Agreement with University of Tumaini

I am delighted to report that today we signed with Tumaini University! This is truly a big deal. Tumaini, which means ‘hope’, is one of the leading universities of Tanzania.

The "micro" part of Cheetah's micro venture captital model depends upon university assistance to help hold costs down and allow for micro sized investments. Because of the high cost of investment management, venture capitalists typically invest $2 million or more. Therefore, Cheetah's model of making $5000 to $500,000 investments is a real breakthrough. It takes strong support from universities to make this happen, including business plan competitions, student interns, and professorial assistance.

When I visited with officials from Tumaini in Iringa a couple of weeks ago, the declined to sign the agreement I presented. They said that they wanted to make their commitments broader and firmer in writing. They are so convinced of the value of the Cheetah programs, the impact they can have, and the link to the University’s mission that they wanted to make their commitments very clear.

Therefore, they assigned a committee to work on the agreement. When it was ready they made the eight hour trek to Dar es Salaam. Here is a picture of the Assistant Provost Rev. Dr. Richard Lubawa (center), and Mr. Thomas Mwanayongo the Dean of the Faculty of Law (left) and myself, Raymond Menard shortly after our signing.

This is really a big deal for Cheetah! Thanks, Tumaini University!

Friday Find: Don Bosco

Don Bosco is a remarkable organization that provides education to disadvantaged students all over the world, including the USA. You can learn more about them at by searching on-line.

I recently visited a local vocational institute in Dar es Salaam. This school not only trains students, it defrays most of its expenses by selling the goods that the students make. We are looking into how we might be able to use this production to assist the bicycle factory.

Here’s what makes this a Friday find: you don’t expect to find the most sophisticated machines in a country hidden in a vocational school but that is exactly what I found.

Pictured below is the machine shop, which also has a high-end CNC machine and an automated motor winding machine.

If you are continuing the bicycle factory story, go here (not posted yet).

Tumaini Universty

Today I presented to and met with students, faculty, and entrepreneurs at the University of Tumaini in Iringa, Tanzania. It was an honor to be offered a chance to present in the Blomquist Lecture Hall on campus. Tumaini is a university that was found only 12 years ago, the first private university in Tanzania.

"Tumaini" means "hope" in Swahili, and it is a university founded by the local Lutheran church with help from Lutherans in Minnesota. The 'hope' was to allow many students a chance to get an education that otherwise were unable to get entrance in the very few public university openings available. Today, Tumaini is growing almost 30% per year and has over 3000 students.

You can see the presentation that was discussed here: http://www.cheetahdevelopment.org/Our_Program.htm.

It was a lot of fun as people thought with me about the fact that Tanzania has a stable government, resources, and many educated people. Many of the development problems are rooted in mindsets that are not functional. To be having this conversation in a university setting was so appropriate. After I was finished, most of the audience stayed for a lengthy question and answer session and it was an hour and a half before we broke up.

University of Dar es Salaam

Hurrah!

Today, Cheetah Development signed its first contract in Tanzania. This is an agreement that creates a relationship between Cheetah and the University of Dar es Salaam to jointly conduct business development. UDSM is one of the most respected Universities in Africa and has educated many of the best African leaders across the continent.

This agreement was signed with the University of Dar es Salaam, Entrepreneurship Center, or UDEC for short, currently led by Dr. Olomi. For UDEC, this is their first agreement signed within Tanzania, they also have another agreement with a Dutch based development company.

Pictured below are pictures of Dr. Chagama (left) and Dr. Olomi (right) from UDEC.

Dr. Olomi is a highly respected business development leader across Tanzania, known by both officials and the many entrepreneurs that have experienced the training programs he conducts. Dr. Olomi and his team have provided training, coordinated with non-government organizations from charities to the World Bank, are developing a business incubator for students, conducted Business Plan Competitions to find the most worthy businesses to help, and many other activities.

However, funding to start or help businesses has been in short supply. Even after a ten year effort, not one business has been funded. It is hard to describe how rare the work of Cheetah really is. There are only a handful doing any similar work in the world and currently no investment companies working in Tanzania in the $5,000 to $500,000 range. We are told that there is actually more money available for investments above $500,000 than there are entrepreneurs that can be found to partner with. Where is a new business to get their start-up or growth funding since this is the range required by nearly all such organizations?

After meeting many of the entrepreneurs identified by Dr. Olomi and his team, we are persuaded that opportunity abounds and we can together, change the 10 year drought.

(To learn more about the relationship of universities in the Cheetah program go to http://www.cheetahdevelopment.org/Our_Program.htm)