African Entrepreneurship

From the founder of the award-winning website (www.howwemadeitinafrica.com) comes the stories of 25 entrepreneurs who've built thriving businesses. * Be inspired by the experiences of Africa’s most dynamic entrepreneurs * Gain insight into the continent’s business opportunities * Find the courage to make your own dreams and ambitions become a reality Discover why Ken Njoroge is building a billion-dollar pan-African digital payments company (it is not because he wants to drive a Ferrari); Find out how Jean de Dieu Kagabo grew a Rwanda-based industrial group from a simple product: toilet ...

Imagine starting with a bold mission in 2012: to achieve financial inclusion through a multi-country bank. Within a decade, this vision becomes one of the fastest-growing fintechs in the world. Now, picture starting this business in South Africa, a country the IMF ranked as the hardest place to...

In The Billionaire Mindset, Daniel Strauss, the Strauss in the investment firm Stocks & Strauss, and a highly successful venture capitalist, explains how to adopt this life-changing new mindset. He shares his secrets of success, including how to access capital, where to find the right people to help you reach your goals, and explains how to free your mind from self-imposed limitations, so that you can also think like a billionaire.

The inspiring, instructive, and ultimately triumphant memoir of a man who used hard work and a Master Plan to turn a life sentence into a second chance. Growing up in a tough Washington, D.C., neighborhood, Chris Wilson was so afraid for his life he wouldn't leave the house without a gun. One...

“A hero’s tale of what’s possible when we unlock our potential, continue the search for knowledge, and draw on our lived experiences to guide us through the darkest moments.”—Stacey Abrams From a Black, gay woman who broke into the boys’ club of Silicon Valley comes an empowering...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER An inspiring personal story of redemption, second chances, and the transformative power within us all, from the founder and CEO of the nonprofit charity: water. At 28 years old, Scott Harrison had it all. A top nightclub promoter in New York City, his life was an...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER Instead of waiting for White people to change, Black people must prioritize their own prosperity, power, and self-determination by navigating, challenging, and exiting racist systems—a radical argument from a Harvard behavioral scientist. LONGLISTED FOR THE PORCHLIGHT...

Entrepreneurship is not a personality trait. It is a skill set. It is the ability to see a problem clearly, offer value, manage risk, and keep moving when conditions are not ideal. Many people have ideas, but they lack the basics that turn ideas into a working business: simple planning, customer thinking, pricing, execution, and the discipline to learn. Entrepreneurship: An Introduction is a beginner-friendly guide to the foundations of building a business, written through a practical story set in Juba, South Sudan. You follow Panyim, a young entrepreneur trying to grow his clothing shop, ...

According to the Wall Street Journal, entrepreneurs are happier than wage-earning employees. Having the freedom to develop your own business creates the potential for both trials and triumphs. The wise entrepreneur knows that true success is all about the inner game and leveraging those obstacles into opportunities. Author and seasoned entrepreneur Oabona Michael Kgengwenyane wasn’t born in Silicon Valley but rather in an African village. He grew up in a low-income Botswana family, struggling barely to survive.

The inspiring story of the creation of what is proving to be one of the world’s most innovative education philanthropies, which has helped thousands of underserved African communities take control of their own futures through sustainable and localized low-fee private schools.

Welcome to “AfriCAN” - the can-do continent, the vast, vibrant, and diverse continent offering a wealth of human and natural resources that translate into opportunities for business - your business. Complicated? Not necessarily. Africa, with all its diversity and largesse, can be difficult to understand and to grasp. Just like most new business ventures. However, successful business in Africa is as straightforward as ABC: Appetite, Bandwidth, and Capital.

The road to success is rarely linear and never easy. But with courage, hard work, perseverance, and dedication to duty, Jim Ovia, founder and chairman of Zenith Bank, proves we can achieve the unthinkable. Jim has been called the Godfather of Banking by Forbes Africa. And this should be no surprise. In a time of tension between military and civilian regimes, periods of incredible economic instability, and a decaying infrastructure, Jim founded Zenith Bank in Nigeria.

This “empowering and inspirational” (People) memoir of struggle and perseverance offers new ways of envisioning economic equality for everyone—from a leading activist and fashion pioneer. “With community and sisterhood at its center, Wildflower teaches us that against all odds, we can...

Risk and Return is the story of one man’s return to Africa - a journey that begins with a search for self-fulfillment, which then evolves into an entrepreneurial adventure filled with tribulations, triumphs, and many life lessons that will keep listeners engaged from start to finish. In a casual conversational voice, the author, Yomi Jemibewon, gives an honest, often hilarious and sometimes sobering account of what it feels like to chase a dream under highly uncertain circumstances.

John H. Johnson, the remarkable entrepreneur who founded the Ebony publishing empire, tells the story of his success. The wealthiest African-American in the US today, Johnson shares his rags to riches saga, from the many obstacles that confronted him to his ultimate triumph.

Wins, losses, lessons and laughs. From 'naughty lists' to sprinting swans, wandering ducks to Amarula-based incentives, The First Kudu takes you on the roller coaster ride of a start-up and dives into real learnings along the way. The narrative invites you to journey through the chaos with the young team, and unpacks in gritty detail what goes into building a tech start-up—with stories of fun and failure honestly told in equal measure.

It is hard work to get the African to be positive about Africa. While others are coming to African in numbers the sons and daughters of Africa are finding all ways and means to get out of African to find better life. Some say it is economic migration, but I say it is part of the results of the constant assaults that we have gone through as Africans for centuries. It takes a lot of courage and strength to be confident and positive as an African and about Africa. Resilience is that divine power within that keeps on energizing us, inspiring us as we build our businesses as entrepreneurs on the...

Knowing our African history repairs our mind for success and we cannot play with the importance of African history. It instills confidence, dignity, and completeness in the Africans, in a world that sees Africa as poor, underdeveloped, and unaccomplished. African history gives us a strong African identity and self-confidence. One of the ways to get many of our people to believe in our continent is to teach many of our people our history. The desire for dignity and personality development comes from the history that we know about us that makes us confident. The knowledge of our history makes...

Will Africa be the world's next hub of manufacturing? China is answering in the affirmative and investing accordingly. This book dispels the notion that this crucial story is merely about China's exploitation of Africa's resources, illuminating deep questions about our own Western approach to development and the implications for the future of manufacturing. The fact that China sees Africa not for its poverty but for its potential wealth is a striking departure from the attitude of the West, in particular the United States.

Turn your Ideas into Profit by Starting a Thriving Business in South Africa Do you have a brilliant idea and the drive to succeed—but feel stuck on where to begin? Whether you're dreaming of launching a shop, starting a home-based business, building an online store, or developing something completely new, this book is your step-by-step guide to turning your vision into reality. Starting a business in South Africa can feel overwhelming. From navigating confusing regulations and registering your business to finding funding and attracting customers—it’s easy to feel lost. That’s ...