Guinea native, Amadou “Chico” Cissoko has an impressive resume. He has launched a successful business and leadership organization. And he was one of the chosen few selected as a Mandela Washington Fellow for Young African Leaders, the new flagship program of President Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), a White House effort to invest in the next generation of African leaders.
He founded “Making Africa a Continent of Innovators” (MACI) and is director of the Dare to Innovate movement. He founded the first agrotourist site in Guinea, called the Vathaba. An expert in human development, agrotourism, and agricultural marketing, he has also served as the director of marketing and commercialization for the integrated farm Fabik, the leading commercial farm in Guinea.
According to the YALI webiste, after completing his Washington Fellowship, Cissoko plans to collaborate with the YALI Network to initiate a mass innovation initiative in Africa with a vision to create a culture and environment that fosters innovation, and entrepreneurship in Africa. His goal is to make every African an everyday innovator.
Sounds like a lot, but there’s even more to come from Cissoko. He tells AFKInsider what.
AFKInsider: What led you to start Vathaba, an agrotourism company, and Making Africa a Continent of Innovators (MACI)?
Amadou “Chico” Cissoko: I started MACI in 2008 as a mean to engage young people in Guinea to start there own businesses, take initiative and strive to become independent. In those years, my country was in a very critical part of it’s history, because the past president, who ruled for 26 years had just passed away, and a group of young military soldiers took over.
I was frustrated by the fact that most youth associations and especially the young leaders among them, were living off grants and donations that they would receive after organizing rallies and events in the names of political leaders and local business men and women. These donors and sponsors were not supporting, mentoring nor advising these young people, but they would offer them a brown envelope, and would manipulate them in return, broadcasting those events on media to show that they had a critical mass of young people who believed in them and supported their endeavors.
I thought then that I had to find a way to change that. At least with the little means that I had.
So I decided to sell my grandmother’s car–that she had “offered” me–and other belongings that were of value to register my business and start identifying young talented people to invest in. I produced a few artists, and set out to train and mentor youth associations across Conakry in Entrepreneurship. My goal was to give them the knowledge to identify business opportunities that already existed, and be able to have the skills to translate that into a business plan or a proposal. Once that’s done, they can use those donations and sponsorships towards starting a business and would also learn the basic financial and management skills to effectively manage their business. The revenues from those businesses could be reinvested into expansion of the current activity or used as seed capital to fund/loan individual projects of the members.
It started out well, but lack funding and the disastrous killings and rapes that happened the same year in a stadium in Conakry, the social and political situation in the country dramatically changed…All businesses in the country were affected by the instability and the tension and I soon found myself bankrupt and in debt.
After a long and painful year between Guinea and Senegal and trying a lot of different types of businesses related to sales, security, office cleaning services, delivery, etc. and failed; I had to bounce back.
In 2010, I decided to go and start all over on my mother’s commercial farm FABIK, with a few major ambitions. I decided that I wanted to become partner in FABIK Farms and make of it the leading private commercial farm in Guinea by increasing sales, visibility and profitability and then building it into an international brand and company.
After a year on the farm and getting the team to work towards a same common goal of producing quality products, partnering with experts and research centers, participating in major business events in Guinea and promoting the founder as an exceptional female entrepreneur developing rural communities, I realized that we had a great potential for tourism as well as we could become the best in agriculture in Guinea. So I set out to create my own little space where people could come to relax, have fun, learn about agriculture and eat healthy food and have it become part of my mother’s legacy. In 2012 my mother Hadja Ballou Fofana was nominated as 2012 Guinean Woman of the Year for outstanding work in rural development. Later the same year, as a subsidiary of MACI, I founded the VATHABA. In french (Village Agrotouristique Hadja Ballou). The brand Vathaba is designated to represent relaxation, fun and amusement, exchange of knowledge and culture and above all, healthy and fresh food produced on the farm. Thus, the Vathaba Experience.
AFKInsider: What had you been doing prior to the launch of these companies?
Amadou “Chico” Cissoko: I graduated from high school in 2005 in Guinea and my father was expecting for me to become a surgeon like himself and one day take over his private clinic–the first private clinic in Guinea. I received a scholarship to go to Czech Republic and study Czech and then start med school. I finished my first year and by the end I was convinced that I was not set for a life in a hospital. After a few weeks in Software Engineering in Prague, I realized that I could not work and be fulfilled in any setting where I would be going to the same place everyday and repeating the same things, with the same people.
I dropped out again and decided to go to the university of life and people.
I set out to leave Czech Republic 2007 and it’s apparent racism to go to France to study psychology and coaching and publish my first book on the stories of my lives. During this sabbatical year I met as many people from many different cultures, origins, religions, social status and level of knowledge and intelligence. I spent most of my time trying thought and life experiments, learning extensively and intensively on human psychology, female psychology, sales and marketing, sexology, wealth, poverty and the link between all of these. Always trying to figure out the best way to bring the best out of others by bringing the best out of myself.
The dream was big enough to bring me to Austria, Belgium, Paris, Toulon and then back to Paris, where in late 2007 I found myself sitting under a bridge with a pen and a notebook, with no place to stay, no food to eat and no means of telling anyone about it. A few days later I was in Guinea with the ambition to prove wrong my dad and all the people who said I was set for failure because I dropped out of medical studies, and failed in making something of myself during my time years in Europe.
AFKInsider: Where you surprised to be chosen for President Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI)?
Amadou “Chico” Cissoko: I always believed that I was set for a great destiny and I’ve always made it a personal mission to make others great. Months before hearing about YALI, I was struggling and going through hard times of running and growing a agro-tourism activity during political and social instability Guinea. One night I decided to motivate myself by creating an image of myself and the president Obama on the cover of Forbes magazine. It was clear to me that from where I was in my life and in the world, I had to do something phenomenal that would have a global impact or become someone exceptional who can make global impact for me to be on the cover of Forbes and above all with Obama. So I came back to my work the next day and set out to do more and better everything that I was on so that that image becomes a reality. From that moment I decided to change my focus from hosting tourists to hosting agricultural trainings, leadership conferences and corporate retreats. I created the Dare To Innovate Center for Excellence in Social Entrepreneurship and Human Development. With friends and partners from the Dare To Innovate Movement, we organized on the farm our first conference and competition.
During the event I was informed by a cultural affairs officer of the US Embassy in Guinea and a good friend who was Peace Corps volunteer that there’s a program of the president Obama that I should apply for in the upcoming months. It seems like a great opportunity and you look like a strong candidate for Guinea.
I knew that this was it. This program would become the step towards that image. And even more, a step towards that person that I want to become. An African that makes global impact and becomes a role model for young generations every where in the world.
AFKInsider: Where are you now based?
Amadou “Chico” Cissoko: I’m now moving to Kenya to join a firm founded by an extraordinary YALI Fellow and inventor Morris Mbetsa and create a MACI office for East Africa. I plan to work with Mbetsa Innovations to expand and improve the products and services of the company and make of it the leading African born software and hardware development firm on the continent. Measured by the inventiveness of it’s engineers and developers, the inattentiveness of the products and services, the recognition of the brand and the founder and the profitability of the company. Through MACI Consult & Invest I plan to offer consulting, coaching, training and mentoring services in Quality & Innovation, Social Entrepreneurship and Human Capital development to high achieving individuals, companies, schools, universities and governments. An Impact Investment fund that will identify, mentor and invest in highly talented Innovators across Africa, who nurture promising and scalable social and business ventures that have the potential to change lives and make massive positive impact.
AFKInsider: You also worked at the IBM Center for Innovation in Cambridge, Massachusetts. What was that like?
Amadou “Chico” Cissoko: It was a great experience and an insightful one as well. Being able to advise a multinational like IBM on strategies to expand and improve the IBM ecosystem and become more relevant to African markets, software and hardware developers, etc. was an honor for a young Innovator like myself with no back ground in technology.
During the eight-week in Massachusetts I’ve had the opportunity to meet, learn from, share and collaborate with some of the great experts in Innovation and ecosystem development in the world. I visited multiple Innovation centers in Boston and engaged like minded individuals to take interest in partnering with African entrepreneurs to contribute towards making impact.
After this internship I feel as if I have gained a competitive edge in the Innovation Consulting Market in Africa and have learned extensively about ecosystem development and the work culture in a multinational. Knowledge and skills that I will apply in my work as a consultant and Investor to help my clients be ahead of the game in their lives and field of work. But also the capacity to identify promising entrepreneurs, ideas and businesses with the potential to scale and make massive impact.
AFKInsider: Do you feel more Americans are taking a business interest in Africa?
Amadou “Chico” Cissoko: I feel like large multinationals, institutions and organizations are on the forefront of the US-Africa business relationship…I believe that the African American Business Community is the one who can really profit the most from this relationship and Africa’s current growth. It seems clear to me that investing in the US economy alone will not help them break into the fortune 500 companies club in the decades to come. But those who will be willing to take more risks and come at the pursuit of the African dream with an American hustling spirit and business ethics will succeed massively. And these examples will reassure other Americans, Latinos, Italians, etc to come and do the same.
AFKInsider: What are the misconceptions people still have about Africa?
Amadou “Chico” Cissoko: I think that it all depends on who is conceiving the thought…So the misconceptions are all related to the level of ignorance, understanding, involvement, stupidity and knowledge of the one talking about Africa. I think that Africa that doesn’t need to justify it’s imperfections and weaknesses. I would like to see Africans accept their flaws and commit to improving and expanding not only the image of the continent, but that of the people of the continent at all levels of the society.
The people are the ones who have been telling the story. It’s to the people to continue telling the stories. And if the people are better, more educated, have more choices and more opportunities to grow, and take part in changing the world, the stories will be way more attractive than the ones who have been told the most. We need more positive, constructive and inspiring stories coming from Africa to strike a balance and offer a holistic, compelling and attractive view of the mother continent.
AFKInsider: Why do you feel there are so many young innovators coming out of African now?
Amadou “Chico” Cissoko: One of the greatest catalysts to innovation or invention is lack of a better alternative. In the case of young Africans, the constant lack of resources and opportunities, even though technology offers them an image of how the world is, brings the most daring amongst them to venture on and make something happen. May it be by inventing a gadget that solves a problem they have been suffering from for decades, or using existing resources and coming up with a better way to increase resources, reduce costs or heal their family, friends or community, these Young Innovators set out to solve their everyday problems using existing technology and resources. They use their mobile phones to browse Google and Wikipedia and to learn how it has been done elsewhere. Then they look under their noses and feet to find the local resources available to make their own prototypes and solutions.
And because there are more and more young Africans succeeding in their ventures and are promoted through African and international medias, more and more young Africans believe that they can too. And I have faith that millions of people will see their lives improve by the growing number of commercially viable and sustainable innovations and inventions that will come from Africa, for Africans and the world.