Frustration, Challenges and Redemption - Work at AfricaExpress

This is a challenge. Here I am, probably about 5000 km away from home, working in a tech industry that may be globalizing fast, but is still completely different to anything I know from home.

AfricaExpress Communications Network is where I've spent the past 2 weeks, and where I'll spend a large portion of my time until April 25th.

It's an ISP, attempting to make its mark in a country where the Telecommunications industry is just being liberalised, and in a country that is more than ripe for better prices, higher bandwidth and stable connections.
In other words, the supremacy of Ghana Telecom and its dial-up access and by-the-minute pricing, is being severely challenged in these days.

While by no means the only new ISP starting up in Accra, AfricaExpress has a few things going for them.

Their technology is state-of-the-art, utilizing quality brand name equipment to build satellite down-links and microwave Fixed Wireless Access. And while I'm not at liberty to discuss the technology in more detail than this at the moment, the fact is that AfricaExpress is building a separate network, that in time (small time, charlie) will be able to provide high bandwidth connectivity directly to the US, using satellite technology. In a country where it seems that one of the great limitations to getting decent performance from the internet is the simple fact that the pipe out of the country is severely limited, bypassing that same pipe has huge advantages.

Timing. They are spot on in terms of timing. The monopoly of Ghana Telecom, has been under break-up for a few years. The break-up has been a little tied up in the close relationship betweeen the former government of NDC and Ghana Telecom. However with the democratic and largely peaceful transfer of power in late December 2000, the road has been paved for an effective liberalization process. At the same time, the proliferation of Internet Cafes in Accra, and their, by local terms, high price and low performance (often a single or two 28.8 dial-up is shared amongst 8-10 users), indicate a market ripe for innovative new solutions to providing bandwidth.

Market position. While AfricaExpress is a fairly new company, having existed only for a year and a half, and in that time mostly reselling dial-up connections and hosting services from other ISP's, they seem to have a fairly visible position in the market. The Reverend Frimpong-Ampofo has a lot of connections within the religious as well as the secular world in Accra. Before having actually delivered the wireless Internet service AfricaExpress has been very succesful in the sales department, signing up numerous customers, and having numerous more waiting for the actual service.

This all spells out a very exciting challenge in terms of tying to help AfricaExpress train it's employees (there aren't really any employees yet) to better service the clients in the future. At the same time, the start-up nature of the company has also been the cause of many of my frustrations. Having come to Accra, mainly because I thought I had some valuable knowledge to turn over from 5-6 years of working with the Internet and the Web in a professional environment, it is frustrating to find oneself in a company that really doesn't have any employees to train. We are hiring, and that is one frustration that should lessen noticeably in the nbext few weeks. However, finding the right balance between contributing nothing and taking over the tech department is not an easy thing to do.

I am aware of the fact that the potential damage from me coming into an ISP in the early phases of technology set-up, implementing a lot of functionality, setting up firewalls, webservers, mailservers etc. and then taking off back to Denmark, leaving them without the skills to maintain and change the system is high. And that is without even considering the fact that I am at best a mediocre System Administrator and I might cause more damage than I repair.

At the same time, I have come into a typical start-up environment, with loads of enthusiasm, long working hours and a die-hard belief, that with the help of the Lord (Ghanaian start-up, not European or Californian) this can all be done, and done quickly. In that scenario it might also be counterproductive to just sit on my heels, and refuse to help because there is nobody there to train.

I have tried, with moderate luck, to find a middle path. I decided that I would help a little, and spend a lot of time familiarizing myself with the software they have chosen to provide many of their services. That way I may be more apt to help once the employees arrive, and business gets started for real.

It has been, and still is, a real challenge, convincing the Reverend (my boss) that he is better of with me doing less, because of the problems he would probably have otherwise. But I will persevere....

Amongst the other challenges and cultural differences here in Ghana are a number of more business related issues.

In an emerging market, or so I am told by people much wiser than me, where entrepreneurship and business arrive over a relatively short period of time, one often sees an interesting effect. A company that is working in one area, for the sake of argument, let us say a typical wireless ISP business, will often see a related opportunity in another market and immediately jump at this. In that way, an ISP that may have its hands full delivering quality ISP service to its clients, realizes that when corporate clients get better connectivity, they will also want to run their own servers, and starts a hosting business. Of course, if the company has its own server, or even virtual domain, they will want a domain name, website and mailservice. Oh, and since we have all this bandwidth, we could start an Internet cafe, and a Corporate training center. And maybe the CEO just heard about a CyberCafe management system, that allows users to pre-pay for time, and then use it as they go along. But if we have this software why not resell it to other CyberCafes in Accra. And so it continues.
The main reason for this, i guess, is the lack of experience working in a highly competitive environment.


The result: A business that, often using the same few employees stretches itself thin by trying to deliver on all client requirements instead of focusing on a single area, and being the best in that. To me, it is higlhy frustrating, not to say disruptive, as no task ever gets completed, but is instead interrupted by the need to do something else all of a sudden.



AfricaExpress is run by a Reverend. Every morning is prayer time. Many of the clients are either churches, schools or other religious institutions. No problem there, except a cultural adaptation thing. Coming from a country where business is entirely a secular matter, and in fact mixing business and religion will often get you in conflict with the law, this is something I need to get used to. I'm working om it.

The whole business environment seems very suspicious. Suspicious of partners, competitors and potential clients. As if everyone is certain that everyone else is entering their business area. I guess in a business environment where companies routinely offer such a wide variety of products and services, it is very likely that your clients, partners and competitors at this very moment are scheming to take over your business. It is also quite strange, coming from an Internet environment where many of Open Source ideas are a part of daily life, and I would often ask as well as give help to colleagues and friends from direct competitors without really thinking it a problem. Here we need to be careful. Not reveal our technology, even if it is based entirely on off-the-shelf products. Not let clients know about our network before they've signed on the dotted line. Tell clients what we can do, but not how we do it, and expect from them complete faith in the fact that we can deliver. Strange, different and alien, but not entirely without reason. Unless I could convince them to partner with other companies and let them do web-design and let us do hosting and connectivity. But that isn't very likely to happen in 3 months......

Most importantly: It's a challenge I'm happy to take.... And I'm learning a lot in the process, not just about myself, but also about some kick-ass, almost cutting-edge wireless technology......