South Sudanese entrepreneur Kerbino Wol. PHOTO | COURTESY
While South Sudan is predominantly known for war and human
suffering, one 35-year-old former child soldier turned entrepreneur and
philanthropist is giving hope to the youth.
On our
first encounter, Kerbino Wol comes across as a well-educated young man
with connections in all the right places. His American accent confirms
that he has travelled and lived abroad.
Yet Kerbino,
who joined the South Sudanese rebels at the age of 13, has never seen
the inside of a classroom. He has risen through self-education and
interacting with the right people.
Here is a man who
believes that one can build a business in a war-torn country that has
seen inflation hit an all-time high of 117 per cent and has a virtually
collapsed banking system.
Kerbino has built a security
business that provides opportunities and hope to the youth whose
education has been disrupted by war and poverty.
Kerbino
Agok Security Services (KASS), which he started in 2010 with just $200
that he had saved as a soldier, has grown to be one of the leading local
security firms and employs more than 2,000 youth in South Sudan.
KASS has its headquarters in Juba, and has established its footprint in the Kenya and Democratic Republic of Congo markets.
“As
a former child soldier who grew up in the war, it is my responsibility
to support my fellow youth where necessary,” Kerbino told The EastAfrican in a recent interview in Nairobi.
Important contacts
His
military background and having had the opportunity to serve in the
presidential detail helped him build a network of important contacts and
understand market demands.
He has previously served as
a senior security advisor for USAid projects, the Carter Center, URG,
GIZ, and World Vision; the experience opened doors for the right
connections to grow his security business.
Kerbino says
running a business was not easy in the initial stages in a country
where most people believe that it is only the army that can provide
security.
“When I began developing KASS as a private
firm, I was enthusiastic and ambitious, but lacked proper support. I
asked for loans from friends and colleagues to register the business.
However, they refused, doubting the potential success of such an
enterprise,” he said.
Nevertheless, he remained
resilient and registered the company and took a huge risk amid
discouragement from friends and family, and even personal doubt.
“I decided to become an entrepreneur and founded KASS with nothing but hope and a desire to improve my home country,’ he said.
KASS services include guarding, risk management consultancy, cash-in-transit, and vehicle trackers.
When
KASS was finally launched, the first few months were extremely
difficult, Kerbino says. He was operating at a loss, and supporting the
business from his salary as a soldier.
Opportunity
The
business started growing when he got the opportunity to offer private
close-protection training to high-profile guests visiting South Sudan.
“It
took me months before I turned a profit, but I kept moving forward. I
studied the market and began to understand how KASS could expand and
grow. I was awarded contracts from major NGOs and companies in South
Sudan. This allowed me to employ hundreds of locals to help grow the
company,” he said.
However, Kerbino says that the
business climate in South Sudan remains unstable and unpredictable due
to the civil war, and KASS often runs into losses.
Second,
the security sector in South Sudan is very competitive, which pushes
KASS to come up with the latest products in order to survive.
Among his main competitors are Veterans Security Services Ltd, KK Security Ltd and the JJET Security Service.
He
is also the founder and executive director of the Nile Foundation, a
non-governmental organisation founded in 2016 and dedicated to empower
the youth through sports, entrepreneurship, education, and vocational
training programmes.
Some 1,620 young people have benefitted through sports and capacity building programmes through the Foundation.
In
addition, 49 students are benefitting directly from the Back to School
programme offered by KASS Group; some are currently enrolled in
universities in Kenya and Uganda.
Guerrilla army
Born
in Wau in the larger Bahr-el-Ghazal region, Kerbino is the first born
of 10 siblings. His father is a retired veteran army officer, and his
mother died a few years ago.
Kerbino left the then larger Sudan in 1986 when was four years old, and relocated to Ethiopia’s Jimma region.
At
that time, most male South Sudanese were relocating to Ethiopia where
the then president, Mengistu Haile Mariam, was offering military
training to the rebels — the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).
He
joined SPLA’s Red Army at 13. The Red Army comprised of the young
people that were being trained to take over from the older generation.
With time, he became a full time SPLA soldier.
Having
served in the South Sudan guerrilla army during the post-Comprehensive
Peace Agreement (CPA) period, the tall, athletic young man worked as a
guard protecting the president, vice president, and delegates to South
Sudan.
He later realised he could serve his country in a different way than being in uniform, and founded KASS.
Kerbino
says that South Sudan stands the risk of losing at least two
generations because of the continued conflict, and so he decided to
equip them with knowledge and skills to rescue them from the cycle of
ethnic division and war.
“The youth are the future of
South Sudan and we are trying in a small way to build a culture of peace
among them by organising regular sports activities in which young
people from various communities can interact,” said Kerbino.
Foundation
The
Nile Foundation approach is to provide home-grown solutions to those
that have been affected the most by the civil war. Now international
organisations are getting interested in the programme.
Kerbino
says that while it good that the foundation is attracting international
attention, “our primary goal is to sustain ourselves without depending
on foreign funding which could dry up anytime”.
The
Nile Foundation aims to provide a platform for empowering the youth and
uniting the nation through sports, education and training.
“We
believe that empowering the younger generation will set a strong
foundation for a united, prosperous and peaceful future for South Sudan,
because we believe that home-grown solutions led by local youth will
likely succeed in supporting and uplifting those vulnerable young people
and restoring their dignity,” he said.
Kerbino says
that the Nile Foundation was founded out of the conviction that South
Sudan can only develop as a nation when the youth are equipped with the
necessary skills and knowledge to take up the opportunities available.
He funds the Nile Foundation by donating a percentage of his profits from KASS Group Ltd.
KASS
Group, Kerbino’s full business portfolio, includes security,
hospitality, restaurant, and real estate services. The success from the
security business has allowed Kerbino to expand and diversify his
business portfolio.
Kerbino’s also runs a high-end restaurant in Juba and a guest house in South Africa.
Kerbino’s
Executive Conference Centre and Kerbino’s Flame Grill are based at
Equatoria Towers in Juba; they opened in October 2017.
Kerbino would not reveal his exact net worth, only saying that his assets are in the millions of dollars.
“It is like asking a soldier how many rounds he has in his gun,” he said.
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