Africa Business Communities

[Interview] Ronke Lawal, Founder of Ariatu PR, London

Ronke Lawal is Nigerian-British founder of Ariatu PR, London. Her interview with Africa Business Communities:

Would you please introduce Ariatu PR?

Ariatu Public Relations is a PR and Marketing agency which provides marketing management, public relations and communications consultancy to small businesses and entrepreneurs. We seek to raise the overall brand coverage of all our clients.

In which industries does Ariatu PR operate and who are your clients?

Ariatu PR is geared towards a number of different business sectors and we currently represent clients in variety of industries including the entertainment, fashion, lifestyle & beauty, food, luxury goods sectors and corporate sector. I love working with ambitious businesses which is why the vast majority of our most recent clients have been from across Africa. African entrepreneurs have a hunger and appetite for doing business which is unprecedented and most certainly not documented enough in Western Media. This is why it is so exciting to undertake press and media campaigns to address this much needed balance of perspectives about African business and business owners.

What are the USPs of your business?

Ariatu PR is dedicated to excellence and dedicated to going above and beyond the call of duty for our clients. We want the world to know that African Businesses can be and are professional, newsworthy and adaptable to change and our genuine passion for sharing this message.

By staying focused on who are clients are and being authentic has been a powerful USP as it helps us to maintain our integrity in all that we do. What you see is pretty much what you get and fundamentally this principle works in business, much in the same way as it does in life.

Why did you start Ariatu PR?

The company was founded in 2004 at a time in my life when I was hungry for change. I wasn’t satisfied in full-time employment; working in a role that was not really for me but it paid the bills. I had suppressed my entrepreneurial spirit for a long time and so when I chose to become self-employed I was realising my dream and creating my own journey. I started the business whilst I was still working and saved money from my job before becoming fully self-employed. I drew up a concise business plan and got to work from there – my main focus at the time was to network; my research showed me that networking was crucial in growing business. I basically started my business because I wanted to find the real part of myself that had been hidden from the world because I had been following what I thought the world wanted from me for too long.

What did you do before you started Ariatu PR?

I worked with the Insolvency Service upon leaving university and then moved on to the DTI. I then started working as a finance and personnel manager for a top health and fitness company. My passion was really for business development and marketing but I could not get a role in the sector or via graduate schemes at the time. I took on my first client whilst I was still working and left my job to focus on creating my own career. I started my own business full time when I was 23.

What other companies/organizations/activities have you founded?

I have always enjoyed starting businesses; I once ran a dinner dating agency, before all the online dating sites started running experiential activities. It was fun but I should have found a tech business partner to work with on that because we would be millionaires by now if I had. I was also a partner in a luxury fashion label which did well for a number of years however we decided to focus on different aspects of our professional journeys.

Between 2010-2012 I was the CEO of The Islington Chamber of Commerce, a challenging but worthwhile position which taught me so much about business, life and myself.

Do you think women entrepreneurs typically have a harder time accessing loans through traditional bank channels?

The most certainly do have a harder time! The reason is simple. Those in power in these banks and loans institutions do not represent women effectively.

 The African Development Bank's published a report in 2015 entitled “Where are the Women? Inclusive Boardrooms in Africa’s Top-Listed Companies”, one of the first of its kind.  The report found that “32.9 per cent of African companies in the survey have no women on their boards, 33.6 per cent have only one woman on their boards, resulting in two-thirds of companies with minimal female presence at best. Just 18.9 per cent have two women on their boards.” How can we expect women to be given opportunities to fund and grow their businesses if there are no women who represent them in the first place? In the event that there are no women working at the senior management positions in these banks then at the very least we need men who are open minded, who have a different mindset from the typical attitude of men. Let me quote two great MALE African leaders:

“Comrades, there is no true social revolution without the liberation of women. May my eyes never see and my feet never take me to a society where half the people are held in silence. I hear the roar of women’s silence. I sense the rumble of their storm and feel the fury of their revolt.”  ― Thomas Sankara

“Freedom cannot be achieved unless women have been emancipated from all forms of oppression… Our endeavors must be about the liberation of the woman, the emancipation of the man and the liberty of the child.” – Nelson Mandela.

The equality of which these men speak is fundamental and starts with the financial freedom of women across Africa. I am doing my small part as a Mentor for The Cherie Blair Foundation, however I know that there is so much more to do.

What can you say about the targets, plans and ambitions of Ariatu PR for the rest of 2015?

I want Ariatu PR to be great and I want to full express my gifts through the greatness of Ariatu PR. I will expand across Africa, assigning account managers in Francophone and Lusophone Africa. I want to work with bigger clients with even bigger budgets to enable us to create an impact for their brands and their business. I want to be an ambassador for change; there are so many factors that have to some degree created challenges during my business and professional life – my race, gender, age and even my identity as a British-Nigerian. I want to continue to overcome any challenges and only share them to let whoever is reading this piece know that no matter what limitations people place on you, it is up to you to overcome and excel.

Do you believe Social Media and the Internet to be a plus to the business environment, as it applies to your industry?

I love the use of digital platforms to share messages and ideas. When I first started in business I used to be a member of pretty much any online business forum that would allow me to join. I made friends, shared ideas and most importantly found clients using digital platforms. They are a powerful means of sharing marketing and PR messages and of undertaking business research. Social media has helped to drive forward social, political and even economic change. This is an undeniable fact and so it often confuses and troubles me when I meet some African business owners who have no interest in social media for marketing purposes. If the President of Nigeria can have a twitter handle then there really is no excuse for a growing business no matter how big or small.

Which African countries will perform best in 2015?

Nigeria – It is not really necessary to explain why Nigeria will do well because the business media coverage reflects the vast scope of opportunity in this nation. The question now is what the new leadership will do to ensure that Nigeria stabilizes its economy and flourishes as it should.

Angola – The Angolan government wants to diversify production away from oil, and agricultural production is its top choice to achieve that. They are investing heavily in agribusiness and the economy is thriving enough for them to offer financial “aid” to their former colonial rulers, Portugal.

Kenya – The Global Entrepreneurship Summit is taking place this year in Nairobi, with Barack Obama at the forefront of the summit. This alone should be an indication of the promise Kenya is showing.

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Africa Business Communities is conducting a series of interviews with CEOs and high-end professionals in Africa. Are you interested in an interview? Please send an e-mail to Andrea Ayemoba: andrea@africabusinesscommunities.com

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