Category Archives: Business

Blog, Business, Contributed, Interveiws, Magazine, News Paper, Sudanhub

Interview with Horn of Africa Business Association – HABA

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Compared many other Diaspora’s in the UK and elsewhere the Sudanese invariably prefer to keep a low profile. This below the radar approach whilst helpful in allowing gradual assimilation has hampered constructive engagement and commercial activity with Sudan. Those who know the Sudanese well will attest to the seemingly cautious nature of Sudanese investors, a conservatism that is in marked contrast with the activity of Ethiopia, Somalia and Somaliland. Ashraf Khalifa, the Founder of Sudan Hub (https://www.facebook.com/#!/SudanHub ) is eager to change this;

“The Sudanese Diaspora could be an immense force for good, it just needs a focus and to rediscover its confidence.” He acknowledge that the loss of South Sudan and the current political uncertainties have not helped matters, but is keen to point out that a generational change is already resulting in a less risk averse attitude. He believes that Sudan Hub can play a constructive role in bringing members of the Diaspora together, as well as helping them rediscover something of what it means to be Sudanese. “There are some extraordinary business opportunities in Sudan, but you would never think they existed if you follow the business press.”

He is candor about the challenges he faces; “It is early days. I know some people may shrug their shoulders and ask why am I bothering? Well I am very proud of my heritage and believe it is my duty to do what we can to bridge the gap, hence Sudan Hub. I am eager to hear from other members of the Sudanese Diaspora who feel the same.” He is not alone in wanting to help others discover something of the real Sudan. Sudan Volunteer Programme (http://svp-uk.com/) is a London based charity whose mission is to send graduates and under-graduates to Sudan to teach English at schools, colleges and universities. SVP recognizes that all concerned gain from its programmes, with participants coming away with a far greater appreciation of the subtleties and dynamics of one of Africa’s least understood nations.

This Article was written by Mark Jones of Horn of Africa Business Association (HABA)

Award Nomination, Blog, Business

Nomination for Young Entrepreneur Award

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Describe what you do and your service?

Our Business is called Sudanpreneur Ltd.

Sudanprneur is a online media platform, showcasing the Success of Sudanese individuals. Providing examples and case studies of those profiles giving role models and pioneers for the new generation young & old of Sudanese to aspire to.

This is the place to provide inspiration and realise it’s not to late to chase and fulfil those goals. With interviews to get the insights behind their journey and the struggles they had to over come.

When did you start and how?

I started my first business which has evolved and morphed into the current business which runs alongside the older one in 2011.

The current idea started in October 2014. I realised for me to be a successful young entrepreneur or even business man I needed to have a mentor. However since my business was in the niece “Sudanese diaspora” sector the advice I heard from the many people I approached was to get a Sudanese mentor.

Living in London that was difficult to achieve and I realised that Sudanese people don’t understand or realise the power of mentoring or even networking.

And so Sudanpreneur was born. A website, twitter, Instagram and Facebook platform highlighting the work of successful Sudanese from around the world, whether north, south, East & west, or half-Sudanese or even quarter-Sudanese or even your adopted-Sudanese.

What challenges you have faced and how did you overcome them?

I have had many set backs, and challenges to disappointments and shocks, to joy and despair, to ecstasy and heart break, a lot pain but most of all I’d say the life of entrepreneur is that of loneliness.

The biggest challenge I have is dealing with failure but then I realised its a fear born from not wanting to deal with the consequences of failure, and so u fall back and I take less risks, and try and create the perfect project, but fear sharing it to avoid disappointment and criticism. I’ve had to work a lot to limit this as your creativity can get trapped in your own mind for fear of sharing and this leads to a lot of energy being wasted.

The biggest single set back was a double blow. In 2012 after working on my website with a designer and IT developer the server deleted the entire data from the server, followed by the loss of my laptop with all my backups, files, pictures, word documents. But somehow I was able to overcome that and I am much stronger because of that experience.

Your achievement?

I recently attended a short “set up your own business” course and there was a guest “motivational” speaker that came in to speak to us. He told us in most of the things you do in life success is very hard to define and measure. Teaching, social work, politics, how do you know whether you are doing well or not, whether you are successful or not. But in business it is very easy to see whether you are successful. If your making money you are successful, the more money you make the more successful you are.

If I judged my life on that criteria I would be a big failure. Haha as so far I haven’t made any money from Sudan Hub or Sudanpreneur.

This is a very difficult question. I have had a very interesting life. I have traveled a lot. I have had so many different jobs. I have met so many different people. I have had a lot of experiences. I have had so many adventures.

I have never been motivated by money and profit, but I have always had a passion for entrepreneurship and innovation. I have been involved in many many many projects, helping out family, cousins and friends to set up their projects, dreams, passions and businesses. As well as setting up numerous of my own projects, dreams, passions and businesses.

I feel like Sudan Hub is an amazing accomplishment, unfortunately it is a bit too far ahead of its time and it seems to me that people are either just not ready for it, or just don’t understand it. Haha but maybe one day, which I might not live to see, it will receive the appreciation and understanding it deserves.

So I would have to say that Sudanpreneur ranks as my greatest achievement. From the beginning I have been blown away by the support, as well as how well received it has been. I hope I have been able to both inspire people as well as open their eyes to achieve their dreams. But most importantly I hope I have made people feel more proud to be Sudanese.
The one thing I do want to say, feedback is very important so please let me know your thoughts, suggestions, how I can improve. Even just a thank you, or a compliment, or a hug.

Who helped you?

Many many people have helped me and supported me as pushed me or inspired me along my six year business journey so far.

Although I’m not quite where I would have expected to be after 6 years due to unforeseen setbacks and speed-bumps along the way. I am very great full for my progress and I thank god everyday.

I could never have done this without my mom and dad, who I am sure I have probably driven crazy over this journey and my beloved sister and brother who as a family have alway had my back through the thick and thin.

Also all my professors in Uni who have laid the foundations along with everyone I met and didn’t meet during my nearly fours in Guildford.

And all my bosses that I have had during my many partime jobs and full time jobs and internships both here in the UK as well as Denmark and Sudan.

To all my friends around the world for your support and prayers, as well as all my cousins back in Sudan and wherever you may be living I really do appreciate it.

I first met Janice on a workshop on how to set up your own business in 2012 when I decided to rebuild Sudanhub again after the old website got deleted. She provided so much support and inspiration even though I was going through a difficult time and I wasn’t believing in myself. But she made sure I didn’t quit.

It was then when I felt a little bit lost in the Summer (2016) that I immediately thought of Janice, and approached her to do an internship so that I could learn ad benefit from her wisdom and she immediately was interested and asked me to send her my cv and arranged an informal meeting/interview.

I’m glad I did because I’ve been interning with her for a few months now and I’m loving it.

Many of my bosses during previous internships and jobs have also been invaluable to my steep learning curve and have helped create the small success that make persevering sticking to the long journey ahead, and there are too many to name so I want to thank you all.

And to anyone else I’ve missed thank you.

Blog, Business, Interveiws, Magazine, News Paper

An Interview with Sudanpreneur

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An interview with Sudanpreneur & Ashraf Nageeb KhalifaAshraf Khalifa

Tell us a bit about yourself? 

My name is Ashraf Nageeb Khalifa Mahgoub. I am 27 years old. I was born in Liverpool. I support Manchester United. Im from Molazmeen in Omdurman.

Tell us about your early school days?

Due to the nature of my father’s job, we constantly moved countries when I was growing up. I actually went to eight different schools in five different countries. The first school I went to was the British School in Indonesia when I was four or five, so I don’t really remember it very well. We then moved to Kenya when I was five and I went to International School of Kenya (ISK) which was an American System so I was put in Kindergarten as they start school a year latter. I stayed at ISK from KG to grade four and I have some good memories.

In 1999 my family and I moved to Jordan, where me and my brother attended the International Community School (ICS) which was a British System. I attended for three years doing years 6 – 8. While I really enjoyed year 7 and 8, year 6 was a horrible experience, as I struggled with both adjusting to the system but also to the British way of spelling.

After those three years me and my brother moved to Amman Baccalaureate School (ABS) which my sister went to. Unfortunately after the end of the first semester the start of the Iraq war saw us evacuated, and we ended up in Liverpool for about 8 months, in which time I attended Merchant Taylor’s School for Boys in Crosby, Liverpool. Merchant Taylor’s claim to fame is that, a long long time ago a bunch for boys who graduated from Merchant Taylor’s went to Spain and decided to start a football team…Today that football team is known as the Mighty Barcelona. After the war we went back to Jordan and I finished grade 8 before going to Sudan on holiday.

The holiday to Sudan became a permanent holiday hahha, and although I thought from the outside Unity was a much cooler place, I did not want to go back a grade, and so I decided to go to Khartoum American School (KAS) in which I spent two amazing years, especially my second year where I had some of the best teachers in my life, Mrs Ramzi, Ms Commosoti, Mr Waugh, Ms Maie Fadl, teachers who have had the biggest impact in my life. I did grades 10-11 and I had some great times. I always refer to these years 2004-06 as the golden era as the CPA finally brought peace and oil money was flowing and investment was happening. The adjustment to the American system was tough and it took a while to adjust, as was adjusting to Sudan as a holiday is different from living there. But I know studying at KAS doesn’t show you the real Sudan.

At the end of grade 11 my brother got sick and we moved to London for treatment. And I was faced with that same choice again, switching to the British system and going back a year, or going to a college and doing a foundation year, or staying in the American system and finishing my final year. I decided to stick with the american system. I did my senior year at the American School in London (ASL).

Joining a new school is always difficult, but joining a new school for your senior year was something else. I really enjoyed my time at ASL and I managed to do AP classes in Economics and Statistics that were not available back in KAS, I had some amazing teachers, made some great friends and had a great experience.
I hope I haven’t confused you so much and you were able to keep up with that haha.

How many brothers and sisters did you have, how did this impact and effect you?

I have one older sister, who is a year and a half older than me, as well as one younger brother who is also a  year and a half younger than me. As the middle child… Also I am the oldest son so that brings with it, its own pressure and responsibility.

As the middle child I was always the peace maker in the house. I have a go with the flow attitude and don’t tend to rock the boat so much. I have a good strong relationship with everyone in the family.

I guess being a middle child has played a pivotal role in shaping my personality. I am outgoing, social, creative but also don’t like confrontation, am very much a people pleaser and connect with people easily.

Where did you go to university and what did you study and why?

I went to the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom in September 2007 and graduated in 2010 with a BSc (Hons) Degree.

Initially I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to study or where. My father discouraged me to go to the US for university, even though I was at an American School, as he wasn’t the biggest fan. I applied to the American Universities of Beirut, Cairo, Dubai, Paris, Sharjah & Rome.

I also applied to UK universities, which I was able to do because I took AP classes which were not available in my School in Sudan at the time. Unfortunately with Ucas you had to apply for the actual course, not like the American system where you major in your third or fourth year. I was still not sure what I wanted to study but gave into the pressure of my uncles and cousins who pushed me to do engineering. So all my choices where for chemical engineering, with a foundation year. I managed to get an offer from Newcastle, Nottingham, Surrey & Southbank with only my top choice of Manchester rejecting me.

After visiting Newcastle for the Ucas interview and not understanding anything anyone was saying, even in Burger King I decided it wasn’t the city for me. Surrey on the other hand was absolutely awesome, I loved the campus and another benefit my cousin was about to start his final year there.

As the end of the year started to approach i got accepted into AUB and i realised I didn’t want to do engineering. I had my heart set on AUB and even got my visa and everything. But also I was communicating with the admissions team at Surrey trying to change my application to Business.

Once my results came out the admissions team at Surrey told me about this program called Entrepreneurship in Technology, IT & Business, and that the program director was happy to accept me straight into first year.
After reading up about the course and finding  out more about it I realised that this was the perfect course for me…and the rest is history.

What do you feel is your greatest achievement to date? 

I recently attended a short “set up your own business” course and there was a guest “motivational” speaker that came in to speak to us. He told us in most of the things you do in life success is very hard to define and measure. Teaching, social work, politics, how do you know whether you are doing well or not, whether you are successful or not. But in business it is very easy to see whether you are successful. If your making money you are successful, the more money you make the more successful you are.

If I judged my life on that criteria I would be a big failure. Haha as so far I haven’t made any money from Sudan Hub or Sudanpreneur.

This is a very difficult question. I have had a very interesting life. I have traveled a lot. I have had so many different jobs. I have met so many different people. I have had a lot of experiences. I have had so many adventures.

I have never been motivated by money and profit, but I have always had a passion for entrepreneurship and innovation. I have been involved in many many many projects, helping out family, cousins and friends to set up their projects, dreams, passions and businesses. As well as setting up numerous of my own projects, dreams, passions and businesses.

I feel like Sudan Hub is an amazing accomplishment, unfortunately it is a bit too far ahead of its time and it seems to me that people are either just not ready for it, or just don’t understand it. Haha but maybe one day, which I might not live to see, it will receive the appreciation and understanding it deserves.

So I would have to say that Sudanpreneur ranks as my greatest achievement. From the beginning I have been blown away by the support, as well as how well received it has been. I hope I have been able to both inspire people as well as open their eyes to achieve their dreams. But most importantly I hope I have made people feel more proud to be Sudanese.
The one thing I do want to say, feedback is very important so please let me know your thoughts, suggestions, how I can improve. Even just a thank you, or a compliment, or a hug?

What does being Sudanese mean to you?

I am very proud to be Sudanese. For me having travelled a lot growing up it was important for me to have an identity to call my own. I used to go to Sudan pretty much every holiday. But at the same time I created both Sudan Hub and Sudanpreneur to explore and research and discover what it meant to be Sudanese. And five years latter I still don’t know.

Being Sudanese is the most confusing thing in the world. There are a lot of bad things in our culture that we need to eradicate but at the same time seem to have defined our Sudanisim, and I find this is true no matter where we go. I refer to the gossip, the judging, the “Inta walad mino”, the gatee3a, the 7asada, the rascisim (direct and indirect), the way that we like to avoid each other, the way we dont support each others businesses but instead talk bad, the way we dont celebrate our success and its always 3ogbal al jaya, the fact we don’t want to acknowledge the evil and horrible history of our nation, the confusion of are we arab or african, our love of “falsafa”, our inability to actually ask a question instead of going on rant or a tangent during “Nadwas”or “Forums” or “Discussions” etc. I could go on but i think you get the gist of what im saying.

There are also the good things about being Sudanese. The way we genuinely will go out of are way to help someone in need; with financial reward the last thing on our mind, our amazing sense of hospitality, our generosity, but at the same time is that really only Sudanese characteristics, or is that African culture, or Arab culture.
I don’t know what being Sudanese means, but what I do know is that our country is so Big, so diverse, so many tribes, so many languages, so many terrains, so many traditions. What being Sudanese means to me is the Sudan I grew up visiting. The Sudan I was proud to say was the biggest county in Africa. Now I haven’t been back to Sudan since November 2010, since before the separation. So that is the Sudan I know. And that is what being Sudanese means to me. Unity, Diversity & Prosperity.

What do you rate as success and how do you define it?

I would say success is how much of an impact you have on the world as well as overcoming adversity. Success brings with it responsibility. Success brings with it change, whether it is changing the way a particular business is done, or changing peoples perception of you. The difference between a good business man and a successful one is that one is focused on profit and money, while the other one is focused on change, innovation, continues improvement and the impact his work has.
I know I haven’t explained it very well but I hope you get the point I am trying to make

Who would you say is the most influential Sudanese?

I would struggle to pick just one and so I am going to cheat a little bit and pick four. In this category I take into account impact on Sudanese. They are in no particular order:

  • John Garang: A man like no other, a man who had a dream and a vision which would have created a New Sudan, A Better Sudan.
  • Abdelrahman El Mahadi: A visionary and a forward thinker, the man who did the most to help us achieve our dream of independence.
  • Babiker Bedri & Yousif Babiker Bedri: A pioneer and a visionary, the men who singlehandedly changed the fate of the Sudanese girl and women forever.

Who would you say is the most successful Sudanese?

I would also struggle to pick just one and so I have decided to pick two. This category I take into account success on a global scale.

  • Zeinab Badawi: The Media Queen herself.
  • Mo Ibrahim: The Telecoms entrepreneur, the man who changed how we communicate with each other. As well as his amazing efforts and determination with his Foundation to tackle corruption and encourage transparency and good governance.

What is your favourite quote?

“The difference between a businessman and an entrepreneur is that a businessman chases money, while an entrepreneur chases success because he knows money follows success.”

Anything Else you want to add?

I would like to thank you all for your support and encouragement. I would also like to add on a personal level the people who have influenced me the most are my father Nageeb Khalifa, and although I have never met him my grandfather Khalifa Mahgoub.

I am so proud and amazed by amount of innovation and entrepreneurship that is going on in Sudan. And I am glad gone are the good old days when I had to explain to people what i studied when I told people i did Technology Entrepreneurship.

I want to ask each and everyone of you personally to do something for me. Make sure you go to Sudan Hub and Sudanpreneur Facebook pages, make sure you click like and then click the invite your friends button, and invite every single person in your facebook. And then make sure you all follow the Instagram pages and the twitter pages. And then you also check out the websites at least once a week. But most importantly please engage, comment, like, message, share, anything.

Please share your Contact information with those interested in conecting with you: 

My facebook name is Ashraf Khalifa, or u can find me if you search akhalifa89

I also have a personal blog which you can check out onhttp://www.ashrafkhalifa.com which I would love to get your feedback on.

My twitter is @akhalifa89, although i don’t really use is much as I am also busy tweeting with both @sudanpreneur and @sudanhub

My instagram is @akhalifa89 which i do use but also both @sudanpreneur and @sudanhub instapages keep me quite busy

My email address is either ashraf@sudanhub.com or akhalifa89@gmail.com
My mobile number is +447475711433 which is also my watsapp

Thank you very much for your time, very much appreciated

Yours 

Ashraf Khalifa on behalf of Sudanpreneur Group

Business, Creative Writing, Speech, Sudanhub

Sudan Engineers Society UK & Ireland Relaunch Event – My Speech

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Salam 3alekom wa ra7mato allah wa barakato….
Dair abda bel awal be takreem wa shokor al sayd tarik le majhoodo al jabar fe ta7reek wa tarjee3 al (jaleya) wa tanseem al barnamij al reeheb al lati ni7na kolana mabsooteen beho. Wa bardo dair ashkor al sayed dr taha elhagg wa al sayed ali askouri, awal ashan adona min wakitom al gali, wa bardo ashan mamnoonin le al forsa nakhod min khibratom al was3a. Man 3ashara gawoman 40 youm sar mithlahom.
Im sorry guys, unfortunetly im going to switch it to english. I would like to firstly introduce myself, my name is ashraf nageeb khalifa. I graduated from the university of surrey in 2010, with a bsc in entrepreneurshipin techhnology, it and business. Thankfully as my degree program was part of the engineering department at uni, i am qualified to speak to you today ?
Back to the topic of today that i am meant to be speaking to u about. Sudan hub, so what is sudan hub. I think the best way to describe sudan hub is that it is a a project that started way back in 2011, as well as being a personal journey to discover my sudanese identity, my roots. But at the same time it a project that is driven by being self sustainable and has never been about profit.
The main reason for starting this project is a little bit of a personal story, but also a long winded story which would take me over my time limit, so ill share some of the shorter driving motivators with u instead.
Firstly I didnt have a typical sudanese upbringing, or for that matter typical by any standards. Due to my dads work, we were transfered from country to country every four or five years growing up, and i went to eight different schools growing up in five or six different countries. I would go to sudan most holidays, and i even had the good fortune to live there for two years, after a holiday ended up as a permanent holiday.
I lived in sudan during the peak of the bashir years. Right after the signing of the CPA, peace with the south, revenue sharing. And i went to khartoum american school. One of the things that really sticks with me is hearing about the sunt project, which was meant to create a large business hub, office space, financial center which was going to be the biggest in africa, and a rival to dubai. Unfortunately this project like many in sudan did not come to completion.
Due to unforeseen circumstances i ended up moving to uk temporarily, and im happy to tell you all that i am still here temporarily nearly 9, 10 years latter.
It is that temporarily mentality i discovered played a prominent role in my dna and make up, when trying to discover who i am as not onli a sudanese 26 year old, but a sudanese full stop.
That is what sudan hub is. Also the other primary motivator was the blank looks on peoples faces when i tell them im from sudan. I quickly discovered that there several gaps which i wittnesed first hand made it hard for me to figure out what it means for me to be sudanese.
The first is the gap between us sudanese in diaspora, and the local sudanese. Especially prominent at a younger age gap. Im sure many of you might have witnessed this first hand when constantly trying to keep upto date with the latest slang. And then u know when u forget the meaning of that one word in arabic, and so u desperately try to avoid but then u end up with no choice and so u say it in english. And wow the reaction is just so unbearable, shofo da khawaja, shayeef nafso a7san minana.
The second gap i found was between the older generation and the youth. Not the little kids, but the youth. Thankfully i grew up politically neutral, and so i dont have any stones tied around my waist, and this lets me attend any sudanese event no matter which party or organisation is hosting it, without having to deal with any headaches, or inner turmoil, or debate. And i have noticed that from all events across the board sudanese people from the ages 17-30 just do not attend, have no interest.
That was why i decided to use the bridging the gap slogan.
I am both a youth and a diaspora, and half an engineer. So i wanted to share my own personal experience with you today.
From my near four journey i learnt so many things about my country, my culture, my city, my family, my history. I discovered sudan has more than 300 pyramids, i learnt sudan has the most diverse range of tribes and languages in africa, most importantly the importance of the city of suakin.
I learnt that sudan was a country in the continent of africa. And this made me look bak on my life and realise. I have recently come to the conclusion that there are two men inside my head, both of equal size and strength fighting for control. One is the african man inside me, and the other is the arab man. Because they are so equal one side can onli donminate for small periods of time. But i feel this is a global battle. The real battle for what it means to be sudanese. Unfortunately due to their equal prowes the two men decided to split everything in half and not have to deal with each other, which has lead to more issues and problems. Because these men can onli live together in harmony. And with out the other they will just start the battle all over but this time in their own head.
I want to take u bak to something i said earlier. Man 3ashara gawman 40 youm sara mithlahom. I think that is our biggest issue as sudanese. Its that temporary menatlity, one foot wherever you are, and one foot back home in sudan. As the older generation it might work for you. But as youth no chance. This just leads to confusion. I can prove this in action quite easily. Most of you older generation are quite annoyed with me for deciding to do my speech in english, while the youth actually love the fact i decided not to do it in arabic. We live in england where the main offical language is english. Im suprised that the whole event was not in english, in the same way im suprised that sudanese events in France are not in french, in spain in spanish, in malaysia in mali, in kenya in keswahili.
I learnt that sudan has over 500 dialects or languages. We should be proud of this fact but instead what do we do, we call it rutana, dismiss it. We should be proud to come from a place that is so diverse and cultured, we should be honored proud to be able to say good morning to our neighbours in their own languages, and even more when they reply in ours.
My aunty told me of when she went to school inthe 50s and 60s, she was taught english arabic and french fluently. And was taught to play tennis, swim and netball.
We should have at least 7 of our national languages in our school ciriculaum.
I leave u with sudan hub groups moto: unity, diversity and prosperity.