African entrepreneurs are turning scarcity into opportunity, a theme highlighted in the new book How We Made It in Africa II, which compiles fifteen in‑depth interviews with business leaders across the continent.
From a Family Home to a Multimillion‑Dollar Meat Brand
Rwanda‑born Herve Tuyishime risked his family home to launch a pork‑farming venture after spotting a gap in the country’s agricultural sector. He entered government programmes that promoted business proposals and settled on pork and sausage production, despite most Rwandans lacking familiarity with processed meat.
His startup, PMP, began with two employees—one raising pigs, the other making sausages. Early hurdles included higher costs for raising pigs than buying them and limited market demand for processed meat. Tuyishime overcame these challenges by persuading bars in Kigali to stock his sausages as a snack with drinks and by adding beef sausages, which proved more profitable.
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An American venture fund, Fledge, provided $20,000, allowing him to clear debt and expand operations to Gisenyi, serving the neighboring DR Congo market. Production rose seven‑fold, and he founded Livestock Bank to source quality pork from smallholders while guaranteeing them a market.
Today PMP offers fresh meat and a range of processed products, and Tuyishime reports revenue growth exceeding 5,000% over seven years, with holdings valued at over $5 million. To address logistics, he created a trucking company, Truk, deploying a fleet of 28 vehicles that deliver PMP products and collect agricultural goods from small farms.
From Middle‑Man Trading to Manufacturing in Zambia
Botswana‑born Calisto Radithipa started his entrepreneurial journey in China, initially selling knock‑off jeans before launching the platform Kemcore to supply mining materials. Early contracts, such as a 2,000‑ton order of sulphuric acid for Zambia, revealed transport bottlenecks when South Africa’s state rail operator lacked suitable wagons.
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After securing a $10 million contract in 2018 to deliver sodium metabisulphite from China to the DR Congo, Radithipa highlighted the ongoing logistics challenges faced by African entrepreneurs.
The book’s author, Jaco Maritz, argues that the most effective way to grasp Africa’s business environment is to learn from those already operating on the ground. The stories collected in How We Made It in Africa II demonstrate both the obstacles—such as inadequate infrastructure and limited market familiarity—and the resourcefulness of entrepreneurs who manage them.
The book shows Africa’s business reality.
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