News (1573)
In Africa, governments have been on the move, since 2019, to accelerate digital transformation. For that purpose, they are putting appropriate frameworks in place to facilitate the shift.
Congo plans to create a digital development agency. The draft project was presented during the March 6, 2022, Ministerial council. The aim is to use the agency as a tool to accelerate the country’s digital transition. The agency will be created by transforming the Directorate-General for the Development of the Digital Economy into a public administrative institution.
For Léon Juste Ibombo (photo), Minister of Posts, Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, "digital transition (...) requires significant investments, particularly in infrastructure, networks, equipment, content…”
In that regard, the planned agency (which will be an autonomous agency) will support digital projects, optimize the digital transition models chosen by institutions and implement new technologies in the national territory. The bill consecrating the creation of Congo’s agency for the development of the digital agency will soon be submitted to parliament for review and adoption.
The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated digital transformation in the world. The pandemic prompted Congo, like many African countries, to take action for the development of its digital economy. Examples include the creation of an African Center for Artificial Intelligence Research (Caria) in February and the establishment of a legal framework governing startups’ operations.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Credit card network VISA inaugurated its first African innovation hub in Kenya yesterday April 6. Based in Nairobi, the facility will serve as a framework for accelerating payment technology research in the sub-Saharan African region. It will be a mentorship hub for developers creating solutions that can revolutionize payments and e-commerce.
The studio will also help Visa clients and partners operating in Africa expand their services and access technological tools that will help them overcome some of the key challenges in their business environment.
VISA’s Nairobi innovation hub will now join the global network of innovation hubs operated by the credit card network since 2016. Currently, that global network is made up of hubs in Dubai, Singapore, San Fransico, and now Nairobi.
“Sub-Saharan Africa is a fast-growing region with a tech-savvy population. As we continue to grow digital payments adoption in the region, our aspiration is to deepen our collaboration with clients and partners in developing solutions that are designed around the unique needs of Africa,” says Aida Diarra (photo), Senior Vice President & Head of Visa in Sub-Saharan Africa.
In the past five years, the African fintech segment has recorded strong growth. Startups operating in that segment attracted the highest volume of investments, reflecting local populations’ interest in practical, customized, and affordable financial solutions.
For VISA, investing in that segment is a strategic move to consolidate its presence and market share. According to the credit card network, the Nairobi innovation hub will explore ideas that can support the growth of emerging payment systems such as contactless payment and cash on delivery. The hub will also explore the development of smart payment solutions that leverage blockchain, the Internet of Things, virtual reality, and biometrics.
Muriel Edjo
This year, Kenya’s National Council for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD) will roll out its new member identification system. Developed by the Ministry of Health, the new system is intended to correct the flaws of the old system. It will specifically curb fraud, improve reporting structure for accountability and generate adequate socio-economic data.
“Many people have discovered the support given to PWDs and they have registered as members of NCPWD, even those with no disability record, to enjoy the privileges like receiving tax exemption for life,” explained NCPWD Executive Director, Harun Hassan. The official was in Kisumu during the training of County disability medical assessment teams on how to use the new system.
The old system will become obsolete by 2023, indicated Daniel Njuguna, an NCPWD ICT expert, during the same training session. He added that it had no guidelines standardizing the medical disability assessment process, sometimes resulting in information discrepancy and inaccurate records.
According to Douglas Kitut, a representative of the Ministry of Health, there are approximately 600,000 people with disabilities in Kenya. The majority have physical, visual, hearing, learning, mental, and chronic progressive disabilities. In 2021, the country raised US$15.5 million to help them deal with the impacts of the coronavirus crisis.
Since 2009, the NCPWD has been implementing identification reforms to improve its services. The new system appears thus as a new milestone in the process. To migrate its members to the new system, the council is currently carrying out a mass identification campaign across the country. After the campaign, persons with disabilities will receive smart cards. To verify the authenticity of the cards, they will also have QR Codes.
The identification process will bring the services offered by the NCPWD closer to the population, explained Harun Hassan. According to the latter, it will allow stakeholders to generate real-time demographic data on different types of disabilities in Kenya. Then, county medical officers will be allowed to sign on behalf of the Director of Medical Services.
“This means that persons with disabilities will not have to travel to Nairobi to get their assessment reports signed before acquiring the card thus bringing this crucial service closer to the people,” he stressed.
The digitized system is also expected to streamline operations and ensure that only those who meet the required registration threshold are considered.
By digitizing its registration process, NCPWD plans to get integrated with other government agencies so that its members can access its services through Huduma centers or by visiting E-government and E-citizen portals.
Ruben Tchounyabe
In 2020, Ethiopia launched Digital Ethiopia 2025, its national development strategy. One of the focuses of that strategy is digital transformation to improve the efficiency of public services and facilitate access to online payment means.
On Monday, April 4, Ethiopia, through the Ministry of Innovation and Technology (MINT), signed a partnership agreement to integrate Mastercard’s payment service gateway into its e-services portal. Therefore, users can pay for public services using bank cards for the first time while Commercial Bank of Ethiopia will collect the payments on behalf of the government.
For Minister of Technology Belete Molla (photo), the partnership with Mastercard enables the country to “provide a versatile digital payments solution – customers with any bank card can use it. That means people can pay conveniently and safely wherever they are and at any time. It also enables us to improve revenue collection and achieve efficiencies—in turn, freeing up resources to improve service delivery.”
The partnership agreement follows a memorandum of understanding signed, in 2020, by the MINT and Mastercard. That memorandum aimed to support the government in digitizing payments and improving public services in line with Digital Ethiopia 2025, the national development strategy.
In the first phase of the project, only civil society organizations will be able to pay for operating licenses using any branded payment card.
“By supporting the Ethiopian government in the implementation of a world-class and innovative digital payments platform, we are collaborating to save resources, increase efficiencies, and deliver improved services to citizens. Soon, members of the Civil Society Organization will no longer need to carry cash, travel long distances, and stand in long queues at banks to pay for their licenses. Rather, they will be able to do it safely and conveniently online,” said Mark Elliott, Division President, Mastercard, Sub-Saharan Africa.
Muriel Edjo
In Africa, medical density is currently below the World Health Organization’s recommendations. In recent years, startups have sprung up using technology to fill health offers.
E-health platform Altibbi will introduce drug delivery and virtual consultation services in Egypt. The move follows the announcement, on March 28, 2022, of a successful US$44 million series B round led by investors like Foundation Holdings and Hikma Ventures.
The health tech founded in 2008, in Jordan, aims to digitalize the whole medical procedure allowing users to get checked by physicians, receive prescriptions, and lab test interpretations online. It wants to capitalize on the low competition in the market due to tough regulations.
“The regulatory system is an ally of ours as, after so many years, we have managed to crack it. We are actually today the most licensed digital health company in the Arab world (...)We’re licensed in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. We’re working with the government as part of a round table to regulate telehealth and digital health platforms,” says Jalil Allabadi (Photo, left), founder and CEO of Altibbi.
In addition to its web platform, Altibbi has a mobile app, available on App Store, Play Store, and AppGallery. To access the over 10,000 doctors available daily on the platform, users must register on the platform, then log in using their phone numbers and a verification code. In 2013, Altibbi received the top prize in the health category during the Arab E-Content Award in Bahrain.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Nairobi residents can now report illegal dumping, unsafe waste disposal, and water shortages. It is possible thanks to Hatua, a mobile app launched last March 21, on the sidelines of the celebration of World Water Day at Kariokor Social Hall in the Kamukunji constituency. Hatua will also allow residents to report littered areas in residential districts.
Created by the sustainable development consultancy firm Niko Green, Hatua was developed with the support of the Kenya Alliance of Residents Association (Kara), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the European Union (EU).
When reporting a problem, users describe the issue, select the appropriate category and submit their contact information. The complaint will then be assigned a reference ID through which they can track the status of their report. According to Nickson Otieno, CEO of Niko Green, if the complaint is not processed within five days, the system will automatically forward it to another agency. “There is no chance for your report not to be processed,” he said.
“Our current system of reporting environmental pollution is long, tedious, and ridden with corruption. With the new platform, users can track the status of their complaints in real-time,” explained Henry Ochieng, CEO of KARA.
“The app will help NECC [National Environmental Complaints Committee] officials work even faster because they will be able to get reports of environmental pollution as they happen,” he concluded.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Launched 10 years ago, the single window for foreign trade is one of the flagship projects in Kenya’s development program, Vision 2030. It has already helped secure millions of dollars in license/permit fees and correct the flaws of the manual system.
In August 2021, Kenya started upgrading the Kenya TradeNet System, its trade facilitation platform. According to Ukur Kanacho Yatani, the country’s Treasury Cabinet Secretary, the upgrade will be completed by the end of April 2022.
The government official made the revelation last March 31, during the first East African Trade Facilitation Summit, held in Nairobi under the theme “Re-imagining Trade Facilitation in an era of Technology.”
For Ukur Kanacho Yatani, with the upgrade, “some of the limitations” will be addressed, and “features that were lacking in the Kenya TradeNet system” will be added. They will then “promote the betterment of intra-regional trade as well as significantly make it easy to carry out trade,” he explained.
“As we launch the upgrade of the Kenya TradeNet System, which is also known as the Trade Facilitation Platform, the next 10 years are indeed promising to the trading community,” he added.
The Kenya TradeNet System is a single online platform through which actors involved in international trade and logistics can carry out various trade-related procedures like submitting documents to clear goods and pay taxes and duties.
Launched in January 2011, the system already includes 23 government agencies out of 38 targeted, 38 active insurance companies, 36 banks, nearly 1,529 clearing agents, 46 shipping agents and shipping companies, 29 container freight terminals, and five freight handling companies.
KenTrade, the agency in charge of the platform, reveals that since 2014, more than 3.3 million permits have been issued through the system while over 2.8 million unique consignment references (UCRs) have been processed. As of December 2021, the system had over 16,000 registered users. Partner government agencies were able to collect a little over Ksh3.5 billion (US$30.3 million) in license/permit fees from traders. Also, from May 1, 2018, to June 30, 2021, a total of 445,146 import declarations with values estimated at Ksh2.9 trillion were registered in the system.
Muriel Edjo
Egyptian fantasy soccer platform Eskab announced last Monday the successful completion of a US$3 million funding round. Led by 4DX Ventures, the funding round saw the participation of several financial institutions and angel investors. Thanks to the funds secured, Eskab wants to make soccer more exciting and interactive for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) fans by developing new products. In that regard, it intends to recruit engineering talents and product teams as well as partner with soccer clubs.
Fantasy soccer is a simulation game where users predict the outcome of soccer matches between virtual teams they create using virtual representations of real-life players. With their virtual teams, users can take part in free or premium competitions and win prizes.
“During my time [in Canada], I got exposed to the rise of DraftKings and FanDuel. My friends were playing these two games and while I didn’t know much about Canadian sports, specifically hockey, I found that playing these games was the easiest way for me to kind of get to know the sports and kind of develop that sense of camaraderie with my friends. (...)I enjoyed the games and realized, ‘Why is no one doing this for the hundreds of millions of football fans in the Middle East and Africa?’ So we did some research and realized there was a massive market gap for this kind of game [fantasy football] in the Middle East and Africa, ” explains Aly Mahmoud, Eskab founder.
Launched in 2018, the platform claims more than 700,000 users in Egypt. Its userbase has been growing steadily since the launch of premium contests in 2021. The platform plans to enter other sports but, with the coming soccer World Cup, Eskab to first explore the soccer world before venturing into other virtual sports.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Kenyan telecom operator Safaricom and Islamic bank Gulf African Bank recently launched a Sharia-compliant mobile loan called Halal Pesa.
Thanks to the solution, users can receive up to Ksh20,000 loans fully repayable within 30 days with a 5% “commodity Murabaha margin.”
For Safaricom, Halal Pesa is “the first Sharia-compliant mobile and digital financial solution” in Kenya.
“Kenya is now a highly innovative, interconnected, and fast-paced community that requires solutions on the go. All our digital offerings, including Halal Pesa, seek to directly address this aspect. Our current strategy is focused on digitization for financial inclusion,” said Abdalla Abdulkhalik, Managing director of Gulf African Bank.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the World Bank organized on March 30, a workshop on the development of the digital industry in Cameroon. During the workshop, the various stakeholders and the government discussed issues facing the development of the industry in the country.
According to Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Minette Libom Li Likeng (photo), it was the opportunity to present the current state of the industry, its challenges, and opportunities, the support programs implemented, and ways to accelerate the development of that industry in Cameroon.
"Digital transformation is at the core of Cameroon’s development strategy. This is why we have decided to support the development of that industry, therefore helping Cameroon operate that transformation as quickly as possible,” said Sylvain Kakou, IFC regional representative in Central Africa.
For the regional representative, the workshop is then a brainstorming session to make sure the policies formulated are coherent and consistent and their execution will have maximum impact.
The attending parties are expected to elaborate a digital development action plan by the end of the workshop. The World Bank, which has invested in various stakeholders like entrepreneurs and fintech actors, also awaits a well-formulated national strategy that defines the specific roles of every stakeholder. Minister Minette Libom Li Likeng for her part assured that Cameroon will implement the recommendations made during the workshop.
In 2020, Cameroon adopted a strategic plan for the development of its digital economy. On September 28, 2021, the World Bank approved funds to finance a project to accelerate the country’s digital transformation.
The US$100 million project aims, among other things, to extend broadband internet coverage in rural areas, and promote an environment conducive to secure and resilient development. It also aims to foster the implementation of data-driven solutions in the agricultural sector, encourage innovation in the said sector, and boost the use of digital solutions by small-scale farmers.
Ruben Tchounyabe
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French telecom group Orange announced, on Wednesday, the launch of a new telemedicine service. Dubbed DabaDoc Consult, it is the outcome of a partnership between the French telecom group and DabaDoc, the Moroccan start-up specializing in medical appointment management.
Launched in Morocco in March 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic was raging, DabaDoc virtual medical consultation booking will expand into all of the Orange African markets with DabaDoc Consult.
With DabaDoc Consult, the African diaspora can book medical consultations for their loved ones residing in their home countries. For that purpose, a "simple and fluid process was developed jointly by the DabaDoc and Orange Link teams," Orange group explains.
"The customer, from the diaspora, wishing to offer a DabaDoc Consult must connect to the Orange ‘Country Transfer’ platform, choose the type of consultation and pay with his/her bank card. The beneficiary will instantly receive a code to pay for the virtual consultation," it adds.
DabaDoc was created by Zineb Drissi Kaitouni (photo) and Driss Drissi Kaitouni. The mobile platform launched in 2014 has already facilitated access to health specialists for thousands of people in Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria.
To book an appointment with a health specialist through DabaDoc, the requester must first register on the platform, then select the type of medical service being requested, fill in the city, select the health specialist close to the selected area, and choose a time slot. Once the appointment is validated, a confirmation message indicating the date and time of the appointment is sent by email and SMS to the requester.
In May 2015, the platform became fee-based for health professionals who would like to offer their services. According to Zineb Drissi Kaitouni, the subscription fees are "450 dirhams [122.5 USD] for one month, 300 dirhams/month for a 3-month subscription, and 225 dirhams/month for one year" subscription.
In April 2021, Orange Africa and the Middle East acquired a stake in the start-up through a fundraising operation. The telecom company immediately contributed its technological expertise and payment solutions to develop digital solutions that quickly proved beneficial for the entire African healthcare ecosystem.
DabaDoc, available in French and Arabic, has already received numerous awards such as the third prize for the best start-up in Morocco at Seedstars World in May 2014. It also won the top prize for GIS, a competition organized by the US Department of State in October 2014.
In 2016, its co-founder Zineb Drissi Kaitouni was named one of the top three female entrepreneurs in Africa.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Sattelite internet access has become a popular alternative for operators that want to provide internet in remote communities. However, it has limitations that AST SpaceMobile tries to overcome.
Orange, the French telecom group, is moving to test space-based cellular broadband internet in one of its African markets. The group signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with AST SpaceMobile on March 25 in this framework.
Under the terms of the agreement, AST SpaceMobile will deploy its services through the BlueWalker 3 satellite with no additional ground. It will thus allow internet access to Orange users in the targeted market, through standard 3GPP frequency bands.
For Chris Ivory (photo), AST SpaceMobile chief commercial officer, with its space-based cellular broadband internet solution, "AST SpaceMobile seeks not only to fill cellular broadband coverage gaps for millions of existing subscribers but also to extend mobile service to areas which currently have little to none at all."
Like most telecom operators, Orange is currently taking new initiatives to meet the growing demand for quality telecom services in Africa. Satellite is one of the options it looks into. It has its limitations, however. For instance, sometimes, ground equipment transmitting satellite signals fails to effectively cover remote areas.
Thanks to AST SpaceMobile's space technology, Orange will be able to bring the signal everywhere it is needed. Its users will be able to directly receive satellite signals. The memorandum of understanding signed by the two parties paves the way for discussions on a potential agreement for Orange to use the BlueBird satellite network being built by AST SpaceMobile.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Kintambo, a northwestern municipality in Kinshasa, DRC, will test a digital population registry system in cooperation with the Brussels-Capital Region. In the framework of that test, the municipality will carry out a digital identification program to register the population residing in the region.
The test project is funded by the Brussels Development Cooperation, managed by Brussels International. It is part of the cooperation agreement signed on Monday 21 March in Kinshasa by the Minister-President of the Brussels-Capital Region, Rudi Vervoot (photo, left), and the Governor of the city of Kinshasa, Gentiny Ngobila Mbaka (photo, right).
According to Corinne François, director of the Association of the City and Municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region (Brulocalis), a digital register containing an official record of the population "is important for democracy.”
The digital registry is "the foundation of everything. For instance, during elections, there could be fraudulent acts like counting the votes of dead people if there is no digital register. It is also an important tool to identify where to build a school, a hospital, etc…,” she added.
Belgian municipalities have been assisting Kinshasa in the improvement of its civil registration system since 2008. Thanks to the federal program "International Communal Cooperation" being coordinated since 2017, by the Association of the City and Municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region and the Union of Cities and Municipalities of Wallonia (UVCW), six Brussels municipalities (Brussels-City, Ixelles, Uccle, Watermael-Boitsfort, Woluwe-St-Lambert, Saint-Gilles) and seven Walloon municipalities (Court-St-Etienne, Flémalle, Herve, Namur, Olne, Waremme, and Seraing) have already partnered with a municipality in Kinshasa.
If the test planned in Kitambo proves successful, the digital population register could be extended to other municipalities and even to provinces. With a secure database of its population, the Congolese government will have valuable assets to devise effective socio-economic development strategies.
Muriel Edjo
In Mid-March 2022, the Cameroonian government offered free broadband equipment and subscriptions to startups active in Silicon Mountain, Buea, South West. In this interview, Churchill Mambe, founder of AfroVision looks explains the impact those gifts can have on digital transformation and the operations of Silicon Mountain’s innovative ecosystem. He also discusses the importance of the internet for tech entrepreneurs.
We Are Tech: Can you tell us a little about Silicon Mountain?
Churchill Mambe: Silicon Mountain is a tech industrial zone based in Buea and Fako. It's not an association, it's just a zone where young tech entrepreneurs who have created their startups -like me with AfroVision Njorku and Buyam- are concentrated. Those startups include Zinger System, ActivSapces incubator, Jongo Hub, sienfliex [for media, series, movies], Mountain hub, Mountain credit union, Genie computer...
All those startups are part of Silicon Mountain. We don’t currently have an exhaustive list of all the start-ups in that startup ecosystem. It includes anyone earning money through smartphones, in the cities of Buea, Muyuka, Ekona, Tiko, Mutengene, Limbe. In short, all the startups in the department of Fako and the regions surrounding Mount Cameroon are part of Silicon Mountain. However, just some 50 startups active in Silicon Mountain are well-known. Even the Wikipedia list is not complete because not all the startups are listed.
WAT: Please tell us about AfroVision Group, your startup
C.M: AfroVision Limited Group is the first company I launched in 2006. It specializes in consulting, the development of web/mobile solutions for businesses, software engineering, website development, development of mobile applications such as Buyam that we just launched. We also develop IT systems for government institutions, such as the GCE Board. We are currently a team of 10 people. This year, we plan to increase the staff size to 40 people by adding new members, engineers mostly, because we intend to grow with the new partners and investors we have in the U.S.
We are currently working on our project "Buyam," an online marketplace with stores in the cloud. Through that marketplace, customers can directly contact merchants, via their mobile phones, to buy what they need.
WAT: On March 15, the Cameroonian government offered one year of free broadband internet subscription to 35 startups, including yours, active in Silicon Mountain. What does this gesture mean to you?
C.M: It's a sign that the government is ready to support us and help us make Silicon Mountain more viable and create more jobs for young Cameroonians. Some startups chose fiber internet connection. It is very fast but, it will take four weeks to install it. The 15 startups that chose cellular modems received their equipment the same day with a 135-gigabyte subscription per month.
We at Afrovision Group chose the fiber internet connection because it is more stable and we need a fast and secure Internet to communicate with our customers in Africa, Europe, and the United States. We are still waiting for the installation of the cables. This can take up to a month.
WAT: What prompted the Cameroonian government to offer those amenities to you?
C.M: A year ago, the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications (Minpostel) sent a delegation to Buea. During a meeting with this delegation, its members asked us what challenges we were facing in our work. We replied that those challenges were the unavailability of quality internet connection and repeated power outages. Without the Internet we cannot work with our clients, we cannot manage our web platforms and applications. Without the internet, our work is jeopardized.
As far as electricity is concerned, we received a generator from the French embassy in Cameroon and French businessmen operating in our country. The generator is installed on the premises of ActivSpaces incubator in Buea. During that meeting, the Minpostel delegation offered to support us by providing an internet connection.
WAT: What criteria were considered for the selection of beneficiary start-ups?
C.M: The Minpostel asked us to make a list of the startups that need an internet connection. We created a google form and shared it with all the startups and tech firms active in Silicon Mountain so that they could register. To register, startups were to be based in Buea or anywhere in Silicon Mountain, specialized in mobile/web development, be a legal person, and pay taxes
WAT: What is the impact of that extra Internet connection on your business?
C.M: I usually spend XAF40,000 monthly to buy a 100-gigabyte internet subscription for the office and my home. It is an ADSL connection whose speed is between 1 to 3 megabytes per second. With the broadband internet connection we are being offered, speed will improve to 6-10 megabytes per second. It will greatly improve our working conditions. It will allow the young engineers I am working with to study online and attend meetings with our partners in South Africa and other parts of the World without much disruption. The rapid speed of the internet connection will make it easier and quicker for us to deploy our solutions in the cloud. With the new Buyam solution we are working on, at one point we had to move to a high capacity server. This took us about 3 weeks to complete the transfer. With a fiber internet connection, it would have taken just three hours. When you save time, you make more money.
WAT: Between January and April 2017, the government shut down the internet in the North-West and the South-West. That decision surely affected Silicon Mountain since it is located in the Southwest. What were the consequences of that government decision on startups in Silicon Mountain?
C.M: It was the most harmful experience ever faced by startups here in Buea. I can estimate that our company lost between 70,000 and 100,000 US dollars. When we were cut off, we first moved to Douala. Then, we rented a place at New Bonako, between Douala and Buea, where we could have internet access. I don't want to talk about it. It is a thing of the past. We are past it.
WAT: Can the internet connection and equipment the government recently provided compensate for the losses you suffered at that time?
C.M: We can't compare the two periods because the realities were different. The internet shutdown happened in 2017. We are now in 2022. We needed an internet connection and the government is offering it. We are happy and we will use it to improve our business, upgrade and hire more people. With the internet connection offered, we will be able to train more young people, work with more clients and develop more solutions
Interview by Ruben Tchounyabe