Tech (830)
The coronavirus pandemic revealed the need to develop strategies to ensure education continuity in times of crisis. In that regard, countries, and development partners are now implementing projects to bridge the digital divide and transform the education system.
Earlier today, November 15, during an event organized on the sidelines of COP27, UNESCO and HUAWEI presented their joint Technology-enabled Open Schools for All (Huawei TECH4ALL) program.
The program was presented by Stefania Giannini, Assistant Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). During her presentation, she explained that it has become necessary to leverage technologies to change education models.
“Aiming to leave no one behind in the digital world, enabling equity and quality in education is one of four focused domains in the Huawei TECH4ALL digital inclusion initiative,” said Catherine Du, head of the Huawei TECH4ALL program.
The program, which entered its implementation phase in Ghana, Egypt, and Ethiopia last year, aims to encourage the development of resilient education systems in times of profound global changes like the Covid-19 pandemic. Apart from equipping schools, the program also includes digital training for teachers and learners as well as the development of online platforms -to enable hybrid learning- and digital courses.
In Egypt, the joint UNESCO-Huawei program aims to empower 950,000 teachers, principals, and supervisors to more effectively integrate ICT into their daily practice. Ultimately, in the country, 23 million basic education students are expected to benefit from an improved and more equitable digital learning experience.
TECH4ALL, which aligns with UNESCO’s flagship program Priority Africa, will ensure that Sub-Saharan African countries can leverage technology as an accelerator to achieve MDG 4 and as an equalizer for digital development opportunities. It will contribute to the achievement of the goals of "Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want," including sustained investments in universal early childhood development and basic education, and the elimination of gender disparities at all levels of education.
Samira Njoya
The funding comes almost one year after the U.S.-based international organization awarded initial capital to the three associations working for digital inclusion in Africa.
Last Tuesday, the Internet Society Foundation, the global organization that promotes internet access, granted the third round of grants to promote digital inclusion in Bangladesh, Colombia, and Senegal. The grants provided under the SCILLS (Strengthening Communities, Improving Lives and Livelihoods) program aim to support five innovative projects in the three countries.
"The SCILLS program reflects our commitment to promoting equitable digital transformation through Internet skills development. We are thrilled to renew our support to these five projects that are promoting digital inclusion for communities in Bangladesh, Colombia, and Senegal," said Sarah Armstrong, Executive Director of the Internet Society Foundation.
In Senegal, the foundation will fund two major projects to the tune of about US$400,000. The first, CTIC (Croissance TIC) Dakar, is a growth accelerator that will receive US$249,493 to train 30 early-stage entrepreneurs with high growth potential in entrepreneurial and digital skills and facilitate their access to financing.
The foundation will also fund SENUM (Synergy for Digital and Media Education), an association whose mission is to train and sensitize young people, their parents, and teachers on the educational use of digital technology. The US$149,421 granted to SENUM will be used to train teachers in the use of the Internet to improve the quality of education and help students acquire ICT skills through "tech clubs" and inter-school hackathons.
The SCILLS program, which is currently established in only one African country, will be expanded to Ghana in 2023. This is the second financing provided by the Internet Society Foundation in Senegal under the SCILLS program. In 2021, the foundation funded Association Jeunesse Espoir, the Simplon Foundation, and SENUM to help residents of beneficiary cities acquire digital skills that are essential for academic and economic improvement.
Samira Njoya
Technical and financial support is key for startup development. Such support is usually provided by accelerators, making their jobs crucial in Africa, where the number of startups created is ever-rising in recent years.
Venture capital firm 500 Global and GIZ (German agency for international cooperation) will launch a program to train accelerators to help them meet expectations in their respective digital ecosystems. The inaugural edition of that program, dubbed Bootcamp for Accelerator Managers (BAM), will launch next Monday. Fifteen accelerators have been selected to participate in that first edition. They are notably Orange Startup Studio, Westerwelle Startup Haus Kigali, Mountain Hub, Ennovate Ventures, WomHub, Africarise, Stanbic, Wennovation Hub, CTIC Dakar, Kosmos, Plug n Play, Norrsken Health Tech Africa, Venture Park, MEST Africa, and Growth Africa.
"500 Global is thrilled to be working alongside GIZ to ensure that African accelerators have the tools they need to support startups. 500 has been investing in companies in Africa for a decade and continues to be excited about the growth of the African tech ecosystem. We believe that the next phase of this evolution will be led by homegrown accelerators, like the ones joining BAM," said Mareme Dieng, the African lead for 500 Global.
The program will draw on a real-world project and scenario-based instruction, inspired by the work of 500 Global, which runs more than 80 accelerator programs worldwide, and GIZ's experience with innovation in Africa. It will start with a 5-day face-to-face training in Kenya. Then the participants will take part in a one-year virtual program.
In recent years, Africa’s digital economy has risen significantly. By leveraging digital and tech tools, entrepreneurs are developing innovative solutions for local problems. It is therefore urgent for the institutions supporting them technically and financially to up their technical and operational skills to offer effective support.
Let’s note that the accelerators selected for this first edition of the BAM were chosen based on their experience, seniority, market leadership, and track record. For Matthias Rehfeld, Head of GIZ's Make-IT in Africa program, "this program represents another cornerstone in Make-IT in Africa´s efforts to support African innovation on a local, pan-African and global scale.”
Samira Njoya
Yango is stepping up its actions in Cameroon. In July, the company launched a bike hailing service in Douala.
Last Wednesday, ride-hailing service Yango announced the upcoming launch of the IT education project Practicum in Cameroon to boost digital education.
The Practicum project will allow Cameroonians to acquire practical experience in modern and sought-after professions like computer science, coding and web development through experiments.
"As a carpooling application, Yango is constantly taking action to boost digital adoption. By providing access to this online platform, we want to continue our mission and expand Cameroonians' access to technology and knowledge by providing more learning options. In other regions, we have successfully implemented Practicum in several fields including education, rehabilitation, and advanced training. Our team is confident that they will achieve great results in Cameroon and train more tech experts to drive development in the local market," said Didier Theze, Yango Country Manager in Cameroon.
Yango entered the Cameroonian market on November 15, 2021. Within just one year, its popularity has grown significantly and, it intends to go up a notch by giving Cameroonians the opportunity to learn through Practicum, a US-based online platform. The platform organizes intensive boot camps that equip learners with essential skills to become more effective in the job market. It claims 87% of its alumni have found a tech job in the six months after completing the boot camps.
In Cameroon, though the effective launch date is still unknown, we know that the boot camps offered will include data analytics and web development as those professions are among the most in-demand in the region and contribute to the country’s economy. The courses to be taught in Cameroon were developed with contributions from Yango's engineers, who contributed their development and integration expertise for effective impacts.
Samira Njoya
The Ghanaian headquarters is the first opened by the micro-blogging platform in Africa, sixteen years after its creation.
US microblogging platform Twitter has officially inaugurated its Ghanaian headquarters in Accra. It was announced on Tuesday, October 1, by Kafui Sokpe, Senior Associate Director of Twitter Africa. The new headquarters will allow the firm to coordinate the activities of Twitter Africa.
“A year ago Twitter entered Africa via Ghana. Today we officially opened Twitter’s Africa HQ in Accra, and for the first time all [Twitter users] in the region left their home desks and convened to work as one team. Worth celebrating amidst all the back-to-back news headlines,” Kafui Sokpe tweeted.
On April 21, 2021, Twitter announced that it chose Ghana as the headquarters for its African operations due to the country’s appointment to host the AfCFTA secretariat and its openness toward the internet.
"As a champion for democracy, Ghana is a supporter of free speech, online freedom and the Open Internet, of which Twitter is also an advocate. Furthermore, Ghana’s recent appointment to host The Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area aligns with our overarching goal to establish a presence in the region that will support our efforts to improve and tailor our services across Africa,” the platform explained in a statement.
It also indicated it hired 11 people in Ghana, inviting more people to join. With this new office, Twitter follows its biggest rival, Facebook Inc, which opened its first African office in Johannesburg in 2015 and announced, in 2020, a second office in Lagos. The initiative is in line with the growth strategy of Twitter, which aims to become more involved in the communities that fuel daily discussions across the continent.
Samira Njoya
According to the report "Data Center Market in Africa - Industry Outlook and Forecast 2020-2025" (ReportLinker), the African data center market is expected to grow at a 12% annual rate and reach US$3 billion in 2020-2025.
Pan-African data center operator Raxio Group announced, Monday (October 31), the launch of construction works for its first data center in Grand-Bassam, 30 km from downtown Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. The foundation stone of that infrastructure will be laid tomorrow, November 3, we learn.
"Our primary mission is to help lay the foundations of the African digital economy with groundbreaking technologies aimed at ensuring the performance, security and service levels required to meet information systems’ security needs,” it explains.
Raxio group unveiled its plan to build a data center in Côte d’Ivoire, in October 2021. The plan was in line with the continental expansion plan it launched, in 2019, to meet the African growing demand with ten to twelve more data centers. In the framework of that expansion plan, it currently operates a 1.5MW facility in Kinshasa, while others are under construction in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Uganda.
According to the group, Côte d'Ivoire is the fastest growing economy in Francophone West Africa. This is notably why it chose it to host its first Tier 3 data center in the region so that it “will serve customers in Abidjan and the wider UEMOA region at a time when digital transformation, data and content consumption, and connectivity are all increasing at historic rates.”
The data center, scheduled to be operational by Q3-2023, will be headquartered at the ICT and biotech park VITIB, in Grand-Bassam. According to the company, Raxio Côte d'Ivoire will offer “customers an optimized environment for their IT equipment in a state of the art, modular facility, fully equipped with industry best in technology, security, AC/DC power compatibility and redundancy.”
Samira Njoya
According to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), global oil demand would grow continually till 2035, driven by developing countries in Africa, India, and Asia. To capture part of that demand and attract investors to its energy sector, Algeria has multiplied initiatives in recent years.
The Algerian Agency for the Valorization of Hydrocarbons Resources (Alnaft) announced, Sunday, the launch of EXALT (EXplore Algeria Today), a digital platform that provides information on the country’s mineral and sustainable resources.
According to Alnaft chairman Nour Eddine Daoudi, the platform is "an unprecedented opportunity in the history of the Algerian energy market.”
“It will allow investors to check new deposits, peruse and assess the national hydrocarbon potential,” he added.
The "fully integrated" tool, developed by international oilfield services provider Schlumberger (SLB), will help demonstrate the value of domestic upstream opportunities. It will also help promote Algeria's hydrocarbon resources thanks notably to future tenders. For Nour Eddine Daoudi, it can be accessed by everyone, everywhere in the world.
Algeria is a notable oil exporter with one of the largest oil and gas reserves in the world. In its World Economic Outlook, published last October 11, the IMF estimates that the country’s economy would grow by 4.7% in 2022, thanks in particular to an increase in its oil export revenues.
Samira Njoya
Africa is currently home to a burgeoning innovative youth population, increasingly looking for support in their entrepreneurship. Orange, which believes in the social impact of technology companies, is more than ever committed to supporting them through various actions.
iRole!, Kamioun, Biomass4GLC, LifeBlood, and Abana are the winners of the international phase of the twelfth edition of the Orange Social Venture Prize 2022 in Africa and the Middle East (POESAM). The winners were unveiled, today, October 26 in Kigali, Rwanda, on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress Africa, which takes place from October 25 to 27, 2022.
The International Women's Prize went to the Jordanian start-up iRole!, which wins €20,000 for its digital platform that connects women looking for remote work with organizations looking for workers.
The International Grand Prize was won by Sierra Leonean start-up LifeBlood, which won a check of €25,000 for its digital health platform designed to solve the acute shortage of blood products in the country's healthcare delivery system.
The second prize of €15,000 was won by the Malian start-up Biomass4GLC, which specializes in the production and distribution of cooking biogas through the leasing of connected devices.
Finally, the third prize of €10,000 went to the Tunisian company Kamioun, which offers an e-commerce platform that helps retailers easily source products in Tunisia.
For the second time in 12 years, POESAM awarded a special jury prize to a start-up that stands out for its impact. The prize went to Abana, a digital marketplace from the Democratic Republic of Congo dedicated to clothing designers and buyers, which won the sum of €10,000.
During the award ceremony presided over by Elizabeth Tchoungui (photo), MD of Orange Foundation, and Brelotte Ba, Executive Vice President of Orange Middle East & Africa, it was revealed that nearly 1,400 applications were received from the 17 countries that took part in this year’s edition of the POESAM.
From 2011, when POESAM was launched, to date, Orange has spent over €600,000 to support more than 30 winners and facilitate access to its experts and partners for more than 90 entrepreneurs.
The startup launched in London last August. It operates a 100% electric vehicle lease-purchase model, which gives mobility entrepreneurs access to new zero-emission vehicles for a fixed weekly fee.
Mobility financing startup Moove Africa announced a £15 million, or US$16.9 million financing secured from Emso Asset Management.
The financing will help Moove expand its UK operations after a successful launch in August. The startup also plans to grow to 10,000 vehicles by the end of 2025 and become Uber's largest electric vehicle (EV) partner in London.
“This financing comes at a really exciting time for Moove. With our international expansion underway in the UK and India, we’ve already shown that affordable and accessible vehicle financing for mobility entrepreneurs is a global challenge and one we’re committed to solving at Moove. We’re looking forward to scaling up our operations in the UK to enable drivers to transition to electric vehicles to drive forward the electrification of mobility," commented Ladi Delano, Moove Africa co-founder, and co-CEO.
Last March, the company began its global expansion after raising US$105 million in a Series A2 round of equity and debt financing. It supplemented that funding with US$20 million raised from the U.K. government's development finance institution, British International Investment (BII), formerly known as CDC Group.
To date, the vehicles (cars, trucks, and motorcycles) financed by the fintech startup have completed more than three million trips in nine markets including Lagos, Accra, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Nairobi, and Ibadan.
In London, its operations will help Uber progress toward its goal of becoming an all-electric platform in the UK capital by 2025. To facilitate this transition to EVs in London, Moove has launched Moove Charge, the first end-to-end charging experience and comprehensive EV charging network app specifically for rideshare drivers.
Samira Njoya
Over the years, observation satellites have demonstrated their importance in data collection for effective decision-making. In Africa, which has possibly the lowest number of observation satellites, they can accelerate in several sectors, including agriculture.
Zimbabwe's Zimsat-1 and Uganda's PearlAfricaSat-1 nano-satellites are slated to be launched into space on November 6, 2022. They will be launched from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Commercial Space Launch Facility in Virginia. Zimbabwe and Uganda have finalized preparations for the launch, we learn.
The nano-satellites will fly aboard the Northrop Grumman (NG-18 Cygnus), which will deliver them to the International Space Station (ISS). Then, they will be deployed into orbit.
According to Melissa Gaskil of the International Space Station Program Research Office at the Johnson Space Center, "the statistical data collected could help distinguish bare ground from forest and farmland and possibly indicate the quality of agricultural growth."
They could therefore help improve the livelihoods of the citizens of Uganda and Zimbabwe, she added.
The launch of the first Zimbabwean and Ugandan satellites is part of the 5th phase of the joint global multi-nation Birds project (BIRDS-5 project). It is a constellation of two 1U CubeSats (Zimsat-1 and PearlAfricaSat-1) and the 2U CubeSat (TAKA) developed by Japan, which will also be launched into space with African equipment. Fourteen countries have already participated in the BIRDS program, launched in 2015 and led by the Kyushu Institute of Technology (Kyutech).
BIRDS also introduces students from developing countries to satellite development, laying the groundwork for similar space technology projects in their home countries for future sustainable space programs.
“BIRDS-5 performs multispectral observations of the Earth using a commercial camera and demonstrates a high-energy electronic measuring instrument,” we learn.
Muriel Edjo
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Since its launch in 2016, the initiative supported by DS Avocats, Honoris United Universities, Inetum, Meridiam, Roland Berger, and Société Générale, has already supported 718 female entrepreneurs.
Women In Africa (WIA), an international platform supporting African women entrepreneurs, unveiled the 51 country laureates of the 6th edition of its annual pan-African entrepreneurial project competition (WIA54) on Tuesday, October 18. For this sixth edition, the platform received more than 7,500 applications and 503 finalists were selected.
“[...]The best candidates from the mentoring and training phase will participate in a Pitch competition in June 2023 that will give them access to investors and seed capital. This will be a unique opportunity to demonstrate business knowledge, convince the jury of the viability of their business project and raise funds to deploy their structure,” the WIA announced previously.
The 51 country laureates “will have the opportunity to join an MBA program of [the WIA] partner Honoris United Universities.” They will “also benefit from a communication highlight worth €5,000 on the WIA social networks” while the best female entrepreneur will also receive a €10,000 prize.
Through WIA54, Women In Africa aims to support 10,000 businesswomen from a range of sectors such as agriculture and agritech, food and foodtech, education and edutech, fintech, environment, and sustainable development, beauty, and creative industries by 2030. The goal is to help create 100,000 jobs and generate US$10 billion in revenue for the African economy.
According to WIA, this focus on women entrepreneurs over the past six years is an expression of its belief in women’s decisive contribution to the continent’s progress.
Muriel Edjo
The agreement is the second cooperation activity carried out by Microsoft in Nigeria this year. In March, it announced the opening of its Africa Development center and Microsoft Garage in Lagos.
Global tech giant Microsoft will train five million Nigerians in digital skills. A memorandum of understanding was signed to that effect by Digital Minister Isa Pantami and the American multinational last Wednesday.
The agreement was signed on the sidelines of GITEX 2022, the Global Innovation Exhibition which opened on October 10 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. “[...] This new offer by Microsoft will go a long in achieving our dream of a digital Nigeria,” Minister Pantami commented.
"We value action once agreements are signed; we will ensure immediate commencement of the implementation. [...] We will continue to provide enabling environment and ensure that our regulatory instruments are developmental and flexible for Microsoft and other businesses to flourish," he added.
With an estimated population of 219 million, Nigeria is now the largest Internet market in Africa. Its very young population, renowned for innovation and creativity, has taken it to the forefront of innovation in Africa. As of January 2022, Africa had a total of seven unicorns, including five from Nigeria. For those reasons, the country attracts partnerships like this new MoU.
According to the minister, under the MoU, one million job seekers will be trained in the most relevant digital skills, while 1,700 master trainers will be upskilled and 200,000 learners certified. More than 5,500 developers will also learn how to leverage Microsoft Power Apps to build tech solutions under the Global Power Platform Bootcamp.
In addition, through the MoU's African Transformational Skills Portal, two million Nigerians will benefit from free digital skills that will improve the way they work, create employment opportunities and increase productivity. According to Microsoft representative Deen Yusuf, the initiative will create at least 7,000 jobs in Nigeria.
Samira Njoya
In its bid to develop the Cabo Verdean country’s digital economy, the government has financed several projects in the framework of the "Cape Verde Digital Transformation Agenda".
The Red Cross of Cape Verde (CVCV) will digitize its social games, including lottery, lotto, and joker to raise more funds for its humanitarian projects. It presented the project to the Cabo Verdean government last Tuesday, October 11.
According to the CVCV president, Arlindo Carvalho (photo, left), the said project is the result of a strategic plan that places a special emphasis on new technologies to address humanitarian issues. Many novelties will be introduced, he added. They include the creation of a digital platform.
The digital transformation plan will end logistics hurdles by allowing players to place bets on the social games online, via their mobile accounts. Therefore, the CVCV will no longer have to transport physical bulletins before players can play and place bets.
The initiative will allow the institution to raise more resources for its social and humanitarian projects in Cabo Verde. The CVCV also plans to launch a continental platform and later partner with global gaming platforms.
The project, which is expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2023, is in line with the government’s ambition to transform the country into a digital hub. According to Pedro Lopes (photo, right), Secretary of State for the Digital Economy, the country’s investment in digital projects like the social gaming platform is aimed at stimulating economic growth, expanding opportunities, diversifying the economy, and improving the delivery of quality services in the national digital economy.
Samira Njoya
The second cohort is launched after the first of 30 startups from 10 African countries.
Pan-African healthtech accelerator HealthTech Hub Africa recently announced the launch of the second edition of the Africa HealthTech Challenge, a competition that awards and mentors Africa's most promising startups tackling local health challenges.
For this second edition, applications are open till October 22. The incubator will select 40 start-ups: 30 growth start-ups and 10 scale-ups. To be eligible for the challenge, applicants must focus on one or more of the following four thematic areas: cardiovascular health, breast cancer, virtual health and care, and optimizing data-driven decision-making.
They must also have teams of two or more full-time employees and be registered in an African country. “Teams consisting of both genders will be prioritized,” we learn. Growth startups must also ensure that they are not part of another accelerator program in the same year.
The 30 growth start-ups selected will benefit from a 10-month acceleration program that includes mentorship from two volunteer mentors for every start-up, coaching, and access to an interactive coaching platform, and invitations to networking events and hybrid events across Africa and beyond.
Apart from the acceleration program, scale-ups will also receive free access to world-class legal services, accounting, marketing, talent acquisition, accelerated fundraising, training, and media exposure.
The top three HealthTech start-ups will respectively receive US$50,000, 30,000, and 20,000 in grants from the Novartis Foundation.
Samira Njoya