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May 12 2023

TechCabal Daily – Sama must pay

Lire en français Read this email in French. 12 MAY, 2023 IN PARTNERSHIP WITH TGIF Some of your favourite shows may never be renewed. Disney Plus lost four million subscribers this year, and coupled with the 2.4 million it lost in Q4 2022, the company has announced that it’s spending less on content. In today’s edition Updates from Google I/0 Kenya says Sama must pay moderators Safaricom receives mobile money licence in Ethiopia Funding tracker The World Wide Web3 Event: Inside Identity Job opportunities UPDATES FROM GOOGLE I/O Artificial intelligence (AI) is here to stay and Google this week announced how it’s bringing it to everyone. If you missed Google’s annual developer conference—Google I/O—which was held on Wednesday, here are the most important things that the big tech company announced: Bard is available to everyone: In February, Google unveiled a ChatGPT rival called Bard which does pretty much everything ChatGPT can do with a plus of being able to comment on events past 2021. Now, Google Bard is available to everyone! For free. Try it out here—we did. AI in Search: Google is also integrating generative AI into its search results, which will allow users to see AI-generated text summaries of information from across the web, above the usual links and ads. Search will also feature actual responses from human beings so if you ask questions like “How can I express sorrow but maintain beauty”, Search will bring you responses from similar questions on Reddit, StackOverFlow, or blogs. Two large language models: Showing off, Google announced two new large language models (LLM), the PaLM 2 and LaMBDA 2. The former is a 540-billion parameter LLM, while the latter is a 1.3 trillion parameter LLM. This means that LAMBDA 2 is about 2.4 times larger than PaLM 2. While both are still under development, PaLM 2 is said to be stronger in logic and reasoning than Open AI’s GPT models. It’s being used to power Bard and other Google AI products. Studio Bot: Google also announced Studio Bot, an AI-powered coding bot that can help Android developers build apps by generating code. Studio Bot is still in its early stages, but Google is confident that it will only get better. A lot more announcements were made, including new additions to the Google Pixel family, updates to Project Starline and Duet AI, and a magic eraser that lets you edit people out of photos, but what we’ve listed are the most critical ones. You can find the rest here. P.S. Parts of this news was written by Google’s Bard. It’s our editor’s attempt to work smart and “bring on the weekend”. 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. KENYA SAYS SAMA MUST PAY CONTENT MODERATORS Kenyan courts are not slacking on Meta and its outsourcing partner Sama. Yesterday, Kenya’s Employment and Labour Relations Court ordered the content moderation service Sama to pay its employees. ICYMI: Earlier this year, Meta cut ties with Sama after content moderators accused Sama of poor working conditions. Early in March, Sama then announced it would lay off over 200 content moderators as Meta moved to outsource its content moderation to an international company Majorel. The content moderators—about 180 of them—sued both Meta and Sama, seeking compensation of up to Ksh million ($73,000) per moderator for unfair labour practices, and a further Ksh20 million ($146,000) each, for violation of their rights. The courts then ordered Meta to continue working with Sama and its content moderators pending the hearing scheduled for May. Sama has to pay: Now, the content moderators have revealed that Sama is refusing to pay salaries despite the March order. Yesterday, the employment court heard the case and ordered Sama to pay the content moderators their due. Zoom out: So far, both Meta and Sama appear to be ignoring court orders with Meta reportedly going ahead to engage Majorel. The big tech company has previously argued that the Kenyan courts have no jurisdiction to convene over its affairs, a notion that the courts rejected. SAFARICOM SECURES MOBILE MONEY LICENCE IN ETHIOPIA Ethiopia’s mobile money market is heating up as Safaricom Ethiopia secured a mobile money licence from the National Bank of Ethiopia. Safaricom looks to replicate the success it has garnered in Kenya with its M-pesa mobile money service. The announcement followed President Ruto’s speech where he expressed confidence that Ethiopia would grant Safaricom’s mobile money licence request in a deal that was reportedly finalised by President Ruto and Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in Addis Ababa. Ethiopia is open for business Prior to this licensing, talks about awarding mobile money licences were slow-walked by Ethiopia’s bureaucracy which sought to protect the government–majority-owned Ethio-Telecom and its then-recently launched mobile money service, Telebirr. Eventually, in April 2022, Ethiopia’s central bank announced a draft bill which, upon being made law, permitted foreign–owned telecom operators like Safaricom to launch mobile money services. In December 2020, the Ethiopian government invited telecom companies to bid for two licences to compete against Ethio Telecom. Only two consortia placed bids. One from South Africa’s MTN Group, and the second from the Global Partnership for Ethiopia Consortium, led by Kenya’s Safaricom and including Vodafone, Vodacom, CDC Group. The Safaricom-led consortium won after the government rejected the MTN Group’s bid. MTN refused to participate in a second tender. Zoom out: Until Safaricom’s entry, state-owned Ethio Telecom operated as a monopoly with 54 million subscribers in Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country with an estimated population of 118 million people. EXPERIENCE VIVA TECHNOLOGY Book your pass to Europe’s biggest Startup and Business event here. This is partner content. TC INSIGHTS: FUNDING TRACKER This week, South African Health-Tech company Quro raised $1.3 million in an undisclosed funding round from Mineworkers Investment Company (MIC). Here are the other deals this week: Egypt-based fintech company Balad closed an

May 11 2023

With data becoming more affordable, Africans are spending one-third of their day on their phones

Reports from Data Sparkle, a data and analytics platform for emerging markets, have shown that Africa has over 270 million monthly active users who spend one-third of their time on mobile apps. As the world moves towards a more digital landscape, more people rely heavily on their mobile devices for a lot of activities. Per a new report [pdf] from Data Sparkle, Africans spend one-third of their daily life—over 4 hours each day—using their mobile phones, while using an average of 12GB of data monthly. The report, named “The Changing Landscape Of Africa’s Mobile App Market”, analyses Africa’s mobile market’s transformation in the past year by examining various aspects, including the behaviours and preferences of mobile users, the apps that have gained popularity, and the contributions made by developers. According to the report, Africa had over 270 million monthly active users of mobile apps as at the end of 2022, representing a 14% rise from the beginning of the year. Data is becoming more affordable in Africa According to the report, Africans use an average of 12GB of data monthly. Mobile internet has become more affordable lately, with the cost of 1GB of data dropping across the continent. Between 2019 and 2022, the average cost of 1GB of data dropped by 38% in Egypt, 69% in Kenya, and 91% in Nigeria. In 2022, the average cost of 1GB across 13 African countries was less than US$1. Most of the world’s most expensive mobile data plans are in Africa Africans spend a tiny fraction of their income on data subscriptions In today’s digital-centric society, more people rely on the internet to stay in touch with friends and family, work and do business, thereby spending more on data subscriptions. According to the Data Sparkles report, most users spent an average of $5-15 monthly on data subscriptions- a meagre fraction of their average monthly income. Kenyans spend 7.9% of their income on data subscriptions, while Nigerians spend 6.2%. Egyptians and South Africans spend 3.8% and 1.9% of their income on data subscriptions respectively. The reports show that users from Egypt and Kenya consume the most data monthly, with averages of 24.3GB and 14.1 GB respectively in monthly data subscriptions. African mobile phone users are night crawlers According to the report, most Africans used their phones mainly at night- after 6 pm, with phone usage peaking between 7 and 9 pm. Also, Africans spend one-third of their daily life—over 4 hours everyday—using their mobile phones. A large portion of this time is spent on communication and social apps. In contrast, a minute fraction is spent on news, books and music apps. On average, African users spend up to 23 hours monthly on social media, split among popular social media platforms, Facebook, Tik Tok, Youtube and Instagram. Africans love their leisure time Of the 575 apps surveyed in this report, 183 games were in the top 500 apps categories, representing 36.6%. Other popular app categories include: tools (41 apps, 8.2%), music & audio (32 apps, 6.4%), video players & editors (31 apps, 6.2%), communication (28 apps, 5.6%), social (26 apps, 5.2%), finance (22 apps, 4.4%) and productivity (22 apps, 4.4%). While gaming had the most significant representation in the top apps category—36.6 of the total apps surveyed—the number of monthly active users of mobile games in Africa also saw an increase, with over 200 million users spending an average of 12 hours monthly playing casual, puzzle, card and arcade games. Subway Surfers, Candy Crush, Ludo Master, and Talking Angela, amongst others, were the most played games in which African users found comfort and swiped away their stress. There is room for more Overall, the report showed that “Africa’s mobile market maintained its growth momentum in 2022”. Mobile internet consumption on the continent also swelled, with global players from different industries establishing businesses here. Categories such as communication, social and video players & editor had the largest user base but other sectors requiring higher operation costs and better Internet connectivity, without dominant players in place, have not yet been be fully tapped.

May 11 2023

Court bars Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) from imposing fines on broadcast stations

The Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has been barred from imposing fines on broadcast stations. This happened after a ruling in Abuja on May 10, 2023, which was presided over by Justice James Omotosho. According to the ruling, NBC had no power to sanction broadcast organisations and while the NBC code grants the commission the power to impose a sanction, it conflicted with the constitution, which conferred judicial power in the court of law. Other things the judge noted included the fact that the broadcasting commission had no power to conduct a criminal investigation that would lead to a criminal trial and imposition of sanctions. According to him, this goes against the doctrine of separation of powers, which is in place to prevent tyranny by concentrating too much power in the hands of one body. “The action of the respondent qualifies as excessiveness,” Justice Omotosho said. On March 1, 2019, NBC imposed a fine of ₦500,000 each on 45 broadcast stations in the country over an alleged violation of its code. This prompted the Incorporated Trustees of Media Rights Agenda to sue the regulatory body, calling the sanction a violation of the rules of natural justice. That was not the last time NBC doled out hefty fines to broadcast organisations. In April, NBC imposed a ₦5 million fine on Channels TV for interviewing the vice-presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Datti Baba-Ahmed. According to NBC, the station was complicit in the “outburst” of the Baba-Ahmed, who advised the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) against swearing in President-elect Bola Tinubu. NBC’s unfine history of fines NBC also imposed ₦2 million fines on broadcast stations Arise News and TVC for alleged breach of national broadcasting codes in the countdown to the 2023 general election, saying that the stations allowed derogatory comments to be broadcast. The commission demanded that payment of the fines should be within two weeks of the receipt of the letters or the sanction would be graduated. In 2020, three broadcast stations, AIT, Arise TV, and Channels were also fined ₦3 million for their “unprofessional” coverage of the ENDSars protest. Popular Nigerian artistes have also met the fury of NBC as the commission has banned several songs and music videos for reasons like explicit videos or vulgar lyrics. Media stakeholders and the general public have expressed their dissatisfaction with the actions of NBC for a long time now. The commission’s code has repeatedly been accused of being unconstitutional, arbitrary and unlawful. In a statement issued by the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON), the NBC was condemned for acting as both “accuser and judge” and imposing an illegal fine on a broadcast station without employing all avenues to investigate the complaints nor give room for defence from the station accused. Following this ruling, the NBC will henceforth have to engage the judicial system before sanctioning a TV or radio station, and both sides will be granted a fair hearing.

May 11 2023

As Safaricom seeks to conquer Ethiopia, its profits are taking a hit

Safaricom’s Ethiopia expansion seems to be coming at the expense of the mobile network operator’s profitability. In early October 2022, TechCabal reported that Kenya’s leading telco Safaricom officially launched its Ethiopian service following a ten-city pilot and a phased launch across the country. Today, the mobile network operator released its FY23 results, covering the period between March 2022 and March2023, which showed that its market entry into Ethiopia has yielded mixed results. While its revenue saw an increase of 4.3%, its Ethiopian operations affected profitability thanks to the costs associated with the market expansion. According to the results, Safaricom’s profits after income tax were down by -13.6%, with the group’s capital expenditure for the year surging by over 93%. The company’s Ethiopian operating costs stood at almost 20 billion Kenyan shillings (~$146 million), which represents over 27% of the group’s overall operating costs. While Safaricom’s Kenyan operations reported over 110 billion Kenyan shillings (~$804 million) in profits, Safaricom Ethiopia incurred over 21 billion Kenyan shillings (~$154 million) in losses. The company’s share price dropped by as much as 8.5% following the release of its latest results. At its lowest today, Safaricom shares traded at 14 Kenyan shillings per share on the Nairobi Stock Exchange, prices last seen in 2015. Despite weakening earnings and a persistent slide in share price, Safaricom board chair, Adil Khawaja, defended CEO Peter Ndegwa in the earnings call and swatted at rumours about a planned exit for the chief executive. State of Ethiopia operations According to Safaricom, the company now has 2 million, 1.4 million, and 700,000 voice, data and messaging customers respectively in the country since commencement of operations in October 2022. Overall, the number of customers onboarded stood at 3 million in 22 cities, a 22% penetration. Revenue from Ethiopian operations stood at 1.8 billion Kenyan shillings with service, voice, data, and messaging accounting for 600 million, 100 million, 400 million, and 3.9 million shillings respectively. A bet worth making? In the current macroeconomic environment, the majority of financial experts seem to support bottomline growth over topline growth, with profitability supposed to take precedence over revenue growth. It seems like Safaricom is taking a different approach and making what some might consider a risky bet. It is important to note that South Africa’s MTN Group pulled out of a second tender offer to purchase a telco licence in Ethiopia in 2021, citing an unwillingness to operate in conflict-ridden markets, a reference to conflict in the Tigray region. But the opportunity in the Ethiopian market is clear if costly. Together with its annual results, Safaricom also announced that it has secured the licence to operate mobile money services in the country at a cost of $150 million. It plans to launch the service this quarter. Until Safaricom’s entry, state-owned Ethio Telecom operated as a monopoly with 54 million subscribers in Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country with an estimated population of 118 million people. Now Safaricom’s wildly successful M-Pesa gets to compete with the Telebirr service from the government–backed mobile network operator. In June last year, Ethio-Telecom announced that it had on-boarded over 21 million customers to its mobile money offering, figures which show the immense potential of the service in Ethiopia. On the results, Safaricom puts the scaling of its Ethiopian operations, specifically its mobile money offering, as one of core FY24 focus. Only time will tell if the bet will be worth it.

May 11 2023

Andy Umana is improving the real estate experience with the blockchain

Andy Umana met with CrossFund’s chief editor, Luke Sheehan, to share a journey that has taken him from being a young student at the Ilorin State University, with an interest in environmental sustainability, to being the founder of a blockchain and real estate startup during the pandemic. Umana’s father was a civil servant and his mother a trader; Umana was “that guy ready to help out and try to see how to put food on the table” for his family. In his own words, he “has always sold”. As an adult, he manifested that, first, by starting a supply chain business for agricultural products (Yahgro), with a model based on finding food supply in northern Nigeria and selling in the south. Bottlenecks and a heavy presence of middlemen got in the mix, and then inflation hit, making what was a profitable company hard to scale. That’s when he discovered the blockchain. A peer-to-peer platform followed, and then he joined the team that created the first NFT collection in Nigeria. At that point, he figured there must be an untapped opportunity somewhere. He’s now founder and head of growth at Relsify, a fractional real estate platform for Africa, which was launched in 2021. Tell me how Relsify got started. I moved to Lagos during the pandemic. Somebody had a distressed property to sell and I could not afford it at the time. Yet I had a community because of my involvement with the crypto space. I thought, “With this community and technology, we can go in on this property and share the profit that will come out of it.”Even during the pandemic, real estate was growing faster than any other part of the economy. To bring people into the market who, like me, are not part of the “1% of the 1%”, new solutions were needed. I mean, it is obvious that the quality of people’s earnings is reducing day-by-day in Nigeria, but the cost of housing is going higher. To get access to the market and get a return requires innovation. The opportunity to get in on real estate investment is becoming slimmer and slimmer. The space is highly cash-based, and in Nigeria—and Africa as a whole—there is little infrastructure to allow people to access mortgages and become owners. So we thought of a way to scale a platform to allow people to take profit out of the real estate market that they are actively involved in. We did a proper market analysis and we found out that the best way to go about it is to build something that uses a transparent system that allows people to crowdfund and own bits and pieces of properties in highbrow areas. That’s the basic story of how Relsify was born—hopefully the start of a revolution in housing. We have made a lot of progress so far, in terms of regulatory compliance and definitely the building of the product. You say on your LinkedIn that you’re hiring. Can you tell me about how you’re expanding your team? Is it hard to find and keep talent?We are definitely facing this struggle. “Japa Syndrome” [the brain drain of young Nigerians] is real. A lot of talents are relocating to other countries. Two or three of our team members, just before product launch, left the country. To solve this, we’re trying to build a culture around solving pain points for talents, not just hiring people to get the job done. We are building a community around the product, so they feel that sense of belonging and ownership of it. We’re shaping minds to ensure they are genuinely concerned and interested in revolutionising the way people invest in real estate. That’s basically how we’re going about finding and retaining the right talent now. If you were in charge of Nigeria, what would you change?We are building a highly-regulated product; we have to work with the government of the day. One of the challenges that we face—and why we’ve not broken into the market with full strength from day one—is that we have had to wait and talk to the SEC in Nigeria to secure a provisional licence for us to carry out what we’re trying to do. Despite numerous challenges, we were able to follow up until they recently crafted one that suits us. But now we await approvals to pull it through. They are telling us that they are waiting for the new government to come through before they [the SEC] start issuing this licence, because they want to understand [the new government’s tone and approach to policy first]. The representatives of the new government were explaining to us during their campaign that they would be pro-blockchain; that Nigeria would no longer be among the crypto-agnostic countries. There are a lot of different things that the government has to do, with regard to accepting and working with innovation. I think that regulation can catch up with innovation, eventually, and we will see paths to market for the solutions and products we are building. I think the new government should create a better playing field for startups like mine. There are positive signs from the president-elect around the real estate and startup sectors, going back to his time as governor of Lagos state. Are you optimistic about getting enough funding in the near future?Surely. I’m super excited about what funding is looking like in Africa. We’ve seen big funding rounds and acquisitions in recent times. I think exciting times lie ahead when people see the work coming out of Africa. Mostly, I have raised from friends and family to start and build this business, and I’m trying to build up traction towards a proper seed round. In all, I’m really optimistic about where we are going. We are moving into using our skills for building, and the government is joining the race. When people see this from the outside world, they will definitely see the changes in our market and more funding will be accessible. We

May 11 2023

Africa’s funding winter means smaller budgets for marketing campaigns

Marketing is a crucial part of a startup’s growth, but for every company the process is different. How do tech companies and startups approach marketing, especially in an economic downturn? Growth and marketing have had a significant impact on the startup boom in Africa. While there are critical keys to a startup’s success like access to funding and product-market fit, marketing is also a strong area and can be seen in the way that startups and companies across the continent heavily invest in marketing and advertising. We’ve seen startups launch campaigns with celebrities and sponsor major reality shows like Big Brother in a bid to reach a wider audience. In 2021, startups like Kuda spent over $1 million on marketing efforts to deepen their market penetration. Opeyemi Odusola led marketing in Nigeria for accessories company, Oraimo. One of the things he enjoyed the most about marketing with Oraimo was the fact that he wasn’t constrained by budgets. At Oraimo, he had the liberty to experiment with various ideas and collaborations, with his favourite being the campaign they created for the Freepods 3. It involved collaborating with Grammy-award-winning producer Telz and other major artistes. “We wanted an ad that showed our users that we listened to them and we understood them. Being an artiste myself, I also wanted something that resonated with music-loving users and we felt like bringing a couple of artistes together to talk about their relationship with music would be great,” he shared. For Ebuka who works in marketing for Piggyvest, an interesting metric that he uses to judge the success of ad campaigns is how well he is able to do with a small budget. Although the team at Piggyvest has a larger budget to execute with— unlike his previous workplace —, he shares that paying attention to budgets is a critical part of a campaign’s success. “When I find myself going above the budget, it means that I have to go and tweak something. Either your content is not good enough, your creative direction is not the right one or your landing page experience is incomplete. There has to be a reason why your ad is not getting the desired results and it’s up to you to fix it,” Ebuka stated. Ads are beyond money to Ebuka, who believes that while bigger budgets can help you execute bigger ideas, they don’t always translate to better results. “It’s not just about having money, it’s very difficult to get people’s attention online these days and your ads have to resonate with your audience to work,” he shared. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Piggyvest (@piggybankng) Navigating marketing in a downturn Marketing Specialist Ebunoluwa Ade-Taiwo shares the same sentiments with Ebuka on marketing going beyond money. Ade-Taiwo, who works at Quidax— a startup that has had to lay off 20% of its workforce due to the downturn—, shares that there are a lot of ways to be creative when you don’t have access to a large budget. 2023 has seen a decline in startup funding across the continent, and a byproduct of this is that startups are being more prudent with resources which extend to marketing budgets. “Companies are utilising more creative, cost-effective ways to reach potential users and drive growth. Unlike previous years when we could easily sponsor big events and sign celebrities as ambassadors; we now try to explore other options like using your employees as ambassadors and tasking them to help promote the company. We also do a whole lot more digital and content marketing now, as these are cheaper alternatives.” For fintechs, Ade-Taiwo believes that marketing is a lot more complex due to the trust factor. “You need to build trust and credibility if you’re asking people to trust you with their money. In Nigeria today, before somebody can part with as little as ₦5,000, they have to trust you, and so you need to pay extra attention to the kind of ads you are putting out and what your reputation is,” he noted. Despite not having a large budget, the Quidax team is using their social media to tell stories and one of Ade-Taiwo’s favourite ad campaigns was one for International Women’s Day titled “How Qbabes are saving smarter.” For that campaign, they made a compilation of stories from women on how they were making smarter financial decisions. However, she wished they had a bigger budget for the campaign to do better than it did. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Quidax (@quidaxglobal) Nigeria’s tech ecosystem has witnessed rapid growth over the years and marketing has been a fundamental part of it. A huge part of marketing, however, is budgets and although bigger budgets are not always markers of success for campaigns, companies with bigger budgets typically have more reach as we’ve seen in the case of companies like OPay and Kuda, among others. As funding for the Nigerian tech ecosystem falls — and consequently the marketing budgets, will the growth in the coming years be slower, or will smaller companies find a way to make up for smaller budgets?

May 11 2023

Check 2023 NECO result online easily

The National Examinations Council (NECO) is a Nigerian examination body that conducts the Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE) for students in their final year of secondary school. After taking the NECO exams, students can check their results online, which is a convenient and easy process like checking your waec results too. In this article, we will provide a step-by-step guide on how to check your 2023 NECO result online. Step 1: Obtain your NECO Result Checking Token Before you can check your 2023 NECO result online, you will need to obtain a NECO Result Checking Token. This token serves as a unique code that enables you to check your result online. You can obtain a Result Checking Token from any NECO office, NECO portal or an authorised online dealer. You will need to provide your exam registration number and a small fee to get the token. Step 2: Visit the NECO result checking website Once you have obtained your Result Checking Token, you can proceed to the NECO result checking website at https://results.neco.gov.ng/. On the page, you’ll find 4 fields needing you to fill them. They include “Examination Year”, “Examination Type”, “Token”, and “Registration Number”. Step 3: Select the Exam Type Choose the appropriate exam type from the drop-down list. For instance, if you took your NECO with the secondary school you finished from, you’re picking “NECO internal” exams. Step 4: Select the Exam Year After selecting the exam type, the next step to check your NECO result is to choose the exam year. You can choose any year from 2000 to the current year. Step 5: Enter your Result Checking Token and Exam Registration Number to check your NECO results In the next step, enter your Result Checking Token and Exam Registration Number in the spaces provided. Ensure that you enter the correct details, including your examination number and year of examination. Step 6: Click on the “Check Result” to see NECO scores After entering your details, click on the “Check Result” button to proceed to see your NECO scores. If you have entered the correct details, your result will be displayed on the screen. You can print out your result or save it for future reference. And that’s it about how to check your NECO results online. Final thoughts on how to check NECO results Checking your NECO result online is a seamless process with the above steps. But should you face any difficulty, ensure to reach out to the NECO support line – support@neco.gov.ng. Good luck!

May 11 2023

What African founders think about the recent funding downturn

Funding for African startups has waned in recent months, with 2023 being one of the slowest years since the pandemic for deals both in volume and amount. Founders tell TechCabal what they think about the downturn. The heady days when the African (read as Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, and South Africa) tech ecosystem announced funding deals every week now seem like a distant past. Today, African startups are faced with a new reality where investor appetite has dropped. Some founders told TechCabal that in response to this, there has been a shift towards forgoing venture capital and instead focusing on attaining profitability. They also shared that other steps such as adjusting valuations, pivoting, and bootstrapping have been resourceful ways of navigating what has been a difficult period to raise capital. According to data from The Big Deal, African startups have raised $536 million in 2023. For context, African startups had raised over $950 million by April last year, representing a 68% decline in 2023. Adjusting valuations Considering the waning investor appetite, it is now highly recommended that founders approach investors with lower valuations for their startups. Bashir Aminu, the founder of Coinprofile, a YC-backed crypto startup, shares this opinion. “Companies might want to think about adjusting their valuations to better match the current downturn.” Aminu says this could help startups connect with investors and get funding more easily. “A more down-to-earth valuation can show investors that a company is being realistic and willing to adapt,” he added. Axel Peyriere, an angel investor and the founder of AUTO24.Africa, an Abidjan-based startup, told TechCabal that he has noticed “more humility in founders’ mindsets”. He shared that startups in the big African markets are reducing their valuations. Peter Oriaifo, a partner at Oui Capital, a venture capital firm, agrees with Aminu. He told TechCabal that startups “need to compromise on valuations”. Aminu, however, added a note of caution for startup founders: “Of course, we still need to be careful not to give away too much control of a company in the process,” he said. Peyriere added that the current funding climate will allow the ecosystem to mature faster and become more trustworthy. “Founders will [have to] rely more on clear metrics, economics, and KPIs. It’s not by how much you raise but by what you do with the money that you raise.” He added, “this will bring back trust and transparency with investors in general.” Can acquisitions and pivots save companies? Aminu said that the funding downturn might make things a bit tougher for companies trying to raise funds. He added that “startups might need to focus on making money and using their resources wisely, which could lead to stronger businesses in the long run. But it could also slow down growth and innovation for a bit. Plus, we might see more companies joining forces.” Romain Poirot-Lellig, the founder of Kwik, a Lagos-based logistics startup, told TechCabal that the effect of the funding downturn on startups could see an increase in acquisitions. “So what we can expect is that startups that [have managed to scale up reasonably] are going to play a leading role in their verticals. They’re going to take about 20 of the startups that have not been able to scale up but may present some interest in terms of technology, market share, and staff,” he said. Acquisitions and pivots have been a significant theme this year. Fluidcoins, Instadeep, Qualified, and AutoTager are some of the acquisitions that have happened this year. Some startups are also pivoting their business model. Treepz, a mobility startup with a pan-African presence, recently pivoted its business model to a car-sharing marketplace from a ride-hailing company that allowed users to rent buses, SUVs, and trucks. Johnny Enagwolor, a co-founder of Treepz, told TechCabal that his company pivoted to focus on the best margins of profit. “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 said. Samuel Eze, the founder of OurPass, a fintech that recently pivoted from a one-click checkout to business banking, gave the same reasons for his company’s pivot. He told TechCabal that “when we decided to start scaling the product, it was already post-COVID, and the dynamics of the market had changed. [A one-click checkout solution] didn’t matter to businesses anymore.” He added that the company already has a path to profitability with its new offering. A focus on due diligence Peyriere told TechCabal that he hoped the funding downturn could help shine a brighter light on corporate governance practices for startups. In agreement, Yunus Ibrahim, an analyst at Future Africa, a venture capital firm, told TechCabal that for investors, the downturn meant an uptick in the intensity of due diligence processes and valuation deliberations. “We are seeing more VCs conduct extensive due diligence to mitigate investment risks and increase the likelihood of portfolio companies returning the fund. Also, VCs are taking a more meticulous approach to valuations by negotiating better terms with founders and paying closer attention to unit economics and fundamentals,” Ibrahim said. Yunus anticipates that in the long run, VC firms will likely reduce the number of companies they back while increasing ticket prices. Based on their convictions, some VCs may even prioritise specific sectors, he says. Eghosa Omoigui, general partner at EchoVC, a VC firm, described a situation where VC firms now intentionally drag out the investment process by sending money in tranches and paying closer attention to the startups. He added that some VCs are also divesting themselves of some portfolio companies as they seek to keep tabs on the promising ones. “All of this points to a trying market putting founders and investors to the test. But the interesting thing is this could also be the best time for VCs to invest. There are great deals on the table at better terms, and founders are swifter to take advice,” he said.

May 11 2023

Safaricom Ethiopia gets mobile money licence 7 months after Ethiopia entry

Ethiopia’s mobile money market is heating up as Safaricom Ethiopia secures a mobile money licence from the National Bank of Ethiopia. Safaricom looks to replicate its Kenyan success as Telebirr is finally facing the competition it dreaded. In early October 2022, TechCabal reported that Kenya’s leading telco Safaricom officially launched its Ethiopian service following a ten-city pilot and a phased launch across the country. Now it has received permission (officially termed “payment instrument issuer licence”) from the central government to roll out M-Pesa in Ethiopia. At the elaborate ceremony to celebrate the launch of Safaricom Ethiopia last year, Ethiopia’s minister of finance, Ahmed Shide, announced that his government had awarded Safaricom permission to roll out M-Pesa, its widely successful mobile money product, in Ethiopia. The announcement followed President Ruto’s speech where he expressed confidence that Ethiopia would grant Safaricom’s mobile money licence request in a deal that was reportedly finalised by President Ruto and Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in Addis Ababa. But it took little over eight months for the actual licence to be issued. “The issuance of the mobile money licence reflects the NBE’s on-going objective of fostering innovation and financial inclusion in the Ethiopian market,” part of the statement from the National Bank of Ethiopia, Ethiopia’s central bank read. Ethiopia gets serious about opening up Prior to this licensing, talks about awarding mobile money licences were slow-walked by Ethiopia’s bureaucracy which sought to protect the government–majority-owned Ethio-Telecom and its then-recently launched mobile money service, Telebirr. Eventually in April 2022, Ethiopia’s central bank announced a draft bill which, upon being made law, permitted foreign–owned telecom operators like Safaricom to launch mobile money services. In December 2020, the Ethiopian government invited telecom companies to bid for two licences to compete against Ethio Telecom. Only two consortia placed bids. One from South Africa’s MTN Group in partnership with China’s Silk Road Fund. And the second was from the Global Partnership for Ethiopia Consortium, led by Kenya’s Safaricom and including Vodafone, Vodacom, CDC Group (now British International Investments and Japan’s Sumimoto. The Safaricom-led consortium won after the government rejected the MTN Group’s bid. MTN refused to participate in a second tender following this loss to Safaricom. Until Safaricom’s entry, state-owned Ethio Telecom operated as a monopoly with 54 million subscribers in Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country with an estimated population of 118 million people. Now Safaricom’s near monopoly M-Pesa gets to compete with the Telebirr service from government–backed Ethio-Telecom. It is worth noting, however, that the Ethiopian government is looking to sell 45% of Ethio-Telecom.

May 11 2023

How to check 2023 JAMB admission status online

One of the most important things for JAMB candidates is to check their admission status after writing the UTME (Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination) and Post-UTME exams. Here are the steps to follow to check your JAMB admission status. Step 1: Visit the JAMB website The first step to check your UTME admission status is to visit their website at https://www.jamb.gov.ng/Efacility. Once you have accessed your portal, navigate to the top of the page. Step 2: Select your examination year At the top, you’ll be able to select the year of the examination you took. Ensure that you select the correct year, which is the year you wrote your UTME. Then click “Check Admission Status”. Step 3: Enter your JAMB registration number to check JAMB admission status After clicking on the “Check Admission Status” option, you will be required to enter your UTME registration number. Ensure that you enter your registration number correctly to avoid any errors. Step 4: Click on “Check Admission Status” to check JAMB admission status After entering your JAMB registration number and selecting your examination year, click on the “Check Admission Status” button. This will display your UTME admission status. Step 5: Accept or reject admission offer If you have been offered admission, you will see a message that says “Congratulations! You have been offered admission.” You will also be provided with details of the institution you have been admitted to and the course you have been admitted to study. At this point, you have the option to either accept or reject the admission offer. If you choose to accept the offer, you will be required to proceed to the institution to complete the admission process. If you have not been offered admission, you will see a message that says “Sorry, no admission is given yet.” This means that you have not been offered admission yet, and you should keep checking the website for updates. Step 6: Check admission status with JAMB CAPS In addition to checking your UTME admission status, it is also important to check the JAMB Central Admission Processing System (CAPS) portal. This portal provides more detailed information about your admission status, such as whether you have been recommended for admission, whether you have been admitted, or whether your admission is still in progress. To check your JAMB CAPS, visit the JAMB website and click on the “CAPS” option under the “Admissions” tab. Please ensure your Chrome browser is on desktop view before trying to access CAPS. In fact, if possible, have it on desktop mode from the onset. Enter your JAMB registration number, select your examination year, and click on “Access my CAPS.” This will display your JAMB CAPS dashboard. Here, you can view your admission status, accept or reject admission offers, and view details of the institution and course you have been admitted to study. Last thoughts on how to check JAMB admission status Checking your UTME admission status is a crucial step in the admission process. By following the steps outlined above, you can easily check this status and take the necessary steps to accept or reject the admission offer. Remember to keep checking the website and JAMB CAPS portal for updates, as admission statuses can change at any time. Meanwhile, are you having issues with checking your JAMB results? These steps can help. Good luck with your admission process!