You can take an African out of the village, but you cannot take the village out of an African. Most of us live in the city but are farming in the village, either out of family obligation, or a deep routed desire to see agriculture work for Africa. What is the return on investment? How does that align with #Agenda2063 - "The Africa We Want" by 2063? Fostina Mani is championing an agricultural markets revolution that favours Africa, under her #legacy2063byfostinamani platform her version of "The Africa I Want" by 2063.

African Urban Professionals & Rural Farming - (Agricultural Markets that Favour Africa)

The consequences of the performance bond, placed on WFP suppliers, is something no one ever wants to speak about. That along with the bureaucratic payment process, which some have told me may require a flight to the regional offices, is something many traders may be oblivious to. I have known this for many years but have been quiet. Unfortunately, I am seeing more and more institution pushing women in agribusiness towards this, oblivious to the risk of bankruptcy placed on many African women entrepreneurs.

Don’t Get It Twisted Supplying to WFP Can Bankrupt You in A Heartbeat

We are looking to build legacy African businesses of men and women of integrity whom we can develop, support and entrust with repeat business through our trade facilitation services.  Africa's agricultural market is now one big market, so we are looking for individuals, who are willing to invest in themselves in order to earn more money for themselves using the land, skills, talents, and resources they have. 
Very many individuals have reached out to us for trade facilitation, unfortunately we have realized that it is one thing to list, read, and study agricultural trade, and quite another to be an actual trader.  

They keep dropping the ball because of lack of actual trading experience and knowledge on regional and global markets. Which is why we are running an online Reseller Program.  This is our contribution to Agenda 2063 "The Africa We Want" #agenda2063 #theafricawewant #theafricaiwant #legacy2063 #legacy2063byfostinamani

Reseller Repositioning & Distribution Program Questions & Answers

We are looking to build legacy African businesses of men and women of integrity whom we can develop, support and entrust with repeat business through our trade facilitation services.  Africa's agricultural market is now one big market, so we are looking for individuals, who are willing to invest in themselves in order to earn more money for themselves using the land, skills, talents, and resources they have. 
Very many individuals have reached out to us for trade facilitation, unfortunately we have realized that it is one thing to list, read, and study agricultural trade, and quite another to be an actual trader.  They keep dropping the ball because of lack of actual trading experience and knowledge on regional and global markets. Which is why we are running an online Reseller Program.  This is our contribution to Agenda 2063 "The Africa We Want" #agenda2063 #theafricawewant #theafricaiwant #legacy2063 #legacy2063byfostinamani

Reseller Repositioning & Distribution Program - Questions & Answers

My post on Groundnuts, Aflatoxin, and Salon Gossip has seen me get a few phone calls from people who want to grow groundnuts for the Kenyan market. One such call was from a young man who comes from the groundnut growing areas of Kenya, who wanted to find out how he can grow aflatoxin free groundnuts. My first reaction was I am a trader, I really do not know much about agricultural extension services, so I suggested he gets in touch with his with his county agricultural extension offer. Immediately felt a sense of despair in his voice as he hang up the call. I felt God remind me the reason he had reached out for me was because he had found a sense of hope in my article. I felt rebuked because he had come to me looking for a private sector approach, to the groundnut value chain. Hi my name is Fostina Mani. I am the Global Trade Engagement Director at Betta Grains, am also the Founder of a Marketplace called Mothers of Africa Mobile Soko. I believe Africa can feed itself, I believe Africa can profit from Agricultural Trade. That is why I am championing for a Markets Revolution that Favours Africa. Since that phone call I have received several other calls, asking for information about planting groundnuts, my response has since changed, and today I have now become a markets approach one. The African Continental Free Trade Area has an estimated combined gross domestic product of around USD3.4 trillion (a trillion is a million million that is twelve zeros). Kenya’s debt currently stands at USD64.42 billion (a billion is a thousand million that is nine zeros). Kenya has the potential to trade within Africa and clear her debt. Africa’s one large market is the largest world market, the world knows it and are gearing themselves to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the African Continental Free Trade Area The only question is do Africans know it. Are they willing to invest in themselves so they can begin to trade. Africans need to be uniquely positioned to benefit from Agricultural trade, especially Africa Agricultural Trade. Yes Africans have been blessed with much land. Unfortunately the African employment skewed education, has left many completely helpless regarding what we are supposed to do, with regard to the land we have been blessed with especially the continents Agribusiness potential. I however do believe the time has come for Africa to take its destiny into her own hands, and that is why I have developed an agribusiness mentorship and coaching program. Africa’s agricultural development must begin to yield results. However, to do that Africans must get feed up with its poor agricultural development and begin to come up with their own solutions. The solutions cannot come from governments, but rather individuals looking at themselves and coming up with creative ideas and innovations that will solve Africa’s agricultural solutions. Thank you for listening to me. Please do subscribe to my channels on social media. It is a pleasure to serve you as we walk together on transforming Africa’s Agricultural markets. Thank you and God bless you.

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When I first heard Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame speak about the Africa’s filthy streets as a poverty mindset. I was really intrigued, because I simply could not relate the two. But as I listened and read more about it, I realized what he said was true. Would you dump your trash or garbage on your bed. No!! any human being normally wants to live in a clean environment, even those living in the dump site will still move trash around to find a space they can lay down and sleep.

So why are Africans so quick to throw away trash anywhere. The truth is because we see it as someone else’s problem and responsibility. Visiting Nairobi’s Dump site did something to me. It bothered me and caused me to think of ways to reduce my trash and garbage. Nairobi like most urban African cities is faced with people with complete disregard to where they throw their trash, yet are the first ones to complain when the sewage systems is blocked and access to their homes is flooded.

So the more I began to see dumpsites similar to Nairobi’s Dandora dumpsite in many African Urban cities, the more I got bothered. And I decided to be deliberate in reducing the amount of trash I throw out, and also began recycling waste water. And that is how my amazing journey of Urban farming began. The first step was to reduce the amount of waste water running down my drainage into the sewage systems. It was my small way of thinking on how I was going to reduce waste water running into Nairobi’s sewage systems. So, I started collecting the waste water from washing my dishes and laundry simply started pouring it on my grass.  When I realized how much waste water, I was dumping on my grass I decided to use it to grow fruit trees.

The realization of my success finally come when one day I realized that my trash was so little that it kept being blown away , ending up on my neighbor’s pile. I honestly had not realized how much progress I had made, and at that point I had to let my garbage collector that I would no longer be paying for garbage collection because I simply had nothing to throw away. My journey to a clean Africa had seen me become an African Urban Farmer, and that is how my Nai Gal gone Farmer story began. Yes am a Nairobi Gal whose gone farmer in an urban city. Being an urban farmer has been wonderful, I have learnt a lot, have failed a lot, but I have also enjoyed some amazing fruits that have caused me to start my path of planting more fruit trees not only in cleaning up Africa, but also as my contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gases emissions. That is how I am now contributing towards global warming and climate change by the reduction of carbon emissions.

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CORVID19 without doubt has changed the world especially Africa forever. As if it was not bad enough that Africa has been dealing with high numbers of youth unemployment. The CORVID19 pandemic saw several mature professionals lose their jobs. There were very many instances many people simply could not handle living in the cities, especially during those times when lock down seemed eminent. Many simply left the urban cities and simply moved to their rural homes in the village.

The concept of working from home quickly eliminated several senior managers especially those who were accustomed to working with secretaries or rather had administrative assistants doing everything for them. Those who had never bothered to figure out how to schedule conference calls, let alone having a WiFi at home. Because they left the responsibilities of online communication to others, simply found themselves unable to access their official email accounts, because they had never learnt how to do so. There was no one from IT to help them log into your office networks from home. Many were simply left in the dark, as others continued to work. Guess who was let go?

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Zambia was my first export market. Why Zambia, well Lady S, my last-born sister had met a Zambian man at University of Nairobi, whom she married and later moved to Zambia. My first visit to Zambia was my clue to the market demand. As many Kenyan do, she requested I visit Masaai Market, a Kenyan open market for authentic African hand-crafted beaded jewelry, excellent for souvenirs and gifts. I had the option to choose whatever I thought would be a good to sell. So I filled my suitcase with nice jewelry and an amazing selection of blanket shawl wrap, and off I flew to Lusaka.

As with an African community, we like to meet family and friends. So her friends and family came to visit. They wanted to know what I had brought from Kenya, and immediately I opened my suite cases, and before long the blanket shawls wrap were all done. I was shocked, that was the fasted sale we had ever made.

So why am I telling you this story. Well, I want African women to know that your export business does not need to have huge investment. You can work with what is within your reach. For me it was some little money I had, which I combined with some little money my sister had, then because our family responsibilities did not give us the freedom to travel freely. We negotiated a deal where Lady K my other sister, would like her son with me, as she handled the logistical and selling component of our Zambia export market. The second lesson I want you to learn from my story, is that gifts are all around you.  Use what is within your hands, and make products and services you can sell within the African market, which is now the Worlds Largest Market.

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Suicidal thoughts amongst women entrepreneurs seem to be on the rise. In the last couple of months, I have found myself amid conversations with women entrepreneurs who have lost a lot of money and are completely at a loss on what to do.