Episode 56 - Fix What Makes You Angry with Ndidi Nwuneli
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We are so excited about the abundance of opportunities we’re learning about outside of America. And today’s guest is going to tell us all about those specifically in Africa. Ndidi Nwuneli founded LEAP Africa—a leading nonprofit that provides social entrepreneurs, youth, and small scale business owners with leadership training and executive coaching services.
She is also a co-founder of AACE Foods, a Nigerian food processor. Ndidi is a leading authority on social entrepreneurship and, in addition being named as one of the 20 Youngest Power African Women by Forbes, in 2004 she was bestowed with the national honor, Member of the Federal Republic (MFR) by the Nigerian President.
All that to say, through her work in food and agriculture, and as a leadership development mentor, Ndidi is building economies in West Africa that you’ll want to hear about…
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The Role of Faith and Belief in Modern Africa
Episode Transcript
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Ndidi Nwuneli: You know, seeing the face of Africa, the hungry child makes me angry and I believe we can change that narrative as Christians and as people of faith. And so that propels me. I started LEAP Africa because I was angry about the concept of leadership and the conviction that everybody could be a leader. And leadership is an act, not a position. And but a lot of people in positions of authority were rulers and not leaders. And that we had to change that message was something that propelled me to start an organization called LEAP that is now 18 years old and works in six African countries. So I think that anger stimulates an emotion that propels me to want to do something about it. And I think a lot of us are angry, but we just complain. We point fingers, but we feel powerless about actually effecting change.
Henry Kaestner: Welcome back to the Faith Driven Entrepreneur podcast. It is great to have you back. I'm here in the virtual office in studio with William Norvell. William, good morning.
William Norvell: It's good to be here. Good to see you.
Henry Kaestner: And also, we're going we're going international today. We're going all the way to Africa. We've gotten to know Ndidi over the course of the last several months as a number of different trusted contacts we have in Africa have pointed us to her and her very, very, very compelling, very widely viewed. Ted.com talk about what it looks like to be a Christian in Africa and boldly and courageously sharing her faith in her personal witness and testimony. And if you're going on a run or if you're sitting down to a family dinner and you're looking to do a family devotional, this is something I highly recommend. It gives you just a really good sense of a woman's story and her journey and just a glimpse into what it looks like to be a Christ-follower in Africa, in the marketplace. And so it's a special treat for us to have you with us on the phone and on the podcast. And what I want to be able to do is we get started and hopefully Ndidi you be able to help me to do this as I want to be able to just paint the picture, if you will, the canvas of what Africa looks like. I think that as we start this podcast and someone's listening in and they've got a picture in their mind about what Africa means, and for some people it means game parks and for some other people it means extreme poverty. And some of the people and maybe it means opportunity. It can mean a whole bunch of different things. But if I'm honest, as I thought about Faith Driven investments in Africa, I thought of the fair trade coffee deal. I thought of giving African farmers a fair wage and selling those wares in church. I had not thought of the dynamic and bustling economy and marketplace that have come to understand that Africa really is. And it wasn't until I went to Kenya probably I guess it was 18 months ago and was just really just captivated by the energy of the marketplace in Nairobi. And I'd been to South Africa many times over the course of the last decade. But I thought that maybe that was just kind of a one off. But I was ashamed to have just had such a small view of the opportunity in the African marketplace. We had sovereigns had been focused on Southeast Asia and some of the other economies, but came to see just a really vibrant market, SAS companies, innovations in technology and medical devices and cloud computing, artificial intelligence, machine learning. And it gave me just a completely different view of Africa. And as I started looking more and more into that, as we wanted to support the work of Faith Driven Entrepreneurs in Africa and Faith Driven Investing, we came to understand that there is a massive continent that most of us have missed. And the world is littered with the stories of people that have lost money in Africa or have been reading books like Dead Aid. And yet people, I think, in my estimation, haven't really persevered to get the sense of the opportunity in Africa. Ndidi, I want to get your sense on this, but one of the things that's really captivated me, too, is that during this time of pandemic gives us some time to reflect on economies and markets. That's what we care about in the Faith Driven Investment world. And we're looking at a time where seven of the 10 fastest growing economies in the world are in Africa, Ethiopia, Uganda, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Ghana, Rwanda and Kenya are seven of the 10 fastest growing economies in the world. So I think that maybe we've missed this a bit. One of the people that connected to Ndidi is Efoso Ojomo, who is the coauthor, along with Clayton Christensen of The Prosperity Paradox, in which he portrays a broader picture of opportunity in Africa, talking about the fact over the next 20 or 30 years, there will be more entrants into the marketplace, into the job market in Africa than India and China combined. So Africa is something altogether different than maybe what we had thought of. And as we think about where God might call us to steward his assets for his glories over the next 20 or 30 years, Africa probably needs to be a place we need to look at. And Ndidi how would you help us to think about the continent in which you live?
Ndidi Nwuneli: Thank you so much. And I'm just so excited of your passion and interest in the African continent. So just starting with the size of the African continent, it has a land area of thirty point three, seven million square kilometers. That means you can put the United States, China, India, Mexico, Peru, France, Spain and counting almost every country in Europe into Africa. And you still have space. So Africa is huge. And most maps that we've been conditioned to see from our childhood don't represent a massive scale. So 80 percent of the world's arable land is on the African continent. Africa also has one point two billion people and it's projected to double by 2050. So when you think about the number of consumers on the African continent who wants to eat and have to eat at least three times the. They have to work clothes and shoes. I mean, this is a huge market and 70 percent of the population is under 35. So it's a vibrant young market with lots of energy, talent and skills. Africa also exports much of the world's natural resources metals. We all know about cocoa when you have a chocolate bar, 70 percent of the world's chocolate is sourced in Africa. And we all love chocolate. But it's not just commodities. It's chemicals. It's natural resources. It's vibrant, vibrant ecosystem around mining. And also, when we think about the African continent, I often ask people, how many billion dollar companies do you think we have in Africa? And, you know, people say one or two. And a McKinsey study revealed that there were over 400 companies making billions of dollars. And so we often don't realize that we have this many business. In fact, it's four hundred and thirty eight businesses with over a billion dollars in annual sales. Some of obviously some of them have multiple billion dollars in sales. And this was in 2018. So I'd argue that today we even have a larger number. So the African continent for me is, you know, an emerging continent but has such diversity, 54 countries where we think about these 54 countries, their language, diversity, cultural diversity, but tremendous value. And the great thing about the continent is that it is dynamic. And with the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement, we are also starting to trade among ourselves. Historically, we've traded mostly with Europe, Asia and North America. But now there's a lot more internal trade on the continent, which for me will not only grow the market, but ensure the competitiveness and the growth of the ecosystems and make us obviously less dependent on the rest of the world, which in my own view is actually positive because, you know, when a continent looks internally like Europe has done to improve the competitiveness of your products, your markets, but also see yourself as one entity which allows you to take on the world in a more cohesive manner.
Henry Kaestner: One thing I want to point out now, you and your husband have also gotten to know, know a tremendous amount about agriculture and food. And with 80 percent of the world's arable land, Africa is not in a great spot to be able to actually to feed itself, but also to help feed the world. Some of the starvation we know about comes from what we hope to be a decreasing amount of strife that comes from military issues. So you know about that. And I want to talk about that to be clear. But there's also a tremendous amount of innovation around telecom, some of the most creative and innovative companies in the world. And I mean, that's not just the best in Africa coming out of Kenya, but the best in the world are coming out of Africa because of their advanced mobile communications technology, Safaricom and PASÓ, the ability to transact online and be able to have ewallets and fintech startups and telecommunications. All these things exist in Africa because of Africa's ability to leapfrog traditional technology infrastructure. And I see that pace accelerating. And I think that that's probably a new perspective for investors to look at as well. I want to go backwards a little bit and I want to hear about your story. Who are you? Where do you come from? You've got such a great story. And I alluded to that before when I was talking about this telecom talk that you've got out there. But tell us about who you are, where you grew up, what led you to the work that you're doing today? And then, of course, what role faith played in all of this?
Ndidi Nwuneli: Yeah. So I am proudly Nigerian. I was born in Enugu forty five years ago. My mom is American and my dad is Nigerian. And they met at Cornell University and moved back to Nigeria in nineteen seventy four. I was born in nineteen seventy five. My parents were intellectuals. They actually did not believe in God actively actually discouraged us from going to church and it was actually university students on the campus where we lived who came to our house to invite us to church, where probably one of the few families that didn't go to church on Sundays because we grew up in the southern part of Nigeria, southeastern parts where most people are Christian.
And so I turned 10 and my mom asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I said I wanted to be baptized. So all five of us, me and my four siblings got baptized on the same day. We actually got to pick out a godparents and we ended up going to church. And it was an amazing experience to get introduced to God as a young age and actually gave my life to Christ officially when I was 13 and, you know, answered the call to become a Christian, and what changed for me when I became a Christian is just a boldness and courage about my faith and a desire to live God's way and to draw others to Christ. And I remember my classmates teasing me because, you know, during tests they would want to copy from my book. I'm sure many of you remember people saying, what was it? You know, I need the answer to this question. And I actually decided to give my life to Christ, started covering my paper so nobody could actually peek.
William Norvell: And that's amazing.
Ndidi Nwuneli: It was actually really difficult because my sister had gotten the highest scores in the entire country two years before. And so we had been on strike for six months before this major national exam. And all the teachers pointed to my table and said she's a local copy from her sister, got the highest scores in the whole country. And I had to cover my book. And I actually got threatened by people saying, you're covering your book, keep your papers open so we can copy. And that boldness and courage to say, you know what, I'm a Christian, I'm sold out to God and even money, but then God will see me through. And whatever happens with this exam, it's my name on it.
And so I think that boldness and courage came from really the Holy Spirit, and that has actually stayed with me throughout. I moved to the U.S. when I was 16. I went to a prep school called the Clarksons School and then went to the Wharton School of Leadership, Pennsylvania and Harvard Business School and worked at McKinsey and throughout my time in college was very active in the Christian fellowship and the gospel choir. And, you know, when I look back at working at McKinsey and actually starting a prayer group at the Chicago office of McKinsey, I can't believe that I did that at 20 years old because, you know, America is not a country where people profess their faith very openly.
Henry Kaestner: Do they more so in Nigeria? Talk about that a little bit.
Ndidi Nwuneli: Well, the interesting thing about Nigeria is we're 50 percent Muslim, 50 percent Christian. And most people, profess a faith, in fact, in our country on Fridays, people close early. They go home early because they're Muslims. They have to pray. They have to go to mosque. In most meetings, you start off with a Christian and a Muslim prayer because you recognize that both faiths that coexisting and Christians go to church at least three times a week. And that's why I gave that pep talk to me, because I felt that, you know, for a continent that professes such a strong faith in either Islam or Christianity, we should see that faith reflected in the way that we live. And so, anyway, we are very religious people and it's a very big part of our lives. So it was quite unusual to grow up in a family that wasn't religious. And that gave me a boldness and the courage for Christ, which I took into my workplace. And I can tell you that that faith has carried me through and allowed me and enabled me to make very, very bold steps in my life and to live with no regrets. And knowing that with every step being guided by God and that the Holy Spirit is my anchor and that God is my source. And I think that courage and boldness allows people of faith to dare to be different and to speak out with courage and to also take risks that many people view as unusual, knowing that you take this risk. But I always say I don't know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future. And that courage that with every path God has sent me and because he sent me, you equipped me and see me through allows me to do the things I do.
Henry Kaestner: So that's encouraging. So you come over from Nigeria, it sounds like you're slightly astounded by the fact that people aren't more courageous or more open about their faith. We think as we live the United States, it's a Christian nation. And so, of course, we'd be talking about our Christian faith. The fact that you are surprised coming in that you didn't see more of that is challenging. One other thing. I want to introduce you to William here in a second, who's my partner in all of these things. But one thing before I hand off to William, because I know he's got some questions he wants to ask, is that there's a part of you're talking about your faith that also is interesting, a different dynamic in that you talk about hearing God's voice through anger, which is also a different take. Tell us about that. To our listeners, that might seem counterintuitive. What was a part of your faith journey that allowed you to hear God's voice through anger?
Ndidi Nwuneli: So I think humans are motivated by different things fear, love and anger. And even in the secular world, we recognize the power of emotions to propel action. And in my own life, it's actually always been anger. I actually have. Ted talk called rage for change. So I was quite an angry child, meaning when I get angry about something, I do something about it. And what my faith has allowed me to do is to channel that anger into positive action for positive change. And actually there's a place for righteous anger. Jesus was angry at the temple. So, you know, there's definitely a place for righteous anger. And I think that's what I have is really seeing inequity. I'm seeing, you know, injustice and being compelled to do something about it. In the agricultural landscape, Africa is naturally endowed for agricultural excellence. We have 60 percent of the world's arable land. And yet when that's important food, one out of every three children is stunted. I recognize that there's a fundamental problem and it's actually a management problem where you have fragmented ecosystems, you have. So what can we do about it? You know, seeing the face of Africa, the hungry child makes me angry. And I believe we can change that narrative as Christians and as people of faith. And so that propels me. I started LEAP Africa because I was angry about the concept of leadership and the conviction that everybody could be a leader. And leadership is an act, not a position, and that a lot of people in positions of authority were rulers and not leaders and that we had to change that message was something that propelled me to start an organization called LEAP that is now 18 years old and works in six African countries. So I think that anger stimulates an emotion that propels me to want to do something about it. And I think a lot of us are angry, but we just complain. We point fingers, but we feel powerless about actually effecting change.
William Norvell: Oh, I love that. I love that. This is William here. What an amazing encouragement, you know, that we got on here to talk about investing. But I just think you're blessing people with your lived experience of the Holy Spirit and where God has taken you. And just thank you for doing that. I would love to hear about some of your investing experience you just talked about LEAP a little bit. Could you push into that a little bit for us? Tell us a little bit more about what LEAP is and then maybe Segway into its foods and what you've been able to do with that organization.
Thank you so much. So, for LEAP Africa, LEAP is actually a nonprofit organization that was created in 2002 to inspire, empower and equip a new generation of African leaders. And when we started, we worked one on one with young people between the ages of 18 and 30, equipping them with life and leadership skills to start change projects in their communities. Today, we work in six African countries and we actually teach teachers to do the right curriculum. And the focus now is 14 to 16 year olds because we believe we can reach that much younger and we equip them with leadership skills, ethics, entrepreneurship skills, employability skills. But we also help them become change agents. So we give them a little funding to start a change project in their community to improve the lives of others. And that's how they build their leadership muscle. And I'm really proud of the team. I stepped out of VCT management in 2007. I sit on the board and the team continues to thrive and young people are just driving the growth and they are also people of faith, which makes me really proud. Now, in 2008, I started working in the food and agriculture landscape and really felt a leading by God to create a catalytic business that would prove that we could source locally process for the local market, address malnutrition and also displace imports. So my husband and I started ASW Foods, which is an agro processing company. We produce about 16 products that are currently sold in Nigeria and also exported and we sourced from about 10000 farmers. And what we've proven through switch is that we can produce high quality food that meets the needs of people. We also have retail products, but most of our business is sold to institutional buyers, companies like Unilever, flour mills, multinationals as well, that sourced products that use them as inputs for their own processing. And then we have products on the shelves and we supply to a lot of fast moving consumer goods companies the prevalence of dominos and all the fast food companies in our region. Many of the brands you will not be familiar with. So as Foods has been such a blessing and I'm really proud of the team and it's also driven by a young Faith Driven Entrepreneurs who actively seek God's face. In fact, they actually have a fast at the end of every year to hear what God is telling them. And I'm just so proud of that team. And then my day job is to help consulting where we're building ecosystem solutions in the dairy sector, cassava seed systems, yam seed systems and creating businesses, commercializing research in the agricultural landscape and creating value. And I'm really proud of all the dynamic teams that I work with across these companies, it's amazing.
William Norvell: Thank you for sharing that and I'm going to ask you to go a layer deeper on how to think about an investment in the ag and food space. I don't think we've had too many people there. I, for one, am not very experienced there. I've seen some of those investments and I don't really know how to think through them. What's a proper return? You know, especially from the spiritual side, I assume you can employ a bunch of people and that's amazing. Good work. But just maybe do you have a framework or, you know, how would our listeners of an agricultural deal comes across their plate to potentially invest in, whether it's in the US or Africa or anywhere else? How would you think about that from the experience you've had?
Ndidi Nwuneli: So I think agriculture is such an amazing sector because it's very diverse and also has quite a few intervention areas in our context. We talk about from farm to fork and everything in between from primary production to logistics and storage and processing, financial services, technology support all the way down to restaurants and chefs until it gets to your tummy. And so this food ecosystem is vibrant and it requires not only catalytic financing, but also patient capital. And in our context, catalytic financing is critical because you want to bet on innovation Henry talked about in Pessah and how it has transformed the East African landscape. And the same applies to so many technologies in the agriculture and food landscape that do enable leapfrogging. In particular, I would say if you're coming into this sector, you first of all have to figure out what entry point you want to engage in and what value chain most excites you. There are so many opportunities in Africa, in Niger in particular. If you're focused on an export led growth, then you'd be looking at cashew and sesame and cocoa and rubber as primary production. If you're focused on food self-sufficiency, you'd be looking at poultry and dairy, yam and cassava and rice where you're displacing imports. And then across each of those value chains, from seed production to fertilizer to mechanization, you see companies like John Deere playing in the African continent, Caterpillar, Dupont, Monsanto. I mean, they're all in the inputs landscape. And we have the local equivalents on the African continent that are homegrown organizations. You also have technology providers like Hello Traktor, which was started to basically be the Uber of tractor and started in Nigeria. And so I think there are exciting opportunities across the board. As an investor, you have to figure out what excites you on what component of the value chain you think can be most catalytic. The second is that you have to pick the right partners. Operating on the African continent is like anywhere else. Who are your partners? Who can add the most value? Who understands the local market and what are the growth prospects? And I can tell you are returns anywhere from 10 percent to one hundred percent returns depending on the value chain. But you have to be patient. You don't expect to have tremendous profits from day one. The Sahel Capital Team, which is our sister company, looks at about a 25% IRR as that investment returns.
But I would say that some have been more profitable, others have been less. And the beauty of African agriculture landscape is that you have an opportunity to have a triple bottom line impact. Agriculture can employ millions of people ensuring food security, contributing to development. And if you are an investor who wants to change lives while also making money, this is the best factor for you. You can do well and do good. And that's why the sector excites me and why it's so compelling to local and international investors.
Henry Kaestner: Tell us if you can maybe a story or two of some specific investments that you've seen made to have done well. And then maybe also while you're at it, maybe some investments that you've seen that have not done well. The average listener to this is going to be saying, OK, so I think I hear a little bit of the case for investing in Africa. I understand the demographic play. I understand that there's increased ability and there's fair trade. I understand that there's some leapfrogging with technology. I understand that there's 60, 70 percent of the world's arable land is in Africa. I'm getting this now. But, gosh, know, how do I get my arms around this and maybe tell it through stories. So maybe acknowledge the fact that, yes, as with any type of region, there are deals that don't go well. And maybe you can give some counsel to people who listen to this about here's some mistakes that I commonly see foreign investors make. You know, they do X, Y and Z. So don't do these. But then here's a story or two where investors are able to come in, make a real impact on the ground. And also get a good return on their money while they really impacted the social and the spiritual fabric of a community.
OK, so first I'll say that I've spent the last year working on a book called Food Entrepeneurs in Africa, Scaling Resilience, Agriculture Businesses, and through that created a new business called NourishingAfrica.com, which currently has about six hundred and forty agribusinesses on our platform. And this NourishingAfrica.com Is a wealth of information for any prospective investor in the African landscape, because we have lots of data you can search by value chain. You can also have a list of funders. We have a list of entrepreneurs who are doing amazing things. So I will just suggest that you check out that platform NourishingAfrica.com. To get into some examples. Let me just start off by saying there's such a range of organizations on the continent. While writing my book, I profiled a few. One is called Trigger and Speak actually operates in Kenya. The interesting thing about the trigger model is that when they started, they wanted to export bananas to the Middle East. That was their interest. But as they progressed, they really realized we have to create a local market to increase the standards of the bananas available. And guess what? They had enough people in Kenya who actually want high quality fruit. So they created a business that basically links farmers to small fruit retailers in the city of Nairobi. And Swagga has grown from 2014. When it started, until today it has raised fifty five million dollars and it's grown exponentially and it's already in its third round of financing, but is proving the power of technology to enable leapfrogging, but also efficient and effective delivery where the retailers are benefiting, but also the farmers are benefiting. With your cell phone, you can order produce and within 14 hours the producers deliver fresh from the farm to your shop. That's what very exciting business that I interfaced with. Another one is called COBOL 360, which has done extremely well. What COBOL 360 does is leverage logistics providers and using technology to track trucks and provide basically a huge burden, which we face is transporting produce across the continent and across countries. And so they carry fertilizer and seeds the farms and carry produce back to the cities. And they've done extremely well. Goldman Sachs just invested in them. The IFC has invested in them. They have generated so much interest because of the value that they've created in the ecosystem. Cooper 360 operates in Nigeria. Another example in terms of successful exits, they have quite a few from South Africa. In twenty seventeen there was one hundred million dollar fund called Agri VI and they exited from February, which was one of South Africa's most respected dairy companies. I mean, they had almost three times return on the investment, and that's just one example. And that's in South Africa. But there are many, many examples across the continent. So when I think about this sector, I think, you know, the potential to generate wealth, but also to address hunger, poverty and also create value for yourself and for your investors is tremendous. And this book is going to be released in the first quarter of 2021, actually, as you can, preordered on Amazon. But I had hoped that it would be released this year because if covid-19 has shown us anything, not just in Africa but across the world, it's the importance of the food ecosystem and that food is medicine. You can't address a health ecosystem without addressing the food ecosystem. And food is so vibrant and important to our livelihoods as human and innovation in the food ecosystem is critical. So I'm just excited about the future of African agriculture, but also the future of cross-sector collaboration and cross country collaboration. And I see a lot more promise when companies in the US get interested in Africa and vice versa. Africa has so much to also teach the rest of the world.
William Norvell: Well, it's amazing. It's amazing stories. Thank you for sharing that because it's so good to pull the layers back on a place that some people are scared, for lack of a better word, to invest in. So I thank you for sharing some of the stories. And and actually, as I hear you talk, I mean, this is the way my mind works. You know, those are very understandable businesses, too. So if a foreign investor was going to come in, it sounds like you can pretty clearly understand the business model, understand what the needs are to be done as opposed to a lot of the other kind of tech or things like that that you run across here, that, you know, you're really betting on a technology that you really don't understand at some level. A lot of the early stage investors don't anyway. So it's really. Helpful as you look out, I mean, you've had an amazing journey, I would love to ask, you know, obviously you're writing this book. Is there anything else that you have coming up on the horizon that you would love to share with our audience so that we could be paying attention to?
Ndidi Nwuneli: Well, I always want to share when I do have the opportunity that I'd challenge all our listeners to actually check out the food culture section of nourishing Africa. I think a lot of Americans have not enjoyed and truly benefited from the amazing food in Africa. And I think we want to rival Japan when it comes to being on the world's top speed, when it comes to food. And so it's not just enough to say I eat chocolates, but what about your rooiboos tea? Your South African wine for those of you who like wine. And what about all the great spices from the African continent? Half, which is Ethiopian is amazing and it's gluten free. I mean, I would love to see African food on the world stage. And I think it's up to all of us to start looking for African food as well. That way on a daily basis, you're also touching the lives of farmers, but you're also investing in your own nutrition because we have some of the best food in the world.
Henry Kaestner: Well, the Japanese food lobby wants to thank you for their shout out that you just had right there. I hadn't been thinking about as being some rival for Africa.
Ndidi Nwuneli: No, I think that Japan is not rivaling Africa or Japan or rival Ethiopia.
Henry Kaestner: Well, I think that maybe that will be a subject for another FDE podcast about how Faith Driven investors can get involved in the agriculture and the food industry in Japan. I think Africa runs circles around Japan.
Ndidi Nwuneli: But know why I was saying this, Henry? I just I wrote an article last year. Japanese food is ranked number one in the world, really healthy. Yes. And I was shocked to learn that they've actually done it in a very creative way. They position their food as healthy. They draw a link between having the highest life expectancy and the healthiness of their food. And they have launched, a whole marketing campaign around their food, which has driven investment in their food. They also have a certification program for their restaurants all over the world to say it's authentic Japanese food. So we have learned a lot from the movement to increase awareness. And the growth in Japanese restaurants across the world has been the fastest. It has rivaled Italian cuisine. So I'm just telling you this from an investor perspective, they have been very strategic and that's what we have learned from them.
Henry Kaestner: But fascinating. I don't think they fry their food enough. Just I'm just kidding.
And I love the fact that you've provided us with a website that gives a primer and an overview for somebody who's listening to this might want to say, how do I get started? I'm interested in agriculture. I'm interested in investing in the food industry. Where do I get started to be able to chronicle on inventories? Six hundred and forty food entrepreneurs, along with some data and some analysis that gives us kind of a sense about the bigger picture and how to weighed in. So that's a great resource. Thank you.
William Norvell: Absolutely. And if you can see in Henry's video, if you can find the best African ice cream, you will get Henry on board. So just throwing that out there, right?
Henry Kaestner: If you're listening is your thing in fried food and ice cream. Probably don't need to be taking my diet advice from Henry. And you'd be right.
William Norvell: This is not a diet podcast. That is not why you come here. So not the place to be. Ndidi, thank you so much for spending time with us. We do, unfortunately, have to come to a close. And when we do that, what we love to do is invite exactly the question that you mentioned earlier is what is God doing in your life today? And specifically through his word, through his scripture? We love to see somewhere. Maybe he has you in the season. Could be a verse you read this morning or a story. Just how is he speaking to you through his living word today?
Ndidi Nwuneli: Yeah. So when I think about what God is doing, my favorite Bible verse, which I hold onto, is very popular. It's Jeremiah 29:11 I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future. You know, 2020 has been a rough year for so many and people have experienced, loss and all sorts of ways. But the encouragement I have is that when we put our faith and our trust in God, he's the master strategist and he always, always there a path. And so my encouragement to you listeners is to continue to trust and believe that God, who has started a great work and you will be faithful to complete it. That's how I have stayed rooted and anchored in every assignment that he's given me. And every time he gets too difficult, I basically say, you are the one, this is your business. God, come and show yourself faithful. At the end of the day, you will get the glory and that he always comes through time and time again and realizing that I am not on this walk alone, that God is my source of strength, of wisdom and of courage, and that at the end of it all he will get the glory, and that keeps me grounded and focused. And discipline, so I hope I encourage you a little today, and I wish you all the best.