Welcome to African Hustle! Your bi-weekly dose of inspiration and smart insights into African entrepreneurship — featuring real stories about tech, culture, startups, founders, and innovations shaping the future of the continent.

Tomatoes are among the most consumed vegetables in the world, and demand in Africa continues to rise.

Tomato consumption on the continent is projected to reach 25 million tonnes by 2035.

Yet despite this growing appetite, Africa still imports large volumes of processed tomato products such as paste and sauces, much of it from the European Union.

In 2023 alone, tomato paste imports into Africa were valued at more than $589 million.

Fresh tomato trade tells a slightly different story.

While fresh tomato imports into Africa were far lower, at around $41 million in 2024, Morocco has emerged as the continent’s biggest exporter, shipping about 767,000 tonnes of fresh tomatoes each year.

That makes it the third-largest tomato exporter in the world, behind only Mexico and the Netherlands.

The processing gap remains clear, though. A case in point is South Africa, which in February 2026 exported ZAR2.85 million worth of processed tomatoes but imported ZAR46.3 million, leaving a trade deficit of ZAR43.4 million.

Two weeks back, I paid a courtesy call on the Zimbabwean ambassador in South Africa.

People keep asking how I got into that room.

One reason this came to be was that I had been selected for the African Union Media Fellowship.

On paper, it was a diplomatic meeting, but in reality, it was a small case study in how opportunity manifests.

That meeting did not begin at the embassy.

It began years earlier, with a decision to stand with the overlooked hustlers of Africa. The informal entrepreneurs, street traders, founders without venture capital, small business owners who are solving real problems without the vocabulary of accelerators, pitch decks, and ecosystems and young hustlers whose company will never be profiled by global business media until it is already too large to ignore.

I had made a deliberate choice to write about them, speak about them, and defend their place in Africa’s economic story. That choice positioned me.

The AU Media Fellowship came, in part, because the work had already created a clear signal.

The courtesy call followed because the fellowship gave that signal institutional weight.

From the outside, someone could call that luck.

But luck has a habit of looking random only to people who did not see the positioning that came before it.

Strive Masiyiwa once said, “You can only find opportunities if you are looking for them.” His stance removes passivity from the conversation.

Opportunity is not merely something that happens to you.

It is something you train yourself to notice, qualify, pursue, and absorb. Masiyiwa has also been quoted as saying that vision alone is insufficient without hard work and dedication.

You must be visible, prepared, and useful before the moment arrives.

Tony Elumelu has taken the idea further.

He has written openly about being given a chance early in his career and later using the Tony Elumelu Foundation to institutionalise luck and widen access to opportunity for African entrepreneurs.

His argument is not that luck replaces discipline. It is that many capable people remain unseen because they lack capital, networks, mentoring, and someone willing to take a chance on them.

Many founders pretend luck does not exist because they want their success to look entirely self-made.

Others overstate luck because they want their failure to look entirely external. Both positions are incomplete. Luck is real. But it is rarely enough by itself.

Aliko Dangote made this point directly in an interview with David Rubenstein.

Asked about the attributes behind his success, he stressed knowing the business deeply, working hard, persistence, focus, and tenacity.

But when Rubenstein suggested “a little luck maybe from time to time,” Dangote replied: “Luck. Definitely.” He added that without luck, one would not be able to make it.

That is a more mature view of entrepreneurship than the motivational version often sold to young founders.

The serious entrepreneur does not worship luck. S/He builds the conditions in which luck can be converted into progress.

When luck arrives, will it find you positioned?

Positioning is the disciplined act of becoming legible to the opportunity you want.

It is choosing a field, developing a point of view, producing work in public, building credibility, and making it easy for others to understand what you stand for.

For me, the position became clearer, not at the onset, but the more I continued working.

African entrepreneurship deserves better storytelling. They are infrastructure, distributors, lenders, employers, innovators, risk-takers, and survival economists.

That stance became a filter.

It shaped what I wrote, who I interviewed, what I researched, and what opportunities made sense to pursue. It also made it easier for others to place me.

When your work is scattered, people may like you but not know where to put you. When your work is focused, people know which room to invite you into.

This is where many entrepreneurs lose.

They are active, but not positioned. They attend everything, post anything, pitch everywhere and introduce themselves differently depending on the room.

They are busy, but their market signal is weak.

A positioned founder does the opposite.

They decide what hill they are willing to stand on before it becomes fashionable. Next, they build competence around that hill.

They keep showing up until the market associates them with that problem. They become visible.

That is why luck appears to find some people more often than others. It is not because the universe likes them more. It is because they have made themselves easier to discover, trust, and recommend.

Elumelu’s work through his foundation also shows that luck is not only personal.

It can be designed into systems. A grant programme, a fellowship, a mentorship network, a procurement policy, a media platform, or an investor introduction can all become vehicles for distributing luck more fairly.

Sometimes, all you lack is the room where the right person can see you. Hard work does not substitute for luck. It reduces the distance between preparation and opportunity.

You have work to do!

First, define the problem you want to be known for solving.

Not the industry but the problem.

“I am in media” is weak. “I tell the stories of overlooked African entrepreneurs and connect them to visibility, capital, and confidence” is stronger.

Second, build proof before blowing the trumpet.

Write. Publish. Research. Host conversations. Build prototypes. Document your thinking. Opportunity moves faster when there is evidence. Help also comes where there is a demonstrated need.

Third, make your work discoverable.

If you are not seen in business, you essentially do not exist to potential partners, customers and investors. The people who can open doors for you must be able to understand your work quickly.

Fourth, develop a public point of view.

Markets reward clarity. Institutions reward seriousness. Communities reward consistency. You need all three.

Fifth, enter rooms that align with the work you are already doing.

The best opportunities are not random detours. They are extensions of a path you have been walking.

Luck may open the door. But positioning explains why you were standing close enough to knock.

Application for the 2026 cohort of the Social Innovators Programme (SIP) is now OPEN

The Social Innovators Programme (SIP) is a 9-month fellowship that recognises the transformative potential of social innovation in Africa. The programme is designed to address systemic challenges and promote sustainable development by providing early-stage social entrepreneurs with the essential skills, resources, knowledge and support needed to overcome barriers to growth and development.

For the past 13 years, LEAP Africa, through the SIP, has empowered over 294 young social innovators, transforming the lives of over 4 million people across 14 African countries, with over $7.8 million in funding and revenue generated.

This programme is for young Africans between 18 and 35 years of age with Social Enterprises addressing challenges within Africa.

Fellows are drawn from a variety of fields such as Agriculture, Technology, Climate Action, Sustainable Cities and Communities, Affordable and Clean Energy, and Workforce Development.

Fellows will participate in 4-6 weeks of intensive virtual sessions, 4 months of mentorship, and converge physically at the end of the programme for the Awards ceremony.

South Africa’s largest privately owned retailer, Food Lover’s Market, began in 1993 as one fruit and vegetable store called Fruit & Veg City.

It started with just six people.

Today, the Food Lover’s Market Group employs about 17,000 team members across the business.

What began as a simple fresh produce store has grown into a full retail experience, complete with gourmet butcheries, delis, groceries, health and wellness sections, and its signature theatre-of-food feel.

Big retail empires can start with one store, one category, and one clear customer need.

Cameroon

This week’s ShoutOut goes to Dr Rose Leke, one of Africa’s most respected voices in global health.

For nearly three decades, she has helped shape research in immunology, parasitology and public health, with a major focus on malaria. Her work has also contributed to polio eradication efforts across Africa.

In 2011, she was one of six women honoured with the African Union Kwame Nkrumah Scientific Award for Women, celebrating excellence in scientific research. A year later, she received the Excellence in Science Award from the Cameroon Professional Society.

Dr Leke has used her platform to advance gender equality, mentor women in science, and prove that African women belong at the highest levels of global health leadership.

Obu onye n’enweghi eze ka ji n’emeghara. [Source: Nigeria]

“He that has no teeth is often the one whose yams grow the fattest.” [Translation]

Life is often unfair and unpredictable. [Meaning]

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