Shifting perspective from NGO to Business

Daniel Pungu moved to the Netherlands from Congo and for the past 10 years he has been working with an NGO. Having seen many good things done by NGOs in Africa, Daniel started to believe that a business revolving around sustainability is the answer to fighting poverty on his continent. That is the reason he began working on developing his business ideas, planning to enter the agricultural industry and working on contextualizing sustainable development in the African culture.

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Daniel’s story

Before joining Itzinya, I did not have expectations or goals. I went with a mind-set of learning and experiencing, wanting to experience what it was all about. But Itzinya has helped me, especially in shifting my perspective from one of an NGO worker to that of an entrepreneur.

Itzinya is accessible for everybody, all ages, all backgrounds. I would especially recommend Itzinya to you if you do not have a business background at all. The course really encourages people to explore and enter the business world, especially if they do not share any connection with it. Itzinya is not just a general course about initiating a start-up, but also revolves around providing practical information on what it takes to make a business stable in the Netherlands. Furthermore, Itzinya also assists you to contact potential partners who would like to invest in your business.

The facilitators help develop the business ideas and follow up on each person’s idea development individually. Even after graduation, the facilitators have been following up with us. This means that once you join Itzinya, you are accompanied from the beginning of the course until you launch your business. The group that took the course was very friendly as well and we keep in touch and from time to time see how each of us are doing.

Next step

Right now Daniel is working on turning his great vision into a viable business model, using the Business Model Canvas.

Congo

Congo

The Democratic Republic of Congo is a country in Central Africa. Other than it’s 40-km coastline on the Atlantic Ocean, it is a landlock country. In the continent of Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo is the second largest country with the total population of 1 million, consisting of more than 200 ethnic groups.

Congo houses the largest forest reserve in Africa. In addition to this, the country holds a rich reserve of natural resources, enjoying extensive deposits of resources such as diamonds, cobalt, hydropower and many more.