‘Our mission is to encourage intra-African, foreign investments and help SMEs grow’
Since its establishment about two years ago, Footprint to Africa Limited, a leading business and financial news resource and investment bridge company, has continued to disseminate first-rate business and financial news as it breaks across Africa for the benefit of intra-African and foreign investors, even as it has continued to innovate. Just recently, the company launched two initiatives, The Marketsquare Africa and Africa in 10 Minutes. OSITA OPARAUGO, a lawyer with certification in Project Finance and Business Strategy from Harvard, who runs Footprint to Africa and its subsidiaries as managing director/ CEO, spoke to CHUKS OLUIGBO, assistant editor, on these two initiatives, the idea behind Footprint to Africa, the journey so far, and where the company is headed. Excerpts:
What is Footprint to Africa all about?
Footprint to Africa is a business and financial news resource centre designed specifically to educate intra-African and foreign investors about the immense but untapped opportunities in Africa. As a news hub, Footprint to Africa runs strictly business and financial news. It does not report politics, entertainment, sports or fashion. We have Footprint to Africa Investor Service, which is actually our turf, but because we realised that it was very difficult convincing a lot of investors overseas about the opportunities in Africa – everything we told them sounded Greek to their ears – we adopted the media arm so that through it we will give out the right dose of business and investment information from Africa. We recognised that unavailability of information was hindering Africa’s growth, but most times the information was available but the proper dissemination channel was not there. African countries keep saying they want foreign direct investments, but you cannot relax in your respective countries and the investors will come to you; you have to market yourself, you have to take a step further and say, ‘Listen, we are Sierra Leone, we are rich in fishery’, or ‘We’re Democratic Republic of the Congo, we’re rich in diamonds’, or ‘We’re Cote d’Ivoire, we’re rich in cocoa’. You just have to take that step. We realised that some of these foreign investors don’t even know that Africa is not a country but a continent of 54 independent countries. Some don’t know the difference between Democratic Republic of the Congo and Congo-Brazzaville, some don’t know the difference between Nigeria and Niger Republic, and some don’t know where Mozambique is. So we took it upon ourselves as a company to incorporate the media arm, Footprint to Africa News, to constantly disseminate the right business and investment news as it unfolds in Africa. We have gone a step further by incorporating an online TV channel that is streamlined via Youtube, ‘Africa in 10 Minutes’. All this is geared towards making information available to those who need it.
At what point did you realise the time was ripe for Footprint to Africa and what was the propelling force?
I worked as a fund manager in the United States of America and I noticed that majority of people we spoke to after the 9/11 attack started talking about Africa. Seven out of 10 investors started talking seriously about going into Africa. As Africans, we quickly put Footprint to Africa together so that we can stand on the gateway and as they come in, we say, ‘Listen, we are from here’. Our slogan on the Footprint to Africa website says, ‘Business news made in Africa by Africans’. It is a lot easier for the investors to understand where we are coming from, believe in us, and work with us when we give them the right business information coming from Africa. So, at that point where virtually every investor we spoke to talked about Africa, we said, ‘Now this is the time to go back to our roots; this is the time to go to Africa to help these investors, and also help build the continent’.
How long has Footprint to Africa been in operation and how would you rate the company’s achievements so far in terms of realisation of the noble objectives for its establishment?
Footprint to Africa has been running for two years. Before Footprint to Africa we had an investor service company that was called Howard and Harlem. But when we saw the need for a news arm and the relocation to Africa, everything culminated in the establishment of Footprint to Africa. So, we want to become your footprint into Africa.
Regarding the second question, to be very honest, I am very proud and extremely grateful to God for the two years Footprint to Africa has been in existence and in operation. I can tell you here that in two years Footprint to Africa has formed strong alliances with about 11 companies in and outside Africa – five in Africa, six outside Africa. Footprint to Africa has partnered with the Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to host the Kinshasa International Investors’ Forum (KIIV) in January, which will focus on five key areas of the Kinshasa economy. Footprint to Africa has held six B2B (Business-to-Business) forums in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa. Most recently, we have recorded a documentary in collaboration with the Sierra Leone Investment Promotion Council. It’s up on Youtube now and it’s called ‘I Have Seen Sierra Leone’. If you watch that 13-minute documentary it would give you an idea of what Footprint to Africa is all about and why it’s necessary for people to understand that Footprint to Africa, even though it is a privately-owned limited liability company, is designed primarily to run as a support to African governments. We hope that African government will understand where we are coming from and adopt this company because we are poised to do many exploits. In Nigeria, it may be premature to say, but talks are underway with a government agency from the presidency and a commission to do beautiful things in the country as well. On the other hand, our news portal has witnessed over 12.6 million visits in the last 18 months of operation.
Talking about African governments, overall, what has been their response to what Footprint to Africa is doing?
I have just mentioned the government of Democratic Republic of the Congo. After our first and second meetings in Kinshasa, the government of DR Congo understood what Footprint to Africa is positioned for in Africa and they quickly gave us all the cooperation we needed, thanks to the president of DR Congo. We have partnered with Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) after we interviewed the chief executive officer, Mawuena Adzo Trebarh. Congratulations to her, she won the Best Investment Promotion Council CEO in West Africa and the pan-African region; she is doing a very fantastic job in Ghana. They are part of Footprint to Africa, and we have continued to work in alliance with them. If you go on our website you will find a documentary there titled ‘Think Ghana, Make It Happen’. Footprint to Africa has partnered with GIPC to disseminate that information, to let the world know about it. Through our 128 global online partners we have made that documentary about Ghana available to the world. We hope to do more, even though in some countries we have also been greeted with some lukewarm, lackadaisical attitude of very high level government representatives. It is disappointing but we hope that as time goes on they will begin to understand the need to partner with us.
Footprint to Africa recently launched ‘The Marketsquare Africa’ and ‘Africa in 10 Minutes’. Could you educate us about these initiatives?
‘Africa in 10 Minutes’ is designed to help intra-African and foreign investors who are on-the-go to watch on their mobile devices business and investment news as it unfolds in Africa. It is more or less like the Footprint to Africa news platform, just that this one it is in audio-visual format and you can watch it on-the-go. We have a news reader who delivers a weekly recap of all the news that is published on the Footprint to Africa platform. Right now it runs weekly, but in the next six months we hope that it will run daily as a support. After 18 months of operation we realised that about 73.5 percent of our traffic comes from mobile devices. So we came up with ‘Africa in 10 Minutes’ to help business leaders on-the-go to keep abreast of developments.
‘The Marketsquare Africa’, on the other hand, is an innovation born out of so many years of research into how Africa can support the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Africa talks about SMEs a lot, but all of that is in theory. So, in the course of our research we realised that finance was a growth constraint to these SMEs. We realised that there was no platform for these SMEs to interact, to form joint ventures, to form partnerships and grow their businesses in a situation where they have no access to finance. That’s how we started building ‘The Marketsquare Africa’, which is designed to help SMEs interconnect. It’s a platform where joint ventures and business partnerships are formed, it’s a platform where business owners come together to create synergies, join forces and grow together.
How does ‘The Marketsquare Africa’ work?
Let’s say you are a manufacturer in Lagos producing a brand of noodles or seasoning or whatever it is that you produce, and you are looking to expand your market into Ghana, Kenya, Cameroon, or maybe even within Nigeria you want outlets in Abuja, Owerri and Kano but you don’t have the finances to do all that. To be very honest with you, you don’t even need money to do that. If you go to the bank, they will ask you for collateral. What if you’re running this company from your father’s house and you have 10 siblings? The Certificate of Occupancy to this house obviously is not in your name and your siblings don’t want to borrow money against the house. You’re stuck. Also remember that over 60 percent of African SMEs are family-owned, which automatically makes it difficult for them to borrow money. All you need to do is go to ‘The Marketsquare Africa’ platform and say, for instance, ‘I am XYZ & Co., I am the manufacturer of XYZ juice, it’s 100 percent fresh from our farm in Ajah. We are looking for distributors in Ghana, Kenya, Aba, Owerri and South Africa’. Let’s say you make motor oil or vegetable oil, and then you package your product nicely and now want agents and distributors in South Africa, Libya, and Egypt. All you have to do is simply come on our platform and post the information and your contact. This time you don’t need to go to any of those countries. People who go on ‘The Marketsquare Africa’ platform will see your listing, contact you and become your agents; you ship your products to them, they sell and return your money to you and take their share. What you have done is that you have expanded into those countries without going there, without spending money in those countries as well because those who contacted you already have their outlets. So, as the minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Enelamah, put it at our launch, The Marketsquare Africa is an idea whose time has come.
There may be issues of trust along the way. Some people may post non-existent businesses on The Marketsquare Africa while some may want to use the platform to defraud others. How do you hope to check possible fraudulent activities on the platform?
Like in every other online platform, be it Alibaba, Facebook or any other one for that matter, it is impossible to eliminate fraud 100 percent. We are running a very realistic company. But we have put measures in place to avoid misuse of the platform. So, when you come to The Marketsquare Africa platform and post that you have a plot of land, say, in Ikoyi, Lagos, worth N300 million and that you have approval from the Lagos State government to build a 10-storey hotel on that land, and that you are looking for partners with the needed funding or those in the construction industry to partner with you to realise the project, that’s a fantastic business opportunity and that’s what The Marketsquare Africa is designed for. But your post does not go live immediately on the platform. We have a dedicated team of staff who vet these postings. If it looks bogus, they will contact you for clarifications, maybe ask for some form of documentation; they will verify and authenticate your claims before it goes online. We need to do that verification. However, because we understand how these things work, and with my background as a lawyer, we are not taking the normal business due diligence off the people who come on our platform. We will do everything humanly possible as a company to make sure that our platform is not used as an instrument for fraud. Nevertheless, we will ask people who come on our platform to do their proper business due diligence before they exchange information. There are ways businesspeople will normally do their checks. But again, the good thing about The Marketsquare Africa is that it is not a trading platform. Nobody is buying or selling anything on the platform. Money does not exchange hands on the platform. The Marketsquare Africa is designed primarily to bring businesses together.
Is the platform free of charge?
Yes and no. The Marketsquare Africa has two categories. We have the general class which is totally free of charge, and there is the premium class which is $75 a year. It is for the user or the visitor to the platform to decide on which class to go. The regular class is currently being redesigned to accommodate one picture of whatever products is you’re posting. On the premium class you have the opportunity to post endless pictures, short videos, and recordings. Let’s say you’re running a factory in China and you want agents in Africa, you can take a video of your factory and your products and post it on the premium class. But on the general class, you can only post one picture and it is absolutely free. We designed it in such a way that every SME is accommodated. If you don’t have money, that’s fine, come on The Marketsquare Africa, post your business on the general class, meet people, expand your business and grow. If you have money, post your business on the premium class, it gives you more visibility. If you are looking for visibility to increase sales but you don’t want to meet people face to face and you don’t want people to meet you, The Marketsquare Africa is the right platform for you. Come onboard, post your business on the platform, people will see your products and your sales will increase.
What has been the response since you launched The Marketsquare Africa?
I am ashamed to say this, but prior to our launch, we wrote to manufacturers’ associations of 12 countries. After our launch, we also wrote to them to thank those that came and the ones that didn’t come. It is shameful that we wrote to the Manufacturers’ Association of Nigerian (MAN) and explained The Marketsquare Africa to them and the need for the manufacturers listed on MAN to be part of The Marketsquare Africa so they can grow their businesses. I have to say this here because that’s the only way we can help our country grow. MAN did not reply our letter, did not attend the event, did not acknowledge the letter, even when we sent the letters up to six times and two people had to go there from our office because we needed them to be part of our launch. But as we speak, the Manufacturers’ Association of Israel has signed on The Marketsquare Africa. 208 companies have signed on The Marketsquare Africa in less than two weeks – from India, China, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, etc. So the response has been good. We have no doubt that by the grace of God we have built a global company. I can also tell you, we have two investors who say they want to be part of The Marketsquare Africa; one of them insisted if only we can make it a United Arab Emirates company, that they want us to take it out of Nigeria.
You’re running a capital-intensive venture. Given the challenges of access to funding in this part of the world, how are you funding Footprint to Africa?
As I earlier explained, Footprint to Africa isn’t our first company. I have worked and started other companies before Footprint to Africa. So before we started Footprint to Africa, we had a business plan, it just didn’t happen overnight. Of course, in all my years of running businesses I understand how businesses are formed, I understand the monetary involvement, I understand that sometimes you have to give up to five years gestation period before businesses can begin to bring back returns on investment. So the business plan of Footprint to Africa was carefully put together to start paying back after 26 months, but I can tell you that it didn’t get up to that for investors to start coming in. I and other co-directors at Footprint to Africa have funded the company 100 percent, giving up some of our previous businesses to invest in Footprint to Africa. At some point, before we opened the Kenya office, it was pretty difficult, and we have had to let some properties go to invest in the company.
What are the challenges you face currently running Footprint to Africa?
I can say a major challenge is the lack of willingness by government agencies in Africa to partner with Footprint to Africa. But it’s not entirely their fault. People have come up with good ideas, run them for two or three months, and then they died off. So you send a proposal to a government agency and say you’re Footprint to Africa and these are what you can do to increase the visibility of the agency and the country and they look at it and say, ‘Wow! Fantastic idea!’ But then again, they say, ‘How many of these letters will we get in one day?’ So that’s the challenge; they appreciate what we are doing but at the same time they are not sure of the sustainability of the business. But thank God that some of the countries that we have approached are beginning to understand that we mean business because, for us, two years is not two days – two years in which we have built strong alliances with some African countries and still counting. Very soon those countries will become our testimonial and other people will key in.
There is a copycat mentality in Nigeria. Some people might study your model and want to replicate it. Are you afraid of competition?
No. Footprint to Africa runs on innovation. We didn’t copy it from anywhere. Footprint to Africa is original, Africa in 10 Minutes is original, The Marketsquare Africa is original; there is nothing like that running anywhere on the continent. The plans for these subsidiaries of Footprint to Africa are just at their first stage, and they have up to five stages. I was speaking with one investor from UAE and he said to me, ‘So what’s your projection for this business in the next three to five years?’ I told him that the projections are in my head because by the inspiration of God, I am the creator of The Marketsquare Africa. So if you are a copycat and you start an equivalent of The Marketsquare Africa, you will get stuck because by the time you get to stage one, we will have moved to stage two. How long will you keep chasing us? If we want to permanently keep you on stage one, we will keep you there because by the time we move to stage two, it will take you two years to get to stage two because it is not your idea. So we are not afraid of rivalry, it’s an open market. You have your market, we have our market, you create your niche, we create our niche. We don’t have any problem with rivalries or copycats.
Where do you see Footprint to Africa in the next five years?
You said five years but we have a business plan that says four years. Our projection is that in the next four years Footprint to Africa would be listed on the Stock Exchange. On The Marketsquare Africa alone, just being very realistic and modest, we see 250,000 businesses listed – 100,000 premium class and 150,000 general class. This is the target we have set for The Marketsquare Africa for the next four years. We see Footprint to Africa that in the next four years has become a strong hub of at least half of all investments coming into Africa. If you don’t come through Footprint to Africa in the next four years, your footprint may not be big enough in any African country. That is our projection.
Any last word for SMEs in Africa?
I will say to SMEs in Africa, do not go looking for loans. They can kill. Come on The Marketsquare Africa, form joint ventures, form partnerships, create synergies and grow your business. If you have a business and you want to grow it, the surest place is The Marketsquare Africa, not because we created it but because it has been statistically shown that when people come together and join forces, they create big things. If you go to the bank and borrow money, the bank won’t come there every morning to wake you up or tell you to do this or that, until you begin to default. But if you form partnerships or joint ventures, if you are backsliding your partners will lift you up, point out to you where you are lagging behind. In that way the business will grow. So whatever your business is in any part of the world, come on The Marketsquare Africa, post your business, get connected and grow your business.