Many a wondrous events abounded this week for Proud to be African Clothing, however the key
ones for me were AFFORDs Africa Gives events.
Starting off with the launch on
Wednesday the 4th at Chatham House, St James Square, it was followed
by a full day of talks, workshops and seminars. Key note speaker on Saturday
was the Right Honourable Chuka Umunna MP, Shadow Secretary for Business,
Innovation and Skills, however he was preceded by 2 other speakers Ama Afrifa-Kyei and Herman Chinery-Hesse, both of whom were Ghanaian, both of whom have lived
in different parts of Africa (Ama in Kenya, Herman in Sierra Leone) and both of whom gave fascinating talks,
Ama who works in Employee Engagement and Diversity at Deloitte, but also has a background in CSR, spoke from the perspective of an ‘imported Ghanaian’, warming us up for what in terms of
content should have been the Keynote speech by Herman CEO of SOFTribe and
Blackstarline, Ghanaian software companies on the perspective of a returned
entrepreneur. Without doubt a fascinating, funny, honest and totally unscripted
account of his adventures and pitfalls of which I can barely do justice here,
hopefully the full presentation will be uploaded.
He moved back to Ghana 15 years ago with £200, having given
up his job on as an IT lecturer in a college in Oxford Street, once back in
Ghana he got in a drunken argument with his friend betting him he could get a
job in 2 days, once sober he was presented with the obvious dilemma of how to
make this work, at which point he took to trying to sell his a piece of
software he developed for Travel Agencies. Having got a meeting with the big
man he managed to sell it, and working out of his bedroom in his parents’ house
he slowly began to build his business.
From negotiating with angry mine workers who wished to lynch
him as his software had caused an accounting error in the Mining Companies
payroll to be corrected, to having to reassure worried company bosses that he
would not infect their computers with ‘bacteria’.
His company finally grew until it is now the number one
software company in Ghana, with his best selling product a subscription
physical security package whereby you sign up, your house is identified and if
you are in danger, you send a blank text message to the company which the
automatically alerts a private security company, your neighbours, the local
radio and (eventually) the police. To my mind a brilliant example of
identifying a problem (poor security and poor law enforcement), identifying the
tools for a solution (an abundance of mobile phones in every house), a way to
make it happen, (SMS, GPS, radio) and a way to monetise it (one off fee and
subscription). Really brilliant stuff.
Having obviously
proved his point that it is possible to succeed in Africa he observed that one
thing he had noticed was that Africa failed to trade with itself, to correct
this anomaly he has developed an online platform shopafrica53.com. An online
platform in which African micro businesses can sell their goods directly to
consumers, a fascinating task which involved merging the platform, with a
delivery mechanism, an international payment platform, SMS, the suppliers and
the buyers.
Allin all inspiring stuff, methinks Mr Chinery-Hesse is one
to watch.
The keynote speech was delivered by the Shadow Secretary
for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS), the Right Honourable Chuka Umunna, a
son of Nigeria and a person to definitely watch in UK politics. He started by
recognising AFFORD and its efforts (a sentiment heartily shared by the audience)
and then mentioning how he viewed the issue from 3 positions from that of
someone of African heritage, as Shadow Secretary for BIS and as the
representative of an extremely diverse constituency.
He spoke about his late father who followed the well worn
path of landing in the UK and working in menial jobs whilst studying and once
he started his business remitted huge sums of money. He mentioned a study done
by Harriet Harman which showed the average annual wage was £12,000. This and
other factors had led the Labour Party to initiate a policy review on
remittances to which he encouraged AFFORD and other interested parties to put
in a submission.
There was a brief Q&A followed by a break and then the
workshops, these ranged from Masterclass: Pathways to Africa, Signposting, 4
simultaneous workshops, feedback and certificate awards.
AFFORD’s mission is to expand and enhance the contribution
Africans in the diaspora make to African development and I think this event
clearly ticks all those boxes
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