Unlocking Africa

Episode 215 with Luc-Etienne Dandrieu, General Manager of AlphaSeeds, a philanthropic investment company supporting sustainable agribusiness SMEs across Africa. In this episode we explore the future of African agribusiness, agricultural investment, and food security, and how patient capital can unlock new opportunities for entrepreneurs across the continent.

Luc-Etienne brings more than twenty years of experience across agriculture, food systems, research and development, and sustainability management, with previous roles spanning global food companies and Mercy Ships Switzerland. In this conversation we examine one of the most critical challenges facing African agriculture today: the massive financing gap for agribusiness SMEs and why innovative investment models are needed to support entrepreneurs building the next generation of food and agricultural businesses.

Luc-Etienne explains how AlphaSeeds combines the discipline of investment with the long term perspective of philanthropy to support early stage agro processing companies in Africa that create jobs, strengthen food security, and build more resilient local economies. From providing seed equity and strategic expertise to working directly with founders on supply chains, production, and operational challenges, he shares how patient capital and impact investment can help agribusinesses scale sustainably.

What We Discuss With Luc-Etienne

• Why Africa’s agribusiness sector still faces a significant financing gap for agricultural SMEs despite employing a large share of the continent’s workforce.
• Why agro processing and local value chains may be the real engine for job creation, food security, and economic growth across African economies.
• How philanthropic investment and patient capital can support agribusiness entrepreneurs in ways traditional venture capital and development finance often cannot.
• Why building profitable agribusinesses that strengthen communities and supply chains may be more powerful than short term aid driven interventions.
• What the next generation of African agribusiness models could look like as climate resilience, regional food systems, and local processing become central to economic growth.

Did you miss my previous episode where I discuss The Trade That Kills Silently: Falsified Medicines and Pharmaceutical Crime in Africa? Make sure to check it out!

Connect with Terser:
LinkedIn - Terser Adamu
Instagram - unlockingafrica
Twitter (X) - @TerserAdamu

Connect with Luc-Etienne:
LinkedIn - Luc-Etienne Dandrieu and AlphaSeeds

Many of the businesses unlocking opportunities in Africa don’t do it alone. If you’d like strategic support on entering or expanding across African markets, reach out to our partners ETK Group:

www.etkgroup.co.uk
[email protected]

Episode 214 with Foulo Basse, President and Chief Executive of The Brazzaville Foundation, an organisation leading Africa’s battle against falsified medicines, counterfeit drugs, and pharmaceutical crime across the continent.

Fake and substandard medicines are one of the most urgent yet under reported public health crises in Africa. From ineffective antibiotics and compromised malaria treatments to the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance, falsified medicines are costing lives, undermining trust in health systems, and fuelling organised criminal networks that exploit regulatory gaps and weak border controls.

In this episode, Foulo Basse explains why rising seizures of counterfeit medicines across African countries may reveal the scale of the problem rather than signal victory. He explores how illicit pharmaceutical trade routes operate across borders, why counterfeit drugs in Africa are increasingly linked to transnational organised crime, and how affordability gaps and weak distribution systems allow illegal markets to thrive.

We also examine the policy and legal response. Foulo discusses the importance of the Lomé Initiative, the push for African states to ratify the Medicrime Convention, and the need to criminalise falsified medicines with meaningful enforcement and institutional capacity.

What We Discuss With Foulo

• The true scale of the falsified medicines crisis in Africa and why enforcement statistics may only scratch the surface.
• Why counterfeit medicines should be treated as organised crime and a national security threat, not only a health issue.
• How weak pharmaceutical supply chains, high drug prices, and limited access to generics create conditions for illegal drug markets.
• The role of the Lomé Initiative and the Medicrime Convention in strengthening legislation and criminalising pharmaceutical trafficking.
• What African governments, regulators, and international partners must prioritise to secure medicine supply chains and protect public health.

Did you miss my previous episode where I discuss Building Sustainable Manufacturing in Africa: Bamboo, Sanitation and Circular Supply Chains? Make sure to check it out!

Connect with Terser:
LinkedIn - Terser Adamu
Instagram - unlockingafrica
Twitter (X) - @TerserAdamu

Connect with Foulo:
Website -  www.brazzavillefoundation.org

Many of the businesses unlocking opportunities in Africa don’t do it alone. If you’d like strategic support on entering or expanding across African markets, reach out to our partners ETK Group:

www.etkgroup.co.uk
[email protected]

Episode 213 with Sander de Klerk, CEO and Founder of The Good Roll, a fast growing ecosystem reshaping the global paper industry through circular production, ethical sourcing, and socially inclusive solutions rooted in Africa.

Recently named EY Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year 2024, Sander is building far more than a sustainable consumer brand. What began as The Good Roll, producing tree friendly toilet paper from recycled paper, has evolved into a fully integrated value chain anchored in Ghana. At the heart of the model is bamboo pulp production, working with thousands of farmers and creating hundreds of jobs while supplying sustainable raw materials to producers across Africa and Europe.

Sander explains how The Good Roll is challenging traditional extractive trade models by retaining value at source and positioning Africa as a serious player in global manufacturing. From building production capacity in Ghana to connecting African processing with European markets, he shares the realities of scaling industry across continents. We explore why sanitation must be viewed not only as a public health issue but as a foundational economic priority, and how sustainability can move from being perceived as a cost to becoming a competitive growth strategy.

What We Discuss With Sander

• The future of Africa in global manufacturing and how circular production models can increase value retention on the continent.
• The commercial case for bamboo as a scalable industrial input in sustainable packaging and paper production.
• How sanitation infrastructure links directly to economic participation and workforce productivity.
• Designing impact driven businesses that balance ESG commitments with profitability and investor confidence.
• New financing pathways for African industrial ventures beyond traditional bank lending.

Did you miss my previous episode where I discuss How Africa Can Become a Global Remote Work Hub: AI, Employer of Record & The Future of Work? Make sure to check it out!

Connect with Terser:
LinkedIn - Terser Adamu
Instagram - unlockingafrica
Twitter (X) - @TerserAdamu

Connect with Sander:
LinkedIn - Sander de Klerk and The Good Roll | B Corp
Website -  thegoodroll.co.uk

Many of the businesses unlocking opportunities in Africa don’t do it alone. If you’d like strategic support on entering or expanding across African markets, reach out to our partners ETK Group:

www.etkgroup.co.uk
[email protected]

Episode 212 with Nicolas Goldstein, HR Tech entrepreneur and Co Founder of Breedj, an artificial intelligence powered talent marketplace transforming global hiring in Africa. With over fifteen years of experience in international recruitment, outsourcing, Employer of Record services, payroll compliance, and remote workforce management, Nicola joins the Unlocking Africa Podcast to explore how Africa can position itself at the centre of the future of work.

Breedj is building the infrastructure for cross border hiring by enabling international companies to source, hire, onboard, and pay African talent in full legal compliance. Through artificial intelligence driven talent matching, Employer of Record solutions, and payroll management across more than sixty five countries, the platform makes hiring remote teams in Africa as seamless as hiring locally.

In this episode, Nicolas explains why the real bottleneck in Africa’s participation in the global labour market is not talent shortages, but compliance infrastructure and trust. He discusses how remote work can reduce brain drain without forced migration, how AI can enable economic inclusion rather than displace workers, and why Africa has the potential to become a global remote talent hub.

He also reflects on the transition from Talenteum Group to Breedj, highlighting the shift from traditional recruitment to scalable HR tech platforms that combine technology, impact driven hiring, and local regulatory expertise.

What We Discuss With Nicolas

• Africa as a global remote talent hub rather than just a sourcing destination.
• Why Employer of Record models and compliance infrastructure are critical to scaling cross border hiring in Africa.
• How artificial intelligence is reshaping recruitment, talent matching, and remote workforce management.
• Whether remote work can reverse brain drain while driving economic inclusion.
• What governments, corporates, and founders must do to ensure Africa captures long term value in the future of work.

Did you miss my previous episode where I discuss How Diaspora Capital Can Unlock Africa’s Next Generation of Scalable Businesses? Make sure to check it out!

Connect with Terser:
LinkedIn - Terser Adamu
Instagram - unlockingafrica
Twitter (X) - @TerserAdamu

Connect with Nicolas:
LinkedIn - Nicolas Goldstein and Talenteum.com / Breedj
Website - Breedj.com

Many of the businesses unlocking opportunities in Africa don’t do it alone. If you’d like strategic support on entering or expanding across African markets, reach out to our partners ETK Group:

www.etkgroup.co.uk
[email protected]

Episode 211 with with Kanessa Muluneh, serial entrepreneur, investor, and founder of Nyle Investment Group, a diaspora focused investment firm connecting global capital with high impact opportunities across Africa. Kanessa exited her first company at 21 and has since spent over a decade building, scaling, investing in, and advising businesses across Africa’s most important growth sectors, including agriculture, manufacturing, technology, and the digital economy.

In this episode of the Unlocking Africa Podcast, Kanessa brings a rare founder operator investor perspective to how Africa can unlock sustainable economic growth in the 21st century. She explains why Africa’s economic future will not be driven by technology alone, but by the successful scaling of traditional industries alongside digital innovation. Drawing on her hands on experience, she breaks down what it really takes to build resilient businesses in African markets and why execution, not hype, determines long term success.

Kanessa also shares the thinking behind Nyle and the role diaspora capital can play in strengthening Africa’s entrepreneurial pipeline. She discusses how diaspora led investment, when paired with local insight and hands on support, can unlock scalable, profitable businesses. From sitting on both sides of the founder investor table, she offers an unfiltered view of the blind spots that hold founders back and how narrative, visibility, and customer engagement can become powerful drivers of growth.

What We Discuss With Kanessa

• Kanessa’s journey from exiting her first company at 21 to building and backing ventures across Africa’s traditional and digital sectors.
• Why Africa’s economic growth depends as much on agriculture, manufacturing, and construction as it does on technology.
• How diaspora led capital, when deployed with discipline and hands on support, can unlock long term value for founders and investors.
• Why product alone is never enough and how narrative, visibility, and customer engagement drive commercial growth in emerging markets.
• The hard realities of scaling across borders and what founders must get right to build resilient, future ready African companies. 

Did you miss my previous episode where I discuss Building Profitable IT Infrastructure for Global Remote Work From Africa? Make sure to check it out!

Connect with Terser:
LinkedIn - Terser Adamu
Instagram - unlockingafrica
Twitter (X) - @TerserAdamu

Connect with Kanessa:
LinkedIn - Kanessa Muluneh and Nyle

Many of the businesses unlocking opportunities in Africa don’t do it alone. If you’d like strategic support on entering or expanding across African markets, reach out to our partners ETK Group:

www.etkgroup.co.uk
[email protected]

Episode 210 with Francis Osifo, Co Founder and CEO of Rayda, a global IT asset lifecycle management platform supporting remote and distributed teams in over 170 countries.

As remote work reshapes how companies hire globally, one critical challenge remains under discussed: how businesses actually equip, manage, and retrieve devices for employees across borders. In this episode of the Unlocking Africa Podcast, Francis Osifo explains how Rayda is solving this problem by building the infrastructure that enables global remote work, particularly in emerging markets such as Africa.

Francis shares how Rayda has simplified device procurement, onboarding, management, retrieval, and recycling to keep remote teams productive from day one. Drawing on real world execution across Africa, Latin America, and Asia, he explains why operating in complex markets has strengthened Rayda’s product and global competitiveness, and why Africa should be seen as a proving ground for scalable technology rather than a limitation.

We also explore Rayda’s journey to sustained profitability, the strategic discipline behind building a venture backed company that prioritises fundamentals, and what African founders can learn about building durable, globally relevant businesses. Francis discusses Rayda’s expansion beyond hardware into software, the dynamics of a market with very few serious global players, and why IT asset lifecycle management is becoming a mission critical layer in the future of work.

What We Discuss With Francis

• Building the infrastructure behind global remote work and why device access is central to Africa’s digital economy
• Executing at scale across Africa and how hard markets shape stronger global products
• Profitability, sustainability, and the realities of building venture backed businesses in emerging markets
• Expanding from hardware into software in an under explored global infrastructure category
• Africa’s future role in remote work and what must change to unlock long term economic opportunity

Did you miss my previous episode where I discuss Bridging Africa’s $100 Billion Trade Finance Gap Through Agribusiness Exports? Make sure to check it out!

Connect with Terser:
LinkedIn - Terser Adamu
Instagram - unlockingafrica
Twitter (X) - @TerserAdamu

Connect with Francis:
LinkedIn - Francis Osifo and Rayda

Many of the businesses unlocking opportunities in Africa don’t do it alone. If you’d like strategic support on entering or expanding across African markets, reach out to our partners ETK Group:

www.etkgroup.co.uk
[email protected]

Episode 209 with Dara Adekunle, Managing Partner and CEO of FARMTIES Capital, an investment firm financing export oriented African agribusinesses and strengthening Africa’s role in global trade.

Dara brings deep experience in impact investing, innovative finance, and international trade to this conversation on one of the most critical and under examined constraints to Africa’s economic growth the trade finance gap facing agricultural SMEs.

In this episode, we explore why Africa’s challenge is not agricultural production, but the lack of working capital, trade infrastructure, and risk appropriate financing needed to move goods from farms to global markets. Dara explains how FARMTIES Fund I, a 50 million dollar profit sharing trade finance fund, is unlocking capital for export ready agribusinesses across West and East Africa, with strong market linkages to North America and Europe.

From blended finance and technical assistance to compliance, traceability, and ESG standards, this conversation breaks down how African SMEs can become bankable, competitive, and scalable in global food markets. Dara also unpacks why gender inclusive and climate resilient value chains are not only good for impact, but essential for long term commercial success.

What We Discuss With Dara

• Why Africa’s biggest constraint to agribusiness growth is the trade finance gap rather than production capacity
• How profit sharing trade finance and blended capital structures can de risk African agriculture
• Turning compliance, traceability, and ESG requirements into competitive advantages for African exporters
• The commercial case for gender inclusive and climate resilient agricultural value chains
• What founders, investors, and policymakers must change to unlock Africa’s export led growth

Did you miss my previous episode where I discuss Financial Inclusion, Entrepreneurship, and How to Build Markets That Work in Africa? Make sure to check it out!

Connect with Terser:
LinkedIn - Terser Adamu
Instagram - unlockingafrica
Twitter (X) - @TerserAdamu

Connect with Dara:
LinkedIn - Oluwadara (Dara) Adekunle and Farmties Capital Limited

Many of the businesses unlocking opportunities in Africa don’t do it alone. If you’d like strategic support on entering or expanding across African markets, reach out to our partners ETK Group:

www.etkgroup.co.uk
[email protected]

Episode 208 with Carl Manlan, a development practitioner and global thought leader working at the intersection of financial inclusion, policy, entrepreneurship, and social impact across Africa and emerging markets. 

Carl brings deep experience from senior leadership roles at Visa, where he served as Vice President of Social Impact and Sustainability for the CEMEA region, and at Ecobank Foundation, where he was Chief Operating Officer leading programmes across 33 African markets, earning a Euromoney Award for Excellence. His career also spans influential roles across the United Nations system and AUDA NEPAD, bridging global economic policy with real world impact.

In this episode, Carl explains why financial inclusion and digital payments are not social initiatives, but core economic infrastructure essential for Africa’s long term growth, productivity, and resilience. Drawing on his concept of Polytunity, he reframes Africa’s current economic disruptions as opportunities to redesign markets, institutions, and business models that work for entrepreneurs and small businesses at scale.

The conversation challenges outdated narratives around informality, positioning Africa’s popular economy and MSMEs as the continent’s most adaptive and underestimated growth engine. Carl shares practical insights on how lowering transaction costs through smarter regulation, adaptive governance, and purpose driven business models can unlock inclusive economic growth.

What We Discuss With Carl

• Why financial inclusion and digital payments are foundational economic infrastructure for African markets
• Reframing crisis as opportunity through Polytunity and adaptive economic thinking
• Challenging the myth of informality and unlocking growth in Africa’s popular economy and MSMEs
• Designing markets that work for entrepreneurs by lowering transaction costs through smart policy and regulation
• Intergenerational leadership, succession planning, and building lasting economic legacies in Africa

Did you miss my previous episode where I discuss Africa’s $2 Trillion Instant Payment Boom and What It Means for Trade and Economic Growth? Make sure to check it out!

Connect with Terser:
LinkedIn - Terser Adamu
Instagram - unlockingafrica
Twitter (X) - @TerserAdamu

Connect with Carl:
LinkedIn - Carl Manlan and Inside The Blueprint Podcast

Many of the businesses unlocking opportunities in Africa don’t do it alone. If you’d like strategic support on entering or expanding across African markets, reach out to our partners ETK Group:

www.etkgroup.co.uk
[email protected]

Episode 207 with Sabine Mensah, Deputy CEO of AfricaNenda Foundation and co author of the State of Inclusive Instant Payment Systems in Africa 2025 report, one of the most comprehensive studies on Africa’s digital payments infrastructure.

The SIIPS 2025 report reveals the extraordinary scale of Africa’s instant payments transformation, with 64 billion real time payment transactions worth nearly 2 trillion dollars processed in 2024 alone. Sabine shares what this rapid growth means for Africa’s digital economy and why instant payments are no longer a fintech niche, but a core driver of trade, productivity, and financial inclusion across the continent.

Drawing on insights from 31 countries, we explore why Nigeria has emerged as Africa’s first fully mature instant payment system, the governance and interoperability decisions behind NIBSS’s success, and the critical lessons other African markets must learn to scale inclusive payment infrastructure.

The conversation dives into how instant payments are reshaping cross border trade, remittances, and SME cash flow, why payment systems are foundational to AfCFTA success, and how real time payments unlock faster settlement, liquidity, and growth for African businesses. Sabine also explains why scale alone does not guarantee inclusion, highlighting the importance of trust, consumer protection, and system design in driving sustained adoption.

What We Discuss With Sabine

• Why instant payments have become the backbone of Africa’s digital economy and a prerequisite for trade, growth, and financial inclusion
• How Nigeria became the first African country to achieve a fully mature instant payment system and what other markets can learn from its governance and interoperability model
• The role of real time payments in transforming cross border trade, remittances, and SME cash flow under AfCFTA
• Why scale alone does not equal inclusion and how trust, consumer protection, and system design shape who benefits from digital payments
• Instant payments as digital public infrastructure and what policymakers, investors, and founders must do now to unlock Africa’s next decade of economic growth

Did you miss my previous episode where I discuss Unlocking Diaspora Wealth: How Housing Investment Is Driving African Development? Make sure to check it out!

Connect with Terser:
LinkedIn - Terser Adamu
Instagram - unlockingafrica
Twitter (X) - @TerserAdamu

Connect with Sabine:
LinkedIn - Sabine Mensah and AfricaNenda Foundation

Many of the businesses unlocking opportunities in Africa don’t do it alone. If you’d like strategic support on entering or expanding across African markets, reach out to our partners ETK Group:

www.etkgroup.co.uk
[email protected]

Episode 206 with Robert Hornsby and Franck Tcheukado, Co Founder and Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Operating Officer of Jobomax Homes, a West African real estate developer focused on delivering secure, high quality housing for Africans in the diaspora and on the continent.

Robert brings a unique perspective as a former US Air Force veteran turned entrepreneur, while Franck brings deep operational leadership from managing construction and project delivery across multiple West African countries. Together, they explore why housing is one of Africa’s most underappreciated economic challenges and one of its most powerful opportunities.

In this episode, they explain how Jobomax Homes was created to address the trust barriers that have historically prevented diaspora capital from flowing into African real estate. The conversation explores why issues such as land title insecurity, fragmented project management, and limited access to housing finance have held the sector back, and what it takes to build a reliable alternative.

Robert and Franck share how Jobomax delivers an end to end homebuilding model that brings structure, transparency, and accountability to the process of buying and building homes from abroad. They discuss maintaining international construction standards while working with local labour, and how this approach supports skills development and strengthens local construction ecosystems.

What We Discuss With Robert Hornsby and Franck Tcheukado 

• Why Africa’s housing deficit is as much a trust and finance challenge as it is a construction problem.
• How structured real estate development can unlock diaspora investment into West African housing markets.
• Delivering quality housing at scale while building local talent and strengthening construction value chains.
• The role of housing in long term wealth creation, women’s economic participation, and formalising property ownership.
• What the next decade could look like for African real estate, including technology adoption and the evolution of housing as an investable asset.

Did you miss my previous episode where I discuss How Carnegie Mellon University Africa Is Building the Next Generation of African Tech and Engineering Leaders? Make sure to check it out!

Connect with Terser:
LinkedIn - Terser Adamu
Instagram - unlockingafrica
Twitter (X) - @TerserAdamu

Connect with Robert:
LinkedIn - Robert Hornsby and Jobomax Homes

Connect with Franck:
LinkedIn - Franck Tcheukado

Many of the businesses unlocking opportunities in Africa don’t do it alone. If you’d like strategic support on entering or expanding across African markets, reach out to our partners ETK Group:

www.etkgroup.co.uk
[email protected]