This article comes from the WeChat public account: new Weekly (ID: new-weekly), OF: non Yan, from the head of FIG: Africa’s Business Heroes theme videos

Africa today is like China in the 1980s and 1990s. If you want to invest, you have to “groom for gold”. It’s just that fighting in Africa may be more than just making money.

It is getting harder and harder for young people who want to break through the class.

The last-tier cities have been working for more than ten years. They ca n’t afford the mortgage of a local house, and they have to face a middle-age crisis. After working hard to start a business, I discovered that the market has become a Red Sea, and rent, water, electricity and employee salaries are not so good to deal with. More and more people find that opportunities are elsewhere.

But if it ’s not Zhu Once, the word “non-float” may not get an explosive discussion today.

Zhu once set up the universe, has already used the short video platform to gain popular support, and a while ago, the video “The Wave” of the promo film “After the Wave” of Station B was made a circle.

Someone lamented in the barrage: “Houlang talks about the life of 13,000 of the 130 million young people, not the life of the rest of Lang (talks about).”

It is true that when it comes to the African market, people in venture capital circles may still shine their eyes. This commercial soil, which has barely been reclaimed, is still in the stage of being able to make news by opening a textile factory, and it is no wonder that more and more people are looking for opportunities to get rich in Africa.

But really here, people are talking about more not illusory terms such as VC, PE, venture capital, angel wheel, but malaria, Ebola, robberyEven shootouts, and “when to go home”.

“Who wants to come to Africa if you are not making money”

In the 1980s and 1990s, opportunities in the Chinese market were everywhere. The strugglers of that year gradually grew into today’s rich generation. Regrettably, the young people who failed to become the second generation of the rich and thought they were hopelessly struggling in China began to turn their attention to Africa.

Aliang, who worked in Congo in 2017, currently works as a financer in a Chinese-owned private oil company. The company expanded its business to Africa in 2013 and currently has thousands of employees, with Chinese employees and African employees accounting for half of each.

Talking about the initial opportunity, in addition to wanting to get more life experience, the biggest driving force is money: “You can only save 10,000 or 20,000 a year in the country, and you can earn a month in Africa. Why not come?”

Fearing that the network is not good, A Liang directly dropped the entire album link. The picture shows the oilfield equipment. / Photo courtesy of the interviewee

Because of the company ’s accommodation, A Liang does n’t spend much money every day, so he sends it home and saves it. More than a dozen people are mining oil in the suburbs more than 20 kilometers away, and live in apartment-style yards. The company has its own farm and grows vegetables to raise poultry to meet daily needs.

Work is hard. A Liang takes a break every 5 months. One break is 1 month, but he has not returned home for 3 Chinese New Years. Outside of work, he reads books and plays football, and gathers with Chinese colleagues to barbecue. If it’s not the black face around you, you might still feel that you are still in China.

But after leaving the company, they don’t have much entertainment. Prices are generally high, and the prices for eating, using, and living are basically 1.5 times those in China, which makes them more willing to stay in dormitories.

Li key is because of the professional relationship involved in the African continent. After graduating from English, I was confused and entered an interpreting agency.He went to Uganda to support education, and later left to work in the local area. A year and a half later, he resigned and returned to China, but because of the family’s pharmaceutical business, he was able to return to Africa.

Li Key, who grew up by the sea, also likes to see the rivers and seas of Uganda. / Photo courtesy of the interviewee, by Lake Victoria

However, Africa ’s first impression of them is not good.

What can be done in a few hours in the country will take several days in Africa. Deadline is chasing you, you are chasing the clerk, and the clerk is doing nothing.

Infrastructure is also unsatisfactory. In Congo, the power was cut off almost every day, and the water was cut off in January. The signal was only 3G, and the purchase traffic was very expensive. Sending WeChat is okay, and swiping short videos will be hard.

Even if there is no new crown, it used to sound like distant malaria and Ebola. It is a short distance from here. A Liang’s colleague Xiao He had malaria, had a fever, blood test, and injections. Fortunately, they did not have the opportunity to get close to Ebola.

The ubiquitous security risks are also threatening them. It’s impossible to go out alone, order is very easy to be robbed, and the head may fall.

In order to prevent being robbed while on the phone alone, some people only buy a cheap phone with a price of a hundred dollars. In some areas of Kenya where security is worrying, there will be some traffic police who stop Chinese cars and will be fined at will, such as “the tires are flat on the road”.