Munya Vomo
If you’ve travelled overseas you know many people have a skewed perception of how Africa operates in business. We are often seen as an emerging market yet, in some cases, as having no promise of developing booming economies.
Yet, BBC International News’ Africa Business Report (ABR) paints a very different and clearer picture on the anatomy of business in Africa. From the small-scale vendor to listed corporations, business in Africa is thriving and ABR brings you all the developments.
Formed a year ago, ABR’s host, Lerato Mbele (pictured below), spoke about her time on the show.
“I am so glad that we are still standing and the viewers have received us so well. It is so humbling that so many people want to appear on the show, showing that in only a year the show has created much demand,” Mbele said.
For her, travelling from one African country to the next has been so demand-ing that it was a surprise when she learnt it was a year since ABR first aired.
“It feels so new, but I think we have been so busy giving it life that we did not see the year go by. It’s good for us to now reflect on what we have done right and what we can improve on.
“Just because people are loving it and sponsors want to fund it doesn’t mean we have the best product out on air. Every day for us is a quest to make it better.”
Seen from an international perspective, Africa’s business sector struggles and the continent is deemed impoverished. ABR looks for the success stories that shed light on what Africans are doing to uplift themselves.
“We have gone to the captains of industries whom we read about in Forbes and asked them to tell us the truth about doing business in Africa,” she said.
While Mbele and her team have been to various locations across Africa, she can never get used to what she learns on the road.
“When I see a story on Ebola, it saddens me – those are the things that regress Africa’s advancements. At a time in Africa when we are so progressive, we have to deal with the worst spread of the disease. We do stories about the effects of Ebola on business. You find out that we shut the borders and flights are banned so those economies take a massive hit. Yet juxtaposed to that story is one of an Ivorian who developed an interactive app that teaches kids how to count and read.
“When you watch our show we hope people see reality and find inspiration and innovations,” she said.
Africa Business Report airs on BBC World News (channel 400) Friday at 7.40pm, Saturday at 10.40am and 6.40pm and at 12.40am on Sunday.