January - March 2017 •
The Lion King
• 43
Joe Wiliams
is a 30 year-old Ivorian-Vietnamese
designer
and
owner
of
a
Communications agency, MILC
Agency and publisher of a magazine,
MILC magazine, which he describes
as an African version of Vogue.
Joe is also an actor. His journey into
entrepreneurship started in 2012 when
he returned to Cote d’Ivoire, after
his studied in France. He observed
the market for one year and first
started working as a Communications
Consultant. He later started J. Art
Williams, a socially responsible brand
that his identity. J. Art Williams
combines Asian silk and traditional
hand woven textiles from various
African countries.
Youssouf Rahma Amane
is a Chadian consultant in marketing. He is
a serial entrepreneur and runs a marketing
firm, IBC Chad and a centre for capacity
building, ITCR. Youssouf believes that
observing his direct environment is at the
root of all his initiatives, because “with a little
concentration one always gets to detect
explicit or implicit needs not adequately met.”
Samuel Bikai and Guy
Micheal Kingue
both
Camerounians,
are
co-founders of NGEVENTS
CAMEROUN, a Communication
firm specialized in reputation
management, graphic design,
events management and
consultancy services.
Mathus Latevi
Lawson-Adokpeze
is CEO of BENINLOGIS, a company
based in Benin Republic and
specializing in geolocation
services. He provides an online
platform that allows people to
find businesses and properties
in selected geographic areas in
a few clicks. The site boasts of
more than 25,000 subscribers and
over 17,000 visits. Mathus is also a
benefactor of the Tony Elumelu
Foundation
Entrepreneurship
Programme.
What is
the most
important
lesson you
have learnt as
an entrepreneur?
I think it would be perseverance! As
a young entrepreneur operating in
sub-Saharan Africa, a non-conducive
business environment, you must be fully
determined to succeed and passionate
about your undertakings. When loosing
hope, just remember that our continent
is blessed with all the resources required
to make it rise, be it human or material,
therefore you have no reason not to
succeed.
What have you learnt as an
entrepreneur?
Be creative in the face of all the
obstacles that may arise along the
way. Always think carefully before
acting. Establish the right team and
as much as possible retain all the
members of the team.
How did you raise capital to
start your business?
This was very difficult. We
actually started without
any capital. Our capital was
our ideas, knowledge and
contacts. Soon we were
able to convince somebody
to solicit our services. From
there we got other clients.
How was the business idea birthed?
The idea came from a bad
experience. I represented a
multinational in Benin and I was
responsible for housing some of
its employees in the country. It so
happened that on one occasion I
had great difficulty finding a place
for some of the Directors who
came in. So I started imagining
an alternative way to do this kind
of operation quickly and safely.
We started with real estate but
gradually extended to the other
sectors.
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