Bootstrapped hustle: how Selar grew a $4M+ creator platform with 21 employees
Ebuka first heard about Selar, a digital creator marketplace, when he was looking to sell his colouring book. Selar, which offers creators a wallet, assistance with delivery and charges a 4% commission for its troubles, was the platform Ebuka turned to. In the one year since he started using Selar, he has brought in ₦400,000 ($443) in revenue from his colouring books. Founded in 2016 by Douglas Kendyson, a member of Paystack’s founding team, Selar began because Kendyson saw that customers often reached out to Paystack during its early days looking to sell digital products like ebooks and online courses. Initially a passion project that took three weeks to build in 2016, Selar’s first customers were Kendyson’s friends. It took him four years of constant customer feedback and cold-calling creators in Instagram DMs to perfect the product while working at Flutterwave and startups in Dubai. Emmanuel, a part-time author, told TechCabal that he had sold his first e-book on the now-defunct Okada Books in 2019 when he first heard of Selar. Two years later, when he was looking to sell his second book, he chose to use Selar because he had heard good reviews, and the startup allowed customers to download books. He told TechCabal that he sold 100 copies of his book in the first month and has made “decent money” through Selar. Selar is a strong contender in Africa’s creator economy, which remains small compared to other continents. Globally, creator economy startups had a tough 2023. Funding fell by 58% and at least 8 startups shut down while 36 were acquired by competitors. Creating avenues for African creators Last year, the creators on Selar made more than ₦4 billion ($4.4 million)—twice what they made in 2022. With 150,000 of these creators selling courses, books, tickets, and anything else that can be sold online on its platform, the startup has helped African creators solve their biggest challenge: receiving payments. It partners with global payment providers like PayPal, Stripe, Paystack and MPesa. Selar also allows creators who don’t sell digital products to receive tips and donations from their followers through its Show Love product. The product allows content creators to receive tips and donations in over 11 currencies through a custom link. “That’s our bet for the year. We think financial support for creators will be a big thing,” Kendyson said. Kendyson told TechCabal that the startup, which is bootstrapped and has yet to receive any institutional funding, achieved this by operating with a lean team (Selar has 21 employees) and keeping costs low. “Not everybody at Selar has a custom email address. Only people who actually send emails. I know it’s a mini cost, but it also adds up because that’s a recurring monthly cost.” How Selar makes money Selar has three sources of revenue: a commission on each product sold, a subscription model for its software-as-a-service (SaaS) business and a foreign exchange spread. The startup charges a 4%-6% commission fee for African currencies and 7% for dollar transactions. For its SaaS business, the startup runs two paid plans that give creators customisable features; the Pro and Turbo plans, which charge ₦8,000 ($8.81) and ₦15,000 ($16.6), respectively. Creators can get extra features like integration with PayPal and Stripe, access to affiliates, and a custom domain. “Our pricing philosophy is trying to get as much as we can without bleeding our customers,” Kendyson said. The startup also makes money through a forex spread when it converts foreign currencies to the Nigerian naira. Kendyson told TechCabal that the startup “has never really checked” how many active monthly users it has or the average revenue per user because Selar does not have a data analytics team. Selar’s lean team is a necessity of being bootstrapped since its inception, Kendyson said. Although Selar focuses its marketing efforts in Nigeria, it has users in Ghana, Kenya and francophone African countries, Kendyson said. “A lot of the work we’re doing now is product stability and team efficiency. So hopefully, as we get better at these things, we can start expanding.” Besides creators, Selar also creates an avenue for marketers to earn money. The startup runs an affiliate program where marketers can earn a commission through a custom link for every digital product bought through their link. Last year, 8,000 products were sold through the program, and marketers made ₦187 million ($207,506). “There’s just still much more opportunity that we can take. It’s just finding the right people [and] finding the right creators,” Kendyson said. Exchange rate used: $1= ₦915
Read MoreExclusive: Ojoma Ochai, CcHub’s new MD, is eager to bring emerging tech to the mainstream
Often described by colleagues as fun and easy-going, Ojoma Ochai takes her work seriously. The creative and digital economy expert sits on the board of several companies and projects, including CcHub, the Expert Panel on Diversity and Cultural Expressions, and BTrust. She considers herself to be intensely curious, and it is this curiosity that has shaped her professional journey for the past two decades. Ochai has spent the past 20 years working between the creative industry and the tech sector in Africa and has created a space for herself at the intersection of these two fields. Now, her work revolves around providing support to tech startups that are building for the creative industry. Beginning as an arts and administrative assistant in 2006, Ochai rapidly moved up the ladder at the British Council, and in May 2010, she became director of arts in Nigeria and West Africa. By 2018, she was director of programmes in sub-Saharan Africa, where she started working on creative economy projects across the continent. According to Ochai, her background in tech made her particularly curious about how technology was impacting activities in the creative sector and social space. So she delved deeper into exploring that, one research paper at a time. This curiosity eventually brought her to the doorsteps of CcHub, where she is excited about making emerging tech mainstream, among other things. Ochai and two other Nigerians—Khalil Nur Khalil and Obi Nwosu— sit on the board of BTrust, a bitcoin non-profit set up by Twitter’s founder Jack Dorsey and rapper Jay-Z to support bitcoin development with a focus on Africa and Asia. She regards her work at BTrust as transformative, and the entry point into her journey into that space was curiosity. In 2017, while working at the British Council, she commissioned a study on how arts and culture practitioners were leveraging tech in their practice. Driven by curiosity, Ochai dove head-first into a research rabbit hole until she eventually landed on the most fascinating answer: bitcoin. “I was fascinated by the opportunity in blockchain and bitcoin,” she shared. Before then, she’d had minimal interaction with the digital currency, and although she’d bought some in 2013, she had no sense that it was going to be a big thing. “If you’ve been in the creative industries, you’ll know that there were a lot of issues around licensing, royalties, payments, and cross-border remittances, and I got fascinated by the opportunity in blockchain [and consequently bitcoin] to solve that,” she said. And so, when, in February 2021, Jack Dorsey put out a tweet looking for three board members for BTrust, she signed up. The entire process included four rounds of interviews and an essay, where she hesitantly shared her theories on how the creative economy could leverage Bitcoin to grow. This impressed Dorsey because, in November 2021, she was sent a Google Meet link for the final stage of the screening process. “I don’t think I knew it was the last stage,” she recalls. “I just got on a Google Meet, and there I am, on a call with Jack Dorsey. How is this my life?” That same year, Ochai left her job at the British Council to cofound the creative economy practice at CcHub. This pivotal decision came after she analyzed the creative industry and digital economy in about 94 countries, which made her realise that it was getting more difficult to distinguish between the creative industry and the digital economy, as their value chains were intertwined. Ochai already believes in the core purpose and direction the previous leadership at CcHub had established: providing support to founders building tech-based solutions for social impact. “There won’t be a dramatic shift in how the company runs,” she shared over a call on a Friday afternoon. “Much of my effort will go towards staying on track rather than charting an entirely new course.” She, however, shares that she will be building on the current foundation to expand further thematically and into more countries across the continent. Expanding thematically means that CcHub will be paying special attention to emerging tech like blockchain, artificial intelligence(AI) and intelligent automation (IA) with their main focus being how to mainstream it into the current work being done. “If these emerging technologies like AI, bitcoin or blockchain, are going to revolutionise the world, then we can’t just be interested spectators. We have to be participants,” she shared. Currently, the company supports 24 startups across Nigeria and Kenya, with its main focus being edtech. It is running an accelerator for startups to receive up to $100,000 in non-dilutive capital and six months of acceleration. CcHub also has its eyes on the creative industry and is backing early-stage startups like Nollydata which aggregates service providers in Nollywood, and Orange VFX, a visual effects company. “We’re consuming, and it’s great, but who on the continent supports the people building the tech for creative industries?” Outside of emerging technologies and the creative economy, another area Ochai is looking to bring mainstream is climate and environment. She believes that builders in the ecosystem must pay attention to how issues like climate change can impact other outcomes like health and the economy and find ways to innovate around that. CcHub will also be supporting founders in building solutions to adapt or mitigate the changes currently happening due to climate change. In December 2023, Ochai was named MD of CcHub following its founder and former CEO Bosun Tijani’s appointment as Nigeria’s minister of communications, innovation and digital economy. For twelve years, Tijani led CcHub from a small innovation centre in Yaba, Lagos, to becoming one of the most noteworthy tech hubs on the continent, with centres in Kenya and Namibia. Now, Ochai, who shares that she has always been a CcHub fangirl, has stepped in to lead the company, with a staff strength of about 200. Predictions for the creative and digital economies According to Ochai, one of her biggest predictions for the digital economy and creative industries is the emergence of
Read MoreFintech and energy illuminate DR Congo’s nascent startup ecosystem
This article was contributed to TechCabal by Conrad Onyango via bird story agency. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), one of the world’s most resource-rich countries, is carving out a new prosperity niche as it emerges on the global tech scene. Known for its green metals, cobalt and copper, and the world’s second-largest rainforest, the newest member of the East African Community is having a moment in the startup ecosystem. In 2023 the country raised $62 million in startup funds, making it the single largest contributor to startup funding growth (33% year-on-year) in the Central Africa region, where it is clustered. “While being the only region to grow significantly, from $51m in 2022 to $68m in 2023, Central Africa continues to represent a fraction of the total funding, orders of magnitude smaller than its neighbours,” according to a report from Africa: The Big Deal. Of other startup hubs in Central Africa, Cameroon recorded just US$4 million and Chad less than $2 million. The huge central African country is ranked sixth on the continent, after Benin, and although each attracted less than $100 million in 2023, both toppled Ghana, a top contender in the ‘second tier’ of Africa’s startup rankings. “There has been a drop in most of the countries, not just the big four,” said Co-Founder of Africa: The Big Deal, Max Cuvellier Giacomelli in a 2023 Start-up Funding Round-Up webinar, pointing also to expectations of the return of Ghana to the top tier of African startup investment destinations in the coming years. Ghana ranked seventh in the report with US$57 million raised, after raising almost $103 million in 2022, according to Statista. Benin raised $71 million. Kenya topped Africa’s startup table with $800 million in startup funding, climbing by one position compared to 2022, despite a 29% drop in annual fundraising. Egypt ($640 million) came in second, making North Africa the second most attractive market for the first time, followed by South Africa (US$600 million) while Nigeria (with $410 million) dropped from first position to fourth. For the full year, 2023 fundraising by African startups dropped 39% year on year, from $4.6 billion in 2022 to $2.9 billion. While the startup scene in the DRC is still in its infancy and does not feature in most global startup ecosystem rankings, several interesting startups have begun paving the way for greater recognition of the country as a startup hub. Nuru, which focuses on solar energy, successfully raised $40 million in equity funding for its Series B round in July 2023, to grow its offering of utility-scale solar mini-grids in Goma, Kindu, and Bunia in the country’s east. In June 2003, Tuma raised $500,000 in funding, the largest investment round raised for a Congolese fintech, ever. In August, another fintech, VaultPay, secured a historic spot in Y Combinator’s 2023 summer cohort, becoming the first Congolese-led enterprise to be chosen among 202 startups worldwide for this prestigious program. According to the Big Deal report, fintech (41%) and energy (28%) startups attracted the most funding in Africa for 2023. Energy rose from $670 million in 2022 to $800 million in 2023, while Fintech dropped from $1.8 billion in 2022 to $1.2 billion in 2023. “Energy is the only sector – together with health-tech – that have seen year-on-year growth last year,” said Lead Venture Partner, Catalyst Fund and Co-founder of Africa – The Big Deal, Maxime Bayen. In Eastern Africa, “nearly half a billion dollars raised by Sun King and M-Kopa alone,” helped propel the region’s total fundraising to $880m in 2023 – 31% of all start-up investment on the continent – according to the report, signalling the significant role of energy startups in the ecosystem. In yet another indicator of its growing role, the DRC is likely to begin attracting more funding in the e-commerce space after the entry of Wasoko, valued at $625 million in the market. The e-commerce startup is among a few on the continent that has actively expanded to new markets (it also expanded into Zambia) at a time when many startups have announced plans for downsizing or even closing shop amidst an almost halt to new investment rounds. In December 2022, the DRC joined a growing list of African countries such as Senegal, Nigeria and Tunisia to introduce startup acts in a bid to turbocharge their entrepreneurial ecosystems.
Read MoreExclusive: AltSchool Africa launches in Kenya, its second-biggest market by revenue
AltSchool Africa, the Nigerian edtech startup that styles itself as the African version of the US coding bootcamp BloomTech, has set up shop in Kenya, its second biggest market by revenue. The company’s founder, Adewale Yusuf, confirmed the news to TechCabal. The startup is seeing traction in Kenya, with the East African country bringing in the second-highest revenue. As a result, AltSchool will now focus on providing hands-on support to its Kenyan customers and will also work on processing local payments faster. “We are not new to the people, but this will give us the opportunity to expand,” said Yusuf. Tabitha Kayvu, AltSchool’s Country manager, will lead the startup’s Kenyan operations. While the startup was launched in 2021 as a virtual platform for people to earn diplomas in engineering, data, and business analytics, it has seen interest in its services grow beyond Nigeria. It now has a presence in the US and Rwanda, where it opened an office at the Norrsken hub in 2023. Key partnerships with the stakeholders in Kenya made a difference for AltSchool, the company shared. “We are in talks with different agencies on the ground to make sure that Kenyans have access the right access to the global in-demand skills that Alt school has to offer.” The edtech startup now offers short courses on sales, content, and music creation. Yusuf says the startup will maintain these offerings in Kenya and will teach these courses in English. There are also plans to teach in the Swahili. Training the next generation of Africans The gap between Africa’s 10 million job seekers and 3 million employed highlights a skills mismatch. Founded by Adewale Yusuf, Akintunde Sultan, and Opeyemi Awoyemi, AltSchool bridges this gap by equipping youth with global in-demand skills in covering business, data, engineering, media, and the creative economy. The edtech startups offer flexible pricing between $20 and $50 per month for the duration of these courses. Additionally, they follow the income-sharing agreement (ISA) model popularized by companies like ALX, where students agree to share a percentage of their future income in exchange for reduced upfront costs. Yusuf claims AltSchool has supported about 60,000 learners across 105 countries and makes $3 million in Annual Recurring Revenue—the predictable revenue it expects to receive from its customers over a year. Yusuf says AltSchool wants to deepen its presence in its current markets for the future. The startup was a recipient of the $30 million Rwandan Innovation Fund. Per Pitchbook, the startup raised about $3 million in May last year, it also raised $1 million in pre-seed funding in 2022. “We want to deepen our presence in existing countries,” Yusuf told Techcabal while speaking about the startup’s future.
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👨🏿🚀TechCabal Daily – Netflix is going Raw
In partnership with Share this newsletter: Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Happy salary week It’s now been over 36 hours since the M-Pesa Paybill blackout that has stalled millions of Kenyans from paying their bills. This time, it doesn’t seem like Safaricom will be able to claim the blackouts were scheduled maintenance breaks as it did in a three-hour outage two weeks ago. It remains to be seen what Kenya’s telecom watchdog will say this time. Meanwhile, users have taken to X (Twitter) to look for alternatives which include Safaricom’s competitor, PesaLink, which says it’s working on a rival product. Dig in. In today’s edition Nigerian startups are pursuing crypto licences Twiga and Incentro make new year resolutions Netflix acquires exclusive righs to WWE Egypt is getting its first IOD service Samsung developing blood pressure monitor won’t break skin The World Wide Web3 Events Crypto Nigerian startups pursue SEC licences after CBN lifts crypto ban A month after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) lifted its two-year ban on crypto-related bank accounts, three major players—Quidax, Yellow Card and Luno—are reportedly pursuing licences from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). According to insider sources, discussions with the SEC began as early as October 2023. While Luno confirmed the ongoing talks, Quidax and Yellow Card are remaining tight-lipped for now. The moves hint at a broader trend within the industry. In December, CBN eased restrictions on banks transacting with crypto firms, replacing the ban with guidelines requiring banks to obtain Bank Verification Numbers( BVN) of crypto businesses. Additionally, crypto companies must obtain a license from the SEC, which issued rules on digital asset offerings and collections in May 2022. Are Nigerians using crypto? A big question has always been if the Nigerian crypto companies chasing after these regulations have an interested market base. A contested 2022 report from KuCoin would have us believe that 35% of Nigerians own crypto assets, but the methodology of that report suggests that the data pool was too narrow. An answer may lie in one of Chainanalysis’ reports which states that Nigeria accounted for the majority of the $117 billion in crypto transactions made between July 2022 and July 2023. The same report also shows that Nigeria’s crypto transaction volume surged by 9%, year-over-year by mid-2023, landing the country in third place behind Saudi Arabia and Vietnam. Regardless of the answer, Nigeria’s crypto industry is still young, and its recent stance shows that it may be making moves to bolster the space. Access payments with Moniepoint Moniepoint has made it simple for your business to access payments while providing access to credit and other business tools. Open an account today here. E-commerce Twiga and Incentro settle $261,000 debt dispute In December, Kenyan e-commerce platform Twiga Foods and Incentro Africa ended the year with a court order that gave both companies till March 2024 to settle their dispute. And now, it looks like they have. Twiga and Incentro, a Google Cloud reseller, have reached an agreement after months of dispute over $261,000 in unpaid invoices for Google Cloud services. Insiders claim both parties have agreed to ask Google to cancel the original contract. ICYMI: In 2021, Twiga agreed to pay $83,000 monthly for three years of cloud services from Incentro. In return for this long-term commitment, Google offered Twiga $200,000 in incentives and perks via Incentro. However, with the Kenyan shilling depreciating by 32% against the dollar, the recurring bill became too costly for Twiga. The dispute emerged when Twiga shifted focus from growth to profitability, resulting in payment delays. Subsequently, Incentro took legal action to enforce the payment. Twiga was forced to raise a $35 million convertible bond as a result. Following the departure of co-founder Peter Njonjo, CFO Zuber Momoniat played a key role in resolving the dispute. Momoniat reportedly states that Incentro has agreed to retract the lawsuit and renegotiate the original contract terms with Google in light of the “current global economic climate”. While Incentro has not yet withdrawn the lawsuit, it has sent a letter committing to doing so once the negotiation with Google is settled. Secure payment gateway for your business Fincra payment gateway enables you to easily collect Naira payments as a business; you can collect payments in minutes through cards, bank transfers and PayAttitude. Create a free account and start collecting NGN payments with Fincra. Streaming Netflix acquires exclusive rights to WWE Netflix is getting in the ring. Starting January 2025, Netflix will be the exclusive home of WWE’s Monday night wrestling show, Raw, which is watched by over 15 million fans worldwide. The acquisition puts Netflix even further ahead in a global streaming war it’s already winning. The $5 billion deal will span 10 years, and will see Netflix stream all WWE shows and specials including SmackDown, NXT, WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Royal Rumble. The streamer will also make WWE documentaries, original series, and forthcoming projects available on demand for viewers outside the US. A change of play rings? Is Netflix moving away from traditional content? This isn’t Netflix’s first stab at a livestream project, per Deadline, the company reportedly put in a bid for Formula 1 rights before the auto racing circuit renewed with ESPN in 2022. While the company hopes the deal will bring in millions of loyal WWE viewers and strengthen its nascent fledgling advertising-supported plan, the deal also potentially increases watch time and platform usage as live events create a sense of urgency and real-time engagement when compared to on-demand content. It remains to be seen if the pivot in content strategy becomes successful. Meanwhile, the Netflix deal served a blow to Comcast—which owns a 30% stake in MultiChoice Showmax. Upon expiration of its contract with Netflix, Comcast which previously paid about $265 million a year for the rights to Raw, acquired the rights to Smackdown, which it considered as the next-best package, for about $287 million a year. This also mildly translates to a loss to MultiChoice who resorted to a last-minute
Read MoreKenya’s PesaLink to launch merchant payment services in M-PESA’s turf
M-PESA is down in Kenya and users are airing their displeasure online. They’re now looking for an alternative that can rival Safaricom’s product. PesaLink, a Kenyan platform that enables real-time fund transfers between bank accounts, is launching a merchant payments option. PesaLink made this announcement on X and follows an M-PESA service outage that has posed challenges for customers in making payments for goods and services through the paybill service. “Most PesaLink Payments are business-related: bulk transactions, invoices, rent and more. Watch this space for merchant payments… some news coming soon!” PesaLink said on X, in response to customers who have been requesting for the feature for a long time. One PesaLink customer said that they were calling for PesaLink to exist as a separate entity not associated with its current partners, Kenyan banks. “Pesalink needs to have an app and its own ecosystem that integrates with payment services and allow us to withdraw through local agents,” the customer, Kiruti Itimu said. Another fintech users, Saruni Maina, added, “Actually, PesaLink needs to have a merchant payment option to rival Lipa na M-PESA.” Lipa na M-PESA, a cashless payment service that enables customers to make payments for goods and services, is supported by several products, with two being the most common. One of them is the M-PESA Till, which allows business owners to collect payments on the till and use the funds collected for other transactions directly from it. The other is the M-PESA paybill service, a cash collection service enabling businesses to regularly collect money from customers through M-PESA. PesaLink, launched in 2017 by the Integrated Payment Service, a for-profit arm of the Kenya Bankers Association (KBA), has been successful due to its operational management by an independent agency (KBA). This approach has helped alleviate cases of conflict of interest amongst local banks. The platform facilitates affordable and faster real-time transactions, separating itself from alternatives like real-time gross settlement (RTGS) or cheques. Customers can also send up to KES 1 million ($6,135) to another bank account for KES 150 ($0.92), surpassing M-PESA’s current cap at KES 500,000 ($3,067).
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How to opt in and out of MTN DND alongside other networks
Managing your messaging preferences is a feature that almost all major network providers in Nigeria allow you to enjoy. It is known as the do-not-disturb (DND) feature. You can block unwanted promotional or update messages from MTN and other shortcodes. But there may be times when you need such messages from specific shortcodes. For example, any MTN user looking to register for the 2024 Next Afrobeats Star music reality TV show may need to deactivate the DND feature to receive their registration code. Beyond MTN, other different networks have ways to customise your messaging experience too. Here’s a comprehensive guide on knowing your DND status and opting in and out of the Do Not Disturb (DND) for major networks in Nigeria: MTN DND – checking status, opting in and out See the following steps to help you navigate anything relating to MTN DND. Checking your MTN DND status Wondering whether your MTN Do Not Disturb settings are active or not? Simply send STATUS to 2442. You’ll receive a response indicating whether your DND is active or inactive. This quick check keeps you informed about the status of your preferences, allowing you to adjust them according to your communication needs. Opting out of MTN DND If you’ve found yourself missing important messages or promotional updates and suspect MTN’s Do Not Disturb (DND) feature might be the culprit, you may want to opt-out. Opting out is a straightforward process. Simply text ALLOW to 2442, and within a short time, you’ll be reconnected to the stream of messages you might have been missing. This ensures you don’t miss out on any essential information or exciting promotions. Opting in for MTN DND On the flip side, if you prefer a more streamlined messaging experience, opting for MTN’s Do Not Disturb is equally simple. By sending the code STOP to 2442, you customize your messaging preferences to filter out specific categories of promotional messages. This allows you to enjoy communication without being inundated with unwanted promotional content. Note on MTN DND Please note that, like every other network, the MTN DND does not prevent MTN from sending you messages. Airtel DND Here’s all you need to know about Airtel DND: Opting out Text ALLOW to 2442. This will lift any restrictions on incoming messages. Opting in Text OUT to 2442 to block promotional messages and START to 2442 to receive all messages. Checking status Text STATUS to 2442 to confirm your current DND status. Glo DND Here’s all you need to know about Glo DND: Opting out Text CANCEL to 2442 to allow all promotional messages. Opting in Text ACTIVATE to 2442 to start receiving promotional messages. Checking status Text STATUS to 2442 to know if your DND is active or inactive. 9mobile DND Here’s all you need to know about Airtel DND: Opting out Text START to 2442 to resume receiving promotional messages. Opting in Text STOP to 2442 to block promotional messages. Checking status Text STATUS to 2442 to inquire about your DND status. Final thoughts on MTN DND and the likes Managing DND across networks puts you in control of your messaging experience. Whether you’re with MTN, Airtel, Glo, or 9mobile, these simple codes allow you to tailor your preferences and stay informed. Customise your communication landscape and enjoy messages that match your preferences seamlessly.
Read MoreExclusive: Twiga, Incentro agree to renegotiate terms of contentious $261k debt
Incentro, the Google Cloud services reseller that sued Twiga Foods to collect more than $261,000 in unpaid invoices, has resolved its dispute with the e-commerce startup, TechCabal has learned. In December 2023, a Kenyan court gave both companies until March 13, 2024, to resolve the debt dispute after an earlier November deadline was missed. Three company sources said both parties have now agreed to ask Google to cancel the original contract after Twiga’s new management team and Incentro Africa completed negotiations following the departure of Peter Njonjo, Twiga co-founder and CEO. Incentro has agreed to withdraw the lawsuit and renegotiate the original contract terms with Google “in light of the current global economic climate,” said Zuber Momoniat, Twiga’s CFO. Dennis de Weerd, Incentro’s CEO, confirmed that Momoniat was “instrumental in resolving the dispute and rekindling our partnership.” Inside Twiga and Incentro’s debt dispute While Incentro has not yet withdrawn the lawsuit, it has sent a letter committing to doing so once the negotiation with Google is settled. Twiga’s contract with Incentro was a complex 4-party transaction that involved Google Cloud, Digicloud, a Google distributor, Incentro, the local Kenyan cloud service reseller and Twiga Foods. Incentro agreed to provide cloud services worth $3 million to Twiga Food for three years beginning in mid-2021. In return for a long-term commitment, Google would offer Twiga Foods incentives and perks worth more than $200,000 through Incentro. To deliver this, Incentro signed a similar agreement with Digicloud, Google’s distributor, for $3 million worth of Google Cloud services over three years. African companies that use Google Cloud sometimes opt for long-term contracts involving a reseller who manages their cloud account with Google to avoid direct billing on a credit or debit card. The reseller is responsible for delivering extra perks and incentives on behalf of Google Cloud. According to Incentro’s September 2023 court filing, Twiga fell behind on monthly payments as the e-commerce firm adjusted its priorities from growth to profitability. Twiga and Incentro are now asking Google through Digicloud to redo the contract terms. De Weerd said this was what his company had been trying to get Twiga to agree to before the lawsuit. African companies are still “small” customers Africa only has a handful of big spenders, and cloud providers prioritise these few big spenders with $100 million in annual revenue, an Amazon Web Services employee told TechCabal. Startups are a distant second. However, African startup executives whose companies rely on global providers are struggling with the increasing amounts they have to shell out for cloud services. In many cases, weakening local currencies are responsible for the increases even when cloud providers keep their prices unchanged. “I will take having to pay local cloud cost with the same level of security with +92% uptime over 99.9% uptime and rising dollar cost that could ultimately wreck my business,” Edmund Olotu, CEO and founder of Bloc, a business banking fintech, said on X. Twiga’s case underscores a familiar problem facing African companies who try to save costs by entering long-term contracts with global cloud or SaaS providers. Global service providers are often inflexible if these companies run into difficulty and need custom support, a Kenyan cloud expert told TechCabal.
Read MoreFollowing rising unemployment, Botswana youth are teaching English online to Asian students
As unemployment rates continue to soar, unemployed Batswana youth are turning to online English tutoring to earn a living. During the lockdowns of early 2021, *Katlego, a 24-year-old economics graduate from the University of Botswana, came across YouTube videos of influencers showing a seemingly easy way to make money from online tutoring. At first, she assumed it was just another online scam like many others which were prominent during that time. But, after the lockdowns were lifted, Katlego researched more about online tutoring, and in 2022 she decided to get into teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) herself, eventually getting her certificate in October of that year. Katlego has been teaching English online to Asian students for a year now as that is the target market of the tutoring platforms she uses. According to recent data, almost 400 million Chinese citizens are in the process of learning English, creating a huge market for online ESL tutoring services. Reasons for learning English include better career prospects in China as more Western companies move into the country as well as learning the language in order to migrate to the West. Katlego’s typical prep for a lesson includes hours of going over her lesson plans, ensuring that her laptop and headsets are working correctly, and saying a small prayer that her internet and electricity would stay on for the duration of the one-hour lesson. Should anything go wrong, she will lose the $5 she charges per lesson. According to her, she can make as much as P4,500 (~$330) a month on the job. She is one of a growing number of young Batswana who have turned to online tutoring to earn a living as the unemployment rate continues to rise in the country. “It’s a great and easy way to earn a living because all you need is an internet connection,” she tells TechCabal. “It’s better than sitting at home and waiting for a nine-to-five job, which is scarce.” Data from the World Bank shows that Botswana’s youth unemployment rate currently stands at over 44%, as of 2023. Platforms like Preply, Native Camp, TutorOcean and Cambly, among many others, allow people from countries with English as an official language to tutor students via the platforms. What makes the service attractive to young people in Botswana is the low barrier to entry, with most platforms only requiring English proficiency and an internet connection to onboard tutors. Once onboarded to the platform, tutors conduct one-hour one-on-one lessons with students for rates of between $3 and $7. A tutor’s rate is determined by their experience as well as ratings from students on the platform, and payments are done via PayPal. Sarah Moitse runs a Facebook page, “ESL Teaching with Sarah”, and it has over 1,500 followers. She tells TechCabal that the interest from young people has been astounding. Some of the services her page offers include step-by-step tutorials in setting up tutor profiles, making lesson plans and advisory on attracting students. She offers all the services for free. It’s not just unemployed youth who are trying to get into tutoring. Some are doing it as a side hustle as “most jobs here don’t pay enough”, adds Moitse. So rewarding is tutoring that some of the young people end up quitting their day jobs to tutor full-time. Twenty-year-old economics graduate *Kefilwe tells TechCabal she only started online tutoring in October 2023 and makes as much as P2,000 (~$146) a month from the seven students she has. “Only four of my students consistently attend classes so you see that there is potential to make more,” she said. “It is just about taking it seriously and being patient.” Moitse tells TechCabal that, for beginners, the going rate on most platforms is $3 per hour. As a tutor gradually gains experience and gets good ratings, they can get rates as high as $7 an hour. The number of students a tutor can have is only limited by how many they can accommodate. Challenges in online tutoring in Botswana For some tutors who spoke to TechCabal, although offering online tutoring is a straightforward exercise, there are some annoyances. One of these is racism by some of the tutored students. According to 22-year-old *Kagiso, she had a racist encounter in one of her first classes. “On the platforms, we have our cameras on and sometimes students say racist things, but you just take it on the chest and focus on your work,” she told TechCabal. Another challenge for tutors is internet access. Botswana has one of most expensive data prices on the continent, and most homes do not have broadband internet. To get through that huddle, some tutors have struck deals with internet cafés to use their computers to do work. *Maatla, a tutor who conducts his classes at an internet cafe, says the arrangement is convenient because the cafe owners understand his line of work and give him a secluded spot to work. “It’s a win-win situation because the café gets a regular customer and I get a nice work environment,” he tells TechCabal. Although he currently has only four students and does tutoring part-time, Maatla says he plans to have as many as 30 students and do it full-time as soon as he makes enough to afford internet at home. For Moitse, one of her main challenges is misinformed people who think ESL tutoring is a quick money-making scheme, thanks to ESL tutoring influencers on social media who give that impression. She adds that when they fail to make what they thought they would, some of the tutors end up giving up altogether and call the tutoring a scam. Some pages of the influencers seen by TechCabal show tutors earning as much as $4,000. “Tutoring is like any other job so you have to work hard to earn a lot of money eventually,” Moitse says. The future of online tutoring With youth unemployment not showing any sign of slowing down in Botswana, alternate ways to earn income like
Read MoreExclusive: Two crypto startups submit licence application to Nigerian SEC
One month after Nigeria’s Central Bank lifted a ban on crypto, startups are now pushing for SEC licence Two crypto startups have applied for licences from Nigeria’s Security Exchange Commission (SEC) after the central bank lifted its 2-year ban on crypto-related bank accounts, a highly-placed source at the exchange told TechCabal, signaling a push by crypto startups to take advantage of a recent u-turn by regulators. In December, the CBN lifted stringent regulations that had banned banks from transacting with crypto companies. In its place, the apex bank shared guidelines mandating banks to obtain the bank verification number (BVN) of all directors and owners of crypto businesses that use their services. The rules also say cryptocurrency companies must secure a license from the country’s capital markets regulator, the SEC. Earlier in May 2022, the SEC issued rules on offering and collecting digital assets. The SEC did not directly respond to TechCabal’s inquiries about which startups had already applied for the licences. One of the crypto companies thought to have applied is Yellow Card. “We have not made any public moves yet but it is in the process,” said one person with knowledge of the company’s business. However, Yellow Card did not immediately respond to TechCabal’s questions at the time of this report. Luno, the London-headquartered cryptocurrency exchange with operations in Nigeria, told TechCabal that it is yet to apply for the license. Last week, Yellow Card announced a partnership with American crypto exchange platform Coinbase that will allow Nigerians and people in 19 other African countries to use Coinbase’s wallet, purchase stablecoin (USDC), make remittances, save, and do everyday commerce on the platform. Quidax, another popular crypto exchange in the country, announced free bank account deposits and withdrawals to customers days after the CBN announcement. While the ban’s lifting eases business for crypto startups, experts doubt it will magically transform the market, which has found ways around the CBN ban to buy, sell, save, and trade crypto. “Nigerians are very price-sensitive. Some of the platforms sell for about 20% more than relatively risky platforms,” a web3 PR consultant who asked not to be named, told TechCabal. “Beyond the exorbitant price, these crypto startups operate with a near-saviour complex and think that it is just enough for Nigerians to have access to the blockchain. If these platforms do not significantly become easier to use, people will continue using what they have been using to transact in crypto.” Even though it came a year after the SEC published regulations to safeguard digital assets, the CBN may have removed the stigma associated with digital currencies, popularly linked to scams. A founder of a now-defunct crypto company told TechCabal, “It is probably the best thing, if not the only positive aspect, about the CBN’s guidelines.”
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