British-Ghanaian Entrepreneur Launches World’s First Global African-Owned Stationery Company
Christopher Osei – Frimpong grew up in South London, UK, and has had an eye for business from an early age. By the of age 16 Chris sold sweets to his peers in college and he went on to project manage major club night, concerts and comedy show events across Europe which attracted a total of up to 50,000 delegates
As a proud member of the Ghanaian diaspora, Chris has always had a keen interest in conducting business in Africa. After visiting Ghana in 2014, Chris embraced the culture and core values of Ghanaians and Africans as a whole in the world of business and enterprise. He had an “Aha Moment” during his visit that would change his life which led him to start up a stationery business called A4Africa, which stands for “Africans for Africa''. A4africa was founded in March 2015 'to create lasting products and services– that honour and empower Africans.' The aim of A4Africa is to supply African and global markets with quality products that are cost effective and reflect the immense possibilities that the continent has to offer.
“Our concept of designing an A4 paper brand that is quality and cost effective is to meet the increasing need for A4 paper within Africa. A4Africa was established with the intention of increasing both educational and entrepreneurial opportunities in Africa – and with providing vision and leadership to the areas that need it most.” Chris Osei-Frimpong, CEO & Founder of A4Africa.
A4Africa is also passionate about corporate social responsibility and will support children to go to school in Ghana during summer holidays with the project 'Camp Africa'. Camp Africa project volunteers will work closely with Ghanaian children; honouring Ghanaian culture as well as teaching various subjects including leadership and Entrepreneurship. Camp Africa will provide the opportunity for diaspora from all over the globe to connect, the importance of encouraging volunteers of African heritage is in order for the children to be inspired by people who have a true likeness to themselves so we aim to have 10 volunteers of African descent in 2016. In 2016 we also aim to support 100 children with enrolment in to schools.
A4Africa was started from a vision and a dream in Ghana but it is set to take over the world of office stationery with products including notebooks and A4 Paper.
For more information, interview requests and images:
Ronke Lawal
Info@ariatupr.com
Twitter @A4AfricaUK
Web: www.a4africa.com
Notes To Editor
All products are manufactured in China & Mexico, to European standard and distributed across Africa and The world.
• The total value of paper imports to Ghana alone is $164,703,492. Paper is one of the top 50 products imported to Ghana - Global Edge 2013.
• Africa represents a huge market for stationery, according to a recent report issued by the Emirates Industrial Bank Journal, demand for stationery and allied paper products in Africa has seen a growth of almost 27 per cent in the last two years.
• "African investment in education, among the highest in the world in terms of percentage of GDP, can barely keep up with the heavy demand for learning,”- Howard French, author of China’s Second Continent: How a Million Migrants Are Building a New Empire in Africa.
• Estimates from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) predict total paper consumption to rise from the current 400 million tons to between 450-millionand 500-million tons by 2020.
• "In the developing countries with market economies, there has been a significant increase in self-sufficiency in all grades, although most of the newsprint still has to be imported. Africa and the Near East are still heavily dependent on imports, while the Far East and, especially, Latin America have already reached relatively high rates of self-sufficiency in printing- and writing-paper and other paper and paperboard." - L. Lintu, Industry Planning Officer, Pulp and Paper Branch. Forest Industries Division.
• Africa’s GDP collective is expected to rise $2.6 trillion by 2020 – United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division,McKinsey Institute
• Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria and Tanzania, are among the world’s top 10 fastest growing economies, based on 2011-2015 estimates by The Economist.
• By 2030, the top 18 cities are projected to have $1.3 trillion combined spending power. - United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, McKinsey Institute
• Spending by African consumers is projected to rival that of Russia and India, with Sub-Saharan Africa's consumers generating up to $1.4 trillion by 2020. Equivalent to annual average spending of $520 billion - United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, McKinsey Institute
• Paper industry business employed 2,582 in Africa for year ended 31 December 2015 according Bruce Strong CEO Mpact
• The Paper business reported revenue of 11.8 to R7.0 billion in south Africa
• Underlying operating profit increased by 13.0% to R803 million due higher selling prices for Mpact.
• It appears that the overall consumption of paper and board in CEPI countries in 2014 increased by between 0.5% and 1.0% - CEPI aisbl (http://www.paper.org.uk/members/statistics/papermaking/euannual/CEPI_PreliminaryStatistics_2014.pdf)