Several people worldwide have heard about the potential benefits of working in Africa. In addition to its rich resources, this part of the world also has an abundance of cheap labor, which makes it a great place for businesses that want to lower their production costs. Many international corporations have taken advantage of this opportunity by establishing subsidiaries or branches there—and many more are sure to follow suit. However, not everyone who goes to Africa aspires only to discover new business opportunities and exploit local workers. Some individuals go there with a much loftier objective: to make a real impact and help people in need. This is what inspired Mr. Nyambe Nyambe Ajuk, who is also known as NJ Ayuk when he left his home country of Tanzania and moved to Nigeria back in 2008—with the sole purpose of starting his law firm that would serve as a stepping stone for young African professionals trying to establish themselves in the industry.

How Ayuk Took Advantage of the Internet to Build His Conglomerate

Like many successful entrepreneurs who have gone down this path before him, one of the first things Ayuk did when he arrived in Nigeria was to connect with other professionals in his field. In this case, he met a young man named Jones, who had an engineering background and was looking for a job. Impressed by his skills and eagerness to succeed, Ayuk offered him a position at his company, and he eagerly accepted. As you might already know, Ayuk didn’t have a particular job for Jones then; however, he had a laptop computer, a dial-up internet connection, and a telephone line. In other words, he had all the tools he needed to start business remotely.

So that’s exactly what he did: he signed up for a Virtual Private Server (VPS), where he hosted his website, and then paid a local telecom company to provide him with a telephone number to receive calls. Then he shared these details with Jones, who started taking calls and offering Ayuk’s engineering services to his prospective clients. As Ayuk gradually started hiring more people and building a legitimate business, he could rent office space and hire employees in person. He continued to operate his business remotely, though, which allowed him to keep his overhead costs low and hire the best engineers he could find—regardless of their location or level of experience. ## How a Bigger Purpose Drives NJ Ayuk’s Success in Africa

As we said earlier, Ayuk didn’t go to Nigeria just to become rich or make a name for himself in the engineering industry; he wanted to serve as many people as possible and ensure that his services were truly helping people in need. In this sense, he could be considered a social entrepreneur, which is someone who uses business as a tool to solve social problems. For example, one of Ayuk’s early projects was the installation of a solar-powered water pump in a small village with no access to clean water. As you might know, this is a major issue in Africa, where water has to be transported manually from nearby wells or lakes. To this day, Ayuk’s company continues to install solar-powered water pumps and provide other engineering services to help alleviate the country’s water crisis.