Officially launched on Jan 1, 2021, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) holds several business opportunities for African e-commerce. However, to leverage these opportunities, African countries need adequate policies. Assessing the gaps in these policies is a mission recently undertaken by Smart Africa Alliance.
On Dec 17, 2020, the Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group greenlit a $1.5 million grant to Smart Africa Alliance, a group of 32 African countries, organizations, and international companies that want to create a single digital marketplace in Africa.
The grant, provided by the African Development Fund (the Bank’s concessional window), will be used to assess policy gaps in the digital and e-commerce ecosystems of Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Ghana, Liberia, Uganda, South Sudan, Zimbabwe, Republic of Congo, São Tomé and Príncipe, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Lacina Koné, CEO of Smart Africa, said: “One of the critical challenges preventing the continent from preparing for Africa’s bold new future is the inability to conduct cross-border payments for goods and services due to a lack of solutions and crippling policies. Our partnership with the African Development Bank is crucial in creating an enabling environment to advance e-payments, and the digital economy is essential for Africa’s renaissance.”
Smart Africa Alliance will, as part of its assessment mission, consult with public and private sector stakeholders to develop an e-learning program that will directly benefit 600 stakeholders, including government officials, small and medium enterprises, private sector mobile network operators, and indirectly benefit another 2,500.
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) officially began operations on Jan 1, 2021. Regrouping all 55 African Union member states, this 1.2 billion people market has a gross domestic product (GDP) of $2.5 trillion. According to the UN’s Economic Commission for Africa, it is an asset that can foster the boom of e-commerce in Africa. However, for this to happen, every country must have a legal e-commerce framework that favors international trade.
“This project is both timely and vital. For the continent to create a unified digital market by 2030, efforts should focus on harmonizing and building a cohesive policy environment for intra-continental trade,” said Nicholas Williams, Division Manager for ICT Operations, AfDB.
Muriel Edjo
On January 1, 2021, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) officially became operational. Recently, the Zone reached a new milestone by launching its payment solution.
The Pan African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) was officially launched in West Africa on 13 January 2022, in Accra, Ghana. The cross-border payment platform was developed by Afreximbank and successfully tested in Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. Integrating a growing network of central banks, commercial banks, payment service providers, and other financial intermediaries, PAPSS will serve as the settlement interface for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
“The commercial launch marks a significant milestone in connecting African markets seamlessly. It will provide a fresh impetus for businesses to scale more easily across Africa and is likely to save the continent more than $5 billion in transaction costs every year,” said Mike Ogbalu III (pictured), the chief executive officer of the financial platform.
PAPSS will connect African markets, enabling instant cross-border payments in local African currencies. It can be used for purchases, money transfers, wage payments, stock and share trading, or major business transactions. No more transfer fees, SWIFT fees, and bank charges. No more worries about exchange rates.
For example, a user in Mali can buy goods in Ghana from an SME, pay in CFA francs and the seller will get the payment in cedis. This is how it works: After the Malian buyer issues a payment order in the local currency (CFA) to his affiliated financial institution, the latter submits the transaction to PAPSS, which then proceeds to the necessary validation checks. Next, the payment order is forwarded to the seller's financial institution that gets the payment done in the local currency.
PAPSS collaborates with African central banks to provide a payment and settlement service that commercial banks, payment service providers, and fintechs in Africa can connect to as "Participants."
With PAPSS, central banks can instantly process settlements, hence reducing their hard currency holdings. Compliance, legal, and sanction checks are performed instantly by the system which processes transactions within seconds, thereby dealing with delays that constitute a significant barrier to the growth of African e-commerce, services, and products.
To access PAPSS, banks and other financial institutions must register and meet some criteria. The platform features two types of participants: direct and indirect. “Direct Participants”, banks and other financial institutions, have a settlement account with the central bank of the country in which they operate and comply with all the financial and regulatory proficiency requirements of that central bank.
"Indirect Participants", also banks and other financial institutions, do not have a settlement account with the central bank of the country in which they operate. They may, however, enter into individual sponsorship arrangements with direct participants to facilitate the settlement of payment instructions.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Traditional financial savings options do not always take into account people with limited income. As a solution, Kenyan start-up Koa offers an application that aims to help its users better control their spending and savings.
Entrepreneurs Delila Kidanu, Alexis Roman, and Ubunyo Nyavor have developed a solution to boost savings culture among Kenyans. The fintech Koa allows its users to set personal savings goals for specific expenses such as school fees, buying a new phone, a car, or even planning a wedding. The app incentivizes users by sending them daily, weekly or monthly reminders. Koa also allows them to track their progress and provides tips on how to better control their spending.
“We spent a lot of time in Ghana, Nigeria, and Kenya. Both Delila and I saw the popularity of digital saving products in Nigeria, like PiggyVest and Cowrywise, and how they were serving a real need for customers. But when we looked beyond Nigeria, as a market, we felt like there was a significant gap in other countries,” Koa’s CEO Roman told TechCabal.
According to the founders, although Kenya is the third-largest economy in sub-Saharan Africa and the financial and trade hub of East Africa, the country has a savings rate of only 12%. They attribute this low rate to factors including cumbersome savings options and a lack of appropriate financial education that would raise awareness among people.
To stand out from other solutions, the startup encourages its users to invest their money to earn more. As part of this strategy, Koa has partnered with Britam, an asset manager in Kenya. Users can earn up to 10% interest on their money per year, depending on market conditions. They also earn interest daily, allowing them to see their money grow in real-time.
The platform has already exceeded 12,000 users and has received $100,000 in deposits since its launch in 2020. The founders plan to expand to neighboring countries such as Tanzania and Uganda.
Aïsha Moyouzame
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) is supporting the government of Mauritius in the acquisition of a national digital health system. A collaboration deal was signed to this effect between the two parties last January 26 in Port Louis.
The deal is part of the government’s ambition to promote high-quality, affordable, user-centered care while encouraging higher levels of internal efficiency and effectiveness. Kailesh Kumar Singh Jagutpal (pictured), Minister of Health and Welfare, revealed that the UNDP's financial contribution to the project was more than $2.7 million. The Japanese government also contributed $418,000, and the Mauritian government raised more than $3 million for the project.
The digital health system will open up new opportunities and guide the planning, allocation, monitoring, and evaluation of resources, Kailesh Kumar Singh Jagutpal said. “It will also provide the technology required to improve the health awareness levels of the citizens, thus paving the way for a new era in healthcare delivery in Mauritius,” he added.
The health system in Mauritius faced many challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic. The government has therefore adopted a solution called E-health, in the framework of the Strategic Healthcare Plan 2020-2024 launched on August 12, 2020.
In addition to the financial support, UNDP plans to catalyze financing from other partners.
Muriel Edjo
The Ivorian government has made the fight against cybercrime one of its priorities since 2011. This crackdown has made it possible to shrink the financial damage due to cybercrime to $9.4 million in 2018 from about $24 million in 2010.
Digital security solutions can help Côte d'Ivoire save CFA2.5 billion (nearly $4.2 million) each year. This amount is how much the country lost to cybercriminals in 2021, according to Colonel Ouattara Moussa (pictured), director of information technology and technological traces (DITT) at the Ministry of the Interior and Security. Data released last January 31 by the anti-cybercrime platform (PLCC) showed that more than 5,000 complaints were recorded in 2021 compared to 2,408 in 2017, up 51.84%. PLCC reported that the main digital crimes recorded in the last year are threats of posting sexual images and sexual harassment on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, WhatsApp), e-transaction fraud, fraudulent use of natural person identifiers, damage to image and honor, and online scams. The platform says 50% of complaints were solved in 2021.
The data unveiled by the PLCC highlights the growing dangers in the digital world. In response, the government has taken several actions to further secure the national cyberspace. In 2020, it adopted a new cybersecurity strategy that extends to 2025. It also planned to invest $30.8 million to create a National Cybersecurity Council and a National Cybersecurity Authority.
While waiting for these investments to materialize, the National Center for Monitoring and Response to Computer Security Incidents in Côte d'Ivoire recommends that individuals be more vigilant online, that they regularly back up their data, equip their terminals with antivirus software, activate an antispam program on their e-mail, regularly update their operating systems and avoid installing software from unknown sources.
For businesses, the global IT consulting firm Accenture recommends, among other things, reducing data transfers, enabling full disk encryption on all devices, using cybersecurity operators, and adopting the cloud.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Only 11% of Malawi’s population has access to a reliable electricity grid, and this hampers productivity, especially in rural areas. This is an issue that entrepreneur Martin Masiya tackles with Sollys Energy, his solar power startup.
Operating in the alternative energy sector, Sollys Energy sells lanterns and solar home systems with flexible payment terms. The firm, whose main target is people living in semi-urban and rural areas with no access to reliable and affordable electricity, has a business model that is based on installment payments.
One of Sollys’s products is WOWSolar 60, a lighting system whose main feature is a scalable upgrade capability that allows the same controller and bulbs to be used to power multiple devices. Sollys Energy also sells "Pay-As-You-Go" solar lights. These differ from standard solar lanterns which are typically sold for cash or loan and require sales agents to physically collect payments from customers.
Martin Masiya, 21, is the founder of Sollys Energy. One of Africa's youngest renewable energy entrepreneurs, he has attended several global events, including the first-ever Youth Forum organized by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in Abu Dhabi in January 2020. Masiya is very involved in foreign development organizations and recommends energy policies to various platforms like the EU-Africa group, the Youth Sustainable Energy Hub, and the Global Centre for Adaptation.
In rural and semi-urban Malawi, a large majority of households, schools, businesses, and health facilities do not have access to reliable electricity, and most of them have no electricity at all. National statistics show that only 11% of Malawians have access to the local power grid. This means that nearly 15 million people are deprived of economic opportunities that could improve their living standards and get them out of poverty.
Indeed, research shows that lack of access to electricity is a huge barrier to productivity. Therefore, providing low-income households and communities with affordable solar devices would help boost their productivity so they can produce more and generate additional income. Sollys Energy's mission is to end energy poverty in Malawi.
To date, Sollys Energy has a dozen outlets in the country. It has already served about 1,000 people and created 13 jobs. In the future, Martin Masiya's ambition is to make his start-up the largest distributor of pay-as-you-go solar devices in Southern Africa, covering agriculture, health, education, and solar energy for productive use.
Aïsha Moyouzame
The government of Gabon announced a partnership with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to introduce digitalization in primary education. A meeting was held for this purpose between the Gabonese Minister of National Education, Professor Patrick Mougiama-Daouda, and the resident representative of Unicef in Gabon, Dr. Noël Marie Zagre. This initiative aims to make distance learning more dynamic through new technologies.
"The program will spread over five years. We plan to establish a mechanism that will help both students and teachers to get used to the digital tools. A first phase will see us implement the project in 3 schools per region," said Dr. Noël Marie Zagre.
The UNICEF Resident Representative also revealed that the program will later cover secondary and higher education. "It will take into account all aspects including staff training, infrastructure, and content to ensure that primary education can benefit from the digital," he said.
Gabon gradually started its digital migration process about a decade ago. With the advent of Covid-19, the country wants to accelerate its process.
Brice Gotoa
In a few years only, this Sudanese lawyer built a flourishing startup, Alsoug, in a country that was under an international embargo for many years. Now, insatiable, she yearns to expand across the rest of Africa.
After staying abroad for some years, for studies and work, Tarneem Saeed probably never imagined returning to her country, Sudan, whose economy was shaken for about 30 years by conflicts and placed under an international embargo. Yet, she is now one of the most powerful businesswomen in the country. The entrepreneur founded Alsoug, Sudan’s largest online marketplace, offering e-payment and logistics services.
Saeed left Sudan for Canada at age 14, to further her education. After graduating from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), she worked as a corporate lawyer at Allen and Overy, a law firm with operations in over 60 countries.
In 2014, while in Sudan on personal business, she noticed how disconnected the country was from the digital economy. "People and businesses weren’t harnessing the full power of the internet. Coming from London, Sudan just felt empty. One of the things that irked me the most was how difficult it was to find out the price of anything. You had to ask someone to get the price of a car, house, or even cattle,” Saeed said.
She launched the Alsoug project in 2015 to tackle the situation. Initially, it was a brokerage platform where consumers could check the prices of goods and services, and where sellers and buyers could chat. In 2016, despite the poor internet access in the country, she expanded the platform by introducing classified ads. Over the years, Alsoug’s business model evolved and the platform came to integrate online sales and other tools including an e-payment solution called Cashi.
In six years only, Tarneem Saeed made Alsoug the country’s leading e-commerce startup, notably by raising a lot of money from venture capitalists. Very recently, in October, the company announced the close of a $5 million fund, raised from Egypt's Fawry and other investment structures – the first operation of this kind after the lifting of economic sanctions against the country in 2020.
Despite the persistent challenges female entrepreneurs face in Sudan, Tarneem Saeed is determined to go much further in developing Alsoug. She is getting ready to break into the fintech market with a national payment system that will allow for quick, easy, and secure transactions for all Sudanese.
Aïsha Moyouzame
Senegalese multiple award-winning agtech startup Tolbi announced plans to raise $500,000 this year to develop its activity. Tolbi, which means field in Wolof, was founded by Mouhamadou Lamine Kébé, a graduate of the Dakar polytechnic school who majored in telecom network systems. Lamine initiated the idea in 2019 with three of his classmates to tackle the water management problems experienced by Senegalese farmers.
Tolbi offers a set of connected objects based on artificial intelligence and edge computing to facilitate field irrigation and improve agricultural yield. "We use drones, satellite imagery, and connected objects with moisture sensors to allow the user to have real-time information about the water and fertilizer needs of their fields. This helps optimize irrigation and improve yield. It makes it possible to reduce water and fuel inputs upstream, thus reducing production costs," Mouhamadou Lamine Kébé explained.
Tolbi’s team of engineers process the data collected by sensors through AI algorithms to extract key information for decision making. The analyzed data is made available to users via dedicated apps to enable them to make a decision. The solution is accessible to all farmers, even those with modest incomes or illiterate, via a mobile phone and a SIM card. All the farmer has to do is dial the device number and interact with a voice command system in Wolof or Pulaar, two languages spoken in Senegal.
"We have succeeded in optimizing agricultural yields by up to 30% while reducing water losses by up to 60%," Lamine Kébé said. The startup has grown well since its launch and now offers many other services such as plant counting, land shaping, yield estimation, plant health analysis, and weed analysis.
The strong impact Tolbi has on agriculture has earned it several awards including the Grand Prix of the President of the Republic for Digital Innovation in 2020. The startup aims to become a leader in smart agriculture in Africa. For the upcoming year, it plans to enter Nigeria, Kenya, Algeria, and Morocco.
In 2018, agriculture contributed 9.4% to Senegal's GDP, according to the 2020 report of the National Agency for Statistics and Demography (ANSD).
Ruben Tchounyabe
Digital Health enterprise -The Medical Concierge Group- launched in 2018 its solution to address the problems of the remoteness of health facilities, long waiting lines, low doctor-to-patient ratios, and the lack of access to credible health information. Called Rocket Health, the service is the fruit of a collaboration between Dr. Davis Musinguzi, Dr. John Mark Bwanika, Dr. William Lubega, and Dr. Hope Achiro. It is accessible 24/7 via USSD and SMS on basic mobile phones, WhatsApp, or directly online on smartphones, tablets, or computers.
“The doctor-patient ratio in Uganda now stands at one to twenty-five thousand. That means so many people cannot access quality health care, and it’s not only the doctors. The pharmacists and the pharmacy services or the laboratory services are also really difficult for most people to come by. And if they do, there are long waiting lines in the traditional settings,” said Hope Fortunate Achiro, Director of pharmacy services at Rocket Health.
Rocket Health’s users can get teleconsultation with doctors, contact a medical team for home lab samples, have medications delivered, and have children vaccinated, among other things. They can also, through the call center, get support on sexual and reproductive health (SRH) issues or access an e-shop where they can buy and have delivered products such as condoms, emergency contraception, HIV self-tests, etc. The services are delivered in a private and confidential environment.
Rocket Health is currently available in Kampala. The solution recently received six months of incubation in 2021 at the Next Health Accelerator (NHA) -a health innovation accelerator designed by Intrepid Entrepreneurs for African entrepreneurs- and a $15,000 seed fund. Its promoters want to expand across the country, starting with Greater Kampala, then enter Kenya and Nigeria, where the service already has a registered legal presence. Rocket Health has won several awards, including Uganda's 2021 Start-up of the Year and 2021 Best Health Startup of the Year at the Kampala Innovation Week. The event was organized in partnership with the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF).
Ruben Tchounyabe
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In South Africa where it was created and launched, more than 1,000 people have joined the app in the past six years and it is gaining much interest in other countries like Nigeria, Kenya, and Botswana.
Created in 2013 – by Bruce Wood and William Mellor – and launched in 2014, OurHood is a website and mobile app that fosters communication between people living in the same vicinity or neighborhood in South Africa. “We took the best of Facebook and WhatsApp and created OurHood. There are examples of this working elsewhere in the world. It’s never been done here and we thought this is the best opportunity to create something for South Africans,” said Wood, MD of OurHood.
Available on Play Store for free, OurHood has four tabs. The "General Information" tab allows users to share information about the community or neighborhood; "Alerts" enables them to note a safety issue or any other important information. "Events" houses all scheduled events, and "Business" identifies and locates businesses within or near the neighborhood.
There are other (paid) features such as a "directory" which provides access to the contacts of all small business owners listed in the neighborhood, i.e. electricians, plumbers, cleaners, newspaper delivery people, etc. Another feature also lets users directly contact a security agency.
“The way the system works is it feeds off Google. It starts with your physical address, it finds you within that ‘geofence’ that we’ve created. Then to join, you need to get verified,” Wood explained. Thus, no one can register on the app and join a neighborhood without providing proof that they live there. Each user's identity is verified after uploading a utility bill picture, required during the registration process.
OurHood focuses on urban areas, particularly Cape Town and Johannesburg, which have the largest percentage of users. The startup reveals that the app already has about 1,000 neighborhoods in its database and receives five new neighborhood requests per day. The requests are not only coming from South Africa but other countries such as Nigeria, Kenya, and Botswana.
Ruben Tchounyabe
Tunisian AgTech startup Lifeye launched an innovative solution to help farmers in Africa increase their livestock and milk production. The solution was quickly adopted in several countries on the continent. It is an app (MooMe) downloadable for free on Google play store and Huawei AppGallery.
MooMe was designed in 2019 by three entrepreneurs who wanted to address recurrent problems of cattle farming in Tunisia, such as poor fertility and difficulty in detecting early diseases. The services built into the app will help users better monitor cow calving and fertility, and have full control over their animals, including troublemakers. "The most important thing for a breeder is to know when to do artificial insemination. This data allows us to alert him in advance," explained Ahmed Achballah, one of MooMe’s founders and a graduate in applied sciences.
According to Mohamed Kallel, also co-founder of MooMe, the platform offers accurate data and enables the farmer to quickly detect when something is going wrong with his cattle. The app is linked to a connected cow collar, which is equipped with a small sensor that analyzes the level of rumination and movements to identify diseases such as mastitis or lameness. The collar also helps evaluate the animal's fertility period. MooMe collects data via boxes that are installed in the cowsheds. Once collected, the information is translated into algorithms and spreadsheets that are sent back to the startup's headquarters in Tunis, where the platform to which farmers have access is located.
The connected cow collar is sold for TND200 (€62) with monthly subscription bundles. It was tested on farms in the northwest of Tunisia and provided great results. Lifeye claims 2,500 cows registered in its database and more than 1,500 users in Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Senegal, in addition to Tunisia. The company has secured financing, last year, from Maxula Seed Fund to improve its app.
Muriel Edjo
After coming up with the idea for his app while being treated in France, he went on to win RFI’s Africa 2020 App Challenge with the project. The platform, already available in Mali and Guinea, is set for expansion across the continent.
On January 18, 2022, Amara Diawara (photo) announced a partnership with Synapse Medicine, a French health software company. This partnership, Diawara said, will allow Afriqcare, the startup he founded with Mariam Coulibaly, to improve the quality of its services.
With his platform, the techpreneur and holder of a Ph.D. in Medicine (from Gamal Abdel Nasser University in Conakry) hopes to revolutionize access to health care in his country, Guinea, and the rest of Africa.
Afriqcare offers online appointment booking, teleconsultation, and tele-expertise services. It also enables doctors to access their patients’ medical records via a health booklet and an e-vaccination record. With approximately 37 medical specialties currently listed on its platform, Afriqcare is already available in Conakry (Guinea) and Bamako (Mali).
The idea for the app emerged in Amara Diawara's mind while he was undergoing treatment for a lung tumor in France, where he had flown to in 2015 to pursue a master's degree in public health. Before that, he was working at the World Health Organization (WHO) as part of the response to the Ebola epidemic that hit Guinea. During his treatment, he discovered the use of digital tools for healthcare monitoring and wanted to apply them in Africa.
"I told myself that we needed to give African patients and healthcare professionals the means to interact with digital tools. When I saw my patients, once they were out of the hospital, I no longer had any information about their journey. That had to change," he explained and so Afriqcare was born in 2020.
Amara Diawara won RFI's Africa 2020 Challenge App award and consequently €15,000 in funding. In February 2021, during the award ceremony, he said he would use the money to develop a new and improved version of the Afriqcare app.
"We will make the application easier to use so that it can be accessed even with low internet speed. The new version will also be more reliable and secure," Diawara declared at the time. He also revealed his ambition to dominate the digital health sector in French-speaking Africa, by 2025.
Aïsha Moyouzame
Very attached to his culture and African traditions in general, Central African entrepreneur Teddy Kossoko founded Masseka Game Studio in 2017 to showcase African culture.
With this initiative, Teddy Kossoko, 27, who has been living in France since 2012, has made himself a place among those who work to promote Africa in the world. The idea came to him while he was finishing a degree in computer science at the University of Blagnac in 2014. He noticed that people who play a lot of video games acquire knowledge about foreign cultures. He then started working on his very first game, Kissoro Tribal Game, which is inspired by Kissoro, a board game very popular in Central Africa and across the continent. The game was released in 2018. For this first project, Teddy received the support of the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). He was granted access to the institution’s documentary resources.
In only 2 months, Kissoro Tribal Game has been downloaded more than 13,000 times in about 20 countries around the world. It is available in 5 languages (French, English, Japanese, Russian, Spanish), and has integrated features such as stories to discover, challenges, tutorials, quests, and winning contests, among others.
With Masseka Game Studio, Teddy Kossoko has won many international awards including the "Pitch Your Game" of the Geek Touch in Lyon in 2017, the Tongolo Awards organized the same year by the Sewati Tongolo association. The entrepreneur has also signed many partnerships with international structures, including mobile payment solution Intouch, the CNRS, the Embassy of the Central African Republic in France, and BPIFrance.
These multiple awards and partnerships allow Teddy Kossoko to prepare more ambitious projects and enter new markets. With his team, he is working on the development of new products including a racing game called Cours Didier, Georges d'or -a 3D soccer game featuring a poor young man who wants to become a golden ball, and Imani Imanu and the legend of the Sonni- a 2D adventure game.
"We first need to address the problems of Internet access and train young creators so that they can offer games that meet international standards. African creators are still lagging despite their innovative initiatives,” Teddy said.
Beyond his creations, the game developer is now seeking to boost the initiatives of other African video game studios. He created the African Gaming Networks platform in 2019 to address the obstacles specific to the sector, including its organization, the difficulties of training and monetization of video games. In addition to referencing creators, the network also offers a mapping of the African ecosystem and helps identify talents who need financial support.
Aïsha Moyouzame