Digital transformation is accelerating in Africa, forcing public administrations and private companies to adapt. However, there is a shortage of local skilled experts to support that transformation. Hence an urgent need to train a qualified workforce.
From September 1 to 30, 2022, applications are open for Power Learn Project’s one million software developers program in South Africa.
According to Mumbi Ndung'u, Power Learn Project’s chief growth and operations officer, through its “one million software developers” program, Power Learn Project’s goal is “to drive transformative change for the youth of Africa through technology skilling.”
“The program will offer online junior software development training [... as well as soft skills component in employability, entrepreneurship, and their mental well-being [...]to enable the learners to not only acquire entry-level smart technology jobs but to also be wholesome members of the community,” he added.
At the end of the 4-month learning program, participants will receive certificates proving they have completed the courses. This is the second cohort of the “one million software developers for Africa”. The first cohort was launched in Kenya, in June 2022. In the coming months, more cohorts will be launched in Zambia, Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda, and Uganda.
In its "Africa Developer Ecosystem Report 2021" published on February 21, Google reveals that the demand for developers is growing worldwide, especially in Africa. Indeed, the ongoing digital transformation has boosted the need for developers and the continent may experience a shortage of professional developers if it fails to take adequate measures. That is why Power Learn Project wants to help train the next generation of developers who will support Africa in its digital transformation efforts.
Muriel Edjo
In recent years, African tech entrepreneurs have developed several digital tools to help businesses reach their full potential. This is the case of Kenyan startup Boya which has developed an interesting solution that helps businesses track employee expenditures.
Boya is a fintech solution developed by a Kenyan firm Boya Inc. It allows businesses to issue Visa expense cards and track the expenditures made from those cards via its web and mobile (Android and iOS) apps.
In addition to giving businesses a real-time overview of employee spending and allowing them to quickly activate or deactivate expense cards, the fintech solution offers instant overdraft when needed. The overdraft limit increases proportionally to the transactions made by requesters through Boya.
To quickly address client issues, Boya Inc, which was founded in 2019, has a 24/7 support service for Boya users.
Let’s note that the Kenyan startup has been selected to participate in the 2022 Winter cohort of Californian accelerator Y Combinator. The program is an opportunity for Boya to find additional capital besides the financing it will receive from Y Combinator.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
In recent years, delivery services have popped up in major cities across Africa. They take last-mile delivery to another level, allowing their users to order almost everything and get them delivered to their doorsteps. Nigerian entrepreneurs have decided to do the same by delivering food to busy individuals.
Heyfood is a digital solution developed by an eponymous Nigerian start-up. It allows users to order foods from multiple restaurants.
The solution has a mobile app accessible on Android and iOS. On registration, users can browse the available restaurants, order the foods they want and get them delivered as quickly as possible.
Restaurants can also register on the platform to reach a broader client base. Using integrated features, they can manage and process orders and seamlessly receive payments. It also allows individuals to earn extra income by delivering orders.
Let’s note that Heyfood, an Ibadan-based startup founded in 2021, collects US$1 per order delivered. Its Android app has been downloaded more than 10,000 times. Currently, it is rated 3.9 out of 5 on Playstore. In 2022, the startup was selected to participate in the winter cohort of Californian accelerator Y Combinator.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Although not yet popular, online shopping is gradually getting into people’s habits in Africa, thanks notably to the Covid-19 pandemic. The sector is attracting a growing volume of state investments since it is perceived as an opportunity to reach foreign markets.
Nigeria wants to improve national e-commerce revenues to US$75 billion by 2025, up from US$13 billion currently. During a stakeholder dialogue on e-commerce and digital trade policy last weekend, Suleman Audu, Nigerian Ministry of Industry’s Director of Commodities, indicated that the government was already making the required investments to achieve the goal.
“The Federal Government is [...] committed to developing an e-commerce strategy in line with the Federal Government’s Post COVID-19 recovery plan, to encourage investment in the e-commerce value chain,” he said.
He also admitted that “Nigeria is yet to fully harness the inherent opportunities in the e-commerce value chain, largely due to inadequate investment, coupled with inadequate information on the opportunities in the sector and the inability of Government to provide the required enabling environment.”
By increasing e-commerce revenues, the country wants to reduce oil dependence in line with economic diversification calls from the UNECA and the World Bank. According to the UNCTAD 2020 B2C e-commerce index, Nigeria was the eighth best e-commerce market in Africa and the 94th globally.
Muriel Edjo
Tech innovations are gradually taking over every sector with solutions addressing existing challenges. In Nigeria, Boomkit is doing the same in the show business.
Boomkit is a digital platform developed by an eponymous Nigerian musictech founded by Abiola Hamzat and Ridwan Jimoh in 2021. It allows independent artists to distribute their music to a wider audience and build an extended fan base.
Thanks to its mobile app - available for Android and iOS devices, Boomkit makes it easy for artists to collect earnings through local bank accounts.
"Royalty collection has always been an issue for African artists, and most African artists end up forfeiting their earnings from music sales. Popular American distribution companies like Tunecore and cdbaby will require an artist to provide a PayPal account before they can process earnings, but unfortunately, PayPal is unavailable in most African countries," Hamzat said.
Artists can also receive funding from their fans through SupportME, a built-in feature. “This creates a new source of revenue for independent artists. With royalty advance, the credit is secured against their projected earnings from music sales,” Hamzat explains.
Boomkit also helps distribute music on all other digital platforms such as Apple Music, Spotify, TIDAL, Boomplay, Audiomack, and over 150 digital stores. The platform has more than 10,000 users and more than 3,000 songs have already been released. It offers independent artists packages ranging from $0 to $20. Although Boomkit is not yet officially present in Ghana, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, and Rwanda, artists from those countries can use the app to promote their songs. According to Boomkit co-founder Abiola Hamzat, the startup will officially enter Ghana and South Africa soon.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
The fintech, which developed the solution wants to help Sudanese users manage the growing devaluation of their local currency. Its ambition is to expand in East Africa, a market of about 500 million individuals.
Bloom is a fintech solution developed by a Kenyan eponymous startup. It helps users save in US dollars and spend Sudanese pounds. The started behind the innovation was founded in 2021 by Ahmed Ismail, Youcef Oudjidane, Khalid Keenan, and Abdigani Diriye. In July 2022, it completed a US$6.5 million funding round to support its growth.
According to Ahmed Ismail, “the plan is to scale in the country and then expand to other markets. We anticipate being in at least one market before the end of the year and a couple more early next year.” Bloom’s ambition is to help Sudanese manage the rapid devaluation of the Sudanese pound.
The fintech has a mobile app, which can be downloaded from AppStore, PlayStore, or its web platform. Users can create free accounts by registering with their phone numbers to start saving. "Banking services are provided by the Export Development Bank, which is licensed by the Central Bank of Sudan and is a member of the Bank Deposit Security Fund of the Central Bank of Sudan," the fintech indicates.
Bloom claims more than 100,000 users. It has strategic partnerships with the likes of Visa, which invested in its funding round for regional expansion. In March 2022, the fintech was selected to participate in the Winter 2022 cohort of the Californian accelerator Y Combinator.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
In 2016, Senegal launched DS2025, its strategy to develop its digital economy by 2025. The strategy is focused on several sectors to allow the modernization of the economy and improve competitiveness.
In Senegal, 105,000 jobs will be created in the digital sector by 2025. The figure was disclosed by Minister of Digital Economy Yankhoba Diattara, Tuesday, August 30, while opening the third edition of the National Digital Forum and the second edition of the Head of State’s Grand Prize for Digital Innovation.
According to the official, it will be the result of key reforms of the “Digital Senegal 2025” strategy, which will “undoubtedly allow the structural transformation” of the country’s economy, “position it as a digital hub in West Africa, and boost the digital sector’s contribution to GDP by 10% by 2025.”
Indeed, to successfully implement the strategy, the government will undertake a certain number of actions, which will create those jobs. For instance, the country intends to increase internet access for an expanded digital economy. Its plan in that regard is to increase 4G coverage to 90% and halve fixed and mobile internet costs.
Also, to facilitate digital adoption, the government recently adopted a startup law that will ease the development of innovative companies. It also plans to provide financial and technical support to guarantee the seamless development of innovative industries.
During his August 30 address, Yankhoba Diattara acknowledged that much remains to be done to reach the 2025 goal. However, he also expressed confidence in the country reaching those goals by the set deadline because the government is much committed to developing the “digital economy by injecting significant resources to strengthen the ecosystem.”
Samira Njoya
Fifty African startups have benefited from the program’s technical and financial support over the past five years. Its beneficiaries have already raised more than US$150 million in funding.
Incubator Startupbootcamp AfriTech issued, Monday (August 29) calls for applications for the third cohort of its ASIP Accelerator Program. Applications are open till November 11 for the program, which will run from February 20 to May 25, 2023.
To be considered, start-ups must be formally established and have at least two people working on the project and devoting at least 50 percent of their time to it. They must also generate revenues from the product and services they offer.
For this new edition of ASIP Accelerator Program, the targeted sectors are AgriTech and Supply Chain, FinTech, IoT and Connectivity; Machine Learning (Data Analytics), Cybersecurity, CleanTech and RegTech.
The ten early-stage startups selected at the end of the selection process will benefit from intensive coaching, pilot, and proof-of-concept opportunities that will open doors to longer-term business deals.
Each of them will receive €15,000 in cash as well as over €500,000 in credits and will benefit from exclusive partnership agreements with leading technology providers such as AWS, Google, Miro, Hubspot, and many others.
Five of them will be fully funded and supported by the EiA project and receive more support including access to the Euroquity community, networking events, monitoring, etc.
For this new edition, the incubator has the Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO), the Senegalese General Delegation for Rapid Entrepreneurship of Women and Youth (DER/FJ), telecom operator Telecel Group, and Enrich in Africa (EiA) -funded by the European Commission's Horizon 2020 program- as its partners.
Muriel Edjo
This is the second funding round completed by Duplo less than 12 months after the launch of its operations.
B2B payment startup Duplo recently completed a US$4.3 million funding round. In a press release received by We Are Tech on Wednesday, August 31, the company says the additional funds will be used to launch new products and expand into new business sectors in Nigeria.
According to Yele Oyekola, CEO and co-founder of Duplo, “there has been a lot of innovation in consumer payments in Africa in recent years, "but business-to-business payments have remained largely unchanged.”
“We strongly believe that there is a great opportunity to catalyze growth and maximize business opportunities across the continent by removing the bottlenecks that hinder the seamless flow of money between businesses and we are excited to have raised funding from this exciting group of investors to deliver this much-needed transformation,” he said.
This is the second round completed by the fintech, which was founded in September 2021. In February 2022, it secured pre-seed funding from accelerator Y Combinator and pan-African venture capital firm Oui Capital. The funds were secured to upgrade its tech and improve its product.
With this second investment, Duplo will expand its business and now work with financial teams of medium-sized companies and above. "When we think of payments in the continent or even Nigeria, for example, there’s a lot of focus on merchants collecting payments from the customers. And from the B2B angle, what startups help them with, is just collection and payout. Still, there’s a massive value in assisting them in tracking and reconciling payments in real-time, which is where we play a significant role,” Duplo says.
According to the World Bank, in Sub-Saharan Africa, B2B payments represent a US$1.5 trillion market. But the process of issuing and receiving payments remains largely manual, making it costly and highly inefficient for businesses.
The platform aims to address this situation. Since launching its operations, it has helped companies reduce time spent on administrative tasks such as account reconciliation by up to 50% and payment-related costs by up to 85%. Duplo claims to have increased the number of businesses on its platform by 1,000% in the last three months. Payment volume has also increased by 4,200% in the last 5 months.
Samira Njoya
In Africa, access to affordable loans is mainly the daily challenge faced by small businesses. In recent years, fundraising has emerged as one of the main sources for them to access the required capital and expand their businesses.
Scalable digital lending platform Pezesha announced on Tuesday, August 30, that it has secured US$11 million in pre-series A investment.
“We are excited about attracting institutional investors led by the Women’s World Banking Capital Partners II to harness our growth plans and push our mission to the next level. We are equally excited that WWBCP II intentionally invests in women, which allows us to cement inclusivity in our growth plans as a sustainable path towards our vision of building Africa’s MSME lending infrastructure,” said Pezesha founder, Hilda Moraa.
Pezesha was founded in 2017, in Kenya. It connects SMEs and financial institutions, helping the former raise working capital. Doing so “encourages meaningful financial inclusion and reduces inequality in access to formal financial services.” Pezesha also provides financial education and debt counseling to MSMEs to help them improve their credit score and have responsible borrowing habits as they move up the Pezesha financial ladder.
The additional capital, consisting of $6 million in equity and $5 million in loans, will enable it to expand its operations in its core East African markets and explore opportunities in new Sub-Saharan African markets.
The fintech claims to have more than 200,000 partners to date and over 100,000 loans made to MSMEs in Kenya, Uganda, and Ghana.
Samira Njoya
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With the coronavirus demonstrating the importance of distance learning, many companies have set out to conquer the market by deploying significant resources to face the competition from international platforms.
eCampus is an e-learning platform developed by a Ghanaian eponymous startup. It is the modern platform of the startup, which started digitizing courses in 2003 by uploading them on floppy diskettes to allow users to conveniently learn without having to face the rigid traditional education means.
The e-learning platform helps users (students and employees notably) reach their training goals via its web and mobile apps launched in 2015. According to eCampus founder Cecil Senna Nutakor, the whole thing started following its harsh education experience. “I failed my final secondary school exams three times in a row, and all those times I wanted to find a tool I could use to prepare me and let me know if I was ready for the exams. I did not want to believe I was dumb as my parents and uncles thought, because I knew there was just a problem with the system,” he indicates.
eCampus’s mobile is accessible for Android and iOS devices. It allows users access to the resources available on the platform, provided they create an account by providing an email, a password, names and surnames, and referrers (if any).
The solution uses artificial intelligence to optimize students’ revision process by letting them know their strengths and weaknesses. It uses the same technology to help employees assess their preparedness for the job market and the relevance of their skills.
The e-learning platform also allows teachers to earn additional income by helping students and employees. With the coronavirus demonstrating the importance of e-learning, the startup now claims more than 50,000 registered users, including over 25,000 active users and more than 1,719 lessons available. It plans to expand into English-speaking East and Southern African markets and into French-speaking Africa.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
The private health sector is growing rapidly in Africa. However, the sector is still much disorganized, prompting some entrepreneurs to introduce solutions to save as many lives as possible.
Medsaf is a digital platform developed by a Nigerian eponymous start-up based in Nigeria and the United States. It aims to make the pharmaceutical products’ supply chain more efficient by connecting hospitals and pharmacies with drug suppliers. The startup was founded in 2017 by Joao Pinheiro, Temitope Awosika and Vivian Nwakah after one of its co-founders (Vivan Nwakah) lost a friend due to counterfeit drug.
"The lack of proper supply chain infrastructure drives health care stakeholders to the open drug markets to find their medications and consumables.
The gap in the market was due to the absence of an entity properly adressing [...]Issues around how all players in the supply chain interact with each other and the reasons there are severe lapses within the pharmaceutical supply chain. [...] I realized early on that there needed to be a platform to reduce the friction between stakeholders and influence and reward positive behaviors in a sustainable way," Vivian Nwakah explains.
Medsaf is now that platform, a bridge that facilitates the introduction of quality medicines in Nigeria. By 2020, more than 160 hospitals and pharmacies have shopped on Medsaf. The start-up helps acquire everything from diagnostic products to reagents, equipment, and consumables. As such, it acts as a "one-stop-shop for hospitals, clinics, and diagnostic centers to purchase, manage, and track their crucial medication needs with technology."
Apart from being a marketplace, Medsaf also offers a range of services including Medsaf Assure, which allows subscribers to purchase products at discounted prices. The startup also plans to roll out Medsaf Speedy and Medsaf Patients direct services. Its plan for Medsaf Patients Direct is to work with a network of doctors to supply their patients with medication for certain chronic diseases. As for Medsaf Speedy, it is intended to be an express delivery service, delivering orders the same day when buyers are in Lagos and within 48 to 72 hours when outside the Nigerian metropolis.
Overall, Medasf plans to expand to West and East Africa in the coming years.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Zanzibar is known as one of the best tourist destinations in the world. The country wants to take advantage of this reputation to develop partnerships and become a technological innovation hub par excellence in Africa.
E-commerce platform Wasoko and the government of Zanzibar launched, Tuesday (August 30), the Wasoko Innovation Hub in Fumba. According to Wasoko, the hub aims to attract tech companies to the country and even woo them into relocating.
“As a Pan-African tech company, Wasoko has been looking for a location where we can bring together the best talents from across the continent and beyond to innovate and develop new products and services for our customers. While we considered more traditional centres such as Dubai and London, we were ultimately committed to the belief that technology for Africa should be built in Africa,” said Wasoko CEO Daniel Yu.
A few years ago, Zanzibar initiated efforts to accelerate its digital transformation. One of the initiatives taken was Silicon Zanzibar, which has Wasoko as a founding partner. Through the partnership with Wasoko, the government wants to create an attractive environment for technology companies, researchers, and industry professionals.
The Wasoko Innovation Hub will specialize in developing tools to personalize the customer experience, improve delivery metrics, expand financial service options, and collect key data and information across the value chain.
The new center will contribute to the development of Fumba, help create numerous employment and career opportunities, and establish the island as a leading center for pan-African technology companies. It will also enable the country to secure more than US$15 million in investment over the next decade.
The Wasoko Innovation Hub will focus on developing world-class technology solutions that will boost the African e-commerce sector. According to Zanzibar's Minister of Investment and Economic Development, Mudrick Soraga, the hub is to be an ideal and suitable setting "for all technology companies and their team members to be based in Zanzibar."
Samira Njoya
A few years ago, the African social media landscape was dominated by foreign messaging solutions. However, nowadays, local entrepreneurs are stepping in with local apps that integrate a set of useful features.
Dikalo is a digital platform developed by an eponymous Cameroonian startup founded in 2016. It allows users to discuss without sharing personal information.
It is available as an Android app, which incorporates features (like file sharing, voice, text, video messaging, etc) common to most instant messaging apps. It also includes packs of stickers dedicated to each African country. For instance, there is the “naija” sticker pack for Nigeria or the “zouzoukwa” pack for Côte d’Ivoire.
To register on Dikalo, users need to create a nickname, provide an email and create a password. The app then generates an authentication code to validate the registration. Dikalo does this to protect its users’ personal data in line with its transparent personal data management policy.
Currently, Dikalo, which plans to integrate a mobile money solution into its platform, claims more than 100,000 registered users, including 87,000 active users. "Most of our users come from Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire. Our main goal is to become the most used social media app everywhere. My ambition is to grow in countries like South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Algeria ...," says Dikalo founder Alain Ekambi.
Adoni Conrad Quenum