Renowned technopreneur Njeri Rioge, whose death was announced on Tuesday, had humble beginnings on her journey to the top.
From a young woman selling flavored milk to high school students, Rioge built a multi-billion dollar business empire.
With about 35 years of experience in senior management of a company, she has gone from strength to strength.
Her entrepreneurial spirit helped her co-found the multi-billion dollar Wananchi Group, which runs Zuku pay TV and also owns three other IT companies.
When the Star interviewed her a few years ago in 2014, Njeri described herself as an entrepreneur, business manager and business strategist.
The technopreneur has lived and worked in Nairobi, Toronto (Canada), London (UK), Texas and Dallas (USA), Barcelona (Spain), Rome (Italy) and Athens (Greece).
During the 2014 interview, she shared her views on entrepreneurship at the time when a World Bank report indicated that four out of ten Kenyans were struggling with poverty.
At the time of the interview, she was in Toronto (Canada) marketing one of her businesses.
She spoke to the Star reporter through a platform she helped create as a business.
Here’s how his 2014 interview with the Star went:
Q: How do you become an entrepreneur?
To be an entrepreneur you have to be a certain type of person – it doesn’t suit everyone.
I have always wanted to start my own business and I believe I have an innate entrepreneurial spirit.
You must be very positive and versatile. It is also important to know yourself, to know your limits as well as your strengths.
As a small business owner, for example, you can’t do everything yourself, even if you think you can.
So build a reliable team around you that includes people with the right skills. Confidence is king!
Q: Would you say Kenyans generally have an entrepreneurial mindset?
Kenyans are very enterprising.
The difference comes when you look at how you run this business and structure it.
A commercial business that can scale and operate efficiently is not the same as a family-owned retail store.
When you want to grow your business or attract investment, you need to have certain organizational structures in place for sales and marketing, IT, accounting, regulatory, human resources, governance and succession planning.
Q: What should authorities do to create a favorable business environment for existing and potential entrepreneurs?
Kenya must first understand the key strengths of an entrepreneurial society.
If we understood this, we would be at the top of the list with our neighboring regions on the continent, and we entrepreneurs would be proud of the work we do if we felt that the government was committed to our success.
An emerging market like ours needs a team of entrepreneurs with expertise in decision-making portfolios.
The right balance of skills is something we must have to enable exponential development and growth across our 47 counties and work in other areas of development and regulatory reform.
It is not enough to introduce youth funds and neglect capacity building and development of worker finance.
Small business funds are just as critical to filling the learning gap needed to get entrepreneurs into experienced pipelines before they launch their own startups.
Taking into account our development stages and organizing our development cycle is a political, legal and regulatory mandate, which must be followed by holistic institutional frameworks.
This was due to start yesterday and needs to be done urgently.
Q: Where did the country go wrong?
Kenyans have an inherent ability to focus on “what’s in it for me,” as opposed to “what’s in it for us.”
If we can move beyond the “me, me and me” mentality, I believe we can move forward quickly.
Q: When you look at your growing business empire, what comes to mind?
To me, success is defined by increased value – not just financial rewards. So I’m always looking to add value.
Q: How did your childhood prepare you for your current lifestyle and role?
I learned early on that I was responsible for all my actions and the expected consequences.
In one case, I remember a time when my father and mother had a debate about my constant demands (as most children do).
My father was quick to tell me, “Never be in doubt when asking or questioning because you have never sent a birth request.”
It was my ticket to living on my own terms.
Q: Your entrepreneurial journey began with selling yogurt. How did you choose this product and where did you obtain the capital?
I used to sell yogurt out of the back of a friend’s car to high school students during their recess. I was working as a hairdresser at the time and that’s how I purchased my initial stock.
Q: How did you then create Wananchi Online?
The inspiration was that I wanted to create value (this is still the driving force for me and also keeps me on track) and I saw the need for a company that provides access to the Internet for everyone the world, not just to large companies that could afford it. the high price at the time.
I believed in what I was doing and my ability to do it, and I saw very clearly that there was a market for this business.
I traveled to the north of the country with my business partner and we observed how market traders used cell phones in the most remote areas.
I could see the potential of the Internet and that the demand was already there.
If wananchi (citizens) could actually afford access to the Internet, they would want it.
Q: So tell us the story of Wananchi?
I co-founded Wananchi Online in January 2000 and was CEO for the first seven years.
Our fundamental mission was to bring connectivity to wananchi (citizens); and see everyone have access to the Internet.
It was about adding value and I always knew it would be a success.
It’s hard to imagine today, but we were East Africa’s first mass-market ISP (Internet Service Provider).
We have helped drive down prices for internet connectivity and increase its usage among average households.
However, this didn’t happen overnight and required a lot of hard work, with very long days and nights.
I would say part of the success also lies in the fact that we had a solid strategic plan from the start, which we stuck to.
Having a solid business plan is key to any new business.
This led to a merger and acquisition involving the consolidation of the second largest Kenyan ISP and a cable TV service (Zuku), which allowed us to introduce triple-play services.
Before Wananchi launched, the project had been in the works for almost 3 years before anyone heard of it.
Lessons learned from previous market competitors are key learnings.
Q: But you just can’t seem to stop. You then created three other companies?
I am an entrepreneur and I continue to see new opportunities.
We are in an emerging market that brings many growth opportunities in many sectors.
I have focused on the IT sector for most of my career, so it is natural for me to see opportunities in this sector which is probably the fastest growing.
We now have a solid internet infrastructure in Kenya, so the obvious question is what to do with it?
It’s not just about sharing emails, photos and entertainment: new technologies and the Internet offer many business opportunities.
So my latest company, Insite Ltd, continues to add value through the use of this new connectivity.
Insite aims to bring businesses to the cloud, to reap the benefits that technology and online services can offer local entrepreneurs and businesses across different sectors.
Q: Is this what concerns you in Toronto?
Yes. I’m busy with the day-to-day logistics of running my business, as well as talking to potential investors and partners.
Insite has one foot in Kenya and one in Canada, and the two business environments are very different.
It can be difficult to overcome some of these differences, but I always enjoy a challenge.
Above all, launching PeachCRM.ca (a customer relationship management company) takes up most of my time.
I need to understand the nuance of communications here and identify my critical vertical market as a priority for this first step in the business development phase.
Q: What do you say to those who say that start-up capital is a major challenge for would-be entrepreneurs?
It depends on what you’re trying to do. I know some very successful business owners today who started their businesses with as little as Sh100,000.
First of all, you need to have a good business plan that is well thought out and can be shared with potential investors.
Most entrepreneurs are passionate about what they do and this passion is contagious. So you can usually get support from friends and family as a starting point.
Also know what you are going to spend your money on and don’t take on debt that you then spend on something else.
Transparency is key. If you want to have the trust of your investors, you need to be able to show them where the money will be spent and be true to your word once you receive the funding.
Q: Where does Njeri see herself in five or ten years?
Njeri will continue to do what she does.
I’m older and wiser now.
So I don’t feel the need to project myself too much into the future. I will go where life takes me and especially where my spirit flows.
Quick reading:
My most precious possession: Family. I feel very free (with them).
My perfect day : I focus on work, family and a healthy dose of fun while viewing challenges as stepping stones to greatness.
My idol: I only have one idol… my God. Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
