News (1573)
Seven months after an initial investment, the Sawiris family office made a follow on investment in Egyptian propTech company Nawy. In a February 13 statement, the beneficiary reported it has raised $5 million in seed capital.
The resources will be used to support its expansion strategy in North Africa and improve investment in new technologies and the digital (artificial intelligence, machine learning, etc.).
The startup, which facilitates and simplifies the process of buying and selling real estate online, claims to have helped more than 60,000 people find a home to date. Nawy also says it has sold over $200 million worth of real estate through its platform.
"We were one of the first investors in Nawy because we saw the potential of the company and shared its ambition. We immediately increased our investment when we realized how fast they were expanding and the trajectory of the company coming to fruition. We are very excited about the future, especially as Nawy expands its services and continues its momentum in the real estate market," commented Onsi Naguib Sawiris, head of Sawiris family office who led the investment in Nawy.
As a reminder, the Sawiris family office led an undisclosed seed funding in Nawy in July 2021. The money was used to strengthen the company's technology, increase services and increase staff. In its July 2021 forecast, Nawy planned to end the year with 300% revenue growth.
Chamberline Moko
The Ghanaian national ID card is officially accepted as an e-passport in 197 countries worldwide. The country received a certificate attesting to the fact last February 9 from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The ceremony took place at ICAO’s headquarters in Montreal, Canada.
Ransford Sowah, Ghana’s ambassador to Canada, who represented the country during the ceremony, explained that “with the Key Ceremony, all holders of the Ghana Card have an ICAO-compliant e-passport that can be read and verified at all ICAO-compliant airports/border posts across the world. It can be used for international travel - a subject of course to visa restrictions and bilateral agreements. Indeed, the Ghana Card is already valid for travel in all ECOWAS countries.” The Ghanaian ID contains all the biometric information which can be used to authenticate the identity of the holder with a cryptographic digital signature stored on the chip, similar to that of the passport. This transition was already announced last November by Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia during a conference at Ashesi University on the role of digitalization in the transformation of the Ghanaian economy.
As a reminder, Ghana officially became the 79th member of the ICAO Public Key Directory (PKD) community on October 13, 2021. The ICAO PKD is a central repository for exchanging information required to authenticate e-passports.
“For Ghanaians living or born in the diaspora, holders of the Ghana Card can be allowed to board any flight to Ghana without any visa requirement as we seek to give an inclusive Akwaaba [meaning welcome in Twi, a local language in Ghana, ed] experience to all children and descendants of our motherland,” Ransford Sowah concluded.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Togo wants to leverage digital technology to achieve inclusive and sustainable economic growth. To this end, it has established the Togo Digital Agency, which will help the government implement digital projects.
Last Monday, Feb 7, Togo's Council of Ministers adopted a draft bill aimed at accelerating the digitization of visa and resident permit applications and issuance. The meeting was held in Kara (412 km north, from Lomé).
"The main purpose of this draft bill is to update the general rules applicable to the entry, stay, movement, and settlement of foreigners on Togolese territory. In particular, it provides for the digitization of the process of applying for and issuing visas and residence permits," said the Council's statement.
The adoption aligns with the third axis of the government's roadmap, which aims at "modernizing the country and strengthening its structures."
Pending the bill's implementation, foreigners can still get their visas (tourist, diplomatic, business) at Togolese consulates and embassies (which can also issue immigrant visas for Togo).
On the territory, visas on arrival are issued by immigration services at the borders and the Gnassingbé Eyadéma International Airport. They are valid for a maximum period of 7 days, according to available information, but can be extended to a month at the Foreigners and Passports Office. For other types of visas, it is the Direction générale de la Documentation Nationale (DGDN) that handles related procedures.
Ayi Renaud Dossavi
With digital transformation accelerating worldwide, the competition among solution providers is getting tougher. To enable their investors to leverage opportunities brought up by this transformation, some governments have started taking strong measures.
This year, Russia will deploy digital attachés in 16 countries. This was disclosed last Monday, Feb 7, by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko (pictured). South Africa - the largest digital market in Africa and a privileged partner of Russia on the continent through the BRICS (economic grouping formed by Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) - is one of the countries to welcome one of these attachés.
The deployment of digital attachés in some Russian embassies is the result of a collaborative agreement between the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Media, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and the Russian Fund for the Development of Information Technology (RFRIT), and is part of the government's efforts to support the domestic IT industry.
Recruited attachés will “promote domestic software products abroad, provide consulting, information and analytical, legal and organizational support to Russian IT companies. Their main task is to develop the export of Russian digital solutions," said Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. By 2024, the number of countries where Russian digital attachés will be stationed should grow to 28.
Russia’s digital attaché will be joining the US digital attaché in South Africa. The American representative came into the country in December 2016, to promote US tech companies and help SA navigate through foreign digital and trade policies. The US, let’s recall, launched its digital attaché program in 2014.
In Russia, it is the Russian Ministry of Digital Development, Communications, and Media that handles the ongoing recruitment of digital attachés.
Muriel Edjo
Acronis, which specializes in data protection services provision, announced yesterday it has opened a center in Lagos, Nigeria. This is the first center of its kind in Nigeria, but the second in Africa. The first is in Johannesburg, South Africa.
“The opening of the Nigerian data center is part of the Acronis Global/Local Initiative, an effort that includes global management for all data centers, geographic redundancy, and control for local partners, and a local disaster recovery site - all with competitive pricing,” the company said in a statement.
The opening of such a center in Nigeria is in close line with the recent digital developments in Africa’s most populous country. Last year, Nigeria captured $1.4 billion in VC investments, out of $4 billion for the whole continent. The ugly side of this performance is the growing cybersecurity issues in the country. According to the global cybersecurity index 2020 published by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Nigeria is still lagging regarding data protection, ranking 47th out of 182 countries.
“Today, the world depends so much on data to the point where we can say data is life, and data security cannot be over-emphasized. We at Madonna Systems are so proud to be associated with Acronis, a foremost leader in cyber protection. With the opening of their new Data Centre in Nigeria, Acronis demonstrates its level of commitment to the African Market,” said Chidi Oliseowe, Team Lead at Madonna Systems Nigeria Limited.
The startup accelerator FAST, an initiative of Flapmax in partnership with Microsoft, announced the opening of applications for the Scaling Africa's Digital Ecosystem program. The program focuses on identifying, supporting, and funding the next generation of African innovators for large-scale development.
Applications are open until February 22 at https://www.fastaccelerator.com/. Selection criteria include: being based in Africa, being ready to scale or expand on the continent, having established a product-market fit, and generating revenue.
B2B startups are prioritized. Healthtech, Fintech, Edtech, and Industrials/Agritech startups will be particularly targeted. Applicants should be committed for the entire duration of the program, from March 7, 2022, to May 27, 2022.
The Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie announced the opening of several digital training courses for young Africans. The program, which first targets Tunisia and Togo, is part of the pilot phase of the institution’s "D-CLIC, train yourself in the digital" initiative.
The training targets people aged between 18 and 35. In Tunisia, the first course focuses on the development of multiplatform video games while the second addresses the production of augmented reality / virtual reality applications. The courses are organized in partnership with NetInfo and will be held in the cities of Nabeul and Tunis, starting from February 11, 2022, for 12 weeks each. Registrations are open until February 10.
In Togo, the training will be held in Lome on web and mobile application development. The courses, led by the pan-African organization Energy Generation, will be held over 6 months.
Ten countries overall are targeted by the "D-CLIC, train yourself in the digital" program. These are Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Gabon, Haiti, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, DR Congo, Togo, and Tunisia. While several of these countries have already hosted training, and will soon host additional modules, Djibouti and Gabon are expected to soon host their first courses.
"D-CLIC, train yourself in the digital" is aimed at strengthening the technical and professional digital skills of young people and women in the Francophone area to increase their chances of accessing decent jobs in business and entrepreneurship.
Vanessa Ngono Atangana
The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) and the Investment Promotion Center (CEPICI) in Côte d'Ivoire are working to digitalize their services. The local company Snedai Technologies is providing its technical assistance to help in the process.
The contract with the Ministry of Finance, on behalf of the Observatory of the Quality of Financial Services (OQSF), concerns the development of web and mobile applications that will enable the public body to better ensure financial education of the population. These digital tools will also serve as a financial mediation platform that will further promote the amicable settlement of individual disputes between financial organizations and their clients.
The digital services company will also provide the OQSF with a website to compare the offers of financial services providers. The goal is to promote transparency, ensure user understanding, and enhance the comparability of services. The deal with CEPICI focuses first on the development of a modern digital and responsive platform for electronic mail management (EML), followed by project management, performance management, investor monitoring, and dashboard management through business intelligence.
The acquisition of digital tools is in line with the government’s ambition to digitalize public services in the financial sector, through the Project to Improve Governance and Delivery of Basic Services to Citizens (PAGDS).
Launched in 2019 and financed by the World Bank, the project has already enabled, among other things, the deployment of the electronic revenue payment platform -Net collect- in 54 communities; the operationalization of the Treasury's e-payment platform -Tresor pay- for the online collection of state revenues; and the operationalization of the road contract management platform -ageroutemarche.ci.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Ranked in 2020 among the least prepared nations in Africa for e-government, Madagascar received $140 million from the World Bank in 2021 to improve its score.
The UK is ready to help Madagascar accelerate its digital transformation. The subject was discussed recently between Tahina Razafindramalo (photo, right), Madagascar's Minister of Digital Development, and the British ambassador to Madagascar, David Ashley (photo, left). The exchanges focused on the digitalization of public services, cybersecurity, and data protection in Madagascar.
David Ashley says his country will offer expertise in this domain to help Madagascar better meet the multiple needs identified for the promotion of e-governance and support the digital transformation process. A possible collaboration with the British private telecommunication sector was also discussed.
With the Covid-19 pandemic, the dematerialization of public services is accelerating worldwide and particularly in Africa. Madagascar ranked 172nd out of 195 countries, according to the UN's E-government development index 2020, with a score below the East African and African average. In September 2021, the country received $140 million from the World Bank to streamline and digitize key services and improve the government's capacity.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
The online library YouScribe unveiled plans to strengthen its presence in Africa. Yesterday February 8, it announced it has secured €5 million from the French Banque des Territoires.
The startup will use the money to accelerate its expansion on the continent, especially in the ten countries (Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Morocco, Mali, South Africa, Cameroon, Tunisia, Burkina Faso, DRC, and Madagascar) where it already operates. YouScribe also eyes seven new markets on the continent and plans to expand its collection with new books, and diversify payment methods.
According to Maud Franca, deputy director of the Program of Investments for the Future at the Banque des Territoires, the investment aims to support the profound changes that the French-language book and publishing sectors are experiencing with digital technology.
"YouScribe is a response to the challenges that must be met collectively to provide alternative offers to the large online library platforms, often foreign, and to support publishers and authors in the French-speaking world, while also thinking of the younger generations, who are fans of social media and mobile applications,” she said.
The number of French speakers in the world is expected to increase from more than 300 million currently to 750 million in 2050, making French the second most spoken language after Mandarin, according to the Observatoire démographique et statistique de l'espace francophone (ODSEF). The latter estimates that more than 70% of French speakers will be Africans and Africa will have more than 90% of young French speakers aged 15-29. However, the lack of distribution infrastructure and the high cost of paper books could accentuate the low access to reading for Africans.
The relevance of the project earned YouScribe the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Award in 2013. In 2015, the initiative received the 2017 Digital Africa Challenge Award, organized by AFD, French Tech, and Bpifrance. In 2018, Orange Africa chose the startup to promote access to reading in countries where books are poorly distributed.
By the end of 2021, YouScribe was already claiming nearly 700,000 subscribers, up 100% from 2020. By 2025, the online library with more than one million books, audiobooks, and educational digital documents targets several million subscribers, 80% of which will be in Africa.
More...
Over the past decade, ICT has been touted as an asset for the modernization of several business sectors. In the security sector, there are many applications for law enforcement.
On Thursday, February 3, the Gabonese technical and scientific police received, in Libreville, a batch of technical equipment from France. The equipment was handed over by the French ambassador to Gabon, Alexis Mikhaël Lamek, and received by the Minister of State, Minister of the Interior, Lambert-Noël Matha. It will help Gabonese authorities better fight crime, document fraud, or child and women abuse by contributing to the establishment of a digital criminal database.
Among the equipment received are scanners, an episcope for the coding and reading of analytical characters of fingerprints, various equipment for the biometric signaling of persons in custody. "This new equipment will especially help to boost the functioning of the Directorate of Technical and Scientific Police, making it more efficient when searching for objective proof of guilt or innocence," said the Minister of the Interior.
Last year also it should be recalled, France gave similar equipment to the Gabonese police, notably as part of the French-Gabon internal security partnership.
The digital criminal file will enable the Gabonese police to link criminals to their crimes more easily. It will do so by helping them rapidly identify matches and differences between prints, marks, and clues secured on crime scenes or from the victim(s) during a police investigation.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Already operational in Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya, the mobile app’s founders now prospect in Europe, India, and Australia. They want to make the app a reference in the car industry.
On Feb 4, 2022, the South African start-up secured $1.3 million in a follow-on round that recorded the participation of Kalon Venture Partners, Launch Africa Ventures, IDF Capital, Allan Gray E2 Ventures, and AlphaCode. The first three investors had already contributed an undisclosed amount during Carscan’s seed round in October 2020.
Carscan is an augmented reality (AI) mobile application with integrated artificial intelligence (AI). It creates an accurate, reliable, complete, and traceable exterior or interior scan of a car. Launched in 2019 by Obins Choudhary and Chander Prakash, it helps actors of the car market buy, sell, lease, maintain, insure, finance, and auction cars with confidence.
With a database of over two million pictures of cars in different conditions, the app's technical inspection of cars helps detect modifications, dents, scratches, etc., estimate the overall condition of a car and estimate the extent of repairs needed in real-time. The app is also useful for insurers and individuals.
Chander Prakash, the co-founder of Carscan, said the company “is working with some local and international clients and has been developed in conjunction with one of the largest players in the automotive sector in South Africa.”
Explaining their interest in Carscan, Clive Butkow, CEO of Kalon Venture Partners, said the startup has demonstrated exceptional talent and its solution solves a large problem across industries. He said the new round is “testimony to the growth of the company and the Carscan’s team’s ability to deliver a solution solving a large problem across industries.”
Within three years only, Carscan has grown considerably. The App is already available in Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya. This, its founders hope to expand to the European, Indian and Australian markets.
Ruben Tchounyabe
Under the digitalization process it initiated in recent years, the Ghanaian government announced the launch of an electronic travel card for public officials and envoys.
According to Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, who introduced it last February 4 at the closing ceremony of the Annual Conference of the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) in Cape Coast, the new instrument aims to bring further transparency and accountability in the use of public funds.
“Since independence, public officials were provided cash for their impress when they travel. This system had many associated problems, including the risks of carrying cash and fraud in the disbursement of impress […] Today, that era is coming to an end with my launch of the e-Travel Card to facilitate the cashless disbursement of travel allowance and other payments for local and foreign trips of public officials,” he said.
The Vice President said the solution will eliminate the risk of carrying cash, enable the timely retirement of accountable impress, and ease improved monitoring and control of budgetary allocations for all official travel to avoid overspending. The e-travel card was developed in partnership with Fidelity Bank. It aligns with the government strategy in place since 2006 to improve governance and development through ICTs.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Several African countries have taken on extra debt last year to improve their digital migration readiness. Investing in the right sectors is now the next important step to hit the target. To help the countries better identify the priority sectors and make the best choices in terms of investments, Sundar Pichai (pictured), Head of the US tech giant Google, suggests four steps to follow.
In an op-ed published yesterday February 7, he reported that Africa, like India a few years ago, has the potential to boost its development by investing smartly in ICTs. He says the continent is already on the right path as it enjoys a large, full-of-energy, and ICT-savvy youth.
The very first step, according to him, is to expand affordable and reliable connectivity across the continent. He believes that many Africans will be left out if they do not have access to connectivity. “We have seen during the pandemic that digital connectivity is a lifeline, helping people find essential information and connect to critical services,” he said.
He secondly suggests that governments and relevant authorities support businesses of all sizes in their digital migration processes so that the digital divide is closed. “Closing that gap means enabling businesses to move online, training more people to pursue careers that depend on technology, and ensuring that companies take advantage of cloud computing,” Sundar Pichai added, stressing that “companies should invest in products and solutions that are fit for Africa, and African governments need to adapt regulatory environments and their own development strategies to be digital-first. Small businesses need to be at the center of digitization and training efforts, as they employ around two-thirds of the continent’s formal workforce.”
A third step will be to invest in African entrepreneurs to stimulate innovation and growth. He finally called on African governments to support nonprofits and institutions striving to address communities’ challenges through technologies.
In 2021, Google made a $1 billion investment in Africa to back the continent's digital transformation. This comes in addition to several other investments made on the continent over the past four years by the company.
In its joint report with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), "e-Conomy Africa 2020 - Africa's $180 Billion Internet Economy Future," Google points out that Africa's Internet economy has the potential to grow to $180 billion, or about 5.2% of the continent's GDP, by 2025 with an economic potential of $712 billion by 2050.
Muriel Edjo