ABS Podcast-Season1

First installment

Season one

Akaego Okoye: Founder and Host African Business Stories – Reflections on Season 1 of The Podcast

Akaego Okoye: Founder and Host African Business Stories – Reflections on Season 1 of The Podcast

We made it to the end of season 1! Yay!!!

In Season 1, i interviewed 20 incredible female entrepreneurs from 10 different African Countries and in this final episode i reflect on my 3 main takeaways: why women start businesses, building a legacy business and the challenge of access to finance. I also reference some episodes to highlight my points. In addition, i talk about the special series we ran in honor of Fathers Day – Lessons and Legacy which is available on our website www.africanbusinessstories.com and coming soon to all podcast platforms.

Aisha Ayensu: Founder & CEO Christie Brown – Retelling The African Story Through Fashion.

Aisha Ayensu: Founder & CEO Christie Brown – Retelling The African Story Through Fashion.

Aisha Ayensu is the Founder, CEO and Creative Director of Christie Brown a fashion house based out of Accra, Ghana. An award winning fashion designer, Aisha started Christie Brown in 2008, in her final year of university, naming the company after her grand mother who was a seamstress and her inspiration. Christie Brown has grown to become an internationally recognized fashion brand manufacturing women’s apparel and accessories primarily inspired by African art and culture.

Barkue Tubman-Zawolo: Founder & CEO, MBL Intl. Group – Liberia’s Boss Lady, A Serial Entrepreneurs Journey To Impact and Results.

Barkue Tubman-Zawolo: Founder & CEO, MBL Intl. Group – Liberia’s Boss Lady, A Serial Entrepreneurs Journey To Impact and Results.

Barkue is the Founder and CEO of MBL International Group – a boutique International consulting and creative agency. The grand-daughter of the late President Williams V.S Tubman Liberia’s longest serving President, she left Liberia for the United States following a coup. Between 1997 and 2007, Barkue, working in a male dominated industry, set up and ran one of the few female led artist management companies – Miss Boss Lady Entertainment – she managed and worked on the management team of some of the most successful international artists at the time.

Nokwazi Mzobe: Founder & CEO Matoyana – Supporting Survivalist Entrepreneurs, From Consulting to Content Creation.

Nokwazi Mzobe: Founder & CEO Matoyana – Supporting Survivalist Entrepreneurs, From Consulting to Content Creation.

Nokwazi Mzobe is the founder and lead consultant at Matoyana, an entrepreneurship & sustainability focused consulting firm in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is also an author, coach and adjunct lecturer. Her first book, The Small Business Handbook, is a guide created for start-up and early stage businesses. It is available in English and isiZulu. She also creates content for her business blog, as well as other platforms.

Ehime Eigbe-Akindele: Founder & CEO Sweetkiwi – Pioneering Frozen Yoghurt in Nigeria and Taking The Brand Global

Ehime Eigbe-Akindele: Founder & CEO Sweetkiwi – Pioneering Frozen Yoghurt in Nigeria and Taking The Brand Global

Ehime started making her own frozen yogurt when she realized most available brands weren’t as healthy as they claimed and created her clean-label recipe which brought about the birth of Sweetkiwi in 2011. This journey took her from Texas to Nigeria, where she opened 3 physical store locations.

She has created flavors for and led partnerships with many exciting brands such as Moet & Chandon, Pepsi, Guinness, Baileys to name a few. In 2017, Ehime moved to the DC area and was accepted into the Union Kitchen food accelerator to launch her delicious Whipped Greek Yogurt in grocery stores, most recently she launched in Whole Foods Market.

Joycee Awosika: Founder & CEO ORÍKÌ – The Path to Impact, From Agro-Beauty to Business Process Guru.

Joycee Awosika: Founder & CEO ORÍKÌ – The Path to Impact, From Agro-Beauty to Business Process Guru.

Joycee Awosika is the Founder and CEO of ORÍKÌ. In pursuit of purpose, Joycee left her job with Constellation Energy, a Fortune 100 company in New York and moved to Nigeria in 2011. She held a few roles in the power sector including serving as the Technical Adviser on Research, Analysis and Informatics (Performance Monitoring) to the Honorable Minister of Power. Working in the public sector wasn’t all she had imagined it to be so she decided to pursue her passion and launch an agro-beauty company. She launched ORÍKÌ in 2015, the first and only all natural farm to skin brand to operate a fast-growing premium product & wellness spa on the Continent. ORÍKÌ has developed 6 spas in four years and distributes products globally. Based on her experience and success, she has set up a new business called SOAR. SOAR is an operations and business process consultancy that works closely with businesses and individuals for sustainability, consistency and standards.

Petua & Joseline Kateeba: Crest Foam Limited – Second Generation Business, A Successful Succession Story

Petua & Joseline Kateeba: Crest Foam Limited – Second Generation Business, A Successful Succession Story

On the show I interview a mother-daughter duo. Petra and Joseline Kateeba. We talk about executing an effective succession, bouncing back from loss and what scaling means to a second generation Ugandan business.

Mrs Petua Kateeba is the Co-founder and a shareholder in Crest Foam Limited. She trained as a midwife and co-founded the company with her late husband in 1984. Following her husband’s death in 1992, she stepped into the leadership role and led Crest Foam from a small market player to a #1/#2 market leader. During her tenure, Crest Foam was named one of the Top 50 Brands in Uganda by Private Sector Foundation in its Proudly Ugandan campaign; she also won the Entrepreneur of the Year Award from UWEAL. In 2015, she handed over the reigns to her daughter Joseline.

Flora Mutahi: Founder & CEO Melvin Marsh International – Creating a Niche in the Kenyan Tea Market

Flora Mutahi: Founder & CEO Melvin Marsh International – Creating a Niche in the Kenyan Tea Market

Flora Mutahi is the Founder & CEO of Melvin March International owners of Kenya’s largest flavored tea brand. In 1995, Flora heard about the planned deregulation of the tea industry in Kenya. She saw this as an opportunity and with very little industry knowledge and resources, she decided to go into the tea business. While enjoying a cup of tea one day, she had a light bulb moment and discovered a gap in the market. This led her to create Kenya’s first flavored tea brand – Melvins Teas. Today, the product range has expanded to include not only flavored teas but herbal and fruit infusions.