2020-04-01 Forbes Africa

FORBESAFRICA.COM APRIL 2020 FORBESAFRICA | 29

Don’t lose your

focus when you are

subjected to the

heat of financial

instability.

BARAKA DANIEL KIRANGA, 29, TANZANIA

FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR, HAMASA MEDIA GROUP

INDUSTRY: DIGITAL MEDIA

Baraka Daniel Kiranga started his business with a mere $20 in 2014 while pursuing his

Bachelor of Science degree at the Institute of Finance Management in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

With a friend, he bought a template for an online magazine, designed it, and wrote inspirational

stories of young entrepreneurs and change-makers in the country.

Impressed by his initiative, Kiranga received a small contribution from his father and friends to

register the business with the magazine as his first product.

For seven months, he worked on bootstrapping the business.

Since then, Kiranga has not looked back and the business has grown by 449%.

With a team of 11, the company now offers media consultancy services to clients such as WHO-

Tanzania, NGOs, news outlets and journalists.

In August this year, they plan to launch an art media lab to provide innovative media solutions

such as strategy training, media monitoring, cloud computing and digital security services.

Last year, Kiranga was awarded a trophy by the National Training Institute of Egypt during

an Arab African development forum in Egypt for his involvement in promoting youth

development in Africa.

“Don’t lose your focus when you are subjected to the heat of financial instability. It is working

for the betterment of your business; at the end of the day, you will emerge on the other side of

the valley and say it was better it happened,” he says.

Hamasa is a business consultancy on digital media management and data technologies in

producing data-driven stories.

NEWMAN TSHEPO
RAMATOKWANE, 27,
BOTSWANA
FOUNDER OF NATIVE STRETCH TENTS
AND CANOPIES (PTY) LTD
INDUSTRY: EVENTS

Most people would have given up after dropping
out of college twice, but not Newman Tshepo
Ramatokwane.
“Go against the grain,” he says. This was a
clear goal Ramatokwane set for himself when he
started his upward-bound career.
Born in the capital city of Botswana, Gaborone,
he was groomed in a business-orientated family.
Thus, the drive for entrepreneurship was
grilled into him from a tender age.
During his primary school years,
Ramatokwane made money selling his art
drawings to his colleagues and he would polish his
sister’s shoes for a fee.
“At the age of sixteen, I came across a financial
literacy book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert
Kiyosaki, it was then that my entrepreneurial
spirit was unleashed,” he tells FORBES AFRICA.
It was in 2013 that he decided to found his own
business – Native Stretch Tents and Canopies now
trading as Native Event – from a one-bedroom
house.
The company initially hired out stretch tents
only, but with the rapid growth, they began

manufacturing furniture.

Ramatokwane also invest

bar service, transport andlog

accounting firm.

“I come from a countryw

entrepreneurship is notgene

pursued.

“We have a culture thatne

one can become an entrepren

at a young age and actually

succeed at it,” he says.

By 2015, his company

won the local Global

Expo’s 2015 and 2016

Best Small Medium

Enterprise recognition.

In 2018,

Ramatokwane moved

the business into a

1,000sqm warehouse

providing more servicessuc

event consultation, planning

management.

Since then, the companyh

executed over 300 events,inc

the Southern African InterRe

Games, De Beers DiamondW

the Presidential Inauguration

the Botswana Telecommunic

Corporation V-Sat Launch.

He currently employs 20 f

and about 10 part-time contra

tedina mobile

gistics,and in an

where

erallytaughtor

everbelievedthat

neur

has

gand

has

luding

evenue

Week 2019 ,

2019 and

ations

full-timestaff

act staff.