Executive Interview
Executive Interviews
An Interview with
Farouk Khailann
Premium Africa Holdings
CEO
Premium Africa Holdings, an Africa focused investment company with assets and busineses in Ghana, Liberia, Gambia, Sierra Leone, UAE and most recently Asia.
The company operates in the areas of Road construction, Fintech, Real estate, Mining, Agribusiness, Energy and Investment consultancy. Premium Africa holdings is partner to American music star Akon for his Akon Lighting Africa project in Liberia
Publish Date:
27 January 2021
Other Countries
Location:
Tell us about your background, and how you came to found your company?
Right after university, i started visiting the Ghana stock exchange. Due to many years of reading the Forbes Magazine, i took a keen interest in monitoring stock market activies around the world. Ghana had a low public interest in the Ghana Stock Exxhange, i saw an opportunity in that situation. I took some courses at the Ghana Stock Exchange and started the Institute of Finacial Literscy to promote the concept of buying stocks especially among the youth.
I reliazed that most of the young Ghanaian musicians were not making sound financial decisions, i got close to few of them and become their invesment advisor. As an investment advisor, i became the go to person when musicians and entertainment companies needed to developed projects and proposals to present to various brands for sponsorship. Through this endevour and making presentations, i built relations with managers of various corpoarte institutions, most of theste top business executives my potential and offered me deals outside the scope of what i was doing for musicians, through that i established StockRush Ghana Limited. My value increased when i started advising families of some African presidents and hig net worth individuals who wanted to invest in Ghana.
I have always been a big thinker. After watching a documentary of Ghana;s first President Dr Kwame Nkrumah. The economic power of Africa become vivid and it defintely aligned with my thinking. Premium Africa Holdings was born. Today, i am doing business 10 African countries, UAE and Aisa through various assets and investment portfolios.
What is most important to you and your organization – mission, vision, or core values? Why?
Africa's economic liberation is our top most priority,its importance to me and my organization can not be overempazised.
With regards to our mission, Premium Africa Holdings is committed in establishing, developing, servicing, and leading business undertakings in various industries for the further development of the African continent. We are driven by the core values of integrity, excellence, customer delight, social responsibility and people. We build mutually beneficial linkages with partners who share our business philosophy. We strive to be a leader in all our business and make a meaningful contribution to national development.
By religiously upholding our core values, we believe we will acchiive our vision of becoming a world class conglomerate, spreading across Africa and beyond.
Can you explain briefly how your service(s)/product(s) works?
Our investment in financial technology has proven to be a viable decision. Ezipay is one of the fastest growing fintechs in Africa, a partnership with United Bank of Africa (UBA) has significantly contributed to that growth. EziPay is a digital payment service that acts like an online wallet, which can be used to send money to another EziPay wallet, bank account, a Visa card, ATM account (Mtn money, Orange Money, etc.) in Africa or anywhere in the world. ... The main advantage of EziPay is its instantaneous side. Indeed, transactions made with this app are all fast and instant. This means that as soon as you press the send button on your phone, the recipient instantly receives the money wherever he is in Africa. The most interesting with this app is that it allows you to send a huge amount of money. We are talking about 4000 to 5000 euros and more.
How has the industry been changing in recent years?
We see banks and finTech companies are working together. Most people rely on banks to deposit their paychecks and apply for large loans. But these banks lack the appropriate technology needed to attract younger customers. FinTech startups have this technology but lack the capital and customer pool of bigger, more established banks. Banks and FinTech companies are now partnering to increase their efficiency and offer younger customers the technology they demand in our new digital world.
What makes you different from what’s currently available in the market?
We’re not just focused on customers. Ezipay success depends on the satisfaction of our users and the success of the financial institutions we work with. That means we have to be thinking big-picture about the world of finance and customer service all the time. We have growth to understand what customer satisfaction looks like, and how customer needs keep evolving, this has kept us full committed to innovation.
What does the future hold for your company?
As a holding company, We are moving into the next phase of our journey, collaborations. We have established ourselves as an organization that clearly understands Africa's investment opportunities geography and have used our operations as litmus test. As we continue to vet potential partners from various industries, we are confident of making a decision that will impact our future positively.
When it comes to Ezipay, Covid has revealed that the demand for digital finance solutions is high, even in cash-loving countries. Coping with the increasing demand, the fintech industry made the point that its purported flexibility and adaptability are more than marketing jargon.
The interrogation now is, if these trends will continue into the new year. We know the pandemic still remains a driving force in international politics, market development and customer decisions. Our post Covid actions will cotinue to entrench innovation, growing our customer base globally and attracting the needed investment towards a unicorn status.