News (1573)
National health systems must adapt to technological developments. This is something every country around the world realized with the COVID-19 pandemic. Sierra Leone, which has been making efforts in this regard since 2019, now explores international partnerships to quickly bridge the mismatch between its health system and technological developments.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is offering Sierra Leone its digital health expertise. The UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention revealed this on Monday 7 February after the two countries' respective health ministers, Mohammad Salim Al Olama (UAE) and Austin Demby (Sierra Leone) discussed the matter while recently meeting in Dubai.
During the meeting, Mohammad Salim Al Olama briefed the Sierra Leonean minister and his delegation on the UAE's achievements in digital health services and health innovation, in line with efforts to fight diseases, improve health education, promote healthy nutrition, etc. The official also spoke about the UAE government's progress in health data management and health information systems development.
Sierra Leone has one of the worst health systems in the world, according to the 2021 Global Health Security (GHS) Index. Produced by the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), the John Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, working with Economist Impact, the GHS Index assesses 195 countries across six categories, 37 indicators, and 171 questions. Using publicly available data, the index compares health security in featured countries, based on their capabilities to prevent diseases, the number of doctors, the number and quality of health facilities, etc. In last year's rankings, Sierra Leone was 116th with a score of 32.7 out of 100.
Leveraging digital technologies to improve its public health system, Sierra Leone will have to invest heavily in its internet infrastructure. The country's internet penetration rate currently stands at 25% only, according to the Hootsuit and We Are Social Digital Report.
In 2019, Sierra Leone became the first African member state of the World Health Organization (WHO) African region to fully digitize its disease monitoring system. The project was started with the WHO's support and was successfully deployed in all 14 districts of the country as well as in all its public health facilities.
Muriel Edjo
Nine (9) months after raising $1.8 million in seed funding, Lami has acquired Bluewave Insurance Agency. This acquisition will open the doors to 7 African markets, including the DRC, where Bluewave offers its insurance services.
Kenyan insurtech, Lami Technologies, announced the acquisition of competitor Bluewave Insurance Agency for an undisclosed amount. “I am very enthusiastic about this acquisition and believe it will bring exponential growth for both companies. With increased resources, enhanced technology and innovation, expertise, and market expansion, this acquisition will help us create a more competitive environment for insurtech in Africa as we continue to work on providing insurance products that are affordable and convenient for all Africans,” said Roy Perlot, CFO, Lami Technologies.
The announcement comes 9 months after Lami Technologies raised $1.8 million in seed funding. This new acquisition “aims to drive rapid growth for Lami and expand its presence to new African markets with an expected business growth of 65,000 current policies and potential growth of hundreds of thousands expected in 2022 across Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Nigeria, Gambia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),” the company said.
The deal will also expand Lami's customer/product segment in Malawi where Bluewave reaches more than 60,000 smallholder farmers with access to policies. Between 2018, when it was founded, and May 2021, Lami says it sold more than 5,000 policies and partnered with more than 25 active underwriters, including Britam, Pioneer, and Madison Insurance.
In a note published in May 2021, the company estimated that the African insurance market, which stands at a 3% penetration rate, South Africa excluded, faces challenges in modernization and innovation. These challenges include traditional policy administration, lack of knowledge of insurance products, inflexible offerings.
Chamberline Moko
Tunisia’s first fashion marketplace for women Dabchy has gained popularity in the country. The online platform was launched in 2016 by the eponymous startup founded by Ameni Mansouri, a biomedical engineer with a passion for fashion, Ghazi Ketata, a computer security engineer, and Oussema Mahjoub, a web developer.
The platform, which claims $550,000 invested so far in its development in Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria now plans to expand in the Middle East. The service connects thousands of women who want to sell, buy and trade second-hand clothes.
"Dabchy is a community of hundreds of thousands of women who love fashion. They share not only their wardrobes but also all their worlds with great looks," explains Ameni Mansouri, president, and CEO of Dabchy. To date,1.1 million items are available on the platform. An article is posted every 40 seconds and more than 500,000 users are registered, according to the co-founders. Customer service is handled 100% in-house using technology. The site has several features. It offers the user the ability to view the latest items posted, sorted by category, color, brand, and condition (new with tags, new without tags, very good condition, good condition, satisfactory). All seller is required to provide pictures, descriptions, and the price of the article to be sold. The platform has also integrated a children’s session since 2018.
Dabchy has reached a partnership with the logistics service provider Aramex and the Tunisian Post Office to ensure fast delivery of goods via Rapid-Poste. Payments are either made online via bank account or e-Dinar card, or in cash. When payment is made in cash, the buyer pays the amount to the delivery agent, who in turn deposits it into a Dabchy account.
The platform administrators can then verify the transaction and quickly send the amount to the seller. The latter receives the money 24 hours after delivery.
In 2019, Dabchy raised $300,000 in a round led by the incubator 500 Startups, with the participation of Flat6labs Tunisia, Vision Venture Capital, Daal Venture Capital, as well as a group of Business Angels. The following year, the platform won the MEA Seed Challenge of Orange Ventures, the investment fund of Orange, and shared €670,000 with winning startups from other countries. To date, Dabchy has received $550,000 in funding. The startup, which plans to open in the Middle East, also plans to launch a "VIP service" to authenticate luxury clothing or accessories worth more than TND300 ($104.80).
"We want to offer a service that allows us to become a platform for luxury second-hand clothing, so we can target markets such as Dubai, for example," says Ameni Mansouri.
Ruben Tchounyabe
The e-commerce sector has experienced a recent boom in Africa with the emergence of new solutions. To stand out from the growing competition, Jumia Ghana has adopted a strategic technological plan.
The Ghanaian dealer of Jumia, an e-commerce company present in a dozen African countries, unveiled today its partnership with the local smart locker company LocQar. Jumia wants to provide secure lockers to its customers in Accra, where they can easily take possession of their online orders.
“The experience of our customers is very important to us and that is why we have established this partnership with LocQar. It takes only 7 seconds from when customers arrive at the smart locker to when they pick up their orders. Also, it is highly convenient because these lockers are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This makes it possible for customers to pick up at any time of the day to retrieve their parcels,” said Samuel Esiri, Country Manager of Jumia Services Ghana.
LocQar provides smart lockers in strategic locations such as Kotoka Airport, Accra Mall, and West Hills Mall. These lockers are managed by a digital platform and once a parcel is dropped off, the recipient is immediately notified (via SMS or email). They automatically receive an access code and only need to enter it on the locker controller's touch screen to access their package.
LocQar's smart lockers are secure and safe and are equipped with alarms. They are located in areas under video surveillance and accessible 24/7.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Casava, which offers a 100% digital insurance service, has secured pre-seed funding of $4 million to support its business expansion. The company is touted as the first-ever to offer 100% digital insurance services in Nigeria.
“Our mission is to provide affordable insurance for Nigerians and other Africans and we are happy to have raised these funds from an exciting group of investors,” said Bode Pedro (pictured), founder and CEO of the company.
These funds are the first the company has received since its founding in 2016. Casava is taking advantage of the expense savings offered by the digital, allowing potential or confirmed customers to purchase work or health insurance premiums online. “The Casava team has developed a unique and disruptive product that we believe has the potential to transform Africa’s insurance market,” said Avi Eyal, General Partner at Entrée Capital, one of the venture capital firms that contributed to the fundraising.
In the risk coverage segments in which Casava operates, there is an opportunity in terms of digitization of services, as many workers are often underemployed, with no protection against the risks of business interruption and thus technical unemployment, and the risks of illness. According to the Nigerian National Bureau of Statistics, 20% of workers have lost their jobs due to Covid-19 and many of them in small trades have not received compensation.
The digitalization of insurance services in Nigeria has been growing in recent years. The potential size of the market in terms of subscribers (95% of the 33% of social network subscribers) is an opportunity, but technological solutions will have to go beyond technical issues and address substantive challenges such as the lack of trust between insurers and policyholders, ease of premium payments, but also reimbursements in case of claims. These are all issues that will need to be monitored.
Barely two years after launching, Amitruck already has over 8,000 vehicles registered in its database, completed 100,000 deliveries, for more than 300 corporate clients.
Amitruck is a digital trucking logistics service launched in 2019 by the eponymous Kenyan startup. On February 2, 2022, the firm raised $4 million in seed funding. Led by Better Tomorrow Ventures (BTV), with participation from Dynamo Ventures, Rackhouse Venture Capital, Flexport Inc, Knuru Capital, Launch Africa Ventures, Uncovered Fund, and strategic angel investors, the round will allow Amitruck to speed up its expansion in Africa and hire new talent.
Founded by Mark Mwangi (picture), Amitruck connects businesses and individuals, who need to move their goods, with truck owners and logistics companies. Mwangi came up with the idea after realizing that the informal logistics sector, which uses archaic manual systems, was fragmenting and unnecessarily increasing operating costs.
By integrating new technologies in transit operations, the Kenyan founder aimed to modernize and make the sector safer in Kenya. Plus, the service dealt with the issue of middlemen who raise costs of services, enabling customers to deal directly with the selected carrier. All drivers and vehicles are checked, and goods in transit are insured against loss and damage to ensure safe operations.
Barely two years after launching, Amitruck already has over 8,000 vehicles registered in its database, completed 100,000 deliveries, for more than 300 corporate clients. To access the service, customers must first log in to the platform's web address or download the app from Play Store. Once that is done, they must create their account, which will be approved. With this account, users can book a truck, van, motorcycle, bicycle, among others, to transport their goods. Once validated and initiated, users can track their goods as they move. Payment is made only after goods are delivered and the client is satisfied.
The startup - which joined, in 2021, the Ninja Accelerator program of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Google’s Black Founders Fund Accelerator, and AbInbev's Budstart Accelerator program - wants to "attract more carriers and shippers" in 2022.
Muriel Edjo
Egyptian startup Yalla Fel Sekka (YFS), which specializes in logistics and on-demand delivery, has completed a $7 million Series A financing round. The funding, announced this week, will support the company’s business in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
As part of this expansion plan, YFS says it will build 20 to 40 dark stores in several cities by next year. Dark stores are retail shops, closed to the public, that serve as warehouses for other businesses
“What’s important to say is anything that has to do with quick commerce or instant delivery requires a new form of infrastructure on the ground to be close to your customers, technology, operations. All of that is radically different from the type of infrastructure we saw when we were not dealing with quick commerce. But now this is what it is all about for YFS, to become the main player and the leader of offering these logistics services for commerce,” said Khashayar Mahdavi, YFS co-founder.
Yalla Fel Sekka operates on a Business-to-Business-to-Customer model. When a customer places an order online, the startup picks it up from one of its dark stores built to hold products for customers from various industries, including grocery, pharmacy, and e-commerce, and makes the delivery. The service, which can be accessed via web or mobile, offers users the ability to track the delivery of their order online. Yalla Fel Sekka already claims a fleet of nearly 1,000 active motorcycle and van drivers and 3,000 on the waiting list.
According to Yasmine Abdel Karim, co-founder of the company, nearly 10,000 orders are recorded per day and the gross volume of goods is increasing at a monthly rate of 20% with a customer retention rate above 90%.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
They are among the 19 finalists picked, out of 300 applications, for the 10th edition of the Les Margaret Awards by JFD (Journée de la femme digitale), a movement that promotes innovation by women. There are eight of them listed in the Entrepreneur, Intrapreneur, and Junior categories for Africa.
JFD will reveal the laureates of its 10th Les Margaret Awards on February 10, 2022, at La Sorbonne, Paris. The African finalists include an Egyptian, a Ugandan, a Senegalese, an Ivorian, two Gabonese, a Kenyan, and a South African in the three categories mentioned above.
Entrepreneur
- Farah Emara, from Egypt, runs for the awards with FreshSource, an agricultural platform that connects farms to businesses and provides last-mile solutions. With it, she wants to rationalize the fresh produce value, empower farmers, and cut food waste.
- Shamim Nabuuma Kaliisa, from Uganda, founded Chil AI Lab, a startup that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to expand essential health services to the poor and marginalized, women especially, in her country.
- Ariane Akeret, from Gabon, runs as a finalist with her CaPay project. CaPay is an App that facilitates the payment of salaries, amongst other financial transactions, via mobile money. This digital payment solution targets employees, retirees, workers with no bank account, social security funds, organizations, associations, and public administrations.
Intrapreneur
- Adjaratou Wakha Aidara, from Senegal, is executive director at Partners West Africa-Senegal. She has developed a clean, safe, sustainable, and connected mobility project with motorbike taxis.
- Patricia Ndikumana, from Kenya, head of partnerships at Sokowatch, an e-commerce platform whose goal is to help informal retailers easily secure essential goods, without relying on wholesalers or banks.
- Ivoirian Cleo Ngokoudi is the CFO of Anka, a platform that provides local merchants with integrated digital management solutions, and facilitates international financial transactions.
Junior
- Maylis Kouakoua, 13, is from Gabon. She developed Scratch, a quiz-based game to raise teenagers' awareness about the internet’s dangers, cyber-bullying notably.
- Malebina Tsotsotso, 15, is from South Africa. She built MTutor, an e-learning platform designed to provide an adaptable, scalable, safe, and secure learning tool.
According to Delphine Remy-Boutang, CEO of the Bureau & JFD, the projects selected were the best out of hundreds. “We received over 300 applications. This is a unique opportunity to bring out our future European and African tech champions. All their projects address major societal issues.”
She then stressed the need to “direct more investment towards female entrepreneurship, which also provides solutions to digital transformation by putting it at the service of our societies and the environment.”
For this year’s edition, the vote of the general public will count for one. Launched in 2013 by JFD, Les Margaret Awards rewards female entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs, in Europe and Africa, every year. The laureates’ projects are innovative and address major social issues. The Awards is named after Margaret Hamilton, former director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, which developed on-board flight software for NASA's Apollo program.
Brice Gotoa
The technology sector in Africa has been booming in recent years, with the emergence of innovative startups. To support this dynamic, the US tech giant Oracle announced an investment of $1 million in the sector.
Oracle says it aims to give African startups access to the latest cloud technologies through "cloud credits" to implement their digital projects. Cloud credits could go up to $10,000 for 100 startups, the investor explained.
The investment is part of Oracle for Startups, which is an initiative to support technology for young companies in their development. It follows the announcement by Oracle of the opening of its first cloud region in Africa.
“Africa is a hotbed for tech entrepreneurs, and we have witnessed a 91 percent growth in enrolments from South African startups, and 39 percent growth from over 13 other African countries within the last year. The USD one million investment will further boost the efforts of tech entrepreneurs in Africa to utilize the latest digital technologies for the success of their startups," said Jason Williamson, Vice President of Oracle for Startups.
With broadband connectivity growing on the continent, driven by telecom operators' and ISPs' investment in undersea optical fiber cables, the use of cloud technologies is gradually growing. Secure and reliable, the service is the guarantee of a globally risk-free activity.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
The low mobile internet penetration rate in Africa (only 28% in 2020 according to GSMA) is a huge obstacle to online learning. To tackle this issue and make learning content more accessible, the startup Kajou came up with an offline solution. The company is now in full expansion.
Kajou closed a €1 million round of financing last January 10, with the impact investment funds Phitrust, Colam Impact, and Hippolyte Capital. Business Angels, mostly from the Ashoka network, also took part in the round. The beneficiary plans to use the money to intensify its activity in Senegal and accelerate the development of its digital training content offer in West and Central Africa, particularly in Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Benin, Togo, and Cameroon.
The digital training content offered by Kajou is available on micro SD cards that can be inserted into a smartphone. The information is then accessed via the Kajou application. Users can browse up to 32 gigabytes (GB) of selected content in local languages. Multiple sectors, including health, the environment, agriculture, and entrepreneurship are covered. The app also allows users to share content with their friends, without using data.
Jérémy Lachal (pictured), the founder of Kajou, sees the digital solution as "a great tool to bring knowledge directly to your phone. It allows you to consult thousands of contents without using your Internet data. We are knowledge activists. Because where there is knowledge, there is hope.”
Kajou has been in operation for 18 months and already has more than 20,000 users. The startup is a response to the need for access to knowledge in Africa, where the mobile Internet penetration rate is still only 28%, according to "The Mobile Economy: Sub-Saharan Africa 2021" report by the Global System Operators' Association (GSMA).
Kajou wants to reach more than 3 million people in West Africa with its digital library. It sees this investment as a way to allow its users to get information, educate themselves, and develop their professional activity.
Muriel Edjo
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Officially launched on Jan 1, 2021, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) holds several business opportunities for African e-commerce. However, to leverage these opportunities, African countries need adequate policies. Assessing the gaps in these policies is a mission recently undertaken by Smart Africa Alliance.
On Dec 17, 2020, the Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group greenlit a $1.5 million grant to Smart Africa Alliance, a group of 32 African countries, organizations, and international companies that want to create a single digital marketplace in Africa.
The grant, provided by the African Development Fund (the Bank’s concessional window), will be used to assess policy gaps in the digital and e-commerce ecosystems of Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Ghana, Liberia, Uganda, South Sudan, Zimbabwe, Republic of Congo, São Tomé and Príncipe, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Lacina Koné, CEO of Smart Africa, said: “One of the critical challenges preventing the continent from preparing for Africa’s bold new future is the inability to conduct cross-border payments for goods and services due to a lack of solutions and crippling policies. Our partnership with the African Development Bank is crucial in creating an enabling environment to advance e-payments, and the digital economy is essential for Africa’s renaissance.”
Smart Africa Alliance will, as part of its assessment mission, consult with public and private sector stakeholders to develop an e-learning program that will directly benefit 600 stakeholders, including government officials, small and medium enterprises, private sector mobile network operators, and indirectly benefit another 2,500.
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) officially began operations on Jan 1, 2021. Regrouping all 55 African Union member states, this 1.2 billion people market has a gross domestic product (GDP) of $2.5 trillion. According to the UN’s Economic Commission for Africa, it is an asset that can foster the boom of e-commerce in Africa. However, for this to happen, every country must have a legal e-commerce framework that favors international trade.
“This project is both timely and vital. For the continent to create a unified digital market by 2030, efforts should focus on harmonizing and building a cohesive policy environment for intra-continental trade,” said Nicholas Williams, Division Manager for ICT Operations, AfDB.
Muriel Edjo
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) is supporting the government of Mauritius in the acquisition of a national digital health system. A collaboration deal was signed to this effect between the two parties last January 26 in Port Louis.
The deal is part of the government’s ambition to promote high-quality, affordable, user-centered care while encouraging higher levels of internal efficiency and effectiveness. Kailesh Kumar Singh Jagutpal (pictured), Minister of Health and Welfare, revealed that the UNDP's financial contribution to the project was more than $2.7 million. The Japanese government also contributed $418,000, and the Mauritian government raised more than $3 million for the project.
The digital health system will open up new opportunities and guide the planning, allocation, monitoring, and evaluation of resources, Kailesh Kumar Singh Jagutpal said. “It will also provide the technology required to improve the health awareness levels of the citizens, thus paving the way for a new era in healthcare delivery in Mauritius,” he added.
The health system in Mauritius faced many challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic. The government has therefore adopted a solution called E-health, in the framework of the Strategic Healthcare Plan 2020-2024 launched on August 12, 2020.
In addition to the financial support, UNDP plans to catalyze financing from other partners.
Muriel Edjo
The Ivorian government has made the fight against cybercrime one of its priorities since 2011. This crackdown has made it possible to shrink the financial damage due to cybercrime to $9.4 million in 2018 from about $24 million in 2010.
Digital security solutions can help Côte d'Ivoire save CFA2.5 billion (nearly $4.2 million) each year. This amount is how much the country lost to cybercriminals in 2021, according to Colonel Ouattara Moussa (pictured), director of information technology and technological traces (DITT) at the Ministry of the Interior and Security. Data released last January 31 by the anti-cybercrime platform (PLCC) showed that more than 5,000 complaints were recorded in 2021 compared to 2,408 in 2017, up 51.84%. PLCC reported that the main digital crimes recorded in the last year are threats of posting sexual images and sexual harassment on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, WhatsApp), e-transaction fraud, fraudulent use of natural person identifiers, damage to image and honor, and online scams. The platform says 50% of complaints were solved in 2021.
The data unveiled by the PLCC highlights the growing dangers in the digital world. In response, the government has taken several actions to further secure the national cyberspace. In 2020, it adopted a new cybersecurity strategy that extends to 2025. It also planned to invest $30.8 million to create a National Cybersecurity Council and a National Cybersecurity Authority.
While waiting for these investments to materialize, the National Center for Monitoring and Response to Computer Security Incidents in Côte d'Ivoire recommends that individuals be more vigilant online, that they regularly back up their data, equip their terminals with antivirus software, activate an antispam program on their e-mail, regularly update their operating systems and avoid installing software from unknown sources.
For businesses, the global IT consulting firm Accenture recommends, among other things, reducing data transfers, enabling full disk encryption on all devices, using cybersecurity operators, and adopting the cloud.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
The government of Gabon announced a partnership with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to introduce digitalization in primary education. A meeting was held for this purpose between the Gabonese Minister of National Education, Professor Patrick Mougiama-Daouda, and the resident representative of Unicef in Gabon, Dr. Noël Marie Zagre. This initiative aims to make distance learning more dynamic through new technologies.
"The program will spread over five years. We plan to establish a mechanism that will help both students and teachers to get used to the digital tools. A first phase will see us implement the project in 3 schools per region," said Dr. Noël Marie Zagre.
The UNICEF Resident Representative also revealed that the program will later cover secondary and higher education. "It will take into account all aspects including staff training, infrastructure, and content to ensure that primary education can benefit from the digital," he said.
Gabon gradually started its digital migration process about a decade ago. With the advent of Covid-19, the country wants to accelerate its process.
Brice Gotoa