Standard Bank Nails It With Afrocentric Ad Campaign

Call it love at first sight! The new Standard Bank ad campaign is a stroke of pure genius. As the African narrative moves from pity to "lets exploit the opportunity", Standard Banks ad reminded me of the need to look beyond hype and shallow interests. To the uniformed, Africa is an exotic place that dances between war, political strife, corruption, wild animals and other sorts. But to us Africans this is home. This really resonates with me as l've often felt that beyond hype, greed, or fear are real human beings. In every sensationalist report are human beings that are just trying to get on with life.

Kudos to Standard Bank;

They call it "Africa", 
we call it home.

In a rather strange fashion, the social media team at the bank has failed to upload the ad on Youtube. You can instead view it here: http://corporateandinvestment.standardbank.co.za/sa/index.jsp

Reflections of Lusaka

Lusaka was great! Barely a day after that l had to pop out to Johannesburg. This made for a lot of comparisons and contrasting in my mind. Upon entering Lusaka, l was blown away by a feeling of rapid motion, everywhere l looked seemed to be greeted by billboards competing for my attention. More amazing was a trip to Levy Mall (see pic), a really amazing shopping Mall funded by the National Pension fund of Zambia. I was truly overjoyed to see such structured management of national funds as both local and international brands have taken over the mall. I am confident too that if the Zambian government manages revenues well then hardworking citizens will have retirement plans to look forward to.

Young & vibrant Africans don't need aid, they need jobs and opportunities. @Wimpy Levy Mall (I'm the esajan in blue!)

Impressive but...where are the local brands? 

Levy Mall is named after the late Levy Mwanawasa, a great & principled leader who left us too soon. His leadership marked a new era in Zambia and went a long way to bolstering investor confidence. The welcoming spirit of the Zambian people was unforgetable. My only concern was that foreigners appeared to be too ingrained in the economy. For example, I would definitely have loved to see homegrown quick service restaurant operators alongside the common staple of KFC, Debonairs, and Zimbabwe's Innscor International. More must be done to promote the emergence of homegrown brands across all sectors of the local economy. Such brands can easily leverage on a growing economy, a home advantage and ultimately export the great spirit of Zambia across Africa and beyond. This process seems to be starting as the great Tradekings Empire demonstrates.

It's great to have more international players coming in as this creates jobs and opportunities for the local economy. It's even better to have homegrown brands that boost intellectual capital and reinvest profits into the local economy. My colleague and l walked nearly 5km's from the CBD of Lusaka right to its industrial brim.I hope the Zambian leadership under President Sata continues lifting Zambia to new heights.

Fully describing my experiences would require a whole book! The great news is that l came across hope and found renewed strength to pursue my passion.

Look out for the post where l compare my travels to Lusaka with home in Harare and a foray to Johannesburg and Pretoria (all done in 3 days).

Baby Steps Of Blogging

The past week has been pretty hectic, as a result posting as frequently as l'd like has been tough. But hey tough is a big part of the game so expect a couple of posts soon. On Sunday l'll be heading  to Lusaka with a good friend, the economy there has been growing at a healthy 6.5% GDP per annum on the back of a global copper boom, good governance, diversified mining, and agriculture. I'm very keen to get a deeper insight into the engine room of the economy and will be interacting with a couple of stakeholders in the startup, mobile and business arena.

#theroadtoesaja

Emerging Perspectives

Here goes my first blog post :

I came across an article by Binyavanga Wainaina on the BBC focus on Africa site and it got me thinking about western influence in African Affairs . The time has come for Africa to detach itself from Europe. Too often, the failures and successes of the continent have been viewed from a eurocentric perspective. The decline of Europe as we know it should be a wake up call; they are neither smarter nor better than "us". Our short sighted approach to governance, business and community is what has stifled real development. We have no one else to blame but ourselves.

 I am ashamed that Bono and Madonna are "brand ambassadors" of Africa Inc or that a whole continent can be at the mercy of sensationalist western media as expounded in the aforementioned article. . I am equally ashamed that a poisonous African elite has actively pursued short term gains at the expense of millions .  But guess what? We are not "helpless" anymore. ICTs are creating new outlets through which a frustrated youth can hold on to the beauty of their dreams. Yes we the young, we who make up 60% of the continent's population. We are realising that knowledge is power and that information is the new gold. Such information has been democratised through tools such as the internet. We can use to lift ourselves out of the vicious cycles of poverty.

The fisherman who was getting a raw deal at the market can now keep up to date with fluctuations in prices. The poor boy from Malawi who taught himself how to build a windmill is now at university after his story touched the world. Jason Njoku of Nigeria created a "Netflix for Africa" such that Nigeria's movie sector could distribute their contact globally and be fairly paid for it. He even managed to raise $US 10 million in real venture capital funding...From the same guys who backed Mark Zuckerburg of Facebook. The power of information lies in its ability to bring or take away hope. For the simple reason that no one directly controls the greatest information bank that has become the internet; we in the developing world are growing stronger by the day. Where CNN held sway, we now have the power to question, dig for diverse perspectives and ultimately come to our own conclusions. As this happens, we the young lions of Africa must remember the advice of Kwame Nkrumah to look neither east nor west, but within.