Sucex Bright is the founder of the Focus Africa Series Projects. Focus Africa, one of Africa’s leadership, business, and entrepreneurship platforms, was established with a mission to tell the stories of African people, its businesses and culture, and to beam to the world the success stories found in the continent.
Born four decades ago in Abia State Nigeria, Sucex Bright has distinguished himself as a trail blazer and a social change-maker. He has an impressive resume that includes excelling as a banker and a product marketer.
His work history includes: Finance staff at Shell Nigerian Gas, Business Development Executive at Finbank, Administrative Manager at Mek Oil & Gas and later on Mekatrice Diagnostics Ltd where he was part of the team that brokered a partnership deal between Newham University Teaching Hospital East London and Mekatrice Diagnostics Limited.
Sucex Bright consults for a number of high-profile organizations around the world. In 2010, he became the youngest director at Integral OD, a management consulting firm in the United Kingdom and Italy, where he oversees the West African region developing training programs for middle level managers.
In this interview with Weekender, he speaks on how he is projecting Africa to the world by telling its success story, through his renowned platform, Focus Africa.
Take us through the journey of founding ‘Focus Africa’
My name is Sucex Bright Ibeh, I founded Focus Africa Series Projects which was birthed in 2017 to drive the Pan-African vision by propagating success stories of credible African achievers geared at changing the wrong global perception about Africa because we considered it imperative to tell our own story ourselves cutting across culture, businesses, entertainment, education and other strata of our society
My first approach was to invite some young African entrepreneurs from Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and Cameroon to help me tell their stories that have made a significant impact in their communities. A year later, the project took off properly, and since then, we have been working hard to expand to every country on the continent.
Our main objective is to change the negative narratives associated with our continent by telling the stories of our successes, and efforts made by our heroes, and at the same time showcasing the economic opportunities and raw potentials in Africa.
Focus Africa was established to tell the stories of African people, our businesses, and culture, and to beam to the world the success stories found in the continent. How are you able to do this, and what informs the choice of the African culture or businesses being projected?
Our first strategy was to get others involved, especially in other countries, and because they were already attending our conferences, it was easy to have sessions with them where we shared in detail, our desire to tell the African story the right way, eight out of every 10 persons we spoke to found our project interesting, and they joined our team.
Driving our culture values is a vital component of our vision because of the tourism potential it holds for the continent, from the Horn of Ethiopia to the safari in Kenya, the cultural diversity in Nigeria to Zulu Natal in South Africa, the colours of Africa are things we see as stories worth telling to the world. And then to business, we are blessed with abundant resource deposits in Africa so much that a lot of them are exported in their raw form to developed countries and exported back to us as finished products and we pay so much to buy them. Imagine the PARADOX, so we are using our platform to create awareness of the need for us to produce what we consume and consume what we produce in Africa. This awareness we believe will lead us to innovative ways of doing business to grow our economies.
Tell us some of the success stories you have recorded from Focus Africa?
In the last five years, we have created memories that have lingered. This is is evidenced in the way people respond to our invitation in several countries across the continent and from the Diaspora. To cap our efforts, a few weeks ago, the Africana Women Working Group recognized us with the United Nations status and appointed us, The Lead For Africa, Gender Priority Strategy, this status empowers us to continue Championing women programs in the whole of Africa. I must tell you that getting here has been a lot of work.
Among other things we have done successfully, our leading and Emerging Women Conferences and retreat have stood out. In 2022, we launched Princess Dr. Folashade Omotade’s Entrepreneurship fund whilst empowering women with N500,000 each to start up or scale up existing businesses. Countless others have been mentored directly through our business classes. Our M&E report reveals positive outcomes of this initiative.
We have facilitated trade partnerships between companies in different countries in Libya, South Sudan, Cameroon, and Nigeria, to mention a few, especially at our 2021 Focus Africa Science, Innovation, and Commodity Expo. In 2022, we organized a conference on the ease of doing business in Africa which was hosted in Cameroon, we explored unified payment options for businesses and then, later on, took the discussions to South Sudan in East Africa for a stakeholders Forum on Leadership and Inclusion.
In 2023, we successfully hosted the Focus Africa regional summit on Trade in Ethiopia and the Focus Africa Investment Summit in Casablanca Morocco.
You have a resume that includes excelling as a banker and a product marketer. Were these your areas of specialization in school? And take us through your experiences in these fields.
I hold a Higher National Diploma in Accounting from Abia State Polytechnic, and a PGD in Business Administration from the University of Ado Ekiti, after schooling, I got a job with an insurance firm before going into the banking sector. I worked briefly with Opone Johnson Chartered Accountants in Isolo Lagos, then Niger Insurance at Anthony Lagos before moving to First Inland Bank. I left Finbank and became the deputy branch manager at Cross Over Mortgage Bank in Surulere but resigned one day in 2015 to start up the Orator Club.
After successfully running the children’s club for two years, I set up a team that helped me transition the company to Africa Youth Leadership and Economic Summit Group AYLES, and in 2017, we hosted our first major African-wide conference for youths who came in their numbers from many countries. I wasn’t satisfied with just talking to youths alone, I desired a platform that brings accomplished people and emerging leaders together in one place, which led us to start the Focus Africa Series Projects in 2019.
In 2010, you became the youngest director at Integral OD, a management consulting firm in the United Kingdom and Italy, where you oversaw the West African region developing training programs for middle-level managers. How old were you when you became the director of Integral OD? And what did you do differently from your predecessors?
I was 33 at the time, and I was the pioneer director for Integral OD in Africa. So, I had to develop a road map for her operations in Africa. I learned quite a lot from the Founder Graeme Jolly, which helped transform me into the leader I am becoming. One such lesson is how to become a resilient leader.
In 2014, you became the Business Development Manager at London Academy Business School for Nigerian Business. Can you share a bit of your experience here, especially as a Nigerian manning a key position in a UK institution?
Larry Jones trusted me with that position, and it was quite a huge experience i gathered on the job, I learnt some invaluable lessons that are helping me lead Focus Africa. I planned the launch of the Africa Youth Chamber of Commerce and Investment fund for entrepreneurs while at LABS. With the complexities at the time, we were able to design a workable framework for it.
In 2021, you were recognized by the Libyan Government for your role in promoting unity across the continent. How have you promoted unity across the African continent?
So we have taken our campaign to many countries across Africa, countries that are having diplomatic issues with each other, like Rwanda and Congo DR, Nigeria with South Africa and have tried to initiate a dialogue that has helped some communities have a rethink about their age long issues with the others. An example of that was when we hosted a conference in Nigeria in 2023, many business people from South Africa were discouraged from attending the conference but we reached out to their high commissioner and guaranteed their safety, and they had beautiful experiences afterward. We have played a huge part in organizing programs that fostered friendships, partnerships across the continent, and reintegrating countries like Libya, Sudan, South Sudan, CAR, and Somaliland into African Economic discussions.
In 2017, you founded Focus Africa Series Projects, which now have a presence in 29 countries in Africa, a Diaspora office in London, United Kingdom, and Dallas, Texas, United States of America. What motivated you to start the Focus Africa Series Projects?
For far too long, our stories as Africans have been told the wrong way, we are seen by the West as an underdeveloped continent and to make matters worse, we Africans at one time or another have also collaborated with them to tell our own stories negatively, this shows in the way we abandoned our culture and embraced the imported ways of doing things, our marriage process is one good example. So we had a meeting in 2017 and decided that we needed to do something to change the narratives, and one way to do that was through storytelling. This is why at Focus Africa, we tell the stories of our people, our culture, and businesses, beaming to the world the success stories found in Africa and the efforts of our hidden heroes. Bringing to the fore the rich natural deposit and human capital on the continent.
Having worked in several countries and excelled in various positions, what would you say are lessons Nigeria can learn from other countries as regards business sustainability amid harsh operating environment?
Nigerian business owners are not doing badly. What is needed badly is a robust handshake between policymakers and the organized private sector, which will be a win-win for the economy. With the abundant resources in Nigeria, if the right policies are made regarding taxation, cash flow, access to business support loans for MSMEs, and SMEs, there is going to be a huge turn around. Nigeria’s government can also learn a thing or two from the East African block. I also believe that resolving border crises with Nigerian neighbouring countries will aid exports. This will involve a deliberate, sustained effort towards fighting terrorism
Who are your role models, and how have these people shaped your journey in the business world?
I have a couple of people I watch their lifestyle and their actions, so I will only talk about a few I have come in close contact with, Larry Jones Esan of London Academy Business School, Ugochukwu Unachukwu of Recorvery House, Graeme Jolly of Integral OD, Edwin George of AOS Helicopters, Dr Kingsley Emeka Oboti GMD Mekatrice Group and Alanyingi Uduak Sylva. These people live their talk.
Particularly, I learned from Kingsley Oboti, that anything and everything is achievable once you are committed to it.
What are the challenges you have faced in projecting Focus Africa Series Projects, and how have you navigated these challenges?
First amongst the few challenges we have experienced is language barriers, traveling through many countries and having to communicate what you want to do hasn’t been easy, so to effectively operate we have to always find a translator who can speak our language and our host community language. Secondly, trust issues have also made our work a bit difficult, especially in countries with diplomatic rows. Then thirdly the high cost of travelling through Africa is made worse by the absence of an interconnecting transport system.
What is your advice for young entrepreneurs looking to expand or set up their businesses but have limited funds to do so?
I must say that idea proceeds capital, so to young people who want to start up a business, I will advise them to fine-tune their ideas. When your idea is good enough and you can communicate it effectively, you will get people who becomes interested and they will fund it. This is my example. We didn’t have funds when we started, but today, after showing up consistently every day to talk about our vision, we have many people in many countries funding our processes.
