Business
Lessons from 3 tech entrepreneurs from Africa
Verone Mankou with his Way-C tablet. PHOTO/AFP/Getty Images
Africa has made promising leaps in the tech space over the past few years. Hubs in Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, and Nigeria are all priming the next generation of entrepreneurs to make a big splash on the continent and the world.
Those entrepreneurs who have already succeeded provide lessons and models for others to follow. They will of course be adapted and changed, sometimes for the worse, but mostly for the better. And if entrepreneurs are looking for role models, they could do a lot worse than the likes of Sim Shagaya, Mbawna Alliy and Verone Mankou.
(More: The Way-C Tablet: Africa’s tablet set to rival the iPad)
All three have invented, invested and inspired their way to noteworthiness over the past few years. Here are just some of the lessons we can take from their experiences.
Start local, think global
Nigeria’s Sim Shagaya isn’t short on ambition. The Harvard graduate is in the process of creating the “Amazon of Africa”, “selling Lagos’s increasingly affluent consumer class everything from refrigerators to perfume to cupcakes”. He’s off to a good start too. His site DealDey is now the top-grossing ecommerce site in Nigeria, with 350 000 subscribers, growing at 20 percent month on month.
Travelling can be incredibly worthwhile
Mbwana Alliy has a career that most people in the tech space would kill for. He’s done everything from military flight testing to product management at Microsoft. His entrepreneurial credentials are also strong, having co-founded Tanzania’s first ecommerce travel portal, YellowMasai and then worked as an Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) at i/o ventures- a Silicon Valley based accelerator and seed fund.
