Tag Archives: African Diaspora

Nigerian Fruit Jams the Competition

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Nwando Ajene is a marketing specialist based in Chicago. She is launching AACE Foods with her Nigerian partner Ndidi Nwuneli, founder of African Alliance for Capital Expansion.

The African Diaspora Marketplace contest recently awarded $50,000 to $100,000 to 14 immigrants to the United States from African countries to help them start or expand businesses in Africa.

The logo for AACE Foods.

The logo for AACE Foods.

We here at AACE Foods are delighted to have a $100,000 grant. We are using the money for the purchase of equipment to manufacture jams, spreads, baby foods, and spices. Our immediate machinery needs consist of storage bins, washing facilities, fruit crushing and processing equipment, packaging machines as well as a back-up power generator.

We anticipate that we will begin production of jams and spreads in April, becoming the first Nigerian company to produce such products. We have established contacts with hotels, restaurants and supermarkets as buyers. Our jams will be made from mangos, papayas, guavas, cashews, and pineapples; our spreads from honey and peanuts. Our line of baby foods will consist of soya, carrots, sweet potatoes, guava and mangos. Our main spice will be hot peppers.

We expect to be able to displace a large portion of similar imported products. In time, we plan to expand distribution of AACE Food products throughout West Africa.

Fleet Management for Transportation Efficiency, Safety in Ethiopia

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[guest name="Zelalem Dagne" biography="Zelalem Dagne has lived in the United States for 29 years. He has worked as a senior process engineer for advanced manufacturing systems in the plastic industry and provided consulting services to corporations including Comsat and Qualcomm on the deployment of mobile and wireless technologies."]

The African Diaspora Marketplace contest recently awarded $50,000 to $100,000 to 14 immigrants to the United States from African countries to help them start or expand businesses in Africa. Some of them share how they plan to use the money on the New Enterprise blog.

With the newly developed highway infrastructure and high accident rates, road transportation is a major challenge in Ethiopia. I believe our company – Global Telecommunications PLC – can help improve the efficiency and safety of road transportation by deploying a fleet management system based on the global positioning system (GPS) and related technologies.

The fleet management system implementation will have a positive impact on business and commerce by helping to move agricultural and industrial products to the intended destinations on more reliable schedules and at lower costs. Our two-year old firm will help freight companies manage their operations, and this, in turn, will help their clients improve management of their supply chains. The monitoring and tracking of the fleets across the country will allow their owners and operators to monitor fuel expenses and other costs, more accurately plan fleets’ operations, maximize the use of those fleets while keeping the vehicles safe and reliable, and extend the life of the vehicles.

When we began, we saw inadequate telecom infrastructure as a main obstacle. But the speed at which the country is catching up in this regard has surprised us. In the last six months, a third generation wireless system, which covers 85 percent of the country, was rolled out. To provide 100-percent coverage within Ethiopia as well as globally, we partnered with a Canadian satellite company to get a backup for our operations where the network of the terrestrial general packet radio service (GPRS), a mobile data service, is unavailable.

Initially, after a series of presentations, only few potential clients expressed any interest. But since we opened the office in Addis Ababa and started a pilot project with up to 30 vehicles the interest has grown significantly. My sister Elizabeth Dagne, who is my Ethiopian partner and has experience in the transportation sector, helped recruit potential clients too.

We also see potential markets in the tourism, rental car, and the oil and mineral exploration sectors. For example, a personal tracker service can help rental car companies establish the location of the victims of car crashes and alert emergency services. We are launching the promotion of the personal tracker in late March with free trials.

As a result of our win in the African Diaspora Marketplace competition, we have received inquiries from other contestants about possible partnerships in the countries they start their ventures. Given that our system was developed to work globally, the potential of such ventures is huge. Our plan is to use grant money to finance the launch of new services and buy additional equipment.

Goat Ranch in Ghana Aims to Start an Industry

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[guest name="Henry Adobor" biography="Henry Adobor teaches corporate strategy, ethics and leadership at the School of Business, Quinnipiac University, Hamden, Connecticut. His background is in retail and human resource management. His business interests in Ghana include a small IT center in Accra and a large-scale aquaculture project. He lives in Cheshire, Connecticut."]

The African Diaspora Marketplace contest recently awarded $50,000 to $100,000 to 14 immigrants to the United States from African countries to help them start or expand businesses in Africa. Some of them share how they plan to use the money on the New Enterprise blog.

Henry Adobor

Henry Adobor

You may not believe it, but goat farming is my passion. It connects me to my childhood during which my mother kept a few goats (as do most people throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.)

What I am trying to do with Aceritas Ghana Ltd. – the company I have started – is turning the passion into a commercial enterprise. The company will own and manage Green Acres Goat Ranch. Beginning with 100 goats, this commercial goat farm will use improved breed stock imported from South Africa and modern husbandry methods to produce the animals for meat and breeding. This will be a huge improvement over traditional small-scale livestock farming, which is inefficient and unsustainable in the long run.

But my goal is far from pushing small farmers out of competition. With a small laboratory and education center, the ranch also will work as a platform for sharing knowledge with local farmers to help them upgrade breeding and farming methods and grow. Aceritas is forming an alliance with a local university to promote research on goats, particularly on the new breed. My hope is that this project becomes the nucleus of an emerging industry. I plan to entice others to form a Commercial Goat Breeders Association to lay industry’s foundation.

The Accra Plains where goats soon will roam.

The Accra Plains where goats will roam soon.

My partner in Ghana -Stephen Adrah who owns several companies and farms – will manage Aceritas operations.

Because the market for goat meat is huge in Ghana, the initial focus is on selling the animals to large buyers, brokers and individuals directly from the ranch. Breed stock will be sold to farmers. Thinking ahead, Aceritas also will prepare for farming milk goats and selling goat milk in the future.

The ADM grant has come handy. It will help to defray the cost of importing the breed stock (that is substantial because the animals will be air-freighted, no first class please!) and building housing for goats.

In Ethiopia Efficient Orchards to Grow on Superior Plant Tissue

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[guest name="Michael Asamere" biography="Michael Asamere, who has lived in the United States for more than 20 years, has a background in information technology. He resides in Seattle where he works for Fidelity National Information Services."]

The African Diaspora Marketplace contest recently awarded $50,000 to $100,000 to 14 immigrants to the United States from African countries to help them start or expand businesses in Africa. Some of them share how they plan to use the money on the New Enterprise blog.

Hunger and malnutrition are not foreign to Ethiopians. I see improvements in local farming as the best way to address these problems. My father-in-law – an Ethiopian American who teaches agriculture at Fort Valley State University in Georgia – suggested that one could contribute to these improvements in a major way by propagating quality tissue cultures selected from local edible plant stock, particularly fruit stock. With that goal in our minds, the company we jointly started – TAF Plc. – will build and operate a commercial-scale plant in Addis Ababa, which will grow and multiply select plant cells, tissues and organs in a laboratory-type environment for sale to farmers. (Later, we plan to open satellite offices in Oromia, Amhara and other regions.) A lab building already has been constructed and a small greenhouse will be ready soon. The $100,000 grant will be used to buy laboratory equipment.

So far farmers have had to rely on the government to provide them with seeds and other planting materials. But those supplies are insufficient, costly and often not of the best quality. As a result, some large farmers idle chunks of their farm lands. With foreign investors buying or leasing land for large-scale farming, demand for quality planting materials will grow tremendously.

When the company was launched three years ago, it had to gain trust of the farmers as it had no name recognition to rely on. Through the word of mouth – with support of a network of relatives and family friends – TAF has established an initial customer base. Now potential customers come to our local partner – well-connected businessman Tsega Asamere – asking him when we will open.

Our main goal is to help farmers increase crop, produce technological spill-over effect in the agriculture sector and make profits in the process. The venture also will create close to 100 jobs. In the future, TAF also wants to make a concrete contribution to sustainable economic development by producing materials for reforestation of deforested areas.

We are excited about this venture and the prospect of helping the agricultural sector in Ethiopia that represents a significant portion of the economy.

Grand Aspirations for MicroClinics in Ghana

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[guest name="Kojo B. Taylor" biography="Kojo B. Taylor is an entrepreneur who expanded a franchised information technology company into a 13-unit chain in 12 cities across the country. He later sold the company to a division of IDG, the publisher of “Books for Dummies” series. He lives in Minnesota. "]

The African Diaspora Marketplace contest recently awarded $50,000 to $100,000 to 14 immigrants to the United States from African countries to help them start or expand businesses in Africa. Some of them share how they plan to use the money on the New Enterprise blog.

Kojo B. Taylor

Kojo B. Taylor

As my background is in franchising, I thought of leveraging my related knowledge to improve the public health system in Ghana. In the country the greatest need for basic health care services is in urban fringes and rural areas where such services are either scarce or unaffordable. Yet, there are nurses and medical assistants who potentially could provide accessible care in those areas. Three years ago, I started a company – MicroClinic International – that creates conditions for nurses to own and operate their own clinics. We assembled a team with the aim to create a network of community micro-clinics and recruit medical personnel to run them as franchisees.

A model micro-clinic is almost ready.

A model micro-clinic is almost ready.

The clinics are 1,100-square-feet buildings with small labs and living quarters for franchisees. We provide business training, oversight, accounting services, a management information system and manage the brand. We also provide quality control and sources for supplies including the drugs that meet intellectual property protection criteria.

But what might be most important for many is our help in getting loans for franchisees from venture funds and other sources in the United States and other capital markets. A nurse earning on average $100-$200 a month can hardly afford building a $25,000 facility. Our projections show that a successful franchisee will start making profits in less than two years, thus gaining ability to repay the loan.

With two prototype clinics already opened, and two others under construction, our goal is to expand the chain to 150 clinics in seven years.

The grant money we just won will help us fund a demonstration project and develop a billing system for third party payment.

We are aware that even relatively cheap medical services can be beyond the reach of those who live on $1 a day. That’s why from the beginning, our strategy was to have in place a third-party-payment arrangement with the national health insurance plan. A partnership we have formed with that plan will not only allow the poorest of the poor to gain access to essential health services, but also may change the way health care is delivered in Ghana. We hope it will create more opportunities for entrepreneurial private-sector providers. Private-public partnerships for healthcare in developing countries are an imperative in my view.

Better Palm Oil to Improve Diet in Sierra Leone

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[guest name="Joe-Lahai Sormana" biography="Joe-Lahai Sormana worked for two multinational chemical companies as a senior engineer and scientist. He has a doctoral degree in chemical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. He lives in Pennsylvania."]

The African Diaspora Marketplace contest recently awarded $50,000 to $100,000 to 14 immigrants to the United States from African countries to help them start or expand businesses in Africa. Some of them share how they plan to use the money on the New Enterprise blog.

Joe-Lahai Sormana

Joe-Lahai Sormana

In Sierra Leone, crude palm oil is an essential ingredient in traditional dishes. Between 30,000 and 40,000 metric tons of palm oil per year is consumed in the country. Over 95 percent is derived from palm fruit through traditional methods that are labor intensive and inefficient.

That wasn’t always the case. But during the civil war, all palm-oil processing mills were either destroyed or became inoperable and, to the best of our knowledge, none of them have been re-established or re-started.

I have established a company called Palm Fruit Processing Company Limited with the primary goal of producing palm oil in a modern mill. My local partner, Aloysius A. Beah, is negotiating contracts with palm plantations to provide us with a steady supply of palm fruit. In the future, we plan to develop our own plantation.

Palm Fruit Processing company’s logo

Palm Fruit Processing company’s logo

Our oil will carry health benefits as it is cleaner and has a lower level of saturated fat. But the company will be selling it at a discount relative to local prices. We will be able to afford it because of greater efficiency of our processing mill, which will allow us to produce significantly more palm oil from the same quantity of palm fruit than traditional producers will ever do. Our company’s pricing strategy and product quality will give us a competitive advantage from the start.

The company will create jobs, thereby contributing to the economic development of the country and to improvements in the standard of living in the local community.

A win in the competition validates our business model and value-proposition. Grant funding will be used to purchase equipment and develop the necessary infrastructure to house it. We already have selected sites, bought land and obtained the design of the mill.

Generous Spirit Drives African Diaspora to Invest in Home Countries

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Guest-blogger and economics writer for America.gov Andrzej Zwaniecki talks about U.S entrepreneurs targeting business in Africa.

If you need proof that countries in Africa can experience economic renewal don’t look further than these blogs by finalists of the African Diaspora Marketplace business plan competition and their recent Web chat (http://www.savorchat.com/chat/african-marketplace). These entrepreneurs are competing for seed money to start businesses in their home countries. The joint ventures between U.S. entrepreneurs of African origin and their partners in Africa range from a virtual marketplace for small farmers to business development services for small businesses to clean, on-site power generation for larger companies. Winners will be announced January 13.

The entrepreneurs target markets in Africa because they know them best and because that’s where great opportunities are. They face serious challenges in sub-Saharan countries such as poor transportation and electrical infrastructure. Yet they are willing to take a higher-than-average risk driven by a desire to contribute to the development of their home countries. Many are accomplished individuals – some run their own firms, others have successful professional careers. They could have rested on their laurels. But an entrepreneurial individual can hardly resist a temptation to seize an opportunity when he or she sees it.

As small businesspeople without big money, they sometimes must persuade officials and potential customers in target markets they can leverage their skills and experience to a great effect.

Many African nations have come to appreciate the asset their diasporas represent and are soliciting their opinions on a range of issues from business regulation to investment policies. Although the diasporas by themselves won’t do economic miracles in Africa they definitely can help prepare the ground for accelerated development by spreading the culture of private initiative and innovation.

Fish Farm in Nigeria Expands into Feed Production

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[guest name="Francis V. Ero and Ingrid Ardjosoediro" biography="Entrepreneur Francis V. Ero is a business manager for the county of Kern in California and lives in Bakersfield. Ingrid Ardjosoediro is an agricultural economist, who works as a development specialist at Development Alternatives Inc., a consulting firm focused on development."]

America.gov asked finalists from among the more than 700 African immigrants who submitted business plans to the “African Diaspora Marketplace” to blog about their ideas. Sponsored by USAID and Western Union Company, the African Diaspora Marketplace is a contest that will award seed money to approximately 15 winners to help them bring their ideas to life in their home countries.

FRANCIS V. ERO, entrepreneur:

Francis V. Ero

Francis V. Ero

AFAS Inc. operates a 17-pond fish farm in Badagry, Nigeria, which can produce up to 375,000 kg of catfish, tilapia and other fish types, depending on demand. It takes approximately six months for juvenile fish to reach market size, about 1.0 -1.5 kg. The market for catfish and tilapia is expanding, and AFAS has an established customer base in that market niche.

Our research shows that demand will continue to outpace supply for many years to come; the long-term outlook for this industry is phenomenal.

But supply is short for clear business reasons. High costs and meager supply of quality fish feed, along with a lack of private-sector funding and a lack of government support for fish-farming, have hindered the growth of the domestic aquaculture industry.

As AFAS plans to expand production to meet demand, it must overcome the limited supply and high costs of fish feed. Fish farming is capital intensive, and feed costs represent about 70 percent of production costs. That is why our company is seeking funding from a local bank to manufacture feed at the Badagry farm. This effort will directly support more ambitious fish-production goals.

Electricity supply in Nigeria is unreliable, and our fishery is fully dependent on diesel-fueled generators to power pumps and provide electricity for the farm. Any suggestions from experts how to deal with this challenge?

INGRID ARDJOSOEDIRO, business expert:

AFAS fish farm in Badagry, Nigeria.

AFAS fish farm in Badagry, Nigeria.

To answer the last question first, unfortunately, considering the lack of appropriate energy-infrastructure in most regions in Nigeria, there is no other immediate alternative to diesel-fueled generators to power machines.

The desire to expand to produce fish-feed at the AFAS Inc. facility is an important one, as the lack of local fish feed is the most common and crucial barrier to growth in aquaculture production in Africa.

It is not clear, however, how big the yearly fish production is by AFAS Inc. and what type of feed ingredients will be used. The type of fish-feed production will dictate the amount of investment needed.

Are we talking about extruded/expanded floating pellets (heat extrusion pellet feeders are more costly) or just pressed pelleted feed for ponds? Although floating feed is not a requirement for good fish production, feed ingredients that are finely ground and properly cooked will make for better fish conversion ratios.

One cautionary note: Please be wary of apparently cheap Chinese pelleting/extruding equipment. Experience shows that much of this will not produce satisfactory pellets at all. Here is a great Web site for equipment suppliers and a free on-line journal: www.aquafeed.com.