Afrika ligger mig varmt om hjärtat sen resan till Zanzibar med frugan i april 2009. Hemma igen började jag intressera mig för Afrikas internetanvändning/access, webbutveckling och entreprenörskap.
Det är fröjd att läsa om framstegen som görs ”där nere” (sub-sahara) där särskilt Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda och Kenya har kommit långt när det handlar om entreprenörskap inom internetbranschen.
Bland de personer jag följer på Twitter finns Theresa Carpenter Sondjo. Hon är bosatt i Cotonou, Benin och driver med sin man ett företag, ONG People Online, som bl.a. erbjuder webbutveckling. Jag bestämde mig för att intervjua henne och ett par veckor senare (idag) kom hennes utförliga svar. Det är riktigt intressant läsning.
What is your web dev tool of choice?
What does this question even mean? :) Typically, I use a LAMP stack because most of the work we do these days is PHP, although we’re doing an increasing amount of Python (Django, to be specific). We almost always use WordPress as a CMS because it’s dead simple to use (especially with the Adminimize plugin to hide the millions of menu options) and dead simple to template.
How about access to web hosting and broadband? In Eastern Africa there is a lot of buzz surrounding mobile internet, how is it like in your area?
Hah! HAH! Hahahaha. Mobile internet? You must think I live in Nigeria or Ghana or something. There are a few hundred mobile internet users in Cotonou, but frankly, the market’s in its infancy. Broadband is also very poor in Benin, although for some strange reason, my connection’s been lightening fast for the past few days!
We provide hosting and buy domain names for our clients because it’s very hard for someone without a credit card to pay a Western company (typically American, Canadian, or French). That said, there are more and more options, especially in Ghana and Nigeria for local hosting. In Benin, that’s still very far away (our servers are in the States), but I’m hopeful that with all of the cables landing here in the next couple of years, local hosting will become both affordable and reliable.
How is it like to run an online business in Benin with our general view of Africa being a poor continent with limited access to things we take for granted in Europe (broadband access, electricity and decent working conditions with air-condition and the like)?
Oh, well, a lot of those problems can be solved by throwing money at them. I pay for an expensive “broadband” (256kbps) connection. I have an apartment on the 1st floor (2nd floor for Americans) that gets good air flow. We use lots of UPSs and inverters to protect our computers from unstable power and frequent cuts.
I’d say that a more typical entrepreneur (young, just out of school, hoping to earn some money freelancing) faces far more difficulties than I do, especially if they’re limited to cybercafes and telecenters for their internet connections.
How would you say does the way of making business (meeting a client, selling your services, getting payed) differ from that in Europe and/or elsewhere?
It’s a different culture and a different way of looking at things. I’m going to make a few brief and broad generalizations, but please be aware that they *are* generalizations. Face-to-face meetings are incredibly important. A bit more important than in Europe, and a million times more important than in the States.
It’s very difficult to cut off clients that don’t pay. The business community is very small and very clubby. And of course, there are times of the year when nobody has any money because the government (principal source of revenue for businesses) hasn’t yet paid any of its contractors.
Almost 100% of our clients come from referrals. This is absolutely normal. From tailors to laundry ladies to bankers to hotels, everyone uses their networks to find serivce providers. Today, I can’t even imagine hiring someone without checking their history out with a friend first.
Everything’s negotiable. There’s no such thing as a fixed price. This was a hard lesson for us to learn, but we eventually jacked up prices so that we’d have space to manoeuvre.
My trip to Zanzibar showed some very conservative gender roles in everyday life as well as in shops, at hotels and other tourist venues. Being a female, does that affect your business in any way?
I’m fortunate in that a) my partner is male and local and b) I’m married to him. Coastal West Africa is a lot less conservative than the north, and Benin’s relatively liberal as far as gender roles. We’ve noticed that, in business situations, my foreignness tends to trump my femaleness. Never-the-less, we’ve noticed that there are still plenty of men who don’t believe that women can handle code or money. Their loss.
Luckily, I handle the technical side of our business and my partner handles the sales and client relations side, which means that I don’t have to deal with nearly as many problems as I would if I were dealing with people every day.
