Setting up shop the African way By Hélène Michaud
14-03-2006
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Ati Kaffa has an African-sounding name, but she's from the Netherlands. Recently, she opened an Internet café in Guinea Conakry.

"You can always talk about doing something, but sometimes you just have to do it, and that's what we did! In Guinea, I saw a country that was poor but that has a lot of possibilities."

"If you think about all the rules we have here in the Netherlands, I was surprised at how easy it is to make things happen when I started in Guinea. For example, I needed to do certain changes in the Internet Centre, and it was possible to get the work done in one or two days, which is not something you can do in Holland.""It was also relatively easy to get the paperwork done. In that sense, it was not more difficult to do business in Africa, it was the opposite, I saw much more opportunities there and that is what I want to develop."

Business culture

A solid network of contacts is essential if one is to succeed. Ms Kaffa does not speak French - essential for an outsider who wants to do business in Guinea. So she relied on her extensive contacts at home and in Africa to get her business started.

Ms Kaffa is aware that every country has its own business culture. Trying to do business the Dutch way in Africa will not work, she says, but the opposite is also true: "It's difficult for someone to do business here in the Netherlands in the African way. If you just try to blend in, you will find many possibilities."

"A lot of people have the idea that Africa is poor that we have to tell them how to do things, etc. but once you're there, you see that people have so much initiative! If I look at women there, almost every woman there is in business! I think we can learn a lot from them, to be honest!"