 4. You can hear before not an unfamiliar face of course is an integral part as far as conنتral sokay is concern brand wasala football entrepreneur and also the founder and CEO for business foundation for Africa. Good to join us. How you doing? It's been a minute it's been quite a while. I think last time was here was several months down the line right and I saw during the midweek organized something brilliant the salaman kwa apo hwanae niitwa kutikwa iwaja nByehito, tamo zimit na nisa nasup aquelesishitunya na niirobi popula pwaikimu nema na mikiwa kuni pengana kwa handlem nisha, nisha kiyaka wajini na mikiwa piru kwa kwa jaiajikisha kama kwa 15 nama piliwa, mikiwa kwa mikiwa sawapiru ma regarderhoto kwa sewa kwa kwa lakya maisha kapa kwalan mikewa kwa a神iwa kwa dina hwa mikiwa kwa kwa kwa kwa mikiwa kwa kwa mikiwa kwa nisha講inisakwa wajipo ti Wardasa hakia wadampia wajibolo gawama, pili ni акatika na na kwa matakafu wajibolo nani wanu kawapu skej wa gawangnati uwakia kutipa gukia nanima, wajimu na kutiba, Afrika mt meetsi wajibolo halwa wajibolo wajibolo maru hakia wajibolo That was the idea behind organising this Inaugural Africa Football Business Summit. You brought a lot of people who are concerned with the sports. I saw the likes of Bonfa Sambani since ya mumbo wiza policy shepa. Was it embraced by those who attended? I think the reception was very good. The feedback that we have got from those who attended was very, very positive. People say they need more platforms like this. As you mentioned, we have some key people from the industry, football legends. Apart from Ambani, I think we also had Alan Wanga there. We had a couple of KPL CEOs. We had people running some academies, people from the private sector. So these kind of platforms are really needed in Africa. Where people can network, where people can learn, where people can hatch collaboration initiatives. So that we build the whole ecosystem. In Africa we are always talking about football development. It's mainly geared towards developing players for sale. Be it within our clubs or usually to sell players abroad. But when you look at the industry more critically, you realise there's a role for different stakeholders that we haven't highlighted. We haven't thought about it as an ecosystem. We always think about it as a pipeline. I'm developing players, I want to sell them. But when you talk about sponsorship, what does it mean when it comes to football space? Even new people in media, as much as you're playing your role, but do the other stakeholders understand the role of media in developing the business of football? So that was the idea behind the summit and this was very well received. I think people learnt a lot, people made new connections, which we now hope will feed into the development of the industry. And talking about ecosystem, you're reminding me about a friend of mine who was talking to me and he was saying that in Kenya we need a sports CSU to understand sports ecosystem. Because sports nowadays does not revolve around playing and scoring goals and it goes beyond that because there has to be that commercial aspect of the game you have to understand. Because football, as we speak right now, it's a global employer and generating revenue and talking about ecosystem, how has it been like in terms of your pursuit of the continent trying to market the popular game and popular discipline and beyond Kenyan borders, how it's being treated? So as you realise, first of all, I think when I was last year this event was supposed to happen in Kigali and this was just, it's more also to bring that pan-African feel around football, around sports, which I believe is critical because as Africa we have not had the opportunity to really determine what we want to do with football. It's a very Eurocentric sports. A lot of what happens when it comes to the business of sports is dictated from Europe because that's where we have the biggest football organisation, that being FIFA and secondly, UEFA. But Africa forms a very big part of the football industry with 54 member associations. I think it's the second biggest following Europe but we don't understand the ecosystem. If you look at Europe, for example, they have their brands which have invested themselves in football. They have also created what you call the knowledge or the think tanks that continue to push education into the development of the industry, which is something we have not done in Africa and it's simply because the industry has been very Eurocentric. So by bringing these conversations here we also hope to spark interest in different sectors, our universities, are they developing the right knowledge for our industry? How many sports management courses do you have, for example, in Africa? I was surprised the university like Masinde Moliro has some sports-oriented courses but does the industry know about these courses and are we tapping into that space? So that's the idea of ecosystem and trying to bring the different players together. It's not just being in football, not as football people, I think our biggest weakness sometimes is we tend to only stick within our silos. I think you were talking earlier in the previous segment and you said KPL CEOs met. It's always KPL coaches or coaches have met but where do we find a platform where we have the KPL CEOs, yes, we have the coaches but then we have government officials, we have people coming from academia, we have the private sector coming in and discussing how is the industry operating, how is it working, where is it not working and what can we do. So that's where we need to push the agenda and also to bring in people from different parts of the continent because you find in Africa is very diverse but at the same time we struggle with the same things in different parts of Africa. So we can learn from each other if some problem has been solved in Ghana maybe the same solution can be used in Kenya but if we don't meet the people from Ghana in such platforms, how do we get to know? We waste a lot of resources solving problems that have already been solved anyway so it's high time we took a very collaborative approach to the development of the football industry in Africa. How about we listen in to the man who graced the occasion and of course that is Anthony Baffo, the African football legend having played for Black Stars of Ghana some time back and now working with World Football Governing Body FIFA and he presided over the exercise that took place in the midweek. We listen in to him speaking at the event and what he had to share with those who attended the forum. So now we have started and let the finishing take a long time and let other generations also be impacted on what you are doing. We need young, hungry, intelligent gentlemen like Brian to take African football to a different level. I can only tell you keep going, keep going, keep going. All these people here have interest in you, have interest in African football, so Kenyan football, we want Kenya football also to move to the other level. I've seen legends here, I've represented these from the players' unions as well. I'm always happy when I see the active stakeholders like the players being involved. Guys in studio led by John Vaseline and Robert Osor are almost making us to digress from whatever he's speaking about following the interview excerpts from Anthony Bafo who presided over the exercise during the midweek of African football business summit, the inaugural edition that happened at an Nairobi hotel being organized by Brian Wesella who is joining us this particular afternoon. How Bafo graced the occasion? I saw the likes of Alan Wanga and Bonfa Zambani just like you indicated, also featured prominently for local club and even national team Aramba Stars and you also invited several stakeholders, media sponsors and how was it like Bafo speaking to those who attended the forum? I think Anthony Bafo is... Why did you settle on him in the first place? It was not me who chose Bafo by the way but he was recommended by FIFA since he is currently consulting with the world governing body and the talent development scheme which I hope will soon be in Kenya once we sort out our issues here. But I must say I really appreciated Bafo as a person. I think he is one of the inspirational people we have on the continent whose profile both as a player and also as a football administrator, sports management personality should really be put to the fore. He played for Ghana but has transitioned well into the management side of the game. He is the founder of the Ghana Professional Players Association. He is a former deputy secretary general at CAF. So a wealth of experience but still somebody who is very humble and very willing to support upcoming talent both on the pitch and off the pitch in terms of inspiring. So you listen to him speak and you realize this is the kind of leadership we need in the football industry in Africa and I hope we can have more legends like Bafo. I think as well in the segment you are talking about the struggle a lot of players have transitioning from their playing days into real life if I can put it that way. So he is one of those who has made a very good transition in terms of packaging himself as somebody who is leading the industry. We see a lot of our legends here for example struggling after their careers are over. So what can they do to make this better? I think people like Anthony Bafo should be emulated in many respects for their contribution to the industry beyond the pitch. You've talked about a critical point where we've seen several former players languishing in poverty because probably they never opted for an alternative besides playing football and saying that now they should draw a lot of inspiration to the likes of Bafo. Are you trying to understand that even the current crop of active players featuring for KPL and even overseas clubs even the likes of Victor Wanyama and Michael Ingenio Lunga upon retirement they should have something else they should be doing even if it's panditri, consultancy amongst others. I think I've said this previously on the show for me football is just a tool and it's a tool that you have for a very short time and despite this we play to different levels those will go up to the European leagues where it pays very well but imagine our professional year in Kenya for example it's not really sustainable for them to depend on a football career and we have to be honest and that is why they should really invest in their education both within the sport and outside again not everybody can be a coach not everybody will be a club CEO but we need lawyers we need marketers we need media people like you are saying to do panditri and all that but at the same time we need to fashion our players in a way that they will attract people to invest in the industry we talked about brand ambassadors are these players packaging themselves or are you packaging them in a way that they become attractive to the private sector for example so that brands want to associate with the game in Kenya in Africa I think there is a lot to explore within the football sports space that we have just squashed the surface so a lot of work lays ahead and I believe we are cut out for it of course we saw last comments bringing us to that point where Ababu Namamba nomini for Cabinet Secretary position was speaking regarding brand ambassador for Kenya when Naomi Campbell was announced and the likes of Elwood Kipchoke getting omitted when they suit the position of course that will form the basis of a discussion as the show progresses once in media laughter we have taken this short commercial break we will be up next don't go away