Hi, Quartz Africa readers!
Fresh noodles
When Kellogg’s, the storied maker of some of the world’s favorite breakfast cereals, announced in 2015 it had splashed $450 million on a Nigerian joint venture with a company called Tolaram many market watchers were caught off guard.
But the story of Tolaram is one about how Africa-focused businesses adapt to their ever-changing environments and in doing so constantly innovate. It’s also a story of how Nigerians learned how to become mass consumers of noodles.
Tolaram, and its subsidiary Dufil Prima Foods, is was what you might call a 30-year overnight success. They had spent years plugging away at building a noodle brand called Indomie and managed to convince a country with relatively conservative tastes to eat something some people believed looked just like worms. It’s one of the important case studies in a new book, Africa’s Business Revolution by three McKinsey Africa veterans, Acha Leke, Mutsa Chironga and Georges Desvaux.
The authors, whose work you have seen in the global consultancy’s Lions on the Move reports, show how the potential for African businesses and multinationals is not just about throwing huge amounts of capital at big projects but also about committing to the continent for the long term and being willing to learn and understand the market’s needs and innovate accordingly.
Businesses have to create products and services that fulfill Africa’s unmet needs and truly engage with the customers, they write. In the Tolaram example, not only did the company satisfy an unmet need by developing an easy, three-minute prep meal product for a rapidly urbanizing country where people had less time for elaborate traditional meals—but it didn’t stop there. It kept innovating by localizing and customizing the products with local spices and smaller packages to reach its consumers. It also started with marketing to the young.
“Changing people’s eating habits is not easy,” Dufil Prima chief executive Deepak Singhal told the authors. “So we decided to start with the children and go all the way up.” Its TV campaigns focused on children and started Indomie fan clubs which school-age children joined.
It also innovated not just with products but also with its supply chain. Unlike similar companies in advanced economies, Tolaram has built its own logistics company, its own raw material, its own plans and its own packaging facilities. “Controlling our own supply chain is very important,” said Singhal. “The consistency and quality of supply is essential.”
— Yinka Adegoke, Quartz Africa editor
Stories from this week
Freddie Mercury’s African birthplace would have persecuted him today. The Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody is attracting interest in Freddie Mercury’s African roots. At the same time Tanzania is stepping up its anti-LGBTQI sentiment, even if it means losing millions in aid. The film may overlook Mercury’s Stone Town roots, but Zanzibar wouldn’t welcome him today either, writes Lynsey Chutel.
MTN is betting big on mobile money in Nigeria and South Africa. Africa’s largest telecoms operator, MTN, has revealed plans to launch its mobile money service in Nigeria and relaunch in South Africa next year after shuttering the service there two years ago.
West Africa is leading the way on educating men about family planning. Men predominantly make the rules about pregnancy and contraception in African families, even though it’s the women who bear all the burden. Annalisa Merelli reports from Kigali, Rwanda on programs helping men understand how the welfare of their own lives is linked to family planning and economic growth.
How Ghana became the home of the black African diaspora. From W. E. B. Du Bois and Martin Luther King Jr. to Maya Angelou and Barack Obama, Ghana has long been known as the nation that many journeyed to reflect on identity and history. Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu explains how the West African nation started out with the pan African hope to be the black mecca to pursue self-discovery.
African countries are in a race to build new billion-dollar cities for the 21st century. As African countries record rapid population growth particularly in urban areas, African governments and private developers are spending over $100 billion building sprawling, futuristic cities. But, as Yomi Kazeem finds, new cities are unlikely to solve housing shortages across the continent.
Stan Lee imagined an Africa way ahead of his time with Black Panther. Notwithstanding the 2018 film version’s success, a powerful and intelligent black character from Africa and fighting in the United States was groundbreaking in 1966, not only politically but artistically. Marvel Comics co-founder Stan Lee, who died this week, helped change perceptions in a way that’s often under-appreciated.
Chart of the Week
Parsing the good and bad about China’s growing African loans. Beijing’s lending to African states has jumped tenfold to more than $10 billion annually in the last five years. But while these finances provide an economic boost, they could also have dire economic and credit consequences when it’s time to repay them say credit analysts, reports Abdi Latif Dahir.
Other Things We Liked
The new travelogue that expands what it means to write about Africa. Emmanuel Iduma’s book A Stranger’s Pose doesn’t tell you what to eat, see, or experience when traveling across African cities and villages. He rather, Hannah Girogis writes in The Atlantic, asks you “to submit to the pleasures of wandering without the guarantee of a fixed destination.”
How misinformation on Facebook is “killing” people in Nigeria. Fake images of dead children and burnt homes ignited a deadly clash between Muslims and Christians in Plateau State in central Nigeria in June. For the BBC, Yemisi Adegoke led an investigation into how these false reports signify the challenges facing Facebook in the West African nation.
Trouble is brewing at the world’s most valuable cobalt mine. DR Congo produces two-thirds of the world’s cobalt supply. But as Bloomberg Businessweek reports, Ivan Glasenberg, the man who manages the country’s most valuable mine, his company Glencore, and his partner Dan Gertler, all now face complex investigations into corrupt deals.
ICYMI
Rewarding Africa’s new ventures. The Africa Business Club at Harvard University will award cash prizes to early-stage homegrown African startups offering unique solutions to local problems. (Nov. 30)
The 2019 class of Harambeans. The alliance of visionaries recruits innovators scaling ventures aimed at unlocking the full potential of Africa’s next generation (Dec. 30)
The Next Einstein Forum fellowship. The program recognizes, awards, and connects Africa’s best young scientists and technologists with leading scientists and policymakers. (Jan. 27)
Keep an eye on
Africa Industrialization Day (Nov. 20). In marking the day, the United Nations will focus on Africa’s pharmaceutical industry and its potential to improve health outcomes and job-creation.
Zimbabwe marks a year since Mugabe’s ousting. (Nov. 21). The collapsing economy and the scarcity of basic amenities will highlight how the euphoria at the 94-year-old’s fall has all but evaporated.
African cycling competition (Nov. 21-25). Fresh out of diplomatic isolation, Eritrea will host the first African Cup Cycling competition, probably the country’s most popular sport.
*This brief was produced while listening to Bra Fie (Come Home) byFuse ODG feat Damian Marley (Ghana/Jamaica)
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