ALU Podcast

The African Continental Free Trade Area is hailed as one of the significant strides the African continent has taken towards trade facilitation. The organisation brings together 54 of the 55 African Union nations.

And with the predicted increase in trade volume, corporate and public governance is central to the success of such organisations.

Our guest this week is Isabelle Djeni. She talks about the African Continental Free Trade, mitigating various legal issues, misconceptions about working in the private and public sector, how startups can better leverage corporate governance and how her work addresses climate change.

Isabelle has strong expertise in strategy, policy design, advocacy, corporate governance, negotiation & legal advisory. Isabelle currently works as an expert, Finance & Africa Groups at ZeniZeni Sustainable Finance. She has previously worked at UBS Investment Bank, African Leadership Network, Ecobank Capital, Cabinet of the Minister in charge of Budget in Côte d’Ivoire, Junior Achievement among others. Isabelle holds a Master in International Business Law from Université de Tours.

Before the Covid 19 outbreak, the African tourism industry employed 24.6 million people across the continent, representing 6.8% of the total employment in the continent.

However, this industry, as well as our wildlife, is facing possible extinction primarily from poaching. Since 1960, the black rhino population is down by 97.6%, approximately 1000 mountain gorillas remain and as many as 35,000 elephants are killed each year. The African Lion is the second largest living big cat after the tiger and the sound of its roar can be heard as far as 8 km away. However, its population decreased by 43% in 21 years and its regionally extinct in 15 African countries with as few as 23,000 left today

This is why it is crucial to conserve our wildlife. Our guest Kaddu K Sebunya, CEO of the African Wildlife Foundation, joined us this week to discuss matters of conservation in the continent.

How can Africa embrace development while preserving its wildlife? We touch on key issues like poaching, conservation efforts, Africa’s criminal justice systems to fight illegal wildlife trade while promoting this coexistence among others.

Kaddu Kiwe Sebunya has 25 years of Government relations, conservation and international development experience. He has distinguished himself in the industry as a leader at all levels—from community level engagement through the highest levels of government in Africa, Europe, China, and the Americas.

He is  one of the most visible and respected voices for wildlife, wild lands, conservation, and sustainable development on the continent. He is honored to advise the Pan-African Institutions and several African states on implementation of the African Union Vision 2063 and has become a frequent and sought-after speaker in Africa, Europe, China, and the United States.

By 2030, digital transformation could generate as much $3.4 trillion of economic value in the Digital Sprinter markets. At a country level this translates to 25 percent of GDP in Brazil, 31 percent in Saudi Arabia and 33 percent in Nigeria, to name a few examples.

With the right policy framework, Digital Sprinters can become ideal launching pads for future innovation.

In this episode, Charles Murito, the Director of Government & Public Affairs in Africa at Google, shares how relevant the Digital Sprinters Public Policy Framework is in driving Africa's Digital Transformation. He discusses the 4 pillars of the framework, major issues that require urgent policy making and/or amendments and how to engage key stakeholders to implement these policies to support African Entrepreneurs.

For nearly two decades, Charles has helped some of the world's leading tech, media and entertainment companies to define their strategy, grow, and advance their footprint in emerging markets. This includes roles at MTV Base, Warner Bros., and Turner Broadcasting - where he served as the Director of Business Development and Strategy. While at Turner, he spearheaded the development & launch of an Arabic Cartoon Network channel and conceptualized the Cartoon Network Academy to train a generation of Arabic animators.

He served as Google’s Country Director for Kenya, overseeing in-country revenue growth. Parallel to his core responsibilities, he served as the Diversity and Inclusion lead for EMEA emerging markets, working with the global EMEA team to build a more equitable organization in which every employee can thrive. He also served as a Board Director for CSquared, a Google portfolio company.

Outside work, he loves good food, art and farming, and he is passionate about leveraging technology to drive economic development.

Technology has revolutionized people’s lives across the globe and Africa has been playing catch-up most of the time. For instance only 13.5% of the African population has Internet access.

Our guest this week is Nitin Gajria, the Managing Director - Sub-Saharan Africa at Google. He has been at Google for 7 years. In his role, Nitin spends his time working out how the internet can be more helpful for Africa and how technology can be an enabler for amazing things.

Prior to this role, Nitin led the YouTube business in India & South-East Asia, has led Google in Vietnam, Cambodia & Laos and has also worked across industries ranging from detergents and cosmetics to infant nutrition having spent time at Procter & Gamble and Mead Johnson. In this episode he discusses ways Africa can leapfrog and adopt technologies that will help its people.

Which then begs the question, why is it that Africa’s technological adoption differs from other parts of the world? Discover the three components hindering access to technology in the continent.

As a bonus, find out the top 4 promising technological fields that have most potential in Africa and how you can get involved. Please tune in and listen.

Theme: Agriculture

Did you know that 65% of the world’s arable land is in Africa? And yet, despite the incredible advantage that Africa has over other continents, it imports 85% of its food.

70% of Sub-Saharan Africa depends on agriculture for their livelihoods and indeed 90% of the food in sub-Saharan Africa is produced by smallholder farmers.

Our guest in this episode is Dr Apollos Nwafor, Vice President, Policy and State Capability at Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). AGRA has, over the years, helped restore 13 million hectares of land while training and financing over 15 million farmers concurrently.

Having been part of the massive agricultural improvement, Dr Nwafor still believes that Africa’s most significant potential lies in Agriculture. How then can Africa build back better and become a net exporter of food?

In this episode, he outlines some critical adjustments in the Agricultural sector whose prompt and rapid implementation will transform the Agricultural industry, create jobs, and build families in the continent.

60% more food must be produced in the next 15 years to meet the needs of a growing population in Sub-Saharan Africa. What ways can you get involved and participate in seizing one of the greatest opportunities on the African continent? Tune in and find out more.

Theme: Education

The African continent has a total of 700,000 software engineers. And did you know that more than half of them are saturated in five African countries of Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, and South Africa?(IFC/Google). The International Finance Corporation (IFC), projects that the African internet economy will be contributing nearly $180 billion to the overall economy by 2025.

Our guest this week is Mike B. Ndimurukundo, Andela’s Managing Director, who supports, leads and cheers a powerful team of software engineers in Andela Rwanda.

Andela has 1000+ software engineers that work as embedded members of over 200 tech companies across the world. In 2019, Andela trained 60,000 people on basic software engineering skills, to better position Africa as a center for tech related solutions.

Mike therefore shares his wealth of knowledge that he acquired managing software engineers in Africa and training 60,000 new ones. The conversation covers: professional skills required for a software engineer, how to leverage the internet, advantages of technical skills among others and lessons other non-technical disciplines can take advantage of.

With that said, how then can you get ready and actively participate in various sectors of the e-economy such as Fintech, Agritech, Venture capital and e-health? If you are intrigued by the internet and the power of being self taught, then this episode is right for you! Tune in and learn more.

Theme: Job Creation

Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa have created a conducive cocktail in the market that has anchored the foundation of most Startups. What do the so-called outliers of Africa do that is different from other countries?

For our guest this week is Marcello Schermer, Head of expansion at Yoco, that is helping over 100,000 SMEs in South Africa thrive by helping them accept digital payments and manage their business with digital tools and services. The success of a startup isn’t defined by raising funds, nor is it guaranteed by copying solutions from other markets.

Having traversed over 20 countries in continental Africa as the Regional Manager for Africa at Seedstars World, Marcello shares a combination of tested factors that when executed, increases the success rate of startups in the continent.

But if you are just beginning to think of your business idea, worry not! The conversation also touches on some practical approaches that you should be aware of if you are a newbie. With youth unemployment as high as 50% in some countries, this is a timely conversation to have.

Did you know that Africa has the highest entrepreneurship rate in the world?

Well, the World Bank reports that 22% of Africa’s working age population are starting a business.

Female entrepreneurship rate in Africa stands at 27%, again, the highest rate in the world. This translates to African women being twice as likely to start a business as women elsewhere in the world.

All looks great and glamorous until you realize that Sub-Saharan Africa also has the highest rate of small business discontinuous standing at a rate of 8.4%.

Looking at Kenya for instance, 60-80% of the new business do not leave long to celebrate their third anniversary. Now, what could be the problem resulting in such a high rate of business failure?

Our guest Dr Olufunso Somorin might have the right answer. He is the Regional Principal Officer at the African Development Bank. He leads the Bank’s work on climate change and green growth in 13 African countries. Beside his engagement at the Bank, Dr Somorin is a Director at Profectus Capital Group, a boutique investment firm providing financial and advisory services to SMEs in key sectors and industries in Africa.

Dr Somorin holds a PhD in International Environmental Policy from Wageningen University, the Netherlands. He has published more than 25 peer-reviewed articles on climate policy, natural resources management and sustainable development in many leading scientific journals.

"People are not buying your brand or product. People are buying a solution and that solution makes a great brand,"  says our guest this week.

Just 19 years ago, Google was a startup. But then, how was it able to build such a recognizable global brand that led to its financial success?

How can entrepreneurs in Africa and beyond build and maintain their startup's brand?

Our guest this week is Mzamo Masito, Google Africa's Chief Marketing Officer.

He has an expansive knowledge in marketing having taught on the subject in AAA School of Advertising in South Africa. He was also Unilever’s Branding Vice President prior to joining Vodacom as the Managing Executive for the Brand and Communications department-Africa. He previously held senior executive Marketing positions at Nike as the Chief Marketing Officer and was notably the World Cup 2010 lead.

Mzamo strongly believes that "to be young, gifted, free without opportunity is a devil’s gift and to deny that opportunity is immoral and criminal.

In this episode, he talks about how an entrepreneur can build and maintain a brand.

He also shares 4 tips of how the google founders built a great brand, 5 tips to differentiate your brand and how to overcome brand mishaps. 

As businesses compete for the digital 'real estate' the need for digital marketing firms and individual freelancers is on the rise.  How the do you penetrate the market and remain on top of the game and ahead of the competition? 

This week, our guest speaker Nnadozie Ebere answers answers these questions. Ebere is a student at the African Leadership University. He will share his journey as a founder of Tori Branding, a digital marketing company. He has also previously worked as a marketing consultant for ALU in Rwanda and as the global marketing intern for Hult Prize among others.