Currently, her smartphones are ambitious competitors to low-cost brands.
Fadima Diawara (photo) is the founder and CEO of Kunfabo, the startup that contributes to digital inclusion in Guinea. In Malinke, kunfabo means “keep in touch”. So, the startup founded in 2017 wants to contribute to digital inclusion in Guinea and Africa as a whole.
Kunfabo smartphones were introduced in the local market in 2020 with preinstalled apps like Find me (which helps geolocalize nearest health centers and pharmacies), Afro Cook (a recipe search engine for African foods), and Dikalo, the messenger app developed by a Cameroonian startup. The smartphones run Android 8.1, are 4G-compliant, and are certified by international bodies, including several in the European Union.
Fadima initiated the Kunfabo project after she noticed the strong demand for quality and affordable smartphones in Africa. "Kunfabo came to meet this need by creating an African brand that represents us and that Africans can identify themselves with," explains the tech entrepreneur. She launched the smartphone thanks to a €300,000 loan she obtained from Societe Generale Guinea in November 2019. Barely a year later, in August 2020, she repaid that loan, testifying to the financial health of Kunfabo and the viability of her project. To date, her startup has sold over 4,000 smartphones.
Fadima Diawara started her professional career, in 2013, as a sales agent at Organo Gold, Spain. In 2015, she joined the administrative management department of Vueling, a low-cost airline. A few months later, she joined Prefabricats Planas before her recruitment at Bershka. In 2017, she was recruited at Lozano Imports Inc, where she stayed for three months before embarking on the Kunfabo adventure.
Her investment in the smartphone manufacturing industry earned her several awards over the years. Those awards include the Original Startup of the Year award in Spain in 2020. The same year, she won the award for best female entrepreneur of the year in Girona, Spain. She was also one of the winners of the 2020 Africa-France Summit Challenge.
Melchior Koba
After four years of witnessing the pains of women in a rural area where he was the head doctor, he created a healthtech to facilitate breast and cervical cancer screening.
Conrad Tankou (photo) is a Cameroonian entrepreneur and founder of heathtech startup Global Innovation and Creativity Space (GIC Space). Through GIC Space (founded in 2018), he developed GICMED, a project aimed at facilitating remote cervical and breast cancer screening.
“GICMED offers cutting edge and cost-effective MedTech and Telemedicine Innovations, enabling poor, remote, and rural communities with the greatest need to enjoy affordable and accessible healthcare,” the startup explains on its website. Indeed, with its services and products, notably breast and cervical cancer screening, smart speculum, fine needle biopsy syringe adapter, and digital pathology center, it allows patients to remotely and quickly get screened wherever they are. It also allows doctors to seek their colleagues’ contributions.
With GICMED, Conrad wants to help women living in remote areas quickly access cervical and breast cancer screening. His wish is to see the solution deployed in every village in Cameroon and Sub-Saharan Africa.
For his works, the P.h.D (in biomedical science in 2013) holder has earned several national and international awards and recognitions. For instance, through GICMED, he won Cameroon's 2019 Startup of the Year award. Then, a year later, he won the Next Einstein Forum Challenge in Kigali. In 2021, GICMED was the winner of the Africa Young Innovators for Health Award presented by the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Speak Up Africa.
Before GIC Space, Conrad Tankou had co-founded (with his compatriot Alain Nteff) GiftedMom, in 2013, to improve maternal and child health. From 2014 to 2018, he was the head doctor of Bambalang Medical center, in North-West Cameroon.
Melchior Koba
Barry heads two digital projects, providing solutions to both young tech entrepreneurs and the general public. He is always on the lookout for “the next thing to create.”
Adulaï Bary (photo) is a Bissau-Guinean serial entrepreneur and co-founder of incubator InnovaLab GW. Thanks to the Bissau-based incubator he co-founded in 2016 (with Claudinecia Cabral), he built an ecosystem that facilitates innovative entrepreneurship in the education, agriculture, health, and infrastructure sectors. He offers local innovators the opportunity to mature their project ideas and create successful startups.
He is also the founder of BIGTechnologies SARL (founded in 2014), which develops IT solutions for public and private institutions. Through BIGTechnologies SARL, he designed Ubuntu 2S, a smart solar home, and kiosk system, which helps provide clean energy in remote areas. With Ubuntu 2S, he wants to contribute to digital inclusion in rural areas by first solving their energy access problems. The project, which is operational since 2020, won the Live Innovation Impact Grant Program at the Dubai 2020 World Expo.
In conjunction with his entrepreneurship career, Bary also has prolific professional experience. With a BSc in Applied Computer Science (obtained in 2012), he started his professional career as a storage manager for MOGJ Commerce, a local commercial firm. The same year, he joined Orange Bissau as a support systems engineer before his promotion to the position of functional manager.
After leaving Orange Bissau, in 2018, he became a UNDP consultant for business incubator feasibility. From 2019 to 2020, he was also a youth employment specialist for the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Apart from his BSc in applied computer science, Adulaï Bary also has an MBA in Business and entrepreneurship obtained, in 2016, from the University of Nevada, during his Mandela Washington Fellowship. In 2017, he took part in the Global Entrepreneurship Summit. Then, from 2017 to 2019, the serial entrepreneur was the Bissau Guinean ambassador to Next Einstein Forum, which highlights breakthrough discoveries and promotes scientific cooperation. In 2018, he was selected as one of the 100 most influential West African young leaders.
Melchior Koba
In Africa, ICTs have proven their worth in resolving key issues in almost every sector, including the health sector. By using their tools, Senegalese authorities want to improve healthcare.
African genomics startup 54Gene and Senegal will soon launch a program aimed at assembling the reference genome of the Senegalese population. In that regard, the startup signed, Tuesday (May 24), a memorandum of understanding with the Senegal Academy of Science and Technology (ANSTS) and Cheikh Anta Diop University’s department of human genetics.
The program dubbed SEN-GENOME is scheduled to start in July 2022 and initial results are expected for December 2023. Based on results from the genomic study of the country’s main ethnolinguistic groups, it will help lay the foundation of precision medicine, and identify the hereditary risk factors of some diseases like cancer, heart diseases, and hereditary diseases. It will also allow better health surveillance for the Senegalese population.
For Prof. Aynina Cisse, ANSTS representative during the signing ceremony, SEN-GENOME is launched because researchers noticed that “the reference human genome currently used is not representative of the genetic variety of Africans as a whole and Senegal in particular.”
In that regard, the program will establish a reference genome reflecting the genetic diversity of the Senegalese population. The reference genome assembled will be used to improve the diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, and prevention of the most common diseases. It will also allow anthropologists to better understand communities’ socio-cultural history.
“Modern medicine will rely on every individual's gene pool. SEN-GENOME, which is the first reference genome project in Francophone sub-Saharan Africa, will help initiate a genomic medicine plan in Senegal,” explained Prof. Rokhaya Ndiaye Diallo, head of Cheikh Anta Diop University’s department of human genetics.
"Africa has the most genetically diverse population but, those populations are poorly represented in international genomic databases. SEN-GENOME will help fill this gap and allow Senegal further precision medicine,” commented Dr. Abasi Ene Obong, 54Gene founder and CEO.
Muriel Edjo
By digitizing the entire health system, the government wants to give digital identities to every patient to improve healthcare services.
Rwanda is moving to digitize its entire health system by 2024. The project was announced by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Zachee Iyakaremye (photo), at the launch of the 2022 Health Research and Policy Symposium last Tuesday (May 26). According to the official, the aim of the project is to give a digital identity to every patient.
“The action plan is to have all the patient information in one place and digitalized so that we do away with paperwork completely. [...] This will also be possible by combining the national identification with the medical identification so that a patient can have one identification number which they can use to get treatment in any health facility in the country,” he explained.
In its initial stage, the project will cost about US$12 million with anticipated total costs estimated to reach US$34.3 million in the long term. The health system digitization project aligns with the country’s One Health II strategic plan (2019-2024). In Rwanda, patients visiting health centers are still required to carry physical medical logbooks although more than 400 of its 513 health facilities have computers that can help store patient data. The government initiated the digitization of the medical data at the district, regional, and referral hospitals. However, there are still thousands of paper medical logbooks awaiting digitization.
For Jean Baptiste Byiringiro, chief digital officer at the Ministry of Health, digitization of the entire health system will solve that issue and many others. He announced the upcoming arrival of equipment essential for the digitization project as well as the construction of a data cloud, the installation of required equipment, and staff preparation.
Ruben Tchounyabe
She federated law professionals to give African countries the required expertise for the development of adequate innovation frameworks. Her works earned her the recognition of several renowned institutions and agencies.
Linda Bonyo (photo) is a Kenyan lawyer specializing in digital law. Her works focus on data governance, digital identity, internet governance artificial intelligence, intellectual property, Etc…, help improve digital regulations and policies in Africa.
She is also an entrepreneur who founded Lawyers Hub, a legaltech company, in 2017. As a pan-African lawyers’ network, Lawyers Hub specializes in digital law training and consulting. Through her legaltech, Linda organized, in 2020, Africa’s first lawtech festival. Baptized Africa Law Tech Festival, it gathered more than 20 African countries and over 1,000 participants.
To support tech startups and promote collaboration between tech and law professionals, she created Lawyers Innovation Hub. All those achievements surely contributed to her selection to this year’s edition of the RoW100: Global Tech's Changemakers list that celebrates those who are “shaping national policies,” among others.
As an attorney at the Supreme court of Kenya and member of several legal organizations such as the Pan African Lawyers Union and the East Africa Law Society, she wants to get fellow lawyers more involved in innovation policies. “The place of policy in innovation I believe should be passionately pursued by lawyers, however, this is not the case presently. Many lawyers, regulators, and policymakers are caught in a maze on what exactly innovation and tech means for the future of regulation and entrepreneurship,” she believes.
Linda began her professional career in 2010 at CRADLE Child Rights Foundation. The same year, she joined the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology Ombudsman's office as the Legal Director. From 2013 to 2014, she worked for Transparency International as a governance and policy lawyer. Then, from 2014 to 2017, she was an immigration lawyer at the law firm Bonyo & Co. She was also a member of the 2020-2021 cohort of the Tech Women Emerging Leaders Fellowship. Since 2021, she is a contractual Digital ID & Data Governance consultant for the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. She is also a member of the Real Facebook Oversight Board, in charge of content moderation decisions.
Melchior Koba
The project is in line with the government’s plan to make ICT a driver of growth and socio-economic development.
Niger wants to capitalize on digital technologies to improve its farmers’ production and growth. In that regard, last Saturday (May 28), it launched a digital innovation project dubbed IDAN ( projet d’innovations digitales pour les agro-pasteurs-IDAN). The project is aimed at helping boost revenues by 10% by offering access to integrated digital solutions for 35,000 farmers and pastoralists (including 15% women and young people) in Dosso, Tahoua, and Tillabéri.
IDAN will help agro-pastoralists make informed decisions daily. It will help them for instance decide “whether or not to buy inputs, the price at which to sell their milk, hides, livestock, cereals, and vegetables as well as knowing when to migrate with their herds,” explained Paul Tholen, the Dutch ambassador to Niger.
According to the diplomat, in the framework of the project, a virtual marketplace will be created where farmers and pastoralists will offer their products. At the same time, a call center will be created allowing beneficiaries to request geo-satellite data and production tips.
IDAN is being developed by the Netherlands Development Organization (SNV), since April 1, 2021. It is funded by the Dutch embassy in Niger to the tune of about XOF3 billion (US$4.9 million). Its launch follows the validation (in March 2022) of three studies commissioned to gauge its socio-economic impact on target populations.
During the launching ceremony, Niger’s Livestock Minister Tidjani Idrissa Abdoulkadri (photo), praised the initiative that backs the government’s efforts in the improvement of residents’ living conditions and the fight against food insecurity.
Ruben Tchounyabe
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
African countries are gradually adopting the 5G, presented as the primary tool empowering the next wave of digital transformation thanks to its speed. To boost its effective use, public and private actors are moving to help African innovators develop 5G-powered apps and solutions.
Cameroonian business incubator Boris Bison Youth Empowerment Business Incubator (BB Incubator) currently plans to deploy 5G tech spaces across Africa. In that regard, it recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Pan-African video-game publisher Ludique Works and the Finnish technology learning accelerator network Start North. According to a release dated Tuesday (May 24), the tech spaces are baptized “5G Mokki Tech Spaces.”
“Our aim is [to create] a Pan-African tech space network that connects the African continent to Europe and the rest of the world, promoting the learning and adoption of technology, remote work, and entrepreneurship. In addition to promoting education, jobs, and the economic development of the regions, the network also aims to curb climate change by utilizing the latest technology,” explained Boris Ngala (photo, right), founder and CEO of BB Incubator.
Africa’s first 5G network was deployed in 2020. Up to now, less than ten countries have effectively launched the fifth-generation network technology on the continent. Meanwhile, network technology is presented as the primary tool that will empower the next wave of digital transformation by supporting virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and autonomous things. So, private actors are moving to allow the African youth to test the network while developing tech solutions.
“The 5G Mokki Tech Space network can serve international and local companies, provide creative-economy and technology-based jobs, and promote entrepreneurship based on the learning of the latest technology and hands-on projects that serve local conditions. Furthermore, this is supported by an extensive national and international collaboration with universities and companies,” said Douglas Ogeto, Ludique Works co-founder and CEO.
Developed by Start North, the “5G Mokki Tech Spaces” concept was created during an academic program organized in partnership with Finnish University Aalto to develop real-life 5G apps. According to the May 24 release distributed on behalf of Start North, Aalto is currently “in talks” with the University of Addis Ababa (Ethiopiaà and the African School of Economics (which has campuses in Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, and Benin) to deploy the “5G Mokki Tech Spaces”. “A project is underway to set up a 5G Mokki in a rural area in Zambia [...] to provide immersive learning and research in the field of agriculture,” we learn.
Ruben Tchounyabe
Instead of pursuing a conventional career after her Ph.D. in Human genetics, she chose the entrepreneurship world. Nowadays the startup she co-founded helps millions of domestic workers earn better income.
Aisha Pandor (photo) is a South African scientist and entrepreneur. In 2014, she co-founded (with her husband Alen Ribic) Sweepsouth, a startup connecting domestic workers with potential employers.
Currently, the startup is available through a web and mobile app. It claims about 1.2 million domestic workers and some 10,000 monthly users (employers) in Cape Town, Durban, and Johannesburg. Sweepsouth was created to help busy people find quick and trustworthy domestic workers.
“Our nanny was going to be going away on holiday [...] at a very inconvenient time. While trying to replace her, we [Ed.note: Sweepsouth founders] realized that there was a business opportunity here, that actually we could build something that helped busy people like ourselves get a quick replacement for a nanny or domestic worker, but in doing that would also be helping people who work in this industry who are unemployed or underemployed to find work opportunities,” Aisha explained in a videocast.
The co-founder holds a Ph.D. in Human Genetics from the University of Cape Town (in 2011). However, instead of following a normal career path, she preferred the entrepreneurship world. I “figured out that I just was not cut out to be employed…,” she explains. Before her dip into the entrepreneurship world, she spent months as an associate manager at the University of Cape Town and a business analyst for consulting firm Accenture.
The scientist turned entrepreneur has received numerous awards and recognitions for her contribution to the improvement of domestic workers’ revenue. In 2014, she won the SiMODiSA Start-up SA Pitching Competition award. Months later, in 2015, she was selected for the 500 Global accelerator program in Silicon Valley. She also received the Best Female Tech/E-Commerce Entrepreneur and Best Black Tech/E-Commerce Entrepreneur at the 2016 PriceCheck Tech & E-Commerce Awards. The following year, she received the World Economic Forum's Africa’s breakthrough female innovators' award. In 2018, her startup also won the best small business category at Savca Industry Awards.
After some eight years in the South African market, Aisha Pandor wants to expand in international markets, Kenya notably. “We are looking at other countries on the continent where people experience the same sort of issues we did when we first came up with the idea for SweepSouth. The sky’s the limit,” she indicates.
Melchior Koba
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Leveraging her professional experience, she created a secured and efficient platform that offers millions of Africans the possibility to invest in fractional shares and slivers of cryptocurrencies as well as get sound financial education.
Nelly Chatue-Diop (photo) is a Cameroonian tech entrepreneur specializing in the fintech sector. In 2020, she co-founded Ejara, a blockchain-powered mobile investment platform allowing users to buy slivers of high-priced cryptocurrencies and fractional shares. Thanks to the platform, users have access to financial education and can also save (starting from US$0.16 per deposit) through mobile money.
I created Ejara “to allow everyone to create, protect and increase their wealth and savings wherever they are in Africa,” Chatue-Diop explains. As a seasoned entrepreneur, she has much professional and entrepreneurship experience in the tech world. With an MSc in electronics, computer science, and telecommunications, she started her professional career, in 2004, as a software engineer for Accenture. In 2007 and 2008, she got an MBA in Corporate Finance from HEC Paris and an MBA in Finance from the London Business School. Concurrently, she made a brief stint as a summer associate at Credit Suisse before joining Revenue Management Solutions (RMS), a multinational offering data-driven solutions to help restaurants improve decision-making.
From 2011 to 2015, she climbed up the corporate ladder of grocery store chain Franprix before joining Darty as a pricing director. While still with Franprix, she co-founded Booper, a company offering price optimization solutions. In 2018, months after leaving Darty, she also co-founded Nzinghaa Lab, specializing in Artificial intelligence and blockchain. At the same time, she was still the chief data officer of Betclic Group, which she left in 2020. The same year when she left Betclic Group, she was appointed chairperson of the board of Giotto.ai, a “one-stop AI Cloud platform encompassing cutting-edge integrative tools and powerful libraries.” In 2021, she co-founded Sewelo Africa Digital Training, an online learning platform.
Nelly’s professional career earned her several awards. In 2013, she won the award of the most-committed woman in the French retail industry. She was named one of the Top 10 Chief Data Professionals in Europe and in 2020, she made it to CDO Magazine's Global Data Power Women list and the Global Top 100 Data Visionaries.
Melchior Koba
With years of combined professional and entrepreneurship experience in Africa’s fintech sector, Dare is committed to facilitating cross-border transactions.
Beninese fintech entrepreneur Dare Okoudjou (photo) is the founder and CEO of MFS Africa, Africa’s largest digital payment gateway. Through his startup, he interconnects close to 320 million mobile money wallets offering service providers the opportunity to reach more people with their products targeting unbanked and underbanked populations.
Dare founded MFS Africa in 2009 to help Africans make payments worldwide. The startup’s main goal is to make transactions as easy as ABC. Its mission is to develop solutions so that the only thing needed for payment anywhere in the world will be a mobile money wallet.
With an MSc in Telecom Engineering from Telecom Paris (in 1999), MFS Africa’s founder started his professional career as a telecom consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in 1999. Some years later, he joined MTN Group first as a Senior Manager before his promotion to the position of Head of Mobile Money international development. In 2017, his startup was recognized by the U.S business magazine as one of the ten most innovative companies in the world. In 2020, the global community of impact entrepreneurs Endeavour selected him as one of the most impactful entrepreneurs in the world. The following year, he took part in MIT’s Foundry Fellowship along with 12 African innovators.
A few days ago, Dare Okoudjou made it to the list of Rof World’s 100 global tech changemakers. His ambition is to make borders meaningless in payment transactions. For that purpose, last year, he secured US$100 million during a Series C debt and equity financing round co-led by AfricInvest FIVE and several investors.
Melchior Koba
In the aftermath of the Covid-19 crisis, the competition got tougher in the African mobile financial service market. The competition was led by both conventional and unconventional service providers, which are aggressively introducing ever-diversified offers. The market is now witnessing an all-out battle for opportunities.
In the past ten years, the mobile money sector greatly expanded in Africa. In 2012, less than 80 mobile financial services were present on the continent. This number rose to 173 with 621 million registered accounts and US$36.7 billion worth of transactions in 2021. The volume of transactions recorded that year was up by 23% compared with 2020 figures.
In 2021, the volume of mobile money transactions rose by 39%, year-on-year, to US$701.4 billion. The rapid expansion of the market is attracting and supporting the emergence of new players, like fintech startups. Over the past five years, the number of fintech start-ups active on the continent rose significantly, and so did the transactions they processed and the financing they raised. Some of them have been able to affirm their positioning in their home countries and even launch international expansion plans. They have now become competitors to mobile money operators but, the battle between those two economic models will surely be long since both of them have their strengths and weaknesses.
Investment volume
Since the launch of the mobile money in Africa in 2007, telecom operators have invested millions of dollars to upgrade the mobile network necessary for the transactions. They also invested in the deployment of agent networks and the development of efficient and secure software, databases, and systems to guarantee smooth transactions.
Fintech startups have also made substantial investments but the volume is far less than that made by mobile money operators. Like mobile money operators, fintech startups also invested in the development of IT systems and agent networks to support their businesses. However, they do not have mobile networks to maintain regularly. So, they have less investment requirements. Nonetheless, they need to invest heavily in high connectivity to be able to track financial transactions in real-time.
The offers
Fintech startups are succeeding because they target underserved individuals and new markets like the micro-credit segment. For Said Bourjij, an expert in finance and development (French-speaking Africa and the Mediterranean basin) and Managing Director of Epargne Sans Frontière, fintech leverages digital tools to respond to users’ needs. Their offers are dynamic but don’t cover the whole financial sector, he adds.
Over-time Mobile money has also evolved and can offer all the services offered by fintech startups. Mobile money operators like Safaricom’s M-Pesa, Orange Money, and MTN Mobile Money are already doing so in some countries. Apart from simple transactions, they added a spectrum of services like merchant and invoice payment, international transfers, micro-savings, microloans, etc. Their platforms are also dynamic.
Thanks to the dynamic of its offers and its platform, M-Pesa became Safaricom Kenya’s main growth driver in 2021 by generating 38.3% of the operators’ annual turnover (US$2.5 billion).
Accessibility
According to the GSM Association (GSMA), mobile Internet penetration was 28% in sub-Saharan Africa in 2020, and mobile penetration was 46%. In its report "The Mobile Economy Sub-Saharan Africa 2021", the Association explains that of the 1084 million people in the region, 303 million (28%) were connected, 206 million (19%) were not covered by a mobile network and 575 million (53%) were living in areas covered by mobile broadband networks but were not yet using mobile Internet services.
The GSMA added that smartphones accounted for less than 50% of the number of mobile connections while feature phones accounted for 45% of all the mobile connections during the period.
At the time, urban populations were more likely to use mobile internet than those in rural areas. So, fintech startups whose services were accessible mainly via the internet could only meet the needs of urban populations. On the other hand, mobile money operators are accessible to both urban and rural populations. So, they have an edge over fintech startups here.
“Mobile money is an enabler of many other services that can help solve critical socio-economic and environmental challenges, such as providing access to essential utilities, sustaining the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, and delivering rapid financial relief to vulnerable populations,” the GSMA explains.
Fees
Mobile money operators and fintech startups are almost offering the same services but they are not targeting the same niches. Some startups target the rural population and use affordable pricing as their main selling point in urban areas.
Mobile money operators criticize the pricing strategy adopted by fintech startups but, in the end, it contributes to lowering fees paid by users. In countries like Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire, the pricing strategy adopted by fintech startups led mobile money operators to reduce fees on their mobile money services.
In 2020, the GSMA was warning about the aggressive pricing strategy widely adopted by fintech startups. It then asked mobile money operators to diversify their income streams to avoid relying solely on fees paid by users. Indeed, in June 2020, providers that took part in the Global Mobile Money Adoption Survey reported that about 87% were generated by users’ fees.
The GSM Association pointed out that mobile money operators’ heavy reliance on transaction fees could expose them to short-term shocks.
“In addition to insulating mobile money providers from short-term demand shock, diversifying to high-value segments may also benefit users, as services can be offered at more competitive rates,” the association argued.
Regulatory framework
In some markets, the regulatory framework forced telecom operators to create a separate entity that will manage their mobile money activities. The new entities are subjected to strict legal frameworks set by the central banks of the regions or countries where they operate.
Depending on the type of services offered, there are legal requirements clearly defining the scope of their operations. Fintech startups that wish to offer similar services like the one offered by mobile money operators are subjected to the same regulation. In the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), the central bank BCEAO strictly applies the regulation.
The requirement to create a separate entity for mobile money operations may prove an advantage for telecom operators, who could thus be freed from the requirements to maintain telecom networks and just concentrate on innovating and creating added value.
Even though there could be competition between mobile money operators and fintech startups, the GSMA praises their combined impacts on financial inclusion in Africa. It also encourages them to be more committed to users, whose choices will ultimately determine whether they are profitable or not.
Muriel Edjo
The serial entrepreneur has over ten years of professional experience in IT consulting and business development. Thanks to Dreamcash, he will be among the founders to be celebrated during the first edition of the AfricaTech Awards
Cyril Owona (photo) is a Cameroonian entrepreneur, co-founder, and CEO of Dreamcash, a fintech startup developing innovative and mobile solutions to help users manage their finances.
Based in Yaoundé, Cameroon, the fintech startup was founded in 2020, with Fabrice Atangana as its co-founder. It created MiQo, a neobank allowing unbanked individuals access to all the conventional banking services, including microloans. The startup is among the 45 finalists to be celebrated at the AfricaTech Awards, which will be held on the sidelines of the VivaTech summit (June 15-18, 2022) in Paris, France.
The selection “greatly motivates a young team that has, for years now, dedicated itself to developing tech solutions to effectively boost financial inclusion in emerging markets despite the hard work and sacrifice endured,” Cyril Owona wrote on his Linkedin page.
The latter’s entrepreneurship career began in 2016, in Canada, when he created Innova Services-Conseil International Inc (ISCI), a consulting firm specializing in IT business development and marketing consulting. The following year, he founded CPAI Inc to boost digital transformation in Africa. He is, since February 2021, the CEO of Sewelo Africa Digital Training, an online learning platform.
Before going into the entrepreneurial world, Cyril acquired extensive professional experience. He started in 2006, as a project manager for Alpha Fund before his promotion to an Alpha Fund branch Manager. In 2009, he joined consulting firm ANEO as an IT recruiter. After brief stints in Logica and Umanis, he became the director of IT consultant Odesia.
Melchior Koba