Britain, The rise and rise of black business (3/3)

British African entrepreneurs are increasingly making a major contribution to London and the UK through job creation, employment, GDP, income and wealth creation.

Examples of London's successful British African business people include:

Adam Afriyie - a multi-millionaire British-born Ghanaian businessman and the conservative MP for Windsor. He was founder of Connect Service - an IT service company pioneering fixed-price support. Connect Services was recognised in the Virgin Sunday Times Fasttrack 100 of Britain's fastest growing firms in 2002. Afriye is also a non-executive chairman of Adfero Ltd, an information services company. He is reputed to be worth £40m.

Dr Ken Ife - the Nigerian-born manufacturing chemist, educationist and international economic development consultant, who has been running his businesses for the past 20 years with controlling interests, including cosmetics manufacturing and computer education.

Alexander Amosu - a 30-year-old second generation Nigerian multi-millionaire and founder of mobile phone RnB music Ringtones. He identified a gap in the market while an engineering student at university and earned £1m in his first year of trading.

Oswald Boateng - a menswear designer widely credited with introducing Savile Row tailoring to a new generation. The British-born Ghanaian also designs clothes for a celebrity clientele, including former British prime minister Tony Blair, Hollywood actors Will Smith and Lawrence Fishburne, and rocker MickJagger.

Sam Gyimah - founder and MD of Clearstone, one of the fastest growing HGV (Heavy Goods Vehicle) recruitment companies in Britain. The 30-year-old British- Ghanaian entrepreneur graduated from Oxford University and worked for the investment bank, Goldman Sachs, before setting up Clearstone. The company has an annual turnover of £8m and employs over 30 people.

Dr Peter Julu - founder and MD of Medifit Instruments Ltd. The Ugandan born doctor is the inventor of Neuroscope, the world's first off-the-shelf monitor for the brain and heart stem. The Neuroscope is a device that enables doctors to determine whether the heart is being controlled by the brain through impulse sent thorough a nerve. Hospitals in Britain, Sweden, Australia and Uganda are using the Neuroscope on people suffering from diabetes, heart disease, and degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's or epilepsy.

Ed Yeboah - founder and CEO of Proactive Capital, a financial services company based in the City of London, UK's most prestigious business and financial district.

Bernard Ampaw - The Ghanaian-born businessman is the founder and CEO of OBE TV - a 24-hour satellite TV channel targeted at African communities in the UK, Europe and North Africa. It has an audience of eight million people.

Alistair Soyode - The Nigerian-born entrepreneur is founder and CEO of BEN Television, the first black-oriented television channel in the UK and Europe. He was educated in Nigeria and in the UK.

Isabel Appio - founder and MD of Sugar Media, a publishing company for Student Times and Black History Month women's magazine. Isabel was the editor of the UK's first black broadsheet newspaper, the Journal.

Elsie Owusu - founder and principal of a successful London-based architect practice. Her firm has won many major commissions, including housing development across the UK, design strategy for the UK Supreme Court and a range of developments in Ghana and Nigeria.

Kofi Kusitor - founder and MD of the UK's Colourful Radio, a talk radio station, and the internationally renowned Black Enterprise awards.

Charles Ejojo - MD ofTechnography Industries Limited and inventor of the umbrolly vending unit - an innovative product that dispenses disposable umbrellas. Utilising flat-screen technology, the umbrolly unit is also able to display full motion, television quality still and moving adverts. The product can now be found in a number of rail sta­tions, shopping centres, sports grounds, and universities across the UK.

However, despite the increasing number of successful business people of black African and Caribbean background, evidence suggests that black-owned businesses encounter disproportionate barriers to development and growth - particularly in accessing start-up and growth finance, securing contracts, accessing quality business support, and international trade opportunities.

Major improvements are still needed if this group is to reach its full business and economic potential. For the UK blackowned businesses to realise their full potential and increase their contribution to the local and regional economy, the challenge in the short to medium term is to increase start-up and expansion of their businesses in the mainstream and international growth sectors - whilst adopting effective business strategies to increase the size, turnover, prof­itability and job creation potential of their firms.