Solutions (528)
In some parts of the African continent, it is still hard to access healthcare either because of the lack of healthcare personnel or their distance to health centers. Some tech entrepreneurs are trying to fix that.
Clafiya is an e-health platform that allows access to affordable healthcare in Nigeria. It connects patients in rural and peri-urban areas to community health workers.
The platform was developed by eponymous healthtech startup Clafiya founded in 2020 by Itoro Inoyo and Jennie Nwokoye. Its goal is to allow everyone to access healthcare. As its co-founder Itoro Inoyo explains, health is a fundamental human right so, no one should be left out no matter their race, gender, or socioeconomic status.
As internet connection is not always available in the areas targetted by Clafiya founders, the platform is accessible via a USSD code (*347*58 #). Users can then dial the code, register by providing a set of information, and book primary care anytime they want.
The healthcare packages offered by Clafiya cost between US$4.9 and 12. Each of the packages allows access to different primary care and services including blood pressure and blood sugar level screening, primary care consultation, rapid malaria, and typhoid diagnostics. If the case is serious, the patient is referred to a medical specialist, either online or offline.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
During the coronavirus pandemic, the number of e-learning platforms exploded. Two Beninise techpreneurs have decided to ride on that trend and revolutionize foreign language learning.
Nors is a mobile app developed by Benenese startup Phoenix Group, allowing users to learn foreign languages. The mobile app is available only for Android phones. It has four notable menus. The first is aimed at making the user learn specific words and phrases related to topics like family, emotions, relationships, the human body, and sickness. The second menu is for those who want to learn how to converse. This menu presents a set of conversation scenarios and how to respond. The third menu shows practice videos in which actors practice the real-world conversation scenarios users learned. The fourth menu is for networking, enabling users with common learning goals to practice and converse together.
To easily attract users, Phoenix Group set a sponsorship program rewarding users with points for every user they invite. The aim is to make Nors the go-to platform for language learning in Africa in the next three years. The app is free for every user, both registered and unregistered. Unregistered users can learn the languages they want through Nors but they cannot access technical resources or interact with the learning community.
Let’s note that Phoenix Group was founded in 2020, by Serge Atchoua and Essou Fulgence. Before developing the e-learning platform Nors, it developed Gala Space, a mobile platform on which users can promote their products and events.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Years back, Rwanda initiated a plan to make the country an important tech hub. The result of that ambition is the sheer number of startups, which are developing solutions to address local challenges.
Fixa is a Rwandan startup that links companies with pre-vetted blue-collar workers. The startup was founded in 2020 by Tafara Makaza.
On its platform, it explains that its “aim is to ensure corporations have access to reliable help and management solutions for workplace projects of all sizes while supporting service providers with more job opportunities, social protection, and formal training.”
Apart from providing businesses with reliable workers, Fixa also allows site supervisors to conveniently measure attendance and productivity. With the Fixa mobile platform, supervisors can assign workers to specific tasks when they need to, access performance history in real-time, and take instant decisions when a worker is underperforming.
It also allows businesses to manage their blue-collar workforce, and instantly brief all the selected workers on project details or even updates. To subscribe to Fixa services, businesses and supervisors have to book a demo (a video conference) with the sales team to present their projects.
Currently, Fixa claims over 300 workers in its network, and some fifty job requests are processed weekly.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
In most African countries, the digital transformation prompted by Covid-19 has continued unabated after the pandemic. This is also the case in Gabon, where entrepreneurs have partnered with the electric and water utility SEEG to develop a tech solution that makes life easier for prepaid meter users.
Orema is a mobile app developed by the eponymous Gabonese startup founded by Jean Claude Birane Ndiaye and Scarlett Pindji. It allows users to manage their prepaid electric meters right from their smartphones or a web platform.
The solution was developed when co-founder Birane Ndiaye noticed how difficult it usually was to load prepaid meters during the rainy season since such meters are generally installed outside. With Orema, users no longer have to move an inch to check their prepaid meter balance and monitor their consumption in real-time. They can also load the meter via mobile money. All they have to do is to install a smart control box next to the prepaid meter, install the mobile app, or connect to the smart box via the web platform.
Since its launch, Orema’s developer has received several awards. In 2019, it joined Gabon Digital Incubation Company (SING SA)’s fourth accelerator program, Innovation Cohort 4.0. The following year, it won the first prize in the national digital business competition.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Africa’s agriculture sector is still largely under-exploited despite the important volume of arable lands on the continent. Some of the problems contributing to that fact are poor agricultural practices and traditional cultivation methods. To address the problems in that vital sector, startups are developing innovative solutions.
Wefly is an Ivorian agritech startup founded in 2017 by Joseph-Olivier Biley and purchased by Jool International in 2021. Thanks to its agricultural engineers and its tech solutions, the startup allows users to set up, manage and optimize plantations. To fulfill its mission, it developed several products including WeFly GIS.
WeFly GIS is the digital solution developed by the agritech to provide farm owners (notably those who are unable to devote their whole time to exploitation tasks) with adequate tools to optimize their productions. Among other things, the solution - accessible through a web and mobile platform- allows the collection, analysis, and storage of farm exploitation data. It also enables farm owners to geo-locate their workers, trace production and timely identify exploitation problems. The startup also offers drone services like weather forecasting, soil needs, and cartography.
To access its services, farm owners must first register by providing a set of information including the type of exploitation (a cooperative or a sole-ownership), contact details, and farm location. Then the user needs to buy annual licenses.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of having alternative solutions in key sectors of the economy. In Senegal, Njureel is helping improve access to healthcare.
Njureel is a Senegalese healthtech startup that allows remote access to healthcare via its eponymous digital platform. It was founded in 2019 after its founder, Awa Ndiaye lost one of her relatives to a lack of proper healthcare.
Currently, the platform has no mobile app but users can easily register on its website using mainstream browsers and book teleconsultation with doctors. The consultations are held via Whastapp videocalls. The startup also offers psychological Tele counseling to violated women and legal guidance if necessary.
To educate women on sexual and reproductive health, Njureel developed a program called Sama Bajene. In the framework of the program, the startup claims to have trained more than 60 community health workers, carried out over 500 medical consultations, and impacted more than 800 women.
Since its launch in 2019, the healthtech has received numerous recognitions and awards. They include the Hack the Goals Senegal Award, the 2020 President of the Republic’s Grand Prize for digital innovation, the Innovation for mothers at risk in Senegal 2020 award, and the third prize for the Jigeen Ci-Tic competition.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Budget management can quickly become cumbersome for teenagers living far from their parents. In Nigeria, entrepreneurs have addressed this issue by setting up an interesting alternative.
Sproutly is a Nigerian fintech startup that allows teenagers to open savings accounts with attached debit cards and parental supervision. The startup, founded in 2021, by Pierre Nwoke (photo), Maxwell Agu, and Prince Akachi, is based in the US and Nigeria.
Pierre Nwoke came up with Sproutly’s idea after he went through hell and high water to open a bank account for his underage brother who was preparing for university admission. “...it was one hell of a journey to open a savings account for him being underaged. We ended up doing so after one year and using one of my banks and my debit card for the entire period he was trying to open an account,” he explains.
Pierre discovered that it was a challenge faced by many. So, he decided to find a solution for it. “We took about three months researching pre-existing viable options and alternatives people use currently, like digital banks offering something close to what we wanted to build, and it was an amazing, eye-opening journey,” he told Disrupt Africa.
The startup has an Android and iOS app where teenagers can carry out their banking activities. It also has a mobile app to allow parents to monitor their kids’ spending and take preventive actions if needed. Sproutly also offers financial education and access to child-friendly loans and quick bailouts. The start-up is also developing additional services like school workshops to train children on financial management.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
The startup allows users to safely and comfortably travel to major cities in the country.
Easy Matatu is a Ugandan startup founded in 2019 to help commuters access reliable and convenient transportation means. The startup founded by Andrew Ssali, Lema Carl Andrew, and Precious Turinawe has raised US$500,000 in two funding rounds to successfully carry out its mission.
“ We are a platform that is connecting commuters in Africa to safer, more reliable, and cleaner transportation. Easy Matatu is built for the working professional looking to make it in this world, for the bold African woman raising a nation,” the startup explains on its website.
The startup has a mobile app (available on PlayStore and AppStore) through which users can access the various services it offers. Through the mobile app, users can register by filling in a set of personal information, to become an Easy Matatu driver or commuter.
Whenever a user signs in on the mobile app, available pick-up points are shown on the map. So, commuters can choose the closest to them. To keep true to its reliability commitment, Easy Matatu is always on time at the pickup points and its waiting time at those points rarely exceeds five minutes. To facilitate payments, the startup’s mobile app integrates a wallet that can be loaded via mobile money. The startup also has a reward system to encourage its commuters. For instance, commuters can refer their friends and family members and earn up to USh5,000 (about US$1.37).
Let’s note that the startup is one of the 45 startups selected for the first edition of the AfricaTech Awards. It was selected in the category of Climate Tech startups.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Healthtech startups are gradually becoming better alternatives to addressing healthcare access challenges in Africa. In Côte d’Ivoire, Zencey is one of those startups conquering the health market with innovative offers.
Zencey is a healthtech startup founded in 2019 by Yaya Mbaoua. The startup allows access to healthcare services for its users, in line with its mission, which is to “transform the African healthcare ecosystem by making access to healthcare more affordable and accessible to everyone.”
Through its eponymous platform, accessible via the web and its android app, users can book consultations with doctors by following two simple steps. First, they will have to log on to the platform by providing a set of personal information and choose the doctor they want to book, depending on the illness affecting them. Then, they will set a date and time for the consultation. Once set, the consultation will be carried out via video call through the Zencey app.
The startup explains that its affiliated doctors and specialists are accredited with years of experience in developing countries. It is constantly on the hunt for doctors and health practitioners to join its platform. For that purpose, it has a form allowing interested parties to enroll and set their availability schedule.
Zencey also offers firms the opportunity to guarantee healthcare for their staff. It sees that offer as an affordable alternative to the ever-expensive health insurance. The offer consists of emergency care anytime needed and virtual healthcare assistants to boost employee commitment.
In 2021, the startup announced its selection for Orange Cote d’Ivoire’s 2020 startup acceleration program. It is also one of the 45 startups selected for the first edition of the AfricaTech Awards, to be held in Paris during the Viva Technology 2022 next June.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
The coronavirus pandemic forced an acceleration of digital transformation projects in Africa. Almost every sector is now caught in the digitalization fever with startups coming into the picture to solve the population’s pain points. SingPay is one of the solutions developed to solve problems, financial notably.
SingPay is a digital platform developed by business consulting firm SING SA, founded in 2018 and managed by Yannick Ebibie (photo) ever since. The platform allows firms to easily collect payments.
“SingPay aims to facilitate the integration of payment means to digital solutions in our growing ecosystem by reducing barriers to entry, notably for early-stage ventures and public projects,” SING SA explains on its website.
The digital solution allows startups and firms offering services or selling products online to collect payments from users, even those without conventional payment systems like bank cards. By integrating SingPay into their digital platforms, users can collect payments via mobile money, bank cards, etc…
SingPay collects no fee from its clients when the volume of overall transactions processed is still below XAF25 million (about US$40,000). Beyond that threshold, it collects 2.5% per transaction for private ventures and 1.5% per transaction for public ventures. Every year, SING SA. reviews the status of every one of its clients via its programming interface.
Thanks to SingPay, SING SA has been selected among the 300 start-ups that will contest to become the Top45 awardees of the first edition of the AfricaTech Awards.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
More...
Technology appears like an important tool to solve some of the most pressing challenges in Africa and many entrepreneurs want to capitalize on it.
GoodTalent is a Nigerian startup that allows users to crowdsource, screen, and onboard talents.
Thanks to its cloud-based social platform, the startup founded in 2020 by Jimmy Braimah (photo) helps “reduce cost and time-to-hire” by being a talent pool and instant messaging platform that recommends talents based on their skills. It also offers the possibility to ask the social community for referrals.
The startup wants to change the way companies select, hire and pay talented engineers. “...We are building a company that will be at the forefront of hiring engineers within 1-2 years. We are giving companies a choice to be flexible in their hiring strategy. We all know how startups are losing the “war for engineering talents”, as a result, we are providing the right tools to make it easier for startups with smaller budgets to compete effectively against the larger companies,” explains Jimmy Braimah.
Currently, the services offered by GoodTalent are accessible only through its web platform. Talents register on the platform by providing a set of information including their last name, first name, and email address. They then become visible to partner companies and recruiters that have subscribed to the services. Depending on their subscription type (pricing starts at US$100), recruiters and companies can publish job offers and recruit a fixed number of talents.
Since its creation, the startup has completed several funding rounds totaling US$50,000. In February 2022, it was awarded the Hackernoon Community Startup of the Year 2021 award.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
The coronavirus pandemic boosted the African delivery segment. Unfortunately, some operators are unable to access operational loans. A Zimbabwean startup wants to offer an alternative solution.
Thumeza is a Zimbabwean startup that allows small-scale transporters access to short-term operational loans. Founded in 2018 by Gugulethu Siso (photo), the startup describes itself as an “empathetic alternative financing solutions” provider.
“Access to credit is a lifeline for growth which unfortunately over 70% of small scale transporters active in Africa’s 300 Billion US dollar logistics industry do not have. This is either due to a lack of collateral or credible operational data. This means that as a small scale transporter, options for quick access to assistance are extremely limited should you get a post-paid trip, have a breakdown in transit, need to pay for insurance, or simply need to service your vehicle and meet other day-to-day operational needs,” it explains on its website.
To access Thumeza’s services, users need to register on its web platform (currently, there is no mobile platform) by filling out a Google form. Based on the information collected, Thumeza estimates the volume of credit that can be granted to each user.
In 2021, the startup was named one of 10 finalists in Telecel Group's US$750,000 Africa Startup Initiative (ASIP) program and Startupbootcamp Afritech accelerator. In 2022, the startup expanded its services to Zambia and Kenya with plans to launch operations in South Africa in the coming months.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
TopUp Mama was launched to facilitate restaurants’ access to foodstuff and improve their efficiency.
TopUp Mama is a Kenyan startup which helps restaurants access affordable food products, financial services, and management solutions. Founded in 2021 by Njavwa Mutambo, Emilie Blauwhoff, and Andrew Kibe, the startup completed several funding rounds securing US$2.2 million overall.
For Ventures Platform founder Kola Aina, TopUp Mama helps “restaurants grow their customer base while improving efficiency.”
“I grew up in the restaurant business in Zambia, and I know first-hand the power small businesses have in transforming lives. This is why we’re passionate about increasing restaurant contribution to Africa’s GDP. We believe we have a unique opportunity to build Africa’s most prominent restaurant partner and build one of the largest companies Africa has ever seen,” indicates TopUP Mama’s co-founder and CEO Njavwa Mutambo.
TopUp Mama’s services can be accessed through a mobile app, available for android and iOS users. When the user (a restaurant owner most of the time) registers, he/she can buy goods, pay later, and even get them delivered wherever wanted. The startup awards loyalty points to the best clients among its more than 3,000 clients/restaurants.
In February 2022, the startup was selected to be in Catalyst Fund’s “tenth cohort of fintech companies that are building solutions designed to improve the resilience of underserved and climate-vulnerable communities in emerging markets.”
Adoni Conrad Quenum
In Africa, access to traditional bank loans is hard and stringent. Residents are thus obliged to turn to alternative solutions to meet their needs.
Kwaba is a Nigeiran startup founded in 2019 by Obinna Molokwu. Through its eponymous android app -the iOS app is still under development- the startup facilitates rent payment and real estate investments.
“Kwaba is helping to bridge the gap between property and finance. We understand the economic reality of Nigerian renters and have built our product to reflect this. We aim to improve the financial well-being of renters as we grow,” explains Molukwu.
With Kwaba, users can save or receive instant loans for real estate projects. They can also conveniently pay their rent or when they are unable to pay security deposits, they can receive up to 40% of their rent savings and pay in monthly installments.
The startup claimed to have received NGN115 billion (close to US$277 million) of rent payment requests from its over 30,000 users in 2021. A year earlier, the startup was selected for the second edition of ARM Labs accelerator program, entitling it to US$20,000 funding.
Adoni Conrad Quenum