Africa needs more business model that are built on local insights and context - Lucy Quist

International business leader, Lucy Quist has said that, it is crucial for businesses to operate models that factor the local contexts of their various locations within Africa.

According to her, the continent sees a number of copy and paste business models that fail to provide relevant sustainable solutions to its people.

“Africa today presents the greatest long-term business opportunities anywhere in the world because we have a massive burgeoning population which will continue to grow. Those people are going to need goods and services, so that presents opportunities but I think the key is, are we creating business models and solutions that are relevant to Africa or are we copying and pasting without adaptation?

Copying pasting without the contextual knowledge does not yield business models that are actually relevant to everyday people’s lives on the continent.”

The international business leader shared her thoughts and experience on how to successfully build and operate businesses in Africa during an interview on BBC News Africa hosted by Ghanaian journalist Akwasi Sarpong.

Lucy Quist, who has a-decade-long experience leading businesses across the continent, mentioned a number of key factors both local and foreign entrepreneurs, as well as business executives need to consider before starting businesses in Africa.

She explained that acquiring contextual knowledge was necessary to enable businesses appreciate not only the needs of the people, but also the cultural settings in which they operate.

“If we take a step back to understand why people do things the way they do we’ll be able to find ways to adjust or we will be able to engage them and help them evolve in the way they do things. So contextual knowledge is extremely important.

Every business has certain global metrics and standards that it works towards achieving; productivity, return on investment, profitability etc. To be able to take people along with you to achieve these you need to be able to understand their culture and merge it beneficially with your strategic business operations.”

She also stressed on the issue of separating facts from fiction before coming to do business in Africa. By looking at the real figures on growth, access and trends on the continent, business people will be able to get a true picture of the challenges and opportunities available in various parts of the continent instead of making with certain blanket assumptions that may not be factual.

On challenges on the continent such as currency fluctuation, Lucy Quist suggested relying on local inputs as a way of protecting businesses from external shocks of currency.

“Most of the time what happens is that we end up with businesses that are very dependent on inputs from outside of the countries we are operating in so currency fluctuations have a big impact on our business. Why don’t we try to find and nurture local ventures and local suppliers so that we keep our spend within the economy? It doesn’t eliminate all the currency risk, it reduces it for us and help us manage it better.

We are creating many business models that are entirely based on imports. It is time to look at models that rely on local ecosystems.”

Lucy Quist is the President of the African Institute of Mathematical Sciences in Ghana and international business leader in technology.