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.

The agricultural economy employs 65–70% of Africa’s labour force and typically accounts for 30–40% of GDP.

Building a business is no easy task, especially when you’re a small team and roles still overlap.

On Thursday, we got feedback that the colours we added to different sections “sucked.” Honestly, it sucked even more to hear that after all the effort. But we listened. We are back to our original colours now.

Then came Friday. A day of three unexpected mental conflicts.

A friend of mine, Yassin, who works in events, invited me to tag along as he delivered hampers for guests at an event in Steyn City. If you don’t know it, Steyn City is a premier lifestyle estate in Johannesburg, which I’d always wanted to visit. So when the chance came, I jumped on it.

As we walked toward the escalators at the Saxon Hotel inside Steyn City, I noticed a man coming down. I’m not usually the type to care much for celebrities, but for a long, awkward minute, I was frozen. Could it be him? Or not?

He noticed me staring and greeted me politely as he passed us. And just like that, it was confirmed. Trevor Noah!

I mumbled a greeting back, still dumbfounded. In my mind, I was thinking that a picture for my socials would’ve been nice, definitely worth a few likes.

Then Yassin cut in, “I thought you’d ask Trevor one or two questions for African Hustle!”

And that’s when the regret kicked in.

Too late.

I rushed to LinkedIn to see if I could DM Trevoh. No account. Tried Facebook, then Instagram. No message option. The whole day, I replayed that missed opportunity in my head.

On my way home, I stopped at the township mall to grab a takeaway meal for my wife from Pedros. Didn’t want her biting my head off for gallivanting in Steyn City instead of spending the day with her and the kids.

While waiting in line, a short, energetic, well-dressed guy greeted me. His enthusiasm was infectious. But I struggled to place a name to his face. However, he looked so familiar to a pizza boy who had worked in the Debonairs Pizza shop right next door about two years back. But again, something was amiss.

The boy I knew back then didn’t have skin this radiant, the soft glow of peace that comes when you start to get money, and his clothes weren’t nearly this crisp.

I usually pretend to recognise everyone; it works wonders. Especially if you have something you are selling. When recognised, people feel valued, which makes them comfortable enough to open their wallets. But this time, I was genuinely blank.

Thankfully, he reintroduced himself. And yes, it was him. The pizza boy.

Now here he was, casually twirling car keys in his hand. Definitely not a pizza boy anymore.

If I couldn’t get insights from Trevor Noah, maybe I could from him.

What could have brought this profound transformation?

For a moment, I was lost in thought. This was my second mental conflict.

He told me how he quit the pizza job and started hustling on the streets. First with braaied chicken feet at the taxi rank. Then he added pap/sadza and chicken to the menu. Then inyama yenhloko (cow head meat). Within six months, his daily income was higher than his monthly salary at Debonairs Pizza.

By the end of year one, he had bought a battered truck to fetch seasonal produce from nearby farms. He sold it at the rank, fruits, potatoes, maize cobs (some roasted for extra profit), and even eggs when he could get them.

Recently, he’d bought a sedan that he put on Uber.

In just two years, this man went from employee to employer.

On my way home, I couldn’t stop thinking! How often do we dismiss simple, practical business ideas in favour of “glossy” ones that barely pay off?

What sort of insights would our subscribers favour? The platitudes of an accomplished person as Trevor, or the story of grit of a ‘pizza boy.’

This was was third mental conflict.

We respect celebrity stories but discount the real, relatable ones right next to us. We look down on ideas because they don’t look scalable, yet they could provide the foundation and financial footing we need to chase our bigger purpose.

Truth is, we’ve been brainwashed.

We’ve been conditioned to believe that only AI startups or venture-backed businesses count as progress.

But here’s the reminder: you don’t need to solve problems for everyone, just for someone.

If your community needs food, that’s the opportunity. If they need transport, that’s the opportunity.

Don’t waste your time building a fitness app for a community that simply needs a local bakery and fresh vegetables.

The biggest names in business have failed, often spectacularly.

And you fail once and consider giving up?

You lose a couple of dollars, and you think business is hard?

These stories teach us a vital lesson. Failure is not the opposite of success; it's a part of it.

The true mark of an entrepreneur is how they get back up after they fall.

Wealth for All Africans is a powerful call to action that takes you on a journey through self-discovery, self-improvement, and self-empowerment. To build and manage your wealth, you must look at your situation holistically: build your character, standards, dreams, goals, and personal aspirations from the inside out

With 1 billion kids being added to the population in Africa by 2055, we might be headed towards a continent-wide paternity crisis.

It can be argued that the crisis is already here.

Paternity fraud, where a man is falsely led to believe he is the biological father of a child, is a significant issue. A 2025 report by Smart DNA in Nigeria revealed that one in four paternity tests confirmed that the presumed father was not the biological parent of the child in question.

This growing uncertainty, coupled with the increasing need for legal proof of paternity in matters of child support, inheritance, and immigration, is driving more individuals to seek the certainty that DNA testing provides.

The global paternity testing market is rapidly expanding, with a projected value reaching over $12.3 billion by 2030. The Middle East and Africa had a market share of around 2% of the global revenue and were estimated to have a market size of US$30.51 million in 2024 and will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.7% from 2024 to 2031.

The Prenatal DNA Paternity Test category is the fastest-growing segment of the DNA Paternity Testing industry

The cost of establishing a DNA testing laboratory can be significant, with initial investments in high-quality equipment. However, the potential for profitability is substantial, given the growing market and the prices consumers are willing to pay for certainty.

Your online visibility is just as important as your product. Ubersuggest is a powerful yet beginner-friendly SEO and marketing tool that helps entrepreneurs grow their online presence without needing a full-blown marketing team.

What it does for you:

Which African startup became the first to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange?

(Jumia)

Start with What You Know
Monetise a skill that comes naturally to you. If people already recognise your talent, that’s proof it has business potential. Don’t overcomplicate it.

Action Beats Planning
You don’t need a 50-page strategy to launch. Start doing something, anything. The right path reveals itself through action, not endless analysis.

Solve for One, Then Repeat
Forget about target markets at the beginning. Just find one person willing to pay you to solve their problem. Then another. That’s how real customer bases are built.

Don’t Get Paralysed by Scalability
Worrying about scaling too soon kills momentum. Having too many customers is a problem you’ll be glad to face later. First, prove demand.

Human Connection is a Moat
People still pay extra for human touch, authenticity, and story. Lean into that; it’s harder to copy than technology.

Just Get Started
Begin now. You’ll adapt, refine, and solve bigger challenges, like competition and market shifts, once your business is already moving.

Whether you’re running a small side hustle or scaling a startup, people gravitate to businesses they can trust. Embedding E-E-A-T into your hustle builds credibility, attracts customers, and sets you apart in crowded markets.

Also, by getting the E-E-A-T right, you get your name or brand to show up in AI Overviews, Gemini, or ChatGPT.

What’s on offer:

Read more and apply here.

Small-scale farmers produce up to 70–80% of Africa’s food supply, yet a significant share of the continent’s agricultural land, between 20% and 65%, is already degraded, with some areas like rain-fed croplands and rangelands experiencing degradation levels above 60%.

This approach focuses on quickly creating a minimal version of a product to test assumptions with real customers.

Based on their feedback, the idea is either systematically improved or fundamentally changed. This continuous cycle of build-measure-learn minimises the risk of creating something nobody wants.

Mark Richard Shuttleworth

Founder & CEO of Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu Linux, a platform powering millions of servers worldwide.

A true pioneer who shows that African entrepreneurs can play and win on the global stage.

Kupoteza njia ndio kujua njia. (Swahili)

To get lost is to know the way.

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