In the African public procurement sector, private companies’ works are most of the time delayed by the non-processing of invoices sent to public authorities. Côte d’Ivoire wants to address that situation and boost transparency in government expenditures with that platform.
Last Wednesday, Côte d'Ivoire inaugurated its digital platform dedicated to government suppliers. The platform called “e-fournisseur” (e-suppliers) was launched, in Abidjan, by Prime Minister Patrick Achi (photo, left) during a ceremony attended by government officials, executives, and professional organizations.
This “unprecedented” platform aims to reduce the time it takes to pay government service providers' invoices. It will also allow suppliers to monitor all stages of the process, from the contracting date to invoice payment, in real-time.
According to Prime Minister Patrick Achi, the platform helps solve several issues including deadline-missing problems. It will also reassure private contractors, “particularly SMEs for whom cashflow is key to meeting commitments” given that they will get to know that their invoices are being processed.
For quite some time, private contractors have demanded a reduction in the time it takes to process public procurement invoices. They also require an integrated system to monitor the status of their submissions. During a seminar, in April 2021, the government promised to create a grading system setting invoice maturation periods of 30, 60, and 90 days starting from the invoice submission date.
Specifically, invoices of less than XOF30 million (97% of the invoices) will be processed within 30 days. Invoices concerning amounts ranging between XOF30 and 100 million (2% of the invoices) will be processed within 60 days. Any invoice exceeding XOF100 million will be processed within 90 days. The new platform integrates that grading system.
According to Finance Minister Adama Coulibaly, the platform and the reduction of payment processing days would strengthen businesses’ cashflow and ability to finance the 2020-2021 national development plan, which is expected to be 75%-financed by the private sector. The platform will also boost private actors’ trust in the government, he added.
Samira Njoya
Mergers and acquisitions reached a record high in Africa in 2021. The performance nevertheless hides weaknesses, including low investment in small businesses.
Egypt-based fintech investment banking marketplace Exits.me announced, Tuesday (September 20), it raised US$1 million in a pre-seed round. The funds were raised from a “UK-Based Exits.me, a group of notable Egyptian angel investors, Baseeta Investments Holding & Mawelni Holding for Financial Investments, and the founders.”
For Omar Wagdy, one of the angel investors, this round is a much-needed one and aims to bring investment opportunities to all classes of businesses in the MENA region. "We want startups & SMEs who are off the radar of conventional investment banks to have a user-friendly and automated means of engaging in M&A and investment opportunities," he said.
Exits.me was founded in 2022. It facilitates merger acquisitions and investment in companies by offering a seamless, fully integrated online platform and a full-fledged financial advisory service. To date, the fintech has completed more than 25 transactions on its platform, with another 30 ongoings, totaling US$150-200 million.
According to a recent report by financial audit and advisory firm E&Y, the MENA region has recorded 359 merger-acquisition deals worth US$42.6 billion in the first half of 2022. This represents a 12% year-on-year increase. The United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and Oman are driving those deals.
Thanks to the funds raised, it intends to facilitate even more deals. It indicates that it “is also in the current procurement of its crowdfunding license from the Financial Regulatory Authority to manage and arrange crowdfunding campaigns; which will open the door to a new investment product for the MENA market, allowing anyone in any capacity to invest.”
Samira Njoya
After a decade-long professional career in institutional private equity in the United States and then in South Africa, she created her private equity firm to support African tech firms with regional and global exposure.
Samantha Pokroy (photo) is a South African finance professional and founder/CEO of Sanari Capital, a private equity firm founded in 2013. Through her private equity firm, she invests in African tech firms with regional and global exposure.
“After many years working with founder-run businesses, and coming from an entrepreneurial family / being an entrepreneur myself, I understand a founder’s perspective when considering various growth, funding, ownership, and wealth realization choices. Combined with experience from leading private equity houses, we offer high-quality private equity solutions customized for the needs of the founder- and family-run businesses. Solutions cater to the needs of companies at various stages of growth and development, as well as the differing needs of the founders,” her LinkedIn about section reads.
On September 8, 2022, Samantha announced the first close, at ZAR475 million (about US$27 million) of Sanari 3S Growth, Sanari Capital’s third fund that targets between ZAR1.2bn to 1.7bn ( about US$70-100 million) to “invest in established and growing companies in industries.”
Currently, Samantha Pokroy is a director on the board of the Southern African Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (SAVCA). She is also a member of the boards of tech companies Edulife, LightWare, Sensor Networks, and Snapt which secured investments from Sanari Capital.
Before venturing into entrepreneurship with Sanari Capital, she acquired years of professional experience, which began in 1999. That year, she joined the independent strategy consulting group Stern Stewart & Co as an associate analyst. In 2003, she worked as a summer associate in JP Morgan’s financial sponsors group. Two years later, she was appointed vice-president of investment banking firm Kipp Reese Koldyke (now Winona Capital). Then from 2006 to 2013, she worked as a principal for Ethos Private Equity.
Melchior Koba
Guaranteeing quality education to children is probably the ambition most common to parents worldwide. However, the task can be challenging without access to the right information. In Nigeria, an edtech startup wants to assist in the process.
Edusko is a digital solution developed by Nigerian startup Edusko Africa founded in 2017. It is an education marketplace that lists and rates educational institutions, allowing parents to make “informed decisions.” By founding Edusko Africa, the two co-founders -Jide Ayegbusi and Bukola Owobello- wanted to set up a platform to help parents provide decent and affordable education to their children.
Thanks to the platform, “schools recruit more than 70 percent of their students with less than 10 percent of their marketing budget on our platform. Parents get as much as a 40 percent school fees discount, and can access low-interest education loans and stationery with ease,” Jide Ayegbusi indicates.
To access its services, the parents or guardians need to create an account by providing some personal information including their name, surname, email, and phone number. With its search bar, the platform allows parents to filter educational institutions depending on their desired criteria. It also helps users access financial support, whose interest is one of its income sources.
Edusko Africa currently claims partnerships with over 4,500 private schools while more than 50,000 parents in Nigeria’s 36 states have used the digital platform to select a school for their children. It also claims to have already collected over $150,000 in equity and grants. For the time being, the startup operates in Nigeria but, it intends to scale to other parts of the African continent, including Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, and Egypt, in the next five years.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Burkina Faso, like most countries, is constantly looking for innovative solutions to provide quality education to its entire population. To achieve this, the country has turned to ICTs because of the immense potential they offer.
Burkina Faso inaugurated, Tuesday (September 20), the data center of the virtual university of Burkina Faso. The data center (based in Ouagadougou) was inaugurated by ICT Minister Aminata Zerbo/Sabané (photo, left), and the Minister of Higher Education Frédéric Ouattara (photo, right).
It is a multi-task and multi-action infrastructure exclusively dedicated to education as its name (datacenter de l’éducation- datacenter for education) implies. According to Minister Aminata Zerbo/Sabané, it will help host digital resources and enable easier access to them. It will also allow the interconnection of the country's universities, and facilitate access to live classes.
"This is an important step in the integration of digital tools in higher education to improve the quality of the training offered and address the challenges faced by our universities, including overcrowding,” she said.
The data center is hosted by the National Agency for the Promotion of Information Technology and Communication (ANPTIC). It has great energy adaptation abilities and a broadband connection to facilitate access to educational resources that will be hosted.
For Minister Frédéric Ouattara, it will be useful in more ways than one, because "it will not only enable distance learning, e-classes and allow the streaming of remote or in-person classes. It will also allow demos and help deploy internet in the whole [higher education] system."
The school closure prompted by the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing security crisis compelled Burkina Faso to place digitalization at the core of its education projects. In July 2022, 69 of its private and public university lecturers were trained in digital course scripting, design, and assessment.
The data center built with the technical support of Huawei is the first step of the innovative smart classroom project that the virtual university of Burkina Faso aims to launch soon.
Samira Njoya
The solution is attracting a growing number of users in the local market, showing how AG Partners Africa was right when, in 2021, it selected Pozi among one of the promising African IoT and SaaS startups.
Pozi is a tracking solution developed by a Gabonese eponymous startup launched in November 2020. It allows car owners and fleet managers to track their vehicles in real time.
The solution is accessible through web and mobile apps -the mobile app is available for Android and iOS users- and requires registration. After registration, new users have to arrange a meeting with Pozi staff for the installation of the tracking device. That tracking device must be installed on every car or vehicle in a said fleet.
"Pozi analyzes the performance of your movements and identifies risks and opportunities related to operations on all your vehicles (fuel economy, mastery of traffic timetables, etc.)," the Gabonese startup informs on its website.
Pozi also notifies car owners or fleet managers of drivers’ risky behaviors, therefore contributing to the improvement of their driving habits. In addition, it allows real-time monitoring of drivers’ activities (mileage, time in traffic) or the routes and areas most visited by a said vehicle.
The services can be accessed with free, monthly, or yearly subscriptions. Its Smart and Genius subscriptions cost respectively XAF25,000 (US$37.88) and XAF35,000 per vehicle. For paying users, there is a one-time fee of XAF15,000 for the installation of tracking devices (called Pozi Connect).
In April 2022, Pozi crossed the bar of 500 active users. By 2024, the startup hopes it would become the tracking leader in Gabon. It also plans to conquer Africa by 2030.
“Crossing the 500-vehicle milestone marks the beginning of a new growth stage for our startup. Our ambitions are bold but we believe that we will achieve them thanks to our ability to focus on user satisfaction daily,” explains Pozi co-founder Loïc Kapitho.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
In a continent, like Africa, where digital transformation is underway, health data is highly strategic. When used wisely, it can provide advanced analytics, disease modeling, and enhance various forecasts.
The African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and the Smart Africa Alliance plan to accelerate the use of digital technologies to improve care and strengthen health systems on the continent. For that purpose, on September 19, 2022, on the sidelines of the 77th United Nations General Assembly, the two institutions signed a collaboration agreement.
The agreement focuses on connecting all of Africa's health facilities and personnel by 2030, advancing the protection, portability, interoperability, and governance of health data. Smart Africa and Africa CDC will also work with African Union member states to advance digital healthcare.
“Digital health innovation holds great potential to expand access, increase quality and reduce the cost of health services across the continent,” said Dr. Ahmed Ogwell Ouma (photo, right), acting director of Africa CDC.
During the coronavirus pandemic, in Africa where access to quality healthcare remains a challenge, digital technologies once again demonstrated their importance. The ability of those technologies to bring quality care to even remote populations and to help anticipate potential future crises makes digital health a high-value service that is urgently needed to ensure economic and social development on the continent.
Even large financial groups and foreign investors have realized the importance that digital health will play in Africa's next growth cycle. This fact is reflected in the growing volume of financial support the African healthtech has mobilized over the past four years. From US$18 million in 2018, that support rose to US$230 million in 2021, according to investment platform Partech.
For Lacina Koné (photo, left), Smart Africa's CEO, "the future of healthcare in Africa is digital-first, powered by mobility and a growing population of digital natives who demand to play a more proactive role in their health and care."
Muriel Edjo
He strongly believes that empowering African smallholder farmers will create more value and be helpful for the whole population.
Joseph Ogwal (photo) is a Ugandan agricultural entrepreneur and the founder/CEO of Agro Supply Ltd, an agritech company founded in 2017. Through his agritech company, he developed and operates a mobile savings platform that enables farmers to save and invest in seeds, inputs, and equipment. The platform is accessible via a USSD code to reach everyone, even those without smartphones.
“[...] The Global population is rising which requires 60% more food to feed nine billion people by 2050. Farmers can be and should be a key part of the solution. If farmers can manage their cash and invest their resources in their farms, they will not only increase food production but will also pave their own and their families’ way out of poverty. With access to a mobile savings tool, we know farmers can self-finance the inputs and training they need to provide for their families and to break the cycle of poverty,” says Joseph Ogwal.
He also offers, through the agritech company, vital information and agronomy training remotely (either via SMS or an AI system) or in person. He also networks his community of some 15,000 farmers (currently) with large buyers to facilitate production sales at better prices.
Before Agro Supply Ltd, Joseph Ogwal, who holds a bachelor's in Agronomy and Crop Science, sharpened his agricultural expertise while working as a regional value chain manager for the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
He is an alumnus of the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Program, the Young African Leaders Initiative, and a 2018 Swedish Institute Management Programme Africa Fellow. He is also among the entrepreneurs whose startups have been selected for the Social & Inclusive Business Camp 2022.
Melchior Koba
In Africa, actors are implementing plans to prepare the telecom market for the advent of mobile broadband. From field tests to dedicated spaces, operators are multiplying actions to raise awareness of the challenges and opportunities of that technology.
Mobile operator Orange Côte d'Ivoire inaugurated, Tuesday (September 20), its first 5G Lab. The space dedicated to the discovery and experimentation of mobile broadband technology was officially opened in the presence of Christel Heydemann, CEO of Orange Group.
The 5G Lab, hosted at the Deux Plateaux Smart Store in Cocody, is dedicated to businesses, startups, and digital professionals. According to Jérôme Hénique, CEO of Orange Middle East and Africa (OMEA), "like the Orange Digital Center inaugurated a year ago, the Orange 5G Lab will help accelerate businesses’ adoption of this technology in Côte d'Ivoire. Not only will they benefit from the expertise and tools set up here in Abidjan, but they will also have access to feedback from the more than 1,500 companies and local authorities that have had access to an Orange 5G Lab worldwide, including 127 that have already designed experiments based on their respective practical cases.”
The lab will host a space for demonstrations of 5G use cases in various business sectors. It will also host conferences, training, co-working, co-innovation sessions, and practical 5G application sessions.
Orange 5G Lab Côte d'Ivoire is the second similar infrastructure launched by the French telecom group in Africa (and the fifteenth it launched worldwide). The first one was launched in Senegal in July 2022. It is a way to prepare the local market for the ultra-high-speed broadband that Orange Côte d'Ivoire wants to launch in 2023. Currently, twelve telecom operators already offer 5G in ten African countries.
"We are aware that 5G is a new opportunity for companies wishing to diversify, optimize or boost their business. To support them, it is essential that this space offers turnkey tools and allows for practical evaluation of the results of these experiments. This initiative is in line with our historical commitment to digital inclusion. Our aim is to encourage innovation and contribute to value creation in the local ecosystem," said Mamadou Bamba, CEO of Orange Côte d'Ivoire.
Muriel Edjo
The seed funding comes a few months after the healthtech’s last fundraising operation. It will help conquer additional states in Nigeria and expand outside the country.
Nigerian healthtech startup Remedial Health announced, Tuesday (September 20), it raised US$4.4 million in seed funding. According to the startup, the funds secured will help accelerate expansion in Nigeria and provide “access to credit for inventory purchases for [its] growing customer base of neighbourhood pharmacies, Proprietary Patent Medicine Vendors (PPMVs), and hospitals in the country.”
“Neighbourhood pharmacies and PPMVs have the potential to be the face of a thriving healthcare system in Africa, and we believe that technology can play a significant role in making this vision a reality. The funds that we have raised and the strategic support from our investors will enable us to deliver the solutions to address various challenges that have hampered these businesses’ growth for many years and make it easier to safeguard lives and livelihoods across the continent for years to come,” said Samuel Okwuada, Remedial Health co-founder and CEO, in a release.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in Africa, counterfeit drugs cause some 100,000 deaths every year and more than 30% of medicines sold on the continent are counterfeit. Remedial Health wants to solve this problem, by offering its customers a digital procurement platform that allows pharmacies to manage their operations by making it easy to take and track orders. The startup also supports financial reporting and accounting, while providing real-time market intelligence that improves manufacturers' forecasting, production, and distribution decisions.
The healthtech startup was founded in Lagos, Nigeria, in 2009. From January 2022 to date, it has witnessed a 600 percent increase in the number of its customers and expanded its reach from six to 16 states. Thanks to the new financing raised, it plans to cover the remaining 20 states but also lay the groundwork for its African expansion by 2023.
Samira Njoya
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In Africa, access to some financial services is always challenging. However, with new technologies, entrepreneurs are stepping in to offer interesting alternatives.
Chapa is a fintech solution developed by Ethiopian startup Chapa Financial Technologies S.C, founded in 2020. It provides an API gateway enabling Ethiopian businesses and organizations to accept online payments and receive the payments directly in their local bank accounts within 24 hours.
“Chapa’s mission is to empower Ethiopian entrepreneurs and businesses to thrive in the global economy. This launch formally establishes our entry into Ethiopia’s financial sector, and we look forward to expanding our fingerprint on the development of the digital ecosystem across East Africa in phase two, and the rest of Africa in phase three,” says Chapa Financial’s co-founder and CEO, Nael Hailemariam (photo, left).
To access its services, businesses or organizations have to create accounts by providing the usual information line: name surname, business name, etc. Chapa collects 3.5% of every national transaction processed and 1% of the international ones. Its clients pay nothing for API integration or maintenance.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
The tech entrepreneur now heads two growing startups. Over the past four years, the finance professional who believes that ICTs can help Africa address some of its key issues has invested in several platforms and ventures.
Nkombou Aaron Munga (photo) is a Cameroonian serial entrepreneur and the CEO/co-founder of Mungenow Technologies, a B2C tech startup founded in 2019. The B2C startup has developed several platforms to meet business needs in Cameroon and Africa as a whole. For instance, Mungenow Properties facilitates real estate operations (sales and acquisitions) everywhere on the continent. Mungenow Trips assists in the e-visa process for some destinations while Mungenow Classified helps sell or buy various items.
“Africa’s tech is the next big opportunity and Mungenow Technologies is leading the way,” the tech entrepreneur who holds an advanced diploma in Accounting and Business said in 2020 when Mungenow Technologies was launching its seed crowdfunding round.
In August 2022, Aaron expanded Mungenow Technologies' service offering by launching Mungenow Stays, which allows users to book guest rooms in Cameroon’s largest cities right from the comfort of their homes. The long-term goal is to go continental and to guarantee great service, the platform verifies every host establishment before listing them.
Aaron Munga is also the founder and CEO of Swychr Global, a London-based fintech startup founded in 2021. The start-up offers a mobile application that facilitates diaspora-Africa and intra-African money transfers with its currency called the Purple Coins.
The serial entrepreneur also co-founded Jump The Q, an online grocery store that officially shut down on June 1st, 2022, after over three years of operation.
Before diving into the entrepreneurship world, Aaron Munga worked in the United Arab Emirates for KIZA Restaurant & Lounge as a general accountant in 2015. In February 2016, he joined the publishing company DMG Events as an accountant.
Melchior Koba
In this interview with We Are Tech Africa, Karine Doret, Customer Experience and Digital Director for Orange Middle-East and Africa, expands on the operator’s goals with its digital customer service. She also presented the investments made by Orange to increase network coverage and increase customer satisfaction in its African markets.
Orange recently digitized its services and offers to its African clients. Why such a revolution?
With the coronavirus pandemic, new uses have emerged across the continent and our customers’ needs, uses and expectations have evolved. During the health crisis, telecommunication infrastructures proved to be more essential than ever for governments, businesses, and families. At the beginning of the crisis, we saw data traffic increase by 60% in some countries. In 2020, mobile data consumption per user almost doubled.
The digital sector offers numerous opportunities. For instance, in the education sector, MOOCs are gradually becoming the norm. Also, the use of mobile financial services continues to grow, with two-thirds of mobile money transactions worldwide taking place on the African continent (source: Financial Industry Summit 2021). Businesses are giving increased importance to remote work, which is also becoming the norm. This coronavirus-fueled acceleration of digital adoption is not slowing down. Far from that, our customers’ digital needs and expectations are rising.
At Orange Middle East and Africa, we truly believe that digital technologies can help Africa grow faster, train its youth, empower its entrepreneurs, and overcome the lack of infrastructure and transportation. Accelerating this adoption is essential to addressing the many challenges facing the continent.
As an operator, Orange must be a leader in this area. Customers expect digitalization to drive simplicity in every aspect of their lives. This is what we strive for by digitizing all of our customer paths and interactions. Cameroon is a tangible example of our efforts in that area. We have a Whatsapp chatbot that facilitates the collection of subscribers’ identification documents. The process is simple, secure, and efficient. They only need to take a picture with their smartphone. So, there is no need for them to go anywhere and waste time. Subscriber satisfaction increased by more than 100 percent in that area thanks to the simplicity of the path and almost real-time processing.
What are currently the services already digitalized by Orange and which countries are concerned?
Currently, the array of services and offers already digitalized by Orange is quite large. Let's start with our mobile applications. To date, 13.5 million subscribers use "My Orange" to easily manage their mobile and fixed lines. The free application, launched in 2016, is available for Android and iOS devices. It also has a web app. It is available in 17 countries, offering services like voice and data subscriptions, money transfers, balance checking, etc. In 2021, a new service, "My Place" service was added to the application. The service is available in eight countries and offers content (films and series, games, music, news, etc.).
We also have an Orange Money application to digitalize our subscribers' financial transactions. It is an e-wallet that allows our subscribers to transfer funds nationwide or to international parties, and pay their bills or merchants simply and securely. In several countries, we have enhanced the application with a QR code that simplifies their experience. In countries like Côte d’Ivoire, Madagascar, and Senegal, they can also subscribe to microloan offers.
In 12 countries, our subscribers can order their cellphones as well as telecom and internet accessories online. And since March 2022, Orange Cameroon has created a Business space allowing professional customers to access a catalog of dedicated offers. This e-commerce proposal is enriched with proposals of a fully-digitalized customer journey, from order to delivery, and similar assistance offers. To date, this offer is available in Jordan, with "Jood", but also in Morocco. Similar offers are planned in Egypt, Côte d’Ivoire, and Senegal.
Our digitalization effort is not limited to offers and services, we are digitizing our entire customer relationship. Bots are available in 12 African and Middle Eastern countries, namely Morocco, Jordan, Senegal, Guinea Conakry, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Tunisia, Mali, and recently the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The bots are accessible on the web portal, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, and in the My Orange application. Initially designed for informational purposes (checking one's offer, voice and data balance, etc.), they are now evolving towards transactional purposes (money transfers, top-ups, etc.). In Guinea, Cameroon and Jordan, in addition to customer assistance, our chatbots enable the purchase of products and services. We have also digitalized B2B offers by developing self-care tools for professional clients.
In Africa, internet penetration is around 30 percent. How is Orange planning to enable access to its digital services for everyone?
We invest nearly €1 billion in our infrastructures and networks every year. Our 2G/3G networks are deployed in all of our 17 African markets and provide connectivity to 139 million subscribers. Orange 4G is available in almost every one of our markets and over 40 million subscribers have access to this technology. We also plan to soon launch 5G, which is already being tested in several countries. 5G will relieve congestion on saturated 2G and 3G mobile networks, especially in densely populated areas.
We also invest heavily in ultra-high-speed fixed broadband, particularly in fiber optic, to meet governments’ and businesses’ strong connectivity demands. We have already deployed FTTx fiber for households and businesses in seven countries: Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Burkina Faso, and Mali.
To support the growth in data consumption, our investments are also directed towards international infrastructures, both submarine and terrestrial. The ACE, Main One, 2Africa, and Djoliba submarine cables are projects that illustrate our commitment to strengthening connectivity in Africa. Orange is part of the "2Africa" consortium with Facebook and China Mobile. That consortium is financing the construction of a 45,000-km subsea cable -the world's longest subsea cable to date- that will boost connectivity across Africa.
For your subscribers who have no access to your digital services, what alternatives do you offer to let them benefit from quality customer service?
Customer experience is the core of our strategy. We are operating a human-centered digital transformation. We aim to democratize digital services as much as possible while remaining close to our subscribers daily thanks to our 5,000 customer service employees.
The mission of our customer service staff is to assist clients in their usage and new tech adoption. We adapt to our subscribers’ new usage. For instance, subscribers can now contact our agents by phone, or via Whatsapp or Facebook messenger. In every one of our markets, subscribers choose what suits them best.
What are your digital achievements in the social sector?
We have launched Orange Digital Centers which are ecosystems entirely dedicated to innovation. Each Orange Digital Center includes a coding academy, a Fablab Solidaire, Orange Foundation's digital fabrication workshop, and Orange Fab, the corporate start-up accelerator. All of these programs are free and open to all. They provide digital training to young people, support project leaders, accelerate their growth, and invest in them. To date, we have equipped more than 100,000 young people with digital skills in those centers.
Wherever we are in Africa and the Middle East, we have a strong societal commitment, which is reflected in our business activities. The commitment is also reflected in the many actions carried out by our local foundations, including 1,400 digital schools and more than 170 digital literacy centers built to teach digital skills to women.
Interview by Muriel Edjo
The African diaspora is an asset, which can be leveraged for growth. In addition to financial flows to their origin countries, they contribute to development by creating businesses and stimulating innovation, thanks to the experience they have acquired abroad and their knowledge of the local context.
The 2022 Ghana Diaspora Summit was held in Canada last September 11-17. In her keynote address, Communications Minister Ursula Owusu-Ekuful presented the investment opportunities offered by the Ghanain tech sector to encourage Ghanaian tech entrepreneurs living in Canada to invest in the origin country.
“We are also taking advantage of our position as an English-speaking country to attract back-office business processes, and outsource contracts from the US, Canada, and Europe. We already have several Ghanaians taking up such jobs and doing marvelously from the comfort of their homes. [...] This is an area that has the potential to expand further with investments from the diaspora. It will help to boost the status of the youth into entrepreneurs and help to solve the youth unemployment problem in the country,” she said.
According to the government official, Canadian exports to Ghana have increased by 8.97% per year over the past 25 years, from US$23.8 million in 1995 to US$372 million currently. While Canadian imports from Ghana have been about US$100 million yearly.
To fill the gap, diaspora entrepreneurs should develop partnerships with local entrepreneurs by training the youth and giving them the expertise and skills they need to work with international clients thanks to digital technologies and platforms built in Ghana, she indicated.
She added that the Ghanaian government is implementing digital projects to empower the youth. Among the many projects, there is the “Girls in ICT” program, a 10-year-old program that equips young girls with digital skills. The Communications minister also spoke about the “Ghana Cares Obatampa” program, a project designed to stabilize, revitalize and create jobs and prosperity for Ghanaians over three years in the post-Covid era.
The Ghana Diaspora Investment Summit is an initiative of the Ghana Investment Promotion Center (GIPC). It aims to strategically engage the Ghanaian Diaspora and attract their long-term investments and partnerships to spur socio-economic development.
Samira Njoya