Konnected Minds Podcast

In this episode of Konnected Minds, Derrick Abaitey sits down with Funke Bucknor-Obrute (FBO) — the woman behind Zapphaire Events, Africa's biggest event planning company. For over 24 years, FBO has built an empire defined by excellence, customer obsession, and an unshakable mindset. But this conversation goes far beyond business. From quitting law after watching a J.Lo movie, to charging her first client ₦10,000, to building a team that runs Africa's most exclusive events without her in the room - FBO opens up about the real cost of building something that lasts. We also get into the conversation everyone's talking about: marriage, women, men, and the weight African women carry. FBO holds nothing back — and the debate gets HEATED. If you're building a business, a brand, or a life worth living, this one is for you. 📍 Konnected Minds Live — Kumasi | September 9th Don't miss it. https://www.konnectedmindslive.com/ 🔥 KEY TAKEAWAYS ▸ Why aiming for 101% is the only standard ▸ How to build a team that delivers without you in the room ▸ The mindset shift that turns customers into lifetime clients ▸ Why the right partner can make or break your career ▸ The truth about wealth most Africans get wrong ▸ How to find joy in a busy, demanding life ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎙️ ABOUT THE GUEST Funke Bucknor-Obrute a pioneering Nigerian entrepreneur, lawyer, and one of Africa's most influential voices in the event planning and experiential industry. IG: https://www.instagram.com/funkebucknor/ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎙️ ABOUT THE HOST Derrick Abaitey is a Ghanaian entrepreneur, podcast host, and personal development advocate. IG: https://www.instagram.com/derrick.abaitey #KonnectedMinds #FunkeBucknor #DerrickAbaitey #AfricanEntrepreneurs #WomenInBusiness #BuildingWealth #NigeriaPodcast #AfricaBusiness #EventPlanning #FBO #PodcastNigeria #GhanaPodcast #SuccessMindset #FemaleFounders

From understanding why parents pushed their children into white collar jobs instead of farming because weeding was used as punishment in school making people grow up thinking farming is for those who cannot read and write to learning the brutal truth that we import 100 million dollars worth of tomatoes from Burkina Faso every year and if a young person can target just 1% of that market that's one million dollars in opportunity but the 25 year old guy doesn't know where to get 50,000 cedis to start and banks are not willing to co-invest because they get high returns from government bonds instead of taking equity in startups proving that there's a big industry in Ghana about talking on problems every day but nothing is done and we need to move from talking to working on the ground, the entrepreneur whose grandparents were big cocoa farmers in Ofori area and grew up on cocoa farms but was pushed into education because parents wanted their children to become doctors or engineers so they could tell their friends my son is a doctor my daughter is a pilot instead of saying my child is a farmer which doesn't bring societal respect or dignity in Ghana today, the reality that when you go to the UK or Japan or USA or Brazil the rich people are farmers milking cows and doing large scale agriculture but in Ghana we've pushed agriculture to the background and left farming for peasant farmers working on one acre or one plot of land feeding their children with agriculture extension officers advising them instead of thinking about large scale farms, the wisdom that education is very very important but we need to revamp the way we teach people because when he was growing up they punished you and asked you to go and weed so you grew up thinking weeding is a form of punishment and farming is exaggerated punishment so people are not going to do it and the farmer cannot even send his son to school, the vision that if we are able to revamp the way we teach and explain agriculture to people they will get to know that you can be a PhD and till the ground and make a lot of money because you can identify a problem like importing tomatoes from Burkina Faso and supply the ladies who are going to buy those tomatoes creating jobs and wealth, the fish farmer who started Wadicair Farms in 2023 with 2.5 million US dollars investment now doing revenues of maybe 750,000 cedis yearly and growing because 2023 was virtually zero but 2024 and 2025 are looking better with more people patronizing the products and off-takers coming from Canada Germany Ivory Coast and locally selling to Max Mart Talegon Max Mart La Bony and Focus Trading in Kumasi, the product innovator who created oven dried sliced catfish instead of just the traditional curled catfish because growing up mothers would finish the soup and have to divide the fish and it's hard when it's curled so slicing it makes it easier for them to give portions to children while the father gets the big curled one but initially people asked where is the head how do I know this is not snake so now they include the head and people are buying the sliced version, the employer who tells his workers you are here not just for a salary because if we make money in this company Kwame is not going to just keep it to himself and his family but will set up a bonus system so workers can get sizeable bonuses to buy blocks and start building something for their families because they live around the village and he wants them to build generational wealth too, the businessman whose motivation for starting the farm was money of course because it's not philanthropy but he doesn't have to squeeze money out of his people and if he can make decent profits selling at 100 why should he sell at 150 or 200 when he has his targets and knows where the business is going. Host: Derrick Abaitey

From understanding that danger and opportunity are the same word in Japanese to learning why the brutal truth about entrepreneurship in Ghana is that you can have all the knowledge about risk management from working in top corporate jobs in Japan and South Africa managing billions in assets but nobody will listen to you when you say this is how you should consider risk because you need to let your life shine and people will see what is actually happening to you proving that actions speak louder than credentials, the former head of research and senior portfolio manager at Mazi asset management in South Africa who moved to Ghana in 2021 after working many years in corporate making very very good money because his aim was capital accumulation knowing he wanted to set up something back home but needed the financial foundation first, the investment expert who breaks down the rule of 72 explaining that if the interest rate is 24% you divide 72 by 24 to get 3 which means your money will double in three years if you invest in an asset giving you 24% per annum and reinvest the interest proving that when Ghana treasury bill rates were about 30% people could have doubled their money if they knew this but for lack of knowledge my people perish, the financial literacy advocate who reveals the mistake people make in Ghana is putting all their money in the bank thinking they have 2 million in savings when actually that deposit is a liability for the bank which uses your money to invest in Ghana government funds getting 25% to 30% return while the spread is so high they pay their workers and get their fault checks and you get peanuts from interest while they are living on your savings, the reality that banks bring pretty ladies when they want you to borrow money to buy your house because they understand the rule of 72 and know your debt will double after a season but when it's time for collection they bring much more men to collect their money and if you're not able to pay they take away your house and you are in trouble, the wisdom that if you go to his village in Bocancere people don't understand finance proving that financial education should be paramount in our country and everything is confined to Accra but we need to be more practical with the teaching of economics and finance, the careful expert who has rules and has to be careful whatever he says because it's not like he's recommending for anybody to go and buy this or that so privately he can talk to his friends saying this looks interesting you can do this but in a forum like this if you say this company is good somebody will go and buy then lose money and he's going to be in trouble like a false prophecy, the portfolio manager who admits you don't get it right all the time and just wants to be right maybe 51% or 52% of the time and his client will make money because if he buys Sony and Panasonic in consumer electronics but forgets about Samsung and Samsung goes high while Sony stays there he loses relatively and the client is going to be upset asking why didn't you buy Samsung why did you stay with Sony, the entrepreneur whose balance sheet now is about 12 million Ghana cedis but if he actually looks at the money invested it's about two million plus dollars because he worked for very good companies was paid very well and saved a lot of money so when he was coming back to Ghana his plan was ready with his business plan ready knowing what he was going to do with projected returns everything on his computer. Host: Derrick Abaitey

From understanding why operating profit margin multiplied by asset turnover determines your return on assets to learning the brutal truth that in aquaculture you can start small with 20,000 cedis drying fish the traditional way but as you make money from the local market you upgrade your equipment step by step until you're exporting to Europe where they test for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that stick on fish skin when you smoke with firewood and might cause cancer which is why investing in modern drying machines matters even though it costs more upfront, the catfish farmer who explains that retailers have slim margins of 2% to 3% but high turnover of 2 to 4 times per year while companies like Fanuc making robots have very high margins but low turnover of 0.5 because they only produce maybe 50 robots per annum proving that scale is everything in the fish business and if you're doing a thousand fish you're going to be in trouble but if you're doing 10,000 tons or 50,000 tons you have leverage over feed companies like Raanan and Coppens because they know you're going to buy from them, the entrepreneur with a 100 kilowatt solar farm who admits he doesn't have the managerial resources to be thinking about making his own feed when companies can provide it and the real strategy to lower costs is just scale not trying to buy maize soybeans methionine and all those ingredients yourself when you should be focused on your fish and marketing marketing marketing, the aquaculture business owner who breaks down the regulatory maze you must navigate before starting a catfish farm in Ghana where the Fisheries Commission charges about 1,000 cedis for permits for both grow out and hatchery operations but the EPA charges around 20,000 cedis after doing environmental research and writing reports based on your capacity, the farmer who uses boreholes and has to deal with the Water Resources Commission which is in charge of all water bodies in Ghana and charges you for water you're drawing from the ground because you're using it to make money though they can't monitor all the farms using boreholes but his farm is right by the road so they can see the tanks and he has to comply, the wisdom that catfish farming is absolutely profitable and tilapia is very popular because any corner you turn in Ghana you see a Banco joint with tilapia and imagine the volume of tilapia we consume every day every week every month while catfish is just a niche but Nigerians have taught us you can actually grill catfish and people in the diaspora want dried catfish to make Banco joint and soup and Indians are waking up to the fact that it has a lot of meat and is not as bony as tilapia so the demand is actually growing, the strategic thinker who says you don't have to narrow yourself to Ghana as your market but think West Africa is my market and then the whole world is my market going through this step by step by step always doing your Japanese due diligence researching the background of where you want to have your catfish farm, the resirculating aquaculture system expert who uses RAS technology where water comes into the tank he feeds the fish they poop into the water and conventionally this water would be flushed out into gutters but in resirculating aquaculture he moves this water into a mechanical filter where the solids are filtered then it goes through a biological filter where any bacteria is eliminated, the minister for fisheries and aquaculture Mrs. Emilia Arthur who came and tried to streamline regulations because farmers had to deal with several regulators and it was really cumbersome and very expensive so they want the Fisheries Commission to be a one stop shop which is very welcome for the industry, the reality that if you're using Ghana Water Company your water bills are going to go up but you have to make a decision. Host: Derrick Abaitey

From watching wealthy neighbors from a poor home where his father farmed and his mother sold grounded pepper and cassava in the markets to building a rice empire and multiple businesses before turning 30, and why the brutal truth about money is that most people fear it because they were taught to fear it growing up watching Nigerian movies where every rich person was portrayed as an occultist or ritualist making their parents restrict them from dreaming big but when you grow up as the poor child in the only proprietary school in your village walking to school while other kids get picked up in fancy cars you either become bitter or you watch the extremely wealthy neighbors in your backyard and study how they move and decide that fear will not control you, the young man who saw a million dollars in his personal account at 25 years old proving that when people say they made their first million it is real because he lived it and saw the money with his own eyes, the entrepreneur who came across a document of a shipment of rice from Vietnam to Ghana that he was never supposed to see and studied the numbers and something just hit him that this could be it, the founder and CEO of CH Rider Group who owns companies in transport and has his own rice brand and real estate companies building what is already a legacy before even turning 30, the first of six siblings and the first of two males who was taught humility through affliction because when you don't have money and you're surrounded by people who do you learn to value genuine friendship since every friend you made while you were young was actually a genuine friend because they weren't your friends because you had something they just trusted in you, the son whose parents made sure he and his brother got the best even though they were poor sending them to the only proprietary school in the village while his dad went to farm and his mom sold in the markets, the young boy who wasn't allowed to watch movies because his parents thought the Nigerian films showing ritualists and occults would affect them and make them think that's how you make money instilling fear of money in an entire generation, the different mind who watched rich people and their children and saw himself doing even better if he had the opportunity instead of being scared or bitter about the inequality, the man who believes money answers all things exactly like the Bible says and thinks every average person out there should not fear money but should command it because people who don't fear money have the will to control it and turn it into the way they want, the philosophy that if you're able to control money you can control anything so don't be scared of how much money or scared of money just know how to use it, the wisdom that a lot of people fear money and when you tell someone that thing costs a hundred thousand they say whoa and that's fear but he doesn't fear money because he knows if he had it he would know what to turn it into to even tenfold it, the realization that most of his generation were brought up from poor homes and were taught to fear money because their parents didn't have it and how they spoke of money made it seem like people who have money are probably superstitious ritualists or fraudsters or drug dealers limiting the young generation from knowing what to do if they come across money, the neighbor who lived just at the backyard with extremely wealthy people and watched their lives studying how success actually works instead of believing the narrative that money equals evil, the business owner who lost over a million US dollars in three months when rice disappeared with no revenue and no recovery putting the company in debt but didn't let that destroy him.

From teaching English in Vietnam to importing rice worth over a million dollars in Ghana, and why the brutal truth about building trust is that you need to be brought up right where your yes is your yes and your no is your no but you also need to remember that your surroundings matter because you need to surround yourself with winners and listen to their problems and provide solutions to their problems so you can gain their trust, the young man who learned from his own personal experiences that every time you meet a new person you try to find their problem and figure out who they are so you can utilize the resources they have the right way making them happy while you gain more than them, the English teacher who moved from the Philippines to Vietnam in 2019 and met new people and made friends with a very big man in the country who introduced him to his father, a 65 year old General Director of Vietnamese government companies that had never employed any foreigner since its beginning and had never explored outside their territories, the confident young man who was asked what can you do and said I can take your company across Vietnam even though he didn't even know what he was talking about but had that confidence which led to the creation of an international commercial department where he was made the lead, the department head who started searching for whatever he could do for that company making deals and transacting internationally with South Korea and Japan bringing in multiple international deals and getting commission from the company every time, the 24 or 25 year old who made his first million dollars in his personal account proving that when people say they made their first million it is real because he lived it and saw the money with his own eyes, the entrepreneur who came back home thinking he could start something like Grab the Southeast Asian motorbike Uber service and registered a company called Ryder Group with a Y and built the app before realizing it's illegal to use motorcycles for commercial purposes in Ghana only for delivery of packages, the businessman who spent a lot of money from other people on the failed motorbike venture but his own money was still there so he reached back to those people and said we will not be allowed to operate because of this and they didn't pull back because of the trust they had, the employee who came across a document of a shipment of rice from Vietnam to Ghana that he was never supposed to see but took a peak and saw a whole vessel of rice shipment and studied the numbers and something just hit him that this could be it, the young man looking for a legacy that would send his name and make his family proud and help his community even though he had the option to relocate to Switzerland and give his money to a Swiss bank and stay and enjoy the dividends every quarter like his two friends who are currently there doing exactly that, the son who chose not to be selfish and go to Switzerland and forget about everything because he knew what he was coming from and knew the home he came from and knew he had a responsibility to his family and his neighbor and his community and his country, the importer who returned with his money and turned the company and updated the activities from the original plan to importation of general goods and sought the right paperwork to import stuff and did a market research before bringing in a heavy shipment over a million US dollars as the first shipment going all in. Host: Derrick Abaitey

From knowing she would be rich without knowing how to becoming one of Ghana's most recognized influencers who treats life like a movie where she's the main character, and why the brutal truth about growing up with a Muslim mother who let you walk around without covering your head and never forced you to become a lawyer is that when you come from a home where conversations are balanced and there's no shame in saying I don't want rice today or I don't think this way, you grow up so confident in yourself that even when brands are bullying you online about your body and the comments are tearing you apart, the head of a major company sees that same post and thinks you're perfect to represent them because empathy works in mysterious ways and sometimes your lowest moment becomes the exact reason someone decides to give you a life changing opportunity, the young girl who lived a simple life where nothing really appealed to her and being a lawyer didn't make sense and being a doctor never crossed her mind because she's a soft girl and the only career she ever considered was being an air hostess because it looked nice and you get to travel, the daughter who could have any conversation in this world with her mother and there's no topic too crazy or too wild because her mom listens and takes time to understand why you think the way you think which is why they'll make food for everybody in the house but won't cook rice for her because it's not by force that she has to eat rice, the confident woman who thinks the way she thinks and if you don't agree that's fine because somebody will say something different and that's just how life works when you grow up in a home where your thoughts are valued and you're not being told don't do this it's like this without room for discussion, the sister from her mother's side who along with all her siblings are very open minded and very able to communicate because that's just how they were raised and it shows in how her auntie and her children also have that same great bond where conversations flow freely, the student who was forced to go to school one day even though she said she didn't want to go and a car knocked her down and the next week her leg was swollen and this whole place melted and her mother was so sad saying oh my God I shouldn't have forced her to go to school which is part of the reason but not the whole reason why her mom became even more understanding, the young woman who always knew she would be rich but just didn't know how because she has this feeling that life is a movie and she's part of the main character so things will always go well for her even if she's going through the worst things, the positive mindset that even when people were bullying her online because she said she brought a package and the comments were just people putting her in, she went for a life changing meeting and one of the heads said I know you I saw when they brought you the package and the comments were tearing you apart and he still found her fit to represent them, the philosophy that even if there's something bad it's building up to something good because the bullying she has gone through has made it easier for her to gain opportunities from people who feel empathy for what she's experienced, the realization that if you keep hitting her like in boarding school where you hit hit hit hit at first it hurts but then it starts feeling numb and you don't feel it again because that's how life works when people keep saying you are this you are this you are this you are this and she realizes it's not really affecting her life in a negative way, the wisdom that the only thing that can affect her life in a negative way is if she actually does something wrong because as long as she has not done anything wrong you can't hold anything against her it's just your feelings about her but not the feeling about what she's supposed to achieve. Host: Derrick Abaitey

From getting slapped by a teacher in class one and walking home alone because the school bus left to becoming one of Ghana's most recognized influencers building two businesses on the internet, and why the brutal truth about growing up protected is that when your sister is ready to slap someone for letting a child walk home alone after being punished for not having a book and your mother gives birth to you at 37 making you the patient baby with siblings in their 40s who became like three mothers watching over you, that protection keeps you from going out and socializing but it also fills your childhood with so much love that you grow up naturally being a people person even when you don't make actual friends until senior high school, the young girl who went to about 10 junior high schools before completing at Maranatha International School because when a teacher lashed her and made her stay to sweep the compound in class one she had to walk the distance from American House to Ars Road alone proving that moving schools wasn't just about her sister's protection it was about finding safety, the only child between her Ghanaian mother and Scottish father who discovered she had step siblings when she overheard a conversation in GHS one but calls them siblings not step siblings because the bond is that close even though she grew up with her mother's children and her father's children have their own mother and most of them are not in Ghana, the daughter whose father left for the UK when she was very young and didn't come back until she was already in her teens which means the relationship she has with him is based on respect and looking just like him in pictures but it's not the same as the jokes and freedom she feels around her mother who she lived with her whole life, the student who was always first to fifth position growing up and never took exams seriously because good grades came naturally until she went to St. Joseph senior high school in Legon and got 10th position for the first time which shocked her into stepping up and picking back up her performance, the psychology and information studies graduate who studied at Legon but doesn't really use her degree for anything even though people talk to her a lot and call her a lot making her think maybe she should tap into that psychology training because clearly people see something in her, the girl who didn't know what she wanted to become growing up and only thought about being an air hostess when she got to senior high school before changing her mind again proving she never had a fixed vision of the future, the naturally friendly person who could vibe with everybody in school but that doesn't mean you're my friend because being loved by everyone doesn't mean you let everyone in, the protected child who wasn't allowed to go out and socialize which she appreciates now even though she didn't see why back then because that same protection kept her safe and loved and surrounded by family who made sure she never felt alone, the last born whose big sister is 41 or 42 right now and another sister in her 40s creating this situation where she had like two mothers or three mothers all making sure she was protected and loved and never lacked anything, the young woman who made amazing friends at the end of senior high school like Frida and Pre Lakani and others she's still friends with today even though in the beginning she was just there not really making friends just existing in the space, the influencer who people keep saying the industry is over saturated but she doesn't think so because the problem with Ghanaians is everybody wants to be a food content creator everybody wants to do lifestyle when there are so many other content ideas like being unemployed that can also be content, the entrepreneur with two businesses who uses content to push all of them because she knows her brand can influence people to buy her products but also understands you can't be an influencer for the rest of your life because your time will pass, the young girl whose childhood was just love and protection and getting lashed in school and being taken out of schools because her family wouldn't tolerate disrespect, the woman who is here to inspire people with her story especially the young girls and boys who look up to her showing them that you can actually build business on the internet while creating content that you love. Guest: Princess Ama Burland Host: Derrick Abaitey