News — Black entrepreneurs

The term “power couple” is a modern invention to describe couples either married or romantically linked where each is accomplished in their own right. It has been applied to Barack and Michelle Obama and retroactively to Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt among others. But no one is more deserving of the title than Manet Harrison and Stephen Fowler, arguably the 20th century’s first Black power couple.

Both Harrison and Fowler were born and grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, a town not known for its Black population or its racial tolerance. She was born Minnia Helen Harrison on August 30, 1895, changing her given name to “Manette” (or “Manet”) while still a young woman. He was born on May 6, 1881. Both were products of the segregated Fort Worth school system which before 1910 ended for Black students with primary education. Yet both attended college, she to Tuskegee Agricultural and Normal School (Alabama) where she knew George Washington Carver and Booker T. Washington and he to Prairie View Normal and Industrial College (Texas) Although their specific graduation dates are unknown, after graduation both returned to Fort Worth and Fowler joined the faculty of the Colored high school.

Manet Harrison was drawn to teaching. She was a child prodigy who gave piano recitals at the age of six. She graduated from Tuskegee with a degree in “domestic science” then joined the faculty at Prairie View where she put her true talents to work teaching music. However, Fort Worth drew her back to teach in the public schools.

It was a love of music and church that brought them together. Both were members of Mount Gilead Baptist Church, Fort Worth’s oldest Black church. He was on staff teaching Bible classes, and she was the director of the choir and the organist. In 1915 they married in a church wedding that was one of the biggest social events of the year in Fort Worth’s Black community which numbered approximately 10,000 at that time or about 9% of the city’s population. In the next ten years they would have five children (2 girls and 3 boys) who were raised to value education and make their way in the professional world.

It was as professionals that Stephen and Manet Flower made their mark. Within two years of hiring on with the Fort Worth public school system Manet was promoted to “director of music” for the three “negro schools.” She took her students to the larger community by putting on choral programs (“festivals”) of African American folk music. Stephen, after sixteen years teaching in the school system, resigned in 1919 to become the first “General Secretary” of the “Negro YMCA” of Fort Worth. Both were talented, ambitious, and entrepreneurial. Manet refused to be defined by conventional categories; she played the piano and pipe organ, sang, and painted.

Stephen Flower made the Negro YMCA a center of the Black community, setting up a trade school and employment “bureau” on site. On the side he led a male quartet that performed African American folk songs and spirituals for audiences both white and Black. It was only natural that they would collaborate. Their first joint effort was a pageant, “Up from Slavery,” which she wrote and they co-directed. A decade later they took another original pageant, “The Voice,” to Chicago, Illinois for the golden jubilee of the National Baptist Convention of America.

In 1926 Manet organized the Negro Music Institute of Fort Worth, out of which grew the Texas Association of Negro Musicians (TANM), a branch of the National Association of Negro Musicians (NANM). She was elected first president of the Texas branch and published the national magazine, The Negro Musician, out of Fort Worth. her self-appointed mission was to promote the education of young African Americans, using children’s natural love of music to get them interested in education in general and their African roots in particular. Stephen served on the Institute’s faculty.

In the summer of 1928, Manet Fowler brought the TANM to Fort Worth for a four-week course of study that she called “a Master School” that drew faculty from all over the state. Stephen was the school’s vice president and treasurer. It was so successful that the Fowlers brought it back the following summer, which was a busy one for Manet. She persuaded the national organization to hold their annual convention in Fort Worth. The week-long event drew some 1,300 people from all over the country and included a grand parade through downtown.

Somehow during these years, Manet Fowler found time to study voice at the Chicago Musical College and the American Conservatory of Music (Chicago), winning new plaudits as a “dramatic soprano.” After 1929, she was much more in demand as a singer than at the keyboard. In 1930 she gave a recital in Fort Worth that combined classical pieces, negro spirituals, and what the newspaper described as “genuine African melodies sung in native languages.”

Manet Fowler dreamed of transforming her Masters’ School into a year-round school teaching not just music but also African art and culture. (She personally disdained the term “negro” as demeaning.) Finally, in 1933 she realized her dream when she opened the Mwalimu School of Music and Creative Art in New York City. (The name is Swahili for “noble or distinguished teacher.”) As the home of the Harlem Renaissance, it was the perfect place. She had already formulated the “Mwalimu Creed,” a statement of personal growth that combined elements of Christian piety, 19th century naturalism, and self-improvement philosophy, promoting “the good, the true and the beautiful.” The school’s curriculum combined vocational with liberal arts with instruction in music, interpretive dance, “artistic photography,” African history, “elementary journalism,” and cosmetology.

The school’s public face was the Mwalimu Festival Chorus, which she directed. They sang in English, German, and Yoruba as well as other “African dialects,” and their repertoire included classical, contemporary, and even opera. The highlight of those concerts was what they called the African national anthem, “Nkosi Sikele U Afrika.” By mixing musical genres and styles she wanted to show the “Negro [sic] contributions to [world] culture,” as one newspaper put it. Within a year she had her students performing in some of New York’s finest concert halls and touring.

After Manet moved to New York in 1933, Stephen remained in Fort Worth working for the YMCA and through that organization for his own people. In 1932 what was now known as “the Colored Y” hosted the Negro State Teachers’ Association of Texas convention, requiring accommodations in private homes. Three years later he presided over the opening of an expanded “Colored YMCA” that was still more about social services than athletic activities. In 1938 he resigned and moved to Harlem to become “director” of the Mwalimu School. He and Manet also began performing together again in recitals where they both sang while she accompanied them on the piano.

The Fowlers spent their final years living in Manhattan. She performed, led the school, and served on the board of the NANM. She also launched a booking agency for Black musicians. Occasionally she came back to Fort Worth to visit family and keep in touch with her many admirers. In 1962 she attended the 50th anniversary of the Colored High School’s 1912 graduating class.

Stephen Fowler died on October 28, 1965 at the age of 84 while attending the Empire State Baptist Convention in Syracuse, New York. He was buried in New Jersey’s Rose Hill Cemetery. Back in Fort Worth his memory flickered briefly in 1989 when the school board was casting about for a name for a name for a new elementary school. One name suggested was that of Stephen H. Fowler, but trustees rejected it because the name was hardly a household word even in the Black community and “would promote little neighborhood identification with the school.”

Manet Fowler died in New York City on February 16, 1976 at the age of 80 and was buried with Stephen, literally in the same grave. She did not even rate an obituary in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Her hometown had forgotten her. Her papers eventually wound up at Yale and Emory universities.

A better indication of the Fowlers’ significance is not how many pages they rate in the history books but the recognition they received during their lifetimes. No other Black woman of the first half of the 20th century was covered more extensively in the nation’s newspapers, not Madam C.J. Walker and not Mary McLeod Bethune. She was an early proponent of Black nationalism and though a latecomer to the Harlem Renaissance, she contributed greatly to the acceptance of African American culture by the white mainstream. She was honored in 1972 at the same time as Duke Ellington and Ramsey Lewis by NANM. Stephen, too, quietly challenged the status quo in Fort Worth by his performing and transforming the local YMCA from a lily-white organization.

Together Manet and Stephen Fowler broke down walls and blazed a trail in education and the arts from Fort Worth to New York City. They brought the spirit of the Harlem Renaissance to Texas, and they deserve to be celebrated in the age of “Black Lives Matter.”

Nigerian Afrobeats star and Grammy Award-winner, Burna Boy has clocked the enviable title of the first African artiste to have at least three albums being streamed 100 million times each on the global audio streaming service platform Spotify.

This revelation was contained in a tweet by music curators Chart Data. Burna Boy’s last three albums, African Giant, Outside and Twice As Tall, have each received the 100-million mark appreciation from listeners. This makes the Nigerian, whose real name is Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulum, the most sought-after Afrobeats star.

The record falls into a better perspective when Burna Boy’s works are compared to those of his compatriots among whom include Wizkid and Davido. The pair have also attained 100 million streams on at least one previous album. But together, Burna Boy, Wizkid and Davido are currently Africa’s most recognizable musical acts globally.

Twice As Tall was awarded best global music album at this year’s Grammy Awards, and a lot of the praise went for Burna Boy’s mother and manager, Bose Ogulu.

Ogulu was named as one of the 2021 International Power Players by Billboard. Billboard’s International Power Players list recognizes industry leaders nominated by their companies and peers and selected by Billboard’s editors, with primary responsibility outside the United States, Billboard said. Honorees included label executives, music publishers, independent entrepreneurs, artist managers and concert promoters.

Ogulu, also known as Mama Burna, was recognized for her work amid the 2020 pandemic, when she co-executive-produced, released and promoted the Twice As Tall album for her Grammy award-winning son, Burna Boy, Billboard said.

Mama Burna herself comes from a proud family associated with music. Her father, Benson Idonije, was a popular radio host and Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti’s first band manager. Getting exposed to the music industry and the Nigerian art world at a young age, Ogulu was inspired to study languages. With a Bachelor of Arts in foreign languages and a Masters of Arts in translation from the University of Port Harcourt, she worked as a translator for the Federation of West African Chambers of Commerce.

Chicago-based entrepreneur Jeff Badu, a former gang member, became a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a millionaire by 26. Now, he’s giving back to inner-city youth through his summer financial literacy program.

“I didn’t have someone to teach me about money and finances and prepare me to live the best abundant life possible,” Badu told the Chicago Sun-Times. “With all of the violence going on in Chicago with our youth, I guarantee you that if they had more financial education and empowerment, they would be able to stay out of trouble. They just want to sustain themselves and get out of poverty.”

Former Gang Member Becomes Millionaire Accountant

Born in Ghana, Badu came to Chicago’s Uptown community when he was 8 years old. He fell into Chicago’s gang life, seeking protection and guidance from the streets. After visiting family in Ghana, he was determined to get his life back on track.

“Between 8 to 16, those were the toughest times of my life. I was surrounded by so much negativity,” Badu shared with WGN TV during an interview. “I was literally trapped, I couldn’t walk certain places.”

Badu’s comeback was nothing short of impressive. In 2014, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in accountancy from the University of Illinois. In 2015, he went on to earn his Master of Accounting Science degree. Then, he started his career at Big Four accounting firm, PwC.

After a year of work experience, Badu obtained his CPA license and started Badu Enterprises. He reached a million-dollar net worth at age 26. Now, he leads a successful multinational tax practice and is a real estate investor. He owns a portfolio of 118 housing units on Chicago’s south side, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. 

From Gang Member to Millionaire Financial Literacy Advocate

Badu doesn’t want other youth to experience what he did growing up in Chicago. That’s why he’s offering a four-week financial literacy summer program to youth ages 6-18 years old.

“If you don’t have the resources to create abundance, then life is likely going to be tough. I want Chicago’s youth to think more abundantly,” Badu shared on his website.

His Badu Foundation will be a key ingredient to transforming the opportunities available to underserved youth in Chicago. The foundation aims to provide valuable financial literacy education, scholarship training,  and a $500 scholarship to jumpstart their educational goals.

Badu aims to raise $100,000 to fund scholarships. According to Block Club Chicago, he plans to use $20,000 of his own money for this initiative. He is raising additional funds through a GoFundMe Financial Literacy Scholarship Fundraiser. You can check out the Youth Financial Empowerment Program and application on Badu’s website.

T-Pain, born Faheem Rasheed Najm, is not only a musician but an entrepreneur. Like many of his contemporaries such as Jay-Z, Akon, and Rihanna, he has an interest in multiple businesses. He first got into music as a child when he spent time with a music producer friend.

He would later convert his bedroom into a makeshift music studio. In the early 2000s, he made a grand entry into the music industry with a collaboration with Akon. He later released his debut album, Rappa Ternt Sanga, in late 2005 which became an instant hit globally.

Since then, he has featured major artists such as Chris Brown, Flo Rida, and DJ Khaled as well as winning the Grammys twice with his collaboration with Jamie Foxx and controversial rapper Kanye West.

His success in the music industry brought in quite a lot of money. In his own words, he became wealthy. However, a series of bad spending habits and investment decisions left him with zero dollars in the bank.

In a startling interview recently, the 35-year-old revealed that he had to borrow money from friends to treat his children to a Burger King meal. According to him, he once had $40 million in his account but lost all due to poor investment decisions and spending habits.

“Now I know what the high end is and what the low end is,” he said. “I’ve been mega-rich, I’ve been super broke, right in the middle of thinking I was mega-rich, and then got rich again, and you know learned how to really give a s— about money,” the rapper said in an interview with the radio show “The Breakfast Club.”

T-Pain disclosed that his most expensive purchase, apart from his home, was a $1.2 million Bugatti. That Bugatti, which he even abandoned after five months due to a fault, was the beginning of his financial woes. “At that point, I was running out of money and my accountant was like ‘You just bought a Bugatti. You’re out of money.’ And I was like ‘No, I’m not. I got this house I want to get, this other house for my assistants, my runners, my producers and stuff,’” T-Pain shared.

He said that after buying that house, he just started “going crazy with the money.” 

“I wasn’t paying attention to it. I thought if I didn’t have access to my own accounts that I wouldn’t have to look at it.”

Essentially, T-Pain and his team squandered money on real estate. “I was letting my manager do it and he was way more optimistic than I was,” the rapper said. “He would buy complete dumps and think that we could just paint.”

T-Pain shared that they never sold the properties purchased and things got really bad.

However, “The Masked Singer” singer claimed in the interview that he is currently financially stable, adding that he does not intend to chase after the $40 million. “Once you give as— about the money you’re making, then you feel much better about your accomplishments, you feel much better about what you’re doing, you start paying attention to your work that makes you money,” he said.

In addition, T-Pain said he has learned about sound financial management skills and paying attention to projects he is executing. He added that he has found a way to balance this time between his family and his hustles.

“I’m not chasing the $40 [million],” he said. “The money I’m making now, I’m just making it, I’m not trying to make it. That $40 million, I was hustling, I needed to be on everybody’s record, and every record gotta go No. 1, I gotta do this work. And at that time, I didn’t know my family at all.”

According to him, his proudest moment has been providing for his wife Amber Najm and three kids Lyriq, Muziq and Kaydnz.

“Awards are always great, but in the long run, it doesn’t really say who you are. I’m more concerned about my family, my kids, and my wife and making sure I can provide,” he said.

Valerie Moran was born into a family of five children. Originally from Zimbabwe, her parents were successful entrepreneurs. Her mother was a beautician while her dad owned many businesses including a school uniform factory, bakery, and a property investment firm.

Besides her parents being entrepreneurs, several of her uncles and aunties were university professors and deans at universities. Education was highly promoted in her family. She went to college to study COBOL/Fortran/C (programming language) and graduated to become a talented Systems Analyst. While in Zimbabwe, there was no work for a Woman-In-Tech, so Valerie moved to London, she said in an interview with Anne Marie Ruby.

She co-founded Prepaid Financial Services (PFS), which specializes in financial technology with her husband Noel Moran in 2008. As a couple, they own 81.5% shares in the company. Valerie solely owns a 16.3% stake in the company.

She became the first employee of the firm, serving as its Implementation Project Manager after quitting her paid job. She managed to put the company on the global Regulated Financial Services map. Today, her firm is one of the most successfully managed fintech organizations in the world, posting profits for 10 conservative years.

Valerie moved to London in 2003 when Zimbabwe went into recession. She now lives in Ireland with her husband Noel. They are jointly worth $278 million, according to the Sunday Times Rich List 2020. In 2019, Valerie became the first and only Black woman in the top 1,000 people of The Sunday Times’ annual Rich List, which ranks Britain’s super-wealthy.

Valerie and her husband had started PFS at a kitchen table in London. In its first year of operation, PFS lost $43,000. They also unsuccessfully tried multiple ways to raise funds. They fell back on their savings to keep the company running. They eventually landed a big client and moved into an office space at London’s Hanover Square. Their company is now operating in 25 countries, 12 years on. The firm, in 2018, posted a profit of $9.8 million, according to the Irish Times.

The company has also won multiple awards. It was awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise: International Trade 2017 by HRH Queen Elizabeth II and the British Government. In September 2019, the couple also won the Business of the Year Award from the European Business Awards.

Valerie told IdeaMensch that her typical working day lasts about 15 hours, from 9 am until midnight. “During the working day, I spend time trying to catch up with Team Managers to help things move along, especially where they are waiting on decisions from me. After the normal working day, I then get time to catch up on emails and my own workload,” she said.

Her long working hours also tie with her work ethic of listening, learning, and accepting feedback. For aspiring entrepreneurs who want to be like her, Valerie said they should commit 100% to whatever they are doing.

“Work hard and give 100% to your work effort. Leave no stones unturned so that at least if you have to walk away you know you have given it your best shot,” she said.

Master P has shown his versatility when it comes to music and wealth accumulation. He is carrying his son, Hercy Miller, along with him.

The rapper and entrepreneur has reportedly landed a $2.5 million endorsement deal for Miller, who will be attending Tennessee State University, a Historically Black University College. The deal will make him the highest-paid college basketball in U.S. history.

However, before the deal could materialize, they have to wait until the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) overhaul its rules to make student players to be paid for their name, image, or likeness, according to REVOLT TV.

“In August, the league is changing, the NCAA. You’ll be able to make money off your likeness [and] you’ll be able to do marketing deals,” Master P tells TMZ Sports. “I told Hercy he’ll probably be the highest-paid college player in college basketball history if he do this deal. Guys that are going to the G League, they’re not even getting that type of money.”

Master P continues: “So, right now I have a deal on the table for Hercy for $2.5 million. He never even played a lick of [college] basketball.”

NCAA in November 2020 announced a series of reforms to allow student-athletes to make money beginning in August, according to REVOLT TV. Master P is convinced the new NCAA rule will not only be a “game-changer,” but “it’s going to make kids want to stay in college too.”

Master P’s son is said to have chosen Tennessee State University over Division I college programs like LSU, Vanderbilt, UCLA, and the University of Southern California. “I feel like if I go to an HBCU, I can put a spotlight on for all the HBCUs around so that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to make a change. I want to make a difference,” Hercy previously told TMZ Sports. 

The 6-foot-3, 180-pound three-star helped his Minnehaha Academy RedHawks win the 2021 Minnesota Boys Basketball Class AAA State Championship in April. He also led his team with 24 points in the championship game. His brother Mercy scored 15 points.

“Like my dad’s saying for me, I work hard. I want to be able to make money off my own name,” Hercy said.

Coviello Salinès’ father, Freddie Francisco Salinès, introduced him to cooking and winemaking at a young age although his dad wanted him to become a neurosurgeon.

“He wanted me to be like the early Ben Carson, so he would bring home large brain books for me to study,” Coviello told Soul Vision Magazine. “They were 1,000 pages long, breaking down analysis and all this different stuff with him,” according to Travel Noire.

Coviello’s parents migrated to Southern Bronx from the Caribbean. His father was a serviceman while his mother was a nurse. Cooking was his father’s big hobby and he would often pair different wines and beers and things that match with the food that he made, Coviello recalled.

After completing a university in Ohio where he studied biochemistry and minored in petroleum engineering, Coviello worked in the engineering field for a while before he was discouraged from the field by the wide-scale land destruction, racism, and nepotism.

It was at this point that he decided to venture into winemaking, after all, he had been introduced to it in his formative years when his father was alive. He traveled to Geneva to meet his friends. While in Geneva, he learned about the unethical practice of wine coloring. Coviello got to work on a scientific blueprint.

“I started writing out the formula of not only the derivative of grape skins but the anthocyanin compound that is in multiple fruits and vegetables,” he told TravelNoitre. “I also wrote the analysis of spectrum when it came down to the acidic to pH scalability of these different types of skins that allowed the molecular breakdown of that compound to sustain another color.” 

“So at that point, I started researching it, I figured out a formula that I was comfortable with, and I brought it to a few of the researchers and a few of the people that I was close with. And we started to find different areas that we can start sourcing these products,” he said.

He also traveled to Italy, known for producing some of the finest wines in the world, to learn more about preparing wine. He finally managed to come out with a product he so desired.

“It broke down every single avenue of the color spectrum of blue,” he said of the final result. “So when you look at the bottle, it has every single hue of blue attached to it, which I wanted to achieve but I didn’t think it was possible.”

After successful trials, he launched Amour Genève, the world’s first FDA, TTB, and EU-approved natural blue. His blue wine is now making waves in several countries, including the United States. “People are loving it. They’re loving the story. They’re loving the journey and the shape of the business. It’s just, it’s just all beautiful.”

Also, the wine is linked to his father as the wine’s trademark color of blue is his late dad’s favorite color.

By age 19, Moses Shepherd was working at Sunoco gas station in Detroit and eventually became a manager. While at Sunoco, he ran eight stores and made all of them profitable. Although his work was draining, for Shepherd, it was an opportunity to learn as much as possible.

“I worked 12 hours a day, six days a week for a salary of $375. But it really wasn’t the money at all, it was about what they taught me, so eventually, I could write my own paycheck,” he told Chains Detriot Business.

After nearly four years at Sunoco, Moses left to start a music distribution company where he supplied music to gas stations across Detroit and later, countrywide.

His business became profitable and he decided to expand it. “I had three record stores — one in Pontiac, one in Detroit, and one in Inkster. So, as the market turned, I decided to shutter the stores, and I had an idea to start selling music and electronics to prison inmates,” he said.

He started selling music to one prison in 1996 and by the year 2000, he was supplying 3,500 prisons across the country. “This was the product that I had manufactured in China and shipped over here. And they were transparent, so the inmate couldn’t hide any contraband,” he said.

Everything was going on well for Moses until he became vindictive. Wanting to put an ‘enemy’ out of business, he withheld investment in his profitable prison business and got back into the rack distribution business. “So it goes to show where my mindset was, right,” he said. “And when I did that, I went out of business. It was a flop. So, I lost that business, and I lost the prison distribution business.”

Shepherd lost almost everything he had labored for and he barely could afford anything. He started reading real estate books but couldn’t buy the books, so he had to sit in the bookstore and read them.

His credit was however marginal enough to be able to buy a house and fix it up. “…My books told me that I can buy this house for $50,000. My book said (list) the house for $65,000, and I can pull $15,000 back at the closing.”

With time, he started buying more houses and ended up with a couple of hundred houses over in between the University District, Bagley, and Grandmont-Rosedale Park. He had so many houses that he actually controlled what the rents were, he said. By 2008, he had started buying the entire neighborhood.

After making it big in the real estate sector, Shepherd decided to invest in the fuel business. He launched Ace Petroleum in 2017, starting one of the nation’s largest minority-owned fuel suppliers. In 2020, ACE Petroleum obtained a $27 million contract with Detroit to supply fuel services for the city’s police cars, emergency medical vehicles, fire trucks, buses, and other transportation units. It is a contract for five years.

A Black businesswoman has accused a Connecticut bank of racism after officials there allegedly refused to allow her to withdraw her money. Gwen Samuel said she felt humiliated by the alleged incident that took place at the Southington-based branch of TD Bank.

According to her, officials of the bank did not offer any explanation why they refused to give her the money. She later used the ATM of the bank’s other branch to withdraw her money.

Samuel is a social activist and founder of the Connecticut Parents Union, a group advocating for equal educational opportunities for children in Connecticut. She said she has been a customer of the bank for 16 years and had gone to withdraw an amount of $1,000 from the bank to pay a vendor.

“I go inside, I had my TD Bank card and my license. They were cordial. I’m not even gonna say they were rude,” she told Fox61. According to her, the teller at the branch spent a lot of time going through her account before refusing the withdrawal.

“She hands me my license and she says, ‘I don’t feel comfortable giving you the money.’ So, I got confused, so I said, ‘You don’t feel comfortable giving me the money,'” she said. “Well, you just deposited the check yesterday.”

Even though Samuel told the teller that the check has been cleared and verified, the teller responded: “And she said ‘oh yeah it cleared. The money is available. I just don’t feel comfortable giving it to you,'” a speechless Samuel said. 

In a statement, TD Bank said it is proudly serving a diverse community and does not discriminate against its customers. The statement also described the incident as regrettable and noted that it was contacting the victim to address her concerns.

“At TD Bank, we proudly serve diverse communities and customers and do not discriminate in the services we provide or the products we offer,” the statement said. “The security of our customers’ accounts is a top priority and we regret that the specific reasons why the transaction could not be completed may not have been explained to Ms. Samuel at our Queen Street store in Southington.”

Flutterwave was not the first of its kind in Africa when it was started in 2016 by Nigerian technologists and former bankers. But perhaps, the point of its success can be attributed to the fact it was a financial tech platform that had a lot of input from those in finance.

Often, the process of technological innovation can seem like a developer’s license to play to the gallery. The app or whatever is developed could therefore lose its ergonomic utility. Flutterwave turned out differently and by 2018, it was a market leader in sub-Saharan Africa.

A digital payment app known for being seamless and secure, Flutterwave continues to be the choice for small to medium-scale enterprises (SMEs).

Founder and CEO, Olugbenga Agboola said via social media that plan was always to “build a payments technology infrastructure that connects Africa to the global economy by making local and international payments seamless.”

Flutterwave’s website says the app is available in 11 countries, however, it will soon be 20. This is thanks to a Series C funding that was announced on Wednesday to much funfair in Nigeria and across Africa.

The $170 million secured means in the third round of funding means that the fintech start-up is now a unicorn – a startup worth over $1 billion. This is the first time an indigenous African fintech is valued at that amount.

“We’re grateful for our People, Customers, Investors, Partners, Regulators, the people at @EndeavorNigeria and well-wishers. Through your support, we have empowered millions to start their journey to economic freedom, wherever they are, knowing that the world is their market,” Agboola continued in a series of tweets.

But signs show that this could only be the beginning of a lot of good for Flutterwave. Currently, the app hosts more than 1,000 African SMEs that sell their wares on the platform.

Apart from that, individual users of Flutterwave are in their hundreds of thousands but growing. There are now intentions to expand the company’s services to North Africa as well.

Victor Asemota, a Nigerian venture capitalist, believes the success of Flutterwaves will have a positive impact on other tech start-ups across the continent.

“The panic this Flutterwave raise had created in certainly [sic] circles means that Africa was severely underrated both externally and internally. Look, we have done Telco payments all over Africa and this is the tip of the iceberg. Flutterwave will list [sic] and be a greater success,” Asemota said via Twitter.

For so many years, the agriculture sector has been the mainstay of Africa’s economy until it was recently overtaken by the services sector. Many development analysts have said agriculture is the surest way the continent can escape from extreme hunger and unemployment.

However, the challenge confronting many of the continent’s youth who want to go into farming is the lack of access to capital, logistical constraint and other incentives. For instance, in Europe and America, farmers enjoy subsidies from the government but the situation is not so in many African countries. 

Farmers are virtually on their own and what makes it worse is that they face competition from cheap imported frozen chicken, fish and other agricultural products from western capitals. 

Therefore, for one to venture into full-time farming in Africa, it takes not only courage but true love for the profession. That’s exactly how Ayodele Pamela felt when she wanted to start poultry farming in Nigeria. 

“I never had the tiniest of intentions of going into farming at all,” Pamela told thefounders. “In fact, I would have strongly disputed it if I had been told that I would ever be involved in farming.”

Her comments reflect the general lack of interest in farming among a new generation of African youth. Despite the lack of interest, the sector remains the second-largest employer and still attracts a considerable number of young people.

Pamela started her poultry business on the back of buying catfish and eggs. One day, she saw a vacant land, asked for the price, purchased it and commenced fish farming on the land. She later bought 100 Layer Chicks to start her poultry farm.

“Having nowhere to house the chicks, I begged someone to allow me keep the chicks with him, then I go to feed them,” Pamela said. “When the chicks started laying, I just used to dash it out.”

Her husband impressed on her to start selling the eggs since there is a market for them. This would not only let her earn some income, but it will help her recover the money she invested in feeding the chicks.

“Whenever the eggs reach 10 creates, I’ll sell them; I then noticed that this was a profitable venture, that’s when I now built a suitable housing for them, then I moved 100 birds there,” Pamela said. “After my husband supported me to get 500 birds to add to the existing ones,” she added.

According to her, she starting her fish farming and poultry business having no knowledge of it. “I practiced with my own chicks and fishes, no prior learning at all,” she said.

One of the recurring challenges confronting Pamela is the supply glut in the industry. She said due to excess supply, she is sometimes forced to drop her price in order to sell. She is, however, “still very much strong” in the business and has even expanded.

In his early twenties, Shaun “Lucky” Corbett was arrested on three different occasions. First, he was arrested for a concealed weapon, then he was caught for breaking and entering, and finally on drug charges, which was later dismissed because the search that led to the discovery of cocaine in his car was illegal.

However, it was his third arrest that led Corbett to turn over a new leaf. He wanted to live an honest life but no one was willing to hire someone with a criminal record. On one occasion when he applied for a job, he left blank the section seeking information on his criminal record.

When he was called for an interview, he confessed to serving time in jail and the managers of Value City hired him for his honesty. He worked there for more than two years and later enrolled in No Grease barber school. 

Finance almost became an impediment for him to train as a barber. So he took a job to serve pizza to keep the cashing coming in. It earned him the name Pizza Boy and Mr Pizza.

He graduated in 2016 as a certified barber and eventually managed to acquire his own barbering shop at North Tryon Street. He opened his first Lucky Spot barbershop in 2010 and later operated his shop in Walmart, making him the first Black businessperson to ever own and operate a barbershop in any Walmart.

“I want to open a Lucky Spot in every inner-city in America,” Corbett told. “I want it to be the standard of what community barbering is.”

Lucky Sport barbershop is not just a local shop where people go for a haircut but it has also become a place that promotes cooperation between African Americans and the police. Corbett has now gone from being a former felon to a community leader.

“You know, I’ve been building on the relationship and the community service that I had already done with Walmart. I started meeting and talking with certain people higher up on the food chain,” Corbett told.

Now 41, Corbett has opened three locations in Walmart, his latest location being in Gastonia amidst the pandemic. “Covid allowed me to map things out like I got the next 20 something stores laid out,” he said.

His next shop in Columbia, SC., is set to open in the spring while another shop is being planned in Atlanta. “We’re really just taking advantage of the opportunity, and it’s bigger than us, we’re about creating opportunities for others,” Corbett said.