If you are an auditory learner like me, you probably prefer listening to content as compared to reading it. You might also just be looking for a dose of entertainment as you learn a thing or two. Here are some of my favourite African entrepreneurship podcasts. They include interviews and tips that you need on your entrepreneurial journey:
The East African Business Podcast
This is an entrepreneurship podcast focuses on interviewing founders from East Africa. The host Sam Floy showcases companies operating across Africa. His British accent is quite intriguing especially when he attempts to pronounce Swahili words.
My favourite episode is where Sam speaks to Nava, the co-founder of Enda Running. They tackle a very interesting topic, why are the people of the home of running not make running shoes? Nava explains their story and why they settled on building shoes as the biggest impact way to promote sports in Kenya.
Enda has become a vehicle for promoting the local industry with the shoe assembly line taking place in Kenya. Many of the other shoe parts such as shoelaces are produced in the region too. Nava talks about all sides of the business including where and how the shoes are currently sold. She also talks about the challenges that they face, especially in the Kenyan economy and most importantly how they overcome them. If you’re an entrepreneur on the verge of quitting, you can draw inspiration from Nava’s words: “the further you go in your entrepreneurial journey, the more allies you make”.
She Shapes the City
This is not one of your conventional entrepreneurship podcasts. It is a platform celebrating women change-makers in cities around the world. The women featured in this podcast are solving the challenges that face their city and communities. They are from very varied sectors such as health, aviation and media. She Shapes the City has featured women from Nairobi, Kenya working in different areas. These include publishing and sports and fitness to rights for sex workers and former convicts. So far they have featured over 20 women shaping Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.
For this podcast, I couldn’t just choose one episode so I chose two. The first features Teresa Njoroge, co-founder of Clean Start Solutions. In 2011, Teresa was sentenced to a year in Langata Women Maximum Security Prison Nairobi, over the loss of Sh9.9 million but was eventually vindicated in 2013. She describes the desperate plight of the women she met behind bars. This inspired her to devote her life to empowering female inmates to better prepare for them to be reintegrated into society. She delivers pre-release coaching programs for female inmates. Clean Start enables inmates to access education, training and employment post-release.
The second episode features Lornah Kiplagat, an elite athlete and entrepreneur. She talks about her sports brand which is the first that is pioneered by an African woman. She talks about her upbringing, her surroundings and her role models and how they shaped her career. Lornah is the founder of the famous High Altitude Training Centre in Iten, Kenya. Her decision to forego a nursing scholarship in India and continue her running career was one of the major turning points in her life. I can relate with her strong-willed nature and I draw so much inspiration from her story.
Young African Entrepreneur
Victoria Crandall chats with successful entrepreneurs in Sub-Saharan Africa. She discusses tactical advice, personal motivators and surprises for industry leaders and market professionals. She features stories on how they chart their path to success. Victoria was motivated to create a podcast on African entrepreneurship after many conversations with friends and business contacts who are running businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa. YAE airs every Wednesday and features interviews of male and female entrepreneurs from all around Africa.
The episode that stood out to me is one where Victoria shares the challenges, surprises and inner struggles of creating entrepreneurship podcasts. The biggest takeaway is that even though there’s no straight-up business plan, a podcast can open many doors. She talks about how you get to develop amazing skills including interviewing, audio production, branding, promotion and marketing. Also, you get to build a fantastic network.
African Tech Conversations
The African Tech Conversations series features relaxed in-depth chats on technology in Africa. Andile Masuku hosts leading entrepreneurs, innovators and thought leaders who are intimately involved in Africa’s tech scene. He holds brief and not so brief conversations with various individuals from founders to angel investors who offer insights on what it’s like to operate in Africa.
One episode you must listen to is where Andile interviews Chad Larson. He is one of the three founders of the Kenyan solar power start-up M-KOPA Solar. He talks about his position as the company’s Finance Director and how he and his co-founders help each other when they are feeling low. This has seen them grow to a $1 billion company. They provide pay-as-you-go energy to off-grid homes. Chad speaks on life in Nairobi with his wife and three boys since the company launched in 2011 and his previous life as a banker at the Bank of America.
Knowledge Bandits
This is a weekly podcast where Arum Galadima interviews Africa-focused entrepreneurs on the continent and in the diaspora. Knowledge Bandits aims to inspire African entrepreneurs all over the world to take their next leap. It features the latest on African startups, innovation, technology and entrepreneur news. New episodes air every Thursday.
An episode that I would recommend you to listen to where Arum interviews Alex Mativo, a young entrepreneur who is running three businesses. Alex talks about E-LAB, a company aimed at eradicating electronic waste in Africa. They do this by transforming the waste into products for the fashion and interior design industry. He is the recipient of the Queen’s Young Leaders Award.
Alex also talks about Nanasi which helps businesses and brands sell on social networks using a single platform. Lastly, he touches briefly on his third company Ethnic Brand. It lets fashion brands contract a physical factory to produce their products, all through the use of a smartphone.
Entrepreneurship podcasts are a good way to gain motivation, insight and entertainment for any entrepreneur out there. I find listening to people on similar journeys very inspiring and eye-opening. These are the few African based podcasts that stood out to me. Comment below and share the entrepreneurship podcasts that you listen to.
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