Meet Stephanie Njoaguani

Who is Stephanie Njoaguani? Stephanie is a Bournemouth University student as well as a Branding and Social media strategist. What is Stephanie's story? Back in 2016, Stephanie started The Creative Africa, a platform that shares resources, skills and opportunities to creative African teens. However, the young entrepreneur found this journey a bit of a struggle as her end goal was undecided at the time, similarly, Stephanie didn't know who, specifically, her audience was and what message she wanted to send to them. All Stephanie knew was that she wanted to create an effective platform to reach out to teenagers and add value to their lives. Stephanie admits that in her early stages, she really didn't know a lot. It took me a while to realize that not being clear on my audience at the time, having specific marketing strategy and goals for how I was going to reach the people I wanted to reach had really held me back. Then, the budding business woman stumbled across Wix (the popular website building platform), Stephanie loved it. The flexible nature of Wix allowed for greater creativity in the creation of content. However, despite the creative possibilities that the platform allowed for, Stephanie wasn't sure what to actually create! So in order to combat this challenge, the following questions had to be answered: 1. "What did I want to create?" 2. "Why did I want to create what I wanted to create? " 3. "Who was I creating it for?" 4. "How would they use and feel about what I was going to create?" 5. "How would I get it to them?" 6. "What was the end result when the whole process was finished? - i.e what did I want The Creative Africa to look like in people's heads at the end of this six question process?" This formed the strategic overview of The Creative Africa, allowing the brand to connect with the target audience effectively. So, what exactly is The Creative Africa? The Creative Africa is a platform that aims to educate and inform young African creatives on how to use their skills to put themselves on the map. The team are currently working on getting sponsors and mentors involved in the programme as well as producing videos in order to coach and educate their followers. Stephanie has spent the past year researching the market and solidifying her mission to ensure they reach the right people with the right resources. More recently, in 2019, The Creative Africa has emerged as finalists for the Next Generation Award UK. You can follow the awards here: https://www.enterprisenation.com/opportunities/opportunity/?id=d24a2acc-681a-e911-a96c-002248072abd Similarly, if you’re interested in Stephanie and The Creative Africa, you can follow their journey here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/creative-africa-ltd/