During a recent trip to Shenzhen, China, businessman Haibo Basha was surprised to find a robot serving dinner in his hotel room. “I was ordering room service, and the robot could talk and even open and close doors,” she recalls. “When we returned to Djibouti, we told ourselves we had a lot of work ahead of us.”
A key figure in Djibouti’s private sector, the businessman draws inspiration from his travels to every corner of the world to develop ideas for his homeland. In 20 years, she has grown her small family of six businesses, including a beauty salon (Hollywood Beauty Center, founded in 2000), a travel agency (Bacha Travel, founded in 2014), and a real estate agency (Dream House Real Estate). I built an empire. , 2019), a coworking and gaming space (Shoaz, 2021), a visa application agency (Bacha Visa Application Center, 2022), and finally a wall ceramic shop (Yusur Ceramic & More, 2023). All these businesses will come under the Bacha Business Group in 2022.
At the same time, this local figure is running a campaign to promote entrepreneurship among Djiboutian women. In particular, she represents her country on behalf of the International Federation of Women Business Professionals, which brings together businesswomen from over 100 countries. She is also an ambassador for Women in Africa, an international platform dedicated to promoting support for women entrepreneurs in Africa. ‘I’ve always been a role model for women,’ she says
Bacha. “I tell them that to go far they have to take risks, but by investing in areas where they have expertise rather than trying to imitate others. .”
Basha, 52, has spent 17 years in management positions during her career, including as an airline flight attendant, a project manager for the World Food Program, and an employee of the U.S. Embassy in Djibouti. . This elegant businessman is full of anecdotes to share, including the time he helped fly and land an empty plane owned by the United Nations Secretary-General 20 years ago.
In 2017, after a decisive encounter with one of the richest men on the African continent, she decided to dedicate 100% of her time to focusing on her business. She then completed her one year training in the real estate sector in Arizona before returning home. For her, she sees the country as “uncharted territory where everything has room for development.”
An avid traveler who has traveled to 125 countries, Basha never misses an opportunity to promote his home country. “In recent years I have been attending world tourism conferences. When people ask me what
Djibouti is like this, I tell them about the whales
We’ll talk about the sharks seen every year in Tadjoura Bay, Lake Assal, a vast salt lake 150 meters below sea level, or Lake Abbe, a Mars-like lake with red sand and warm water. Earth,” enthuses the founder of her agency, Basha Travel.
In the capital of Djibouti. “Our country has great tourist potential, but what is missing is infrastructure. We need to find investors to sell our destinations,” she says.
entrepreneurship
Basha owes his openness to the world and entrepreneurial spirit to his mother, who traded clothing, jewelry and accessories between Djibouti, Dubai, India and China. Hibo Basha passed on the torch to his five children. “They started working very young. When I opened my hair salon, there was one person to handle the accounts, one to greet the customers, and one more person to help the hairdresser,” she recalls with amusement. .
Recently, daughter Zaina came to help develop the family business. “It’s important that we bring back our skills and experience if we are to try to develop the country,” she said. She studied at a business school in France and then worked for a year at a major real estate company in Dubai. Tazarina explains. This ambition of Djiboutians is boundless. “I want to start a real estate company. My dream is to build affordable houses and apartments for the middle class, because today it is very expensive to buy real estate.”
Her mother is happy to see her children participating in family groups. “They are looking to innovate by starting new businesses in specific areas of engineering and digital technology. In fact, my youngest daughter (15 years old) wants to become an architect. We want to encourage people to start businesses that are close to their hearts. Djibouti has the potential to become a mini-Dubai or a mini-Singapore, where everything is biometric and digital. We need to take inspiration from them.”
