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Nigerians Kick as AU Commissions AfCFTA Secretariat in Accra Ghana

August 18, 2020

Kelechi Deca

Nigerian traders in Accra Ghana have reiterated the need for the African Union to intervene in the ongoing altercations between agents of the Ghanaian government and business people from other African countries, especially Nigeria. This became necessary as the Ghanaian government is tightening the noose on foreign-owned businesses in a move that has been described as economic xenophobia targeted against Nigerian businesses in the Ghanaian capital, Accra.

This call was reiterated against the backdrop of the commissioning of the permanent secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) by Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo and Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the AU Commission as they reiterated the importance of the body to the continent’s economic transformation agenda.

The Nigerian business owners however noted that the discriminatory practices of the Ghanaian government targeted against the nationals of other African countries runs counter to the spirit of both Economic Commission of West Africa States (ECOWAS) Protocols and that of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). A cardinal aspect of the ECOWAS Protocols stipulated among other things the right of community citizens to enter, reside and establish economic activities in the territory of member states and outlined a three- phased approach to achieve the “complete freedom of movement” envisaged by the treaty.

The Nigerian government through the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, in a reaction posted on his Twitter handle said that “Nigerian Government has watched with dismay the painful videos of the forceful closure of the shops of Nigerian traders in #Ghana, promising that urgent steps will be taken.

Tolu Akande-Sadipe, Chairman, Nigerian House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora Affairs, had promised an investigation into the forceful closure of businesses of Nigerians in Ghana. She stated that the act was against and will inhibit the intent of ECOWAS. “House Committee on Diaspora and the entire @HouseNG 9th Assembly will do whatever is within our scope to ensure that this is investigated and the Government of Ghana @GhanaPresidency takes responsibility for policies that could lead to the destruction of the intents of ECOWAS,” she said.

According to the President of Nigerian Traders Union in Ghana Chukwuemeka Nnaji said Nigerian shop owners were being asked to provide registration of business taxes, resident permit, and standard control and Ghana Investment Promotion Council registration. “Most of our members do not have the GIPC registration, because it requires $1m cash or equity and they gave us 14 days within which to regularise,” Nnaji added.

Some analysts are of the view that Ghana’s discriminatory attitude towards fellow African countries should be enough to protest against the setting up of the AfCFTA Secretariat in that country. Ghana was selected as the venue for the headquarters by African leaders during a Summit of AU Heads of states in Niamey in July last year, to launch the implementation phase of the agreement, which is expected to spur regional trade among member countries. Currently, 54 states have signed on to AfCFTA, out of which 28 have ratified.

Speaking at the event, the Ghanaian President, Nana Akufo-Addo said that “the economic integration of Africa will lay strong foundations for an Africa beyond aid. Africa’s new sense of urgency and aspiration of true self-reliance will be amply demonstrated by today’s ceremony.” He appealed to member states that have not ratified to do so before the next AU summit in December, “to pave the way for the smooth commencement of trading from 1 January 2021.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the importance of the success of the AfCFTA, the Ghanaian president said. “The destruction of global supply chains has reinforced the necessity for closer integration amongst us so that we can boost our mutual self-sufficiency, strengthen our economies and reduce our dependence on external sources,” he said.

AfCFTA, the world’s largest free trade area, has the potential to transform the continent with its potential market of 1.2 billion people and combined GDP of around $3 trillion across the 54-member states of the AU. Mahamat said the opening of the secretariat marked a milestone in the vision of Africa’s founding founders for continental integration. According to Wamkele Mene, the first Secretary-General of the AfCFTA, said the agreement offered an opportunity for Africa to confront the significant trade and economic development challenges: market fragmentation, small national economies, over-reliance on primary commodity exports, narrow export base, lack of export specialization, under-developed regional value chains and high regulatory and tariff barriers to trade. “We have to take action now. We have to take action to dismantle the colonial economic model that we inherited,” Mene reiterated.

The African Development Bank Group provided a $5 million institutional support grant to the AU towards the establishment of the AfCFTA secretariat which is located in an ultra-modern office complex in the central business district of the Ghanaian capital. “The African Development Bank congratulates the AU/AfCFTA on the investiture of the Secretariat hosted by Ghana on 17 August 2020.The Bank is delighted to be associated with this groundbreaking, game-changing, transformational continental initiative in furtherance of the objective to create the Africa we want,” said Solomon Quaynor, the Bank’s Vice-President for the Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialization. “Our support to the AfCFTA is in keeping with the Bank’s role of continental leadership in helping to build special-purpose vehicles that are critical to the successful implementation of crucial institutions to accelerate Africa’s economic development objectives,” Quaynor added.

Analysts are of the view that if the African Union fails to call Ghana to order over this seeming reckless disregard for existing protocols within the region and continent at large, that it will set a very wrong precedent which other countries might use in future to justify similar actions, and this might truncate whatever efforts the continent is making towards a harmonized market. Moreso, Nigeria being the continent’s largest market and biggest economy might be pressured by its citizens to explore ways of reciprocating in kind or even pushing for a more damaging protectionist strategy, which will not augur well for both the West African region and the continent as a whole.

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 Records Two Million Phishing Attacks During Covid-19 Lockdown

Leading African economies recorded an astonishing 2,023,501 phishing attacks and cybersecurity breaches during the lockdown occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic. The countries most affected are South Africa, Kenya, Egypt, Nigeria, Rwanda and Ethiopia. According to Kaspersky analysis, phishing attacks are becoming increasingly more targeted across Africa unlike what obtained before now. The cybersecurity firm has discovered a number of new tricks from HR dismissal emails to attacks disguised as delivery notifications. As a result of such tendencies, security solutions have detected 2,023,501 phishing attacks in South Africa, Kenya, Egypt, Nigeria, Rwanda and Ethiopia. These and many more are contained in Kaspersky’s new spam and phishing in Q2 2020 report.

Phishing is one of the oldest and most flexible types of social engineering attacks. They are used in many ways, and for different purposes, to lure unwary users to the site and trick them into entering personal information. The latter often includes financial credentials such as bank account passwords or payment card details, or login details for social media accounts. In the wrong hands, this opens doors to various malicious operations, such as money being stolen or corporate networks being compromised. This makes phishing a popular initial infection method. South African users have been influenced the most by this type of threat: there were 616,666 phishing attacks detected in 3 months. It was followed by Kenya (514,361), Egypt (492,532), Nigeria (299,426), Rwanda (68,931) and Ethiopia (31,585).

Read also :Nigerian Parents Worry Over Dangerous Contents in Their Wards Social Media Accounts

Phishing is a strong attack method because it is done at such a large scale. By sending massive waves of emails under the name of legitimate institutions or promoting fake pages, malicious users increase their chances of success in their hunt for innocent people’s credentials. The first six months of 2020, however, have shown a new aspect to this well-known form of attack.

On the targeted attacks, the report discovered that the focus is on small and medium scale enterprises in those countries. As Kaspersky analysis indicated, in Q2 2020, phishers increasingly performed targeted attacks, with most of their focus on small companies. To attract attention, fraudsters forged emails and websites from organisations whose products or services could be purchased by potential victims. In the process of making these fake assets, fraudsters often did not even try to make the site appear authentic.

Such targeted phishing attacks can have serious consequences. Once a fraudster has gained access to an employee’s mailbox, they can use it to carry out further attacks on the company the employee works for, the rest of its staff, or even its contractors. The news agenda, following the COVID-19 outbreak, has already influenced the “excuses” fraudsters use when asking for personal information. This included disguising their communications with unsuspecting users as delivery services. At the peak of the pandemic, organisations responsible for delivering letters and parcels were in a hurry to notify recipients of possible delays. These are the types of emails that fraudsters began to fake, with victims asked to open an attachment to find out the address of a warehouse where they could pick up a shipment that did not reach its destination.

Also another area is postal services. Another relatively original move used by fraudsters was a message containing a small image of a postal receipt. The scammers expected that the intrigued recipient would accept the attachment (which, although it contained ‘JPG’ in the name, was an executable archive) as the full version and decide to open it. The Noon spyware was found in mailings such as these examined by Kaspersky researchers. Equally included is the financial service. Bank phishing attacks in the second quarter were often carried out using emails offering various benefits and bonuses to customers of credit institutions due to the pandemic. Emails received by users contained a file with instructions or links to get more details. As a result, depending on the scheme, fraudsters could gain access to users’ computers, personal data, or authentication data for various services.

On HR services, the weakening of the economy during the pandemic in a number of countries caused a wave of unemployment, and fraudsters did not miss this opportunity to strike. Kaspersky experts encountered various mailings that announced, for example, some amendments to the medical leave procedure, or surprised the recipient with the news about their dismissal. In some attachments, there was a Trojan-Downloader. MSOffice.SLoad.gen file. This Trojan is most often used for downloading and installing encryptors. “When summarising the results of the first quarter, we assumed that COVID-19 would be the main topic for spammers and phishers for the past few months. And it certainly happened. While there was the rare spam mailing sent out without mentioning the pandemic, phishers adapted their old schemes to make them relevant for the current news agenda, as well as come up with new tricks,” comments Tatyana Sidorina, security expert at Kaspersky.

Kaspersky experts advise users to take the following measures to protect themselves from phishing: always check online addresses in unknown or unexpected messages, whether it is the web address of the site where you are being directed, the link address in a message and even the sender’s email address, to make sure they are genuine and that the link in the message doesn’t hide another hyperlink.

If you are not sure that the website is genuine and secure, never enter your credentials. If you think that you may have entered your login and password on a fake page, immediately change your password and call your bank or other payment provider if you think your card details were compromised.Use a proper security solution with behaviour-based anti-phishing technologies, such as Kaspersky Security Cloud and Kaspersky Total Security, which will warn you if you are trying to visit a phishing web page.

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

Facebook Innovates, Launches Avatars Across Africa

August 17, 2020

To help its teeming followership across Africa express themselves in far more diverse ways than hitherto available, global leading tech and social media platform Facebook has launched Avatars in Africa to provide alternative modes of expressions online. The Avatars are digital personas that enable people to engage across Facebook and Messenger in a more personal and dynamic way. You can use your personalised avatar to share a range of emotions and expressions via a digital persona that is unique to you.

There are many ways you can use your avatar including in comments, Stories, Messenger and soon, text posts with backgrounds too. With so many emotions and expressions to choose from, avatars let you share your authentic reactions and feelings with family and friends across the app. You can customise your avatar with hairstyles, complexions, outfits, COVID-19 support stickers and more. To create your avatar, go to the Facebook or Messenger comment composer, click on the “smiley” button, and then the sticker tab. Click “Create Your Avatar”.

According to Nunu Ntshingila, Regional Director, Facebook Africa, “Facebook is home to some of your most personal content and we want to allow people to share and react to that content in the most personalised way possible,” adding that “we’re excited to give people more options to convey their identity on Facebook, allowing them to share in a more personal, light-hearted way.” Avatars include hundreds of global sticker packs and integrations with GIF providers and can also be shared across Facebook and Messenger by Setting as Profile Picture, Sharing to News Feed, and Using on Gaming Profile.

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

Morocco’s CaixaBank Gets €40 Million Loan to Support SMEs

Small and medium enterprises globally have taken a hit from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, but across Africa, due to the low financial security in the system, many SME’s are dying off. To stem this, Morocco’s CaixaBank got a loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in support of its expansion strategy to reach SMEs outside of Rabat and Casablanca, with service from branches in Tangier and Agadir. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has allocated a loan of MAD 430 million (€40 million) to Morocco’s branch of CaixaBank which focuses on development, with the local branch specializing in granting loans to Spanish and Moroccan small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in Morocco.

The loan from EBRD aims to expand or increase “much-needed” funding for local SMEs to address companies’ needs as the COVID-19 crisis continues to take its toll. In addition, EBRD pledges to support CaixaBank’s expansion strategy in Morocco, to reach SMEs outside of Rabat and Casablanca with service from branches in Tangier and Agadir.The move adds to EBRD’s several initiatives to support Moroccan-based companies in the COVID-19 crisis.

The EBRD noted that “in Morocco, the Bank was one of the first financial institutions to develop financial and advisory instruments to mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy,” adding that a similar move took place recently with the participation of Morocco’s CIH Bank. EBRD and CIH signed a partnership to assist SMEs and international activities through a financing program of €40 million.

“The agreement is in line with CIH BANK’s commitment to actively participate in economic recovery efforts by providing reinforced support to Moroccan SMEs, and by ensuring financing solutions adapted to their needs, and products that facilitate their flows, and foreign trade transactions,” said CIH in a statement.

In June, EBRD and the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) pledged their support to the recovery of Morocco’s tourism sector, as well as across other economies where the Bank invests. The tourism sector, which represents 11% of Morocco’s GDP, is one of the hardest hit due to the COVID-19 crisis. The support that the two entities pledged will be in line with three main pillars of the UNWTO’s Tourism Recovery Technical Assistance Package.

These include economic recovery, marketing and promotion, as well as institutional strengthening and resilience building. To date, EBRD has invested €2.4 billion through 65 projects in Morocco, which is one of the founding members of the 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

Stakeholders Engagement and Security Will be Key to Ensure the Success of Mozambique’s LNG Projects

C. Derek Campbell argues that successful security operations in support of Mozambique’s emerging LNG projects require a holistic approach that includes understanding information as a critical element affecting all audiences, and not just financial stakeholders.

The scale and enormous economic potential of Mozambique’s LNG projects constitutes a seminal effort with national, regional and global implications and visibility. In fact, Total’s Mozambique LNG project alone costs about $20bn and represents Africa’s single largest foreign direct investment to date. Led by French major Total, it gathers a wide range of private and state-owned entities including Mitsui, Oil India, ONGC Videsh, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, PTT Exploration and Mozambique’s ENH.

***C. Derek Campbell is the CEO of Energy & Natural Resource Security, Inc.***

Given the stakes associated with this vital project, investors, government officials and all other stakeholders must be assured it will not suffer operationally due to security issues. An essential element of that assurance requires project stakeholder leadership to actively demonstrate its value to Mozambique’s citizens and simultaneously appreciate there is a regional and global audience to be addressed. In turn, those associated messages must be carefully crafted, and their content reflects cultural accuracy.

This engagement of Mozambique LNG’s stakeholders must also be active and well-constructed. While providing relevant information is critical, it must also be timely, and its substance reflects institutional credibility. Further, project leadership must be prepared to counter misinformation at all levels – ideally, this is accomplished by active assessment of information atmospherics and by staying ahead of any negative messages.

The current threat to the LNG project has elevated the need to institute measures that account for all domains of security operations. This increasing sense of urgency is demonstrated by the deadly 27 June 2020 ambush of a construction contractor’s vehicle near the Tanzanian border. The attack itself was meant to send a definitive message and the LNG project’s stakeholder leadership must understand how information-related activities could have provided indications and warnings that may have prevented/mitigated this attack. Simultaneously, the LNG project will realize improved protection of vital operational information.

It can realize those results by consciously establishing and resourcing a dedicated information entity within the Security directorate. Their key functions will include the ability to synchronize actions with the project’s senior leadership and they must be empowered to coordinate with the media, local populations, and law enforcement agencies at all levels. Additionally, due to the varied nature of Mozambique LNG’s infrastructure (offshore, coastal and interior facilities), security officials must account operational and administrative activities in and around facilities that potentially affect contested or culturally sensitive territory. Therefore, it is essential to define the most effective manner to present security-related messages to respective audiences in those affected areas.

For obvious reasons, the security of Mozambique’s LNG is an absolute. The development and implementation of capabilities that actively account for information’s impact on all related goals and activities, to include the local community, is critical to the development and deployment of modern security operations in Mozambique.

C. Derek Campbell is the CEO of Energy & Natural Resource Security, Inc.

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

Kilimo Fresh Tanzania Nets $50k Equity Funding at MEST Africa Challenge

August 15, 2020

The MEST Africa Challenge which involves startups across select African countries has a winner in Tanzanian agri-tech startup Kilimo Fresh, a digital distributor of fresh produce to hotels, restaurants, supermarkets, institutions, wholesalers and export markets, has been named winner of the MEST Africa Challenge, winning US$50,000 in equity investment. The competition which involved startups from Ethiopia, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Ghana, Tanzania, Senegal, Nigeria and South Africa were selected to take part in the MEST Africa Challenge, run by pan-African training programme, seed fund, incubator and hub MEST Africa.

The competition which was aimed at post-revenue, tech-enabled startups that want to expand into new markets has had three winners in the last three years and they all were offered the winning company US$50,000 in equity investment, plus access to Microsoft support, coaching, and a continent-wide network of startup hubs.

The select startups participated in a virtual pitch event which took place within the week after which the winning presentation from Tanzania’s Kilimo Fresh was named the winner. The startup is developing digital farming solutions, and will now benefit from MEST support and funding. Ethiopia’s Debo Engineering, which matches farmers with agro service providers, was awarded the community prize.

Organisers of the event hope that such exposures is needed for African startups not only to build the much needed connections with others across the continent, but it will also help them share experiences and equally enable governments and organizations understand the challenges facing startups across the continent and also help create friendly environment for positive startup ecosystems across Africa.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

Expansion Plan of Kenya’s Startup, WorkPay Attracts $2.1m Seed Funding

The expansion efforts of Kenyan startup WorkPay to reach prospective patronage across the East African region and other parts of the continent received a boost recently with a $2.1 million seed funding. WorkPay which builds human resources (HR) and payroll solutions for Africa sees this development as a sign of greater things to come in fuelling growth. WorkPay which until 2019 before its rebranding was known as TozzaPlus is a cloud-based human resources management and payroll solution for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in Africa. The startup’s time tracking and salary disbursement tools help African businesses save money and time by eliminating ghost workers from their payroll and inefficiencies associated with cash payments.

The organization processes payrolls for more than 25,000 employees in Kenya and has more than 300 SMBs on its platform, and it is now set for further growth after raising US$2.1 million in funding.The round is led by Kepple Africa Ventures, which also invested US$100,000 in WorkPay in 2019, and also sees participation from Y Combinator (WorkPay recently took part in the Silicon Valley-based accelerator programme), Soma Capital, Musha Ventures, P1 Ventures, and a number of angel investors.

The chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder of WorkPay Paul Kimani said that “this new investment will give us the opportunity to scale our human resource management and payroll processing tools to SMBs and expand to enterprise clients across East Africa. We are fortunate to have the backing of some incredible people on our mission to make it easy for businesses to manage and pay employees across Africa.”

Ryosuke Yamawaki, general partner of Kepple Africa Ventures, said the moment his team first met with the WorkPay team during a one-on-one pitch day in September 2018, it was clear they were different from anyone else they had met in Nairobi. ‘They’re different in the way they define their key customers, understand their real pains, and design specific solutions. It is no surprise that they have come this far. They will surely become one of the most successful startups in the continent and drastically change the way the workforce is managed,” he said.

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

Merger Between Nigerian and Kenyan Startups Aim to Digitise the Parenting Journey for Africans

A new partnership between a Kenyan and Nigerian startups aimed at digitizing the parental journey across Africa is yielding fruits with the merger of both groups under one umbrella. The new organization Bliss Group is an omnichannel e-commerce and community platform for parenting content and babycare products was born as a result of the merger between the Kenya-based maternal care and e-commerce platform MumsVillage with BabyBliss Nigeria to form Bliss Group.

This pan-African omnichannel e-commerce and community platform for parenting content and baby care products is working to grow the continents huge market for baby and maternal care products based on the expectation that by 2024, the value of the baby care product market in the Middle East and Africa is expected to reach US$15 billion. The new entity, Bliss Group, will seek to tap into this market in Kenya and Nigeria and spread their tentacles to other parts of Africa in the coming months. Prior to founding MumsVillage in 2015, Isis Nyong’o led African expansion for global companies like Google, Viacom and InMobi. Over time, it became apparent that technology solutions that centered women as their primary target audience were few or almost nonexistent. Nor were there many women in the product teams or the people making the decisions about what types of products were being developed and how they were being rolled out,” Nyong’o was quoted as saying.

Also preparing to have a baby around this time, she found there was not a lot of content around pregnancy and parenting that took local contexts of women in Kenya and other parts of the continent into account. Leading African expansion for these global brands had taught her the importance of contextualising content to present a brand or information in the manner that was relevant to individual audiences.

And so, while there was certainly no harm in seeking out or ingesting content from across the globe, understanding how to navigate constant power cuts when there is a stash of expressed milk in the freezer was information a Kenyan mother could not readily find online. Although initially starting out as a content community, Nyong’o says there were three paths to follow when the idea for MumsVillage came: content, community and commerce. “We decided to approach it through building a brand first through content and community and commerce was further on in the journey,” says Nyong’o.

BabyBliss Nigeria however, was founded in 2017 by Ezinwanne Ajayi, launched as a multichannel e-commerce platform to help mothers source for quality baby products, its activities have been built on a community of over 150,000 mums across its platforms purchasing based on referrals and each other’s experiences. Most baby care products available in the country are from global brands like Johnson & Johnson or Procter & Gamble who make a vast range of items from baby food to diapers and baby lotions/oils/soaps. It is not unusual to come across counterfeited variations of these products or low-quality locally made products branded with these names in order to sell. BabyBliss Nigeria was launched to provide new mums easy access to quality baby products including carriers, clothing items and furniture for nurseries.

The merger group combines both MumsVillage and BabyBliss Nigeria’s strong communities and e-commerce efforts into a new entity poised to build a pan African digital village of quality content, support and products within which babies can be well raised. As the African adage says, it takes a village to raise a child. Discussions about the merger began at the end of 2019 and took around 6 months to complete. Prior to this time, there was already an existing relationship between the companies as they both worked in identical sectors operating in different countries.

“It was very attractive to become a pan African business and it was always part of our goals to do that,” says, Jika Nwobi, CEO, BabyBliss Nigeria adding that “it feels like we have been working together forever. It’s such a great team and the synergies are great.”Both companies shared similar long term vision, had similar team/organisational structure as well as customer profiles and prior to the pandemic lockdowns, both teams spent time cross-interfering and acclimatising with each other. Bliss Group, the entity arising from the merger, is now a holding company with MumsVillage in Kenya and BabyBliss in Nigeria as its subsidiaries.

Nyong’o says while she would have loved both teams to have spent more time in-person as operational restructuring happened, most of the changes in the organisation are still ongoing and teams are very focused on bigger, long-terms goals which is to continue to expand capacity and reach of the businesses both in Kenya and Nigeria, and into other locations on the continent. Millicent Muigai, CEO, MumsVillage Kenya says Bliss Group is now thinking of ways to drive its content across both locations as well as what aspects of both businesses will need to extend to users in Kenya and Nigeria respectively. For instance, one of BabyBliss Nigeria’s channels was a mobile application where mums could shop and connect from and the team will now consider how that is developed or works for mums in Kenya. Ultimately, mums in both countries will be able to access a larger community, quality content and more variety of products through even more channels.

“If you want users to buy you have to find them where they are, so it is important that we are available across various channels,” says Muigai. Nyong’o says it was important to eschew the idea that you had to use all your platforms to drive traffic to one central channel because studying the purchasing patterns and consumption habits of the mums on the platforms had shown that a main website could be seen as very formal especially for mums whose first contact with the digital space may have been a social media platform like Facebook. Since supply chains have come under the Bliss Group holding company, price effects on purchasing will also mean that mums are going to be able to purchase items at lower prices both in Kenya and Nigeria. There will also be introduction of a more robust inventory to Kenyan users. And ultimately, production of baby care products that are even more cost effective than those being sourced from international brands at the moment.

“Whatever partnerships we might strike, we are able to do something at a bigger scale across two key markets across the continent,” Nyong’o adds. Technology products specifically targeting female users are on the rise. Referred to as femtech, these apps, softwares and devices are specific to the healthcare needs of women and the global value of this market is expected to cross US$48.5 billion by 2025.

When she was founding MumsVillage and made the decision to focus on women solely, Nyong’o says it was difficult to really explain the biases that she was trying to tackle. “I think I’ve faced less resistance to it over time,” she says. One of the concerns femtech founders often encounter is the perception that the target audience is niche even though women make up nearly half of the population and in Africa, are usually in charge of family spending especially when it comes to health and family welfare.

Nyong’o however notes that when considered in terms of the digital population, women are still lagging behind and rightfully so. The proportion of women using the internet is a quarter less than the proportion of men using the internet in Africa. “I do think we’ll see more femtech products and solutions,” she says.

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 Leadership Should Focus on Youth Empowerment

August 14, 2020

Ifeyinwa Ogochukwu, CEO of Tony Elumelu Foundation

Leaders from both business and political divide have come to the agreement that awakening the entrepreneurial spirit of every young African is key to the continent’s future. This was made known during a webinar, themed Investing in Africa’s Future: Youth Empowerment Through Entrepreneurship, which had a range of private and public sector representatives to discuss the challenges young African entrepreneurs face. The event which was organized by The Tony Elumelu Foundation had in participation, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and a host of development leaders from across other major institutions in the continent. The webinar which coincided with International Youth Day 2020 highlighted ways of getting young people in Africa positively and productively engaged.

The webinar, themed Investing in Africa’s Future: Youth Empowerment Through Entrepreneurship, invited a range of private and public sector representatives to discuss the challenges young African entrepreneurs face, and more broadly the continent’s economic future, in light of the ongoing pandemic. The event was part of an ongoing series the Foundation has been hosting. The population of Africans aged 18-35 is expected to hit 830 million people by 2050, creating a youth bulge which experts predict could create a corps of young workers to fuel the continent’s long-term economic growth, but also poses immense job-creation challenges. Kickstarting the event, Ifeyinwa Ogochukwu, CEO of Tony Elumelu Foundation warned that “Africa is the epicenter for the economic devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now is the time to come together and rethink and reimagine our commitment to young African entrepreneurs,” adding that “investing in our future means awaking the entrepreneurial spirit of every young person on the continent.”

Addressing the gathering, Wambui Gichuri, the Acting Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development at the African Development Bank said that “Africa is young, and we need to do whatever it takes to empower our youth because they are the future of the continent,” “Entrepreneurship is an essential part in addressing Africa’s employment challenge and where we need to put our focus.”

Representing Africa’s young people on the discussion panel was 22-year-old Leroy Mwasaru, founder of Greenpact, a Kenyan alternative renewable energy startup. An alumnus of the Elumelu Foundation’s Entrepreneurship Program, Mwasaru expressed a desire to see greater communication and sharing of lessons learned among small and medium enterprises. The Entrepreneurship Program, which offers job skills, mentoring and funding to African entrepreneurs, in 2019 agreed a partnership with the Bank, which has provided $5 million in seed capital for the initiative. The Bank’s Director of Human Capital, Youth and Skills Development, also on the panel, praised the role of such partnerships in creating jobs on the continent:

“The Bank’s investment enabled the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship program to scale up and reach an additional 1,000 entrepreneurs in 38 African countries,” said Director Martha Phiri. “Let us give skills to our youth and also provide them with the necessary support to prove their business concepts, so that they can start, grow and scale their businesses in order to create jobs – not just for themselves, but for others.”

Phiri also mentioned the Bank’s AfricaVsVirus ideathon, which will provide training, mentoring and investment opportunities to African youth who developed the most promising solutions to address COVID-19 pandemic related challenges. Joining Gichuri, Phiri and Mwasaru on the panel were: Shoroke Zedan, Chairperson, World Skills Egypt; Bilikiss Adebiyi-Abiola, Founder of Wecyclers Nigeria and Ebube Emodi, Tony Elumelu Foundation Events Manager and Executive Associate.

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

Standard Chartered Partners Airtel to Drive Financial Inclusion Across Africa

August 13, 2020

Global financial services giant, Standard Chartered Bank has entered into an agreement with Airtel Africa to co-create new, innovative products aimed at enhancing the accessibility of financial services. The strategic collaboration to drive financial inclusion across key markets in Africa by providing customers with increased access to mobile financial services. Through the collaboration, Standard Chartered and Airtel Africa will work together to co-create new, innovative products aimed at enhancing the accessibility of financial services and, ultimately, better serve people across Africa. In line with this, Airtel Money’s customers will be able to make real-time online deposits and withdrawals from Standard Chartered bank accounts, receive international money transfers directly to their wallets, and access savings products amongst other services.

Standard Chartered’s corporate clients will also be able to make rapid and secure bulk disbursements, such as payroll payments, directly into the Airtel Money customer’s wallet. This reduces the risks associated with travelling long distances for cash payments and instead customers can go to any Airtel Money agent, kiosk, or branch to cash-out their funds.

Commenting on the collaboration, Sunil Kaushal, Regional CEO, Africa and Middle East said: “By collaborating with innovative organisations like Airtel Africa, we are accelerating our mobile and digital-led strategy to provide best in class financial services to Africa. Over the past year, Standard Chartered has rapidly launched digital banks across 9 countries on the continent, allowing our customers to enjoy seamless services from the safety of their homes even during the peak of the pandemic. This partnership will further enhance the ability of our customers to manage and move money safely and securely and create market-leading financial solutions across countries.”

Sunil Kaushal, Regional CEO, Africa and Middle East at Standard Chartered Bank

The recent announcement is another step taken by Standard Chartered to further extend its reach and enhance its unique produce offering. By partnering with mobile wallet providers, the bank has expanded its network into markets where mobile wallets are prevalent, offer solutions that enable corporate and institutional clients to leverage the opportunities presented by mobile money, and enable efficient, scalable e-commerce and m-commerce solutions.

This partnership supports Airtel Africa’s efforts to expand the range and depth of its Airtel Money offerings across its 19 million customer base, with new products and services helping to promote the wider adoption of mobile money and increasing financial inclusion.

Raghunath Mandava, CEO, Airtel Africa, said: “Our relationship with Standard Chartered boosts financial inclusion across the continent, giving millions of people access to valuable banking services. We continue to invest heavily in cashing in and cashing out locations for our customers and increase our distribution. This means that our customers can now send or receive digital payments via Standard Chartered Bank directly to their mobile phones, as well as cash-out their funds at our exclusive kiosks and branches at their convenience. This highlights Airtel Africa’s commitment to providing affordable, innovative, best-in-class solutions to enhance the daily lives of our customers.” Mobile banking transfers between Airtel Money and Standard Chartered Bank now live in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Remaining products will be rolled out later this year subject to regulatory approvals.

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