Newsletter by Toyin Umesiri - Nazaru CEO

  Like everyone else around the world, I have watched what is going on in South Africa... Just a few weeks ago, I had shared that Durban was selected to host the rest of Africa under the AfCFTA - Intra-African trade Fair. You can only imagine what types of conversations are now ongoing. The question is who would want to travel there at this time? No one.... "The cost of insecurity is too high for Africa and it will continue to negatively impact ability to grow trade and investments" Toyin Umesiri Just 2 years ago I was interviewed by the News Agency of Nigeria (NNN) - during the coverage of the Xenophobic attacks that Nigerians had faced in South Africa in 2019. The headline of my interview feature was: Xenophobic attacks: threat to AfCFTA — Expert You can read it here: https://nnn.ng/xenophobic-attacks-threat-to-afcfta-expert/ In the past few days I have had to privately engage with foreign entity whose company and investment in South Africa were seriously impacted. Safety o

  As a visionary, a futurist and a strategist, I have been building for AFRICA! I am super proud of all the progress we have made so far and today all I would like to do is invite you to check us out here -  www.nazaru.com

---- Our Partnership with the African Union (AU) offers Trade and Investment Officers access to our Trade and Investment Facilitation Masterclass and Trade with Africa Business Summit resources to advance their goals. If you are an officer in African Trade Ministries of Trade/Embassies/Consulate you can now request your access to the class here: https://nazaru.com/au-partnership EXPORT & IMPORT OPPORTUNITIES To be successful internationally, you must develop a winning market entry strategy that factors in the right distribution channels, a network of international Agents and Distributors that will help you execute your strategy over time. If you are seeking new markets for your products and or services here are 5 things you should also consider: You cannot do it alone: Going international is more complex than remaining in your local market. Expanding internationally means that you would be reaching new clients and you may not understand their culture, buying preferences and pattern

  --- Increasing non-oil exports from Africa is a top priority for most African countries and the African diaspora has a role to play in ensuring that these commodities and products enter new markets such as the U.S. and Canada. Unfortunately, they are missing the knowledge, skills and capacity required to achieve success in this area. Nigeria as example is underperforming in non-oil exports to the U.S. market when compared to Kenya. Its GDP is heavily dependent on oil while other areas remain highly under-developed. With the right skills acquired through coaching, right export development strategy targeted at capacity building - they can begin to achieve great success. This past Saturday I had the opportunity to deliver a 3 hour Masterclass teaching attendees how to create Export/Import business around international trade with Africa under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). You can either play the role of an importer living in the U.S. or an exporter from Africa. Both stak

  --- Over the past 12 months, I have had the honor of delivering training across various formats to Trade and Investment Stakeholders in Business and Politics. One in particular, which was a major highlight, was in October last year - read coverage here: AfCFTA: 14 African countries get Masterclass on trade, investment facilitation . To put more structure behind this important pillar of our work, we have now moved all training programs under Nazaru Academy. Premium Members of the Trade with Africa® Network can immediately start accessing all training programs free while non-members are be able to purchase individual classes directly on NAZARU.COM . Our Events pillar has grown strong over the years. It provides a deeply immersive experience to attendees and members. They represent educative resources for stakeholders, because we curate the conversations around deep research topics and 50+ recordings have also moved under the Academy. Here is what one of our clients had to share about h

  ---2020 impacted most businesses around the world in a negative way and many are still working hard to recover from the aftermath of such economic devastation. We are now half way into 2021 and here are 5 ways you can still grow your business before the year runs out. Invest in your Brand and market it to new clients and customers : I would say this is not the time to sit around and do nothing. In fact, this is the time to move forward as best as you can even if it is in small ways. Just move forward. Tell your story - both locally within your community and also internationally - should that be a goal that you have. Customers are looking for brands and businesses they can trust to meet their needs. If you believe that you have what they need then why keep it a secret? Partner up : One way of expanding quickly is through strategic partnerships. I have written before about my own partnership principles; offer value and seek value by designing a win-win scenario and also give more than

  ----A few weeks ago, while I was being introduced on Clubhouse, someone said "Toyin is a fountain of knowledge...". This happens to be the reality because I am a custodian of a large knowledge base - the information or data I share is largely driven by the expertise I have in driving business, trade and investments. My current perspective is heavily shaped from not only working as a technologist, strategist and futurist at the world's largest company; Walmart, but also the fact that I have had the honor of hosting over 100 speakers in Government and Business from around the world. i.e. from World Bank Chief Economist on Africa, to Rwanda's Largest Private Investor and Presidential Adviser, to African Union leaders, U.S. Government Agencies, Trade Experts, Policy Makers, Diaspora leaders, Consultants and various sectors Advisers, Technologist and Innovators, Youth and Women's Empowerment. I feel a great sense of responsibility to contribute and also shape the bus

  “By creating one African market, we are transforming the African landscape by creating a large market of 1.27 billion people (expected to be 1.7 billion in the next eleven years) with a growing middle class of 350 million (which is projected to reach 600 million by 2030). This provides an opportunity for economies of scale, large scale and long term investments. Arising from this, the basic incentive for businesses operating in the AfCFTA is that they will face huge and attractive opportunities”.  H.E.  Ambassador Albert Muchanga , Commissioner for Trade and Industries at the African Union (AU). Speaking at TWA Summit Read previously released press release below Following a successful launch of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), H.E. Ambassador Albert Muchanga, African Union Commissioner for Trade and Industry was presented with the  Champion of Trade Award  at the 2nd edition of the Trade with Africa Business Summit in Chicago. The  Trade With Africa Business Sum

  I am excited to share with you the latest updates regarding the upcoming 2nd edition of the Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF2021). I have been invited to speak there on Wednesday November 17th. In 2018, during the first edition, I served in capacity as Active Ambassador and had the honor of facilitating activation events for the team. For those who may not be familiar with the IATF, let me say it is were the Whos Whos across the continent meet to actualize the  African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) . It is an initiative driven by the African Export Import Bank (Afreximbank) in partnership with the African Union (AU) and Kigali, Rwanda was originally selected to host this year's event but shifts had to be made recently. A copy of the Press Release shared with me yesterday is below. It reflects both the location and date changes. --------  Cairo/Durban/Addis Ababa/Accra, 5 July 2021:- The second Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF2021) has been rescheduled to take place in Dur

  Sometimes I wonder why Wealth Creation was not more prioritized across Africa.... Let me also share that  Foreign Aid  was never designed to create wealth for African People as a whole but  Foreign Trade  will! Yes, I know a few would continue to benefit from Foreign Aid - no doubt - but the main question is that at what point would it magically transform the landscape? If it would - it should have... with the amount already targeted towards the continent things should not be where they are today - right? These are some of the topics I covered in detail in my  Africa Trade and Investment Facilitation Masterclass  ( available to members of Nazaru's African Business Network here -  www.nazaru.trade ). In this 3-hour Masterclass I focused heavily on wealth creation, capturing trade opportunities, navigating and monitoring trade and investment policies, engaging with stakeholders and more. In one of the sessions, I also dived deep into differences between  National (controlled) Wealt

  -- It is 2016 and I am on a video conference call with one of my mentors out of Cambodia. At the time she had responsibilities for exports into U.S. from Vietnam and Cambodia. She said to me: "Toyin what you are saying about Africa is interesting to me and reminds me of our own story. After the war in Vietnam, we were closed off from the international market and we owed money to the old Soviet and we had to manufacture military uniforms to pay our national debt. After the trade embargo was lifted, we found we had all the capabilities to manufacture textile for the rest of the world. I and others began traveling the world to establish trade relations and securing manufacturing contracts. No one wanted to invest in us at the beginning - those who took the risk are now billionaires and they own and run this market. Africa is in a better shape than we were. Go there and if you need funds for a project you see - tell me I will help you raise the funds. It takes only about $2.5 millio

  Building a successful business is always a game of wits. Those who win find ways to outsmart their customers On the new live series, I launched called   ASK TOYIN , I have been filtering and answering various questions submitted from around the world. One of those questions this week was on understanding why customers do not like paying for services that they actually know that they need. Here is a general summary of my response: As a business owner you must realize that nobody owes you a dime.   The arrogance we sometimes employ thinking that just because we consider our product or service to be the best and is an excuse for us not to do the work of crafting a compelling reason for anyone to buy is one of the limiting factors in building a successful business. An entitlement attitude towards your customer and the community you wish to serve will not reward you. Every business owner must understand this truth. We all love free things so why pay when we can get it for free?   This is