My Tanzania
FRED VUNJABEI
To many fashion-conscious Tanzanians, entrepreneur Fred Fabian Ngajiro is known simply as ‘Fred Vunjabei’, such is the fame of his franchise of discount clothing stores. There are now more than 10 Vunjabei outlets across the country and the brand has extended to include sports products, pharmaceuticals and even fast food. Here the shilling multi-billionaire reveals the many failures he experienced before achieving his dreams and who he hopes will be the next big name signing for his music label, Too Much Money. Q: Where do you think your drive to succeed in business comes from? A: I was raised in Iringa by entrepreneurial parents. My family were engaged in agriculture, the timber business, vitenge fabrics, transport and guest houses. I got my first experience of retail trading from them. I was encouraged to focus on my schoolwork, but at the weekends and during the holidays I would help my father. As a result I had an entrepreneurial energy in me even before I started as a student at the University of Dar es Salaam Business School. I researched that the most in-demand items for students were computers and DVD players. The only capital I had to buy the goods was my student loan from the government, which was supposed to cover my daily expenses. It was a risk, but I felt I didn’t have a choice. In the end I used half of my loan to buy DVD players and found most of my student customers were at universities in the north of the country. The business was kind of successful, which gave me the desire and determination to carry on. Q: You’ve built a multi-billion business empire and yet you are still in your early 30s. What do you put the speed of your success down to? A: It has taken longer than you might think. Though I had a successful business venture running as a student, I knew the best capital was to get an education and complete my bachelors degree. For the next six years or
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so I was employed in private and government institutions, but at the same time I was trying hard to get a lot of my own start-up business ventures going. I tried writing books, running boda boda and dala dala public transport businesses, selling cows and running a butchers, preparing documents for lenders in banks, commissioning and selling used cars, importing phones and accessories and starting fast food restaurants and clothing businesses, but most were failures. I made plenty of mistakes and losses, but I did not get discouraged. All the while I was understanding more about business techniques and modalities. I got the confidence to resign from the government and invest wholeheartedly in the fashion business. I started the Vunjabei brand, which is today the best and biggest fashion company in Tanzania. Q: Who is your primary target market with the Vunjabei stores? A: Vunjabei offers the best cut-price fashionables clothes for men, women and children. It targets a wide range of low- and middle-income earners from the streets. All services are provided through its extensive stores network and online platforms. Q: You must bump into people wearing Vunjabei clothes all the time. How does that make you feel? A: It is a really good feeling indeed. It’s the
same as when a politician promises voters and finally wins. Whenever I meet people with our goods I feel like I owe them to provide even more quality and fashion-value products. Q: You are renowned as Tanzania youngest shilling billionaire and run a music label called Too Much Money, does having wealth and success bring its own challenges? A: I was born into an average family and there were many poor people around us. There is great difficulty in being poor, but having money can also be a challenge. As my business has expanded I have been exposed to many enemies and opponents. Now I need security and have to be more careful. Some relatives and even old friends have become resentful or critical of my success. Fame has come at a great cost to my freedom to the extent that I can no longer visit some of my favourite places or do the things I used to love to do. Q: You are well educated, know the analytics of business and have plenty of experience as an entrepreneur, but how big a role do you think instinct still plays in making important decisions? A: I have always said that the first thing that differentiates those who succeed and those who fail is decision making. This is the only factor that makes one person rich and another poor. Having the ability to
