Meet She Leads Africa’s Top 10 Finalists

She Leads Africa has announced their top 10 finalists for the 2014 Entrepreneur Showcase.
The lucky 10 were selected from 380 applications from more than 27 countries. The top 10, according to the organisers, represent the best young female entrepreneurs across the continent.
They will present their businesses to panel of esteemed business leaders, investors from leading venture capital firms, and the media on September 20th in Lagos and compete for more than $50,000 in cash and prizes.
Afrocentric Bamboo Limited, Kumasi, Ghana
Afrocentric Bamboo Limited designs, develops, and markets bamboo bikes and frames and related products and services.
Banke Kuku Textiles, London, United Kingdom
Banke Kuku Textiles designs African inspired luxury fabrics and accessories for the fashion, interiors and soft furnishings markets.
Fashpa Lagos, Nigeria
Fashpa.com is an online retailing platform, dedicated to providing African consumers with access to fashion and lifestyle brands. In an interview, Ogundeyi said the company got started out of “our frustration with the limited access to fashion in Nigeria. Nigerians have the same modern sophisticated fashion tastes and love for fashion when compared to consumers elsewhere in the world. The only difference between us is that it is difficult for us to access our favourite fashion brands.
“For example, even in Nigeria, it can be hard due to traffic or location to get access to a Nigerian designer’s shop. We saw this as a clear opportunity to leverage on technology and create a leading fashion online platform, giving consumers access to the best fashion and lifestyle brands whether international or local, the latest trends and at good prices with the added value of providing convenience by delivering this goods to them. The response has been amazing and in a short amount of time, we have taken a leadership position as number one fashion online retailer in Nigeria.”
Lizzie’s Creations, Abuja, Nigeria
Lizzie’s Creations develops mobile and web applications uniquely aimed at the development and education of women and children in Africa.
Loue 1 Voiture, Casablanca, Morocco
Loue 1 Voiture is the first online platform that enables you to reserve a car from big and small car hire companies in Morocco.
Mamelette, Lagos, Nigeria
Mamalette is a website and information portal dedicated to the needs of Nigerian parents and parents to be.

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MKP Fast Foods, Johannesburg, South Africa
MKP Fast Foods creates youth employment in SA by operating a low cost, scalable mobile kitchen for a growing chicken brand, Galito’s.
Night Bus, Johannesburg, South Africa
Night Bus is a safe, cool way of getting around town at night. We enrich the party experience by bringing people closer to brands they love.
Rare Customs, New York, USA
Rare Customs connects SME’s to emerging African tourism and investment trends.
Thandos, Lagos, Nigeria
Thandos provides a platform that empowers aspiring African artists to design women’s fashion footwear that is comfortable, convenient and affordable.

How Three Students Created Nigeria's Online Jobs Giant

Three students had time on their hands in the summer of 2009 when their university lecturers in Nigeria went on strike.

Instead of slacking off, Ayodeji Adewunmi, Olalekan Olude and Opeyemi Awoyemi started an online job search company.
Five years later their start-up, Jobberman, has got a multi-million dollar valuation, employs 125 people, and is still growing.
While Nigeria is Africa's largest economy it still has massive unemployment problems, in particular among young people who are also more likely to be connected to the internet.
Jobberman has become the single largest job placement website in sub-Saharan Africa, helping over 35,000 people find jobs within the last two years.
The number of companies using the site to find employees has grown from about 40 in 2009 to some 35,000 today.

The company employs 125 people in Nigeria and beyond

Carrying between 500 and 1,000 jobs on the site every day, the founders estimate that there are about 1,000 active users searching for a job at any given time.
"The growth has been tremendous, it's at rocket speed. One of the biggest challenges has been to keep up with the volume of work," says Olalekan.
Overcoming fraud fears However, there have been other challenges along the way.
"In the beginning a lot of people did not trust an internet-based business because at that time a lot of people were using the internet to perpetuate fraud here in Nigeria," he says.
But as other online businesses thrived and became trusted, so Jobberman thrived. Companies would dip their toe in the water with one or two postings and then when they trusted the site they would come back.

Olalekan Olude says he is proud because each job someone finds on his site helps support a household

In 2012 some of Jobberman's clients wanted to use the site to find workers in Ghana and so the company took its first work outside Nigeria.
Two years later it says it is now the biggest online job site in Ghana as well as Nigeria.
The company is now expanding its reach to Kenya with a partner called Brighter Monday. The partnership also gives it a footprint in Uganda and Tanzania.

'They found me'

 

Amarachi Apakama found a job through the site without filling out an application

Some people find a job through the site without actually applying for one.
Amarachi Apakama uploaded her details and was approached by a company to take the position of executive assistant at a mobile phone content company.
"That really changed my life," she says. "It was a morale booster. It helped my confidence - the fact that my interests and my experience put together such a good fit that I didn't have to apply for the job."
Multiplier effect "It is incredibly fulfilling helping people to become economically empowered by getting job placements via Jobberman," founder Ayodeji Adewunmi says.

The BBC's business teams across Africa meet the continent's entrepreneurs who are starting up new enterprises and seeking to create big opportunities.

"One company recruited more than 80% of their employees through the site. Another time, a director was able to hire a former colleague in the United States to come and work for his company here in Lagos. All amazing stories."

Olalekan Olude adds: "If you put food on the table by virtue of getting a job for someone, that person also fends for a mother, or a brother and you create a multiplier effect within that household.
"And anytime we get to hear of such stories, we are very, very happy. It motivates us, it makes us look forward into the future and try and get more people to get more jobs."

SMEDAN Committed to 5 Million Jobs Creation-D-G

The Director-General of Small and Medium  Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) Alhaji Bature Umar Masari, has reiterated the readiness of the agency to generate 5 million jobs between 2013 and 2015. Masari, said that the job creation mileage would be achieved through the National Enterprise Development Programme (NEDEP) initiated by Minister of Industry and Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga. The Director-General said that  NEDEP was being implemented under three pillars, technical/vocational skills acquisition, and business development services (BDS) Entrepreneur training and access to finance. Masari gave the assurance while speaking at the occasion of the flag-off of the National Enterprise Development Programme (NEDEP) on Dec. 17 in Bauchi State.

Smedan Signs MOU with NUC & KASU

The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria, (SMEDAN) the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the Kaduna State University (KASU) yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) targeted at inculcating the spirit of entrepreneurship in tertiary institutions in Nigeria.nThe MOU signing ceremony which took place in the Auditorium of the National Universities Commission will see SMEDAN creating a standardized schedule of activities for entrepreneurship clubs in all universities, initiating University Entrepreneurship Development Program (UNEDEP) business plan competition for Network for African Student Entrepreneurs (NASE) club members across the country and providing linkages for NASE members with industry through business matchmaking fora.

SMEDAN Sign MOU with Bayelsa Government

The Director General Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) Alhaji Bature Umar Masari has disclosed that it would sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the government  of  Bayelsa State that would be operational in a couple of weeks   after a few grey areas have been harmonised.Alhaji  Masari, dropped this hint during the flag –off of the National Enterprise Development Programme (NEDEP) in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State on 15th  November 2013 said the MOU would centre on the implementation of the National Enterprise Development Programme (NEDEP) and the One Local Government One Product, (OLOP) programme in the state.

DG SMEDAN Urges Universities to set up Entrepreneurship Clubs

The Director General of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency, (SMEDAN), Alhaji Bature Umar Masari, has urged students in Nigerian universities to endeavour to set up entrepreneurship clubs in their respective university so as to imbibe the spirit of entrepreneurship while they are still in the school environment. Alhaji Bature stated this when he  hosted  students from the  Economics Department of the Adamawa State University, Mubi, Adamawa State, who were on an excursion visit to the Agency’s head office in Abuja.

SMEDAN UNDP trains 30 Women on Business Development Skills in Minna

The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria SMEDAN in collaboration with the United Nation Development Programme UNDP has trained 30 women drawn from five cooperative societies across three states on business development skills.The Director General of SMEDAN, Alhaji Bature Umar Masari, stressed the need for women to be trained on business skills so that they can be independent and self sustaining.