I Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself!

Everyone once in a while, I come across an article that I can really appreciate. I feel no need to summarize or even comment much on it, because I couldn't have said it better myself! The following outlines why the lack of support given to students in African Universities will prevent them from developing and producing successful unique ventures.

Africa: Why Continent May Never Produce a Facebook
Mfonobong Nsehe

Randall Pinkett is a nice guy. You've probably heard of him. He's the savvy Rhodes MBA scholar, self-made millionaire entrepreneur, author, coach and motivational speaker who beat 17 other contestants to clinch the plum job in the fourth season edition of Real Estate tycoon, Donald Trump's famed and widely syndicated 'Apprentice' reality TV show.

As an author, Randall has written a book that would definitely be a student entrepreneur's delight. It is a very practical how-to guide for aspiring student entrepreneurs on how to successfully launch and run a profitable business while still in school. The title of the book is 'Campus CEO: The student entrepreneur's guide to launching a multi-million dollar business.'

In the book, Randall wrote a chapter that I found very interesting. It was on the issue of financing the businesses of student entrepreneurs.

As Randall noted, several universities in the United States and other more-developed countries of the world are very supportive of student entrepreneurs.

Many universities organise annual business plan competitions in their campuses in which students present their business ideas and business plans before a committee of well-established, seasoned and experienced business scholars, analysts and venture capitalists who review the students' prospective business plans.

At the end of the day, based on the strengths and prospects of their respective business plans, winners are selected and these winners stand to win cash prizes ranging from $10,000, $20,000, and in some cases, even as much as $100,000 to boost their start-up businesses.

Even for those students who do not win these University Business plan competitions, a coterie of venture capitalists scout through the business plan entries, eagerly seeking potential ventures to finance. Many big time corporations eventually spring up from these business plan competitions. Elsewhere, venture capitalists consider Universities the best place to find start-up companies that would be the 'Next big thing.'

But let's take a trip down to African Colleges and Universities. Are there any universities at all which are as supportive of student entrepreneurs as to organizing business plan competitions to fund businesses of students which have mega potential?

In the West, universities are eager to support student entrepreneurs in their campuses and even go out of their way looking for students with exceptional business ideas. Due to this kind of support, many big time corporations have sprung up from dormitory rooms in campuses from the United States. Apart from the fact that massive corporations are established, the schools where these ventures are established are instantly propelled to world fame.

Stanford University, for instance will forever occupy a pride of place among the list of the world's most elite Universities considering that companies like Yahoo and Google sprung up from there.

But how about Universities in Africa- Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria or Uganda? Where are you going to find venture capitalists in Kenya or elsewhere in Africa who will be willing to swallow their pride and listen to a student entrepreneur who is armed with nothing but a world-shaking idea? All the brightest ideas need not come from the West alone.

Truth is, many African students also have potential earth-shaking ideas-maybe even bigger than Google, Yahoo, Dell and Napster (all ventures begun by student entrepreneurs), but they are still waiting to see the light of day due to lack of capital. African entrepreneur students equally have business ideas that can grow into a big corporation, change the world and make lots of money.

A close friend of mine in Nigeria once had a crazy technology idea which needed only a few hundred thousand dollars to kick off with. Approaching banks and other so-called 'venture capitalists', he was snubbed extensively, discouraged and told to face his studies. Annoyed and frustrated, he eventually got a study abroad scholarship.

Within six months of staying in Canada, he secured the funding he needed, and as I write, his company's value is in the multi-million dollar range. As much as I know, his financiers have had an almost 200 per cent return on their investment in barely 12 months of operation.

We have such bright student entrepreneurs in Africa. But until African financiers and the self-proclaimed 'Venture capitalists' are easily accessible and listen to student entrepreneurs in our African Universities, Africa may never have its own answers to such mega, internationally famed corporations like Google, Yahoo, TicketAdvantage, CollegeHumor and Facebook which were all the brainchildren of student entrepreneurs.

We need financiers who will believe in and support the dreams of African student entrepreneurs and get those big ideas out of the boxes and into the pages of history. African student entrepreneurs are equally as smart, gifted and visionary and if supported can come up with big, world-changing ideas that would change the world.

And so, will the venture capitalists in Africa please stand up?

I'm Not Mad At Her

A woman in South Africa proved to her estranged husband that he would regret not paying her alimony. And I am not mad at her method. It looks like her husband deserved this public shame!

Results Finally Released in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe has finally released the results of their presidential election. To no surprise, Morgan Tsvangirai won.



Unfortunately, he only won with 47.9% of the vote (to Mugabe's 43.2%), so there will have to be a runoff election. This is why since the elections, Mugabe has been arresting and abusing supporters of the opposition party so that they will not come out to vote in the runoff. Hopefully, the next round of elections will be peaceful and Zimbabwe can finally be freed from a 28 year old dictatorship.

Al Queda in Africa?

Yes. Al Queda is in Africa. Somalia to be exact. And yesterday, the US attacked them and killed their leader.

Aden Hashi Ayro was trained by Afghanistan militants and was behind most of the violence in Mogadishu in an attempt to wipe out Ethiopian troops. Unfortunately, though Ayro is considered to be Al-Queda's leader in Somalia, they have such a strong following, that this is not expected to be a deterrence in their operations.

Hostility Hurts the Needy

Humanitarian aid workers often find themselves torn in hostile situations, where the most needy are often the hardest to reach due to security issues. Yesterday, an aid worker with Save the Children was shot and killed when her convoy was attacked by gunman. Rebels often attack aid fleets in order to steal food, medication, and other supplies, making it difficult for aid workers to reach the most needy. As a result of this fatal attack, Save the Children has suspended their operations in Eastern Chad, indefinitely, and other aid organizations have suspended their operations there for two days. This a region overwhelmed with about 250,000 refugees from neighboring Darfur and over 100,000 displaced Chadians. Unfortunately, though the fatality of this attack was shocking, there have been at least 70 aid agency vehicles hijacked in Chad in the past two years, including the non-fatal shooting of a UNICEF worker.

I Couldn't Have Said It Better, Myself!

I come from a family or farmers. For those who know me, this is definitely hard to believe considering, I am not the "agricultural" type. That's because I don't actually know how to farm, I just come from a family of them. Almost all of my family lives in Cameroon in a rural village and farms for a living. At least, they are supposed to. This is the dilemma. The new generation of children who are at the brink of their adult life do not want to be farmers. They have all moved into the city seeking jobs. But the problem is, there are none. So many of them have either completed school and have useless degrees or have dropped out of school in hopes of finding a job. Either way, they're almost all unemployed. I'm not sure who should take the blame for this issue, but I do know that if I grew up in an agricultural community and country without many job prospects, I would probably focus on farming.
Apparently, the King of Buganda, Kabaka Ronald Mutebi II, agrees with me! There is a great deal of idleness among youth in developing African nations, who move from their rural hometowns to the urban city centers, in search of jobs that don't exist. Once they realize they won't be getting employed anytime soon, they stay in the centers and usually turn to a life of idleness or crime.
I had a friend in Kampala, who realized the gold in the rural areas and hired workers to farm for him! It was a lazy, but smart move.
However, considering today's food crisis, the lack of farmers in predominantly agricultural societies is alarming. It makes no sense for countries with soil meant for growing, who were exploited by the West centuries ago, to be relying on the West to export items that they are equipped to grow themselves in abundance!
I think a healthy medium for youth uninterested in getting their hands dirty on the farm, would be for them to explore scientific ways to make farming easier.

The Holocaust Memorial Museum

I can remember when I was in about 4th or 5th grade and visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum (HMM) in DC. Back then, it was strictly dedicated to the Jewish Holocaust and paid little if any mention to another genocides across the world.
About a month ago my co-workers went to a conference on the current conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo and I was shocked to hear that it took place in the HMM. I was even more shocked when they gave me pamphlets with information about the genocide in Sudan and told me that there were exhibits dedicated to it. I was ecstatic to hear how the scope of the museum had grown.
Apparently, they have also grown to include a mapping program that allows visitors to track genocides across the world. I applaud the Holocaust Memorial Museum for changing the US' understanding of "holocaust" and educating others, especially the many children that visit. Holocausts include and surpass the atrocities experienced by the Jews in Germany and unfortunately, existed before then and continue to exist today.

Where Do The Children Go? Part 2

In a previous post, I asked where African children orphaned due to HIV/AIDS and those abandoned go when extended families are unable to provide for them. Most countries to not have a formal child welfare system set up that facilitates fostering or adoption. As a result, there are a plethora of children relegated to street life.
I was made aware of this problem almost two years ago, while in Kampala. Today, governments are finally making strides to address the problem at hand, which has been intentionally and unquestionably ignored for years.
This article highlights a similar issue I witnessed at Sanyu Babies Home, where many infants are abandoned because they are born to young or poor mothers who are unable or unwilling to take care of them. More children than one might imagine are found abandoned on the side of the road or in pit latrines when they are less than a week old.
Luckily, there are babies' homes set up to care for them, but once they grow into toddlers, there are very few institutionalized structures set up to absorb the number of orphans and abandoned children in these regions.
This issue is compounding, especially since most children are being left without homes and families because of poverty and HIV/AIDS, two seemingly endless cycles.
For children who are able to be reunified with their families, Cameroon has set up rehabilitation and vocational training programs. However, there are thousands more who are abandoned and orphaned as infants and can not be reunified. In a growing world with shifting family structures and accepted responsibilities, it is time for African nations to address the needs of orphans and recognize that villages are no longer willing to raise children and extraneous options need to be considered and established.

Team Work Against China

For some unexplainable reason, China thinks it's a good idea to ship arms to Zimbabwe- a country in the midst of a political conflict, where the president has made it clear that he will use force to sustain power. Thankfully, Zambia, Angola, and South Africa have prevented China from transporting arms to Zimbabwe.
Thank you Africa, for not allowing China to fuel an already brewing violent conflict!

Cooperation is the Only Option

The opposition parties in Zimbabwe have realized that the only way to successfully oust Mugabe out of power is to cooperate and unite as one for the time being. Tsvangirai and Mutambara, Zimbabwe's opposition party leaders, have united to declare control over parliament and demand that Mugabe concede. Mugabe has relegated to imprisoning the opposition in an effort to maintain power for another 28 years, but I feel as though with the support of the international community and unification of the opposition parties, he will not succeed without bloodshed. Hopefully, he will not take it that far. In the past we've seen the need to virtually drive out other dictators who wouldn't give up their throne and this still led to bloodshed. Mugabe, please spare the lives of innocent citizens and step down!