To get to know Fred Waswa there are two ways you could go about it. You could ask him about himself, which is, er, de rigueur and therefore, urm, boring. Or you could talk about what he loves. Coffee. A man’s motivations can open a window into his soul and the words come out of the mouth like a waterfall. He talks about coffee like one would a child: “This one here just needs some patience but will reward you.”
As an ascetic man, coffee taught him as much about patience as love. Ah, that old song called love. He married his wife in 1991, but they have lived apart since 1995. “I can explain,” he says, “it’s because of work.”
His wife is a Moi University professor in Eldoret, while he runs Octagon Africa, a regional financial services firm from Nairobi. It is a better romantic love story than the Titanic, with the husband, with his briefcase, rushing to take the Friday evening Akamba buses to see his family and rushing back on Sundays to be at work on Mondays.
The briefcase is still there. So is the love. I can tell because he still calls his wife professor, his cup of coffee. It is amazing to see someone lose thirty years in front of your eyes. Sitting in his Westpark Suite offices in Westlands, he confesses that he is putting his affairs in order—starting with three-day weekends. Perhaps to spend more time with the professor. Or his coffee.
How did you come to have a three-day weekend?
I have been working for the last 34 years. I am not going to add any more money to my life, so now I am practising to slow down and allow more people to flex their muscle in running the business.
A friend of mine told me that people who start businesses end up with the founder’s syndrome, where everything revolves around you and your staff become your kin, to the point measuring performance becomes difficult because they are too close. Stepping back allows the business to run in a much more formal way…that’s why I stepped back,
I also don’t work from the office on Mondays.
I joined the Royal Nairobi Golf Club in 2006 and trained for golf, but in as much as I was networking more, things in the office were going haywire. But I am going back to my golf.
What happens on these three-day weekends?
I spend two weekends in Nairobi and two in upcountry. In Nairobi, I am trying to relearn how to play golf.
We set up a foundation in 2022, so every Friday we have a breakfast meeting about it. We aim to do financial literacy programmes. On Fridays I do that, on Saturdays I play golf and on Sundays I am in church where I am an elder. I also have a coffee farm.
Commercial or subsistence?
Commercial. I have four acres. I want to set up a coffee processing plant.
Why coffee and not maize as our people do?
I come from the sugar belt of Bungoma, but when Mumias Sugar collapsed, people pivoted to maize, but unless you are planting on a large scale, you hardly make any money. Coffee can survive dry spells—you plant once and can harvest for the next fifty years. Besides, there is a lot of demand for coffee across the world.
How has coffee made you a different person if at all?
In the village, I have given my farm as a training centre for coffee. It makes me feel like I have added value to society. This is a long-term business, and I know I will get returns from it down the line, be it 20- or 30-years’ time.
Octagon Africa Group Chief Executive Officer Fred Waswa poses for a picture after the interview on September 05, 2024.
Photo credit: Francis Nderitu | Nation Media Group
Tell me something about coffee that would surprise me.
For you to plant coffee, the preparation period is three months: from December, then you plant in March. You can only plant coffee in the dry season…and that requires patience.
If all your businesses demand patience, what tests your patience?
I respond to emails at 2 am. When I wake up to pray and I see one, I just respond. Why do I want to wait? Because if I don’t reply, I’ll sleep drafting it. I like getting things done now and seeing results quickly. Coffee takes three years from planting to harvest. I went to the hospital recently and the nurse told me, “Please be patient because you are a patient.” I thanked her for warning me, haha!
Over the 34 years you’ve worked how has your relationship with money changed?
I thought I needed to make money fast and retire at 45. I have since learned money is earned slowly, it is an overtime. Nothing drops like manna. This is how corruption has entrenched itself—we need to understand that wealth is built over time, while being rich takes shortcuts.
What’s the one thing you spend your money on most?
You mean wasted, haha! My weakness is that I give out a lot of money. I don’t drink, neither smoke, nor follow people with breasts on their chests [chuckles].
What’s your guilty pleasure then?
I am involved in church. When I was younger I got fulfilment from church missions and crusades. I would preach. These days, I visit churches to talk about financial literacy across all age groups.
What’s an aspect of faith that you struggle with?
Running a business in this country. You have faith, but sometimes people come to ask for things you can’t do, but you have to do them to move on. Ideally, keeping it straight is not the easiest thing to do.
Have you ever had to cut corners?
Sometimes you do. You know sometimes you could be driving and the police stops you and you find yourself in a compromising situation.
How do you reconcile the cognitive dissonance?
You go back to God and ask for forgiveness. We are human. The only thing is that it should not be a way of life. Like David who went back to God and told Him, “I have sinned.” And God forgave David. Sin shouldn’t stop you from going back to God and asking for forgiveness.
That I would die and my business wouldn’t run. How would my family organise themselves? The element of what you leave behind.
Watajipanga, you say. You can write a will but people fight over wills.
Octagon Africa Group Chief Executive Officer Fred Waswa poses for a picture after the interview on September 05, 2024.
Photo credit: Francis Nderitu | Nation Media Group
Have you put your affairs in order?
To some extent.
What parenting mistake are you correcting with your grandchild?
You ask difficult questions, haha! I tell my children to be available for their children. I was but not so much. I stayed with my wife for a while, we got married in 1991 and stayed together till 1995. She stayed in Kilimambogo as a lecturer and then she got a job at Moi University in 2001.
So, I could only meet my children at weekends. I spent a lot of money on the road, haha! The Akamba buses knew me by name. I built a house in Eldoret, so I tell my children that you should always have your children together. I never missed a school visit. That’s what my daughter remembers till today.
What does that kind of separation do to our marriage? Do you cleave more or things get lost in translation?
When you stay together too much you could take each other for granted. When you meet spontaneously it is like another honeymoon. But you also don’t learn each other as much. 20 years later you realise there are things you don’t like or agree with. But it makes it much more an intimate love.
Is the arrangement still going on?
Yes. Since 2001. She is a professor now, so she teaches most of her online courses from here.
What struck you about your wife?
She is bright. She is an entrepreneur, she helps me manage money. I am a spender and a giver—if it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have saved a thing.
What kind of pillow talk do you have now?
Haha! I have no idea. Someone said that if you see two people in a car and they are not talking, that’s a couple. We have been married for 33 years, so now we talk more about our health and our children—my daughter got married, and my son is getting married next year.
What’s a special memory you share with just your wife?
The way I used to go to see her when she was teaching in Vihiga. I would carry my briefcase. She still has that briefcase in Eldoret and she would remind me that this is the briefcase that got you a girlfriend, haha!
What is something you do just for you as a man?
I read. I stay with my nephew and when he travels, I just find myself reading.
What’s one book you've read that challenged the way you think?
Built to Last [by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras]. It talks about companies that were set up and have survived for over two hundred years.
What matters to you now?
My health. I would like to live longer. Eating better—things that have no taste, flat things, and exercising a lot. I walk eight to ten thousand steps a day.
What are you thinking about when you are walking?
Mostly I sing a song to the point where I can even worship. I also think about the business—what next? How do we venture into other countries?
When you get to where you are going, where will you be?
I would have travelled a few countries and holidays in places I would like to go. Like the Maldives. I am a beach person. I also want to go to Israel and the US. As a business, we want to affect society in Africa and the rest of the world.
Inshallah. What is something you long believed to be true but with time realised isn’t? Trusting people. I thought you could do that but I have learned what is more important is to “trust and verify”, “trust and confirm” or “trust and oversee.”
If you could tell me just one thing, what would you tell me?
Starting a business is exciting; running a business is a job. If you want to get there don’t get stuck on excitement, there is a job to be done.
Who do you know that I should know?
Haha! Dr Julius Kipng’etich. He has been my mentor—I see him once a month, he is a very bright guy.
