Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / Africa: The Continent of Opportunities with Thelma Ekiyor

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Africa: The Continent of Opportunities with Thelma Ekiyor · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  3, 10, 1, 0, ignition, liftoff, Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with a number 1 small business expert Melinda Emerson.
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  Bolinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
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  you need to succeed and live the life you've dream of.
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  Now here's the small biz lady herself.
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  Melinda Everson.
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  Hi, everybody.
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  My is Melinda Emerson, the small biz lady, and I am so excited to welcome you.
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  Now small biz chat, we have hosted it for over 10 years.
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  And tonight, we're really gonna focus on what we call this peer to peer education thing where
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  what we are doing is giving you a safe place to get information so that you can succeed as your
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  own boss.
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  Now I am excited to be here with you because this really is about giving our loyal fans Just
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  one more thing.
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  You know, one of the things that I've been very blessed to do as the small bus lady is travel
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  around the world and have the opportunity to speak to entrepreneurs all over the world.
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  And and last fall, I had the opportunity to go to Nigeria the invitation of Thelma, according
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  to my next guest, and she invited me to talk at an event that she has every year called the
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  funding space.
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  And really, it was a really wonderful opportunity for me to have an opportunity to
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  meet with African entrepreneurs that are interested in growth areas technology, health
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  care, agriculture, energy.
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  And I'm so excited to have her here to talk about the work that she's doing.
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  And Delma Ocasio is a seasoned, social entrepreneur impact investor and an
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  international development expert.
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  She is the founder of the funding space and the E B Fund, which is the funding spaces of
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  training and mentoring and finance platform for social entrepreneurs in West Africa.
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  The EV Fund is a women's impact fund dedicated to helping Small and medium sized women
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  businesses access local and international markets.
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  She has experienced working in over 22 African countries.
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  And she is also an attorney, by the way.
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  She always leaves that out, but I have to remind people that she has been properly
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  trained in the law and she is an amazing social entrepreneur herself.
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  Thelma, welcome to Small Vista Live.
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  Thanks, Melinda.
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  Thanks for having me.
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  Oh, I'm so excited to have you here.
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  Now I know you started out your career as a peace builder, and that led you to developing
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  programs to to build entrepreneurs.
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  How how did all that come about?
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  Well, as you said, I studied law in the UK and then came back to Africa at a time when there
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  were a number of wars in different countries on the continent.
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  And then with my legal background, wanted to work on issues of human rights and, dispute
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  resolution.
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  But as I worked in this in these countries, I realized that, you know, we had to address the
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  issue of poverty, which was really the systemic problem that often led to conflict, you know,
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  scarce resources and people joggling for these resources.
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  And I started to look at how you we could build sustainable communities but through, business
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  solutions.
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  And that led me to entrepreneurship as the only tool that I found that could actually lift
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  people out of poverty and remove them from taking handouts from the rest of their lives.
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  Now what are the forces or barriers that you think, keep women in poverty worldwide?
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  But in Africa, we still have a cultural impediment.
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  It's a very patriarchal.
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  All countries in Africa patriarchal societies.
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  And so often women are marginalized and issues of power and control of resources is is still
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  very much mill dominated.
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  And what happens is then that when it comes to the business sector, women are afraid.
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  It's it's it's a fear of the unknown they tend to stick to micro businesses.
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  And in fact, in Nigeria, we have the rare phenomenon of having more women entrepreneurs
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  than men and male entrepreneurs but they're mostly micro.
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  And I think that cultural impediments has really created intergenerational poverty where
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  women are concerned.
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  And so to reverse that, you have is the mindset mindset shifts and a lot of education and
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  training.
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  And that's become the importance as you saw when you came, Melinda, is the importance of
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  having convenings that bring people together.
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  And educate people about what they should change starting from what happens in the
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  society, but also in how they they see business and approach business.
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  I know here in the United States, you know, women business has struggled here.
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  And the main things that sort of, like, hold back women business owners in the US are things
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  like you know, they really pursue them as as hobbies are like kinda side hustles.
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  At first, there's always a lack of funding.
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  Right?
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  I mean, that's like a constant issue.
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  But also to the the the burden of motherhood, you know, whether you're a single mother or you
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  have a partner, sometimes it ends up being your kids, you know, whether whether you, have a
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  partner or not.
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  And and that typically holds back, particularly, women of color in business in the
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  United States.
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  I was wondering if it it was the same in Africa or if there were some additional challenges
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  that maybe we don't know about.
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  It we have those challenges, and then we have the added challenge of the cost of doing
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  business here.
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  It's really expensive to start a business.
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  And we also have infrastructure challenges as well.
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  And so access to finance, so the interest rates here are very high in commercial banks and they
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  range between 2328%.
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  And that immediately means that rules out most people from going into business.
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  And so most women, you know, will not even venture.
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  And so what you call a side hustle, they'll just have little businesses at home.
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  That bring in pittance and never get to grow.
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  So what is the current financial landscape for for women businesses.
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  If if if the interest rates are are 23 to 28%.
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  And by the way, that just, like, knocked my whole socks off when you said that, because
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  that's like, woah.
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  That's really, really expensive capital, particularly as low as capital is now in the
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  United States.
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  I mean, It's never been cheaper ever to borrow money in the United States, and you're talking
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  about 23 to 28% in in in Nigeria.
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  That's that's astonishing.
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  But if that is the case, how are women getting money for for their businesses?
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  What is the financial landscape?
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  So that's the revolution that's happening now, because what is happening is we, for example,
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  the women that we work with, we tell them that the ban should be your last resort, not your
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  first resort.
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  And teach them a spectrum of how they can access financing for major investments to
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  impact investment, which is what I do to grants.
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  There are lots of grants available and how they can package their business, and know what time
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  or what period of the the lifetime of their business that they can access a particular
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  fund.
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  There's some development funds that have come, to Nigeria in particular that's hover between
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  910 percent.
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  That's still pretty high, but they're, at least, they're better than the funds that are,
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  23%.
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  Sure.
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  So that that's what is available.
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  Now the knowledge that you don't have to go for commercial financing.
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  Right?
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  When you start your business, you can actually explore engine investment, impact investment,
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  mean, private equities, deep here, is still for very large businesses, but if we're talking
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  about entrepreneurs, I think that this new introduction has been, a welcome development.
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  Well, I would say that that's probably very similar here.
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  So if you go to borrow money as a business here, 9 to 10% is not is is about what you, you
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  know, could could commercially go for.
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  But, I mean, certainly, If you go for a private equity investment, all this kind of stuff, you
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  know, you gotta give a significant portion of your business away.
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  So it no no money is free.
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  So and then certainly here because it's so hard, 8000 loans a day are turned down in
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  America.
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  So we have this whole other industry of alternative lenders And those guys, you know,
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  started the low low interest rate of 20 go up as high as about 45%.
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  So there's there's a wide array of funding solutions, none of them particularly favorable,
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  but, certainly if you can get on with, a nonprofit or a grant or a, you know, a fund
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  specifically interested in a certain type of entrepreneur, that that's absolutely the way to
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  go anywhere.
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  Now tell me about How do you think that we what can we do to support your work in Nigeria?
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  Like, I know that, you know, there there communities of women entrepreneurs, and and we
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  can be linked globally.
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  Like, how how does that happen to, like, how can we support you?
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  So one of the joys of having people like you that one of the reasons I started the funding
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  space was if you watch CNN, you will never come to Nigeria.
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  And, and if you write in all the negative news about, you know, there's not just Nigeria, but
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  many African countries, but where many people see problems, a good entrepreneurship, the
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  opportunities.
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  And that's what Africa provides.
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  Africa is a continent of opportunities And I was so happy you were willing to come even
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  though we only knew each other first, you know, virtually.
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  I think that that step of faith is it validates the work that we're doing here, but it also
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  provides an opportunity for you to connect with people who are who are doing fascinating
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  things.
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  I mean, Mark Zuckerberg came to Nigeria and has invested in tech businesses.
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  These things are happening on a one on one basis but we need to broaden the streams of
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  cross, cross continental investments and collaborations.
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  Awesome.
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  Awesome.
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  Well, listen.
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  I know you've got a funding space coming up very soon again in Nigeria.
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  And tell me what is your goal and your focus this year, the funding space.
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  So this year, so we have a very high youth unemployment problem in Nigeria.
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  So we're focusing on new ideas to address new youth unemployment.
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  We have people coming from all over the world.
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  They have creative solutions for jobs.
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  We have a serious problem with energy shortage, you know, electricity shortage, So we're still
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  focusing on people that have renewable energy solutions, how alternative energy can create
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  business is.
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  I mean, that's an area where women are not even operating at all, but it's extremely lucrative.
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  And so we're focusing on that.
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  But and also, we have a youth innovation challenge.
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  Where we're encouraging young people with business ideas to pitch their ideas and and win
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  seed funding because many of these young people come from poor communities and would never ever
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  be able to access financing.
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  So we're very excited about this year's, event, and we're going to miss you, Melinda.
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  Well, I will be back next year.
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  So if you invite me, I will come.
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  I promise I will, but thank you so much for joining us tonight.
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  And, Domo, what's your favorite business book?
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  It would be bottom 1,000,000,000 by Paul Collier.
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  Talks about how the development countries are an untapped market.
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  It's really good.
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  It's a must read.
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  Okay.
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  Okay.
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  I love it.
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  I'm gonna call you my international woman of just wisdom, and you're just such a driving
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  force.
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  And I'm so grateful that you were able to join us because it is very, very early where you
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  live.
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  So we very much appreciate you being with us tonight.
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  And please, those of you who want more information about my guests and any more
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  information on how to start and grow a business.
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  Please head over to my blog at succeed as your own boss.com.
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  I have over 5000 articles about how to start and grow so you don't wanna miss it.
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  And thank you all.
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  We will be back.
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  The mission of small business chat is to end small business failure.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, the small business lady.
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  I will leave you with this.
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  You never lose in business.
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  Either you win where you learn.
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  God bless everybody.
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  Good night.
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  Thank you for listening to the small biz chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
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  For more resources and small business success strategies, visit succeed as your own boss.com.
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  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and join us next Wednesday.