Search Results

Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger have launched a regional investment bank capitalised at 500 billion CFA francs, about $895 million, according to Business Insider Africa reporting. The aim is to finance infrastructure, energy, and agriculture, while reducing dependence on external donors and funding channels. On paper, $895 million will not transform the Sahel overnight. But the strategic significance is hard to miss. This is a region dealing with security pressure, political realignment, and a complicated relationship with traditional partners. Building a shared financing vehicle is as much about sovereignty as it is about development. Business Insider Africa reported that the initiative is positioned as a pooled resource bank, with support mechanisms including allocating a portion of tax revenues. That detail matters because it signals how the bank might attempt to sustain itself and build lending capacity in a challenging macro environment. For entrepreneurs, the central question is execution. A bank is not impact by declaration. It becomes impact through governance, credit discipline, project selection, and transparency. If the bank funds commercially sensible projects, it can crowd in private capital by signalling stability and readiness. If it funds politically chosen projects without returns, it risks becoming another institution that struggles to recycle capital. The opportunity for SMEs and founders lies in the practical layers underneath large public finance initiatives. Infrastructure and energy projects demand local contractors, logistics providers, security services, equipment leasing, training providers, and supply chains for materials. Agriculture finance opens demand for storage, cold chain, processing, distribution, and digital record keeping for small producers and cooperatives. There is also an entrepreneurship lesson here for the broader continent. As global donor politics shift and capital becomes more selective, African states and regional blocs will keep experimenting with new financing structures. Founders who understand the “public finance ecosystem” will find opportunities that do not depend on venture capital. Smart SEO angle: Sahel investment bank, Mali Burkina Niger regional development finance, financing infrastructure energy agriculture, SME opportunities in West Africa. Advice for African founders and entrepreneurs: learn how money moves in your region. Track the projects this bank prioritises, position your business as a credible supplier, and diversify your client base so you are not dependent on one political cycle. Stability comes from multiple revenue streams, not one headline.

The African Development Fund is one of the least understood but most consequential levers in Africa’s growth story. It is the concessional window of the African Development Bank, designed to finance roads, irrigation, electricity, and resilience in low income and fragile states. When it works, it lowers risk for the private sector. When it falls short, entrepreneurs feel it through weak logistics, high input costs, and limited market access. Reuters reported that the AfDB launched a donor pledging push aiming for $25 billion for the next replenishment cycle, against a backdrop of softer US engagement, including uncertainty after a previously withheld pledge. Then came the reality check. Reuters also reported that AfDB raised $11 billion for the ADF, higher than the prior cycle’s $8.9 billion but well below the $25 billion ambition. The story included a meaningful development: 19 African countries became first time donors, signalling a push for deeper African ownership of the continent’s concessional financing base. For founders, the key point is not donor politics. It is what concessional capital does to your market. A funded road reduces distribution costs. Electrification expands operating hours. Irrigation stabilises supply for agro processors. These are not abstract wins. They are margin expansion for SMEs. There is a second point founders often miss. DFIs spend through contractors and programmes, which creates a procurement economy. If you run a construction adjacent business, a monitoring and evaluation firm, a training business, a community engagement agency, or a software platform that helps manage projects, you can sell into this ecosystem. But you must operate with institutional discipline: audited accounts, documentation, and the patience to manage slow sales cycles. Smart SEO angle: African Development Bank ADF replenishment, low cost lending Africa, infrastructure funding impact on SMEs, DFI procurement opportunities for African businesses. Advice for African founders and entrepreneurs: build for the economy you want, but sell to the economy you have. Track ADF funded projects in your country, partner with prime contractors, and package a clear offer that improves delivery speed, safety, reporting, or cost control. In 2026, credibility will beat charisma.

Kenya’s $311 million transmission agreement is the kind of deal founders should care about even if they never build in energy. Because electricity is not a background input for business in Africa. It is a growth constraint. When power is unstable, SMEs lose production hours, cold chain businesses lose stock, digital companies lose uptime, and every entrepreneur pays an invisible tax through diesel and downtime. According to Reuters, Kenya signed the deal with Africa50, a pan African infrastructure investor, and India’s Power Grid Corporation to develop two high voltage transmission lines and substations, with the state owned Kenya Electricity Transmission Company acting as contracting authority. The structure includes building, financing, and a long term operating period, reflecting Kenya’s broader push to use public private partnership models in a high debt environment. For founders, the impact is practical. Better transmission can reduce technical losses, support grid stability, and help integrate renewable generation into the network. That translates into fewer disruptions, more predictable costs, and a stronger case for investment in light manufacturing, warehousing, data services, and agribusiness processing. This is how economies unlock “boring growth,” the kind that creates steady cash flows and jobs. There is also a second order opportunity that many SMEs miss: procurement. Projects of this size typically pull in subcontracting for civil works, transport, safety, security, catering, local materials, surveying, monitoring, and community engagement. The businesses that win are not necessarily the biggest. They are the most prepared. They understand procurement requirements, have clean documentation, can deliver to standards, and can survive longer payment cycles. Kenya’s policy context matters too. Reuters notes that critics of PPP expansion worry about transparency and future liabilities. That is a reminder for founders building around government projects: do not build a business that only survives when politics are favourable. Build capabilities that translate to corporate clients as well. Smart SEO angle: Kenya power transmission deal, Africa50 infrastructure investment, PPP energy projects in Kenya, SME opportunities in power sector supply chain. Advice for African founders and entrepreneurs: treat infrastructure headlines as pipeline intelligence. Build a list of likely contractors and suppliers now, package your offer clearly, and get your compliance paperwork ready before tenders become crowded. Being early is a competitive advantage.

Aliko Dangote has never been subtle about scale, but his latest message is less about size and more about ownership. In the middle of a heated public dispute over fuel imports and regulatory priorities, he has doubled down on a framing that resonates with everyday Nigerians: this is not just a refinery, it is a national wealth engine, and Nigerians should be able to own a piece of it. The business story sits inside a larger Nigerian reality. Africa’s biggest oil producer still spends billions importing fuel, partly because local refining has historically underperformed. Dangote’s refinery was built to change that equation. When local production and local policy align, downstream industries grow: logistics firms move more volume, manufacturers gain more predictable supply, and SMEs reduce exposure to price shocks that come from import bottlenecks. That is why his plan to list shares matters. Dangote has said he intends to proceed with listing the refinery and has discussed structuring shareholder returns in US dollars, a powerful hook in a market shaped by currency volatility. If executed credibly, a listing could expand domestic participation and deepen Nigeria’s capital markets by pulling more retail and diaspora investors into productive industry, not just real estate or short term trading. But this is also a test of governance. Dangote’s accusations against the regulator centre on one claim: cheap imports can be used to undermine local refining economics. The regulator disputes output and supply arguments. For founders, the lesson is not to pick sides, but to read the signal: in Africa’s largest economies, regulation can move markets as much as innovation does. Where do SMEs fit? Mega projects create “industrial gravity.” Refineries need maintenance ecosystems, safety contractors, spare parts supply chains, industrial catering, transport services, compliance training, packaging, and procurement systems. The winners are rarely the loudest startups. They are the businesses that become reliable suppliers and build a track record that travels across sectors. Smart SEO angle for Pan African Voice readers: Nigeria industrialisation, Dangote refinery listing, SME opportunities in oil and gas supply chains, local manufacturing competitiveness. Advice for African founders and entrepreneurs: build an “adjacent” business with institutional discipline. Pick one specific problem big industry will always pay to solve, then document your quality, delivery timelines, and compliance. In volatile markets, trust is the strongest moat.

In a career that spans engineering, energy markets, and enterprise building, Nosakhare Tunde Oni has made clarity his competitive advantage. As a Business Development and Growth Supervisor at Africa’s leading energy conglomerate, he drives expansion and market entry across East Africa. The role is technical and commercial in equal measure, and it suits a strategist who thrives at the point where systems, people, and scale meet. To his more than two hundred thousand followers, he has become a steady voice for disciplined thinking and structured execution in a region where ambition often outruns operating models. Foundations and Training Tunde Oni studied Petroleum Engineering at Covenant University before earning a degree in Energy Management from Robert Gordon University. He added a certification in behavioral analysis through the John Maxwell Leadership Team, a signal that leadership and culture is as important to his craft as economics and engineering. Across more than a decade in oil and gas in Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, and Côte d’Ivoire, he has rotated through upstream, midstream, and now downstream activities. The cumulative lessons are simple and powerful.  “Ideas matter, but systems decide outcomes”. From Insight to Enterprise Those lessons did not stay in the boardroom. He co-founded The TALAR Company to scale culturally relevant mental health solutions across Africa and now advises organizations on growth, brand strategy, and digital positioning. He has written “Treasure Map: Exploring Africa’s 54 Hidden Gems”, a call to look beyond headlines to the real assets and opportunities that can be shaped into durable value. The line that connects this work is his insistence that Africa’s greatest resource is not natural endowment but human capacity. “ If you can teach people to think critically and act strategically, he argues, you change economic trajectories”. The Spark and the Problem Statement The spark for his mission was frustration. He had seen bright people and brave ideas stall for preventable reasons. Meetings without clarity. Projects without milestones. Ventures built on slogans rather than systems. He began sharing practical playbooks from his day job and his study of business growth. What started as notes for a small circle grew into frameworks, ventures, and communities built around a single proposition. “Africa does not lack talent or potential. It needs structure and the discipline to execute at standard.”  Operating in East Africa In Kigali, where he is now based, that proposition is being tested in live markets. Downstream energy is operationally demanding. Supply reliability, margin discipline, compliance, and logistics vary by country and even by corridor. Tunde Oni’s remit is to orchestrate growth in this environment. It requires the capacity to read policy signals, the patience to build partnerships, and the judgment to allocate resources over long horizons. The work rewards long term thinking, and it has given him a platform to teach it. Order a copy today: https://selfany.com/treasuremap A Playbook for Builders There is also a clear narrative strategy. Through speaking, consulting, and writing, he applies the same principles that guide his project work. Start with a precise definition of the problem. Build a system that converts insight into action. Measure relentlessly. His online content mirrors those steps, favoring clarity over theatrics. The tone is sober and practical, the kind of counsel that compounds when applied consistently. It is a style that aligns with an audience of founders, operators, and rising professionals who want fewer slogans and more structure. Three Operating Principles Three ideas recur in his thinking and practice. The first is that strategy is a habit, not an event. In his view, too many teams treat strategy as an annual document rather than a daily discipline. The second is that culture is a system of behaviors, not a poster on a wall.He leverages his behavioural training to help leaders turn culture into a competitive advantage; something measurable, teachable and scalable. The third is that execution is a design problem before it is a willpower problem. If the process is unclear, even talented teams will underperform. A Reframe for the Diaspora His influence is not limited to operators inside the continent. For the diaspora, he offers a reframing. Africa is not a cause to support, it is a market to build. The path from potential to performance runs through the same drivers everywhere. Competence. Systems. Compounding. He uses storytelling to restore confidence in that path and to demonstrate that credible, repeatable progress is possible when strategy meets discipline. The Analyst’s Mindset Tunde Oni’s personal texture matters too. He reads widely and gravitates to detective and legal dramas because they reward careful reasoning from multiple angles. It is a small detail that fits the larger portrait. This is a builder who trusts processes, insists on evidence, and resists single story explanations. The result is a public voice that is inspiring without becoming grandiose as well as demanding without becoming cynical. Takeaways For ambitious readers, the takeaways are practical. Use clarity as an operating principle. Define value creation in specific terms and teach your teams to think critically about the steps that lead there. Build systems that survive surges, setbacks, and staff changes. Choose a time horizon long enough for compounding to matter. Invest in culture as a set of repeatable behaviors. Then communicate the plan and execute it with consistency. Nosakhare Tunde Oni’s stated mission is to help build the Africa that builds the world. It is a high bar, but his route to it is resolutely grounded. Teach people to think well. Organize for execution. Aim for long term relevance rather than short term noise. In boardrooms from Kigali to Lagos and across the digital communities he serves, that message is finding an audience. The promise is not that transformation will be easy. It is that transformation is a system and systems can be built. About Nosakhare   Full name: Nosakhare Tunde-Oni Origin: Nigeria Links: linkedIn  |  Instagram   Website: https://www.nosatundeoni.com/

When the news arrived that Rise had cleared the bar for Oscar consideration, it was not a red carpet moment. It was a flurry of messages between Victoria Falls, Harare and Los Angeles, a small team realising that a story born beside a rubbish dump in Zimbabwe now sat inside the same awards process that shapes global film careers. For a country whose cinema has long worked at the edge of international visibility, this was more than a feel good headline. It was a signal that the ecosystem is capable of producing work that meets the most demanding global standards. ( herald ) Oscar qualified does not mean nominated. It means the short film has met strict eligibility rules, usually through selection and awards at recognised festivals, and can now be considered for the Academy Awards live action short category. In the case of Rise, written and directed by Jessica J Rowlands and produced by Joe Njagu, the path ran through a Tribeca premiere, where it became the first Zimbabwean film ever selected, and through wins such as the Children Resilience prize at Indy Shorts that conferred qualifying status. The film itself is disarmingly simple. A boy named Rise lives on a landfill outside Victoria Falls and pushes his way into the life of a withdrawn boxing coach, demanding to be trained. The relationship that follows is a study in dignity, mentorship and the hunger to be seen, carried by performances from Tongayi Chirisa and child actor Sikhanyiso Ngwenya and shot with a stark, physical sense of place. For African and diaspora creators, the significance lies in the combination of elements. Rise is rooted in a very local reality yet crafted with a discipline that travels. It comes from a director whose life crosses London, Victoria Falls and Los Angeles, working with a largely Zimbabwean team and an African cast, then leveraging top tier festivals as the bridge into the Academy process. ( Rise ) This moment arrives after decades in which films like Jit, Mind Games, Kushata Kwemoyo and Gonarezhou proved that Zimbabwe could tell compelling stories but rarely reached the centre of global awards conversations. ( Wikipedia ) The risk is that Rise becomes an isolated triumph rather than the start of a pipeline. The industry still faces fragile financing, limited distribution and an uneven policy environment. For founders and professionals watching from across Africa and the diaspora, three lessons stand out. First, deeply local stories can have global reach when they are executed with uncompromising craft. Second, strategic use of festivals and prizes is not vanity, it is route to market in creative industries. Third, national firsts are leverage points. They can be used to push for better funding structures, training programmes and co investment vehicles at home. Rise will not fix Zimbabwean cinema by itself. What it can do is prove that the distance between a dump site in Victoria Falls and the Academy screening room is no longer unimaginable, and that disciplined storytelling combined with smart strategy can carry African voices much further than many assume.

On a humid evening beside Dubai Marina, it is easy to spot the visitors who are not just there for the skyline selfies. They walk slower, asking brokers for service charge breakdowns, checking rental listings on their phones, comparing yields with what they know back home in Lagos, Nairobi or London. For a growing number of Africans and diaspora professionals, Dubai property is no longer just a holiday fantasy. It has become a serious question of strategy. Is this still a smart way to protect and grow capital, or is Africa’s new love affair with Dubai arriving late in the cycle. Dubai real estate has been built on a simple promise. Foreign buyers can own property outright in designated freehold areas, with clear land registry, transparent title deeds and a currency that is pegged to the United States dollar at a stable exchange rate. ( Bayut ) For investors from markets where land records are messy and currency swings can wipe out returns, that combination is powerful. Since the global financial crisis, Dubai has repeatedly reinvented its skyline and has positioned its property market as an international asset class. Research from the EU Tax Observatory suggests that foreign nationals now hold around 43 percent of the total value of residential property in the city, with foreign ownership growing by roughly 20 percent between 2020 and early 2022. ( Eutax ) African buyers are part of this wave and some analyses already describe them as a rising force in Dubai transactions. For African and diaspora investors, three forces define the opportunity. The first is income. Dubai continues to offer rental yields that compare favourably with other global cities. Data from independent research houses suggests that average apartment yields in late 2024 were around seven to eight percent, while villas delivered about five percent. ( Cavendish Maxwell ) Deloitte reports that residential sales prices rose about 20 percent in 2024, while rents climbed roughly 19 percent, driven by population growth and limited supply in key districts. ( Deloitte ) Add the fact that Dubai currently levies no ongoing property tax, no capital gain tax on disposal and no tax on rental income, and the appeal for yield focused investors becomes obvious. ( Elan Real Estate ) For an African professional earning in dollars or pounds, a well located apartment in Dubai can function as a hard currency income stream, a hedge against political risk at home and a lifestyle option when travel is needed. The second force is residency. Property is no longer just an asset class in Dubai. It is a gateway to presence. A property worth at least 750 thousand dirhams can qualify the owner for a three year investor residence visa, subject to conditions such as minimum equity if there is a mortgage. ( Dubai Land Department ) At the two million dirham mark, investors can apply for the ten year golden visa, which allows long term residency and the ability to sponsor close family members. ( DLD كيوب ) For African founders who travel frequently to meet partners, funders and clients, this stability can be worth as much as the rental yield. It can also be a strategic base for children’s schooling, personal healthcare and access to wider markets across the Middle East, Europe and Asia. The third force is access. Freehold zones keep expanding and now cover a wide range of communities, from downtown towers to family suburbs and new waterfront districts. ( Off Plan Projects ) Africans are not restricted by nationality. They can buy directly in their own name or through approved holding vehicles, including companies in financial free zones like the Dubai International Financial Centre or Jebel Ali, provided those entities meet regulatory conditions. ( Mbany Real Estate ) For diaspora entrepreneurs who already operate regional companies, this makes it possible to integrate Dubai property into a wider corporate structure for estate planning, financing and cross border tax efficiency, with proper professional advice. There are already visible patterns in how African investors are using these levers. Some high income professionals in West and Southern Africa buy small city centre apartments as buy to let assets, while keeping their primary homes in Accra, Johannesburg or Harare. Others in the diaspora, particularly in Europe, treat Dubai villas as part lifestyle asset, part asset protection, shifting a portion of their net worth from jurisdictions with higher tax and inheritance scrutiny into a market that offers both privacy and global connectivity. The most strategic founders use Dubai homes as operating bases, hosting investors, partners and teams during short sprints while their main operations stay anchored on the continent. However, the opportunity sits alongside real tension. The same boom that has delivered strong returns has also stretched affordability and introduced new risks. Financial press reports describe a market that has logged nearly five consecutive years of price growth and is now feeling strain, especially in the mass apartment segment. Analysts note that tens of thousands of new units are scheduled for completion between 2025 and 2027, and that speculative flipping of off plan units is already slowing as buyers become more cautious. ( Financial Times ) Rents have risen sharply, and stories of middle income families squeezed by landlord power and rising service charges are now common. ( Financial Times ) The peg of the dirham to the dollar stabilises the currency but also means local borrowing costs move in step with United States interest rate decisions, which can quickly change the attractiveness of leverage. For African and diaspora investors, the practical question is not whether Dubai is attractive. It clearly is. The better question is under what conditions it is attractive for a specific person or company. That starts with clarity of purpose. An investor who wants pure income should run conservative scenarios that assume lower rents, longer vacancy and modest price corrections, and still see acceptable yields after service charges and financing costs. Someone focused on residency and mobility should ask if the property is in a location they can realistically use and if the golden visa or investor visa aligns with their wider life plans. Africa's should treat Dubai property as part of a portfolio, not a replacement for investment at home, and should make sure their advisers understand both jurisdictions. Dubai will continue to send a strong signal to African capital in the coming years. Those who listen carefully, distinguish short term hype from structural advantages and align their decisions with real strategy rather than fear of missing out will be better placed to turn its skyline from a distant dream into a disciplined asset.

When Strive Masiyiwa walked journalists through a chilled data hall on the outskirts of Johannesburg this year, the story was not the blinking lights. It was the promise behind them. His company Cassava Technologies had just announced a partnership with Nvidia to build what they call the first AI factory in Africa, a facility packed with thousands of advanced graphics processors designed to turn local data into intelligence at scale. For a continent that has mostly consumed artificial intelligence services built elsewhere, the move raises a sharp question. Is this simply a prestige project, or the foundation of a different digital power balance for African economies. To understand the stakes, it helps to be precise about what an AI factory is. Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang uses the term for a new kind of data centre that does not just store or transmit information. It is tuned end to end for AI workloads, from high performance chips and high speed networking to specialised software that trains and serves models. In his words, every company will eventually operate a physical factory that makes its products and an AI factory that produces the digital intelligence behind those products. In practice, that means a facility where raw data enters and trained models, predictions and automated decisions come out, much as raw material enters a traditional plant and finished goods leave. Masiyiwa’s play is to build that kind of capability inside Africa rather than at the edge of the continent in far away cloud regions. In March 2025 Cassava announced that it would upgrade its data centres with Nvidia AI supercomputers to create a powerful and secure facility in South Africa, with further sites planned in Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt and Morocco. Public reports suggest a planned network of five AI factories with a total investment of around seven hundred and twenty million dollars and an initial installation of about three thousand Nvidia processors in Johannesburg, most of which are already reserved by developers and researchers. The first force behind this project is the African compute gap. Most serious AI training today relies on large clusters of specialised processors located in North America, Europe or parts of Asia. African researchers and start ups have had to rent capacity in these distant regions, which drives up cost, increases latency and raises complex questions about data protection. Several studies and policy papers have warned that without local high performance computing, African innovators will remain tenants in someone else’s digital real estate. Cassava’s AI factory does not solve this gap by itself, but it begins to close it. By putting modern Nvidia infrastructure on the continent and selling access as a service, the company changes what is technically and financially possible for local teams that want to train language models, computer vision systems or recommendation engines on African data. The second force is data sovereignty. African hospitals, banks, retailers and governments sit on sensitive information that cannot simply be shipped abroad for model training without regulatory and ethical concerns. The Cassava announcement emphasises that the AI factory will allow customers to keep data within African borders while still benefiting from cutting edge AI capacity. A later partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation explicitly links this to civil society and social impact, with a plan to give non profit groups, universities and public sector bodies access to the same infrastructure for work in health, education and climate resilience. If the model works, African institutions gain a place to store and process their data under local legal regimes while still engaging global technical partners. The third force is industrial strategy. AI factories are not just technical assets. They are geopolitical infrastructure, comparable to ports, power plants or cable landing stations. Nvidia is backing similar projects in Asia and other regions, often in partnership with manufacturers or cloud providers that want to anchor whole ecosystems around their facilities. ( NEXTDC ) In Africa, Cassava is positioning itself as the neutral digital backbone that ties together fibre networks, data centres and AI compute. That puts the company in direct conversation with global cloud giants and development finance institutions that are racing to fund digital public infrastructure across the continent. What does all this mean for founders and executives in practical terms. It changes the constraints at the base of the stack. A health start up that wants to train a model to read chest X rays from Kenyan hospitals no longer needs to move those scans to a server farm in Europe, which simplifies compliance and may unlock new research partnerships. An agritech company can experiment with crop disease models that use local languages and agronomic data without worrying that every training run will burn through a budget priced in foreign currency. A bank can explore fraud detection models that rely on regional patterns while keeping customer data inside the continent. None of this is automatic. It depends on pricing, reliability and how effectively Cassava and its partners work with local developers. But the menu of realistic options becomes broader. There are serious tensions to manage. Massive AI facilities consume power and water, and South Africa already faces grid instability. If the AI factory draws on fossil heavy energy, it risks deepening climate vulnerability in the name of digital progress. If capacity is locked up by large foreign platforms or a handful of corporate clients, the promise of democratised access will ring hollow. There is also the strategic risk that African firms become dependent on a single foreign supplier for core compute, in this case Nvidia, even as they try to escape dependence on distant cloud regions. For African and diaspora decision makers, the smart response is neither uncritical celebration nor cynical dismissal. It is to treat the AI factory as a new piece of infrastructure and to plan accordingly. That means asking hard questions about governance, energy sources, access rules and pricing. It means building consortia of universities, start ups and corporates that can negotiate as serious customers rather than as scattered small buyers. Most of all, it means thinking clearly about what distinctive African problems and datasets can be turned into defensible products and services once high quality compute is closer to home. The partnership between Strive Masiyiwa and Nvidia will not by itself decide whether Africa is a producer or a consumer in the age of artificial intelligence. It does, however, move the argument from aspiration to hardware and contracts. The leaders who read that signal early and align their strategy to the new reality will have a better chance of shaping the story rather than watching it unfold from the sidelines.

In 2020, as Britain locked down and contracts dried up, a young project manager with Ghanaian roots made a hard pivot. Rather than send out more CVs, Alfred Dzadey  doubled down on a plan he had been quietly building: acquire tired family homes, reconfigure them into high-spec co-living (HMO) spaces, and recycle capital through the Buy, Refurbish, Refinance and repeat model. Five years later, he’s a multi-award-winning property entrepreneur with a multi-million-pound portfolio. Roots, Training, and a Critical Career Inflection Born in 1992 and raised between Ghanaian heritage and British opportunity, Dzadey trained as an engineer and cut his teeth as a contracting Project Manager  at Jaguar Land Rover, an experience that would later shape his disciplined, systems-led approach to deals. The inflection point came in 2020. Dzadey used private investor finance to complete his first HMO conversion, then rolled momentum into subsequent projects, illustrating a classic “BRR” cycle: Buy, Refurbish, Refinance and repeat. Building Real Property Ventures Alfred's business, Real Property Ventures (RPV)  specialises in affordable, high-spec co-living accommodation - a niche that rewards operational detail and regulatory fluency as much as design. Dzadey’s operational edge is understanding leverage - capital, time, and elite talent. He invested in top-tier education from experts like Grant Cardone and applied his corporate playbook for hiring proven operators who’ve done it before to fuel and propel the vision. With this strategic approach, Alfred executes with discipline and a proven blueprint that has compounded his results into a 4 million-pound property portfolio in just three years. Recognition Dzadey’s trophy cabinet includes New Property Investor of the Year (2021)  at the Property Investors Awards - an event judged by long-standing practitioners. One judge framed the bar for entry plainly: “to apply you must be doing above and beyond the ordinary.”  In 2022, he was named Best Entrepreneur – Real Estate (International Business Awards, Stevie Awards) . He was also a finalist  for Young Entrepreneur of the Year  at the Great British Entrepreneur Awards  (West Midlands). Serving the community Alfred regularly hosts mastermind dinners and HMO meet-ups where members workshop live deals, swap playbooks on BRR/HMO strategies. Beyond the room, he positions the group as a community he “wished [he] had when starting,” with accountability and ongoing Q&A to shorten the learning curve. Participants are pointed to practical toolkits, deal analysis, licensing and step-by-step BRR workflows. Alfred's masterminds are a must for those who want to break into the property industry with a clear roadmap to success. Discover more: https://www.realpropertyventures.co.uk/optin-page A Diaspora Lens: Turning Belonging into Blueprints Alfred's story is bigger than property, it’s proof that discipline, grit, and smart systems can rewrite your life. He took the precision of engineering and the drive of the diaspora, then turned them into a community-first blueprint anyone can follow: master your craft, build repeatable systems, and let consistent results earn the trust. His journey from the automotive floor to a recognised property leader shows what happens when relentless execution meets clear intention. About Alfred Full Name:  Alfred Dzadey Origin:  Ghana Podcast: Building a multi-million dollar property empire - Watch Here Follow Alfred on IG:   @ alfred_dzadey Alfred's Business: https://www.realpropertyventures.co.uk/optin-page

When Eric Akoa arrived in Dubai from Cameroon, he had little money, limited English, and no industry contacts - only a clear conviction that he would make a life in modeling. He took survival jobs, from waiting tables to cleaning shifts, and studied the craft in the margins: posture, presence, and professionalism. The years were not glamorous. Akoa has spoken openly about running out of cash and the cascade of setbacks that followed. Yet that stretch forged the attributes that now define him: resilience, discipline, and an unshakable faith. As his confidence and portfolio grew, Akoa began sharing lessons online, part documentation and part playbook for other strivers in the region. The audience followed. Today, his Instagram presence anchors a public narrative that is equal parts model, entrepreneur, and mentor. Breakthroughs and brand trust Akoa’s early Dubai years were defined by grind and grit. Rejections were routine; he recalls three failed attempts to join Emirates cabin crew before the doors finally opened. “I became the face of Emirates Airlines because I turned failure into success and refused to give up,” he says. Once inside the room, he made it count. His portfolio broadened across aviation, energy, sportswear, and luxury retail through collaborations with Emirates, ADNOC, Adidas, and Level Shoes, among others. In 2024, Akoa was selected as a brand ambassador for Chivas Regal and attended the announcement of its global partnership with Scuderia Ferrari HP at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, a gathering of partners, media, and tastemakers on Yas Island. For Akoa, the moment was more than spectacle. It marked another step in a journey built on consistency: evidence of where preparation and persistence can lead. The entrepreneur behind the image Modeling is only one lane. Akoa founded Eric Fit Academy, an online program that demystifies the UAE market for aspiring models with step-by-step guidance, from landing the first booking to sustaining repeat work. “My core reason is to inspire transformation, not only in myself but in those who dare to dream,” he says. “With faith and discipline, it is possible to turn any dream into reality. Modeling became my platform to represent Africa with pride and to show that our stories, faces, and voices belong on every global stage.” Through the academy, that mentorship scales, reaching young Africans across the Gulf and beyond who see Dubai not just as a destination, but as a platform city. Akoa is acutely aware of what his visibility signals. “My greatest fulfillment comes from representing Africa with pride,” he notes. “My journey stands as proof that African excellence knows no borders.” It reflects the region’s evolving casting norms, where diverse faces do not merely appear; they anchor the story. Why his rise matters, especially to the African diaspora For the diaspora, Akoa’s path is a replicable blueprint. Start where you are. Refine your craft. Narrate your value. Build infrastructure, like an academy, so success outlives a single face. The implication is quietly radical: creative careers aren’t luck-led or gatekeeper-bound when competence, consistency, and community align. If you are an aspiring creative across the African diaspora, treat Akoa’s playbook as both mirror and map. Study the industry. Build the habits. Convert experience into systems others can use. That is how personal wins become communal momentum. As Akoa puts it, “Your dreams are valid as long as you remain consistent.” The rest is work and the courage to keep going. About Eric Full name : Eric Akoa Origin : Cameroon Highlights : Model for Emirates Airlines; Chivas Regal ambassador; Founder Eric Fit Academy Podcast : The Mindset That Made Eric Akoa the Biggest Model in Dubai - Watch here Instagram : @ eric.fit _

On Yas Island, where the lights are bright and expectations are higher still, Zidane Kudi’s job is to make the unforgettable feel effortless. As a VIP Experience Manager, he orchestrates moments that earn loyalty and spark stories guests carry home. Off the clock, he is the co-founder of Founders Media  and the builder of a thriving connection business that turns introductions into momentum. The common thread is not glamour, it is service. Kudi’s philosophy is simple and demanding. Give first. Deliver consistently. Let generosity be the strategy. Raised in Cameroon, Kudi carries lessons that do not fade with distance. Humility, hard work and community were not slogans. They were daily practice. When he moved away from home, he faced the standard headwinds of a new country. Limited resources. Unfamiliar norms. Uncertain paths. What he lacked in footprint he compensated for with intent. He listened carefully, learned quickly and concentrated on building relationships that were real. One interaction at a time, he discovered the leverage hidden inside trust. That sensibility anchors his current portfolio. At Yas Island, Kudi designs VIP journeys that blend precision and warmth. He pays attention to detail because details are the difference between a service and an experience. Names remembered. Preferences anticipated. A quiet check in to fix a small problem before it becomes a memory. It is an operational discipline expressed through human touch, and it has earned him a reputation for reliability in a field where promises are plentiful and delivery is rare. Founders Media extends the same standard into brand storytelling. Rather than chase trends, Kudi and his collaborators focus on truth well told. The work begins with listening. What does the brand stand for. Who does it serve. What utility can it offer that people will value tomorrow as much as today. The output is strategy and content designed to build durable connection, not just a burst of attention. It is a long game of trust that many founders talk about and fewer commit to. His third lane, the connection business, is the most personal expression of his mission. Kudi uses the network he has earned to solve real problems for real people. A founder needs a manufacturing partner. A creative needs a decision maker in the room. A team needs a moderator who can hold the space with grace. He is the bridge. This is not transactional matchmaking. It is curation built on reputation. When he vouches for someone, it carries weight because he protects the integrity of the circle. Underpinning all of it is a clear why. Kudi wants to inspire, connect and create impact. He knows what it feels like to start from scratch, and he knows how much difference one introduction can make. His benchmark for success is not the headline. It is the number of people who moved a step closer to their own goals because of something he set in motion. In that sense, his career is a compounding asset. Every act of service increases the trust that enables the next act of service. There are takeaways here for ambitious readers. First, treat connection as a craft. It requires intention, patience and follow through. Send the thank you note. Remember the detail. Be the person who shows up when there is nothing to gain. Second, build experiences, not just deliverables. Whether you are shipping software or hosting a client, design the journey end to end and own the outcome. Third, anchor your story in service. Audiences and customers have sharp instincts. They can feel the difference between performance and purpose. Kudi’s work speaks to a larger narrative for Africa and the diaspora. In his VIP role he embodies values of hospitality, professionalism and heart that reflect the best of Cameroon. Through Founders Media he helps African creatives and entrepreneurs articulate their value with clarity and pride. Through his connection engine he moves ideas and opportunities across borders, proving that impact can be local and global at once. He is not leaving home behind. He is carrying it forward. Asked what he most wants readers to hear, Kudi returns to the power of story. “ Your story matters, especially the difficult chapters. The obstacles are not detours. They are training Consistency, generosity and faith are not soft virtues. They are operating principles that produce results. Lead with heart and the right doors will open.” In a world crowded with noise, Zidane Kudi is building signal. He does it by giving more than he takes, by caring about the small things that become the big things, and by insisting that success is measured in the lives you lift. It is a demanding way to work. It is also a reliable way to win. About Zidane    Full name : Zidane Kudi Origin : Cameroon Links: linkedIn  |  Instagram   Website: https://founder-media.com/

Ackim Bukhosi Tshuma grew up believing that confidence could change the arc of a life. That belief anchors House of Ackim Cosmetics, the beauty and lifestyle brand he founded to celebrate individuality and encourage self expression. Tshuma is South African by origin and creative by design, a founder who treats product as a vehicle for purpose. His core thesis is disarmingly simple. Beauty is not camouflage. Beauty is permission for people to show up as themselves. The company’s message flows from that idea and informs every choice that sits behind the brand. From Small Tests to a Coherent Brand The early work was practical and patient. Tshuma began by experimenting with scents and base formulas while teaching himself the mechanics of production and the language of branding. He built a feedback loop with customers, refined the story, and linked products to a broader promise of confidence. Those incremental cycles gave the project durability. They also taught Tshuma how to combine creativity and structure. He learned to translate vision into a product line and a product line into a platform that now gives young people in his orbit a reason to believe in their own capacity. Community First, Always Before cosmetics came community. Tshuma cut his teeth organizing talent shows and fashion events that put a microphone in the hands of young creatives. That work matured into Creative Minds Talents House, a vehicle for mentorship and visibility. The focus was consistent. Create chances for ambitious people to practice in public, find an audience, and turn promise into progress. The lesson that founders will recognize is that distribution often begins with service. Build trust in a real room and you earn the right to build a brand that will travel beyond it. That trust is now part of House of Ackim’s equity. Purpose Meets Product House of Ackim Cosmetics positions beauty as an instrument of agency. Tshuma wants customers to see themselves and to choose themselves. The brand’s launches have doubled as statements of intent. Earlier efforts included a fragrance line linked to community programming, an example of how commerce can underwrite culture when the goal is clear and the execution is disciplined. The through line is empowerment. When customers buy, they also buy into a message that confidence is a skill that can be practiced, and that self belief is a foundation for bigger goals.  Building a Media Narrative Tshuma understands that brands today live as much in stories as in stores. He has invited audiences into his creative life through on screen projects that document the work and the costs behind a public image. That storytelling has created another distribution channel for the House of Ackim message and has widened the circle of young people who see themselves in his journey. The media footprint is not vanity. It is pipeline. It moves attention toward product and funnels aspiration toward action, reinforcing the idea that craft, character, and consistency are assets that compound. Impact in Africa and Across the Diaspora The practical effects show up in three places. First, pride. House of Ackim treats African beauty as a standard, not a niche, and puts that standard in front of audiences who are hungry for credible representation. Second, opportunity. Creative Minds Talents House gives young people stages, mentors, and visibility that open doors to paid work. Third, example. Tshuma’s lived story models a path from small experiments to a functioning enterprise that allocates part of its energy to community outcomes. The combination signals to the diaspora that ambition and service are not in conflict. They are mutually reinforcing. Lessons for Builders There are clear takeaways for founders and operators. Start with a precise why and let it govern product decisions. Build a community that will tell you the truth and iterate in public until the product and the promise match. Treat brand as a long term asset that lives in stories, not only in packaging. Design mechanisms that convert sales into social dividends so that purpose is not a tagline but a system. Most importantly, keep the bar for quality high enough that the mission never becomes an excuse. In Tshuma’s case, the mission is the moat because the products deliver. Tshuma speaks of House of Ackim not as a catalog but as a movement. The roadmap blends category depth with cultural reach. More products are expected to sit beside media that continues to demystify creative work. The ambition is to turn confidence into a practice many people can access, whether through a lipstick shade that finally feels like home or a mentoring session that turns talent into progress. The wider prize is narrative power. When African founders own the story, they also own the terms of value, and they create room for the next builder to start, scale, and serve. About Ackim   Full name : Ackim Bukhosi Tshuma Origin : Zimbabwe