Speaker 1: Providership on seven o two.
Speaker 2: Welcome back.
Speaker 3: It's twenty minutes past nine. Writer on seven oh two.
Speaker 3: This is the Aubrey Maasangwa Show. And my name is
Speaker 3: Homoto Mudism in four bra orbs this evening, and it's
Speaker 3: lovely to be with you this evening. We are going
Speaker 3: through some really riveting content this evening. The conversation that
Speaker 3: we just had now was such an interesting one, and
Speaker 3: I hope that we were able to get through many
Speaker 3: of your questions around sick notes, the medical certificate, the
Speaker 3: do's and don'ts, and I think the point really is
Speaker 3: that don't do it, don't forge that certificate. If you
Speaker 3: are not feeling well, go to the doctor or otherwise,
Speaker 3: go to wakeman, go to work. It's fine, you'll be okay,
Speaker 3: you will heal.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 3: It's time now, though for our entrepreneurship feature. I'm looking
Speaker 3: forward to this one because we've got some really interesting
Speaker 3: guests in studio joining us here today, and really we're
Speaker 3: going to be speaking about entrepreneurship really from the perspective
Speaker 3: of an entrepreneur, someone who's a regular on the show,
Speaker 3: someone that you many of you are familiar with, but
Speaker 3: also someone who is in the financing space and the
Speaker 3: banking space.
Speaker 2: And this is a person who makes the big decisions.
Speaker 3: So if you're out there looking to finance your business,
Speaker 3: I think you should be listening very closely to your
Speaker 3: radio right now. In studio, we're joined by and Ramabunga,
Speaker 3: who's the chief Group chief Advisor at Indies or Consulting Group,
Speaker 3: and we are also joined by Sandi Les Shabalala, the
Speaker 3: CEO of Access Bank. Gentlemen, good evening and thank you
Speaker 3: for coming to the studio. Thank you so much for
Speaker 3: coming through entrepreneurship. It's always an interesting conversation to have
Speaker 3: so broad, but it can also be so specific, right
Speaker 3: I mean the entrepreneurs that are listening to the show
Speaker 3: right now. Maybe I should start with you and Lisa.
Speaker 3: I think many people that are listening that are looking
Speaker 3: to venture into it are always thinking about the how
Speaker 3: how do I even get started?
Speaker 2: Where do I go?
Speaker 3: I'm sure that's a question you've had before as as
Speaker 3: a person who's who's into business.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Homoso.
Speaker 4: I always opened the show with that line that says
Speaker 4: your money, your profit, it's in the market, and strategy
Speaker 4: is the way to unlock it and the way you
Speaker 4: want funding to play a role is to bridge that
Speaker 4: gap between you not having anything and you being able
Speaker 4: to acquire whatever necessary assets that you would use or
Speaker 4: utilize to save your your your market. So most of
Speaker 4: our topics are around the areas of strategy, organizational design,
Speaker 4: leadership and culture, but ultimately they always lend back to
Speaker 4: capital that is required.
Speaker 1: I guess that's why we have extinguished. The mister.
Speaker 4: Joining us today, I've been always wanting to meet various
Speaker 4: occasion and I'm looking forward to hearing about Access Bank,
Speaker 4: which is a Pan African bank, one that holds the
Speaker 4: African agenda, and hearing from the horse's mouth on how
Speaker 4: they are going to unlock that value that entrepreneurs have
Speaker 4: in their minds.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and I mean I'm.
Speaker 3: Really excited to have you in studio today and Dajabalala,
Speaker 3: particularly because of your expertise in the space, I mean
Speaker 3: from your time at Time Bank and then Sassin, are
Speaker 3: you have you been seeing a steady increase in people
Speaker 3: that are choosing to go into entrepreneurship and then knocking
Speaker 3: on your door and saying, of.
Speaker 5: Course, I think there's a lot of people that have
Speaker 5: got ideas in terms of what they would want to do.
Speaker 5: I think the challenges sometimes is that we are not
Speaker 5: very clear about exactly how we get the identify the
Speaker 5: markets that we want to get into. So there's always
Speaker 5: that discussion that you may have a very great idea
Speaker 5: of what you want to do, but very unclear about
Speaker 5: who are your customers are, and it becomes very difficult
Speaker 5: to actually then peak a sport and say, how is
Speaker 5: your offering different from what's out there in the market.
Speaker 5: Why is your idea going to be a success relative
Speaker 5: to the other.
Speaker 1: Ideas that are out there.
Speaker 5: So that's basically what you see in terms of the
Speaker 5: engagements that we have. So it is relatively to the
Speaker 5: point that has been made about strategy and about being
Speaker 5: clear who you are targeting and what is the value proposition?
Speaker 5: What is that you are putting on the table? Why
Speaker 5: would people buy your product or buy your service? Those
Speaker 5: are the fundamental questions that you've got to ask yourself
Speaker 5: as you think about entering into the space. Obviously, you've
Speaker 5: got to invest a whole influence a whole lot of
Speaker 5: people to support your idea from a funding point of view,
Speaker 5: and you've got to expect that people are going to
Speaker 5: ask you some really tough questions around basically what you're
Speaker 5: putting on the table.
Speaker 6: Ye.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think we've seen, we all know someone
Speaker 3: that's either decided to go the route of entrepreneurship to
Speaker 3: try it, to leave formal employment, or to do it
Speaker 3: while they are in the formal employment.
Speaker 2: But maybe we.
Speaker 3: Should speak about the quality of the entrepreneurs that we're
Speaker 3: producing currently in the country because I think that that
Speaker 3: informs your decisions as a bank when you want to,
Speaker 3: you know, give financing. Are we seeing people that are
Speaker 3: actually presenting answers to the problems that we have in society.
Speaker 1: Yes, we are.
Speaker 5: I think we are quite lucky in that regard because
Speaker 5: I think there's a lot of support that is out there.
Speaker 5: How people are being assisted to actually craft the idea,
Speaker 5: generate and make it a fundable proposition. There's a lot
Speaker 5: of support that people get out there, and I'm always
Speaker 5: saying to the people that you don't have to figure
Speaker 5: it out yourself.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of support that is out there. Use
Speaker 1: the support.
Speaker 5: Make sure that you are very clear in terms of
Speaker 5: how you go about really putting a propose. You can
Speaker 5: have a very great idea, but you're not able to
Speaker 5: sell it. From a funding point of view, So you
Speaker 5: have people that are out there that actually would help
Speaker 5: you to say, yes, it's a great idea, but how
Speaker 5: do you make it a fundable proposition? That is what
Speaker 5: people need to actually to be thinking about. But there's
Speaker 5: a lot of brilliant ideas that are out there, and
Speaker 5: I think from us from an entrepreneurial point of view,
Speaker 5: we absolutely have to make sure that people get the
Speaker 5: right guidance to walk them through the journey, as it.
Speaker 3: Were, maybe sending to go into that support because I'm
Speaker 3: sure we've got potential entrepreneurs, someone who's on the verge
Speaker 3: of taking the big leap. Yeah, you know, but they're
Speaker 3: thinking what support? Where where do I go? Who do
Speaker 3: I ask?
Speaker 1: Yeah? So there's a lot of.
Speaker 5: Organizations that are that are out there, obviously the ones
Speaker 5: that we are collaborating with some of it. Obviously we
Speaker 5: are thinking about an organization that we just saw I
Speaker 5: think it was about it three months ago in terms
Speaker 5: of how do we assist entrepreneurs. It was in the
Speaker 5: JSE if I just give that particularly that there's a
Speaker 5: lot of work that they are doing, and we find
Speaker 5: value in that because from a banking point of view,
Speaker 5: we can only come in at a certain level to
Speaker 5: actually fund the proper the proposals, but prior to that,
Speaker 5: and I think that's what I was saying earlier on
Speaker 5: the entrepreneurs themselves need to actually avail themselves of that
Speaker 5: support to take them through various stages before they are
Speaker 5: ready for funding, because sometimes I find that people get
Speaker 5: jump into the to asking for money, but they are
Speaker 5: not clear themselves exactly what is it that they're looking for.
Speaker 2: Is that practical?
Speaker 3: And is that you know as a person, and I mean,
Speaker 3: you know, you might be the guy who has just
Speaker 3: lost their job and you just want to get started,
Speaker 3: and you've got this amazing idea you're building some genius
Speaker 3: I don't know, invention, and you think the world needs
Speaker 3: to know this, you know, and it is it almost
Speaker 3: practical for people to kind of pause there and put
Speaker 3: in the thought that sunday La is speaking about.
Speaker 2: Particularly as an entrepreneur.
Speaker 4: I would say, it's not even just practically right, it's
Speaker 4: necessity because you have to understand that when someone puts
Speaker 4: money into your idea, it's risk. There's risk associated with
Speaker 4: the deployment of that capital. Now, the next question is
Speaker 4: who's better suited to absorb that risk. And surely you
Speaker 4: cannot ask a bank to take that risk because ultimately
Speaker 4: they also have their showholders that they report to that
Speaker 4: they need to satisfy and they probably even themselves not
Speaker 4: expects in your industry. They are expecting their own industry.
Speaker 4: All they probably and without simplifying your job, shaingu is
Speaker 4: your financial expects. We are able to read certain things
Speaker 4: around the business plan, around the financial ratios and and
Speaker 4: and test the CETA. And obviously they involve some experts
Speaker 4: to do to come and and do some certain tests
Speaker 4: on on the concept themselves. But the reality of the
Speaker 4: matter is if the project is not prepared right, they
Speaker 4: will have less likelihood to want to absorb.
Speaker 1: That risk.
Speaker 4: So maybe to answer your question directly, so there is
Speaker 4: a necessity.
Speaker 1: But just to add to what.
Speaker 4: Sala was saying, they are by the way organizations that
Speaker 4: are out there is right, absolutely, and you get them
Speaker 4: in province and you get them in national as well.
Speaker 4: I mean, I like to think of SEVA as example,
Speaker 4: which is an algamation of SIFA and and and and SEDA.
Speaker 4: Cedar is the component that assists entrepreneurs at least with
Speaker 4: polishing their their ideas. If you look at g g
Speaker 4: EP for example here in how then we heard a
Speaker 4: gentleman here by the name of Sakia who was saying,
Speaker 4: come to me, I can lend up until obviously a
Speaker 4: certain threshold. But that money is really to risk your
Speaker 4: concept to really will get experts to think about or
Speaker 4: to help you draw up a business plan, maybe to
Speaker 4: a certain extent, invest in very little equipment so that
Speaker 4: you can test out the market so you can refine
Speaker 4: and come with with with the idea. But my question,
Speaker 4: I guess to Senghu, is we have this in the show,
Speaker 4: that life cycle of a business to say, obviously the
Speaker 4: business has different risks at different.
Speaker 1: Stages of growth.
Speaker 4: We're saying there's the startup phase, there's the phase that
Speaker 4: I call maybe ELI growth, then there's the growth and
Speaker 4: the scaling phase. Then there's the maturity phase and then
Speaker 4: obviously the sunset hopefully not where in that space would
Speaker 4: access bank play.
Speaker 5: So when you so we actually come in in the
Speaker 5: growth phase of the business. But there are other interventions
Speaker 5: obviously that we look at it, because I think sometimes
Speaker 5: we only look at it just from the funding point
Speaker 5: of view. But there's a lot of work that we
Speaker 5: are putting in terms of financial management education and all
Speaker 5: of that, just to make sure that people have the
Speaker 5: right foundational elements before we are ready for funding. So
Speaker 5: there's a lot of work that we do outside of
Speaker 5: that where we actually, through our CSI programs, go into
Speaker 5: community teach them financial discipline, how to prepare cash flow,
Speaker 5: how to read financials, you know some of those things,
Speaker 5: and the business plans and some of that, but at
Speaker 5: a very high level. But where we get involved, obviously
Speaker 5: we get to the growth stage of the business. And
Speaker 5: to your point, and I think there are various risks
Speaker 5: that are associated with each of the stages of growth
Speaker 5: and to and you raise a very important pointund what
Speaker 5: type of funding is the right funding for where your
Speaker 5: business is at. I think if an arly stage of business,
Speaker 5: so you probably would find that there's a there's very
Speaker 5: few people that would actually from a banking point of view,
Speaker 5: that would put depositors money into that business. So there's
Speaker 5: a lot of equity funding that you would need to
Speaker 5: actually raise or venture capitalists that actually people that are
Speaker 5: taking a very different risk profile than what a bank
Speaker 5: would normally do. So we don't get involved in that
Speaker 5: early stage. Obviously from a business point of view, and.
Speaker 3: How would one you know, determine what type of funding
Speaker 3: is best suited for them, especially a person who's you know,
Speaker 3: venturing into this into this route, How would you know
Speaker 3: what is best in terms of funding for you as
Speaker 3: a you know, as an entrepreneur.
Speaker 5: So I think it comes back to the risk issue.
Speaker 5: So if you think about if if, then I use
Speaker 5: a hypothetical case if the bank were to get into
Speaker 5: that airly stage of funding, because it's a risk reward issue,
Speaker 5: so possibly the business idea would be crippled by the
Speaker 5: pricing that we put on that funding. So if you
Speaker 5: were to go airly stage and say I want the
Speaker 5: bank to get involved, you're probably going to have to
Speaker 5: pay quite a premium to raise that funding because it's
Speaker 5: very risky. But there are different funders that have a
Speaker 5: very different risk appetite at that stage of your business,
Speaker 5: that are willing to be much more equity risk than
Speaker 5: maybe funding risk point of view. So at that stage
Speaker 5: you need more equity sort of investors into the business
Speaker 5: rather than death funding.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I want to open up.
Speaker 3: The lines right now to our entrepreneurs who are listening,
Speaker 3: potential entrepreneurs and people that have already walked the mile
Speaker 3: you know on this journey that may want to.
Speaker 2: Have questions or even comments on this.
Speaker 3: I'm taking calls on zero double one double a three
Speaker 3: seven oh two zero double one double a three oh
Speaker 3: seven oh two. That's the number to call and let
Speaker 3: us know if the ideals that are being spoken about
Speaker 3: in this conversation align with what you know and what
Speaker 3: you've experienced in your journey for business.
Speaker 2: Maybe you know a question maybe.
Speaker 3: Young men, you know Susizo in Alexandria, how does he
Speaker 3: go about becoming the ideal candidate for funding from an
Speaker 3: access bank, someone who's trying to go in that in
Speaker 3: that rout, but doesn't know how to position themselves and
Speaker 3: make themselves appealing, you know to an investor like yourself.
Speaker 5: I think that the one thing that maybe that is
Speaker 5: overlooked early on in the business. So some of the
Speaker 5: financial disciplines that needs to be in place, because what
Speaker 5: do you find that in early stages of the business
Speaker 5: is obviously people are just running businesses. That part of
Speaker 5: the business in terms of the governess, the discipline making
Speaker 5: that your financials are correct, you know, your bookkeeping system
Speaker 5: is correct, sometimes get neglected. That for me is an
Speaker 5: important part because it demonstrates basically the history and the
Speaker 5: journey that you've been on. But if you're not able
Speaker 5: to actually organize your finances Ellie on, it becomes very
Speaker 5: difficult for anyone to put credibility in the story, however
Speaker 5: compelling the story is. But if you are not able
Speaker 5: to demonstrate that you've got the right financial disciplines and pace,
Speaker 5: it's very difficult to actually get there.
Speaker 1: And also the other element as well.
Speaker 5: I think when you start a business, you said obviously
Speaker 5: earlier on, people are very excited.
Speaker 1: There's a level of.
Speaker 5: Optimism sometimes that is really got to be toned down
Speaker 5: in terms of what is it that you want to do.
Speaker 5: So from a banking point of view, so we take
Speaker 5: obviously you're an entrepreneur, you think this is a fail
Speaker 5: proof idea, this is going to make me a lot
Speaker 5: of money, and that's what you're thinking, and.
Speaker 3: Then comes along and says, actually, no, have you thought
Speaker 3: about this?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 5: Yeah, So that level of optimism would have to actually
Speaker 5: go through, And I think it's always necessary to actually
Speaker 5: think about how you stress test your ideas because business
Speaker 5: is not a straight line. You're going to have a
Speaker 5: whole lot of issues that are going to hit you.
Speaker 5: So if something happens and your creditors are not paying
Speaker 5: you on time and your deaths are sorry, I'm not
Speaker 5: paying you on time, So what do you do? It
Speaker 5: changes the casual opposition of that business. So you've got
Speaker 5: to put different scenarios to say, what is it that
Speaker 5: I'm likely what could go wrong for instance, and be
Speaker 5: prepared for some of those eventualities and plan properly for
Speaker 5: that and show that you've thought about them, and it
Speaker 5: just it just makes it easy to have a conversation
Speaker 5: that somebody that has put in a bit of thought
Speaker 5: into that.
Speaker 3: Is the suit for financing for the bio entrepreneurs a
Speaker 3: one way stream where they're coming to you and asking
Speaker 3: for finance and the power and the borders in your court?
Speaker 3: Or is there any bargaining power that a potential business
Speaker 3: person has when they come and engaging in the conversation.
Speaker 2: Is it even a conversation?
Speaker 1: It is a conversation, obviously.
Speaker 5: I think for the one thing that the bank always
Speaker 5: look at is obviously we want to support businesses that
Speaker 5: we know that they've got a higher chance of being successful.
Speaker 1: So we just don't find businesses.
Speaker 5: That even if you give us all the right, whatever
Speaker 5: collateral that you can think of. If the business proposition
Speaker 5: from a foundational element doesn't make sense, we would not
Speaker 5: do it because we are not in the business of
Speaker 5: actually taking people's properties and all of that. We want
Speaker 5: to use that from a banking as the last resort.
Speaker 5: So the first and foremost important thing that you've got
Speaker 5: to do is to actually make sure that there's.
Speaker 1: A viable business that is out there.
Speaker 5: And the conversation obviously comes through in terms of the
Speaker 5: entrepreneur and what is it that they want to do
Speaker 5: and the risk and how we think about the risk,
Speaker 5: and obviously were looking at from a banking point of
Speaker 5: in terms of how we structure it alone so that
Speaker 5: it actually favors the entrepreneur as well as mitigates the risk.
Speaker 1: From a banking point of view.
Speaker 5: So you may have an idea that I'm looking for
Speaker 5: as type of funding. For instance, up you could come
Speaker 5: in and say I'm just looking for an overdraft and
Speaker 5: then we say, actually your balance she it is not
Speaker 5: strong enough to be able to sustain an overdraft.
Speaker 1: So maybe what we can do.
Speaker 5: You are supplying to blue chip companies, so can we
Speaker 5: look in terms of maybe discounting some of those datas,
Speaker 5: so it's a very different way. So we are not
Speaker 5: taking the risk on the entrepreneur. We are actually taking
Speaker 5: the risk on the blue chip company that you do
Speaker 5: business on. So there's those discussions that we are having
Speaker 5: with the entrepreneur because they have they would not necessarily
Speaker 5: be thinking about that, but from a business point of
Speaker 5: view that is starting up, they don't have a big
Speaker 5: balance sheet or strong enough balance sheet to be able
Speaker 5: to sustain that the lending based on balance sheet, so
Speaker 5: we've got to have to look at a different way
Speaker 5: of funding.
Speaker 3: That a rivetain conversation on entrepreneur entrepreneurship that we're having
Speaker 3: this evening in studio. My guests Andysa Ramabunga, Chief Group,
Speaker 3: Chief Advisor and Diesel Consulting Group.
Speaker 2: He is a regular here on the show.
Speaker 3: And we've got Sandy ls Shamalala, the CEO of Access
Speaker 3: Bank here in studio helping us makes sense of entrepreneurship.
Speaker 3: Maybe let's go to the lines. I have invited you
Speaker 3: to get in touch with us if you've got questions
Speaker 3: or comments. Is there a double one, double A three
Speaker 3: H seven oh two that's the number to dial. Let's
Speaker 3: go to PIRI you're in alex good evening, Welcome to
Speaker 3: the show.
Speaker 2: What's your contribution?
Speaker 7: Yeah, thanks, thanks from most of the criminals, the gentlemen, then
Speaker 7: the studio. Look, I think the the spirit of entrepreneurship
Speaker 7: is really often being stifled by a lack of funding,
Speaker 7: you know, especially for the less privilege, to the underprivileged,
Speaker 7: those that are in the streets of alex and t
Speaker 7: be science the way through that you know whose background
Speaker 7: is not so well and they obviously have had live
Speaker 7: Let's say they are India meet me, meet mid Thetis,
Speaker 7: so so they've had lives, they've had experiences of life.
Speaker 7: So that means their background and maybe their their credits
Speaker 7: calls are not so great because you know, they didn't
Speaker 7: have something to fall back on. So I would submit that,
Speaker 7: you know this, potential funders for this budding entrepreneurs have
Speaker 7: got to be I think somewhat linient to those kind
Speaker 7: of people because obviously, you know, they they they are
Speaker 7: too much of a risk. But on the other hand,
Speaker 7: they would like to to establish, you know, businesses that
Speaker 7: would be able to carry them out of poverty and
Speaker 7: be able to you know, decrease the the state of unemployment.
Speaker 7: So you know, I get I get the fact that
Speaker 7: it's risky, but I think that these founders have got
Speaker 7: to have a soft heart when it comes to the
Speaker 7: young entrepreneurs that would like to enter the market and
Speaker 7: make a difference. Look As for myself personally, I'm a
Speaker 7: social entrepreneur somewhat, and I think my risk. I don't
Speaker 7: know if I'm risk or not. I'm not necessarily looking
Speaker 7: at making profit as such. I'm just looking at, you know,
Speaker 7: uplifting the young, the young people in my community here
Speaker 7: without really looking at the bank pilot, I mean, looking
Speaker 7: at something in return as such. But I think all
Speaker 7: I'm saying is that when we apply for this kind
Speaker 7: of you know, findings as such, we often get turned
Speaker 7: away because of our background and the fact that we
Speaker 7: are not well off as such. A comoto, thank you.
Speaker 2: For that cold period.
Speaker 3: I'm going to raise it here in this conversation because
Speaker 3: that is a direction that I was hoping the conversation
Speaker 3: would take at some point. It's not a reality that
Speaker 3: that business people and businesses get profiled, you know. You
Speaker 3: would imagine that an access bank or any other institution
Speaker 3: that's looking to, you know, to invest in a business
Speaker 3: would prioritize the brilliance of the idea and not necessarily
Speaker 3: be profiling where it's coming from.
Speaker 2: Is that a reality.
Speaker 5: Well, I'm not sure about profiling and I wouldn't want
Speaker 5: to speak to that because I don't think that it's
Speaker 5: legally allowed. We can't do red zoning. That was the
Speaker 5: thing of the past and many many years ago. So
Speaker 5: banking industry is not necessarily sort of profiling people according
Speaker 5: to that what you would see. And then this is
Speaker 5: the conversation that is critical if you're talking about entrepreneurs.
Speaker 1: It's very rare in real.
Speaker 5: Life and entrepreneur that will start one business and become
Speaker 5: an immediate success. Many people start many businesses, they fail,
Speaker 5: they start another business, but it doesn't necessarily mean that
Speaker 5: they are bad people. So there's a learning sort of
Speaker 5: experience that comes with that in terms of you know,
Speaker 5: as you start a business, you actually become a little
Speaker 5: bit more wise as you start your second business. So
Speaker 5: it's not punitive in that in that sense that we
Speaker 5: would say somebody that has failed in the business, then
Speaker 5: you know, you don't touch But obviously I think for me,
Speaker 5: is that what happens when that business fails?
Speaker 1: Are you being responsible for it?
Speaker 5: Are you taking ownership and accountability for it, because if
Speaker 5: you can demonstrate that, yes, the business failed, but I
Speaker 5: had made arrangements to make sure that the people that
Speaker 5: have funded me are actually taken care of in whatever way.
Speaker 5: So what you normally find in many instances, which is
Speaker 5: something that we really as from a banking point of view,
Speaker 5: we edge our customers to do, is that when you
Speaker 5: hit a particularly difficult challenge in your business, many people
Speaker 5: don't want to speak to the bank because they want
Speaker 5: to avoid the bank. This is when you actually have
Speaker 5: to actually go and sit with your bank and say, look,
Speaker 5: I've hit some challenges here, how can you help me
Speaker 5: out in terms of these challenges. In many instances when
Speaker 5: you have businesses that are getting into the is that
Speaker 5: when the owners are not reachable, suddenly people are not
Speaker 5: reachable and the bank would now have actually to take
Speaker 5: extreme measures because they can't sit with the loan that
Speaker 5: is not performing. So I always say that for me,
Speaker 5: the best thing that people should do whenever they know
Speaker 5: that they're going to hit the problem, be proactive about it.
Speaker 5: Go to your bank and speak to your bank well
Speaker 5: ahead of time to say, actually, I think I'm gonna
Speaker 5: hit the problem here. Can we find a mechanism to
Speaker 5: make sure that I go through this process as elegantly
Speaker 5: as I have? If I've eaten an issue, how do
Speaker 5: I go to a bank and say, look, I can't
Speaker 5: make the payments, but can we think about the restructure
Speaker 5: of that loan. So those are the conversations that I'm saying.
Speaker 5: If you're wanting to get into the business, understand that
Speaker 5: you're gonna heat challenges. Understand that the bank is there.
Speaker 5: The bank doesn't want to write off the loan. Yes,
Speaker 5: that's that's the last thing that we want to do.
Speaker 2: They actually want their money exactly.
Speaker 5: So that's the last thing that we want to do.
Speaker 5: So if we have an entrepreneur that shows the willingness
Speaker 5: and the commitment to say, I'm gonna pay the loan,
Speaker 5: but not maybe not necessarily as quickly as I told you.
Speaker 5: Maybe it was twelve months. Maybe give me twenty four
Speaker 5: months to pay this loan. That's the conversation that is progressive.
Speaker 5: That helps the people to say, look, next time around,
Speaker 5: you have more trust in that person, because when they
Speaker 5: come back for another loan, you know their behavior when
Speaker 5: they're under pressure.
Speaker 1: How do they behave.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's relationship exactly. Yeah, I suppose it's a culture thing.
Speaker 2: Also.
Speaker 3: You know, we come from a place many people come
Speaker 3: from a place where at the end of the month,
Speaker 3: in aquericolodo, all they know is they switch off their
Speaker 3: phones exactly, and they don't pick up numbers that look dodgy,
Speaker 3: the plus triple seven numbers that start and so they
Speaker 3: they carry the same culture with them as as they
Speaker 3: get into relationships with the banks.
Speaker 2: I hope that that that was helpful for you.
Speaker 3: Pier In Alex let's go to Owen who's in Britz owner.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for holding.
Speaker 3: Do you want to speak about entrepreneurship having to be
Speaker 3: part of the education system.
Speaker 8: Yes, yes, But I have a question for your guest.
Speaker 8: I follow a lot the talks of Miles Monrol and
Speaker 8: he once said poor people think about money, rich people
Speaker 8: think about things like material things. And what the people
Speaker 8: think about ideas and how how tweetd that. That's the
Speaker 8: question that I'm posing to your guest. Coming to what
Speaker 8: I said about a business a business orientated mind or
Speaker 8: an entrepreneurship mind, I think that has to be inculcated
Speaker 8: at the young age of our kids. We're having any
Speaker 8: economy that is not creating jobs. We getting our kids
Speaker 8: to be educated ultimately to become job seekers with their education. Today,
Speaker 8: we had doctors who were like complaining wanting some graduate grants,
Speaker 8: and this is because I believe they were focusing too
Speaker 8: much on the academic side, not the business, the business
Speaker 8: module side of things. Should Should we inculcate entrepreneurship and
Speaker 8: teach our kids to be business business orientated? It would
Speaker 8: help in our long run. I once had that someone
Speaker 8: to have an entrepreneurship mind, you need to solve the problem,
Speaker 8: so at a young age, if we can teach our
Speaker 8: kids to be solution seekers rather than to be complainers
Speaker 8: all the time, which is something that we do as adults.
Speaker 8: We are so good in complaining, which makes us good
Speaker 8: people to see problems, but when it comes to implementation
Speaker 8: or providing solutions, we lack in that regard.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for your call. Sea.
Speaker 3: Is that something that's potentially part of a CSMI project,
Speaker 3: you know, the education element, you know, and making sure
Speaker 3: that people are actually educated on how to start a business.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 5: As I said, there are many programs that we run
Speaker 5: around financial education, how to run businesses, how to make
Speaker 5: sure that you have the right disciplines in your business,
Speaker 5: even into going just outside of the business, just from
Speaker 5: a financial literacy point of view, So there's a whole
Speaker 5: lot of work that we do around it. I think
Speaker 5: the color raises a very important point around basically there's
Speaker 5: more that needs.
Speaker 1: To be invested there.
Speaker 5: I fully concur with where it's coming from, and it
Speaker 5: needs to actually happen at the much earlier age. You
Speaker 5: do find that in some of the I think the
Speaker 5: higher institutions of learning these days, that you have entrepreneurship
Speaker 5: that is now introduced there. But my sense, and that's
Speaker 5: where I would agree with the caller that to say
Speaker 5: that entrepreneurship needs to be started at a much much
Speaker 5: earlier age because it's something that you that you would
Speaker 5: actually have to evolve and mature on. So to your
Speaker 5: point Elier, or if I just was employed and I
Speaker 5: now want to go into a business, it's a very
Speaker 5: different mindset because I'm used to having a regular salary
Speaker 5: every month. Now I'm now working for myself. I may
Speaker 5: not have a salary end of the month, so it's
Speaker 5: a very different mindset. Sometimes people get these ideas, but
Speaker 5: mentally they're not ready for those challenges of what an
Speaker 5: entrepreneur im at face. So for me, that is a
Speaker 5: very important sort of a point that the caller has
Speaker 5: raised around really sort of investing at that early stage
Speaker 5: learning from an entrepreneurship point of view.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we are speaking entrepreneurship Right Share on the Obumasango
Speaker 3: Show with me Commoso Medisa.
Speaker 2: I'm in for brab this evening.
Speaker 3: My guests and studio are Aissa Ramabunga who's the group
Speaker 3: chief advisor.
Speaker 2: And indece or consulting group. And I also have Sandy L.
Speaker 3: Shamalala, the CEO of Access Bank Right Share in studio
Speaker 3: taking more of your calls on zero double one double
Speaker 3: A three oh seven O two. Get in touch with us,
Speaker 3: let us know your experiences on entrepreneurship and what would
Speaker 3: you like to know from the wealth of knowledge that
Speaker 3: we have present here in the studio. This evening, let's
Speaker 3: go to Boxburg ORIGINALD. You have a contribution to make
Speaker 3: on a possible fund. Good evening, go ahead.
Speaker 6: Lets memory very well.
Speaker 2: Thanks, thank you for your call. Go ahead please.
Speaker 6: Yes, I just need to ask. I know like there's
Speaker 6: like there's no job allows so just need to ask
Speaker 6: is it possible for a business pening like a mind
Speaker 6: or an idea to be funded, or you need a
Speaker 6: business that actually need to be running, and maybe you
Speaker 6: have made a smaller and approfit theambers one can defund it.
Speaker 3: Okay, So you're asking is it enough to just have
Speaker 3: a plan or should you already have started?
Speaker 2: Is that your question?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 6: I actually my question is do they fund the business actually
Speaker 6: is it's already there or the old fund that or
Speaker 6: they can find the idea?
Speaker 3: Okay, all right, okay, I'll pouse your question here in studio.
Speaker 3: Thank you for your call. I suppose it's the age
Speaker 3: old question and what we've always said, getting started right,
Speaker 3: get started. You've got more to show and prove if
Speaker 3: you're already doing it, other than saying you're going to
Speaker 3: do it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: And I think earlier when I spoke about obviously the
Speaker 5: risk profile of the business, it at the stages of
Speaker 5: where you're starting the business. And this is a very
Speaker 5: critical thing that somebody's got to think about. It is
Speaker 5: that to say if you're looking for a bank to
Speaker 5: come through as and I repeat the point because it's
Speaker 5: very difficult. Remember the bank is using deposits depositals money
Speaker 5: to fund is using your deposits sitting in So if
Speaker 5: I were to use your deposit to find that business,
Speaker 5: how would you feel Because then at the end of
Speaker 5: the day, we don't want to sort of get into
Speaker 5: that area's area of reckless lending point of view. So
Speaker 5: to the caller, I think what what the caller should
Speaker 5: be actually be thinking about? There are obviously entities that
Speaker 5: would fund a business plan, so you need to fund
Speaker 5: get the right people to actually speak to that can
Speaker 5: that are prepared to take that early stage risk from
Speaker 5: a business point of it. But many people that I
Speaker 5: know that have started businesses, they fund their business from
Speaker 5: relative family. That's how they get started. Yes, yes, exactly,
Speaker 5: that's that. That's how they get started. But it's a
Speaker 5: very different risk pro So if you were to ask
Speaker 5: to banks fund basically ideas, I would say no because
Speaker 5: it's too risky at that stage and the return is
Speaker 5: not gonna be justifiable for that business. Because if you
Speaker 5: were to ask the bank to put money into an
Speaker 5: untested idea, it's gonna be very difficult to even afford
Speaker 5: the interest rate that would be put onto that loan.
Speaker 5: So you've got to find people that actually are sort
Speaker 5: of angel investors, people that believe in the idea family
Speaker 5: that you that you know that can give you a
Speaker 5: little bit of startup. As you grow your business and
Speaker 5: you demonstrate a track record, then you can actually think
Speaker 5: about a different level of funding.
Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe through you Ramoto.
Speaker 4: I think this would be then opportunity to maybe test
Speaker 4: some of the offerings that you as Access Bank have.
Speaker 4: I think you've become very clear to say you only
Speaker 4: found from the stages of growth, which, by the way,
Speaker 4: I answer that question that says you now have financial
Speaker 4: statements and you're showing some level of profitability or even
Speaker 4: interest cover to a certain extent. But the question then remains,
Speaker 4: and by the way, you started speaking about other products
Speaker 4: you've mentioned now invoicing discounting. Yeah, I would like to think,
Speaker 4: given the education component is a product, but are there
Speaker 4: any other products that are out there and how do
Speaker 4: you access them, particularly this one now around the education.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so there are various products obviously, So if I
Speaker 5: just give maybe just a high level of view in
Speaker 5: terms of when do we get involved to answer the
Speaker 5: question directly, so a business that has been in existence
Speaker 5: for a year, that has actually demonstrated a history of trading,
Speaker 5: so that is the business the where we actually get involved.
Speaker 5: So there are different funding mechanisms I've spoken about. Obviously
Speaker 5: the invoice discounting. It could be a purchased order sort
Speaker 5: of financing. It could be also where we do what
Speaker 5: we call cashlow financing. So obviously in a cashlow financing scenario,
Speaker 5: you're not necessarily sort of looking at the security. You're
Speaker 5: looking basically at the robustness of the cashlows of the business.
Speaker 5: So if the business can demonstrate basically that their cashlows
Speaker 5: are robust enough, then we can actually then do the funding,
Speaker 5: which is relatively unsecured lending. So that speaks to the
Speaker 5: issue that somebody was raising earlier on to say, how
Speaker 5: do I get started. Maybe I do not necessarily have
Speaker 5: the right collateral to actually put in front of the band,
Speaker 5: but we do have those products that we offer to
Speaker 5: our customers that are in the aly stage businesses, but
Speaker 5: they have to be supported by a robust cashlow. So
Speaker 5: that's one of those things obviously from a CSI point
Speaker 5: of view. There's a lot that we do from that.
Speaker 5: Even if you go onto our website and all of that,
Speaker 5: you'll find a lot of rich material.
Speaker 1: For both customers and non customers.
Speaker 5: Is exactly, so you'll find a lot of reach material
Speaker 5: around basically what businesses would actually be focusing on. So
Speaker 5: those are the things that people can actually be looking at,
Speaker 5: and sometimes I think it's what I've always said, it's
Speaker 5: important for you to invest time in some of those
Speaker 5: things first, so that you have a relatively good idea
Speaker 5: in terms of running a business. Is not just waking
Speaker 5: up every day one day and say I'm starting a business.
Speaker 5: There's a lot that goes into that. You've got to
Speaker 5: sort of make sure that you empower yourself around the
Speaker 5: right things that are necessary for you to actually be
Speaker 5: on that geny and be successful at it.
Speaker 4: And you don't necessarily sorry, just one more thing, you
Speaker 4: don't necessarily need financial statements as right think bank accounts
Speaker 4: are good enough in.
Speaker 1: The early stage.
Speaker 5: The one thing that we have tried to solve for
Speaker 5: at Access is that, and which is also my pet
Speaker 5: peeve as well, is that sometimes in terms of the
Speaker 5: small business, we sometimes ask things that they don't have. Yeah,
Speaker 5: and that actually excludes a lot of people. So the
Speaker 5: door is shut immediately because I'm asking you for three
Speaker 5: years of financial statements and I'm saying it must be
Speaker 5: done by a reputable entity. But in many instances in
Speaker 5: terms of this cash low funding, we obviously what we
Speaker 5: would need. We need to see your bank statements to
Speaker 5: see basically the amount of ted over that has gone in.
Speaker 1: Through your account.
Speaker 5: You need to be able to demonstrate basically a healthy
Speaker 5: order pipeline and demonstrate the track record that you've been
Speaker 5: able to not just have an order but deliver orders. Okay,
Speaker 5: So there's a whole lot of things that need to
Speaker 5: be demonstrated when we talk about the element of cashlow funding,
Speaker 5: which really tries to open up access to some of
Speaker 5: the entities that are not able to get in because
Speaker 5: maybe they don't necessarily have three years of financial statement
Speaker 5: and all of the things, the great things that banks
Speaker 5: normally ask people that they don't actually have. So we're saying,
Speaker 5: you run your business for a year, you can demonstrate
Speaker 5: the cash flow, you can demonstrate basically a track record
Speaker 5: in terms of manufacturing something and delivering something and getting paid.
Speaker 1: So those are the things that are important.
Speaker 2: All right, This does bring us to the end of
Speaker 2: this conversation. The time is never enough.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for joining me in studio, gentlemen,
Speaker 3: and it's always good. I think we've learned quite a
Speaker 3: bit about the offerings you know from Access Bank, but
Speaker 3: also the support that is given to employees.