Written by Wallace Kantai   

April 10, 2009: I bumped into Abdikadir Aden a few weeks ago at the Stanley. We have known each other for almost 20 years – from when we were both ‘rabbles’ (form one boys) at Lenana School. We had kept up an intermittent correspondence; on e-mail, phone, Facebook and occasionally street greetings.

Part of the difficulty of keeping in touch more regularly is that Mr Aden, and myself, had made a habit of being rather “nomadic” – his being relocation to different countries because education and work, and my travelling in pursuit of a career. We had always made promises to sit down and catch up, but, as these things go, we never quite got round to doing it.

This time, though, I had a selfish reason to follow up on the much-postponed coffee date. I had began this column, and Mr Aden is as interesting a profile.

This is someone who moved from a childhood in shifta-infested North Eastern district, through education in one of Kenya’s more renowned high schools, to university in Kenya and the United Kingdom, to one of the top corporate positions in the Horn of Africa.  

Of course, I cannot be fully objective writing about an old friend, but that disclaimer shouldn’t distract from the contours of a rather remarkable story.

Over coffee, and then lunch, Mr Aden filled me in on the last 15 years, and also details of his early life, which I hadn’t known.

Abdikadir Aden is an old boy of Balambala Nomadic Primary School in Garissa. He grew up in the late 70s and the 80s, at a time when North Eastern Province was still in the throes of the shifta conflict.

Whether due to the determination to make a better life, or the desire to excel, he decided that the path to the top lay in admission to a national school – an ambition that he set rather early.

“I was in standard four when I first learnt about the prestige and the competitiveness of being a national school student. What I knew back then was that being a national school student meant getting into the same class with the elite in the country. This really excited me because I knew that was where I always wanted to be, amongst the best of the best,” he says.

Lenana School was the school of choice, and Lenana in the early 1990s was an interesting place to be. It still retained a certain charm and sense of history, but government policy was beginning to make its mark.

One of the more monumental decisions was that – because it was a national school – admission was going to be open to the best students from all over the country. It gave the chance to bright boys like Abdikadir to experience the best education the country had to offer.

And he took to all the traditions in style: “Life in Lenana School was a great experience for me. In addition to learning in class with the best in the country, I had lots of fun and interacted with other students from all parts of the country. And I also learnt to play rugby, and improved my English,” he says.

He passed his KCSE with distinction, and when his call-up to Kenyatta University came, he decided instead to study International Business Administration at the United States International University.

Abdikadir decided to pursue his Master’s degree immediately after completing his undergraduate studies. He left for South Bank University in London. He does not hide the wonder in his voice as he contemplates the path that took him from Garissa to life on the banks of the Thames in 10 years.

“Life in London for a former village boy like me was great experience...visiting the London Stock Exchange...frequently touring the historic city of London...ushering in the millennium in one of the world’s greatest cities...riding the London Eye.”

From that point, it was natural to step into the world of financial marketing. An offer came in for a management trainee at Standard Chartered, which gave him exposure to some of the more exciting elements of finance in an emerging market.

Working back in Kenya, Mr Aden took up roles that seemed to be the perfect fit for his skills in marketing as well as his desire to stretch his horizons.

He worked in various departments, including as product development manager in the SME sector, and as a corporate dealer in the bank’s global market’s division. He helped develop products such as the fixed rate mortgage product, which went on to win an international award.

He was also spending his working days selling products such as spot and forward foreign exchange deals, as well as writing reports that CEOs from top multinationals in the country depended on to show they are truly the top cream in society.

So far, par for the course for a young man full of energy and ambition. A good education, a position in one of the world’s leading banks in a dynamic city, and a job of increasing visibility and importance. But then Abdikadir decided to reset the arc of his career. The decision was to pursue his career in another multinational.

“From the comfort of my air conditioned office in the heart of Nairobi City, I was soon on the dusty streets of Hargeysa in the self proclaimed region of Somaliland. Despite the harsh environment, once again I found myself on a steep learning curve in the field of marketing FMCG products.”

Abdikadir had decided to join British American Tobacco as trade marketing and distribution manager, heading the export business in Somaliland.

Why such a radical shift? He has a gentle and self-effacing manner, which hides a rather steely core. To him, the Horn of Africa was the place to test his marketing mettle.

His job covered everything from maintaining international marketing standards, to conducting business within the ethics of responsible business, to writing marketing plans and budgets, launching and repositioning products. He was also thrust into a role as supervisor of a team of 20, from a job where he was responsible only for himself.

Working in Hargeysa was a formidable yet enjoyable challenge, but, even for him, the concerns of a young family were enough to convince him to seek relatively safer areas.

“I missed my wife and my kids every minute and knowing how worried they always were for my safety in the war-torn country, I decided to take up a safer yet just as challenging a position within the Horn of Africa business in Eritrea.”

 At the beginning of 2008, Abdikadir took up a posting as head of trade in charge of commercial operations at BAT Eritrea.

It was quite a challenge, as it involved him restarting a business that had stopped for more than a year due to economic factors.

Personal choice

He was able to grow volumes and profitability by over 100 per cent. This must have gained the notice of higher-ups at the company, as he has been appointed country manager for BAT in Eritrea (started in this new role on April 1st). Not bad for a Balambala nomadic school boy!

He is looking forward to the challenge, in his own quiet yet enthusiastic way. I couldn’t resist asking him about the challenge of working in an industry that some consider controversial.

He doesn’t blink as he asserts: “Smoking is a personal choice, and if an adult decides to smoke, our responsibility as a company is to provide quality products.” With such flair, it is clear that BAT have themselves a supreme marketer.

So our meeting on Kimathi Street has finally yielded the long-promised coffee and lunch. And served up the fascinating story of a young man whose career is going nowhere, but up.

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Source: Business Daily

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