Somalia has the longest coastline in mainland Africa, but its waters remain underfished. For many people, Somalia is synonymous with war and political instability. However, Jon Bellish, the executive director of Shuraako Capital – a firm that finances Somali companies says the country offers several business opportunities. In a recent interview with How we made…
American-born entrepreneur Daniel Yu’s most recent venture is the Africa Jobs Fund, which seeks to invest in companies that can create jobs at scale for Africans and raise incomes. It focuses on two areas: international labour mobility and export manufacturing. He previously founded Wasoko, a multimillion-dollar company that connects informal retailers in East Africa with…
How we made it in Africa II: Real stories of entrepreneurs turning opportunity into profit has been shortlisted for the Business Council for Africa (BCA) African Business Book of the Year Awards 2026. The book is available here. The annual competition celebrates the most compelling business writing examining and shaping Africa’s economic imagination – from…
Our new book, How we made it in Africa II: Real stories of entrepreneurs turning opportunity into profit, is available here. This interview was first published by the International Finance Corporation A candid conversation between IFC managing director, Makhtar Diop and Aliko Dangote, Africa’s leading industrialist. From energy and fertiliser, to logistics, agriculture and water,…
Our new book, How we made it in Africa II: Real stories of entrepreneurs turning opportunity into profit, is available here. The book was recently shortlisted for the Business Council for Africa (BCA) African Business Book of the Year Awards 2026. 1. How these Kenyan entrepreneurs achieved financial freedom by their forties Kenyan entrepreneurs Leonard…
Seid Mohammedbirhan with the sewing machine that kickstarted his business empire. Today, it sits on display inside a shopping mall he owns. Seid Mohammedbirhan was born in 1960 in the town of Adi Awro, in a rural part of Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region. He was the younger of two sons in a family of small-scale…
Charles Antwi-Boahen This article is an excerpt from our latest book ‘How we made it in Africa II: Real stories of entrepreneurs turning opportunity into profit‘ Interview with Charles Antwi-BoahenFOUNDER and CEO, KAB-FAM Lives in: Ghana In 2012, Charles Antwi-Boahen was working as a salesman for an air-conditioning company in Ghana’s capital, Accra. It was…
How we made it in Africa II: Real stories of entrepreneurs turning opportunity into profit, the latest book by Jaco Maritz, has been recognised at the 2026 BCA African Business Book of the Year Award, taking the second runner-up prize at a ceremony held at the Institute of Directors in London on Friday, 3 July…
A Senegalese village chief holds up the fonio grain. Photo by Richard Nyberg Fonio – a gluten-free grain with many nutritional benefits – has been cultivated as a subsistence crop in West Africa for thousands of years. It is drought-resistant, can grow without the support of fertiliser and restores organic matter in fallow soil. Despite…
Debby Lawson, founder and COO of Fastizers, speaking during launch of the company’s Nibit brand. One Saturday in 2010, Gbola Lawson was knocking on the doors of small brick-and-mortar stores in Lagos – Nigeria’s megacity of roughly seventeen million people – trying to persuade shopkeepers to place cookies on their shelves. Although he held a…
