MTN leads the USSD change as *556# goes defunct
Following the review of USSD commands by the NCC, MTN Nigeria seems to have changed the USSD to check your airtime account balance, alongside providing updates for other commands. The old legendary MTN USSD – *556#, is no longer responding as usual. We’ll now show you the new code to check your account balance. When you dial the *556# command, you get a prompt that says your dial was wrong and that you should choose from a list of 7 items what command you intended. The image below shows the details of the prompt: Therefore, to check your airtime account balance through the prompt, you’ll need to enter the number 4. And as ofat today 17, May 2023, directly check your MTN airtime balance with USSD, you may have to dial the new USSD *310#. Other direct USSD to updates on MTN Currently, the commands listed 1-7 on the pop-up are the new direct USSD for those services listed beside them. However, their initial access codes are still working. Dial *312# for Data Plans Dial *311# for Airtime Recharge Dial *303# to borrow airtime. Dial *310# to check account Dial *323# for data balance Dial *321# to share data Dial *305# for VAS. Final thoughts All other networks will soon adopt the new uniform codes as instructed by the NCC and we’ll monitor that as well..
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TechCabal Daily – Ghana gets the bag
Lire en français Read this email in French. 18 MAY, 2023 IN PARTNERSHIP WITH Happy pre-Friday If you have an inactive Gmail account you want to keep, now might be the time to log back in and make use of the account. Google has updated its policies, and by December 2023, it will delete all Gmail accounts that have been inactive for more than two years. This includes all apps connected to Gmail—Google Docs, Sheets, Forms—as well as inactive Google Photos and YouTube accounts. In today’s edition Ghana secures $3 billion from IMF Egypt sells 9.5% stake in Telecom Egypt Zimbabwe’s gold mafia is cleared Tizeti and Microsoft partner in Côte d’Ivoire The World Wide Web3 Report: The State of Tech in Africa Opportunities GHANA SECURES $3 BILLION FROM THE IMF The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has granted Ghana a $3 billion bailout to aid its economic recovery from the debt crisis. This approval has boosted investor confidence, resulting in Ghana’s currency, the cedi, becoming the world’s top performer against the dollar. How well is the Cedi performing? As of yesterday, the currency reportedly traded 1.7% stronger at GH₵10.8625 per dollar in Accra, Ghana’s capital. Additionally, Ghana’s Eurobond maturing in 2032 experienced a boost, rising 0.5 cents to 40.2 cents on the dollar. Investors had been wagering on the approval of the bailout. What will this funding do? The approved funding will serve to replenish Ghana’s foreign-exchange reserves, which have seen a significant decline of nearly 50% since their peak in August 2021. Sounds exciting. The government is gearing up to receive a massive injection of cash, and we’re talking big numbers here. There will be an initial disbursement of a whopping $600 million. Another hefty $600 million is on its way in November, followed by equal instalments of $350 million every six months, pending those critical reviews by the IMF. That’s a whole lot of zeros, but there’s more! Ghana is also set on securing an additional $900 million in budget support from the World Bank over the course of a three-year period. There is still more: Ghana is rolling up its sleeves for some serious negotiations. It is currently in talks to restructure $13 billion of its debt. Notably, a bilateral creditors group co-chaired by China and France played a vital role in restructuring Ghana’s debt under the Common Framework, which ensures fair burden sharing. Ghana is leaving no stone unturned. With cash injections, budget support, and debt restructuring on the horizon, it looks like the country is Ghana make it out of Sapa land. MONIEPOINT RANKED 2ND FASTEST-GROWING AFRICAN COMPANY Moniepoint is Africa’s second-fastest growing company, as shown in FTs latest report. We also processed 1 billion transactions worth $43 billion in Q1 alone. Read all about it here. This is partner content. EGYPT SELLS 9.5% STAKE IN TELECOM EGYPT Egypt’s finance ministry on Sunday announced the sale of its 9.5% stake in Telecom Egypt, raising 3.75 billion Egyptian pounds ($121.6 million). Per reports from Bloomberg, filings submitted to the Egyptian Stock Exchange indicate that 162.2 million shares were sold at 23.11 Egyptian pounds ($0.75) each. Prior to this recent transaction, the government’s ownership in the Egyptian Stock Exchange-listed company stood at 80%, while the remaining 20% was publicly traded on the Egyptian Exchange. The government is also offering 0.5% of Telecom Egypt to employees to buy by May 25, which will bring the total asset sale to 10%. Overall, it will reduce the government’s stake to 70%. This move is part of the government’s privatisation programme, aimed at advancing its economic agenda. Egypt is desperate to raise revenue from privatising state-owned firms in order to meet a series of foreign debt obligations that will be due in a few months. The government announced the sale of its stakes in Telecom Egypt almost two months after it first said it planned to reduce the government’s ownership in the company. Egypt purging assets: The sale of 9.5% of Telecom Egypt marks the second transaction following prime minister Mostafa Madbouly’s commitment on April 29 to proceed with the planned divestment of government stakes in 32 companies. The objective is to raise $2 billion by the end of June. As part of a $3 billion, 46-month financial support package signed in December 2022, Egypt has committed to reducing its intervention in the economy and facilitating a more prominent role for private companies. This move aligns with the agreement made with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to promote economic liberalisation and greater participation of private entities. ZIMBABWEAN GOLD MAFIA CLEARED OF ACCUSATIONS Remember those alleged Zimbabwean gold mafia members who were accused of looting the country’s precious gold reserves? Well, hold onto your seats because they have just been cleared of all wrongdoings. Apparently, the investigations into their finances revealed no evidence of gold smuggling on their part, so their accounts have been unfrozen and they have been let go. Everyone is asking how no evidence was found despite the damning documentary by Al Jazeera. But the bigger question is, is now really the best time to unfreeze the accounts of individuals accused of exploiting their access to the gold reserves? Why are people asking that? Last month, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) introduced a gold-backed digital currency backed by the nation’s gold reserve. The digital legal tender is one of the several measures the government is taking to deal with the country’s currency, the Zimbabwean dollar, nosediving against the American dollar. Holders of the gold-backed token can exchange their money for the tokens in order to store value and shield themselves from the volatility of the exchange rate. The tokens, backed by 139.57 kilograms of gold, were on sale from May 8 to May 12. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) cautioned Zimbabwe that backing a digital currency with its gold reserve is very risky. However, the country announced that it has sold Z$14 billion worth of gold-backed digital tokens—worth around $39 million after receiving applications from 135 interested buyers.
Read MoreThe story behind M-KOPA’s $250 debt and equity raise
Digital financing firm M-KOPA recently raised $250 million. The general manager, Babajide Duroshola, has explained why debt was raised in the funding process. TechCabal earlier reported that M-KOPA closed a $75m drive back in February 2022. The digital financing firm has given reasons why it raised $250 million in debt and equity financing. The breakdown of its latest capital injection includes $55 million in equity and over $200 million in debt. Yesterday, May 16th, M-KOPA general manager, Babajide Duroshola, was on a Twitter space organised by Big Tech This Week. On the Space, he explained that debt helps one to get the required working capital to put to use as soon as possible “For the size of our business today, It is very difficult for us to be lending based off equity drawdowns. So debt was the preferable option because it allowed us to do bigger things,” Duroshola explained. He said it is better compared to equity which is nice but expensive because equity involves giving a part of your business to someone with the promise to take huge returns. The M-KOPA boss explained that debt is faster and helped the firm to scale. Experts at TLG Capital, who spoke at the TLG Future Africa Venture Debt Conference that was held virtually today, noted that only 13% of Africa venture capital is backed by debt. The infographic shared during its afternoon session showed low venture debt in the ecosystem as Venture Equity accounted for $4.5billion compared to $650million in debt funding in 2022. TechCabal, last month reported that debt funding has become a more attractive financing option for startups. Founding Partner, Future Africa, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, who was present at the conference acknowledges that the game of funding has changed.”The game has changed. But now capital has become so expensive that you have to ask yourself whether it is worth sacrificing to build the business you want to build,” he stated. With the success of its business model in Kenya, M-KOPA’s new funding is premised on boosting its smartphone financing offering, expanding into additional markets, and prioritising sustainability. Going further, Duroshola explained that in recouping some of the credit in smartphone financing, how they get individuals to pay is through the technology. He noted that if any customer defaults on payment, the smartphone has the capacity to lock itself. However, he noted that there is flexibility in payments and customers can walk away anytime. “The payment is flexible and they can pay on the day they can afford the device. You can use three days payment or seven days. Even if you miss a day’s payment, you can pay the next. Customers can walk away anytime. We do not force people to pay by all means,” he explained.
Read MoreGhana secures $3 billion IMF bailout for economic recovery
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has granted Ghana a $3 billion bailout to aid its economic recovery from the debt crisis. The anticipation of this approval has boosted investor confidence, resulting in Ghana’s currency, the Cedi, becoming the world’s top performer against the dollar. Ghana’s much-anticipated request for a $3 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been approved, per Bloomberg. This signals a positive outlook for the nation’s economy amidst its debt-induced crisis. Investors had been eagerly awaiting this news over the past six months, leading to a surge in confidence and making Ghana’s cedi the world’s top-performing currency against the US dollar. As of today, the currency reportedly traded 1.7% stronger at 10.8625 per dollar in Accra, Ghana’s capital. Additionally, Ghana’s Eurobond maturing in 2032 experienced a boost, rising 0.5 cents to 40.2 cents on the dollar. The approved funding will serve to replenish Ghana’s foreign-exchange reserves, which have seen a significant decline of nearly 50% since their peak in August 2021 due to the central bank’s efforts to defend the cedi. In order to secure this IMF program approval, Ghana had to make tough economic decisions, such as increasing taxes. Notably, a bilateral creditors group—co-chaired by China and France—played a vital role in restructuring Ghana’s debt under the G20’s Common Framework which reportedly influenced the approval greatly. Although the IMF has not officially announced its decision, Bloomberg reports that sources close to the matter have confirmed the approval following a meeting of the IMF’s executive board on Wednesday. According to Mohammed Amin Adam, the Minister of State for Finance, the government anticipates receiving an initial disbursement of $600 million this week, with another $600 million expected in November. The remaining amount will likely be disbursed in equal instalments of $350 million every six months, subject to IMF reviews. Furthermore, the government is currently engaged in talks for an additional $900 million in budget support from the World Bank over a three-year period. Simultaneously, negotiations are being planned with eurobond holders to restructure the $13 billion debt owed to private investors, indicating a comprehensive effort to stabilise Ghana’s financial situation.
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🚀Entering Tech #30: How ConTech Africa helps creators in tech
The tech community for creators in tech. 17 || May || 2023 View in Browser Brought to you by Issue #30 Communities: ConTech Africa Share this newsletter Greetings ET people In last week’s edition, we introduced the discussion on tech communities and what they can offer you, the aspiring or newbie techie. We also talked about the importance of support in setting off on this exciting and challenging new path. This week, we’re delving deeper into this topic with a closer look at one community in particular: ConTech Africa. If you’re like us, a creator with little to no coding skills, wondering how to make it in the big bad world of tech, this edition on ConTech may help you find your way. by Pamela Tetteh and Timi Odueso. Tech trivia Let’s try out a couple of riddles this week. And no, it’s not because we don’t have trivia. Why did the developer go broke? What’s a computer’s favourite snack? What is ConTech Africa? ConTech, a portmanteau of “Content” and “Tech”. The first community we’ll spotlight is a personal favourite of mine: ConTech Africa, and yes, it’s because I’m a member—start your own newsletter if my favouritism bothers you. For Daniel Orubo, one of the founders of ConTech Africa and Head of Content at PiggyVest, the idea for ConTech Africa started with the numerous LinkedIn DMs he got. People wanted to know how or if they could make careers in content creation, or how they could make more money from their craft. You have to understand: Daniel is one of the go-to people for content development on the continent. He worked at Zikoko long before the publication became the hottest thing since the Lagos sun; he was EIC at Parisian Gen-Z publication Konbini where he managed the creation of hundreds of articles and videos; and now, he leads the content strategy team at PiggyVest—a team he created—which produces comics, videos and articles that convert readers into users. If you have a question about content, Daniel has the answer. And it’s these answers that led to the creation of ConTech Africa, a community where African creators can connect, grow and discover where their talents fit in the tech landscape. With questions drawing his attention to the dearth of resources for creators in Africa’s tech ecosystem, Daniel—and Ope Adedeji who is Editorial Director at Big Cabal Media—founded ConTech Africa in November 2022. How ConTech works Non-techies—Designers, Content Writers, and Product Managers/Owners 1,000 Nil. Absolutely free Slack In last week’s edition of #EnteringTech, we explained the different offerings of tech communities and ConTech Africa’s is no different. A. Community: ConTech Africa is a Slack-based community that provides creators with different channels to connect with one another. There are stand-alone channels for people learning product development/management, as well as for designers and marketers. And while it has a small but effective team—including David Onugha whose Slack messages I’ve aired twice—manning the community, most of the conversations in these channels are championed by community members who share their questions, learnings and experiences. B: Scholarships: ConTech offers more than just the opportunity to connect with other creators. The community also offers its members opportunities to upskill themselves through scholarships. In May, it offered three community members scholarships to the Treford Marketing Bootcamp, and everyone else got a 20% discount. In April, two members got a scholarship for a UI Design Bootcamp, and a March partnership with CV Loft saw several members get full CV revamps! C: Opportunities: ConTech has a dedicated Slack channel which is updated daily with job openings across the continent and globally. As a member, I’ve also seen job postings by other members who are hiring for positions in their companies. D: ConTech Corner: In last week’s edition, I mentioned how ConTech hosted Daniel Abayomi, a product designer at Meta on a Twitter Space. Every month, ConTech hosts ConTech Corner, an hour-long monthly group mentoring session where experienced creators in tech chat about their careers and experiences. The upcoming edition of ConTech Corner, scheduled for this Friday, will have Victor Fatanmi, the co-founder of design consultancy firm Fourth Canvas. E: Contribute: Members of ConTech Africa get to do more than just learn—they also contribute to the growth of the creator-in-tech sector. For example, ConTech is presently working on a No-Code Salary Tool and Report which will help earners and employers in the tech ecosystem understand what the fair range for compensation is. Who’s in ConTech? ConTech recently admitted its 1,000th member, and it’s growing pretty fast. Here’s what some are saying about ConTech: The great thing is that ConTech is free to join and it’s accepting new members all year through. And I know this piece has been a little bit sales-y, but it’s critical to underscore how important communities are in building careers, especially in tech. So if you like what you see, and you’re a creator looking to get into tech, then ConTech is for you. Join ConTech Africa The Entering Tech Shorts Can you become a product designer using just Canva? Here’s what Cynthia Ugwudike, a product designer at Norebase, has to say! Watch the 1-minute YouTube Short here! Ask a techie Q. AI am an accountant and I love being one. What tech skill will go hand in hand with it? Also, I’d like a skill that does not have to do with building websites. Great question. We did some reading and it looks like data science may be the way to go for you. There are transferable skills from accounting that you can use in data science. The Qwasar blog says: “For the tech industry, you already have experience working with data from the accounting side, including analysing it and interpreting it through accounting software. Many accountants already have a foundational set of technical skills including Excel programming with Macros, pivot tables, etc. The skills used to create advanced spreadsheets with inner workings of functions and algorithms are technical in nature and would transition well into technical
Read MoreIzesan!: The language learning app for African languages
When Anthony Otaigbe set out to learn his traditional language of Esan, little did he know that he was going to start a language learning community for African languages. This is the story of Izesan!, an e-learning platform for African languages. In Africa—where cultural diversity thrives—languages form the heartbeat of each community. Yet, despite their rich historical significance, many indigenous African languages run the risk of extinction due, in part, to the lack of proper documentation. For Anthony Otaigbe, who was born and raised in the US, this barrier is familiar. “Learning my own language was very difficult because there were really no resources out there,” he told TechCabal. “I had to make Herculean efforts, just to learn what I felt I should have known since childhood.” Otaigbe had to go the extra mile to learn his indigenous language—Esan—a language spoken by the Esan tribe in southern Nigeria. “I reached out to my parents, uncles and aunts, asking them questions. I even went as far as calling my grandfather all the way in the village, just to try and talk to him and ask questions and learn more,” Otaigbe added. But not everyone is as determined to learn their language as Otaigbe was. “So I decided that, you know, not everybody has the fortitude and the resilience to go that far just to learn their language, especially when there’s no economic benefit,” he said. “So, I felt it might be easier for my contemporaries if an app was there to learn these languages.” This was the birth of Izesan!, the e-learning platform that teaches users how to speak different African languages. Izesan! started off with the Esan language and has grown to teach 15 different African languages including Yoruba, Swahili, Hausa, Igbo, Zulu, Fulfulde, Xhosa, Jamaican Creole, Kanuri, Tiv, and Nigerian Pidgin, amongst others. The app offers interactive lessons using flashcards and other exercises to teach users how to speak different African languages. One of the app’s standout features is its private 1-on-1 lessons, which allows students to schedule personalised learning sessions with professional tutors. Learning sessions are between 1 to 5-hour sessions and cost up to N9,000 per session. The app also contains a library with short stories in local languages to aid students’ learning. It also offers a community feature which allows users to chat and interact with other members of the Izesan! community. According to Otaigbe, CEO of Izesan!, the app has seen continuous growth since its launch in 2019, with over 20,000 downloads and over 8,000 registered users, with 10 organic users gained daily. Otaigbe believes that this number is a testament to the necessity of the language learning platform. However, there seems to be a twist in the user demographic. “My assumption was that the demand would be from the diaspora where I come from because we’re the ones that are more removed from our culture,” Otaigbe said. “But when I looked at the analytics from the app, I discovered that most users are in Nigeria.” A funding problem Izesan’s marketplace feature uses kọbọ, its eponymous in-game currency which allows users access more attempts on the learning modules and make in-app purchases, such as story translations. However, this feature does not seem to enhance students’ learning as they have to pay for English translations of the traditional languages they are learning. Otaigbe agrees that this might be a stumbling block, but believes that “it all depends on the learner’s willingness to commit to paying towards their learning journey.” Other features on the language learning platform that seems to be a mismatch include Dweki, a marketplace for African merchandise and an ad promotion feature. These features do not facilitate the learning process of students, which is the primary purpose of the language learning app. According to Otaigbe, these features were put in place solely for monetisation, as raising funds proved difficult. ”I’m 100% self-funded since 2019. I put about a quarter million US dollars into this, and I think at this point we’re at an inflexion point,” Otaigbe said. Otaigbe said he is not actively looking for funds but is willing to collaborate with investors who truly understand Izesan’s mission of preserving the authenticity of African languages. “The thing about the funding is that a lot of these foreign organisations aren’t really interested in preserving or revitalising Nigerian languages and that the ones that are don’t want you to profit off of it,” he said. “They’re not really trying to bolster our languages, so we have to figure out how to do it on our own.” According to him, Izesan! is currently exploring a partnership with the Nigerian government through its language policy to provide indigenous language lessons to primary and secondary school students. The app will be doing this through its new feature—Izesan! for Schools—which launches on 18 May. Izesan! currently makes money off the private 1-on-1 lessons where users are required to pay between N3500 and N9000 per session. Otaigbe says that the edtech startup is not prioritising the subscriber model right now because he feels the product is not “bulletproof” yet. According to him, the team is constantly working on feedback from the users to make the app better. Trailblazing with no templates Apart from funding, Izesan! also faces the Herculean task of forging a new path in teaching African languages without any templates. “Besides funding which has been our biggest challenge, I would say the fact that we’re really the only ones doing this, so there’s no model or roadmap to really follow,” Otaigbe said. “For example, we recently got a hold of the Nigerian Education Research and Development Council’s (NERDC) physical handbook for teaching Nigerian languages some weeks ago, and we discovered that some sections were not in the online version which we formerly had. So now we had to go back and reassess what we had already worked on.“ One language at a time Eventually, Izesan! aims to teach all Nigerian languages on its app, and the edtech startup
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WhatsApp unveils chat lock feature in 2023
With so much personal information being shared on WhatsApp, it’s important to keep your chats secure. Over time, people have resorted to using third-party apps and the archive option to hide private Whatsapp chats. While the former can be stressful, the latter also allows anyone who has access to your WhatsApp to easily get into your archives and open up your closet. However, with the latest Whatsapp updates, there’s now a chat lock feature that allows you to hide secret conversations and secure them with a password. Add an extra layer of privacy to your most personal @WhatsApp conversations with Chat LockSo even if someone else has your phone in their hand, locked chats are: Kept in a separate folderAccessible only with a password or biometricHidden in notifications… pic.twitter.com/Iuz8JW3tE1 — Meta Newsroom (@MetaNewsroom) May 15, 2023 With this new feature, locked chats will be completely private, not even popping up in your notifications tab. Here are the steps to activate the locked chats feature on your WhatsApp: Update your WhatsApp to the latest version to access the “locked chats” feature. Tap on the chat you want to lock. It could be a person or a group. In the options on the side, select chat lock. Use PIN or biometric to complete the lock process. To show these chats, simply gently slide down your inbox and enter your biometric or phone PIN. Final thoughts on new WhatsApp chat lock There are several reasons why you may want to hide your WhatsApp chats. Firstly, you may have personal or sensitive information that you want to keep private from others who may have access to your phone. Secondly, you may want to keep your conversations with certain individuals confidential. Lastly, hiding your chats can also prevent unnecessary interruptions and distractions from notifications, allowing you to focus on your work or personal time without any interruptions. Regardless, as you can see, the new Whatsapp chat lock is a simple and effective way to keep your personal information secure. By following the steps outlined above, you can ensure that only you have access to your private chats on WhatsApp regardless of who handles your phone.
Read MoreTizeti and Microsoft partner to bring broadband to Côte d’Ivoire
Tizeti, a Nigerian internet service provider, has partnered with Microsoft to bring its broadband solution to Cote d’Ivoire. The partnership, Tizeti’s second international partnership after partnering with Eutelsat to boost broadband penetration would make Cote d’Ivoire the third country that Tizeti is present in after Ghana and Nigeria. The company also has plans to expand to Togo. Tizeti says that the partnership would bring internet access to almost five million people by addressing the significant broadband gap in Côte d’Ivoire. The country’s internet penetration rate stood at 45.4%, with 12.94 million internet users in Côte d’Ivoire at the start of 2023. In Côte d’Ivoire, the average price of 1GB of data is $3.06, making it the 173rd most expensive country in the world and higher than the most expensive plans in Nigeria ($2.96) and Ghana ($1.23). For context, the highest price in Côte d’Ivoire is $15.31. According to Kendall Ananyi, the founder and CEO of Tizeti, the company uses solar-powered towers to help lower the price of data in Ghana and Nigeria by bringing 30% to 50% cost savings on data cap plans. ( Solar-powered towers can save costs on power generation) “We are thrilled to partner with Microsoft to bring reliable and affordable high-speed internet access to underserved communities in Côte d’Ivoire. Our mission at Tizeti is to bring affordable and reliable internet to more Africans outside the digital envelope, and this partnership is a significant step forward in achieving that goal,” Ananyi shared. Tizeti will leverage its low-cost wireless technologies to roll out high-speed internet infrastructure with Microsoft’s Airband Initiative. The initiative is focused on advancing digital equity—access to affordable internet, affordable devices, and digital skills—as a platform for empowerment and digital transformation across the world. Tizeti has been profitable in three of the last four years and, as of August 2022, had generated over ₦11 billion in revenue. “In the last 10 years of our operation, we have been able to generate ₦11 billion as revenue and this we achieved without any debt as of today. We have grown significantly within the last few years, being profitable in three out of the last four years and paid our first dividend this year. We currently have over 3884 hotspot locations and built one tower every month since we started, with 2.8 million users in Nigeria. Today, Tizeti delivers over 190 TBPS of data a day, which is about 20% of what Airtel, the second largest telco with coverage in 36 states, delivers,” Ananyi shared.
Read MoreUnprecedented growth awaits Africa’s fintech ecosystem. But at what cost?
A report by Boston Consulting Group and QED Investors has projected a fintech revenue compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32% until 2030 in Africa. But financial inclusion is still a problem on the continent. Despite its challenges, Africa’s fintech sector appears to be heading toward unprecedented growth. The sector is projected to hit a revenue compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32% until 2030, according to a new report [pdf] released by an American strategy firm, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Alexandria-based venture capital firm, QED Investors. South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, and Kenya—also known as the Big Four—are projected to be the key markets for this growth. Per the report—Global Fintech 2023: Reimagining the Future of Finance—the global fintech sector is expected to hit $1.5 trillion by 2030, growing sixfold from $245 billion. The sector currently holds a 2% share of the $12.5 trillion in global financial services revenue. However, it is estimated to grow up to 7%, of which fintechs are expected to constitute almost 25% of all banking valuations worldwide by 2030. In 2022, fintechs globally were hit by the dramatic slowdown in the venture capital landscape, losing more than half of their market value. To bring it home, investment in Africa’s fintech sector dropped by a whopping 40%. But the report says this plunge was merely a short-term correction in an otherwise long-term positive trajectory. “Fintech sits within financial services which is a massive, profitable industry, and the opportunity ahead of us to democratise access to these services on a global scale is tremendous. We expect to see continued growth not only in developed markets in the US and Europe, but also in developing fintech markets in LatAm, Asia, and Africa, where the inertia and friction are even greater,” said Nigel Morris, QED Investors managing partner and coauthor of the report. According to the report, Asia-Pacific (APAC) is poised to outpace the US and become the world’s top fintech market by 2030, with a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27%. Similarly, North America—which currently has the world’s largest financial services industry—will remain a critical fintech market and innovation hub, projected to grow fourfold to $520 billion in 2030, with the US accounting for a projected 32% of global fintech revenue growth (a CAGR of 17%). The UK and European Union—which represent the world’s third-largest financial institution market—are expected to witness major growth through 2030, estimated at more than fivefold over 2021. Similarly, Latin American markets, led by Brazil and Mexico, which have established fintech landscapes, are projected to show a revenue CAGR of 29% over the same time frame. Growth, but with a darker side Beyond the interesting projections, the overall financial services industry has its fair share of setbacks. According to the report, almost 80% of adults in the world are still either underbanked or unbanked. In Africa, cash is still king in most markets, with more than half of the population without bank accounts. This, of course, presents an opportunity for fintechs who want to “bank the unbanked”. According to a McKinsey report, Africa’s financial-services market could grow at about 10% per annum, reaching about $230 billion in revenues by 2025 But while fintechs have now become go-to platforms for payments and transaction banking globally including in Africa, they are yet to solve the global inclusion debacle. McKinsey lists four key challenges facing fintech startups in Africa on the road to sustainability: reaching scale and profitability, navigating an uncertain regulatory environment, managing scarcity, and building robust corporate governance foundations. Per the BCG and QED report, there is a pressing need for proactive regulation in the fintech sector, as overregulation can stifle innovation. “Regulators should consider levelling the playing field via such actions as enabling faster pathways for banking and payment institution licenses, supporting digital public infrastructure, and facilitating an open banking ecosystem,” the report said.
Read MoreOswald Guobadia believes Nigerian tech should engage government more
Oswald Osaretin Guobadia got into tech at a time when most people, in his words, were “self-taught” in the then-budding tech ecosystem. His undergraduate degree was in biology, and he was on his way to getting a master’s degree in the field when his plans changed. This happened in 1997: he took up a summer job as an Information Technology Project Analyst with wealth manager, Credit Suisse. At the company, he worked with the infrastructure team to set up the bank’s cabling infrastructure and integrate its internal technology systems with external IT systems. His interest now arrested by tech, Guobadia decided to earn his master’s in telecommunications and computer science. After almost a decade working in the US, including at Goldman Sachs, he returned to Nigeria in 2005, to join the United Bank of Africa as principal manager, enterprise networks. In this role, he standardised and improved the security of the bank’s networks. Today, Guobadia has moved from being the hands-on engineering guy who worked on the backend of technology infrastructure, to being a policymaker. In August 2020, he was appointed by Nigeria’s outgoing president, Muhammadu Buhari, as senior special assistant on digital transformation. In June of the following year, he led the design and drafting of the Nigeria Startup Bill, now passed into law last October. The law is designed to protect the interests of startups and the government in the advancement of technological innovations. In this episode of My Life in Tech, Guobadia discusses the thinking behind the Nigerian Startup Act, the state of infrastructure to support innovation, the need for e-governance, and lookaheads for the Nigerian tech ecosystem under the incoming Bola Ahmed Tinubu presidency. Tell me about your leading the clamour for the Nigeria Startup Act. What specific pain points were you operating from? I’ve been a project manager for a very long time. It’s one thing to be an engineer, it’s another to understand how to execute projects and programmes. I’ve been an entrepreneur in Nigeria for 16 years; I started my company in 2007. So I understand the difficulty involved in developing and executing ideas in Nigeria. Nigeria is VUCA+++ (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous). It’s very difficult to do business here. One of the reasons I came into government was because I was inquisitive as to what happens in government that makes doing business in Nigeria difficult. I wanted to learn. What the Startup Act does is create an enabling environment for young people to feel confident enough to work on hard problems. Otherwise, our startups will focus on the easy problems, the problems you can easily do a valuation for, for which you can easily see an exit or market. But there are problems for which we can’t easily see a market because you’re creating a new market. And we may not get to those innovations, because they are difficult to do; not because the ideas are not there but because the environment is difficult. What the Startup Act does is create an enabling environment that makes it easy to address these problems. Can you give me some examples of these problems for which we could be creating a new market? I know banking the unbanked is an issue, but there are harder problems that digital technology could probably address—healthtech, agritech (I mean, real agritech, not in the Ponzi scheme way). You look at problems like fuel shortage—what’s the solution for that? I heard of a group of girls somewhere that were creating a scheduling app for the delivery of water, like Uber for water. Even giving examples is difficult, because it’s just like everything else you hear about new ideas, like the iPhone; this is not how we thought phones should work, but then it was created and we go, oh, we always needed it! What steps is the government you’re a part of taking to implement the NSB across the federation? The implementation of the Act lies with the minister of communication and digital economy, specifically with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA). The law itself is self-implementing; it basically gives instructions as to what should happen. The minister of communication and digital economy has gone ahead and created an implementation committee that is currently working on different aspects of the act. We’ve started a programme where we are trying to get states to adopt the act. What’s this state adoption programme like? The real impact on startups of the NSA happens at the state level. So it’s critical that every state adopts the act. It is up to them how they want to adopt it because states should compete globally with other countries, not against each other. What is key is that states adopt the Act and put together policies and incentives that will attract young people to them. I’m from Edo state, but maybe an idea I have will work best in Zamfara and Sokoto, so I will move to Zamfara and Sokoto because the policies there are best suited for my business. It should be that Nigerians have the mobility to execute their ideas all over the country, not just in Lagos. We will definitely be going to every state and running programmes there. The ultimate idea is that when we are done with a state, there will be an ecosystem there. The next startup that impacts the world could start in a Nigerian village because you created the opportunity and environment for young people to develop ideas. Are you worried that the infrastructural deficit in Nigeria will impact the rate at which states are able to domesticate the NSA and build attractive tech ecosystems in their domains? No, because you have to start somewhere. If you Google Osun state and the Nigerian Startup Act, you’ll see what I’m trying to say: the government has waived right-of-way fees for cabling companies. If you start these programmes in every state, then the infrastructure problems will become something that makes sense to solve. Policy shows the posture
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