Njeri Rionge is a serial entrepreneur and founder of Wananchi Online, East Africa’s first mass market Internet Service Provider (ISP) which has grown to become the region’s leading cable, broadband and internet-based phone company.
The company is currently worth over $150 million and Njeri has gone ahead to start other successful businesses in Africa.
In the true spirit of a persevering entrepreneur, Njeri worked her way up the business ladder from very small beginnings.
In her early days, she sold yogurt to high school kids during break times from the back of a borrowed car. She went ahead to become a hairdresser before starting a luxury goods trade shuttling between Kenya, London and Dubai.
According to a BBC interview in 2012, she tried many businesses before she touched the one ‘that turned into gold’.
After her success with Wananchi Online, Njeri went ahead to found Ignite, a management consultancy firm dedicated to helping African businesses leave lasting legacies.
Under her leadership, Ignite has expanded to include Ignite Lifestyle (a health care consultancy), Insite (a digital marketing firm) and Business Lounge (an incubator that provides support for Kenyan startups and foreign companies looking to enter the country).
Njeri, who’s in her late 40s, shows no sign of letting up on serial entrepreneurship. She is passionate about Africa’s position as the next big economic miracle and wants to contribute to the capacity of the continent to reach its full potential. She has been featured on Forbes and the BBC.
Are you one of those who believe your greatest fulfillment will come from entrepreneurship? What are you doing about it?
By John-Paul Iwuoha
