Women In Wellness: Lousia Mojela of Akanda Corp On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Patience is virtue and a necessity — it takes time to realize fruits of one’s labor, key is to not deviate from strategic objectives of but keep focused on executing what’s in the plan, tweaks can be necessary so long as that does not create massive deviation from the plan.
As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Louisa Mojela.
Louisa Mojela is the Executive Chairman of Akanda Corp. She has held positions at Lesotho National Development Corporation, Development Bank of Southern Africa (during which time she was seconded to the World Bank in Washington DC), and Standard Corporate and Merchant Bank. In 1994, Louisa together with three other women colleagues founded Women Investment Portfolio Holdings, a company dedicated to the empowerment and women and youth. In 2018, Louisa founded Bophelo Bioscience and Wellness, a company that grows and cultivates medicinal cannabis and in 2021Louisa became one of the founders of Akanda Corporation.
Louisa graduated with Bachelor of Commerce from the National University of Lesotho. She has also completed the Executive Leadership Program at Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2000 Louisa was selected as one of 40 women from different continents and countries for “The Leading Women Entrepreneur of the World”. In 2008, Louisa was recognized as one of South Africa’s most influential women in business and government. In May 2009, Louisa was the winner of the Inaugural African Business Leadership Award in Dakar, Senegal by the African Development Bank (AfDB). In January 2010 Louisa received ’The Builders of the African Economy Award’’ in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Louisa served on several boards including Distell, Sun International, ABB SA, Sasol Mining and Life Healthcare Group Holding (Pty) Ltd. In 2022, Louisa was recognized by Forbes as one of 50/50 Leading Women Entrepreneurs.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?
I am the Executive Chairman of Akanda Corporation, an international medical cannabis that grows and cultivates medicinal cannabis in the Kingdom of Lesotho through Bophelo Bioscience and Wellness campus that I founded in 2018. I hold a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from the National University of Lesotho and Honorary Doctor of Commerce from University of Stellenbosch and University of Lesotho.
I am a proud daughter, mother, wife, grandmother, aunty, entrepreneur, and a staunch believer of women and youth empowerment all of which I enjoy the roles I play. As a women in business and a trailblazer in women in cannabis in Lesotho and South Africa, I have learned that failure is not an option as such I have to work hard, practice integrity, respect, accountability, transparency, and uphold high measure of corporate governance because in the end this is still a man’s world and we have to have a dogged determination to be our very best whilst still maintaining our femininity.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?
I founded Bophelo Bioscience in 2018 and at that time all I had was a license to grow and cultivate medicinal cannabis from the Ministry of Health in Lesotho. I had no experience working in a cannabis industry nor had I ever seen a cannabis plantation. All I had in mind was I do not need to be an expert in the industry so long as I can surround myself with people who are experts in the industry. I then started the search for a strategic partner that will bring in the know-how and expertise. First, I went to The Netherlands as it is known to be the cannabis capital and met with few companies which initially expressed interest but ultimately nothing concrete worked out. Then I was introduced to Halo Lab’s CEO Kiran Sidhu who then made the trip to come to Lesotho. Following some extensive negotiations in 2019, we agreed on a strategic partnership, and I was appointed Executive Chairman of Halo Labs. Two years later Halo embarked on the reorganization of its portfolio and decided to split its medicinal cannabis operations from recreational and Bophelo Bioscience and Canmart from United Kingdom were flipped into Akanda Corporation a newly established company focusing on the cultivation, production, and distribution of medicinal products internationally for the healing of patients.
Today I am a proud Executive Chairman of Akanda Corporation, very diversified company in terms of race and gender which is listed on NASDAQ, working alongside our CEO Tej Virk, Trevor Scott CFO, Vidya lyer VP Finance and Dr. Asli our President. The lesson for me is that it is important in business to focus and keep your eyes on the price. That I did not have any requisite experience in cannabis did not deter me from wanting to be in the business and playing an important role but noting that in order to succeed I needed to surround myself with experts in the industry.
Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
When I started, I expected that it will be relatively easy to raise capital within the South African Capital Market once a strategic partner was secured and a clear business plan was articulated. I did not realize that in this market cannabis business was still very much shunned even though this was for medicinal purposes. The lesson therefore was it is important to expand one’s horizons and never limit oneself to home market. With the listing on NASDAQ, Akanda has a very wide international shareholder base.
Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?
The cultivation and distribution of medicinal products will have a bigger impact in the world. For a very long time the benefits of cannabis as alternative medicines have been ignored. However, more and more evidence is confirming that cannabis if properly used and administered professionally by doctors can cure many illnesses such as anxiety, epilepsy, inflammation, chronic pain, etc. More and more patients especially adults with chronic pains are switching to the use of cannabis medicines. It will be very beneficial if more pharmaceutical companies can embrace this and put money in the much-required research.
Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.
My lifestyle tweaks towards better wellbeing is healthy eating, which includes less red meat, a gluten free diet, avoidance of saturated fats, lots of fruit and vegetables but avoiding those high in acid to avoid inflammation, and lots of water. I am not good at going to the gym, but I compensate that with mornings and afternoon walks. Lastly my grandchildren keep me on balance as I get to do many activities with them. I play tennis and do make time to travel the world to watch tournaments which enhances my wellbeing as I get to relax and enjoy the sport.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
The movement that I think would bring the most wellness to the most amount of people is jogging/walking. It is free, no gym fee required, and it is outside where there is lots of fresh air and because of the world we now live in of covid pandemic, this also provides good social distancing. In my view, every one of us would benefit from this free exercise.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
- Getting funding for greenfield projects is a nightmare — typical funders want matured projects. It doesn’t matter how good the business plan may be.
- Project preparation is risky and costly. It also takes a lot of time to research and effort to put together the business plan- mostly funded out of pocket as funders do not typically fund a business plan.
- Operating from a small developing country with underdeveloped capital market is a challenge — access to capital is limited to fund bankable projects, pool is small and demand for funding high.
- Government bureaucracy can delay implementation of projects — pace for urgency in public sector is different from that of private sector. In private sector time is money and that may not be the case in public sector.
- Patience is virtue and a necessity — it takes time to realize fruits of one’s labor, key is to not deviate from strategic objectives of but keep focused on executing what’s in the plan, tweaks can be necessary so long as that does not create massive deviation from the plan.
Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?
All these causes are important, but if I were to choose one, I would choose Sustainability. For me sustainability is an embodiment of many things, environment, social cohesiveness, corporate governance, stakeholder awakes and accountability. A company that embraces Sustainability will ensure that it advocates for environmental issues such as green economy, employee social cohesiveness is transformative and embraces diversity and corporate governance and accountability is always adhered to. For me this ensures that the whole company’s ecosystem is in place.
What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?
I am generally a private person and stay away from social media. The best communication for me is via my email or iMessage on my mobile
Thank you for these fantastic insights!
Women In Wellness: Lousia Mojela of Akanda Corp On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.