A Glass Half Full in Juba

With a population of around 10 million, a GDP of close to USD 21 billion and a per capita income of over USD 2,200 in 2011, the country should rank as a middle income country

Sanjeev Gupta
Updated: Mar 12, 2013 07:35:54 AM UTC
JubaSm

I went to Juba, South Sudan in February 2012, a mere 6 months after its birth.

The world`s newest nation, Africa’s 55th independent state, country code 211.

Independent with no written constitution, no national anthem and no local currency at the time. Even the Central Bank function was outsourced to South Africa`s Standard Bank!

Historically ruled from the distant, domineering and Arabic Sudanese capital city, Khartoum, the Christian South Sudan had endured five decades of bloody war, the systematic decimation of its traditions and the death of close to 2 million of their people.

Mercifully, the oil of South Sudan made it finally  possible for the world`s conscience to unite and pave the way for its secession from the North.

An allegedly  neutral, apparently objective and critically important but disputed referendum in January 2011 set the stage for President Salva Kiir, a war ravaged veteran, to ride in wearing his Fedora hat and his bright smile as the President of South Sudan on 9th July 2011.

Of all the worlds’ nations, Israel saw the significance of this quickly and one of the first meetings of the new President was with Israel and to the setting up of a full embassy in Jerusalem, the first country to do so.

Helps to have oil, I suppose.

It was a short flight from Nairobi into an airstrip with some shacks and fibre glass caravans masquerading as a terminal while on the side were the signs of a magnificent brick and mortar terminal building being built.

I alighted from the aircraft and walked toward the `terminal` building.

4 counters. One said “Citizens”, the 2nd one “Residents”, the 3rd one “Diplomats” and the last one “Visitors”.

Except that, like all religions, these queues led to one solitary figure behind the counter who was accepting in an absolutely random fashion the various passports being proffered.

I stood in the queue and observed.

The luggage had come from the plane on a tractor and was being manually put on the luggage carousel which remained unmoved. People hustled and bustled and reached out. Food items, water, fans, washing machines and rolls of cloth bore testimony to both the need and the demand.

The queue moved slowly and I realized why.

Someone post-independence had planned and ordered visa forms which were for laser jet printers.

But there were no computers, let alone printers of any kind.

So the poor fellow was manually tearing out each individual form, peering into the passport details of the passenger and then faithfully handwriting every little piece of information onto that form and trying somehow to fit his writing into the tiny spaces designed for slick computer printing.

Full marks to the man for his careful, assiduous and uselessly productive efforts.

As we ventured out of the terminal we were greeted by a group of young guys clamouring to take us in their taxis. Right-handed cars with Ugandan number plates? Driven by unemployed youths crossing the border on a daily basis and offering taxi services to Juba, as Juba had no taxis yet but had visitors!

Vive la entrepreneurship, albeit cross border arbitrage at best?

Next to them, however, were gleaming 2012-model Land Cruisers and men in Fedora hats stalking around. All these cars left-hand drives!

Cleary the new elite class had started emerging already with both its hands? The surreal scene appeared to be straight out of some Wild West movie and I was half expecting John Wayne to join us as well.

With a population of around 10 million, a GDP of close to USD 21 billion and a per capita income of over USD 2,200 in 2011, the country should rank as a middle income country.

Until you look at the infant mortality rates, the lack of roads and basic infrastructure and the absence of any access to electricity, sanitation, education and healthcare. There are twelve doctors for every million people and 3 surgeons in total.

But mobile telecommunication works, and perhaps, telemedicine therefore should?

Visionaries like South African Breweries are already in and thriving, challenging the axiom that fools dare where angels fear to tread and proving, yet again, that the bottom of the pyramid can never be underestimated.

They have created a national brand called White Bull, striking the right chord between the colour of the people who liberated them and the animal that represents wealth and in a master stroke have created a patriotic loyalty around this ”indigeneous” beer. First mover advantage with a sledge hammer.

Distribution is a challenge but innovative methods, like using the River Nile to transport, ala the Ruhr valley, is gathering credence, traffic and flows. Logistics business anyone?

The restaurants mean it literally when they say they serve fresh. I visited a quaint, rustic restaurant by the beautiful Blue Nile, which envelopes the city, and ordered a grilled Tilapia.

The waiter taking my order merely whistled  at the guy by the boat down below and within a few minutes, a jumping, sparkling and fleshy fish was cleaned and cooked to reach my  table with some fresh vegetables to boot;  no doubt ‘freshly' plucked from the garden behind the restaurant too.

Organic and unrefrigerated!

Not the bottom of the pyramid this time but quite actually from the bottom of the river which reached the bottom of my own heart! Trade and commerce thrives.

I saw the purchasing power in one bustling, hustling, dirty, dusty street I was taken to, with its shops and souks, selling cheap Chinese imports, second-hand clothes, toilet rolls from Kenya and medicines from India.

Yes chaos does reign supreme as people suffer from lack of access to basic necessities.

Goods brought in at the right price at the right time and to the right place can do wonders to sales forecasts.

Reaching out however, as usual, will be about innovating.

Providing credit where necessary is vital, but it will need to be underpinned by a support system based on trust within the community and using those informal networks to protect, provide and preserve the business model.

Making money at the mass level is about making things that people need and delivering to them at the value that they perceive to be the right one.

Juba is not for the faint hearted but early mover advantage is what frontier markets are all about.

The thoughts and opinions shared here are of the author.

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