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Africa’s Real Estate Boom Is Just Getting Started | How to Invest Safely · Earn Your Leisure

• 0:01
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  Speaker 1: you all, I was telling you probably the most impactful
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  Speaker 1: interview I've done in my career.
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  Speaker 2: He rolls out as real. He wrote, Troy, talk about
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: the tags lest you think about fiance.
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  Speaker 3: You know, we talk in a language that is common
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: to the people that's one of the community that we.
• 1:03
  Speaker 4: Grew up with. You are the bright spot. Thanks Lewership
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: for Black Americans.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: This is the knowledge that actually matters.
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: I plowed both of you for this.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you isn't it a country issue.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: It's not an American issue, it's a world issue.
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  Speaker 2: You tend to earn leisure.
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  Speaker 4: So how did you how did you like get started
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  Speaker 4: specifically in Africa like doing this.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Like well the relationship. When I was doing a hospitality
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  Speaker 2: and running a hotel in South so France, I told myself,
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: either I go to Canada to work at the so
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: Hotel at Montreal, or they offered me to come to
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Dakar to work at the new hotel hotel here in
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  Speaker 2: that car and I wanted to feel like home. I
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: wanted to feel like I had an impact because when
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: you go work in big cities, you just add some
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  Speaker 2: small percentage over small percentage and you're just a number
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: that replace you. When you come here, you'll become a
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  Speaker 2: player quickly. So it's a bigger playground, more interesting, and
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  Speaker 2: then you can actually become a Carnegie of your area.
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  Speaker 2: It can become a big investor, whereas it's not impossible
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  Speaker 2: in big countries. But the struggle you have to go through,
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  Speaker 2: the difficulties, whatever you go through is too much headaches
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  Speaker 2: compared to the reward. And here you feel home and
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: where are you originally from? Have you New York.
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  Speaker 4: It's beautiful, beautiful culture. You definitely see there's a lot
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: that still has to be done. But that's the opportunity.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of opportunity and the purchasing power. When
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: you're an American and you can put one hundred grounds
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: in an apartment and looking at ROI around ten percent,
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: it's not crazy. It's interesting, Like one hundred thousand and
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  Speaker 2: get you an apartment here. Yeah, it can get you
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: one bedroom apartment. And now it's more reading around one
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: hundred and ten hundred and twenty. It keeps growing. The
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: two I have one bedroom apartment. I bought them eighty
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: thousand each five years ago. Now they go around eighty
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: one hundred and one hundred and ten something. But the
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: return is very high because it's twenty three percent. How
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: much is the rent it's in the US two thousand
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: approximate two thousand dollars, so twenty four years so around
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  Speaker 2: in this area, in this area is going to be
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: more like one point five two.
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: People buy cash or they get mortgages.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: In Africa, they like cash. They don't trust banks that
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: much and they don't want to be in the system
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: to show their earnings, to show transibility so that they
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: can leverage fonts and bank system. Here is very tough.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: Like in US, mortgage is like nothing. You work a
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: little and then you get it. Here you have to
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: kill somebody to get the mortgage. Yeah, it's very tough.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: Interest rate. Let's say it's eight seven eight. But for
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: African market, when you get the twenty four percent, err,
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: you borrow money at eight makes sense, It makes a
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: lot of sense. It makes sense. But we need to
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: be careful and resist the urge to be in the
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: formal kind of mentality and be rushing to buy land,
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: to buy apartment without thinking ahead. That's the issue some
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: people like they see the excitement and instead of taking
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: the time, they go into formal modes and then you
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: hear stories, Oh he came, he brought fifty k down payment,
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  Speaker 2: and now he's never heard about his fifty k more. Again,
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  Speaker 2: you have to be careful.
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  Speaker 4: Talk about that because that's something that a lot of
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  Speaker 4: people are kind of nervous of, Like how do you
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  Speaker 4: avoid that?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you have to go through the proper channels. It
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: cannot be you know a guy who knows a guy
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: and it's going to help you out. That's over. Forget
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: about this. Anybody telling you that kind of Let's say
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: I know a guy who knows a guy half the time.
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  Speaker 2: It's bullshit. Yeah, you don't need to know a guy.
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  Speaker 2: If you have money, you go through the official shadows,
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  Speaker 2: everything's going to be fine with you.
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  Speaker 4: Official channel would be like a real estate agent.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, real estate agent, an notary agent. For example, we
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: sold the spent house here to an American guy in Texas,
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  Speaker 2: uh top one, seven hundred k, and he insisted to
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: go through the notary We went through the process. We
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: put the money in his crawl account and no problem,
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: you know. And he was insisting in procedures, which is good.
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  Speaker 4: How big? How big is that?
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  Speaker 2: It was about two hundred and feet sarameter with a
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: big balcony and you have a beautiful c view from
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: there to the ocean. Yeah, so that is this building
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  Speaker 2: sold out fifty percent sold out. But the company I
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  Speaker 2: run because we are family investment funds and we don't
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  Speaker 2: depend on the cell to finish the property, so we
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  Speaker 2: don't rush out to sell because we want to finish
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: it and to sell at the highest price expected. Whereas
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: when you need money, you sell a quickly early stage
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: of the project to make sure you have the cash,
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: and then you build with the cash you've been given
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: by the clients.
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: How's the like I said, like the land list is
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  Speaker 4: a landleast good question.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: They have like three types of contracts. One that is
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  Speaker 2: called I don't know in English, deliberation is like the
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: mayor of the city says, if you have a project,
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  Speaker 2: I will give you this land. Once you build the project,
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: can make the paperwork so that you can get the
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: official documents. Then you have the lease. This is maybe
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: fifty years, ninety nine years. Once you have a real project,
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: then you can ask for a permanent title. And then
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: you have the permanent title, which is something that you
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: should always ask if you are foreignier, you come from
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  Speaker 2: outside Africa, ask for the official Title's.
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  Speaker 4: The what's the permanent title?
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  Speaker 2: It's like chito fun and it's like it's registered in
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  Speaker 2: the African constitution that it's yours. However, regardless of the president,
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: regardless of the law, it's impossible for anybody to get
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: that land from you, except if it gives you money.
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: In extent, is that only in this country or a
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  Speaker 2: lot of countries. In every notary, whatever, there is a notary,
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  Speaker 2: he has the power because he's a subsidiary of the
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  Speaker 2: state's power, so he can say, okay, we signed together,
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  Speaker 2: it's yours no matter what. That's why always go through
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: even the money you give. Never give it hand to
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: hand to anybody. Even if I sell you an apartment,
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: don't give it to me. Find a notary because legally speaking,
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: he has the required he's required to do due diligence.
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: If he doesn't do it, it's on him.
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: How competitive is this market, like this area, I think
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: with all this coastal property and the appreciation for the
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: land alone, it has to be going up.
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, that car is like an almost island. Contrary
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  Speaker 2: to Ivory cost a bijon, which is a length city,
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  Speaker 2: a bijoint is growing like this exponentially without limits. That
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  Speaker 2: car is constraint to the top of the ocean, so
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  Speaker 2: that everything on this coast is like Miami style, let's
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  Speaker 2: say the coast. Then it's going high, high, high high,
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  Speaker 2: because it's impossible to go to like in Dubai, you
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  Speaker 2: cannot go in the water. So yeah, prices are going high. However,
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  Speaker 2: rented rent are being stable. That's why you have to
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: be careful and start thinking ahead. In in a world
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  Speaker 2: where competition is high, lots of supply, lots of appointments,
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: which are the ones that your tenants will pick the
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  Speaker 2: first and this is where you have to invest.
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  Speaker 3: Are most people more likely to go closer to the
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: water or is it just.
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  Speaker 2: Something let's say, uh, they're going to look at schools
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  Speaker 2: and business districts. In Senegal, water is not something that
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: deep because they are used to it. In Cabo Verde
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: water is not that deep. So but for expats dot
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  Speaker 2: com water is a small factor, but they will not
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  Speaker 2: compromise distance work distance for water.
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  Speaker 3: So how far are within the business district.
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  Speaker 2: Here or something? To know that car is spready split
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  Speaker 2: in to two areas. Where you are in newman as I,
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  Speaker 2: it's the middle that you're in the middle. You can
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: go both ways here you're in Almahdi area. The other
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: side is business district area. So there is its own
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: life here business district, et cetera, and there is its
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: own life over there. It's very rare that you have
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: somebody that lives here and go in the morning works
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: over there. It's like one hour and a half. They're
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: not going to do it. They're going to find a
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  Speaker 2: way to live here. And work here, live there and
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: work there unless you really have to.
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  Speaker 4: So, like, for people, what's the biggest opportunity you think
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  Speaker 4: just in Africa period right now? For like the average
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  Speaker 4: the average person that wants to invest in Africa.
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  Speaker 2: Good question. Well, because of the operation risks, I cannot
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: recommend let's say, agriculture, industry, manufacturing, those are opportunities. The
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: operational risk are too high, So your money is too
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: much at risks. So for me, I will focus on
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: real estates because of let's say the stability and the
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: predictability of it. You invest in farming. If and you
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: don't live here, you have no idea whatever the guy
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: is doing with your money, how serious he is. Is
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: he selling at the right light price, is he producing
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: at the right price his employees, are they being legally contracted,
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: et cetera, et cetera. So I would say for this
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  Speaker 2: confederation it's realistic. Then if you, let's say, come from
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: the US and then you want to come and start
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: to live here, then I would be open to any
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: kind of business. You can go into hospitality. There is
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: an American woman here, she's not an American, but she's
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: stayed in the US along a lot of times. She
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: has two hotels here, they're working. Let's say services. Also,
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: I had lunch today and yesterday at her restaurant in
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: fun She's great, so I do. So hospitality is okay.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: Let's say financial service also is okay. Raising money. If
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: you have the ability to raise us money and bring
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: it to Africa, then you can make a lot of money.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: But again you have to find a way to make
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: this money safe as well. So it's a headache. Also,
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: people say oli in gas, but can the common person
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: going oli in gas? So for me, when you have
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: a fifty k to two hundred k realistic.
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: So for entrepreneurs that are here sen Ago, obviously you studied,
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: you studied in Paris, came here. What does it look
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: like for young entrepreneurs, other people like yourself that are
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: talking to young people here to educate them on the
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: process of real estate.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: Well, I have, for instance, I will take my example.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: I have my platform with my podcasts. And the reason
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: why I wanted to create that podcast is because one
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: of the things in the black community is that there
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: is a shortage of information. It's not that we don't
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: have the resources, It's not that we don't have the
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: opportunity or the skills. There is a shortage of accessing information, succession,
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: how to build your real estate LLC? What you should
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: do when you get your first money, what do you
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: do with it? Do you spend it on let's say
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: expendable goods or do you invest in land, in properties, etc.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: And accessing information in Africa is definitely key, definitely key.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: So more and what platform are doing this, Let's say
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: in Ivory Costs and Senegal also it's starting, some of
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: them in front or so are starting, but we still
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: need more. We need more and more content creator to
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: bring awareness and awareness, bring level of expectations, brings a
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: level of performance when people know that you cannot easily
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: get around their knowledge and let's say lights them. Sounds
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: like another opportunity. Absolutely information what you guys are doing.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: There is a void in what you guys are doing
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: the bridge. But in Africa and America, let's say North
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: America at large has to still be fulfilled.
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah, what do you think this country will be like
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: in ten years? In the whole continent? Like in ten years?
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: What do you how do you think this is gonna
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: look at ten years.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: Let's say the first thing that I want to mention
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: is that at the African continent is a very young continent.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: So anything that has to do with the youth and
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: the next generation, whether it's communication, whether it's technology, whether
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: it's education, whether it's housing, everything that has to do
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: with the young people getting older, it's a big, let's say,
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: mattering topic. Also, the growing of the middle class. We've
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: known a gap between let's say the lesser revenues kind
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: of population and the high high, high revenues. There is
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: a big discrepancy between the two, and now, if we
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: take the example of Ivory costs, this gap is getting
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: smaller and smaller. You have a middle class that is
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: now starting to require services, requiring quality, experience, restaurant close
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: and then they no longer want to only look at
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: the West to say, Okay, I have a little money,
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: I will spend it in Paris. I would spend it
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: in New York. What can I do if I'm a
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: Senegalis and travel to Ivory cost. I'm an Ivory cost
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: and travel to Senegal? What can I have as a product.
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: So the middle class and every service you can do
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: for the middle class is very important. And also what
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: I want to mention is that when you want to
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: invest in Africa, most people, let's say we'll focus on
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: luxury goods, luxury service and only a high level, which
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: is a niche, and it's getting crowded in that niche.
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: What can we do for the middle class? What are
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: the mass market product that I can create for that
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: middle class?
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: When you travel to different countries, you said beneath Clotova
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: Morocco as obviously real estate developer, but also as a consultant. Yeah,
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: what are the things that you're advising them in based
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: on the countries.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: Well, if we focus on real estate, the first thing
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: I would tell my big investors or the states I
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: advice is to run away from ego investment. Let's say
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: real estate and hospitality are huge platform for ego assets.
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: I'm the biggest player in sound, I want the biggest building.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: I'm the biggest prayer in time. I want the biggest tower,
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: even though it doesn't respond to a need. So the
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: first thing I say is make sure you do your
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: due diligence in the market you're going to tackle. I
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: know it's a basic, it seems basic, but you have
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: no idea how much ego investment is big here. So
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: if you want to invest in let's say residential real estates.
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: Where are the schools, where are the work centers, where
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: are the shops? What times does it take to go
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: from this point to the other point? Is it safe?
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: What are the rents? How much did you have to
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: invest to produce that rent? And when you sort out
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: all those questions already, that's a big, big, big investment.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: And also I advise them to focus on people. Again,
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: it seems like a basic but school and education and
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: professionalism is a very paramount stake for Africa. If you
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: want to build your factory, your hotel, your project, an
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: engineering company, construction company, you're going to spend most of
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: your time creating skill, automatization, reporting process. Will spend all
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: your time in the basics, not in defensive stuff of
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: the branding, the naming, the innovations. That's an easy So
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: the last thing I would say is that in Africa,
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: innovation and new ideas, let's say it's okay, But the
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: most important is the quality of your execution. Can you execute?
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: Can you go from point A to point B? Can
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: you gather around you the good guys to work with you?
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: Can you report? Can you follow process? Can you help
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: other people follow process.
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: Execution is key the middle class, like how much? How
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: much does the middle class make?
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: And good question, It's hard to have numbers, let's say,
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: but what I've observed based on my previous occupations is
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: that in let's say, in ivory costs, you can have
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: middle class stalk twinning from one thousand US to even
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: one point five thousand, two thousand, and for ivory costs.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: Then it's it's a nice kind of living. You cannot
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: have access to the best realistate property with that kind
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: of money, but you can have a very good living
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: rent for rent and for everything. I even question that
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: a guy that makes one point five here lives significantly
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: better than a guy that makes one point five in friends,
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: significantly better.
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: US or euros thousand thousand, five hundred dollars.
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, one point five thousand dollars.
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: A month, a month, that's how much money make.
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you can have that, you can live all of that. Yeah, definitely, Yeah, yeah, definitely, yeah, Yeah,
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: imagine that. Let's say the common salaries that you find
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: in restaurants, in the hotels, in construction work is a
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: ground roughly two hundred and two hundred and fifty euros
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: US a month a month, yes, for construction, for construction
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: entry level I mean for waiting tables, entry level jobs.
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: Those are numbers. Yeah, so when you reached one thousand, you.
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: Made one thousand dollars a month. Yeah, a middle class.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: It's hard to define, let's say, because we don't have
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: the right stats numbers. But you're good enough that you
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: can start to invest to save. And that's why you
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: have to be smart, because most people who have salary
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: gap positive salary gap instead of keeping the same lifestyle
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: and the extra is for saving or investing, all of
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: a sudden they change life stiles.
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: How much more do you need to be rich here
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: monthly or just yeah? Somebody? It's like so because I'm
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: asking because yeah, people think a lot. Some people think
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: about moving Africa, okay, and in America they might be
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: middle class, yeah, but here they might they might be rich.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: Right, what is the middle class? It say, salary for
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: New York is crazy, but let's say.
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: Just America America, I would say a hundred thousand dollars.
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: With that kind of money, you're you're well off here.
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: Really?
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, a single person family.
• 21:19
  Speaker 4: I mean you're just saying, like in middle America.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: If you got if you have two household and you
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: make that kind of money, you have a business that
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: can be operated from distance. And then you work from
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: here and you make that kind of money, Yeah, you
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: can invest.
• 21:33
  Speaker 4: You can if you make let's say five thousand dollars
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: a month, Yeah, then you're you're doing good.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you're doing really good. You're wealthy.
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: Now you're not wealthy, but you're doing good.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you're doing good because you have a wealthy class
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: here that I believe is in the same level as
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: the wealthy class wherever you Yeah, in France or in
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: the US. It's not like, let's say common, but you
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: can find some of them.
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: So you said you started in a hospital. I want to
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: reverse engineer. There's somebody right now that's working in hospitality.
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: Maybe at the noon. What were you taking notes on?
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: What were you learning that you're implementing now?
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: Okay, in hospitality, I learned the execution. If you have
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: a group of twenty person that comes to your hotel
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: in twenty minutes, they want their rooms, they don't want
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: to talk to you, they don't want excuses, they're tired,
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: they're hot. You need to deliver. There is an ending
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: time and that is something that helped me a lot
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: to help my team reach that level of demanding expectations
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: that no excuses and when you work in hospitality, no
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: excuses possible. There is a human being that will come
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: to you shout at you, be mad at you. Right now,
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: you cannot invent something, So execution is the first thing. Anticipation, Like,
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: I don't believe that's my philosophy that you cannot have
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: bad employees, but you can have negligent leadership. For example,
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: if you as a leader, you make sure you prepare
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: your team to anticipate, to ask the right question, to
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: implement the right moves, and as well, you make sure
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: you accept the demand that you can respond to. Because
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: some business owner just for the appetite of the revenue,
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: then they will say okay, yes, come in. I can
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: accept you, I can welcome you, but you can't. It's
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: better you say okay, look, I can welcome only fifty
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: of you, not one hundred of you, and do it well.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: Then say okay, come the hundred, and then be shouting
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: at your team because they're unable to perform at one
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: hundred people. You want it to welcome. So leadership and
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: smart and anticipating leadership is key. And lastly, something that
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: is very important is to adapt to many cultures. I
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: think it's overrated to talk about Africa. Now you have
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: North Africa and you have many in North Africa. You
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: have West Africa, and you have many in West Africa,
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: and Central Africa and South Africa, East Africa. When you
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: work in the hospitality, then you see all of those
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: culture combining and working together and you know how to
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: adapt to each and every one of them. So one
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: thing that we should do is to limit our reference
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: and I do it myself also all of the time
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: as Africa and started being more precise and like we said,
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: we say New York Miami, then we need to get
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: in that point where we say dakr abijon Yam, they
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: will be et cetera, et cetera, point taking. But I'm
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: the first one to still also do it.
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: I think that it has power both ways, Like it
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: has power as a collective Africa. Yeah, but it also
• 24:46
  Speaker 4: has power like you said, just not looking at it
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: as as one either. Because for people, when something happens
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: in one place, then it's just like something happens in Congo,
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: then it happens like that's how people are thinking. That's
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: like they don't understand. It's like it could be an
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: eight hour flight. It'll be the same thing. I guess
• 25:05
  Speaker 4: not that happened in Mexico. You will be looking at
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: New York City. That's a very key point.
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: Let me emphasize on something, let's say twenty years ago
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: in hospitality in Africa, let's say Ivory costs, Senegal, Guyania
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: sixty five percent to seventy percent of your travelers where
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: European or North American sixty five to seventy percent. The
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: drawback of that is that they are very sensitive to
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: changes in reputation, changes in landscape, changes in political landscape,
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: et cetera. You hear about COVID, everybody leaves Iboa, everybody
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: leaves political issue, everybody leaves Africa. Now there is a
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: shift were now about sixty percent of your travelers come
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: from Africa, North Africa, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Mali, the Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria,
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: which means that exactly what you say it when a
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: guy from Nigeria hears about the conflict in let's say
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: Lo May is not going to be scared to go
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: to Abijian. He knows the landscape, which is something that
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: is very good for us to have our own autonomous
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: local market that is very very important and it's growing.
• 26:28
  Speaker 4: Now.
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: That's why I'm saying, let's not only focus on luxury goods,
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: let's also learn how to manufacture let's say, mid scale
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: ranch projects or even mass market products.
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: Which which markets do you like outside of the car
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: Obviously you brought up Ivory close is definitely one contrary
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: with just there in Guinea. What market is in West
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: Africa or are there in East Africa as well?
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: You mentioned Iirobi Ben Let's say from a very subjective standpoint,
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: Bena because also I'm from Haiti both my parents, although
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: I've never been, and Bena has been doing a really
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: great work for the light ten years. The president has
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: officially announced that he will leave democratically, and which is
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: a big step for African countries. The African countries are
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: so much in the appetite to develop that when you
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: give them stability, it's kyrocks. So the first gift we
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: should wish for Africa is political stability. Rejan stability and
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: Beinan has shown that and Bena is doing a crazy
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: great work with the new Softel hotel, with the events
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: they do at the end of the year every end
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: of December, which is very very very high demand and
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: great events if you love music. They have also with
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: that where they do the goodom days. Also it's a
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: great work. The city is very clean. And let's say, also,
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: I look at Guyana right now. I know you've been
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: there recently, and also there is a huge appetite to build,
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: to develop and they are very very ambitious. You've talked
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: to Chon I think recently, and is an example of
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: effication of that. Let's say I've been impressed with Morocco.
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: I've been impressed with Morocco. I was in Morocco twenty
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: years ago, fifteen years ago, ten years ago, every five
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: years ago there and I say, what's going on? How
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: are they able to execute that quick their vision? I'm
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: impressed with that, the malls, the hotels, how clean it is.
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: It's not perfect, as you can hear recently. There are
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: some protests and nothing is perfect. But when you look
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: from an outside point of view, I can see from
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: a subjective point of view the progress. Let's say those
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: are the countries I'm looking at right now.
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: Well, thank you man, thank you for taking your time.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: I appreciate you.
• 29:06
  Speaker 4: Thank you for taking your time. Really got a lot
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: of great insight pleasure.
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: And I'm very happy because I have my cousins in
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: the US east Rance, New Jersey, in New York, in Boston,
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: in Miami, and I'm always happy when they ask about
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: Africa and they want to discover their roots because, let's say,
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: twenty years ago, it was not something that was obvious
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: for a Black American to say I'm from Africa. And
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: now I don't know if it's thanks to the AfroB
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: it's thanks to the marketing, thanks to Wakanda, thanks to
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: I don't know, but it's becoming more and more trendy
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: to say I'm from Africa. I don't mind the reason.
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: The key is that we're getting together and the ability
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: for Black African and Black American and Black French to
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: come together as a whole and to collaborate as a
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: high scale without unhealthy competition. That's the main asset that
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: we can wish for us.
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: It's important.
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: Appreciate it, man, pleasure I see, erners. What's up?
• 30:12
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• 30:14
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• 30:25
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• 30:28
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