Talking business with Founder of Steers and Debonairs Pizza, Azam Samanani.

Steers and Debonairs Pizza, two fast food chains, launched in Kenya sixteen years ago. Azam Samanani – managing director of Hoggers Limited, the firm that runs the two franchises – told How we made it in Africa’s Dinfin Mulupi about doing business in Kenya’s restaurant market. Below are excerpts.

Steers launched in Kenya sixteen years ago. What was the inspiration then?
Sixteen years ago, the vision was that there was a market here for people who wanted international quality offerings. We have done pretty well since the beginning. We now run eight Steers and five Debonairs Pizza stores. There has always been a market for excellence and sixteen years ago we were the only ones doing this whereas today there are more people doing it and more people trying to do it.

There are unique business challenges to doing things right in different environments.
Africa has its unique challenges, Kenya has its unique challenges and Nairobi has its unique challenges. Every time someone tries to take an experience that isn’t organic to the environment and tries to

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2 Great Kenyan incubation centers to launch your business.

Kenyan entrepreneurs seeking to start a business usually have a very hard time. Capital for starting is in short supply as banks are unwilling to lend to an untried client that has not made a name in the business circles. Clients are unwilling to commit, and most certainly employees are unwilling to be employed by a company that has yet to show any future growth prospects. 

What’s more, office space and internet are certainly out of reach from many budding entrepreneurs. To address this need, a few incubation centers have come up where one can incubate their ideas, be mentored and nurtured, sometimes be linked up with capital lenders and markets, and eventually see

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5 Career Tips for Women; Lessons from Facebook’s most powerful woman employee.

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's No. 2 executive and outspoken voice on the obstacles women face in the corporate world, offers a blueprint for change in her new book "Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead."

1. Sit at the table.
Plagued by self-doubt and "feeling like a fraud," women consistently underestimate themselves and their abilities, Sandberg writes. For a host of reasons, women often hold themselves back by literally not sitting at the table where decisions are made. Instead, they choose to watch from the sidelines. She urges institutions and individuals to encourage and promote women. And she encourages women to sit at the table and raise their hands. Men are already doing it, after all.

2. When negotiating, "Think personally, act communally."
Preface salary negotiations by explaining that you know women often get paid less than men, so you are going to "negotiate rather than accept the original offer," she writes. This way, women can position

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Budget: Interns to be hired in new scheme.

The government will enter into partnerships with private companies so that experienced graduates can be hired to gain skills and experience. In the budget estimates read on Thursday by The cabinet secretary for Treasury, Henry Rotich, private companies that take in fresh university graduates and

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Budget: Elearning to take center Stage.

The government will purchase nearly 1.5 million laptops for the elearning program, Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich read out in the budget. The Kenyatta administration had made the one laptop per child a critical cornerstone of their campaign agenda, something that the President intends to begin rolling out next year. However, concerns remain whether the move is a right one, given that many teachers have

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6 Ways stay safe on public wi-fi hotspots.

With the number of Wi-Fi hotspots in Kenya increasing, it's getting easier to connect your laptop, smartphone or tablet to a public wireless broadband connection. But due to our eagerness to check emails while sipping coffee at Java, or while taking a ride on a Rongai Matatu with wi-fi (true story), we often forget about the substantial security and privacy-risks presented by insecure connections. Here’s how you can protect your privacy while using public Wi-Fi hotspots.

Connection type
It's always a good idea to understand what type of W-Fi connection you're accessing, so you can better adjust your online behaviour. The most insecure network type is an unencrypted network, which basically leaves your data completely exposed. An unencrypted network will also mean someone

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South Africa to return stolen Gaddaffi wealth to Libya.

South Africa will return the stolen wealth of Muammar Gaddaffi back to Libya, state officials said. Muammar Gaddafi, the deposed Libyan leader, operated many overseas accounts, that it was difficult to separate family wealth from the country’s wealth. The amount to be expatriated is a billion dollars,

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Budget: Economy to grow by 7 percent.

The economy is expected to grow by about 7 percent in the 2013/14 financial year, far below the double digit growth that the Jubilee government had promised. If you factor in inflation and the growth in population, then such growth is merely for maintaining the same standards of living, and not for lifting 'millions out of poverty' that had been envisioned under a double digit growth.

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Budget: Northern Kenya to gain from equalization fund.

Northern Kenya is among the winners of this years’ budget. An equalization fund for the region has been extended, and new developments are expected to take place in the region. Even though the region sits on vast natural resources, it remains the poorest part of Kenya. Oil was discovered in Turkana early last year, but full exploitation will only be realized in the next three years or so. Similarly, a Chinese company will be setting up a solar power plant in Garissa, one of the largest in Africa.

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Budget: Public debt to sky rocket.

The government is expected to borrow up to 328 billion shillings to plug the budget deficit in the 2013/2014 budget, Treasury cabinet secretary Henry Rotich said in his budget estimates on Thursday. The government could adopt a raft measures as it seeks to raise more money. It could tax us more, either through the introduction of the VAT Bill that will see prices of basic goods like milk and bread shoot up by as much as 16 percent

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