Top Tanzania's young entrepreneurs heading future brands

The future of Tanzania lies in the development of small enterprises owned by home grown entrepreneurs. To become an entrepreneur is not easy by any measure, there are those who’ve tried but failed. Regardless, in a world of opportunities, it requires the right temperament to do what needs to be done in order to succeed in business.

Tanzania is home to a growing number of youth. It is the young generation that is expected to build a new kind of economy that goes with the global trend. From technology, entertainment, to education, these are all fields that are blessed with an abundance of raw talent looking to make it as entrepreneurs.

Forbes last year identified 30 top young African entrepreneurs, among them were Tanzanians who’ve shown a promising future in their respective fields.

Fahad Awadh, 30, is the founder of YYTZ Agro-Processing company, a cashew processing company that improves on farmers earnings by adding value to their produce. The company’s processing facility in Zanzibar has a capacity 2,500 tonnes per annum. Last year, YYTZ Agro-Processing managed to raise a $500,000 investment from the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund to build another processing facility in Mtwara, southeastern Tanzania.

Dealing with setbacks and challenges helped groom Fahad into a stronger entrepreneur. His company has trained farmers from Singida region to better grow modern cashew crops. Through his ventures, he has managed to uplift the lives of poor farmers in rural Tanzania. Rahma Bajun, 29, is the founder and creative director of MnM Clothing Line. He runs a popular Afro-centric clothing brand that produces affordable clothes, wallets and other fashion accessories for women and men alike. She does this using the popular East African Kitenge fabric. As an entrepreneur she is responsible for 7 employees and her market has transcended beyond Tanzanian borders to the whole of East Africa.

Idris Sultan, 25. The former Big Brother Africa 2014 winner has managed to brand himself as one of Africa’s formidable icons in the comedy and entertainment field. Having bagged $300,000 cash prize for winning the reality show over 5 years ago, today he boasts of a shoe line known as Sultan by Foremen. He is also a talented actor and comedian. In 2017 his shoe line managed to earn more than $200,000 in revenues. He is also well known in the advertisement business as a brand ambassador through his many endorsements such as Uber and Sport Pesa.

Through his acting skills, Idris has managed to attract a wide audience inside and outside Tanzania. He has some projects underway that will see him appear in foreign films.

Idris has his eyes set on Hollywood and he has vowed to make it as a big international movie actor.

Doreen Estazia Noni, 30, is the founder of 102.5 Lake FM, a community centric commercial radio station in Mwanza, Tanzania. She also owns Eskado Bird, an upscale Tanzanian fashion and lifestyle brand that produces accessories inspired by Kitenge fabric.

She has over five years of experience in the Multimedia industry, specifically focusing on television production and radio broadcasting. Doreen is building her own media empire and the future looks bright for this determined young woman.

Through her work in the media industry, Doreen has focused on helping the community in dealing with different matters.

An example is the television show called ‘Peter’s Daughter’, where Doreen addresses issues of depression and how society can better handle matters related to depression.

Patricia Majule, 24, is the director and founder of Unique Favors TZ, a company that locally designs and manufactures custom party supplies, box packages, favors & gifts for informal parties and corporate organizations across Tanzania. Her business started back in 2013 as “Unique Gifts Tz”, and targeted on creating a range of gift products after reinventing a new use of eggshells and manufacturing them into a unique artistic material used for gift presentation.

The business evolved into new product lines and she decided to register the company as “Unique Favors Tz” in 2014. The business has been growing consistently ever since and Majule now has 10 employees.

Her brand is only set to soar as she looks to building an even bigger name for herself.

The current market in Dar can seem a bit tough to crack at times, but with the right channels and a good business strategy nothing is impossible to achieve.

Rodrique Msechu, is the Founder of Anza Strategy. After his employment in the French trade office in Nairobi for three years, Msechu decided to return home to Tanzania in 2016 and started Anza Strategy with a clear vision and mission: To drive economic advancement by encouraging participation and accountability of African change makers.

Anza, a trade advisory company has since advised more than 30 companies from four continents on market intelligence and entry strategies into Tanzania.

As he continues to embed his company’s presence in the Tanzanian market, Msechu has garnered recognition for his business strategy and how he is navigating the local corporate demands to meet customer satisfaction.

Brigitha Faustin, 31, is the founder and managing Director of the OBRI Company, an Agro-Industrial company whose main business mandate is to manufacture cooking oils. OBRI Company is modelled as a co-operative social enterprise. Under this model, OBRI has helped 230 local Tanzanian farmers who are organised under farmers associations in Tanzania by providing sustainable market channels for their produce. OBRI’s cooking oils are sold in retail outlets across the country.

Considering that farming is the backbone of the country’s economic prosperity, having different initiatives aimed at further improving the field only serves to help the farmers and the general economy.

What Brigitha has managed to achieve through her OBRI Compnay is something to be commended and supported. The future looks bright in the farming sector.