TONL x Microsoft: Local Visionaries
Africa is home to many micro, small and medium scale enterprises. These small businesses have tapped into entrepreneurship tracing back decades. Many of these thriving businesses, however, are centered around trade and are inadequate in terms of delivering via modern technology, its infrastructure and above all else scaling to be a big business contender. For these reasons we were excited to connect with Ghana-born founders of TROTRO Tractor Ltd, Leti Arts, BezoMoney and Nvoicia because they each shared two things: a clear story of the problem they’re trying to solve and the recognition that technology is the proper median to propel their businesses forward.
Kamal Yakub is the sole Founder of TROTRO Tractor Ltd where he proudly boasts that they’re the “Uber for tractors!”. With 3 years under his belt, he has 400 tractors in Ghana alone. He has launched more than a thousand tractors in Zimbabwe and has 2020 plans to scale in Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. TROTRO is Kamal’s second business venture and he moves in the business direction of solving pain points in spite of experiencing limited access points being in Ghana compared to Silicon Valley.
Eyram Tawia and Wesley Kirinya are the founders of Leti Arts which is a gaming company and interactive media studio with offices in Ghana and Kenya that develops cross platform games and apps which are influenced by African history, folklore and culture. Preservation of the rich African culture while also exciting and connecting with youngsters of the 21st century is the central interest for the Founders. Since childhood Eyram has been obsessed with superheroes. He has known more of Nordic mythology just because of Thor in Avengers. “I know Thor’s sister. Thor’s brother. Thor’s girlfriend…EVERYTHING about the Nordic mythology just because of the fantasy. I feel that if we put that seriousness in the similar history that we have, it will definitely excite the youngsters of today.” Leti Arts has set towards that. They are creating stories like Africa’s Legends which is like The Avengers of Africa. “Black Panther showed us the potential for Black content globally so it opened the door for us,” Eyram shares. Many of the villains mirror the corrupt pastors and politicians that make up current Africa and the superheroes also mirror past leaders and prominent cultural figures like Yaa Asantewaa from Ghana or Shango, god of Yoruba. At Leti Arts, they want to consciously create stories with fellow Africans and thus have signed over 60 content creators across the continent.
With the expansion ahead, Eyram and Wesley are excited about migrating to valuable tools like Azure and continuing to leverage their current Microsoft tools like Office 365 and One Drive for storing all of their office files. “I’m a Microsoft addict myself. I know Azure has a lot of features, a lot of packages that have been built, especially with the mobile space. I was at GDC at the Microsoft booth and was shown how we can take advantage of some of the gaming services when we sign up on the Azure platform. We can do leader boards, receive notifications, have portals so I am excited about certain features there,” Eyram shares.
While Eyram and Wesley are migrating back to Azure, CEO of BezoMoney, Mubarak, is enjoying Azure for hosting BezoMoney’s APIs and backend systems that drive their customer-facing applications. This level of business sense was engrained in Mubarak since childhood. Seeing so many problems while growing up drove him to develop an entrepreneurial mindset, to see opportunities where problems lie and to leverage those opportunities to create change in the lives of the people who experience those problems. “I think of human beings as "little creators" owing to the fact that we are able to think and transform our thoughts into useful objects/systems.” Even visionaries like Mubarak experienced adversity along the way, “My first challenge was the way I looked at entrepreneurship. I always thought in terms of ideas (good or bad idea). The second was the fact that I chose a career path before realizing that I had an inclination for entrepreneurship. So I had to complete my first degree and seek out additional training opportunities to develop my entrepreneurial acumen. The third challenge was that it was extremely difficult to get people to believe in my ideas enough to form a team with. I was highly fascinated by technology (probably because of the movies I saw when I was a child) and I wanted to do something in technology regardless of the field I find myself in. I ended up in biological sciences and that did not stop me from chasing my passion for entrepreneurship - growing an idea into an engine of impact and profits.”
Rounding out the startups present at the forum, we caught up with Nvoicia that prides itself in being a Pan-African set of entrepreneurs. Kelvin is the CEO, Ghanaian and runs the business with one South African, two Nigerians and one other Ghanaian (Ndifreke Anwanakak, Itumeleng Moagi and Samuel Oriaku). Nvoicia is a platform that pays SMEs up to 80% of the value of invoices within 48 hours, solving cash flow issues caused by late payments. This gives businesses the flexibility to effectively operate on almost immediate payment terms, repaying the loans at the point the invoices are paid. Increasing transactions to help more small businesses is at the forefront of their minds. “I’m really passionate. I really like what I’m doing and want to expand it,” Kelvin confesses.
As BezoMoney CEO, Mubarak said, “I don't think there is anything like a good idea or a bad idea. The idea that matters is the idea that works and everything boils down to execution. I think life in itself is a startup; we are born into a world we know nothing about and we hardly know what we are going to become so we keep on trying, crawling, walking and falling until we learn how to walk and run. In a world fraught with uncertainties, we navigate various challenges with an intelligence and a support system. We take each decision, not knowing what is going to befall us but we take the risk anyways because we have a strong belief in what the outcome would be.”
THAT is the sentiment of a true visionary.
Be sure to shop the collection and leave a comment below!