When smartphones first started gaining popularity over a decade ago, they quickly became the targets for theft because of their inherent value as expensive electronics. By 2013, 3.1 million Americans were reporting a smartphone stolen annually, doubling the previous year’s record.
Jim Haviland, a partner at Impact Architects
As noted by many journalists at the time, by weight, smartphones are far more valuable than solid silver. As the way we use mobile devices has changed, the relative value of the hardware itself versus the information stored on the devices has shifted — but both threats continue to be taken very seriously. In the U.S., the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) still produces an annual guide for consumers on how to protect smartphones and deal with their disappearance.
However, there are several simple steps you can take to make losing your smartphone less costly and improve your chances of getting it back.
An ounce of precaution is worth a pound of cure
All mobile security practices are greatly enhanced if you take a few precautionary steps when you set up your new phone.
Set your lock screen: The single most important thing every smartphone user should do to protect their information, make their phone less valuable to thieves and avoid identity theft is set a lock screen on the device. Not using a lock screen is like leaving your house with the front door and windows wide open. For greater security, use a passcode or PIN with at least six digits. The newest devices also include biometric authentication features like face recognition and fingerprint scanners to make it easier for you to get into your device, while keeping others out.
Back everything up: Most smartphones today include apps and services for automatically backing up your content and contacts. Make certain you have these cloud backup features turned on and that you understand how to retrieve the information. If you know that everything can be recovered, you won’t hesitate to wipe the device clean if it’s lost or stolen.
Make it easier to find: Understand and utilize the built-in device-finding features, such as Samsung Find My Mobile. Most devices can be located on a map using GPS or with a loud sound emitted from the phone. Some will also allow you to lock the device and display a message and contact phone number on the screen.
Major smartphone operating systems, along with practices by governments and mobile carriers, have provided all smartphone users with a set of tools and remediation that make smartphone theft less attractive, and provide means of ensuring a device gone missing is less tragic.
Do not wait: If you realize that you don’t know where your device is, and you are anywhere but in the comfort of your home, take immediate action. If it is stolen, every minute you wait increases your chances of not retrieving the device, losing information and having your identity stolen. If someone is able to disable the ability of your device to communicate with the internet, all hope of retrieval and additional protections are likely lost.
Try to find it: Use the device location services presented above to attempt to find your device. These tools can help not only to locate your device, but also give you a quick answer on whether your device is in a retrievable place and condition. If you are not able to locate it almost immediately, move to the next step.
When in doubt, treat it like a crime: Most of the same tools used to attempt to find your device will give you the ability to put it in a mode for lost or stolen devices, including locking the device and if needed removing all the information stored on it. If you’ve followed the precautions above, everything important on your device is already backed up to a safe, cloud storage service — even if you are not certain how to retrieve it yet. Samsung Find My Mobile gives you some additional tools: you can prevent the device from being powered off, have a contact message appear on the screen and put it in power-saving mode to extend the window of opportunity you’ll have to locate it. As a last resort, you can wipe all information from your device so it cannot be used to steal your identity.
Report it to your carrier: Your mobile service provider can take measures on your behalf to help locate your device and suspend service. Devices that connect to a cellular network contain a small chip called a SIM card that allows the device to communicate over the network. A stolen SIM card can allow someone to place calls and consume data, and you will be liable for those costs. The FCC’s mobile protection guide includes a list of contact information and procedures for major providers in the U.S. if you need to contact your carrier.
Even more tools for businesses of all sizes
All of the risks are even greater for business users and their employers. Many users do not have clear boundaries between their personal and business information on their devices, taking them to places they would never take other business assets. Statistics on lost and stolen devices show these incidents are relatively equally divided between business and nonbusiness hours, and that, while restaurants are the most likely offenders, your phone is as likely to be stolen at work as at a nightclub.
All modern smartphones have built-in application programming interfaces (APIs) that make it possible even for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to institute additional security measures, again increasing the likelihood of retrieving a lost device. Mobile device management (MDM) software places a small program, or agent, on a mobile device that allows an IT admin to enforce policies on the device. These policies include requiring employees to use a secure passcode, preventing the download of risky apps, and controlling other aspects of the device, including locking and wiping devices when lost or stolen. For a business, this provides a layer of consistency across all the devices that are accessing your corporate data. The benefits of being able to manage and control a set of devices in a consistent manner make it well worthwhile to consider owning all of the devices used in your business.
Once you have installed the MDM agent on the devices, the management console lets you set each device to meet a set of minimum security requirements, as well as enable a consistent experience. If properly configured, you can make mobile work both more easily and more securely at the same time.
Samsung mobile devices come with a long list of enterprise security features that have helped them gain approval for use by government, law enforcement and defense agencies around the world. The Samsung Knox platform, which is built into Samsung devices down to the hardware, supports the use of managed “containers” that allow businesses to separate personal information and apps on the device from the corporate information and apps. While having a good mobile policy in place for your employees is important, it won’t prevent a determined attacker. In the same sense that the last line of device recovery efforts provided by tracking tools such as Find My Mobile is necessary to buttress theft prevention efforts, fundamentally secure hardware and software thwart the attacks that good security practices can’t prevent.
In the end, it is the universal utility of smartphones that makes them invaluable to businesses, but also attractive to thieves and hackers. Mobile technology providers have come a long way in ensuring that businesses have the tools to keep their devices and data secure in the face of many threats — as long as you take some basic steps to adopt those tools.
Jim Haviland is a partner in Impact Architects, where he helps entrepreneurs develop their businesses and connect with more customers.
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
Not every startup will not struggle to raise funds in Africa. In fact, it is harder to do so if the founder is little known, previously untested, and expectedly naive to established venture capital firms, family houses, banks, High Net Worth Individuals (HNWI), etc. And although accelerators are not primarily houses of funds for startups left out of this implicit bias in access to funding, they have come to serve as one, and most importantly, the final hope of these founders ever accessing funds.
In a lugubriously-fashioned language, accelerators, also known as seed accelerators, are fixed-term (usually lasts from three to twelve months), cohort-based programs, that include mentorship and educational components and networking, often with investment. In simple terms, accelerators are to startups what schools are to students.
But does it really matter if a startup based in Africa does not make it through an accelerator? The answer is neither here nor there. African startups, from data, mostly go through accelerators to improve their access to funding, and if the accelerator is more glorified (like Y Combinator, 500 Startups, Techstars), to latch some flesh onto their valuations and consequently brighten their bargaining power when accepting investments.
Funding
While funding accruing to the African startup ecosystem from venture capital firms is increasing year-on-year, the number of startups involved in the funding are relatively small compared to available data about the number of startups in Africa. In 2019, for example, while a platform like VC4A listed a total of 13,500 startups in Africa, only about 427 startups raised over $2 billion in funding. This means that if you are a startup in Africa, you are only about 3% more likely to raise funds from venture capital firms.
Hence, being accepted into an accelerator may be a major escape from this reality. Data show that most startups from Africa who went through the path of notable accelerators had it easy with funding. For example, Paystack’s participation in Y Combinator’s 2015 accelerator program was a deal breaker. It gave room for immediate funding to the startup from global giants like Tencent, Stripe, Visa, among others. By industry stereotypes, Paystack’s founders Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi could easily have been dismissed as high-risk investments. Both founders studied in Nigeria, with some of the lowest ranked educational institutions, and have equally lived much of their lives in the West African country. And so there is every reason to doubt their capacity to deliver good returns on investments. Which is why both founders sought to first plug the startup into the global ecosystem, through Y Combinator’s accelerator, before deeply treading the startup path. Paystack was recently acquired by Stripe in a deal reportedly worth more than $200m.
Another example is Chipper Cash which raised $6 million in seed funding, after 5 months of being selected into the Catalyst Fund. In fact, Catalyst Fund was part of that round. African genomic startup 54gene is also an example. After being part of the 2019 Y Combinator batch, the startup raised $15 million led by Adjuvant Capital, with a follow-on investment from the US-based seed stage accelerator.
Another way of looking at accelerator programmes is that a good number of them help to boost the valuation of most startups. That is to say, being part of a reputable accelerator will most certainly increase the market value of a startup. This will correspondingly draw in investors in their numbers. If this happens, startup founders will have much more bargaining power around certain issues such as the percentage of equity participation in the business available to investors, among other things.
“Accelerator programs like Y Combinator are world-renowned for launching companies like Airbnb, Dropbox and Stripe,” writes Alex Gold, Co-Founder of Myia Health and former Venture Partner at BCG Digital Ventures. “There are thousands of other programs similar to Y Combinator around the world. Usually, each one takes between 3 and 7 percent of equity in a business in exchange for an investment sometimes no greater than $200,000. Founders will trade off what is usually an extremely low or discounted initial valuation for a premium from investors when they graduate.”
Gold says for companies that progress through Y Combinator’s program, for instance, they can command a significant valuation increase over similar companies in the market or even those that went through other accelerator programs.
“Often, investors engage in pattern-matching; and the “rubber stamp” of having gone through a prestigious accelerator is viewed as a marker of potential success, even though the data doesn’t necessarily support this,” he says.
Accelerator startups Africa Accelerator startups Africa Accelerator startups Africa Accelerator startups Africa Accelerator startups Africa Accelerator startups Africa Accelerator startups Africa
Although accelerators could be instrumental in securing a successful startup, it is also arguable that they may, themselves, be distracting to entrepreneurs, especially noting that most successful entrepreneurs were not molded in a traditional brick-and-mortar (and now, probably virtual) settings.
“A few years ago, I was speaking to another founder who had just entered an accelerator in Colorado,” writes Gold. “Despite its status as a nationally recognized program, the founder became exasperated at having to spend days in classes learning about subjects as elementary as incorporation, human resources and business development. They really go over the basics,” he recalled to me on the phone. “If I didn’t know many of these things, I wouldn’t be anywhere near where I am in my current business. They totally think we don’t get it, and it’s a massive distraction.”
The Bottom Line
In Africa, accelerators are not compulsory in building successful startups. Founders who have large network of investors or those passionate about executing quickly may consider accelerators a complete waste of time. In any case, the startup journey is not a straight-line destination; the vagaries of the society, the founder’s resilience, previous and continuing experience, and a host of other factors, largely shape the journey. Even startups funded by VCs, most times, equally have access to useful resources from the investors, who usually sit on the startups’ boards by virtue of their investments. Nevertheless, while they exist, accelerators are still a strong force in attempting to bridge the funding gap for startups on the continent.
Find a few of the active startup accelerators on the continent, below.
Wadi Accelerator, Oman Technology Fund (Partner 500 Startups)
Oman
Early Stage; Seed.
YES
Bekia (Waste Management, Egypt)
62
Antler Startup Accelerator
Kenya
Early Stage.
YES
ChapChapGo; AnyiHealth; Digiduka
63
Founders Factory Africa (Venture Scale, etc)
UK
Early Stage.
YES
Wella Health (Nigeria); Redbirth (Ghana); Truzo (South Africa)
64
Pangea Accelerator
Kenya
Early Stage.
NO
–
65
Bongo Hive
Lusaka, Zambia
All Stages.
NO
–
66
Savannah Fund Accelerator
Kenya
Seed.
YES
–
67
NEST
Kenya
Seed.
YES
–
68
MMH Accelerator
Kenya
Ghanaian, Kenyan and Nigerian late-stage healthtech firms.
YES
–
69
Technipole Sup – Valor
Yaounde, Cameroon
Cameroon Startups.
NO
–
70
SW7
Johannesburg, South Africa
Early Stage
NO
–
71
Startup Reactor | Innoventures
Egypt
Early Stage.
NO
–
72
TIEC Entrepreneurship Accelerator
Giza, Egypt
Early Stage
No
The data above represent a set of active accelerators in Africa in the past 2 years.A majority of startup graduates have proceeded to raise funds
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
Floundering for help under Kenya’s repressive taxation on betting firms, SportPesa has done its worst — sell off its brand for a meagre $134k — in a secret deal reported by Business Daily, a Nairobi-based print media. For the Kenyan betting firm which was reported to have earned up to Ksh100 billion ($1 billion) in revenues in 2018, this is perhaps the final stroke that broke the camel’s back.
“In consideration of the sum of £100,000, the assignor hereby assigns to the assignee absolutely with full title guarantee all its rights, title and interest in and to the trade marks,” an agreement sighted by Business Daily revealed.
“Any payments to be made to the assignor under this clause shall be set off against any amounts owed by the assignor to the assignee or any other member of the assignee’s group to the extent possible.”
Here Is What You Need To Know
According to Business Daily’s report, the SportPesa gaming brand was sold for £100,000 (Sh14.7 million) in June this year, triggering a fight among the founders of the sports betting platform.
The agreement revealed that Pevans East Africa, the owner of the SportPesa trade mark, had on June 2, 2020 signed an agreement to transfer the brand to UK-based Sportpesa Global Holdings Limited.
It was reported that although Pevans’ chief executive Ronald Karauri signed the deed of assignment on behalf of the firm, the decision to transfer the brand was not unanimous.
Karauri was reported to later emerge with a controlling 54.4 per cent stake in Milestone Games Limited, the company that was subsequently assigned the right to use the SportPesa trade mark in Kenya by Sportpesa Global in the roundabout deals. Kalina Karadzhova, a Bulgarian national and a resident of the Isle of Man, signed the deed on behalf of Sportpesa Global where she serves as a director.
Kenyan entrepreneurs Paul Wanderi Ndung’u and Asenath Maina, who own a combined 38 per cent stake in Pevans, have accused Mr Karauri and the foreign investors of locking them out of the firm’s management and strategic decisions since 2017.
Mr Ndung’u, who holds a 17 per cent stake in Pevans, says the deal undervalued the SportPesa brand by billions of shillings.
The Background To SportPesa’s Chequered History In Kenya
In 2019, both SportBesa and Betin stopped doing business in Kenya due to what they saw as a hostile tax environment.
The government in Nairobi hiked gambling tax rates from 10 to 20 percent.
In its ruling, the court determined that the tax could only be applied to a player’s winnings at the end of every month, and that the Kenyan Revenue Authority must collect revenue from customers, rather than directly from operators.
Ronald Karauri welcomed the ruling, suggesting that it may prompt it to reconsider its withdrawal from the Kenyan market.
“We have long advocated for a fair and level playing field and a regulatory and taxation environment that both supports business and inward investment, and is in the interests of Kenyan consumers,’’ he said.
“SportPesa will now reconsider the future of its operations in Kenya,” he added. “We encourage the authorities to take the Tax Appeals Tribunal ’s ruling fully on board and to now apply a reasonable approach to gambling regulation and taxation, in line with international best practice.”
The dispute over the winnings tax dates back to its introduction, with SportPesa arguing the tax removed incentive for customers to place bets.
Although the Kenyan High Court initially blocked collection of the tax, the Kenyan Revenue Authority and Betting Control and Licensing Board agreed on 1 July to withdraw the licences of 27 companies who failed to pay the levy, including SportPesa and Betin.
After the state ordered telecoms company Safaricom to block banking services to the 27 companies, leaving customers unable to deposit funds — a move SportPesa said violated a court order — SportPesa ended its sport sponsorships in Kenya and placed its 453 employees in the company on leave.
A SportPesa spokesperson told iGamingBusiness.com in early September that the company believed it was heading towards the resumption of normal operations after constructive talks. However, on 19 September, the Kenyan Parliament’s Finance Committee proposed a new 20% excise tax rate on betting stakes in the 2019/20 budget, an increase from the 10% stake proposed by the treasury in June.
In response, SportPesa that it would not operate in the country until the rate was changed, and laid off its Kenya-based employees.
A Short-lived Comeback
On October 30th 2020, SportPesa (Pevans East Africa) declared that it was back on the Kenyan betting scene after a one-year absence. Part of the reasons for its absence is because the betting firm’s previous license was among the 27 licenses revoked by the Kenyan Revenue Authority and Betting Control and Licensing Board for failure to comply with increase in gambling tax rates from 10 to 20 percent. The revocation was enforced despite a Kenyan High Court ruling blocking collection of the tax. Since then, SportPesa has been in court.
As a way to get around the revocation, Pevans East Africa (owner of SportPesa) then assigned its full rights under its tradename [SportPesa], for five years, to another gaming firm, known as Milestone Games Limited (under the trademark, Milestone Bet), which had been newly licensed by BCLB.
However, BCLB through Maina said this return would not be allowed as SportPesa, being the property of Pevans East Africa, is still subject to a pending court case over its own license. This, according to Maina, prevented another licensee from using the brand name of SportPesa.
Consequently, Maina and his Board had proceeded to suspend Milestone’s new operating license and had equally asked payment providers such as Safaricom, which owns the popular M-Pesa mobile payment service, to stop processing transactions for the site.
He further proceeded to state that “the known owners of the trading name Sportpesa are not licensed to operate in the gaming business in Kenya,” a statement which leaves Sportpesa’s future in the east African country still foggy even when the appeal concludes.
Maina said that Milestone may continue to trade using the Milestone Bet brand.
Birthed in 2014, SportPesa, quickly became a popular brand in Kenya and globally as a result of intense marketing, sophisticated gaming technology and record-breaking jackpots.
Pevans spent billions of shillings in partnerships and sponsorships of local and international sports teams, including Kenya’s Gor Mahia Football Club, UK’s Everton, Hull City, Arsenal and Formula One’s Racing Point.
The gaming platform is estimated to have a loyal customer base of 12 million in Kenya from which it generated revenues of Sh150 billion in 2018 alone.
The firm paid out Sh129.6 billion as winnings, leaving it with Sh20.1 billion that analysts reckon is enough to generate a profit in excess of Sh10 billion for a firm with thin operating expenses, mainly staff.
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
More than ten years after Nigeria’s fintech company Paga was registered in the small East African island of Mauritius, the company has poured out a stream of invective against the previously notorious tax haven as it moved its headquarters to its new found love — the UK.
Tayo Oviosu, founder and CEO of Paga
“I will NEVER register a business in Mauritius again,” Tayo Oviosu, founder and CEO of Paga declared last year, in a series of tweets. “You can take that to the bank. So painful — not worth it.”
Mr. Oviosu then went on to add that “the tax benefits of Mauritius can be gained onshore UK or offshore UK or Netherlands or Luxemburg.”
The CEO, whose company has raised more than $34.7 million in funding from investors since inception said he was very excited about the UK move, as he looked forward to working with its government to promote trade in the country.
“The Paga Group has redomiciled to the UK!” Oviosu said. “The Paga Group is the holding company for our operations in all countries — Nigeria, México, Ethiopia, and the United Kingdom. Very excited about this move and look forward to working with @tradegovuk to promote trade with the UK!”
The following is an extensive discussion about why Paga is courting the UK now and what lessons African startups desirous of domiciling their startups in the small East African country can glean from these events.
Mauritius Tax Rules Have Changed For International Companies Using The Country As Their Headquarters In Order To Benefit From Low Tax
Under the former regimes operational in Mauritius, the Global Business Licence Category 1 (GBL 1), for instance, granted Holding Companies (majority of which were foreign companies with their headquarters in Mauritius) certain tax benefits, including an 80% foreign tax credit, which reduced the effective tax rate of such companies from 15% to 3%. This was also the case with Global Business Licence Category 2 (GBL 2) which granted tax exemption to companies.
By that structure, foreign companies as well as businesses operational in Mauritius profited simply by setting up Mauritian Holding Companies with little or no economic substance in Mauritius. By doing so, such companies effectively reduced their effective tax rates to a large extent.
To take care of that, Mauritius discarded the GBL Regimes in 2018, introducing a Partial Exemption Regime forGlobal Business Corporations (GBCs) operating in the country. This new regime provided for an 80% tax exemption on specified passive income of the GBC companies in Mauritius. To put it differently, since companies in Mauritius are generally taxed at 15%, the 80% tax exemption means that GBC companies have a tax liability of only 20% of the original 15%, meaning that they’re suffering a maximum effective tax rate of 3%.
Mauritius has changed its tax rules for international companies, which has partly influenced Paga ‘s choice of the UK over the country.Image for: Paga ‘s re-domiciling from Mauritius to the UK
Another key feature in the new partial exemption regime is the requirement of substance.
Under the substance feature, companies in Mauritius must meet certain requirements to enjoy the 80% tax exemption.
Some of these requirements include that a GBC company must prove that it is centrally managed and controlled in Mauritius.
In determining what operations of a company are centrally managed and controlled, the Financial Services Commission in Mauritius usually considers whether the company meets at least one of the following criteria:
a) The company has or shall have office premises in Mauritius.
b) The company employs or shall employ on a full-time basis, at the administrative/technical level, at least one person who shall be resident in Mauritius.
c) The company’s constitution contains a clause whereby all disputes arising out of the constitution shall be resolved by way of arbitration in Mauritius.
d) The company holds, or is expected to hold, within the next 12 months, assets (excluding cash held in a bank account or shares/interests in another corporation holding a Global Business Licence) that are worth at least 100,000 United States dollars (USD) in Mauritius.
e) The company’s shares are listed on a securities exchange licensed by the Commission.
f) The company has, or is expected to have, a yearly expenditure in Mauritius that can be reasonably expected from any similar corporation that is controlled and managed from Mauritius.
In practice therefore, a South African company, for instance, may have its board of directors in Mauritius while it is managed from South Africa. In this case, the authorities could say the company is not eligible for tax residency. They will now look at the substance on the ground in Mauritius.
These countries have mutual tax agreements with Mauritius through which several foreign companies could previously claim enormous tax benefits. This, in part, helps to explain Paga ‘s latest choice of the UK over Mauritius
Paga Has Outgrown All The Tax Incentives Available To Early Stage Startups In Mauritius
After spending more than 10 years domiciling on the island, Paga is no longer qualified to benefit from tax exemptions available to early stage innovative startup companies in the country.
In sweeping reforms introduced in Mauritius in 2017, income generated by any company set up in Mauritius on or after 1 July 2017 which are involved in innovation-driven activities and where the IP assets are developed in Mauritius are exempt from tax. This exemption applies for eight tax years, starting from the tax year in which the company starts its innovation-driven activities. For existing startups or companies, the eight-year tax holiday would be on income derived from intellectual property assets developed in Mauritius after June 10, 2019. In practical terms, all startups that are internet-driven in Mauritius will pay zero tax for eight years notwithstanding the size of their income.
There is also tax incentive on research and development (R&D) to the effect that during a period from 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2022, if a person has incurred any qualifying expenditure on R&D that is directly related to one’s existing trade or business, one may, in the tax year in which the qualifying expenditure was incurred, deduct twice the amount of the expenditure, provided that the R&D is carried out in Mauritius and no annual allowances have been claimed on the same. The term ‘qualifying expenditure’ means any expenditure relating to R&D, including expenditure on innovation, improvement, or development of a process, product, or service as well as staff costs, consumable items, computer software directly used in R&D, and development and subcontracted R&D.
There is also a five-year tax holiday for a startup or company setting up an e-commerce platform provided the company is incorporated in Mauritius before June 30, 2025. Also within the five-year bracket are peer-to-peer lending operators, provided the company starts its operation prior to December 31, 2020.
The newly introduced regulatory sandbox licensing regime, whereby any person who has an innovative project for which there exists either no regulatory framework at all or the existing supervisory infrastructure is inadequate for the implementation of the project, may apply for a regulatory sandbox license, also aids innovative early stage companies to obtain certain regulatory relaxations for the limited purpose of the license.
In this regard, Paga is apparently relocating to the UK because there is nothing more exceptional again, in terms of tax benefits, to gain in order to continue to reside in Mauritius, having passed the age of tax exemptions discussed above.
Paga ‘s move from Mauritius to the UK was also inspired by the latter’s increasing influence within the European startup ecosystem. Image for: Paga ‘s re-domiciling from Mauritius to the UK
None Of Paga’s Investors Is Domiciled In Mauritius, And So This Could Have Influenced The Decision To Relocate
Currently, Paga has more than 8 investors, some of which are located in the United States, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Nigeria. For instance, while Unreasonable Capital, Capricorn Investment Group and Omidyar Network are located in the United States, Global Innovation Fund is domiciled in the UK, while Goodwell Investments is headquartered in the Netherlands. Adlevo Capital, Acumen Fund are also both based in Nigeria. Even individual investor Jeremy Stoppelman, co-Founder and CEO of Yelp, is based in the United States.
This is perhaps one of the strongest reasons why the decision to move out of Mauritius came so easily.
“The tax benefits of Mauritius can be gained onshore UK or offshore UK or Netherlands or Luxembourg,” Oviosu noted in his tweet.“Depends on how your business operates and where your investors are domiciled.”
It makes sense therefore that Paga is now moving to London, in the United Kingdom. About 30% of European venture capitalists are based there. Startups in the UK, alone, raised between €4.5 and €5 billion in venture capital in 2017. And although companies pay a 19% corporate tax in the country, there are intentions and talks to decrease that to 17% in 2020, as a way to discourage companies benefiting from EU’s single market from moving out in the wakes of Brexit.
Additionally, UK companies with less than £85,000 taxable turnover do not have to register for VAT (value-added tax). In any case, tax rate is lower in Germany compared to the UK with corporation tax pegged at 15%. Germany also exempts businesses with taxable turnover of less than €50,000 from registering for and paying VAT. Perhaps the most convincing reason why Paga preferred the UK over other possibilities like Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, or even Estonia, Sweden and Finland is because of language barrier. A majority of Paga’s investors are English-speaking; therefore, the decision to settle for the UK, which is an English-speaking country, must have been quickly reached. This is also aided by the country’s fast-paced legal system, as highlighted by Oviosu.
“The laws and courts of Mauritius are not very fast moving and the rules are difficult,” he said. “I’ve had one court case that was eventually thrown out after a year. In the UK it would have been thrown out immediately and the person would have had to pay us for our lawyer fees.”
Growth And Ease Of Doing Business
Again, eleven years down the line, Paga appears to have grown so big that it has become increasingly more difficult to continue to have its tail in Mauritius and its heads in Nigeria, and other countries. It takes approximately 6 hours to travel from Nigeria to London, but takes more than 8 hours to do so from Lagos to Port Louis, Mauritius’ capital.
“I have been burned twice now on things I was told were done but it turned out were not,” Paga CEO Oviosu said. “…To verify I may need to go to Mauritius myself or as I’ve done so far pay a lawyer to go verify.”
Therefore, given the size and growth the company has recorded in recent times, continuing to stay in Mauritius even when none of its core businesses or its investors is resident there rather appears untenable. It would have been a lot easier if the company has run most of its business activities from Mauritius all those years.
Mauritius is still a tax haven compared to most countries. To Paga, it however, didn’t make any more sense to continue to prefer the country over other jurisdictions that operate similar tax regimes, especially as those other jurisdictions also appear to have better language advantage or court system.
“They (Mauritians) speak English but…the accent is extremely hard to understand,” Oviosu said.
All these, therefore, do not mean that Mauritius no longer continues to hold the best business environment and tax regime in Africa. In terms of ease of doing business, Mauritius ranks first in Africa, and 13th in the world, ahead of countries like Australia, Germany, Canada, China, Netherlands, Belgium or Hungary.
The country also ranks first as the most innovative country in Africa and 52nd in the world according to the World Innovation Index. Globally, the Mauritian capital, Port Louis, is the 9th economy in terms of the quality of institutions and the dynamism of the markets.
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
Nigeria’s iROKOtv, often hailed as the ‘‘Netflix of Africa’’ is not interested in Africa again! Not in the sense that it has added to the list of failed startups, but in the sense that it no longer finds it comfortable running its African operations, and so wants to scale them down. With more than $30 million in investors’ funding, founder Jason Njoku has written a very long essay starting this process, of wishing the 9-year-old company good riddance from the continent.
founder Jason Njoku
“Over the next week, iROKOtv will be defocusing our Africa growth efforts,” he says, “and we will revert to focusing on higher ARPU (average revenue per user) customers in North America and Western Europe.”
Going down with the company are about 150 jobs — Not the first time it is hacking off those jobs though. It did so between 2010 and 2015 when it asked over 130 workers in Lagos to go.
And although Mr. Njoku had given a list of the reasons why the company is scaling down now, the signs had always being on the wall. In 2015, he lamented that iROKOtv was super early in Africa.
“I feel even in 2016 and 2017, we will still be too early for widespread data-driven long form video adoption and consumption,” he had said. “As everyone who isn’t a betting company has realised, Nigeria is immature for most internet startups,”
But intelligent people in the ecosystem knew that a day like this in iROKOtv’s life was going to come, unless it was an outlier. The company is not the first video-on-demand service in Africa and would, probably, never be the last. Barely a year ago, one of Africa’s leading pay TV services, Kwese TV, owned by telecoms giant Econet, shut down its operations in all African countries it was in operations, including its video-on-demand service, Iflix and Kwese Play. Since then, Kwese TV has been up for sale, and there is no further information about who is willing to stake new odds with the company. A long list of stone-dead VoD startups follows before Kwese, from Afrostreams to MTN VU to Buni.tv to Cell C’s Black. All stone-dead!
Even after pushing incredibly hard in Africa for the last 5 years, our international business represents 80% of our revenue today,” Mr. Njoku says, “so by taking out Africa growth-related costs, we cut our $300k/month burn to [less than] $50k/month.”
It is understandable why Mr. Njoku hurled words at Nigeria in the farewell letter. iROKOtv’s woes in Africa appear to have been spearheaded by the country— which makes up the remaining 20% of his company’s revenue share.
For record purposes (added to the fate of recently dead startups in Nigeria), the company would also go down as the first ever African video-on-demand service to be killed by excessive regulations.
In June this year, Nigeria approved the 6th amendment to the country’s broadcasting code, which took away the right to exclusivity for all content broadcast in Nigeria, prescribing the maximum fees at which such exclusive content could be purchased.
“ [As] If dealing with COVID-19, consumer confidence collapse and devaluation wasn’t enough, our great national comrades in Abuja thought it was a solid piece of regulation to quietly introduce the 6th Amendment to the NBC code,” Njoku further notes. “This singular, inexplicable act destroys PayTV in Nigeria. Let me be clear, this had a massive impact on the decision to discontinue investing (and losing money in Nigeria).”
The regulations, among other things, also proceeded to give the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC), in charge of regulating and controlling Nigeria’s broadcast industry, large discretionary powers to determine whether an agreement restrains competition and creates monopoly, including but not limited to deciding whether the broadcaster has a large market share.
iIROKOtv ‘s subscription growth over the last 18 months
iROKOtv ‘s subscription growth over the last 18 months, Source: jason.com. Image for: Why Is iROKOtv Leaving Africa’s Billion Dollar Industry So Early, And What Does The Future Hold For Other Video-on-Demand Startups? iROKOtv. iROKOtv. iROKOtv. iROKOtv. iROKOtv. iROKOtv
S/N
African VoD Plaforms That Have Shut Down
Year Founded
Year of Shutdown
Country
Reasons For Shutdown
1
Kwese Play, Iflix
2014
2018
Zimbabwe.
*Multiple currency system. *Inflation. Third party content providers on whose content Kwese relied required payment in foreign currency.
2
Buni.tv
2012
2016
Kenya
Acquisition by TRACE TV
3
Black (Owned by Cell C)
2017
2019
South Africa
*CEO Craigie Stevenson noted that the company did not have the resources to compete in that environment. *Not generating revenue; debts; low subscriber rate. *Built on risky models, including grant of free streaming data to subscribers.
4
MTN VU
2014
2017
South Africa
*Built on risky business model, including grant of zero-rated data for streaming on VU. *MTN said service cost became prohibitive.
5
ONTAPTv (Owned by Hong Kong’s PCCW
2015
2018
South Africa
*No official reasons given, but the company seemed not to have the resources to compete in that environment.
6
Vidi (Owned by Times Media Group)
2014
2016
South Africa
Over-competition and poor resources
7
Altech Node
2014
2015
South Africa
Owner Altech Node exited its South African business
8
Wabona
2012
2015
Kenya
No official reasons; but competition and inadequate resources are most likely.
9
Afrostream (backed by Y Combinator)
2015
2017
24 African countries, mostly French-speaking.
*More than $4million in funding. No new funding.
*From the figures above, it takes approximately two and a half years for the next video-on-demand startup in Africa to die.
Is It That Hard To Run A Video-on-Demand Service In Africa Then?
Below are a few considerations to think over before proceeding on the next video-on-demand adventure in Africa.
VoD Startups Burn Funds Faster Than They Make
When Afrostreams hit rock bottom and shuttered down in 2017 barely 2 years after spending investments in excess of $4 million, critics questioned them for not being profitable before soliciting funding. But then there is more to running a video-on-demand service in Africa than meets the eyes. One of the most prominent ones was pointed out by Afrostream founder Tonje Bakang, who was not ready to go the piracy ways.
“For a LEGAL VoD startup like ours,” Bakang says, “we had to be able to pay between €1,000 and €15,000 per episode for a series; and between €2,000 and €50,000 for a film; just for one year of exploitation and on a list of well-defined territory.”
According to Bakang, the total amount of fees to be paid by a VoD platform like his, actually depends, apart from the ones above, on several factors, including but not limited to the popularity of the programme; the popularity of the casting; the quality of the production; the availability of a foreign language version; the exclusivity; and of course, the piracy of the programme.
“Take the example of a 2-season series of 10 episodes per season, at €1,000 per episode per year,” he says, “2 seasons x 10 episodes x €1,000 per episode = €20,000.”
However, to create the French subtitles of an episode in English, according to Bakang, it is necessary to add an extra €500 per episode or €10,000 per year.
“We arrive thus at €30,000 for 1 independent series,” he says.
“To promote this program, we have to create new trailers with the Afrostream graphic charter, create visuals, and invest in online advertising (Facebook Ads, Mailchimp, media partners etc.) and create events. The marketing budget for an independent series like this one is at least €10,000. We are therefore looking at €40,000 for the one year of operation of an independent series of 2 seasons,” he adds.
But all these do not mean the company would break even, once accomplished.
“Just a series will not be enough to create a sufficient supply for a subscriber,” he says.
And this is true. Even with more than 3781 movies and 1500 series on Netflix, with presence in over 190 countries, the demands of the users of the platform are still insatiable.
By standards, it takes about 10 sets to form a series; and therefore, going by Bakang’s calculations, this represents a budget of €400,000 for one year. And using the same calculations, it would cost exactly €1,200,000 for one year of operation to produce 30 sets of series. (This is also bearing in mind the time of his writing, in 2017; and the attendant currency fluctuations that might have affected the value of the outcomes of his calculations.)
Similar process would also happen with films.
“Let us take the example of an African-American independent or Nigerian film (Nollywood) at €3,000 per year of operation,” he says, “to promote this film, we must add a minimum marketing budget of €10,000. This puts us at €14,000 for a year of exploitation of an African-American independent or Nigerian film released two years ago.”
“How many films does it take to make up an interesting catalogue? 50 films? Based on my example, this represents a budget of €700,000 for one year. 100 films? €1,400,000 for one year of operation. Here too, I used the cheapest film price,” he further adds.
Therefore, for Bakang, at the time of his writing, to have 30 independent series of 2 seasons and 100 independent African or Nigerian films with subtitles in French, a budget of €2,100,000 for one year of operation is required.
This budget, however, excludes the company’s plan to develop a streaming platform; server costs; application development for smartphones; tablets; telephone operators’ boxes; operating costs; team salaries; consultant invoices; lawyers; offices; travel abroad; and marketing of the offer.
“In total, this amounts to approximately €1,000,000 per year,” Bakang says.
And to be able scale and possibly make profit, the budget must be amortised; and this usually means that a higher number of subscribers would be required, and at a very high cost. In 2015, Netflix France, excluding the cost of content and technical cost, spent €66 to acquire each subscriber. Put more precisely then, Bakang’s Afrostream needed just about 70,000 subscribers, each paying a subscription of €7 per month for 12 months without interruption to be able to amortise the cost of 30 series and 100 films, including the content, technology and the operating costs (€,5,880,000 per year).
Unfortunately, over 10,000 subscribers, which Afrostreams was able to then acquire, were not enough to strongly convince investors that Afrostreams would make profitable returns on their investments, in an industry notorious for being unprofitable for its early-stage players. Consequently, the company proceeded to die.
Afrostreams’ fate closely explains why iROKOtv is smartly shuttering down its Africa operations in time, before its completely meets the same fate.
According to iROKOtv, approximately USD 25 Mn in content was acquired in the past five years in Nigeria. Therefore, it is arguable that with less than five hundred thousand subscribers after over 9 years in Africa, coupled with the recent sale of its film studio, ROK (which generated more than 75 per cent of iROKO’s 2018 revenue), to CANAL + Group, it would take the company many more years, in the face of Nigeria’s swinging currency stability and the newly introduced 6th Amendment to the NBC Code, to reach profitability, given the burn rate of $300k per month it has incurred in Nigeria before now.
“In 2015, we introduced the N3,000 annual plan,” Mr. Njoku notes. “It was affordable and an instant hit. It supported our invest(ments) in (our) Africa(n) growth ambitions and was priced close to perfection for our user base. It was readily taken up by hundreds of thousands of people across West Africa.
“Back then N3,000 = $18 (166/$). We went through the brutal 2016–17 devaluations and ended up N3,000 = $8.33 (360/$). A nightmare by all means…Today N3,000 = $6.3 (477/$). All indications are that the Naira devaluation hasn’t really finished. Some are saying it’s just starting and will end up at 550–600/$ before year’s end. What we are seeing now is distorted as…access to FX has been cut off for almost 6 months. A lot of our costs are in dollars — AWS, tech tools,” he adds.
Consequently, presented with the opportunity to either choose to focus on its international market, where the company charges users an annual fee within the range of US$50, or its Nigerian market, where it charges users around US$6 for similar services, iROKOtv would readily jump ship in favour of the former. The former choice would even be more quickly made if iROKOtv makes most of its African revenue from grants of rights to its exclusive content, a practice which has been brought to an abrupt end by the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission through its 6th Amendment to the NBC Code.
iROKO’s fate in Nigeria also met Zimbabwe’s Kwese TV. Explaining why the company had to shut down its African operations, Group CEO Econet Media, Douglas Mboweni, blamed the country’s economic downturn along with problems caused by the country’s decision to switch from a multi-currency system to a local currency that led to soaring inflation.
“The third-party content providers, on whose content we rely, require payment in foreign currency,” he said. “With the prevailing economic conditions in Zimbabwe, and the current business operating environment — characterised by an acute shortage of foreign currency — sustaining Kwesé and Kwesé Satellite Service was no longer viable.”
In essence, there is no gain saying the fact that to compete in the African video-on-demand industry, players must be heavily funded and must be prepared to burn funds without profits in their first few years. This perhaps explains the runs of well-funded VoD companies like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and MultiChoice’s Showmax on the continent.
Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are leveraging their large catalogues and strategic partnerships (including partnerships with the continent’s leading movie sphere, Nollywood). In 2019 alone, Netflix spent almost $14 billion on “additions to streaming content assets”. Showmax, founded in 2015, is also pulling weight with minimum subscription fees as low as $4, as well as its increasing catalogues, estimated to be around 800 movies and 414 series. MultiChoice’s most recent partnership with Netflix and Amazon would also help to cement the trio’s market shares in Africa and kill early stage VoD startups, unless they are niche-focused (like South Africa’s PrideTv.co.za which focuses on the country’s LGBT community or Digital Entertainment on Demand which offers movie rental services and live streaming of sports alongside traditional on-demand videos; same as Vodacom’s Vodacom Play which is banking on its high customer base to scale)
High Cost Of Internet vs. Low Internet Connectivity Across Africa
Access to low-cost internet connection in Africa is still a tall task, even though over 526 million people on the continent(representing about 11.5% of global internet share) use the internet .
While Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya and South Africa lead the continent internet subscriber base with over 126 million, 49 million, 46 million, 32 million respectively, same cannot be said of the precise number of people in those countries who can bear the cost of access to the internet.
While 1GB worth of internet, for instance, cost around $2.78 in Nigeria — by the end of 2019 — it cost $1.24 in Egypt; $2.45 in Kenya; and $6.81 in South Africa for the same quantity and around the same time.
In fact, at more than $30 per 1GB in Equatorial Guinea; more than $20 per 1GB in Zimbabwe; more than $16 per 1GB in Guinea Bissau, Namibia, Seychelles; and more than $10 per 1GB in Swaziland, Libya, Chad, Mauritania, Sao Tome & Principle — as at December, 2019 — Africa is the region of the world with the most expensive internet data.
This perhaps explains why, of all internet traffic in Africa, only about 6% is video-related. This is also glaring in the facts recently released by Netflix about its subscriber base around the world. From the report, it could be gleaned that despite Nigeria’s over 126 million internet subscriber base (the sixth largest in the world), the country is no where around the top 50 in the most subscribing countries in the world, even though Costa Rica, at 24 position, has just about 281,417 subscribers.
This is not surprising though; Nigerians are fighting hard to maintain barely decent livelihoods. About 152 million Nigerians live on less than $2 a day, representing about 80 per cent of the country’s estimated 190 million population.
Thus, since it takes about $2.78 to access 1GB of data in the country and it equally would require, on average, about 1GB of data per hour to stream standard-definition videos on Netflix [and 3GB per hour for high standard definition (HD)], it would take, at least $5.56 (two days meal) to stream 2 hours of video per day, which is Netflix’s average in 2019. Nigeria’s situation is even more disturbing when it is recalled that the country is the continent’s largest economy.
“People were shocked at Netflix (alleged) subscribers numbers for Nigeria? Why? Airtel Nigeria and MTN average revenue per user (ARPU) is $2.8 and $4.5,” Mr. Njoku tweeted. “Nigerians are super price sensitive and pretty poor. In 2018, 57 percent of MTN data users were incidental, 0–5mb per month.”
The Bottom Line
Although it may seem insignificant, on-demand video services in Africa should, in the face of the stiffening competition and a very tiny market, either go niche or strategically innovate. Innovative approaches should include relying on many tech-based strategies, such as the use of capping to divide video qualities in ranges; compression to provide watching or downloading experience that does not waste time in poor networks, among many others.
Netflix, for instance, has spent considerable number of years implementing new and more efficient video-encoding processes which have reduced over 20% of the occupied space and bandwidth on the company’s platform without reducing the quality of streamed videos. This measure is also important knowing that, apart from factors such as high cost of data, the speed of the internet is equally important when running on-demand video services in Africa, and Africa has one of the lowest internet speed in the world.
Nevertheless, with Africa’s average age being 19.7 years, the future is bright. Reports show that 89 percent of Millennials ( currently between 24–39 years old) use on-demand video services, while 59 million people watch live TV.
What African countries need to do therefore, is to empower their young populations to earn more and to encourage these innovative services through better-fashioned legislations.
“We still believe in Nigeria,’’ Mr. Njoku concludes. “We still believe Ghana, We still believe in Africa. It’s a strange thing to realise that even after almost 9 years with IROKOtv, 5 exclusively focused in Africa, we still may be too early for Africa. That, in itself, says so much about the current Internet opportunity in Africa…For now we can only focus on cash flow. We will be waiting patiently, keenly, for the key signals to jump right back in to growth mode. We are still on ground”
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
Barely 2 years old, Nigeria-based blockchain-powered anti-counterfeiting startup, Chekkit is no longer on the same pedestal with its founding class. In a world filled with unstoppable opportunities, Chekkit is repeating what the San Fransisco-headquartered Zipline is doing in Rwanda and Ghana, but in a different way. The difference is, however, never in the ambition but in the products offered. While Zipline, in a $12.5 million deal with the Ghanaian government, flies series of drones over Ghana’s airspace, delivering essential healthcare services to Ghanaians in need of them, Chekkit has a new impetus in Afghanistan, the famously war-torn country.
Dare Odumade, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Chekkit
“The Afghan Ministry of Public Health had been looking for effective ways to verify the authenticity and effectiveness of drugs that are being imported into the country,” said Dare Odumade, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Chekkit about a new partnership between the Afghan Ministry of Public Health and Chekkit. “ Chekkit has provided them with a way to authenticate the drugs at the point of entry into the country and also at point of purchase.”
The magic of the partnership is however not in any extra bogus statements further disclosed in the press release about the deal, such as this by Odumade:
“Through this partnership, we will provide the pharma companies involved with valuable consumer insights and a reward programme to encourage purchase and verification by buyers, as well as give the government a transparent view of the pharmaceutical market. On completion of a successful pilot, we envisage our technology being deployed across the board for all meds coming into Afghanistan.”
The magic lies in the fact that unlike Zipline — with its US coloration and pride — Chekkit is defying odds and the not-so-shiny image of its home country, Nigeria, to establish roots in a country outside of Africa.
First, A Look At The Partnership Deal
With the new partnership, Chekkit becomes Africa’s first healthtech startup to gain foot in South Asia. Under the terms of the new partnership, which begins with a three-month pilot, Chekkit will utilise its product authentication technology to track and verify all drugs sold in the country. Chekkit’s smart labels will be attached to 80,000 pharmaceutical products sold in the Afghan market, allowing for verification of these drugs before purchase or use. Chekkit will also provide an oversight capability for the Health Ministry by deploying special hand-held devices that can be used to verify the authenticity of the products at the point of entry into the country.
Birthed in 2018, at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) in Accra, Ghana, Chekkit’s platform tracks product movement and the parties involved in the transfer of products from warehouse to distributor, and on to the final consumer. The company also produces tamper-proof unique ID labels, either as QR codes or numeric codes, which can be placed on premium packaged food and beverage products for supply chain and consumer feedback tracking.
Although Chekkit could pride itself as being the first African healthcare startup in Afghanistan, the credit for its entry into the country will go to Fantom, a network of blockchains that provides ledger services to businesses and applications, based in Seoul, South Korea. This is because Chekkit’s solution is deployed on Fantom’s DAG network, and although talks with the Afghan government were already initiated by Fantom, Chekkit’s latest partnership deal also has Fantom as a co-signatory.
Not physically present in the listed countries. Working in partnerships with other foreign payment companies.
7
ClickPesa
UK
Africa-focused cross-border payment.
Working in partnerships with other foreign payment companies.
8
Entersekt
US, UK, Bavaria, Netherlands.
Payment security app
9
Flexclub
Mexico
Ride-hailing
Working in partnership with Uber
10
Mintrics
US
Social video analytics
11
Aerobotics
US, Spain, Australia
Agribusiness
12
Branch International
Brazil, Indonesia
Digital lending
13
Wakanow
U.A.E, UK
Travel
14
Jumo
Pakistan
Financial services
15
Luno
Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore
Crypocurrency
16
Mdundo
Denmark
IPO (Music Streaming)
17
Chekkit
Afghanistan
Healthcare
African startups and their countries of expansion outside Africa *Facts are not exhaustive
Africa-made To The World
Chekkit’s inroad into Afghanistan has confirmed that African startups can make inroads into offshore countries if they worked harder and with the right network, collaboration and resilience. Few African startups have been able to achieve this feat. Although Jumia, the Africa-focused ecommerce company, had shot the continent’s startup ecosystem into international fame on the New York Stock Exchange last year, the company has no immediate plans to launch operations in the US. Again, although Egypt’s e-hailing startup SWVL has expanded to territories outside the shores of Africa, it has not yet gone beyond South Asia, or Middle East And North African region where it has some nuanced belonging. Cross-border payment startups such as Flutterwave, Paga and others are only focused on African remittances or African merchants doing business across borders. A higher level of global connectedness will therefore help African startups integrate into the global fabric, thereby raising their level of performance. Chekkit is one of the few that have proved that this is achievable.
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
To African ride-hailing startups, California’s new employment law is biting hard. No one expected Uber’s long tested business model, which was built on the basic principles of the gig economy, to change overnight, but this is happening. Under California ’s new law, nobody — drivers or gig workers — working for Uber or Lyft, or indeed any other freelance platforms now known or yet to be known, should simply be referred to, again, as an independent contractor. The new class for all of them— of course, subject to a three-pronged test — is “employees”; and this is a heavy word. Heavy because, going forward, Uber and other e-hailing companies, for instance, may be in their last throes of death defending their over $200 billion business from sinking into extinction not just in the US’ wealthiest state, but also in other states and countries inspired by California’s new path.
John Zimmer, Lyft’s president
What Is This California’s New Employment Law All About?
The quirkiest way of summarizing California’s new employment law is that it has reclassified, disrupted, removed and destroyed everything you know about the gig economy, such that if you decide to register with Uber as a driver, in say Lagos, Nigeria, for instance, you would no longer be seen as working independent of the e-hailing company, but as its employee; even though the car is yours and you command some influence on how you choose to do your work. And of course, as an employee, you’re entitled to daily or monthly wages or salaries, and are subject to Uber’s control and authority. But this is the most simplistic interpretation of the law.
In Details, Here Is What The New Law Fully States
The law, entitled Assembly B5, or simply AB5, has changed the criteria for being an independent contractor in California.
Now, for a company to classify a worker as an independent contractor, it must prove three things (you may hear this being called the “ABC Test”). If they can’t, then the worker is treated as an employee.
First, companies must prove that “the worker is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity in connection with the performance of the work.” In other words, companies can’t manage contractors the way they would employees. As an example, if a catering hall contracted a chef to prepare food events, but controlled how the chef prepared the food — giving them custom orders from customers, giving a strict schedule for production, and instituting standard procedures — they would likely not satisfy this part of the test.
Second, companies must prove that “the worker performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business.” This means that a company like Uber has to prove that driving users from location A to location B is outside the company’s usual course of business. Uber said as much in a press release, contending that the company is actually a “technology platform for several different types of digital marketplaces.”
Third, the companies must prove that “the worker is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business of the same nature as the work performed.” For example, an electrician doing contract electrical work is still a contractor. It’s unclear if ride sharing or meal delivery companies will be unable to clear this bar.
Consequently, under this new law, all of these independent contractors could earn employee status if the companies can’t satisfy the ABC test.
This is why Uber and Lyft, and others are fuming and have threatened to suspend all their operations till further notice, save for a timely reprieve from a court in California, which recently ruled that the word “independent contractors” still be tagged along with the drivers pending the determination of an appeal before it.
All the wailing ride-hailing companies know the implications of the law finally scaling through: Lyft, alone, has more than 300,000 drivers in California. Uber said in a recent blog post that its number of active drivers per quarter in California is about 209,000. Now, with the law in place, Uber and Lyft, and others are expected to cater to these drivers’ needs, as is expected of employers, including but not limited to granting them holiday and sick pay; overtime; health insurance; as well as other range of employment protection, benefits and their attendant tax implications. It would really be a serious reshaping of these companies’ finances.
One thing may likely save Uber and Lyft though: a ballot, known as Proposition 22, will be put up in November, at the same time as the US presidential election, inviting any eligible voter in California to vote, for or against, on whether Uber and Lyft be granted an exemption from the law.
Although Proposition 22 envisages some changes to give drivers minimum-wage standards, limited health benefits and flexibility, while maintaining the rideshare model, if voters disagree with it — especially as it is the labour groups that are pushing for Assembly B5 — Uber and Lyft, and other ride-hailing firms, may have to fold up — an option, not likely to be on the table as California, alone, accounts for about 16 percent of Lyft’s business, according to John Zimmer, Lyft’s president.
The companies may, alternatively, have to opt for other types of models. Already, plans are being mulled by Uber and Lyft to license their technology to those who want to operate fleets of ride-hailing cars in California, under a franchise model; but that, itself, may be too expensive. One analyst, Mr. Ives of Wedbush Securities has estimated that implementing any changes to the existing rideshare model would cost Uber $500 million a year and Lyft $200 million a year. This is even compounded by the fact that both companies have remained unprofitable, as per reports, and have also been gravely affected by lockdowns associated with the coronavirus pandemic.
Uber and Lyft drivers with Rideshare Drivers United and the Transport Workers Union of America conduct a cravan protest outside the California Labor Commissioner’s office in April. Mario Tama/Getty Images.
If Assembly B5 Finally Sails Through At The End Of The Day, It Could Have Domino Effects Across Jurisdictions
Although Bradley Tusk, president of Tusk Ventures and an early Uber investor, had told The Verge, late last year that “a domino effect [is] not just possible,” it’s beginning to look like his statement was poorly premeditated. There are already signs on the wall. Joining California Attorney General Xavier Becerra in his case against Uber and Lyft, which alleges that the ride-hailing companies have misclassified their drivers as contractors in violation of the new state law that went into effect this year, are city attorneys from San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. Although these are major cities in the state of California, there are strong indications that the success of the case may send a strong signal to drivers in other US states — and across several other jurisdictions around the world, which have, until now, been looking for ways to muffle competition in an already saturated market . This may consequently necessitate major changes in their laws to accommodate their own peculiarities.
For one thing, the influence of California in the US and around the world cannot be overstated. Apart from the fact that the state is the largest of any US state — economy-wise — it is also the world’s fifth largest economy, behind Germany and ahead of India. The state is also home to “Silicon Valley” and some of the world’s most valuable companies such as Apple, Google, NetFlix, Twitter, Uber, and Facebook. A natural argument from the success of Assembly B5 at the end of the day would, therefore, be that if the tech-supported gig economy was inspired by the innovations brought about by Silicon Valley, it wouldn’t make much sense to continue to hold onto the traditional definition of the concept, when those who first laid its foundation have gone ahead to redefine it.
Although Uber and Lyft have argued that they are simply tech platforms and are not transportation businesses, the argument does not hold firm for all seasons. Uber, for example, has had to bend its operations in Germany and Spain to fit into the country’s transportation rules, which permit working with fleets, even though it is a tech platform. One thing needs to be pointed out here: although the Assembly B5 law does not apply to only rideshare business models, but to the entire gig economy, it seems, however, that the rideshare model would be the most affected given that it is often seen as being at the front lines of the economy.
“AB5 is riding two waves,” says Alex Rosenblat, a technology ethnographer and author of Uberland: How Algorithms are Rewriting the Rules of Work, to The Verve, “ a longstanding effort to restore workplace protections to misclassified workers; and it comes on the heels of the techlash.”
Rosenblat further argues that while the California law is about more than just Uber and Lyft, the drivers became the face of all workers exploited by giant tech companies. “That’s why AB5 is a symbolic and remarkable shift towards accountability, in labor and in tech,” she said.
On his part, Bradley Tusk adds that “ if the sharing-economy companies can’t radically reframe the narrative from ‘evil Silicon Valley powerhouse vs workers’ to ‘what this actually means for workers and consumers vs groups looking to profit from the changes,’ they’ll keep losing everywhere.”
Image for: Comparing Africa ‘s attempt to regulate Uber, others with the rest of the world. Source: — Daily Mail
How Does Assembly B5 Affect African Ride-sharing Startups?
There are already signs on the wall that California’s Assembly B5 law may be replicated in Africa. At least, governments of all major African countries and cities housing the continent’s gig economy ecosystems have spent the past five years caressing and testing their power to make laws that will severely touch tech startups wherever they may be located in the world. Lagos, Africa’s most valuable startup ecosystem, recently introduced a set of new regulations which will take off from August 27, 2020. The regulations, among other things, state that each e-hailing company must pay N8 million ($20.5k) per 1,000 cars as fresh licencing and renewal fees; that the companies will have comprehensive insurance for each driver while the driver is working with them; that a flat fee of N20 ($0.052) per trip, called a Road Improvement Fund, will be levied per trip.
Under South Africa’s National Land Transport Amendment Bill, which has been passed in parliament and sent to South Africa’s president for assent, drivers on car-hailing platforms like Uber and Bolt who do not have operating licences — not driving licenses — may incur a fine as much as R100 000 ($6000) for those platforms (Uber, Bolt and others), which would definitely be levied against the affected drivers directly or indirectly.
In Ghana, from Uber to Bolt to Yango, drivers who rely on ride-hailing to sustain their livelihoods would start paying a mandatory GHC 60 ($11) annual fee, in addition to their cars undergoing roadworthy tests every six months. Ghana’s Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), which imposed the GH¢60 ($11) annual fee noted that the guidelines will cover the current ride-hailing platforms like Uber, Bolt, and Yango and will also cover companies who intend to operate ride-hailing platforms in Ghana in the future.
Therefore, it is only a matter of time before African governments’ regulatory attention reaches across to this spectrum. This reach would, however, be faster if California’s Assembly B5 beats naysayers at the polls on November 22, 2020.
When an issue assumes a political coloration, nothing is often guaranteed; especially as political interests, clad in sweeping powers, are almost always determined to push to protect majority interests rather than those of a few; majority interests, in this case, being the groaning drivers who command large voting powers; and the few being corporations and organisations whose barking powers are never anywhere near the ballot boxes.
Here is how the gig economy works. Source: UNNATI. Image for: Ride-hailing Uber California Africa. Ride-hailing Uber California African. Ride-hailing Uber California African. Ride-hailing Uber California African. Ride-hailing Uber California African. Ride-hailing Uber California African. Ride-hailing Uber California African
The Bottom Line
The best way to contain this impending disruption of the gig economy is to hear the gig workers out, in time, in the first place. As startups practising in the sector, never make their conditions so horrible that they begin to stick out their voices. It may be so overwhelming once everything converges to a head.
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
The Academy of Pan-African financial powerhouse Ecobank Transnational International (ETI) has made history by making it to the prestigious Global Business School Network (GBSN) as its first corporate member. The GBSN which has been at the forefront of building management education capacity in and for the developing world for over 17 years has a core of network that spans six continents with more than 100 leading business schools from 50 countries, whose leaders, faculty, and students engage in programs to improve access to quality, locally relevant management and entrepreneurship education.
GBSN CEO Dan LeClair
Spurred by its commitment to economic and social development across sub-Saharan Africa, Ecobank Group has since its beginning in 1985 launched an academy which has become one of the largest corporate universities across Sub-Saharan Africa. According to the Bank, the Academy has trained more than 14,000 in 39 countries––35 in Africa and 4 outside of Africa. To mark the start of their formal relationship, GBSN and Ecobank Academy hosted a virtual forum to explore Africa’s changing talent needs. The series commenced with a conversation between Rey and LeClair, July 16, 2020.
Both organizations have a shared vision for Africa, to have the talent it needs to generate prosperity. GBSN CEO Dan LeClair says “the aim is to work together over the long term to build a stronger connection between business and business schools—to develop the talent for Africa to achieve what it wants. The space between education and practice holds the greatest potential for innovative solutions.”
Speaking on the partnership, the Group Head of Ecobank Academy, Talent, and Organizational Development, Simon Rey says that “it is a privilege to be the first corporate university to join GBSN. We believe practical and just-in-time education is crucial to help solve some of the most pressing challenges and, at the same time, unlock tremendous opportunities to advance the social-economic agenda. We are looking forward to collaborating with other members and to together bring world-class capabilities to create and implement solution-driven programs impacting African SMEs, MSMEs, Public Sector, Development organizations, Youth, and other professionals.”
Group Head of Ecobank Academy, Talent, and Organizational Development, Simon Rey
Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (‘ETI’) is the parent company of the Ecobank Group (www.Ecobank.com), the leading independent pan-African banking group. The Ecobank Group employs over 14,800 people and serves more than 23 million customers in the consumer, commercial and corporate banking sectors across 33 African countries. The Group has a banking license in France and representative offices in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Johannesburg, South Africa; Beijing, China; London, the UK and Dubai, the United Arab Emirates. The Group offers a full suite of banking products, services and solutions including bank and deposit accounts, loans, cash management, advisory, trade, securities, wealth and asset management. ETI is listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchanges in Lagos, the Ghana Stock Exchange in Accra, and the Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.
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
Starting a business anywhere in the world is a daunting undertaking.
In the United States and Europe, especially, certain markets are starting to feel saturated. Do American consumers really want another ride-sharing app, besides Uber and Lyft? Could your personal finance app really compete with Venmo or Paypal?
This doesn’t mean you need to give up your dreams of creating a successful business and living the adrenaline-powered entrepreneurial lifestyle.
Instead, you may just need to look for a market elsewhere in the world.
In developing nations, this type of untapped potential abounds. Consider that your business idea may be one-in-a-million where you live, but one-of-a-kind in a developing nation. And, not only this, but business models that simply would never work in the U.S. or Europe may have great potential elsewhere in the world.
I discovered this firsthand with the motorcycle taxi company I co-founded in Bangladesh.
When I started researching business opportunities in Bangladesh, I wasn’t focused on the motorcycle taxi industry.
I started Pathao in Dhaka, Bangladesh, as an on-demand delivery service back in 2015.
At the time, we were focused on logistics, not transportation. But after meeting an investor who’d had incredible success with motorcycle taxis in Indonesia, we decided to push Pathao in the same direction.
This type of service is popular in many other developing nations, where motorcycles are the easiest way to move quickly through the highly congested cities. And even though Dhaka tops the list of the world’s most highly trafficked cities, we were the first to introduce the model to Bangladesh. For whatever reason, motorcycle taxis just weren’t part of the culture.
I wasn’t sure whether we’d be able to make the case for motorcycle taxis to Bangladeshis.
And it did take some time — at first, people were hesitant to get on the back of a stranger’s motorcycle. It just wasn’t done. But over time, we won people over.
We started with 100 motorcycles and 100 drivers, and now we have a fleet 100,000 freelance taxi drivers with their own bikes. We’ve even seen people buying motorcycles just to work for us, which resulted in a 100% increase in motorcycle sales in Bangladesh after our first two years on the streets.
This has been a major success for me and the Pathao team, but the bigger success is how Pathao has impacted Bangladesh. Tens of thousands of rides are completed through Pathao each day, helping to create a more efficient transportation system, and, ultimately, quality of life.
Instead of crowding the streets with more cars, Bangladeshis are now more likely to rely on ride-sharing services, much like we’re seeing in countries where Uber and Lyft have revolutionized personal transportation.
After seeing Pathao’s success, my team at Adventure Capital and I are developing other motorcycle taxi services in countries like Colombia and Nigeria.
20-year-old Fahim Saleh in his home office in Hopewell, 2007. Journal File
Of course, expanding to first-world countries like the United States or Europe isn’t in the realm of possibilities. Motorcycle taxis wouldn’t work well with our safety laws or with our expansive, large-scale infrastructure. And in the same vein, electric scooter companies — which are being funded by the billions in the U.S. — would never work in Dhaka or Lagos, and for a very simple reason: the roads are too full of potholes.
When I met that influential investor, I had no idea that the motorcycle taxi market existed.
But once I saw how successful Pathao became, I decided to expand and created a similar company in Nigeria — Gokada.
As I’ve learned, one country’s problem can be an entrepreneur’s opportunity. Nigeria’s okadas (their term for motorcycle taxis) faced issues when a law was passed that disallowed bikes under 200cc to travel on major roadways or over bridges. The basis for the law was that okadas had a reputation for driving fast and recklessly. They weren’t seen as a safe option.
Since okadas are all under 200cc, that law created a huge problem for the motorcycle taxi drivers — all 8 million of them.
But at Gokada, we saw this as an opportunity to introduce a fleet of bikes that were over 200cc. That means our bikes can go anywhere, across cities. We train our drivers, and ensure they drive at a pace that’s comfortable for the rider. We’re working hard to change the perception of okadas, so customers know that they’re in good hands when they get on one of our bikes.
After Gokada, I also invested in a Colombian motorcycle taxi service called Picap, which presented its own regulatory challenges.
In Colombia, people don’t think of riding motorcycle taxis as dangerous, at least not in terms of getting into a traffic accident.
The issue, instead, is that there’s a lot of crime associated with motorcycles — most notably, robberies and drive-by assassinations. To fight these crimes, the Colombian government passed a law making it illegal for motorcycles above a given engine size to carry a male passenger over the age of 14 in parts of Bogotá, the country’s capital.
This created a serious challenge for Picap — if they didn’t address the issue somehow, they’d either end up turning away multitudes of customers, or breaking the law.
So Picap created a system that matches up drivers with passengers, based on gender and motorcycle engine size, to make sure every ride is legal.
With Pathao, Gokada, and Picap, we’re offering a form of transportation that wasn’t previously accessible to many. And by doing so, we’ve created not only viable, profitable businesses, but we’ve also introduced a problem-solving product to countries that needed it, as well as employed thousands of people.
So instead of competing with saturated markets in the U.S. and Europe, maybe it’s time to look to developing nations, ripe with opportunity and waiting for entrepreneurial minds to solve life-changing problems.
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
Every African has a side hustle. At birth, you’re given five names and a side hustle. It’s literally in our DNA.
Beyonic started as my side hustle. I had a hunch about cloud software, and for a couple of years, I tested my product after hours and on weekends. From inception in 2005, through its pivot in 2013, Beyonic has been a part of my life for 15 years.
Luke Kyohere, Beyonic Founder
Recently, a friend reminded me of how, in 2007, we rented a rundown house, slapped on a fresh coat of paint, put a signpost upfront, cots in the backroom to sleep, and used the front entry as office space. Work stopped multiple times a day because we were neighbors to what must have been the loudest nursery school in the world. For the African startup, the “garage in the suburbs” is to be strived for, it’s our “corner office suite.” Our startups often have much humbler beginnings.
Every pitch-deck has that exit slide — “In 2011, Visa bought Fundamo, an African Fintech …” — Luke, 2013.
Last week, we announced the sale of Beyonic to MFS Africa. Amid the fanfare and socially distanced pats-on-the-back, I am reflective. Today, intermingled with the sense of accomplishment is a feeling of camaraderie with my fellow African entrepreneurs.
African entrepreneurs know the founder’s life is precarious & thrifty. It’s as natural as walking for us to hustle and scrimp. This post is a tribute to those often unacknowledged warriors who contribute daily to helping Africa lead the world in forming new companies.
The 9 to 5 incubator
There is no agreement about when a small business becomes a startup. Is it when the proprietor goes full-time? Is it when employees join or when outside investors put money into the venture? I think a startup is born when a mental switch flips on in the founder’s brain, and the founder goes from thinking, “this is a fun side-project” to “this is a business that I want to grow, scale and exit.”
When this switch flipped on for me, I didn’t immediately quit my job. I kept Beyonic as a side project. I bootstrapped.
For many African startups, bootstrapping is the right move. And for many, it is the only option. This was the reality for tech startups in Uganda in the mid-2000s, and it was certainly true for me. With no one, that I knew, putting money into tech startups, I had no choice but to bootstrap as I courted customers and partners.
The biggest seed funder of early-stage African startups is “the 9 to 5”. The unsung heroes in the African startup ecosystem are companies that allow an employee to invest in their side gig. These companies keep their offices open to employees after hours and on weekends, providing fast internet and a quiet workspace to hack and learn. These companies provide the mentorship and networks for the budding inventor. For me, my 9 to 5 support came from Charles Musisi of Computer Frontiers International, Badru Ntege of One2net, and Grameen Foundation,among others.
In 2010, I’d successfully spun-out, bootstrapped, and sold a realtime mobile-to-tv SaaScompany called BeMobile with some partners, based on Beyonic’s technology. This exit gave my partners some liquidity & was a somewhat lovely conclusion to Beyonic’s bootstrapping phase.
Home advantage
With some intellectual property I’d retained, ideas for where telecom and the mobile payments industries were going, and importantly, the wisdom of the past seven years, I sought access to western networks. I wanted to increase Beyonic’s visibility and expand my networks and figured a business graduate degree couldn’t hurt. But mostly, I was following my gut and relying on my experience and intuition. The path emerged as I went. While moving to the US ultimately helped with securing funding and customers, that wasn’t my primary goal.
2012 to 2020 were fun times for me. My team-mates at the University of Texas at Austin, including Dan — ever the boundless optimist — gave me the boost of morale needed to tackle the next eight years. We raised some money, grew our networks (kudos Techstars), and hit the ground hard. We were innovating, building new tools, creating novel user experiences, making things fast, and breaking them faster. We challenged the status quo and fought for a seat at the table. We punched above our weight and became a household name. One of the moments I cherish is when we saw an open job listing from a multi-national company which included “knowledge of Beyonic’s platform” as one of the desirable traits for the new hire.
Dan remembers things a little scrappier than I do, but that may in part be because whenever he came to Africa, he was leaving his home. For me, I was returning home. I think this made a huge difference. The easiest place to start a company is at home. You know the market, and you’ve created relationships over the years that you can leverage. This “home advantage,” the depth of understanding of the customer, the ecosystem, and the opportunities, is an often underrated quality of local entrepreneurs. It is foundational and fundamental in developing the type of companies that are right for the region.
During this period, I had to reinvent myself countless times. And each time, it was tough to do. I am pretty charismatic, and I exude a quiet confidence that’s existed since my teens. I’ve always been able to grow a small network of close confidants who believed in me and the cause. I grew up in a culture of “show, don’t tell.” We learned that work should speak for itself, and one shouldn’t have to “sell” oneself too much. As Beyonic scaled during this period, it was quickly apparent that I needed to show AND tell.
I learned that loud charisma is fashionable in testosterone-filled tech circles and boardrooms. And it was also necessary to effectively share my vision of Beyonic with a growing, more distributed team. I tried to grow into these changes without losing my authenticity, which matters to me. I like to think I’m continually making progress 🙂
These skills helped tell our story better, but what hit home was the fact that we had something to show. We were delivering real impact at home, where it mattered.
Expanding the family, aka. “the whole is bigger than the sum…”
While Beyonic wouldn’t have left the station if I hadn’t bootstrapped, we wouldn’t have had this exit if we’d only bootstrapped. We had to raise money, and go all-in to get the scale we wanted. We found investors daring enough to bet on an African B2B tech company, and the rest is history. But we are also a profitable company on a high growth trajectory. Why did we sell?
This exit is a win for the ecosystem, no doubt. But in contrast to some of my colleagues who are getting off the Beyonic bus, I’m not. I see this less as an exit and more like the next natural phase of Beyonic’s story. In the space where we operate, consolidation is beneficial for the continent. There are lots of amazing entrepreneurs doing amazing things in each African country I visit. I think we can benefit from reaching across the borders and offering a hand in commercial partnership.
We will see more of these commercial partnerships happen, and I think we will see more of them turn into the mergers, acquisitions, and exits that Africa needs. I hope Beyonic and MFS Africa can be a model of a partnership done right. And I look forward to many more examples in the future.
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.
