In this episode, meet Melkisedek Melkies Ausiku, founder of LEFA Transportation Services, an urban mobility startup connecting passengers on the one hand with drivers on the other, to make moving around Windhoek and Namibia more convenient and safe. In the interview Melkies shares about his first experience using Uber in South Africa and how the…
In this interview, meet Sebastian Patel, co-founder of Franc, an investment app in South Africa with the aim of promoting financial inclusion by removing minimum investment amounts and taking the complexity out of putting your money to work for you. In the interview we speak about: How the business was born and how they financed…
Meet Ervina Nina Clinton who has started Liberian Threads Incorporated, a manufacturing company using local fabric to create products for the local market and engaging young people to help them discover and develop their talents and see that they can do something, that they can contribute and that they don’t have to be idle or dependent on others.…
Meet Ulrich Kouesso and Flore Yemdjie, the co-founders of My Virtual Planning, a social enterprise helping youth to prevent unwanted pregnancy and infections by doing online sexual education, giving individualised advice and sharing safe practices. In the interview they share: How they came up with the idea and why they chose an online format for sexual education…
Meet Oreoluwa Somolu Lesi the founder of Women’s Technology Empowerment Center or short W.TEC a nonprofit organization based in Lagos, that aims at raising the next generation of female technology entrepreneurs, leaders and developers through technology camps, school clubs and mentoring. In the interview Oreoluwa shares How she came up with the idea How she learned to run the non-profit like…
Meet John-Paul Matenga, the founder of YouFarm. YouFarm was started with the idea of a platform that provides farmers with access to collateral free finance by getting people to invest in crops and livestock through YouFarm. And then when the produce goes to market the farmers, the investors and YouFarm share in the profits. In…
Meet Aheeb Afeez, co-founder of crowdfunding website donate-ng, a portal that connects charities and projects needing funds to people wanting to donate. Afeez got into the project because a childhood friend contacted him and asked him to vet and manage the first fundraiser that was to go live on the site, which was for a…
Meet Hammi Boukhari , the founder of Jini Ride Hailing App and Lamana Elkanti, his business partner. Hammi saw the need for a local ride sharing service for Ad-Dakhla, when he witnessed his mom having challenges to catch an early morning flight from the airport as neither taxis nor busses were driving that early. And so he…
Meet Ezlyn Olivia Barends, the co-founder of DreamGirls Academy an organisation in South Africa, dedicated to shifting girls and young women from a space where they are economically dependent to connecting them to economic opportunity, through mentoring and education. In the interview Ezelyn speaks about: How a quarter life crisis led her to explore how she wanted…
Meet Marcio Castro and Arão Guerreiro co-founders of Kepya , an online market place that connects farmer directly with offtakers and freight companies and helps them to get higher prices for their produce and farm with increased predictability. In the interview Marcio and Arão share How they came up with the idea for the venture How they…
Meet Zodidi Gaseb, the founder of African Naturals a Namibian company producing skin and hair care products, made from plant based, organic ingredients. In the interview Zodidi shares: How her daughter led her to start the company when Zodidi realised that to teach self-acceptance she had to live it for herself She shares how she launched the business from her…
Meet Lynton Naicker, the co-founder of Snapslip a digital receipting and analytics platform that allows for endusers to receive digital receipts on their purchases and for stores to save money on receipt printing while also giving them detailed consumer insights and analytics. In the interview Lynton shares: How him and his co-founder managed to pilot the business in…
Meet Mubarak Sumaila, co-founder of BezoMoney, a business in Ghana that is Digitizing Traditional Savings Groups, helping group members to build a favourable credit history and getting access to formal financial products and services. They also run a financial literacy platform that provides practical information on how to grow and manage your finances. In the interview…
Meet Chigozie Bashua, the founder of The Nut Place, a nut processing company in Nigeria that processes edible nuts into gluten free products for middle and low income earners and helps people that are on a special diet to have access to healthy and affordable food options. In the interview Chigozie shares about: How she came across…
Meet Macoumba Diagne the co-founder and CEO of Proplast Industrie, a company that helps collect and recycle plastic to then help create new products from this recycled plastic for the local market. In the interview Macoumba shares: How he transformed himself from a manager in the corporate world to a social entrepreneur and the head of a waste management company…
Meet Cédric Doffou the co-founder of LiFi-Led an Ivorian company bringing light and internet to rural areas in Côte d’Ivoire. In the interview Cédric shares How their products and solutions tackle two challenges of the rural areas at the same time How an experience of his co-founder and mentor Ange Frederick Balma led them to…
Meet Mevis Aiyeju, the co-founder of M.E. Solutions, a company modifying and experimenting with technology to solve problems in the Nigerian Agricultural Sector, with their farming solutions ranging from a reengineered soilless farming technology adequate for the often low power supply in the Nigerian context, to low energy consuming irrigation systems, to the development of…
Meet Heinrich Hafeni, the founder of Hafeni Tourism Namibia a business focusing on Cultural township tourism Or as Heinrich puts it taking tourists to townships and introducing them to the real Namibia. Heinrich grew up in a township himself and then worked his way up from dish washer to waiter to cook and finally overland…
Meet Chérif Tall, the founder of production company House of Jouvence and The Hub Dakar an Art & Culture Club, Café, Lounge and Gallery in the heart of Senegal’s capital. In the interview Chérif shares about: How his journey led him from a childhood dream to build a school for the arts to founding The…
Meet Mohammed Harakate, the co-founder of Alternative Solutions, a startup in Morocco that transforms palm fronds, a renewable source and byproduct of the date cultivation, into wood. In the interview Mohammed shares: How reverse engineering helped them to build their own machine to convert palm fronds into wood blocks How in depth research helped him and…
In this episode meet Onyeka Akumah, a serial-entrepreneur and the co-founder of Farmcrowdy and Crowdyvest. Farmcrowdy is a digital agriculture platform in Nigeria that connects small-scale farmers with investors for the purpose of boosting food production, while Crowdyvest became a platform where members get access to impact-driven investment opportunities. In the interview that we did with Onyeka…
Meet Ebou Lawrence Mendy founder of the software company Kameko Gambia , a company that builds customs solutions for small and medium enterprises. However, besides doing client work, Ebou and his team are also spinning of their own solutions as for example the ride hailing app Ryde Africa and a lightweight accounting solution for Gambian businesses. In the interview…
In this episode, meet Mikaïla Issa, the co-founder of WÀTU Digital Lab based out of Dakar, Senegal. WÀTU Digital Lab is a digital communication agency that connects, engages and impacts rural communities through ICT tools to empower the youth and women in the agriculture sector. WÀTU Digital Lab also helps its clients to strengthen their network of partners,…
Meet Muinat Atunnise, the founder and creative director of Atunnise Clothiers, both a design and clothing brand as well as a production hub for designers that specializes on manufacturing ready to wear garment for women and children all the while empowering people through training and development and designing a work environment that gives people another chance…
Meet Kebba-Omar Jagne the founder of Movaar, a social enterprise in The Gambia that runs and builds programs and platforms for skills formation and specialisation for those that want to hone in on particular skills. And they also have an incubator program for businesses and income generating activities. In the interview that we did with Omar back in 2019, Omar…
Meet Tolu Williams, the founder of Savenhart Technology a company that is focussed on renewable energy technology and electric powered transportation, selling sell electric bikes and scooters and customising them to meet local road requirements. When Tolu got into this industry it actually started out as a hobby. Initially he just bought an electric scooter for himself. When people started noticing and showing…
In this episode meet Femke Matorwmasen-Akkermans, co-founder of Green Gold Social Enterprise, an agriculture company focused in growing moringa and using moringa as a cash crop to support rural communities. Recently they developed their systems into restorative agriculture to make their production sustainable for both humans and nature. In the last interview we shared with you guys, you heard…
In this episode meet Clement Matorwmasen, the co-founder of Green Gold Social Enterprise, an agriculture company focused in growing moringa and using moringa as a cash crop to support rural communities. Clement started with moringa over 17 years ago because he saw the potential for this plant to change people’s lives and he saw that because of…
Meet Nhlanhla Ndlovu the founder of Hustlenomics, a for-profit impact driven social enterprise that’s dedicated to replacing informal backyard shacks in the South African townships with formal durable houses for low-income households. So Nhlanhla himself grew up in a township having to share a living space with 12 other siblings and relatives. When he built his own shack…
In this episode meet Joseph S.K. Pambu Jr. the founder of Wireless Technology Lab, a social enterprise on a mission to bring computer awareness and literacy training to young people in rural Liberia. So Joseph got introduced to computers early on in his life through his uncle and has developed his fascination for the devices…
In this episode, meet Albert Diouf, the founder of AfrikaMart, an Agri-Foodtech Startup in Senegal, that is working on efficient ways to aggregate and move local produce all the while ensuring a significantly higher payoff for the smallholder farmers, supplying fresh local quality products to supermarkets in urban areas and using an integrated supply chain system…
In this episode, meet Chinedu Azodoh, the co-founder of MAX.NG a Nigerian company that is aiming to make motorcycle taxis and transport safe, affordable and accessible. They achieve this by training the drivers on their app, regulations and giving drivers a safety score by measuring how they drive in real time, which helps them to…
Meet Fa Diallo, the founder of Institut Académique des Bébés a social enterprise that trains mostly unemployed young women as early childhood professionals and helps them find jobs as caretakers for baby’s. Initially when coming back to Senegal from France, Fa had planned to start a business in Finance. However, when she had challenges finding…
In this interview meet Armid Azadeh, the founder of MACQUARIE MEDICAL CARE and Tosaline Auene, Response Coordinator at MACQUARIE MEDICAL CARE, who speak about how they provide health for remote communities and lodges in Namibia through telemedicine and digital health innovation. It all started when Dr. Armid, after his return to Namibia around 2010 and 11 started to…
Meet Hakeem Jimo, the co-founder of VeggieVictory, a Lagos based company that was the first to introduce vegan meat substitutes into the Nigerian market on a commercial scale. Hakeem and his wife Bola Adeyanju started VeggieVictory as a vegan restaurant, after Hakeem, himself a vegan for many years, came back from a trip to Asia where…
Meet Karima Grant, the co-founder of Kër ImagiNation Playschools & founder of ImagiNation Afrika. Karima’s vision is a world where African children become changemakers to solve the problems of development. With Kër ImagiNation she and her team design, test and implement innovative educational programs and environments that integrate play-based learning, hands-on approaches, problem solving, as…
Meet Yaya Kone, the co-founder of Coliba, a startup specialized in collecting and recycling plastic waste in Côte d’Ivoire. Yaya had worked as a teacher in France, when, during a visit at home in Abidjan, he noticed how much waste was going unrecycled and what the negative implications were. So he and his co-founder Genesis…
In this episode, we speak with two entrepreneurs, Tosin Adelowo & Dare Odumade, that have built a business that is dedicated to making sure that you and your loved ones are staying healthy in the new year. Their business Chekkit is an anti-counterfeiting platform that helps consumers make sure that the goods they are consuming,…
Meet Amine Slimani, the founder of Epicerie Verte, a marketplace specialized in organic and natural products, both food and cosmetics. Before starting Epicerie Verte Amine was a management consultant. He did a big project for a major foundation in Morocco, a study on entrepreneurship in the country. Through the study he met around 600 entrepreneurs mostly…
In this interview meet Ropafadzo Musvaire & Bekithemba Ngulube, two co-founders of the Kweza founding team. So Kweza is sort of a last mile logistics solution that is working with informal retailers in South Africa. The team noticed that the informal retailers, called spaza shops in South Africa, often pay a premium for their products. So…
In this episode, meet Adama Kane, the founder of JokkoSanté, a social enterprise and health focussed digital payment platform, that allows people that don’t have money to buy medicine to get access to meds despite their limited financial resources. And it allows NGOs, government entities and private companies as well as individuals in the Diaspora, to…
Meet Dieudonne Kwame Agudah, the founder of WASHKing, a social enterprise working to supply bio-digester toilets to low-income urban households in Ghana with the aim of ending open defecation and at the same time focussing on giving employment to young people while equipping them with transferable skills. In the interview Dieudonne speaks about: What a bio-digester…
Meet Danielle Benedict Moreau, the founder behind Sakura, a fresh natural juice company in Libreville Gabon. Danielle started the company after she got inspired by her little niece. She observed her little niece being independent and quite active for her young age. At that phase in her life, Danielle did not find a job, despite…
Meet Dr. Alfred Mbinglo, founder of the Research and Counselling Foundation for African Migrants, short RECFAM and the initiator of Pridepad, a social enterprise initiative producing organic biodegradable sanitary pads made from banana plantain fibre for rural schoolgirls and women who lack access to menstrual products in impoverished communities. But it is not that Pridepad is…
Meet Elohor Thomas, co-founder and CEO at CodeLn a panafrican tech startup that helps companies find their IDEAL pre-vetted software developers on the continent and at the same time helps software engineers find their dream jobs. They do that by automatically efficiently and consistently testing the skills of the software engineers before making recommendations to…
Meet Cédric Singa, the founder of Kintrack, a business that creates solutions around GPS Tracking, like Fleet Management, Fuel Consumption Monitoring, Vehicle Tracking for businesses and as anti-theft measure but also tracking for school kids to provide parents and children more safety from an increasing threat of kidnapping, especially in the Eastern DRC. In the interview…
In this episode, meet Aime Lebon, the co-founder of Papersmart Industries in Windhoek Namibia, a company manufacturing products from recycled paper, first and foremost, pens and pencils. When Aime first had the idea to use recycled paper in pencils, he didn’t think about building an enterprise around it. Instead, he just wanted to use the pencils…
In this episode, meet Adepeju Jaiyeoba, the founder of Mother’s Delivery Kit a social enterprise working in rural maternal healthcare, that is supplying birthing kits at affordable rates to health centres, hospitals, traditional birth attendants as well as maternal and child health organisations across Nigeria to tackle high maternal and infant mortality rates in rural…
In this episode, meet Vannel Dzigba, the founder of Abossey Okai Online, a business with the aim of revolutionizing automobile parts trading across Africa and bringing more convenience to car owners in Ghana and West Africa. According to Vannel if you drive in Ghana, chances are that you know Abossey Okai because that is the place to go to get…
Meet Tomisin Adeshiyan, co-founder of Vesicash, a company that is focused on providing payment security for people in online transactions, with their flagship product being a digital escrow service that allows people to make sure that they get the value that they’ve paid for. The idea for the business stems from a personal need of…
Meet Aldred Dogue, the founder of Africa Foods Mill, an enterprise in Benin that was created to help smallholder farmers in the country reduce post harvest losses. Aldred had learned many of the smallholder farmers were incurring losses because they couldn’t get their produce to market on time and he saw this an an opportunity to…
In this interview meet Blessing Achu, the founder of 360 Creative Hub in Lagos Nigeria. With her business she provides a co-working space for fashion designers, aka a co-sewing space, she brings together young designers with professionals in the field and she runs a fashion design accelerator that helps young designers understand the business of…
In this episode meet Simon Mokgotlhoa & Lesego Ndlovu, the founders of BallTalent, an online application that showcases young talents in sports and let’s international scouts and clubs, get information like videos and stats on local players. The two of them came up with the idea when they saw many young talented people in their neighbourhood…
Meet Kamal Yakub, co-founder of TROTRO Tractor, sometimes called the ‘Uber for tractors’ in Africa. TROTRO Tractor is an agricultural technology company that makes it possible for smallholder farmers to access agricultural machinery services ranging from tractors to combined harvesters, planters etc. as well as post harvest machinery, like shellers and treshers. Why that is…
Meet Sinenhlanhla Ndlela, foodpreneur and founder of Yococo, an artisanal vegan ice cream brand in South Africa with the mission of serving love in scoops, all the while doing their best to be good guests to planet earth. After quitting her job, realising that the 9 to 5 grind, that barely allowed her to cover her rent was not how…
In this episode, meet Ifeanyi Umejei, co-founder of ICE Commercial Power in Lagos, Nigeria. He and his co-founders are on a mission to solve the power problem in Nigeria through solar micro grids. By creating these grids for SME’s, small and medium enterprise clusters, they are able to provide power for businesses, saving them money, allowing them…
Meet Sename Koffi Agbodjinou founder of Woelab in Lomé, Togo and Ashoka Fellow. Before you jump into the full interview, let us just say, that Sename is working on one of the biggest visions we have heard of so far. He himself calls it a utopia. And yet, while some of the ideas he has…
Meet Mamoudou Touré, agricultural engineer by training, who with his friend and business partner, turns the plant Typha into a material for construction with their business HABIDEM in Mauritania. In the south of Mauritania there is a lot of Typha and it presents a challenge as it is spreading rapidly and blocking irrigation channels for the…
★★★ In this interview meet Mahmud Johnson, founder of J-Palm Liberia, a social business, contributing to employment opportunities for young people in Liberia as well as higher incomes for farmers, by increasing productivity in and yield from sustainable palm oil and palm kernel oil production. But that is just part of the impact. The other…
★★★ Meet Nkem Okocha, the founder of FinTech Social Enterprise Mamamoni, whom we interviewed in September 2019 in Lagos. Mamamoni is dedicated to eradicating poverty and uplift low income women from poverty through multiple vehicles which are #1 capacity building which their foundation is in charge of that #2 access to finance, which they realise through…
In this episode, meet Pedro Da Fonseca, the founder of Black Gold Engineering, a Namibian LED light manufacturer and distributor, that has a patented LED solution for streetlights that provides up to 70% in energy savings compared to conventional solutions. At the time of the interview in November 2019, Pedro shares, that his patented LED is ‘the…
In this interview, meet Vanda d´Oliveira and Ricardo Figueiredo , the two founders of Bantumakers, a startup studio in Angola. In our interview we chatted about how they launch businesses how they financed their first two startups, the first Angolan crowdfunding platform called DEYA and a micro job platform called SALO AND their personal journey as…
Meet Sobel Ngom, founder and director of the Social Change Factory. Sobel’s changemaker journey started, when during an internship in rural Senegal, he experienced first hand, the injustices in the education system. It is was then that he decided, that he would have to do something. Together with a group of friends that he asked…
RIVE Maroc is an annual meeting of electric vehicles that takes place in Morocco, the starting point being Tangier and the end point Ouarzazate. The goal behind this project is to promote electric mobility and sustainable tourism. To ensure that participants can charge their vehicles along the approximately 800km distance, the RIVE Maroc duo Silvia Brutschin…
Complete Farmer is a crowdfarming platform founded and based in Ghana that makes it easier to source for quality farm produce in the African market and at the same time, allows anyone to fund a farming cycle as a crowdfarmer from their smartphone, get regular updates about the farm, sign up for an in person…
In this episode, meet Adulai Bary, a serial entrepreneur from Guinea-Bissau. He was named as one of the most influential young people in West Africa and when you listen to this interview, you will begin to understand why. One of the things that struck us in the conversation with him, and that we have observed…
Meet Satta Wahab, the founder of Naz Naturals in Monrovia, Liberia Satta started her hair care company for natural African hair with just a 100 Dollars. She noticed there was a gap in the market, after she ‘went natural’ herself. Trying to find the products she needed for this transition, she realised that the products…
In today’s episode, we speak with Oduwa Agboneni, the founder of Neni’s Autocare in Lagos. Actually, Oduwa was already a serial entrepreneur before starting her own car repair shop in the bustling Yaba district of Lagos. She had worked as an engineer for a telco company, started a side hustle doing online ticketing and reservations and then built a travel…
This is a guest post by Emanual Coen. More about the author and his projects at the bottom of this article. When you think of crypto development and entrepreneurship, you may think of activity in the US, Europe or Asia. But it’s actually Africa that has shown some of the strongest organic demand for Bitcoin. …
In this episode, meet Murendeni Mafumo, the founder of Kusini Water, a social impact water business in South Africa. Kusini Water makes water purification and distribution systems from locally sourced materials such as Macadamia nut shells and uses renewable energy to supply clean water to communities most affected by the lack of access to safe…
An Ashoka Fellow and previous French Teacher, Evariste Aohoui started PARO CI in 2011 because he was tired of how dirty Abidjan was. Initially, they did small and specific activities like cleanups as volunteers, taking the opportunity to sensitise people about keeping the environment clean. Later on is when they started to focus on e-waste…
Wiatta was born and raised in the United States of America, but has her roots in Liberia and Sierra Leone. During her last year in university, she took three courses (Ecology, Sociology of Economics, and African Economics) that significantly changed the course of her life. It is during this time that she realised that the…
It’s very common to observe something in society that is not working and complain about it, complain that it needs to be solved. Less common so, to take accountability for whatever isn’t working, be proactive in finding solutions that work for you and in so doing, fix the problem for the society as a whole.…
Richard Brandt started Codetrain, Ghana’s biggest commercial coding school from his own kitchen after quitting his freelance role as a consultant, to focus on teaching young Africans the coding skills full-time and matching them with companies for employment opportunities. In our interview with him, he shares about the beginnings of his journey into entrepreneurship and…
Many people that want to start a business, but haven’t, will tell you that they need more money or a better point in time. Alhaji however, couldn’t afford to wait for more money or a better point in time to kick off his business Rugsal Trading in Sierra Leone. Born in Kono district, Sierra Leone,…
Regina Honu is a Ghanaian computer scientist, founder of Soronko Solutions, a software enterprise and a Changemaker, that has taught thousands of girls how to create technology and to code through Tech Needs Girls Ghana and Soronko Academy. Now Regina might seem like an unlikely entrepreneur. Like many of us, growing up, she believed that…
Naomi Tulay-Solanke is the case in point, that you can achieve anything if you put your mind to it. Pregnant at the age of 14 in Liberia, she experienced stigmatisation, naming and blaming. Social expectations were, that she would drop out of school. Naomi however, decided to prove everybody wrong. “I always knew that I was going…
Meet Youness Ouazri, the founder of Ecodome Maroc. Based in Casablanca, Morocco, his vision is to revive the earthen construction patrimony in Morocco and to give people who don’t have adequate economic resources access to infrastructure. In 2015, Youness Ouazri graduated with a civil engineering degree and an honorable mention. Before long, he had secured a…
At just the age of 32, Momarr Taal has now been an entrepreneur for 15 years. His first business was in t-shirt printing when he was in university in Canada. He remembers two of his friends complaining that they would spend a lot of money on urban clothing brands that did not represent their culture…
5 min read Friends, this was the least we were prepared for a border crossing. First, all we knew was that we needed to get to Karang which was the border town from Senegal into The Gambia, and then take a ferry from Barra to Banjul, the capital. And second, we left the hotel in…
8 min read Before leaving Mauritania for Senegal, we did all the research for the border process. What we learned was to avoid the Rosso border, which has been referred to by various bloggers as the worst place on earth, a hellhole, the armpit of the world. Our crossing into Morocco and Mauritania were quite…
5 min read Thomas and I left Berlin one month ago on 5th June. So as the romantic and festive human being that I am, I thought it would be nice to set up a little date for myself. Light some candles, put on some background music and pour myself a glass of wine as…
6 min read Two weeks ago, I could not drive a stick to save a life. Past tense. As over the past two weeks I have reacquainted myself with driving a manual car since hitting Morocco. The plan was always that Thomas would get on the Zero and I would follow closely behind with Jolene.…
6 min read I am writing this from a less known guest house on the outskirts of Casablanca, Morocco. When we first saw La Petite Ferme on booking.com, it was not my first choice to be honest, but Thomas loved it instantly. And I am glad we went with it even though it did not look…
5 min read Yesterday was our first very intense driving session. We left Amsterdam at 9:00 am and arrived in Barcelona at 2:00 am. That’s a total of…17 hours on the road. It took me ten minutes to calculate that, not because I am bad at Math, but because Thomas is distracting me with his…
5 min read Hi, my name is Dulcie, and I am an African who has never been to Africa. Well, technically never been to Africa. You see, I was born and raised in Kenya, lived there for 22 years before moving to Germany in 2017. And in those 22 years, I never once traveled to…
