For the past 18 months, Nigerian healthcare provider Mobihealth has been working with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in select states in Nigeria. The additional capital will allow the startup to expand outside Nigeria.
The U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) announced Monday, Oct. 17, a grant to Nigeria's Mobihealthcare Limited (Mobihealth) for a feasibility study to support the development of its telehealth services in Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, and Egypt.
According to USTDA’s director Enoh T. Ebong, the partnership aims to “transform the delivery of healthcare to underserved communities across Africa using the best technology that the U.S. industry has to offer.”
It is “gratifying to see women-led businesses such as Mobihealth leading the development of critical infrastructure on the continent,” he added.
While the amount of the grant was not disclosed, the statement said the study would include a detailed market assessment, financial analysis, and legal and regulatory review for each of the four countries. The Africa Investment Forum (AIF), an initiative by the African Development Bank, will work with USTDA to facilitate the development and financing of the Mobihealth project.
A year ago, USTDA signed a memorandum of understanding with AIF to support high-quality infrastructure solutions for sub-Saharan Africa. The MoU defined cooperation areas in vital sectors such as clean energy, transportation, information and communication technology, health infrastructure, and agribusiness.
According to the USTDA release, the “project also advances the U.S. government’s Prosper Africa initiative to substantially increase two-way trade and investment between the United States and Africa.” It will help expand access to health care for 100,000 people per year in Africa.
For Mobihealth CEO, Funmi Adewara, “the USTDA grant comes at an opportune time and will enable us to expand the scope of our integrated telehealth, electronic medical records, and digitalization services to several other African markets over the next few years.”
Samira Njoya
By partnering with Pando DAO, Zanzibar wants to maximize its chances of becoming a leading industrial hub in Africa and a model of the digital economy.
Pando DAO, an African community of leading start-up founders, announced, Monday (October 17), its partnership with Silicon Zanzibar, a government initiative launched earlier this year to attract tech talents and companies.
According to Mudrick Soraga, Zanzibar's Minister of Investment and Economic Development, the partnership is important to ensure the success of the Silicon Zanzibar project. "We are excited to officially partner with Pando to co-create the policies and initiatives that will transform Zanzibar’s economy. Working with Pando DAO presents us an opportunity to work side-by-side with the leading players in the African tech ecosystem,” he said.
The first initiatives of the partnership will include the creation of an open hub for Pando DAO members and a Pando CEO Summit, which will be launched later this year. The community will also assist the Zanzibar government in developing a regulatory and policy framework that will support innovation and its digital economy, including a strategy to ensure the development of local tech talent.
The partnership with Pando DAO is highly beneficial for Zanzibar which wants to become a leading hub for pan-African tech companies. Indeed, through Pando Dao, the government is partnering with over 50 African tech startup founders, including founders of well-known startups like mPharma, Wasoko, Pariti, SunCulture, and Africa Health Holdings among others. The overall valuation of Pando DAO’s member startups is over US$2 billion with more than US$500 million raised. The startups employ over 10,000 people in 15 African countries.
According to Pando DAO co-founder and Pariti CEO Yacob Berhane, Pando DAO member companies will be supported, by the government, in their efforts to relocate to the archipelago. “We believe that through this partnership, we will be able to drive the tech ecosystem in Africa forward, with Zanzibar serving as a key part of that story by attracting tech companies and talent, and developing homegrown companies and talent as well,” he said.
Samira Njoya
The trained physician is a tech enthusiast and serial entrepreneur. From 2011 to date, he has founded three healthtech ventures.
Dennis Addo (photo) is a Ghanaian physician and entrepreneur. He is also the founder and CEO of health tech start-up Wala Digital Health, which he launched in 2019.
His startup, which was selected for the regional stage of the MEST Africa Challenge 2022, aims to facilitate hospitals’ access to blood products during medical emergencies. For that purpose, it developed a digital platform allowing hospitals and blood banks to order blood products and get them delivered.
The CEO, who is committed to the healthtech sector, is also the founder of Clarondoc, an online platform connecting Africans with health professionals since its launch in 2018. He is also the founder and CEO of Claron Health International, a health maintenance organization founded in 2011.
Apart from his entrepreneurial career, he has had a professional career boasting positions at national and national institutions. He started, in 2007, as a public health consultant and project manager at the Ghanaian Defense Ministry’s health directorate. About six years later, he was hired by the UN as a senior medical officer for missions in Côte d’Ivoire. From March to September 2020, he was a member of the global implementation team of the citizen-centric movement Covid Safe Paths.
Currently, he is a member of the board of the Ghanaian National Health Insurance Authority.
Melchior Koba
The ongoing technological revolution has affected every economic sector, including the informal ones. Sabi is one of those solutions developed to solve some of the problems faced by those informal sectors.
Sabi is a B2B platform developed by a Nigerian eponymous startup, founded in 2020. It allows informal traders to seamlessly conduct business transactions.
Its services are accessible via an Android and iOS app. Using the app, informal traders can create their accounts, connect with other registered merchants and easily conduct business and get products delivered if needed.
The platform also allows informal traders to monitor their sales and get performance reports. It even allows access to loans to help traders recover from major problems. “Sabi ensures Merchants are allowed to grow and increase their revenue with services such as loans and access to the best product prices in the market,” its website explains.
It claims over 10,000 agents across Nigeria, with 200,000 merchants registered and over US$2 billion in sales. Play Store data show its Android app has been downloaded more than 10,000 times. The startup, which is also present in Kenya, wants to scale into other African countries in the coming years. For that purpose, in 2021, it raised US$6 million to support its growth.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
The new laboratory is the result of a joint project implemented by the ECOWAS Commission and the European Union to improve cybersecurity and cybercrime combating capabilities in West Africa.
Today, October 19, in Banjul, the ECOWAS commission is scheduled to officially hand over a digital lab, for the fight against cybercrime, to the Gambia.
Officially, the lab will strengthen the country’s digital forensic and investigation capabilities. “By handing over this brand new laboratory to the Gambian authorities, ECOWAS and its partners wish to build the capacity of the Gambian police to effectively counter cybercrime in the country and to better cooperate with the other Member States in terms of managing cybercrime problems,” a release dated October 18, 2022, informs.
The lab, funded by the European Union and ECOWAS, is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment, including forensic equipment (forensic duplicator and imager, forensic laptops, forensic workstation/server, etc.), generic hardware, software, and licenses.
In recent years, The Gambia has been plagued by the continuing rise of cybercrime. In 2020, the country faced a series of cyber incidents, including attacks on financial institutions, revenge pornography, and the publication of nude pictures on the Internet. Despite the measures taken by the government, cybercriminals are not backing down. According to Interpol's October 21, 2021 report on key cyber threats in Africa, the majority (60%) of the actors carrying out global False International Bank Transfers (FOVI) are based in eleven African countries, including the Gambia (which accounts for less than 1%).
To address these cybersecurity and cybercrime issues, foster cooperation between states, and take part in the implementation of the ECOWAS cybersecurity agenda, the European Union and the ECOWAS Commission have joined forces around the "Organised Crime: West African response to Cybersecurity and fight against Cybercrime" (OCWAR-C) project. The Gambia’s digital forensic lab is an offshoot of the project.
In March 2021, under the same project, equipment was handed to the Burkina Faso Central Brigade for the Fight against Cybercrime (BCLCC)’s digital investigation laboratory. Also, cybersecurity training and awareness campaigns were recently organized to strengthen ECOWAS member countries’ capacities to fight cybercrimes.
Samira Njoya
Gabon is currently implementing several e-learning projects to empower learners and facilitate distance learning.
Gabon recently crossed a new milestone in its digital university project UNG. Last October 13, the draft law on its creation, missions, and management was adopted during the Ministerial Council in Libreville.
According to a communique published after the council, the UNG will develop and popularize digitalization in the Gabonese education system. It will also support higher education and research institutions in the development of online training courses -the creation of digital education material notably- and promote entrepreneurship and digital innovation.
In Gabon, as almost everywhere in the world, the education system was disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. The country quickly adopted new approaches by mostly including digital tools. The UNG will therefore set up digital spaces functioning like regional academic centers dedicated to blended university learning (distance and physical learning) in provincial capitals.
On its website, the UNG informs that its training is partially remote. It has a platform that allows students to access educational resources and online documentation, but also webinars and digital workspaces. Face-to-face meetings are scheduled for tutorials, assessments, and socialization.
The three-year training program will give graduates the opportunity to work in a wide range of e-services professions. Every UNG student will take an entrepreneurship course with insertion in e-incubators, to boost their ability to create innovative companies for socio-economic development.
Samira Njoya
The Algerian government has decided to leverage digital technologies to solve the country's transport issues. Last month, the Minister of Transport announced the launch of a new electronic platform interconnecting more than 40 public transport services.
Algeria’s Minister of Higher Education Kamel Baddari announced, yesterday, the launch of “MyBus”, a mobile app developed to allow students to monitor the university transport network in real-time.
The application -operational starting from October 23, 2022,- is a modern tool that aims “to improve the quality of university services [...] to create a conducive academic environment for students,” the Transport Minister said before the national assembly’s transport committee.
Since 2009, students have been complaining about mobility conditions, including disruption in university bus schedules and a serious lack of buses in some areas. Last April, a group of students enrolled at the University of Mouloud-Mammeri demanded the allocation of buses to resolve a crisis that has affected students for years.
With “Mybus”, the Ministry of Higher Education is trying to address some of the challenges pointed out, notably concerning the mobility of students living in rural areas. Initially, the app will cover ten routes and 26 buses out of the 5,749 dedicated to academic mobility. But, according to Minister Baddari, it will cover the whole university network before the end of the ongoing academic year.
“The app will give students [schooling in Algerian Universities] a real-time overview of the academic transport network and schedules,” he explained.
The new app is in line with authorities’ efforts to modernize the academic mobility sector to improve students’ living conditions and reduce public expenditures in that segment.
Samira Njoya
Fintech is currently the most popular in the African startup ecosystem. It attracts a significant portion of VC investments, encouraging tech entrepreneurs to unleash their creativity.
Fintra is a fintech solution launched, this year, by Senegalese start-up Orya Technologies. It helps employees face urgent needs by allowing them access to salary advances (up to 20% of salaries at a 6% interest rate) repayable within two weeks.
The fintech solution -which aims to help employees serenely go by their usual duties while waiting for the next payday- was developed as an answer to the challenges faced by employees when they exhaust their earnings before payday. Instead of wasting their time on paperwork all in a bid to collect bank loans repayable with a 12% interest, or turning to usurers, workers can simply apply for Fintra loans.
According to Oumar Diallo, founder, and CEO of Orya Technologies, loan requests are processed automatically but the startup keeps check to avoid disrupting companies’ finances.
Currently, the platform is in its beta phase. The phase, launched on September 15, 2022, is expected to be completed within two months. For the time being, the loans can be requested only by employees whose employers are enrolled in the program. For Oumar Diallo, the loan process is simple. Once participating companies set up accounts for each of their employees, those employees can request salary advances -via a mobile app- starting from the 15th of every month and receive the advances in their mobile wallets within one hour.
With Fintra, Orya Technologies targets an about XOF350 billion (US$520 million) market of 350 thousand workers (per company figures) in Senegal. It also targets the West African region and its four million former workers. To reach its goals, it bets on its main investor, Compagnie Générale sénégalaise d’ingénierie et d’investissement.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
The serial entrepreneur, who plans to build the Amazon of Africa, is based in Mali where he has established several tech companies.
Boubacar Biro Baldé (photo) is a Guinean computer scientist and tech entrepreneur. He is the CEO of Sodishop, an e-commerce platform founded in 2018.
“We sell everything, to everyone, everywhere,” Boubacar was saying in 2019 indicating the broad range of products available on the platform.
Although it was founded in Mali, it is also operational in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire with over about 3,000 active buyers (Sodishopers) and more than 1,000 active sellers. It aims to scale to the whole of Africa, therefore, fulfilling its dream of being able to deliver even to the remotest areas on the continent. To attract the resources required for its ambition, it enrolled in the MEST Africa Challenge, launched on August 5, 2022. It made it to the regional round awaiting the continental round, which will entitle two winners to a check of US$50,000.
The CEO is also the principal manager of Sodifood, a food products’ sales and delivery platform he founded in Mali in 2020. He also leads iGandal, an e-learning platform he founded in 2020. Also, since 2015, he is the CEO of Technologie House, a tech company specializing in digital security, software, and website development, among others.
His entrepreneurial career builds on the experience he acquired during his professional career which started in 2009. That year, he joined JIU HUA Technology as the technical and after-sales service manager. The following year, he was hired by IT equipment and services provider SOMATI in Guinea and at the same time founded the social network Africa60. In 2013, SOMATI sent him to Mali as the company's director in the country. He remained in that post until 2015 when he launched Technologie House, kicking off his entrepreneurship career.
Melchior Koba
The platform is the result of important reforms announced by the government earlier this year.
Last Friday, Niger launched its national portal for unified access to digital educational resources. The platform, dubbed Edu-Niger, was inaugurated by the Minister of National Education, Prof. Ibrahim Natatou (photo, center). It aims to improve the quality of education and enhance planning and management.
According to Prof. Ibrahim Natatou, this major platform is one of the digital projects already undertaken by the government. "The portal integrates an intranet messaging system and also allows users to request leaves or permissions without [wasting time] going from one office to another with the [written] request,” he said.
"Edu-Niger" was set up to correct certain flaws in the education system such as the lack of information and reliable statistics on the sector, slow administrative procedures, and the lack of communication between actors, partners, and parents. It offers several services allowing parties to complete processes to create public and private schools, transfer students from one school to another, create school canteens or take part in two public examinations (BEPC and BAC).
Its library open to the public allows access to educational resources (annals, tests, vignettes, various exercises, capsules, guided tours, etc), and administrative resources (communiqués, decrees, decisions, etc.).
The platform is a result of the Niger-LIRE project (Learning improvement for results in education), an initiative of the Nigerien government financed by the World Bank to the tune of US$140 million. It is part of the overall strategy to digitalize the whole education system.
Samira Njoya
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To increase economic activity in the country, and revive its Covid-19-affected tourism sector, the Namibian government will implement a new initiative to attract professionals.
Last week, the Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board (NIPDB) launched the Namibian Digital Nomads Visa (DNV) to welcome “smart tourists” to the country. The move aims to capitalize on the country’s digital assets to boost the tourism sector, which contributed 61.3% to GDP since August 2022.
Speaking at the launch of the Visa, Nangula Uaandja, CEO and chairperson of the Namibia Investment Promotion and Development Board, said the new visa aims to unlock opportunities that will improve the population’s living conditions. "We have identified that there is an opportunity to attract and gain economic benefit from people who want to work, live and travel in Namibia, without absorbing Namibian jobs," he said.
The Namibian visa for digital nomads is valid for six months and can be granted to any national or international individual. According to the NIPDB, applicants must meet several criteria, including proving their monthly income is equal to or exceeds US$2,000 and justifying health or travel insurance to cover risks during their stay in Namibia.
The country's other digital assets are clustered in a digital ecosystem conducive to remote work, although Internet costs are still very high in Namibia. In its report "Worldwide mobile data pricing 2021. The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 230 countries," Cable.co.uk ranks Namibia 49th in sub-Saharan Africa estimating that 1 gigabit (GB) costs US$22.37 in the country.
According to DataReportal, Namibia’s internet penetration was 51.0% in early 2022. “Ookla’s data reveals that the median mobile internet connection speed in Namibia increased by 5.91 Mbps (+42.3 percent) in the twelve months to the start of 2022,” it adds.
In addition, Namibia has a high e-government development index (HEGDI) and is ranked the 6th African country with the highest level of public service digitization.
By launching this initiative, Namibia becomes the 4th country in Africa to offer this special visa after Mauritius, Seychelles, and Cabo Verde. According to 2021 statistics from "A Brother Abroad", there are about 35 million digital nomads in the world, representing a global economic value of US$787 billion.
Samira Njoya
The platform was launched earlier this year but, it has already secured 7-figure financing to get its revolutionary real estate project off ground.
Partment is a digital solution developed by an eponymous Egyptian startup. It allows users to buy second homes or part of them at attractive prices. The startup, founded by Nadim Nagui, Ahmed el Raggal and Chinmaya Das in 2022, has completed a US$1.5 million funding round to improve its infrastructure platform and deploy its minimum viable product (MVP).
By rolling out the beta version of its platform, the startup aims to gather enough user feedback to validate the project and the product before starting a lengthy and expensive development. "Partment is a new concept in Egypt and we believe it will change the way people buy and use real estate in the local and international market," said Nadim Nagui.
On the beta platform, users (upon registration) can browse the list of houses located mostly in vacation destinations and invest to either become the owner or co-owner of the desired property. When there are multiple co-owners for a property, the platform’s smart booking system sets a quota of days when so or so co-owner can use the property based on the amount invested and the number of co-owners. “Every co-owner has 41 nights of unbiased and algorithm-powered quota,” the startup explains. Co-owners can also sell their rights (or fractional ownership) in a property when they no longer need the property.
The proptech hopes it will quickly conquer Egypt and expand in the subregion thanks to the funds raised last September. "Aside from the financial support and expert advice, their trust in our business model will help us achieve our short-term and long-term goals and scale our business to the next level in Egypt and across the region," Nadim Nagui indicated.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
He is a computer scientist by training. After a fulfilling national and international career, he has developed several tech solutions catering to needs in several business segments.
Onyeka Akumah (photo) is a Nigerian tech entrepreneur specializing in transportation, agriculture, real estate, and media. He is the co-founder and CEO of Treepz, a shared mobility startup. The startup, formerly known as Plentywaka, was born out of a desire to make travel more comfortable and safe after an unpleasant experience the tech entrepreneur had on a public transport bus in Lagos.
Treepz was founded in 2019, in Nigeria. Some three years on, it is already present in Ghana and Uganda with more expansive ambitions. In November 2021, its CEO told TechCrunch that it was planning to expand further in East and West Africa. We are also really interested in Ethiopia. So the same thing we were doing with Ghana, across Ghana to Togo and Benin from Nigeria for the West African region. So next year, we will consolidate on our positions on East Africa and West Africa and start collapsing in on sub-Saharan Africa,” he said.
Before embarking on the Treepz adventure, the CEO had co-founded agtech startup Farmcrowdy, in 2016. He led the agtech as the CEO (until 2021) and board chairman (until March 2022). In 2020, he also co-founded the crowdfunding platform Crowdyvest, which he ran for a year before selling it in 2021. Six years earlier, in 2014, he co-founded the Nigerian news aggregator QwikGist.com which he also sold six months later.
Since 2019, he is a mentor for the business incubator Founder Institute. He is also a mentor, since 2021, with investment company Techstars. He started his professional career, in 2006, working as a UI and web developer for CITzar Limited. In 2007, he was hired, as a digital content developer, by Content Digital Solutions Ltd. Months later, he became a webmaster for the British Council.
In 2010, the financial firm Deloitte appointed him as e-marketing coordinator for the company in Ghana, Nigeria, Gambia, and Kenya. The same year, he joined the Nigerian online travel agency Wakanow.com as an online marketing manager. In 2012, the online shopping marketplace Jumia Nigeria appointed him as marketing and partnerships manager before he joined Guaranty Trust Bank as head of online and mobile marketing.
From 2011 to 2013, he was a senior consultant for the digital management company Anozim Group. In March 2013, he joined Konga Online Shopping as vice president of marketing before assuming the position of chief commercial officer at travel agency Travelbeta.com in 2015.
Onyeka Akumah has received several awards for his works. In 2015, he was named Digital Marketing Person of the Year at the Nigerian Technology Awards. In 2017, he was named on the West African Youth Confederation’s list of the 100 most influential under 40 West African individuals and the Westerwelle Foundation’s list of the top 25 young founders.
In 2018, he was named the Tech Entrepreneur of the Year at the Nigeria Technology Awards before being crowned Entrepreneur of the Year 2019 at the 2020 GAGE Awards. In 2019, he was named on The African Report’s list of the 100 most influential Africans. Onyeka Akumah also made it to the African Leadership Magazine’s list of Persons of the Year as the African Agricultural Champion of the Year 2020. He was even featured in Vanguard Newspaper's list of Nigerian CEOs under 40 years in 2020.
Melchior Koba
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