Paratus has unveiled plans to open its new data centre in the heart of Lusaka, Zambia. This new purpose-built facility is expected to enable businesses to store and access their most vital asset, their data, at any time (24/7) in a secure and world-class 3-tier equivalent data centre.
Paratus Zambia MD, Marius van Vuuren
The 1-megawatt (MW) facility will leverage the latest physical and virtual security to ensure the secure storage, protection, and management of data. The data centre will also offer businesses modern-age cloud computing that will help businesses not only enhance operational efficiencies but help cut IT capital and operating costs that come with on-premise data storage and management.
Paratus Zambia MD, Marius van Vuuren says, “we are demonstrating our commitment to deliver the best quality services within an ever-growing and transforming ITC sector. We are raising the bar with our investment in infrastructure and with this ultra-modern facility – because while there are other data centres, none are of this quality, standard and capacity in Zambia”.
According to van Vuuren, the Paratus Data Centre is not only a much-needed addition to the Zambian ICT sector but a necessary investment that will help raise the standard and quality of available Tech services in the country. The data centre will be near completion towards the beginning of July 2021.
Van Vuuren concludes, “the Paratus data centre is a milestone for Zambia and surrounding countries and marks the dawn of a new technological era for Zambian business. Any future-proof businesses should not entrust all its data and essential systems with one provider. They need greater diversity to spread risk and ensure business continuity and that is where we come in. it’s time to think big about data and be part of Zambia’s quality network.”
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
The Microsoft AI for Accessibility Grants program is calling for project proposals that will drive AI-based innovations in education and promote equity for students with disabilities. The AI for Accessibility Grants program is a call to action for developers, NGOs, academics, institutions, and tech startups who are willing to co-design AI-powered projects and products with students, parents, and teachers with disabilities, thereby creating an equal playing field within the education ecosystem.
The Microsoft AI for Accessibility Grants program
The initiative aims to support projects that leverage AI to empower people living with disabilities as well as invest in innovative ideas that are developed by or with people with disabilities. Being a global program, grant applications from all countries in the world are invited.
In addition to Azure compute credits worth $10,000, $15,000, or $20,000 (depending on the project, its scope, and needs), these grants cover costs related to collecting or labeling data, developing models, or other engineering-related work. Applications are evaluated on their scientific merit, innovative use of AI technology, and potential for scalability.
The community of AI for Accessibility grantees also stands to receive Azure developer support, resources, and opportunities to collaborate and showcase their work.
Applicants’ project proposal is expected to describe the accessibility challenge addressed, the technical solution proposed, and its potential impact on people with disabilities. Please follow the application form and be as specific as possible. Review the proposal requirements document for further information. Moreso, those that do not meet all the requirements are advised to connect to someone in their community who can support them and partner on an application.
proposals are accepted on a rolling basis and reviewed a few times a year. The next deadline is Friday, July 30, 2021.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
Payflex, a Johannesburg-based payment solutions provider, has received significant international investment from Zip Co, an Australian-listed multinational fintech firm. Payflex CEO and founder Paul Behrmann says Zip Co’s undisclosed investment and support is a vote of confidence in local fintech innovation and will open up more market opportunities for the start-up.
Payflex CEO and founder Paul Behrmann
“Although Zip was launched in Australia, it has expanded into the US, Britain and New Zealand. With a leader in the buy now pay later space investing in Payflex from inception, we have the financial muscle to expand our footprint and provide merchants with comfort that the company they are dealing with has solid financial backing,” saysBehrmann.
Here Is What You Need To Know
Zip Co, a buy now pay later fintech firm with a market cap of more than R55 billion, has a long-standing partnership with the Johannesburg-based start-up.
Payflex localized the best features of its solutions in the buy now pay later space after partnering with ZipCo Australia, which has over 6.4 million customers.
Payflex, which was launched in 2019 in collaboration with Superbalist, allows consumers to make purchases from over 650 online merchants on the Payflex digital mall and pay later, interest-free. The payments are divided into four interest-free installments.
According to Payflex, COVID-19 has accelerated the growth of SA’s e-commerce sector, with local online retail expected to surpass R62 billion ($4.3m) this year, nearly 4.5 times the R14 billion ($984k) figure in 2018.
Customers, according to the startup, will find the buy now, pay later process simple and quick. It entails a quick assessment, and customers only pay a fee if they miss a scheduled instalment.
According to the company, merchants who accept Payflex as a payment option report higher order values of purchases by up to 70%. They’ve also seen sales increases of up to 30% and repurchase rates of up to 70%.
“Most importantly for merchants, transactions are settled daily directly into their bank accounts. Once the transaction is approved, the merchant is guaranteed payment, putting an end to the e-commerce problem of credit card chargebacks,” adds Behrmann.
When partnering with Payflex, merchants pay no setup fees and only pay transaction fees on successful orders.
COVID-19 has fundamentally changed the rules of retail, according to Behrmann, with increased competition, rapidly changing customer expectations, and the emergence of new technologies.
“Consumers will continue to demand greater personalisation and convenience, simple payment methods and more control over their finances, so merchants need to ensure online shopping is part of their growth strategy,” he points out.
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions. He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance. He is also an award-winning writer
Lawtrust, the subsidiary of the South African digital technology group Etion, has been acquired for 245 million rand ($17.1 million) by Altron, a South African information technology integrator.
“The acquisition of Lawtrust positions Altron Security as a one-stop shop for everything related to digital and information security,” said Mteto Nyati (photo), Chief Executive Officer of Altron Group.
Mteto Nyati (photo) is Chief Executive Officer of Altron Group.
Here Is What You Need To Know
The takeover operation, which is conditional on the approval of the Competition Commission, should enable Altron, listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, to strengthen its position in the security sector, which it considers a growth area on the continent.
In 2019, Altron acquired Ubusha Technologies, a digital security company specializing in identity management.
The “great deal” enabled Altron to accelerate the digital transformation of its customers due to Covid-19.
Lawtrust, which provides its services to more than 500 clients, is considered one of the leading cybersecurity and information security companies in South Africa.
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions. He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance. He is also an award-winning writer
Africa’s leading telecoms company MTN has slashed its prepaid data prices in South Africa reducing the cost of 10GB of data (including another 10GB for use at certain times of the night) to R149. The new MTN BozzaGigs LTE tariff plan also offers 10GB (5GB plus 5GB night-time data) for R99 and comes a week after Vodacom cut headline prepaid data prices, with 1GB of data falling to R85 from R99 previously.
MTN
The new MTN deals have a validity period of 30 days. Prepaid customers will have to move to the BozzaGigs LTE plan before they can take advantage of the prices.
“Migrations to the new BozzaGigs are only allowed on new starter packs in the first 30 days from date of activation,” the company explained. The new plan will be launched to consumers on Wednesday.
In addition to the 10GB and 20GB plans, MTN is also offering a 15GB (7.5GB plus 7.5GB) plan for R129, also with 30-day validity from purchase.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
The United Kingdom has narrowed down countries classified as safe for travel this summer to eight. In a new report being expected from the British Government, there is the likelihood that only eight countries may be declared safe for foreign holidays abroad, this summer. The report written by Robert Boyle, former BA strategy chief, and circulated in the travel industry suggests that most of continental Europe will be classified as “amber” or “red” – this means quarantine will be required for anyone arriving in the UK from those locations.
Ireland, Iceland, the USA and Malta could all be placed on the green list for foreign travel, under the traffic light system – along with Israel, Australia, New Zealand and the British overseas territory of Gibraltar.
Both Australia and New Zealand are closed to foreign tourists currently, which mean in real terms there may only be six destinations. Also, going abroad on holiday in England is illegal – rules are set to be relaxed from May 17 if the roadmap out of the lockdown continues as planned.
People arriving from countries listed as “red” would be required to quarantine at a hotel at a cost of £1,750 when they return to England. Arrival would only be allowed through designated ports-of-entry including London’s Heathrow Airport.
The Netherlands, France, Turkey, Croatia, Sweden, Belgium and Luxembourg should be “red” under the criteria, researchers found, but this is unlikely to happen for political reasons, the report stated.
Countries classified as “amber” will require people to quarantine at home for 10 days after their arrival.
Due to high Covid-19 rates in Spain, Greece, Italy, and Cyprus, they are likely to be classed as “amber” – but it is possible that islands will be given their own rating. The report said: “Last year, the Spanish and Greek islands were given a lower risk rating than the mainland, and that could happen again this year.”
Only five countries have vaccinated more than five percent of their population – the US, Israel, Gibraltar, the UAE and Malta – while only seven have less than 50 cases per million people. These are China, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Iceland and Gibraltar. Variant rates are worst in Turkey, Luxembourg, France, Finland, Belgium, Holland and South Africa.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
Leading Africa-focused venture capital (VC) firm Atlantica Ventures has raised a US$50 million fund that will invest in tech and tech-enabled businesses from seed stage onwards.
Atlantica Ventures which was founded in 2019 by Aniko Szigetvari and Ik Kanu, who have previously worked for the likes of IFC, Helios and Convergence and have extensive angel investing experience, Atlantica Ventures counts among its portfolio the likes of Paystack, recently acquired by Stripe, and Sendy.
Aniko Szigetvari, cofounder, Atlantica Ventures
With this new US$50 million pan-African VC fund, it has already invested in Nigerian startups Curacel and OnePipe, is financed by development financial institutions, a US fund of funds, and various high net worth individuals, and will invest in tech and tech-enabled businesses at seed stage.
Primary target markets are Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Tanzania, which between them represent 60 percent of Africa’s GDP, while it is focused on fintech, logistics, agri-tech, digital security, IoT, and B2B marketplaces.
“These are significant contributors to the target markets’ GDPs and are interlinked, allowing for value chain/platform investing,” Kanu said. “These sectors also exhibit some recession fluidity, and are aligned with the future-of-work. COVID-19 has accelerated the adoption of technology across our target markets, and these sectors have been pivotal to the economies.”
Atlantica Ventures encourages portfolio companies to work with each other to maximise value. Its African and global networks also facilitate these companies to scale faster to other markets and regions.
“We invest from seed to Series B rounds with a data-driven approach for investment opportunity evaluation and portfolio management. These startups are solving essential local problems and have demonstrated product market fit with the ability to scale globally,” Kanu was quoted as saying.
“Atlantica Ventures becomes a mentor and partner to the startup, not just an investor. The partners have deep experience in investing and supporting companies from early stage to growth, and also turnarounds. The support is not just from an investment standpoint, but also hands-on operational.”
Kanu said African entrepreneurs face “access” challenges – access to capital, access to markets, access to strategic partners, and access to knowledge – with access to capital and knowledge being at the forefront of these challenges.
“Atlantica Ventures partners have relationships with global investors, sector players in other markets (small to large), and development financial institutions to help solve these access challenges. Being able to provide knowledge access to advisors and comparable companies in non-competing markets helps entrepreneurs build for global scale and avoid typical pitfalls that have stumped other founders,” he said.
Often, the problems African entrepreneurs solve are present in other emerging, and even developed, markets.
“To compete and penetrate outside the core market, the product-market-channel fit needs to be evaluated and complimented as necessary. For example, the process flows in a particular market may need a new product feature, a new partnership will need to be established, and the route-to-market via different channels will need to be built,” said Kanu.
“The entrepreneur has to evaluate the company’s internal capabilities, determine what to enhance, and determine the right time to expand. We have seen and helped companies, such as Migo Money, in our portfolio expand to other countries and regions, and that is a key part of our growth strategy for the startups.”
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
Okra, a Nigerian API fintech startup, has raised $3.5 million in a seed round from a diverse group of international investors. It previously raised $1 million in a pre-seed round in 2020.
“We want to ensure that we’re solving our customers’ problems as fast as possible and give the clients the support they need. We want to make sure our hiring speed is the same as the speed of our growth and I think being able to raise capital is one of the solvers of that problem… making sure we’re bringing great talent and building a great team,” said Ashiru Jituboh, CEO of Okra.
Ashiru Jituboh, CEO of Okra
Here Is What You Need To Know
Susa Ventures, based in the United States, led the seed round, which included early VC investments in global companies such as Robinhood and Flexport. Its investment in Okra is its second in an African startup, following Andela.
TLcom Capital, which was the sole investor in the company’s initial pre-seed round, Accenture Ventures, a Fortune Global 500 company, and some angel investors are among the other investors in the round.
The money will be used to develop the company’s data infrastructure across Nigeria, and a significant portion of it will, also, go into talent acquisition.
There seems to be a lot of reasons why TLcom Capital and other investors settled for the startup. Although TLcom’s managing partner, Maurizio Caio, had in 2019 hinted that TLcom was steering more toward investments in infrastructure oriented tech companies and away from Africa’s more commoditized payments and lending startups, the VC firm said it was attracted to Okra for its ability to serve the continent’s broader financial sector.
“It’s a service that other fintechs can plug into and utilize, so it’s accelerating the growth of fintech across the continent…That to us was a big hook,” TLcom’s Andreata Muforo said in an interview last year.
Another major factor that might have attracted the VC to the startup is its co-founder Fara Ashiru Jituboh.
“We found her to be very strong and also liked the fact that she’s a technical founder,” said Muforo.
Again, the coming back of TLcom to invest in the startup after solely investing $1m in its pre-seed round in 2020 is tell-tale of the startup’s continued growth.
The company claims to have logged over 150,000 live API calls, with a 281 percent increase in API calls month over month. It also said it has analysed over 20 million transactions, analyzing over 5.5 million transactions in the last month alone.
Susa Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm investing primarily in seed rounds. The firm was founded in October 2013 and is headquartered in San Francisco, United States. The VC closed two new funds in January 2019, including a $90 million early-stage fund — its third flagship fund — and the first opportunity fund, to which investors contributed $50 million.
Accenture Ventures is Accenture’s corporate venture capital arm, and it prefers to invest in growth-stage companies that use an open innovation strategy to develop new business technologies. Based in the United States, the VC invests mostly in artificial intelligence, big data, blockchain and cybersecurity.
How Startup Okra Works
A Look, In Simple Terms, Of What Startup Okra Does
Okra, a motherboard for Africa’s 21st century financial system, was founded in June 2019 by Nigerians Fara Ashiru Jituboh and David Peterside. You can link all your African bank accounts to an app using the Okra app.
“We are building the industry’s “super-connector” by creating a secure portal and process to exchange financial information back and forth between customer, applications, and banks,” the startup says on its website.
Nigeria is Africa’s largest financial center, with a population of 200 million people, but there is still a disconnect between fintech apps and banks, according to Okra’s Ashiru Jituboh.
“Here in this market there’s no way to directly connect your bank account through an API or directly to an application,” she said.
Okra sells multiple paid integration packages and makes the code for its five product categories — authorization, balance, purchases, identity, and accounts — available to developers.
Okra already has a diverse client list that includes PalmPay, a mobile payments startup, Axa Mansard, and Renmoney, a Nigerian digital lender.
According to Ashiru Jituboh, the startup earns money from product fees and each time a user links a bank account to a client.
“The response is we’re not doing payments, but what we’re doing is making processes with [payment providers] much smoother,” she said when asked how Okra varies from other well-funded fintech companies in Nigeria, such as Flutterwave or Interswitch.
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions. He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance. He is also an award-winning writer
Ghanaian healthcare startup mPharma has highlighted its role in helping the governments receives and handle the COVID-19 vaccines. This announcement made mPharma the first company to do this in Ghana and possibly Africa. In African countries, the procurement process for vaccines has typically been the sole responsibility of the government. This announcement raised questions on why and how mPharma were involved.
mPharma CEO Gregory Rockson
According to mPharma CEO Gregory Rockson, “we started by looking at how to improve the testing process, about 40% of healthcare delivery takes place in the private healthcare sector so while the testing was being done for free by the government, it was clear the government couldn’t do this alone.”
To help support the testing process, mPharma established a $3 million molecular diagnostic fund. The purpose of this fund was to invest in private hospitals in Ghana and Nigeria, helping to equip their existing laboratories with necessary molecular diagnostic equipment to test for COVID-19.
“The biggest gap we saw at the beginning of the pandemic was that our laboratory infrastructure did not have a diagnostic capability. Beyond testing for COVID, most molecular diagnostic work was not happening in Ghana. For example tests like the HPV DNA test and hepatitis viral test only took place in the public sector,” he said.
mPharma created a risk-sharing agreement where the necessary equipment was given to the companies at no cost and no liability to pay back. In exchange, a revenue split was agreed upon for every test done using the equipment.
“So if we provided the equipment and the private hospitals made zero revenue, we got nothing. Back then the government was testing everyone for free. In February, in response to the decision we made, people were saying, are we really going to have people pay for the COVID test when the government is doing it for free. Now everyone goes to private labs,” he said.
When the second wave of the pandemic hit, over 60% of all COVID tests done in Ghana were done on the infrastructure that mPharma built in the private hospitals according to Rockson. He pointed out that before these labs were equipped, the cost of an HPV DNA test for cervical cancer was $80. This was because the samples had to be taken to South Africa for two weeks and the results sent back but today the cost of that test is $30.
The success of the $3 million molecular diagnostic fund showed that a public-private partnership could work. While still a bit reluctant to get into another public-private partnership, in November, when it became clear from different reports that the vaccination process was at risk of failing because of the lack of funding, mPharma saw another gap to be filled.
“For example, Ghana would need over $200 million to be able to vaccinate about 70% of its population and that’s just for year one. What happens if COVID becomes endemic? What if every year we need booster shots? What happens with all these new variants that are coming up,” he said.
Those were some of the questions that spurred Rockson and his team to get involved in the vaccination process. Fortunately for mPharma, many business leaders were uncomfortable waiting for the government. The unexpected outbreak of the coronavirus meant that businesses incurred high costs in their race to keep their employees safe and productive. Some industries were more adversely affected than others; for example, factory workers weren’t able to work in large numbers anymore. And oil rig workers were forced to quarantine for two weeks before they could return to their desks.
A consortium made up of all banks, telecommunication companies, and some FMCG and oil companies in Ghana decided they would fund the vaccination of their employees. Beyond paying for only their employees, the consortium also agreed to match the number of employees they vaccinated by giving the same number of free doses to the government.
When the first batch of doses arrived in Ghana, mPharma and the consortium agreed to give all the doses to the government for vaccinating health workers. Putting the public interest before theirs.
Unlike the molecular fund which brought financial returns for mPharma, Rockson said the vaccination program was done as a contribution to society without any financial gains. He expects that mPharma would be able to build some relationships and credibility with companies and communities through this program.
For mPharma, which has a presence in eight sub-Saharan African countries, Rockson hopes that this framework which has proven to be successful in Ghana would be adopted in other countries to increase financing capacity for more vaccination.
“We need to think of how we can mobilise domestic financing in a period where several countries’ budgets are under severe strain because of the pandemic. If the government uses all its funds to buy COVID vaccines, what are they going to use to improve the education sector or to build roads?”
“We need to remember that ‘free’ is not a strategy,” he added.
While 45 African countries have received vaccines and 43 have started the vaccination process, less than 2% of Africans have been vaccinated. Compared to over 60% in other major economies, it shows that there’s still more ground to be covered. The framework mPharma has introduced might be the missing link in accelerating vaccination in Africa.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
Barely a year after procuring Ghana’s first everDedicated Electronic Money Issuers (DEMI) license, financial services company Zeepay has acquired 51% stake in its Zambian counterpart, Mangwee Mobile Money, which is also involved in the provision of financial and payment services.
Zeepay, which is present in Africa and the United Kingdom, will become the majority shareholder of Mangwee, which was set up in 2018 to facilitate mobile payment operations for the benefit of students.
The acquisition of Mangwee is strategic and opens the South African corridor to Zeepay. This will give the startup access to Mozambique, Malawi, Angola and Namibia, among others.
“We will continue our efforts to capture the $70 billion remittance market in Africa and seize this opportunity to deploy our products,” said Andrew Takyi-Appiah (photo), co-founder and CEO of Zeepay.
The decision to invest in Mangwee is part of Zeepay’s Africa-wide expansion strategy. It is working to expand its footprint on the continent to better serve its customers and reduce the cost of remittances in Africa.
Earlier this year, Zeepay announced its intention to continue its activities in South Africa and Rwanda, and was seeking $10 million to support its development project.
In 2020, it processed 2.4 million transactions valued at $400 million in 10 African markets. Fintech hopes to double its transactions in 2021. As part of this buy-back operation, South Africa’s Verdant Capital acted as counsel on mergers and acquisitions of Zeepay.
In 2019, before the coronavirus shawled the world, Nigeria was Africa’s largest recipient of remittance flows with $23.8 billion followed by Ghana($3.5 billion), with Kenya receiving $2.8 billion, even though Ghana is the 14th most populated country in Africa, behind countries like Egypt, South Africa, etc.
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions. He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance. He is also an award-winning writer
