CIO Africa Magazine Feb-March 2023

VOL 31 | ISSUE 22 | FEBRUARY 2023 EDITION

16th & 17th March

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Content

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06 GUEST EDITOR

Digital Transformation Is Nearly A Teenager

INFLUENTIAL 08 45menMOST in digital

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transformation

32 the round-up

The Latest News From The Continent

36 thinking aloud Of Lighthouses And Leaders

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38 GADGETs

The lastest technological trends in 2023

40 hard talk

Still Waiting For The Servers To Be Opened

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www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2023 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵

editor’s note

“When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.”

— 1 Corinthians 13:11

The Power Of Building Networks Individually, you are probably amazing. Chances are, you have people in your life who remind you of this – if you are lucky. Your intelligence, sense of humour, ideas and even physical energy are all ways of expressing yourself. Imagine though, the thought of collective intelligence. Stay with me.

These 45 men have been instrumental in shaping the digital landscape, and their impact will continue to be felt for years to come. Their vision, innovation, and leadership have all paved the way for new opportunities, solved critical challenges, and driven digital transformation globally. They serve as an inspiration to future leaders and entrepreneurs, who will continue to drive digital transformation and shape the future of technology.

Digital transformation has been a significant catalyst for economic growth, social development, and technological advancements in Africa. The 45 – who are by no means exhaustive - have identified the process of using technology to fundamentally change how businesses and societies operate and deliver value. The last decade has been good to mankind in the sense that we are witnessing the rise of the tech-savvy entrepreneur and innovative start-ups disrupting the landscape, creating new opportunities, solve critical challenges, and drive the continent’s digital transformation.

These are triumphs that are achieved and recognised in pods. Each visionary has a team, and they work with this team on their projects, making many individualised pods.

What if, instead of these pockets, there existed a network?

Inside this hive mind would be a body politic so powerful, it would be an idea whose time has come. An idea whose wave would wash over every nook and cranny in the continent.

@dx5ve

@dx5group

What if I told you that you are already in this network? The dx⁵ community. Sharing and having certain attitudes and interests in common. That this community is constantly growing cannot be denied. The C-Suite is becoming ever more expansive, including new and exciting skills as they come. CIOs are becoming more intertwined in decision making and deciphering business values. Now, remember what life was like before you found your ilk? When you were younger and still attempting to find your footing. Before you knew you were sprouting in and into a community? Look at those who report to you. The Next Gen CIOs. Begin to draw them closer to this network. In fact, I dare you to groom someone who will someday be on this list. Make them change ambassadors, and create an environment where things like failure can happen, and step back. Just a smidge.

Watch, and learn. www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2023 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵

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www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2023 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵

ARTICLE by

Rebatho Madiba, Managing Executive Business Development – Digital Platform Solutions, BCX

Digital Transformation Is Nearly A Teenager It’s been just over ten years since digital transformation became an integral part of the business environment, but as it grows older, is it meeting expectations?

In 2015, the World Economic Foundation identified six megatrends that were set to change the face of business and society and every single one was aligned with the concept of digital transformation. From how the internet would become a social and physical extension of people’s lives and experiences through to compute and storage everywhere to the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) and the digitisation of matter, these trends are now an inherent part of society today.

Some of these trends have already reached significant milestones, others are expected to achieve their tipping points – a critical point that results in unstoppable change – over the next few years. One such milestone is the mega-trend of people and the internet, where their interaction with the web becomes a ‘mental, social, and physical extension of themselves’, is expected to reach 80 per cent of people with a digital presence on the internet by 2023 with the tipping point in 2025. Today, 59 per cent of the world’s population uses social media and enhance their digital presence through online platforms and connections, and this is only set to become more immersive as trends like the metaverse continue to gain traction.

Driven by the pandemic and the need for people to find innovative ways of working and connecting online, digital has become as much a part of daily life as cars and shopping. It has reshaped how people communicate and collaborate and it has supercharged productivity and performance. In the 1980s, communication was in person or by post. Today it’s faster than a thought. Organisations can’t afford to be left behind which makes 2023 an

opportunity to focus on platforms and technologies that empower people from anywhere and that ensure their online presence is always on. This is where solutions that provide access, data networks, wireless and unified collaboration capabilities are key as they enable industry and fulfil online requirements through omnichannel applications.

Another megatrend, one that’s now so commonplace in boardroom discussions that it’s hard to imagine a business without it, is that of compute, communications, and storage everywhere. The tipping point for this technology is anticipated to be in 2025 with, as cited by Statista, just over five billion people on the internet as of April 2022. This highly connected population has seen the radical and accelerated transformation of online experiences which has, in turn, driven the need for scalable and elastic computing power that can be accessible from anywhere, and that can deliver on demand.

Moving forward, applications and services will only get hungrier for data and capability. Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0 technologies and innovations will have to be rendered from highly reliable and flexible platforms and quantum compute is very likely to bring physics into computer science to create devices and environments that are minute – that optimise space and capacity.

Moving forward, companies need to collaborate with service providers that offer a wide spectrum of cloud and computing solutions that can directly address their challenges and help them overcome obstacles impacting on their scale and productivity. This is particularly true of the challenge of data sovereignty that has inhibited many

companies, especially in Africa.

IoT has, of course, been a part of the IT landscape for a long time but has only recently started to deliver on the promises it made when it first entered the business landscape. Today, the number of IoT connected devices worldwide is expected to reach 29 billion by 2030, says Statista, and is at 13 billion as of 2022 and, according to the IoT Industry Council of South Africa, IoT is expected to reach an installed base of 21.5 billion active and connected devices by 2025 in this country. Add to this the connected realm of the metaverse and the megatrends of compute and people, and you can see how IoT is about to become an integral part of the metaverse and thriving business operations.

To fully realise the potential of this technology, companies should ally themselves with partners that have a proven IoT track record and that can empower them with technologies that are appropriate for their industry and niche. This could be Industrial IoT (IIoT) solutions that drive visibility into the oil and gas pipeline through to IoT within retail and automotive logistics that translate customer experiences and vehicle monitoring through intelligent IoT applications.

BCX has this proven track record across all key mega trend touchpoints and has proven value in its applications and solutions designed to help organisations reshape their investments into AI, automation, machine learning and compute. With our support, you can fully realise the potential of digital transformation as it stands today – a more mature and far more powerful entity that can fundamentally refine your growth and operations.

www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2023 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵

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www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2023 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵

the most influential men in digital transformation This is a first for us. Traditionally, we host the CIO Of The Year on the December/January cover, and since all save one (Congratulations again to Jaine Mwai, the CIO Of The Year 2020), have leaned strongly and faithfully towards the male side, and majority of those who make our covers tend to be men, I thought men were already appreciated and celebrated.

Save for that part where it turned out to be the opposite. While the November issue 2022 had 45 Most Influential Women In Digital Transformation Africa showcased women who had been discovered by some measure, the men, surprisingly, proved to be a little more obscure. They were harder to find, which I found rather peculiar because, like most, I thought they would be at the forefront all over the media.

Inspired by the women’s list, the men’s list is more than just the flip side of that issue. It has its own unique identity.

For instance, men are not that great at building their personal brands. And it seems a lot of men are not ushered into a mentorship that compels them to step out of the shadows. As Moses Okundi said, he and his team do not expect recognition. They just does the work. It felt good to be appreciated.

The men were assessed as follows: - A leader who directly contributes to the growth and strategic direction of their organisation.

- A leader who has continually driven innovation; the kind that inspires the wider tech community - A role model who inspires the next generation.

- A leader who has contributed to the general development of the ICT sector - A leader who doors have opened for over the past year owing to his overall contribution to the tech community and industry from February 2022 to February 2023 November.

The impact these men have had on digital transformation is not to be trifled with. They have shaped institutions, with some of them creating said institutions. Their careers and choices have had a ripple effect across the continent in ways that cannot be overlooked. The one thing that struck me though, is the absence of mentorship. These men are regarded as role models. They, in turn, need to take on the younger generation under their wings and guide them into growth.

Actively. One of the bigger challenges for digital transformation is reskilling and upskilling, finding and retaining talent.

There is no better way to do this than by growing your own team, bringing them up with you under a watchful eye.

Steering them gently when the go astray. Or smacking them with the cold hard truth. Whatever works!

Strive Masiyiwa, Founder and Executive Chairman, Econet Group and Cassava Technologies. (Zimbabwe) Strive Masiyiwa is a visionary leader and a trailblazer in the business world. Based in London and hailing from Zimbabwe, he is the Founder and Executive Chairman of South Africa’s Econet Group and Cassava Technologies.

Cassava Technologies is one of Africa’s leading technology companies with a portfolio that spans Africa’s largest open access cross-border fibre broadband network, interconnected carrier neutral data centres, solar renewable energy, cloud and cybersecurity, fintech, and on-demand digital platforms.

In 2020, Cassava Technologies took bold steps to drive digital transformation in Africa, with initiatives such as the building of its first data centre in Rwanda and expanding its Nairobi facility to an additional 15MW of IT load. Additionally, Cassava-owned Liquid Intelligent Technologies partnered with Raspberry Pi to digitise education in Kenya and launched operations in Nigeria to further the digital transformation journey in the region.

Masiyiwa’s impact extends beyond his own companies, as he sits on the boards of numerous organisations, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Netflix, National Geographic Society, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Global Advisory Boards of Bank of America and Stanford University. He is also a mentor to the next generation of African entrepreneurs and as a key opinion leader, he utilises his platform on Facebook to drop pearls of wisdom. He boasts over 5.7 million followers. His LinkedIn numbers are over 38,000 followers.

Masiyiwa’s influence and impact have not gone unnoticed, as he has been recognised as one of the world’s most influential people by Bloomberg, one of the 100 Most Influential Africans of 2020 by New African Magazine, and one of Mail & Guardian’s 100 Africans of the Year for 2020. Furthermore, he has been named in Fortune Magazine’s list of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders in 2014, 2017, and 2021. He is, in all ways, the digital transformation giant in Africa and beyond. www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2023 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵

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Kamal Budhabhatti Group CEO, Craft Silicon (Kenya) Kamal Budhabhatti is the Group CEO at Craft Silicon, a company which provides banking and payment technologies across Africa and emerging Asia. Moreover, he is the founder of Little, a pan-African ride, delivery, health, and payments platform, now emerging as a super app.

Despite the challenges of running a taxi-hailing company in Africa, Budhabhatti has managed to grow Little into one of Africa’s largest ride-hailing service companies serving East (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Somalia) and made inroads into West Africa by launching into Senegal, Cameroon, and Ghana last year.

Budhabhatti is also a big advocate of green energy. Last year, Little ventured into electric vehicle mobility with its Little e-Bike, powered-assisted bikes, and scooters. These electric bicycle rentals are a first for Nairobi where air pollution and motor vehicle traffic are problems.

Under Budhabhatti’s leadership, Little has so far managed to deal with common challenges affecting the taxi-hailing sector such as competition from global companies such as Uber, the high cost of acquiring and retaining drivers, and the issue of ensuring safety for both drivers and passengers.

Wael Elkabbany, General Manager, Africa Regional Cluster, Microsoft (Egypt) Wael Elkabbany directly contributes to Africa’s digital transformation agenda. When Microsoft formed Africa Regional Cluster (ARC) subsidiary in July 2022, it appointed Elkabbany as its General Manager. ARC was created to drive strategic initiatives across Africa to accelerate digital transformation and economic prosperity.

He stepped into the ARC role from managing Microsoft’s Africa Transformation Office (ATO) formed in 2021 to enable growth and fuel investment in the company’s essential development areas which include digital infrastructure, skilling, small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The ATO reports to Elkabbany as part of the ARC leadership team.

Last year, ATO opened two offices in Nigeria and Kenya to provide local solutions with global scalability as well as provide employment opportunities and further enhance technology in Africa.

10 www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2023 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵

the most influential men in digital transformation

Kunle Awosika Managing Director of the Africa Transformation Office (ATO) (Nigeria) Kunle Awosika is a highly experienced professional in the ICT field with over 22 years of international experience.

He was appointed as the Managing Director of the Africa Transformation Office (ATO) in September 2022, where he leads Microsoft’s efforts to drive strategic transformation initiatives across Africa.

The ATO, which was established in 2021, has been a driving force behind initiatives and partnerships across Africa to build digital infrastructure, support small and medium-sized enterprises with digital capabilities, and promote innovation and skill development among the workforces. ATO, which opened offices In Nigeria and Kenya in 2022, plans to provide local solutions with global scalability as well as offer employment opportunities and further enhance technological in Africa.

Awosika has had a long and successful career with Microsoft, holding various leadership positions, including Director of Enterprise Business, Country Manager for Microsoft Kenya, and Director of Small and Medium Corporates for Emerging Markets, where he has helped to bring transformative technology opportunities to organisations in both the public and private sectors.

He is a respected leader and role model in the technology industry and has held leadership roles in organisations such as the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) and the Presidential Digital Talent Programme (PDTP), as well as serving on several boards such as AIESEC International and the I-Chose Life Board (NGO).

Jit Bhattacharya, CEO, BasiGo (Kenya) Jit Bhattacharya is championing for the adoption of green public transportation in Africa. As the founder and CEO of BasiGo, a Kenyan e-mobility start-up, Bhattacharya is leading the charge in the effort to drive mass transit Electric Vehicle (EV) adoption in East Africa.

BasiGo is shaking up the public transportation industry in East Africa by assembling EV buses in Nairobi, Kenya using parts sourced from China’s EV manufacturer BYD. The company then sells these innovative buses to bus owners, helping to reduce emissions and improve air quality in the region.

Last year, BasiGo secured $4.3 million in seed funding to set up an assembly plant in Nairobi and to launch the sales and delivery of its electric buses. This bold move paid off, as in January this year, the company added 15 more electric buses to its fleet of two after successful piloting.

With the demand for EVs forecasted to rise in the coming years in Africa, BasiGo recently entered a partnership with the Associated Vehicle Assemblers Ltd (AVA) to assemble 1,000 of its buses in Mombasa, Kenya. This partnership will allow the company to bring even more of its fully electric buses, which have a range of 250 km daily and go for $46,698, to the masses.

Basigo also has alternative financing where operators pay $0.16 per km.

Jit Bhattacharya and BasiGo are truly at the forefront of a green revolution, pushing for sustainable transportation and making a real impact in Africa and beyond www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2023 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵

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Muhammad Algawish, Co-Founder, iSchool EdTech (Egypt) Algawish co-founded iSchool, an edtech start-up which provides STEAMfocused training to children as young as six to prepare them for the jobs of tomorrow. an Electrical and Electronics Engineer, he studied entrepreneurship and business management at Kelley School of Business - Indiana University.

He has over eight years’ experience serving as a Business & Growth Consultant where he has helped start-ups raise $5.85M+ in funding, an degenerate $7.63M+ in revenue. iSchool is the first accredited Egyptian African EdTech start-up, an online coding platform for 6 to 18 year old students that offers 1:1 or 1:6 live coding classes in artificial intelligence (AI), data science, game development, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, with more than 9,000 graduates in 10 different countries helping them to start a technology-based career, freelancing, or even launch their own start-ups.

His effort and work in the EdTech sector, has gotten him a number of recognitions including being mentioned in the Forbes MENA (Middle East and North Africa) 30 Under 30 list in 2022. He was also the first-place winner in the AIM UAE start-up pitching competition 2022 and bagged the EdTech Leadership Award by EdTechDigest 2022. Algawish was also recognised as an HSBC C3 Impact Accelerator Winner in 2022.

In 2021, he bagged the Global Start-up Awards Northern Africa Founder of the Year 2021, and was selected in HolonIQ’s Top 50 Best Edtech start-ups in the MENA and North Africa 2021.

Moses Okundi, Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Absa Bank, Kenya (Kenya) Who else would be the topmost influential man in digital transformation than the person who took home the top award in digital transformation, the dx100 CIO of the Year Africa 2022, Moses Okundi. He is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Absa Bank, Kenya, and prides himself as a purpose driven dx and technology steward.

He was critical in Absa’s incorporation of SD-WAN, a move that bagged him the coveted award. Absa partnered with Huawei on an SD-WAN Solution and built a new digital foundation for branch networks. The bank’s IT Team led

by Okundi, developed the solution because the bank needed to build a new infrastructure to improve the efficiency of various banking services, reduce operation and management costs, and enhance user experience at branches.

Okundi is a long-seasoned IT professional, with over 20 years pan-African experience in telecommunications, telco Value Added Services, mobile money, fintech and most recently banking and its associated operations. He is an ardent advocate of digital transformation ensuring technology operates as a business enabler powering growth and contributing to Sustainable Development (SDGs).

He holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from University of Manchester, focusing on Communication & Control Engineering, Electrical, Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering.

12 www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2023 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵

the most influential men in digital transformation

Islam Shawky, Co-Founder & CEO, Paymob (Egypt) Shawky’s impact on the fintech industry in Africa and the Middle East cannot be overstated. He is widely recognised as a pioneer in the Africa digital payments space, having co-founded Paymob. The Cairo-headquartered omnichannel payments facilitator that has a 1,100-person strong team across the MENA and Pakistan.

It offers more than 40 payment methods, and it empowers over 150,000 SME merchants to manage and scale their businesses. The company has partnered with the Central Bank of Egypt, banks, telcos, and other fintech companies to push the ecosystem forward.

Through Paymob’s innovative infrastructure technology, SMEs across the MEA region can now accept digital transactions through a variety of methods, including cards, digital wallets, tap-on-phone, and flexible payments with a buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) model. This has greatly enhanced financial inclusion in the region, making it easier for more people to participate in the digital economy.

In recognition of his contribution to the fintech industry, Shawky was named an Endeavour Entrepreneur in 2022, and he was also appointed as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (TIEC). His achievements have not gone unnoticed, with Paymob raising $50 million in Series B funding in May 2022, bringing its total funding to over $68.5 million.

Shawky’s impact on the digital payments landscape is truly remarkable, and his story is an inspiration to entrepreneurs and innovators everywhere. Through his vision and leadership, he has transformed the fintech industry in Africa and the Middle East, making it easier for people to participate in the digital economy and driving economic growth and development in the region.

Benjamin Fernandes CEO, NALA (Tanzania) Benjamin Fernandes is the founder and CEO of NALA, a digital financial services platform that enables people to access their financial accounts in one application while allowing them to make mobile money payments offline (internet-free). Nala originally started in Tanzania and spread its wings to the rest of East Africa in 2022. In 2023, the fintech start-up has already launched in Europe and has shown promise to achieve a lot more this year.

Fernandez is held in high regard as he has broken a record in the country. In 2017, he became the first Tanzanian in history to attend both the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government. Before founding Nala, he had an eventful and lifestyle. He has worked for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and was at one time revered as one of the biggest sports reporters in Tanzania.

Born and raised in Dar es Salaam, he had the opportunity to study abroad where he got a chance to work for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Tanzanians still freshly remember his decision to bring his skills back home even after he qualified for a hefty salary after as a post-graduate at Stanford, renowned as the institution having the highest post MBA salary in the world). www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2023 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵

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Sam Chappatte Co-Founder and CEO, KAPU (Kenya) The man who is majorly credited for the growth of Jumia, Kenya, and pretty much the growth of e-commerce in the East African region. Sam left Jumia in late 2020, and went incognito, reemerging with e-commerce start-up, Kapu. He even managed to persuade former Jumia executives to join Kapu.

Kapu had been in operation for almost a year, but the official launch came in late 2022. Shortly after the launch, the e-commerce start-up raised $8 million in seed funding, which listed it among our top 10 start-ups of the year in 2022, Africa.

Sam prides himself as someone who strives to find ways to make it African’s lifestyle more affordable by inspiring them to shop online. He is a champion of e-commerce with over a decade’s worth of experience in the e-commerce sector and holds a Master’s degree in Management from the ESCP Business School.

Dr Amr Awadallah, Founder & CEO, Vectara (Egypt) Dr Amr Awadallah wears many hats in the technology sector and has influence in the African continent and beyond. In his technology journey, he has worked on various IT sub-topics and has also worked for Yahoo and Google, and has also founded a couple of start-ups. He is currently focused on AI and ML through his recent, and very new start-up, Vectara, a neural network technology platform.

In 2022, he was appointed to the board of a Saudi Arabia based customer experience analytics company, Lucidya. Vectara also raised $20 million in its seed round in October 2022, a round funded by tech and search pioneers from across tech companies such as Slack and Google, alongside leading technology venture funds. Vectara launched its first product, Neural Search-as-a-Service, which leverages large language models to understand the intent behind user queries and bring meaning to search.

Prior to founding Vectara, Awadallah was the Vice President of Developer Relations at Google Cloud. Before his tenure as VP at Google Cloud he was the Co-Founder and CTO at Cloudera (where he exited for $5.3 billion), a global software company which provides enterprise data management systems to customers worldwide. He was also VP Engineering for Product Intelligence at Yahoo for eight years following their buyout of Aptivia.

Amr holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and a Master of Science in Computer Engineering, both from Cairo University. He got his PhD from Stanford University.

14 www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2023 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵

the most influential men in digital transformation

Kenneth Ogwang’ Head of Digital and Technology - Eastern and Southern Africa, Diageo (Kenya) Ogwang’ is one of the pioneering techies on the frontline of incorporating technology into manufacturing. As the Head of Digital and Technology for Eastern and Southern Africa at Diageo, Kenneth has been using technology to improve manufacturing in the continent. He is a role model to the next generation of CIOs as a previous CIO of the Year winner, bagging the award in 2016.

His latest fully implemented project earned Diageo the Company of the Year, Africa, at the 2022 Digital Transformation (dx100) Awards. The project, Supply Manufacturing Automation: Harford Deployment Programme, Africa, was based on Diageo’s vision to become “The best data insights-driven” consumer product company, unleashing the power of data with consumers, customers, and suppliers to create competitive advantage.

Hartford aims at delivering a paperless factory, enabling realtime data and insights that retrospectively complement existing manufacturing execution tools.

It also supported growth across Africa through higher OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) while implementing foundational network infrastructure allowing the markets to continue building future capability on OT (operational technology), cybersecurity, supply analytics, and eventually creating a smart factory.

Hartford has been implemented in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria, a process which begun amidst COVID challenges.

He was also listed among the Top 25 Men in Digital 2022 In Kenya by Soma Awards. This just adds to his multiple awards thanks to his work over the years. Ogwang’ holds a Bachelor’s degree in Statistics & Computing from Makerere University and an MBA in Strategic Administration from the United States International University (USIU).

Adetayo Bamiduro Co-Founder & CEO, Max.ng (Nigerian) Adetayo is the Co-Founder and CEO of Max.ng, a Nigerian mobility tech platform.

Born and raised in Nigeria, Bamiduro met his cofounder, Chinedu Azodo, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). With a career spanning software development, product management, and consultancy, he entered the world of tech entrepreneurship with Max.ng.

In 2022, Max.ng passed the 100 million km range for their total distance covered.

It is approximately 260x the distance between earth and the moon. During the same year, the company raised $31 million, thus bringing its total equity and debt financing to $70 million. With strategic partnerships, including one with ride-hailing company Bolt, they co-financed the purchase of 10, 000 low-emission cars for drivers in Nigeria.

With Max.ng, Adetayo has connected last-mile delivery and online-retail infrastructure for Africa by using mobile and web platforms to connect consumers, retail businesses and independent drivers in real-time.

Max.ng is eliminating all logistics, payments, and technology barriers that have prevented African retail from attaining escape velocity.

Adetayo holds a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Ibadan and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2023 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵

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Pieter de Villiers, CEO and Co-Founder of Clickatell Inc., (South Africa) Pieter is an entrepreneur who spent over 10 years in Silicon Valley with a passion for Chat commerce and the empowerment of people.

He is currently serving as the CEO and Co-Founder of Clickatell Inc., a leading global provider of application-2-person messaging and mobile transaction services provider. He is, however, mostly known as one of the youngest mobile industry veterans with over 21 years of experience in global telecoms, mobile messaging and mobile payments backed by the likes Sequoia Capital.

As of 2022, Clickatell was considered one of the most successful startups in Africa having grown to a more than $1 billion worth start-up. In its latest funding round, Series C round, Clickatell secured $91 million which made it the start-up that raised the most funds in 2022. Furthermore, the Pieter-founded start-up is also among the few start-ups in Africa that have delivered double-digit profitable growth for several years, in the past recent years.

Clickatell boasts an industry-first ability to combine communication and commerce in one comprehensive Chat Commerce proposition and introduced one of the world’s first chat banking solutions on WhatsApp, the world’s largest chat platform. Today, Clickatell is uniquely positioned to capitalise on the intersection between communications (CPaaS, CCaaS) and commerce (digital payments) – offering a complete end-to-end Chat Commerce Platform. The start-up serves more than 10,000 customers, many of which are Fortune 500 companies and leading global brands.

Pieter holds a BSc. in Optometry from the University of Johannesburg.

Tesh Mbaabu Co-Founder and CEO, MarketForce, (Kenya) Tesh is a serial technology entrepreneur who prides himself on being an expert in blending commerce and technology. He is the Co-Founder and CEO of MarketForce, a B2B commerce platform that empowers over 200,000 neighbourhood merchants across five African markets to source, order and pay for inventory, access financing, and earn more by reselling financial services in their communities.

MarketForce is the main thing that puts him on this prestigious list. In 2022, MarketForce was among the African start-ups that registered high growth and was also among the elites that managed to raise a substantial amount in seed funding; $40 million in its Series A funding round was then used to widen its footprint across Africa and scale up its super app for Africa’s informal merchants.

Tesh is also a Partner at Mesozi, an IT holding company offering and investing in tech-enabled solutions across several industries and markets in Africa. He has also Co-Founded Cloud9xp, an African leisure experience booking platform which exited to HotelOnline in 2020.

Prior to founding Mesozi, Tesh was the Founder and Creative Director of a graphic, web and digital design agency, Tesh Technologies Limited (TeshTeq), a venture he started at 18. He holds a BSc in Computer Science from The University of Nairobi.

16 www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2023 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵

the most influential men in digital transformation

Peter Njonjo - Co-Founder & CEO, Twiga Foods (Kenya) Njonjo is the Co-Founder and CEO of Kenyan agritech firm Twiga Foods, which is using mobile technology to align supply and demand in Africa’s agriculture sector.

Twiga’s technology gives it the ability to effectively track food and produce from processing to distribution, with the B2B e-commerce platform claiming that more than 100,000 Kenyan customers use its services, delivering more than 600 metric tonnes of product to more than 10,000 retailers daily.

At the helm of Twiga, Njonjo has directly contributed to the growth and strategic direction of the company has so far raised more than $100 million in both debt and equity financing rounds.

Twiga, last year, opened a multi-million-dollar distribution centre to offer fulfilment by Twiga services to expand its overall capacity and ability to deliver a selection of fresh produce, and retail products and provide partners access to over 140,000 customers across the Kenya and Uganda.

The 200,000 sq ft is fitted with the latest logistics and warehouse technology. It is equipped with racking systems, banana rooms, modern dock door systems, and product scanners which have enhanced food traceability among other functions.

The company also launched a subsidiary, Twiga Fresh, a new business focusing on contemporary and commercial farming, to assist in the delivery of low-cost, high-quality, and safe food to informal shops and urban customers.

Twiga Fresh seeks to expand the efficient production of native horticultural staples including onions, tomatoes, and watermelons, decreasing costs dramatically.

Ralph Mupita, MTN Group CEO (Zimbabwe) Mupita, a Zimbabwe-born engineer, businessman, and corporate executive’s LinkedIn bio says he is passionate about the African continent and the role that mobile operators can play in driving sustainable digital and financial inclusion through fit-for-purpose solutions.

Since joining MTN in 2020, Ralph has been instrumental in enhancing the company’s financial stability, shaping its strategy, and ensuring its successful listing on the stock exchanges of Nigeria and Ghana.

Under his mantle, MTN has introduced several initiatives to advance digital transformation in Africa. Last year, the company rolled out 5G in South Africa, Nigeria, Zambia MTN South Africa and are planning further launches once they have completed trials in several other countries.

The Group has taken great strides in advancing digital skills through MTN Skills Academy which is crucial for advancing digital transformation in Africa.

In 2022 MTN Group announced it purchased 144 plots of digital land in Africarare, the first virtual reality metaverse in Africa. MTN said the move aligns with its ambition 2025 which entails leveraging trends to augment and increase its customers’ digital experiences. The metaverse is regarded as the next frontier in digital transformation and is envisioned as a virtual world that blends the physical and digital realms. It offers new opportunities for immersive experiences, remote collaboration, and the creation of digital assets that can have real-world value. www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2023 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵

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Agosta Liko, CEO, Pesapal (Kenya) Agosta Liko is the visionary founder and CEO of Pesapal, a renowned leader in processing card and mobile money payments for both online and in-person transactions. Pesapal stands as one of the most rapidly advancing point-of-sale providers in the East African region, boasting a staggering valuation of over $1 billion according to media reports.

Pesapal has been making headlines with its latest feat, the launch of its innovative Forecourt Management Solution in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. This ground-breaking solution is the first of its kind in Africa, offering integrated payment options with monitoring and data tools. The Pesapal Forecourt Management Solution revolutionizes fuel and retail management processes by seamlessly integrating distribution points and digital payments, backed by powerful tools that reduce costs, prevent pilfering, and elevate the customer experience.

In addition to a back-end reporting tool, Pesapal’s solution allows station owners to integrate Point of Sale (POS) and other technology platforms into forecourt operations, offering features such as centralized price changes, RFID-based attendant tagging, automatic indenting of products, and posting of outlet data to head office systems.

Pesapal’s got a Payment System Operator license from the Bank of Uganda and recognition as the 2021 Visa Innovator award winner, solidifying their position as a cutting-edge provider of digital payment solutions for consumers and merchants in Kenya and across East Africa. This prestigious annual award acknowledges fintechs working in partnership with banks to drive new payment experiences using advanced technologies like Visa Direct, tokenization, and digital wallets.

Ismael Belkhayat, Co- Founder & CEO, Chari (Morocco) A serial entrepreneur, Belkhayat is a notable name in the North African tech ecosystem. He is the founder of Venture Builder Wib.co, Sarouty, a marketplace that facilitates real estate deals in Morocco and Chari, an e-commerce and a fintech app for retailers in French speaking countries in Africa.

Chari stands out for helping in the digital transformation of FMCG sector in Africa. The start-up, which was founded in 2020 operates as a mobile app allowing small retailers in Morocco and Tunisia to order products from partnering FMCG multinationals and local manufacturers. The retailers receive their items in less than 24 hours.

Chari made notable moves in 2022. In January 2022, they were valued at $100 million in a bridge round. In March, they acquired the credit arm of Axa Assurance. In June, Chari, acquired Ivorian B2B e-commerce site Diago and secured funding worth $1 million in September. The startup named Disrupter of the Year award at the Africa CEO Forum in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire that same month.

18 www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2023 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵

the most influential men in digital transformation

Olugbenga [GB] Agboola, Founder & CEO, Flutterwave (Nigeria) GB has a reputation for being the Founder and CEO of Africa’s most valuable fintech start-up, Flutterwave; which provides a payment infrastructure for global merchants and payment service providers across the continent.

Agboola is considered one of the pioneers of the African fintech sector. His 15 years’ experience in the sector has seen him contribute to the development of fintech solutions at fintech companies and financial institutions such as PayPal and Standard Bank.

Under Agboola’s leadership, Flutterwave hit a $3 billion valuation on a $250 million raise in February 2022. That same year, they obtained a highly sought after payment license from the Nigerian central bank. The license, for switching and processing, enables it to carry out transactions between financial service firms. The firm had two lower-tier payments and money transfer licenses but depended on other companies to process and settle payments for its clients. It also announced plans to offer its shares through an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in the US and Nigeria. If the IPO succeeds, the fintech unicorn would become one of the very few African start-ups to achieve this in recent years.

Since it was founded in 2016, the platform claims to have processed over 200 million transactions worth over $16 billion across 34 African countries.

James Manyika, Vice President, Technology and Society, Google (Zimbabwe) Manyika was named Google’s first-ever Vice President of Technology and Society in March 2022. Manyika, who is part of Alphabet’s management team and reports directly to CEO Sundar Pichai, is responsible for “shaping and sharing Google’s views on how technology affects society.”

With his new role, he directly contributes to the growth and strategic direction of Google. He has directly contributed to the general development of the ICT sector. He is recognised globally for his work in AI, robotics, big tech, and the future of work. He is a role model who inspires the next generation. Manyika has started a fellowship in his name at Harvard’s Hutchins Centre for African and African American Research. The J.M.D Manyika Fellowship is awarded to intellectuals and artists from Zimbabwe and other southern African countries.

Before Google, Manyika was McKinsey Global Institute Director which helps companies and governments (including tech leaders) make decisions based on economic and cultural trends.

He sits on the boards of research institutes, top academic institutions, and non-profit foundations, including the Hewlett Foundation, Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute, the Oxford Internet Institute, and the Aspen Institute. He’s a fellow at DeepMind and a visiting professor at Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government. In 2011, he was named to the US National Innovation Advisory. During Obama’s administration, he served as Vice-Chair of the White House’s US Global Development Council. In 2015, he published No Ordinary Disruption: The Four Global Forces Breaking All Trends www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2023 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵

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John Kamara, Co-Founder Afya Rekod & Adanian Labs (Kenya) The name of top brains leading digital health transformation in Africa cannot be mentioned without that of John Kamara. The brains behind Afya Rekod, a fully automated first-of-its-kind Universal Patient Portal, built on the block-chain technology, seeks to transform the face of patient care across Africa.

Through the Afya Rekod platform, patients and the medical professionals treating them have real-time access to their health data and medical history not only ensuring effective ongoing medical management but critical timely access to information in an emergency.

2022 was a good year for Kamara. Afya Rekod signed a strategic collaboration with a UK firm, Medi-Science International Limited to extend the platform’s record to all patients in Europe and across the world. Afya Rekod also raised $2 million seed round which was led by US VC firm Mac Venture Capital to scale into other African markets and accelerate the launch of its patient portal.

Kamara is also the Co-Founder of Adanian Labs which targets ideaphase tech start-ups, offering them all-round support, including capital, advisory and operational backing, building them from the ground up.

Since its establishment in 2020, Adanian Labs has incubated 14 groundbreaking tech start-ups across sectors. Last year, it selected five start-ups from Tanzania, Zambia, Nigeria, and South Africa for its 2022 Cohort Venture Building Programme.

Drew Durbin, Co-Founder & CEO, (Senegal) Durbin co-founded Wave, a digital mobile money platform helping Africa build extremely affordable financial infrastructure. The Senegalese-born innovator started Wave in 2018 with Lincoln Quirk, his American schoolmate. The pair met at Brown University, in Rhode Island, US. Wave is now one of Africa’s tech unicorns. The start-up had raised a $200-million Series-A funding round which brought its value to $1.7 billion.

In 2020, Wave officially spun off from Sendwave, a remittance platform that WorldRemit acquired for about $500 million in cash and stock. The company, which operated a stealth launch two years prior in Senegal, has since raised more than $290 million in equity and debt capital funding to date.

By 2022, Wave had already established itself as a leader in mobile money in both Ivory Coast and Senegal. Wave has also exanded its wings to Uganda, Mali, and Burkina Faso.

According to Durbin, when mobile money succeeded in Kenya, it lifted about a million people out of poverty. And yet, over 10 years later, most Africans still lack access to affordable ways to save, transfer or borrow the money they need to build businesses or provide for their families.

20 www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2023 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵

the most influential men in digital transformation

Kiaan Pillay, Co-Founder & CEO, Stitch (South Africa) Based in Cape Town, South Africa, former developer Pillay has spent most of his career building API start-ups in Africa, including Root, a bank account for developers, and Smile Identity, a pan-African identity verification company. While working on a peer-to-peer payments app, he saw firsthand the challenges fintech innovators face due to outdated financial infrastructure across the continent.

This understanding inspired him to launch Stitch in early 2021, an API fintech startup that aims to make it easier for businesses and developers in Africa to build and scale innovative fintech products. The API fintech startup first raised $4 million seed round in February 2021, shortly after it was founded. Stitch then extended the seed round to $6 million in October 2021, after which it also expanded to Nigeria.

2022 was the year that Stitch proved it is playing a big part in digital transformation in Africa and the future also holds a lot for the API fintech start-up. So much so Stitch earned and announced a $21 million in a Series A round. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Finance from the University of Cape Town.

Dr Amr Talaat, CIT Minister, Egypt

leverages on Digital Transformation.

Dr Talaat is the Egyptian Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Computer Scientist and former business executive. He was appointed by the Egyptian government and has been a key figure in the development of digital transformation in the North African country. He developed Egypt’s ICT 2030 strategy to be achieved by creating a ‘Digital Egypt’ which

The Ministry has already made significant steps towards achieving Digital Egypt with a mega project he kickstarted. The Decent Life project will involve expanding the fibre optic network in Egypt to 58 million more people who are living across 4,500 villages in Egypt. With this project, in three years, each household will be connected.

Under the doctor’s watchful eye in 2022 Egypt Post, aka the National Postal Authority launched cashless payment system,

was recognised as the best in digital transformation (dx) implementation, winning the African Association for Public Administration and Management (AAPAM) Award, as head of MCIT (Ministry of Communications and Information Technology) signed an agreement with SAP to establish an integrated system for cloud computing applications, along with the award-winning Egypt Post and a third entity signed protocols to issue citizen single card and as minister. Dr Taalat and his ministry have also focused on the Digital Egypt project as it develops the country’s ICT infrastructure.

With over 30 years’ experience in communications and information technology, Dr Talaat is an Adjunct Professor at Cairo University, teaching Marketing and Sales Strategies and Tactics, Organisational Behaviour and Strategic Management. He is, also, an honorary member at the ICT Board at the prestigious Cairo University and member of the ICT Board of the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology (ASRT) and the Chairman of ICT Committee of Egypt’s AmCham. He may have graduated in 1983 from the Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University where he made postgraduate studies in Electrical Engineering, earned his Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) from the University of Paris, Paris School of Business (PSB) and an MBA from Paris ESLSCA Business School. He also obtained an MSc in Computer Science from Illinois Institute of Technology. What gets the good doctor on this list is his ability to think innovatively year in and year out.

www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2023 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵

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Tope Awotona, Founder & CEO, Calendly (Nigeria) Awotona founded the modern scheduling platform for high-performing teams and individuals keen on accelerating businesses in 2013 with the vision of simplifying scheduling without the back-and-forth emails.

With his strategic direction, the platform has grown and evolved to over 10 million monthly users. With a valuation of $3 billion in 2021, Forbes believes its founder, Awotona, is already potentially tapping into a $20 billion market.

While barely 40, this Nigerian American entrepreneur has gone from overseeing a small start-up to turning his company into a unicorn.

With a $200,000 investment – his life savings – Calendly made $100 million in revenue by 2021. The revenue is driven in part by its spike in popularity due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Calendly has long been considered a Black-owned startup that is “killing the game.” So much so, in September 2022 they acquire Prelude, a specialist in automating scheduling and organisation around to job recruitment. Not only is Calendly now profitable, this is its first acquisition. The latter had gone as far as raising $2.4 million. Prelude comes with clients such as Duolingo, One Media and Cloudflare. This vertical is a departure for the company, but it shows direction away from individuals and into enterprises.

Mark Straub, Co-Founder and CEO, Smile Identity (South Africa) Straub is a true champion of using technology to promote inclusion and opportunity for underserved markets. With over a decade of experience in venture capital investing, he has worked with companies across a range of verticals, including adtech, fintech, healthcare, and energy, in locations across the world.

In 2017, Straub co-founded Smile Identity, a ground-breaking start-up that is focused on improving identity verification and Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance through artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Based in Lagos, (Nigeria), London, (UK), Cape Town (South Africa) and Nairobi, (Kenya), they are a provider of a KYC onboarding and identity verification platform for Africa.

They raised $20 million in Series B funding in February 2023.

By empowering dozens of start-ups in Africa, including Chipper, Paga, Paystack, oPay, and Twiga, to confirm the identity of their users in real-time using any smartphone or computer, Smile Identity has helped to make it possible for people Africans to access a range of online services. This has been especially important because without digital identity, organisations and governments will struggle to undertake the digital transformations necessary to improve the quality of services they provide without trust from their consumers.

Smile Identity’s technology is helping to overcome the significant barrier to inclusion caused by a lack of trust. Users need to feel secure when using online tools, and they need to have confidence in the authenticity of the services they are accessing. The start-up had earlier raised a $7 million Series A round in 2021.

22 www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2023 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵

the most influential men in digital transformation

Peter Ndegwa, CEO, Safaricom PLC (Kenya) Ndegwa holds the position of CEO, Safaricom PLC, the largest telecommunications company in East and Central Africa, and fintech pioneer thanks to M-PESA, considered among the world’s most developed mobile payment systems. In March 2022, the telco rebranded to a technology company to play a bigger role in digitising and transforming businesses in various sectors including education, health, and manufacturing. As part of its rebranding, the company said it would leverage connectivity and experience to venture into the technology space by expanding into cloud computing, cybersecurity, and Internet of Things (IoT) underpinned by IT consulting services. Their M-PESA Super App also won the Global Mobile Award (GLOMO) at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, owing to its innovative contribution to the industry. It won the category of Best Mobile Innovation for Connected Living, edging out global competitors. The award recognised the Super App’s transformation of the customer experience with M-PESA and its Mini-Apps feature that enables businesses to provide services through a digital shop on the app.

Come October and the company launched 5G network across Kenya’s capital cities of Nairobi, Kisumu, and Mombasa and two other towns – Kisii and Kakamega. In the same month, Safaricom launched operations in Ethiopia, netting over two million subscribers. It has since applied for licenses for its financial services in the country.

Safaricom also won a second award for their DigiTruck project under the Outstanding Mobile Contribution to the UN SDGs category. DigiTruck is a smart truck powered by Safaricom’s 4G network and it delivers IT skills training to communities across Kenya, particularly in remote areas.

Stone Atwine, Founder & CEO, Eversend (Uganda) One of the leading fintech professionals in the continent, Atwine is the Founder and CEO of Uganda’s biggest fintech and arguably biggest tech innovation in the country.

Eversend, the fintech he founded, has gotten him accolades all over the world and shone a spotlight into Uganda.

He is a five-time Laureate with his latest accolade in 2022, of the Paris-based Institut Choiseul, an annual study independently carried out by the Paris based think-tank Institut Choiseul, as one of the young African leaders aged 40 and under who have had a major impact on the continent’s economic development. He was also selected among the Choiseul100Africa 2022 list as one of the young African leaders set to play a major role in the economic development of the continent.

In 2022 still, Eversend made a great milestone as its app got to 1 million downloads, showing the growth of the Ugandan fintech. Atwine has also overseen the introduction of a new feature - a B2B crypto-fiat payment feature in the application that enables businesses to accept cryptocurrency as a payment method.

The new solution by Eversend allows companies to hold, payout, collect and convert fiat and cryptocurrencies under one platform, ensuring connectedness and accessibility, which is integral to the startup’s business offerings.

Stone got into fintech with Pretoria-based loan management vendor Payment Solutions International. He then went on to become Country Manager for Kenya before consulting for multiple banks like Stanbic Bank, Barclays Bank, and Standard Chartered Bank in Kenya and Uganda on using technology to improve loan collections.

He has co-founded Yetu Credit Finance, a USSD-based micro-lender for government employees in Uganda. He co-founded useremit.com, a remittance company delivering to mobile money in Uganda, Kenya, and Rwanda. www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2023 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵

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Shemeel Josuub, CEO, Vodafone (South Africa) Josuub joined Vodafone in 1994, growing into his current role as CEO, Vodacom Group Ltd, a position he has held since 2012. He has extensive telco experience having operated at a senior level in various companies across the group for the last 22 years, including Managing Director at Vodacom South Africa and Chief Executive Officer at Vodafone Spain.

Shameel, who holds board positions at Vodacom Group Ltd, Safaricom Plc, and several subsidiary boards across the group contributes directly to the growth and strategic direction of these organisations that have a significant impact on the digital transformation trajectory of Africa.

In January 2023, the 2Africa subsea cable, described as the largest subsea cable system in the world landed at the South African operator Vodacom’s network facility in Gqeberha. The 2Africa consortium is made up of eight international partners, including Vodafone/Vodacom. Launched in May 2022, the subsea cable project aims to significantly increase the capacity, quality, and availability of internet connectivity between Africa and the rest of the world.

Vodacom also expanded 5G network in South Africa and launched the same service in Tanzania. The 5G network will come with new opportunities for Africa including enabling new use cases such as virtual and augmented reality, remote surgery, and self-driving cars. Additionally, the increased capacity and speed of 5G networks can support the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT), which includes a wide range of connected devices such as sensors, smart home devices, and wearable technology.

Vodacom also owns Mezzanine, a company that seeks to transform agriculture sector in Africa. In 2022, the company said it trained more than 2,150 women farmers on how to employ technology in their scale their businesses and participate in the economy in meaningful ways. Vodacom Business Africa, a subsidiary of the Vodacom Group focused on enterprise ICT, has announced that its software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) solution is now available to clients in all 47 countries it operates in across Africa. The solution has already been deployed to several businesses in South Africa with great success.

Ashraf Sabry, Founder & CEO, Fawry (Egypt) Sabry is the CEO and founder of Fawry, Egypt’s largest e-payments platform, valued at over $2 billion. The fintech company helps around 35 million Egyptians pay their bills each month. Fawry has been instrumental in promoting digital transformation and improving financial inclusion in Egypt through strategic partnerships. In January 2022, it partnered with Misr Capital investments to launch the Middle East and North Africa region’s first fintech-based money market fund. In November the same year, through its subsidiary Fawry Microfinance, it launched the Tamweelak Fawry mobile app which is a digital loan request and tracking tool designed to simplify the financing process for existing micro and small businesses by allowing them to apply for loans at the time and place of their convenience.

In December, Fawry partnered with Classera, a distance learning technology provider, to enhance e-payment services and integrate digital payment solutions of both Fawry and Classera Cpay. With the above listed moves, Sabry through Fawry, is instrumental in leading digital transformation in the north African country.

24 www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2023 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵

the most influential men in digital transformation

Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, CEO, Future Africa (Nigeria) A serial entrepreneur, Aboyeji uses technology to solve issues facing Africa such as financial inclusion and mobility. As CEO and General Partner of Future Africa, an early-stage venture capital firm which has so far invested in over 90 start-ups such as Flutterwave, Andela, Stears and 54gene, they are worth over $6 billion. Aboyeji is also the founder of Moove, an African-born, global mobility fintech that provides revenue-based vehicle financing and financial services to mobility entrepreneurs across ride-hailing, logistics, mass transit, and instant delivery platforms.

Before this, he was the founding CEO of Flutterwave, a billion-dollar global payments platform connecting African businesses and individuals to the global economy and Andela, a billion-dollar business which matches Africa’s top engineering talent to global technology companies.

Last year, Future Africa’s Lagos-headquartered venture capital firm announced it is teaming up with TLG Capital, a London-based open-ended credit fund, to launch a $25 million venture debt fund reserved for portfolio companies.

The fund created from TLG’s existing funds will help Future Africa’s portfolio companies preserve their runway in an increasingly tight fundraising environment. On the other

hand, Moove, which operates in six cities including Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa, announced expansion to seven new emerging markets in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East after raising $105 million in its latest round of funding.

Babs Ogundeyi, Co-Founder & CEO, Kuda (Nigeria) In 2019, Babs co-founded Kuda with Musty Mustapha and has overseen the company’s growth in the three years it has been in existence. Over this period, Kuda has raised a total of $90 million in seed funding, while still expanding its customer base to over five million users.

Kuda, a neobank, boasts easy and free to low-cost transactions, instant lending, debit card services, and more recently, international remittances from the UK. Tagged “The bank of the free,” Kuda demonstrates a new era of banking to Nigerians: free, easy, and completely digital. Today, the start-up is poised to replay the script of its revolution in the Nigerian market to its latest South Asian market entrance. In early 2023, the Nigerian-born digital banking platform set on its way to power digital banking services in Pakistan as the fintech acquired a digital banking licence from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). The license was issued to KT Bank, a joint venture between Kuda and two leading Pakistani companies, positioning Kuda as one of the five companies to receive the highly coveted digital banking license in Pakistan.

Through Kuda, Ogundeyi has answered the question many have asked - Can African fintech start-ups can offer global solutions?

He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Studies and Accounting from Brunei University, London. www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2023 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵

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Mahmoud Fathy, Co-Founder & CEO, ArabyAds (Egypt) Fathy prides himself on being a physics graduate who happens to be passionate about revolutionising digital marketing, not leveraging chances, yet simultaneously creating potential. His adtech company mainly operates in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region.

Founded in 2013 in Egypt, with headquarters in the UAE and tech hubs across Egypt, Tunisia, and Jordan, ArabyAds helps advertisers in customer acquisition, retention, and monetisation by leveraging its technology platforms for influencer marketing (iConnect), Coupon based advertising (Boostiny), retail media (Ritelo), live commerce (Dmenta), and on-device contextual advertising (Deviceboost). In January 2023, ArabyAds raised $30 Million in a Pre-Series B funding round from AfricInvest, a pan-African investment platform.

The start-up aims to use the funds to expand its footprint and further invest it to accelerate its technological advancement and talent acquisition to support the growth.

Prior to founding ArabyAds, Mahmoud founded the Arab Affiliate Summit that served as a hub for affiliates from the Middle East and North Africa. For several years, the Summit established the idea of making money online to help the youth leverage their time and overcome unemployment utilizing their skills and improving them via performance marketing. Fathy holds a BSc. Physics from Benha University.

Karim Beguir, Co-Founder & CEO, InstaDeep (Tunisia) This AI start-up comes armed with offices around the continent and beyond. InstaDeep has offices in Tunis, Lagos, Cape Town, Dubai, Paris, and London. The company is considered a leader in advanced AI decision-making systems for solving real-world problems. At the start of 2022, InstaDeep raised $100 million in a Series B round which brought it up to unicorn status. InstaDeep put the funding into advancing its high-performance computing infrastructure optimised for decision-making AI. The start-up went ahead and hired elite talent to accelerate the launch of disruptive AI products across multiple industries – including biotech, logistics, transportation and electronics manufacturing. The company is also planning to expand its global presence into the US. Beguir and his fellow co-founder Zohra Slim were honoured as ambassadors of talent and innovation in January 2023, highlighting the success of InstaDeep as a “Message of hope” to young Tunisians. The award recognised their exceptional company trajectory as an example of international excellence. InstaDeep was also recently acquired by BioNTech, which came as a testament to Beguir’s impact on the development of AI and deep tech innovation in Africa. He holds an Economist degree in Mathematical Statistics & Probability from ENSAE Paris and a Master of Science in Applied Mathematics & Finance from the New York University.

26 www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2023 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵

the most influential men in digital transformation

Prince Boakye Boampong, Founder & CEO, Dash (Ghana) Dash is a Ghanaian fintech start-up focused on building an accessible, modern, and unified alternative payment network for African consumers. Dash users can send/spend and receive money (regardless of currency), pay for goods/services (online or offline), save, and invest all in a single app. He launched the company in 2019. Prior to that, Boampong was the co-founder of OMG Digital, a YC-backed Ghanaian media start-up he started alongside Jesse Ghansah – the current CEO of Float – in 2016.

Two years before founding Dash, Boampong travelled to Kenya and was fascinated by how unbanked Kenyans sent and received money while paying bills with mobile money, a system of payments pioneered

by Safaricom’s M-PESA, which has close to 30 million customers. But having come from a mobile money background himself as a Ghanaian, Boampong experienced how interoperability posed a challenge within and outside mobile money systems.

In 2022, the unified payments app raised $32.8 million in an oversubscribed seed round. With a playbook similar to Visa or Mastercard, routing payments through banks and telcos regardless of who issued it, Dash acquired customers across Ghana, Nigeria, and Kenya, for now – who can connect their bank or mobile money accounts to Dash. Boampong holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration.

David Akinin, Co-Founder & CEO, Jabu (Namibia) Akinin is something of a social entrepreneur driven by accountability and geared by the fusion of finance and technology. He founded Jabu in mid2020 to fix Namibia’s inefficient and almost non-existent supply chain and distribution. Jabu, B2B e-commerce start-up focuses on providing supply chain and distribution solutions in Namibia. In 2022, the start-up raised $3.2 million in a financing round which made it one of the highest financed startups in Southern Africa. Jabu shines a light on the Southern African region as it operates in three cities in Namibia and has also since expanded into two Zambian cities.

As a last-mile distribution e-commerce company, Jabu joins a list of startups across the continent that help small retailers order and stock their products and, at the same time, provide data-driven services to suppliers and manufacturers.

Their platform connects over 6,000 retailers to local and multinational suppliers – such as Namibia Breweries Limited, ABInBev, Bokomo, Coca-Cola, Namibmills etc – and digitises orders, payments, and logistics. As with most African countries, Namibia is heavily reliant on cash. Jabu profits from owning its supply chain and is currently making efforts to digitise its physical cash collection processes via wallets.

David is also currently a Board Member at GS1 Namibia and Atenu Development.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Chicago and a Master of Philosophy from the University of Cape Town. www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2023 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵

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Hamza Faiz, Co-Founder & CEO, SmartProf (Morocco) Faiz created a Morocco-based online tutoring marketplace for school-aged students Mustapha Faiz and Ali Faouiz, with the aim of designing a one-stop-shop edtech for private tutoring in North and West Africa. SmartProf was launched once the trio private education was failing in Morocco. They were convinced every student needs of private assistance in order to overcome challenges faced at school.

alongside platform observed some kind

In Morocco, the private tutoring market is incredibly fragmented finding a tutor burdensome. Additionally, there’s no visibility on pricing. There was a real need for product with a great tutoring experience.

can be a tech

In 2022, SmartProf closed a pre-seed funding round of $110,000 to help it expand its home market and into the West African region. With the growth the company already seen, there’s much potential for the startup to raise more funds in the future.

across has

Currently, the major challenge that the company is facing is the complex and poor payment infrastructure in Morocco. However, the market opportunity for SmartProf remains huge, and it’s trying to adapt as much as possible to a very rigid banking system. However, fintech is growing in the continent and there’s potential for growth of the startups.

Hamza holds a Bachelor’s degree in Finance/Management from the University of Warwick and a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities from Sciences Po.

Emeka Ajene, Serial Entreprenuer, (Nigeria) Emeka is a true African tech professional having founded, and still part of, three different startups – two of which operates in Nigeria and one that operates from Togo. Emeka is the founder of Afridigest (Nigerian), a co-founder of GoZem Africa (Togo), and the founder & Managing Partner of Africapital (Nigeria).

Afridigest is a business media brand with an editorial focus on ideas, analysis, & insights for business innovators across Africa and beyond. The company helps smart readers get smarter about the future of business and innovation in Africa. Africapital, on the other hand, is an emerging investment firm focusing on early-stage,tech-enabled investments across Africa leveraging on the ongoing digitization of Africa’s economy.

In Togo, Emeka is one of the three co-founders of GoZem, which is an African Super App that offers a suite of services, from motorcycle-taxi transport to cartaxi transport, to e-commerce to delivery & logistics services to various financial services. He co-founded the Togo-based startup with Gregory Costamagna and Raphael Dana.

In 2022, Emeka landed the role of Principal, Africreate, a strategic thinking partner and trusted advisor to senior executives doing business in Africa. The company supports start-ups, corporates, and investors in creating and capturing opportunities across African markets.

Emeka is passionate about self-development and the development of others – especially in the context of tech, innovation, and leadership across Africa. He also actively makes time for coaching/mentoring, speaking, reading, and writing to further his passion.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Quantitative Economics & Mathematics from Morehouse College and a Master of Business Administration in Entrepreneurial Growth Strategy & Finance from the University of Michigan.

28 www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2023 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵

the most influential men in digital transformation

Chisomo Daka, Founder, CEO & CTO, Daka Space Technology (Malawi) When it comes to access to technology thanks to internet penetration, Africa still has so much room improvement. Malawi is an example. They also have Chisomo Daka. The physicist founded Daka Space Technology, a Malawian spacebased technology start-up. He is also the founder and the incumbent Managing Director at Airwave Technologies (2017) based in Blantyre (Malawi) and deals with computing and technology.

Daka Space Technologies (DST) LTD essentially conducts space technology research, develops and deploys low-cost and reliable space technology innovations that greatly improve living standards by enabling digital access and successful implementation of sustainable development initiatives in Malawi and across African countries.

DST also provides satellite communication and remote sensing as services to governments, businesses and end users (i.e customers) for various applications and use cases. The star-tup embarks on partnerships with research and academic institutions, especially those interested in space science research, and provides them with hands-on space based technology learning platforms and expert experience in conducting space research projects to both students and research experts.

Malawi, like more and more African countries, is venturing into a space odyssey. It turns out there are around 80 space application projects are currently being implemented across the continent, funded by both continental and global institutions.

Daka aligns his vision with Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want as inspired by the African Union and DST looks at a self-reliant Malawi.

Daka doubles up as a Physics lecturer at Malawi University of Science & Technology (MUST). He graduated from the University of Malawi in 2015 with a Bachelor of Education Science (Physics and Maths). As of today, he holds an MSc. Physics degree from Lovely Professional University in India. The young Daka is also an active advocate of scientific and technological innovations among the youth and strongly believes in the notion of adoption of local technological solutions for sustainable development.

Prof Bitange Ndemo - Kenya’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium and the European Union Prof Ndemo is regarded by many as The Father of Technology in Kenya. If you look back at all the key decisions and their impact on digital transformation in Kenya, they inevitably led back to something he did, facilitated or inspired. Be it be the installation of undersea submarine cables, the development of business process outsourcing industry, the reduction in mobile termination rates (MTRs), initiating Kenya Open Data, and the growth of tech hubs such as iHub and mLab in Kenya through effective regulation Currently serving as Kenya’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium and the European Union, he is an academician shaping the future CIOs, a newspaper columnist with the Daily Nation and the Business Daily who breaks dx language down into mwananchi language.

He is a Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Nairobi’s Business School.

When speaking to the digital transformation taking place in Kenya and in Africa, he pegged digitalization and ICT as now encompassing 12 per cent to 15 per cent of the country’s GDP. His impact as a technocrat is global. He is an advisor and Board member to several organisations including Safaricom, a member of the OECD Expert Panel for Blockchain, World Economic Forum Global Blockchain Council (part of the World Economic Forum’s Global Fourth Industrial Revolution Councils).

Prof Ndemo’s research centers on the link between ICTs and SMEs with emphasis on how ICTs influence economic development in Africa. SMEs account for the employment of about 80 per cent of the population. He holds a PhD in Industrial Economics from the University of Sheffield in the UK, an MBA from the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota) and a bachelor’s degree in Finance from the University of Minnesota. www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2023 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵

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Tomiwa Aladekomo, CEO, Big Cabal Media (Nigeria) When Big Tech Cabal got funding worth $2.3 million in March 2022, it made news. Not for the amount, of course. There have been jaw dropping numbers the past two years. But because it is the first digital news outlet in Africa to raise above $2 million in funding. Like any other media house still standing, the idea is to thrive. Their business model experimentation has certainly delivered results, allowing for compounded annual growth rates of over 200 per cent revenue.

Big Cabal Media comprises of TechCabal, a pan-African and beyond brand, and Zikoko, a national brand revolving around the youth culture for Gen Zers and Millennials continentally and beyond.

Instead of overly relying on advertising, BCM houses other arms serving different clients and generating revenue for the publications to thrive. Cabal Creative, an in-house content studio has produced content for global brands such as Google, Uber and Coca-Cola. TC Insights, a data analytics consulting service, works on research, data, and industry strategy. TC Events is a significant revenue driver for the company. BCM said revenue last year was 4x what the company recorded in 2020 while maintaining a CAGR of 225 per cent over the previous four years. This has allowed each of their publications to be well funded with the money coming in allowing them to pursue more ambitious editorial projects.

As one of the most-read tech publications covering Africa, TechCabal has newsletters such as The Next Wave and TC Events, an events arm that organises well-sought-after gatherings of operators and investors. Their website, TechCabal, reaches 300,000 to 500,000 unique readers monthly with their newsletters being read by over 60,000 subscribers across more than 30 countries.

The fund will be used for audience growth across and beyond Africa, increasing the video capacity in a world where video is becoming ever so important in storytelling, new verticals, and new products. The CEO also plans to further develop Zikoko Memes, a Giphy-like product focusing on African memes, gifs and images that the company launched in 2020.

Niral Patel, Director, Google Cloud Africa, CEO (South Africa) While they may not have had the first mover advantage with cloud in Africa, Google Cloud certainly picked up their skirts and made a run for it when they landed. Starting off with the laying of Equiano, the Big Tech firm would also expand its network through the Equiano subsea cable and build dedicated Cloud Interconnect sites in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Lagos and Nairobi to scale up Cloud capability for Africa.

Africa, we cannot deny, is on the cusp of a digital transformation. It is expected that 300 million people will be coming online in the next five years. The technology will have to be very different to carry these numbers. Enter businesses embracing cloud to innovate rapidly and solve challenges more nimbly. ogle Cloud has been carbon neutral since 2007.

It is working towards the goal of operating entirely on carbon-free energy by 2030, which would them make Google’s the first cloud provider to achieve this milestone.

Google is tapping into its private subsea cable, Equiano, which connects Africa and Europe, to power the sites. Equiano has been under development since 2019 and has so far made four landings — in Togo, Namibia, Nigeria and South Africa. South Africa now joins Google’s global network of 35 cloud regions and 106 zones.

The decision to set up shop in South Africa was informed by the demand for cloud services and the market’s potential. Google Cloud is on the lookout for more markets within the continent as demand for its products soars. Early adopters so far include large enterprise companies, and e-commerce firms like South Africa’s TakeAlot and Kenya’s Twiga.

According to research by AlphaBeta Economics, commissioned by Google Cloud, the South Africa cloud region will contribute over $2.1 billion to South Africa’s GDP and support the creation of more than 40,000 jobs by 2030.

30 www.cioafrica.co | NOVEMBER 2022 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵

the most influential men in digital transformation

Eric Hersman, Co-Founder, Gridless Compute (Kenya) Hersman is the man behind introducing Jack Dorsey, Block Head, Chairman & Co-Founder, Block, to Kenyans. His relationship with Block goes beyond camaraderie. Gridless was a well-kept secret to locals until December 2022 when they got $2 million in funding to use in bitcoin mining in East Africa to increase energy access across Africa and further distribute and secure the bitcoin network. The start-up creates, builds, and operates bitcoin mining sites alongside small-scale renewable energy producers in rural Africa using excess energy.

Serving as the anchor tenant, Gridless finances the construction and managing the operation of data centres in rural communities where traditional industrial or commercial customers are not available. Still in its first year, Gridless has contracted five project pilots in rural Kenya with HydroBox, an African hydroelectric energy company. There are plans to expand to other geographies in East Africa in the near future.

Crypto mining can provide new economic opportunities for people in Africa, creating job in the tech industry and generating revenue. The long-term plan is financial inclusion with cryptocurrency providing an alternative way to participate in the global financial system. Cryptocurrency mining requires high-tech equipment and infrastructure, which can drive the development of technology in Africa and promote technological innovation.

Hersman is also the co-founder of Nairobi Garage, BRCK, Ushahidi, Inc, Founder iHub Nairobi, and a TED Senior Fellow.

Solomon Torgbor, Co-Founder & COO, Jetstream Africa (Ghana) The startup was founded by Miishe Addy and Solomon Torgbor in 2018 with the intent to enable African businesses see and control their own cross-border supply chains. It aggregates private sector logistics providers at African ports and borders bringing them online. Initially, they buzzed around fragmentation problems and lack of coordination at African ports; an experience Torgbor was all too familiar with. Having worked Maersk’s freight forwarding subsidiary Damco for eight years where he would see cargoes sitting for weeks at container terminals without moving forward in the supply chain. It turned out these delays were due to errors and incorrect paperwork at customs, importers, and exporters not having working capital at the right time to pay their logistics bills all culminating in poor coordination on the ground. When it came to exports, the cargo volumes were sometimes too small to ship cost-effectively by sea freight.

It charges for freight, clearance, and financial services. For freight, it charges a per-container or per-kilogram fee. For customs clearance, it charges a flat fee. For financing and insurance services, it charges a commission on the value of the goods being shipped. They grew 512 per cent during the pandemic. In January 2023, they announced they had secured $13 million in equity and debt pre-Series A financing, 18 months after a $3 million seed round.

Jetstream has now evolved into a freight forwarder, handling the end-to-end movement, both export and import, charge a fee for it, and supplies finance to those who need it. Their revenue has grown by 48 per cent and active customers by 102 per cent within the past year. The round will help them expand into new markets as well as capitalise on trade policies. They are particularly keen on inter-continental trade.

the round-up

What’s Trending

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ARTICLE by

STEVE MBEGO & KEVIN Namunwa

How ChatGPT Will Influence Cybersecurity

The roll out of ChatGPT in the hands of the public could change the established rules of the cybersecurity world. The move comes a few months after OpenAI released ChatGPT3 – one of the most powerful AI models to date. ChatGPT-3 can explain complex scientific concepts better than many teachers, write music and generate almost any text based on the user’s request.

ChatGPT-3 is primarily an AI language model that creates convincing texts which are difficult to distinguish from those written by humans. Hence, cybercriminals are already trying to apply this technology to spearphishing attacks.

Previously, the main hurdle stopping them from mass spearphishing campaigns was that it is quite expensive to write each targeted email. ChatGPT is set to drastically alter the balance of power, because it might allow attackers

to generate persuasive and personalised phishing e-mails on an industrial scale. It can even stylise correspondence, creating convincing fake e-mails seemingly from one employee to another. Unfortunately, this means that the number of successful phishing attacks may grow.

Many users have already found that ChatGPT can generate code, but unfortunately this includes the malicious type. Creating a simple infostealer will be possible without having any programming skills at all.

However, straight-arrow users have nothing to fear. If code written by a bot is used, security solutions will detect and neutralise it as quickly as it does with all human-created malware.

While some analysts voice concern that ChatGPT can even create unique malware for each particular victim, these samples would still

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exhibit malicious behaviour that most probably will be noticed by a security solution. What’s more, the bot-written malware is likely to contain subtle errors and logical flaws which means that full automation of malware coding is yet to achieve.

“While ChatGPT doesn’t do anything outright malicious, it might help attackers in a variety of scenarios, for example, writing convincing targeted phishing emails. However, at the moment, ChatGPT definitely isn’t capable of becoming some sort of autonomous hacking AI. The malicious code that the neural network generates will not necessarily be working at all and would still require a skilled specialist to improve and deploy it,” commented Vladislav Tushkanov, a Security Expert at Kaspersky.

Although the tool may be useful to attackers, defenders can also benefit from it. For instance, ChatGPT is already capable of quickly explaining what a particular piece of code does. It comes into its own in SOC conditions, where constantly overworked analysts have to devote a minimum amount of time to each incident, so any tool to speed up the process is welcome.

In the future, users will probably see numerous specialised products: a reverse-engineering model to understand code better, a CTF-solving model, a vulnerability research model, and more.

“Though ChatGPT doesn’t have an immediate impact on industry and doesn’t change the cybersecurity game, the next generations of AI probably will. In the next few years, we may see how large language models, both trained on natural language and programming code, are adapted for specialised use-cases in cybersecurity.

These changes can affect a wide range of cybersecurity activities, from threat-hunting to incident response.

Therefore, cybersecurity companies will want to explore the possibilities that new tools will give, while also being aware of how this tech might aid cybercriminals,” he concluded.

Africa’s Tech Ecosystem Proves Resilient With $6.5B Raised In 2022 Partech Africa, the VC fund dedicated to technology start-ups in Africa, issued its annual report on Africa Tech Venture Capital. The report, which aims to provide a practical picture of the state of the ecosystem, revealed that despite the global VC downturn, the African tech ecosystem grew faster than all other markets globally.

Total funding invested into tech start-ups on the continent reached $6.5B, an increase of 8 per cent vs 2021, spread across 764 deals compared to 724 rounds in 2021. The report, consisting of disclosed and confidential deals, saw debt funding more than double in volume, reaching $1.55 billion through 71 deals [65 per cent YoY growth]. In comparison, equity rounds showed a slight decline, as 653 African tech start-ups raised $4.9B [-6 per cent] in 693 equity rounds [2 per cent YoY growth].

Focusing on the equity funding, the report revealed the ecosystem was still accelerating during Q1 and Q2 of 2022 compared to 2021, with the YoY comparison showing Q1 and Q2 at +127 per cent YoY and +83 per cent YoY, respectively. However, the global VC slowdown stifled growth in activity in Q3 [-65 per cent YoY] and Q4 [-35 per cent YoY]. In 2022, fundraising activities remained flat across all stages. At $1.4M, Seed+ ticket sizes averaged higher in 2022 [+12 per cent YoY], while Series A remained the same at $8.5 million. Later stages reverted to 2019 levels, as Series B and growth round sizes dropped by -23 per cent and -50 per cent YoY, respectively. In addition, 2022 witnessed a significant reduction in the number of megadeals [over 100M], with only seven deals compared to 14 in 2021.

Commenting on the annual report,

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Tidjane Deme, General Partner at Partech, said, “2022 was a particularly challenging year for the venture ecosystem worldwide, as venture and growth investors scaled back their investment by a third. However, by comparison, our report revealed the African tech ecosystem showed great resilience, as more investors have doubled their commitment to the continent by investing in local teams and funds dedicated to the market, which is proving to be the best way forward.”

Overall, Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt and Kenya remain the top investment destinations in Africa, with a share of total volume staying relatively steady at 72 per cent. Nigeria retained the top rank, bringing in $1.2 billion in capital, despite a decline of 36 per cent from 2021; South Africa, Egypt, and Kenya each attracted over $0.7 billion in funding, with Ghana completing the top five with just over $0.2 billion. Overall, 28 countries attracted equity funding in 2022, 13 of them in Francophone Africa..

In light of the market downturn, the report’s findings also revealed that fintech, which has historically attracted sizable investments, was the most impacted by the slowdown in the number of large rounds. However, fintech remains the most funded sector in Africa, and this across all sources of capital, with 39 per cent of the total equity volume [$1.9 billion] and 45 per cent of the total debt volume [$691 milllion]. Other sectors have experienced substantial growth and gained a meaningful share of the equity funding activity this year, most notably Cleantech, which made a big comeback with 18 per cent of total equity funding at $863 million [+347 per cent YoY] but also 39 per cent of the total debt funding at $605 million.

the round-up

27th April 2023 FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: customersuccess@dx5ve.com @dx5ve

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ARTICLE by

MICHAEL MICHIE

Of Lighthouses And Leaders Leadership is a critical aspect of success that involves inspiring and guiding individuals and teams to achieve their goals and reach their full potential. But what makes a great leader? In this article, we delve into the characteristics, skills, and strategies that effective leaders possess and explore the latest thinking and best practices in the field of leadership. Whether you’re a seasoned manager or just starting out, this article is your guide to becoming a more effective and impactful leader.

Leadership for many is about having people report to you, being the overall decision maker, and sitting at the top of an organogram in your organisation.

This is more of a boss role to me.

Leaders are a lot more complex than the example above. Leadership as a concept has gone through significant changes and is continuing to evolve as workplaces change.

Philosophically, leadership can be defined as a process of influencing and guiding individuals or groups towards a common goal or purpose all while promoting personal and collective growth and development.

Leaders are individuals who inspire and motivate their followers to achieve a common goal. They do so through their charisma, vision, and ability to communicate effectively. Leaders create a positive and inclusive work environment where employees feel valued and empowered. They focus on developing their employees’ skills and abilities, and are always looking for ways to improve their performance.

In contrast, bosses are individuals who hold a position of authority and use that power to direct and control their employees. They often rely on a top-down approach, making decisions without seeking input from their employees. Bosses may be concerned primarily with achieving results and

meeting targets, rather than fostering a positive work environment.

Leading is not a role one is assigned to. It is more a duty that comes your way. Leaders do not point where to go.

Instead, they are a light house, guiding you to safety and at the same time not steering the ship. Leadership in tech has evolved significantly, as has technology.

We have seen the era of bosses being part of the server client era. The era of the boss seems to be fading away as we take to the cloud. The change in team structure allows for leadership to be an activity any team member can participate in.

My personal journey around leadership has had me rethink what it is, how it is used, what types of leadership are out there, why we fail at it, how we fail at it and when to stop leading. Leadership, for me, has, and continues to be, a philosophical topic and concept worth studying and experimenting with. There are several types of leaders, and most of them blend into more than one of the few examples listed below. A list that is not complete as there are so many styles of leadership.

1. Autocratic leaders: These leaders make decisions unilaterally and exercise control over their followers. They often have a top-down management style and expect obedience and compliance from their employees.

36 www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2023 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵

2. Transformational leaders: These leaders inspire and motivate their followers to achieve a common goal.

They are charismatic and visionary and create a positive and inclusive work environment that fosters collaboration and creativity.

3. Laissez-faire leaders: These leaders provide minimal guidance or direction and allow their employees to work independently. This leadership style can lead to a lack of structure and accountability but may also foster innovation and creativity.

4. Servant leaders: These leaders prioritise the needs of their followers and strive to empower and support their employees. They are selfless and compassionate, and view leadership to serve others.

5. Transactional leaders: These leaders use a reward-and-punishment system to motivate their employees. They focus on achieving specific goals and objectives and expect their employees to adhere to established procedures and standards.

6. Charismatic leaders: These leaders have strong personalities and magnetic charm that inspire and motivate their followers. They are often visionary and confident and have a charismatic communication style.

Two schools of thought I love with

thinking aloud leadership are: 1. Total ownership; leaders should be ready to own the faults of the teams they lead. Shielding them from the adverse consequences of failure, but not coddle them too much as there are valuable lessons from failure that should be experienced to make teams better.

2. Shared victories; history has always praised the generals that conquered such as Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan. Men who led their armies to conquering vast portions of the world. Victories should be shared with the whole team, as this builds strength within it. Words such as “we did” and not “I did” show this trait of leadership. Leaders need to find unique ways to show the value of their teams to feel part of the victory. This could be through allowing them lead, allowing them to challenge, showing them the impact, their work has at the final product or service the consumers get their hands on.

Evidently, leaders remind me of lighthouses. They share a philosophical resemblance in the way they guide and inspire individuals to find their way and reach their destination. Just as a lighthouse stands tall and shines its light, leaders also stand strong and radiate their influence, illuminating the path for others to follow. Both leaders and lighthouses serve as symbols of hope and stability, providing a beacon of light. They represent the idea that even in the darkest of times, there is always a guiding force to help us find our way. In this sense, leaders and lighthouses represent the human spirit, showing that even in the most challenging moments, we have the capacity to find the right path and reach our goals.

There is a common saying that people don’t leave a job; they leave their bosses. We should add to that and say people don’t stay for their bosses; they stay because of the leadership (lighthouses). www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2023 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵

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ARTICLE by

KEVIN Namunwa

Strange And Interesting Gadgets There’s a lot to marvel at the future of tech, and 2023 has already given us enough to know that there’s more to come. There has already been a lot of talk around Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, 5G Network etc. However, we must not forget that a lot is also happening in the hardware space.

Human beings are always looking for ways to make life easier and have tasks accomplished faster. There are new inventions that see the light of day frequently but with a lot of talk on software, we tend to forget about these inventions.

Here, we’re going to look at what inventions have been brought about in 2023. There’s a lot to be excited about, and a bit weirded out about too, from colour-changing cars to pillows that breathe and even a self-driving stroller. Not sure that is mom approved. However, we’re highlighting the best of the strangest new tech. What really gets most people’s gadget glands working are the wackier inventions.

These could become the future of tech, or they might never actually see the light of day.

BMW’s Colour-Changing Car Is an electric car not high-tech enough for you? How about one that can change its finish 100 times a day? The BMW Vision Dee is a concept design with 240 E Ink panels across its bodywork. These can display one of 32 colours each, allowing for some pretty wild designs. BMW will probably never actually sell a car covered in E Ink screens, but this was no computer render. It was shown live on the CES stage.

L’Oreal’s Stabilising Make-Up Applicator Cosmetics have become one of the thematic pillars for online content creators, but make-up tutorials can seem blocked off to those with limited manual dexterity or a shaky grip. L’Oréal has teamed-up with Alphabet’s Verily to make Hapta. It’s effectively a gimbal for lipstick that keeps it steady even if the person’s hand is shaking.

38 www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2023 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵

gadgets

Voice-Absorbing Facemask Yes, you are probably sick and tired of face masks by now but this one is very different. The Skyted Mask “absorbs” your voice, so no-one nearby can listen in on your phone calls, or hear you swearing as you play Fortnite online. Its maker suggests one of these masks is perfect for those on flights holding business calls.

Not our bag, but you can see the mask in action on YouTube. It features some of the same materials used for sound isolation on airplanes.

The Laptop-Charging Bike Desk Working from home can mean your steps go way down and your energy bills go way up. But this could be a solution, if a slightly strange one. The eKinekt BD 3 from Acer is an exercise bike that is also a desk. We’ve seen those before, but this one converts your mid-meeting workouts into electricity that can be used to charge your phone, your laptop — whatever you like — through its three USB ports. With an expected price of £999, the costs might take a while to balance out, mind.

AI Baby Monitor Detects Your Baby’s Cry There are four reasons babies cry. Well, that’s according to this “AI” baby monitor and night light, called Q-Bear. It uses software trained through 10,000 baby wails and will get to know your own child’s cries as it is used over the days and weeks.

What are those four reasons? Hunger, soiled nappy, being tired, or wanting to be comforted.

Smart Wee-Testing Toilet Vivoo’s toilet may not be what comes to mind when the term “smart toilet” is used. It’s not one of those Japanese wonders with a heated seat and massaging waterspouts. This is a clip-on urinalysis device that places a test strip in the path of your wee stream. It then tests for “four wellness” parameters and delivers your results to the app within 90 seconds. We might not want to use this every time we head to the loo, but aren’t you a little curious about the magnesium, pH, protein, and sodium content of your urine and — more to the point — what they might mean about your health?

Yukai Engineering’s Robot Pillow The Japanese robotics firm Yukai Engineering has invented an incredible pillow that feels like it’s breathing when you hold it. It does this by expanding and contracting slowly and subtly as you’re holding it, which helps train your body to do the same. It is meant to help those with anxiety and high-stress levels calm and feel at ease when needed. It sounds like the perfect addition to our self-care arsenal.

www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2023 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵

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ARTICLE by

ROBERT YAWE

hard talk

Still Waiting For The Servers To Be Opened Elections are the cornerstone of democracy and the foundation of free and fair societies.

However, in Kenya, they are an opportunity for the ICT fraternity to play comatose. In this article, we take a closer look at consecutive elections marred by allegations of irregularities such as vote tampering and manipulation. This is a timely and critical examination of the state of our electoral systems, and the impact these irregularities have on the legitimacy and credibility of our elections.

In 2007, we, as usual, had a contested election. And since we had attempted to use technology to deliver a transparent and credible election, that did not happen. Unfortunately, the country almost went to the dogs as we took up arms against each other. As was expected, technology was held solely responsible.

One would have expected that after such a close call we would spare no expense to make sure that we would not experience the same affair during the next election five years later. But as has become our culture, that never happened either.

Instead, we all, and mainly the IT fraternity that had been blamed for the fiasco, went back to the usual laissezfaire life. We retreated into our cocoons to do whatever it is we do in there.

Sadly, when we revive, we are still the same creatures that went in with no metamorphosis having happened.

Claims that the system was hacked meant one would have expected cyber forensic experts to offer themselves to investigate. But, again, as usual, the

decision on whether there was hacking was left to our English language majors in the judiciary to interpret.

Interesting how there was not a single conference, workshop or tea party convened by the ICT fraternity to discuss what might have gone wrong never mind provide solutions as to how the same would not happen yet again.

We had other matters to discuss.

In 2013, we had yet another election.

This time under a new constitution which we had promulgated, whatever that really means. It was brand new with all the bells and whistles as well as airtight against any election malpractice. If my memory serves me well, and it does, we had also overhauled the teams at the helm of the electoral commission. Of course, most of those in the trenches remained intact.

Just like clockwork, we went to the polls.

Soon after, the results were contested and the blame was placed squarely on technology, its untrustworthiness and ease of compromise. The ICT fraternity did what it does best; nothing.

Fast forward to 2017 when we

40 www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2023 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵

had the next general election and like a scratched vinyl record - for those who do not know what that is please ChatGPT it - the outcome was contested. This time around, the presidential election was nullified. For some strange reason, other elected positions were not even though the exact same system was used to carry out those elections.

We then had a repeat presidential election which had a horrible turnout with the opposition party getting that early election nullified, boycotting the election and blaming the technology platform while we, the ICT fraternity, threw a 404. Or was it a 1327? I can no longer tell as debugging was turned off.

Now onto 2022. We yet again went to the polls with all parties agreeing that the technology was solid. But soon after the results were released, we went back to the English experts who declared that hot air had been released. As of this writing, we are back to the 2007, 2013 and 2017 chorus singing “Open the servers,” and as usual, we have returned to our cocoons waiting for the same to happen in 2027. Happy napping.

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