prepaidafrica: Senegal’s Magatte Wade, a self-described serial entrepreneur, is convinced that Africa’s future depends on its ability to develop a strong manufacturing sector. With that in mind, she co-founded Adina World Beat Beverages in 2004 and recently launched her second company, The Tiossano Tribe, which produces high-end skin care products based on traditional Senegalese recipes. For years, Mrs Wade has been very critical of the condescendence with which, in her opinion, often well-intentioned people in the developed world - and especially in the country where she conducts most of her business, the United States - treat Africa. In one of the columns that she regularly writes for The Huffington Post and other publications, she argues that those who would really like to help the continent should “transcend their romance with foreign aid and microfinance, and begin to take seriously investing in African manufacturing and purchasing products made in Africa”. “My vision for Africa is one in which it becomes the first region of the world to create a socially and environmentally responsible manufacturing base,” she says in another article. To those who doubt that it is possible to do so, she reminds them how she started to invest in the country of her birth after having studied in France and moved to the US. (via BBC News - How a Senegalese flower grew into a huge US business)

prepaidafrica:

Senegal’s Magatte Wade, a self-described serial entrepreneur, is convinced that Africa’s future depends on its ability to develop a strong manufacturing sector.

With that in mind, she co-founded Adina World Beat Beverages in 2004 and recently launched her second company, The Tiossano Tribe, which produces high-end skin care products based on traditional Senegalese recipes.

For years, Mrs Wade has been very critical of the condescendence with which, in her opinion, often well-intentioned people in the developed world - and especially in the country where she conducts most of her business, the United States - treat Africa. In one of the columns that she regularly writes for The Huffington Post and other publications, she argues that those who would really like to help the continent should “transcend their romance with foreign aid and microfinance, and begin to take seriously investing in African manufacturing and purchasing products made in Africa”.

“My vision for Africa is one in which it becomes the first region of the world to create a socially and environmentally responsible manufacturing base,” she says in another article. To those who doubt that it is possible to do so, she reminds them how she started to invest in the country of her birth after having studied in France and moved to the US.

(via BBC News - How a Senegalese flower grew into a huge US business)