News (1573)
Since the launch of the eNaira on October 25, 2021, Nigeria has been working to stabilize its weakening currency, curb the rising inflation and boost growth after the economic disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Nigerian company Flutterwave announced on Wednesday, September 14 that merchants will now be able to accept eNaira payments from their customers on their platform. The new payment option adds to the existing ones, including bank cards and transfers, barter payments, etc.
In its product update published the same day, the company explains that the move aligns with its commitment to providing the “best payment experience for businesses everywhere.”
“The eNaira joins the robust list of payment options available on Flutterwave. Merchants can now enable the eNaira payment option for collection from their customers via API and Checkout,” it wrote.
The latest information from the Nigerian Central Bank (CBN) revealed that about 270,000 eNaira wallets have been opened, of which 252,000 are consumer wallets and 17,000 are merchant wallets. In addition, the volume and value of transactions have reached over NGN200,000 naira (US$467.5) and 4 billion respectively.
To transact in eNaira on Flutterwave, users will now need to either scan QR codes or generate unique tokens using the app.
Through its platform, Flutterwave provides technology, infrastructure, and services to enable global businesses, payment service providers, and pan-African banks to accept and process payments on any channel (Web, Mobile, ATM & POS). The company which currently operates in Africa, Europe, North America, and other emerging markets provides a suite of payment tools that enable over one million businesses to accept payments from their customers worldwide in over 150 currencies, including Naira and now eNaira.
With this move, Flutterwave eases the implementation of Nigeria’s economic strategy to boost the use of its digital currency by attracting even more unbanked users including merchants “after a first phase adoption saw 850,000 downloads by bank customers.”
Samira Njoya
The deal comes a few months after HotelOnline closed its Series A round. The round was backed by Yanolja, a South Korean travel tech, which was then making its first commitment in Africa.
Kenyan travel tech company HotelOnline announced, Tuesday (September 12), the acquisition of hospitality software company HotelPlus.
Although the terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, Eric Muliro, the founder of HotelPlus said he is receiving a US$1.9 million payment in HotelOnline stock, which was valued at US$24 million prior to the deal. At the same time, he has been named HotelOnline's chief technology officer.
The deal will allow HotelOnline to significantly increase its customer base while "capitalizing on the combined strengths of both companies, creating a force to reckon with in East Africa’s hospitality industry[...] Because the HotelPlus client-base currently uses on-premise software, this creates a unique integration opportunity with our cloud solutions," said HotelOnline co-founder Havar Bauck.
In its May 2022 report, consulting firm W Hospitality Group indicates that 14,538 hotel rooms were created in East Africa in 2021. The number was up by five percent from 13,837 in 2020, placing the region in the second position in sub-Saharan Africa behind West Africa.
HotelOnline wants to leverage this acquisition to become a strong African travel-tech player with a local and continental footprint in a continent where it already has over 6,000 customers across 27 countries. Its immediate plan is to conquer East Africa first, then Nigeria and Senegal. To fulfill that plan, it can rely on the expertise of its new chief technology officer, Eric Muliro, who founded HotelPlus in Kenya 13 years ago.
HotelOnline was launched in 2014. It helps hotels establish and increase their online visibility, deploy booking engines and gain exposure on distribution channels such as Booking.com. The deal with HotelPlus increases its client base by more than 2,200 and opens doors to additional customers, and unique offerings such as payment solutions, AI-driven pricing, and revenue management.
Samira Njoya
The partnership between the two companies addresses several issues, including transparency problems. It also helps avoid the long bank queues.
Orange Money and pan-African payment company Cellulant recently partnered to launch card-to-wallet transfers for eight banks in Botswana.
According to a release published by Cellulant last Monday, the solution baptized Orange Money Card-To-Wallet will positively impact growth in the informal and financial services sectors.
“The introduction of Card-To-Wallet aligns with our financial inclusion strategy that is centered around providing relevant and convenient solutions that address our customers’ everyday needs, as well as addressing our priorities around placing our customers first,” said Seabelo Pilane, CEO of Orange Money Botswana.
For Bathusi Beleme, Cellulant's Country Manager in Botswana, the partnership is in line with the payment company’s strategy to extend its services to “merchants in Botswana to help them digitize their payments.”
The service is already accessible to banked Orange Botswana subscribers. It will allow them to transfer funds from their bank cards to Orange Money wallets via Orange Botswana’s website. The process is powered by Tingg, Cellulant's payment platform.
The sender will need only a registered Orange SIM card while the recipient will need an Orange Money account. Although most banks in Botswana have mobile apps, some do not yet offer this option to their customers. This solution, therefore, offers bank customers more options and allows them to transfer money easily and transparently, saving a lot of time.
In its 2021 report, "The State of Instant Payments in Africa: Progress and Prospects," independent organization AfricaNenda says that, in Africa, 27.5 billion transactions were made by mobile payment accounts in 2020. The overall transaction value was US$495 billion. Year-on-year, the transaction number rose by 15% while the value increased by 23%.
Samira Njoya
In Africa, access to financial support is often challenging for women entrepreneurs. The situation limits the positive impact they can have on continental growth.
On Monday, September 12, Janngo Capital, an Abidjan-based private equity firm, announced the first close of its fund Janngo Capital Startup Fund (JCSF) at €34 million. The fund is backed by global financial institutions as well as leading private companies.
Its investment strategy will include backing startups that enable Africans to improve their access to essential goods and services and small and medium-sized enterprises on the continent. It will particularly focus on women and the youth.
“We are proud to lead Africa's largest gender-equal tech VC fund and see major global investors rally around our vision to back entrepreneurs building digital champions across Africa," says Fatoumata Bâ (photo), founder and executive chair of Janngo Capital.
According to Janngo's release, “ women in Africa are the most entrepreneurial in the entire world with a total entrepreneurship activity rate of 26%. Yet, they face a $42 billion funding gap and have very limited access to growth capital.”
By dedicating half of the proceeds of JCSF to women-led businesses, Janngo aims to work towards improving equitable access to seed capital for technology entrepreneurs in Africa. The funding to be allocated will range "from EUR 50 000 to EUR 5 million", explains Fatoumata Bâ.
The four-year-old venture capital firm has a particular interest in innovation in French- and English-speaking Africa, in sectors such as health, logistics, financial services, retail, food, agriculture, and mobility.
Janngo Capital claims to have funded 11 startups in Africa, including Sabi, a growing B2B e-commerce platform with a female CEO, and Jexport, an Ivorian online freight marketplace led by a woman, while other startups, such as the fintech Expensya, have male founders.
Samira Njoya
Remittances are economic lifelines for African households that receive them. However, the cost of those financial flows sometimes becomes a hindrance for recipients in rural areas.
For the first time, the United Nations' International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will fund a digital payment company. The lucky beneficiary is Pan-African fintech MFS Africa, which will receive a €1.2 million grant funded by the European Union under the PRIME program managed by the IFAD.
In a statement released on Monday, September 12, the fund indicates that the funding aims to promote the use of mobile money in the marginalized rural areas of five African countries namely Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, Gambia, and Uganda. MFS Africa and its partners are co-financing the grant with €0.64 million.
According to Jyotsna Puri, IFAD's Associate Vice President for Strategy and Knowledge, "this grant is an investment to develop a model linking mobile remittances and financial inclusion that can be scaled up across Africa, and benefit not only remittance families but also their communities.”
According to IFAD's latest estimates, mobile remittances represent only 3% (€15.7 billion) of the total remittances sent by migrants to their families. The average cost of remittances to low and middle-income countries is 6%. However, in African countries, that cost is 7.8%, far from the Sustainable Development Goals' target 10.C, which aims to reduce it to less than 3% by 2030.
With this 2-year IFAD grant, MFS Africa will enable its partners (remittance operators in European and African countries) to send money directly to mobile wallets in selected African countries with a focus on beneficiaries in rural areas.
“MFS Africa will also test and scale micro-insurance products linked with remittances and distributed through selected partners.” The grant will benefit individuals as well as businesses in the remittance industry. It will also improve transparency and encourage competition, particularly in segments often overlooked by traditional remittance operators due to low transaction volumes.
For MFS Executive Director Nika Naghavi, the funding will help enhance the “financial resilience of the African diaspora and their families back home by unlocking the challenges in the remittance value chain, covering both the sending and receiving sides.”
Samira Njoya
In Africa, with the acceleration of digital transformation, there is currently a shortage of digital skills. The situation is concerning for various governments, which are stepping up efforts to create digital skill pools and reduce unemployment at the same time.
The Smart Africa Digital Academy (SADA) recently launched a national digital academy to promote digital skills in Benin. The founding memorandum of understanding was signed, last Thursday (September 8), by Lacina Koné (photo, right), CEO of Smart Africa, and Aurelie Adam Soule Zoumarou (photo, left), Beninese Minister of Digital Economy.
According to Lacina Koné, “SADA is a direct solution to the digital skill shortage facing Benin, in particular, and Africa as a whole. SADA Benin will support [authorities’] agenda that aims to place digital skills at the core of Africa’s current and future socioeconomic development.”
In the framework of the partnership agreement between Bening and the Smart Africa alliance, forty cybersecurity and artificial intelligence instructors are already being trained. Once their training is completed, those instructors will train and pass on their skills to other instructors to build a pool of qualified instructors. The SADA also plans to offer advanced ICT courses to managers and teachers.
Thanks to the reforms and flagship projects in the Beninese government's strategic plan, the country jumped from the 177th spot in the UN e-Government Development Index in 2016 to the 157th spot in 2020.
The SADA Benin initiative will therefore be a key support to the country’s digital transformation plan, which aims to transform Benin into a digital services hub in West Africa.
For Minister Aurelie Adam Soule Zoumarou, the alliance will "consolidate the efforts already undertaken by the Republic of Benin in the framework of its national development program and provide new cooperation opportunities.”
SADA Benin is the fourth national academy launched by Smart Africa since January 2022. The first three were in Congo, Rwanda, and Ghana. The alliance plans to launch similar academies in Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Tunisia, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, and Sierra Leone in the coming months.
Since it began operations in August 2020, focusing on the Capacity Building for Decision Makers (CBDM) module, SADA has trained approximately 3,000 decision and policymakers across 26 countries on topics related to digital transformation and hot emerging technologies. Its goal is to train more than 22,000 people in partner countries, by 2023.
Samira Njoya
For years now, Burkina Faso, like most African countries, has been taking action to accelerate its digital transformation. However, the country does not have the resources required for an efficient transformation. Hence the importance of UNDP support.
Last Thursday, September 8, Aminata Zerbo/Sabané, Burkina Faso’s Minister of Digital Transition granted an audience to Elsie Laurence Chounoune, the UNDP resident representative. During the audience, the two officials reviewed the digital transformation actions already carried out by Burkina Faso.
"UNDP is much involved in digitization efforts. We believe digitalization should be at the core of our actions. This is a first contact meeting to review the actions already undertaken, the priorities, and how the UNDP can support Burkina Faso in its efforts to digitize its economy. This is our core priority because, without the digital economy, development objectives can not be achieved,” said Elsie Laurence Chounoune explaining the aim of her visit.
As Burkina Faso’s partner since 1966, the UNDP supported several government programs including the recent project ProFeJeC to improve the soundness of businesses launched by women and young people. The project led to the creation of FasoHub, a website allowing users access to digital resources to develop entrepreneurial skills.
According to a United Nations ranking on the digitalization of public services in African countries, Burkina Faso ranked 32nd in 2020. To get back on track, the country set up a national strategy for the development of its digital economy.
The World Bank-funded strategy, called e-Burkina, aims to build an efficient public and private administration thanks notably to ICTs and promote entrepreneurship, with a focus on agriculture and rural sector activities. Several other digital projects are also underway throughout the country and the government can now count on the UNDP for support in its digital transformation efforts.
Samira Njoya
In Africa, economically disadvantaged populations’ poor access to technological skills raises concerns about increasing inequalities in the job market. Actors are inking partnerships to ensure the digital economy benefits everyone.
Carnegie Mellon University Africa (CMU-A), the Mastercard Foundation, and the Rwanda government will train 10,000 African youth from economically disadvantaged communities in digital skills. For that purpose, the three parties signed a US$275.7 million agreement yesterday.
According to an official release, the investment provided by the Mastercard Foundation “includes a $175M endowment to perpetually fund CMU-Africa [...] and $100.7M to establish CMU-Africa’s Center for the Inclusive Digital Transformation of Africa.” The funds will help reach a broad audience as well as specific targets, including young women, youth with disabilities, and forcibly displaced youth. The beneficiaries will receive advanced training in information technology, electrical and computer engineering, and artificial intelligence. Some of the training programs will be delivered online.
According to the World Bank, millions of young Africans will be in the job market by 2030. For Farnam Jahanian, president of Carnegie Mellon University, "it's important to give them access to education in the high-tech fields that are driving the economies of the future.”
Rwandan Minister of Education, Valentine Uwamariya, indicated that the “strategic partnership with Carnegie Mellon University is one of the Government of Rwanda’s key investments to support the development of a critical mass of skills [...] required by the knowledge economy and to help accelerate Rwanda and the region’s socioeconomic transformation.”
The agreement between Carnegie Mellon University Africa and the Mastercard Foundation builds on a previous partnership between the two parties, as well as a successful 10-year collaboration between the Rwandan government and the academic institution.
Samira Njoya
In Africa, the shortage of tech skills is jeopardizing the continent’s ability to make the most of the digital economy. It is therefore urgent to facilitate access to digital skills training to have a skilled workforce.
The Republic of Guinea plans to transform its national school of posts and telecommunication into a national digital academy. The plan was disclosed by the Minister of Vocational Training Alpha Bacar Barry (photo), during a show on local radio Espace Guinée last Wednesday, September 7.
According to the government official, the national school of ôsts and telecommunication is an old academy that dates back to the 1940s. Despite its existence, it is still difficult for the private sector to find skilled software developers in the country. Therefore, the national digital academy will teach in-demand skills.
“We don’t want it to be like the Higher Institute for Distance Education (ISFAD), a reference academy. We don’t have the resources for that but, we will draw inspiration from what it does,” he explained.
In its 2018 report, "The Future of Jobs," the World Economic Forum estimated that about 65 percent of children entering elementary school today will end up in a job that does not yet exist. With the digital transformation accelerating everywhere, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) concurs in its "Digital Skills in Sub-Saharan Africa Spotlight on Ghana" report, noting that more than 230 million jobs in Sub-Saharan Africa will require digital skills by 2030.
By offering the youth a digital skills training academy, Guinea, which is also embarked on the digital transformation bandwagon, wants to create a skilled workforce that will enable it to capitalize on the booming digital economy.
Muriel Edjo
In the last few years, blockchain has become one of the important technologies used in the development of a wide range of IT solutions. In recent months, several games and service platforms using cryptocurrency and NFT technologies have made the news.
Nigerian blockchain gaming platform blockchain Metaverse Magna (MVM) announced, Monday (September 5), that it had secured US$3.2 million during a seed token sale round. Thanks to the funds raised, it plans to build Africa’s largest gaming decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) and offer gamers access to world-class opportunities.
According to Yele Bademosi, CEO of Netscoin (which developed MVM), “Africa has the highest youth population globally, but over 60% of the continent’s youth are unemployed […] Gaming presents a unique opportunity to help young Africans earn and lift themselves and their families out of poverty.”
Therefore, “MVM’s seed sale token ensures opportunities for millions of gamers in these emerging markets,” he added.
In its 2021 cloud gaming report, Newzoo indicates that in Sub-Saharan Africa, the gaming population rose from 77 million in 2015 to 186 million in 2021. The report also forecasted that the population would grow further in the next three years.
During its market research for MVM, Nestcoin noted the ever-growing number of African gamers and the lack of platforms combining gaming and blockchain. In 2021, it started a gaming guild offering play-to-earn scholarships to over 1,000 gamers to play crypto games like Axie Infinity and Pegaxy.
To date, Nestcoin claims more than 100,000 members across its products and community. It plans to build a social gaming app that would reduce unemployment in Africa and create opportunities for the continent's 186 million-plus gamers. "[...]In a decade, I would love for us to have the kind of impact that Tencent has had on the gaming industry in Asia. If we can do up to 2% of that, it will be incredible," said Yele Bademosi.
Samira Njoya
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In Nigeria, women comprise more than half of the rural labor force. This exposes them to rural-urban income disparities. To help them cope in case of increased rural poverty, programs are underway to empower them and make them able to capitalize on the digital economy.
Nigeria and the UN Women will launch a digital farming platform for women in the coming months. The plan was disclosed by the Nigerian Minister of Women Affairs Pauline Tallen, during the visit of Beatrice Eyong, UN Women’s representative to Nigeria, last Wednesday.
According to Minister Pauline Tallen, similar projects focused on empowering women should receive more funds because “once a woman is empowered, the home and lifestyle of her family will change and the nation will be healthier and better-off.”
“If the government could focus more on empowering women, it will not only change the lives of women alone but jump-start the economy,” she indicated.
The announced platform will provide users an overview of a business lifecycle, the tips, and tools needed to avoid distress selling, sell products at higher prices and reduce post-harvest losses.
According to Beatrice Eyong, the platform will also help improve rural communities’ economic and financial abilities, “introduce them to the digital economy, and prepare them for climate change.” She added that countries like Mali, and Senegal have already embraced similar platforms, benefiting women and even men.
The platform is part of the World Bank-supported program Nigeria for Women Project (NFWP), which aims to improve women’s livelihoods. The 5-year program plans to build the capacity of 324,000 women, facilitating their access to livelihood opportunities. According to the World Bank, in Nigeria, the significant rural-urban income disparity affects women, particularly the 54 million (out of a total of 80.2 million women) women who live and work in rural areas and provide 60-79% of the rural labor force. A significant increase in rural poverty translates into an increase in female poverty. Hence the need to build women’s capacities.
Samira Njoya
Since its arrival in the South African market nine years ago, Uber has gradually expanded its services on the continent covering eight other countries. In the coming years, it plans to add more to its continental markets.
US ride-hailing company Uber announced, Tuesday, September 6, its launch in eight African cities with new products and features. According to the company's statement, the cities are located in Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Kenya and Ivory Coast, where it already operates.
“As we prepare to celebrate our 10th anniversary next year, we’re excited to move into more cities so people can go wherever they want and get whatever they want. Our commitment to raising the bar on safety remains unwavering, and we continue to work hard to grow the more than 3 million earning opportunities we’ve created so far,” said Kagiso Khaole, general manager of Uber Sub-Saharan Africa.
The company's expansion into new markets comes with the introduction of new services such as UberX Share, Uber ChapChap Share, UberXL, UberXL Reserve and Uber Van Reserve. The new services offer riders the opportunity to save up to 30 percent off the normal ride price. Some services such as UberXL Reserve and Uber Van Reserve will allow riders to book their group trips 30 days in advance.
Since its arrival in Africa in August 2013, Uber has been steadily rolling out new features to attract customers. Three new safety features will be announced in the coming months, including audio recording (in South Africa), we learn. The audio recording feature will allow users and drivers to record and share audio during the ride to serve as evidence in case of safety incidents.
Uber's presence in these eight new cities - namely Owerri and Akure in Nigeria; Eldoret, Kisumu, Nakuru, and Naivasha in Kenya; and Tamale and Sunyani in Ghana - will create new economic opportunities in Africa.
In an article published on May 26, 2022, by South African Daily Maverick, Mpho Sebelebele, Uber's communications manager for South Africa, indicated that the ride-sharing company has created more than six million economic opportunities in over 50 sub-Sarahan African cities since 2013.
Samira Njoya
In its latest e-government development index, the United Nations ranks Morocco among the best in Africa. As they are aware that there is still room for progress, the country’s authorities are making more investments to improve their public services.
Morocco, through the Agency for Digital Development (ADD), recently launched its e-government interoperability platform. This platform aims to facilitate secure and transparent data and document exchange between public administrations, agencies, and institutions.
With the interoperable platform, the country wants to streamline its processes and make its services more suited to meet residents’ expectations. Thanks to the platform, public administrations, institutions, and agencies can exchange information even if they use different information systems.
"Interoperability between the various IT systems reduces processing cycles and makes previously issued documents available to every connected administration. It also reduces human errors and costs,” explained Minsait -which developed the interoperability platform- in a release dated Monday, September 5.
The platform is one of the Moroccan government’s investments for its digital transformation ambition. In its digital strategy, the country wants to increase the percentage of citizens and businesses satisfied by public services to 85% by 2025. To do so, it plans to transform how they interact with the government by digitizing end-to-end citizen/business priority services.
Currently, the Single Social Register (RSU), the MASSAR school management system, and some social programs are operational on the Interoperability Platform, which is an open "Internet of Things" (IoT) system with Big Data capabilities.
It enables simple integration and the exchange of information from different systems, applications, and devices. It also facilitates encryption to protect data confidentiality and integrity.
Muriel Edjo
E-commerce has been booming in Africa over the past few years. To support commercial enterprises in their digital transformation, El-dokan provides them with highly flexible and customizable technological infrastructures.
Egyptian enterprise software solution provider El-dokan announced, Monday (September 5), the close of a US$550,000 pre-seed round to establish its international presence. The round was led by a cluster of local and regional investors including EFG EV and Flat6Labs, 500 Global, and Hala Ventures.
Apart from helping establish its international presence, the funds will also help El-Dokan upgrade its technology. "We already succeeded in establishing a legal entity in Saudi Arabia to expand our sales and marketing activities across the GCC [ed. note: the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf]. This expansion should be followed by the South African market, after building a strong footprint in the Mena region," an El-Dokan representative told Middle Eastern media The National.
According to the International Trade Centre's (ITC) recent report on African ecommerce potential, Egypt is among the ten countries that account for 94% of online activities in Africa. During the coronavirus pandemic, the number grew significantly and ecommerce has become an essential component of the country’s business strategy. For data platform ecommerceDB, an estimated US$5.2 billion in ecommerce revenues were generated in Egypt.
El-Dokan is already a leader in the MENA region. But, it wants to capitalize on the growing adoption of ecommerce to reinforce its position on the African continent. Since 2014, the company has been providing application programming interfaces (APIs) to large and medium-sized retailers, as well as startups, enabling them to build highly customized and tailored e-commerce stores. The company also helps them "drive sales growth while simultaneously bringing down maintenance costs [and helps achieve] the highest levels of operational efficiency," says Mohamed Yousry, CTO and co-founder of El-dokan.
To date, the company estimates that its customers have grossed US$45 million. El-dokan also claims collaboration with several international clients such as Procter & Gamble (P&G), Misr Pharmacies, Mobily, Zahran stores, and Apple Premium Switch Plus seller, as well as food delivery app Appetito.
Samira Njoya