TIMNATH Health is Kampala’s foremost facility for people seeking to improve their health and fitness. TIMNATH leverages diverse expertise in medicine, nutrition, research, design and technology to offer comprehensive health and fitness solutions to both individuals and corporates. It’s system, the TIMNATH Health Improvement System (THIS), employs a 6-stage cyclic process, i.e. Information gathering; Analysis; Design; Feedback; Implementation; and Evaluation and Monitoring. This helps the company tailor solutions to fit each client’s unique needs.

How long have you been running your business

Over 36 months.

What led him to be an entrepreneur

A doctor by profession, I spent the first seven years of my career developing my medical, research and leadership skills with several leading national health institutions, most notably the Aga Khan University Hospital Kampala. While there, I completed several professional trainings; organized several health promotion campaigns; and developed innovations that greatly contributed to expanding these institutions, earning me a series of promotions.

Despite these achievements, I encountered several people who suffered needlessly — and even died — as a result of Non -Communicable Diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, cancer and high blood pressure which are largely preventable. I noticed that many of the interventions from government and other stakeholders were mostly piecemeal and reactive. I felt a need for an integrated approach with a focus on prevention and health promotion. I’ve always loved leading teams, learning new things and solving customer problems.

Jobs

Before the intervention: He had two workers. After the intervention: He now has five workers.

Revenue

Before the intervention: He was making $2000 per annum. After the intervention: He now generates $10000 per annum.

Milestone achieved after the intervention

After selection to the programme, he has now been able to get the company premises fully operational with all the requisite equipment and have 3 added staff on payroll.

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Moses Blessed Mutabaganya, founder of Glory to Glory Food Industries a registered company operating in Kampala Uganda, is producing a wide range of nutritional foods to combat the high rate of malnutrition in the country.

The company produces foods that will contribute to the fight against malnutrition. Our products are highly nutritious, appetizing, medicinal, delicious and made out of the following soy, millet, maize, corn, avocado seed, rice, jack fruit seeds, plus many other spices and additives and they include the following soy sauce, soy rice, high protein, protein boaster, pure soy, corn flour, cassava flour and they are good for food and beverages.

How long have you been running your business

Over 36 months.

What led him to be an entrepreneur

He was compelled to start this business in order to solve the high rate of malnutrition problem of which 2-2 million (29%) Ugandan children are affected. Today, he is the founder and the CEO, also an author and pastor holding a diploma in business administration.

Jobs

Before the intervention: He had five workers. After the intervention: He now has ten workers. Revenue:

Before the intervention: He was making 120 millions Ugandan shilling per annum

After the intervention: He now generates an average of 150 million Ugandan shilling per annum

Milestone achieved after the intervention

He has trade marked the business name, sales have increased because he invested more money and the scale of his operations have increased as he now has customers in Canada and Dubai.

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Orca-Pod Holdings Limited fabricate machinery that are used in manufacturing quality construction materials that are very affordable to the local middle-class Ugandan to aid in improving the quality of their housing. Their products are so affordable to the local person since they are locally produced right from machinery since they are tax free. They produce products such as Clay Bricks, Maxpans, Pompe, Clay Ventilators, Partition blocks and facing bricks.

How long have you been running your business

Over 36 months

What led him to be an entrepreneur

He grew up in a rural village in Uganda and like all villages in Africa, he met the worst of life as a child. He became self- sponsored at a tender age (12) and had to take himself through school all through.

He had to device all means of getting money to support himself and his siblings. So, out of dire need, he formed a youth investment club where they offered time and labour to make hand -made clay bricks to sell. Over time the business generated revenue and they were able to afford school.

After his university, he did not bother to look for jobs but used his skills as a mechanical engineer to start his small scale fabrication of equipment that would make their bricks production quicker and of a higher quality since now they have gotten the exposure to what quality differences exist out there. So, they progressed with improving their products day by day and introduced new product categories along the way.

Jobs

Before the intervention: He had twenty workers.

After the intervention: He now has 45 workers.

Revenue

Before the intervention: He was making 145,000,000 Ugandan shillings per annum

After the intervention: He now generates 201,000,000 Ugandan shillings per annum

Milestone achieved after the intervention

They were able to construct a baking kiln at our factory which is eco- friendly, more fuel efficient, effective and produces a better result than our old manual ways. With this, we have added another district of supply to our profile since the quantity we can produce is much higher.

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Worried that her gender would affect Hasanat Ventures’ reputation, Binti considered hiring a man as the face of the business. But she eventually decided against it, standing firm in her pride as a solo founder and committed to tearing down the perception that women-run businesses in Africa aren’t as successful as those run by men.

“I think we should be challenging the outdated narrative that businesses run by men are guaranteed to be more successful,” Binti says. “Based on research, we’ve seen that businesses run by women actually perform better. We should use this as an opportunity to prove that as a woman, you do stand a chance to succeed in everything that you do.”

Just as important to Binti as breaking this bias was giving Kenyans more access to affordable nutrition. “I realized that many people couldn’t afford premium yogurt. So we entered the market with a high-quality product that’s affordable for lower and middle-income earners who have become more health-conscious,” she says.

Binti knew she had to drive awareness for her brand, particularly to reach Kenyans who needed convincing about yogurt’s health benefits. So she turned to Google Digital Skills for Africa, which offers virtual classes to help entrepreneurs grow their skills and businesses, and completed a digital marketing course to help her get Hasanat Ventures online.

“After participating in the course, we knew our online presence had to be bigger than just social media,” Binti says. “Now that we have a fully functional website, we are actually getting leads from outside Kenya.”

As part of the course, Binti learned how to use Google Analytics to measure her website’s performance. She could now monitor traffic insights, analyze pageviews and better understand who was visiting her site.

Binti’s determination and passion for her business are showing up in the results. In its first year, Hasanat Ventures supplied over 300 retailers with affordable dairy products. Three years later, it’s grown to support more than 50 farmers and even built its own production facility to keep up with demand.

“I really want to make sure that I am visible and speaking up in spaces women don’t usually have access to,” Binti says. “As Hasanat Ventures continues to grow, I am confident I can help change the perception of African women in business.”

58% of Africa’s entrepreneurs are women. That’s why we’re empowering them with the platform and tools to grow their businesses. Learn more about our #LookMeUp campaign, highlighting Africa’s women entrepreneurs like Binti who are working to break the bias

The post Meet the Entrepreneur Connecting Kenyans to Healthy food appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

BanaPads is an award-winning social enterprise registered in Uganda and Tanzania with the aim of manufacturing affordable and eco-friendly (100% biodegradable) sanitary pads. The pads are also collected to be used as manure and this means that the waste that goes to the local landfill will be reduced since the banana pseudo-stem is a recyclable product.

In Uganda, Richard’s home country, the stigma and negative stereotypes around menstruation also means a direct impact on the education of girls in that region. 20% of girls aged 13-18 miss at least one day of school during their period, and girls who were menstruating missed school on 28% of ‘period’ days compared to 7% on non-period days. This aggregated to absence from school of around 11% of teaching days.

For Richard, the solution to this was in two folds – tackle the difficulties Ugandan women face in menstruation management, thus helping to keep girls in school and create jobs for women in poor rural areas. He created a unique business model to help him achieve these two goals seamlessly.

Some women in Uganda not only consider conversations about menstruation as ‘awkward’ they also struggle to afford adequate sanitary materials. To mitigate this, Richard created a network of female sales agents, called Bana Champions. They are trained to not only sell the sanitary pads directly to women at home but also spread awareness of menstrual hygiene, receiving a commission on sales in return.

Richard began selling BanaPads in a small Ugandan village in 2010 and has since expanded his customer base to 25,000 customers by the end of 2018 and distributes at least 5 million pads annually.

Thank to Richard and the remarkable work he continues to do with BanaPads, more women can access affordable sanitary products and earn a living by spreading the message of proper menstruation management with their fellow women.

The post BanaPads Is Making Menstruation Management Affordable And Convenient For Women appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

What had initially started as an experiment with treating nearby lake water with an ultraviolet water purifier at the age of nineteen, has since grown to become a company that delivers cans of clean water by bicycle to hundreds of families in her community with a rapidly growing customer base.

Her business was borne when Yvette came face-to-face with the challenge of accessing clean water for home use when her family had just relocated from Kigali to Kayonza District.

Following her recognition as a Tony Elumelu Entrepreneur, she was bestowed with a Young Leaders Award in 2017 for her commendable efforts in providing innovative solutions for household water shortage in Rwanda.

Very recently, Yvette was announced as one of ten entrepreneurs – half of whom are female –selected from over 12,000 applicants across all 54 African nations and passed multiple stages of judging and evaluation.

In her home country Rwanda, only 57% of the entire population have access to safe drinking water within 30 minutes of their location. Her organization Iriba Water Group, offers water treatment systems to institutions and individuals to help them access safe drinking water.

The post Yvette Ishimwe, TEF Alumna Recognised as Innovative African Business Leader appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

I started up Teebah Film Village in July 2017 and since that time, I have been struggling mainly with how to increase sales, and how to improve our product.

At some point, I came to learn about the Tony Elumelu Foundation and spent around 5 weeks composing my application form because I was not happy with the results I was getting. I needed to win because by the time I was applying the business was making a loss and almost closing at 7 months.

Luckily, by 22^nd March 2018, the list went out and I was selected. I could not believe that I was selected in a thousand among 151,000 Africans.

Here is my journey with TEF in 5 stages:

Stage 1: Application form

By answering all the questions from the application forms, I understood my business better. I understood my market potential, I composed my Elevator Pitch. I got to perfect my problem solving; in general, the main reward for me was to understand my business through the application process.

Stage 2: The Selection

After being selected, I got the chance to talk about my business through the media.

Tony Elumelu Foundation has connected me to new and competent networks of entrepreneurs and decision makers. TEF has displayed my creative capacity and today my customers have a strong confidence in our company, Teebah Film Village, whose mission is to drive impact through local stories.

Stage 3: Training

TEF has a great curriculum that we consider to be an MBA and going through it has strengthened my entrepreneurial journey forever. TEF Training is a life-changing game. By doing surveys, I got the answers to many problems that I had no clue about; I overcame the challenges I was facing such as pricing and social media marketing.

At the end of the training program, I made a business plan with an action plan of 10 years

In my business Plan, I also composed the milestones which are a table that contains activities and budget for 2 years divided into 8 quarters

Stage 4: Seed Capital

By the end of November 2018, I received $5000 in my bank account. This helped me to rent a better office, buy film equipment and invest in promotional tools.

Stage5: Networking

Being part of the TEF network is the best platform for any entrepreneur. We do businesses together from different countries and advise one another through online conferences.

The Future of Teebah Film Village

Teebah Film Village envisions becoming Africa’s leading Multimedia enterprise which portrays local stories to drive impact and change the lives of the community. With a strong partner ecosystem which we created; we also currently employ 13 people.  

If we are making progress and impact in Rwanda, it is because I am a Tony Elumelu Entrepreneur. Currently, we are producing a web series called UBWUNGO, a peace and love Drama Series that you can watch on YouTube.

I highly thank Tony Elumelu Foundation for this amazing opportunity, I also encourage every entrepreneur and whoever wants to connect with business minds to log in at www.tefconnect.net

The post Emmanuel Nturanyenabo’s TEF Testimonial appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

Musanga Logistics’ connects users who want to send packages – such as restaurants, small retailers and individuals – through independent couriers.

Now, he says, the platform has 1500 drivers, transportation for Unilever, Colgate, a lot of FMCG brands, specifically in Zambia.

“The platform was the key differentiator in our business,” Njavwa says in an interview with the Tony Elumelu Foundation. “It was very tech-enabled and that was the key thing that customers wanted and so that’s what we built.”

Afterwards, we had people looking to buy the software we had built, and considering several factors, the company pivoted to a low-cost model where instead of doing the transport and the transaction, we provide software to transport companies that want to manage their fleets.

Njavwa says he is heavily inspired by his mother, who, in addition to being a nurse, became an entrepreneur with a restaurant in Lusaka’s central business district.

“My mother was the first entrepreneur I knew. I saw her sacrifice leisure and comfort to manage both her business and her job.”

With his wealth of experience, Njavwa is now building Kibanda Top-up, a start-up focused on the informal restaurant business many African countries are familiar with.

Called buka or mama-put in Nigeria and vibanda in Kenya, half of Africa’s population eat from small and medium restaurants that are largely informal, feeding millions of people every day.

Taking the lessons from his previous business, Njavwa’s focus is now on the food distribution company which was launched just two months ago.

“These restaurant owners are not unlike my mother. They have dreams and aspirations for themselves and their families; they are working hard to ensure the next generation of Africans have the tools required to achieve the African dream.”

Kibanda Top-up is helping restaurant access the goods that they need daily by handling the distribution and sourcing of those products.

Conquering Logistics in Africa

“Logistics remains a key constraint to growth for businesses in Africa,” Njavwa says, “but it is even harder when you are moving small products, because large companies don’t want to invest in the kind of vehicles that these small businesses need, and to scale you need to serve thousands of them.”

Njavwa says his company is reducing the cost of delivery significantly, having partnered with a company that provides electric tricycles or tuk-tuks as they are popularly known in Kenya, for this purpose.

“If you are trying to solve food problems in Africa, you must think about questions like: how does a farmer get food from the farms to a restaurant in the main city, and how does he/she get there affordably?

“So, we are working with the electric vehicles here in Kenya which is one of the first utilising zero petrol. We have already seen a 25% reduction in the cost of delivery.”

Kibanda top-up also has a sales automation tool to enable sales agents track and follow up with and manage last-mile customers.

“The main problem we are trying to solve is transport and logistics. We do this by building the tools that help us sell and distribute products more efficiently,” Njavwa says.

Innovating Amidst Food Insecurity

With Covid-19 restrictions, locked borders, and disruptions to supply chains, came the inflation of prices of items including food.

Njavwa’s company is stepping up to the challenge: “This is really the reason why we exist,” he says.

“The reason why the cost of food continues to go up is that there are so many variables when delivering food that fluctuate so much such as the price of fuel which will always impact the cost of transportation”.

“When I got into the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, I was 21. Now I have taken a business from 0 to 30 employees. The programme is an investment in the entrepreneur because the entrepreneur will evolve and the initial results on the business may not be forthcoming.

“With funding from the Foundation, we were able to prove our model, and raise a significant amount of money afterwards. The seed capital from the Tony Elumelu Foundation was the first money I ever received as an entrepreneur.”

The Need for Like-minded Communities in Business

Last month, a decision was made by social media giant, Twitter, to launch an office in Ghana. As this would be the digital media giant’s only presence in Africa. it inspired discussions about the challenges or considerations companies compare when deciding to operate in a new location in Africa.

For Njavwa, who is originally from Zambia but set up in Kenya, the story is similar.

“You can make something happen in any city in the world, but the probability of success is usually around clusters. Depending on what kind of business you are in, it is important to be in a community or environment that supports it.”

“The main reason why my first company failed to raise money is that at the time, Zambia was not a hot investment destination, and investors just weren’t thinking about investing in Zambia.

“You want to be where people are very like-minded. For example, Nigeria is very entrepreneurial and has a lot of start-ups doing something similar to what we are doing, however, the factors are different for a foreigner who is trying to raise capital, and this influenced my decision to set up in Kenya.”

“Kenya has a lot of access to capital. If I was in another city, we wouldn’t have been able to raise the money that we raised in the space that we raised in the time that we did, but ultimately, we will have to launch in Nigeria.”

The Future of Kibanda Top-up.

Njavwa remains committed to impacting restaurants beyond Kenya.

“We are increasing restaurants’ contributions to Africa’s GDP by helping reduce cost with the supply chain. We are doubling down on our efforts in Kenya and our next location is Lagos – the reason being that we have to be where the majority of restaurants are, and Nigeria has a large number of these informal restaurants.”

Every morning, Kibanda Top-up delivers goods directly to the restaurants using completely electric tuk-tuks which are assembled in Nairobi by ARC Ride, Kibanda Top-up’s partner.

“$5000 was the world to me, now we are closing millions of dollars,” Njavwa says about the impact of the Tony Elumelu Foundation on his entrepreneurial journey. “If that had not happened, we probably would not have been here today. So, luck was democratised in this instance.”

The post Bukas to Vibandas: Connecting Africa’s Informal Restaurant Industry appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

Originally from Rwanda, born in Tanzania and spending her formative years in Nigeria, Gloria’s diverse background is only a part of her story. She quit her job and moved to Rwanda to start her film production company with her friend who later became her business partner.

“My partner was more on the creative side, very talented and skilled in the writing of movies, and I was more on the project management spectrum. It was my first time in entrepreneurship, and I was quite naïve,” she says in an interview with TEF.

Partnerships increase your spectrum of knowledge, expertise, and available resources in order to make better products and reach a greater audience.

Unfortunately for Gloria and her partner, the business came to an end after a fall out: “It was messy and I just walked away,” she said. “I’m learning to never regret the past, because the experience of the past shapes who you are right now.”

The summary of it all, Gloria says, “you must be prepared to step out of your comfort zone and put in 110%. In entrepreneurship, you have to believe in yourself because there will be times when you literally have no money.”

Asides from the partnerships, Gloria highlights another important aspect new entrepreneurs need to consider: “In your team, you have to have somebody who’s good at asking for money.”

For Gloria, the entrepreneurship journey continues. “Despite the hardships, seeing the products you make, and the results it has on people, is our greatest reward. We see the reward in the work we do, and the opportunities to work with influential people to make the world a better place.”

On the lessons learnt when considering Partnership:

• You have to find your communication style:

Sometimes, business can make or break relationships. If you enter into business with a friend or family member, you have to find a way to effectively communicate because you are dealing with money, and relationships get strained when money starts running out.

• Be Knowledgeable, or Find Someone Who Is:
  Having just begun a business without any expertise, I do not know how I would have survived that long on my own. My partner was savvy and more accustomed to making deals.

• Money Management is very important:
  I would advise entrepreneurs to have a job while in the initial stages of their business, because the business sucks up the money. Depending on the business, it can take 6 months to a year before fully branching out.

On things to consider when looking for a partner:

• One thing I would look out for if I had to choose a partner today is the skillset they bring in. They must complement the areas I lack in.

• Have an agreement. Money has a way of bringing out the worst in people. You must have a contract, and a central businessbanking account for the money, not your personal account. If something happens, you must decide what happens in the business and have that written out clearly.

• You must have the uncomfortable discussions in the beginning. Not having the uncomfortable discussions can lead to negative implications in the end.

• Layout everything, do not rush into it. In the beginning, it is easy to get carried away with the rush of starting something new. Look through everything again and always have a plan.
  
• Circumstances happen: no matter how much you prepare or plan, sometimes unpleasant things happen, and you should be prepared to deal with the outcome.

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Carol Moonga’s goal is to supply clean, fresh, healthy and affordable products to consumers while putting Zambia on the map to be a breadbasket of Africa and the world at large.       

Founder of Kacachi General Dealers, Carol, was raised by her mom and grandmother who solely depended on the farm produce to feed and educate the family.

Her agricultural background and inspiration from family, led the 27-year-old to start chicken farming after which she ventured into fish farming.

However, Carol also doubles as medical assistant. She tells the Tony Elumelu Foundation more about venturing into fish farming and solving the problem of food security in Zambia:

“We started the aquaculture business after noticing the problem of fish scarcity and skyrocketing prices of fish in the market and applying for the TEF entrepreneurship programme in 2019.

A study in the Egyptian Journal of Aquatic Research revealed that obtaining quality fish feed is a challenge for producers,with some reporting that feed was their largest production expenditure per annum. Although the business is currently in its early stages, Carol says she is looking to one day produce home grown feed that will be beneficial to fish farmers in Zambia.

Between entrepreneurship and a job

Many entrepreneurs are familiar with the feeling of running a business while maintaining a job in order to accommodate the uncertainties of the business, and Carol is not an exemption.

In her plan, she will need to buy more land to meet her target before taking the leap.

However, before taking that leap, here’s some advice she recommends to entrepreneurs thinking about starting in the industry:

Entrepreneurs should do their due diligence

Do not go in blind; Understand the business terrain in order to plan for pitfalls.

Entrepreneurs should focus on being problem solvers

“One thing I learnt from the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme is the focus on solving a problem,” Carol says. When you solve a problem, people come to you for the solution.

Entrepreneurs should be sure that they have the market

Look for the market in time before product or business is ready. Doing your research and making sure you have a ready market for your business is one of the most important factors of starting out. It also helps to avoid wasting time on a product or service that no one needs or can’t afford to pay for.

For the aquaculture industry to fully realise in Zambia, Carol believes more players are needed in the aquaculture space to ensure the long-term stability of the sector and alleviate pressure on Zambia’s natural fisheries.

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