Alone moments to think is a skill that one must cultivate. It is very difficult to shut the door on all the noise that is around us. From social media, not forgetting all the pressure from the perception that you have been left behind. Especially as everyone seems to be living their best life ever. The reality is we very often do not see the real story and how long it took to create the picture before us.

Many years ago,I spend quite a bit of time empowering the rural youth on entrepreneurship. One of the exercises, I used to give them was to just find a quiet space with a very large stone, and just sit by themselves and think about their lives. What they would want to do. Where they would want to travel. Job opportunities and careers they would love to explore.

In today’s world quiet moments have become difficult. We can barely stay away from our phones. It is reported that the average person touches their phone about 400 times a day! My cocoon moments help me come to the realization that I am running someone else’s race. The funny thing is I don’t even know whose race it is. No wonder I felt misaligned, anxious, and not able to tell, how it all adds up to my final goal and destination. Think about it! when was the last time you took your shoes off and walked on grass or lay down on the grass looking up at the clouds. So, while I am still alive, I was going to be very present and enjoy every quiet cocoon moment.

So, what is a cocoon moment. The term refers to the moment when a caterpillar becomes a cocoon. No eating, or crawling. Just absolute stillness, as the caterpillar transforms into a butterfly. It is complete stillness, or should I say rest as its physical body transform into a beautiful butterfly. My Cocoon moment include days away from social media especially WhatsApp, so I can declutter my mind. It is in those moments that I get to step away and ask myself, why am I doing what I am doing. Does it truly align with what I want in my future.

One of my absolute favorite Bible verses is 1 Thessalonians 4:11 “That you aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your own hands, as we have commanded you”. Verse 12 goes on to say, “that you may walk properly towards those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing”. As a woman of Christian faith my aspiration is to lead a quiet life, which to me means lots and lots of quietness in cocoon moments. The second is to mind my own business. Which means I am to focus onbuilding my business empire. My mind and focus should be using my talents to generate an income for me.

Cocoon moments are also moments of creativity and business strategy. It is in my cocoon moments I have found the guts and the strength to make my most difficult, risky and scary life’s decision. Innovations is another benefit of cocoon moments. God has placed such potential within us. There are aspirations within us that were killed along our adulting process. I am thinking about my primary school debates. Who would ever know they would be a handy tool for podcasting. But it was a seed God had planted there just waiting to be cultivated at the right time.

In my cocoon moments, I also get to hear God remind me that I have a role to play in encouraging others to dare dream and trust God for their cocoon moments. I may not sing like my favorite gospel singer, but God reminds me that the same way I have found encouragement in the words, songs, and life of others. I like wise must also write, speak, and share words of encouragement to others. The goal is not the clicks or the eye balls, but if I can transform one life, I have done very well. If I can get only one person to listen and dare to believe, then I have done very well.

Kenya’s informal economy constitutes of US$136 billion. Today we are seeing large companies including leading supermarkets beginning to sell open sacks which will allow Africa’s Informal markets to cut their cloth according to the size of their pockets.  Today, package unit size no longer work, Africa wants what they can afford.

Kenya’s Safaricom and Airtel have realized Africa’s micro mass market is the way to go.  And they have literally disrupted if not taken business away from many leading companies that provide pay television and high-speed internet services such as Zuku. Kenya’s Safaricom and Airtel hit the “Kadogo Economy” by selling their products and services at their lowest divisible level and allowing consumers to make small daily purchases.

Vitual tills either for shops, banks, or other services providers in the form of Mpesa Tills, Poshi La Biashara and Paybills are very important services and products offering from Safaricom and Airtel in on boarding Africa’s micro and small entrepreneurs into mobile money.  Kenya is virtually using mobile money to pay for everything.  This has also seen the rise of several mobile applications that are taking part in the mobile money space. 

Did you know Kenya leads in the world Tiktok usage? According to Reuters Institute Digital News report 2023, Kenya has 54% of global TikTok usage, followed by Thailand and South Africa. Tiktok has created one massive platform that allows every African to showcase their talent and compete with many internationalbrands.  Many micro entrepreneurs are turning smart phones into virtual shops, wallets, as well as electronic transaction receipts especially when dealing with taxes, which drastically cuts down on operating expenses.

The entertainment industry in rural Africa is booming business.  Young African MC’s who would never compete with celebrities are making serious money, by simply showcasing their services online.  Today, we can truly say the world is flat, it is an even playing ground for all entrepreneurs across the globe regardless.

An old and very valuable African tradition we unintentionally lost, which we are currently heavily paying the price for is youth mentorship.  See! In the African traditional custom, the family which normally went beyond the parents and children, and included aunties and uncles, would gather outside and sit around a fire to share stories. 

The women would normally sit around the fire in the kitchen with their grandmothers, while the elders sat outside, mentoring the young men.  The African Three-legged stool is where as young African women, we were taugh how to sit properly with our legs closed together.  My maternal grandmother used to tell me that the fire would put ugly marks, which she called “Mbala” on my inner thigh.  Truth be told, the only marks I ever got, were here painful pinches whenever I forgot to sit properlywith my legs put together.  To date am very careful how I sit.

The entertainment mainly through the television and social media with all its benefit, has replaced mentorship in many homes. Mentorship has completely been removed from many homes, especially today for the young person who is not really involved in church programs, youth clubs, or professional clubs.  Today many young people are clueless on the many life skills that used to be passed on around a fire in many African homes.  In this series of African Youth in Agribusiness, I hope to share my stories to inspire young people as an African Mother, wife, trader, especially as a woman in technology to cause Africa to think differently especially about Africa’s Agricultural markets and trade.

Did you know the total value of Snail Import in 2022 was US$61,801,000 (Ksh9,412,292,300) against exports of US$59,520,000 (Ksh9,064,896,000). With a shortage of US$2,281,000 (Ksh347,396,300), and I have been busy killing snails because they are eating away at my fruit seedlings. I have been using the self-watering plants technology to grow my fruit seedlings using my recycled kitchen water waste. When I noticed a lot of snails around the plastic bottles. It was peaceful co-existence at first, until they started eating at my seedlings, then it became personal. Did you know snails can be used in making cosmetics? Yes, there is skin repairing and regeneration cream as well as anti-aging. Did you know a Kenyan a snail farmer is reported to have quoted 1 kilogram of snails was selling at Ksh1,500(US$9.85)? 1 Kilogram of Snail Shells was selling at Ksh1,443(US$9.48). 1 Kilogram of snail slime was selling at Ksh6,244(US$41). Did you know Africa’s entire snail export in 2022 was US$14,006,000 (Ksh2,133,113,800)? The leading African exporters of snails in 2022 are Morocco US$8,756,000 (Ksh1,333,538,800), Tunisia US$2,550,000 (Ksh388,365,000), Senegal US$1,569,000(Ksh238,958,700), Algeria US$766,000(ksh116,661,800), Cote d’lvoire US$126,000 (Ksh19,189,800), Guinea US$114,000 (Ksh17,362,200), Sierra Leone US$60,000 (Ksh9,138,000), Cameroon US$33,000 (Ksh5,025,900), Zimbabwe US$16,000 (Ksh2,436,800), Benin and Ghana US$5,000 (Ksh761,500), Egypt US$3,000 (Ksh456,900). My beloved Kenya, Ethiopia, Botswana, Congo, DRC, Madagascar, Mauritius, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania are absolutely not exporting any snails. Eswatini, Equatorial Guines, Mozambique, Cabo Verde, Seychelles, Zambia, Angola, Namibia, and South Africa are importing snails. With Namibia importing US$213,000 (Ksh32,439,900) and South Africa US$222,000 (Ksh33,810,600) in 2022. Clearly, there is a huge market and demand for snails. If a lot of the African countries will embrace snail farming as a simple business, then snail farming will open doors for youth business in Africa. The world’s leading importers of snails in 2022 were France US$16,898,000 (Ksh2,573,565,400), Spain US$10,177,000 (Ksh1,549,957,100), Italy US$6,444,000 (Ksh981,421,200), Romania US$3,905,000 (Ksh594,731,500), Bosnia and Herzegovina US$3,518,000 (Ksh535,791,400), Portugal US$2,783,000 (Ksh423,850,900), United States of America US$2,615,000 (Ksh398,264,500), Czech Republic US$2,599,000 (Ksh395,827,700), Lithuania US$2,585,000 (Ksh393,695,500), Germany US$1,007,000 (Ksh153,366,100), Belgium US$970,000 (Ksh147,731,000), Canada US$867,000 (Ksh132,044,100), Hong Kong US$650,000 (Ksh98,995,000), Netherlands US$647,000 (Ksh98,538,100), Greece US$493,000 (Ksh75,083,900), China US$428,000 (Ksh65,184,400). The data clearly shows there is a huge export market opportunity for many African countries especially those who do not consume snail. My advice to anyone considering snail farming is to take their time and do their research carefully. Google as well as do your own personal research. YouTube is always a good place to start.

Suicidal thoughts amongst women entrepreneurs seem to be on the rise.  In the last couple of months, I have found myself amid conversations with women entrepreneurs who have lost a lot of money and are completely at a loss on what to do.

In my most recent conversation was at a hospital, where one female entrepreneur openly admitted that she was there because she had contemplated suicide a few times.  When asked her why? She simply told me that she owed a lot of money because her business had failed.  It turns out the lady was lending out money to people for a fee. She had investors whom she got money from, then she in turn loaned out the money at an interest.  Without going into much details it turns out that she was conned.  She cannot exactly recall how but before she knew it she had lost all the money investors had given her, now she was having to deal with a lot of threatening calls and harassment from her creditors.

I was intrigued that if the money was not the problem, especially if she was confident that she could pay it all back.  Why kill yourself I asked?  Do you have any children?  She happily said she had children, and they were not small children. My mouth went ahead of me, and I asked her if she realized that most people would probably forget about her within two weeks after her burial.  I asked her, so what would happen to her children? Why would she allow her children to suffer life without a mother?  Especially seeing her husband would probably be showing up at her funeral with his side chick.  I was only guessing the side chick part, however a light bulb lit in her head, and she turned around and asked. 

By the way why am I trying to kill myself? I was like “You tell me?”

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Recycling my Kitchen water waste has become my new obsession, especially after seeing how it has slowing converted me into a horticulture farmer.  Many farmers and medium traders have reached out to me asking if I could develop a horticultural market information website similar to my current one for dry agricultural commodity trade www.bettagrains.com.  I toyed with the idea, but really lacked the incentive to do it, because I was not particularly trading in fresh produce.  Yes, I have data on the horticulture but data without any street business smartness especially from the African informal market’s perspective was not enough motivation for me. I saw the need but lacked the incentive to develop the website.

Until one day as I was watering my mangoes and avocado seedings I noticed a tomatoes plant sprouting near my mangoes and avocado seedlings.  Then a thought to myself, let’ssee what will happen, so I continued watering it along with my mangoes and avocado seedlings.  Before long another tomatoes seedling sprouted, then another, then another, before I knew it I had tomatoes sprouting all over which I did not plant. Having tried to plant tomatoes and miserably failing in the past, I asked myself if this is something I really wanted to do.  I figured why not perhaps there is a lesson to learn.  Let’s see where this leads to.

Hi my name is Fostina FOSTINA last name Mani spelt MANI (www.fostinamani.com).  I am the Global Trade Engagement Director at Betta Grains (www.bettagrains.com) am also the Founder of a market place called Mothers of Africa Mobile Soko (www.mothersofafricamobilesoko.com).  I believe Africa can feed itself.  I believe Africa can profit from agriculture trade.  And that is why I am championing for an Agricultural Markets Revolution that favours Africa.

Well, the tomatoes did grow, and kept on growing.  What I had not realized was the few seeds from my chopping board had found their way into my small garden through my recycled kitchen water. The tomatoes ignited an additional passion of playing around with different types of seeds.  I ventured into passion fruit farming, the only problem was it was during the dry season, and both my husband and especially my mother-in-law did not seem to understand my logic.  They gave me a lecture or two about how not to plant when it is not rainy season.  However, seeing that I was raised in the city, they decided to humor my excitement and figured out I would soon find out for myself when my passion fruits dry up.  In addition to the passion fruits, I also decided to plant mangoes, avocados, and pawpaw.   I saw everyone’s one raised eyebrow, they simply had not seen my secret weapon, which was my kitchen water waste, not to mentions the very many plastic bottles I had been collecting, because as previously mentioned am extremely bothered by plastic bottles waste.

So, I planted my mangoes, avocadoes, and passion fruits.  I had also carried water in plastic bottles, I was going to use the plastic bottles for drip irrigation by simply making a hole on the lid of the plastic bottle which I would turn upside down.  I also incorporate the zai pits (planting pockets, or basins), so that water can last longer.

Africa is heavily dependent on rain feed agriculture, even though every homestead using a minimum of about 80 liters of water daily.  Most of that water is used in the kitchen and in washing clothes.  If each family would collect only 60 liters of kitchen waste daily, that is more than enough water to grow enough onions, tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, and every type of food consumed in every homestead both during and after the rainy season.  There is a myth that Africans believe.  That soapy water will dry the seedlings.  That is not true, I use both the water waste from both the kitchen and that used in washing clothes and am yet to see any seedling die.  I hope you have enjoyed my story. Thank you for listening to me. 

Is there Maize Demand in Kenya? Yes! about 3.9 million MTs is what is required for Kenya’s consumption.

How come we cannot find any maize in Nairobi?  Maize queries from both buyers and sellers have been our most frequently asked questions.  We have compiled a very well researched, and business focused maize report.  That will help traders make more informed business decisions.  Such as where are the profitable business opportunities within Kenya’s counties.  What is the size of the maize business opportunity in Kenya Shillings and US Dollars? What is the most profitable county to sell the maize? What prof it should one expect from a 28MTs container or trailer of maize?  Where else should a trader sell the maize besides Nairobi? What are the profit margins in Out-Of-County trades especially for a 28MTs of maize? How much should I sell my maize? Are there risks traders and farmers should be aware of? What about fluctuation of Maize Market Prices?

We have extensively studied maize market demands and supplies, against prevailing market prices.  Using our experience as traders, we have also factored in the various logistical costs to better advise you on what profit a trader can make on a 28MTs container or trailer of maize. There are counties where it is more profitable to sell the maize within that county than selling across other counties.

We have removed the guess work of where to sell the maize, by providing you with a list of large buyers,  We have calculated for you the profit margins for 28MTs of maize in the most profitable counties.  As well as listed the business opportunity values in both Kenya Shillings  and United States Dollars when selling within the county and across counties, both in tables and charts.  We provided guidance on how much to sell your maize, and caution you on risks and mistakes to avoid.  The monetary value of risks eliminated far out weights the highly subsided price of the report. Kindly note the report is strictly available online. https://mothersofafricamobilesoko.com/product/maize-demand-in-kenya/

Is there Maize Demand in Kenya? Yes! about 3.9 million MTs is what is required for Kenya’s consumption.

How come we cannot find any maize in Nairobi?  Maize queries from both buyers and sellers have been our most frequently asked questions.  We have compiled a very well researched, and business focused maize report.  That will help traders make more informed business decisions.  Such as where are the profitable business opportunities within Kenya’s counties.  What is the size of the maize business opportunity in Kenya Shillings and US Dollars? What is the most profitable county to sell the maize? What prof it should one expect from a 28MTs container or trailer of maize?  Where else should a trader sell the maize besides Nairobi? What are the profit margins in Out-Of-County trades especially for a 28MTs of maize? How much should I sell my maize? Are there risks traders and farmers should be aware of? What about fluctuation of Maize Market Prices?

We have extensively studied maize market demands and supplies, against prevailing market prices.  Using our experience as traders, we have also factored in the various logistical costs to better advise you on what profit a trader can make on a 28MTs container or trailer of maize. There are counties where it is more profitable to sell the maize within that county than selling across other counties.

We have removed the guess work of where to sell the maize, by providing you with a list of large buyers,  We have calculated for you the profit margins for 28MTs of maize in the most profitable counties.  As well as listed the business opportunity values in both Kenya Shillings  and United States Dollars when selling within the county and across counties, both in tables and charts.  We provided guidance on how much to sell your maize, and caution you on risks and mistakes to avoid.  The monetary value of risks eliminated far out weights the highly subsided price of the report. Kindly note the report is strictly available online. https://mothersofafricamobilesoko.com/product/maize-demand-in-kenya/