bna/IntelliNews recently had the opportunity to speak with Tobi Lovv, the president and CEO of ShareLovv International, a consultancy established to support business opportunities in Africa and African-Israeli cooperation.

Lovv, born in Nigeria and currently living in Israel, shared her optimism about Africa’s vast economic potential and expressed strong enthusiasm about the many opportunities the continent offers, especially with respect to the development of internal and regional markets.

The following article is a lightly edited version of bna/IntelliNews’ discussions with Lovv, which were conducted virtually and by email.

The business unit

Lovv described ShareLovv as a multi-faceted organisation active in multiple areas. First, it is “a business unit focused on facilitating credible business processes” for both African and international clients exploring new opportunities, she said.

“Our diverse network ensures we are able to reach trusted African enterprises, companies and organisations,” she explained. “For our international clients, we cover all the major services, including from the procurement stage to quality control and shipping process. For our African partners, we provide them access to the best technological solutions from the world’s leading startups, mostly stemming from Israel, which can drastically improve their value chains and profitability. We also aim at staying up to date in identifying the best investment opportunities across the continent.”

When asked to identify some of these opportunities, Lovv said: “The industries that we like to specialize in are agribusiness, medical care, education and infrastructure.”

She continued: “A business unit, just as it sounds, is about improving what I like to call business processes and putting a stamp of credibility on those processes, as well as providing technical solutions for businesses across Africa – [some] from Israel, but not limited to that. For our African partners, we provide the latest technology solutions. We work with a diverse network that has people or businesses from the top level across Israel to ensure that we can connect trusted African enterprises and organisations that are seeking this very technology. So that’s our business unit. It covers all aspects, including procurement to quality control, shipping, sourcing – all of it.”

For ShareLovv’s African partners, “what we did before the war is have them come to Israel to participate in huge conferences such as Agri-Tech to gain as much exposure to all the solutions, all the ground-breaking solutions,” she said. “Then once there’s an interest, we move on to set up the meetings and serve as a facilitator of those relations – culturally, language-wise and [with] a deeper understanding. We add the spice to it, which could not only make the process more enjoyable, but could smooth out whatever issues one might have when you’re getting to know new clients – especially a client from another continent, right?”

The expert analysis unit

Additionally, ShareLovv has “a consultancy division providing expert analysis on projects involving Africa,” Lovv stated. Analysis of this type can be crucial for the success of business endeavours in many African countries, she noted.

“We do this from a deep understanding of the importance of culture and tradition, business processes and environment, assisting our clients in navigating the complex regulatory environment while building relationships with local partners,” she said.

This can take the form of providing clients with advice on how to optimise available resources while also addressing local complications, she explained.

“I’ll give you an example,” she said. “We need to source X from a certain location, and we have three locations that we can source from. Perhaps Location A might be slightly more or slightly less cost-effective, but [it has] more security, better security. We will not try to present these options to our client and say: ‘Hey, these are your [only] options. You can either go for less cost-effective [and more] security or more cost-effective [and] less security’ ... We try to provide as much transparency as possible ... You have more than one option for suppliers in every single country because when there is a niche, you don’t just have one person going in. You have a few people going through. You usually have more than two [or] three options, and our job is to get across as many of those options [as possible]. The same goes for if we are facilitating connections to build international relations.”

The organisation is active in multiple African countries, Lovv noted. “Currently, we have built partnerships with and are running projects in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Zambia, Togo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Mali, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Morocco,” she said.

“Our goal is to be active and working in 48 out of 55 nations by 2026,” she added.

ShareLovv is keen to expand its footprint in light of Africa’s vast potential and wide array of business opportunities, she explained. When asked which African states were likely to be the most promising investment targets in the near future, she answered: “I believe: Every single one! And I’m not saying that because I feel [like] a sort of advocate. I am an advocate for Africa, but I really, honestly believe that every single African country has potential in some sort of industry or the other.”

She continued: “[There’s so much] abundance. I’m not even talking about the raw materials, such as crude oil. I'm not talking about that. I’m talking about actual things that can create a respectable living and earnings for people. I do strongly believe that agriculture is one of the main industries that anyone and everyone – regardless of age, ethnicity, sex, whatever – can go in, [make a] start and be part of the value chain. Every single person [in] Africa! And I think that’s one of the reasons why governments are so invested. Private equity firms are also gaining an interest. Because in order today, in order to be a successful business, you require funds and you need funding – and one of the things that Africans are suffering from is lack of accessible funding. But I see more and more movement of private equity firms into agri businesses.”

Agri-business, secondary processing and ShareLovv’s added value

When asked to expand on ShareLovv’s plans, Lovv identified the agricultural sector as a top priority. “What we’d like to do in the first half of 2024 is to actually settle down on agri-businesses,” she said. “So we’re going to do a lot more specialization in agri-business, and more specifically within the value chain of processing within agri-business. That’s what ShareLovv is going to be focusing on: how to transform the continent into a source of ‘made in Africa’ products – items made in Nigeria, Tanzania, Ghana, something that adds value to all the raw materials that Africa is so blessed with.”

Launching added-value projects “is not as difficult as people think,” she remarked. “If I can go a little bit into depth on the two types of agri-processing, there’s the primary processing and the secondary processing. Primary processing is what you do with harvested crops. It’s the very first processing that you carry out once you’ve harvested, which is what is usually sold as a cash crop to clients or companies abroad. The secondary processing is when you add the value – packaging, manufacturing for the market. That is where the value [comes] in. And that’s where we want to draw attention to ... It can touch upon everything. If it’s a final product, if it’s byproducts that may be used in other industries – it is very diverse.”

She also noted that ShareLovv was working to promote business opportunities within Africa itself. In the agri-business field, for example, secondary processing facilities are likely to be well positioned to sell their output both domestically and regionally, she said. “We’d like to focus not only on exports,” she stated. “Yes, it’s crucial that a country, in order to thrive, have products that it can export. But locally, there’s a huge market already ... and I think that’s been overlooked, I think most of the way that Africa has been dealing with the process [is] primary processing. [It] has been export-oriented. I’m trying to say: ‘Hey, why don’t you take a look internally at how you can also build that value chain and also find internal markets that would improve [local supply] and thereby reduce imports [too]?’”

Lovv also indicated, though, that she did not expect the consultancy to ignore other sectors because of its emphasis on agri-business. “Infrastructure is one of the things that we want to focus on,” she commented. “I guess that when you start with something as huge and complex as agribusiness, you automatically intersect with other things such as infrastructure. So it’s not just the roads. It’s not just the electricity, but also the internet. You need coverage, you need tracking. And there are huge, incredible technological solutions, some developed in Israel, some in the US. Through the Israeli innovators that I’m working with, we are looking to make [the right] introductions [in Africa] – you know, to people to enterprises, to governments, private businesses across Africa. Because if you have solutions, how do you get the solutions across to the right person or the right enterprise? Or the right body? It’s the in-between. That’s the work – and that’s where ShareLovv adds value here, by providing access to existing solutions.”