At 13, He’s Crunching Numbers to Pay His Own School Fees
While most teenagers focus on homework and video games, 13-year-old Malaki Conteh is running the numbers on how selling Caribbean food can help him raise £4,000 a term for school.
For many children his age, school fees are an abstract worry handled by adults. For Malaki Conteh, they are a business calculation. At just 13, the London-based teenager is learning early that education, ambition, and responsibility can go hand in hand.
Malaki’s entrepreneurial journey began at the age of six, when he set up a small stall outside his father’s office. His goal was simple but heartfelt: to earn enough money for singing lessons so he could join his church choir. What started as a child’s determination quickly became a blueprint for something bigger.
Today, Malaki runs Malaki’s Food & Drinks, a Caribbean food business in London that has grown beyond expectations. The venture now employs his own parents, turning a childhood idea into a family enterprise built on discipline, teamwork, and cultural pride.
But Malaki’s story is not just about profit margins or school fees. A portion of the business earnings is deliberately set aside to support others, funding musical instruments for children who cannot afford them, and contributing to therapy and travel costs for people facing mental health challenges. For Malaki, success only makes sense when it uplifts others.
In a powerful full-circle moment, his early dream has also come true. Through years of dedication and musical training, Malaki became the first Black chief chorister in his church’s more than 1,000-year history, an achievement that speaks to both personal excellence and quiet social change.
His journey challenges assumptions about age, capability, and leadership. While childhood may be measured in years, ambition clearly is not. Malaki Conteh’s story is a reminder that with purpose, support, and courage, young people can shape their futures, and inspire entire communities, long before adulthood arrives.
