News (1352)
With the acceleration of digital transformation across the continent, African countries are compelled to invest in cybersecurity. 18 of the continent's 54 countries have already drawn up national cybersecurity strategies, and 22 have national computer incident response teams (CIRTs).
The lack of investment and weak regulation exposes Africa to cyberattacks, according to the report "Cybersecurity in Africa- A Call to action" published in June 2023 by consulting firm Kearney. Yet investment in the African cybersecurity market is set to rise from $2.5 billion in 2020 to $3.7 billion in 2025, representing a compound annual growth rate of 7.9%.
"Despite this investment, it’s estimated the region loses more than $3.5 billion annually due to direct cyberattacks, and billions more from missed business opportunities caused by the resulting reputational damage from the attacks,” the report says.
To show the continent’s vulnerability to cyberattacks, Kearney tested its cyber resilience –the ability to resist, adapt, and recover from cyberattacks. That test focused on the five African best performers in the International Telecommunication Union's Global Cybersecurity Index: South Africa, Morocco, Nigeria, Kenya, and Egypt.
“Through the five selected countries, the analysis showed that Africa’s cyber resilience is low, particularly around strategy, governance and operational entities and cross-sector cooperation,” the report states.
While the average benchmark is 0.25% of GDP, South Africa, the African champion in cybersecurity spending, invests just 0.19% of its GDP, compared with 0.03% for the rest of sub-Saharan Africa. "If each African country spends 0.25 percent of GDP annually on cybersecurity, this would be in line with spending in mature markets. Our estimates suggest that this translates to $4.2 billion annually for the region," reads the document.
In addition to financial investment, investment in human capital is also an important component. Indeed, 84% of organizations believe that less than 50% of candidates applying for cybersecurity jobs are qualified, and more than half of companies seeking these profiles take more than 6 months to find qualified people.
Against this backdrop, in an interview with We Are Tech Africa last May, Youssef Mazouz, Secretary General of the African Cybersecurity Center, explained that there was a need to support Africa “by setting up continuous training, building skills, and opening cybersecurity research centers and universities."
Regulatory issues
African countries are yet to agree on regulations. Although the African Union convention on cybersecurity and the protection of personal data was adopted in 2014, it is not yet effective to this day. According to Article 36, to become effective, the convention must be ratified by at least 15 of the continent's 54 countries. To date, only 14 have ratified it, the latest being Côte d’Ivoire (March 2023). However, digital transformation has been accelerating on the continent since the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Cybersecurity is not a matter from which African countries can isolate themselves. The interconnectivity of systems results in the interconnectivity of the security threats to member states.[...] The absence of an implemented, unifying, regional governance framework makes it difficult to collaborate and share intelligence,” the report indicates.
Africa will better manage cybersecurity by emulating European countries, which opted for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). That law, effective since May 2018, frames data processing equally throughout the European Union (EU).
Adoni Conrad Quenum
In recent years, Kenya has established itself as a leader in digital transformation on the African continent, with one of the most dynamic ICT ecosystems in the world.
In the coming months, Kenya will establish a Centre of Excellence for digital skilling of the public workforce. Indeed, on September 4, 2023, ICT Minister Eliud Owalo (photo, center), met with a delegation from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and Microsoft Corporation. During the meeting, the three parties “deliberated on the development” of that center whose aim is to equip civil servants with the digital skills required to reinforce digitization.
The center aligns with one of the objectives of Kenya’s Digital Master Plan 2022-2032. It is announced three months after the signing of a partnership between the Kenyan government and the UNDP. The partnership focuses on key areas essential to driving an inclusive digital transformation, including training and skills enhancement, data governance, e-government, jobs, and digital businesses.
Once developed, the center will improve public workers’ ability to use digital technology for the delivery of public services. The aim is to accelerate the digital transformation of the economy and significantly reduce unemployment. According to Accenture's Africa iGDP Forecast, by 2025, Kenya's digital sector will add KES 1,400 billion ($9.5 billion) or 9.24% to the country's GDP.
Samira Njoya
The entrepreneurial landscape in Africa is thriving, offering startups opportunities for funding and increased visibility. Africa's Business Heroes plays a pivotal role in achieving this objective by identifying entrepreneurs and actively supporting their growth journey.
Kigali recently hosted two days of intense competition among 20 African innovators at the Africa's Business Heroes (ABH) Semi-Finals. Three female-led startups stood out among the contest’s top 10 finalists, a significant achievement for gender diversity.
The three women are Bola Bardet (pictured) from Benin, Christina Gyisun from Ghana, and Nthabiseng Mosia from South Africa. They respectively operate in the healthcare, agriculture, and energy sectors.
Bola Bardet is the CEO and Co-Founder of Susu, a startup that revolutionizes healthcare by offering healthcare packages and insurance that diaspora Africans can finance for their relatives in three African countries - Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal, and Gabon.
Christina Gyisun is the CEO and Co-Founder of Sommalife Limited. Her company empowers smallholder farmers in Ghana through advanced software technology, connecting them to global food and cosmetic manufacturers.
Meanwhile, Nthabiseng Mosia is the CMO and Co-Founder of Easy Solar, a startup that provides financing for high-quality solar systems and appliances to those without grid access, with flexible payment options. Mosia operates Easy Solar in Sierra Leone.
These women join other finalists from Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, and South Africa, spanning diverse industries.
The top 10 finalists will compete for a share of $1.5 million at the ABH Grand Finale in Kigali in November. The winner gets $300,000, the first runner-up $250,000, and the second runner-up $150,000. The remaining seven finalists will each receive $100,000, with $100,000 for additional training programs.
Africa's Business Heroes (ABH) is the Jack Ma Foundation's program that aims to nurture African entrepreneurs. Launched in 2019, it identifies, trains, and provides grants to outstanding African entrepreneurs. Jack Ma, Founder of Alibaba Group and the Jack Ma Foundation, created the initiative after witnessing Africa's entrepreneurial potential during his 2017 visit.
“At ABH, we have long recognized the potential of entrepreneurs as engines of economic and social growth. Now in the fifth year of the competition, we are encouraged to see that ABH has grown into a truly pan-African initiative that is positively impacting the continent’s entrepreneurship landscape,” said Zahra Baitie-Boateng, ABH head of partnerships and programs.
As the ABH Grand Finale approaches, the world eagerly awaits the impactful solutions and innovative visions these finalists will present, shaping a brighter, more inclusive African business landscape.
Hikmatu Bilali
The debate on the impact of artificial intelligence on development in Africa gathered pace late last year. The opportunities and threats it represents are now being scrutinized by experts and organizations.
Artificial intelligence (AI) can be a formidable asset for international peace and security, according to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). The UN body supports this position given the rapid pace at which conflicts are evolving, and the vast amount of data generated, which human beings are unable to process efficiently for effective decision-making processes.
The UNDP believes that "artificial intelligence can help us understand and even anticipate the onset and evolution of a crisis." But it must be combined with a human touch. Indeed, the international body is certain that Human-in-the-loop AI (HITL) –a process that combines the power of machine learning with human intelligence to solve complex problems– can improve data analysis in radically changing circumstances.
In Africa, where social networks have become privileged tools of expression, and where misinformation and hate speech are on the rise, as is communication from extremist groups, AI will help enhance watchfulness. Especially on platforms such as "Facebook and Twitter, which have been unwilling or unable to address these fundamental vulnerabilities," says the UNDP.
"These companies are often unable to consider the cross-platform impacts of their policies and user behaviors. They lack the resources (and internal incentives) to understand the impact of technology in a non-Western context and, to date, have been unwilling to share the metrics needed to properly assess the effects of their policies and interventions," laments the organization in the August 2023 issue of its "Development Futures Series".
After the start of the Ukrainian-Russian conflict on February 24, 2022, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook were actively used to report on events in real-time. They were also used as “weapons” to influence and shape opinions online. However, they have also proved useful for studying many aspects of the conflict, such as attacks on health facilities, minefields, and the use of banned weapons systems (e.g. cluster munitions).
For the UNDP, artificial intelligence systems can be tested within the UN, in a small number of country offices, or in other field operations to meet the needs of each context. The initial objective could be to expand prevention efforts in places where tensions are rising or to identify disinformation campaigns targeting humanitarian personnel. These tests could lead to the creation of a cutting-edge global platform for sharing artificial intelligence tools, tags, models, and algorithms.
Muriel Edjo
Last May, the government imposed new taxes aimed at increasing national revenues and reducing the budget deficit, in response to the current cash crunch.
The Blockchain Association of Kenya (BAK) announced on Friday, September 1, that it had officially filed a petition, in the High Court of Kenya, challenging the implementation of the Digital Asset Tax (DAT) introduced by the Finance Act 2023.
The new regulations, which came into force on September 1, impose a 3% tax on revenues generated by the transfer or exchange of digital assets in the country.
"Our petition aims to address concerns about the DAT’s impact on both our industry and the broader economy. Enforcement of this harsh DAT could potentially lead to adverse effects on the industry’s growth and innovation. The core focus of the petition is to thoroughly examine the legal and constitutional dimensions surrounding the imposition of this tax on digital assets. The matter will be mentioned before the court on September 28, 2023," states a BAK press release.
The petition introduced by the BAK comes a few months after a press release issued by the same organization, in which it set out seven reasons for opposing the digital asset tax. Among other things, BAK criticized the unclear classification of digital assets, the ambiguity surrounding transfers of digital assets, and the failure to take into account loss-making transactions.
According to Allan Kakai, BAK's legal and policy director, DAT was introduced as an income tax, but it is taxed on the gross value of the asset, not on gains and profits. This means that those in a loss-making position will still pay the tax.
The new tax regulations also require crypto exchanges, as well as those facilitating the exchange or transfer of digital assets, to retain tax deductions, and transmit them to the country's tax authority within 24 hours of the transaction.
For BAK, the government should review the texts, hence the request. Kenya is ranked 5th worldwide for peer-to-peer crypto transactions and 19th for cryptocurrency adoption, according to the Chainalysis 2022 report.
Samira Njoya
Broadband Internet service provider Starlink has expressed its interest in conquering the African market by 2024. So far, the company has launched operations in five countries on the continent and is looking to do the same in Zimbabwe with plans to extend its reach to 23 African markets.
Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite internet company, will have to comply with applicable regulations if it is to operate in Zimbabwe. The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) recently issued a warning to users and resellers cautioning them against using unlicensed operators and internet service providers based abroad.
According to the telecoms regulator, to launch operations in the country, Starlink can either apply for a license or partner with a local company registered as a public network operator. In this case, "the Satellite Operator and the local network Operator enter a Virtual Network Operator (VNO) agreement, that must be approved by the authority, to ensure that the public network operator meets legal and regulatory requirements stipulated in the license," POTRAZ wrote in a public notice.
In December 2022, Starlink announced the launch of its activities in Zimbabwe. On its website, Starlink indicated it was planning to start serving the region in the fourth quarter of 2023. So, for the regulator, if this timetable remains unchanged, the company should have submitted a license application by now.
Starlink's arrival in Zimbabwe is expected to boost the digital sector and provide high-speed Internet connection to the population, who constantly complain about the poor quality and high cost of Internet in the country.
Samira Njoya
Public service digitization is one of the goals that Nigeria has set its sights on in line with its digital economy development strategy. All Nigerian States have been working towards achieving that goal, to provide the people access to digital public services.
Edo State has fully digitized its administration, thus becoming the first State to do so in Nigeria. Godwin Obaseki (photo), Governor of Edo, recently broke the news to the State’s Assembly, urging them to follow the movement.
“Around six million documents have been digitally archived and the aim is for state operations, including interfacing with the public, to be launched and completed online,” said Obaseki.
“In the area of digitization, one of the conversations we'll have with you in a few weeks will be to ask what the legislative arm of this administration is doing in terms of digitizing the legislature. The executive branch is already wrapping up the digitization process,” he added.
The Federal government started the digitization of the Nigerian administration some years ago, and in January 2022, the former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Ali Pantami, declared that the government had taken steps through the National Policy for a Digital Nigeria to ensure migration to paperless government by 2030.
Edo State, by taking the lead ahead of the country’s other states, hopes to become Nigeria’s digital hub. To this end, the State’s administration has been equipped with over 5,000 computers and fiber-optic connections have been installed in all government offices. It also plans to train its executives in digital skills.
Transitioning to the digital will make Edo’s administration faster, both relative to procedures and decision-making.
Samira Njoya
Biometrics has made great strides in Africa in recent decades, likely spurred by governments and international organizations, driven themselves by concern for efficiency.
The National Identification Agency of Togo (ANID) will launch next month a nationwide biometric identification census. The Agency disclosed the news on August 30, during a press conference.
The project will last seven months, a month in each region, except in the Greater Lomé region, the country’s most populated region, where it will take two months.
Silete Devo, ANID’s Director General, commented on the census: "Faced with this digital transformation, identification, or the allocation of a unique identification number (NIU) to every natural person becomes the necessary condition."
With a budget of $72 million, the project is partly financed by the World Bank, under the West Africa Unique Identification for Regional Integration and Inclusion program (WURI). The latter covers Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Niger, and Ivory Coast.
In Togo, the project aims to proceed to the digital identification of 95% of the population. Each resident will be registered with biometric markers. These will include first and last names, photos, fingerprints, and irises.
Both nationals and residing foreigners (who have been in Togo for more than six months) will get a single 12-digit ID number. Ultimately, the project should streamline government services, improve the identification process, and give citizens a robust digital identity, propelling Togo further into the digital age.
Like many other African countries, Ghana wants to leverage technology to improve its economy. Since 2017, the current government has identified many sectors where digital tools will transform government efficiency.
Starting next year, Ghana will automate revenue collection at major tourist sites, Tourism Minister, Dr. Ibrahim Mohammed Awal (pictured), revealed at the Editor’s Forum held in Accra in mid-August. The transition marks a shift from a fully manual collection to a cashless system that is expected to enhance revenue generation and investment in the sector.
According to Dr. Awal, tourist attractions rely heavily on manual revenue collection but this will soon change with the cashless systems being first implemented at the newly renovated Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, before being “replicated nationwide at other attractions.”
By introducing automated revenue collection systems in its tourism sector, Ghana wants to capitalize on the experience of countries like Kenya and Tanzania that have achieved notable success in that segment. For instance, in Tanzania, the digital payment approach has helped curb embezzlement and streamline revenue collection.
If successful, the modern approach may get Ghana closer to its ambition to generate $5 billion from the tourism sector by 2025. In 2022, the sector generated $2 billion. This year, the country eyes $3.4 billion in revenue.
By 2025, it hopes to attract two million visitors yearly. To do so, it bets on private-sector partnerships and various initiatives including the modernization of cultural sites like the Dubois Centre and Osu Castle, along with positioning Ghana as a hub for Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Events (MICE) in the sub-region.
Hikmatu Bilali
Although they remain focused on only a few countries, Africa continues to attract investors from around the world. This is mostly thanks to the good impetus of the youth-driven tech industry in sectors such as agriculture and education.
The LA-based VC firm Black Ostrich Ventures announced the launch of a $20-million seed capital dedicated to African businesses that operate in areas such as clean technologies, supply chains, agritech and edtech.
This vehicle, backed by New York investors and wealthy Los Angeles individuals, targets start-ups in Tanzania, Zambia, Morocco and Uganda. Ajani Windsor-Areago, the General Partner of Black Ostrich Ventures, explained that “If you look at the capital inflows into VC in Africa, the Big Four countries—Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, and Kenya—attract all the capital. But most exits do not happen in these markets". Selected startups will receive between $50,000 and $200,000 to develop their business, with the possibility of a follow-up investment of up to $1 million if the startup reaches Series A.
Focusing outside the big four is the way for Black Ostrich Ventures and its partners to help markets that generally receive little of the tech investment inflows in Africa. Let’s note that a report issued last July 11th by the research firm Magnitt revealed that Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, and Kenya captured 94.5% of total financing raised by African tech startups in the first half of 2023.
Samira Njoya
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The Dubai-based company said the investment will help bolster payment systems infrastructure and financial inclusion and contribute to the digital transformation undertaken by the Egyptian government.
Network International, a major player in digital commerce in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region announced on Monday, August 28 an investment of EGP 1 billion ($32.3 million) to support Egypt's economic growth through innovative payment solutions.
According to the company's press release, a"significant portion" of the capital will be spent to buy, deploy, and maintain around 100,000 point-of-sale (POS) machines in several regions of Egypt. The rest will be devoted to the implementation and smooth operation of Network One, the company's state-of-the-art payments technology platform.
"This investment underscores our ongoing commitment to providing innovative payment solutions to Egyptian businesses. Our presence in the Egyptian economy spans more than two decades, during which we have served numerous banks and financial institutions," said Nandan Mer, CEO of Network International.
Network International's new investment in Egypt aligns with its government’s efforts to implement the country's national digital transformation strategy called "Digital Egypt 2030". The latter aims to "realize the digital economy through ICT, to ensure prosperity, freedom, and social equity for all".
Network International's presence in Egypt will significantly contribute to financial inclusion and GDP growth. The player strives to modernize financial technology to facilitate the transition from cash to digital payments.
Samira Njoya
Like Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon, who did it this year, Burkina Faso has digitized its visa.
Burkina Faso recently adopted the e-visa. The dedicated platform was launched on August 17, in Ouagadougou, the capital, by the Deputy Minister for Security, Mahamadou Sana.
Sana believes that the e-visa is a response to transnational crime and that it will help boost internal security by controlling migratory flows, and optimize the collection and management of government revenues.
The new e-visa platform, according to Aminata Zerbo-Sabané, Minister of Digital Transition, Post and Electronic Communications is a huge step in the ongoing digitization of the country’s public services. The platform is backed by the Burkina Faso Visa Security Project (PSV-BF).
"This platform is part of the government's drive to put digital technology at the heart of the overhaul of our administration," Zerbo-Sabané declared.
Travelers looking to secure a visa can simply do so by accessing the website www.visaburkina.bf using their email. Once connected, they will have to fill out a form, upload the necessary information and pay online, via a bank card.
The e-visa’s price varies depending on the number of days a visitor plans to stay in the country. It ranges from €51 for a 3-month single-entry tourist visa to €160 for a single-entry express visa.
Samira Njoya
We are in the digital economy era, and the impact of tech entrepreneurship on wealth and job creation keeps growing in Africa. However, African innovators still face many challenges, and encouraging local talent and promoting access to certain resources is becoming more and more urgent.
The Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) and the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) recently signed a partnership agreement to provide free communications resources to emerging ICT companies. The move aims to foster an environment that is conducive to digital innovation and allows these companies to thrive.
"The collaborative effort aims to nurture the country's thriving digital innovation landscape, ensuring that start-ups have the tools they need to thrive and contribute positively to society through their technological advances," said TCRA CEO Dr Jabiri Bakari (pictured, right).
"The distribution of these resources makes it possible to offer high-speed Internet services, an important factor in the digital economy," he added.
Two months ago, the TCRA allocated resources to four innovative startups to enable them to submit their ideas to COSTECH for further development. The move also contributes to the Tanzanian government's ambition to provide 80% of the population access to high-speed Internet by 2025, consequently fostering innovation in areas such as entrepreneurship, agriculture, and transport.
Support from TCRA and COSTECH will enable Tanzanian startups to communicate their projects free of charge. Among other things, TCRA provides numbering resources, frequency spectrum, zip codes, residential addresses and mobile money services.
Samira Njoya
The most populous country in Africa does not want to be left behind when it comes to new tech tools. The federal government is striving to leverage assets such as its youth to become a leader in AI.
Early this week, the Minister of Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani (pictured), made a post on X calling on all top researchers from the continent and abroad to help make this ambition a reality. The goal is to build an AI-powered development strategy. “We are curating a list of the top researchers of Nigerian descent from all over the world to join us in co-creating a National AI Strategy. The strategy will help shape our approach to building innovative tech solutions to our most pressing national problems,” the authority said.
AI has become, according to the FG, a multipurpose technology that transforms production and service delivery and has the potential to significantly stimulate economic growth and social development. Nigeria believes that by 2030, this technology could contribute up to $15.7 trillion to the global economy with $3 trillion coming from increased productivity and $9.1 trillion from new products and services.
With its national AI strategy, the country hopes to position itself as a leader on the continent in the next few years and tap into the benefits of this segment. Better still, Nigeria wants to give its tech environment a new face and unleash more effective and impactful tech innovations.
Samira Njoya