E-commerce company Jumia has unveiled plans to upgrade its payment solutions in Egypt and Nigeria, where it is the most active. In the first country, the company said it has reached an agreement with vaIU, a financial technology services company, to develop a solution that will allow its local customers to buy goods and pay for them over time (BNPL, Buy Now and Pay Later).
In its main market, Nigeria, Jumia said it has added new services to its payment app. “On the JumiaPay app, we continued adding more relevant everyday services. In Nigeria, we set up an integration with Quickteller, the largest billing aggregator in Nigeria. This partnership allows us to offer over 70 additional billers on the JumiaPay app, including Government services, internet service providers, airlines, and many more,” the company said.
To comply with the Central Bank's requirements, Jumia agreed to partner with a third-party payment service provider to process card transactions via JumiaPay. “This change, which is expected to take effect in March 2022, may temporarily affect the payment experience in Nigeria and negatively impact payment volumes on the platform,” Jumia warned.
JumiaPay's technology enabled the group, now listed on Nasdaq (the main U.S. tech stock market), to channel $263.3 million worth of payments for more than 12.1 million transactions. This represents 34.7% of overall customer payments, up from 33.1% a year earlier. The value of goods purchased through the Jumia platform approached $1 billion in 2021, up 3.21% compared to that of 2020.
Jumia continues to grow its customer base, which was nearly 4 million in 2021. The improvement of its payment systems and compliance with regulatory requirements are important steps in its development.
Building on the general-purpose e-learning platform -Atingi- that it launched in November 2020, Smart Africa has announced the launch of a new platform dedicated to technology and digital literacy.
On the sidelines of its 5th ICT Ministers’ Council held last February 25 in Kintélé, in the Republic of Congo, the Smart Africa Alliance announced the launch of its academy designed to improve the digital skills of Africans. The Smart Africa Digital Academy (SADA) offers free online courses accessible on https://sada.atingi.org/.
SADA's courses are focused on seven areas: digital skills and transformation, management and leadership, agriculture, career guidance, entrepreneurship, health, and governance and decentralization. Currently, three courses are already available on the platform. These are "Economic Foundations of Regulation" developed by Laurent Gille, economist, professor emeritus of Télécom Paris; "ICT Infrastructure" developed by UNESCO, Cetic.br/NIC.br and the SDG Academy; and "Dimensions and Causes of the Digital Divide" developed by GIZ and Atingi.
Smart Africa has also scheduled a webinar for September 22 to discuss the "Agile Regulation for Digital Transformation" in Africa. The workshop will feature Patrick Njoroge, the head of the Central Bank of Kenya, Anna Pietikainen, senior policy advisor at the OECD, Edmund Fianko, the deputy head of the National Communications Authority of Ghana, and Roslyn Docktor, director of government and regulatory affairs at IBM Corporation.
"The Smart Africa Digital Academy – SADA for short – provides the courses, webinars, and opportunities for exchange to policymakers and regulators to promote digital transformation in Africa. With its various learning programs and formats, SADA wants to improve participants’ skills for drafting inclusive, gender-sensitive, and climate-smart ICT regulations,” according to the information available on the Atingi platform.
“SADA also reaches a wider audience from entrepreneurs to engaged citizens to improve their digital literacy, so that they can fully benefit from the new potentials offered by digital technologies.”
SADA’s access platform is fully responsive and adapts to a variety of screen sizes, including desktop, tablet, and mobile. Training courses are available in English, French, German, Spanish, Arabic, Vietnamese, Mandarin, and Portuguese. Courses are downloadable.
Muriel Edjo
Burkinabe startup AINO Digital SAS has developed a multi-faceted digital identification bracelet. Called SAUVIE, the device is equipped with a QR code where personal health information and contacts of important people to reach in case of emergency are stored.
With this initiative presented to the public on February 23, AINO Digital SAS wants to ensure that everyone has their personal health information in case of emergency. Scarlett Zongo (pictured, left), CEO of AINO Digital SAS, explains that the solution is "an application for first responders such as firefighters and doctors. Thanks to SAUVIE, the patient's relatives are alerted of the nature of the emergency and the health facility where he or she is being treated". AINO Digital SAS says that for personal safety, the QR codes are encrypted and can only be read by firefighters and health workers using a special device.
AINO Digital SAS donated nine bracelet models to the public when presenting the device. The basic annual cost of the SAUVIE system is $6.83 plus the price of the wristband on which it is mounted (between $1.2 and $1.71). Three billable options are also available with the basic subscription: Alerting the employer in case of emergency ($8.54), Alerting the insurance company ($3.42), and Alerting a relative ($1.71). If the bracelet is stolen, lost, or damaged, the owner must report it to AINO Digital SAS so that the QR code can be canceled. Another one is automatically generated and integrated into the new bracelet.
Supported by Orange Burkina Faso, which does not charge any data fees when reading the QR code, the startup is working with the Ministry of Health to get the solution to be used in health centers and local security services. Scarlett Zongo is convinced that her innovation can improve the health system in Burkina Faso.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Arielle Kitio is taking a new step in her ambition to develop the digital skills of Cameroonians, particularly women and young people. On February 22, she launched the first edition of the Techwomen Factory initiative, designed to train 179 women in various technological skills including coding.
Founder of the Cameroon Youth School Tech Incubator (Caysti), the young tech entrepreneur has stood out in recent years through various initiatives aimed at developing digital skills among youth.
In 2018, she launched a fun coding educational program for children "ABC Code". The program teaches young people between the ages of 6 and 15 to create digital applications in African languages. Arielle Kitio also has other programs on her agenda, including one for high school teachers. Today, Caysti claims to have trained nearly 29,000 children in Cameroon, as well as 350 teachers and more than 8,000 primary education officials in more than 6 countries in Africa.
Arielle Kitio's initiatives have earned her several international recognitions. The pedagogical tools developed by her organization have been certified by the African Union in its 2018 Education Handbook and by Unesco ICT. She received the 2019 Margaret Award for African Digital Woman and won the global quality education competition organized by Deloitte in 2020. She is a former ambassador of the Next Einstein Forum in Cameroon and a holder of the Techwomen Award from the U.S. Department of State.
Arielle Kitio promotes the inclusion of women in the fields of science and technology. She has been leading this fight since 2015 through her association WIT (Information Technology for Women & Youth). The lady has a rich academic background. In 2011, she obtained a Bachelor's degree in computer science at the University of Yaoundé I, then a Master's degree in computer science with a Cloud Computing option in co-direction with the Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse in France. She is currently preparing for a Ph.D. in Computer Science, Software Engineering at the University of Yaoundé I.
Ruben Tchounyabe
The Rwandan Parliament approved last February 21 the signing by the government of an €86.5 million loan agreement with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Rwanda wants to accelerate the use of ICTs in public administrations. The agreement was presented in detail by the Minister of Finance, Uzziel Ndagijimana (pictured), and discussed with MPs.
“The aim is to promote the use of technology in development, increase service delivery, and use of big data. This will also enable the innovation agenda and increase job creation in technology but also attract investments. The fiber didn’t reach all areas but this time it will be expanded to reach sectors, more government offices, and other organizations including religious organs,” Ndagijimana said, stressing that the 28-year loan will also be used to provide subsidized access to technology equipment for government agencies. This will make public services faster, more transparent, and more efficient.
The project will be piloted by the Rwanda Information Society Authority (RISA).
Muriel Edjo
A former director of the McKinsey Global Institute and former advisor to Barack Obama, James Manyika is now the vice president of technology and society at Google.
As of January 2022, James Manyika (pictured) joined Google as its first-ever vice president of technology and society. This position makes the Zimbabwean responsible for assessing the impact of technology on society, the economy, and the world. Specifically, he helps shape Google's perspective on issues such as the future of work, AI, the digital economy, and IT infrastructure, among others.
“I’m thrilled that James Manyika will be joining Google’s leadership team [...] He’s spent decades working at the intersection of technology and society and has advised several businesses, academic institutions, and governments along the way,” Sundar Pichai. CEO of Alphabet (Google’s parent company) said in a statement. With this position, James Manyika will report directly to Sundar Pichai.
After a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at the University of Zimbabwe, James Manyika was awarded the Rhodes Scholarship, allowing him to enter a University in England where he obtained a Ph.D. in AI and robotics, mathematics, and computer science. He joined the consulting firm McKinsey in 1994 and was appointed Director in 2009. He has advised many technology company leaders on strategy and growth, as well as business innovation.
The author of several books on AI and robotics, and most recently on global economic trends, was appointed by former US President Barack Obama as Vice-Chair of the Global Development Council at the White House, as well as by two US Secretaries of State to the Digital Economy Council and the National Innovation Council.
He also serves on the boards of research institutions at Harvard, MIT, Oxford, Sanford, and other leading universities. The introduction of James Manyika to the Google executive team comes in the wake of concerns about the impact of technology on societies worldwide. As a major player in the industry, the Silicon Valley-based company is directly concerned. With this mission comes enormous responsibility, and leveraging the vice president of technology and society’s experience should help Google better understand the issues surrounding the topic.
Aïsha Moyouzame
She is a pioneer in the webmaster industry in Congo. Her work earned her the nickname Mama Digital. And now, she is committed to putting digital technologies at the heart of Africa’s economic development.
Passionate about new technologies, Kriss Brochec is an expert in communication, management, and digital marketing. She made her debut on the Internet in the 2000s, thus becoming one of the pioneers of web mastering in Congo. Her mission: leveraging digital technologies to develop Congo’s economy. A Trainer, mentor, and entrepreneur, she also fights for women's rights and equality.
Kriss Brochec has a master's degree in international marketing and intercultural management and has professional experience in import-export where she has held important positions. However, after realizing that she was not cut for office life, she decided to devote herself entirely to the digital world. For the past 12 years, she has been passionate about CMS (Content Management System), especially WordPress, a content management system used for building websites.
She went on and founded the African Digital Academy, a space dedicated to digital training programs. The structure promotes the local production of digital platforms and content such as websites, mobile applications, MOOCs, white papers, and blogs, among others. Besides offering training, the academy creates special programs for target communities such as artists, entrepreneurs, women and youth, and farmers, to show them how they can benefit from digital technology.
With nearly 215 websites created and more than 240 people trained, Kriss Brochec does not intend to rest on her laurels. Beyond her various programs deployed in Congo and West Africa, she wants to bridge the digital divide across the continent, driven by the firm belief that the secret to success is to create your own market, dare to go where no one has gone before, and innovate.
Aïsha Moyouzame
The startup environment in Africa has been booming in recent years. Investments attracted by this sector continue to grow steadily, but several regional and national weaknesses still prevent the continent from unlocking its full potential.
Over the past seven years, the lion's share of investment attracted by startups in Africa has been captured by the Anglophone region of the continent. In its "Francophone Africa. State of Technology and Investment" report published in May 2021, Briter Bridges – a research firm focused on data on innovation and technology ecosystems in emerging markets- revealed that of the $8.8 billion raised between 2015 and 2021, Francophone Africa only captured $417.9 million.
"Our interviews showed that lack of clarity around regulations, scarce capital pools, language barriers, and limited networking opportunities remain some of the greatest challenges to consider when entering the francophone African market," the research firm said. Also, the majority of poor performers for the World Bank’s 2020 Doing Business report were Francophones. Although the continent continues to experience a lack of qualified human resources, governments and several international partners are working to close the gap through digital skills development programs. This issue is, therefore, less of an obstacle to attracting investors, especially since startups can recruit from other countries if there is a real need.
However, in the absence of a credible business framework that fosters the emulation of entrepreneurs, investors will venture very little in markets where the risk of loss largely outweighs the chances of gain. Even if the innovative community seems dynamic, its ease to organize and create wealth will always prevail in the decision of businessmen, venture capital funds, and other business angels.
Senegal has demonstrated the positive impact of a regulatory framework tailored to technological innovation. In 2018, the country ranked 140th in the Doing Business. Senegalese startups attracted $6 million the same year, according to the Partech report on the level of funding attracted by startups in 2018.
In 2021, after the government passed a Startup Act, a law that facilitates the framework for creating, funding, and growing startups, Senegal's rank in Doing Business 2020 improved significantly to 123rd. The 2020 edition of Partech's report found that the credibility of its startup ecosystem has strengthened the interest of tech investors, who have invested $353 million.
According to the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, “tech ecosystems drive economic growth. The digital economy will contribute an estimated $300 billion to African GDP by 2025, providing much-needed employment on a continent where three to four times more people enter the job market than actual roles are created."
In its report "Supercharging Africa's Startups: The Continent's Path to Tech Excellence" published on February 15, 2022, the research center estimates that African startups can raise $90 billion by 2030. It also emphasizes the creation of an appropriate business environment as one of the strategic reforms needed to avoid missing this opportunity.
Muriel Edjo
Africa had 716,000 professional developers in 2021, 3.8% more than in 2020. While this number continues to grow, demand has also reached a record level due to the growth in the hiring capacity of SMEs, which are more inclined to use technology.
Despite the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, Africa’s developer ecosystem is making progress. Google revealed, in its Developer Ecosystem Report 2021, that by 2021 the demand for web developers on the continent had reached a record high.
The report, published last February 21, attributes this increase in part to the rise in the use of Internet services by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); an increase of 22%. This has forced them to hire more developers to help them grow their online businesses. In Africa, SMEs hire more than half of the local developers. In 2021, SMEs raised more than $4 billion, 2.5 times more than in 2020.
Outside the continent, the demand for African developers has also increased due to the development of the teleworking system fostered by Covid-19; 38% of African developers work for at least one company based outside the continent.
The number of professional developers grew by 3.8% in 2021. This is 0.4% of the continent's nonagricultural workforce. Nigeria alone produced 5,000 new professionals in 2021. Overall, the continent reached 716,000 professional developers in 2021, compared to 690,000 in 2020. Wages and salaries have also increased, and more developers have secured full-time jobs.
To meet the growing demand for developers, the report calls on global technology companies, local educators, and governments to strengthen the industry. This can be done by investing in both Internet access and education.
“Junior and emerging talent, as well as under-supported groups including women, need vocational training and affordable internet access to benefit from broader progress. Tech companies are making headway through local partnerships,” the document revealed.
The Africa Developer Ecosystem Report 2021 was produced through a study of 16 countries in sub-Saharan Africa: Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, and Uganda. This report is the second in a series of studies on the state of the continent's Internet economy. The first, published in collaboration with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), found that Africa's Internet economy has the potential to reach 5.2% of GDP by 2025, contributing nearly $180 billion to the African economy. The projected potential contribution could reach $712 billion by 2050. “To reach this potential, we have to provide better access to high-quality, world-class skilling on mobile technologies platforms coupled with increasing connectivity in Africa. Our effort to increase connectivity is focused on infrastructure, devices, tools, and product localization,” said Nitin Gajria, Google MD for Africa.
Vanessa Ngono Atangana
Over the past five years, mobile money has become increasingly valuable in Africa. Today, it has become the largest payment tool in Africa. Its continent-wide interoperability has the potential to further unlock the potential of intra-African trade.
Digital payment gateway fintech MFS Africa announced on 16 February 2022 that it has joined the Pan African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS). The PAPSS was launched in January 2021 by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
According to the fintech, the partnership will enable its 320 million African mobile money customers to receive and make merchant payments in the 54 member-States of the AfCFTA.
Joining the PAPSS, according to Dare Okoudjou (pictured), founder and CEO of MFS Africa, translates a desire to further enrich this pan-African solution that "provides small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), entrepreneurs and merchants with easier access to formal payment services that will help them grow their businesses.”
In its "State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money 2021," the Global System Operators' Association (GSMA) said Africa was once again the champion in mobile payments with $490 billion exchanged on the continent compared to $767 billion globally. The number of mobile money accounts was 548 million on the continent compared to 1.2 billion globally.
“Africa is the global leader in mobile money services...This demonstrates how mobile money services play a key role in the continent's economic growth and facilitate financial inclusion,” said Mike Ogbalu III, CEO of PAPSS,
Adoni Conrad Quenum
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African digital game production companies are now striving to develop a real industry on the continent. Ten of them, specializing in the production and marketing of video games, have announced the creation of an alliance - Pan African Gaming Group (PAGG) - for this purpose.
“We are creating a portfolio of mobile-first casual games that are fun, non-violent, and gender-inclusive. Our games are Made-In-Africa, For Africa, featuring African heroes wrapped in local culture, music, and environments. This allows our players to see themselves reflected in our games, which makes all the difference,” said Jake Manion, the project director.
The joint venture aims to strengthen the industry, creating more economic opportunities and jobs, sharing resources, skills, and access to markets to enable each member studio to create better games and reach more players. The goal is to position Africa on the map of the global games industry. The project targets the "400 million people connected in Africa with a smartphone," according to World Bank indicators. This opportunity is greater than that offered by Canada, the United States, and Mexico together. The promoters hope to reach a potential market of 680 million people by 2025. The global smartphone and computer gaming industry is attracting a lot of capital. According to Drake Star Partners, an investment bank specializing in financing the sector, $150 billion in new investments is expected in 2022. However, the share attracted by Africa in this capital remains low.
Among the founders of the PAGG is Olivier Madiba, a pioneer in Cameroon in the financing, production, and distribution of video games on computers and mobile phones. There are also leaders in the sector in countries like Kenya and Ghana.
French telecom group Orange launched in 2019 a plan - Engage 2025- to offer consumers a better experience. To achieve this goal in Africa, the company has partnered with Atos to rethink its business process on the continent.
The deal will see Atos - a company specializing in the provision of integrated solutions in the areas of cloud, cybersecurity, and supercomputing- support the digitalization of some of Orange's subsidiaries in Africa; 14 subsidiaries are targeted. Two contracts were signed to this effect last February 22 between the two parties. The objective is to significantly optimize Orange's operating expenses over the next five years, reduce its carbon emissions, and improve the group's operational resilience and business agility in the region.
The first contract requires Atos to support and maintain about 100 apps in key areas - such as billing, customer relationship management, business intelligence, big data, procurement, order entry, and management - across Orange subsidiaries. The contract also includes infrastructure management for four specific subsidiaries: Orange Burkina Faso, Orange Sierra Leone, Orange Cameroon, and Orange Madagascar. The same approach will be gradually applied to other subsidiaries in the region.
The second contract Orange signed with Atos is for the deployment of Orange Private Cloud - a dedicated cloud computing environment - in six subsidiaries (Burkina Faso, Botswana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo). In these countries, Atos will also be able to support the integration of multi-vendor applications into Orange Private Cloud.
“We have ambitious digital transformation projects for our affiliates (Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry, Ivory Coast, Jordan, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Tunisia). Atos’ expertise in cloud services and business-critical application management, its deep knowledge of the telecom market, and its local presence in several countries in the Middle East and Africa make it a very valuable partner for Orange in the region,” says Jocelyn Karakula, CTIO, Orange Middle East & Africa.
The collaboration between Orange and Atos comes as part of the renewal of the CISA contract signed in 2017 by the two parties, but which covered only seven African subsidiaries. This new contract incorporates new innovative areas that fall within the scope of Atos, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, cloud monitoring services and cloud orchestration, predictive maintenance, and intelligent automation.
Orange's new step aligns with one of its four growth ambitions for 2025, which is "to deliver a reinvented customer experience, smarter networks as well as improved operational efficiency."
Muriel Edjo
Ghana seeks to become the most cyber-secure country in Africa in the coming years. Speaking during the installation ceremony of the Board of Directors of the National Cybersecurity Authority last week, the country’s Minister of digitalization said “the government, within the last five years, has taken our cyber security development seriously.”
“The establishment of the Cyber Security Authority is one of the critical milestones achieved,” under this strategy, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful said. According to the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) 2020 Global Cybersecurity Index report, Ghana ranked third in Africa and 43rd in the world based on the preparedness of the legislative and technical environment for cybercriminal attacks. With a score of 86.69/100, the country was better ranked than South Africa, which attracts the main foreign investment in digital technology, including data centers and optical fiber networks. The top 3 consists of Mauritius, Tanzania, and Ghana.
“We cannot simply sustain our digitalization efforts without cyber security. Cyber-attacks could undermine our gains in digitalization. It could undermine our social and economic well-being and consequently, our national security,” Ursula Owusu-Ekuful said.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
The DR Congo government has unveiled plans to digitize lease contracts. The strategy was launched last February 18 by Gentiny Ngobila Mbaka (pictured), governor of Kinshasa.
The government aims, through this plan, to create a database of rental properties so that it can easily identify both the owners and the tenants. This, in turn, will contribute to an efficient collection of rental property tax revenues.
The project will allow "the tax and financial service of the city of Kinshasa to monitor, in real-time, what the taxpayer has already paid. The city of Kinshasa, for its development, needs the participation of all Kinois (residents of Kinshasa, ed). The lease contracts are an important source of revenue because those subject to the tax on rental income are numerous and if they regularly paid this tax, the city would have the means of its policy," said the governor. The digitization project has been entrusted to the company Okab. The latter will provide the housing departments of the twenty-four communes of Kinshasa with the computer hardware and software necessary for the registration of rental contracts or books and the identification of lessors and tenants.
Ordinance-Law 69-006 of 10 February 1969 on the real tax of DR Congo stipulates in its "Chapter II: Taxpayers", Article 8, that "the property tax is due by the holder of the right of ownership, possession, emphyteusis, surface area, transfer, concession or usufruct of the taxable property, as well as by persons occupying, by a lease, real estate that is part of the private domain of the State, the provinces, the cities, and the communes, or of the assets of the districts."
Chapter III: Determination of the tax rate emphasizes in Article 13 that "an annual lump-sum tax is instituted as a property tax on built and unbuilt properties, the amount of which varies according to the nature of the buildings and the rank of the localities.”
Governor Gentiny Ngobila Mbaka pointed out that field teams in charge of digitizing lease contracts have already been trained and will soon be deployed first in the commune of Gombe which will serve as a pilot commune for the project.
Muriel Edjo