Three years ago, V K Nauhar, a native of Mayanad in Kozhikode, who used to be a PWD contractor, went to the Democratic Republic of Congo to set up a business in furniture exports. It was then that he realised that, in that country, hectares of rubber plantations are laying untapped.
Immediately, sensing a business opportunity, he took rubber plantations there on a 25-year lease. Now, Nauhar exports rubber from Congo to other countries, especially to the Gulf region.
Nauhar’s is not an isolated case. Sidheeq T V, a native of Kuttippuram in Malappuram, is engaged in manufacturing lube oil in South Africa. Shareef Mohammed, a native of Thrissur is one of the promoters of the 53-room Horizon Hotel in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. The list could go on.
Entrepreneurs from Kerala are on a ‘Gold Rush’ to tap into the alluring potential of Africa. Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique are the hot favourites, followed by Egypt, Sudan, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania.
According to sources, as many as 1000 entrepreneurs from Kerala are engaged in various businesses in the once ‘Dark Continent’, ranging from agriculture to education. Cheap land and affordable labour cost are the major attractions that woo businessmen, especially from the northern districts of the state, to Africa.
C P A Bava Haji, who has been operating in Mozambique since 1989, said that Malayali entrepreneurs now focus on the resource-rich but relatively undeveloped countries of Africa for better opportunities.
“Large-scale migration happened recently. Low price of land and labour costs are the advantages of African nations,” said Haji, who now owns a range of businesses.