Access to health care has relatively improved in Africa over the past decade. However much remains to be done. Initiatives are multiplying on the continent to bridge this gap.
Smart Africa, an alliance of 32 African countries and international organizations committed to the digital transformation of Africa, and The Commons Project Foundation (TCP) announced last February 16 a partnership to accelerate the delivery of digital health in Africa.
Through this collaboration, the members of both partners have committed to supporting and working on the design, development, deployment, and operation of digital public health infrastructure for Africans. They are also engaging in various digital health pilot projects aimed at strengthening African health systems.
One of the main focuses of the partnership is the SMART Health Card, which allows populations to securely share a verifiable version of their immunization record via a QR code. The innovation being implemented in Rwanda and Kenya is endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO).
“We believe that the future of healthcare in Africa is digital-first, powered by mobility. This partnership will go a long way in delivering world-class health services to Africa’s citizens such as SMART Health Cards,” said Lacina Koné (pictured), CEO of Smart Africa.
Access to health care remains low in many African countries. The ratio of professionals per 10,000 inhabitants is still far below the WHO standards, which recommend a minimum of 23 health workers to ensure a basic quality of service. Digital technology comes as the solution for Africans to improve health care coverage. For Joe Mucheru, the Cabinet Secretary of Kenya's Ministry of ICT, Innovation, and Youth, the widespread adoption of digital health has the potential to revolutionize healthcare in the same way that the M-Pesa payment system has revolutionized financial inclusion.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Driven by her mission to spark the flame of innovation in women, Jessica Makosso birthed a network that promotes female talent. The Congolese native who lives in France hopes that her platform will become a reference for supporting women’s projects.
A business management graduate, Jessica Makosso (photo) began her professional career as a salesperson. After acquiring experience for over seven (7) years, she quit her job in 2016 and went to further her studies in France. There, she earned a master's degree in business unit management. While doing internships in the luxury fashion industry in Paris, she started bringing female talent to light.
Later, she founded the Association des Femmes Inspirantes (Association of Inspiring Women). This was a way for her to help advance female leadership. The association helps make women gain visibility through networking, turning their ideas into profitable businesses with a positive impact. One of the initiatives carried out by Association des Femmes Inspirantes is a program called “Saisis ta destinée” (Seize Your Destiny)". The latter fosters reflection on entrepreneurship from a female perspective and raises women’s awareness about the matter.
Besides her activities in France, Jessica Makosso would like to be active in African countries. In 2018, she organized the second edition of her “Seize Your Destiny” awareness program in Pointe-Noire, Congo. “Awareness activities will not be limited to Europe. They will also be carried out in Africa and since I’m Congolese it makes sense given that charity begins at home,” she explained.
Makosso’s successes helped her find several partners, including banks, energy companies, and international organizations. Her goal in the future is to make her association a key partner of women, helping them grow professionally and succeed as entrepreneurs.
Aïsha Moyouzame
In collaboration with Bertrand Dago and Terrence Kondou, Fabrice Koffi, MD of Dothan Group, has developed a simplified accounting application to revolutionize small businesses. The solution -Keiwa- has been successfully deployed in Côte d'Ivoire and is now targeting the entire continent.
Fabrice Koffi (pictured) holds a degree in accounting and has several years of experience in various consulting firms, as administrative and financial manager of Agritecno West Africa, and as partner and co-manager of Urim Thummim Conseil. With five years of experience in supporting Ivorian VSEs and SMEs, he decided to found his startup Dothan Group in 2017.
He teamed up with Bertrand Dago, a senior technician in electronic and computer systems, and Terrance Kondou, an engineer with a background in computer engineering, to create Keiwa. The solution is an accounting, financial management, and inventory management app that allows traders to manage their accounting easily.
The three young Ivorians share a common vision, which is to educate, support and empower informal sector entrepreneurs through simplified accounting.
The app was first launched in 2017 in Senegal before being rolled out in Côte d'Ivoire in 2020. It is designed to help African VSEs and SMEs track their daily operations, multi-site structures, as well as partners offering services to these companies. "The user can record his daily operations, manage his supply and have access to a clear activity report in real-time. Keiwa also enables remote monitoring of these activities and selective sharing of information with selected partners," according to information available on the Keiwa website.
In December 2017, the solution won the Coup de Cœur prize at the Societe Generale’s Pan-African Hackathon l'Arbre. Two years later, Keiwa was part of the second cohort of MTN Côte d'Ivoire's acceleration program, Y'ello Startup. In 2021, the startup joined the portfolio of I&P Acceleration Technologies, and benefits from financing and strategic support provided by the investment body and the team of Comoé Capital in Côte d'Ivoire.
Fabrice Koffi and his associates hope to make Keiwa a multinational company present in all countries of the African continent.
Aïsha Moyouzame
The fintech Maviance raises a new round of funding, less than a year after the last one, to pursue its expansion strategy. According to a Feb. 18 legal announcement, Finafrik Ltd, a private company based in London and specialized in the development of commercial software, has become a shareholder of Cameroonian fintech Maviance PLC. The latter is the owner of the digital payment platform Smobilpay.
Through this operation, the capital of Mavaince increases to CFA1.15 billion, up a little more than CFA140 million. This makes Finafrik a holder of 12.2% of the company's capital.
In May 2021, Maviance PLC had successfully closed a $3 million (about CFA1.6 billion) fundraising round with MFS Africa, a pan-African fintech operating the largest digital payments hub on the African continent. MFS Africa has become a "strategic investor" in Maviance, enabling it to finance its expansion across Cameroon and enter new Cemac markets.
Maviance claims it serves over 500,000 customers per month and connects key service providers, payment providers, financial institutions, and mobile money operators to its digital financial services platform.
Since January 2021, Nkwenti Leslie Azong-Wara has been serving as CEO for a three-year term. The engineer, who has a background in Siemens A.G., replaces Njinyam Setven Ngwa.
S.A.
The application was born out of the desire of the startup Nchimsy Teq to make Cameroon a top travel destination in the world. TourCmr showcases both sung and unsung places in the country.
The TourCmr app is a bilingual digital travel guide designed by the startup Nchimsy Teq, founded by Bryan Pemwoya Pangsui (pictured). Approved by the Ministry of Tourism and Leisure as an official tourism promotion app in Cameroon, the solution was officially launched on November 2, 2021. It features more than 150 tourist sites classified by cities and surroundings, in the ten regions of Cameroon, with descriptions, photos, and videos.
“This digital guide gives its users information about sites to visit across the country. Information is available about hotels, restaurants, and bus stations. The user can design their own tourist route with the app," explains Armand Noah, head of communication at the Ministry of Tourism and Leisure. Nchimsy Te worked with the ministry to develop the travel guide.
The app can work without the internet. It is downloadable on Play Store and App Store. In addition to tourist sites, TourCmr also allows visitors to find hotels, restaurants, banks, and supermarkets around the site they want to visit. Users can also book travel services and pay via mobile money. The "find the embassy" function provides tourists with information on all embassies in Cameroon, including contacts, location, and directions.
Nchimsy Teq aims to build the largest travel and booking platform for Cameroon. This will also stimulate domestic tourism as several tourist sites listed in the app are also unknown by Cameroonians. According to Bryan Pemwoya Pangsui, the travel app has already recorded over 9,000 downloads on Android and IOS.
Ruben Tchounyabe
The post-Covid economic recovery has increased competition in various industries, including air transportation. Only the most thriving businesses have a chance to remain profitable. To be part of this group, companies around the world, and mainly in Africa, have made digital transformation a priority. Air Senegal does not want to remain behind on the sidelines of this transformation. The airline signed a partnership with SmartKargo last February 16 to digitize its cargo service.
The deal will see Air Senegal deploy the SmartKargo solution in all functional areas of its cargo business, across its entire network of 22 destinations, including New York, Washington, and Paris, from its hub at Blaise Diagne International Airport.
The solution includes electronic air waybills (e-AWB), single screen data entries, user-configurable Business Intelligence (BI) and reporting, simple and more competitive pricing, and real-time capacity management. Ibrahima Kane, CEO of air Senegal, said: “the advanced SmartKargo platform will enable us to build and develop a new, modern and robust air cargo business. The fully digital solution is the best technology available and will propel Air Senegal forward by allowing us to grow our cargo business to its full potential.”
According to Air Senegal, the new platform will enable it to “transform its cargo business and successfully face the future with robust capabilities, cargo management solutions, and advanced technologies such as real-time information, business intelligence, and machine learning."
In its "passenger-it-insights-2020" report published in 2020, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) considered Covid-19 to be the most important stress test the airline industry has ever faced. IATA said a digital transformation was necessary for airlines to adapt to rapidly changing regulations, safety scenarios, and logistics.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Congolese entrepreneur Dana Endundo Ferreira (pictured) has developed an online platform that serves as a melting pot for art lovers across the world. The platform, Pavillon 54, is presented as the “go-to platform for discovering, buying, selling and understanding Modern and Contemporary African Art.”
She has long worked in the financial sector but said: “I wanted to do something I was passionate about and where I could best utilize my skills.” Dana Endundo Ferreira has a Master's in Business Administration obtained in 2012 from Columbia University in the US. She then went on to specialize in digital strategies and digital marketing in US companies. In 2018, she moved to the UK, where she worked as a consultant for a fintech with business aspirations in Africa. With her background, she decided to do something she was passionate about.
The daughter of two art lovers wanted to create the first leading platform dedicated to the development of Africa's arts and culture, by Africans, for Africans, and the world. To achieve such a feat, she adopted a 3C strategy (commercial, content & community). The commercial aspect naturally involves the various purchases of African works. She then intends to offer educational content to fill the information gap on African art with a well-researched blog and other resources; and finally, she organizes events that help create a strong community where African cultures are shared and celebrated. To date, some 40 renowned artists are listed on Pavilion 54, where they exhibit a variety of works ranging from paintings, photographs, and sculptures that sell for $1,000 to $10,000.
While the numbers are promising, Dana Endundo Ferreira deplores the lack of financial support and infrastructure for the arts in Africa, despite the industry's strong international potential. “We will also soon dedicate a space on our platform to present and offer more visibility to young artists who do not have formal representation in galleries or other exhibition opportunities, but demonstrate great talent and potential," she said.
Aïsha Moyouzame
Investment in African tech startups has gradually improved over the past five years. However, the tech industry on the continent has the potential to attract much more. In its "Supercharging Africa's Startups: The Continent's Path to Tech Excellence" study released February 15, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change estimates that African startups could raise more than $90 billion by 2030. To do this, the institute suggests 10 steps to follow:
- Establish a public data-sharing platform for tech startups
- Develop innovative financing vehicles
- Unleash capital from institutional and corporate investors
- Create a single digital market by prioritizing implementation of the AfCFTA
- Generate demand for local tech solutions
- Implement legislation to support tech startups and seek their regular feedback
- Improve digital skills
- Strengthen digital infrastructure
- Boost the capability of startups and support organizations
- Launch a “pan-African Startup Network”
The document found that “pre-pandemic, 22% of the working-age population had set up their own businesses. However, cumbersome regulations, the digital-skills gap, limited funding, and fragmented markets mean that Africa accounts for just 0.2% of the value of global startups.”
Although investment in African tech startups is still low compared to other regions, it has still seen a sharp increase over the past four years. In its "Africa's Investment Report 2021," Briter Bridge revealed that the amount reached $4.9 billion in 2021, 243% higher than 2020.
The "Lions go digital: The Internet's transformative potential in Africa" report by the McKinsey Global Institute estimated that the digital economy would contribute $300 billion to Africa's GDP by 2025, providing much-needed jobs on a continent where there are three to four times more people entering the labor market than actual jobs created. A favorable ecosystem for startups in Africa could make them future job providers for the youth who are increasingly becoming fans of technology.
Muriel Edjo
Two years after securing its first seed funding, Wasla announced a larger equity investment to finance its expansion in Egypt and beyond.
Egyptian e-commerce platform Wasla has closed a $9 million equity financing from non-bank financial services provider Contact Financial Holding to expand its payment solutions. The company, co-founded in 2018 by two Rocket Internet alumni and investment banker Mahmoud El Said (pictured, right), plans to include "buy now and pay later" financing options, as well as online payment capabilities, to its current offering. The startup also wants to enter Nigeria, the largest economy and most populous country in Africa.
“It’s a huge market at the end of the day, you have roughly 250 million people. They’re very technologically advanced, and their adoption of e-commerce is quite good. It’s quite the right market. There’s all the infrastructure that you kind of need to set up a proper tech business. In terms of maturity within the tech ecosystem, Nigeria is probably one of the best markets in Africa, competing directly with Egypt, South Africa, and a couple of others,” said Mahmoud El Said.
In addition to financial support, Contact Financial Holding will bring its experience in the technology and consumer credit sectors to Wasla, enabling it to expand financing opportunities for its customers. In December 2021, Sherif Makhlouf, managing director of consulting firm Boost, reported that e-commerce transactions in Egypt reached the equivalent of $5 billion in 2021.
As a reminder, in December 2019, Wasla raised $1 million in seed funding to strengthen its working team and develop new financial products.
Chamberline Moko
Since coming into power in 2019, Felix Tshisekedi has made the digital sector a tool for growth in the DRC. The Digital sector has been used to support the various economic sectors and is now being used to restore the country's brand image at the national and international levels.
The various ministries, presidency departments, and other public institutions of the Democratic Republic of Congo now have a digital platform where they can officially communicate. The portal www.republique.cd was officially launched last February 14 by Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde Kyenge (pictured).
The new website will help harmonize government communication, authenticate information, and fight against fake news. It is touted as the "digital gateway" of the DRC. According to the Minister of Digital Affairs, Désiré Cashmir Eberande Kolongele, the platform will centralize all official information - meeting minutes, report publications, activity announcements, etc. – so that they are easily accessible to Internet users. Currently, DRC has more than fifty ministries, plus large administrative departments. Many of them do not have an Internet presence, which often makes it difficult to authenticate the information from them.
"I wanted to invite the various public administrations, starting obviously with the ministries, the services of the presidency, and other institutions to use this portal and bring reliable information. We aim to give people first-hand and true information through this portal," said the Minister of Digital Affairs.
The project is part of the sectoral digital policy adopted by the government when it was creating the dedicated ministry on April 26, 2021. One of the components of this policy is to build “the brand image of the Republic and ensure visibility at the international level.”
The government also plans to adopt a state brand through a common visual identity for all websites of ministries and public institutions. Twitter accounts will also be opened and certified for all government entities.
Adoni Conrad Quenum
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Earnipay, which launched as a pilot last September, has already attracted the interest of investors. The fintech aims to reach nearly 200,000 employees with its flexible, on-demand payroll service by the end of 2022.
Earnipay, the Nigerian fintech that offers employees flexible and regular access to their salaries, has secured $4 million in pre-seed funding to accelerate its business in the country.
“Earnipay has quickly established itself with a product built specifically for the payroll behaviors of this region, and early employer uptake is very strong. Nonso (the MD, ed) has built one of the strongest teams that we’ve met on the entire continent, and we’re thrilled for the opportunity to partner with them,” said Brendan Dickinson, general partner at Canaan, the VC firm that led the deal.
After he faced employee departures due to the monthly payroll system instituted at his first-ever plastic waste recycling company, which launched in 2019 in Ghana, Nonso Onwuzulike decided to revamp that payment method by offering a more regular and flexible employee payroll system as part of a new business venture in Nigeria.
Earnipay, which was only launched on a trial basis last September, claims to have served employees of about 20 companies in Nigeria to date. Its app has been used more than 1,000 times. Confident in its growth prospects, Earnipay aims to offer its flexible, on-demand salary access service to at least 200,000 employees by the end of this year.
In Nigeria, salaries for employees in the formal sector are paid monthly, while those in the informal sector are paid daily, according to several local media. Short of cash between paychecks, employees have no other option than to borrow or to ask for an advance on their salary with sometimes high-interest rates. Earnipay's solution is therefore a relief for these employees.
Chamberline Moko
He is the founder of Insightiv, an AI and Teleradiology startup dedicated to improving medical imaging in Rwandan hospitals. The AI/ML engineer recently raised funds from the HealthTech Hub Africa and hopes to soon collaborate with Rwanda’s public health system.
In 2009, Audace Nakeshimana (picture) founded Insightiv, an AI and teleradiology startup. At the time, he was studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US. Besides being the founder and executive director of Insightiv, the Rwandan is also, since September 2020, a Machine Learning engineer at Apple. Setting up his business in Rwanda was motivated by the desire to involve local talent in technological development and his ambition to tackle African challenges.
Insightiv’s purpose is to provide easier access to medical imaging diagnostics. “Growing up, we heard stories about people who were sick and [didn’t] know what [they] had. Then that person [would come] home [and] they eventually die. It happens to a lot of people, especially in Africa - my grandma being one of them and actually one of my aunts. … If you really look at it, a lot of people die because of limited diagnostics,” Nakeshimana said.
Insightiv is developing advanced technology to help radiologists detect life-threatening diseases faster, by making medical imaging timely and accessible. The solution provides tools based on various image viewing modalities, giving medical imaging specialists access to a wide range of tools for better analysis. It allows them to create and submit reports using a single platform. As a cloud-based system, the Insightiv Diagnostics platform helps healthcare personnel focus on patient care rather than technical issues.
In 2020, Audace Nakeshimana was a finalist in the PKG Center's IDEAS Social Innovation Challenge, receiving $16,000 in funding. That same year, in December, he won the HealthTech Hub Africa competition and was awarded $30,000. The entrepreneur plans to use the funding to improve his service and reach out to legislators to collaborate with the public health system.
A decade from now, he plans to reach 10% of the Rwandan population with his rapid diagnostics solution.
"If you look today, the current health care system only has the capacity to diagnose about 200,000 to 300,000 patients [...] We think that if a private organization like Insightiv can take care of 10% of the population, that means we would be doing more than the national health care system is doing today. That's an ambitious, but realistic goal," the engineer claims.
Aïsha Moyouzame
Africans need good access to the internet to contribute to the digital economy. Well aware of this challenge, Orange has, over the past five years, increased its investments in network coverage on the continent.
Telecom group Orange and Sonatel, its Senegalese subsidiary, announced on February 16, 2022, their partnership with the Luxembourg-based satellite telecom services provider SES to expand broadband connectivity in Africa. In this framework, Orange and Sonatel will deploy and manage SES' O3b mPower gateway on the continent. O3b mPower, a next-generation medium earth orbit satellite communications system, will be deployed in Senegal at Sonatel's teleport site in Gandoul, and other local satellite sites.
Jean-Luc Vuillemin (photo), director of international networks at Orange, explained that the partnership with SES stems from Orange’s conviction that “satellite remains a technology of the future and that the recent innovations it has been experiencing will surely reinforce its position in the telecommunications industry, in Africa but also other regions with more developed infrastructure like Europe or North America.”
Demand for high-speed internet in Africa has gone up significantly since 2020. This demand was mainly driven by the Covid-19 pandemic which sped up the digitization of several services, as well as changed data consumption habits. However, despite a greater demand, the network coverage in Africa is still low - in rural areas especially. In 2021, the penetration rate for mobile Internet on the continent was 28%, according to the GSMA. The latter also reports that 206 million sub-Saharan Africans have no access to a mobile network; this is out of a population of 1,084 million in the region.
For Jean-Luc Vuillemin, the collaboration with SES “will play a key role in Orange’s mission to build intelligent and open networks that will help make digital technologies more accessible and used by as many people as possible.”
Adoni Conrad Quenum
Launched only one year ago, this startup has already established a large network of more than 10,000 grocers, to whom it offers discounts on major brand products. Its goal is to expand its network over the next few years.
WafR is a Moroccan startup that helps buyers and grocers get discounts on products from department stores and supermarkets. Currently, over 10,000 grocers are part of the startup’s customer network - a number it seeks to increase to 50,000 a few years from now.
To meet its ambitions, WafR recently raised 3.5 million dirhams ($374,000). While disclosing the news on February 16, 2022, the startup said the operation’s proceeds would mostly be used to expand its network of grocers, speeding up its growth as well in the process.
“After the 300,000 dirhams commitment we first secured, many other investors showed interest in WafR and joined the funding round. As a result, we raised 3.5 million dirhams and our valuation reached 30 million dirhams,” commented Ismail Bargach (photo), WafR's co-founder, after the fundraising.
According to WafR’s estimates, in Morocco, grocery stores capture 85% of sales while department stores and supermarkets get the remaining 15%. To balance these statistics is the startup’s main mission: encourage more grocers to turn to the products of department stores and supermarkets.
Chamberline Moko