The telecom operator’s goal is to help offer digital skills to the youth, boost their employability and prepare them for the evolving job market.
French telecom group Orange and the German cooperation Agency (GIZ) inaugurated, Monday (October 3), a new "Orange Digital Center" in Liberia. The technology center was officially inaugurated in a ceremony attended by Brelotte Ba, Deputy CEO of Orange Middle East and Africa. The center, based in Monrovia, aims to offer digital skills to everyone.
"I am very proud to inaugurate the 11th Orange Digital Center today in Liberia, which is part of a network of 32 Orange Digital Centers that will be deployed not only in Africa and the Middle East but also in Europe. The objective is to democratize access to digital technology to young people - with or without qualifications - giving them access to the latest technological skills to strengthen their employability and prepare them for the jobs of tomorrow," said Brelotte Ba.
The 715 square meter infrastructure “brings together four strategic programs of the Orange group, namely; a coding school, a solidarity FabLab - one of the Orange Foundation's digital manufacturing workshops, and an Orange Fab start-up accelerator, supported by Orange Ventures Africa, the investment fund.”
“All of the programs are provided free of charge and open to everyone. They range from digital training for young people, 90% of which are practical, guidance for project bearers, start-up acceleration, and investment in these,” an official release informs.
The digital center, which has been operational since January 2022, has already hosted several digital training courses and events. It also aims to establish Orange Digital Center Clubs, extensions of the coding school, in partner universities in the country. That way, as many people as possible can access the new technologies and use them to their full extent.
The center inaugurated yesterday is the eleventh inaugurated by Orange in the Middle East and Africa. The first ten were inaugurated in Tunisia, Senegal, Ethiopia, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Egypt, Jordan, Madagascar, and Morocco. It is in line with the group’s approach to digital inclusion and aims to “empower every person to take advantage of the opportunities of digitalization and work hard to close the digital divide.”
Samira Njoya
Modernization of public services is a key requirement for the digital transformation advocated by the United Nations over the past thirty years. In Africa, which is still far behind the rest of the world, much remains to be done in that segment.
Sixteen countries are now e-government champions, the UN DESA indicates in its report "E-Government Survey 2022 The Future of Digital Government". In 2020, there were 14 champions.
In the new report, Côte d'Ivoire and Namibia have joined the list while Rwanda replaced Zimbabwe, which lost its place on that list.
South Africa, which was third in 2020, is now the first e-government champion in Africa. As for Mauritius, it lost one place to become second while Seychelles was bumped from second place to third.
According to the United Nations, Africa’s e-government champions are countries whose telecom infrastructure development, human capital, and online services rankings are above the continental average of 0.4054 points (out of 1.0000) and close to the global average of 0.6102 points.
Six of those champions are from Southern Africa, four from North Africa, three from West Africa, two from East Africa, and one from Central Africa.
In Africa, besides the champions, the ranking of thirty-three other countries was up to the continental average. Only six countries scored below average. They are namely the Central African Republic, Chad, South Sudan, Eritrea, Niger, and Somalia.
Despite the progress made by African countries in e-government, over the past two decades, some countries have overlooked the factor “inclusion,” the UN says.
“The groups easiest to reach have generally benefited most from the notable progress in e-government, while many of the poorest and most vulnerable populations have been left behind,” the report reads urging governments to strive for inclusion.
Muriel Edjo
Thanks to the ongoing tech revolution, African tech entrepreneurs are now able to address some of the issues facing local populations.
LukaPharma is a digital solution developed by a Congolese eponymous startup. It helps users check drug availability and find the nearest pharmacies.
Through its Android-only app, the solution allows users to register accounts and access all of its features, including the list of pharmacies on duty, drug availability, medication reminders, and online chats with pharmacists.
Users can upload the items on their medication order on the app and get notifications from pharmacies where the drugs are still available, within three minutes. Then, the user can check the contact details of the pharmacist where he/she can buy the drugs and choose either the nearest one or the ones with the best pricing.
LukaPharma also allows pharmacies to increase their visibility by getting listed, listing the best pricing for some drugs, or by suggesting alternative medical products for some diseases.
In 2022, the startup won the first prize in the national edition of the Orange Social Venture Prize. “It is an honor to receive this first prize and we thank Orange DRC, which is offering us this great opportunity to save more lives. We now want to double down to improve access to medication information. This prize [...] allows us to develop our business,” said LukePharma founder Charlotte Nsonga.
As of press time, the solution’s Playstore page was posting hundreds of downloads with an average of 4.6-star reviews. Thanks to the Orange Social Venture Prize, it could gain more visibility and be more helpful to the Congolese population.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Through his fintech ClinicPesa, he is committed to improving the living conditions of local populations. His commitment has already earned him a selection to participate in two international accelerator programs.
Onyancha Chrispinus (photo) is a Ugandan computer engineer and tech entrepreneur. In 2016, he cofounded ClinicPesa, a fintech startup that offers micro-loans to enable access to quality healthcare.
The startup he heads, as the CEO, developed a digital platform that allows users to save money to be used for healthcare needs. The funds saved can be used to settle medical bills or purchase drugs and medical devices in partner hospitals and pharmacies when needed.
It also developed ClinicPesa Mama’s, a savings platform dedicated exclusively to maternal health. It allows expectant mothers or parents to save money, via mobile money, to prepare for their baby's arrival. The funds can be used to purchase a baby’s trousseau, pay for medical transportation or bills, etc.
Its co-founder holds a Master’s in software engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne obtained in 2015. In 2019, he secured the D-Lab Scale-Ups Fellowship grant, which aims to support “local entrepreneurs bringing poverty-alleviating products and services to emerging markets at scale.” He integrated the labor market in 2011 when he was recruited, as a software engineer, by creativeDNA, a Ugandan tech company specializing in the development of mobile and digital solutions.
After a promotion to the position of a senior software engineer in 2012, he became the company's managing director four years later. Cumulatively, he was an instructor and author with UK IT company Packt, until March 2017.
This year, his startup is among the 60 startups that will participate in the second cohort of the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund for Africa. It is also one of 30 early-stage and growth-stage startups that will benefit from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-funded pan-African Investing in Innovation (i3) program.
Melchior Koba
Senegal is gradually moving towards full-scale e-governance. To accelerate the process, it decided to partner with key partners in the local ICT sector.
National IT agency Senegal Numérique SA and the Senegalese Information Technology Association (SITSA ) signed, Thursday (September 29), a framework agreement to boost public-private partnership. The move aims to ensure seamless digital transition and further develop digital services in Senegal.
According to Cheikh Bakhoum (photo, right), General Manager of Senegal Numérique SA, this partnership is extremely important for the country, which needs support in its public service digitalization programs. “We are aware that our engineers will not be able to complete all those digital projects all by themselves. [Therefore, the agreement aims] to build a public-private partnership whereby local private actors will boost Senegal Numerique SA’s service offerings,” he said.
The partnership will primarily focus on the liberalization of state infrastructure, allowing private companies to exploit those infrastructures. For Antoine Ngom (photo, left), chairman of the SITSA, the partnership will also focus on boosting cooperation between Senegal Numerique SA and SITSA to successfully complete the major digital projects launched by the government. “This partnership was needed as it enables us to carry out the reforms needed for an enabling environment, and implement major digital projects in sectors like digital identity, health information systems …,” he explained.
In 2016, Senegal launched an ambitious digital transformation project for strategic sectors like education, health, etc. The projects are scheduled for completion by 2025. However, three years to completion, much remains to be done. For Mountaga Cissé, a digital specialist, one of the reasons the project is not evolving as planned is the instability of ministries in charge of its implementation. Within ten years, the name of the ministry in charge of the implementation of that project was changed several times and seven ministers were appointed, he indicates.
Samira Njoya
Mauritius kicked off its digital transformation plan nearly four years ago. To successfully implement its programs in that light, it committed to finding strategic partners that will provide technical and financial support.
Mauritius and India recently agreed to collaborate on several digital projects. The two countries, represented respectively by the Ministry of Information Technology, Communication and Innovation, and the National Informatics Centre Services Incorporated (NICSI) signed a memorandum of cooperation to this effect on Friday, September 23.
Speaking on the merits of this partnership, Deepak Balgobin (photo), the Mauritian Minister of ICT, explained that it will allow the government to improve the dematerialization of several public services in various strategic areas such as health, education, trade, etc. Apart from the development of communication channels -for information exchange, the two parties will also collaborate “ on best practices in the use of IT in the Mauritian government,” said Minister Yogida Sawmynaden.
Mauritius made a strategic move by choosing India as its digital transformation partner. A few years ago, India signed tech cooperation partnerships with four African countries, including Mauritius. At the time, India committed to providing strong support for the development and scientific development of the four African partners.
The India-Mauritius cooperation has already yielded positive results. In 2003, India was heavily involved in the construction of the "Ebene Cybertower" also called Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Tower -since 2019- in honor of the former Indian Prime Minister. The tower, located 15 kilometers south of Port Louis, was designed and built by Indian companies. India also opened a US$100 million credit line for the project.
Samira Njoya
In Africa, money transfers are sometimes quite expensive, therefore impairing financial inclusion. To address the various reasons, a number of local startups are devising adapted solutions.
Eversend is a fintech solution developed by an eponymous Ugandan startup founded in 2017. It allows users -both individuals and businesses- to make affordable “borderless” money transfers.
“Eversend aims to be a solution to the “massive currency devaluation, high-interest rates, predatory pricing of up to 15 percent in hidden forex fees, inadequate payments infrastructure, and mediocre digital banking experiences,” says Stone Atwine, co-founder of the startup which went live in 2019.
To successfully carry out its mission, the fintech solution has a mobile app (accessible on Android and iOS devices). The services accessible on the mobile app include money transfer, currency exchange, virtual debit cards, or stock trading. Its stock trading feature allows access to US stocks from the Eversend interface. It also allows businesses to make multi-currency payments.
Currently, Eversend claims more than 350,000 happy clients. According to Stone Atwine, the volume of transfers it processed rose to US$230 million, up from US$5 million in 2020 and US$800,000 in 2019.
“We hit our goal of sustainability last year, and we are entering our growth and expansion phase in 2022,” the co-founder said.
The Ugandan startup is among the 60 beneficiaries of the second cohort of the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund, which entitles participants to a slice of US$4 million in financial support. The startup is already operational in Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Ghana. It also plans to scale in French-speaking Africa, Europe, and the USA.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
After his higher education in Germany, he moved back to his native country to improve the quality of mobility offerings. He specifically focused on an industry crowded with amateurs: motorcycle taxis.
Patrick Timani (photo) is a Cameroonian embedded system engineer and tech entrepreneur. In 2015, he graduated from the University of Pforzheim, in Germany. He also holds a microfinance expert certification from the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management.
In 2017, he co-founded BeeGroup, a mobility startup he currently heads as the chief executive officer. His startup offers two services through its mobile app (available for Android and iOS devices).
The first service is Bee Delivery, which facilitates last-mile delivery. It covers the logistics chain and makes short, medium, and long-distance delivery with its trucks, gaining the confidence of several national and international companies in Cameroon.
The second service, which sets Patrick Timani apart in the local startup ecosystem, is Bee Moto, a motorcycle-hailing service. On its website, BeeGroup explains that Bee Moto aims to formalize the motorcycle taxi industry in French-speaking Africa.
“Motorcycle is one of the most popular modes of transport in Cameroon and other French-speaking countries, but the motorcycle transport sector is not organized. We believe that we can make a big change by offering a new, modern service that would make motorcycle transport convenient and comfortable. We are pleased to partner with Yango, an international service, to give all Cameroonians the opportunity to arrive at their destinations on time and safely,” Patrick indicated in August 2022, when signing a partnership agreement with mobility startup Yango, in Douala.
In 2020, Bee signed a partnership agreement with Baloon Insurance. It thus became the agent in charge of delivering insurance certificates to Baloon Insurance clients. In early September 2022, it secured a contract with OneAllSports - Cameroon’s national football team’s new equipment manufacturer- becoming the official dealer of OnAllSports products in Cameroon.
In June 2022, after a successful experience in Cameroon, where the mobility start-up is becoming more attractive by the day, it launched its activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Before his Bee Group experience, Patrick Timani honed his skills working for renowned companies. In 2013, he completed a one-year internship at the German energy company Siemens. The following year, he worked as an intern at the optronics, system technologies, and image exploitation application development company Fraunhofer IOSB. His startup is among the 60 beneficiaries of the 2022 Google for Startups Black Founders Fund.
Melchior Koba
The solution aims to help companies get ahead of the competition and boost sales.
Solutech is a digital solution developed by a Kenyan eponymous startup founded in 2014. It helps users -merchants namely- boost sales.
"With stiff competition and the need for route-to-market strategies by FMCG companies in Kenya, the struggle to make day-to-day strategic decisions has always remained a huge concern to manufacturers and distributors. They regularly lack timely and accurate distribution data, visibility of field sales activities and inefficiencies due to the traditional manual recording of activities and the nature of the fragmented retail industry in Africa,” Solutech co-founder and CEO Alexander Odhiambo (photo, left) told Disrupt Africa.
Solutech was founded to address all those issues and become the choice automation partner in the African sales and distribution sector. It developed a mobile app (available for Android and iOS users), which sends real-time notifications on the operations of registered merchants. It collects relevant information, informing its clients’ decisions. Its data also help improve sales management, logistics, and promotions aimed at helping merchants attract more buyers.
"With Solutech, companies have been able to witness increased productivity, a reduction of operational costs, and increased revenue through access to timely, accurate, and relevant customer insights," Alexander indicates. The start-up claims 4,000 daily users, over US$750 million in sales, and over 60 customers.
Solutech operates in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Zambia, DRC, Ethiopia, and Sudan. This year, it is one of the 60 startups that will participate in the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
The new funding secured six months after the agritech startup's last financing round brings the total funds it raised to US$14.4 million, including US$6.5 million in debt financing.
Ghanaian agritech startup Farmerline announced, Tuesday (September 27), the second close of its Pre-Series A investment raise. During that round, it raised US$1.5 million from social impact investor Oikocredit.
According to Farmerline co-founder and CEO, Alloysius Attah, the round will help support farmers and agribusinesses across Africa in a context marked by the war in Ukraine. “With the support of Oikocredit alongside our first-round funders, our distribution, logistics, and financing services will continue not only in Ghana but also in Côte d’Ivoire where we’ve recently begun the process of expanding our team,” he said.
West Africa was recovering from the coronavirus pandemic when the Ukraine war began. Record inflationary pressures ensued, sending the cost of living flying in most African countries. According to Issoufou Baoua, an expert food security analyst with the Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS), the number of people threatened by food insecurity in the Sahel and West Africa is rising. “We have gone from 10.7 million people threatened by food insecurity in 2019 to 40.7 million in 2022,” he says.
By expanding its African footprint, Farmerline will strengthen its agribusiness supply chain, cut costs for farmers and boost yield with the deployment of AI solutions and local infrastructure.
The startup, founded in 2013, currently claims about US$18 million worth of inputs and crops financed so far by franchising with agribusinesses and input resellers. The startup now aims to reach 300,000 farmers by 2022, a nearly 400% growth from last year, when it doubled its direct reach to 79,000 farmers (from 36,000 in 2020 and 8,000 in 2019).
Samira Njoya
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The Covid-19 pandemic has changed consumption habits in Africa, making e-commerce platforms more popular.
Club Tiossane is an e-commerce platform developed by Senegalese dairy company La Laiterie du Berger. It allows clients -notably those living in large towns- access to fresh products. During the coronavirus pandemic, the solution, which was formerly known as Club Kossam, saw a huge jump in its operations.
For its manager, Lucien Diedhiou, Club Tiossane is getting more popular by the day because of the new consumption habits. According to the manager, as both men and women are now working, the need for such e-commerce services will rise.
The solution is accessible only through a web portal and on social media. Users who want to buy fresh products through the web portal need to register an account. Clients can order the products they need for the following week and state a delivery timeframe and payment means (they can pay in advance or pay on delivery). Let’s note that the company delivers to its clients free of charge.
In 2020, it delivered 1,300 households in Dakar. It claims an average of XOF30 million (about US$44,500) monthly income and 62 million lives touched in April 2020. This year, it is among the 43 African startups that will participate in the Social & Inclusive Business Camp sponsored by the French Development Agency.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
After nine years in the banking and finance sector, he made a U-turn, in 2017, to develop his passion for new technologies. In partnership with various partners, he invested in artificial intelligence, earning several awards.
Youssef Bouyakhf is a Moroccan tech entrepreneur and co-founder of DeepEcho, a medical imaging startup.
Through DeepEcho -founded in 2020, Youssef combats infant and maternal maternity with a prenatal diagnosis solution that helps prevent potential pregnancy complications and reduce diagnostic errors. Thanks to high-performance deep learning algorithms, the solution makes ultrasound scans simpler yet more accurate.
"DeepEcho is a deep tech startup that focuses on the fourth Millennium Development Goal of reducing child mortality. We come from AI Lab and we work hand in hand with the best doctors in Morocco," Youssef Bouyakhf told Plug and Play in February 2022.
The tech enthusiast is particularly attracted by artificial intelligence given its usefulness in practical applications. In 2020, he co-founded Akumen IA, a consulting firm leveraging tech and data science to meet firms' and institutions’ needs. Three years earlier, he co-founded AIOX Labs, a Morocco-based start-up studio that uses data science and artificial intelligence to address businesses’ needs.
Before going into entrepreneurship full-time, Youssef worked for national and international institutions. His professional career started in 2009 when he was hired, as an audit intern, by the accounting firm Ernst & Young. Months later, he became an assistant Director of Marketing and Communication for the construction company Garanti Koza. In 2011, he joined BNP Paribas as a Business Analyst Intern in the structured debt department.
The following year, JP Morgan hired him as an Investment Banking Summer Analyst. Between 2015 and 2017, he was a principal investing associate for the financial services group Macquarie Group. Then, his growing interest in artificial intelligence pushed him to start side projects.
Thanks to DeepEcho, he is among the three winners of the 2022 Orange Social Venture Prize in Africa and the Middle East (POESAM). He is also one of the nominees for the Aviram Awards-Tech for Humanity 2022, a competition launched by the Aviram Family Foundation in partnership with Forbes. In September 2022, DeepEcho was selected for the pan-African program “Investing in Innovation,” funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Melchior Koba
In 2020, the tourism sector was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic worldwide. Amid the wave of accelerated transformation that ensued, countries, like Togo, are multiplying actions to revive the sector and make it a better instrument in their fight against poverty.
Togolese Minister of Tourism, Dr. Gbenyo Lamadokou (photo, center), inaugurated, Tuesday (September 27), the new national platform dedicated to the promotion of the tourism sector in Togo. The platform, called Togo Tourism, was inaugurated at the University of Lome, on the sidelines of the 42nd World Tourism Day.
According to Dr. Gbenyon Lamadokou, this new portal is of great importance, because it will revive the tourism sector, which was greatly affected by the coronavirus pandemic. On Monday, September 26, the Ministry of Tourism published figures showing a 49.1% year-to-year decline in tourist arrivals in Togo in 2020. According to the figures in 2020, the country recorded 481,706 tourists against 946,376 in 2019.
The figures nevertheless show a gradual recovery. Indeed, from XOF19 billion in 2020, the revenues generated by the sector rose 34%, to XOF25 billion in 2021. For Dr. Gbenyon Lamadokou, the rise was due to a “gradual deployment of the Covid-19 vaccine, the adoption of several measures, and the easing of travel restrictions.”
The new platform aims to attract even more tourists to the country. It presents the country’s cultural and tourist potential and lists the 10 reasons why visitors should visit Togo. It is part of the national strategy to attract 500,000 tourists to Togo annually and raise the contribution of the tourism sector to 6.2% of GDP by 2025.
Samira Njoya
Niger has the highest fertility rate in the world. Meeting the food needs of this rapidly growing population is a challenge for the government, organizations, and actors in the agricultural sector.
Last Tuesday, the Digital Development Agency (ADN) and the Swiss Foundation for Technical Cooperation, Swisscontact, launched an integrated digital platform in Niamey. The platform, baptized AgriShop/Rayuwa, aims to improve the skills of the various actors in the agricultural ecosystem in Niger, but also to facilitate their access to agriculture data and information.
According to ADN CEO, Wahidi Rabiou, the AgriShop/Rayuwa platform has three components. They are namely an e-commerce feature to connect farmers with potential clients and fellow farmers, an assistance feature to advise farmers, and an information feature to inform and train them.
Agriculture plays a very important role in Niger's economy. According to the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), it accounts for nearly 40% of the country’s GDP and provides livelihoods to more than 80% of the rural population. However, farmers sometimes lack the right information on seed techniques. They sometimes don’t even have loyal customers to quickly sell their products.
The e-commerce feature, Agrishop, will correct these shortcomings by offering farmers the possibility to list their products for sale. It targets "cooperatives, input or seed suppliers, individual or professional buyers, agribusinesses, agritech and also farmers, transporters, and marketers,” Wahidi Rabiou explains.
The platform can be used even without an internet connection. Thanks to a dedicated USSD code, farmers can receive information and advice via SMS messages. They can also receive remote assistance.
The project also includes an interactive voice server accessible through a short code allowing users to listen to pre-recorded messages on useful information, and agricultural advice in French, Hausa, Zarma, and many other languages.
The development of this “groundbreaking” platform is part of two programs implemented by Swisscontact. The first program is the Promel (Local entrepreneurship promotion program) financed by the Swiss Cooperation and the PEMIJ (Promotion of youth employment and labor market integration) financed by the Dutch Embassy.
Samira Njoya