News (1725)
In the past decade, Mauritius has invested heavily in ICT to create a digital economy as announced in 2010. This has helped the country better cope with the economic crisis induced by Covid-19.
The Mauritian government has decided to leverage its digital assets to boost tourism, whose contribution to the country’s GDP plunged by 62.1% in 2020 due to Covid-19. From 19.5% of the GDP and $2.4 billion of revenues in 2019, the sector tumbled to 8.7% and $945.5 million in 2020.
Now, the Island no longer focuses on using the Internet and the web for tourism promotion; rather, it wants to build a robust digital environment to attract location-independent workers.
Last month, Nilen Vencadasmy (photo), chairman of the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority, started touring some African countries to sell this new vision. On 26th February, he was in South Africa which is considered an important market; 130,000 South Africans visited Mauritius in 2019.
The Premium Travel Visa is the first digital asset that Mauritius will use to achieve its new ambitions. Launched on November 16, 2020, this one-year renewable residence permit granted to non-Mauritian nationals is accessible online. The Mauritius Economic Development Committee specifies that applicants for this permit must meet several criteria, including not being involved in the Mauritian labor market, proving that the main place of business and the source of income and profits are outside Mauritius.
Mauritius' other digital assets are grouped into a digital ecosystem conducive to remote work. The country ranked 8th in Africa for average mobile Internet speed in January 2022 with 20.59 megabits per second (Mbps), as well as 7th in Africa for average fixed Internet speed with 19.88 Mbps, according to Speedtest Global Index.
As for the cost of the Internet, Cable.co.uk, in its report "Worldwide mobile data pricing 2021. The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 230 countries," ranks Mauritius 5th in sub-Saharan Africa for the average cost of accessing 1 Gigabit (GB): $0.75. The Portulans Institute and STL's Network Readiness Index 2021 rank the country among the best in Africa in terms of Internet coverage. In the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) Global Cybersecurity Index 2020, Mauritius ranks first in the level of security of its information systems since 2014.
By targeting digital nomads, Mauritius, which plans to "relax the entry protocol in the coming weeks," according to Nilen Vencadasmy, hopes to once more make tourism a strong contributor to GDP, not only by ensuring that the industry regains its previous dynamism but also by attracting quality visitors.
Muriel Edjo
The government of Seychelles announced it is now connected to a second undersea optical fiber system that will boost access to connectivity in the country. The Pakistan East Africa Cable Express (PEACE) system landed on the Perseverance Island, a man-made island northeast of Mahé, the country's largest island, on Monday, March 7.
Benjamin Choppy (pictured), the Principal Secretary of the ICT Ministry, sees this infrastructure as an opportunity for the country to secure and improve its means of communication. Since 2011, Seychelles has been connected to a single undersea optical fiber cable, the Seychelles East Africa System (SEAS), which links it to Tanzania.
“For over 10 years, we had only one and this presented a risk for us if anything happens, especially today. If you look at the amount of traffic that we have on the cable, over 95 percent is on the SEAS cable. If something went wrong it would be catastrophic,” said Benjamin Choppy.
The PEACE is a 15,000 km undersea cable system spanning Africa, Europe, and Asia. It incorporates the latest 200G and WSS technology in its design to transmit more than 16 terabits of data per second per fiber pair. These capabilities give it the means to meet the growing connectivity needs in the country.
The Seychelles government has invested $20 million to connect to this new high-speed telecom infrastructure that will support the digitization of public services and the development of the digital economy. Amadou Dina, managing director of Airtel Seychelles, said the telecom company has already designed new products that will be launched when the new system goes live next May.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Since 2019, the telco has been deploying measures to strengthen its footprint on its markets in the MENA region. Last March 10, Madagascar officially became the ninth country in Africa and the Middle East to join the Orange telecom group's digital training and innovation support network. The company inaugurated its "Orange Digital Center" in Antananarivo, in the Redland Tower in Ankorondrano.
This is an ecosystem entirely implemented with the German cooperation and dedicated to the development of digital skills and support for innovative project leaders. It has been operational since October 19, 2021.
According to Alioune Ndiaye, President, and CEO of Orange Africa and the Middle East, Orange Digital Center Madagascar "is part of the network of 32 Orange Digital Centers of the Orange Group, which will be deployed in all our markets in Africa and the Middle East, but also in Europe. The aim is to democratize access to digital technology for young people, both graduates, and non-graduates, to give them access to the latest technological skills to enhance their employability, and to prepare them for the jobs of tomorrow.”
The site covers 800 m2 and includes a Coding School, a digital manufacturing workshop, FabLab Solidaire, run by the Orange Foundation and located at the University of Antananarivo, and an Orange Fab startup accelerator, supported by Orange Ventures, the Orange Group's investment fund. All training and coaching programs are free and open to all. The collaboration between Orange and the German Cooperation in Madagascar is part of the development partnership of the "develoPPP program" developed on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The objective is to achieve a common vision, which is to promote youth employability and access to ICT jobs for women and girls while supporting sustainable growth and digital transformation.
To contribute to the access of an even greater number of young people to digital-related knowledge, two Orange Digital Center Clubs, extensions of the Coding school, are also planned to be set up at the University of Fianarantsoa and the University of Antsiranana.
Muriel Edjo
Digital transformation has accelerated across Africa in recent years, driven by Covid-19. Several countries have taken action to avoid missing the next global revolution.
The Ivorian government announced it has taken steps to make the Internet accessible across the territory. Under this plan, the government launched last March 7 in Abidjan the study on the universality of the Internet. The ceremony was presided over by the Minister of Digital Economy, Telecoms and Innovation, Roger Adom (pictured).
This study, initiated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), through the UNESCO Chair, will be conducted with the monitoring of an advisory committee of the digital sector. "After making consensual findings, we will make recommendations to improve the Internet in Côte d'Ivoire," said Professor Alain Kiyindou, Representative of the Unesco Chair. He said an official validation ceremony for the study is planned between May and June 2022 before the results are presented in December 2022 in Addis Ababa at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF).
According to the ICT Regulatory Authority of Côte d'Ivoire (ARTCI), the Internet penetration rate was about 78% in Q3 2021. It is calculated by comparing the number of Internet subscriptions to the total population. ARTCI says this rate may not reflect the true level of Internet access in the country because many individuals in urban areas hold multiple SIM cards, which increases the number of subscriptions. In their Digital Report 2022, We Are Social and Hootsuite estimate Internet penetration in Côte d'Ivoire at 36.3%.
The study on the universality of the Internet in Côte d'Ivoire is financed up to CFA13.250 million ($22.3 million) by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Investment and Development Bank. Its benefits should enable Ivorians to benefit from the $180 billion in revenue that the digital economy is expected to generate in Africa by 2025, according to Google and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
Muriel Edjo
They were chosen among the eight candidates from the continent who were shortlisted in February. Their projects were judged to be in line with the major challenges facing society.
A Gabonese, an Ivorian, a Ugandan, and a South African won the 10th edition of Les Margaret Awards. Ariane Akeret Soufiano, Cleo Ngokoudi, Malebina Tsotsotso and Shamim Nabuuma Kaliisa, were declared winners last March 8.
Ariane Akeret won with her project CaPay in the category Entrepreneur Africa. CaPay is an application designed to facilitate the payment of salaries and other financial transactions via mobile money in Gabon. It is a digital platform offered to employees, retirees and other unbanked populations of companies, social benefit funds, organizations, associations and public administrations.
Cleo Ngokoudi won the Intrapreneur Africa category with Anka, a platform that provides Ivorian merchants with integrated digital management solutions, facilitating international financial transactions. She is the CFO of the company.
Malebina Tsotsotso is 15 years old. She won in the Junior Africa category with MTutor, an e-learning platform designed to provide an adaptable, scalable, safe and secure edtech tool in South Africa.
Shamim Nabuuma Kaliisa received the Jury's Hope Award. She is the founder of Chil AI Lab, a startup that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to extend essential health services to poor and marginalized women in Uganda.
According to Delphine Remy-Boutang, president and CEO of The Bureau and JFD, which organizes the award, each winner's project was the best of hundreds. "We received more than 300 applications," she said in February. The winners will benefit from JFD's Growth Acceleration Program for one year. This includes media exposure worth €1 million, mentoring and coaching in collaboration with JFD partners.
The Margaret Junior will benefit from JFD's growth acceleration program - to develop her entrepreneurial project, a scholarship and digital participation in the ARTEMIS I mission, the first preparatory flight for the return of humans to the Moon. The Jury's Hope Prize was offered an original work by artist Caroline Corbasson, specially designed for the JFD.
Muriel Edjo
The Cameroonian video game studio Kiro'o Games announced it will seek new investors, tomorrow March 10. To this end, the startup has issued an invitation for a Zoom meeting at 8 pm Yaoundé time, during which Founder and CEO Olivier Madiba (pictured) will present the company's business plan and expected results. He will also discuss with potential new shareholders the risks and return on investment.
Kiro'o Games, which launched its first products in 2013, claims to have raised $530,000 through Equity Crowdfunding to date. The funds have enabled it to bring new products to market and record more than 150,000 downloads of its products. Given the growing interest of African gamers in local games, the startup wants to grow quickly to take advantage of the potential multi-billion dollar industry.
"At Kiro'o Games we have been preparing since 2017 for this multi-billion dollar opportunity that the African mobile game market represents. That's why in 2019 we opened our capital to raise $1 million," explains Olivier Madiba.
The new capital raising that the Cameroonian startup is preparing comes a few days after it formed the Pan African Gaming Group (PAGG) alongside 9 other African video game studios. The African video game industry is expected to reach 680 million people by 2025.
Kiro'o Games relies on the credibility acquired in Cameroon and Central Africa over the past few years to convince new investors. This credibility has earned the company several awards from Games Industry Africa in several categories, including Innovation of the Year, Team of the Year, Mobile Game with the most impact, and Debut of the Year.
Muriel Edjo
After a recent $10.5 million fundraising round, Naqla is getting ready for a new stage in the development of its business in Egypt.
Egyptian logistics platform Naqla announced last March 7 it has raised $10.5 million in pre-series A funding. The company, which connects truck owners with freight companies, plans to use the money to digitalize its operations.
“We are now perfectly positioned to grow our digital logistics offering and market presence, bringing a much-needed technology infrastructure to the badly served Egyptian logistics and trucking industry, at a critical time in the country’s economic growth. We thank our investors for their part in the Naqla journey – this investment will enable rapid acceleration of our business and our planned vertical expansion into new segments,” said co-Founder and CEO Sherif Taher.
The fundraising comes three years after Naqla expanded into heavy-duty trucking in 2019, with a fleet of trucks carrying heavy items accounting for 16% of the company's business, and two years after its expansion into domestic light-duty trucking in 2020, transporting SMEs’ light materials. Since its inception in 2017, the company -which works with more than 400 shippers and 10,500 drivers across Egypt, claims to have delivered more than 4.6 million tons of cargo.
Egypt's logistics industry is worth an estimated $13 billion and accounts for nearly 3.5% of GDP, according to data published last December by Naqla.
Chamberline MOKO
A Graduate of financial management from Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakech, he also conducted research in information and technology at Ryerson University in Canada. In 2012, he joined Avito.ma as Finance and Administration Manager. Following the merger between Bikhir and Avito in 2014, he held key positions in the startup, in finance as well as Product and Business Development Manager. In 2016, he was appointed Director of Operations and Strategy, and a year later, he became the new CEO of Avito.ma.
Now at the head of the company, Zakaria Ghassouli wants to make it the leading platform for classified ads in Morocco. In October 2020, Avito.ma was acquired by Malaysian Frontier Digital Ventures after 6 years under the control of Norwegian Adevinta. The new parent company made a group shot, spending A$56 million (more than $40 million), to acquire Avito.ma, Tunisian classifieds site Tayara.tn, and Colombian real estate portal Fincaraiz.com.
"It allows us to continue to execute our strategy and to pursue the mission we have set ourselves. We want to assist Moroccans in the search for the best opportunities at every stage of their lives," said Zakaria Ghassouli. True to his development ambitions, he announced last March 6, a new offer targeting VSEs and SMEs. Called avitoboutiques.com, the new service aims to facilitate the transition of companies to the digital space and expose their brands to millions of potential customers. The decision to launch a digital store platform was driven by a sharp increase in the number of stores created on the Avito.ma platform by 2022. In addition to this, avitoboutiques.com will provide data analytics to help business owners make better decisions to improve the customer experience.
Avito.ma claims more than 6 million unique visitors and more than 28 million visits per month. Already present in the automotive, real estate, and IT/multimedia sectors, the new avitoboutiques.com platform will allow the startup to reach other sectors.
"As the first marketplace in Morocco, we have decided to help professionals in their transition to the digital by offering them the opportunity to reach more than 8.4 million potential contacts per month," said Zakaria Ghassouli.
Aïsha Moyouzame
Almost seven years after launching, the online payment company has entered a fourth African market. Its ambition remains to make digital payments accessible to a larger number of people.
Paydunya, the Senegal-based online payment start-up, has recently started operations in Togo.
Already present in Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Benin, and Burkina Faso, Paydunya is coming to Togo with the ambition to “make digital payments accessible, regardless of the payment method used, regardless of the area and region, and regardless of the sector of activity, whether public or private.”
The payment aggregator maintains that it wants to provide "real added value" with secure solutions for receiving and making payments via mobile money (T-money, Flooz) and bank cards.
“We want to facilitate access to digital payments to all businesses regardless of their size or sector of activity and thus participate and contribute to the vast financial inclusion project in Togo,” Aziz Yérima, CEO of PayDunya told We are Tech. “Our launch in Togo is a response to the needs of our customers," intended to "provide them with accessible payment solutions,” he added.
A growing fintech ecosystem
In Togo, Paydunya joins a growing fintech ecosystem that has welcomed in recent years, young "promising" startups such as CinetPay, Semoa, and Gozem, the super App specialized in e-transport and e-logistics.
Paydunya, which reached 65,000 transactions per day in 2021, intends to take advantage of this Togolese environment that fosters digitalization and financial inclusion. Data from the BCEAO shows that over 72% of the Togolese population holds at least one account in a financial institution or a mobile money account.
Given the greater use of Mobile Money in Togo, since it was adopted in 2016, more Fintechs have been eyeing Togo. Wave, a mobile money solution - which Paydunya integrates into its range of solutions - is among them; it revealed plans to come to Lomé. Due to its competitive fee structure, the U.S. unicorn, whose operational base is in Dakar, will surely shake the Togolese mobile money transfer ecosystem (which is presently shared between Moov and Togocel), and aggregators like Paydunya could gain the most from this digitalization-driven disruption.
An idea born on campus
Paydunya’s founders, Aziz Yerima, Youma Fall, Honoré Hounwanou, and Christian Palouki, came up with the idea in 2014 while studying at the École Supérieure Multinationale des Télécommunications (ESMT), in Benin, Ivory Coast, Senegal, and Togo. They launched the fintech the following year.
In 2021, nearly 7 years later, the fintech claims to have processed more than 15 million transactions valued at CFA 110 billion. Its customer base is estimated at more than 1,200 B2B clients.
Fiacre E. Kakpo
The Congolese government has since 2019 stepped up initiatives to develop the digital economy in the country. Beyond connectivity infrastructure, it has also made the innovation industry – a major job generator- a priority.
The government of the Republic of Congo is working on a specific legal framework for startups. The related bill was approved by the Council of Ministers last March 2. The document was then submitted to Parliament for review by Léon Juste Ibombo (pictured), the Minister of Posts, Telecommunications, and the Digital Economy.
If it is validated, it will foster the implementation of various administrative, financial, fiscal, and measures that will promote the development of tech entrepreneurship in the country. Leon Juste Ibombo explained that the government decided to develop this tool due to "the absence of a specific legal framework for the digital industry, the lack of adequate funding, and the difficulties of access to public procurement as well as the absence of a strategy to promote innovation.” The law provides for a “startup” quality label that will only be issued to young companies that have met certain conditions.
Startups are increasingly gaining ground in Africa. Between 2015 and 2021, the amount they managed to raise increased from $277 million to $5.2 billion. Fintech, e-logistics, e-commerce, e-health, have gained value with Covid-19. As digital transformation has accelerated on the continent, the Congolese government wants to enable local innovators to also benefit from the growing business opportunities.
In its report "2021 Africa Tech Venture Capital", Partech reveals that Congolese startups captured $1 million from investment funds and other VCs in 2021. Senegal, which has been enjoying a startup law since December 28, 2019, saw the volume of funds raised by its startups reach $353 million in 2021. It was $6.50 million in 2016 according to Partech.
The new framework in Congo will facilitate the emergence of more tech innovators and entrepreneurs who will promote a dynamic local industry.
Muriel Edjo
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Over the past five years, the Ghanaian government has developed various means of securing tax revenues from the exploitation of its subsoil resources. The measures have been reinforced with digital tools.
Ghana has digitized its national laboratory for the analysis of all precious minerals intended for export. The transformation of the facility managed by the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC), was unveiled last March 2 in Accra by Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia.
Nana Akwasi Awuah, MD of PMMC, explained that the digitization of assays will now make it possible “to generate assay certificates which have unique security features. These unique features will make it difficult for gold scammers to follow to facilitate their dubious activities.”
“Digitization has also now made it possible to monitor in real-time, gold exports passing through the National Assay Laboratory. At the click of a button, persons given access to the dashboard can see, in real-time, the amount of gold exported in both kilograms and ounces, where it was exported to, the value in Ghana cedis and dollars, the withholding tax, the exporter, and many other relevant data to aid national economic planning,” he added.
The transformation of the precious minerals analysis laboratory is part of the government’s strategy to secure tax revenue from this sector. Five years ago, the President of the Republic ordered the government to identify a means of independently verifying gold exports. The PMMC officially started operations in February 2018 following several engagements with the Ghana Chamber of Mines, the Association of Gold Exporters, and the Ghana Chamber of Bullion Dealers.
"President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo recognizes that our progress as a nation in the modern world is inextricably linked to digitalization and will, therefore, continue its adoption for enhanced service delivery. It is a critical path for our nation to remain competitive in the world of today and tomorrow," Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia said.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Moroccan B2B e-commerce and retail startup Chari.ma announced it has made an offer of $22mln to acquire consumer credit company Axa Crédit.
“We are thrilled to announce a cross-selling partnership between Axa Insurance Morocco and Chari. This partnership will allow Axa Insurance to keep growing on the Moroccan market and play a central role in financial inclusion,” commented Meryem Chami, CEO of Axa Assurance Maroc.
The offer comes less than a month after Chari.ma raised an undisclosed amount of funds. The company co-founded in 2020 by Ismaël and Sophia Belkhayat, had indicated the new capital valued it at $100 million. Chari.ma also announced it would, following this operation, test the Buy Now and Pay Later service with its customers, before considering an extension into the customer loan sector.
The new partnership will allow Axa to refocus on insurance, its core business. Chari.ma, for its part, could now offer credit to its customer base of consumer goods retailers. The company will use the Karny.ma platform, which it acquired in August 2021, to assess the creditworthiness of its unbanked customers with no credit history. These retailers will in turn be able to grant consumer products on credit to their customers.
Chamberline Moko
French banking group Societe Generale is ending its mobile money service YUP, created in 2017, in Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Guinea, Ghana, and Madagascar. The information was disclosed in a letter sent on March 1, 2022, by Nicolas Pichou, CEO of Societe Generale Cameroon, to his employees.
"Dear colleagues, 5 years ago, anxious to promote financial inclusion and facilitate access to innovative fund transfer means by notably dematerializing companies’ payment flow, the AFMO (Ed.note: Africa and the Middle East) Business Unit launched an electronic money service and created a dedicated entity YUP. Despite all the efforts made by the YUP teams in the 7 geographic zones concerned, including Cameroon, to develop our market share and improve the experience, the service has not succeeded in creating a viable model and the market outlooks do not comfort us in planning for the continuation of this segment. In that circumstance, Societe Generale Group, in consultation with all its local subsidiaries, took the difficult decision to stop the operations of YUP in all the geographic areas where it was deployed,” explains the letter sent by Nicolas Pichou.
In short, despite all the resources deployed over the past five years to capture shares of the highly dynamic mobile money market, YUP has proven unprofitable for Société Générale. In the case of Cameroon, the reason for this failure is the undisputed supremacy of the country's two main mobile operators (MTN and Orange namely) in this market. Those operators entered the local market almost ten years before YUP and have had the opportunity to establish a network that leaves almost no room for newcomers.
Over 19 million active mobile money accounts
In July 2021, when celebrating its 10th anniversary in the Cameronian mobile money market, Orange Cameroon claimed it was controlling 70% of the market share, with cumulative transactions amounting to CFA800 billion yearly. "When I say cumulative transaction values, I mean deposits and withdrawals, money transfers, bill payments, salary payments, and everything else that is merchant payment, etc. Our daily cumulative transactions amount to CFA3 million,” explained Emmanuel Tassembedo, director of Orange Money Cameroon.
MTN Cameroon is a bit cautious as far as its mobile money market share is concerned. Its executives claim MTN Mobile Money had 5.6 million active subscribers in the second quarter of 2021, at least 168,000 points of presence across the country, including 108,000 merchant points and 60,000 distribution points.
Both operators offer innovative services like insurance subscriptions and tax payments. According to the Ministry of Finance, in Cameroon, close to CFA10 billion of taxes were paid through the two mobile money operators.
Let’s note that Cameroon is CEMAC’s leader in the mobile money segment. According to data published by the central bank BEAC, in 2020, there were 19.1 million active mobile money accounts in Cameroon. This was 64.8% of the 30.1 million mobile money accounts active in the CEMAC region whose membership includes six countries (Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Chad, the Central African Republic, and Equatorial Guinea). During the period, mobile money service providers active in Cameroon carried out 73.13% of the transactions recorded in the community space.
Brice R. Mbodiam
Over the past five years, Gabon has performed well in the UN e-government development index. Despite this progress on paper, not much has changed on the ground.
Société d'incubation numérique du Gabon (SING), a private company providing digital innovation services, announced the launch of the SmartGov program last February 25. The initiative is part of the government’s ambition to digitize public services and make the administration more collaborative and efficient.
"Services need to communicate with each other so that they are faster and more efficient," said Yannick Ebibie (pictured), MD of SING. "Even though the country is the highest-ranked in terms of e-government in the Central African region and among the best on the continent, people still have to queue for hours at ministries to access services. And sometimes not everything on the website is updated," he said.
Gabonese authorities have made digital transformation a priority since 2009. The ambition is to make Gabon a model of digitalization in Africa by 2025. To support the migration of Gabon from e-Government to Smart Government, the SING also launched a three-day hackathon. During this event, SING will select and fund the best ideas, capable of facilitating the entry of public administrations into a more collaborative vision. CFA1 million (nearly $1,700) will be granted to the winners with a three-month technical assistance period.
Brice Gotoa