How Digital Transformation is driving Disruption in Wealth Re-Distribution — Lionesses of Africa

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by Nkemdilim Uwaje-Begho

I spent yesterday evening talking to my friend and leading wealth coach in Nigeria, Abiola Adekoya, on her maiden edition of Disruptors with Abiola Adekoya, an IG LIVE series focused on Disruptors, Industry Trends, Wealth Creation and how to navigate the 21st century with all its quirks and kinks.

Our topic was How Digital Transformation is driving Disruption in Wealth Re-distribution and if I do say so myself it was an hour and half packed with lots of insights, opportunities, industry trends and information that will help CEOs, Entrepreneurs and Investors navigate the current situation.

COVID-19 and the current global economic crisis has forced us to test our readiness for the 4IR (4th Industrial Revolution) and reshape our habits as individuals and businesses.

Here are some of the key takeaways that we covered during the LIVE session:

1. Consumer Behaviour is Changing

There is a massive shift happening globally as consumers are changing their habits during COVID-19. Some of these behavioural changes are:

  • People connecting with friends and loved ones across the globe on the Houseparty app, having virtual dinner parties or company TGIF sessions and engaging in fun games and banter.

  • Children attending class online and parents being more involved in class activities

  • People taking part in virtual exercise and dance classes, DJ sessions and live cooking activities using LIVE.

  • Thought leaders and subject matter experts using digital video streaming apps and webinars to engage

  • People working from home at scale — this is not something we are used to in this part of the world and as employers and employees forcefully navigate the WFH (Working from Home) culture, this may be something many Nigerian employers adopt going forward, especially if infrastructure challenges are solved.

  • People becoming content creators on platforms like TikTok — we will surely see the next wave of tween content creator millionaires post COVID-19.

  • People getting used to having meetings via video conference calls, this may become the new normal — especially in cities like Lagos where 1 meeting can take 4 hours out of your day due to the heavy traffic. My guess is post COVID-19 we will see a significant reduction in pointless face-to-face meetings and will use technology to be more efficient in client interactions.

These new habits and experiences will lead to changes in consumer behaviour and increase the demand for businesses, educational institutions and Governments to deliver their services virtually.

They will also lead to more computing power and bandwidth being needed as more and more businesses move their operations into the cloud to further enable remote work. We will begin to see a rise in VR (Virtual Reality) Experiences, e-sports and other immersive experiences. I also think that the pandemic will lead to global digital literacy rates going up as more and more people come online in order to ensure that they are up to date and able to connect with their loved ones.

2. There are BIG Winners despite COVID-19

A lot of businesses are closing down, letting employees go or paying 50% salaries to staff as they struggle to stay alive, however there are some clear winners that have emerged on a global scale:

  • Big winners are online supermarkets and groceries delivery services. UK Online supermarket Ocado had a virtual queue of over 400K people. Walmart hired over 150,000 casual staff to ensure that they could meet demand. They saw daily surges of demand that exceeded over 160%

  • Other big winners are streaming services. With the increasing demand for digital content, an analysis published by Forbes has shown that streaming has jumped by at least 12%. Streaming services like Netflix, YouTube and Amazon have also had to reduce streaming quality from HD to standard to reduce the bandwidth being used. While the pandemic is at its all-time high, Disney+ services just launched in most European countries.

  • Collaboration Cloud Services are another clear winner with millions of people around the world working from home collaboration tools and file sharing has become more important. A report by Reuters suggests that Microsoft Teams has had a 500% increased usage in China since the end of January; Zoho is jumping on the bandwagon with the recent launch of Zoho Remotely, a suite of web and mobile apps to help teams collaborate remotely.

  • Video Conferencing & Chats are closely related to collaboration cloud services as video conferencing and chat usage has skyrocketed as work teams, families, friends and colleagues use it to connect. A report on Tech Crunch shows that between March 14–24, WhatsApp had a 40% increase in usage; Reuters reports that since early January, Zoom’s daily active user base has increased by 67%.

These are businesses that will continue to deliver value as we plunge into a global post COVID recession.

3. There are great opportunities for Investors

As a Wealth Coach, Abiola is always thinking about investment opportunities and prior to this session we had long conversations about opportunities in the global markets and I kept saying….TECH TECH TECH….and I think I have convinced her to jump on my bandwagon…here are my top technology stocks and reasons why I think they will do well….please note that I am in NO way qualified to give any investment advice. This analysis is simply based on my predictions of a post COVID world:

  1. Disney — You may think of Disney as a traditional brand, but they spent the last decade rapidly investing in Digital and are the poster child for Digital Transformation — you can read The Ride of a Lifetime by Robert Iger to gain more insights on why I say so. They also recently launched Disney+ across Europe and the UK and have seen a surge of new subscribers. I think they will continue to invest in their Digital and win big post COVID.

  2. AMD & Intel — As the demand for computing capacity increases and we see more and more demand for cloud and quantum computing chip makers will become more and more relevant and both AMD and Intel have invested heavily in the next generation of chips. They also have solid balance sheets and I think we will see them win big in the post COVID era.

  3. Netflix — streaming in general has jumped up by 12% globally and people who have never done Netflix and chill are suddenly online. I think this will be a stock that will remain stable throughout the crisis and beyond, however it may be close to its max.

  4. Zoom — Everyone is doing meetings on Zoom all of a sudden and all my non-techie friends are talking about it like it’s some new tool 😂😂😂 and I am more than delighted because this means it will be easier to get clients to do Zooms post COVID. Zoom has also gained 67% new subscribers daily since the start of the pandemic and keeps growing. Rationale behind the success of this stock is same as for Netflix.

But apart from stocks there are many many other ways to invest in technology — Angel investing is one of them.

There are many awesome Angel investing networks in Nigeria and across the continent. I belong to Rising Tide Africa — a women only Angel Investment network. Abiola said it so well when she said — take risks and invest early to make sure that you stand the chance to gain big as well. I think angel investors should focus on local companies that are building platforms that enable remote work, eLearning, streaming etc., as well as in companies that create the content that will be consumed.

Another big area to invest in is the talent pipeline and here is why:

Post COVID-19 many companies in Nigeria and globally will accelerate their Digital Transformation and will be looking to automate processes, build e-commerce platforms and digital channels to deliver their services, as well as integrate AI, VR, AR and big data into their service delivery platforms and solutions. Innovation, disruption and Digital Transformation will win this fight in the long term and this means that we will need lots of technology talent — devs, product managers, data scientists etc. to build solutions that will help businesses and Governments dig themselves out of the post pandemic inevitable recession.

Areas that need to be invested in in order to leapfrog our talent pipeline are:

  • Learning resources and platforms: Virtual reality for example offers a huge potential to teach practical skills without heavy investment in infrastructure / labs or equipment, however VR developers are very very rare.

  • Training schools: also need support as most learners cannot afford the fees which means that we are seeing less and less talent being churned out. Funding mechanisms are key and these can reach from student loan initiatives to corporate funds that help sustain the pipeline. Post COVID we will all need to come to the table to ask ourselves how we will build our human capital, so that it in turn can build our nation and continent.

4. Business Owners & C-level executives need to think about Digital Transformation

For businesses that are struggling to stay alive my advice is:

  • Don’t give up! You can and will make it through this. My client and friend Ayodele Olajiga wrote a great article with some useful tips on having the right mindset to get through this.

  • Assess your runway: Understand how long your reserves can carry you if you do not earn anything and figure out what that means for your team.

  • Rethink your business strategies and if you haven’t thought about the role Digital plays in your business, now is the time. I urge business owners to use the time they have now to reflect deeply and to learn as much as possible about taking their businesses on a Digital Transformation journey — a great book I can recommend is The Digital Transformation Playbook by David L. Rogers. This is the time to strategize and plan your comeback post COVID-19, keeping in mind that we will plunge right into a recession.

  • Invest in Data — it’s the new oil: Start thinking about how you can use data to make better decisions. What are the tools you need to collect data, what are the tools to interpret it and how do you use it to make data driven decisions? Regardless of what sector you are in or who your target demographic is there are always ways to collect the right data, interpret it and use it to optimise your business.

  • Build your Brand Equity: Apart from planning your Digital Transformation journey this is the time to actively invest in building brand equity by investing in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiatives that you can amplify online and by investing in your digital content, knowledge sharing & content marketing.

If you need help thinking through Digital Transformation or how to use Digital to build your brand equity — let me know — my team at Futuresoft helps businesses think through their Digital Transformation journeys and guides them with regards to strategy development as well as execution. We are also currently working on a series of training courses for board members and CEOs on Digital Transformation Strategies and how to deploy Digital as a resilience strategy so watch this space! My amazing Digital Marketing Team can also help you think through building your brand using Digital.



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Why a safe and healthy workplace matters — Lionesses of Africa

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by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department

“Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that ever come can depend on what you do today.” 

This quote was used by President Obama in his eulogy for Senator John McCain and was written by Ernest Hemmingway in his book, ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’. Although the book was based in the Spanish Civil War, the title of this incredible book was taken from John Donne’s series of meditations and prayers on health, pain, and sickness (written after a near fatal illness). If one accepts the spelling that was used at the time (and as usual the use of the gender-specific pronoun to describe all humans, common throughout history), this is one of the most powerful thoughts on our place in this world.  Written in 1624, it will be forever true:

“No man is an Island, intire of it selfe;

every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the maine;

if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were;

any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde;

And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.”

We were reminded of this because we are currently writing from a European country where a recent workplace fatality has been reported. This particular country had seven workplace fatalities in 2020, nine in 2021 and so far this year have had seven, which if continues at this rate suggests perhaps that as many as eighteen deaths in total this year. One hopes that this will not extrapolate out in this manner, but the point is, these are a total of 23 people over the past two years four months who went to work and never returned. How tragic is that.

When we start and then build a business, Health and Safety is often not at the forefront of our minds. We start our business, we do what needs to be done and as our business grows we still personally get stuck in. Climbing to the top of the warehouse on an unstable ladder and shoving a heavy box on our left shoulder we continue to use our free right hand to assist as we climb back down, has never been a problem, a thought or concern. We have all been there. We really don’t give it a second thought.

Let’s get real for a moment, how are you going to support your family if you were to fall from the top of that ladder? A few moments of planning, of spending small on safety clips for the ladder and even a harness (they are less expensive than you think – even less if you think of the cost vs hospital bills and so on) and your family will thank you a thousand times over.

Secondly, once you start having employees, you are asking them to risk their lives, for what? It is one thing for you to risk your life for your dream and for your business, but to ask another to do this? For what? The thousand Zambian Kwatcha or 20,000 Nigerian Naira they earn a day? Makes you think doesn’t it?

But this is an important point. If we put aside for one moment the obvious, that a death of our employee, of any employee is tragic beyond belief. If we can possibly put aside such a horror and look at this purely from a business angle, such opportunities missed to keep our employees safe by saving some minor cost is crazy. Of course one could fill up the entire factory with cotton wool balls, so yes, there has to be a limit as to how much Health and Safety one brings in before your entire company becomes one giant children’s Bouncy Castle. Your factory still has to turn, your company still has to make profits and the cash flow has to arrive fast – otherwise you will end up having no company and no employees and who does that serve? Certainly not your employees and the family and communities that they support.

However, it is our belief (and we have seen numerous examples) that Health and Safety although considered a cost, must be considered a benefit for the company. It goes without saying that one of your largest costs are your employees salaries – we know it, you know it, our accountants constantly point it out! So why not protect them better? It should be added that we have seen a number of extremely well run businesses by Lionesses and indeed others that do consider Health and Safety as an important and integral part of their business. For many however this is not a formalized part of their business, but something they have cobbled together over the years and it has become a nagging itch at the back of their minds that they must formalize it more, upgrade their basic efforts and close any dangerous gaps in their knowledge and practices.

How do we do this?

Start now by weighing up the risks. Make a serious risk assessment of your business. This allows you to make informed decisions about which risks are a ‘must cover’, ‘should cover’ and ‘could cover’.

Find someone responsible who will be able to keep all records. Details of all the Health and Safety measures you are putting in place. To write an actual Health and Safety Policy and most importantly, to keep a record of any accidents (and also just as important near-misses). These will allow you to review your policies and to check if they made a difference and if these can be changed for the better.

As we often say – the people who really know your business are your employees, talk to them, ask them where they feel unsafe and why. They must never feel like they have to do something in order to be ‘a team player’. This is their life that we are concerned with.

Training is essential as you build a safer environment. It is not just good enough for you to build a safe place, your employees should understand why it is being built in this way and what their role is within this new environment. As they understand, so they become more invested in the process. Invested employees = great employees.

This new environment must be kept tidy. Ever watch a cooking show on TV? The top Chef’s are obsessed with tidying up as they go – they keep their work bench clean and tidy, and so they should! This is not just so they at all times know where things are – but they are working with sharp knives and also products that can kill (think salmonella), this is their Health and Safety habit, it works – it should be yours too.

Who does not get bored with fire drills? For that matter – who has ever listened to the Air Steward/ess when they have explained where the exits are and how to put on a seat belt? It is well known that more people survive a crash if they listened to the safety briefing and already know which is the closest exit. Same is true with factories and fire drills. Do them, practice makes perfect. The faster you can get your employees out and the quicker you can check they are all safe, the better.

One of the largest areas of danger concerns your machines – not just the potential for catastrophic injuries because your employees take their eye off the crusher, but actually from missed maintenance and servicing. The machine that breaks down and Joe the operator thinks he can help out by quickly removing what he thinks is the fluff that is clogging the works… Check your maintenance contracts and service those machines!

Regularly check your First Aid kits, ensure they are full of the real necessities for both minor and major events and let’s get our employees and ourselves down to the local First Aid Training Centre. That one trip could save a life and even if it doesn’t it’s a great Team building trip. Have employees who are unsure if this training is for them? This amusing video from the British Heart Foundation might change their minds (here) – even ‘hard men’ can learn!

Be aware. Pregnant staff, younger staff members (who think they are invincible – didn’t we all at their age!) and employees who have just had an operation are all extra vulnerable.

Finally, let’s keep those stress levels down. It has been shown time and time again that more accidents happen when there is extra stress, extra pressure to finish the job, extra noise and yelling. Let’s keep it calm and relaxed – it’ll save the day in many more ways than one.

We cannot guarantee no accidents happen, accidents do, but we can at least ensure that we have done our best to provide a safe and healthy workplace.

As President Obama said in his eulogy for Senator John McCain that Sen McCain saw “Each moment, each day, each choice, [as] a test.” Let us ensure that we don’t just pass this test, but we pass with flying colours.

Stay safe.



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Close Shop

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by Safiyyah Boolay-Jappie

Gone are the days when we clocked into our work day in the morning and clocked into the rest of our lives in the late afternoon. There was a clear separation between home life and work life and we could attend to the different parts of our lives without it being contaminated by the other parts of our lives. Where we were was where we were and we were able to give it our full attention.

Over the past 15 years technology has made time and space fluid, and since the lockdown it’s become commonplace to hear expressions like ‘I have my baby in the boardroom and my boss is intruding in my bedroom’. We are no longer simply multi-tasking. We are now multi-living, and there are no indications that it will slow down or self-correct.

Time and space has collapsed in a way that is undesirable for most of us and everything feels out of place, or even misplaced. We are having to be ‘on’ and in ‘uptime’ like never before. As a result, mental fatigue is our constant companion and it is a dark shadow in our relationships, our work, our creativity, and every aspect of our lives.

Declare an end to your day, even when you have incomplete tasks

A small shift we can institutionalise is to call and end to the work day. A small but significant clocking out ritual that signifies to your brain, and body and to your boss, colleagues and customers that the working day has ended for you. That you are offline. That the emails, WhatsApp messages and all other connectivity tools are on ice so that you can clear your head, replenish your energy and connect with the treasures of your heart, body and soul. Those outstanding tasks will be there in the morning, and maybe over time, you’ll realise how completely irrelevant and non-essential some of them actually are.

Prioritisation requires that we are comfortable with incompletions and missed opportunities, and that we become strategic about who, when and how we delight and who, when and how we disappoint. Like my daddy always says, “you can please some of the people some of the time, but you simply cannot please all of the people all of the time”.

When you prioritise, prioritise the things that help you to recharge, replenish and restore all the bits and pieces of you that become scattered and depleted so that you are able to return to your work with creativity and gusto!

Check out my FB Group, Living and Leading Wholeheartedly where the objective is to explore ways to thrive and to create success on your terms without the high costs of burnout.

Safiyyah Boolay-Jappie is a life coach, based in South Africa. She helps high achieving, ambitious women to create impactful careers without sacrificing their well-being, themselves, their relationships, and quality of life. She helps women to beat burnout and to thrive. Having worked in the corporate world for 20 years, most of these in complex leadership roles whilst raising two children, she understands the demands being juggled by professional women, both in their professional and personal lives. Today, she wants to share those learnings with other women through her personal coaching and training.

More articles by Safiyyah



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What Exactly is Media Relations? — Lionesses of Africa

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by Felicity Cowie, The Media Relations Coach

Media relations is frequently muddled up with public relations and that is very unhelpful for businesses seeking media coverage. Fundamentally, media relations is about working with journalists. Whilst the intention is to ultimately reach the public (be it customers, investors, talent or the world at large) via media coverage, it’s critical to understand that in all media relations work your audience is journalists. And journalists are under no obligation to do what you ask. You have no rights to approve or request changes to their work otherwise it wouldn’t be the independent third party endorsement which makes it so valuable.

I define media relations as ‘working with journalists to gain unpaid news coverage’. This broad definition covers everything from:

  • choosing to work with journalists, to get positive news coverage to ultimately grow your business to

  • responding to journalists contacting you during an unexpected win or crisis at your organization and getting the best news coverage you can in that situation to further boost your reputation or mitigate reputation damage, for the best impact on your business growth.

And everything in between.

You might, very sensibly, be asking at this point, ‘so why bother working with journalists, why not just use all the incredible and free communication channels available today to put out content I’m happy with and have control over?’

Long gone are the days where the only way of getting the word out about your business was via established media outlets. Now, many organizations have social media audiences that far outnumber the circulation figures of sector and even some national media.

However, there are at least eight mega benefits of media relations to consider:

  1. Gain exposure with zero to low financial investment

  2. Build credibility

  3. Build pipeline faster

  4. Get highly valuable shareable content

  5. Find product-market fit

  6. Become a thought leader and ‘category queen’

  7. Get funding and more funding

  8. Gain external validation

I’ll go into more detail on each benefit in my coming series of guest blogs. You can also read more about all of this and gain tools to do it all in my new book Exposure: Insider Secrets to Make Your Business a Go-To Authority for Journalists published 14 June 2022. Get Exposure.



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Part of growth – African Farming

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Farmers must grow or face the walls of the poverty trap. Keith Middleton and his son Kyle, who run a mixed farming operation in Jacobsdal, have a clear vision to grow their business, increase their rights to irrigation water and ultimately to hold title to their farm African Joy. 

Despite the enormous challenges farmers face, they must persevere and grow if they are to survive as successful businesses, says African Farming presenter Tony Ndoro, who visited the Middletons’ farm. Speaking to a panel of experts, Ndoro asked Johann Vosser of Vleissentraal how auction houses could be part of growth in this sector. 

An auction house like Vleissentraal is an ideal place to look at growth for livestock farmers, says Vosser, because the saleyard is where they market their product and where the prices are set. Growing livestock, if properly done, is profitable, but to succeed farmers need to know how buying and selling at auctions work.

As part of the livestock value chain, auction houses, their auctioneers and livestock agents have a vested interest in setting up and maintaining good relationships with their suppliers, the farmers, and in keeping them profitable. A good auctioneer sets the bid, puts a stop to price-fixing and collusion, and ensures the best possible market-related price for the farmer. It is cost-effective to market animals through auctions, and money saved is money that can be spent on expansion. 

Vosser says strict biosecurity at auctions is non-negotiable as a way of preventing the spread of disease and to satisfy the buyers who want to buy healthy animals. He adds that good biosecurity starts at farm level, and livestock farmers should see biosecurity as part of running a profitable farm. Sick animals always signal loss, whether through mortality, loss of production or cost. 

Selling livestock is the business of the auction house just as it is the business of the livestock farmer. The growth and success of the farmer is the mission of the auction house. 

For more information, visit vleissentraal.co.za



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Plan before you grow your business – African Farming

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Irrigation farmer Kyle Middleton continuously works on growing the farming operation he runs with his parents, Jacqui and Keith, outside Jacobsdal in the Free State. They have expanded their business by setting goals and taking concrete steps to implement them. However, growth may be more complex than farmers realise and must be controlled to be successful. 

Growth is cash hungry, says Nico Groenewald, head of Agribusiness at Standard Bank, and growing too fast can kill your business. “When they want to grow, farmers must get their financiers on board and plan their growth. Uncontrolled growth can get a farmer into deep trouble.” 

Any farm expansion project needs rigourous preparation and assessment. This includes looking at the resources you have in terms of land, people, skills, equipment, cash and a market. 

“The more the farmer grows, the greater the variables that come into play and the more outside support the farmer will need,” says Groenewald. “There will be difficulties when a farmer decides to do it alone.” Part of a farmer’s strength is in knowing his or her weaknesses and tapping into the right kind of expertise that will provide the necessary help and stop them from feeling overwhelmed.

Farmers also need liquidity, which is the ability to pay debts with cash and assets that can be converted into cash quickly. For instance, a crop of potatoes waiting to be lifted turns into cash as soon as the crop is sold, giving the producer liquidity. But when you look at long-term crops like tree nuts or citrus, it may be years before the crop is ready for a commercial harvest. Groenewald explains that banks lending money to finance such ventures will take this into account. 

It is important that farmers understand when and how the capital will be used, and make sure the capital is available at the right times, he adds. “Look at the various sources of capital out there to fund your growth, otherwise you could run into a cash-flow gap. And remember that growth needs cash and cash needs planning.”

For more information, visit www.standardbank.co.za/southafrica/business/products-and-services/business-solutions/industry/agribusiness



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Growth through good stakeholder relationships – African Farming

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The world’s population depends on farmers for food supply and food security. Farmers must grow to meet demand and to stay profitable, but they must grow sustainably, with an eye on the environment. “To be sustainable, profit counts and we work towards increasing profitability,” says Kyle Middleton of the farm African Joy near Jacobsdal in the Free State. 

Praveen Dwarika of Lemang Agricultural Services says agribusinesses can really help farmers who want to expand their operations. They are staffed by people who have a wealth of experience and years of training and know what it takes to succeed in farming.

Continuous learning is a priority for farmers who want to grow. As Dwarika puts it, “training is crucial for growth”. He points out that growth in one form or another is the aim of any business, because nobody wants to stagnate. However, Dwarika cautions against growth that is too rapid. “Growth should happen in a sustainable way. You don’t want to have a sudden jump in the size of the business, as this could lead to serious financial challenges down the road and unravelling at an operational level.” 

Growth brings benefits to farmers and their staff alike, and Middleton says job creation is part of African Joy’s expansion vision. “There is personal reward in this. I’m looking after my family and I’m creating jobs in South Africa,” he says.

Steady organic growth favours family farms and small-scale operations. Collaboration between farmers and their agribusiness partners is an essential part of this process. Dwarika says Lemang Agricultural Services helps new-era commercial and small-scale farmers expand their businesses by broadening their knowledge horizons through training and development programmes, mentorship and improved access to markets. 

“Farmers need to build strong trust relationships with all their stakeholders and use these relationships to help them grow their businesses,” says Dwarika. He advises farmers to keep knocking on doors and looking for answers. “You will find the support you need for growth.” 

To find out more, visit www.afgri.co.za/lemang-agricultural-services/ 



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Managing growth in livestock – African Farming

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“Get big or get out” is a common call among farmers that may not necessarily be true. Herd and flock expansion is the most common way to grow a livestock operation, but niche markets also offer positive opportunities for growth. Focusing on continuous improvement in management and innovation are other ways of growing your profit. 

Ratselane Marumo of Afrivet says rising prices in agricultural products are an enormous challenge to farmers, but cutting regular treatment programmes and biosecurity measures in herds and flocks may lead to worse problems. “There are more diseases out there after the rains we’ve had, so farmers should schedule vaccinations and stick to them,” he explains. Keeping your herd healthy is part of what makes growth possible. The less mortalities there are in a herd, the faster animal numbers will go up. 

Feed is more expensive now, but farmers should think twice about cutting feed. Winter grass is very short on protein and must be supplemented with a decent protein lick. It is better to put growth plans on hold and sell off animals than to keep them short of feed.

The agricultural sector offers many training programmes, and Marumo advises farmers to take advantage of free training & consult with agribusinesses like Afrivet. When farmers and farmworkers are faced with difficult situations, training counts. Loretta Visagie, a black woman farmer from Klipkop near Vereeniging, says it best: “Training teaches you how to handle a challenge.” 

Even in remote places, where a lack of veterinary support may seem to hold back growth, there is help. Marumo says to access assistance, farmers must get closer to their agribusinesses. 

For more information, visit www.afrivet.co.za



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Here’s what you can expect in African Farming this week! – African Farming

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We learn all about bean farming from farmer Seitshiro Marumoloe in the North West. He is an established maize, white bean, sugar bean and sheep farmer. Tony Ndoro also sits down with our panel experts to discuss accountability in farming. Tune in to Mzansi Wethu this Thursday at 19:00.



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Growth despite challenges in agriculture – African Farming

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Farmers face many challenges in farming such as unpredictable weather, disease, and theft but despite the challenges growth still needs to take place. African Farming presenter Tony Ndoro discusses the topic of growth in farming despite challenges with Johann Vosser, MD of Vleissentraal Bosveld along with Ratselane Marumo, Afrivet Business Management, Sales and Marketing Manager for export, Praveen Dwarika, MD of AFGRI’s Lemang Agricultural Services and Nico Groenewald, Head of Agribusiness at Standard Bank.



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