Dream Seeker: Mozambican entrepreneur builds his e-commerce business in China

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A young man from Mozambique studying Chinese in Shanghai has started an online shopping platform in his home country, with the help of his university. The start-up has not just brought tailor-made Chinese goods into Mozambique, but also Chinese ideas of e-commerce. CGTN's Han Peng reports.

In the professional eyes of cosmetics makers, skin color is a big issue.

HILTON MICHEL ROGERIO MAUSSE MOZAMBICAN ENTREPRENEUR IN CHINA "We are black. Most of the companies do not produce the kind of cosmetics for our skin tone, especially for Africans. So that's why I'd like to come to the factories to check how the products are made."

Hilton Mausse buys cosmetics from China and sells them to Mozambique. He and the Chinese researchers decide the ingredients of the products.

The factory is located in Suzhou, a city not far from Shanghai. They did not make their production lines fully automated, because with workers, they can get goods tailor-made to different buyers.

HAN PENG SUZHOU "Today with just a few clicks on the mobile phone, people in Mozambique can buy a lot of products made in China, including cosmetics, which this booming assembly line along can produce nearly a thousand of them in just an hour."

Hilton's start-up has just eight people, three in China and five in Africa. But their e-commerce platform Mozbuy now has tens of thousands of active users in Mozambique in just two years time.

HILTON MICHEL ROGERIO MAUSSE MOZAMBICAN ENTREPRENEUR IN CHINA "Now we focus on clothes, cosmetics, and electronics. Chinese products are much cheaper and have a good quality as well, because not every people can afford to buy an iPhone."

But their business started small. The big dream began with a tiny office provided by their university.

HILTON MICHEL ROGERIO MAUSSEMOZAMBICAN ENTREPRENEUR IN CHINA "So we were sitting here and another team were sitting here."

Reporter: "So you were sharing an office with another team."

"Yes."

Hilton is an overseas student at the prestigious Fudan University. The school has a funding program encouraging entrepreneurship.

YING ZHIFENG, VICE DEAN SCHOOL OF INNOVATION & ENTREPRENEURSHIP FUDAN UNIVERSITY "We treat domestic and overseas students equally. As China is encouraging youngsters to start their own businesses, if overseas students have a good business model, we will also provide the same amount of money, help and instruction."

Hilton says he is also riding the wave of China's ambitious Belt and Road initiative, a multi-trillion dollar investment project aimed at linking Asia with Africa and Europe through land and sea routes.

HILTON MICHEL ROGERIO MAUSSEMOZAMBICAN ENTREPRENEUR IN CHINA "Now I can feel that logistics costs are coming down, but not that much. But I think in the future it probably would become much cheaper to send any product from China to Africa. Most of the people when they see Africa, they don't see that as a big market. But only China is seeing that."

Back at the cosmetics factory, the senior managers are also eyeing the huge potential of Africa.

CHEN MINGCHAO, PRODUCTION DIRECTOR, HUIDA BIOPHARMACEUTICALS SUZHOU LTD. "Now we have only five percent of the products exported to Africa. Most still go to domestic and Western market. If we get Africa, we get a huge boost."

A partnership between the ambitious Chinese and an equally ambitious Mozambican aspiring to become the African version of Alibaba's Jack Ma. Han Peng, CGTN, from Suzhou and Shanghai.