After finishing my undergraduate
studies in Bangalore India, I came back to Africa to my local town of Dar es
salaam. I thought since I have enough knowledge in IT I believed I was ready to
take challenge and start my own small ICT consultancy firm in Dar es Salaam.
It didn’t work since in Dar es Salaam it was difficult to survive the
competition with the big boys in the industry so I decided to go to the
developing capital city of Tanzania, Dodoma town where I started my business
with my friend a small consultancy firm which deals with giving ICT support and
the same time selling stationaries to the local colleges and institutions in
the town. All this time while in the
business I learn a lot of things about the relationship between being ICT
professional and ICT entrepreneur, what we think and discuss in our meetings or
career developments seminars is completely difference with what happening on
the ground.
First
you should learn to think like Africans, Africans will only invest when we have
already witnessed on the success of the projects. We always want to look were
the project was conducted first before convincing us the project will work. Creating
good portfolio is very important for any investor aiming at doing business with
Africans. Remember paper works and good presentation about the business
proposal will not work unless you have done the work once. Personally I have witnessed
so many people denied the offers to do government projects since they lack
proof of conducting exactly the same project somewhere else.
The
second thing you should know about doing technology projects in Africa is that
the government controls everything, things are different compared to Asia and
Europe where by you will have IT giants companies with large capital and
incomes running by themselves and dealing with major investors on their
business. In Africa when you want to target a reasonable audience then your focus
should be the government authorities I have done business and I know take it
from me when an individual set a deal of one million Tanzanian shillings the
government will take the same deal by ten million or more just ensure the
execution of the projects goes well and finish your project in time.
Most of
the time is not about what your company is able to do is how you sale yourself.
If you have a good company with good portfolio and experience in the work but
you don’t push in to get the tender from the authorities forget about having a
chance to get that deal. That’s why most of the companies from Asia especially
China get a lot of opportunities from African governments compared to other
companies since they are persistent and always learn to blend in with the local communities before going
for their exact aim.
Take
your time and think about the community first don’t just think about your
business profit. Look at the impact of your business to the local people.
Average African would rather spend money to buy food and clothes rather than
buying gadgets or cover expensive mobile phone tariffs. Most of the successful
mobile phone companies in Africa have learn the relationship between the
audience and mobile tariffs. Don’t waste your time selling your products with
high price sell it in lower price but make sure you cover the larger audience
and for sure you will get your cost of production back.
Came up
with ideas which will target rural areas and people living in lower class by
realizing the level of their technology usage, don’t do a silly mistake of
developing application or conduct a projects that works in P.C or a smart phone
while you know an average mobile phone user in Africa would just use the phone
for two things texting and calling that’s it. That’s why the USSD applications
these days are very successful in Africa since they target SMS and Africans
like texting SMS.
Learn
from the locals, anywhere you go in Africa the strength of the families and
traditional relationships is what runs business, that thing called
professionalism hardly exists and that is the harsh reality. Learn to treat
your clients as your blood relatives understand them, integrate with them and
make sure you share your experience with them and then only you will be able to
understand the challenges that will be facing your business.
You
should learn about the priorities of Africans in their daily life that should
be your base line of your work or project. Ask yourself dumb questions like
“are they really ready to spend this amount of money to buy this?” before you
do any projects or release any product in Africa since in Africa people only go
for luxuries when the basics are fulfilled.
I hope this will be helpful for giants
companies want to invest in Africa and for local small entrepreneurs trying to
target the African audience as their main customers and buyers of their
products and ideas.