Just How Rich is Africa? (Part 6)
AN OPPORTUNITY ON EVERY STREET, A CHANCE IN EVERY VILLAGE
I remember when I first moved back to Africa in 2015 like it was yesterday. One thing that still stands out to me today is the number of problems I encountered when I started living here. Electricity was unreliable. The banking process was slow. Very few merchants accepted card payments. I was woken up by mosquitos several nights and stayed up till morning. Everywhere I looked there was a problem. I remember having coffee with a young man who had come to ask for some help. I told him, “You are lucky you live in Africa.” He asked me to explain and I did. I told him that it wasn’t easy to start a business in America because there weren’t a lot of problems to solve, and the cost of living is high. He went on to become a large coffee dealer. I met another young man right after and encourage him too to look at problems as solutions. He went on to build a financial services platform that’s now valued at $4 Million in just four years. I have had a lot of fun mentoring young people and encouraging them to look at Africa’s problems as opportunities. From tree farming to financial technology; from meat processing to fruit export; I am a witness to so many young people taking problems as opportunities, providing solutions, and building businesses valued in millions of dollars.
Last month I met another young man who is passionate about solving a particular problem. He had built a product and gotten a few clients to use his product. He needed some equity funding. I asked him how much money he needed and how much equity he was willing to give away. He told me his business was valued at $50,000, in his opinion, and he wanted to raise $25,000 for a 50% stake. I sat him down and we looked at the total addressable market, plus a review of his product. In two hours, I had valued his company at $1,000,000 and he got his $25,000, giving away only a 2.5% stake.
Just how rich is Africa? It’s as rich as the number of problems it has. Show me a problem and I will show you wealth.