Remarkable African Businesses

In recent weeks, my interest in upcoming African businesses have exponentially increased. It encourages me to see that although many entrepreneurs have complained about the difficulties of doing business in some African countries, even more smart entrepreneurs have figured out how to be successful in one of the most promising markets in the world.

Throughout my research, I came across several great companies and I would like to highlight a few of them over the next couple of days. These companies operate in different African countries and hopefully I can bring a little bit more exposure to these companies through my posts.
The companies I will write about are both for profit and not for profit organisations.

First

Company - Afya Tea
Product/Service - Afya Herbal Tea
Country of Origin - Cameroon
Website - https://afyatea.com/

Moringa is a tropical plant which has been used by locals in many countries for many years. The benefits range from managing arthritis to increasing one’s sex drive. Many people swear by this plant and consume it either for medicinal purposes or as a nourishing drink.

A company in Cameroon is taking advantage of this customer segment. They have taken this age old plant and converted it into a modern day product called Afya tea.

The founder of Afya Tea, Vanessa Zommi discovered that most of the tea consumed in her native country Cameroon were manufactured outside the continent. This urged her to manufacture what she refers to as the only “African branded tea”.

Check out the website for Afya Tea and maybe order yourself a box or a few dozen boxes.

Second

Company - Vula
Product/Service - Vula App - Medical Referral App
Country of Origin - South Africa
Website - http://www.vulamobile.com/about/

Vula is a mobile app which was created to provide fast and efficient specialist care to people in rural areas. This idea and app was developed by Dr William Mapham an ophthalmologist from South Africa. He came up with the idea because of the difficulties he had while working with patients in the remote parts of Swaziland. In 2014, the first version of the app was launched for ophthalmology referrals only but after seeing how well received the app was, he decided to include cardiology, orthopedics,HIV and burns.

Try the Vula app on the Play store
Try the Vula app on the App Store
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/dxkGpnycdRYNOny_qrRDWCO-NbfgeWNmsmyhJZzCm3Ig7Whoa4ly0RyGN2s83dbWer8=s180-rw

Third

Company - Paga
Product/Service - Paga App - Mobile payment and money transfer
Country of Origin - NIgeria
Website - https://www.mypaga.com/paga-web/customer/

The last company I would be talking about today is called Paga. Paga is a company which offers money transfer and mobile payment services to their customers.
What’s most impressive about Paga is the fact that they provide their customers with a multichannel systems which makes the transfer of funds that much easier. Transactions can be performed via SMS, on the app or by visiting a physical location. What makes their offering even more remarkable is the fact that they have simplified a concept that less than 10 years ago was virtually non existent. You would not believe that at one time people used to carry bags of money around in order to make payment for services.

There are many more companies like the three listed above and I would be writing about them in subsequent posts.

Thanks for stopping by. Chat tomorrow.

Disclaimer: I am not been paid or compensated in any way by the organisations mentioned in my post.