The dreams of being Africa’s start-up hub is driving the Rwandan government towards the implementation of a Startup Act, which it hopes will spur the development of the country’s tech-based services industry.
The aim is to establish a continent-leading startup ecosystem, and to legislate for this the Rwandan government has recruited the Innovation for Policy Foundation tagged i4Policy to draft a national Startup Act.
i4Policy has been central to the development of other start-up acts across Africa with a Tunisian act already in place and a Senegalese version set for implementation soon. According to Jon Stever of the Foundation, a Startup Act will soon go to parliament in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and related laws and decrees are being worked on or explored in almost 20 African countries.
In Rwanda, i4Policy will follow its usual method of launching a Policy Hackathon, The Policy Hackathon is a proven format for engaging entrepreneurial ecosystems constructively in policy reform dialogue, which will bring together important local founders and investors to ensure the Rwanda Startup Act is informed by their experiences building and growing businesses.
It will be split into three sessions, with the first organised as a public webinar on Thursday, August 27 to introduce the Startup Act to inform the wider public about the reform initiative. The session will be live-streamed on the Ministry of ICT and Innovation Facebook page.
The second and third sessions (September 1 and 2) will target a cohort of 60 entrepreneurs, investors and service providers. Participants will be selected from amongst the attendees and registrants of the public webinar.
Stever explained that the benefits of a Startup Act and how they were co-created and implemented. “I don’t think any country needs a Startup Act, but I think all governments could benefit from one,” he said.
“We should think of it as a dialogue between the government and the startups within the ecosystem. The nice thing about a Startup Act is that it is big enough to bring the whole ecosystem together, because everyone has an interest in putting these reforms in place.”
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
Siemens has raised the bar in its corporate social responsibility by reaching out to various communities in Africa to help cushion the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on them. More than 100,000 beneficiaries in Africa heavily impacted by the crisis across Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, South Africa and Kenya have benefitted from the Siemens Gamesa’s medical, food and sanitary product donations.
Sonia Adnane, Head of Communications and Public Affairs Africa, Siemens
The company has put in place several social responsibility programs to fight the consequences of the COVID-19 crisis; A sum of €350,000 was dedicated to African countries severely impacted by COVID-19; The initiatives included mainly food and sanitary product donations benefitting more than 100 000 individuals in Morocco, Egypt, South Africa, Kenya and Jordan.Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) has launched a series of social impact projects to contribute to the fight against COVID-19 around the world, including a series of initiatives to help African nations impacted by the crisis.
The company’s global campaign covered donations of €1 million worth of healthcare supplies and other relief to hospitals and communities with an allocated sum of €350,000 dedicated to African countries severely impacted by COVID-19. These donations are in addition to the company’s pledge to match staff donations up to €1 million for the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) ‘COVID 19 Emergency Appeal’ campaign.
African governments and health authorities are striving to slow down the spread of COVID-19 that is sending shock waves through their health systems, economies, and societies. Many of Africa’s healthcare and social systems are not prepared to handle the crisis, and extreme poverty affects 34% of the continent’s population, which could lead to even worse effects. Difficulties will increase for those working in the informal sector, which makes up 80% of Africa’s employed population.
The aid that Siemens Gamesa provided across many African nations benefitted more than 100.000 individuals in Egypt, Morocco, South Africa, Kenya, and Jordan through donations of food, sanitary product donations and warm clothing.
The specific donation campaigns includes Siemens Gamesa’s efforts towards taking long-term actions such as providing medical equipment to Ras Ghareb Hospital that will not only benefit COVID-19 patients, but also provide the hospital with a set of permanent resources after the pandemic.
Through the company’s SGRE Impact social commitment initiative which focused this year on alleviating the effects of COVID-19, food bags and sanitary products have been distributed alongside tree planting campaigns benefiting vulnerable rural households in Morocco, South Africa and Jordan. Another project targeted Kenya’s Kakuma refugee camp and aimed to provide equal access to medical care and sanitary products, training courses on health and nutrition as well as water and community toilets for the 45 500 refugees.
In Tangier, where the first blade factory in Africa and Middle East is located, the company has provided €100,000 worth of temporary shelter benefitting local authorities in the region. The team has also organized a food and sanitary donation for 1000 families lasting a month and a blood donation campaign where 35% of the workforce participated in.
“We feel it is our responsibility to contribute where we can and help mitigate the effects of this crisis as much as possible. The team at Siemens Gamesa is very proud to work at a company that places value on community,” said Sonia Adnane, Head of Communications and Public Affairs Africa. “We hope these acts of social commitment will lay the foundation for a greater spirit of community to support long-term sustainable development across the continent.”
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
There are indications that the negative growth being experienced by South Africa which has led to reduced earnings may force the hands of the government to adopt stricter taxation measures on Crypto traders in the country. This has become necessary because over the last five years, South Africa has emerged as one of the world’s most notable cryptocurrency adopters, and an estimated 13% of its internet users owning or using cryptocurrencies. With the South African Bitcoin/ZAR weekly trading volume – to name just one – currently standing close to R30million, there are various manners in which the South African Revenue Service (SARS) can track the gains made by South African taxpayers who trade cryptocurrencies. A move other African countries like Nigeria may readily adopt as the government seek ways of improving on revenue earnings.
Wiehann Olivier, Partner at the Audit Division of Mazars in South Africa
This is according to Wiehann Olivier, Partner at the Audit Division of Mazars in South Africa, who says that there are various techniques SARS could apply for the direct taxing of cryptocurrencies. “To start, the fact that cryptocurrencies were created to allow for anonymous, frictionless and trusted peer-to-peer transaction to be conducted over the internet (including cross-border transactions) means that it can be used as a means of tax avoidance in a number of different ways.”
As Olivier explains, investors can store their cryptocurrencies in paper or hardware wallets instead of relying on a custodian such as an exchange to safeguard their assets, which makes it impossible to confiscate these cryptocurrencies and extremely difficult to track their movements.
“There is also the option to rely on a series of smoke and mirrors. Different types of cryptocurrencies can be exchanged for one another and passed through a series of wallets and public key addresses to attempt to confuse the trading activities and to evade taxes.”He notes that SARS is currently relying on the honesty of South African taxpayers to include their realised gains on cryptocurrencies as part of their taxable income.
“SARS has not yet released any specific legislation around the taxation of cryptocurrencies, besides that taxpayers need to include any realised gains from the trading of cryptocurrencies in their taxable income. However, we believe that SARS will publish new regulations in the coming years to have a more specific focus on these digital assets.”
Olivier says that one of these interventions may include introducing regulations that require all South African cryptocurrency exchanges to share information with SARS, making it more difficult to apply the above-mentioned method of avoidance. With that said, it will require SARS to gear itself to ensure that it can collect on what it is owed.
There is also the possibility that offshore cryptocurrency exchanges and banks might have the same agreement with SARS as foreign institutional investors have, whereby they share individuals and companies’ trading and asset holding data with revenue services from various countries. This would again make it more difficult to avoid paying tax by moving assets out of South Africa.
Notably, Olivier is of the opinion that businesses should already begin to prepare for tighter regulation of their digital assets. “Trading companies should consider acquiring the services of firms that can supply confirmation and reporting around its clients’ digital currency audits, well before new regulations are introduced.”
With the introduction of stricter tax legislation a virtual certainty within the next few years, Olivier adds that preparing for these interventions well ahead of time may be beneficial for cryptocurrency exchanges, traders and investors. “The regulation of digital assets in South Africa could even bring exciting business opportunities for many entrepreneurs and business.”
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 five out of six World Health Organization regions are now wild polio-free It was celebration galore across Africa and the global health community as Africa was declared Poliovirus-Free. Rotary and its partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) are proud to announce an historic public health achievement as the World Health Organization’s African region is now certified wild poliovirus-free.
The milestone comes four years after Nigeria – the last polio-endemic country in Africa – recorded its final case of wild poliovirus following decades of effort from GPEI partners, local and national leaders, and health workers throughout the African region. Over the course of the effort, 9 billion doses of oral polio vaccine have been administered, hundreds of millions of children have been immunized, and 1.8 million cases of wild poliovirus have been averted throughout the region.
Today’s announcement is in part a result of the cumulative actions of Rotary and its members, who have contributed nearly US$890 million—and countless volunteer hours—to eliminate polio in the African region.
“In the face of a pandemic, the world has had very little good news to celebrate in global health this year, and the challenges ahead are formidable,” said Rotary International President Holger Knaack. “That is why we must recognize this great achievement and commend all of the people who played important roles in eradicating wild polio in the African region. It took tremendous effort and partnership over many years. I’m particularly grateful for the Rotary members throughout Africa and around the world who have dedicated themselves to making polio a disease of the past.”
The road to the African region’s wild poliovirus-free certification has been paved by the dedication of health workers—mainly women—who traveled by every form of transportation imaginable to reach children with the polio vaccine; those who found solutions for reaching children in regions rife with conflict and insecurity; those leading surveillance activities to test cases of paralysis and check sewage for the virus, and the leadership of all 47 countries in the African region.
“We have been painstakingly working toward this day since 1996, when Rotary and its GPEI partners first joined with Nelson Mandela to mobilize leaders across the continent to commit to reaching every child with the polio vaccine,” said Dr. Tunji Funsho, chair of Rotary’s Nigeria National PolioPlus Committee. “We still have important work to do, but this achievement shows that with collaboration, and political and financial support, the global eradication of polio is possible.”
Polio vaccination efforts throughout the African region must continue, and routine immunization must be strengthened to keep immunity levels high so the wild poliovirus does not return and to protect children against rare occurrences of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus. The wild virus continues to circulate in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and as long as it circulates anywhere, all children are at risk.
Rotary’s nearly 32,000 members in Africa have played a critical role in helping the region achieve its wild polio-free status by holding events to raise funds and awareness for polio, and working with world governments and national and local leaders to secure funding and support for polio eradication. Rotary members around the world have donated their time and money to supporting polio eradication, the organization’s top priority.
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 last is yet to be heard over the sacking weekend of the Governor, Bank of Zambia, Dr. Denny Kalyalya by the president of Zambia Edgar Lungu. The minister of Finance of South Africa, Tito Mboweni had taken to twitter to criticize the move blaming the total lack of independence of central banks in Africa as being responsible for poor monetary policy formulations in the continent. He wondered why a man who is working hard to stabilize a wobbling economy should be sacked for insisting that right things should be done. In one of his tweets, Minister Mboweni is promising to mobilise if not given reasons why the Central bank Governor has been fired by President Lungu.
minister of Finance South Africa, Tito Mboweni
Mboweni attracted Lusaka’s wrath when he condemned the firing of Kalyalya by President Edgar Lungu. In his comment, Mboweni implied that Lungu scored an own goal, by firing the central bank boss and called the move ‘nonsense.’In response Zambian government Chief spokesperson described Mboweni’s statement as an element of immaturity. But Mboweni hit back saying he stands by his statement. “Looks like I am in trouble about my statement on the dismissal of the Bank of Zambia Governor adding that “I stand by my statement. Central Bank independence is key.
However, his President Cyril Ramaphosa strongly reprimanded the Minister of Finance following the Twitter comments a response many say was in reaction to a telephone call from the Zambian president complaining over the comments by the South African Minister of Finance. President Ramaphosa wishes to assure the government and people of the Republic of Zambia that the unfortunate remarks do not reflect the views of the South African Government and its people. The issue is being addressed to ensure that such an incident does not occur again.
South Africa and Zambia enjoy strong historical relations dating back to the days of the struggle against apartheid. South Africa remains committed to maintaining the deep and solid bonds of friendship between the peoples of South Africa and Zambia. But it seem that a diplomatic war could be brewing, as South African Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni maintains his stance regarding his comments on the firing of Denny Kalyalya as Bank of Zambia governor.
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 COVID-19 pandemic and its health and economic impacts has forced a global rethink of the current multilateral framework and what it means for the future.
For Africa, COVID-19 has served as a wake-up call in many ways.
The mitigation measures that were put in place by most countries globally to contain the spread of the pandemic, and particularly border closures and lockdowns, resulted in reduced economic activity and supply chain disruptions across the whole world, Africa included.
Khaled Sherif , Vice-President, Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery at the African Development Bank
Reduced economic activity has meant demand contraction in Africa’s key markets, who were worse affected by the pandemic, thus depressing export revenues as commodity prices have continued to plummet.
Africa’s overdependence
Several African manufacturers have successfully reoriented operations to begin production of Protective Personal Equipment (PPE) and ventilators to meet local demand. It means the need to think about Africa more as a single common market to facilitate scaling up.
However, for the most part, pandemic-related disruptions have exposed African economies’ overdependence on high commodity prices and exports of raw materials to fund basic government services. Together, disrupted international supply chains and domestic lockdowns created a perfect storm in which income, goods or services stopped circulating as economies came to a standstill. No money, no movement, and a realisation that most African countries lack economic diversity and resilience.
Simply put, there is a need to focus on fundamentals: producing more of what Africa consumes, and consuming more of what Africa produces.This does not mean cutting Africa off from the outside world. However, it does mean focusing first and foremost on the African market, and other markets secondarily. It means the need to think about Africa more as a single common market to facilitate scaling up.
Producing and consuming locally will facilitate the development of supply chains that will offer small companies, and countries, opportunities to leverage their strengths and specialisations and feed into large value chain networks that create more value through production, processing and distribution.
And it means raising the standards within African supply chains to enable African firms to produce world class industrial products.
“Shore up manufacturing in Africa”
To achieve this, there needs to be a concerted effort to shore up manufacturing in Africa. The demand for manufactured goods is already there, as evidenced by the figures on the import of manufactures.
Key to enhancing manufacturing in Africa is improving intra-African trade through the effective operationalization of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which would spur industrialisation.
The COVID-19 crisis has shown that enhanced industrial production in Africa is entirely achievable, especially as countries have struggled to source inputs and products from overseas. African industries do have the potential to respond to demand and in fact, there is potential to leap-frog into advanced manufacturing and create the required capacity to produce quality world class goods.
By extension, the pandemic has also exposed the vital importance of economic capacity not only for socioeconomic development and industrialisation but to enhance resilience against crises and exogenous shocks that often occur without warning. Building on existing regional strategies for disaster risk reduction, there is also a need to factor in how pandemics present a multi-dimensional set of risks that require integrated responses to mitigate systemic risks.
The capacity to locally manufacture the basics that are critical during emergencies—foodstuffs, clothing, shelter—and building the markets and supply chains needed to ensure a good supply of these, would contribute significantly to GDP, income and job creation.
How to build the markets & supply chains?
The question becomes how to build the markets and supply chains needed to ensure Africa can provide for itself, including during emergencies.
For example, Africa has several agricultural commodities on which regional value chains can be constructed. These alone would contribute significantly to GDP, incomes and job creation while also paving a shift into the manufacture of light intermediate goods (e.g., wood products, textiles and leather) adds to the range of possibilities.
As Africa builds more critical mass, the continent would increasingly move investment into distribution, data transmission and services to ensure these goods make it to market. Financing and insurance are needed across the spectrum, as are all the skills of the youth and specialists who can help manage the IT and logistics that leverage digital capabilities.
This will create high paying, skilled jobs for Africa’s youth. In other words, there is a need to take a horizontal view of value creation and maximize opportunities to generate these in Africa, for African economies, African businesses, African workers and African consumers.
So how can this be achieved?
Fulfilling the African Development Bank’s High 5s priorities: Light Up and Power Africa; Feed Africa; Industrialise Africa; Integrate Africa; and, Improve the Quality of Life for the People of Africa, would address these challenges on multiple fronts and instrumentalise a tightly interconnected African market.
The High 5s address the continent’s demonstrated need for power generation to electrify households and industries; enhanced transport links to connect African countries by land, sea and air; ICT for communication and digital management of logistics; financial markets to integrate for more and better financial flows for business enterprises to flourish and to meet household needs; and agribusinesses that rely on the latest seed and other technology to produce the crop yields needed to sustain Africa’s fast growing populations.
Bottom line
By producing what it consumes and consuming what it produces as its countries and businesses progress up the value chain, Africa can build wealth, opportunity and resilience and ensure the successful realisation of Agenda 2063.
Khaled Sherif is the Vice-President, Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery at the African Development Bank
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 need to regulate activities of digital lenders operating in Kenya has come to the fore with calls by both operators and subscribers for a sort of formalization of the operations to create a transparent and accountable operating environment. This came even as the digital lenders have agreed that they are in support of plans by the country’s financial regulatory agencies, especially the central bank to regulate their industry amid concerns they are placing borrowers under increasing debt stress. Speaking on the development, the Digital Lenders Association said that regulations should be based on the digital lenders’ code of conduct. This according to them will promote transparency, best practices for debt collection, market-based pricing with no hidden fees.
Kenya has a relatively more developed digital lending ecosystem due mainly because the country embraced it earlier than others. It is among the first countries where digital lending, mostly using a mobile phone, went mainstream. The pioneering lenders came under the spotlight following complaints of exorbitant interest rates and bad collection methods. With dozens of apps offering short-term advances similar to payday loans, people who once borrowed mainly from family and friends are now being bombarded with advertisements for quick money and calls from debt collectors.
And because it is an unregulated system, there are no caps on interest rates, except those backed by banks that are supervised by the Central Bank of Kenya. In April, the central bank, which wants all the lenders properly supervised, blocked unregulated loan companies from some credit-reference services after public complaints that some firms were misusing information.
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
Indications have emerged that as part of efforts aimed at bypassing the huddles of the current foreign exchange shortage in Nigeria, some Nigerian businessmen and women especially those engaged in importation are adopting the use of Bitcoin to bypass the forex shortages. The forex scarcity occasioned by the low forex inflow due to low remittances and low oil prices triggered by the coronavirus pandemic has had a devastating impact on importers who are mostly affected by the forex shortages. This is also compounded by the suspension of sales of foreign exchange to Bureau De Change (BDCs) operators by the central bank of Nigeria.
The present situation which is squeezing the life out of Africa’s biggest economy has been exacerbated by the fact that banks have stopped honouring card payments as monthly spending on cards have been capped in some instances to about $100. In an email to its customers late last month, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, Nigeria’s biggest by market value, informed its customers that it has cut the amount of foreign currency customers can spend on payment cards abroad to $100 a month from $3,000.
To bypass these huddles, some are resorting to using Bitcoin to pay for goods from their foreign partners, especially those trading with Chinese exporting companies. According to those using Bitcoin, it is a faster way of exchange than the traditional foreign exchange, moreso, with Bitcoin, it is easier to leapfrog bank limits of $10,000 a day. Using an agent who acts as go-between, these businessmen pay with Bitcoin to the agents while the agents accept the Bitcoins and pay the suppliers in renminbi.
Rules on what companies do with the dollars they receive have also been changed. With restrictions and new rules such that foreign exchange deposits can only be accessed via withdrawals, while foreign exchange via inflows can only be accessed via outflows have made things harder for businesses. Analysts say that many banks are following a template they used when they went through a similar contraction in 2016, which was to cut customers’ foreign payments and wait for crude prices to recover before raising the limits.
Using Bitcoin according to them is the best way to bypass the restrictions and engage in seamless cross border transactions as they claim it is cheaper, easier and involves no paperwork making it quite seamless. Some say that they adopted Bitcoin because “it jumps borders with ease, where other currencies encounter friction. If the counterparty is willing to receive bitcoin on the other end, it’s often faster and cheaper than legacy payments. But this can be a big “if” because bitcoin is a newer way of transferring money and people aren’t exactly used to it quite yet”.
Dependent on oil exports for close to 70 percent of its revenue, the Nigerian government’s coffers have emptied after crude prices plunged in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. There’s little prospect of a respite any time soon as analysts projected that the economy would needs oil prices at $70 per barrel and production of 2 million barrels a day to balance the 2020 budget, but with prices hovering around $40 and OPEC curbs have restricted the nation’s output to about 1.4 million barrels a day. Moreso, foreign investors are said to be struggling to get out their money while manufacturers are unable to import vital raw materials as output hurtles toward a second contraction in four years.All these contributed to push the central bank to halt weekly interbank foreign-currency sales since March. Now the effects of the dollar shortage are seeping through to the economy.
The International Monetary Fund predicts Nigeria’s economy will contract by 5.4% this year, the most in four decades. The latest official job figures put the second-quarter unemployment rate at 27.1%, the highest in a decade.
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
For the first time in its 55 years history, the annual general meetings of the African Development Bank will take place virtually as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The event which will feature the Governors’ Dialogue will have a highpoint; the election of the president will be top of the agenda of the upcoming Meetings scheduled for 26-27 August 2020. This year, which marks the 55th meeting of the Bank’s Board of Governors and the 46th Annual Meeting of the African Development Fund (ADF), the Bank’s concessional arm, has the added significance of being an election year for the Bank’s president. The incumbent, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, is running as the sole candidate for a new five-year term.
Akinwumi Adesina, incumbent president, AfDB
Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the continent’s shores in early March, over 1,000,000 confirmed cases of the virus have been recorded in Africa. The pandemic has hit the region’s economies hard in the wake of falling commodity prices and containment measures by governments that have led to country lockdowns. For several months, the Bank has been extending support to regional member countries in cushioning their economies, health systems, and citizens’ livelihoods from parallel health and economic impacts from COVID-19.
In April 2020, The Bank established a COVID-19 Response Facility of up to $10 billion to extend flexible support to African sovereign and non-sovereign operations. As of August 20, $2.29 billion in CRF funding had been approved for ADB member countries. A further $1.186 billion has been disbursed to ADF member countries, with approvals ongoing.
In March, the Bank also raised a record $3 billion with a COVID-19 social bond floated on the London Stock Exchange. The institution reached some major milestones during the trying times of lockdown with both Fitch and Standard & Poor credit rating agencies reaffirming the Bank’s AAA rating with a stable outlook.
During the meetings, Governors are expected to receive updates on a range of Bank developments since the previous Annual Meetings held in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea in June 2019. This will include the Bank’s seventh General Capital increase, which the Board of Governors approved in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire on October 31, 2019, and which increased the Bank’s capital base by a historic $115 billion to $208 billion. In December 2019, African Development Fund Donors pledged $7.6 billion, the fifteenth such replenishment, to help Africa’s poorest countries.
Top of the agenda for this year’s meeting would be the election of the President. The Governors will vote on August 27 to elect the eighth president of the Bank. Dr. Adesina, the first Nigerian to hold the post, was elected for a five-year term on May 28, 2015, by the Bank’s Board of Governors during that year’s Annual Meetings held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Bank Governors are typically the finance and economy ministers or Central Bank Governors of the 54 African regional member countries and 27 non-regional member countries.
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
African fintech space is getting heated up as global leader in cross-border P2P payments and money transfers, MoneyGram has announced four mobile wallet and fintech partnerships that give the company access to mobile wallets in 28 markets in Africa
Grant Lines, MoneyGram Chief Revenue Officer
“Our digital business has seen amazing growth over the past several years, and these new partnerships are important milestones as we execute our strategy to accelerate digital growth by expanding access to mobile wallet capabilities,” said Kamila Chytil, MoneyGram Chief Operating Officer and leader of the Company’s digital business. “Customer demand for mobile wallets has increased significantly over the last few years and with the onset of the global pandemic, the launch of these strategic partnerships is more important than ever.”
Here Is What You Need To Know
The new partnerships are with Airtel, Thunes, InTouch and MFS Africa and will help to execute its customer-centric digital transformation.
Airtel, a leading provider of telecommunication and mobile money services, has a presence in 14 countries across Africa and over 19 million customers alone. Through this collaboration, customers will be able to receive funds from around the world, access the money immediately, transfer to other individuals, or convert to cash at many available branches, kiosks and agents.
Thunes, InTouch and MFS Africa, prominent fintech payment providers, are platforms that bridge the gap between the rapidly growing mobile money ecosystem in Africa and global online digital payments. The reach of the three providers will enable MoneyGram to quickly and significantly expand its coverage across the continent.
Services at Thunes and InTouch begin as early as this week, while the partnerships with Airtel and MFS Africa will go live in the next few months.
“Africa is seeing significant growth in mobile money adoption across the continent, and we’re excited to partner with Airtel, Thunes, InTouch and MFS Africa to further support our collective goals to mobilize the movement of money,” said Grant Lines, MoneyGram Chief Revenue Officer. “We continue to execute our plan to overhaul major receive markets, and I look forward to building upon our strong momentum in Africa through these new partnerships.”
MoneyGram recently reported that its global account deposit and mobile wallet transactions increased 165% in July, which is an acceleration from the second quarter where the Company reported 148% year-over-year transaction growth. These partnerships are expected to further support this strong growth.
MoneyGram is a global leader in cross-border P2P payments and money transfers. Its consumer-centric capabilities enable family and friends to quickly and affordably send money in more than 200 countries and territories, with over 70 countries now digitally enabled.
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
