BUSINESS AFRICANS

Start-up:  Foodstantly, Nigeria Foodstantly is a Nigerian online marketplace where users can buy and sell pre-cooked food and fresh farm produce. The company then acts as the means of delivery for all goods purchased. The platform hosts a variety of sellers (over 1000), formal and informal; they include open-air markets and smallholder farmers to restaurants and fast-food outlets. Founder Uche Ariolu provided us with an overview of the business and highlighted some of the challenges of running an e-commerce business. 1. Give us your elevator pitch. One of our goals is to reduce or eliminate the multiple middlemen in the agriculture and food supply chain. These middlemen contribute to the high cost of food and farm produce in most African cities. An average food item passes from the farm gate through three to four middlemen, each adding their own cost. The food and agriculture chain in Africa is also highly fragmented, made up of several small and medium players scatter

James Mworia (Picture: AfricaTalentbank.com) When James Mworia joined Nairobi-based investment company Centum in 2001 as a 23-year-old intern, his ambition was to “become CEO someday”. His job then was to file documents, but seven years later he was indeed appointed CEO, becoming one of the youngest senior executives in a Kenyan listed firm. Mworia has now led Centum for seven years, and is credited with transforming the business, which was established in 1967. Centum has investments in a variety of sectors, including energy, real estate, financial services and fast-moving consumer goods. Speaking to a group of young professionals and entrepreneurs in Nairobi, Mworia (now 37), credited his rise in corporate Kenya to humility and a hunger for personal development. “In my experience the highest return on capital and time is investment in yourself,” says Mworia. His curiosity and a “desire to be better” is what made him take up the internship position despite being over