Special Report - Afrikan Heroes

How Startup Founders Are Psychologically Different From Everyone Else

September 29, 2019

It takes a certain kind of person to create a startup company. Not everyone can stomach the drought in income, the financial risk that comes with creating a company and the responsibility of hiring employees with an uncertain future. Except, nobody really has a good idea of what kind of person it does take to make an entrepreneur, says William Kerr, a professor at Harvard Business School.

Nimit Sawhney is the co-founder and CEO of Boston-based startup Voatz — Nimit Sawhney, co-founder and CEO of Boston-based startup Voatz

“For a long time, we could only study entrepreneurs through case examples like a Steve Jobs or an Andrew Carnegie. We didn’t really have systematic data that allowed us to understand who entrepreneurs were,” Kerr says.

Then Kerr got an opportunity to study a large set of entrepreneurs — after he met Tim Rowe, the founder of the Cambridge Innovation Center, or the CIC, a startup incubator in Cambridge, Mass.

Rowe let Kerr ask thousands of people at the CIC questions about their attitudes and personalities. “That let us create a very large dataset,” Kerr says, “making headway on connecting [certain] occupations to different types of personality traits.”

Kerr published those results in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last month.

WBUR spoke with Kerr about his research, and what he learned about the people who start startups.

What did you learn about entrepreneurs, and how are they different from everyone else?

The most powerful findings connect to what’s been long suspected but really hard to nail down: the attitudes that entrepreneurs have towards risk. One of the basic beliefs is that entrepreneurs have to be more willing to face uncertainty and put a little bit more on the line than wage workers. So, we asked them if they wanted to collect a five dollar Amazon gift card or enter a lottery for a $2,000 prize.

About 55% of baseline employees entered the lottery, and more than 70% of entrepreneurs entered the lottery. In general terms, entrepreneurs were 20% to 40% more likely to self-report higher risk tolerance or engage in these small gambles relative to company employees.

Entrepreneurs were quite different from other people in another measure: They felt they controlled the outcomes in their lives and felt more capable of delivering certain outcomes to a higher degree.

But when it comes to baseline personality traits like how open you are or how conscientious you are, entrepreneurs interestingly did not have substantial differences.

What does that mean about these people? Entrepreneurs are basically the same as everyone else except they are more confident about their abilities and more willing to swallow risk?

You could say that. It could even go into overconfidence. Just because you have a greater sense of control, that isn’t always a good thing. In some cases, market forces or the weather do, in fact, shape outcomes more than people want to believe they did.

It does suggest that the people that have these beliefs, correctly founded or not, are more willing to strike out on their own, create a business to follow their dreams, and believe they can beat their competitors in whatever market area they’re entering.

I’ve worked with many entrepreneurs coming out of Harvard Business School, and I’ve seen they’re willing to tolerate risk. But they also do everything in their power to reduce risk as quickly as they can. They don’t like risk. They’re not gamblers, but they’re able to operate in an uncertain environment.

I don’t believe there’s a single entrepreneurial type, though. Entrepreneurs begin their businesses for a variety of reasons. You have some that started their business after their kids left home, and you have dropouts from MIT.

Was there anything in the study that showed entrepreneurs were very different from other kinds of company leaders?

One thing we saw in the survey data was that entrepreneurs are still higher than the full-time, long-term CEO of an organization in terms of risk tolerance or belief in oneself.

We often think about Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates or Steve Jobs and people who guided their companies through various growth states as examples of entrepreneurs. But that’s actually the exception rather than the rule. Usually the CEO leader of a company is different from the founder.

So, maybe some people are better at stepping in once a business is already created and being able to run that well, grow it, make it more efficient. Others might be better at sparking up new ideas and testing things out.

What does this mean for people who are not yet entrepreneurs but weighing the decision to start a company? Will having these traits make you more likely to succeed?

Yeah, we can’t say something that’s performance related. Is it the ability to tolerate risk or the kind of belief in oneself something that leads people to make poor choices? Or is it something that’s correlated with positive outcomes? I wish I could answer those questions because they’re all, of course, interesting and important to the choices people are making to become entrepreneurs.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Nimit Sawhney is the co-founder and CEO of Boston-based startup Voatz. (Interview led by Zeninjor Enwemeka of the WBUR)

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world

How Mauritius is Fast Becoming a Big Business Player in Africa

September 11, 2019

Mention Mauritius and most South Africans will think of its pristine beaches and luxury resorts, but this small country is becoming a big business player not only in Africa but on a global scale.

Mauritius may just be an island — its annual tourist influx of 1.4 million outnumbers its own population of around 1.3 million — but this hasn’t stopped it, over the past three decades, from growing into a giant on the business front.

Many ‘Firsts’

As far as the continent goes, it’s already racked up a number of African “firsts” in terms of international business achievements. These include Economic Freedom of the World (2017, Fraser Institute), Forbes Survey of Best Countries for Business (2017) and the Global Competitiveness Index (2017–2018).

It also secured first place in Africa and 25th position overall out of 190 countries on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Report, receiving recognition in terms of its political, social and economic stability, efficient and effective regulatory framework, state-of-the-art infrastructure, transparent and innovative legal framework and its highly competitive tax system.

With a government focused on promoting foreign and domestic investment, it has enabled free repatriation of profits, no withholding tax on dividends, interest and royalties, no capital gains tax, and no estate duty, inheritance tax or gift tax. Plus it has 44 tax treaties with countries across the globe and another 32 in various stages of negotiation and ratification.

Together with its low tax rates, its fiscal regime has seen it being listed in 2017 on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) “white list” in terms of transparency and being a fully compliant tax jurisdiction in terms of best practice international standards. It was, indeed, one of only three such top-rated jurisdictions in the world.

It is welcoming foreigners with open arms and — as a country in Africa — it’s certainly giving South Africa a run for its money.

Read also: Inside Mauritius Where A Majority of South Africans Are Migrating To And Their Reasons

A Financial Hub

Along with 4% growth in its economy, its reputation is also growing for being the best financial hub and base for businesses coming to Africa.

Investors from places such as France, India, and the UK — not to mention South Africa itself — are all seeing it as a safe place to set up shop. It’s why we, as The Business Exchange (TBE) with our own home base in South Africa, have set up our latest coworking space here, to meet the growing demand for office space on the island. It’s a destination we believe is out-investing South Africa

A Business Safe Haven

A safe investment climate, efficient financial infrastructure and political stability are always going to be highly conducive towards attracting and conducting business. Little over an hour longer in flying time than the time it takes to travel between Cape Town and Johannesburg, the third smallest country in Africa is, therefore, becoming an attractive destination in which to live, work, play and stay… quite possibly forever.

Its private and government institutions are strong. Good schooling (in English with French as a second language), state-of-the-art healthcare facilities, and a low crime rate are starting to see a number of South Africans turning their heads north in its direction — families as well as companies.

As a property ownership destination, it’s already been proving its worth for a number of years now, initially for holiday and second homes but, today, increasingly for residency, relocation and retirement. A huge attraction for investors and in particular those looking to attain passive rental income, has been its property development schemes for foreign non-citizen investment. An investment of $500 000 or more in a PDS will also grant an investor permanent residence status.

And, as we ourselves have found as The Business Exchange, there’s a great deal that’s attractive to invest in from a business perspective as well. Not only is there an ideal opportunity for us to service the rapidly growing need for professional office space on the island, but we’ve also decided to use the country as the perfect base from which to launch our own growth into the rest of Africa. Legislation around setting up companies and ownership structures in Mauritius are quite straightforward and relatively simple to administer with the right partners and advisors onboard.

It may well have been a place of beaches to start with, a few decades ago — and, believe me, those pristine sands are still just as beautiful — but it’s business opportunities are now among its biggest attractions. And as South Africa continues to reflect uncertainty, I’ve no doubt that Mauritius’s positive offerings will continue to grow even brighter.

David Seinker is the CEO of The Business Place, an office and co-working space with a number of locations throughout Johannesburg — and now in Mauritius.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world

South Africa is one of the worst places to be a woman

September 9, 2019

The rape and murder of a young South African undergraduate of University of Cape Town, Uyinene Mrwetyana in a Post Office in Cape Town has brought to the fore the ugly trend which South Africa has become very notorious for; rising rates of domestic and sexual violence targeted against women. This development led the country’s president Cyril Ramaphosa to declare that there is truly a crisis of violence against women in the country. Uyinene’s death sparked off dozens of protests and calls by women for the country to bring back the death penalty as way to curtail the rising trend of femicide in the country. StatsSA, the country’s official statistics agency defines femicide as: “The intentional killing of females (women or girls) because they are females.”

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 12.1 in every 100 000 women are victims of femicide in SA each year – a figure which is over 100 times worse than Italy in their newly-announced “state of crisis”, and five times worse than the global average of 2.6. However, the actual murder rate of women is even higher. Not every case can be defined under the blanket term of “femicide”. So by ingraining other factors provided by the South African Police Service, the overall picture shows that there are 15.2 female victims in every 100 000. By those calculations, a woman is murdered every three hours in South Africa.

While South Africa is not alone in countries with very high femicide rates, the development is quite troubling say officials who have been monitoring the trend over time. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there are about three countries with higher femicide rates than South Africa. Honduras, by a wide margin is regarded as the worst place to be a woman, with a femicide rate of 32.7 – more than double that of its nearest competitor, Jamaica which stands at 15.5. While another southern African nation, Lesotho completes the top three with a femicide rate of 15.4 murdered women out of every 100 000 citizens. South Africa stands at fourth while Guinea-Bissau completes the top five with 11.1.

Observers say that the need for South Africans to take drastic actions against this trend became necessary when one factors in the fact that South Africa’s femicide rates are five times the global average. This becomes even more imperative when figures of related crimes start rolling in, showing that the need for self introspection by all strata of the South African society cannot be postponed. The numbers, experts say is nothing to be proud of pointing that the Police recorded about 177,620 reported crimes against women in the month of March 2019 alone while about 60,000 rapes takes place each year. However some dispute the official figures because of the stigma attached to rape saying that the figure is at least 10 times that, meaning the real figure may be around 600,000.

On the rising femicide rate for example, every three hours, a woman is murdered and every six hours, a husband or boyfriend kills a woman. In 2018, femicide rates increased by 117 per cent while the age-standardised interpersonal violence death rate for females was 4.8 times the global average rate of 2.6 leading the World Health Organisation (WHO) to rank South Africa as having the fourth highest female interpersonal violence death rate out of the 183 countries listed .

Children are not spared by this madness, says an official of the World Health Organisation who craved anonymity. Every three minutes a child is raped, making the country one of the highest incidences of child and infant rape in the world with one notable report citing 400 per cent increase in sexual violence against children and that it may still be on the rise. One out of every four women in the country had been raped, and a woman raped over the age of 25 in South Africa has a one in four chance that her attacker is HIV positive and more women than men are affected from HIV/AIDS.

Children are the victims of 41 per cent of all rapes reported in the country and of the 124,526 total rape cases reported in a particular three year period; children were the victims of a sickening 40 per cent of these cases. Between 2014 and 2015, there were 15,520 child rapes reported. Between 2015 and 2016, there were 16,389 child rapes reported and between 2016 and 2017, it rose even further: 19,071 child rapes reported. Infant rapes are common in South Africa—so bad that the babies and toddlers had to undergo extensive reconstructive surgery to rebuild urinary, genital, abdominal, or tracheal systems.

This is why President Cyril Ramaphosa is under enormous pressure to deliver serious changes that can protect the women of South Africa, many of whom no longer feel safe in our fractured society.

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.

Some African Countries Turn to Medical Marijuana to Earn Forex

September 7, 2019

As sources of foreign exchange and official development assistance (ODA’s) dry up, many African countries are becoming innovative in exploring other avenues of keeping afloat. And they are turning to medical marijuana as the global market for the crop is now estimated at $150bn and could reach $272bn in 2028 and one of such countries the Kingdom of Lesotho where cannabis is grown legally by the Lesotho-based company Medigrow and is regulated by the government of Lesotho.

A marijuana farm

Lesotho is one of Africa’s poorest countries ranking 159 out of 189 in the latest UN human development index. High unemployment has been rife while opportunities are scant and almost a quarter of the population is infected with HIV. This presents a very hopeless scenario thus the need to search for opportunities outside the traditional avenues of economic activities.

Government sources say that as at two years ago, the country took the step of exploring the business end of marijuana so as to tap into the booming medical marijuana industry, becoming the first country in Africa to allow the cultivation of cannabis for medicinal purposes. However, there was a stumbling block to Lesotho’s plan. This is because to meet legal standards, most traces of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) — the main psychoactive constituent responsible for marijuana’s intoxicating effects — is removed from the seeds. The remaining medical version is primarily made of the non-psychoactive substance, cannabidiol (CBD), and can only be 0.03% THC, thus starting a journey towards turning Marijuana into a money minting machine for the Kingdom of Lesotho.

To meet expected international standards for export, the company, Medigrow invested $19.3m in cannabis-growing facilities around the capital, Maseru. A heliport is also being built to ensure the cannabis — commonly referred to as “green gold” — is shipped safely and swiftly. The investment is spurred by the industry’s positive outlook. Sources at the company say that at the moment they have almost 2,000kg of biomass and are going to produce more than 1,000 litres of CBD oil and from market outlook cannabis oil is sold at between $6,000 and $21,000 per litre. The legalisation of cannabis presented a huge opportunity for the country which enjoys 300 days of sunshine per year. Year-long sunshine and fertile soils make Lesotho ideal for cannabis plants. Known as “matekoane” in Sesotho, the country’s national language, it has been grown for centuries in rural areas.

There are about have about 10 businesses operating on the industry already and the government has raised the cost of the license to a level many small holder farmers complain is out of reach. The government charges €30,000 for a one-year renewable license to grow cannabis. But the cost is too steep for most locals, and the market is dominated by foreign companies, mainly from Canada and the US. Inspite of the revenues from Marijuana, the dark side is becoming equally worrisome to authorities. The UN office on drugs and crime estimates that 70% of marijuana consumed in South Africa is grown in Lesotho, making cannabis the country’s third source of revenue.

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.

From Hangzhou to Rwanda: how Jack Ma brought Chinese e-commerce to Africa

September 6, 2019

When Alibaba’s founder, Jack Ma, first visited Africa a couple of years ago, he discovered many similarities between Africa now and China when he founded Alibaba. Inspired by the passion and energy of the continent’s young entrepreneurs, he saw an opportunity to share in Africa what Alibaba had learned in building the world’s largest retail economy in China. In his mind, what may have seemed like a disadvantage — youth unemployment, lack of infrastructure etc. — were actually significant opportunities in the digital era: Africa could leapfrog, instead of battle, entrenched outdated systems, power structures and models.

Jack founded Alibaba back in 1999 after discovering the internet and realizing the potential it had to connect all the small businesses in his region of Zhejiang province, to customers around the world. Early on, he understood the power of technology to level the playing field to allow more people to start, run and grow businesses. Twenty years later, Alibaba has evolved into an ecosystem through which it created over 40 million job opportunities in 2018 directly and indirectly; there are 10 million SMEs and start-ups on Taobao alone, Alibaba’s C2C e-commerce platform, and about half of online entrepreneurs are women. In 2018, e-commerce revenue in rural areas of China enabled by Alibaba has exceeded 700 billion RMB (approximately $97.6 billion), which led to over 6.83 million new job opportunities.

This is all possible in Africa as all the ingredients exist for the same possibilities to happen. Africa stands at an unprecedented moment in history where it has the opportunity to leverage its critical mass of youth to leapfrog legacy systems in exchange for inclusive growth into a new digital economy.

What is necessary for Africa to take advantage of the digital era?

This task is not something a single sector in society can solve, but rather it requires the alignment, cooperation and participation of all sectors: namely, government leaders, entrepreneurs and educational institutions. In addition, Africa must develop new models of development by learning from what has worked in other emerging markets. Traditional development philosophies no longer apply in the digital era with all the opportunities it holds for inclusive growth.

A shared vision and belief in the positive impact of technology across governments, private sector and educational systems is necessary. Yes, there are risks. And yes, there are fears and unintended consequences to technology. But the biggest risk is to miss out on the opportunity altogether. All sectors must work together to encourage innovation and entrepreneurism.

In addition, each sector must play their part in enabling this transformation. For example, government should create policies and regulations that encourage innovation and investment in the digital economy; entrepreneurs should be left to actually build and operate the platforms that will make digital tools cost-effective and accessible for small businesses to adopt; and educational institutions should be training youth to acquire the relevant skills and perspectives for the new economy.

A new empowerment model for Africa

Leveraging 20 years of collective Alibaba Group knowledge and resources, at Alibaba Business School we have developed a new empowerment model to help governments, entrepreneurs, youth and women to reap the benefits of the digital economy.

The new empowerment model aims to promote greater understanding of and alignment around the digital economy and what is needed to encourage digital transformation across the public and private sectors.

For this model to work, dedicated training is needed, using targeted curriculum for governments, ecosystem builders (entrepreneurs, SMEs) and students. A wide range of partnerships with venture capitalists and incubators, multilateral organizations, government agencies, universities, industry associations are necessary to create a true ecosystem that can support the development of a digital economy. And through these initiatives, we help align and connect different sectors so that they can work together towards a common goal guided by a shared vision.

Here’s how we are applying the model at a country level in Rwanda:

• Government officials have tremendous power to foster a policy and regulatory environment that enables entrepreneurism to thrive. We held a New Economy Workshop for Rwandan high-ranking government officials to discuss obstacles to the development of a digital ecosystem, and policy actions that can enable and facilitate private sector development. As a result, the Rwandan Utility and Regulation Association made further investments in fibre infrastructure across the country, estimated to be 3,400km now. The Rwanda Development Board (RDB), which spearheads the digital transformation in Rwanda, is also working with the National Post Office to improve the local postal service, which is key to the logistics of e-commerce.

• Rwandan entrepreneurs and SMEs are the digital infrastructure builders and key players of the digital ecosystem. We established the eFounders Fellowship, in partnership with UNCTAD, to cultivate young digital entrepreneurs and the Netpreneur programme, in partnership with RDB, to train SMEs who aspire to digitize their businesses.

To date, 40 Rwandan entrepreneurs have received Alibaba training. For example:

1. Rwanda eFounder fellow Clarisse Iribagiza is CEO of DMM.HeHe, a leading tech company that serves more than 1 million users across the African continent through its various tech solutions. As a result of the Alibaba programs, the company partnered with three Netpreneurs and helped put them online and provided digital solutions.

2. Seven SMEs set up an agriculture and tourism company focusing on bringing Alibaba’s rural development model to Rwanda. They are choosing villages with signature agriculture products and internet service as trial locations and working with RDB to develop these projects.

3. Rwandan coffee-makers (many of whom have graduated from Netpreneurs training) have successfully connected their businesses to China’s 700+ million consumers through Tmall Global, our cross-border B2C platform and increased sales of high-quality Rwandan coffee to China by 700%.

• Rwandan students are the talent source that will power the digital economy forward. To prepare them with the relevant tools, we provided skills training on e-commerce to a local Rwandan faculty to support the creation of a new digital economy curriculum. In addition, 22 students from Rwanda will soon start a new four-year undergraduate course on cross-border e-commerce in September 2019 at the Alibaba Business School in Hangzhou, China.

• Cross-sector synergy and public-private collaborations have been cultivated through the respective programs and will continue to drive actions towards the goal of an inclusive digital economy. The RDB, for example, holds frequent meet-ups among entrepreneurs and government in sharing and discussing policy for building digital economy. Moreover, entrepreneurs can advise policy-makers on how the two should work more closely together.

Of course, no one country is the same. But a common success factor is an entrepreneurial mindset that enables resilience, flexibility and innovation. These traits can be nurtured through training, supportive policies, education and community building.

This article is brought to you thanks to the collaboration of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum.

Author: Brian A Wong, Vice President, Global Initiatives, Alibaba Group & Roger Yong Zhang, Senior Lead, International Corporate Affairs, Alibaba Group

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.

Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/Afrikanheroes/

Trouble Looms for Football Betting Business in Afric

September 5, 2019

There are palpable fears that operators of sports betting firms across Africa may be in for a shock if the developments in East Africa—Kenya and Uganda in particular is allowed to spread to other parts of the continent. Analysts say that the fast growing African sports betting business may face the sledge hammer which will most likely cut short the gaming market spreading in mostly South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

This is against the backdrop of the recent order from the President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni who directed the State Minister for Finance David Bahati to stop licensing sports betting, gaming and gambling companies in the country. As if this was not bad enough, the directive equally hold that for those already registered, there would be no renewal of licenses when they expire, signifying a stoppage for the industry which many see as an escape for many young unemployed people. The President according to source with knowledge of the issue took the decision to divert the attention of the youth away from sports betting and its harmful social impact. Moreso, the President is said to be uncomfortable with a situation where foreign-owned companies repatriating profits rather than re-investing them in Uganda. But critics say that instead of an outright ban, a review of the tax system to curtail repatriation of profits should have been considered. This is against the backdrop of the large number of young people whose daily activities revolve round sports betting.

President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni

In a similar vein, Kenya followed the Ugandan example but while not an outright ban, the country gaming authority, the Kenyan Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB) tried to follow some of the lined towed by European countries by focusing on the widespread levels of advertising. According to the BCL, “outdoor advertising of gambling, advertising of gambling on all social media platforms, advertising gambling between 6am and 10pm, [and] endorsement of gambling operations by celebrities” would be banned. Even at that, this development led to an outcry in the country leading to a suspension of the ban as the legislators are currently considering policy amendments which would overhaul current state gambling laws by imposing significantly higher costs on licensed operators. Advertising of gambling seem to be one of the highest paying across Africa especially for radio and television, and the time space in question is regarded as prime by advertisers.

With these developments there are fears across the continent that politicians and government officials may start tinkering with ways of either squeezing more money from these firms, or an outright ban altogether, a move analysts believe may be popular with conservative religious groups that view gambling as unwholesome. And politicians forever playing to the gallery for political gains would easily latch onto such openings to gain favour and acceptance.

These conditions, intertwined with a youthful and growing middle class that has a ferocious passion for sports, has made the 2nd most populous continent on the globe an attractive opportunity for gaming operators looking to expand beyond existing mainstream and, often, saturated markets. However, after consistent year on year growth in a number of markets in the sub-Saharan region, the problems affecting their European counterparts have emerged in the promising market.

However, the moves from two of the significant sub-Saharan markets have led to many in the industry questioning both the severity and, more importantly, the effectiveness of the rulings. With regulated gaming prohibited, there is a high risk that white markets will be replaced by grey and black jurisdictions, threatening even greater risks to the punter.

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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: https://web.facebook.com/Afrikanheroes/

South Africa And Nigeria Top Africa’s Startup Fundraising Chart In Eight Months

Just in the last 8 months, January to August 2019, African startups have succeeded in raising close to $225 million in funding. While South Africa had a 33.3 per cent share of the fundraising deals, Nigeria’s startup fundraising deals represented 24% of all startup fund raising in Africa this year so far.

Here Is How It Happened

According to the data curated by Maxime Bayen, GSMA Ecosystem Accelerator’s Insights Director, a total of 44 start-ups from nine African countries were analysed.
Out of the 44, 10 Nigerian startups made the list. At a time when a majority of African startups i are struggling to remain afloat due to financial constraints, this statistics on African startups funding is significant in many ways.
South Africa had a 33.3 per cent share of the fundraising deals. The South African ecosystem raised about $97.3million.
The list was mainly dominated by startups from South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya. While South Africa saw a record number of 15 startups on the list, 10 startups were from Nigeria while 8 were from Kenya. Uganda got three, Ghana and Egypt got two, while Mauritius, Zimbabwe and Zambia one each.
Percentage African startup fundraising by sector Jan-August 2019

A Look At The Nigerian Startups That Secured The Funding

From Nigeria, Andela led the start-ups, followed by TeamApt, OneFi, Farmcrowdy, Kudi, mDaas, Gokada, Arnergy, Max, Opay, 54gene, Kobo360, TechAdvance.
These were in the education, fintech, agriculture, healthcare and the logistics and travels sector.
Out of the top five in Africa, Andela, which led others, raised $100million, follow by OPay, which raised $50 million, and Kobo360 raised $30 million.

Read Also: How International Organisations Are Helping Startups In Africa

Gender Diversity

Eight of the African startups were founded or managed by women including Angela (Nigeria), PayItUp, InstaDeep (Tunisia), BitPesa (Kenya), SweepSouth (South Africa), Neopenda (Uganda), Framcrowdy (Nigeria) and MdaaS Global (Nigeria).

Performance By Sectors

Dominating the list are fintechs. The increase in investment in fintechs is a reflection of the growing financial services industry and the need to deepen inclusion.
They accounted for 34 per cent at $156.4million, followed by the logistics and transport that took 13 per cent at $94.9 million, then energy for 11.1 per cent at $72 million; healthtech 11.1 per cent at $24.5 million; jobs ($4 million), and agritech ($8 million) at 5.6 per cent both, among others.
Percentage African startup fundraising by sector Jan-August 2019

The Indispensability of Technology Startups Towards Driving SDGs

Meanwhile, the Global System for Mobile telecommunications Association (GSMA) has said that technology startups will play crucial role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It stressed that low-tech mobile tools will meet this need and beyond. Several mobile innovations reaching scale today in Africa and Asia Pacific that are driving impact on the lives of low-income mobile users are driven by low-tech, offline solutions. Even in the age of smartphones, low-tech solutions are indispensable to addressing the SDGs.

Mobile operators play an important role in granting start-ups and third parties access to lowtech mobile channels, such as APIs and USSD, for deploying life-enhancing services with a direct impact on the SDGs.
For example, in November 2018, SMS-based weather forecasting service, Iska, launched in Nigeria with 9mobile, while MTN Uganda launched its mobile money API, enabling developer access to MTN Mobile Money’s proprietary software platform.
Meanwhile, Orange runs the platform #303# My Store that enables developers to plug into a standardised USSD API. #303# My Store is active in Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon and DRC, with around 50 third-party services accessible on the platform.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.

Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/Afrikanheroes/

South African Government Officials Accused of Fueling Xenophobia

September 3, 2019

The recurring xenophobic attacks against foreign nationals in South Africa has come under scrutiny as analysts across the continent points accusing fingers at the ANC government in South Africa whom they say employ bigoted rhetoric against foreign nationals in the country which has turned their citizens against fellow African nationals. It could be recalled that the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) had on several occasion blamed the ANC government officials of using similar rhetoric to shield their incompetence at addressing the socioeconomic challenges facing the country.

Government officials have continued to blame foreigners for the country’s rising crimes rate but has failed to look at its failure to curb rising unemployment, create jobs, and address other socioeconomic issues. According to South Africa’s population statistics show the migrants make up less than 3 per cent of the population at just 2.82 per cent of the country’s 58-million people.

Late last year, Mr. Bongani Michael Mkongi the current Deputy Minister of Police in South Africa, in a press briefing questioned the rationale behind the growing population of foreign nationals in the Hillbrow area of Johannesburg. He said that it is against the interest of South Africa to have about 80 per cent of foreigners dominate a certain area of the city and also control businesses in the area. Answering questions from journalists, Mr. Mkongi said that “a situation where foreigners own businesses and even control the businesses in the Hillbrow area of the city is a form of economic sabotage on South Africa, thus such should be resisted”, he warned.

The recent attacks targeted at foreign nationals and their businesses mostly Nigerians have come under condemnation as videos of the attacks trend across the continent. Also there are news reports from South Africa that trucks are being attacked by different gangs of South African nationals. As at the time of going to press, over seven trucks have been attacked in the last 48 hours using petrol bombs, attacks directly presumably against Zimbabweans.

In all these attacks which has become a recurring incident almost every year over the last decade, and in each occasion, the South African authorities seem to stand by and watching while the attackers have a field day against migrants and foreign nationals, and their businesses.

In this latest attacks, crowds of South Africans descended on businesses and spaza shops owned by migrants and foreign nationals, looting and helping themselves to the goods on the shelves and calmly walking away with the stolen goods while Policemen watch without intervening. A situation one diplomat in Pretoria described as the looters “acting with the knowledge that there will be no consequences for their actions, because the police don’t take any action”.

The government of South Africa according to analysts has failed to curtail growing unemployment which is presently sits at 29 per cent in the first quarter of 2019, according to StatsSA. This affects youth largely and the alleged looting was mostly carried out by youths. With politicians and public officials hiding under claims that foreigners are taking jobs away from nationals to exacerbate xenophobic attacks, South Africa is setting itself up for an implosion which may not bode well for the interest of the country.

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.

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This Is How The Egyptian Government Is Supporting Egypt ’s Startup Ecosystem

For almost 10 years, Egypt has made a dramatic leap in a number of fast-expanding startups and an amazing set of supporting institutions and communities.

In 2018, Egypt was ranked the fastest growing startup ecosystem in the Middle East and North Africa and the second largest after UAE, according to a report by start-up platform MAGNiTT.

During these years, Egypt’s flourishing entrepreneurship scene has been receiving support from governmental entities and private institutions which aid entrepreneurs to reach their maximum potential by offering fund opportunities and mentorship.

Having known about these governmental and private institutions that provide help and support to startups, Egyptian young people were encouraged to start their own projects, especially in light of the lack of employment opportunities and law wages.

Egypt’s population of more than 100 million citizens also makes its market one of the most lucrative, attracting the attention of not just startups from the wider region, but also investors.

“With a large youth population, low wage costs and numerous niche markets yet to be saturated, Egypt is an ideal place to offer young entrepreneurs a suitable environment to experiment and develop their ideas,” founder of Global Entrepreneurship Network’s (GEN), Jonathan Ortmans, said.

Moreover, it’s indicated that 82 percent of Egyptians perceive successful entrepreneurs as having high social status and almost 76 percent of Egyptians, mostly youth, perceive entrepreneurship as a good career choice.

Furthermore, 55.5 percent of the non-entrepreneurs surveyed expressed their interest in starting their own business, a percentage that is double the global average, according to a report published by The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM).

But without the support of the Egyptian government, many startups would have never seen the light. There has been an increasing engagement by the Investment Ministry, as well as other governmental institutions, since the inception of the government’s economic reform plan.

Egypt successfully established many incubators, providing a stepping stone for local entrepreneurs. Bedaya, TIEC — Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center, and Fekretak Sherketak are the top incubators founded by the government, offering funding for new innovative ideas.

Bedaya

Bedaya, a governmental incubator, was established by Egypt’s General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI) in 2009. This incubator can offer up to LE 150,000 (US$9,047) in funds as well as business development services, networking opportunities and manufacturing spaces.

Though Bedaya is a governmental incubator, it is led by the sector. According to their website, 60 percent of Bedaya’s fund is allocated to supporting startups from governorates outside of the capital, Cairo.

The incubation period at Bedaya is a minimum of three months. Bedaya offers funding for 3–5 years in return for equity. But, it also reveals different exit strategies that vary from business to business.

TIEC — Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center

Running throughout Upper Egypt and the Delta as well as in its headquarters in Cairo, TIEC is a government entity that specializes in incubating information and communication technology (ICT) startups as part of the governmental plan to develop Egypt’s ICT sector.

Since its establishment in 2010, TIEC offers fund of up to LE 120,000 (US$7,237) without a share or equity in the company. Its incubation period is 1 year.

Fekretak Sherketak

“Fekretak Sherketak” Initiative was launched in September 2017 by Egypt’s Ministry of Investment and International Cooperation to encourage startups and promote the entrepreneurial atmosphere in Egypt.

According to its website, this incubator is “designed to support and empower the next generation of Egyptian entrepreneurs and contribute to the development of the Egyptian startup ecosystem.”

Along with funding opportunities, the firm offers program mentorship, training and other necessary tools and resources for local entrepreneurs looking to grow and expand their businesses.

The program promotes the launch of the Egypt Entrepreneurship Program (EEP) in partnership with Hermes Financial Group and UNDP.

Emerging businesses have the opportunity to receive LE 500,000 ($30,157) as a fund from “Fekretak Sherketak” in return for 4–8 percent equity as well as a four-month training period.

Furthermore, the number of private venture capital (VC) firms, accelerators and incubators in Egypt has also been increasing, which indicates a growing interest in entrepreneurship in Egypt.

These firms include Gesr, Flat6labs, Injaz Egypt, and AUC Venture Labs; they succeeded in putting many brilliant ideas into motion. Egyptian entrepreneurs who like to start or even scale their business can head to any of these incubators or accelerators which offer mentorship, training, office space, and legal support to selected startups.

Due to Egypt’s evident interest in entrepreneurship, barely a week goes without an Egyptian startup announcing an investment round. Egypt opened doors for many young people to start thinking about ways to innovate, create and control their destinies , unleashing their entrepreneurial potential.

Jehad El-Sayed is an Egyptian journalist who has been writing about social, political and cultural issues in Egypt since 2017.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.

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What It Takes To Start Up A Business In Ghana

September 2, 2019

Starting a business in Ghana does not just begin with a business idea unless you plan to run the risk of running an unregistered business and losing out of the many advantages of a registered business.

First Choose The Sector You Want to Invest In

As of 2019, Ghana has an estimated population of 30.10 million, which ranks 48th in the world. More than 2.8 million Ghanaians, representing about 10 per cent of the population, are currently living in extreme poverty. That is, these 2.8 million people are living below the global poverty line of a $1.9 spending a day. Of its current population, the percentage of rural population in Ghana as of 2016 is 45.32 % 2016, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, meaning that about more that 12.8 million Ghanaians live in rural areas. Thus, the rest of over 17 million people live in towns or other places, with over two million people living in Accra and Kumasi and appreciable numbers living in Ashanti, Sekondi-Takoradi, Ashaiman, Sunyani, Brong-Ahafo, Tamale, Cape Coast, Obuasi and others. This statistics is very important in deciding where to locate your business to get appreciable returns on your investment. Major areas of investment in Ghana include Agriculture & Agro-Processing, Cotton & Textiles, Food Processing, Forestry, Health , Mineral Processing, Oil & Gas, Tourism, Utilities, among others. Agriculture accounts for about 42% of GDP and employs more than half of the workforce, mainly small landholders.

Proceed to Register Your Business

Registering your business in Ghana is easy if you are a local. Companies may be registered in Ghana, either as:

Limited Liability Companies (
Companies Limited By Guarantee
External Company (External Companiesare companies that are incorporated outside of Ghana with a registered place of business in Ghana. They are regulated by the laws of the country in which they were originally incorporated. For example, British company may incorporate its business in Britain but has its registered place of business in Ghana)
Partnership; or
Business Names ( Between 2015-2018, Ghana had 67% registered Sole Proprietorship, 24% registered Companies Limited by Shares, 8% registered Companies Limited by Guarantee, 0% registered Partnership, 0% registered External Companies)

Ghana uses Regulations of Companies in place of Memorandum of Association which contains the Object Clause and Articles of Association.

In Ghana, you must have a TIN to register your business.

(TIN is also required to do business with the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA); open a bank account; register your vehicle; get a passport; register land; clear goods from a port or airport; file a case at the court; get a drivers’ licence). Where it is a company that is sought to be registered, Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) registration must first be obtained for all company directors, secretary and shareholders.

When this has been done, then you go online here.

Registration of businesses and companies is primarily the functions of the Registrar General’s Department under Ghana’s Ministry of Justice and Attorney General.

The portal is also integrated with the Ghana Revenue Authority e-tax portal and both make use of the Tax Identification Number (TIN) to identify portal users. Little wonder Ghana is the ranked 114^th country out of 190 countries and the 14^th African country in the ease of doing business, according to the latest World Bank annual ratings, ahead of Egypt, Ivory Coast and Nigeria. At the end of the business registration, a Certificate of Incorporation and a Certificate to Commence Business are issued. Registration of businesses takes approximately 2 weeks in Ghana.

For foreign investors or businesses, they are required to complete Investor Registration Forms (Form GIPC/R1) in duplicate, after the registration with the Registrar General’s Department. Within five (5) days from the date of orderly receipt of these forms (and its attachments) the GIPC will formally register the investment.

Image result for Ghana country stats — Ghana GDP Annual Growth Rate

TAXATION OF BUSINESSES IN GHANA

Businesses in Ghana are taxed according to the sectors they belong to. Withholding Tax, Personal Income Tax and Company Income Tax and other sector taxes are applicable in Ghana. However, areas such as Capital investments ( for investment in capital projects like infrastructure, etc,), Free zone developers/enterprises, Construction of residential premise, receive 1% to 15% tax incentives.

Under the Ghana Investments Promotion Centre Act, 2013 (Act 865), there are incentives to encourage major investments in the country, especially in the agriculture; manufacturing industries who deal in export trade or use local raw materials or produce agricultural equipment, etc.; construction and building industries; mining; and tourism.

Incentives range from exemption from customs import duties on plant and machinery; reduced CIT rates; more favourable investment and capital allowances on plant and machinery; reduction in the actual CIT payable, where appropriate; retention of foreign exchange earnings, where necessary; guaranteed free transfer of dividends or net profits, foreign capital, loan servicing, and fees and charges in respect of technology transfer; and guarantees against expropriation by the government.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organizations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution, and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.