Business Magnates

Business, simply put, is an organized way of buying and selling goods, and offering services. One of the primary goals of doing business apart from meeting needs is making profit. If you are not making profit, you are not doing business. The profit can be tangible or intangible, not necessarily pecuniary. However, business can be addressed in 2 ways, viz; generalized and specialized. Generalized way entails applying business concepts into everything we do. A university is into business. It’s got services to offer in exchange for school fees. Likewise a hospital renders healthcare to people in exchange for hospital bill. The second way is specialized, in which case, business is seen as a job, not attached to any other thing, purely buying and selling goods and offering services. The generalized way makes us understand that business is what we do, whether we are aware of it or not. While specialized way makes it clear that business is only meant for few interested people who are doing it as their main job. Now, let’s consider 3 successful business magnates and their success stories.

1) Lorna Rutto (Kenya)

  

In 2010, she quit her bank job to start a waste recycling business. Her company, EcoPost, collects and recycles waste plastic into aesthetic, durable and environmentally-friendly fencing posts that serve as an alternative material to timber. But her business would have remained a dream without the financial support of international and local investors and NGOs. Every year, hundreds of international and local organisations support businesses that tackle issues such as environmental pollution, illiteracy, disease and other social problems. They usually provide grants, donations, loans, equity or even training and advice. So in 2010, Lorna applied for and won a $6,000 SEED Award which served as start-up capital for her business. In the same year, she won a grant award of $12,700 from the Enablis Energy Globe-Safaricom Foundation. She also won a business plan competition organized by the Cartier Women’s Initiative, and received a prize award of nearly $12,000. Recently, her business attracted an equity investment from the Blue Haven Initiative and the Opus Foundation amounting to $495,000. This was used to expand the business and purchase advanced recycling equipment.

2) Jason Njoku (Nigeria)

  

Jason is the co-founder of IrokoTV, a mobile entertainment and internet TV platform that’s particularly popular for its impressive catalogue of African ‘Nollywood’ movies. But the struggle in the early days of this business was not as glamorous. After failed attempts at previous businesses in the UK, Jason returned to Nigeria in 2010 to build relationships with local movie producers and purchase content rights for his new startup, IrokoTV. Cash was tight, and starting this business would have been impossible without the £90,000 contribution of Jason’s friend and business partner, Sebastian. Since then, the growth of IrokoTV has been remarkable. To date, the business has attracted up to $40 million in investment funding from foreign investors, mostly venture capital investors. In January 2016, IrokoTV raised $19 million in additional funding to expand its business into Francophone countries in Africa. In summary, by using a combination of business partnerships and venture capital, Jason has been able to successfully raise significant amounts of capital to grow a company that was described by Forbes Magazine as “the Netflix of Africa.”

3) Aliko Dangote (Nigeria)

  

Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, currently worth $13.2 billion (October 2017), is a role model to entrepreneurs on the continent. While his business interests currently spread across Africa, Dangote’s impressive fortune was built from very humble beginnings. He started his business in 1978 with 500,000 Naira borrowed from his grandfather. After six months, he paid back the loan. In the early years, Dangote focused on importing soft commodities, including rice, frozen fish, sugar and baby food into Nigeria. Today, his business interests have expanded into local production of cement, salt, flour and recently, petroleum refining. These days, the banks, private and institutional investors are keen to invest in Dangote’s businesses because of the track record of success he has achieved over the years. 

Sources:http://www.smallstarter.com/get-inspired/10-super-success-african-entrepreneurs-and-how-they-raised-money-to-start-their-businesses/