Restless man who brought Internet to Africa yet to settle

Mr Makatiani: The challenge is not money or ideas, it is management. FILE

By  Evelyn Situma


Ten years ago, Ayisi Makatiani’s friend thought he was mad when he took up employment with the World Bank and the United Nations.

They had always known him as an entrepreneur and expected him to launch another big business akin to his brainchild, Africa Online, which eventually became Africa’s largest and the first internet service provider.

It started small as an online mailing list for Kenyan friends in the US to keep each other updated on their social plans before the idea morphed into a multinational Internet Service Provider with operations in eight countries.

In 2004, he assumed the helm of Johannesburg-based African Management Services Company (AMSCO) with a mission to use the knowledge gained at Africa Online to help companies in the region.

AMSCO was started by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the African Development Bank to help small firms in Africa sharpen their competitive edge through cash and management expertise. But the engineering graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology joined AMSCO through default.

After selling Africa Online and exiting the IT firm, Mr Makatiani was keen to establish a private-equity fund for Africa, but inadequate funds forced him to run AMSCO — a job he hoped would give him an opportunity to realise the dream he had for botched PE unit- Gallium Partners Investments.

Fast forward to 2008, and one sees Mr Makatiani living his dream after quitting AMSCO and establishing Fanisi Capital Limited — a $50 million (Sh4.3 billion) fund that invests in companies mostly based in East Africa.

Create millions

It has since made waves of acquisitions in the region including the premier Hillcrest International Schools, pharmacy chain Haltons and a Rwanda-based pharmaceutical wholesaler, Sophar Limited.

Fanisi plans to get a larger share of the region’s healthcare, mining, light manufacturing and education.

“We want to get into SMEs through acquisitions and make them successful,” says Mr Makatiani, adding his quest to grow the 20 per cent survival rate of small business to create more millionaires and jobs for the youth.

He says Kenya needs to build an industry, invest in people and programmes, instead of pouring money on them and thinking they will succeed. He believes that for many African companies, the challenge is often not money or ideas, but management.

The Kenyan-born entrepreneur has a deep understanding of problems faced by African companies having helped turnaround struggling outfits while at AMSCO to his stint at Africa Online.

While studying in America in the early 1990s, he started Africa Online with two Kenyan friends Karanja Gakio and Amolo Ng’weno.

But they sold most of their shares to European owned African Lakes Corporation Plc and Mr Makatiani stepped down as CEO of Africa Online in 2000.