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
The Tunisian transport market has welcomed, since 2016, a new operator. eFret.tn is an innovative startup that connects shippers (individuals or companies) with transport and transit companies. It operates an online market platform where shippers describe their needs and receive free quotes from carriers, movers, and international transport companies as well as customs agents.
With this method, carriers can offer competitive rates, optimize their routes through grouping and also reduce empty returns. After delivery, the carriers are evaluated twice both by the site and the customers.
eFret.tn was created in 2016 by two partners specialized in e-commerce, e-business, and logistics. The idea was to simplify logistics in Tunisia and optimize transport by making it cheaper and facilitating the obtention of transport quotes. The platform takes into account different types of services, including local land transport (moving, parcels, transport of goods within Tunisia); international air transport (transport of goods, parcels, and freight, to and from Tunisia in import or export); international maritime transport (transport of goods, containers, and goods to or from Tunisia); customs transit (freight forwarder service to carry out the customs formalities for all import or export operations to or from Tunisia).
eFret.tn is a sort of transport exchange that makes the activity more optimized and economical. Co-founder Wajdi Ben Rejeb (pictured) explains that by optimizing the movements of carriers through the grouping and management of empty returns, the startup can reduce CO2 emissions and help preserve the environment. This innovation earned it the 2017 Orange Social Entrepreneurship Award. Wajdi Ben Rejeb pointed out that obtaining this award has helped increase tenfold the number of ads from shippers on the platform.
Ruben Tchounyabe
Access to health care has relatively improved in Africa over the past decade. However much remains to be done. Initiatives are multiplying on the continent to bridge this gap.
Smart Africa, an alliance of 32 African countries and international organizations committed to the digital transformation of Africa, and The Commons Project Foundation (TCP) announced last February 16 a partnership to accelerate the delivery of digital health in Africa.
Through this collaboration, the members of both partners have committed to supporting and working on the design, development, deployment, and operation of digital public health infrastructure for Africans. They are also engaging in various digital health pilot projects aimed at strengthening African health systems.
One of the main focuses of the partnership is the SMART Health Card, which allows populations to securely share a verifiable version of their immunization record via a QR code. The innovation being implemented in Rwanda and Kenya is endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO).
“We believe that the future of healthcare in Africa is digital-first, powered by mobility. This partnership will go a long way in delivering world-class health services to Africa’s citizens such as SMART Health Cards,” said Lacina Koné (pictured), CEO of Smart Africa.
Access to health care remains low in many African countries. The ratio of professionals per 10,000 inhabitants is still far below the WHO standards, which recommend a minimum of 23 health workers to ensure a basic quality of service. Digital technology comes as the solution for Africans to improve health care coverage. For Joe Mucheru, the Cabinet Secretary of Kenya's Ministry of ICT, Innovation, and Youth, the widespread adoption of digital health has the potential to revolutionize healthcare in the same way that the M-Pesa payment system has revolutionized financial inclusion.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Driven by her mission to spark the flame of innovation in women, Jessica Makosso birthed a network that promotes female talent. The Congolese native who lives in France hopes that her platform will become a reference for supporting women’s projects.
A business management graduate, Jessica Makosso (photo) began her professional career as a salesperson. After acquiring experience for over seven (7) years, she quit her job in 2016 and went to further her studies in France. There, she earned a master's degree in business unit management. While doing internships in the luxury fashion industry in Paris, she started bringing female talent to light.
Later, she founded the Association des Femmes Inspirantes (Association of Inspiring Women). This was a way for her to help advance female leadership. The association helps make women gain visibility through networking, turning their ideas into profitable businesses with a positive impact. One of the initiatives carried out by Association des Femmes Inspirantes is a program called “Saisis ta destinée” (Seize Your Destiny)". The latter fosters reflection on entrepreneurship from a female perspective and raises women’s awareness about the matter.
Besides her activities in France, Jessica Makosso would like to be active in African countries. In 2018, she organized the second edition of her “Seize Your Destiny” awareness program in Pointe-Noire, Congo. “Awareness activities will not be limited to Europe. They will also be carried out in Africa and since I’m Congolese it makes sense given that charity begins at home,” she explained.
Makosso’s successes helped her find several partners, including banks, energy companies, and international organizations. Her goal in the future is to make her association a key partner of women, helping them grow professionally and succeed as entrepreneurs.
Aïsha Moyouzame
In collaboration with Bertrand Dago and Terrence Kondou, Fabrice Koffi, MD of Dothan Group, has developed a simplified accounting application to revolutionize small businesses. The solution -Keiwa- has been successfully deployed in Côte d'Ivoire and is now targeting the entire continent.
Fabrice Koffi (pictured) holds a degree in accounting and has several years of experience in various consulting firms, as administrative and financial manager of Agritecno West Africa, and as partner and co-manager of Urim Thummim Conseil. With five years of experience in supporting Ivorian VSEs and SMEs, he decided to found his startup Dothan Group in 2017.
He teamed up with Bertrand Dago, a senior technician in electronic and computer systems, and Terrance Kondou, an engineer with a background in computer engineering, to create Keiwa. The solution is an accounting, financial management, and inventory management app that allows traders to manage their accounting easily.
The three young Ivorians share a common vision, which is to educate, support and empower informal sector entrepreneurs through simplified accounting.
The app was first launched in 2017 in Senegal before being rolled out in Côte d'Ivoire in 2020. It is designed to help African VSEs and SMEs track their daily operations, multi-site structures, as well as partners offering services to these companies. "The user can record his daily operations, manage his supply and have access to a clear activity report in real-time. Keiwa also enables remote monitoring of these activities and selective sharing of information with selected partners," according to information available on the Keiwa website.
In December 2017, the solution won the Coup de Cœur prize at the Societe Generale’s Pan-African Hackathon l'Arbre. Two years later, Keiwa was part of the second cohort of MTN Côte d'Ivoire's acceleration program, Y'ello Startup. In 2021, the startup joined the portfolio of I&P Acceleration Technologies, and benefits from financing and strategic support provided by the investment body and the team of Comoé Capital in Côte d'Ivoire.
Fabrice Koffi and his associates hope to make Keiwa a multinational company present in all countries of the African continent.
Aïsha Moyouzame
The fintech Maviance raises a new round of funding, less than a year after the last one, to pursue its expansion strategy. According to a Feb. 18 legal announcement, Finafrik Ltd, a private company based in London and specialized in the development of commercial software, has become a shareholder of Cameroonian fintech Maviance PLC. The latter is the owner of the digital payment platform Smobilpay.
Through this operation, the capital of Mavaince increases to CFA1.15 billion, up a little more than CFA140 million. This makes Finafrik a holder of 12.2% of the company's capital.
In May 2021, Maviance PLC had successfully closed a $3 million (about CFA1.6 billion) fundraising round with MFS Africa, a pan-African fintech operating the largest digital payments hub on the African continent. MFS Africa has become a "strategic investor" in Maviance, enabling it to finance its expansion across Cameroon and enter new Cemac markets.
Maviance claims it serves over 500,000 customers per month and connects key service providers, payment providers, financial institutions, and mobile money operators to its digital financial services platform.
Since January 2021, Nkwenti Leslie Azong-Wara has been serving as CEO for a three-year term. The engineer, who has a background in Siemens A.G., replaces Njinyam Setven Ngwa.
S.A.
The application was born out of the desire of the startup Nchimsy Teq to make Cameroon a top travel destination in the world. TourCmr showcases both sung and unsung places in the country.
The TourCmr app is a bilingual digital travel guide designed by the startup Nchimsy Teq, founded by Bryan Pemwoya Pangsui (pictured). Approved by the Ministry of Tourism and Leisure as an official tourism promotion app in Cameroon, the solution was officially launched on November 2, 2021. It features more than 150 tourist sites classified by cities and surroundings, in the ten regions of Cameroon, with descriptions, photos, and videos.
“This digital guide gives its users information about sites to visit across the country. Information is available about hotels, restaurants, and bus stations. The user can design their own tourist route with the app," explains Armand Noah, head of communication at the Ministry of Tourism and Leisure. Nchimsy Te worked with the ministry to develop the travel guide.
The app can work without the internet. It is downloadable on Play Store and App Store. In addition to tourist sites, TourCmr also allows visitors to find hotels, restaurants, banks, and supermarkets around the site they want to visit. Users can also book travel services and pay via mobile money. The "find the embassy" function provides tourists with information on all embassies in Cameroon, including contacts, location, and directions.
Nchimsy Teq aims to build the largest travel and booking platform for Cameroon. This will also stimulate domestic tourism as several tourist sites listed in the app are also unknown by Cameroonians. According to Bryan Pemwoya Pangsui, the travel app has already recorded over 9,000 downloads on Android and IOS.
Ruben Tchounyabe
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The post-Covid economic recovery has increased competition in various industries, including air transportation. Only the most thriving businesses have a chance to remain profitable. To be part of this group, companies around the world, and mainly in Africa, have made digital transformation a priority. Air Senegal does not want to remain behind on the sidelines of this transformation. The airline signed a partnership with SmartKargo last February 16 to digitize its cargo service.
The deal will see Air Senegal deploy the SmartKargo solution in all functional areas of its cargo business, across its entire network of 22 destinations, including New York, Washington, and Paris, from its hub at Blaise Diagne International Airport.
The solution includes electronic air waybills (e-AWB), single screen data entries, user-configurable Business Intelligence (BI) and reporting, simple and more competitive pricing, and real-time capacity management. Ibrahima Kane, CEO of air Senegal, said: “the advanced SmartKargo platform will enable us to build and develop a new, modern and robust air cargo business. The fully digital solution is the best technology available and will propel Air Senegal forward by allowing us to grow our cargo business to its full potential.”
According to Air Senegal, the new platform will enable it to “transform its cargo business and successfully face the future with robust capabilities, cargo management solutions, and advanced technologies such as real-time information, business intelligence, and machine learning."
In its "passenger-it-insights-2020" report published in 2020, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) considered Covid-19 to be the most important stress test the airline industry has ever faced. IATA said a digital transformation was necessary for airlines to adapt to rapidly changing regulations, safety scenarios, and logistics.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Congolese entrepreneur Dana Endundo Ferreira (pictured) has developed an online platform that serves as a melting pot for art lovers across the world. The platform, Pavillon 54, is presented as the “go-to platform for discovering, buying, selling and understanding Modern and Contemporary African Art.”
She has long worked in the financial sector but said: “I wanted to do something I was passionate about and where I could best utilize my skills.” Dana Endundo Ferreira has a Master's in Business Administration obtained in 2012 from Columbia University in the US. She then went on to specialize in digital strategies and digital marketing in US companies. In 2018, she moved to the UK, where she worked as a consultant for a fintech with business aspirations in Africa. With her background, she decided to do something she was passionate about.
The daughter of two art lovers wanted to create the first leading platform dedicated to the development of Africa's arts and culture, by Africans, for Africans, and the world. To achieve such a feat, she adopted a 3C strategy (commercial, content & community). The commercial aspect naturally involves the various purchases of African works. She then intends to offer educational content to fill the information gap on African art with a well-researched blog and other resources; and finally, she organizes events that help create a strong community where African cultures are shared and celebrated. To date, some 40 renowned artists are listed on Pavilion 54, where they exhibit a variety of works ranging from paintings, photographs, and sculptures that sell for $1,000 to $10,000.
While the numbers are promising, Dana Endundo Ferreira deplores the lack of financial support and infrastructure for the arts in Africa, despite the industry's strong international potential. “We will also soon dedicate a space on our platform to present and offer more visibility to young artists who do not have formal representation in galleries or other exhibition opportunities, but demonstrate great talent and potential," she said.
Aïsha Moyouzame
Investment in African tech startups has gradually improved over the past five years. However, the tech industry on the continent has the potential to attract much more. In its "Supercharging Africa's Startups: The Continent's Path to Tech Excellence" study released February 15, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change estimates that African startups could raise more than $90 billion by 2030. To do this, the institute suggests 10 steps to follow:
- Establish a public data-sharing platform for tech startups
- Develop innovative financing vehicles
- Unleash capital from institutional and corporate investors
- Create a single digital market by prioritizing implementation of the AfCFTA
- Generate demand for local tech solutions
- Implement legislation to support tech startups and seek their regular feedback
- Improve digital skills
- Strengthen digital infrastructure
- Boost the capability of startups and support organizations
- Launch a “pan-African Startup Network”
The document found that “pre-pandemic, 22% of the working-age population had set up their own businesses. However, cumbersome regulations, the digital-skills gap, limited funding, and fragmented markets mean that Africa accounts for just 0.2% of the value of global startups.”
Although investment in African tech startups is still low compared to other regions, it has still seen a sharp increase over the past four years. In its "Africa's Investment Report 2021," Briter Bridge revealed that the amount reached $4.9 billion in 2021, 243% higher than 2020.
The "Lions go digital: The Internet's transformative potential in Africa" report by the McKinsey Global Institute estimated that the digital economy would contribute $300 billion to Africa's GDP by 2025, providing much-needed jobs on a continent where there are three to four times more people entering the labor market than actual jobs created. A favorable ecosystem for startups in Africa could make them future job providers for the youth who are increasingly becoming fans of technology.
Muriel Edjo
Two years after securing its first seed funding, Wasla announced a larger equity investment to finance its expansion in Egypt and beyond.
Egyptian e-commerce platform Wasla has closed a $9 million equity financing from non-bank financial services provider Contact Financial Holding to expand its payment solutions. The company, co-founded in 2018 by two Rocket Internet alumni and investment banker Mahmoud El Said (pictured, right), plans to include "buy now and pay later" financing options, as well as online payment capabilities, to its current offering. The startup also wants to enter Nigeria, the largest economy and most populous country in Africa.
“It’s a huge market at the end of the day, you have roughly 250 million people. They’re very technologically advanced, and their adoption of e-commerce is quite good. It’s quite the right market. There’s all the infrastructure that you kind of need to set up a proper tech business. In terms of maturity within the tech ecosystem, Nigeria is probably one of the best markets in Africa, competing directly with Egypt, South Africa, and a couple of others,” said Mahmoud El Said.
In addition to financial support, Contact Financial Holding will bring its experience in the technology and consumer credit sectors to Wasla, enabling it to expand financing opportunities for its customers. In December 2021, Sherif Makhlouf, managing director of consulting firm Boost, reported that e-commerce transactions in Egypt reached the equivalent of $5 billion in 2021.
As a reminder, in December 2019, Wasla raised $1 million in seed funding to strengthen its working team and develop new financial products.
Chamberline Moko