The continent of Africa has long been viewed as an extraordinary place, with jaw dropping scenery, unique customs and great people. It has also long been a place that has been lagging behind much of the rest of the world in terms of the development of its economy. With this development comes stronger and better establishment industries. The service industry, employing bar and front of house professionals, is one area seeing huge growth in Africa at the moment.
With this growth comes a whole wave of new and young people seeking to become professional bartenders. Our very own Tom Dyer was lucky enough to get out to West Africa earlier in the year on the back of an invitation to the WFA to come and be part of Barman TV a new reality show involving young men and women from Nigeria and Ghana. During this time Tom acted as a trainer and mentor for the reality TV show and also oversaw the training and examination of a number of the bartenders involved who achieved their WFA Yellow Grade.
The WFA and Tom were invited back to Nigeria recently to take some of the original WFA Yellow Grade bartenders to the next grade, WFA Orange.
“It was great to get back out to Africa and see the guys again, the guys are really keen to learn as much as they can about bartending and it has been a pleasure to work with them. Theo Boye and Ifeanya Braide successfully passed the exam and were awarded their Orange grade, they both want to move on to WFA Green after this and then the most challenging of them all – WFA Blue”
“These two guys represent Africa’s first WFA Orange level bartenders. After they have completed the four grades both guys have told me they want to start getting involved in the international WFA competitions, where they can achieve their Purple and Black WFA levels. If they go ahead and complete WFA Green and Blue they will certainly be ready to challenge some of the world’s best flair bartenders on stage”.
“We expect to see a lot of growth on the African content over the coming years. Countries like Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa are already starting to see well developed and successful service industries establish themselves. Along with that we are seeing a growth in demand for bars, and therefore skilled bartenders to work behind them”.
Currently EBS Cape Town in South Africa is the only place in Africa you can undertake the WFA Gradings without the presence of our Head of Gradings himself, with examiners in Nigeria and Ghana coming soon. Tom was also invited out to East Africa and will be returning to Africa soon, training new examiners in a bar school in Nairobi, Kenya.
As the bar industry isn’t hugely developed on the continent, flair bartending is largely unknown. As a result the demand for flair bartenders is also growing, as we found with a recent booking for the closing party of Lagos Fashion Show. With the lack of bar schools and training facilities this stock of local flair bartenders is in short supply. With WFA Gradings we hope to change that, watch this space…