“We very much felt that there was a generational shift happening in Africa. There were opportunities on the continent and we were faced with a choice. ‘Are we going to be part of creating these opportunities, or are we going to be the people who come to work for the people who've created the opportunities?’”are making opportunities for themselves and for others.
Skills and smarts are clearly a part of Amayi’s success. Hove and Appiah-Korang met working in private equity at. Passion is also a part of it. Allu shared that “making food is how I express love.” Even after a long day working developing new recipes, she enjoys coming home to cook. But the secret sauce, pun intended, that takes it over the top are the relationships that these women have built.
If you spend any time with these women, it becomes apparent that they all share a deep respect for each other. At different times, each of them stopped the interview to make sure that a salient contribution of another was recognized. “She doesn’t talk about this often but Kudzayi left a very good paying job to do this. There were a lot of sacrifices that were made,” said Appiah-Korang. “Onome is our star development partner. She came up with Rodo Peppe,” added Hove.
A conversation with another friend helped the team see the path towards faster growth. “I was telling him how I had gone to visit a company about contract manufacturing for us and the first thing the guy asked was, “Do you want to buy my company?” recalled Hove. When she shared that she found that question ridiculous, her friend asked her why she found it ridiculous. “It was a jolt! Hang on a minute, what exactly are we trying to achieve here?” she remembers thinking.
In the short term, the company is working to finalize their acquisition while continuing to build the opportunities for themselves and others that they always dreamed of. Their focus for the next few years is to build a sustainable supply chain that creates real prosperity for farmers. Hove shared, “We will engage them in a way that fosters real prosperity, enabling them to share in the upside, increase their earnings, and build ownership of assets.