Kenyan firms take Africa dream to new high despite chaos

Vimal Shah, the chief executive of Bidco, which manufactures edible oils, detergents, baking powder and canola. The Kenyan firm started small but now operates in the region. PHOTOS | FILE  NATION MEDIA GROUP

By BONIFACE NGAHU

In the last two weeks I have interacted with CEOs of Kenyan companies that have regional presence. One of them was Vimal Shah, the CEO of Bidco when he was addressing marketing professionals.

In his fireside talk he said that Bidco has changed its name to Bidco Africa, which is a confidence vote. He also mentioned that the prospects for Kenya are looking bright on the continent.

Here is a man who once sold life insurance while in college and also hawked cooking oil and soaps when the company was small.

When they were changing from a textile business to edible oils, Bidco could not access funds from the bank. Banks argued that they had no experience in the cooking oil business and their plan was, therefore, not bankable.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) bought their idea but advised that they start small; they did. The same happened when they came up with the idea of having a palm oil plantation, which was a new idea in Africa. This time round they could only fund the project from internal funds.

The point here is that every business starts small and banks should pay more attention to such businesses.

I also met Mike Macharia, the CEO of Seven Seas Technologies, as he addressed Aly Khan’s Mind Speak Forum. He also mentioned how he started his business in Rwanda as a young man. His company also has presence in Zimbabwe, a fact that surprised many in the audience.

He explained that there are many opportunities in chaos that entrepreneurs shouldn’t miss.

An analogy of how a business in Zimbabwe would increase its staff numbers as the country’s currency lost value in many folds. Since that business was being paid in forex currency, devaluation meant one could increase talent pool without affecting the wage bill. Mr Macharia has his sights on African market, arguing that what can work in one market should be scaled to the whole continent.

Global award

At the marketers’ Mindspeak event, Joshua Oigara, the CEO of KCB, which also has a presence in the region, mentioned that one should not reinvent the wheel but get the wheel and apply it for the better of the world.

The KCB M-Pesa account seems to be driven by one wheel that Safaricom has the M-Pesa mobile money solution. The new account is said to have increased access to credit especially to the youth and small businesses with no need to visit the bank hall.

Wherever one is in Africa such a product will definitely have takers.

Equity Bank also announced that they were creating a war chest of Sh20 billion to enter 10 new African markets in the next five years. Their planned countries of entry include Somalia, Ethiopia, Malawi, DR Congo, Nigeria and Ghana.

I met Equity CEO James Mwangi at Ernest & Young Entrepreneur of Year Award ceremony last year. He was the global award winner the previous year courtesy of his disruptive banking business model.