Johannesburg , South Africa ( CNN ) -- Marketplace Africa launched 100 episodes ago . That¹s one hundred weeks of African business news that brought our global audience a fresh perspective from a continent that has not normally been viewed as an investor-friendly destination . We kicked off the first show by interviewing Dominique Strauss-Kahn , who was then the managing director of the IMF . His wife , Anne , was with him and he proudly introduced me to her , reminding me that both she and I were both broadcasters . She is a famous news interviewer in France . Then , I interviewed him on the stage at a local university theatre . It was a small and intimate setting , so very different from the glare of the global spotlight in which he later found himself . My interview with his successor Christine Lagarde more than 90 episodes later was a very different affair . We met in a smart Pretoria hotel with a view of South Africa¹s Union Buildings , the seat of government . She was shuttling from Africa to the Middle East to Europe and seemed to have a punishing travel schedule but nevertheless looked elegant and not in the least bit fatigued by jetlag or the European debt crisis . She patiently took time to explain why Africa should care about what happens in the Eurozone . Looking back , though , it is always gratifying to take the show on the road . We reported from Kibera slum in Kenya where we discovered that even the poorest consumers were driving changes in the way multinationals were making and distributing their products . We went to Tanzania and its administrative and financial hub , Dar es Salaam , to investigate how the mobile revolution was changing the way poor women had access to healthcare . While there , we also talked to Tanzanians about schemes to rent land to South Koreans , who were planning to plant rice paddies and export the food back to South Korea . This is all part of a continent-wide push to utilize Africa¹s land resources smartly . See also : Interview with Zimbabwean Finance Minister . Importantly , we took the show to Zimbabwe and reported from the streets of Harare and the parched lands in Mashonaland West . We explored how remittances , money that is `` sent home '' from family members in the United Kingdom or South Africa , supports entire communities . However , the realities of life in Zimbabwe were made starkly clear to our crew when police and intelligence officers in Harare briefly detained us . Despite having permission to film , these security forces threatened us and insisted we be taken to a notorious central prison for further questioning . They were suspicious and uncomfortable with a foreign TV crew filming openly on the street , even though the Zimbabwean Ministry of Information insisted that international media were now welcome in the country . We were released only after we made a phone call to a cabinet minister who managed to get the message to them that we were to be left alone . We continued filming and presenting Marketplace Africa for the next few days and those two shows give a deep understanding of the political and economic realities in the country . The free press in Ethiopia was one of my favorite stories on our show . We highlighted an innovative scheme of newspaper renting on the street corners of Addis Ababa . Many Ethiopians can not afford to buy newspapers or magazines , so enterprising newspaper `` landlords '' rent out the daily news for a small fee . See also : Is the 'blood diamond ' concept changing ? It is always gratifying when an interview is a lively discussion that introduces you to new facts . Ntebo Rajuili¹s advice on how to do business in Africa was great fun as she explained some cultural quirks in different African countries , which might hinder or help when doing business . Of course , chatting with Oprah Winfrey about educating young girls was a treat . I wish we could have used the whole half hour of that interview rather than just four minutes . As we all know , Oprah makes for good TV . Jim O¹Neill is the economist who charted the rise of emerging nations Brazil , Russia , India and China and then coined the phrase BRIC . His insightful analysis was fascinating . He expressed confusion as to why South Africa , a relatively small economic player , had been admitted into this group of global big hitters . Recently we presented Marketplace Africa from a tugboat in Durban harbor . We were investigating the challenges facing Africa¹s busiest port and what better way to do it than to hitch a ride on a working ship ? As for the next hundred episodes , the journey will continue to be just like doing business in Africa : Exciting , perhaps slightly risky , but with the promise of excellent results .
Launched 100 weeks ago , Marketplace Africa brings African business news to the global audience . The show traveled extensively across the continent to deliver news from a fresh perspective . The show will carry on producing exciting and excellent content about business in Africa .