The world woke to unusual images on their television screens last week with looting, vandalism and rioting portrayed on the streets of the Senegalese capital. The worst civil unrest in Senegal in decades was short-lived, but has left a distinct mark on the country’s international image.
NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber, CEO of pan-African corporate law conglomerate Centurion Law Group
After all, Senegal has presented itself as the shining star of West Africa in recent years. In addition to the country being an oil and gas hub spot, Senegal is also a center for renewable energy investment, business development, and for galvanizing growth in sectors such as tourism and fishing. Accordingly, it is not surprising that images of burning cars and stone-throwing protestors caused concern, particularly when they are followed by shots of destroyed supermarkets and fuel stations, all of which are symbols of well-established foreign companies in Senegal. It is curious that a story about a political leader being taken to court on rape charges who is then arrested for inciting civil unrest translated into violence against foreign companies. Curious and concerning, that popular dissatisfaction be directed in this manner: to undermine businesses and wealth-generating enterprises.
Senegal is undergoing a veritable economic revolution that has the power to lift millions out of poverty and provide jobs, wealth and prosperity for the whole nation. Through the exploitation of its energy resources, both renewable and non-renewable, Senegal is witnessing a renaissance that will open a myriad of new development opportunities, power the country and offer the next generation of youth choices that no Senegalese has had in the past. However, for this potential to be fulfilled, the country needs foreign investment, know-how, training, skill-transfer and, above all, stability. No foreign company is interested in investing in a destination where its offices are at risk of being vandalized every time an opposition leader is unwilling to face the country’s legal system and uses social fears to distract the public debate.
President Macky Sall has done a tremendous job in attracting investors and opening opportunities in the Senegalese market in which business is already producing jobs, wealth and growth in the economy, particularly through the country’s vast energy resources. These efforts must be supported by all and maintained through a stable, business-friendly and transparent environment.
If we turn on ourselves through violence to express our grievances, we will end up driving away the very opportunities to address the problems behind those grievances, be it poverty, unemployment, social inequality or access to education. We need to stand together behind the political leaders that are driving our country and our continent forward, and support those companies that are developing our resources so that together we can create value, jobs and wealth for all.
NJ Ayuk is the Executive Chairman, African Energy Chamber
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 new normal as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic which has forced people from all over the world to embrace remote working has seen billions of people working from home, which means video conferencing apps have exploded in popularity. At the forefront is the service Zoom. However, with Zoom’s explosive popularity came a series of highly publicized security issues. According to Gabe Goldhirsh, Vice President, MEA at digital risk protection company, ZeroFOX, Zoom administrators are responsible for establishing security parameters that affect internal employees as well as any external parties that may join the organization’s Zoom meetings. To keep hackers off your Zoom meetings, Goldhirsh suggests the following five steps to take:
Zoom Meeting
Enable password requirements for all remote meetings whenever possible within the tool. Password enforcement at the administrative level is a primary requirement for risk mitigation and protection of the business.
The future of meetings and virtual group hangouts going in 2021
Despite progress toward pandemic control, Goldhirsh believes remote work is here to stay. Most likely, organisations will adopt hybrid work models (some time spent remote, some time in office) that will challenge security teams to ‘control’ the fluid work environment. This will further increase cloud/SaaS adoption, allowing attackers to have near equal access to employees, customers and stakeholders.
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
JD Group, one of South Africa’s most recognisable conglomerates with brands such as HiFi Corp, Incredible Connection, Bradlows and Russels has taken the plunge into the waters of e-commerce with the launching of a new platform tagged Everystore. It is officially South Africa’s newest eCommerce platform. “With the support of our existing retail businesses we have partnered with some of South Africa’s most well-known and loved brands across a number of industries including specialist electronics & appliances, furniture, fashion, footwear and DIY to deliver true value to the South African shopper through the launch of a new online retailer,” says Everyshop.
JD Group
Today, the site offers more than 500 brands, in 10 main categories – entertainment, fashion, health and beauty, perfect home, work and study, projects and DIY, lifestyle and leisure, fitness, cellular, and kid’s world. Everyshop also features brands like Sony, HP, Acer, Apple, Canon, Dell, Epson, Garmin, Hisense, Huawei, JBL, LG, Samsung, Pioneer and Xbox.
According to Business Tech, Everyshop offers delivery throughout South Africa and “will be made from Monday to Friday (excluding public holidays), subject to payment and order confirmation before 12:00”.
Shoppers can use a number of different payment options, including “debit, credit, and cheque cards, Maestro and VISA Electron debit cards, Discovery Miles, Visa Checkout, MasterPass, Call Pay, PayU Wallet, and Everyshop gift cards”.
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
Iyinoluwa Aboyeji had no interests in technology and had no interests in business. Where he lived, near Simcoe St, Oshawa around the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, he had just one focus: to complete his legal studies and take up a job with the United Nations or become a career politician. But then, a stranger was in his way, baggage in hand, staring at him on a heavy afternoon. The stranger had just made it to Ontario, and was looking for where to stay, at least for a night. At first, Aboyeji thought this must be a joke: the stranger had long hair and was white. However, what followed was Pierre Arys ending up staying up to a year, before heading towards Silicon Valley for his cooperative education term. And what remained was an upturned man.
Co-founder of Andela and Flutterwave, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji
“He told me about this amazing world of Silicon Valley, tech and investments, and I was sold,” Aboyeji said, in a recent interview with Forbes.
Last week, after so many years of meeting Pierre Arys, Aboyeji turned in a Unicorn — not some rare, venerated white horse, but a continental payments Behemoth now valued at more than $1bn.
To be specific, according to news sources, Flutterwave, a payments company Aboyeji co-founded towards the tail end of 2016 (precisely December 1, 2016 in Nigeria), has raised a record-shattering $170m, putting it at a valuation of more than $1bn and by industry standards, a Unicorn.
It’s been a five-year journey for Flutterwave. Source: afrikanheroes.com
While Flutterwave’s feat continues to make waves across Africa and beyond, we look at the lessons to be gleaned from the startup’s successful journey to a billion dollar company.
Solving A Continent-wide Problem In A Record Time
Flutterwave’s co-founders understood that although they were not the first in the industry they were about to confront, they needed to bring a major difference to the existing solutions. At the time they came, there was already, for instance, the Nairobi-based Cellulant doing exactly what they were about to do.
In fact, a year after Flutterwave raised $10m Series A in 2017, Cellulant proceeded to raise $47.5m from heavy weight investor TPG Growth’s The Rise Fund.
The funding, even though the company had other businesses at the time, was solely for one purpose — to scale digital payments across Africa.
And even before the funding, Cellulant already had presence in several African countries, including Ghana, Botswana, Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, among others.
Flutterwave would only later, buoyed by its $10m and $10m raises in 2017 and 2018 respectively, launch operations in Kenya, Uganda and a few other countries.
Suffice it to say that Flutterwave knew from the outset — unlike Cellulant which kept on test-rolling different services, from napkin to telecom, to agriculture — the problem it was out to solve.
The startup also had a big sketch of a solution that would not only begin and end in Nigeria — it launched operations almost immediately at the time it was founded across Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda, the last two being homes to early Mpesa mobile money markets.
“Flutterwave began because of some of the experiences I had running my last company Andela,” said Aboyeji.
“One of the biggest problems we ran into was sending money into Africa. We had to incorporate in every African country we had developers so we could pay them. Because of that, we processed payments every one to three months to avoid incurring too many fees. Each time, it took at least a week to transfer the money to our local bank account and it still cost us a fair bit each time,” he said.
Having A Formidable Team With Global Connections
One thing that made the major difference for Flutterwave is its founding team, led by Aboyeji. Although co-founder Olugbenga Agboola was himself a techie at the time (having previously worked for PayPal and Google), and although they had penciled down notable tech talent from Paypal, Andela, Standard Bank, Google Wallet and other top companies, the coming onboard of Aboyeji as the CEO of the startup substantially changed the dynamics for the company.
Prior to his coming onboard Flutterwave, Aboyeji had previously helped Andela, a startup he personally founded, to secure up to $180m in funding within a record time from notable venture capital investors, including GV, Omidyar Network, Spark Capital, Learn Capital, Salesforce Ventures, TLcom Capital Partners, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, DBL Partners, CRE Venture Capital, Amplo, among others. A bulk of the money was raised in just four years, with funding done almost every year, even though Andela is but an edtech company.
And so his impact on the startup as the CEO of Flutterwave was felt immediately. He first properly launched the startup at the Y Combinator of 2016, and then followed it up with a $10m fundraise in 2017 and another $10m in 2018.
It is also noteworthy that some of the investors in Flutterwave — such as CRE Ventures — were previous investors in Andela.
In essence, having a team with deep connections to the Silicon Valley at a time when the concepts of VCs and startups were relatively new to the continent helped Flutterwave to mark its territory early enough.
There is, therefore, no gain saying the fact the first two years of the startup (2016–2018) was key to its eventual success.
A History Of Favourable Regulatory Ecosystem
Flutterwave’s success could also be tied to a relatively stable regulatory ecosystem that favoured it far ahead of others that came later. But first, there is a need to mention that the startup was also strategic about its incorporation.
That is, apart from headquartering in the United States, it also maintains legal presence in countries where it is currently in operations. This strategy has enabled it to decentralise the effects of adverse regulations, especially in Nigeria where its founders come from, and which is its primary market.
Between 2016 and 2021 during which the startup substantially functioned, Nigerian regulators were relatively less killing with their regulations.
Major efforts towards regulating the fintech industry in Nigeria only started in 2018, two years after the company was founded.
Generally, Nigeria has equally been unfavourable to bike-hailing business, with the country’s Lagos state government banning bike-hailing activities on its major highways, a singular act that has put so many investments in bike-hailing startups in the West African country at risks of failure.
Had the Central Bank of Nigeria been ruthless with regulating fintech companies such as Flutterwave, it is doubtful whether it would have achieved the Unicorn status in such a record time.
Strong Product Diversity And Partnerships
Apart from offering a wide range of fintech support services from POS (Point Of Sale) to Debit and Credit Cards, Bank Account, Mobile Money Wallets, American Express, M-Pesa, Visa QR, Bank Transfer and USSD, Flutterwave made a major move by differentiating and targeting customer segments.
First, it expressed its interests in African businesses doing local and international transactions but who are finding payments difficult.
Through the launch of its Business-to-Business (B2B) product, Rave by Flutterwave — or simply Flutterwave for Business — in 2017, the startup was able to resolve this.
With Flutterwave for Business, businesses can choose to integrate Flutterwave with their websites to power checkouts or can simply generate payment links from their dashboards if they don’t have websites.
That way, accepting and monitoring payments, customers and so much more have become much easier and transparent for a lot of businesses, not just in Nigeria but across 33 African countries and the UK and US where the startup is present in.
Again, noticing that by focusing only on a B2B model, an important customer base may have been neglected, Flutterwave quickly expanded its product offering to end users under a B2C model through Barter by Flutterwave.
Barter by Flutterwave is a mobile app for people who want to create virtual cards for their shopping, or send money within their friendship circles, as well as people who want an easy and convenient way of paying bills.
Today, the startup claims to have processed 140 million transactions worth more than $9 billion barely 5 years after it was founded. It also claims 290,000 businesses use its platform to carry out payments under its Rave model, while over 500,000 users do so using Barter. The company’s most recent product offering, Flutterwave Store, launched at the heart of the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and already available across 15 African countries, now, also, helps over 20,000 merchants to create storefronts and sell their products online.
It is therefore doubtful if, without diversifying to other product categories, Flutterwave would have reached the Unicorn status.
Flutterwave also seems to be investing more on non-customers than customers. The startup has poured a lot of resources in securing partnership deals with leading payments companies across the world.
In 2019, it entered into partnership with China’s Alipay, which in 2013 surpassed PayPal in payments volume. The partnership sees Flutterwave integrated into the Alipay platform, a move which is considered a significant step towards capturing payments activity around the estimated $200 billion in China-Africa trade.
Apart from Alipay partnership, Flutterwave currently also maintains partnerships with Visa, Worldpay, among others.
Good Choice Of Investors
Perhaps, the single most significant contributor to Flutterwave’s success is not just the funding, but the choice of the investors who understand its market. For one thing, the backing from Y Combinator in 2016 set the pace and help sustain the startup’s valuation. And for another, the entrance of investors such as Green Visor, GreyCroft Partners, Glynn Capital, MasterCard, Fintech Collective, 4DX Ventures, Raba Capital, Visa, Endeavor, African fund CRE Venture Capital, WorldPay FIS, among others, further helped to plug the startup into the global value chain.
S/N
AFRICAN UNICORNS
SECTOR
YEAR FOUNDED
YEAR BECAME A UNICORN
COUNTRY (PRIMARY MARKET)
FOUNDERS
1
Jumia
Ecommerce
2012
2019
Nigeria
Jeremy Hodara and Sacha Poignonnec, ex-McKinsey consultants
2
Interswitch
Financial services
2002
2019
Nigeria
Mitchell Elegbe
3
Fawry
Financial services
2008
2020
Egypt
Ashraf Sabry
4
Flutterwave
Financial services
2016
2021
Nigeria
Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Olugbenga Agboola
Respect To The Entrepreneurs, Iyin Aboyeji And Olugbenga Agboola
After the encounter with Arys, Aboyeji co-founded with him, Bookneto, a Canadian online question and answer tool designed to facilitate online examination service. The University of Waterloo, however, sued the hell out of the startup for infringing the intellectual property rights in past questions designed by some professors, forcing the founders to sell the startup to Canadian Innovation Centre.
On coming back to Nigeria, Aboyeji, under the continuing inspiration of Arys, proceeded to branch over to Fora.com, a startup that ran open online courses, like Udacity, Coursera, etc. But then he claimed he was naive for Nigerian trusting regulatory authorities so much and for believing that by partnering with Nigerian universities Fora.com was going to make massive hits.
He quickly spun Fora.com into an MBA-selling programme, targeting young bankers desirous of climbing the corporate ladder. That, too, was blown away by the hurricane of superior insights suggested to him by one Jeremy Johnson in New York, on his voyage to secure funding for the then MBA-selling Fora.com.
He had previously met Jeremy in Nigeria, and so being in New York, Jeremy’s place, it was necessary that they met. Jeremy told him that education geared towards skills rather than degrees was what Nigeria, which was sinking under heavy unemployment figures, needed. And so, there and then, Andela, Africa’s leading talent acquisition startup, most recently valued at $700m, was born.
Done with Andela, including helping it to raise more than $180 million in venture capital from the likes of Mark Zuckerberg and other notable investors from Silicon Valley, Aboyeji made his way to Flutterwave, then solving the second problem he was looking to solve — payments.
Aboyeji is no longer the CEO of Flutterwave, having resigned in 2018. He had further moved on to found a community investment firm Future Africa, where he is presently.
For Agboola, this is his first time of being a proper entrepreneur. Before Flutterwave, he had worked with Nigeria’s Standard Bank, Guarantee Trust Bank, Sterling Bank and Access Bank, mostly as head of digital financial services. He is also a former techie with PayPal and Google.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
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
NowPay, a financial wellbeing network for workers based in Cairo, has joined Y Combinator and raised new funding in a Pre-Series A round. Along with another Egyptian fintech, Dayra, it is part of Y Combinator’s ongoing Winter 2021 (YC W21) batch.
Brad Flora, Group Partner at YC
“At YC, we help talented founders from anywhere in the world access the advice, network, and funding that Silicon Valley has to offer. With NowPay, we see dedicated founders tackling the huge problem of financial wellness in a region of the world that needs more tech investment. It was a clear decision to fund them,” Brad Flora, Group Partner at YC and a startup angel investor in San Francisco, said on NowPay’s inclusion in the accelerator.
Here Is What You Need To Know
Global Ventures, Beco Capital, Endure Capital, Foundation Ventures, and Abderahman ElSewedy are among the investors in NowPay’s bridge round. The deal’s value was not revealed. Last year, the company raised $2.1 million in a seed round.
The new funding will further assist the fintech startup towards its expansion into international markets.
Why The Investors Invested
Dubai-based Global Ventures has actively been investing in the African startup ecosystem. The VC has invested in Kenya’s Ilara Health, Nigeria’s Helium Health, Egypt’s Paymob, among others.
Beco Capital, also based in Dubai, has previously invested in NowPay. The venture capital firm has equally invested in North Africa’s leading startups such as Egypt’s healthtech Vezeeta, mobility startup SWVL, among others. Its investment in NowPay further cements its belief in the startup. It has actively been investing since 2017.
Founded by Mostafa Ashour and Ahmed Sabry, NowPay launched the financial wellness platform in 2019 to enable corporates to offer salary advances to their employees. They’ve recently also added Gehan Fathi, who previously worked as Managing Director at EFG (and joined this round as an angel) and Mahmoud ElHosseiny who managed Egypt sales for Fortune 500 company Stanley-Black Decker to their executive team.
The employees of companies that partner with NowPay can request their salary (or a part of it) at any time of the month through its mobile app.
The account has to be validated by the employer before it can be used to request advances. Once the account is approved, they can also see the details of their salary and how much are they eligible to request as advance. The mobile app also enables users to manage and track their savings, expenses, and offers them financial recommendations. NowPay’s website says that its solution is Shariah-compliant. For employers, it is free. The employees, however, are charged a fee every time they use it.
Mostafa Ashour, the co-founder and CEO of NowPay who previously led the innovation teams at Microsoft Research said that their solution is currently being used by over 70 entities which includes a mix of publicly listed companies, multinationals, and startups. Some of those companies are Domty, MNHD, Sodic, Axa, Trella, Elmenus, and Wuzzuf.
The solution offered by NowPay helps employers improve employee happiness, productivity, and corporate loyalty, without any changes in their cash flow as the money is offered by NowPay. For employers, it is pretty much business as usual. They are only supposed to deduct the advance amount and fee from the salary at the end of the month (or whenever they pay the salaries) and pay it to NowPay directly.
NowPay claims to have managed over $200 million in salaries and serves clients like Sodic, Axa, ITWorx, Vezeeta, KarmSolar, and many more.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
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
As the need for platforms to protect the security of subscribers gain momentum following a series of breaches in recent times, global video streaming platform Netflix is testing ways to curb password sharing for business and security reasons. As part of this test, users will be required to verify whether or not they are the owner of the account through an email code or text code. “If someone is unable to verify account ownership within a certain timeframe, they won’t be able to stream any Netflix content,” sources from the company say.
Netflix
According to Netflix’s terms, an account can only be shared with people of the same household, “the Netflix service and any content viewed through our service are for your personal and non-commercial use only and may not be shared with individuals beyond your household.”
A Netflix spokesperson told The Verge, “the test is designed to help ensure that people using Netflix accounts are authorized to do so”. And up until now, the company has done nothing to police this except to set limits on simultaneous streaming.
In another development, Netflix has launched a new short-form video platform called Fast Laughs. The service is expected to give users an inside look at funny clips from Netflix’s library of series. “Wanna see something funny? On Netflix, this one little question opens up lots of possibilities from hilarious series and films to laugh-out-loud stand-up specials,” reads a statement from the company.
“That’s why we’re launching a new Fast Laughs feature for mobile devices. Fast Laughs offers a full-screen feed of funny clips from our big comedy catalogue including films (Murder Mystery), series (Big Mouth), sitcoms (The Crew) and stand-up from comedians like Kevin Hart and Ali Wong.”
Users can access the service through the bottom navigation menu by clicking on the Fast Laughs tab. Clips will start playing – when one ends another begins. Users can also share the clips individually on Whatsapp, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter. Fast Laughs is available now for iPhone users in select countries, and it will be testing on Android soon.
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
Across the world, disruption has become a reality that is driving changes in the business sectors. Included in this disruptive environment is the telecommunications industry, which has to take account of changing technologies and the challenges these changes bring to the way the sector has traditionally done business. Under examination must be the industry’s twin roles as a primary provider of telephone services and platforms to OTT suppliers to launch their offerings to users.
Sudipto Moitra, GM of ICT at MTN SA Business
Internationally, experience shows that there has been an average decline in revenues per user as IT suppliers, offering focused services, have made products built around mobile and data less critical to end-users. Although some different market factors apply to the African and South African markets, we are not exempt from these trends when we are compared to changes occurring in major economies.
There is no doubt that market disruption has the potential to create uncertainty and to be a game-changer across the telecommunications sector. The biggest losers will be those who allow adverse events to occur and have failed to develop the flexibility, strategies and responses required to safeguard and modify their corporate market offerings.
Driving the levels of uncertainty are rapid technological, regulatory and customer demand changes. The success of telcos will require that they become one-stop diversified technology service providers and change attitudes towards what have been traditional functions. This change will ensure that telcos participate across different market segments and sell a range of technology, professional and managed services across on-premise and cloud technologies. The opportunities are better today, than ever before, for industry players that embrace disruption, re-imagine their network services capabilities and drive growth.
The challenge for players is to transition to the delivery of new services and products in the business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) spaces. It is in these spheres that there are openings to maximize opportunities by developing and introducing services and products for the use of clients.
Essentially, the change will involve becoming a ‘one-stop-shop’ by adopting technologies and creating bespoke applications for B2B and B2B2C, and assuming the role once occupied by ICT companies who developed applications that were then flighted on the telco network.
Pursuing growth will, therefore, require a new emphasis on the formation of effective partnerships, investments in people and in automation – enabling movement up the ‘technology stack’ and into the ICT space.
This move up the technology stack and into a new environment could, however, require a mind-shift in the short to medium-term. The change in strategy and leaving the traditional telco space could require different demands on investment and impact on the ways that returns on investment are calculated.
Moving up the stack will, however, require selected partnerships with niche players. This need will exist regardless of whether these potential partners operate within the Cloud, the internet of things (IoT) or hyper-scaling domains. This is because it is in these sectors that skills that are not commonly found within telcos will reside.
Customers will also benefit as they will no longer have to adopt multi-sourcing strategies to meet their operational needs. They will be able to adopt single-sourcing strategies to meet their diverse requirements. As technologies converge, so customer demands – and the way they source personal and business services – are evolving. This allows an opportunity for both customers and the overall market to benefit.
Effectively, by creating partnerships and simultaneously moving up the stack, the strengths of different companies will complement each other. The trend will be to move away from the past technology silos to provide improved customer outcomes. At the same time, a disciplined approach to change is needed.
There are many examples around the world of telcos that entered the ICT services sector too hastily. For instance, many tried to convert their traditional hosting and managed services too quickly in an attempt to move to Cloud computing.
In their efforts to satisfy their clients’ expectations, they underestimated the complexities of the change. They ended up incurring high costs and unfortunately failed not only themselves but disappointed their customers too.
Perhaps the most critical error was regarding the task of moving to the Cloud as only a technical change. In several cases, this led to design operations necessary for such a significant transition being neglected.
The focus should have been on a hybrid model, including the traditional on-frame approach with that of the hyper-scalers. There is space for both. As many telcos have found that the move into the terrain of hyper-scalers has not been successful, they must now look to their investments in the traditional hosting and core location centres together with the Cloud.
To be successful, change at this level cannot be undertaken in isolation. As it involves a change in corporate focus, it must be accompanied by a business and cultural change understood and supported by the workforce.
Market analysts also point out that transformation was attempted before back-end integration had been fully accomplished, and business support was lacking. Add to this the facts that the market’s strategic direction and selling points had been misread, mix in the inability to meet and exceed customer expectations, and all the elements were there for a perfect storm in the sector.
The challenge for telcos is now to see how they can transition out of the situation caused by hastily trying transformation without ensuring that all the required support elements were in place as was required.
The overriding lesson is that all the elements – from connectivity to infrastructure, through to user security and customer-focused services – must be considered and work together effectively, to achieve positive results.
Operational silos are, therefore, obstacles to meeting disruptive challenges successfully. The industry in which we operate must acknowledge that a more collaborative and symbiotic approach is needed to solve problems and take advantage of opportunities.
Success, from a B2B perspective, will also rely on a client’s ability to absorb the cost of new generation cell phones that may be required for the workforce. Besides faster downloading and uploading of files, the benefits will be the unlocking of the full capabilities of ultra-high-definition video streaming, connected homes, and artificial intelligence.
All of this will further boost the abilities of telcos to diversify and expand their ranges of products and services – setting the course for the next logical step – the shift from telco to ‘TechCo’.
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
Microsoft has entered into partnership with Tech4Dev with the objective to launch the Women Techsters Initiative which will help women learn about coding in 54 countries. The programme aims to train girls and women across Africa in coding and deep tech skills, bridging the digital and technology divide and ensure equal access to opportunities across the continent.
Microsoft Partners Tech4Dev
According to the Regional Director of Microsoft Philanthropies MEA, Ghada Khalifa, “we are excited about the initiative being scaled to other countries on the African continent from Nigeria where the program was piloted”.
She says “when we empower girls and women in the ICT industry, through greater access to skills and training, we not only unlock innovation but also economic opportunities”.
A recent report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) cautioned that Africa’s inequality could worsen unless concrete action is taken to bridge the continent’s digital divide.
Lillian Barnard, MD at Microsoft South Africa shared this sentiment, acknowledging that while much has been done on the continent to streamline upskilling in STEM areas, more and continuous efforts are required to increase women and girls’ participation in Tech.
“The overall objective of Women Techsters is to grow and support a community of tech-empowered girls and women across the continent, who will have equal access to decent job opportunities as well as to build and scale their ideas into tech-enabled businesses and deep tech start-ups, ultimately aiding overall economic growth.”
Unpacking more around the intricacies of the initiative and partnership, Diwura Oladepo, Executive Director at Tech4Dev pointed out that the initiative aligns with two of the Sustainable Development Goals – to achieve gender equality and decent work and economic growth for women and girls.
“Partnering with Microsoft made complete sense when it came to seeking a partner and organisation that has continuously reaffirmed its commitment to digitally transforming communities through upskilling and fostering a knowledge economy. Our shared belief that training and empowering young women across Africa will help achieve a male-female ratio balance in the technology space, while providing them with useful skills to build more efficient businesses, or rewarding careers using technology.”
The training provided through the initiative will focus on technical skills such as software development, product design, product management, data science and AI engineering, and cybersecurity, and will be delivered through a series of simultaneous activities.
“Initially, we are launching the initiative in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and Egypt and are excited to see how we can live up to our mission of enabling participating girls and women to do more. We know that when women are fully empowered, society benefits overall,” concludes Barnard.
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
Medical Credit Fund, a vehicle dedicated to financing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in healthcare in Africa, is close to securing an $18 million guarantee to increase its lending to private healthcare providers in sub-Saharan Africa.
Medical Credit Fund
The guarantee to be provided by the US Agency for Development Finance was approved by the institution’s board of directors at its last quarterly meeting.
“Through the Open Doors African Private Healthcare Initiative, a mechanism aimed at supporting the private healthcare sector in Africa, the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), will support loans to SMEs in the healthcare sector, by focusing on companies helping their communities cope with the covid-19 pandemic, ”said the US Development Bank
This guarantee is an emanation of the American government which, under the impetus of its president Joe Biden, is committed through the DFC, to invest in critical sectors (health, energy, technologies, infrastructures) which directly impact populations in emerging countries.
Incorporated in 2009 as part of the PharmAccess Group, Medical Credit Fund claims to have provided loans of up to $100 million to more than 1,800 healthcare companies on the continent to date. The fund, which works to improve access to health services for low-income patients, provides lines of credit of up to $ 2.5 million.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
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
MTN Group has begun to work on separating its fiber and fintech units. This movement is part of plans to unlock value and raise funds to boost its development. The operator is looking for partners and strategic investors for the two subsidiaries.
Ralph Mupita, CEO MTN
The company has 85,000 kilometers (52,817 miles) of fiber across the continent, while fintech products such as mobile payment services are growing rapidly. The strategy represents the next phase of an ongoing plan to sell assets and repay debt to allow MTN to invest in its expansion.
The South African-based company seeks to take advantage of the millions of Africans who connect to the Internet for the first time each year. Many do this via smartphones, and there is rapid population growth in major markets on the continent such as Nigeria. MTN’s fintech business could contribute 20% of the group’s revenue over the next three to four years, up from 8% currently.
“We recognize that there is a significant demand for data in Africa that is not going to stop. Nothing prevents us from calling on other parties to help us finance the infrastructure we need. This work is already underway, ”said CEO Ralph Mupita.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
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
