a staff of over 800 and 3 locations has established Nigeria as a business outsourcing destination on par with India and the Philippines.

Amal’s entrepreneurial prowess and business acumen continue to set her apart as a highly regarded emerging business leader in Nigeria. In 2018, Amal was named one of the 16 women business leaders by Fortune-US Department of State Global Women’s Mentoring Partnership. She has also been recognized as one of Nigeria’s star by the US Embassy and Consulate in Nigeria for her outstanding impact to nation-building. Widely regarded as a role model for the girl-child and women especially in northern Nigeria, she has continued to mentor young leaders across her industry.
 
 Amal's African Business Story is one dedicated to creating job, empowering her community and contributing to the economic development of her home country Nigeria.
  

Valerie wanted to do things differently. She told herself she was young, didn’t have the funds and needed more experience. Passion said no! So she quite her job, sold everything she owned  raising $10,000. With that seed money she started Niyel, a campaigns and advocacy firm based in Dakar, Senegal. It’s been 12 years since she took that leap and we explore the journey so far. 

Niyel helps organizations, countries and politicians build meaningful campaigns that influence behavior on the social level and policy on the government level. She is also passionate about increasing the participation of women in politics and strengthening voter participation across Africa. She has a radio show/ podcast titled We Need to Talk. She starts by asking her guests what they are in service of. For Valeria, she is in service of all things Africa. What are you in service of? 

Valerie's African Business Story is one dedicated to serving the African continent by increasing engagement and participation to improve the social and political landscape. 

ABOUT VALERIE TRAORE

Valerie has over fifteen years of professional experience in campaigning and advocacy on a wide range of issues including human rights and rights based programming, development, human security and conflict, politics and international relations. 

Valerie has led the development and implementation of advocacy and mobilization strategy for over 20 international organizations. Including Amnesty International, Oxfam and Rockefeller Foundation. She has trained over 500 campaigners and over 1500 volunteers and activists across the continent on advocacy and mobilization. She managed the development, structuring and launch of a political party in Tanzania, managed a presidential campaign in Guinea Bissau, participated in a presidential campaign in Burkina Faso, and trained a movement for participation in a municipal election in Senegal. She also serves as a trustee on the Board of Christian Aid.

Monica Musonda is CEO & Founder of Java Foods, a Zambian based food processing company. Java Foods first product was “eeZee Instant Noodles”, which has become Zambia’s leading instant noodle brand. Java Foods also manufactures and distributes eeZee Supa Cereal (a fortified instant cereal/porridge). 

Her experience working with one of Africa’s most successful entrepreneurs gave her the impetus to start her own business and in 2012, she moved back to Zambia and set up Java Foods.  In a country where the landscape is dominated by foreign multinationals, Java Foods is a Zambian business run by a Zambian woman. Monica is one of a few Zambian women involved in manufacturing/agro-processing at a scalable level. 

Monica currently serves as non-executive director on several boards including Airtel Networks Zambia Plc & Zambia Breweries (where she is chair) She also serves as a judge for the Cartier Women's Initiative. The Cartier Women's Initiative runs an annual international entrepreneurship programme that aims to drive change by empowering women impact entrepreneurs. Founded in 2006, the programme is open to women-run and women-owned businesses from any country and sector that aim to have a strong and sustainable social and/or environmental impact. To learn more and apply for the programme visit https://www.cartierwomensinitiative.com/about-us

Monica's African Business Story is dedicated to building national pride and supporting other female entrepreneurs. By creating good food at affordable prices using local produce, she has built a brand that Zambian are proud of and which is also enjoyed across Southern Africa. She is a champion for nutrition and an advocate for female entrepreneurs across Africa.  
 

Nichole Yembra is the Founder and Managing Director of The Chrysalis Co which houses The Chrysalis Capital, a $15M African tech fund and The Chrysalis Advisors, a financial, investment, and strategy firm. Previously, she was the Chief Financial Officer for a PE Backed $80M fintech holding company and served as Managing Partner of its investment arm. 

Her vision is to support African tech companies building globally relevant institutions. With her track record in enterprise financial strategy, performance improvement, data driven decisioning, and corporate governance, Nichole has served companies in the financial, aviation, education, manufacturing, health, power, and consumer goods sectors in 25 countries. For the past 4 years, she has focused on transforming Africa through data and payments. Her investments in over 15 early stage companies have doubled in size with the companies going on to raise over $60M. 

A fierce champion for women in tech, Nichole started GreenHouse Lab, Nigeria’s first female founder-focused tech accelerator. Launched in 2018 in partnership with Google Launchpad, the accelerator was created to close the investment funding gap for women led and gender balanced startups.

Nichole's African Business Story is dedicated to increasing diversity in the African tech eco-system, making more funds available to Africa start ups and growing African companies institutions. 

The African creative industry includes music, film and fashion and is attracting a lot of attention from investors. My guest, Roberta Annan and I will explore this in the context of her business journey from a pre-med education to a career in development, building and utilizing a solid network to wealth creation. A rich story with a lot of life lessons. 

Roberta Annan is The United Nation Environment Program (UNEP) Supporter for the Creative Economy. She is the Managing Partner of Annan Capital Partners (ACP), a sector agnostic specialized boutique Investment Company in Sub-Saharan Africa. She is currently working on a portfolio of assets in hospitality called “African Lifestyle Development Group (ALDG)”. The portfolio includes Frallain Group (a sustainable Luxury brand and a provider of risk capital), Avignon Chocolates (a luxury artisanal chocolate brand based in Ghana), Ethos Club (a community of impact focused change makers creating, collaborating, and innovating) and Agoo (A ride hailing company aimed at providing high quality chauffeur services for the corporate and tourism sector in Africa). ACP also has an arm which focuses on advisory and business development.

She is also the co-founder and Managing Partner of Impact Fund for African Creatives (IFFAC) - a €100 million impact investment fund based in Luxemburg aimed at supporting the creative and lifestyle industries across Africa. 

Originating from Ghana, West Africa, Roberta has lived and worked on four continents. Studying at Georgetown University, Annan holds a Master’s degree in Biotechnology.

Roberta's African Business Story is one of resilience. One dedicated to leveraging relationships for mutual benefit, building communities of people who want to do good and funding growth and development in Africa.  

Africa has the highest concentration of female entrepreneurs, accounting for almost a third of all businesses on the continent. It’s safe to say we are a continent of strong women! That said, women continue to face enormous institutional and systematic challenges as well as gender violence. Women seem disadvantaged from the jump. 

In addressing these issue, the burden had rested disproportionately on women. What role do men have to play? The ability to shift entitlement and using privilege for good required intentionality. We discuss these in my upcoming podcast interview with Mrs. Ifeoma I. Idigbe. 

Mrs. Ifeoma I. Idigbe is a business analyst/consultant (Finance and Human Resource Management) whose educational background includes a Masters degree in Business Administration (MBA) and a Masters in Human Resource Management (MA HRM). Her professional career started in banking, in corporate finance and development finance (now called SME financing) at International Merchant Bank Limited (IMB). Her career has spanned banking and finance, business restructuring, advisory services and capacity building, working with local and international organizations. Her current focus is on providing financial and business advisory services to indigenous companies to ensure they develop operating systems and practices that will provide the necessary financial and organizational stability to guarantee their future.

Ifeoma is passionate about developing people. She is on the Boards of youth and gender based organizations as a founding Trustee (Ovie Brume Foundation, Women in Management, Business and Public Service WimBiz and is a past Chairman of the Board of Trustees of WimBiz). She is the Founder & Executive Vice Chairman of boys to MEN Foundation, a Nigerian based non-governmental organization dedicated to ensuring that men become their best selves, and so positively impact the communities in which they live.

Ifeoma's African Business Story is one dedicated to a changed world. One where roles are defined by need and circumstance as opposed to gender.