Built in Africa: Olivia Mukam on solutions for Africa’s micro problems

#Throwback This memory popped up on my Facebook Memories. I thought I should re-share this article Ventureburn did about me 3 years ago. 

Built in Africa: Olivia Mukam on solutions for Africa’s micro problems
By Mich Atagana on 8 April, 2014

Built in Africa focuses on entrepreneurs, startups and technologies that are affecting the continent and empowering African people.

Non-profits are important and harnessing the power of a community to power a business is key in building ecosystems. Empowering Africa’s youth and training them with the right tools for the 21st century is also important. In this, the third installment of our “Built in Africa” series, we feature Olivia Mukam, a self-professed “solutioneur” from Cameroon, her community and youth-driven NGO and for-profit business.

Mukam and I first crossed paths on Twitter, where I became more and more intrigued with what she was doing — so eventually I picked up the phone and called her.

“Oh you’re Mich from Twitter,” she laughs. “Yes I got your mail, I am excited to talk to you.”

She is more than 5 800 kilometers away and the day is winding down, but we settle in to chat about what she is up to and what it means to be a “solutioneur”.

Mukam is the founder of two organisations: one makes money and the other is a non-profit. After graduating from university, she started Harambe Cameroon, an organisation that aims to engage youths to be national problem-solvers through skills and knowledge training. She sits on Microsoft’s 4Afrika youth advisory board and has also been featured on the Daily Beast’s Women in the world list as of one of 125 women impacting the world. Through the success of Harambe, she was able to co-found a for-profit business, Solutioneurs SARL (LLC).

“We started a profitable business through the success of our NGO,” she tells me.

The company taps into the database of skill sets that Harambe has spent the last four years gathering (statisticians, accountants, engineers, IT technicians and translators) to deliver affordable micro-tasks to small businesses in Cameroon, Nigeria, the United Kingdom and the United States. It’s a simple model really: train them up and get them jobs.

Harambe’s mission, as Mukam explains it, is “to inspire and engage a new generation of young leaders and entrepreneurs who see problems as opportunities.” This is where the idea for Solutioneurs came about: if entrepreneurs saw every problem as an opportunity they would develop solutions for them. For her, most of the social problems that Africa faces can be solved through a business venture.

“Here is how it makes sense in my head,” she begins … “Based on economics 101 principles of supply and demand, when there is a pertinent problem in a community, there are many people who DEMAND a solution to that problem.”

It makes perfect sense. In her mind, if someone were to design and supply a relevant solution to that problem, they would have an existing market and a specific target population that would buy said solution.

“The key, I think, is for people to switch their mindsets and start viewing problems not as obstacles anymore, but as opportunities to provide solutions that can generate some income for themselves, while improving their communities,” she adds.

The way she sees it, with the number of problems Africa has, the business opportunities should be endless. 

Continue reading the article on Venture burn: http://ventureburn.com/2014/04/built-in-africa-olivia-mukam-on-solutions-for-africas-micro-problems/