Nathaniel Moikabi

Biography:

Robert Gumede, 55, is the fifth child of seven in Nelspruit. Gumede serves as the Founder at Guma Group (Pty) Ltd.

Gumede has had a prolific experience as an entrepreneur and a hard worker, beginning at seven years old, when he began to help his mother in her second-hand clothes business. After school he also worked as a gardener and a petrol attendant to supplement his single mother’s income. His mother was often not home because of work so Gumede stayed in a three roomed house in Nelspruit with his grandmother and 11 relatives.

Gumede studied Law at the Zululand University. Gumede and some donations from the members at the golf course where he was caddy and gardener funded his tertiary education. He was a very studious young man with good grades, played sport and got involved in the cultural aspects of school such as debating and the theater club. Gumede graduated from the Zululand University in 1986 with a Dip Juris, a diploma.

After studying, Gumede worked as a clerk at the Magistrate’s Court of Kabokweni .

In 1988, he founded Gijima Electronic & Security Systems. He moved to Joburg in 1992 to build the company from there. He opened an office – Guma Group’s 1^st office, in a basement. As they were a new business, he had to pick up marketing and networking skills to win clients. He was also the business development executive of LTA (now Grinaker-LTA) during his time in Johannesburg. In the mid-1990s he registered several Gijima companies, including a firm that provided protection services to the Mpumalanga government.

In 1999, Gumede’s Gijima consortium got a R800-million contract to develop an electronic identification system. He bought 26% of Applied Card Technologies (ACT) from John Sterenborg to enter the smart-card market in August 2000. A year later Gijima bought the balance of ACT’s shares. In 2002 Gijima Afrika Smart Technologies (GAST) won a multi-million-rand tender from Telkom to produce phone cards.

Gumede shot to prominence in 2005 when listed IT firm AST sold 37% of its shares to Gijima. All the original Gijima companies changed their names to Guma.

Through Guma, Gumede also has an interest in tourism group Tourvest, and the Gauteng Lions rugby union.

Gumede has built a business empire, owning Guma Group,  a group that covers eight sectors: Investments and Private Equity;  Infrastructure and Construction; Information & Communications Technology; Energy; Railways, Mining; Tourism & Hospitality; Water & Sanitation; and Strategic Business Consulting. Robert Gumede’s company services 90 of the top 100 companies in South Africa.

What is the future of Guma Group of Companies?

Robert Gumede & his company Guma Group want to expand into sectors such as renewable energy, IT for taxation and population registration with a citizen card among other things. Gumede thinks it’s unfortunate that African continent is home to most of the world’s fresh water and yet many people across Africa struggle to get clean water to drink. This is tragic, and the Guma Group is exploring ways to solve this issue for the African continent’s poorest people. Currently, they have interests across the Africa and with international partners beyond our borders, such as China. They are consistently looking for regions to expand their portfolio to, innovate where they can & deploy their present portfolio.

Since May 2017, I publish the list of Interesting Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders in Africa. In its first month, the list has become an influential guide to the most interesting entrepreneurs in Africa.

Submissions have been open for the Africa Business Entrepreneur and Leader List since May 2017.

I am asking you, the reader to send entrepreneurs who are making the most dramatic impact in Africa today in manufacturing, technology, real estate, media & entertainment, financial services, agriculture, retail, fashion and the service industry. I am on the lookout for a builder and leader, innovator and risk taker.

Submission Requirements for Africa’s Most Interesting Entrepreneurs

• Citizen of one of the 54 African countries with their business based in an Africa
• Entrepreneur and leader who has built businesses or organizations with at least 7 employees.
• Ethical and socially responsible entrepreneur and leader.

To have an idea of the sort of entrepreneurs I am searching for, have a look at the list here.

Entrepreneurs now listed in the African Entrepreneur and Leader List include:

• Akerele-Ogunsiji, the Nigerian Founder / CEO of Rise Networks, a Leading Social Enterprise in Africa, with a deliberate interest in Technology and its relevance to Youth and Education Development across Africa.
• Alloysius Attah, a Ghanaian who leads Farmerline, which works with thousands of small-scale farmers in Ghana. Farmerline aims to increase access to agricultural information, productivity and income small-scale farmers in Ghana.
• Fahad Awadh, a 29-year old entrepreneur who has set up a cashew processing facility in Tanzania to bring international standards and traceability to the cashew nuts.
• Fred Swaniker, a Ghanaian serial entrepreneur and leadership development expert who has launched five organizations that aim at developing leaders, primarily in Africa.
• Gloria Michelle Otieno,  CEO/HR consultant at Recours Four Kenya Consultants, Kenya. a fast-growing professional HR services firm in Nairobi, Kenya.

We need to find more entrepreneurs like these.

Email me at [email protected] or Facebook me your submissions @NathanielMoikabi anytime.

Profiles of Powerful & Remarkable Business Leaders in Africa – F

Since May 2017 I have made a call for people in Africa to send World Business Leaders & Entrepreneurs Profiles and I’m assembling the African Business Entrepreneur and Leader List. 

In no particular order, meet the people who are making dramatic impact in entrepreneurship, business leadership and personal development in Africa.

Fahad Awadh, Influential Leader in Cashew industry

Fahad Awadh is a 29-year old entrepreneur from Tanzania, he has set up a cashew processing facility in Tanzania to bring international standards and traceability to the cashew nuts. He is the founder of YYTZ Agro-Processing, a cashew processing company that is adding value locally while creating jobs. The company’s flagship processing facility in Zanzibar has an installed capacity of 2,500 Tons per annum. YYTZ Agro-Processing recently raised a $500,000 investment to set up another facility in Mtwara.

Growing up, Awadh attended St. Christopher’s, a private British school in Bahrain, where he lived for 8 years. Awadh got accepted to an International Business and Technology program at the age of 11. It was a foundational experience that instilled and nurtured in him an entrepreneurial spirit. He started learning about Accounting, Business Marketing and Entrepreneurial studies from a young age. By the age of 12 he had created a business with a product.

Alakija started her career as a secretary for the now-defunct Merchant Bank of Nigeria. She quit her job in the 80s to study fashion design in England, returning to her native country a few years later to set up Supreme Stitches, a fashion label that catered for élite Nigerian women.

Fast forward to 2016 and the 65-year-old businesswoman is Africa’s second wealthiest woman, estimated by Forbes to be worth $2.1 billion. No, she didn’t make all her money from her fashion venture. Instead, a significant part of Alakija’s fortune comes from her oil exploration company Famfa Oil. She also has investments in real estate.

Swaniker, One of Interesting Ghanaian Business Leaders

Fred Swaniker is a Ghanaian serial entrepreneur and leadership development expert. He has launched five organizations that aim at developing leaders, primarily in Africa. Fred is the founder & CEO of the African Leadership Academy, an institution located outside Johannesburg in South Africa. The African Leadership Academy aims to develop 6,000 transformative leaders for Africa over a 50-year period. He is also the founder of African Leadership Network, Global Leadership Adventures and Africa Advisory Group.

Before he hit eighteen, Swaniker had lived in Ghana, Gambia, Botswana and Zimbabwe.