One of the global leading company in the development of digital services monetization technologies, Telecoming has pitched its first tent on the continent in the land of the Pharaohs seeing efforts to promote digital entertainment in Egypt as its Africa strategy. In a first stage, Telecoming will distribute Real Madrid official contents through local mobile operators who rely on Telecoming to increase their user engagement. Using Egypt as its launch pad into the African market, Telecoming sees brighter chances of enhancing presence within the continent as the digital market in Egypt means more than 100M people and a mobile penetration of 94%; Africa plays a relevant role in Telecoming’s international expansion. The arrival into the Egyptian market means a further step in Telecoming’s strategy to enhance its presence in Africa. With a penetration rate of mobile devices around 94% and more than 100M users, Egypt is one of the most attractive markets for digital services development. In the coming months, Telecoming will invest 0.5M€ in the region.
According to Ali Karaosman, Telecoming’s Operations Director – North Africa “the combination of quality content and technology is key to offer services with a differential user experience based on high engagement rates. Through previous projects, we have checked the extraordinary dynamism of the African digital market, where users demand innovative services and a differential user experience. And there, Egypt shows a huge potential for the mobile business”, says Karaosman.
Telecoming monetizes digital content in the region since 2015 in partnership with the leading mobile operators and the best local content producers and distributors. Specialized in mobile payments since 2008, Telecoming provides state of the art technology to monetize digital services through Direct Carrier Billing. The company works with leading mobile operators to offer amazing entertainment services to boost their user’s engagement.
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
With the objective to improve its tracking efforts aimed at effectively curtailing the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, Morocco’s Ministry of Health today launches the COVID-19 tracking application “Wiqaytna,” which means “our protection” in Arabic, to help curb the spread of the pandemic in the country. The Bluetooth-based application compiles a list of all people with whom the user made contact and notifies its users when a name on the contact list tests positive for COVID-19 in the next 21 days after the contact.
Following the notification, teams from the Ministry of Health will carry out an assessment of the exposure risk and, if necessary, intervene to quarantine the notified suspected case, a press release from the ministry said. The application launched as part of a national awareness campaign under the theme “Stay vigilant, protect each other,” aims to encourage citizens to continue to adopt preventive measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
The Health Ministry made the “Wiqaytna” application available on Google Play for Android phone users, on App Store for iPhone users, and on the website “www.wiqaytna.ma” for people using different operating systems. The application is only one way to strengthen the system the ministry has already put in place to monitor people who made contact with COVID-19 patients and does not replace current measures, the press release underlined.
The Ministry of Health developed the application in collaboration with the Ministry of the Interior, the Digital Development Agency (ADD), and the National Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (ANRT). Some Moroccan companies also contributed to the project. To ensure its respect of users’ privacy, the application underwent tests from the National Commission for the Control of Personal Data Protection (CNDP) and received its authorization. The application’s code is also available in open source on software development platform GitHub.
The Health Ministry called on NGOs, media, and citizens to contribute to the awareness campaign so a maximum number of citizens use the application and boost its efficiency. While the application’s features and objective seem promising, it remains to be seen whether it will bypass the technological illiteracy of some Moroccans to reach a sufficient number of users for effective operation.
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
Africa’s banking industry needs to develop the resilience needed to overcome the obstacles and withstand the shocks occasioned the Covid-19 pandemic which is expected to cause a colossal $400 billion loss to the region’s GDP. This was further enunciated with the tacit approval of bankers from Sub Saharan Africa and China who attended the Huawei Sub-Saharan Africa Financial Services Industry Online Summit 2020 who wholeheartedly agree that digitisation of the sector will give it resilience against the current Covid-19 pandemic and enable sustained growth in the post Covid era. The pan-African conference themed “Accelerating Digital Transformation, Enable Business Growth Again” was attended by 1200 delegates from across banks, telco operators, fintech and ICT services companies.
Liao Yong, vice president of Huawei Southern Africa Region
Opening the event, Liao Yong, vice president of Huawei Southern Africa Region, said advances in ICT present unique opportunities for the banking sector, especially when almost 70% of the region’s population doesn’t have a bank account. “All of these ICT advances will be critical enablers to a thriving banking sector in Sub Saharan Africa. As we can see, the merging of these two curves of ICT and banking services is powerful. But how much we can unleash the power, depends on how much and how soon banking sector goes digital.” Liao said.
There has been a rapid uptake of mobile technologies in the region with strong economic growth in the past 2 decades. According to statistics by GSMA, 4G, mobile broadband technology, adoption will overtake 2G in 2023 and the total of unique subscribers in Sub Saharan Africa will reach 600 million by 2025, representing half the region’s population. Speaking at the online event, Brett King, author of Bank 4.0, a New York-based mobile banking startup, said the behavioural changes that come with coronavirus further underpins the needs for digital transformation in banking sector.
“The declining use of physical branches is likely for many customers to remain a permanent feature of their lives. The reality is this is likely to accelerate a multi-decade trend we’ve already seen towards digitisation. So when we look at the architecture of banking moving forward and the real elements that have been accelerated during the coronavirus period, you can see that that shift to digital is creating much more aligned some digital experience. This basically brings us to a new model of banking…we moved to this low friction banking embedded in the world around us,” said King.
In China, bucking the decline in Q1 GDP, the financial sector recorded a 6% year-on-year growth. Analysts attribute this growing to the sector’s years of unremitting efforts in digital transformation. Chen Kunte, former Chief Information Officer of China Merchants Bank and current Chief Digital Transformation Officer of Global Financial Services in Huawei’s Enterprise Business Group said digitisation will give the banking sector the resilience it needs in the public health crisis. Banking everywhere can’t come true without leveraging cloud, AI and Big Data.
“We need to restructure banks’ ICT platforms from legacy architecture to cloud-based, open architecture by building AI-Powered and Data-Driven platforms to expand the way financial institutions engage and interact with their customers, and accommodate more innovative business models and service scenarios,” Chen said. Banks from the region shared some case studies on digitisation in banking services in the region.
Lucille De Kock, Head of Data Analysis and Product Management at FNB, South Africa, introduced FNB’s fundamental shifts across all dimensions to transform the bank into a helpful, trusted and people-centric money manager leveraging digital and data platforms. According to Alex Siboe Wekunda, head of DFS, KCB, said 97% of all transactions are done digitally which lead to substantial growth during the pandemic. Luckily enough, we had invested well in our platform, so we’re able to handle the traffic that comes through this ecosystem. And Joshua Oigara, CEO and MD, KCB Group PLC, said KCB will continue accelerate that investment beyond just lending platform, which has been very successful.
Huawei works with over 1,000 financial institutions globally, including 6 of the world’s top 10 banks in the digital transformation voyage. Liao concluded, “Our operations of over 20 years in Sub Saharan Africa enables us think global and act local by providing our clients in the region with tailored made solutions to make digitisation process painless and smooth, as if it is a tech company that happens to work in the financial sector rather than as a bank that tries to adapt disruptive technologies.”
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
Switzerland has launched the world’s first contact-tracing app called the SwissCovid App as a pilot to try and contain the spread of the virus. Jointly developed by Google and Apple, the large-scale pilot in can now be downloaded by several thousand users that have been designated as belonging to “pilot populations”, which include the army and some hospital workers. Designed to quickly track and warn users who have been in prolonged contact with somebody who has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus in an effort to control the spread of the disease. Sign-up is voluntary, and it is expected that the app will be available to the wider public by mid-June, subject to the Swiss Parliament giving the tool the green light.
Marcel Salathé, an EPFL associate professor
The pilot version of the app is also available to employees of the EPFL University in Lausanne, and of the ETH University in Zurich, which led the development of the technology. The two Swiss institutions decided to build the app on the basis of a model jointly put forward by Apple and Google last month, which was pitched by the tech giants as the better way to develop contact-tracing technology that incorporates privacy by design. Apple and Google’s API follows a decentralized approach, which means that every operation that might involve privacy is carried out on users’ phones, rather than through a central database. At the heart of the concept is the imperative to keep data from being stored, and therefore at risk of being hacked or de-anonymized.
Last week, Apple released iOS 13.5, which includes a new COVID Exposure Notification feature. This feature enables the API that lets health officials and developers build contact-tracing technology. In parallel, EPFL and ETH have been working on their own protocol called Decentralized Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing (DP3T). According to the universities’ team, researchers have been in ongoing talks with Apple and Google to enable compatibility between DP3T and the tech giants’ API. This means that the Swiss DP3T-based app can switch to Apple and Google’s protocol as soon as it becomes widely available, and integrate easily with iOS and Android devices.
According to Marcel Salathé, an EPFL associate professor who worked on DP3T, “we’ve been working on DP3T since the beginning of the crisis, and we based it on a decentralized model largely because of privacy concerns. A week or so after we went public, Google and Apple announced their API, and publicly said that it had been heavily inspired by our protocol,” he said. “For us, therefore, it was a no-brainer. Most of the things we had proposed with DP3T were in Apple and Google’s API, and would be in iOS and Android. Since then, we have kept working with them to make sure they understand where we come from.”
Scientists in the two Swiss universities have been testing and fine-tuning DP3T for the past month, with the help of the Swiss Army. The protocol operates via Bluetooth, continuously broadcasting random and impossible-to-guess strings of characters between smartphones. All signals are stored locally, on the devices, for a maximum of 14 days. If a user tests positive for COVID-19, they can then share the keys stored on their phone that were picked up on the days that they were contagious. The app then finds out which contacts carried risk – those that lasted more than 15 minutes and took place less than two metres from another user – and generates a notification indicating the day of exposure to the risk, and the procedure to follow.
The decentralized principle at the heart of DP3T, and of Apple and Google’s API, is not without shortcomings. Experts have repeatedly highlighted the technology’s lack of reliability. Without a central organization supervising the alerts, and making sure that only the users who are at risk are being warned, there is a risk that the app gets swamped in false positives and turns to complete chaos. A centralized approach, in addition, would let health services run analytics on data to better understand how the disease is spreading. For these reasons, the UK’s NHS decided to snub Apple and Google’s API, and instead to release its own centralized protocol.
“I have some sympathy for the idea that you can improve your knowledge of the outbreak with more data,” said Salathé. “That’s accurate, but I don’t think we should develop a potentially very intrusive technology on the back of an epidemiological argument. Let’s not use this tool to find out more about a virus, but let’s use it to support regular contact-tracing.” The scientists behind the Swiss app also argued that the effectiveness of the tool depends on its widespread adoption by the public; and the way to achieve trust is to minimize the collection of information. Carmela Troncoso, who worked on the DP3T protocol at EPFL University, said: “Our goal is to offer a solution that can be adopted in Europe and around the world. There are millions of users and we owe it to them to be transparent.”
In a webinar, the creators of SwissCovid further stressed that the technology was developed so as to secure the trust of the public. Troncoso said that users can decide to stop using the app and delete it permanently from their phone at any time. Building a technology using Apple and Google’s API, of course, also comes with some technical benefits: there are some obvious perks to creating a tool that is immediately compatible with iOS and Android. In that respect, the UK’s homemade app, which is currently being trialed on the Isle of Wight, might need some more tweaking: it was reported that the technology profoundly impacts battery life for users with older iPhones.
Salathé said: “I assume other countries like the UK will eventually go down the decentralized route, because compatibility is key. You want to have a tool that works on users’ phones, and Google and Apple control 99.5% of operating systems. I’m a bit puzzled that there is still a debate.” The road to deployment certainly hasn’t been smooth for the NHS app. From an initial launch date estimated for mid-May, the government has now admitted that the tool wouldn’t be ready until June. In addition, concerns have been raised that the UK’s centralized approach wouldn’t enable interoperability with other European systems, which tend to favor decentralization – and that this could affect Britons’ ability to travel abroad.
It recently emerged that the UK government has contracted private company Zuhlke to investigate whether the NHS’s contact-tracing app could be switched over to Apple and Google’s API. The £3.9 million contract’s terms involve investigating the “complexity, performance and feasibility of implementing native Apple and Google contact tracing APIs within the existing proximity mobile application and platform.” NHSX has not responded to a request for comment.On the other hand, Apple and Google said last week that 22 countries, as well as some US states, had requested access to their API.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
The objective of turning Africa’s huge waste into value has been the driving force behind the establishment of what is fast becoming the continent’s most expansive waste recycling firm called Recyclan. The company is focusing on a dual pronged business ideology of creating an environmental sustainable society while creating wealth at same time.
CTO, Molawa Adesuyi
Launchedin 2018 by Chime Okwuokenye, Rob Homan and Molawa Adesuyi, Recyclan is on a mission to reduce Africa’s carbon footprint and make the world greener by recycling plastic waste.
The startup is reducing plastic waste on beaches, landfills and in the ocean by driving collection through technology. Its mobile app and SMS service incentive people to recycle their waste, offering things like access to health insurance, sanitary towels, and schools fees in exchange.
It then processes and packages this waste to customer specification and then exports it to North America, Europe and Asia. Adesuyi said the company had so far recycled 2,500 metric tonnes of plastic waste, the equivalent of more than 1,500 cars.
“Plastic waste is ruining our land, contaminating our oceans, killing our sea life and adversely affecting our planet,” he said.
“Africa has the highest rate of inadequately managed plastic waste. It’s toxic to the environment, but raw cash if harnessed.” Recyclanis harnessing this waste by exporting it to the rest of the world, filling a sizeable gap.
“Plastic waste is such a massive global problem such that there are not nearly enough companies recycling plastic. This means the few companies who recycle actually buy and trade with each other,” Adesuyi said.
Self-funded thus far, Recyclan has nonetheless expanded its waste collection operations across the continent. It is active in eight states of Nigeria, as well as Ghana, Togo, Benin, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Kenya.
“Leveraging on regional agreements that are currently being made in Africa we plan to use technology to scale our recycling model across Africa,” said Adesuyi.
“We will invest locally in human capital in the markets we operate in and create a recycling culture that doesn’t exist in Africa.”
That recycling culture will be built in order to export collected waste to markets in North America, Europe and Asia. Recyclan recently set up a hot washing factory in the United Kingdom (UK) from where it processes its own product, increasing its revenues. Adesuyi said the startup has made over US$1.1 million in revenue already, and has a 40 per cent margin.
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
One of Africa’s largest telecommunications company, Airtel Africa has recorded a whooping profit in first quarter of 2020 driven mainly by high growth in data traffic. The company posted revenue of $899 million for the first quarter of 2020, while announcing its Q1 2020 earnings showing its revenue is up 15% from the $781 million it posted in March 2019. Owned by India’s conglomerate Bharti Group, Airtel operates in 14 African countries, providing voice, data, tower and mobile money services to a customer base of over 110 million people.
In its latest quarterly report, Airtel disclosed that voice services account for the largest share of its revenue. Voice revenue stood at $510 million for the first quarter of 2020; that’s a 5.9% growth over the previous year. Much of that revenue comes from its Nigerian market where Airtel has 41.8 million mobile subscribers. In the West African country, voice revenue grew 16% and accounted for $234 million in the company’s voice revenue during the period. Airtel’s voice revenue from its francophone and East African markets grew slowly at 10.3% and 6.7% respectively.
While the overall importance of voice remains clear, the pandemic is having an immediate impact, Airtel wrote. It told investors the economic effects of the pandemic and government lockdowns have impacted “customer behaviour” and lowered disposable income. The company did not explain further on this, saying “it is difficult to precisely forecast what the impact of this will be on customers and business. However, our performance during the month of April has been resilient as the business continued to deliver constant currency revenue growth, although at a lower rate.”
Since the start of the year, Airtel’s data revenue is in growth territory. The company’s data revenue jumped 35.6% in Q1 2020 as it pulled in $253 million. With millions of people working from home and using data services, voice calls and revenue are dropping for many telcos. A few telcos have made early predictions that the recent growth in data services will not immediately offset declines in voice revenue. Airtel believes the reverse will happen. It has “already seen an increase in data traffic” since the outbreak of the pandemic, and believes “increase in data and mobile money revenue growth [will] more than offset revenue decline in voice.”
Across its 14 markets, it has added 2.6 million new data subscribers since December 2019, bringing its total active subscriber base to 35.4 million. While this figure looks small, it doesn’t tell the full story. In important markets, Airtel’s pivot to data came late. In Nigeria, the company launched its 4G solution in 2018, two years later than rival telcos. MTN Nigeria, Glo, 9Mobile and even Smile, all had 4G services in Nigeria by 2016. However, Airtel has moved quickly. Active data subscribers have increased by 109.5% over the last three years. In its IPO prospectus last year, the company told investors it had 16.9 million active data subscribers in 2017. By March 2020, that figure doubled to 35.4 million.
Much of this growth in data subscribers and data revenue is coming from Nigeria. At 16.7 million, the West African country accounts for nearly half of Airtel’s data subscribers. Data revenue from Nigeria grew to $120 million by March 2020 up from $80 million in March 2019. Airtel plans to intensify this growth. Despite the pandemic and possible revenue challenges, it will spend between $650 million and $700 million annually developing its data infrastructure over the next 12 months.
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
Many African countries are in for a major shift in information communications technology as global partners made up of the world’s top telecoms and technology companies’ partners to build one of the biggest and fastest internet connectivity across the continent. The network named 2Africa which will be the most comprehensive subsea cable to serve the African continent and Middle East region is under the auspices of China Mobile International, Facebook, MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, stc, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone, and WIOCC. The partners have appointed Alcatel Submarine Networks (“ASN”) to build the cable in a fully funded project which will greatly enhance connectivity across Africa and the Middle East.
Najam Ahmad, Vice President, Network Infrastructure at Facebook
At 37,000km long, 2Africa will be one of the world’s largest subsea cable projects and will interconnect Europe (eastward via Egypt), the Middle East (via Saudi Arabia), and 21 landings in 16 countries in Africa. The system is expected to go live in 2023/4, delivering more than the total combined capacity of all subsea cables serving Africa today, with a design capacity of up to 180Tbps on key parts of the system. 2Africa will deliver much-needed internet capacity and reliability across large parts of Africa, supplement the fast-growing capacity demand in the Middle East and underpin the further growth of 4G, 5G, and fixed broadband access for hundreds of millions of people. In countries where the 2Africa cable will land, service providers will obtain capacity in carrier-neutral data centers or open-access cable landing stations on a fair and equitable basis. This will support healthy internet ecosystem development by facilitating greatly improved accessibility for businesses and consumers alike.
The 2Africa cable has been designed to improve resilience and maximise performance, including the option of a seamless optical crossing between East Africa and Europe. The 2Africa parties and Airtel have signed an agreement with Telecom Egypt to provide a completely new crossing linking the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, the first in over a decade. This includes new cable landing stations and deployment of next-generation fibre on two new, diverse terrestrial routes parallel to the Suez Canal from Ras Ghareb to Port Said, and a new subsea link that will provide a third path between Ras Ghareb and Suez.
The 2Africa cable will implement a new technology, SDM1 from ASN, allowing deployment of up to 16 fibre pairs instead of the eight fibre pairs supported by older technologies, bringing much greater and more cost-effective capacity. The cable will incorporate optical switching technology to enable flexible management of bandwidth. Cable burial depth has also been increased by 50% compared to older systems, and cable routing will avoid locations of known subsea disturbance, all helping to ensure the highest levels of availability.
“The launch of 2Africa enables us to offer our customers seamless connection between Africa and Europe, together with our SEA-ME-WE 5 and AAE-1 subsea cable resources to further extend to Asia, which is an important milestone of our global development strategy,” said Jessica Gu, Director & Chief Technology Officer of China Mobile International. “The utmost capacity and faster transmission allows us to satisfy the needs of African nations today and in the future, reflecting our firm commitment to building a global digital life.”
“We’re excited to be collaborating with our 2Africa partners on the most comprehensive subsea cable that will serve the continent,” said Najam Ahmad, Vice President, Network Infrastructure at Facebook. “2Africa is a major element of our ongoing investment in Africa to bring more people online to a faster internet. We’ve seen first-hand the positive impact that increased connectivity has on communities, from education to healthcare. We know that economies flourish when there is widely accessible internet for businesses. 2Africa is a key pillar supporting this tremendous internet expansion as part of Africa’s surging digital economy.”
According to Frédéric Schepens, CEO of MTN Group’s wholesale operation, MTN GlobalConnect, “MTN GlobalConnect is delighted to participate in this bold 2Africa subsea cable project. This initiative complements MTN GlobalConnect’s terrestrial fibre strategy to connect African countries to each other and to the rest of the world. We are proud to be playing a key role in providing the benefits of modern connected life – a core MTN belief.” Alioune Ndiaye, CEO of Orange Middle East and Africa, said, “As one of the world’s leading multi-service telecommunications operators and present in 18 countries in Africa and the Middle East, it was natural for Orange to be part of the 2Africa project. This major investment will complete our existing submarine and pan-African terrestrial infrastructures to provide access to international connectivity in a redundant fashion throughout the west coast of Africa. It will enable Orange to securely meet the demand for increased bandwidth necessary for the continued digital development of regions throughout the 2Africa system.”
Mohammed A. Alabbadi, Wholesale VP in stc commented, “stc is delighted to be a Partner in 2Africa. The 2Africa cable will be integrated into stc’s MENA Gateway (MG1) datacentre in Jeddah, enabling customers to access our extensive international content and extend their regional connectivity through stc terrestrial geo-mesh network that extends to all neighboring countries. This will undoubtedly play a significant role in enhancing stc’s international network capabilities, whilst also positioning stc as a leading regional digital player in the MENA region. The partnership demonstrates stc’s commitment, in line with Saudi Vision 2030, to deliver meaningful digital transformation and build a digital society for all.”
Adel Hamed, Telecom Egypt’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “Telecom Egypt’s contribution to 2Africa marks an important milestone in our endeavor to contribute to digital transformation in Africa. Egypt’s relationship with African states has and will always be one of Egypt’s top priorities, it extends here to align with Egypt’s strategy to contribute in the current development in Africa. We are honored to be part of such a revolutionary project alongside renowned global and African partners. For years, we have accomplished tangible steps in revamping our international infrastructure and increasing our assets’ geodiversity in order to keep pace with the rising global demand for large bandwidth and global reach. We trust that 2Africa will be a rich addition to our diversified investments in the subsea cable industry.”
“Improving connectivity for Africa is a significant step which lays the groundwork for increased digitalisation across the continent,” said Vinod Kumar, CEO Vodafone Business. “2Africa will give local businesses and consumers a better online experience while more connectivity between Africa, Europe and the Middle East will help to build a wider, more inclusive digital society across the globe. We’re delighted to work with our partners in the project to help deliver this.”
WIOCC CEO, Chris Wood, commented, “For over a decade WIOCC has been the hyperscale capacity provider for Africa, based upon a strategy of ongoing strategic investment in key subsea and terrestrial infrastructure. Participation in 2Africa continues this commitment to providing large capacity users with the resilient network they need to support their customers’ ever-growing bandwidth requirements. Our investment both future-proofs our network capabilities and provides additional resilience to maximise uptime for our critical infrastructure.”
Alain Biston, President of Alcatel Submarine Networks added that “we are honored by the trust of our partners and proud to have been selected for this project. With this state-of-the-art subsea system, Africa will take a giant leap to the digital age thanks to the best-in-class technologies. Africa is a long story for ASN: we have deployed the majority of submarine cables around the continent. 2Africa will be a great new chapter!”
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
As part of efforts to strengthen its security amid outcry globally, Zoom has acquired Keybase, an encryption and security service meant to serve as a secure home for your online identities. The acquisition is meant to quickly add a team of security-focused developers to Zoom, which has been widely criticized in recent weeks for lapses in security inside its increasingly popular videoconferencing software. Keybase co-founder Max Krohn will now lead Zoom’s security engineering team. The Keybase team is supposed to help Zoom build end-to-end encryption for its videoconferences “that can reach current Zoom scalability.” Zoom has been working on building true end-to-end encryption for videoconferences since coming under criticism over the last month for making its calls incorrectly appear to be fully encrypted. The company plans to publish encryption designs on May 22nd, but there’s no specific timeline for when the feature will be finished.
founder and CEO of Zoom, Eric Yuan
The founder and CEO of Zoom, Eric Yuan says that “Keybase brings deep encryption and security expertise to Zoom.” Zoom announced a feature freeze last month to focus on security, and this addition “significantly advances our 90-day plan to enhance our security efforts.” Keybase launched in 2014 as a directory for public encryption keys and has since grown to include secure messaging and file-sharing features. Keybase profiles are meant to serve as the center of your online identity: Keybase verifies you, and it verifies that you actually own other online accounts that belong to you. From there, people can visit your Keybase profile and feel confident that any account claimed is an authentic one. Usually, these profiles include encryption keys that can be used to securely contact a person.
It’s easy to imagine ways Keybase could be used to address Zoom’s recent security issues, but it’s less clear what will happen to Keybase in the meantime. Krohn is taking over Zoom’s security team — and the company hasn’t made any statement as to what this means for future development of Keybase products. In an email to The Verge, a Zoom spokesperson said “leaders from Zoom and Keybase will work together to determine the future of the Keybase product.” Keybase’s tech will be built into Zoom somehow and included as part of Zoom’s paid offering, according to CNBC. The startup currently has 25 employees, according to the report.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
The e-RMB has reportedly been adopted into the monetary systems of several cities
China will begin trialling payments in its new digital currency in four major cities from next week, according to domestic media.
In recent months, China’s central bank has stepped up its development of the e-RMB, which is set to be the first digital currency operated by a major economy.
It has reportedly begun trials in several cities, including Shenzhen, Suzhou, Chengdu, as well as a new area south of Beijing, Xiong’an, and areas that will host some of the events for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
State-media outlet China Daily said it had been formally adopted into the cities’ monetary systems, with some government employees and public servants to receive their salaries in the digital currency from May.
Sina News said the currency would be used to subsidise transport in Suzhou, but in Xiong’an the trial primarily focused on food and retail.
A screenshot purported to be of the app required to store and use the digital currency has been circulating since mid-April.
Some reports also claim businesses including McDonald’s and Starbucks have agreed to be part of the trial, however in a statement Starbucks told the Guardian it was not a participant. McDonald’s been contacted for comment.
Digital payment platforms are already widespread in China, namely Alipay, owned by Alibaba’s Ant Financial, and WeChat Pay, owned by Tencent, but they do not replace existing currency.
Xu Yuan, associate professor at Peking University’s national development research institute, told broadcaster CCTV that because cash transactions were offline and transaction data from existing payment platforms was scattered, the central bank was unable to monitor cash flow in real time.
“Although there is little change from the perspective of user use, from the perspective of central bank supervision, future forms of finance, payment, business and social governance etc, this is the biggest thing ever.”
On 17 April, the digital currency research institute at the People’s Bank of China, which is developing the system, said the research and development of a digital renminbi was “advancing steadily” and top-level design, functional research and development, and debugging had largely been completed, according to a CCTV report.
Progress on the digital currency was reportedly spurred on by Facebook’s announcement in June it intended to launch one itself.
The sovereign digital currency, which will be pegged to the national currency, has been under development for some years but in August the bank said it was “almost ready”. However, the following month, the bank’s governor, Yi Gang, said there was no timetable for release.
“A sovereign digital currency provides a functional alternative to the dollar settlement system and blunts the impact of any sanctions or threats of exclusion both at a country and company level,” last week’s China Daily report said.
“It may also facilitate integration into globally traded currency markets with a reduced risk of politically inspired disruption.”
A decline in cash usage is expected to continue amid the growing popularity of digital payment platforms and as people avoid physical contact during the coronavirus pandemic.
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
California ‘s new law on employment is a game changer for visionary African startup
Gavin Newsom, California state governor
In a perfect world of the gig economy, James should be able to hire a car from a rental service store, present his driving license and other certifications to Uber (a car hailing service, for instance), get registered if he is considered qualified based on a series of paper checks and tests, and take to town helping online car hailers to reach their destinations, at an automated pay rate, and of course, as long as he fully complies with the terms and conditions of his engagement with Uber. In this arrangement, although James uses the Uber hailing service as a vehicle to carry out his business, he is still considered by Uber as an independent contractor who works off the controls and the supervision of Uber, except on occasions where he is skidding off his original rules of engagement. Thus, in a gig economy, James should not be on Uber’s payroll and is not even qualified to be classified as an employee of Uber. But all that has been shaken up, disrupted by the US State of California in a landmark new law that had been assented to [and which took effect from January 1, 2020] by the Californian state governor. If other jurisdictions draw inspiration from California ’s new standards, then all logistics, transport and other similar startups that have built their business models around independent contracting would be back to square one.
(Image for: California employment law African startups)
Bradley Tusk, president of Tusk Ventures and Uber’s first political strategist, told The Verge, “A domino effect [is] not just possible, it’s all but guaranteed.”
First Here Is What The New Law States
California ‘s new employment law has changed the criteria for being an independent contractor.
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 “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 “the worker performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business.” This means a company like Uber has to prove that driving users from location to location 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 “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 — which greatly increases the company’s overhead. Worker’s comp, benefits, tax implications — it would be a serious reshaping of these companies’ finances.
Applying The New Californian Rule To Similar African Startups
There is no specific legislation on independent contractors in two of Africa’s largest economies — Nigeria and South Africa. However, the English common law standards have continued to apply.
The common law recognises a distinction between a contract of service (an employer-employee relationship under which the employee subordinated his or her services to the authority of the employer — a locatio conductio operarum) AND a contract for services (a principal — independent contractor relationship where the former contracts the latter to deliver certain services and there is no subordination by the contractor, who instead is answerable to the service deliverables contracted for — a locatio conductio operis).
(Image for: California employment law African startups: Source: nation1099.com )
Who Therefore Is An Employee Or Independent Contractor In South Africa?
Since there is no express law that draws a distinction on who an independent contractor or employee in South Africa is, courts in the country have often adopted an approach that can best be described as a “reality approach”, which involves assessing the reality of the relationship by taking account all of the relevant factors on a substance-over-form basis, the public interest and the fact that parties have no licence to artificially take themselves out of the scope of important legislation such as the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 (“LRA”) the Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997 (“BCEA”) and the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998 (“EEA”) in existence in the country. Consequently, there is currently in place in the country an authoritative judgement on the issue. By the rules, in arriving at whether a person is an independent contractor or not, questions must asked on whether:
The principal has rights of supervision and control over the contractor, i.e. whether the contractor is obliged to follow the instructions of the principal, including whether the principal is able to dictate to the contractor when he/she is required to render their services, the manner in which such services are rendered and generally whether the contractor is at the principal’s ‘beck and call’
Whether the contractor forms an integral part of the principal’s organisation, e.g. whether the contractor participates or is an integral part of the principal’s internal management and/or staff structures; whether the contractor is ‘part and parcel of the organisation’ or whether the work done is for the business but is not integrated into it and is only accessory to it; whether the contractor would appear to an outsider to be an employee of the principal.
The contractor is economically dependent on the principal or whether he/ she is free to derive income from other sources as well. Thus, a person who is truly self-employed cannot be economically dependent on their “employer” when he or she retains his or her ability and power to contract with and render services to other persons or entities.
(Image for: California employment law African startups)
The above three factors are not exhaustive of all the factors to be taken into consideration when considering whether a person is an independent contractor or not.
The South African parliament has however gone ahead to incorporate these three conditions (considered as presumptions which can be rebuttable) as part of South Africa’s national legislation on employment.
Consequently, under the LRA and BCEA, a person who earns less than an earnings threshold amount determined by the Minister of Labour in terms of the BCEA3, and who works for or renders services to another person, will be presumed — until the contrary is proved and regardless of the form of the contract — to be an employee of the other person if one or more of the following factors are present:
• the manner in which the person works is subject to the control or direction of the other person; • the person’s hours of work are subject to the control and direction of the other person;
• in the case of a person who works for an organisation, the person is a part of that organisation; • the person has worked for the other person for an average of at least 40 hours per month over the last 3 months; • the person is economically dependent on the other person; • the person is provided with tools of trade or work equipment by the other person; or • the person only works for or renders services to the other person.
(Image for: California employment law African startups)
The effect of this classification into the status of an employee or an independent contractor is that in the Fourth Schedule to the South Africna Income Tax Act, only employees and not independent contractors are entitled to earn “remuneration”. That is, a person can only earn ‘remuneration’ if their services or duties are required to be performed mainly at the premises of the client and:
the worker is subject to the control of any other person as to the manner in which his duties are or will be performed, or as to the hours of work; or
the worker is subject to the supervision of any other person as to:
the manner in which his duties are or will be performed; or
the hours of work.
This will also mean that the independent contractor would not be part of certain benefits applicable only to employees such as a working period of not more than 45 ordinary hours in any week, fair termination of employment among others. As opposed to employees, independent contractors are only entitled to such “benefits” and terms as have been agreed to between the independent contractor and his / her client. Again, the termination of independent contracting relationships is governed only by the agreement between the parties.
Who Is An Employee Or Independent Contractor In Nigeria?
Nigeria’s case is very much the same with South Africa’s. Both countries have no legislation that specifically defines who an independent contractor is, except of course the application of the common law principles of contract of service and contract for service. Nigeria’s Supreme Court, in Shena Security Co. Ltd v. Afropak (Nig.) Ltd & 2 Others [2008] 18 NWLR (Pt. 1118) 77 SC; [2008] 4–5 SC (Pt. II) 117 has laid down the some extensive factors that should guide courts in determining which kind of contract the parties entered into –
If payments are made by way of “wages” or “salaries” this is indicative that the contract is one of service. If it is a contract for service, the independent contractor gets his payment by way of “fees”. In like manner, where payment is by way of commission only or on the completion of the job, that indicates that the contract is for service.
Where the employer supplies the tools and other capital equipment there is a strong likelihood that the contract is that of employment or of service. But where the person engaged has to invest and provide capital for the work to progress that indicates that it is a contract for service.
In a contract of service/employment, it is inconsistent for an employer to delegate his duties under the contract. Thus, where a contract allows a person to delegate his duties there under, it becomes a contract for services.
Where the hours of work are not fixed it is not a contract of employment/of service. See Milway (Southern) Ltd v. Willshire [1978] 1 RLR 322.
It is not fatal to the existence of a contract of employment/of service that the work is not carried out on the emjployer’s premises. However, a contract which allows the work to be carried on outside the employer’s premises is more likely to be a contract for service.
Where an office accommodation and a secretary are provided by the employer, it is a contract of service/of employment.
These factors, as in South Africa’s case, would also provide a guide in considering whether the benefits and the responsibilities expected of the independent contractor or the principal as the case may be.
(Image for: California employment law African startups)
The Implication of The Positions of The Law in the Two Countries In Relation To California’s New Rules
The above explanations are important because in both countries, courts will not usually be bound by the labels that parties chose to attach to their relationship or defer to the declared intent of the parties in this regard, whether in their contract or elsewhere. Thus, stipulating in a contract (or elsewhere) that a relationship is one between independent contractor and principal or referring to the contract as an independent contractor or consultancy agreement, when the relationship between the principal and the contractor is, in reality, one between employee and employer, does not make the relationship any less of an employment relationship, and vice versa.
Comparing South Africa and Nigeria’s case on the one hand and California ’s case on the other, it is obvious that California’s case went too far in establishing who an independent contractor is. For instance, apart from the fact that in California’s case, companies must prove “the worker is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity in connection with the performance of the work,” companies must also prove “the worker performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business” and that “the worker is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business of the same nature as the work performed.”
While the first test, i.e. that of control, appears to still conform to the basic standards used in determining who an independent contractor is, the second and the third tests tend to have looked beyond these basic features of control and supervision to question the need for independent contractors when the engaging companies could as well themselves do the work. This, in all ramifications, is predatory legislation, and which would be very hard to found followership in other jurisdictions.
(Image for: California employment law African startups)
Do African Startups Need To Re-Adjust In Time?
As a matter of strategy, remodelling the nature of services African startups offer on the basis of this new Californian law on employment would, of course be a matter of long-term strategic plans for startups. African government’s demeanour towards this is such that it does not seem that they are very much in a hurry to change the status quo. Unlike, other jurisdictions that have clear-cut definitions of who an independent contractor is, most African countries are yet to come up with even a legislated definition of the term. California’s case cannot be unrelated to the continuing agitations by Uber drivers in the state, of exploitation by the multi-billionaire dollar car hailing company. In March, Uber agreed to pay $20 million to settle a nearly six-year-old lawsuit by California and Massachusetts drivers over their classifications. The case is McRay v Uber Technologies Inc, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, №19–05723.
Uber, rival Lyft Inc and food delivery service DoorDash, on their own, have pushed for separate legislation to boost driver pay and benefits while preserving their independent contractor status.
African startups with similar business models as Uber, Lyft Inc, DoorDash, Fiverr, Upwork, and others should however, keep this in mind. It not only has the capacity of suddenly bringing to an end the gig economy, it also has the potency of sending all new disruptive business models that rely on public workforce into an abrupt extinction.
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.
He could be contacted at udohrapulu@gmail.com
