When Your Connection Is the Production Line
If you sell online, collect through mobile money or deliver remotely, the internet is not a utility: it is your production line. And a line that stops costs more than its subscription.
Topic
Entrepreneurship
Starting and sustaining a business in West Africa, written by someone doing it. What costs more than expected, what method solves better than capital, and the decisions worth taking earlier.
10 articles
Adopt rather than build, and the word that changes everything
The World Bank advises developing countries to adopt existing AI rather than build their own. I took the sentence badly at first. Then I reread the second verb.
African startup money hasn't fled, it has concentrated
The total raised by African startups is holding. The number of deals fell from 252 to 146. It is that second figure that changes what I would do on Monday morning.
Two billion divided by fifteen Togolese start-ups
Fifteen Togolese start-ups, two billion CFA francs, one hundred jobs. I did the division, without mockery. What it shows is not a failure, but the only question that really matters.
With e-TPU, the real work is still your numbers
The OTR launched e-TPU on 17 September 2026. Filing online is sorted. The real work remains: having your numbers to hand. Four simple habits, one of which changes everything.
Becoming fundable before you even look for money
A Nigerian saver can buy a piece of Africa's largest refinery for four dollars. Here, savings exist too. What is missing are the cases that are ready.
Informal work is a strategy, not an accident
The informal economy is not a flaw in the system. It is its strength. What is missing is the digital tooling to support it.
Learning young: skill as a springboard
In a saturated market, technical skill is the one lever you actually control. How to build it without an expensive degree, with the informal market as training ground.
The informal market: a strength, not a weakness
More than 80% of employment in Togo is informal. The strengths of this market — resilience, knowledge of the ground, a network of trust — are underrated.
Starting young: what I wish I'd known
Starting with no network, no capital and before feeling ready: concrete lessons from an independent path begun early, from Lomé.