Topup Mama restyles itself as Caantin
Kenyan-based restaurant procurement management startup, TopUp Mama has a new identity. The company announced their rebrand today in a press statement shared with TechCabal. Until its rebrand, TopUp Mama, which operates in Nigeria and Kenya, allowed restaurants and food vendors to restock through a digital platform. The startup sourced supplies from distributors and farmers and delivers inventory to vendors and other end-of-chain users. It will now continue its operations under a new name. “This new brand identity and enhanced platform embody our dedication to boosting the restaurant industry’s contribution to Africa’s GDP and providing better financing access for restaurants and suppliers,” the company statement reads in part. Part of the rebrand includes the launch of an enhanced procurement platform to help restaurants manage vendors. Up to 4,300 restaurants, from local family-owned establishments to well-known chains like Mr Biggs in Nigeria and Sheraton Hotel in Kenya, use Caantin to manage procurement, the company said. Caantin also offers inventory financing for its customers. “Over the past decade, we’ve seen tremendous advancements in front-of-office restaurant operations, with platforms like Square and Toast improving payments, and Uber Eats and DoorDash enabling online stores and digital transactions. However, outdated methods for vendor payments and supply orders persist,” said Njavwa Mutambo, Founder and CEO of Caantin. Njavwa Mutambo, who co-founded TopUp Mama with Emilie Blauwhoff (COO) and Andrew Kibe (CTO) in February 2021, says he hopes Caantin will transform back-office operations for the food business and help reduce the cost of sales. Image source: Caantin Caantin says it grew revenue by 270% last year and financed millions of dollars in inventory, underscoring demand for liquidity solutions for restaurants and suppliers. The revenue growth and need to build a better solution that combined all its offerings at scale, led the team to rebuild TopUp Mama as Caantin. In March 2022, TopUp Mama closed $1.7 million in seed funding bringing the total amount it had raised to $2.16 million. TopUp Mama plans to reach 50,000 businesses in Kenya and Nigeria, TechCrunch reported in May last year. Caantin is playing in a market that is increasingly becoming attractive for investors due to the huge procurement gaps that exist on the continent. Last year, amid a venture downturn, a Nigerian procurement platform, Vendease, raised $30 million in equity and debt funding to expand its operations in Africa, a testament to the increasing investors’ appetite for tech-powered farm-to-table solutions.
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How to buy Airtel airtime from MPesa 2023
Airtel is one of the leading mobile service providers in Kenya, offering affordable voice, SMS and data services to millions of subscribers. If you are an Airtel user, it is important to know how to buy airtime using MPesa, a mobile money service that allows you to easily top up your airtime balance from your MPesa account. In this article, we will detail the step-by-step process of how to buy Airtel airtime from MPesa. Step 1: Go to SIM toolkit on your mobile phone The first step on how to buy Airtel airtime from MPesa is to go to the MPesa menu in the SIM toolkit. This will prompt a menu with several options to appear on your screen. Step 2: Select “Lipa na MPesa” From the options on the menu, select “Lipa na MPesa”. It’s usually the 5th option. You will be presented with another menu with options to buy the airtime from MPesa. Step 3: Select “Pay Bill” The next menu you’ll find should have about two options. One should be “Buy Goods and Services” and the second is “Pay Bill”. Select the latter and you’ll see some options that include “Enter business number”. This is your prompt to enter the Airtel pay bill number. Step 4: Enter the Airtel pay bill number Please note that the Airtel pay bill number is not your mobile phone number. The Airtel pay bill number is – 220220. So type in the number and wait for the next prompt on how to buy Airtel airtime from MPesa. Step 5: Enter your Airtel phone number In the space that’ll pop next after the above step, enter your phone number which you’d like to buy Airtel airtime from MPesa. You may come across something like “AIRTXXXXXXXXX”. Don’t fret. Just enter your Airtel number into the XXXX spaces, starting with the Kenyan call code prefix. Afterwards, please check that the details you have entered are correct. Then send. Step 6: Type in the airtime amount you want to buy from MPesa on your Airtel line to complete the transaction. Punch in the amount of airtime you want to buy. Then send. Afterwards, you’ll be prompted to put in your MPesa PIN to authorise the transaction. Once confirmed, you’ll receive a confirmation message from MPesa and Airtel indicating that the airtime has been successfully credited to the recipient’s account. Final thoughts on how to buy airtel airtime from MPesa Buying Airtel airtime on MPesa is a quick and easy process that can be completed in just a few steps. By following the steps outlined above, you can ensure that you always have sufficient airtime to make calls, send texts and access the internet on your Airtel line. Remember to keep your MPesa account topped up to avoid any inconvenience in case of an emergency. Also, note that PesaPal which is the medium on which this airtime purchase is carried out charges a small fee for buying airtime via MPesa. That’s it about buying Airtel airtime from MPesa.
Read MoreTreepz pivots to car-sharing model
Pan-African mobility startup Treepz has pivoted into becoming a car-sharing marketplace that allows car owners to put their vehicles up for rent. According to the startup, this pivot is a more affordable and sustainable option for mobility in Africa. With this move, Treepz is looking to reinvent its mobility business in a rather unexplored niche. The premise is simple: there are 44 cars to 1,000 Africans, demonstrating a high demand for affordable transportation. Treepz aims to fill this gap by allowing people to rent a car only when they need it and for rental periods ranging from hourly to monthly use. On the app, cars can be rented for about ₦30,000 to ₦93,000 daily, but the company believes that as more car owners are onboarded into the system, the consequent price competition will further drive down prices for users. In a statement shared with TechCabal, Treepz’s CEO, Onyeka Akumah, shared how Treepz’s new focus is meeting the pain points of car owners and renters on the continent. “The new Treepz is an exciting innovation for transportation in Africa. We are making better use of more than 26 million vehicles available on the continent to provide commuters with enjoyable and fun transportation service as they travel for work or simply enjoy a smooth ride across the safaris in the continent,” he said. “Today we are regarded as the largest car-sharing marketplace in Africa and we have seized that opportunity with the technology we’ve built for hosts (vehicle owners or rental companies) to manage their inventory, reach new customers and track their growth. While guests who book from these hosts have the luxury to select their dream car for work, pleasure or exploration with a vetted driver,” Akumah added. Per the press release, Treepz has spent the last five months building its marketplace product and is now rolling it out to users in Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda and Kenya. This marketplace, which Treepz claims to be Africa’s largest for car-sharing, holds a variety of vehicles including sedans, SUVs, vans, and buses. The business model involves renters or “guests” choosing their desired cars based on location and duration while the vetted car owners or “hosts” set their preferred prices and availability. Africa’s car-sharing market is nascent, with few active players and hardly any market leader. Treepz believes that its solution, coupled with its experiences in the African markets it has operated in, can position the startup as a top market leader in Africa’s fledging car-sharing market. Speaking to the competition posed by the prevalent ride-sharing model and operators, Treepz’s cofounder, Johnny Enagwolor, shared in an interview with TechCabal, some competitive advantages of the startup’s play. “From a user standpoint, the pricing is better with our car-sharing model. Ride-hailing companies would charge a lot for a full day’s ride, compared to the daily offers on our platform. Also, we have a collection of cars—including trucks and luxury cars—that are not typically used for ride-hailing, thereby expanding the choice for our users. Finally, we are operating at a wider scope, with a system that can operate in more cities than the ones ride-hailing companies are choosing to focus on.” Enagwolor also shared that Treepz’s car-sharing play is not particularly new to the company, as they had tried out the model for some customers in the past, albeit in a non-digitised play. “Eventually, we took a hard look at the business to find out what model was giving us the best margins and could scale better. Then we decided to take a full pivot toward car-sharing,” he revealed. Treepz raised $2.8 million in 2021 and scaled its suite of mobility solutions by acquiring mobility startups in Ghana and Uganda. In Nigeria, it provided three main services, including an Uber-like service for minivans, an intercity travel solution, and a corporate mobility solution for businesses. Now, the startup is discontinuing its previous models to focus on this new mobility vertical, bolstered by a vision of becoming Africa’s premier car-sharing marketplace. Treepz was founded in 2019 by Onyeka Akumah and is backed by notable investors such as Google, SOSV, Goodwater Capital, Techstars, and GIIG Africa Fund.
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👨🏿🚀 TechCabal Daily – A bRAND new look
Lire en français Read this email in French. 4 MAY, 2023 IN PARTNERSHIP WITH Happy pre-Friday If you’re in Ghana for the foreseeable future, here’s a reminder that you have until May 31, 2023, to register your SIM card. By then, the National Communications Authority will deactivate every card that isn’t connected to its owner’s National Identity Card. So far, about 25 million out of 36 million SIM cards have been registered. In today’s edition South Africa’s currency redesign Zenith suffers fire outbreak Nigeria’s data and voice fees go up in flames Kenya launches unified QR system The World Wide Web3 Report: The State of Tech in Africa Opportunities SOUTH AFRICA REDESIGNS THE RAND If the idea of a currency redesign makes your skin crawl, you must have lived through—and survived—Nigeria’s unnecessary currency redesign, which almost crippled the economy. South Africa is touting a similar path. For the first time since 2012, the South African Reserve Bank—the country’s apex bank—has unveiled new designs for rand notes and coins. At the launch event held yesterday at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg, the Reserve Bank governor, Lesetja Kganyago, announced that the new currencies will have enhanced security features to prevent counterfeiting. What’s changing? The new notes feature colour-changing ink. Large watermarks that feature Africa’s five biggest animals, one per denomination, have also been embossed on the notes: rhino on the R10 note, elephant on the R20, lion on the R50, buffalo on the R100, and leopard on the R200 bill. The notes also have inclusive features for visually impaired users, including numerals and unique shapes printed in positive and negative ink on the currencies. You can check out the new coins and notes here. Lessons learnt: Nigeria has a lot of lessons to learn from South Africa; even the redesign is more inclusive and well-thought-out than Nigeria’s vanity project. Unlike Nigeria which tried to limit the use of old notes, South Africa will keep the new and old notes in circulation together. The new notes, which will enter circulation today, May 4, will also be rolled out in Lesotho, Namibia and Eswatini, where the rand is legal tender. It will be the first time the country is releasing new coins since 1989. WORK WITH MONIEPOINT At Moniepoint, we’re creating the best workplace for global talent using the 4M framework- Meaning, Membership, Mastery and Money. This isn’t an ad designed to convince you to join us, but it has all the reasons why you should. Watch it here. This is partner content. A FIRE AT ONE OF NIGERIA’S BIGGEST BANK, ZENITH Yesterday, Zenith Bank, one of Nigeria’s big commercial banks, suffered a fire incident at one of its primary data centres. Multiple sources told TechCabal that a backup power system caught fire, leading to a power cut to the data centre and subsequently downtime across its services. Zero accountability: While the bank unsuccessfully tried to switch to its disaster recovery infrastructure, millions of customers had to deal with the failure of its services. But even hours later, at the time of this report, the bank didn’t use any of its social media channels to acknowledge to its customers that it is experiencing a downtime. A member of the communications team who spoke to TechCabal on the phone said that she could neither confirm nor deny the incident. One source told TechCabal that the delay in switching to its disaster recovery is connected to the fact that the services running active standby now have to be switched manually. This begs the question we have asked before: why don’t banks move their infrastructure to the cloud? CALLS AND MOBILE DATA TO GET MORE EXPENSIVE IN NIGERIA Long-distance relationships are about to get expensive for Nigerians as the cost of phone calls and data will be going up soon. The federal government of Nigeria has reintroduced a 5% excise duty on telecom services, as part of the fiscal measures to be implemented this year. Surprise, surprise: The announcement came as a surprise to many, as in September last year, the federal government suspended the proposed excise duty on telecommunication services and eventually exempted the sector from the duty in March. Tax upon tax: In March when Nigeria’s minister of communication Isa Pantami announced that the president had exempted the telecoms sector from the 5% excise duty, he stated that the telecoms industry was under threat from excessive and multiple taxes. According to him, ICT firms pay about 41 duties. Who’s gonna pay? Last year, when the excise duty was first announced, stakeholders in the telecoms sector told everyone who cared to listen that the burden would be on the consumers. The news has been met with dissatisfaction by Nigerians who are dealing with increasing inflation. KENYA UNIFIES PAYMENTS CHANNEL The Kenyan government wants its banks and payment operators to work together. Yesterday, it announced the launch of the Kenya Quick Response Code Standard 2023, or the “KE-QR Code Standard 2023”. Pay with QR codes: The KE-QR is simple. It will offer all payment service providers regulated by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) the ability to process payments using QR codes. According to the CBK governor, Patrick Njoroge, merchants will now be able to receive payments from multiple channels, be they banks (Equity, KCB, Cooperative Bank, Absa, and more), mobile money wallets, and other payment processors such as VISA and Mastercard. For consumers, this means that, instead of using debit cards, USSD codes or transfers to pay for stuff, they can simply scan a single QR code and pay. Will QR Codes work though? The CBK states that the KE-QR will allow consumers access to fast and easy payments without the hassle and friction of previous payment processes. QR codes—those black and white square boxes—are just links on a picture. That means after scanning, customers still have to click links and enter some details. From the basic definition of QR codes, it doesn’t seem like there will be much difference. At this stage, the
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How to transfer or request airtime on MTN in South Africa
There are times you may need to transfer airtime from your airtime balance to another MTN user. Or you may be in a situation whereby you need airtime but can’t recharge or buy from anywhere and your only bet is someone sending you airtime. So how do you get through to a potential sender without airtime or mobile data? No worries. Here, we’ll show you how to transfer or request airtime on MTN in South Africa. Requesting airtime on MTN in South Africa In a case where you need to request airtime from another MTN user in South Africa, the MTN Me2U service is available for you. With this service, you can ask a friend or family to send you airtime, SMSs or data straight to your line. And it’s free. To request airtime, simply dial *136*3# and follow the prompts. Or dial *136*6328*(cell phone number you’re requesting from)# Send airtime on MTN in South Africa The MTN Me2U service is also your way forward when you’re looking for how to send airtime on MTN in South Africa. Simply dial *136*3# and follow the prompts you see. You can also just dial *136*6328*(cellphone number you’re sending airtime to)*(value of airtime)#. Transferring airtime with the mobile app in South Africa If you’re an MTN mobile subscriber in South Africa, transferring airtime to your loved ones has never been easier with the MTN mobile app. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to transfer airtime: Download and install the MTN mobile app on your smartphone. Register/log in to the app with your MTN number and password. Click on the “Airtime Share” option on the main menu. Enter the recipient’s MTN number and the amount you want to transfer. Confirm the transaction and enter your MTN mobile app PIN. The recipient will receive an SMS notification with the airtime transferred. That’s it about how to send or request airtime on MTN in South Africa.
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🚀Entering Tech #028: Five AI careers to consider
AI careers you can try out. 03 || May || 2023 View in Browser Brought to you by Issue #28 Five AI careers to check out Share this newsletter Greetings ET people We’ve all heard this ominous statement in recent times: “AI is coming for all our jobs”. What the purveyors of this sentiment may not have mentioned is that AI is a field that is actually ripe with career opportunities, if you know where to look. In this week’s edition of Entering Tech, we take a look at the field of Artificial Intelligence (beyond ChatGPT!) and some promising careers in the field. If you’re interested in getting on the machines’ good side before the eventual uprising, this is probably a good time to get in the field and learn all you can. As usual, please share this newsletter within your networks so we can grow our readership before the newsletter AI that’s probably being built right now comes for our jobs. Happy reading! by Pamela Tetteh and Timi Odueso. Tech trivia Some trivia before we begin. Answers are at the bottom of this newsletter. What’s the first AI tool launched in the world? How many people use ChatGPT monthly? What is AI? AI stands for Artificial Intelligence, and this refers to intelligent machines that can perform tasks which typically require human intelligence. For Terminator fans, think Skynet. You’ve probably used AI before. Yes, ChatGPT is currently the most prominent example of AI but before its launch, AI was already in our lives. From the use of weather apps and Google Maps to facial recognition software on phones and smart assistants like Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri, we’ve all interacted with AI at some point. As technology advances, AI is becoming increasingly prevalent in our daily lives, from voice assistants on our phones to recommendation algorithms on social media platforms. With the growing demand for AI applications, the industry is expanding rapidly, making it an exciting career option for those interested in cutting-edge technology. How AI works So how does Siri know your voice? How does Spotify recommend music based on songs you’ve already listened to? Are there people running AI? AI entails intelligent electronic systems and bots that can perceive and interpret human prompts in their environment and take actions that result in needed success. For this to work though, human beings have to train these machines in a process called machine learning—they have to teach the machine to recognise these human behaviours and respond accordingly. And they do this by feeding the machine large amounts of data and writing code—algorithms—so that it can understand that data. Image source: Harsh Aryan It’s just like raising a child, except this one does exactly what you tell it to do and isn’t sticky 80% of the time—and you can work it to the bone without human rights organisations crying child abuse. Jk, jk. The Entering Tech Shorts This edition of Entering starts with a question on if no-code development is the same as software engineering but with cheat codes. Foluso Ayodele, in 60 seconds, tells you everything you need to know about being a no-code developer. Watch the 1-minute YouTube Short here! Careers in AI Skills needed: Mathematics, Machine Learning, Programming Skills (Backend), and Data Analysis. 1. Machine Learning Engineer: Machine learning engineers build and maintain machine learning systems that can learn and improve over time. They work on algorithms and models that can analyse data, detect patterns, and make predictions. 2. Data Scientist: Data scientists collect, process, and analyse large data sets to identify trends and insights. They use statistical and machine learning models to develop predictive models and inform business decisions. 3. Natural Language Processing (NLP) Engineer: NLP engineers develop algorithms and models that can understand and process human language. They work on applications such as voice assistants, chatbots, and sentiment analysis. 4. Computer Vision Engineer: Computer vision engineers develop algorithms and models that can analyse visual data such as images and videos. They work on applications such as facial recognition, object detection, and self-driving cars. 5. Robotics Engineer: Robotics engineers design and build robots that can perform tasks autonomously. They work on applications such as industrial automation, medical robots, and drones. Start your AI career here Unlike other careers, AI and machine learning are best learnt by those with some knowledge of backend engineering and math. Check out this edition to learn more about backend engineering. Machine learning on Coursera Price: Free ($79 for certificate) Duration: 4 months Tools Needed: Internet + Laptop Level: Beginner Get Course Deep Learning Specialisation on Coursera Price: Free ($49 for certificate) Duration: 4 months Tools Needed: Internet + Laptop Level: Intermediate Get Course Machine Learning Crash Course on Google AI Price: Free Duration: 15 hours Tools Needed: Internet + Laptop Level: Intermediate Get Course Machine Learning Specialisation on EdX Price: Free ($300 for certificate) Duration: 12 weeks Tools Needed: Internet + Laptop Level: Intermediate Get Course Introduction to Machine Learning for Coders on Fast.AI Price: Free Duration: 12 weeks Tools Needed: Internet + Laptop Level: Beginner (for coders) Get Course Attend the Africa Teen Tech Festival Explore the future of tech and kickstart your career at the Africa Teen Tech Fest! Gain valuable guidance on job hunting and identify career paths aligned with your interests. Participate in Drone Soccer, e-Sports and Virtual Reality exhibits. Teens can win ₦250,000 in cash prizes! Register for the festival now! Tech trivia answers Although AI programmes have been in development since the 1950s, the first one that could give output was a programme launched in 1996 called ELIZA which could respond based on a set of commands. ChatGPT presently has about 100 million users globally. It achieved this status within five months of launch! Jobs Tek Experts – Technical Lead – Software Developer – Full time, Lagos Nigeria Venture Builder – Founder’s Factory – Full-time, Kenya Kuda Technologies Limited – Technical lead, Backend Engineer – Full time, Lagos, Nigeria Vocalysd – Technical Co-founder – Full-time,
Read MoreKenya boosts payments interoperability with state-backed QR codes
The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has announced the Kenya Quick Response Code Standard 2023, also shortened as KE-QR Code Standard 2023. The service seeks to boost digital payments, which are offered by multiple financial institutions in the country. These companies usually have in-house payments solutions, meaning customers can only use a channel that has been implemented by a vendor. To this end, the CBK wants to eliminate that friction through this latest collaboration. The issue Kenyans have been using till and paybill numbers for an extended period when paying for goods and services. However, and for a long time, many payments companies, including banks and mobile money institutions, failed to work together to make their products interoperable. This issue has since been addressed following the CBK’s intervention, which forced Safaricom’s hand to accept other players to use its M-PESA paybill and till numbers (Airtel Money and T-Kash). The move was welcomed by customers, but it was only limited to mobile money products. Lender Equity attempted to fix the issue with another product named Equity One Number, which allows merchants to receive payments from multiple payment channels or mobile money wallets via a single till number. Equity’s approach appears to be what the CBK has adopted, but instead of using till numbers, customers will now be required to scan a QR code to make a payment. Kenya Quick Response Code According to the CBK governor, Patrick Njoroge, merchants will now be able to receive payments from multiple channels, be it banks (Equity, KCB, Cooperative Bank, Absa, and more), mobile money wallets, and other payment processors such as VISA and Mastercard. “The Standard, which is based on the EMVCo QR Code Specification, has been developed through collaboration between the CBK, payment service providers, banks, and card schemes, among others,” a statement from the CBK reads. “The Standard will be rolled out in a phased approach as these players align their operations to requirements set out in the Standard and increase customer awareness,” the statement continues. This means that merchants no longer need to install multiple paybill or till number systems for their businesses. Customers, on the other hand, will enjoy a fairly direct and secure digital payment option, with more payment choices and better protection. They can make payments quickly using their preferred payments channel, without having to carry cash. According to a statement, they can trust that their payment information is secure and won’t be shared with merchants. “QR payments use an EMV standard for QR codes which mitigate many of the risks commonly associated with QR payments today. Consumers are in control throughout the process, from initiating the payment, confirming the transaction amount, and authorising payment. The consumer does not have to hand over their payment device to a clerk during a QR transaction,” reads the aforementioned statement from CBK. To accept QR code payments, merchants will present the code to the customer, who will scan it to initiate the transaction. However, it is not clear whether merchants will implement QR codes for payments at their places of business. This is because they already have other channels (paybills for mobile money wallets and POS machines for card payments) that have proven quite popular among Kenyans. Equally important is that many locals use M-PESA services and have become accustomed to settling their bills using the platform. At the moment, more than 600K businesses have till/paybill numbers for payments.
Read MoreExclusive: A fire incident at Zenith Bank’s primary data centre is causing a network downtime
Zenith Bank, Nigeria’s biggest bank by market capitalisation, is experiencing a total infrastructure downtime after a fire at the company’s primary data centre. The downtime affects Zenith Bank’s services, leaving millions of customers in the lurch. At one of the bank’s branches, a security official could be heard telling a customer that the network was down. The security official did not provide further information. Multiple sources told TechCabal that the downtime began around 7 a.m. this morning. One source confirmed that the incident started after a backup power system caught fire, triggering a power cut to the data centre. According to sources with knowledge of the matter, the bank is now attempting to switch to its disaster recovery infrastructure to get all services up and running. It is standard practice for big organisations to have disaster recovery protocols, but Zenith could not switch to its recovery infrastructure at the time of this report. One source told TechCabal that the delay in switching to its disaster recovery is connected to the fact that not all banking service were running in an active-active deployment. It means that the services running active-standby now have to be switched manually. The source told TechCabal that, despite the delays, the bank expects to have its infrastructure up and running before the end of the day. TechCabal sent emails to Zenith Bank’s corporate communications department and didn’t get a response at the time of this report. A member of the communications team who spoke to TechCabal on the phone said that she could neither confirm nor deny the incident. The bank has also not shared any information with customers on social media channels or acknowledged that it is experiencing a downtime. Today’s incident will bring conversations about moving banking infrastructure to the cloud to the front burner again. While some may argue that it may not wholly solve reliability issues, it could go some way in helping to prevent day-long downtimes when unexpected incidents happen. *This is a developing story.
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Unpacking Africa’s fastest growing companies list
Yesterday, the Financial Times, and research company, Statista released a report on Africa’s fastest growing companies 2023. The list highlights how the top 100 African businesses from across different sectors—fintech, renewable energy, healthcare, commodities and agriculture—kept their businesses afloat while most of the world’s businesses shut down. Topping the list is Nigerian-based startup Afex Commodities Exchange and Moniepoint. Other companies on the list include Wasoko, from Kenya, which topped the list the previous year, and Altech, an Energy company from the Democratic Republic of Congo. This article highlights some of the talking points of the report. The list shows a balanced representation of all sectors Although fintech and agriculture hold top spots, Africa’s fastest-growing companies list shows a balanced representation of companies across different sectors. Companies from across IT & Software, Logistics & Transportation, Real Estate, Energy & Utilities, Construction & Engineering, Food & Beverages, Media & Telecommunications, Agriculture, Retail, Hospitality, Professional Services, E-commerce, Management & Consulting, Manufacturing, Education, Metals & Mining, were all on the list with varying degrees of representation. Image source: Faith Omoniyi/ TechCabal Fintech and IT companies had the highest number of representation on the list, with nineteen and sixteen businesses, respectively. Agriculture, with a representation of nine countries, comes in third and is closely followed by the Metal and Mining sector, with eight companies contributing to the list. Sectors with the lowest number of representation include manufacturing, hospitality& travel, employment services, and professional services, with one entry apiece. Image source: Faith Omoniyi/ TechCabal The big four lead the pack The Africa’s Fastest growing companies list saw representation from fourteen different African countries: Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Morocco, Tanzania, Ghana, Mauritius, Zambia, Malawi and Namibia. Image source: Faith Omoniyi/ TechCabal Companies from the big four—South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Kenya—heavily dominated the list. Leading the pack were South Africa and Nigeria, with thirty-three and twenty-seven businesses, respectively. Kenya and Egypt both polled twelve and nine businesses, respectively. Zambia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, DRC, Tanzania, and Malawi polled the least number of entries, with one entry each. Image source: Faith Omoniyi/ TechCabal Regions. Southern Africa produced the most number of entries in the list, with 37 companies, hugely boosted by figures in South Africa and just four in Namibia. Western Africa comes in second with 30 entries across Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone. Eastern Africa had a show of nineteen company contributions. Middle Africa contributed the least to the 100 fastest growing company list with just one entry. Image source: Faith Omoniyi/ TechCabal Eastern Africa had the highest number of countries on the list, with 5 countries, closely followed by West Africa, with three. Middle Africa had the least with one, while South Africa and North Africa had two countries each on the list.
Read MoreWi-flix streaming service launches in Zambia
Wi-flix, one of Africa’s fastest growing streaming services, has launched in Zambia in partnership with MTN Zambia. Zambia is the fourth country in which the service is available on the continent, joining Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria. Speaking at the launch, Louis Manu, the co-founder & chief commercial officer of Wi-flix, stated that the move forms part of the company’s audacious ambition to become the leading content provider for the African continent and the diaspora. “We witness another exciting milestone as we launch in Zambia and bring to the public the most exciting premium content on demand and at the most affordable rate which is exactly what many Zambians are looking for…Customers can now enjoy the best African and foreign movie titles, TV shows, sports, and a variety of the very best of entertainment anytime, anywhere and on whatever device, ” Manu stated. Speaking for MTN Zambia, Richard Acheampong, chief consumer officer, stated that the move takes Zambia one step closer to achieving its Ambition 2025 objective of digitalisation. “I am delighted to see the successful partnership between Wi-flix and MTN Zambia, providing our customers access to a variety of premium content. We are taking a step towards achieving our Ambition 2025 of leading digital solutions for Africa’s progress, harnessing the power of our leading brand, its footprint, connectivity infrastructure and technology platforms. With Dolby Atmos and updated catalogs, coupled with our 5G high-speed internet connectivity, customers now have access to an unbeatable entertainment experience,” he said. MTN Zambia customers can access the Wi-flux service with daily, weekly, and monthly data packages at K1, K5 and K20 respectively.
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