AFRIKAPU – Style With A Story

As a young African woman co-founder of two successful social-enterprises, Nasreen’s unflagging commitment has been to educate and economically empower the world’s most vulnerable people and fulfil her goal of alleviating poverty.

Nasreen is the founder of Afrikapu, and Co-founder at Cherehani Africa, both social-enterprises that are leveraging technology to build thriving communities, by empowering the most vulnerable women in rural Africa. 

Nasreen is passionate about inclusion of low-income households, especially women and girls. She is driven by the belief that informal economies are invigorated when the marginalized groups have convenient access to vital business management skills, finances and markets for their products.

Nasreen is a Mandela Washington Fellow, Go Global Africa Champion, Alibaba/UN eFounders Fellow and Tech By Her Fellow. She has won several awards internationally.

Nasreen’s mission is to give disadvantaged women a voice through business growth and help them be ambassadors of advocacy issues affecting their communities.

In underserved markets across Africa, talented handcraft makers have been honing their crafts for centuries, but lack access to markets. Marginalization and inequality in the artisan community is reflected in extreme disparities in income, access to opportunity, and poverty.

Our model combines a digital platform and front-line field officers to train artisans on how to develop their creations to meet international standards then, Afrikapu provides them with linkages to global markets through a digital marketplace and market participation.

Afrikapu offers the artisans a loyalty program that earns them points for every purchase of their products. This is redeemable in cash after 12months and acts as a fixed deposit method to “save” for a life goal such as; children’s education, purchase of property, business expansion/diversification.

By fostering a culture of personal development, we are determined to contribute a sustainable business model to artisans in informal sectors, create jobs, and uplift communities.

According to 2015 estimates there were 11.8 million people in Kenya employed in the informal economy, against 2.4 million working in the formal sector. By 2018 the informal sector accounted for 83.6% of total employment.

Handicrafts traders in Kenya are mostly small scale and make a huge part of the informal sector.  This sector is predominantly engaged in by low income brackets and consist mainly of women, people with disabilities, rural youth, those with low academic qualification, but mostly women to supplement household incomes. Lack of information and business acumen, and limited access to markets limits the success of handicraft artisans in Africa, inhibiting their socio-economic mobility.

According to the latest report by IMARC Group, titled “Handicrafts Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2019-2024”, the global handicrafts market was worth US$ 583.4 Billion in 2018. IMARC Group expects the market to reach a value of US$ 1091.2 Billion by 2024, expanding at a CAGR of more than 11% during 2019-2024.

Afrikapu’s goal is to empower artisans in the informal sector so that they can not only earn a fair price for their creations, but also take control of their businesses and reinvest in their communities.

Afrikapu is a social-enterprise that leverages technology, a front-line of field officers and micro-entrepreneurship to engage vulnerable groups in rural Africa in economic citizenship and sustainable income generation.

We offer three core services to our artisan partners:

·       Capacity Building: Through in-person and digitally-delivered content, Afrikapu delivers entrepreneurial development tools, mentorship programmes, business acumen, that collectively provide a powerful base that the futures of these micro-entrepreneurs will be built on.

·       Market linkages: We connect our artisans to global markets through a digital marketplace and global distributors. By connecting artisan businesses to a growing international market for their goods, we enable them to make a sustainable impact in their communities.

·       Financial Well-being: We are developing a partner loyalty program that will earn the artisan points for every purchase of their products. This is redeemable in cash after 12 months and acts as a fixed deposit way to “save” for a life goal such as; children’s education, purchase of property, business expansion/diversification

By fostering a culture of personal development and balanced growth, we are contributing a sustainable business model to skilled artisans in informal sectors, and offering them strategic access to opportunities available on the digital platforms and globally.

Our target beneficiaries are:

§  Who: Women / Girls / Youth / Persons With Disabilities

§  Age Bracket: 15 – 55 Years Old

§  Location: Informal Settlements / Rural parts of Kenya and South Sudan

§  Monthly Income: $0 - $100

§  Education: No Education / Basic Level / Secondary School / School dropouts

We’ve been on a journey to discover and connect with artisan entrepreneurs who share our vision of creating meaningful opportunity in vulnerable communities.  Traversing the continent, we are learning the stories of local artisans, their communities, and the dreams they have for their own futures. These artisans do not want sympathy—but an opportunity to harness market forces.

We engage our artisans, their families, community leaders, and other community members to assess their challenges, and, start to formulate a plan for how to best tackle the obstacles standing in the way of their success.

Afrikapu helps to cultivate the artisans skill while ensuring a fair living wage by providing them the means to turn their resourcefulness and creativity into a viable livelihood, whereby they can use their talents to create beautiful accessories from locally sourced, ethical  materials with a unique aesthetic and an inspiring story.

We seek to address the following:

Financial Independence: Empower artisans in the informal sector to be independent, to look after their children and ensure they have access to education, nutritious food, and healthcare, to be a voice in their communities, and create sustainable work opportunities.

Enabling ecosystem – By taking a community approach to tackling social inclusion we see a better chance in changing patriarchal norms that have adverse consequences in the pursuit of economic equality, and  aim to build an enabling environment for more women, youth and people with disabilities to start and run sustainable businesses.

According to a survey by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, 2.2 million micro enterprises shut down in the last five years at an average age of 3.8 years.

Since 2015, I have been heading a micro-lending social enterprise that I co-founded. We leverage mobile technology to provide credit and financial education to women and adolescent girls who own micro-enterprises in rural and underserved markets in Kenya. The company currently serves over 15000 women in rural Kenya. We noticed a trend where the micro-entrepreneurs would divert their business funds to personal expenses / annual payments towards December / January.

With a situational analysis we conducted towards end of 2018, to establish "What's keeping many female-owned businesses from reaching their full potential?" – I learnt that It boils down to three things; 1. Limited access to finances, 2. poor access to global markets and 3. the need for more guidance and mentorship on business management and development.

I then founded Afrikapu to find consistent markets for products for micro-entrepreneurs in the informal sector and give them a platform to save for personal goals (e.g. children’s education, health insurance, nutritional foods etc) without withdrawing from their businesses.  

I am passionate about inclusion of low-income households, especially women and girls. I am driven by the belief that informal economies are invigorated when the marginalized groups have convenient access to vital business management skills, finances and markets for their products.

My mother was a micro-entrepreneur whom we largely depended on for up keep and education. I saw how difficult it was for her to keep her small business sustainable. Her low literacy level, lack of guidance and limited access to markets for her home-made beauty products and pastries, stagnated the potential of her small home-based business. We lived hand-to-mouth despite her hard work and resilience.

My older sister is a mother of five at 34 years old. She has committed all her time and energy in raising her children limiting her opportunities to find full-time paying job, leaving her out of the workforce for a long time.

Witnessing their struggles during my formative years made me empathize with women and girls with a vision to start and run their own businesses. I am inspired when I see women so committed to running their businesses, raising healthy families and sending their children to school, with limited resources.

As a young African woman co-founder of two social-enterprises serving over 15,000 rural women and youth in Kenya and South Sudan, my passion is with the women and youth that I serve. Over the past six years, I have built up considerable experience in social-entrepreneurship linking my business strategies to technology and the Sustainable Development Goals.

I have grown my professional network locally and internationally and have had great opportunities to develop my social-entrepreneurial skills through International fellowships and the several panel participations I have had in international events.

I am a 2018 Mandela Washington Fellow from Dartmouth College, USA (Program of the U.S Department of State), a 2019 Go Global Africa Champion (Tech Entrepreneurs Program by UK Government's Department of Culture, Media and Sport), a 2019 eFounder Fellow (A program by Alibaba Group & UNCTAD), a 2019 Harambe Associate Candidate (Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance, U.S),  a 2019 SOCAP19 Scholarship Entrepreneur and a Tech By Her Fellow (MEST Africa, GIZ, Make IT in Africa).

I hold a BA (Hons) Business Management from University of Sunderland, UK and advance Diploma in Business and Law from Edith Cowan University. I am currently pursuing my Masters in Innovation, Leadership and Management as an online student at the University of York, UK.

My goal is to be able to work with other global leaders who are pursuing poverty eradication - with a focus on women empowerment.

When I founded Cherehani Africa, my goal was to train women and girls on tailoring and provide them with affordable & collateral free loans, in form of sewing machines to start and run sustainable businesses.

When our first beneficiary graduated from our tailoring training, we were convinced that she was ready to launch an independent business. Amid our excitement, the day she was to begin work, she reported that she was no longer interested in tailoring or any self employment venture and in fact picked up a job as a waitress. We were discouraged and some supporters of our idea walked away.

I took the whole experience as a lesson and remodeled our approach for the selection of customers to Cherehani.

This experience inculcated in me a culture of doing thorough due diligence and having my facts right before engaging in any activity, forgiving myself quickly, and learning from my mistakes.

In 2018, I participated in the Mandela Washington Fellowship. I was placed at Dartmouth College with a cohort of 25 other young entrepreneurs from 20 different countries, that I knew nothing about. We had to live together, work together and learn from each other for 7 weeks in the US. 

Stepping out of my comfort zone and working in teams with fellows from different parts of the world, helped me understand my strengths and weaknesses as a leader. I experienced learning in a whole new way and realized how important it is to celebrate cultural diversity.

Seeing things in different perspectives has helped me make informed decisions since the fellowship. I made many worthwhile contacts, and I continue to build strong relationships with the cohort despite the distance.

I later secured a grant from the US Department of State, in partnership with one of the fellows from the Dartmouth cohort that enabled us to collaborate on a project to economically empower girls in rural communities in South Sudan.

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We see a huge potential in availing a market for our artisanpreneurs. The e-commerce space is on the rise and by leveraging these platforms, we are playing a direct role in enabling micro-entrepreneurs to provide their products and services in entirely new markets. The next effect of this, is creation of more direct jobs around the delivery infrastructure that enables e-commerce to thrive.

Our competitive advantage:

·       Financial Well-being: Our partner-loyalty program earns our beneficiaries points for purchase of their products. This is redeemable in cash after 12 months to enable them “save” for a life goal such as; children’s education, purchase of property, business expansion / diversification

·       Capacity Building: We work with our beneficiaries who are eager to share their creative vision and find new ways to reinvent beautiful new variations on traditional themes. We have deeply integrated financial literacy and skill development programs as a core product element with human and digitally delivered content.

·       Materials: We ensure our beneficiaries create products from recycled materials, and our packaging and operations are eco-friendly, making it an environmentally responsible enterprise.

·       Technology + Human Intervention: We put humans in the middle, rather than just focusing on the technology. This enables us to build trust with our beneficiaries who have very low literacy levels and would otherwise not have access to opportunities available on the digital platform. And by embedding technology, we are able to constantly drive that efficiency level and still maintain the human touch at that last mile.

We are currently serving 1100 artisans in the rural / informal sector in Kenya and South Sudan. 

Our goal is to serve 2000 artisans in East Africa in the next 12 months and 10,000 artisans in 10 countries across Africa by our 5th year. 

SHORT-TERM GOALS (Up to 2 years)

·       Train 2000 artisans in East Africa

·       Partner with distributors in USA, Canada, Europe and UK

·       Set up a resource Centre

·       Develop a mobile app

LONG-TERM GOALS (5 years)

·       Train 10,000+ artisans in 10 countries in Africa by 2025

·       Set up a production facility in Kenya

·       Open at least 3 Afrikapu physical stores

·       Start an Afrikapu franchise

·       Directly employ 150+ people

Limited funding / resources

Limited access to global distribution partners

Limited Funding: We are seeking funding, to sustain our operations, increase our marketing activities, set up a resource center, develop our artisan portfolio in an innovative way, and develop an advanced digital platform to distribute educational and informational content and well as manage our operations and data. We are currently participating in business plan competition and have reached out to potential debt investors. 

Distribution partners: We are looking for global partners to distribute our products and act as our brand ambassadors in their respective locations. These include Mass retailers, Departmental stores, Specialty stores, Independent retailers, Online retailers, Corporates, NGOs etc. We have reached out to potential distributors and have requested our partners to support us in gaining the same.

1.     USADF (United States African Development Foundation) – Funding partner

2.     Citi Foundation – Funding Partner

3.     Nasvick Initiative, South Sudan – Support in mobilizing potential beneficiaries in South Sudan

4.     Cherehani Africa – Provide micro-loans to the artisans to enable them start / run sustainable businesses

5.     US Department of State / US Embassy Kenya – Funding partners and offer resources to facilitate our activities

6.     MEST Africa / Make IT in Africa – Access to mentors and potential investors

7.     UNCTAD – Support our marketing and distribution efforts

Afrikapu generates revenue by selling African Hand-Made products such as beaded jewelry, leather bags, recycled brass jewelry, wood carvings, handmade stationery, Ankara products etc. made by local artisans in informal settlements / rural Africa to the rest of the world in a structure, profitable and sustainable way.

We generate revenue by adding a 20-30% margin on the final product sale price. Our sales avenues include:

·       Our e-commerce platform

·       Global distributors

·       Local and International trade fairs

·       Influencer collaborations

Our income is currently from sale of products through digital marketplaces and physical market participation.

We are also participating in grant competitions. 

We have raised ovver $50,000/- from USADF, Citi Foundation and the US Department of State. 

We are seeking to raise USD500,000/- in the next 12 months, to sustain our operations, increase our marketing activities, set up a resource center, develop our artisan portfolio in an innovative way, and develop an advanced digital platform to distribute educational and informational content and well as manage our operations and data.

I deeply care about learning and the opportunity to network with passionate like-minded individuals and work with mentors to re-analyse & build-up my business and impact model. MIT Solve will provide an expert diagnostic of what I do and tools to leverage as I seek to build a customer centric org and make an impact. Whilst I look forward to personal and professional development, I am also excited to share the opportunities that are available to alleviate poverty and empower the marginalized communities in Africa and share my journey transforming lives of women micro entrepreneurs, with the hopes of impacting the lives of others. 

Funding: We are seeking funding, to sustain our operations, increase our marketing activities, set up a resource center, develop our artisan portfolio in an innovative way, and develop an advanced digital platform to distribute educational and informational content and well as manage our operations and data.

Advisory Board: We would like to be backed by an experienced board with active members from a range of professional backgrounds, to support us in setting the strategic direction of Afrikapu, and ensure that the organisation remains true to its purpose, especially during and after this global pandemic.

Media Exposure: Mentioning Afrikapu and including links to our social media pages (@afrikapu on Instagram, facebook and twitter) / website (www.afrikapu.com) will play a big part in ensuring we reach a wider and new audience that we would otherwise not be able to reach through our channels 

1.     Global distributors e.g. Macys, Walmart

2.     NGOs with similar program e.g. Women For Women International, UN Women

3.     Influencers and Bloggers