Post-90s Entrepreneurship in Africa

Most people start businesses in developed areas because they fancy the resources there, but a small number of people go to Africa to start businesses because they see huge business opportunities. Here is what I have compiled for you Articles related to post-90s African entrepreneurship.

Post-90s African Entrepreneurship Story: A Construction Worker’s African Entrepreneurship Story

At the beginning of starting a business, he looked for work everywhere

One day in March 1998, Shi 42-year-old Zhu Dexiang and several colleagues were transferred from a project site in Namibia to Botswana to develop the market.

When I first arrived in Gaborone, I was unfamiliar with the place. My company was not registered, I had no construction machinery, equipment and vehicles, and I had no qualifications to participate in project bidding. How to solve the problem of survival in this situation? Even if all 5,000 US dollars is used for the living expenses of 7 people, it will not last long.

In the eyes of Zhu Dexiang and others, Gaborone at that time was like a large rural area. It was difficult to see buildings with more than 3 floors. The road condition was very bad outside the city center, and there were many roads on the roadside. They were covered with waist-deep thatch, and the water supply and electricity supply was not working properly. In order to save money, several people rented a bungalow with a tin roof of less than 20 square meters.

I didn’t think about retreat at that time. If I often thought about retreat, it would be impossible for a person to persevere. Zhu Dexiang said, I thought we were here to start a business, not to travel. The conditions were more difficult. What?

A few of them went around looking for work, appearing at various construction sites in Gaborone.

At that time, there were several Chinese construction companies in Botswana. As long as it's a Chinese construction site, they'll go in and talk nice. Finally, they found a construction site of Qingdao Overseas Company, which agreed to give them some work. The problem of eating was temporarily solved, but the next problem followed.

?We found a job, but we had no starting capital, no mechanical equipment or vehicles, and we had no bank account and no way to remit money domestically. In those days, I was looking for money everywhere, and I was worried about losing my job if I missed the construction start date. I was really exhausted and anxious. Looking back now, Zhu Dexiang is filled with emotion.

In a situation of near despair, he accidentally met a self-employed clothing businessman in Jiangxi, China. After learning about their plight, this compatriot from Jiangxi generously lent them US$20,000 to relieve their urgent need.

For the next few years, they went around looking for work like this. No matter what kind of work they do, they do the odd jobs that others don't want to do because they are too dirty and afraid of the hardship, such as building thatched houses and building stone walls.

Botswana has a dry climate, with the highest summer temperature exceeding 40 degrees Celsius. Like local black workers, they lived in tin shacks, slept on concrete floors, gnawed corn on the cob, and drank tap water. After one summer, when everyone looked at each other, they were completely transformed.

In this way, with their down-to-earth and diligent work style, they gradually gained credibility, accumulated fixed assets and construction qualifications, the company was successfully registered, and they were qualified to bid.

Seize the opportunity to undertake construction projects for development

After the global financial crisis in 2008, in order to stimulate the economy, the Botswana government launched a large-scale infrastructure construction project. Shotai Botswana Company seized this opportunity and undertook the construction project alone. 4 projects across Botswana.

In July 2010, Zhengtai Group Botswana Company won the largest civil construction project in the history of Chinese companies in Botswana and the largest civil construction project in the history of Botswana? University of Botswana Medical College Project, with a project contract value of 1.39 billion yuan ( (approximately US$230 million), it is also one of Botswana’s five annual national key projects.

"Build a project and create a group of friends," this is what Zhu Dexiang usually likes to say. He is convinced that this is one of the "secrets" for Shotai's development and growth in Botswana.

He believes that to achieve this, the quality of contracted projects must first be excellent, and secondly, we must learn to communicate.

?As a project contractor, it is not enough to just work hard. Sometimes when we encounter unreasonable designs, we will sincerely and actively communicate with the owners and design companies. Because the project results based on poor design will definitely not be good. Once problems arise, the reputation of the project contractor will definitely be affected, and the relationship with the owner, design company, and project supervision will be strained. ?

Zhu Dexiang said that in many project bidding nowadays, Zhengtai Group Botswana Company will receive active invitations from owners to participate in the bidding. According to him, they feel they have too much work to do now and have turned down invitations to several private projects because they "bite off more than they can chew".

?After so many years abroad, my dream is for Chinese companies to increasingly integrate into the local African economy and society and become a positive force in China-Africa relations,? Zhu Dexiang said.

Now, Zhengtai Group has begun to develop the market in Zambia, and Zhu Dexiang, who is nearly sixty years old, is facing his second start-up in Africa.

Post-90s African Entrepreneurship Notes: I sell mobile phones in the poorest country in the world

The sun at two o'clock in the afternoon in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, is a bit poisonous. The second district is the commercial district. There are a lot of people and traffic. Most of the vehicles on the road are second-hand cars from Japan. Young people in their twenties are in groups, either walking on the street or sitting in the market playing with their mobile phones. They like to store things on their mobile phones. music in. Most young people's mobile phones are feature phones, and mobile Internet access is not common here. 1G of data costs more than 50 yuan, which is equivalent to one-sixth of the average monthly salary here.

Some people were pedaling hard on their bicycles. On the back of the bicycle was a pile of firewood. They brought it from the suburbs to the capital to sell. Many residents in the capital cannot afford liquefied gas and need firewood for cooking. ?Sima? (cooked with corn batter).

Most of the shops in the wholesale market are opened by Indians, Pakistanis and Chinese. Businessmen from the countryside wholesale goods from here. They are carrying a Bundle clothes to catch the long-distance bus, and prepare enough goods before the peak season. The rainy season in Malawi is coming to an end, when the crops will be harvested, and farmers will sell corn, soybeans and tobacco leaves to exchange for daily necessities.

There are many unemployed young people standing on the street in the commercial district. Their eyes are fixed on the businessmen coming and going. If the opportunity is good, they will use clumsy skills to unzip the backpacks of pedestrians.

In the very center of Lilongwe is a bank area. The security guards at the entrance of every bank are wearing guns, although some of the gun barrels are rusty.

The president's motorcade drove through the presidential avenue in the capital, which is the only four-lane road in the capital. The rest of the asphalt roads in the entire country have only two lanes. On the left side of the road is the Parliament Building and a dozen-story convention and exhibition center, which is the tallest building in the city and was built with assistance from China. Near the Convention and Exhibition Center is a pavilion with Chinese characteristics called Taima Pavilion, which was built by Taiwan when Malawi established diplomatic relations with Taiwan. After 2008, Malawi severed diplomatic relations with Taiwan and established diplomatic relations with the mainland. Some Taiwanese buildings were demolished, but this pavilion remained.

Walk a few hundred meters further along Presidential Avenue. On the right side of the road is the Golden Peacock Hotel of Anhui Foreign Economic Cooperation. This is one of the best hotels in the area. Apart from this, Malawi is not modern. The hotels are all old buildings left by white people during the colonial period.

In front of the Golden Peacock Hotel is the Golden Peacock Supermarket. The supermarket is very large. Based on the current calculation, it can accommodate even 10 times more passengers. It is obviously betting on the future of Malawi.

Several villas have been erected on a construction site in the northern suburbs. This is a purely commercial project undertaken by China's Henan International. There will be 700 villas here. In this poorest country, There are also many government officials and businessmen who can afford villas.

Malawi is located in south-central Africa with a population of more than 10 million. It is the poorest country in the world. In 2013, the per capita GDP was 223 US dollars, China’s was 6,629 US dollars, and Luxembourg, which ranked first, was 112,135 US dollars. .

Lake Malawi

By chance, we traveled to Malawi. We decided that if we wanted to start a business in Africa, we would start in Malawi. We chose to start our business by selling mobile phones.

1. Zhang Youwen

On April 12, 2014, my partners and I sent Zhang Youwen off to the flight to Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, at Shanghai Pudong Airport. This was his first flight. Go abroad for the first time.

Although it is an international flight, most of the people on the plane are Chinese, and occasionally there are a few black people, all carrying large and small bags. Many people pack their goods in cartons with circles of tape wrapped around them. More and more local Africans purchase goods directly from the Yiwu small wholesale market and bring them to their own countries in Africa for sale.

On the plane, Zhang Youwen chatted with people near his seat, and he met three people:

An uncle in his forties went to Ghana. Many Guangxi people dig gold mines in Ghana, and the uncle went there to make trucks. Driver;

Another Huawei employee has been in Zambia for five years. They work on the operation support system for MTN, the largest local telecommunications operator;

There is another employee who is the same age as Zhang Youwen A similar generation born in the 1990s opened an Internet cafe in Equatorial Guinea. He is from Jiangxi, and his parents have been working in Guangzhou. He is a left-behind child in the mountains of Jiangxi. He graduated from junior high school two years ago and did not enter high school, so he went to Equatorial Guinea. He worked in a hardware store, and later he opened an Internet cafe. Internet access there was very expensive, and an hour in an Internet cafe cost more than 40 yuan.

After a twelve-hour flight and a transfer in Addis Ababa, the airport was very crowded. The cranes roaring outside the window did not seem strange to Zhang Youwen. A construction company from China was expanding the airport. On the cranes There was a big slogan about production safety. It was the Chinese New Year. Half of the airport was Chinese. All the signs were in Ethiopian, English and Chinese. There was also a Chinese information desk. The duty-free shop at the airport was very busy. Well, the Chinese are buying Double Happiness, Zhonghua and other cigarettes, stuffing them in their luggage bags in strips. They are not used to smoking Dunhill from abroad, so they use domestic cigarettes to extend the memory of their hometown to Africa.

The smoking room at the airport was crowded with Chinese people and it was very choking.

Next to the smoking room is a small prayer room for Muslims. Some Muslims wearing robes were waiting in line to pray after getting off the plane.

It still takes four hours to fly from Addis Ababa to Malawi. On the plane, Zhang Youwen saw the African grasslands for the first time. Looking down from the plane, the land was very flat and yellow. Yes, there is a glowing white area, which is the aluminum roof of the earthen house. Now, Zhang Youwen is the only Chinese person on the plane.

The plane descended almost vertically and landed with a clang at Lilongwe Airport. Lilongwe's airport is small and has a short runway. After a sharp deceleration, the plane stopped.

2. Airfield

When doing business in Africa, safety is the first priority. Zhang Youwen rented a villa in a wealthy area of ??Lilongwe.

Only Zhang Youwen lives in the villa, and there is a gardener in the yard, his name is Airfield. He lives in a short house behind the yard and takes care of the flowers and plants in the yard.

Zhang Youwen was chatting with Elfield, just in time to practice his English. He learned that Elfield's five children and his wife all lived in the country.

Zhang Youwen greets Elfield every day in a very Chinese way. He always asks, have you eaten? Elfield always replies no. It turns out that Elfield only eats two meals a day, breakfast and dinner, and he eats them very late. Later, Zhang Youwen stopped asking him if he had eaten.

Once, Elfield asked Zhang Youwen, are you married?

Zhang Youwen answered no.

?You should get married. ?Elfield said definitely.

The second time, Airfield asked the same question. Later, he told Zhang Youwen: "I have a daughter who is the right age." Zhang Youwen felt that Airfield was joking. He refused.

One morning, Zhang Youwen woke up and found that a thief had entered his home. There is an electric fence on the fence of the yard, and the thieves broke open the steel bars of the gate to enter the yard. The door to the house was opened with a master key, and the thieves entered the living room and stole more than a hundred mobile phones. There is a door between the living room and the bedroom. The thieves did not enter the bedroom, but placed many stones at the door. It is estimated that the thieves were afraid that people in the bedroom would hear the sound, so they used stones as weapons.

This was the presidential election in Malawi, and social security deteriorated.

To hire security guards, Zhang Youwen interviewed dozens of people and finally selected three people who felt most suitable. One of the security guards is the most responsible. He cherishes this job very much. Not only at night, he will come to look after the yard during the day.

Once, when Zhang Youwen was in a store, the responsible security guard came to him and told him that he would no longer do this job. Zhang Youwen was surprised and asked him why. He said that the gardener threatened to kill him if he continued to do this job.

Zhang Youwen thought that maybe Airfield did this because he was afraid that the security guards would take away his job. Because in addition to the gardener's fixed salary, Zhang Youwen also paid a salary to Airfield, making him responsible for the security of the yard during the day.

A month later, Zhang Youwen's residence was stolen again. This time during the day, the thief bent the steel bars of the living room window and stole all the items in the living room, including Zhang Youwen's underwear.

After the incident, Elfield said that he went out to get seedlings during the day and was not in the yard and did not know what happened.

Although I felt that Elfield was very suspicious, there was no evidence. The difficult thing is that Airfield was hired by the landlord and is not easy to fire. In desperation, Zhang Youwen had to reinforce the windows with steel bars so as not to leave any chance for thieves.

I came to Malawi and discussed with Zhang Youwen how to deal with Elfield, so I tried to chat with Elfield and get to know him.

Elfield asked me who I was, and I said I was Zhang Youwen’s friend and that I was doing business in Zambia.

Elfield asked me: How many languages ??do you know?

I said I know two, English and Chinese.

Elfield proudly told me that he knew six languages. He began to list them. From what he heard, except for his native language Chitchiwa and Malawi’s official language English, the other four were all from South Africa. vernacular.

It turns out that Elfield wanted to tell me that he was well-informed. He had not only been to work in South Africa, but also to Zimbabwe and Zambia. He returned to Malawi only after his father died.

I asked Elfield directly, why is Malawi so poor compared with these countries?

Because in South Africa, the rich help the poor. If a rich person has If he wants money, he will give it to his friends and relatives, so that his relatives will also have money. The rich people in Malawi don't help the poor at all, so Malawi is very poor.

Elfield’s point of view is very interesting. Although I don’t agree with it, I still nodded.

After chatting, Elfield told me that there was a flood in his home this year and the house was washed away. He needed money to repair the house.

He complained to me again that Zhang Youwen should give him a salary increase.

He also said that he wanted to go home for Christmas, and Zhang Youwen should give him a holiday.

There are so many complaints like this. I feel that it is not easy to chat with Elfield and get into his heart.

He just wants material things.

Alfield goes to church on Sundays. So one Sunday, I asked Elfield to go to church with me.

During the three hours in the church, Airfield completed the service according to the program. The boring service and early Sunday morning had me yawning constantly, and Airfield complained that I shouldn't be yawning all the time.

After the service, I thought Elfield would chat with acquaintances and friends, but in fact he didn’t know anyone here. After the service, he didn’t say hello to anyone. When he went to the church, he could only find people he knew well. of God.

The night before I left, I chatted with Elfield again.

Elfield knew I was leaving, and he was very anxious.

?Business is very good in Malawi. I can open a shop in the town. ?He said: ?Can you invest, I will help you do it. ?

?What can you sell? I asked.

? Clothes, shoes, anything they want. ?

?However, Malawi’s spending power is not good. ?I said.

? Malawians are very rich. When the crops are ripe, they sell corn and tobacco leaves. They are very rich. ?Elfield stuck to his guns.

?I only do business in Zambia. ?I don't want to tell him the truth.

?Business here is really good. ?Elder emphasized, ?If you don't want to sell clothes and shoes, you can also sell corn and tobacco leaves. ?

?I have neither corn nor tobacco. ?

?You can buy it in one place and then sell it in another place. You can also sell chickens, buy local chickens from the countryside and sell them to Lilongwe. ?

Elfield’s knowledge of business only rests on what he has seen.

I shook my head.

Elder was unwilling to give in. He told me that he had been working as a gardener for five years. He was too tired and the salary was not enough. He only received 20,000 Kwacha per month (less than 300 RMB in total). ).

How much money do you have? I asked.

?70,000, or 80,000. ?Elfield said, ?If you do business here, you can pay me 40,000 and I'll do it. You pay me monthly, just give me month by month. I'll do it for one month, and you give me another month. ?

I continued to shake my head, but Airfield didn’t speak anymore. He turned up the volume of the radio and asked me if I had heard this song. He said, this is a Zambian singer. I am in Zambia. , should know.

We all fell into silence.

Elfield was a little discouraged. He looked at the ground, picked up a cigarette butt, and carefully twisted it with paper. He wanted to smoke the discarded cigarette butt, but there was no tobacco left.

Can you give me a cigarette? Elfield said.

I handed over a cigarette, and Airfield took it with both hands. I lit it for him, and he looked grateful.

Elfield looked very intoxicated when smoking. He took a long drag.

I’m very tired, he said, and I want to change my job. I've been doing this job for five years. ?

I got up and said good night and told him I was going to bed.

?You must give me your mobile phone number. After you go to Zambia, you can also give me a job. I only need 45,000 kwacha. ?Elfield said.

?I cry every day. "Because I was poor, my mother had no money, my wife had no money, and I had no money." After Christmas, we moved out of the villa.

3. Friday

Friday is our first local employee. We recruited Friday at Wang Feng’s factory.

The first time I went to Malawi, the police found my car on the way and I was helpless. The policeman asked for money. Fortunately, I met Wang Feng, who helped me a lot. Wang Feng gave the police some money, and the police let us go. Later we became friends with Wang Feng.

When Zhang Youwen arrived in Malawi, the first thing he did was to recruit a local driver. Wang Feng said it was very simple. There are many people looking for jobs at the door of his factory every day.

In the morning, Wang Feng opened the heavy iron door of the factory. After questioning, he found three people with driver's licenses for Zhang Youwen to interview. Zhang Youwen admitted the one with the highest academic qualifications, Friday.

In fact, Friday only went to college for three days.

Before joining, Friday drove a minibus and didn’t make much money, so he developed his skills in dealing with the police. The Chinese gave 5,000 kwacha to solve the problem, and Friday gave 1,000 kwacha. Once our car was stopped by the police at night, and the police refused to let us go. He said to Friday: It's very windy tonight.

What the police meant was that it was not easy for him to check the car outside. If he was freezing and hungry, just give him some money.

Friday pretended not to understand and said: Yes, the wind is so strong.

The police had no choice but to let us go.

Friday’s family was poor, and he was probably malnourished since he was a child, making him extremely weak. Once, he had a severe cough. Zhang Youwen gave him a bag of isatis root, and he felt better after drinking it. Friday was very grateful.

At Christmas, I sent a message to each local colleague asking them what their dream was, and Friday replied with a long message. His main idea was that he wanted to finish college. Maybe this wish was simple for us, but too difficult for him, because he couldn't save enough for college tuition and had to rely on our help.

I have seen Friday’s mobile phone. It contains a lot of e-books, some of which are high school textbooks, such as how to solve quadratic equations of one variable. He has been out of school for four years, and he still insists on learning these things that are not needed in reality.

Later, Friday signed up for a weekend class to learn electronic courses.

When we started our business, the local Chinese told us not to trust black people under any circumstances. But we feel that we must localize to be successful. We must not only trust them, but also rely on them.

Four months later, Zhang Youwen made his first attempt. He asked Friday to go to the township to collect payment.

Zhang Youwen wrote down such a passage.

?At six o’clock in the afternoon, Friday hadn’t come back yet. I panicked and called over and over to remind him. One moment, Friday said the signal was not good, and the next, he said he couldn’t wait for the bus. Finally, when I was desperate At ten o'clock in the evening, Friday came back, and he handed me the payment for the goods. I was very touched. Trust is not easy. ?

Half a year later, Zhang Youwen’s story in Malawi was reported by CCTV. In the Chinese world, CCTV said: Look at the young man wearing a pink shirt in the middle. He is an amazing local entrepreneurial youth. He sold smartphones locally and won the No. 1 local brand

IV. Wilson

Malawian children splashed in Lake Malawi

Wang Xufeng He joined the company four months later than Zhang Youwen. For eight months from August 2014 to April 2015, he and Wilson, a local employee, spent most of their time together, even eating and living together.

Wang Xufeng said that although many Chinese people doing business have told him not to let black people have access to money and property, he has always reserved his views because Wilson showed different qualities from other employees. He is relatively hard-working, and even though he complains a lot, he still completes his work. Wang Xufeng and Wilson talked about many things together, including the future and dreams.

Like Friday, Wilson also said that one day he would go back to school to continue his studies. For such a poor country, the simplest dream is to live a good life, Wilson But it was different, which made Wang Xufeng have some admiration for Wilson.

Slowly, Wang Xufeng’s trust in Wilson was built over time. Wang Xufeng believes that Wilson can achieve a high position in the company and will be very promising in the future. Wang Xufeng began to let Wilson collect payment independently. After several months, no errors were found.

This trust lasted until one day in April, when Wang Xufeng discovered that Wilson had lost part of the payment. Wang Xufeng formally talked to Wilson, but Wilson was just silent and sweating. He finally said that the short payment should be deducted from his salary.

Wang Xufeng didn't say anything. He just thought that maybe the Wilson family was in urgent need of money and used this money to help.

A few days later, Wang Xufeng discovered that several mobile phones were missing. He became a little suspicious and asked the local employee who handled the shipment with Wilson. The employee’s answer was: Everything that happened that day had been forgotten. I couldn't remember anything!

At this time, Wang Xufeng began to check all the payments Wilson had handled, and found that there were problems with several of his recent payments. At this time, Wilson had already taken leave and went home due to illness. .

Wang Xufeng had no choice but to call Wilson every day to ask when he would come back. Wilson always said that tomorrow, until the fourth day, all calls could not be answered.

Wang Xufeng felt like he had been stabbed deeply, but the knife was handed over by himself.

Recalling the advice given by all the Chinese people when he first arrived, Wang Xufeng’s trust collapsed instantly.

?It collapsed so much that not even a scrap was left. ?Wang Xufeng said.

Wang Xufeng began to reflect on the fact that it was he who gave Wilson the opportunity to make mistakes and failed to correct the mistakes in time, which led to the deterioration of Wilson's greed, from deception to running away.

From now on, as long as local employees cheat and are dishonest, Wang Xufeng will fire him. Although the continuous firing of employees has a great impact on the construction of a team, integrity as the bottom line must be adhered to. Wang Xufeng also admitted that this was the shadow left after Wilson ran away.

?Rome was not built in a day, but one day is enough to destroy it. ?This sentence was once said by Wilson to Wang Xufeng.

However, after working in Malawi for a year, Wang Xufeng had an opportunity to return to China for vacation. He decided to give this opportunity to Chikondi, a local employee in Malawi.

Wang Xufeng said that during the process of contacting local colleagues in Malawi, he felt that in order to build trust, local colleagues must meet to China. For example, when Wang Xufeng mentioned that the company wanted to expand its business to more African countries, local colleagues would be very puzzled, because in their minds, Lilongwe is the best city in the world after New York. Why bother doing business in other African countries?

Why recommend Chikondi? Wang Xufeng listed three reasons in his email to me:

First: Chikondi is Brand There has not been a single error in inventory management in the Tier area.

Second: Chikondi’s wish is to come to China and learn mobile phone repair in a Chinese mobile phone factory.

Third: He promised Chikondi that if he was honest, he would bring him to China.

Chikondi came to China, and Wang Xufeng fulfilled this promise.