Critical Business Lessons To Learn From Successful African Entrepreneurs

By Arthur Peterson


Attaining enviable business success is by no means a simple thing to do. The primary ingredients for triumph, the commonly assumed ones, are access to capital and a thriving market. However, plenty of other equally important factors form part of the play. The most famous successful African entrepreneurs learnt how to work around these factors to emerge victorious.

The continent possesses a lot of untapped potential for economic growth, potential that can be harnessed by those looking for business excellence. Africans who owe their victories in business to this potential, Nigerian internet mogul Jason Njoku and Zimbabwean tech commodore Strive Masiyiwa, have stories that inspire. Some of the traits that appear common in all business success stories are passion, devotion, attentiveness and the all important trait of learning from faults.

The story of Jason Njoku is now well known in Africa and beyond. What started as a passion grew into the largest online streaming service in the content. A market that was traditionally the reserve for international conglomerates like the Google owned YouTube now has a respected player.

In his interviews with reputable entrepreneurship magazines, he often credits his success to his inborn passion for making people happy. With this passion, he got to learn what building a streaming service requires and the rest is history. These days, the world knows him as a venture capitalist with a keen interest in sponsoring aspiring businesspeople so as to help them attain their dreams.

Commitment, an equally important trait, is exactly what drove Strive Masiyiwa to emerge triumphant. The Zimbabwean launched Econet Wireless, a company whose footprints are felt globally, and now acts as its permanent chairman. As expected of any entrepreneur, an idea that many may have considered inconceivable grew to enviable heights, government resistance notwithstanding. A five year court duel instituted by the government did not dampen his spirit. He spurred on to build a company that is today a haven for any sane investor.

Learning from mistakes is also an important lesson to learn from the most revered businessmen and women in Africa. Gina Din Kariuki, a successful award winning Kenyan management consultant who founded the Gina Din Group knows this all too well. Getting to her level of success took nineteen years of failure and learning to get back up and keep fighting.

Before starting the Gina Din Group, she was employed as a PR officer. According to her numerous interviews with top journalists, her failure to observe the climate of the market and what leadership is all about contributed to the long duration she took to break even. After quitting employment, Gina realized she could no longer rely on the support that a regular employee enjoyed from corporate structure.

She was finally in charge of the running of a business. With her initial oversight behind her, her company transformed into a household name in East Africa and the continent at large. These stories of triumph should spur you to aim for more. If you adhere to the same principles, there is no doubt you will make a name for yourself.




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