BUSINESS AFRICANS

Chris Folayan Chris, it was wonderful meeting you at the African Diaspora Investment Symposium in Silicon Valley in January where you left people in awe sharing the journey that lead to the immense success of your company, Mall for Africa. Give our readers some insight into your business. Mall for Africa is an online platform designed to help shoppers in Africa buy goods online from major US and UK retailers. By ordering through us, they do not need to worry if the products they desired would be shipped to Africa at all, or if the foreign retailers would accept their local credit cards or mobile payments. We take care of the entire process via a very simple app. By doing this we also provide a rare avenue for leading US and UK brands to access a new  consumer  base in Africa at zero risk, because they ship through us. Mall for Africa takes away all the risks of fraud, charge backs, customs clearing and the inability to verify if a shipment has even arrived. We handle

Mike Mlombwa is a Malawian businessman and a billionaire in the country’s local currency. He owns Countrywide Car Hire, a vehicle rental and chauffeuring service operating in major cities, airports and hotels across Malawi. He has also recently ventured into the hospitality business with the construction of hotels. Today he is considered one of the country’s business success stories and has given talks globally. But Mlombwa’s story began in poverty – a fact he hopes will be a source of inspiration for others. He grew up in the southern border district of Mwanza and lived with various families who were able to pay for his primary education in exchange for odd jobs. “My mom was very poor… So, in the village, I grew up with several people who paid my school fees,” he recalled. “In the afternoon I would come back from school to work in gardens or look after cattle or whatever.” But, after completing his primary schooling, he was unable to find anyone in his district that w