• Charles Nelson Kabwende founded Africa Tech Invest to connect investors with the Congolese startup ecosystem.

• The initiative focuses on public sector modernization and the digital sovereignty of African states.

• Kabwende holds a dual role as a private entrepreneur and the CISO for the DRC’s tax authority.

Charles Nelson Kabwende operates as an entrepreneur and investor from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He founded Africa Tech Invest as a dedicated forum for technological innovation and investment on the continent.

Africa Tech Invest established itself as a major event for technology promotion following its inception in 2022. The organization emphasizes the modernization of the public sector. It defends the idea that technology improves public services structurally. The platform also supports entrepreneurship and strengthens the digital sovereignty of African states.

The organizers host the event in Kinshasa at either the Cultural Centre or the Financial Centre. The forum spans one day. It features conferences, executive panels, and keynotes. The schedule includes African startup contests, hackathons, and cybersecurity workshops such as "Capture the Flag" challenges. The Cultural Centre of Kinshasa hosted the 2025 edition on June 25.

Africa Tech Invest functions as a strategic meeting point for the Congolese startup ecosystem. The fair connects entrepreneurs, investors, and public decision-makers. Additionally, the organizers manage a startup competition that values African technological solutions within edtech and artificial intelligence. The initiative aims to surface projects that attract regional and international investment dynamics.

Charles Nelson Kabwende currently serves as the President of ANEMONE. This company manages digital identity for enterprises. He also directs information systems security at the General Directorate of Taxes of the DRC.

He graduated from the Beihang University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He obtained a bachelor's degree in electronic and computer engineering there in 2016. He also holds a master's degree in business informatics from Riga Technical University in Latvia, which he received in 2021.

His professional path led him to Premise Data in Kinshasa in 2018. He worked there as a country support specialist. He became a project manager at Kelony in 2019. This organization specializes in artificial intelligence. He subsequently served as a consultant in IT, cybersecurity, and blockchain at World Elite Consulting between 2021 and 2022.

This article was initally published in French by Melchior Koba

Adapted in English by Ange Jason, Quenum

• Bottomline Assist offers global companies access to West African tech talent at competitive cost.

• The platform provides end-to-end services, including technical screening, onboarding, payroll and compliance.

• Clients reportedly pay 55% less than global outsourcing competitors while workers earn above local averages.

Africa is emerging as a strategic reserve of tech skills, and local players are organizing to connect this talent base to global markets with greater professionalism and efficiency. Bottomline Assist positions itself within this trend.

Bottomline Assist is a digital solution developed by a Nigerian startup that enables international companies to access qualified tech profiles—including developers, data scientists and support teams—at competitive cost.

The platform combines recruitment, technical screening and operational management to offer a single gateway to outsourced talent from West Africa. Based in Lagos, it launched in 2024 under the leadership of Francis Adelore.

The company builds its core offer on a strict selection process. It conducts local sourcing, technical tests and in-depth interviews to identify operational candidates quickly. Bottomline Assist complements this talent pipeline with managed services, including contracting, payroll, local compliance and onboarding.

Clients gain access to quality skills and lower salary costs while maintaining direct control over their teams. Local professionals receive international employment opportunities, often with upskilling programs and career support.

Francis Adelore says, “We have raised the bar for talent outsourcing in Africa with stricter requirements than most traditional firms regarding training, experience and communication skills.” He adds, “Meanwhile, our clients benefit from rates that are 55% more affordable than those of major global players. This creates a rare win-win situation: clients achieve significant savings while employees earn far higher wages than those generally offered by local employers.”

Bottomline Assist targets a rapidly expanding segment. Global demand for competitive tech resources continues to grow as companies search for alternatives to traditional recruitment channels.

By offering a combination of local sourcing and administrative services—such as payroll, compliance and HR management—the startup facilitates long-term collaboration between foreign companies and African talent.

This article was initially published in French by Adoni Conrad Quenum

Adapted in English by Ange Jason Quenum

• Black Swan builds alternative AI-based credit-scoring tools for Africa’s informal economy.

• The fintech won the 2025 MEST Africa Challenge and secured a $50,000 investment.

• The company uses non-traditional data such as mobile-money flows and merchant-terminal activity to estimate borrower capacity.

Derick Kazimoto develops a new method to interpret economic traces and reshapes how lenders analyze credit risk. He opens access to previously untapped information that financial institutions use to refine their lending decisions.

Kazimoto, an entrepreneur and consultant based in Dar es Salaam, co-founded and currently leads Black Swan. The fintech, registered in Mauritius, builds alternative data-analytics tools that enable lenders to assess solvency with higher precision and broader flexibility.

Black Swan, founded in 2022, focuses its operations on the informal economy in sub-Saharan Africa. The company designs AI-based evaluation models that rely on non-traditional data to expand financing access for SMEs, micro-entrepreneurs, traders and individuals with limited banking history.

The company’s core product is an alternative credit-scoring engine. The system estimates the borrowing and repayment capacity of individuals or small businesses without depending on conventional bank-history checks. The models integrate mobile-money transactions, merchant-terminal receipts, recurring bill payments and a broad range of digital footprints. Lenders can combine these scores with their internal systems to refine risk models.

Black Swan won the seventh edition of the MEST Africa Challenge in November 2025. The award granted the company a USD 50,000 investment and entry into the MEST portfolio.

“Our mission is to make Africa bankable. We believe the continent is shifting from informal, collateral-heavy lending to data-driven credit. This transformation changes how banks and fintechs trust, lend and grow,” said Black Swan CEO Derick Kazimoto after the announcement.

Alongside his role at Black Swan, Kazimoto works as a fintech consultant for AfroPavo Analytics, a Tanzanian company that builds digital solutions using data analysis. He also co-founded Tausi Africa, an AfroPavo subsidiary that develops financial tools.

Kazimoto earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Cape Town in 2019, followed by a master’s degree in financial technology in 2021. He began his career the same year as a data scientist at Spoon Money, a South African fintech. He later joined Akeo Tanzania, the development hub of the Akeo Group, where he served as country director from 2021 to 2022.

This article was initially published in French by Melchior Koba

Adapted in English by Ange Jason Quenum

• Djibouti prepares to operationalize its new National Cybersecurity Authority.

• The agency receives equipment and a defined mandate to oversee national cyber norms and incident response.

• The move aligns with the country’s ambition to become a regional tech hub by 2035.

Djibouti plans to bring its newly created National Cybersecurity Authority (ANC) into service as the country pushes to position itself as a regional technology hub by 2035. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) states that this ambition requires stronger commitments to cybersecurity to unlock the full potential of the digital economy.

Authorities advanced the ANC’s rollout last week during a meeting between senior officials from the Ministry of Digital Economy and the agency’s new director. The session reviewed the progress of ongoing cybersecurity projects, set priority cooperation areas, and organized the delivery of technical equipment.

The government supplies the agency with high-performance computers for incident response, international-standard firewalls and network-security systems, high-capacity servers for sensitive data, monitoring screens for security operations centers, and professional cybersecurity licenses. These tools aim to equip the ANC to oversee and enforce national cyber-defense measures.

The legislation establishing the ANC, which lawmakers examined on November 10, gives the agency responsibility for setting national cybersecurity norms and protection procedures for critical sectors. The law also mandates the creation of a national cyber-incident monitoring and response center, expanded international cooperation against cybercrime, and training and awareness programs for public and private actors.

This institutional buildup forms part of Djibouti’s broader push to secure its digital infrastructure as its digital transformation accelerates. The country has already adopted a National Cybersecurity Strategy and a Digital Code and hosts an annual National Cybersecurity Week. In October 2025 in Hanoi, Djibouti signed the UN Cybercrime Convention, joining 21 African nations among 71 global signatories. The country had previously ratified the African Union’s Malabo Convention on cybersecurity and data protection in November 2023.

Despite these steps, Djibouti remains in the second-to-last tier of the ITU Global Cybersecurity Index, posting 11.84 out of 20 in the legislative pillar. The ITU argues that Djibouti must increase efforts in organizational, technical and capacity-building domains, as well as in international cooperation, to close the gap with regional peers.

This article was initially published in French by Isaac K. Kassouwi

Adapted in English by Ange Jason Quenum