How to start an importing business

Small businesses worldwide are increasingly getting involved in the trillion-dollar importing and exporting sector. 

With the rising demand for products by consumers in Africa, now is the right time to consider establishing an importing business.

Get our handy guide for start-up importers and access essential advice on how you can establish your own importing business and become successful in the lucrative international trade.

Click on this link for more

How to succeed as a franchisee

Turning a start-up franchise business into a success is tough, but possible. Learn from an expert the keys to striking gold.


By Jeremy Lang

If you’re the kind of guy who likes to go to sleep early, don’t buy a restaurant franchise. I am stating the obvious? Perhaps, but you’ll be surprised how many first-time franchisees make the mistake of buying a franchise that simply does not fit their lifestyles.

In the world of start-up franchising, it can easily be a fatal mistake to make, because there is so little room for error. Very few people who buy their first franchise have the resources for a second chance once they’ve found out that the franchise they had set their heart on is actually not the right fit.

Lifestyle preference is only one of three pillars which prospective franchisees must consider to make sure that the franchise they choose is the right fit for them. The other two are skills and personality.

The skills set of the entrepreneur is the most important. First, there is the technical know-how related to the specific industry, such as a beauty salon or a service station. You’ve got to be able to choose a franchise for which you either have a natural skills set, or one in which you’ve had previous experience in.

Irrespective of the industry, a franchisee will always have to be a jack-of-all-trades to a certain extent - the HR person, the salesperson, the office-manager person and the tea lady, so you’ve really got to have a good general hybrid of skills such as:

• Good management ability, which is the core of what the franchisee is signing up for
• Sales skills, because your whole enterprise revolves around your ability to secure business
• An eye for detail and practical problem solving skills. Because you will be fulfilling multiple tasks in your business, you have to know as much about all the different systems as possible
• Networking and relationship-building skills for forging ties with your clients, staff, suppliers and franchisor, and
• Practical problem-solving skills. You are going to be faced with many challenges every day. You will have to be decisive, and think quickly to find solutions to problems.

This list is true for any start-up business, franchised or not, but there is one set of skills particular to franchising: the ability to follow the rules of the concept. Franchising is a recipe that requires strict adherence by franchisees, otherwise the service or product will start differing from branch to branch, and the collective power of the brand will suffer. If you are not somebody who likes to operate your business under a strict set of rules that you have not created, then franchising may not be for you.

Being a successful franchisee not only has to do with skills, but also with personality. Prospective franchisees need to be honest with themselves about their personality. A generally introverted person should shy from retail or service-heavy businesses such as restaurants. Similarly, a sociable, outgoing personality will become frustrated in a desk-bound business where there is little interaction with clients.

Although nothing can replace common-sense self-knowledge, I would suggest doing a personality test such as the Myers Briggs test, more to help you think through what you already know about yourself rather than teach you about aspects of your personality that you didn’t know.

The unknown usually lies on the side of the franchise. A first-time franchisee who knows himself well could still be in for a nasty surprise when it turns out that the franchise requires an approach, attitude or trait that he simply isn’t comfortable with.

There are two methods of avoiding this mistake. First, speak to the franchisor that you have your eye on. A reputable, established franchise group will have a very clear idea of what kind of personality and skills set are required to make a success of their concept. Some will have formal descriptions and even tests as part of their assessment process.

Most importantly, speak to the franchisees in the group that you want to join. If possible, work-shadow franchisees who are hands-on involved in the management of their businesses for a week or two. The exercise should leave you under few illusions about whether you are up to the task, and whether the work and lifestyle suit you.

Jeremy is regional general manager of Business Partners Limited.

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Below are links to some franchise opportunities on the Frontier platform

International financial services company is seeking a master licensees in Africa

Investors sought for expanding popular fast food franchise in South Africa

10 secrets to winning tenders

By Kristina Mills

If you think about it, sealing that deal is all about salesmanship. It is all about addressing the needs that your prospect wants to be fulfilled as well as proving you fulfill those needs in the most results-oriented ways.

Below are the top 10 rules to follow when preparing your tender document.

To find out their needs, always call them

When you phone your prospect, don't just ask for a copy of the tender document or a list of specifications. You need to find out why they are calling for tenders, what is important to them and why they want to undertake the project. Have a conversation with them and get to know them a little better, to discover what they are all about. You would be surprised how much information you can find out. This would be priceless information when going through the process of creating the tender.

Follow the salesmanship formula that is already proven

Instead of just talking about being able to carry out the work, start by identifying their problem, or the core reason that they included that criterion. Then you can talk briefly about the downside of the problem. When you have done that, you can talk about the solution - how you are really going to get their needs fulfilled. You need to include specifics about the mechanics behind the processes that you use. Prove your claims by including case studies, results, guarantees and testimonials.

Send them a pre-proposal letter

When you have made the initial telephone call finding out the facts, always send a quick note thanking them for their time. The letter should also thank them for the information provided, and should include something that makes them feel good about what they want to have achieved. Finish off the letter by thanking them again and letting them know that you are looking forward to putting together a tender document for them, or some quotes and ideas. An important factor in your success is to establish a relationship with your prospective clients, a relationship that begins from when you first call them.

Do a lot of research

Find out everything you can about the company - even if you are only submitting a 'quote' for an easy job. Do an online search; get them to send you a brochure; know what their competitors are doing; find out what their customer service philosophy is, their mission statement, and what their culture is about - regardless of the job you need to do. By doing this, you get a feel for what is important to the company, as well as some priceless ammunition that you can include when preparing your tender documents.

Follow the guidelines so precisely

When you are tendering for Government contracts, there are always specific guidelines to follow. Structure your documentation around these guidelines, which makes it easy for the prospect to assess your tender. If there are any other sections that you'd like to include, you can place them towards the end of your tender document.

Use graphs and tables

Show figures in a graph, rather than in text format. Include a comparison of your results with other companies' results.

Make a list of your most impressive customers

By listing your customers, it gives prospects an understanding of how you can cope with a business of their size, reputation and type.

List the best results you have achieved

List any great 'claims to fame', if you have any. Doing this proves that your company has 'runs on the board' and suggests to them that they can also get results from you. Include a brief description of the project, industry and the results which were achieved.

Include a guarantee

In the tendering process, people can be very sceptical. They are fearful of being ripped off and of not getting the results that they expect. If you include a powerful money-back guarantee that reverses the risk, it takes away one of their major buying fears. In effect, that lowers their barriers against doing any business with your company.

Include some testimonials

If you say something, they may not believe you, but if someone else says it, then it must be the truth. This is definitely true when you are talking about selling your services to them. When you tell someone how good you are all the time, it's not until they can hear it from the 'horse's mouth' that they will believe you. For this reason, you need to include in your documentation as many testimonials as you possibly can.

Bonus points

• Talk in benefits - Because people are basically selfish they don't really care how big you are, or how professional you are, or even how long you have been in business. They just want to know what you are going to do for them, how you are going to deliver those results and what it will mean for them. You need to tell them. Talk benefits, Instead of talking features. Tell them what is in it for them.
• Use the word YOU more frequently - 'You' is the most powerful word in the English language, because people are so self-absorbed. Use the word 'you', instead of 'we' and 'us' to keep your prospect interested.
• Present it professionally - You should include action plans so your clients know what to expect and when to expect it. It is a bit difficult to know how a project is going to work, what needs to happen, and when it should happen  - particularly with large projects. Include a comprehensive action plan which clearly sets out each step. This gives your prospective client a much clearer picture of how you are going to deliver these results. 
• Do not stop when you have submitted the tender - That is only part of your process. You need to develop a structured follow-up system, which includes some nurturing follow-up letters or a series of telephone calls, which are designed to 'check-up' and provide them with further information, if it is required. This shows that you're committed to helping to get results for them.
• Never give in - Because you didn't win a tender, it doesn't mean that the company will not want to do business with you sometime in the future. Make sure you keep in touch with them, with telephone calls, newsletters, interesting news articles as well as 'how are things' letters. These show that you care about them.

Kristina Mills is an author and business consultant

5 steps to planning a business trip to China

By Fredrik Grönkvist

So, you’ve found a couple of suppliers online and want to find out if they are everything they claim to be. That’s a good first step.

But, boarding the next flight to China, with a list of three random suppliers you found online, is most often a complete waste of both time and money.

In this article, I explain how you need to prepare yourself before your business trip to China, and what to should look for while you’re there.

#1: Is the supplier able to show compliance with product regulations in your country?

In most industries, less than 5% of the suppliers are able to show previous compliance with American, European and Australian product regulations and standards. Assuming you don’t verify their compliance prior to your visit, you’ll waste a lot of time visiting suppliers that are neither willing nor technically capable of complying with the relevant standards.

Besides, compliant suppliers tend to be above average in other aspects. Apart from the obvious legal requirements, I also consider compliance a strong indication of the supplier’s technical expertise.

#2: Schedule meetings with as many suppliers as possible

All manufacturers are not equal. Expect at least 50% of them to not be what you expect. It’s bad out there. I’ve been taken to factories that have not been operational for months. Factories that would barely pass for junkyards.

I can even recall one really weird situation a couple of years ago, in Xuzhou, when I was taken to the same factory twice in the same day. First in the morning, when a representative of a Trading Company took me there. The second time in the afternoon, when the actual owner of the factory picked me up.

It felt quite awkward to tell the boss that I had already visited their factory earlier that day. Not to mention that I wasted my entire afternoon. Not that there’s much else to do in Xuzhou…

The lesson here is that you’ll return home empty handed if you visit one or two random suppliers. It’s not enough. Schedule visits with at least five or six suppliers, and list a handful of backup suppliers – in case the first round fails to live up to expectations.

#3: Make yourself familiar with the geography

China is a big country, with hundreds of industrial clusters on the east coast. If you’re lucky, you can limit your visit to a single city. Certain industries are in fact concentrated to single cities, such as Shenzhen. However, in other industries, suppliers are scattered all over a province – or even the entire east coast.

First of all, you need to make a traveling plan. Getting to China is easy, and there are direct flights to major cities such as Shanghai, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Beijing. But most suppliers are not located in these cities (with the exception of Shenzhen). Instead, you are likely to find yourself spending time provisional cities like Taizhou, Foshan, Dongguan and Changzhou.

Getting there is not that much of a hassle though, thanks to China’s high speed train network. You can get to basically any city on the east coast by train. And that’s about as far as you need to get on your own. Any supplier worthwhile visiting will take you from there to their factory by car.

#4: Confirm the suppliers factory address

It’s common that suppliers, even those who are manufacturers, trade products supplied by subcontractors. It’s not always a bad thing though, but I prefer to be aware of such arrangements before I make my way to whatever village the supplier is located in.

All Chinese companies have a registered address. If the supplier is actually manufacturing the products, the factory should be located at the same address as specified on their Business License. There are exceptions, but this is the general rule.

If the supplier brings you to another address, they are probably taking you to a factory that’s not theirs. But then again, sub-contracting is not always a bad thing. What’s important is that you make your supplier understand that they are going to be held liable for defective products. This is a relatively small issue when dealing with qualified and organized manufacturers, that are in turn outsourcing certain products to sub-contractors. They have assets, and it’s not so easy for them to “disappear” in case things turn out bad.

But that doesn’t apply to smaller trading companies, that consist of little more than an a small office and a few employees. Apart from old laptops and dusty product samples, these companies have no assets. They can’t afford to compensate you if they would run into quality issues. It may also be in their interest to align with the manufacturer, rather than you, in case of a dispute. Stay away from these companies.

That being said, there are also reputable Trading Companies that act as exporting platforms for tens, sometimes hundreds, of manufacturers.

#5: Prepare product related questions

When communicating with a supplier on the internet, you rarely get further up their organization than the sales agents. However, you can expect a lot more attention when you show up in person at the suppliers factory. This means that you’ll get access to their managers and engineers - the people who are actually qualified to talk about their products and manufacturing capabilities.

Whenever I go out to visit suppliers and sit down with their engineers, I get to hear things the sales agents never told me. Probably because they are more concerned with making the sale, rather than telling me the truth. But also because sales agents are not engineers, they spend their days drinking tea and gossiping with their friends on WeChat -  apart from a few occasional conversations with potential customers. The engineers, on the other hand, are qualified to tell you what they can do, and what they can’t. I can recall plenty of times when the sales agents had promised things the supplier was simply not able to deliver on.

While you got the manager’s attention, it’s also a golden opportunity to make them understand that you’re not a gullible idiot. Make them aware of planned quality inspections and lab tests. It’s always good to put pressure on a supplier to comply with your quality requirements and product specifications.

Chinese companies are top heavy, and the only way to make things run smoothly on the production line is by applying pressure on the people in charge.

Inspecting the factory

The production line tells a lot more about a supplier than their brand of instant coffee or what car the owner is driving. Perhaps his new Audit was (involuntarily) financed by the last customer who didn’t bother to hire a quality inspector. The first thing to look at is how well they monitor product quality during the different stages of production. This is what you need to take a closer look at:

#1: Incoming materials

Manufacturers are not “Santa Claus workshops” that make every single material and component in house. They purchase components and materials from tens, sometimes hundreds, of domestic and foreign subcontractors. When quality issues occur, these subcontractors are often to blame (and many suppliers try to use that card).

What really matters to you is that the supplier checks the quality of the incoming materials and components. They shall also separate components and materials that are compliant with certain standards (such as REACH), from those that are non compliant. A supplier that’s not able to manage such separation is a major liability.

#2: Production lines

Manufacturing is not a science, there are always quality issues. What differentiates a good supplier from a bad supplier, is that the former monitors quality during the production process – and minimizes the number of defect units that slips through unnoticed.

A supplier that cares about maintaining a high quality standard has several checkpoints throughout the assembly line. They shall also be able to show how they define and manage defective units. A supplier claiming to have a zero defect rate during production is simply not monitoring their production well enough – if at all.

#3: Assembled products

Products coming off the assembly line shall also go through a final check. While a supplier is not necessarily testing every single unit, a final quality check shall include 2-5% of the batch. Finally, the supplier shall also maintain quality control records. If they claim to be ISO certified, they are even required to maintain records.

Is the supplier’s production lines busy?

It speaks for itself. A supplier with empty warehouses and dozing workers is obviously not doing that well. There’s a lot of overcapacity in China. Plenty of suppliers barely get enough orders to make ends meet. Doing business with such manufacturers is a liability. Even if they have the best intentions, suppliers operating on the edge of bankruptcy are not liquid enough to compensate buyers in case serious quality issues occur.

Before you leave, check out the factory warehouse

Not all manufacturers in China are geared towards Western markets. Many, of not most, are primarily made products for the domestic Chinese market, and developing markets in Asia, Africa and Latin America. That’s not saying that these suppliers are “bad”, but it may indicate that the supplier is not that knowledgeable about Western quality requirements and product certification requirements.

That’s why spending some time in the factory warehouse is a wise decision. This is where the suppliers stack hundreds of cartons, before being loaded into containers and shipped to buyers around the world. There’s only one thing that’s better than a warehouse full of goods about to be delivered, and that’s a warehouse full of goods addressed to buyers in your country.

These are strong indications that the supplier is not only kept busy with regular reorders, but also that they are well aware of product regulations and quality expectations in your market. And that is something you shall never take for granted when doing business in China.

This article was first published here

Fredrik works at ChinaImportal, an e-commerce platform that assists businesses looking to import products from China.

Eight tips to attract private equity investment

What do investors want? Experts at private equity firm, Jacana Partners, reveal how to make your company appealing to investors.

Are you a team leader? - Stephen Dawson, chairman and investment director, East Africa

Do not hire a personnel manager even if your business employs large numbers of people. Selecting, motivating, managing, and communicating with your core team is one of the most important things that you do and cannot be passed over to another manager.

Do you have an in-house finance manager?

You may think that financial management capability is something you can hire as needed, but as your business grows you need to have this resource in-house. These skills are very different from the entrepreneurs’ and you may need help in choosing the right person for this role.

Are you running too fast?

Beware of over-expansion and particularly moving into new fields before you have really proven the model in your core area; this applies to product or service range expansion, but especially to geographic expansion.

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Do you know your strengths? - Robert Jenkins, Investment Director, East Africa

Look for patient value-added capital that will round out your weaknesses. We expect you to have the vision and the domain expertise to get started. We can then build up the execution team together.

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Prudence always prospers - Kenneth Ibbett, Investment Director, West Africa

Don’t borrow money just because you can – spend only on what is critical to improve your bottom line. Frugality forces discipline and focus.

Think entrepreneur

We like entrepreneurs, so think outside the box, challenge convention, outwit the competition. Be savvy when it comes to strategic partnerships with investors and other partners. A real entrepreneur realises it is better to seize the opportunity with a good partner now, rather than haggle over terms for six months and be left empty handed.

Expansion: Have you considered all your options - Ezra Musoke, Partner, East Africa

As you expand, look at the case for equity finance as an alternative to bank finance. A private equity firm can be a valuable partner in your business and strengthening your equity base means you can also prudently take on more debt.

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The courage to change direction - Barnaby Terry, Investment Director, West Africa

Once you raise money, don’t be afraid to deviate from the Plan. Circumstances change, more market information emerges, so don’t be afraid to rework the plan with your investors and team as you go along.

Jacana Partners is a pan-African private equity company that invests in entrepreneurs, builds successful small-to-medium sized enterprises and delivers sustainable financial and social returns.

Free tips for entrepreneurs to prepare for equity funding

Investment experts give SMEs and start-ups in Africa tips on growing successful businesses.

Globally, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are considered the single largest driver of economic growth and job creation. In Africa, there is growing importance to support local entrepreneurs in order to build a pipeline of future deals for equity investment. To attract funding, there are basic fundamentals that start-ups and SMEs must effect, for instance, having sound business plans and implementing best practices in business governance. 

Frontier, in partnership with investment gurus at SME-focused private equity group, Jacana Partners, brings you the second part of a three-part series of tips to help you successfully start your business and get it ready for funding. 

Starting to grow a business

Initial growth - Barnaby Terry, Investment Director, West Africa

​When planning your new business, you need to focus on a simple product or service that has a clear value proposition and business model.

Product-line profitability

Many businesses have multiple activities, whether they be a mix of products and services; multiple product lines and different territories. Find out which activity makes money and put resources behind it. Find out which activity loses money and either fix it or close it.

Focus on gross margins
Gazing at revenues can be seductive, but they are often not the right thing to measure. Make sure you know your margins, and also make sure you know them at a customer level.

Plan your exit 
Most companies sell to companies they know already. Remember this when you are dealing with business relationships.

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Key Performance indicators - Stephen Antwi Asimeng, Partner, West Africa

Choose less than five key performance indicators that best reflect your business and measure them on a timely basis. You wouldn’t fly an aeroplane without instruments after all.

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Be decisive - Paul Fitzsimons, Investment Director, West Africa

If things obviously aren’t working in a part of your business, act quickly and cut your losses. A half-hearted approach to important business decisions wastes time and money.

Manage your cash
Cash flow is everything in a growing business – a business must have a robust method of forecasting cash receipts and payments – on a very detailed basis for the next 12 weeks and on a broader basis for the next year. The business should look at actual versus budget on a weekly basis and follow up on any variation from the original plan.

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Be competitor savvy - Stephen Dawson, Chairman and Investment Director, East Africa

Be aware of your competition. You  may think you do not have competition but they are always there (even if indirectly); by studying your competitors you can learn from the things they do better than you and make sure you make the most of the things you do better.

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Frontier African Success Story

Zambia-based Zambeef Group, began 20 years ago, delivering meat around Lusaka in the back of an old Land Rover. The company has has since grown into one of the largest agribusiness companies in Southern Africa. Zambeef is now replicating this success in West Africa.

Download a complimentary eBook on the company to learn more about how Zambeef found success.

Seven top tips from investment experts

Frontier, in partnership with private equity firm, Jacana Partners, brings you expert advice to help get your business off the ground and ready for investment.

Building a business in Africa is not easy. It takes years of practice, not to mention a certain amount of trial and error. SME-focused private equity firm, Jacana Partners, canvassed its experienced senior team members to provide you with valuable tips that can help to build your business and get you ready for investment.

This article is part of a series, which Frontier will bring to you over the next couple of weeks, in partnership with Jacana Partners. 

Setting up a business

Business plan ownership - Barnaby Terry, investment director, West Africa

Write the business plan yourself; don’t get advisers to do it – and make sure the senior team contributes and takes ownership of the document. The business plan is not just a document that private equity groups like to read, it’s the vision, the business case and action plan for your company. It’s an important exercise in determining the future direction of the business and ensuring the whole team is behind it.

Size matters

Is the market you are addressing large enough? And are you targeting a niche within that market? Become a market leader in your niche and progress from there. Remember that as a private equity investor, we eventually need to exit our investment in your company, so size of market is important to ensure you are of interest to an investor in the future. As a general rule, we would expect the company’s revenue to be at least five times the size of our investment in four years – so think big!

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Know your audience - Anthony Gichini, Partner, East Africa

The first thing you need to understand when starting a business is your customer market. What is their problem and what is your solution to that problem? It is a proven fact that people will pay a premium for a unique offering which makes their life simpler.

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Revenue counts most - Stephen Dawson, chairman and investment director, East Africa

In business plans the revenue number is the hardest to get right but by far the most important; spend 90% of your effort on the aspects that lead to the revenue number: market size and growth, competitor offerings and your competitive advantage,  pricing, marketing, converting prospects into customers, routes to market etc.

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Start-ups: simplicity is key - Christian Opoku Biney, Partner

When planning your new business, you need to focus on a simple product or service that has a clear value proposition and business model.

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Validation - Barnaby Terry, investment director, West Africa

To be successful, you must validate your offering with real customers before launch. This is an iterative process that takes time, and cash preservation is key during this phase.

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Don’t try and do everything yourself - Paul Fitzsimons, investment director, West Africa

Surround yourself with people with experience of the industry you are focussed on – you don’t have to agree with them but they can often have helpful insights or contacts, which could grow your business more rapidly than you can. You can also learn from their past mistakes, as opposed to finding out for yourself.

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Frontier Success Story

Africa has many indigenous and successful companies that have international reach. Download a complimentary eBook on the success story of Zambeef Group, and learn how your company can attain the kind of success groups such as MTN, Imara Group, Dangote Group, and Shoprite Holdings are enjoying on the continent.

Practical tips for success in Africa

Financial services group reveals the secrets to successful investing.

Mark Tunmer, CEO of financial services group, Imara Holdings, shared with us the secrets to the company's success. The BSE-listed company operates in nine African countries.

What factors are driving the growth of your company at home and on the continent?

Our growth as a financial services group rooted in Africa is underpinned by a range of positive developments, including the growth rates achieved by many economies in sub-Saharan Africa, often above 5% a year, growing liberalisation of most  economies, the growth of the middle class, growing disposable incomes, growing demand for consumer goods and financial services, growing liquidity on some markets, growing share values, and the development of African institutional investors such as pension funds, insurance companies and asset management firms. Another factor is growing awareness among ordinary Africans that provision has to be made for the future through savings, pension funds and other wealth-building instruments such as shares.

Growth can be quite dramatic. For example, in the year up to our fifth annual investor conference in Zimbabwe in early June the market capitalisation of Delta, Zimbabwe’s biggest brewer, rose from US$836-million to US$1.7-billion. Over the same period, the market capitalisation of the Econet telecoms group was up from US$677-million to US$1.1-billion. In the same period, the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange has registered gains of 39% in US dollars.

Gains of that magnitude indicate growing participation by equity investors in African listed companies and explain growing international investor interest in our markets. Rates of growth and levels of sophistication vary tremendously across Africa. The South African and Zimbabwean stock exchanges have been in place for over 100 years while a stock market has only recently opened in Rwanda. Varying levels of development obviously affect the rate of growth of our own business and the prospects in individual markets.

What problems did you overcome to find success that you are enjoying in other African markets?

The fundamental challenge relates to education. At an individual level, it takes time to develop a proper understanding of the need to save and invest. Our offices in all markets engage in on-going shareholder education and commit to constant communication. At a corporate level, you do also confront a similar educational challenge. For a financial services business like Imara to grow, we need instruments in which to trade, meaning market liquidity has to grow.

For this to happen, more private companies need to list on the stock exchanges. However, family owners traditionally grow their businesses out of their own cash flow or borrow money from a bank. The alternative is to issue equity or raise cheaper long-term finance. This in turn means a commitment to transparency and full reporting to shareholders or new partners. This involves a seismic shift in the mindset of owners who might have held total control of their businesses for generations. It is a slow process. Patience is required. Education takes time.

Where do you see future growth for your company coming from, and how do you intend to leverage on these opportunities?

There are specific opportunities relating to developments in certain markets, for instance, the plan to open a stock market in Angola and, hopefully, the opening up of opportunities in financial services in Ethiopia. But, the strategic opportunity for future growth relates to macro-developments such as the realisation in many of the world’s financial centres that Africa represents the last great opportunity, from a low base, to achieve sizeable growth for decades to come. This realisation will tend to support the growth in foreign direct investment and in portfolio investment.

Clearly, oil and gas discoveries in East Africa and other parts of the continent will have sizeable impact, but we also see potential for substantial growth in the non-oil economy across sub-Saharan Africa. The growth of the African middle class will deliver knock-on benefits across the financial services industry as families save, contribute to pension funds or drive the continued growth of listed companies through growing demand for consumer goods and services.

We see this as a 20-year journey. Being well placed on the ground across Africa will enable Imara to identify opportunities at an early date and then offer appropriate solutions.

What do you look for when deciding which countries/markets to enter?

The criteria we use to decide which countries to enter differs from case to case. However, there are some common themes such as political stability and some evidence that government has launched programs to liberalise the economy or has made a firm statement of intent to begin the process of reform.

We also scrutinise the regulatory and legal framework within which we are expected to work. A key factor is the presence on the ground of good potential partners. The search for credible partners may take two to three years. We are firm believers in the need for deep understanding of local conditions and will not enter a market unless we have a strong local partner.

How do you compete and interact with foreign companies in Africa?

Our competitive advantage that has put us ahead of our foreign competitors is our presence on the ground. Every Imara professional, with only two exceptions, lives and works in Africa. Imara has direct representation in eight African countries and has strong links in another two through enduring relationships with local partners. Our researchers do not depend solely on desktop research. They take a bottom-up approach and speak regularly to the executives of African listed and unlisted companies. They visit factories, speak to the local banks and have first-hand knowledge of the markets they study. This level of understanding and our direct, local representation bestow a sizeable advantage versus foreign competitors.

What tips would you have for companies that are interested in the African market?

The need for patience cannot be stressed enough. Coming in as a total outsider can be challenging. Invest time in finding the right local partner. You can’t achieve success from afar. A foreign investor looking to make a success of their investment should visit Africa, take time out to visit companies, speak to executives and local professionals and build a personal understanding of specific markets. Personal relationships count for a lot in Africa. You need to look people in the eye and make personal assessments for yourself.

Once you have developed better market understanding, commit to the long haul. Africa has boundless potential, but it will take time.

Click here to access Frontier's database of investment and business opportunities in financial and insurance sectors in Africa.