The number of undernourished people in sub-Saharan Africa rose from 181 million in 2010 to almost 222 million in 2016. Among children, although the prevalence of stunting decreased from 38.3% in 2000 to 30.3% in 2017, the numbers affected increased from 50.6 million to 58.7 million due to population growth.

How Lahja Started a Food Processing Business

Lahja Amakali is an inductee of the Namibia Business Hall of Fame as an emerging Agri-preneur. His business is aimed at supporting and encouraging people to get involved in agribusiness to reduce importation, poverty level, and malnutrition in Africa.

“What motivated me is to reduce importation of foods from other countries as if we do not have hands and we do not go to university to acquire knowledge like any other people. Many chronical diseases are prevailing, and it is worse when one eats what is produced and processed by another person.”

TEF Grant and Training for Food Processing Business

The training provided on the programme has been an eye opener for Lahja Amakali.

“The TEF classes we were given were my eyes opener. It pulls me closer to peers to discuss and share our challenges and success stories in our businesses. The seed capital pushed me to where I am today especially my 3 shareholders gave up and removed their cash. I could not make it if TEF was not there to rescue Niithete Agro-Business Investment cc (Nabi cc) Thumbs up to TEF. Now we have five flavours, sorghum mint, sorghum lemon, sorghum coffee substitute orange and the pure sorghum coffee substitute. And another research is on pipeline for the slimming group.”

African Success Story in Food Processing Business

The business supports 10 small scale lemon growers, 2 mint growers, 5 sorghum producers. They have 2 full time employees and 8 part time employees. Their products enter the national market through Local Product Merchant shop. They changed the attitude of not believing in blacks that they can process for national and soon International. Contract farmers who supply raw materials are expanding their areas of growing sorghum. Many farmers are starting to grow different varieties such as mint, gingers and so forth.

The business has created more opportunities for small scale growers. Training them on how to select products for marketing, empower them on backyard garden and produce biogas for cooking and manure for their small garden.

About The Tony Elumelu Foundation

The Tony Elumelu Foundation is the leading philanthropy empowering a new generation of African entrepreneurs, driving poverty eradication, catalysing job creation across all 54 African countries, and ensuring inclusive economic empowerment. Since the launch of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme in 2015, the Foundation has trained over 1.5 million young Africans on its digital hub, TEFconnect, and disbursed nearly USD$100 million in direct funding to 18,000 African women and men, who have collectively created over 400,000 direct and indirect jobs. The Foundation’s mission is rooted in Africapitalism, which positions the private sector, and most importantly entrepreneurs, as the catalyst for the social and economic development of the African continent.

The post Meet 2018 TEF Alumni, Lahja Amakali who started food processing and training services business appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

The demand for African designs, textiles, and garments is increasing within and beyond the continent. Currently, in sub-Saharan Africa, the combined apparel and footwear market is estimated at USD 31 billion. The textile industry in Africa is estimated to grow at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of ~5% over the forecast period of 2019–2024. 

Identifying this problem

Gladys is a young award-winning creative entrepreneur who is well known for her bespoke, eco-friendly, handmade Ankara notebooks and gift set. She has managed to use her love for art in an extraordinary way. In her quest to challenge the status quo, fighting against discrimination and stigma, Gladys successfully elevated the crafts industry, proving that it is a viable industry and that the craft business can be a profession. Having been raised in an entrepreneurial family, she implemented her experience and knowledge by starting her own business. She used her artistic abilities to develop a firebrand called Krafted Ink, innovative art and craft-oriented organization.

Specializing in African textile journals and gift packaging, mastered the art of combining colors in making gift packaging to ensure lasting smiles in the lives of people. The handmade products include journals, diaries, gift bags, and gift boxes using African print fabric. Gladys started her journey at the age of 21 out of her desire to uphold the African ideals of sharing presents. She has been crafting memories ever since.

Making Handmade Ankara Crafts

Gladys achieved this feat thanks to the TEF program, which helped in achieving her dreams as an entrepreneur.

“Without the Tony Elumelu Foundation Programme, there was no way, not a chance that my business idea was going to take off. The program not only helped the business plan, but it also put me through how to evaluate customer acquisitions, and the business canvas helped me to break down where I was going to get resources. Furthermore, I learned how to establish smart partnerships with Entrepreneurs across Africa because I was exposed to the network during the program.”

“We had an increased visibility that helped our users from 50 per year to more than 50,000 users now and still counting with more than 10 distributors across the 36 states.”

She recently launched an impact project titled ‘Dignity for her product’ to provide a holistic approach to drive change through product, education, and Advocacy, bundled alongside comprehensive menstrual hygiene management and sexual reproductive health programming for adolescent girls. So far, 300 girls have been trained with the hope of training 2000 by the end of 2022.

A revenue model allowing these girls to earn commissions from the sale of Virtuous Reusable Pads was established, empowering them, and making them less vulnerable. The innovation is to assign the girls’ guardians as drop shippers for reusable pads in the community. The girls then sell these pads within their community, creating economic opportunities and helping break the poverty cycle.

She pitched for another grant and won an additional $15000, $5000 from AGS tribe Enterprise Challenge, winning first place during the pitch competition (Now Herconomy E), and $10000 from the funding space 2019   through the Rising tide Africa during the pitch competition.

ABOUT THE TONY ELUMELU FOUNDATION


The Tony Elumelu Foundation is the leading philanthropy empowering a new generation of African entrepreneurs, driving poverty eradication, catalysing job creation across all 54 African countries, and ensuring inclusive economic empowerment. Since the launch of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme in 2015, the Foundation has trained over 1.5 million young Africans on its digital hub, TEFconnect, and disbursed nearly USD$100 million in direct funding to 18,000 African women and men, who have collectively created over 400,000 direct and indirect jobs. The Foundation’s mission is rooted in Africapitalism, which positions the private sector, and most importantly entrepreneurs, as the catalyst for the social and economic development of the African continent.

The post Meet 2019 TEF Alumni, Gladys Chibanda Who is into the Production of handmade Ankara crafts appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

TEF Alumi, Msindazwe Ndhlovu started, The Noble Savage (pty) Ltd. A company which recycles waste plastic to manufacture building materials which are lighter stronger durable and affordable we make roofing tiles ridges and paving blocks.

How long have you been running your business

12 months or less.

What led him to be an entrepreneur

Due to the challenges that Msindazwe Ndhlovu had faced, he continues to see opportunities. He believes that Africans face a lot of challenges and that means we have plenty of opportunities and he sort to transform Africa one piece of plastic at a time to solve housing shortage and help the most vulnerable members of society.

Jobs

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

Before the intervention: He was making 10,000 dollars per annum

After the intervention: He now generates 20,000 dollars per annum

Milestone achieved after the intervention

Have won 2 awards came out second in Zimbabwe for the most innovative green business and is currently under due diligence with a Venture capital firm called ‘Earth capital’ to raise $1 million.

He was recently selected for the Vinci energies with total to come pitch and exhibit in France.

The post Msindazwe recycles waste plastic and glass to bring affordable energy to Africa appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

Petcha – Centre for Complementary Medicine was registered as a business with PACRA, in 2014 as a business name, and with Health Professionals Council of Zambia as a Health Training Institution.

It is registered with National Science and Technology Council and National Health Research Authority as a Research and development Institution and ccredited to City University College of Science and Technology (CUST), as well as Ministry of Health at Kasama, Mansa, Mongu and Choma General Hospitals as Student Practicum sites.

The school offers a 5-year degree in Naturopathy, a 3-year Diploma in Clinical Medicine and a 1-year Certificate in Community Health, and conducts research in indigenous knowledge, Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicines, procedures and equipment.

Objectives of Petcha include; completion of registration process with Regulatory authority, recruitment of faculty and students, Purchase of furniture and equipment, rent of premises. The school has a Principal, (a) Coordinator(s),

(a) Dean(s), an Accounts Clerk, a Senior Lecturer, Lecturers, a driver and support.

How long have you been running your business:

Over 36 months.

What led him to be an entrepreneur

Unlike Nigeria that had had universities in the early 1960s and 1970s, Zambia had only one university and tuition was extremely expensive. Due to the challenges in the educational sector in Zambia at that time, Chama had to think critically about what he really wanted to do with his life but still remained actively engaged in farming activities.

Within 10 years after he left secondary school, Zambia started to experience reforms in its educational sector which saw more universities been established. He became encouraged to pursue a university education where he majored in Biology and Chemistry following that reform.

Upon graduation, he began a self – supporting Ministry/volunteering service at a community school but was still engaged in farming which by now not only use as not only a means of survival but also to sustain the community school which received little or no support from the government.

He had left the community school to teach at a Christian private school before doing cross border trade (between Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa) of human hair pieces as he had noticed that women could not get enough of this.

His passion to identify a problem and solve it had compelled him to take a loan from ENA Micro-credit Company to scale the human hair business to expand his reach across Africa.

He was invited to take up a job as the Operations and Marketing Manager at the same company that he had taken the loan for his business on account of his prudent spending and repayment of the loan which caught the attention of the Company.

His passion for teaching (first love) drove him to resign from the micro-credit company after about a year to pick up an appointment as Lecturer and Registrar at ZINARE (NGO). A major restructuring in Zambia in 2011 had seen the end of many NGOs as the Zambian government became stern on the registration process/formalization of NGOs who they thought were being funded to dis-stabilize the economy.

Undeterred that he had now garnered enough experience to leverage upon, Chama resigned and decided to start a business believing that you don’t need to have millions to jumpstart your business and this also coincided with

the period where the payment of all his benefits from the school where he had taught was paid. This was a major boost for him as he had combined this with his savings to start Petcha Centre for Complementary Medicine Studies as the Proprietor and Director.

Jobs

Before the intervention: He had only six staff. After the intervention: He now has a total of fifteen staff.

Revenue

Before the intervention: He was making about K50000 per annum. After the intervention: He now makes about K500000 per annum.

Milestone achieved after the intervention:

Opening of three campuses every year for the next three years, (3 new campuses have been initiated from the seed capital received from the Tony Elumelu Foundation earlier this year, 2019), Marketing Plan now involves Radio adverts and talk shows, Church bulletins and announcements, Posters and fliers, Public announcements using PA system, Insertions in print media, School promotions and career talks and participation in fairs and fora’s both locally and regionally to showcase the brand.

Since November 2018, when the seed capital was disbursed, they did some staff training in Lusaka before deployment to three new towns which included, Choma in the Southern Province of Zambia, Mansa in Luapula Province, and Mongu in Western Province of Zambia.

The great thing is that some of these students had finished their training and have now joined him as staff. This was to fulfil our vision of a School in every Province. The rationale was not to invest all resources in one place which would result in failure should the one campus fail, but to spread so that the underperforming campus can be sustained by the others until full performance is achieved.

Radio adverts as well as posters, fliers, church bulletins as well as word of mouth advertising was also engaged to enroll the certificate course for January 2019 in preparation for the diploma course in June 2019.

District Offices of the Ministry of Health were engaged as well as Provincial/General Hospitals for signing of Memoranda for student practicum sites in all four new Provincial Headquarters. Todate, a class of Health Assistants (Certificate course) is running in Mansa (7 students) and Choma (1 student) and enrolments are ongoing for the diploma course. Enrolments are still progressing in Mongu.

The post Meet Peter Chama who operates a Health Training Institution in Zambia appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

Growing up in Giyani, Limpopo province in South Africa where water as a basic need is not easily accessible and even when the water is accessible it would not be clean. The problem of lack of access to clean water affects many households and can potentially cause illnesses. Additionally, businesses that depend on clean water to operate are affected. It affects their human resources (employees), which affects production, and which will ultimately have a direct effect on profitability. 

Jeslu Puro water decided to come up with a solution to use green methods to purify the water. As a start-up venture, they aim to be the solution by using a Green Water purification system that uses Macadamia nut filter to purify the water and will supply and distribute water to affected parties.

“I saw a need to establish a water purification company due to lack of access of clean water in my local community and the need to create jobs for young people while making profit contributing in the circular economy”

Since launching and being selected into the TEF Entrepreneurship programme, they have employed 2 permanent staff and 2 temporary staff. They are supplying funeral parlours around the town and have also managed to make an average of $800-1500 monthly.

“The mentors that were assigned by TEF were professional and very helpful. The Financial planning tools was very impactful for me as it helped me to have better understanding of figures, projections and at the end of day achieving profitability. This aspect made me understand that financials are quite pivotal to the success of any business. The seed funding came in handy as operations kickstarted after funding.”

In the coming months, they plan to expand the business to other provinces within South Africa. They have managed to secure space with innovation hub South Africa for product development and further research and innovation.

The post Impact Story: Jeslu Puro Water Pty Ltd appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

The goal of Impulse to develop mature innovative and frugal medical technologies, within developing-world markets, into small companies, which can be licensed to large pharmaceutical companies for developed-world market scaling.

The focus of Impulse’s innovation is on two primary technologies in the fields of paediatric asthma and allergy by adopting the Frugal Bio design – a unique approach to medical device design that is suited specifically to developing countries.

This South African Biomedical Engineer has built a cheap replacement for the EpiPen that has the potential to revolutionise the emergency treatment of anaphylaxis, a severe allergic reaction that can be triggered by food or insect bites.

His latest devices, ZiBiPen is aimed at revolutionising the emergency treatment of anaphylaxis. This device further proves that that life-saving treatment can be as affordable as it is effective.  It is popularly known as ‘the future of allergy attacks’ and delivers its dose in the form of a reloadable cartridge at a fraction of the cost of the dominant device on the market.

The ZiBiPen is in the second phase of development to make sure the device is both effective and safe for use by all ages and body types and will be available in 2022 and will be the only reloadable adrenaline autoinjector and has customisable depth of injection to improve injection effectiveness.

As a truly innovative organisation, Impulse has other products in its pipeline, including the Easy Squeezy, a device that attaches to a standard asthma pump, making it easier for young children, elderly and disabled patients to activate the device when they are struggling to breathe during an asthma attack.

Giancarlo lives by the moto – “If you’re not making someone else’s life better, then you’re wasting your time.” This philosophy has greatly influenced all of the ground-breaking work by Impulse in the last couple of years.

The post Giancarlo Is Creating The Most Affordable Medical Treatments On Earth appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

Over the years, Nneile has had a very interesting and commendable entrepreneurship journey, and one can easily see that impact has been at the core of all her activities. She is a mechanical engineering graduate, who has pivoted to biotechnology and the design of innovative solutions for animal care.

In 2015, she served as the co-founder of iMed Tech, a medical prosthesis design and manufacturing company, that specializes in breast prosthesis using 3D design and additive manufacturing in the process chain.

Popularly known as the entrepreneur who uses technology for animal husbandry, this entrepreneurship adventure led her to the launch of her company, 3DIMO. What initially started as a company focused on sports tech and designed software to provide coaches with insight into players’ performance and allows them to predict risks of overload, has since grown to become a tech solution that automates the analysis of animal data and generates a universally traceable digital identification of each animal linked to a breeder following the effects of the pandemic on the sports industry.

Her excellent track record has led to her being recognised by various notable platforms since her participation in the 2016 Tony Elumelu Foundation Programme.

Nneile’s work in prosthesis fabrication using Additive Manufacturing has led her to being recognised as Africa’s top Female Innovator in 2016 and also South Africa youth of the year in 2017.  Following her recent successes, she launched 3dimo, focused on the detection of sports injuries, prevention, and rehabilitation. She creates digital models for athletes that are analyzed and observes what happens when athletes train to predict injuries.

3DIMO’s product, Thola, provides a globally accessible animal biometric identification, linking an animal to a farmer. Thola is a system that uses animal nose prints to create a biometric identity for each animal. Thola is then used to detect any health risks in livestock in real-time by leveraging infrared imagery and artificial intelligence. By detecting anomalies in livestock within a farm and nearby regions this system is able to alert local farmers should there be a breakout of disease. In-app notifications help farmers to prevent losses by seeking timely treatment or vaccination for their herd.

She credits the foundation for helping her to develop a sustainable business that has now impacted thousands across South Africa.

The post TEF Alumna, Nneile Nkholise wins International Award in African Entrepreneur Category appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

On Changes made so far since the start of The Noble Savage

After the programme, I was able to get significant understanding of the business. In 2019.despite certain challenges, including setting up in a foreign country,  I moved the business from Zimbabwe to Botwana with the experience I gained from the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme and mitigated the fall out of the Covid-19 lockdowns. We were still able to grow as a business even though finances were a bit tight over the last year.

What has been the most rewarding part of your running your own business?

If you want to run a business just to get money, I advise you to get a job because running a business is difficult but the reward comes in when you find that the challenge has been fixed. For me, the reward is being able to see the progress I have made and to see where I have gotten from the point I  started. You can only see the rewards by looking backwards.

As an entrepreneur, what is it that motivates and drives you?

There is one thing my dad says to me and have becomeone of my motivating factors:I am working to build what Im building not necessarily for you, but for your own children. Building a legacy means building a job/product;building for the next generation. At the end of the day, I ask myself: Was I able to solve the problems we are facing as Africans?

The second thing that drives me to wake up in the morning is the spirit of Ubuntu. It is the spirit of togetherness: I am because you are. I started my business, The Noble Savage, to solve the problem that our fellow men have on a daily basis.

What would you say are the key elements for starting and running a successful business?

The first thing is: think. Thinkof your idea.Find that one thing that speaks to you, that you can feel in your marrow. When you get that, when the days get dark or times get hard, you can keep soldering on because of your belief in that idea.

The second is to Build a product/service that is solving a problem.

The third is to have the market for it.

You also need options that will keep you moving when the road gets dark. You also need to set your goals and determine how to execute them.

Who inspires you?

My dad, who always spoke a lot about intrapreneurship, and Tony Elumelu. One thing I have appreciated is his life story:how he started from the beginning to get to where he is today and the luck that he had. There is this saying that luck favours the prepared, and I love that he believed and prepared himself to get to where he is today. The third person is Elon Musk.

What are your future plans?

Our goal is to take operations throughout Africa to bring affordable housing and affordable energy across Africa in the next 10 -15 years.

The post TEF Alumni Spotlight with Msindazwe Ndhlovu appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

Every entrepreneur is familiar with the feeling of trepidation just before taking the leap to begin a new business or become an entrepreneur: Do I have what it takes? Is it worth it? How do I start?

Getting through this stage usually requires validating ideas and exploring to understand more about their industry and product.

In this interview with the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Botswana entrepreneur Nametso Matlhaga, a 33-year-old young female entrepreneur with a decade of experience in jewelry, manufacturing, and retail in Botswana, shares her journey to becoming an entrepreneur in Africa.

Career Influences

Nametso loves to work on her own own terms, bringing her vision to life in order to create her own legacy. She grew up in a family of 3, surrounded by entrepreneurs, working under her uncle who had a jewelry business which I grew up working under during my school breaks.

“At the age of 18, I started off my first business which was a construction business. The business was making money but it was challenging to deal with both my employees and clients as I was relatively young and newly started an independent business,” she says.

Nametso later made the switch from construction to establish her own jewelry manufacturing business. “It has now been 10 years since I ventured into Matthan Jewlery, my jewelry business. I have always wanted to work in a sector that is dominated by men, that has been a great motivator to pursue and grow as an entrepreneur. From way back, I have known most of the jewelers to be men, so I wanted to change that record especially in my country and in Africa that also women can venture into jewelry manufacturing. I love my work though it does not allow me to do my nails.”

Getting into the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme

Nametso tells the story of how she met an alumni of the Foundation Mavis Nduchwa. In 2017, Mavis who was also selected for 2015 Cohort, was talking to entrepreneurs about the opportunities the Programme affords entrepreneurs in Kasane. It was here Nametso decided to try her luck, after which she made it to the 2018 cohort.

“I successfully completed the 2018 Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship training programme. It has been an amazing journey for me and I benefited so much from the training. A lot of it has to do with financial discipline, branding, personal branding, marketing and more on networking. Since the TEF experience, I am more opened minded. I am mentoring young Botswana who are doing extremely well in their businesses and some of them where selected for TEF program in 2019.”

“At the TEF Forum, I loved the pitching competition though I am quite a shy person, but it was amazing to see how young people in Africa have so much to offer to our continent and it took one man’s dream to actually see that and put it out there for the world to see. Young Africans are talented, they are a full package. I am strongly for entrepreneurship, women empowerment, mentorship, and a believer in positive thinking.”

Overcoming Challenges Encountered

As the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic reverberated across the world, she decided to learn and embrace the challenge brought upon by the effects of lockdowns and changes to what was “normal”. “We have been actively growing our social media platforms and mobilizing for online sales which is one area we intend to grow over this season.”

Some of the challenges I had was capital to grow the business, which I got through the Tony Elumelu Foundation. Having the right entrepreneurial skill was a challenge and such knowledge and skills are fundamental to running a successful business. The TEF entrepreneurship program was fundamental to giving not just the funding, but the entrepreneurial skills and knowledge to execute a successful business.

Milestone

Nametso is expanding business operations in Botswana, and says they are increasing output and successfully meeting market demand.

“We have successfully registered our business in Nigeria which we have focused to operate by June 2021.”

“My plan is to have two more branches within Botswana by 2021 and one operating in Nigeria. Though we are successfully selling nationwide via online sales couriers we see potential in increased sales by having additional branches.”

Impact

Matthan Jewlery currently has 5 employees. Other than employing members of their locality, Nametso also actively mobilizes entrepreneurs in her locality to apply for the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, with 4 candidates who successful enrolled and benefitted on the 2019 program.

“I have learnt that patience is paramount to making your goal and vision a reality. Through the experience I have gained over my entrepreneurial journey, my mind has been open to so many opportunities around us and how to smartly engage myself and the resources around me to get things done.

My advice to young people and other aspiring entrepreneurs is that we are well capable. We can indeed make it through entrepreneurship, our economies need us, Africa needs us and you owe it to yourself to become everything you ever dreamt of being.”

The post Taking the Leap into Entrepreneurship appeared first on The Tony Elumelu Foundation.

TEF Alumni 2015

Zambia

This is My Story

My sister and I were raised by my grandparents in a small family in the Serenje district of Zambia. My mother had passed away when I was barely 5 years old and my sister and I did not get along with my stepmother.  We were sent off to live with our grandparents who were smallholder farmers surviving on the proceeds from their small farm. We ate most of the farm produced and sold the little left for some cash to take care of other needs.

After my Secondary education, I worked as a teacher in a school close to my home for one year, then served as a train examiner with a train maintenance company for another year to raise funds for my higher education. When I proceeded to study for my accounting degree, I continued working in the accounts department of the railway company. Upon my graduation, I took on accounting and audit roles for a few other companies until 2011 when I left paid employment.

How it Started

As a Zambian, I had seen unrest, economic downturn and food shortages ravage a neighboring country. A country that once had a high concentration of profitable farms as one of Africa’s biggest exporter of agricultural products, was now dependent on foreign aid to feed its population. I knew I had to act.

I decided to tap into my experiences with smallholder farmers by creating Muchinga General Enterprises Ltd. My agribusiness aims to alleviate some of the challenges that smallholder farmers experience by providing quality seeds, irrigation solutions and ensuring a readily available market for the cereal and legume crops grown by the farmers in this district.

In addition to addressing the issue of food shortages for our fast-growing population, it also helps prevent further damage to the environment as these farmers mostly result to cutting down trees for charcoal to substitute their income.

I sold my plot of land to raise the initial capital required to start my business. This small capital, helped me buy some seeds and construct a small office in the rural area, fitted with solar power for office equipment. However, the funds were not enough to make any real impact within such an impoverished region.

Then I got lucky

On one of my trips from Muchinga to the township, I stumbled on an advert calling for applications into the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme and I applied. I was fortunate to be one of the 1000 entrepreneurs selected into the first cycle of the programme in 2015.

I went through the 12-week training, developed my business plan with the help of my assigned mentor, and I was awarded the non-refundable seed capital of $5000.

The capital received from the Tony Elumelu Foundation, helped us create our irrigation system using solar water pumps. We purchased a sales outlet in Kabwe town in the central province, a motorcycle to mobilise smallholder farmers in Mafinga and lots of common beans seeds for the farmers.

Over time, we had Milestones

In April 2017, I was one of the 25 entrepreneurs selected from Central and Southern African Countries for innovations addressing gender issues within the agribusiness space by the African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD).

In December 2017, I was one of the 10 entrepreneurs chosen from 2000 applicants in Africa and sponsored by Tony Elumelu Foundation and COMESA to attend the Africa 2017 Business Forum in Egypt.

In December 2017, I was selected by Thought for Food (TFF) as 2018 Thought for Food Ambassador because of my passion and unique innovation to feed over nine billion people by 2050.

Still experiencing the Impact

The Tony Elumelu Foundation has changed my life as an individual but even more than that, its impact extends to the rural smallholder farmers and the entire community of Mafinga district, Muchinga.

One of our smallholder farmers from whom we purchased common beans in 2016 used the money to construct small houses which he rents to teachers at the nearby school so that children could have access to education, another one bought a hammer mill so that women would not have to travel long distances to grind their maize, while a third farmer built a house with iron sheets so that he doesn’t have to look for grass every year to re-thatch his home.

For the Future

We need to get the smallholder farmers to extend their production cycle beyond the rainy season to increase production and discourage deforestation for charcoal as a source of income in the dry season. This requires further investment in irrigation systems, and we are seeking partners for this.

In closing, I have learnt some interesting lessons and I hope that they can help someone.

• Don’t be afraid to start something new.
• While you might not have a lot of money, there’s always something in your hands that can help you get started.
• Ask for help when you need it.
• Don’t give up!

Our Contact Details

Address:  Muchinga General Enterprises Limited. Along Muyombe Road, Thendele Mafinga District Muchinga Province Zambia.

Email: muchingagel@gmail.com

Phone: +260977206667.

Water reservoir tank constructed as a trial for irrigation purposes in Livingstone Zambia. The tank was constructed using natural stones, cement, sand and waterproof paint.

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