The digital solution is the result of one of Hybrid Designs' co-founders’ personal experience. Created to address security and affordability problems, it already claims over 100,000 users.
Samrawit Fikru (photo) is an Ethiopian software developer, co-founder, and CEO of Hybrid Designs, a software development firm. In December 2014, her startup (founded in 2011) launched Ride, a ride-hailing solution.
RIDE was created to address several problems including security and affordability. “I used to constantly find myself at the office late at night and challenged by transport hurdles while heading to my home. [...] I used to feel unsafe while taking a taxi…the driver also asks you to pay more than two times the price they charge in a day,” Samrawit recounted in 2019.
The co-founder graduated from MicroLink Information Technology College in 2004 with a diploma in software engineering and started her professional career in 2005 as a software engineer at Revots PLC. In 2006, while working at Revots, she graduated with a BSc in Computer Science from the HiLCoE School of Computer Science and Technology.
In 2007, she joined CNET Software Technology PLC as a programmer, and, the following year, she was recruited as a software developer by Cybersoft software Company. Two years later, she flew to Cameroon where she worked at 4Afri Mobile Technology Company as a senior application engineer. In 2011, she returned to Ethiopia and joined DH MicroHard Solutions as a product line manager.
Since 2013, Samrawit Fikru is a member of the African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program (AWEP), a program providing technical support to its members. Last week, the Ethiopian entrepreneur earned international recognition as one of the Rest of World (RoW)'s 100 Global Tech Changemakers. The recognition celebrates her journey and achievement in the tech world.
Melchior Koba
In Cameroon, cybercrimes have exploded but those acts are sometimes perpetrated by local parties. Therefore, by joining the convention, authorities want to be able to track cyber criminals wherever they are.
In Cameroon, President Paul Biya signed, Monday (May 23), a decree authorizing the country’s membership in the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime. Drafted by the Council of Europe, the convention was signed in November 2001 and became enforceable on July 1, 2004. It is devoted to the fight against cybercrimes, including child pornography, copyright infringement, and hate speech. It also consecrates international cooperation in the fight against modern internet and information technology threats.
According to Cameroon’s National Agency for Information Technology and Communication (Antic), 3,105 cybercrime complaints, more than 5,000 fake social media accounts, and seven attacks on government websites were recorded in 2021. That year, the agency estimated the financial losses caused by intrusion into public and private administrations’ computer systems at XAF12.2 billion ( about US$20 million).
The membership authorization comes after the national assembly’s approval last April 27. For Minette Libom Li Likeng (photo), Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Cameroon’s membership in the Budapest Convention will allow the country to better protect its cyberspace, with the alignment of the December 12, 2010 cybercrime prevention law. It will also contribute to the implementation of a more repressive legal framework and help law enforcement officers identify and punish cybercrimes.
Currently, in Africa, countries are taking action to protect themselves against cybercrimes and protect personal data. Many international summits have been held in that regard since January 2022. The continued mobilization of both private and public actors demonstrates the importance of the issue, particularly in a context marked by accelerated digital transformation on the continent.
Ruben Tchounyabe
He is appointed just one year after assuming the position of general secretary of the same agency he will oversee. In his new position, he will have to address several challenges to make the domestic ICT market more attractive to investors and boost digital adoption.
Inoussa Traore (photo) is, since May 18, the new executive director of Burkina Faso’s Agency for the Promotion of Information and Communication Technologies (ANPTIC). A research professor in economics, innovation, and ICT, he is the fifth executive director to preside over ANPTIC's destinies since its creation in 2014.
In May 2021, when he was appointed ANPTIC executive secretary, Inoussa Traore commented that there were significant challenges facing Burkina Faso’s digital transformation plans. He also hoped the ICT promotion agency would be up to par with expectations. Now that he is at the helm, he will have the chance to make his wish come true.
The new executive director has a doctorate in economic science obtained from Thomas Sankara University (formerly Ouaga II University), in 2019. He began his professional career in 2008 with Yam Pukri Association, an association specialized in training and consulting in the ICT sector. In 2012, he was appointed the head of the International Institute for Water and Environmental Engineering (2iE) program aimed at building the capacities of rural electrification actors and operators in West Africa. Five years later, he joined the Moving Energy Initiative (MEI 2), as a project coordinator, to improve access to electricity services and products in Burkina Faso’s Sahel region and refugee camps.
Since 2014, he is a professor and researcher at Joseph Ki-Zerbo University. He is also a member of the coordination team of the university’s incubator (Incubuo). He is notably in charge of entrepreneurship and management support issues.
In 2020, Mr. Inoussa initiated the FabLab university project selected among the 92 projects that were to benefit from the €1 million Fund set up by the Francophone University Agency to support member universities amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Melchior Koba
With 27 years of professional experience in Orange S.A., Jérôme Hénique will replace the current CEO appointed in 2018. As the new CEO, he will carry out strategic projects in the markets he oversees.
Jérôme Hénique (photo) will officially become the new CEO of Orange Middle East and Africa (OMEA) next July 1. His appointment was announced Tuesday (May 24) in a release published on Orange S.A.’s website. The incoming CEO will replace Alioune Ndiaye who will remain OMEA’s non-executive chairman.
Currently, the incoming CEO is OMEA’s chief operating officer and deputy CEO. As the CEO, he will carry on with actions aimed at developing the group’s subsidiaries in OMEA (one in Jordan and seventeen in Africa) that grew by 9% and generated a €6,381 million turnover in 2021.
Jérôme Hénique joined Orange S.A. (then known as France Telecom) as a consultant in 1994. Up to early 2009, he was consecutively senior consultant for Expertel Consulting, chief Marketing Officer for Wanadoo Europe, Strategic Marketing Director, and Vice President of Consumer Marketing for France Telecom. In 2009, he was promoted to the position of France Telecom’s Senior Vice President of Marketing.
From 2010 to 2015, the senior executive was Deputy CEO of Orange subsidiary in Senegal (SONATEL). Then, from 2015 to 2018, he was CEO of Jordan Telecom Group (Orange subsidiary in Jordan) before his promotion to COO and deputy CEO for Orange MEA.
His appointment is in line with Orange Group CEO Christel Heydemann’s ambition to accelerate digital transformation and growth in some key markets and become a multiservice operator. The group has lofty ambitions for most of its markets. It notably wants to boost broadband internet offers and develop the mobile money market. In the Middle East and Africa region, it is active in segments like health, education, banking, and cybersecurity.
Muriel Edjo
Egypt is one of the countries with the fastest-rising used-car market. Despite the presence of notable competitors, Sylndr wants to conquer the market and become the most-trusted retailer.
Egyptian startup Sylndr recently raised US$12.6 million from a group of investors led by Saudi VC firm Algebra Ventures. On Monday (May 23), the fundraising was announced by Omar El Defrawy, Sylndr co-founder and CEO.
With the funds secured, the startup specialized in used car retailing wants to scale operational capacity, develop its tech infrastructure, and build its retail segment. It also plans to double its workforce by the end of 2022 and update its tech to allow users to list their cars for sale. Sylndr plans to double the size of its team by the end of the year and open up to buyers in late 2022 or Q1 2023.
For Omar El Defrawy, Sylndr’s ambition is to quickly become the most trusted used car retailer in the Middle East, Egypt particularly. “The main problem that we’re trying to fix in Egypt is the complete mistrust between buyers and sellers of used cars in the markets.[…] imagine if you enable financing and make the cars much more affordable to people, that’s a core value proposition we want to ship as well,” El Defrawy told Techcrunch.
According to Ken Research, Egypt is, since 2020, one of the countries with the fastest-growing used-car market. The reason for that growth is the high cost of new cars. Popular car models cost around US$15,000, which is quite expensive for many Egyptians in a market where car financing is quite burdensome. In that context, Sylndr wants to capitalize on retail sales, auctions, dealership, B2B sales, financing, insurance, towing services, and other value-added services.
Startups like Cazoo, Cars 24, and Spinny have also seen the potential of the Egyptian market and are developing strategies to conquer it.
Ruben Tchounyabe
The serial entrepreneur launched several successful projects focused on the African market. Throughout his entrepreneurial career, he has garnered several awards.
In 2018, Senegalese-born entrepreneur Oumar Basse (photo) co-founded Yobante Express with Badra Badji. A computer scientist by trade, Basse wants to optimize last-mile delivery in emerging markets.
Yobante Express “democratizes last-mile delivery,” and is more affordable, co-founder Basse says. According to the latter, the startup can deliver products from Dakar to other Senegalese regions for as low as XOF1,200.
From its base in Delaware, USA, his startup operates in Senegal, Ghana, South Africa, and Nigeria. Through its web and mobile platforms, it networks freelance transporters with traders and individuals, creating a trusting environment beneficial to every party. In 2021, it raised US$1.2 million from Grenfell Holdings, Launch Africa Ventures, R-Ventures, Libertad, and a pool of local and international angel investors.
Oumar Basse holds a master's in distributed information systems (DIS) from Cheikh Anta Diop University (2016), Dakar. He started his professional career one year earlier as a sales agent for PCCI Group, a business process outsourcing multinational. In 2017, he co-founded Nano Air, which developed a remote irrigation system (WIDIM POMPE) allowing farmers to manage their crop watering tasks remotely using their cellphones. In 2018, thanks to Nano Air, Oumar Basse won the second special award at the Agri Startup Summit held in France.
Melchior Koba
Healthtech startups are gradually becoming better alternatives to addressing healthcare access challenges in Africa. In Côte d’Ivoire, Zencey is one of those startups conquering the health market with innovative offers.
Zencey is a healthtech startup founded in 2019 by Yaya Mbaoua. The startup allows access to healthcare services for its users, in line with its mission, which is to “transform the African healthcare ecosystem by making access to healthcare more affordable and accessible to everyone.”
Through its eponymous platform, accessible via the web and its android app, users can book consultations with doctors by following two simple steps. First, they will have to log on to the platform by providing a set of personal information and choose the doctor they want to book, depending on the illness affecting them. Then, they will set a date and time for the consultation. Once set, the consultation will be carried out via video call through the Zencey app.
The startup explains that its affiliated doctors and specialists are accredited with years of experience in developing countries. It is constantly on the hunt for doctors and health practitioners to join its platform. For that purpose, it has a form allowing interested parties to enroll and set their availability schedule.
Zencey also offers firms the opportunity to guarantee healthcare for their staff. It sees that offer as an affordable alternative to the ever-expensive health insurance. The offer consists of emergency care anytime needed and virtual healthcare assistants to boost employee commitment.
In 2021, the startup announced its selection for Orange Cote d’Ivoire’s 2020 startup acceleration program. It is also one of the 45 startups selected for the first edition of the AfricaTech Awards, to be held in Paris during the Viva Technology 2022 next June.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Following the Covid-19 crisis, several countries accelerated their digital transformation projects and notably improved connectivity. They are also focused on improving cybersecurity and protecting personal data since their credibility will depend on their networks’ resistance to attacks and how they protect users’ data from abusive exploitation. Last January, during the cybersecurity summit in Lome, Togo, the UNECA invited African countries to collaborate for enhanced protection of their cyberspace.
In Niger, the national assembly approved Monday (May 23), the ratification of the African Union Convention on Cybersecurity and Personal Data Protection.
Their approval comes months after the government authorized the ratification during its January 13, 2022, ministerial council. This is probably why Niger is, since February 2022, on the African Union’s list of countries that have already ratified the convention.
The national assembly’s approval marks the end of the ratification process and brings to 13 the number of countries that have fully ratified the convention. Only two ratifications are still required for the convention to become effective in Africa.
According to government commissioner Youssouf Mohamed Elmouctar (photo), Niger’s membership in the cybersecurity and personal data protection convention will help the country set its cybersecurity and personal data protection objectives and guidelines. It will also help consolidate the existing framework to align it with the continental goals.
Indeed, the convention is in line with local authorities’ ambition to boost socio-economic development with digitalization. In doing so, they will need to protect personal data and secure their networks.
Following the Covid-19 crisis, several countries accelerated their digital transformation projects and notably improved connectivity. They are also focused on improving cybersecurity and protecting personal data since their credibility will depend on their networks’ resistance to attacks and how they protect users’ data from abusive exploitation. Since January 2022, many international cybersecurity summits have been organized in Africa.
Muriel Edjo
In 2018, Kenya launched a 5-year plan to improve its health offer by building new infrastructures and increasing the number of health professionals. To address the challenges still lingering, notably concerning healthcare access in remote areas, the country wants to leverage technology.
Kenya will soon roll out a nationwide telemedicine program to improve healthcare access, in remote areas particularly. In that regard, through its Communication Authority, the country set aside Ksh600 million (US$5. million) to fund the installation of telemedicine infrastructure in 20 public health institutions.
According to Joseph Sitienei, head of the Ministry of Health’s Health Service Management department, telemedicine “is the direction to go so that no part of the country feels left out in the provision of quality health services and especially to reduce the cost of seeking health care to the patients.”
In the mid-term review of Kenya Health Sector Strategic Plan 2018-2023, the Ministry of Health reported that the healthcare worker density for effective service delivery significantly improved compared to its level in 2018. In late 2020, it was over 20.6 healthcare workers (HCWs) per 10,000 population. Nevertheless, it was below the 23 HCWs per 10,000 population suggested by the WHO and Kenya’s target of 24.4 HCWs per 10,000 population.
In 2019, the country claimed it was meeting the World Health Organization (WHO)’s recommended number of healthcare institutions per 10,000 population. That year, the disclosed national density of healthcare institutions per 10,000 population was 2.2 while the WHO was recommending at least a density of two healthcare institutions per 10,000 population.
Although the national density is higher than recommendations, in fourteen counties (30% of the national territory), the density was below WHO recommendations. Specialists and reference hospitals are concentrated in major towns while rural populations mainly have access to clinics. With telemedicine, Kenya will allow its rural populations to gain easy access to specialists and reference hospitals. Currently, the program is in its pilot phase in Kenyatta and Isiolo public hospitals.
“If we cannot provide enough skilled staff in all our health facilities, we can surely take the skilled staff to the rural areas through telemedicine! It is time that we have teleconsultations and telereferrals. There is no other opportune time than now,” Dr. Joseph Sitienei explains.
Muriel Edjo
In the past eleven years or so, the Minister of the Digital Economy has demonstrated her commitment to digital inclusion in Togo. She piloted several public projects that positioned her country on the list of global digital nations.
Cina Lawson (photo) is a Togolese politician and currently the Minister of Postal Affairs and Digital Economy. She is one of the three Francophone Sub-Saharan tech actors to be on Rest of World’s 2022 list of the 100 Global tech Changemakers. The recognition celebrates her numerous contributions to the development of the digital sector in her country, Togo.
Indeed, she joined the Togolese government in 2010 as the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications. On September 7, 2013, she was appointed Minister of the Digital Economy. Since then, she has been piloting the country’s e-government project. She also oversaw the introduction of information technology in the education sector, carried out digital inclusion projects profiting the most vulnerable, and enhanced competition in the telecom market by awarding licenses to two new internet service providers (Teolis SA and Vivendi Africa) in June 2017. In June 2018, Miss Lawson also extended the licenses of telecom operators Moov Togo and Togo Cellulaire, adding 4G to their service spectrum. Months later, she oversaw the privatization of incumbent operator Togocom and updated Togo’s ICT regulatory framework.
The Digital Minister holds a Diploma of Advanced Studies (DEA) from the Paris Institute of Political Studies (1997). She also holds a Master's in History from Paris-Nanterre University (1998), and a Master's in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School (2001). She began her professional career at the World Bank in 1998. In the Information and Communication Technology Department in Washington DC, she advised governments on telecom policies, regulatory reforms, and privatizations. She also worked as a consultant for Alcatel-Lucent in Paris and, from 2005 to 2010, she was working for France Telecom SA.
She has received several recognitions for her impact on her country’s ICT sector. In 2016, she was named by Tropics Magazine as one of the 55 actors moving Africa forward. In January 2019, Cina Lawson won the Napoleon Innovation Award, awarded by a professional network dedicated to the promotion of “virtuous, ethical innovation that benefits the many.” The following month, she won the Harvard Kennedy School’s Alumni Public Service Award for her commitment and contribution to the development of the ICT sector. She was thus the first African female politician to win the award since its creation in 1997.
In October 2021, Cina Lawson received the "Woman of the Year Award" from UC Berkeley’s Fisher Center for Business Analytics for Novissi, the social assistance project implemented through a digital platform to support low-income populations during the Covid-19 crisis. She was praised for her innovative work in leveraging non-traditional data and analytics to target and distribute emergency financial assistance to the most vulnerable.
Melchior Koba
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According to the World Bank, African countries must urgently train their youth on future needs, digital skills notably, to facilitate professional integration for millions of people. Most countries have taken the advice and are taking measures to develop local digital talents.
Morocco’s Oujda region will launch its center for collective intelligence by late 2022. Baptized Zone01 Oujda, the center will develop local digital talents. The partnership agreement for the creation of that center was signed by the region’s authorities and digital training institution 01Talent Africa on the sidelines of the 9th edition of Africities (May 17-21, 2022) in Kisumu, Kenya.
Zone01 Oudja will be hosted at Mohamed First University’s knowledge campus. The 500-student infrastructure will have three specific institutions. Namely, there will be a coding school and a programming school specifically dedicated to professionals- those serving regional and local administrations. The third institution will be a talent management agency whose main mission will be to provide IT services to local, regional and international partners by using the talents trained at the coding school.
The selection, open to under-18 Moroccans, will be a two-phase process (it is expected to start in the second half of 2022). During the first phase, pre-selected candidates will take a 4-week training. At the end of that training, a group problem-solving test will take place to select those who will take a 2-year digital training with a guaranteed job after the training.
The project is one of the Oujda region’s strategies to digitize its economy and boost its attractiveness. The region wants to train its youth in digital skills to help them find jobs and become important players in the local and national ecosystem with the digital transformation that is being accelerated everywhere. In that regard, the region has entered into strategic partnerships with the Ministry of Higher Education, the agency for economic development ADPS, the United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLGA), and the Oujda regional investment center CRI.
Also, in January 2021, the CRI signed a memorandum of understanding with the Federation of Information Technology, Telecommunications and Offshoring (APEBI) for the accelerated development of offshoring and digital ecosystems in Oujda.
Ruben Tchounyabe
The coronavirus pandemic forced an acceleration of digital transformation projects in Africa. Almost every sector is now caught in the digitalization fever with startups coming into the picture to solve the population’s pain points. SingPay is one of the solutions developed to solve problems, financial notably.
SingPay is a digital platform developed by business consulting firm SING SA, founded in 2018 and managed by Yannick Ebibie (photo) ever since. The platform allows firms to easily collect payments.
“SingPay aims to facilitate the integration of payment means to digital solutions in our growing ecosystem by reducing barriers to entry, notably for early-stage ventures and public projects,” SING SA explains on its website.
The digital solution allows startups and firms offering services or selling products online to collect payments from users, even those without conventional payment systems like bank cards. By integrating SingPay into their digital platforms, users can collect payments via mobile money, bank cards, etc…
SingPay collects no fee from its clients when the volume of overall transactions processed is still below XAF25 million (about US$40,000). Beyond that threshold, it collects 2.5% per transaction for private ventures and 1.5% per transaction for public ventures. Every year, SING SA. reviews the status of every one of its clients via its programming interface.
Thanks to SingPay, SING SA has been selected among the 300 start-ups that will contest to become the Top45 awardees of the first edition of the AfricaTech Awards.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
With some 15 years of professional experience in the marketing and finance sector, she wants to address the financing problems faced by innovative entrepreneurs in Africa.
Fatoumata Bâ is a Senegalese tech entrepreneur and venture capital investor. In 2018, she founded Janngo, an investment firm based in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Her firm supports and invests in pan-African startups that use technology to boost access to crucial services, products, content, markets, finance, jobs, and talents in Africa.
Speaking on the reasons that prompted her to create Janngo, Fatoumata Bâ explained that she aimed to create Pan-African digital champions with sustainable and economically viable business models and help address important social problems.
Shortly after its creation, in 2018, Janngo unveiled a digital platform (Jexport) that allows local farmers to sell their products to foreign buyers at affordable prices. In December 2021, the investment firm raised XOF7 billion (US$11.4 million) to fund the African private sector. The funds were raised from the African Development Bank (AfDB), the European Union, and the Organisation of African, Caribbean, and Pacific States.
Janngo’s founder and executive chair holds a Master’s in Management, Strategy, Marketing, and Finance from Toulouse Business School (2009). Her professional career started in 2007 with Index Multimedia where she was an account manager and business developer. Less than twelve months later, she joined France Telecom as a sales advisor and, in September 2008, she obtained a promotion to a business analyst.
In March 2010, she was recruited as a senior consultant for the information technology company Atos Consulting. Three years later, she launched the Ivorian subsidiary of Jumia. Fatoumata Bâ became the Managing director of Jumia Nigeria in 2015 before her appointment as the marketing manager of Jumia group in 2016. She is now a board member for SouthBridge Investment Bank and an investment committee member for evergreen investment firm Creadev.
In 2016, she was on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list, which lists the 30 most promising under-30 African entrepreneurs. She is also the winner of the 2019 Aenne Burda Award for Creative Leadership and one of the leaders on Choiseul's 2020 list of the 100 African Economic Leaders for Tomorrow. She is also one of the 20 Africans to be on the Rest of World’s 2022 Top 100 Global Tech Changemakers. This recognition celebrates her extensive professional background and contributions.
Melchior Koba
In 2020, amid the coronavirus pandemic, public services were seriously disrupted in several African countries. To protect both citizens and their governments against such occurrences, most countries are now accelerating their digital transformation projects.
Congo-Brazzaville and the European Union signed Thursday (May 19), a €15 million grant agreement to boost the digitization of public administration. The agreement was signed by Congo’s Finance Minister Rigobert Roger Andely (photo, right) and Giacomo Durazzo (photo, left), the EU ambassador to the country.
The grant will help Congo improve its digital infrastructure, and up its assistance and governance of the sector. This will boost the quality of the public services provided to the population, enhance their efficiency by reducing delays and corruption and improve public governance.
Digital transformation is the first “priority area” of the Multi-Annual Indicative Program (MIP) signed by the European Union and Congo-Brazzaville in December 2021. It is one of the first projects effectively financed by the EU under the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe (NDICI – Global Europe), an instrument replacing the European Development Fund (EDF).
For Congo-Brazzaville, digital transformation is a key component of the national strategy for the development of the digital economy, “Congo Digital 2025.” The country is intent on successfully implementing the national strategy (unveiled in August 2019) given the development issues it addresses.
Muriel Edjo