The United States has the second largest African Diaspora, if you include African Americans, with Brazil having the largest. Africans born in an African country, who migrated to another country, have a unique strength to leverage in business. They can tap into the knowledge, networks, and support structures of two or more countries to establish business in Africa. We explored this on the “The Art of Making Business Happen” show with Dr. Kojo Benjamin Taylor, Chief Executive Officer of Micro Clinic. Dr. Taylor built a 70-million dollar firm, Pelican Group, from scratch in the United States. Now, he is applying that experience to building the Micro Clinic franchise in Africa.
Dr. Taylor has found that the biggest benefit in being successful in business across the continents has been in tapping into the knowledge base he acquired in the United States and transferring that knowledge into business areas where there are gaps in Africa. For him, he is using the franchising concept as a business model in health care in Africa. Franchising is the fastest growing sector in the United States, but it is still used little in Africa.
Healthcare is a major problem in Africa. Some would say it’s a problem everywhere, but African health issues are plagued with preventable diseases and conditions not lifestyle illnesses like in the United States. So, illnesses like malaria and water-born diseases cause most of the illness. There are not enough health professionals or government programs to deal with the challenge, so it presents a great opportunity for private sector.
With Micro Clinic, Dr. Taylor is also using another asset to strengthen his business model. Ghana has, as do many other African countries, community healthcare workers who can provide adequate, basic healthcare services affordably, if they had the right structure, equipment, and support. A Micro Clinic franchise provides that for each community healthcare worker.
Dr. Taylor indicated that frontier markets like Nigeria have almost 200 million people with disposable income, making this country a prime business opportunity for foreign investment. Ghana, also has a population of upwardly mobile individuals looking for basic services in housing, education, and healthcare, but supply is well below demand. This creates a favorable environment for new business ventures.
Another asset of the Micro Clinic franchise model is the structure and processes it brings to a business environment that normally does not meet the expectations of foreign investors. MicroClinics offers investors an opportunity to invest in a business in Africa that has proper business structure, operations, processes, and technical support in a high demand market.
To hear more of this conversation, listen to the full segment here. To learn more about Micro Clinic, visit their website at www.microclinics.com.
You can explore more ways to tap into the business opportunities in Africa by listening to other AfribizTalk segments at www.blogtalkradio.com/afribiz. And, for insights to making business work continue to listen to The Art of Making Business Happen at www.blogtalkradio.com/art-of-biz.