African startups Magazine- Emerge Africa by Aniekan Okono

Africa's Tech Companies of the Future

Essay by Okafor Dodoh

P r i c e : 9.9 9 U S D

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SOLD ACROSS AFRICA

January - March 2014 • Nr. 1 • Emerge-Africa is published by the Emerge Africa Group

EMERGE AFRICA 

EDITORIAL THE AGE of rapid changes in the world of information dissemination

SPECIAL FEATURE

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Interviews

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Churchill NanjeMambe Eric Mutta George William Bakka Gospel Onuoha

Creating A New Africa The Brains, Individuals And Organizations Propelling The Continent To New Frontiers

Meltwater Entrepreneurial School Of Technology

MOST Enterprising Start-ups Meet The Companies And Individuals Changing Africa’s Tech And Business Ecosystem

Emerge

January - March 2014

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The Editorial TEAM

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Africa First Issue

Aniekan Okono

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Co-Founder / Business Development Head Aniekan’s main strength is in motivating and helping those around him find and live to the fullest of their potential. Aniekan’s ideas, inspiration and leadership drive the team. He is also in charge of business development and commercialization. Contact: aniekanokono@gmail.com Skype: aniekan.okono Web: twitter.com/AniekanOkono; www. facebook.com/aokono; www.miemagazine.com

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Location: Helsinki Phone: +358443629957 Address: C/O Protomo Ylistönmäentie 24, 40500 Jyväskylä Finland

Leslie Asamoa

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EDITORS’ TAKE - Our Criteria

The Age of rapid changes in the world of information disemination

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Special Feature Meltwater Entrepreneurial School Of Technology Building Tomorrow’s Entrepreneur, Equipping The Next Generation, Thrusting Africa Onto The Big Stage

CorruptionNET, South Africa Fighting Corruption Collectively, Effectively

Contact:

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Co-Founder / Head Contacts And Strategy Godwin is a seasoned IT professional with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in computer science from the University of Nigeria Nsukka and Manchester respectively. He is best suited in the areas of business strategy development and idea generation. He ensures that the Emerge Africa magazine editions are outstandingly special and first-rate in its class. GOC as he is fondly called believes in innovation, commercialization and continuous integration of knowledge (Kaizen) across frontiers. GOC lives in Nigeria. mygoc1@gmail.com

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Phone: +23408038099848

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Michael Fidelis Umanah

Co-Founder / Page Planner Mike read mechanical engineering at the University of Nigeria and works with Leslie Asamoa in the technical department. Mike brings energy and imagination to the Emerge Africa team.

The Brains, Individuals And Organizations Propelling The Continent To New Frontiers

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Contact:

Emerge-Africa is published by the Emerge Africa Group Phone: +2348051273647

The team will continuously explore the entire African continent to present the best stories of inventions, innovation, and creativity passionately pursued by enterprising Africans who are determined to transform the continent through technology and great ideas.

Phone: +358505553330 Address: Ramsaynkuja 8B, 02450 Sundsberg, Kirkkonummi Finland and Accra, Ghana

Godwin Chukwukelu

Creating A New Africa

Please contact us: okafor.dodoh@emerge-africa.com or call at: +2348051273647.

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leslie.asamoa@acmegh.com asamoal@gmail.com Skype: asamoal0 Web: twitter.com/asamoal0

COVER STORY

Marrying Online Convenience With Informative Exchanges

Co-Founder / Lead IT Expert A seasoned (20 years+) Systems, Solution and Business Application Analyst with Domain Specific Modelling (12 years) experience in the Enterprise (Enterprise and Project Architectures) skilled and experienced in analyzing and converting systems, solutions or applications, through a defined set of multi-task processes including preparing an overview characterization of the system, solution or application.

Contact:

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Mara Online, Uganda

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Phone: +2347062359125 michael_umanah@yahoo.com web: Facebook.com/Michael Umanah

Okafor Dodoh

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Editor-In-Chief A co-founder of Emerge Africa, Dodoh holds a degree in economics from the University of Nigeria. To Dodoh, Africans must rise and take their destiny in their own hands and this responsibility naturally falls on the youths. Creating a better continent is a shared obligation and as a firm proponent of the power of the media, the Emerge Africa platform is founded principally to tell the story of Africa’s best and most enterprising youths, showcase their glorious inventions and patents to the world. To tell the story of a new, emerging Africa is an obligation the medium has assigned to itself and her editor-in-chief, also the founder of EaglePost Media (eaglepostng.com) would do his best to make this dream real. He lives in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city.

Contact:

okafor.dodoh@emerge-africa.com Phone: +2348051273647

Web: Facebook.com/Dodoh Okafor Twitter.com/eaglepostng

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E DITO RS’ Ta ke

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Our Cri teri a

THE

AGE

of rapid changes in the world of information dissemination

In profiling the start-ups here,

our selection team was guided by three important criteria: • Relevance • Novelty • Ease Of Access Ideas offered by a start-up must be relevant to the African socio-econo-political ecosystem. It must be such that is designed to address a certain, identified problem faced by specific group within the region. Start-ups like corruptionNET, BudgIT (from South Africa and Nigeria respectively) are particularly relevant in addressing the problem of corruption and poor knowledge of the budget process, prevalent problems in the countries where they operate. NJORKU from Cameroun and mPAWA (Ghana) are of great help to the millions seeking blue and white collar jobs

within the continent. There’s little argument that sometimes, unemployment stems from what economists call “information asymmetry”. With the bold initiatives taken by these founders, employers and prospective employees now know where and how to make contacts, creating value and wealth along the line, a significantly helpful leap if you ask me. Paperight from South Africa is also increasing access to valuable, time tested books through the ages by making these books (from general interest, academic, history, self help, motivational books and so on) available in as many outlets as possible, turning these outlets to copyright shops. The founders get a straight A for novelty. Brainshare (from Uganda) and PULSE (Cameroon) are equally peer-

January - March 2014  EMERGE AFRICA  

From the EDITORS

less for seamlessly integrating education and social, mobile and web interaction thereby making more education attractive for the millions of youths bored of the traditional education routine. mVERIFIED from Kenya offers us a peep into the possibilities and accrued advantages of deploying modern communication and technology tools in fighting forgery and fakery, two dangerous threats to credible business transaction within the continent. With their skills, the start-up entrepreneurs are letting us in on how we too can channel our best energies into fighting the problems that are a daily cause of worry in our little environment. M-Changa borrows an ageold tradition of raising money in East Africa and makes it an idea and a trend for this age. With their platform, anyone in need of money (with the right contacts and for the right reason) now has a suitable anchor for partnership with much convenience.

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O ur c ri teri a

PriceCheck, another truly unique African creation keeps online shoppers safe from the exploitative tendencies of Shylock retailers. By creating a platform where prices are crosschecked, valid and informed decision are made. The idea has proven as timely as it is inspired. Africa in the views of some is experiencing an online shopping boom and the dudes behind this innovative South African start-up are leaving nothing in their strides to see that the good times last forever. All the start-ups profiled here were meticulously selected from

diverse ends of the continent. Methodically, they are reshaping the face of technology and information dissemination within our beautiful continent. Without being said, they are making life easier and convenient for the vast majority of our people. The young and young at heart would be eternally grateful to the venture capitalists, institutions and brains behind these outfits. For leading us through this age of rapid changes in the world of information dissemination, high speed advances in innovative, barrier breaking business ideas and build-forconsumer convenience business models, they deserve our gratitude, support and continuous encouragement. That is what we have sought to do here. We hope you will enjoy the exciting insights and inspirations we will be serving in the accompanying pages. 

Okafor Dodoh 4

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Editor in Chief

• SP ECI AL FEAT URE •

❲MELTWATER

ENTREPRENEURIAL SCHOOL OF TECHNOLOGY

Building Tomorrow’s Entrepreneur, Equipping The Next Generation, Thrusting Africa Onto The Big Stage

Jorn Lyseggen, the brain and

Name:

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FOUNDER’S PROFILE

Jorn Lyseggen Place Of Birth:

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Korea, Dec. 1, 1968. Nationality: Norway Occupation: Entrepreneur Education:

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B. Science, Electrical Engineering (Bergen Ingeniorhogskol, Norway) M. Science, Electrical Engineering, Specialization In Digital Signal Processing and Artificial Intelligence (Iowa State University, USA) Entrepreneurship Training (Harvard University, USA)

 Biggest Brands: Meltwater News, Founded in 2001 Meltwater Foundation and Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology

inspiration behind this innovative institution that has supported several of Africa’s leading start-up is a firm believer in the future of Africa as the home of the next big thing in technology. To set the stage for this unprecedented era, The Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (which he runs), the leading tech training institution in Accra Ghana trains and equips her students with the skills required to lead breakthrough global companies. Mr. Lyseggen believes that Africa has such a massive pool of talents that if properly harnessed would solve the problem of unemployment that is currently afflicting the continent and in general stimulate the economy of the region. Evidence that the efforts of the board, staff and students of MSET are yielding fruits is found in the impressive fact that the 139 graduands of the school have founded 13 companies, collectively employing an estimated 70 people. The meticulous admission and training procedure at the school

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makes failure (for the alumni) nearly impossible. To be admitted, one must have earned a degree from a university or institution of higher training. Of the over one thousand that send in applications each year, not more than twenty are selected after several rounds of aptitude tests and other tough screening measures.

Since founding in 2007, the school has been renowned for offering the right kind of nurturing, support and guidance to her students with the aim of turning them into extraordinarily successful entrepreneurs. MEST, operated by Meltwater Foundation is involved in the business of seeking out university graduates with special skills and talents- those with interest in entrepreneurship, technology

SP ECIA L Feature

and business to take part in her programs. On admission, the students, now called Entrepreneurs in Training (EITs) go through a rigorous two-year entrepreneurial training that combine an MBAtype education with hands-on training in software development, basic, essential business fundamentals and entrepreneurship in a fast-paced, challenging, start-up environment where they develop software applications. When ready, these apps are launched in the global market. Courses are handled by business professors, MBA consultants and software geeks who bring in several years of seasoned experience in software and tech business in the USA, EU and Asia. Collectively, these teaching fellows prepare the students for the challenges and thrills of the global market. The training schedule includes the essentials of business management, finance, communication and advanced programming. Here, students are by regulation required to develop software applications that will provide so6

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M eltwater E n trepren euri a l Sc h o o l O f Techno lo gy

lutions to pressing international problems, that would be acceptable in the global market and be eventually launched as real companies. This, it must be stated is the whole objective of the twoyear training programme. Theory and theorizing take the first year but whence the second year approaches, the students are required to form a team of three or four people and bootstrap their own software start-up. For their final examination, the students present an investor pitch to a committee of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs that

include the school’s founder Mr. Lyseggen. Based on certain metrics that included the strength of the software, its commercial viability and global appeal. The students receive seed funding that range from $30, 000 to $200, 000 from MSET incubator, located in the same environment. When the ideas are funded, the newly formed startups move into the incubator to begin operations. Here, they are given access to office facilities at a small monthly fee. The model for certain has worked as scripted. Between 2008 and 2013, the Meltwater Foundation, which runs the school, has invested over $1.5 million in these budding businesses. In addition to seed funding, the MSET graduands gain access to a global network of advisors and mentors. Mr. Lyseggen’s belief and confidence in the future of Africa is paying off significantly and some of the most important start-ups founded by graduates of his institution are listed below. 

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Start-up

Service Pitch

Adsbrook

Web and Mobile Advertising.

ClaimSync

Electronically Collate And Process Medical Insurance Claims

Dropifi

Web based messaging platform that allows companies to easily visualize, manage, analyze and respond to incoming enquiries from existing and potential clients

Freelancepro.Me

Allow Freelance writers build online reputation

Leti Games

Online Mobile And Web Based Games

mPawa

Mobile Job matching application for blue collar Jobs

Nandi Mobile

Leveraging Enterprise-Customer Relations Using Mobile Messaging Platforms

Retail Tower

Inventory Management For Online Retail Outlets

Saya

Mobile Messaging

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COVE RSTORY

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New Fro n ti ers

Creating a NEW

AFRICA by Okafor Dodoh

The continent of Africa and

her people have variously been derided for her many deficitseconomic, cultural and political. For some, the Black Continent is only synonymous with underdevelopment, war, hunger, deprivation, limited access to self-enhancing opportunities and for the extremely cynical, doom and doomed. There perhaps could be some measure of justification for this as the region clearly lags behind most sections of the world in some key parameters for assessing development and living standards. But then, a new Africa is emerging and sadly, very few are

The Brains, Individuals And Organizations Propelling The Continent To New Frontiers noticing. Most observers are so fixated with the dominant view of the continent that they are unable to see how gradually, the continent’s story, fortune and future are being recast - by a dynamic team of young innovative, dynamic, ambitious and futuristic computer programmers, app developers and out-of-the box thinkers - in all fields - from governance (anti-corruption, online certificate verification) to economic (e-trading, e-commerce, advertising), social interaction, education (e-learning apps are being developed almost daily), parenting, tourism and traffic. The adoption and enthusiasm

is so pronounced that no field is left behind. From Ghana to Kenya to Nigeria and whatever part of Africa you set foot in, you are almost certain to encounter a new technology-driven business in the making; you would likely run into a mobile or web-based app developed to take care of a specific problem affecting an area within the African eco-system. As good a news as that is, the greater joy comes from knowing that the dudes behind these wonders are neither Europeans, Americans nor Chinese but Africans living in the continent. Without being loud or attention

January - March 2014  EMERGE AFRICA  

COVERSTORY

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Creati n g a n ew Af ri ca

seeking, they are systematically tackling our diverse problems as a people. More exciting for observers like this writer is that the whole thing has the texture and thrill of a mass movement. If you think the bigger economies here would dominate this new era, then you are certainly wrong. Truth is - everyone and every country are in the game and many more are joining. In Botswana, Pule Mmolotsi leads the way by developing an Oyester-like payment card for folks using the public means of transport, much similar to what you have in the metropolitan cities of London, New York, Rome and Paris. The device called Olekard, a biometric card that passengers can load money into and make easy payment with in buses, matatu, combi, or trains. Simply wave the card at 8

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the terminal and you are good to go, payment is already made. Your fee is deducted automatically like it happens after each phone call on a prepaid platform. When Mmolotsi’s invention reaches a wider-level adoption, passengers in his country can afford to travel with peace of mind as pickpockets and bigger criminals are kept at bay - no one wants to rob a man without much physical cash. Operators also can rake in more revenue as theft to drivers and touts are checked, thanks to this truly smart, truly African invention. In Ethiopia, certainly one of the places ignored by tech-watchers (with only an estimated 1% internet penetration, mobile penetration is put at a paltry 17%), iceaddis, one of the most unique and important hubs in Africa is helping loads of tech-savvy Ethiopians to give life to their dreams. Started in May 2011, the tech hub, accelerator and co-working space now boast of over 1000 members, developing not just marketable and innovative ICT apps for the country but also giving attention to green and sustainable technologies generally. Presently, one (there are 35 in all) of the companies that emerged

COVE RSTORY

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N ew Frontiers

from Mekina offers Ethiopians an opportunity to rent, lease, buy and sell cars online. In Tanzania, The Aim Group is taking marketing and branding to an unprecedented height leveraging the popularity of the media - (traditional and social). They collaborate with major brands in the continent to gain new reaches for their messages. Likewise in Kenya, with their huge mobile and web penetration, you have to be a magician to effectively cover all the profitable start-ups coming from that country of long-distance runners. The young Kenyans have simply taken the lead and their footsteps millions of others in other countries are following. Whether you are in the hunt for a company that offers you round the clock guide to tourist destinations via mobile, hot-dining spots in town and perhaps where to have a cool night sleep away from home, the start-ups in Kenya would more than surpass your expectation. In Ghana, a lot is happening and thanks to the vibrant accelerators (see our special feature), young Ghanaian graduates are becoming job creators and economic transformers rather than job seekers and victims of a villainous system that most schools here make of her graduates. Ghana’s start-ups are not only innovative, they are smart and proactive. Cameroun too (they have good representation on our pro-

file section) is in the business. All over the country, youths are beginning to see options, imagine new future and more importantly, are giving life to their wild, imaginative ideas. How about Nigeria (plenty coming from here in our profile section also) where 25-year old Sadiq has launched a traffic monitoring app to enable folks with android devices get first hand, up-to-the minute update on the traffic situation on their routes. With this app, congested roads can be avoided by folks with urgent appointments to meet. Better business relations too can be guaranteed, all through the tech-wizardry of this Nigerian inventor. There’s nothing more Lagos residents can ask for. Also in Nigeria, Iroko Partners is doing more than her part to see that entertainment, the African way, reaches every corner of the earth. As the greatest online retailers of African movies and videos with millions of patrons across the continents of

the world, there’s no doubting they have transformed themselves into the new Missionaries and evangelists of the African culture and tradition. Very significantly, there’s a shared belief among the drivers and pioneer of this new movement- as some have rightly called it - that the future is Africa’s. In the words of Ashish J. Thakkar of Mara Group, “African tech space has a very bright future ahead and it’s probably one of the sectors that will define the continent’s future.” Then according to Arthur Atwell of Paperight South Africa, “Africa is the most exciting place to be for entrepreneurs today, because there’s so much to be done, and that means endless possibilities. We solve real problems here. Unlike so many entrepreneurs in developed countries, we don’t waste time building silly apps that make no impact on the world. That means Africa’s tech start-ups are, for the most part, creating real value that over the coming years will directly ben-

January - March 2014  EMERGE AFRICA  

COVERSTORY

efit our economies, and grow our businesses into solid assets for customers and shareholders.” In all, the transformation of the continent by means other than revolution and political horse-trading is being pioneered by the youths, the owners of tomorrow and there’s no evidence they are proclaiming uhuru yet. Let’s be clear, there’s no African start-up that can yet rival the big shots in the industry at the global level. The founders of Facebook, Google, Twitter, Yahoo, Microsoft and all the rest will always retain prominence of space and mention. The founders and startup owners all acknowledged the enormity of the challenges facing the young, innovative person here. Mr. Thakkar succinctly painted the picture thus, “the main challenges facing young African entrepreneurs are lack of experience, credibility and access to funding.” The difficulties in Maxwell’s view vary from country to country. In his native South Africa for example, “the biggest problem is the high cost of tax and regulatory compliance, and our banking regulations that put too much power in the hands of four or five banks.” Oluseun Onigbinde, the former bank staff who now functions as the team leader of BudgIT, puts it thus - “as an entrepreneur in Africa, you have to contend with the cost factors such as energy, taxation, unfavorable policies for small businesses, leadership deficit and the risk perspective of the society. Innovation is premised 10

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Creati n g a n ew Af ri ca

on the ability to take a risk, to believe that the status quo needs improvement or that there’s an iron-cast window of opportunity that needs to be unveiled. A key challenge is how do you allow people to unleash their geniuses when they are still worried about the basics of food, clothing and affordable shelter? It ends up that people are wired to drift to safety - a paid employment immediately after leaving school.” With these problems identified by the individuals directly involved in the start-up ecosystem, it would be naive to simply wish them away and pretend that everything is perfect. Like you would still read in

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our interview segment, the journey ahead is still far, the task demanding and the reward uncertain. What is needed is the individual with the will, the tenacity and grit to overcome, conquer and dominate his field. Here is something we all should keep in mind: we are in a new world and Africa can no longer afford to stand and clap. Here is a time to step into the arena and make a claim for the top prize. Tell whoever cares to listen that indeed, Africa is emerging.  Special thanks to Godwin Chukwukelu for editorial assistance.

A FRICATOMORROW

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Co lum n

Africa’s

Tech Companies

of the

FUTURE Looking at the Ideas and Innovations That Would Dominate Africa’s Socio-Economic and Cultural Landscape in the Next Decade

Predicting the future is about

the most difficult engagement even for self-announcing futuristic minded persons. A hard task it is really and the one we are to embark on now is one such complex task: taking a peep into the future of tech firms in the continent. The main concerns are: 1. What problems would tomorrow’s IT-based companies in Africa be tackling? 2. W hich group would be lead-

ing it?

3. How would they be funded?

4. How can they compete on the

global stage?

5. How profitable would they be?

We can stretch the discourse further and find out what quality of employment they would be creating and their overall impact

on the aggregate African economy. Generally, there would be question of how the average folk rural/urban dweller within any of the continent’s villages and towns and cities profit from the inventions of the future. Overall, we can break down this segment of the essay to these key components namely: • Focus • Leadership • Funding • Competition • Profitability • Impact Now we continue by identifying (re-identifying really) the immediate challenges the continent faces. It has been argued severally by almost all the experts (and non-experts as well) on Africa and African issues that cor-

ruption, poor infrastructure, limited income borne out of dearth of a competent work-force and if you stretch it further- uneducated citizenry are the key problems confronting the continent today. Without an extensive argument, we must admit that these problems are real and present. Now if the geeks who today are credited with some of the finest ideas and inventions all over the continent are to properly play the redemption role that the we all crave for, they must IMMEDIATELY begin to think up ways of tackling some of these lingering concerns. Start-ups of the future must as a matter of urgency focus on addressing some (if not all) of these identified problems facing the continent using innovative and groundbreaking means and ideas.

January - March 2014  EMERGE AFRICA  

AF RICATOMORROW

These companies wherever they spring from must, even while local in operation maintain an African-wide perspective? How would the founders of CorruptionNET (from South Africa) assist Nigerians in tackling the age-old problem of greed and graft threatening the continued existence of that magnificently blessed nation? How does BudgIT (from Nigeria) become operational across all the nations of Africa in such a way that citizens in these diverse countries are aware of the budgetary process and cycle in their respective countries? I have met folks from several of these nations who do not know a thing about the annual budget of their government. While knowledge of the estimation of national income and expenditure as captured by the budget does not necessarily guarantee anything but it would certainly improve public sector accountability. If this can be achieved on a continent-wide scale, you then can be certain government operative would be more eager to be fairly judicious in the use of tax-payer’s funds. As you all are aware, bad governance and leadership thrives here because elections in most of the countries of Africa do not guarantee the emergence of the best leaders and even more worrisome, they often do not reflect the preferences of the electorates. That being the case, techpreneurs must begin to seriously consider putting together software packages that would make rigging and electoral manipulations severely

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difficult for those who reap from such unwholesome engagement. I am certain that when and if they do come up with this, there would certainly be no shortage of patrons. Citizens and electoral commissions with interest on transparency and upright discharge of her duties would certainly lap up to the product and wait for this: at any cost. Yes, they would pay whatever they are charged, after all, it would be much more expensive to have a faulty process that ultimately, would profit the wrong man. In the area of agriculture too, there are loads of works to be done. Our farmers need the best inventions (IT-wise) they can lay hands on to get acquainted with all the latest happenings in their field. They need the mechanism to enable them keep abreast of the most productive seedlings and animal breeds, which stocks guarantee the best yields and how to confront the many problems that afflict and stunt farmers and farming here. There also can be a social network of sort for farmers across the continent. A fish farmer in Port Harcourt for instance would sure have plenty to learn from his colleague in Ghana. The same goes for those rearing livestock in Northern Nigeria, the palm plantation owners in South East Nigeria and all the rest. Networking on an African wide level surely is the way to go. Tech experts and Angel Investors ought to be seeing these opportunities and step in immediately. Food production has to be raised significantly and commercial farming quickly re-

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place the dominant subsistence mode that is at play here. There are a thousand and one areas that one can go on and on enumerating in virtually all the areas - health, commendation must go to Katy Digovich for what she is doing with Ping in Botswana but there’s plenty still to be done. How for example does a rural resident in Zimbabwe access a doctor or preliminary medical advice in the dead of the night or even in the day without facing the rigour and burnout associated with the African transport system? Wherever you look, there’s work to be done- in arresting (minimizing) crimes, tackling the problems associated with girl-child education and building a culture of entrepreneurship amongst the populace. These areas should be attracting the attention and energy of our thinkers and best minds. If the problems are identified, the next important issue would be finding the men and women (or boys and girls) who would take the lead in this revolution. University graduates and our Diaspora population must be at the forefront as we drive into the new era, the smart age. This is where their advantage of higher training and good exposure would count. It doesn’t matter where the knowledge comes from or how it is acquired. We must be radical in seeking out the best ideas from places and other continents. There’s no point re-inventing the wheel and I would be the last to make such proposition. One thing we must ask and demand answers from ourselves is: how can we

A FRICATOMORROW

learn from the advanced economies? Put in another way, we must seek to find out what insight we can gather from the pioneers and ideators in India, China and US. If we can modify their inventions to suit our peculiar problems and environment, then we must have made a great headway. Significantly, rich Africans and government must see the new opportunities presented by the tech industries and set up funds and capitals that can be accessed by folks with brilliant ideas. Nothing demoralizes more as not having the right financial backing to pursue an inspired, potentially profitable idea. Our governments and rich individuals must step in immediately and make the much needed difference by way of appropriate funding. Governments across the countries and at different levels should be encouraged to put a certain sum aside each fiscal year for supporting these innovative start-ups. Tokenism would just not be enough. Now there’s the important issue of competition. How can our start-ups compete on a global scale? It would be nice to see a truly African match to Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. Our inventors must be dreamers and big ones too. It would be dwarfish to be stuck at the local scene. Startups of the future must continually adapt to new emerging market realities. They must know where the wind is sailing and avoid being caught on the wrong side of the tides. Profitable, mutually beneficial partnerships must be sought and when found must be

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leveraged to build big, profitable and world class corporations. Africa deserves no less. Businesses require profit to stay in the game. No matter how sound and innovative an idea is, if it cannot meet its running cost and earn something for her investors, then the future of that very enterprise is in real doubt- (except of course it is a charity organization). Inventions therefore must be monetized and access beyond a certain level that should cost the users some money. Whatever you are inventing or offering the users (individual or corporate), attention must be placed on profits. You should go for it. Do not forget that the founders of the big firms in the ecosystem today are all billionaires. We all should be thinking at that level. Beyond all these, we should be focused on creating something that would benefit the generality of Africans now and in the long run. Whatever you create, think of enhancing lives, making it easier for our people here to reap the benefits and riches it has pleased the Almighty to bestow on these shores. We must spend our waking hours seeking to employ our best gifts to rewriting the chequered history of this beautiful continent we call ours. It is a duty, an obligation we must all rise to meet. 

Okafor Dodoh Lives in Abuja, Nigeria January - March 2014  EMERGE AFRICA  

A rica’s

MOST ENTERPRISING START-UPS

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Meet The Companies And Individuals Changing Africa’s Tech And Business Ecosystem

From The Team: The Emerge-Africa

team would like to specially thank all the founders (from diverse countries of the continent) and resource persons who offered us plenty of help as we worked the materials for this project. We owe all of you our gratitude. Thank you.

•

Interviews

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Churchill NanjeMambe On Mentorship, The Future Of Entrepreneurs In Africa And Why The Start-ups of Today Must Keep Their Focus Churchill NanjeMambe is the creative genius behind one of Africa’s most-talked about start-ups - Njorku of Cameroon - whose specialty is in helping job seekers across the continent keep track of the job openings in real time and make applications where their skills match the advertised vacancy. In this on-point interview with Emerge Africa’s editorial team, Churchill talks about mentoring, leading-from the front approach to business and Africa’s tech and business future among other key issues. You will find it a great read.

Background

Churchill: I am a young Cameroonian entrepreneur. I hail from a small village in Cameroon called DikomeBalue. I am self-taught software and web developer and I have over 8 years experience developing web and mobile applications in Africa. Inspiration

Churchill: As a kid, my dad discussed alot of sciences with me. This induced in me alot of interest in science and research. My drive comes from the fact that I always want to research and develop new things to impact my world. Njorku’s Reach

Churchill: Virtually, we already serve thousands of people across Africa and we plan to setup operations in every African country. We are going to work alot with local partners to operate in every Country in Africa. Entrepreneurial Challenges

Churchill: In Africa, we don’t yet have alot of success stories to motivate parents to let their children take the risk of entrepreneurship. Nowadays alot of parents are not yet comfortable letting their child wander into the unknown world

of entrepreneurship. Another very serious problem is the lack of access to capital, be it in the form of loans or venture capital. African Innovators and Continental Challenges

Churchill: In Africa we need to learn alot about volunteering and patience. African inventors and entrepreneurs need to learn to do things without immediate returns, long term plans and patience. For example: It took Mark Zuckerberg years of hard work with little or no returns to turn facebook.com into a billion dollar company. Support

Churchill: Well, I would say most governments are trying but they are not impacting enough. I won’t blame them because they didn’t grow with entrepreneurship being the norm hence they can’t understand. So I would say the government and private sectors or NGOs haven’t had alot of impact to the growth of Africa’s entrepreneurial culture. In the next 10 to 20yrs, alot will change as you will have el-

derly people that have a say and understand entrepreneurship, innovation and development. Mentorship and Support (to wannabe programmers)

Churchill: Currently in my community (Buea, Cameroon), I have an unofficial mentoring program at my office where I train young people in the universities here and others on how to build web mobile and enterprise applications. I am not paid for this but I believe we don’t yet have entrepreneurs that are viable enough so we need to create them by training them first before supporting them to build their own companies. Your projection for the Africa’s Techspace In The Next Decade

Churchill: I believe alot of millionaires will be created and alot of families will be taken out of poverty. Health, education and overall well being will improve at a tremendous rate. Advice to Start-up founders

Churchill: Enjoy the hard work and be patient. The goods will come.  (See more of Njorku in our Profile Section)

January - March 2014  EMERGE AFRICA  

❲ MARA ONLINEUGANDA Marrying Online Convenience With Informative Exchanges

Founded in 2013

Mara Online is an online and

mobile eco-system that allows users to communicate, interact and collaborate with each other via social portals, while building communities that are centred around common interests and information needs. The platform is a convergence of web and mobile technology that creates user-driven experiences spanning from educational tools for entrepreneurs to highly interactive mobile applications that provide connectivity to people across the globe. It allows users to communicate, interact and collaborate. Referred in many circles as Africa’s answer to Skype, the founder, Ashish J. Thakkar believes the medium would be the first most inspirational choice for connecting African youth across the continent and to the

world. Later in the year, Mara Online will launch 3 mobile applications – Mara Messenger, BuzzMe, and Mara Connect, a free mobile VoIP, will allow

smart-phone and tablet users across Africa to call and text for free, both domestically and internationally. The 31 year old Ashish remains optimistic Mara Connect will shake up the market and become the premier choice for connecting people in Africa and beyond, while reducing consumers’ costs for mobile communication. With the every-day, consistent advancement in web and mobile technology, there’s simply no restriction to the dreams,

  EMERGE AFRICA  January - March 2014

vision and let’s-change-theworld attitude of the dreamers at Mara Group, the parent company of Mara Online. Their dedication and drive will continue to define the interactive and mobile messaging landscape for youths and young-at-heart across the continent. In May when the company was launched, Aishish and his men had a jet fly over Silicon Valley with a Mara-branded banner that read, "It’s Time For Africa."Does anyone still doubt them? 

❲ NJORKUCAMEROON Simplifying The Job Search Conundrum

Founded in 2011

If the dream of Churchill Nanje

Mambe, the outside-the-box thinker behind Njorku platform will come true soon enough, the incidence of high-scale unemployment ravaging the continent of Africa with her youths being the biggest victim would be a thing of the past. Now don’t get me wrong, Mambe would not is-

sue a decree mandating jobs for every unemployed African youth, I think that would be an unreasonable expectation but at the very least, he would deploy every resource available to him to ensure that all the jobs available are communicated to as many persons as are interested and wait for this - at no cost! He and his team believe that in

the hunt for job which is major occupation for several youths across the continent, information is key and one needs to know where the jobs are, what the requirements are and then finally decide whether or not to apply. To give life to this idea, call it obsession if you like, he founded the online job search engine called Njorku. Njorku is a job search engine that helps users to find fulfilling jobs across Africa. Active in seven countries - Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Egypt, Uganda, South Africa and Ghana, the platform offers free and unlimited access to hundreds of thousands of job listings regularly. It is the emerging job search engine for Africa, with thousands of unique visitors per month and growing steadily month-on-month. Launched in March 2011, Njorku has given job seekers free and unlimited access to hundreds of thousands of jobs from company websites and job boards

across Africa. The company has a very strong team of professionals around the world and raised seed funding from a Canada-based technology company and a business angel in France. Her offices are located in Baltimore, MD United States and Buea, SWR Cameroon. So when next you see a job seeker in your location, direct him/her to visit Njorku and start sending applications because always, there will be something for everyone. He can’t wait for any better news.

Stay updated with our developments, be sure to be first to know when will be up with something. 

January - March 2014  EMERGE AFRICA  

❲ P ROWOR K NIGERIA Project Management Platform For The World, By Africans

Founded in 2012

Founded by the Nigerian trio

of Francis Onwumere, Opeyemi Obembe and Ernest Ojeh, Prowork aims to ease collaboration and enhance productivity of team members. With Prowork, available on Mobile (Blackberry, Android and Java supporting phonesAndroid and ios versions also), Web, and a functional API, project teams can stay on top of every development irrespective of their location at any time of the day. The application offers enormous advantages to busy business operatives in these areas: Software development, Managing personal To-Dos, Event Planning and Sales. The founders, partners at Digital Craft Studios employed their extensive knowledge of the complexities of the Nigerian (African) business terrain to

develop a business solution that would be relevant to the users and claw its way atop the chart in an industry dominated presently by foreign operatives. The platform’s numerous advantages include its low entry requirements, zero migration cost and its availability in almost all the popular mobile platform (blackberry and Java OS). Its other edge is its SMS integration option which keeps team members in the loop even when they are offline, a clear indication that they are aware of the unreliability of the internet here at times. With SMS Integration, project members can receive task assignments, task update and notification via SMS. They also can send task update via SMS. The beautiful thing again is that the SMS appears as private messaging between team members. On the Prowork platform, all you need to get started is your email address and password. With that, you can create your Prowork account. You can assign tasks to members who do not have an account by just adding

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their email to the project. Instantly, they are notified. To guard against service failure, Proworks, according to information made available by the founders, uses Rackspace cloud file for content distribution. The main architecture is APACHE/ PHP/MySQL/MongoDB. To facilitate speed on the app, Varnish Cahe and APC are employed by the developers. By marrying convenience and professional brilliance into one platform, Mr. Onwumere and his colleagues are hoping to claim a substantial share of the market within the continent, giving professionals in Africa and beyond an app that multiplies their efficiency and raise productivity several times over. One cannot but wish them the best as they gear up to confront the stiff challenges new businesses face in a niche dominated by big names as America’s Microsoft and other European giants. 

❲ m PAWAGHANA Smart Solutions For Blue Collar Jobs

Founded in 2012

For Maxwell Kofi Efrem Don- culiar job situation faced by this

kor and his colleagues at Innokiq- a start-up based in Accra Ghana, connecting blue collar workers with employers across the continent of Africa is a huge obsession and mPAWA, a job matching service developed by the quartet (the company’s four cofounders) offers the vehicle to make this dream a reality. The graduates of Meltwater School of Entrepreneurial Technology understand the pe-

group of workers and believe strongly that if a technologically driven, intelligent solution is deployed, the incidence of low placement rates for this category of workers would be greatly reduced. mPawa supports the posting of jobs and the onwards notification to blue collar workers in Africa. The overall idea is to bridge the gap that exists in the current blue collar recruitment space;

that is getting blue collar workers into a centralized location and allowing employers to easily reach them. The company’s vision is to become the premier and most creative provider of mobile and online recruitment application in the blue-collar staffing industry. Innokiq aims to create

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ENTERPRISINGSTART-UPS

user-friendly and simplified applications that will be an integral component in any business environment. This can be done by developing innovative applications that meet international standards. But beyond this, the company’s grander vision is

mPawa supports the posting of jobs and the onwards notif ication to blue collar workers in Africa  to tackle Africa’s huge unemployment problem. With the application, all interested person with certain skill set need do is to send an initial message and receive an automated text detailing him with steps to create his profile. When he replies to the text, a profile is created for him and stored on the server. Employers can then search for people to do specific tasks and select from a long list of potential employees. They also have the opportunity to see previous tasks executed by the 20

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mPAWA

would-be employee. According to Maxwell, mPAWA has matched thousands of jobs since 2012 when they became operational. The company’s operation extends to Kenya where mPawa is in partnership with O'dumont Consulting Limited (OCL). O'dumont Consulting Limited is a Kenyan registered company that seeks to provide professional recruitment services across the dynamic spectrum of Human Resource functions targeting the African Region. OCL attracts, cultivates and connects organisations to talent in the African markets. OCL's partnership with Innokiq brings to fruition the company's dedication to bringing better job opportunities to the informal job

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sector by appropriately connecting employers and blue collar job seekers in Africa. The Company’s address (19 Banana Street East Legon, Accra Ghana) is certainly poised to become a must-visit location for groups, agencies and individuals seeking to learn how to effectively take care of the information asymmetry that makes it hard for employees with limited paper qualification to place jobs that match their skills. One can only pray that the mPAWA idea is replicated across the many countries of the continent as this would go a long way in solving the economic and social hardship associated with unemployment - especially for the blue collar workers. 

❲ M-C hanga KENYA Fund Raising Like Never Before

Founded in 2012

For millions of folks across East

Africa, fundraising is a way of life. Funds are raised daily for wedding and funeral ceremonies, payment of tuition and for community projects. It is common knowledge that this practice has been with the people of this region for ages but with the advent of mobile technology, a whole new chapter has been opened and this is where M-changa comes in. M-Changa turns traditional giving practice on its head, places it into hyper-drive and lets popular mobile technologies do the rest. What you get in return is a personalized and automated mobile phone experience that manages fundraising campaigns from start to finish. M-Changa according to the founders, Kyai Mullei an experienced IT/business consultant,

David Mark, a serial entrepreneur and recognized expert in Human Interface design and Jefkine Kafuna, a proficient developer with over 7 years' commercial experience and a track record of delivering quality solutions using a range of different technologies, offers the following advantages: • Helps you raise more money, from more people, in a fast, efficient and transparent way. • W ill allow you to invite unlimited number of contributors, automatically keep track of payments to your fundraiser, and to send reminders to everyone in your fundraiser. • Enables anyone globally to participate in fundraising. • W ith M-Changa, your money is secure and can be withdrawn at anytime. • You can invite anyone in the world via SMS and all your friends on Facebook and Twitter. • More importantly, setting up a fundraiser on M-Changa is free.

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ENTERPRISINGSTART-UPS

• Payment is made through

popular vendors as M-Pesa and Airtel Money. M-Changa is involved with a number of noble initiatives across Kenya, notably the following: 1. Save The Cradle:

Save the Cradle is a community project that aims to save lives at the Pumwani Maternity Hospital by mobilizing people to raise funds towards the upgrading of the deteriorated facilities and the introduction of the Patient Centered Care.

M - C HA NGA

events to raise money for needy students. As a way of enhancing their collection activities, Daystar University chose M-Changa as their mobile fundraising platform. With the acceptability and reach of M-Changa, there’s little doubt that the organization will in the future dominate the fundraising stratosphere in Africa. What more, with the quality and nobility of the causes

2. Support a Student -

Daystar Duremo:

Daystar University students are socially responsible and are aware that some of the students at the university experience financial difficulties in raising money for college fees from time to time. Under the D.U.R.E.M.O association, Daystar University students hold fundraising 22

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they throw their weight behind, it is safe to believe that attracting richer donors and philanthropists with deeper pockets will come quicker than anyone may have imagined. One thing is certain though: the fundraising terrain as we know it in East Africa is revolutionized for good and MChanga will continue to set the pace into the foreseeable future. Uhuru it is really! 

❲ PriceCheckSOUTH AFRICA Finding The Best Prices At A Click

Founded in 2006

Seen as the largest price com-

parison site in South Africa and Africa as a whole, PriceCheck was thought up in 2006 by local Internet brainiac, Kevin Tucker. He knew that with more and more South Africans wising up to the advantages of online shopping, a price comparison website would be just the ticket. He began to create a place that brought bargain hunters to within clicking distance of the retailers who could offer them the best deals. It wasn’t long

before retailers also saw the advantages. By becoming part of PriceCheck they could ensure that their products were being seen by thousands of new buyers. The company, according to its operatives only deals with the shops that are committed to bringing shoppers the best products and prices. With a proven track record of consistency and speed, all a customer needs do is to relax in his couch knowing that whatever he’s ordered is on its way safely to his doorstep, irrespective of his location. Its wide array of collections includes thousands of books, DVDs, electronics, games, cameras, music, and more. For millions of SA’s online shoppers, PriceCheck is the leader when it comes to the fastest and most relevant search, comprehensive product listings, trusted brand names & credible vendors, wide-ranging reviews and most sophisticated

price comparison technology. A measure of its reach, relevance and progress is attested to by its winning the "App of the Year" at the BlackBerry Live conference in Florida, USA in May 2011, staving off competition from around a hundred thousand other entrants. PriceCheck is owned by MIH Internet Africa, a part of the Naspers Group based in Cape Town, South Africa. With technology and internet playing an increasing role in the daily economic activities of urban areas, South African middle income earners and as more and more consumers take to online shopping, PriceCheck’s future looks ever brighter. Africa truly is emerging. 

January - March 2014  EMERGE AFRICA  

•

Interviews

•

Eric Mutta

The Man Leading Tanzania Into The New World

Born 25th July 1983, Eric Mutta has cemented his place as Tanzania’s most enterprising and audacious programmer. The founder and CEO of Problem Solved Limited launched his flagship brand - Minishop - earlier this year and has several awards for his vision and wecan-change-the world mindset. Eric is one of the many innovative youths championing the emergent Africa. With a knack for solving seemingly intractable problems using empowering technological means, Eric has an unshakable faith in the future and place of the new Africa, the one that is built around knowledge, exploiting the innumerable advantages of information technology and where people are justly rewarded for their efforts. In this exciting and revealing interview he granted Emerge Africa’s Dodoh Okafor and Godwin Chukwukelu, Eric talks about his background, motivation, innovation and finest ideas.

EA: Our readers would be pleased

to meet you, can we know a few things about your background. Eric: I was born in 1983 in Dares-salaam, Tanzania. My father was a government accountant and my mother was a school teacher before they both quit their jobs to enter the music production and distribution business. I discovered computers in 1995 playing the classic game Prince of Persia. Started programming in 1997 at age 14 and I have been at it for 16 years now. I came back to Tanzania in 2006 after spending a few years studying in the UK, worked a little and then started my software start-up, Problem Solved Ltd in 2008. EA: What powers your drive to continually invent and create? Eric: From the moment I wrote a program that printed my name on the screen at

the push of a button, I have always loved inventing and creating computer software. The idea of using magical incantations (i.e. codes) to control a machine and make it do useful things has always satisfied my desire to have an effect on the universe – to prove that I am here. It also helps that writing code can be a very profitable business. This matters because writing great software requires sacrifice. A great reward makes it worth doing over and over again. EA: What expansion plan is your organization putting in place? How can your platform extend her operations to other countries in Africa? Eric: I have global ambition. My main product, Minishop, is a small business accounting package. It is unlike anything else

  EMERGE AFRICA  January - March 2014

you’ve seen before which is why it keeps winning international awards, with the last one being a healthy $328,000 grant. Minishop solves a problem faced by over 100,000,000 small and medium businesses worldwide: the problem of accessing finance. Our business model is designed to scale across borders and while based in Tanzania, we are already in Kenya and hope to enter Uganda as well as Rwanda before end of the year. We are just following the demand and requests for Minishop have come from Botswana, Ghana, Nigeria and Zambia. I hope to meet the demand in those countries and more once I secure extra growth capital next year. EA: Tell us about Minishop and small businesses, how specifically does your innovation help small business holdings across

the continent? Eric: When running a small business, CEO means Chief Everything Officer. You have to do all the work and it is hard to find enough hours in the day. Most business owners struggle with accounting. Keeping record of income, expenses and stock need discipline. You must be organised or things become a mess. Minishop helps you stay organised, reduces the amount of manual work you need to do and gives you useful reports so you always know where you stand. In terms of reach, Minishop is already growing in both Tanzania and Kenya. Other countries can be served and I am looking for local partners to help market, sell and support it in their countries. EA: What are the peculiar challenges of entrepreneurship in the continent? What obstacles are there in the way of innovation and creativity? Eric: This has stopped being interesting to me since it has all been spoken about before. I am

much more interested in the opportunities for entrepreneurship and things which facilitate innovation and creativity. In Tanzania we have 46 million people, inflation has dropped to single digits, real GDP is among the top ten fastest growing, we have a whopping seven mobile operators, we are a landing point for the SEACOM fibre cable, and we have East Africa’s first 4G LTE network. Computer imports enjoy complete tax exemptions; we have one of the top universities on the continent, three tech hubs and increasing investor interest from global quarters. In Tanzania right now, entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity are not only expected, they are inevitable. My story is the first of many to come and I believe those who bet on Africa today, warts and all, will reap the greatest rewards tomorrow. EA: How can African inventors and entrepreneurs pool strength, resources and intelligence to solve the continents many challenges-

say in the area of education, agriculture and governance? Eric: I don’t believe in pooling resources for the sake of pooling resources. Where such teamwork makes sense I believe it will happen naturally. Much more than teamwork, we need successful leadership. Some daring fellow to run to the front of the line and do something amazing, others will follow with little or no prompting. EA: What is the major plank of support for the African entrepreneur? What has been the contribution of government, organized private sector and NGOs to growth of Africa’s entrepreneurial culture? Eric: In this regard I would like to acknowledge people like Jon Gosier (http://jongosier.com/) who believe in Africa and organise competitions like Apps4Africa (http://apps4africa.org/) which I won in 2012, getting a $15,000 prize that jump started my rise to world domination. Then come trusts, like the Financial Sector Deepening Trust (www.fsdt. or.tz) which are funded by development partners

January - March 2014  EMERGE AFRICA  

and run competitions like SME Finance Innovation Challenge Fund, which I won in 2013, getting a $328,000 grant to spread Minishop to over 130,000 SMEs in Tanzania. Challenges and competitions with significant awards help call out some of the best entrepreneurs and are critical to growing Africa’s entrepreneurial culture. They wouldn’t be possible with the support of the tech hubs like Kinu (www.kinu.co.tz) and TANZICT (http://tanzict. or.tz/). Last but not least there is DEMO Africa (http://www. demo-africa.com) where startups can go and strut the best of their stuffs to a global audience. I was invited last year (courtesy of App4Africa) and met many awesome people. EA: What in your opinion can Government Institutions and corporate organizations do with much commitment now to advance the growth of new businesses. Eric: I think one major area is in procurement of software systems. Most government institutions procure software like they procure chairs and the process favours larger companies (mostly foreign) at the expense of smaller 26

(indigenous) ones. To help promote small business growth, software procurement should be sourced from the local market or contracted directly to indigenous developers. By so doing, they are encouraged and large patronage created for them. With that, their revenue base can be expanded and they can create greater employment, an issue that cannot be tackled by outsourcing or importation. EA: What programs do you have in place for aspiring African soft-

"My story is the first of many to come and I believe those who bet on Africa today, warts and all, will reap the greatest rewards tomorrow."  ware developer? How do you support start-up founders? Eric: By example, by succeeding publicly. By challenging them to be the best and then get better. EA: Do you get any support from established western IT giants like Google, Microsoft, Cisco and Yahoo? What is the nature of that support- finance, training or manpower? Eric: Microsoft is awesome. They have the BizSpark program (http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/) which gives me access to

  EMERGE AFRICA  January - March 2014

thousands of dollars of genuine software at no cost so I can grow my start-up. Their development tools are excellent and available in free Express editions too. I have access to their entire team in Kenya to help with any issue I may have. Nokia too has been helpful, through people in their Nairobi office, in terms of making introductions to larger companies like Intel. EA: What prospect and future do you imagine for Africa’s start-ups of today? Eric: We will see stronger stock markets emerge and one of the hottest, public, multi-billion dollar software companies in 2023 will be African. EA: Let’s move away from strict business issues now, how do you relax, what are your hobbies? Eric: I am a movie junkie. I love watching series and movies at the end of a ard day of coding. When I have friends over I enjoy playing video games. Going out to eat good food is something I do every couple of weeks, especially to celebrate some major victory in deal-making. EA: Finally Eric, do you have any advice or message for start-up founders in the continent? Eric: You are African. Endurance in the face of unspeakable challenges is built into your DNA. This is your moment. Rise up, solve problems and get paid. 

❲ CorruptionNETSOUTH AFRICA Fighting Corruption Collectively,

Founded in 2012

Nimi Hoffman, the founder and

brain behind this brilliant startup believes, like many experts do that corruption thrives because much of the time, we keep quiet and fail to bring corrupt acts and individuals to public attention. The graduate of Rhodes and Oxford University with specialties in the areas of quantitative analysis, experimental design, online journalism and experimental analysis has taken it upon himself to reverse this unpleasant trend by employing the powers of the modern means of communication and social

exchange to mobilize reports against corruption and individuals who engage in acts that undermine public interest. CorruptionNET is an opensource mobile platform that allows citizen reporters to file anonymous journalistic reports to newsrooms giving details of corrupt practices and abuse of public resources. To see that access is availed every interested person, the platform (estimated to cost $10, 000 to complete) is designed in such a way that reports can be sent in via SMS or MXit, South Africa’s popular

social networking platform. Mr. Hoffman understands that by uniting against corruption, we inevitably must have served warning signals to individuals and institutions that profit from the scourge that it will no longer be business as usual. Collectively, we must stay grateful to him and his team (Andrew Saxe, an engineering student at Stanford is prominently here) for deploying their massive energy against this vice that is threatening to rob Africa of whatever remains of her future. In the truest sense of it, the fight against corruption has been democratized and it is now up to us to take it up. Speak against bribery, nepotism, contract inflation and all such subtle schemes that combine to make governance in this part an exercise in debauchery and godless looting. I am sure Nigerians are taking note. 

January - March 2014  EMERGE AFRICA  

❲ BrainShareUGANDA Fusing Learning, Socialization and Creative Exchange Into One Box

Founded in 2013

F For

Charles Muhindo, the CEO of CodeVision Ltd, life is best lived when one’s skills are applied to creating solutions that will hand us a better tomorrow. His most known creation, BrainShare is a clear demonstration of this guiding belief. BrainShare is social education app that aims to connect people across Uganda and the world through education. An online classroom, it enables people to learn while networking, enabling collaboration on a wide range platform. The app is the leader in online student support and skill testing and offers an efficient and affordable way for students to prepare for exams through series of topical tests. She boasts of a team of dedicated and helpful staff and agents, able and willing to offer assistance as speedily as needed.

For students in tertiary institutions, they can easily download sample projects/dissertation and be guided professionally on how to go about their projects. According to the founder, they app is designed to help students undertaking their final year projects and dissertations. For folks wanting to improve their reading skills, there also is something in the store for you-

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there are hundreds of courses and thousands of exam questions to download and make your learning acquaintances. Support is offered to pupils and students from primary to O’ and A’ level and even up to tertiary level. And now this: there are no charges involved. For this graduate of computer engineering from Makarere University who has vast knowledge of SMS and USSD based applications, continuous research is a way of life and this has brought quite a number of rewards. He is listed amongst Africa’s 40 top entrepreneurs by Global Initiative For Science and technology. Who says innovation does not pay? 

❲ PULSECAMEROON Easing The Burden Of Communication For Universities, Colleges, Scholars and Students

Founded in 2010

According to statistics, there are

more than 5, 000, 000 students in Sub Saharan Africa, attended to by 1, 000, 000 professors spread across 624 institutions. Of this figure, Cameroon has a share of 49 universities and around 600, 000 students figure. This by any standard is an impressive statistics. What however is troubling is that presently, there’s no affordable top of the class technology capable of handling and facilitating the high demand for educational resources in this region.

This yawning gap is what the quartet of Horace, Nara, Quincy and Leslie sought to fill when they collaborated with education instructors and experts to found PULSE. The technology is a web/ mobile based University Blackboard (SAAS) built to quicken ease of communication among universities and educators via SMS, email and or Internet with their students. Be it the announcement of a course update, assignments, or even exam results, PULSE

is designed to see to that in the simplest and easiest way. The entire platform is built on open source software. The main technology framework used is Kohana, which a rich HMVC php5 framework, enabling the rapid development and deployment of applications. It's also modular thus giving the possibilities of plug and play of new features or modules to be developed. The mobile site is built on jQuery Mobile. The present platform provides the functionality to organize different groups of information into course groups. These course groups represent different unique courses being taught at a given institution, due to appropriate visualization of resources, groups are easy to enter. In this case students who intend to follow and receive updates from a certain course

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ENTERPRISINGSTART-UPS

- similar to in-class course, which students attend. Therefore adding new information to a group can be compared to lecturer giving an inclass announcement or faculty pasting an announcement on the notice board, as members of the group will notified instantly through email, SMS and web whenever a group is updated. The focus on user interface and interaction make it an intuitive & effective method to communicate.

PU LS E

The platform is hosted in the cloud and also in Cameroon thus the institutions do not need to deploy any additional technical infrastructure to use it. The founders say PULSE was born out of need to solve the problem of inefficient communication channels used in

In future, the projection is that platform would become the primary communication platform for universities and colleges across Africa.  30

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the University Of Buea (UB) and countless other Universities in Cameroon. Prior to the founding of PULSE, the students and faculty relied solely on Notice Boards, Class Announcements and Mouth to Mouth method of communication. The start-up made it to the final stage of an MIT organized competition for start-ups. In future, the projection is that this platform would become the primary communication channel for universities and colleges across Africa. Presently, about $10, 000 has been raised as seed capital. With PULSE, learning, education and communication in Africa is sure to get more exciting.We are eagerly looking forward to it. 

❲ Bu dgITNIGERIA Democratizing The Budget Process In Nigeria

Founded in 2011

Even for professional econo-

mists like this writer, trying to make any sense of some of the figures contained in the national budget proposal presented

towards the last quarter of each year by the president to a joint session of the national assembly is simply scary. If then an economist with some measure of training in numerical and quantitative valuation of public expenditure and income is discomforted by the warren of whole numbers and decimals that make up the national annual estimation of outflows and income that is the budget, imagine then where folks with no such advantaged training in the subjects of

econometrics, intermediate and advanced micro and macro economics would find themselves as they seek to understand this all-important document that if religiously implemented could form the fulcrum around which the nation’s economic and social progress revolves. This harrowing gap between budget articulation, debate, implementation, execution and feedback is what the team at BudgIT intends to fill with their novel idea. BudgIT as a tool aims to redefine participatory governance.

BudgIT offers mobile and online solution to trigger discussions around the budget and take the budget beyond a news item to a focal point of debate among Nigerians.

The founders announced that BudgIT as an idea was conceptualized and hatched at the Tech-In-Governance, a 48 hour gathering organized by Co-Creation Hub in February 2011. As I did infer earlier, many Nigerians, with little or no knowledge of accounting and public financial management, are lost when they see (if they ever get the chance to) the budgets of the different arms of government. Most media releases of the Nigerian budget only have the macro figures as the finer details that trickle down to the citizens such as neighbourhood projects are not fully explained. The maze of millions and billions in the “thick” budget documents tend to confuse and it is difficult to put in clear context on how public funds are actually spent. BudgIT’s innovation within the public circles comes with a

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ENTERPRISINGSTART-UPS

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budgIT

creative use of government data by either presenting them in simple tweets, interactive format or infographic displays. The team understands that in a democracy, every citizen has the right to know how his/her taxes are expended in the delivery of public infrastructure and services. Equality and open access to governance is entrenched in democracy and its institutions and as such, budgetary information as a vital asset needs to be understandable and accessible to all Nigerians. BudgIT offers mobile and online solution to trigger discussions around the budget and take the budget beyond a news item to a focal point of debate among Nigerians. It is hoped that if and when they do succeed, proper understanding of the role and place of

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duely articulated budget within the country’s macro-economic terrain will no longer be the exclusive preserve of a few economic gurus and experts whose penchant for even more complex analysis often leaves majority of us wondering if we really are in the frame of things. By exploiting the popularity and reach of the new media, more Nigerians will now have the unique opportunity of understanding the intricate details of budgetary arithmetic that ultimately affect and define their lives within each fiscal year. 

❲ PAPERIGHTSOUTH AFRICA Making Books Accessible For All Of Us

Founded in 2012

Arthur Attwell and his team

(Tarryn-Anne Anderson - content manager, Nick Mulgrew head of communications, Yazeed Peters - development manager, Dezre Little - Finance Manager, Oscar Masinyana - content curator, Philippa Dewey - rights expert, Marie-Louise Rouget PR Intern) at this Cape Town based start-up believe strongly that books of diverse contents,

shapes and year of first publication should be made available for reprint to anyone with a printer and internet connection. The idea then is that any business anywhere in the world can buy into the initiative and instantly become a print-ondemand outlet. Their grand vision is to make days of expensive and inaccessible books history and this they

are convinced can be done quite simply. By registering with Paperight for free, copy shops anywhere in the world have access to an online library from which

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ENTERPRISINGSTART-UPS

they can legally print out books, magazines and other documents for their customers. All a customer has to do to get a book is to walk into a Paperight outlet, and ask for one. No complicated rights agreements; no waiting. You can definitely ask for more if you are a lover of books. Paperight lets publishers earn licence fees from legal printouts of their books, cutting out expensive distribution and printing costs, and passing those savings on to customers. A customer pays the outlet (e.g. a copy shop) for their print-out, and the outlet uses Paperight to pay the publisher. Paperight makes buying and



PA PE RIGHT

selling books easier and, overall, more cost-effective for everyone anywhere. Now for all you lovers of business, political, sports and fashion magazines, academic and general interest books, the emergence of this budding enterprise on the scene would surely gladden the heart. Reading bestsellers and frontline authors now is as easy as walking into the next copy shop in your neighbourhood, place your order and relax with a bottle of soft drink and before you realize it, your favourite book/magazine is already in your palm. A great experience to look forward to with frenzied anticipation. 

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•

Interviews Meet

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George William Bakka of Unreasonable East Africa

George W. Bakka, one of Africa’s youngest and brightest entrepreneurs is also one of her most enthusiastic and passionate. George, the founder of Angels Finance Corporation also doubles as the co-founder and COO of UNREASONABLE EAST AFRICA. A genial fellow with a personality anyone would be delighted to discuss and share interesting ideas with and expect meaningful contribution. In this extensive interview he granted Emerge Africa’s Dodoh Okafor, he discusses his drive, the objectives and goals of his institute and how it has come to change the dynamics of entrepreneurship in East Africa. George’s insights and grasps of economic and social issues are amazing and you would be greatly fascinated and inspired by the progress he has made with his team to give Africa and Africans a new identity, a reason to believe in our future and destiny as a people.

EA: Tell us a little about yourself.

George: I am George William Bakka, 22, Founder and CEO, Angels Finance Corporation. We are a dynamic home for youths, entrepreneurs, investors and corporate groups building companies and organizations, driving change and spiralling Africa’s growth and prosperity. Open now in uptown Kampala, we are always welcoming you to a unique environment optimized for business, collaboration, learning, and creating impact. Angels set up the Mara Launchpad in partnership with Mara Foundation, a business support centre offering office space and visibility to start-up businesses. This year we proudly announce that we are bringing the Unreasonable Institute to Africa. We are launching Unreasonable East Africa. EA: You certainly have your hands on a whole lot. What drives you? George: Our vision is to see a developed, equitable and prosperous Africa. With a market of over 900 million people, Africa has a strong consumer base waiting to explode.

Start-ups have smart solutions to help this market live up to its real potential and also utilize this market as we elevate the millions out of poverty. Through Unreasonable East Africa, over the next three years we want to help build over 30 regional and pan-African companies solving some of the most intractable challenges on the continent. EA: Considering that the problems demanding solutions are common across other African countries, is your target market limited to East Africa alone? George: The Unreasonable East Africa is just launched in East Africa and would be operating mainly with entrepreneurs from Kenya and Uganda for the first year. We hope to expand our operations in the next few years to other countries in the region when we figure out what really works for these entrepreneurs.We are taking all the steps to build a strong program that adequately meets the needs of the entrepreneurs and enable them to

grow and expand. EA: As a successful entrepreneur with vast experience and numerous encounters with other entrepreneurs, could you share your thoughts on the prevalent challenges faces by entrepreneurs across the continent? George: It should be noted that the general public here in our continent except in a few countries is just in the process of fully appreciating the ‘entrepreneurial journey’ and the practical challenges that come with it, the good news is that slowly entrepreneurship is gaining acceptance and legitimacy in Africa. However for the most part, African entrepreneurship culture is defined by necessity – entrepreneurship as a means of survival, a last resort, not the pursuit of opportunity or aspiration. It would be interesting if efforts were placed upon changing this mind-set from necessity to opportunity for Africa is the new beacon of opportunity. That aside, young entre-

January - March 2014  EMERGE AFRICA  

preneurs still lack a few things like experience, market linkages, business skills development, legal framework development, indepth and unique understanding of their different sectors and the networks. Learning from someone who has already walked the journey can drastically accelerate the process, that’s why mentorship plays a key role. Business leaders in Africa need to devote some time in their busy schedules to sharing their vast experience with these entrepreneurs and networks for them to widen their market and get more business. An endorsement

see spread and implemented in the region through Unreasonable East Africa. EA: You are aware of some of the many problems (hunger, political instability, poverty and diseases) afflicting several of our people here in Africa, as a problem solver, is it possible for you and your colleagues (other inventors) to team up and tackle some of these challenges using technology and advantage of higher knowledge? George: As we all know, you can get much more done in partnership with other people than you can do by yourself. This is what has defined our story and de-

from a mentor can go a long way in creating customer confidence and credibility for young businesses and helping them attain the potential to build, grow and expand their businesses.It is the effect we want to

velopment and we think it may apply to any one who is looking at building something of significance. Pooling our resources and learning to work together is important and it be done through using incubation centres, accelerators and

  EMERGE AFRICA  January - March 2014

increasing presence of business hubs [co-working spaces] in Africa. Let’s learn how to start small and aim at growing big. EA: Going by the scale of your works and the magnitude of your outlook, you must be receiving plenty of support from well-established organizations. Can you let us in on some of these? George: In my opinion, there is willingness from both the private and public sector to support young entrepreneurs. For example, Uganda’s Youth Venture Capital Fund was launched in February 2012 with Ush25bn ($10m) to address the challenges of funding. We have seen many entrepreneurial competitions, start-up weekend like events in the East African region and accelerator program and our entering the market through the Unreasonable East Africa program will significantly increase the support avenues the entrepreneurs need. The focus then should be on ensuring that these programs work and make an appreciable impact on the targeted entrepreneurs. EA: Now tell us, how do you motivate and inspire young and aspiring entrepreneurs? George: Like I said earlier, we are launching Unreasonable East Africa based on a successful model of the Unreasonable Institute. Each year, they unite 25 entrepreneurs working on solving tough social and environmental challenges from every corner of the globe under one roof for 6 weeks in Boulder, Colorado. There, they receive training from 50 mentors. In the process,

they develop plans to scale their operations and their team, receive legal advice & design consulting, and build relationships with more than 100 potential funders and over 1,000 local supporters. So far, 82 companies from 36 countries have gone through the program in four years, 86% of them are still alive and active, 76% have managed to raise funds totalling to USD 27 million and they have had a revenue growth of up to 280% within one year of completing the program. Each year we will unite 10 ventures solving tough social and environmental challenges from across East Africa to live under 1 roof in Kampala, Uganda for 6 weeks. The entrepreneurs will receive specialised training and support from 50 top notch world class mentors ranging from Kamran Elahian, an entrepreneur who is a founder of 10 companies with a market capitalisation of USD 3 billion to some senior advisors in World Bank. These entrepreneurs also get to interact and work with over 30 investors, financiers and Angels. Our goal is to provide them with the knowledge, resources, tools and global network they need to maximise and scale their impact. Unreasonable East Africa will run for the first time in 2014 and is open to teams that meet our criteria. It will run from June 25th – July 31st, 2014. Applications for the 2014 Institute will open on 23rd September, 2013. Keep checking www.Unreasonableeastafrica.org. EA: Give us your projection for the Africa’s techspace in the

next decade. George: Because of a fragile start-up ecosystem in East African region and Africa as a whole, start-ups here have challenges to overcome, one of the largest of which is access to finance. Thousands of young African start-up founders can’t access credit from banks because our traditional financial and other economic institutions take long to adjust and adapt to the changing times. Without this much needed capital injection, the growth trajectory of most start-ups is slow and flat. I see a future with increased availability and diversity of financing options for start-ups, a number of unconventional initiatives need to be adopted which will most probably lead to real growth in the African startup ecosystem. ur business leaders need to address our leadership challenges, Africa needs to create multi-billion dollars companies through these many start-ups created every day. We need to see a Facebook, ebay and the likes grow from the continent. We must however be wary of placing all the attention on techpreneurs o n l y.

We must also be looking at other sectors like agriculture where am certain we have the capacity to grow something bigger than the American Garden. EA: What advice or message do you have for start-up founders in the continent? George: Business especially for start-ups is not smoothly up and to the right all the time, the path to success is more of a roller coaster ride. Keep informed reading books. I like to recommend biographies, economics and political books and any other book that keeps me informed. But most importantly, stay faithful to your dream no matter how unrealistic it may seem to others. Recognize that starting a business takes hard work. Seek support from those who have more experience than you. Editor’s Note: In our next issue, we will run a full profile of Unreasonable East Africa where we would be speaking with the entire team - Joachim Ewechu, CEO/co-founder, Mandela Ivan, CFO/ co-founder and Beyamba Gilbert who functions as the CRO. Book an advance copy as soon as you can. Special thanks to Emerge Africa’s Godwin Chukwukelu for coordinating and offering editorial assistance.

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January - March 2014  EMERGE AFRICA  

•

Interviews

•

Gospel Onuoha Gospel Onuoha on his inventions, the future of Africa and advice for start-up founders

Our editors read the inspiring story and personalities behind Nigeria’s premium auction site justbuyorsell.com and made efforts to reach the main man behind it all and have him share his story, ideas and inspiration with us. The interview revealed a lot about the young founder’s mindset and his hunger to raise the bar on ecommerce in Africa. We enjoyed our chat with Mr. Onuoha from his base in Finland and we are certain you would learn a lot reading his story.

EA: Tell us about yourself.

Gospel: My name is Gospel Onuoha, originally from Nigeria and currently resident in Finland. I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering in Nigeria and Professional Study in Business Engineering in Finland. I have over 6-year track record of delivering quality solutions using varieties of modern technologies. A serial entrepreneur, product front-end developer and security solution expert with a massive commercial experience. I am also the founder of afriscope.net and justbuyorsell. com. Afriscope.net was founded in 2008 in Nigeria with the sole mission of offering a technology-driven security, intelligent surveillance and control system focused design, integration, distribution, 38

and installation to clients wishing to procure, design, implement and integrate highly complex security projects. Afriscope. net was nominated in 2012 by Institute for Government Research & Leadership Technology as the Best Company in Security System Integration Design, Engineering & Monitoring. EA: Our readers would be pleased to know about your other start-up, justbuyorsell.com and how relevant it would be to the business ecosystem in Nigeria: Gospel: justbuyorsell.com was founded in 2013. In this period of financial crisis and dwindling economy, companies are laying off staff, government and companies cutting down spending and cost of living on the rise. Nigerians, inclusive of students, home mums or dad, employed or unemployed, home or abroad are looking for new ways of earning additional income to support daily needs. Justbuyor-

  EMERGE AFRICA  January - March 2014

sell.com is developed to provide Nigerian sellers both domestic and international an auction marketplace they can leverage to become self employed and better citizen of the nation. It creates an opportunity for every Nigerian both home and abroad to actively participate in online ecommerce business in Nigeria and make a living doing so. With just an internet connection, sellers can list unlimited number of items for free. There is no buying or selling listing fees,

No signup fees and sellers with no capital and logistic to own a physical shop can leverage on justbuyorsell.com to sell products and those with capital but cannot set up own ecommerce shop and can now set up own online shop and sell their products to both local and international clients irrespective of geographical location. It provides a tool for Nigerians in diasporas to actively sell product to the Nigeria market. Users can sell both new and old stuffs online, open an online store with personalised url, sell as an individual/company or open a free store, set a fixed price and/or auction to the highest bidder, No limits on the number of items/ products, purchase. Users can enjoy features like buynow, make a low bid and win, or make an offer, use the storefront portal to reduce levels of surplus inventory, along with associated inventory carrying costs. There is also the possibility of broadcasting listed products to social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Justbuyorsell.com is designed to be 100% fraud free and buyers are 100% protected, hence the positive and negative feedback mechanism and the escrow

payment system. Justbuyorsell. com also has a market forum that provides both sellers and buyers the opportunity to discuss products and technology trends. EA: What inspired the formation of this company? Gospel: I visited Nigeria in July 2012 and I came back with a handheld electric painting machine that I wanted to use to repaint my apartment. When I arrived Nigeria and discovered that I could not use the machine and needed to sell it. I searched online for an auction site but could not see any auction site where to sell the product. I asked questions and I was directed to Computer Village Ikeja or Alaba International Market (Lagos) to sell the prod-

"African economy is developing rapidly. This period provide lots of opportunities for those that have the right thinking and the right focus." 

uct. I made effort to visit these places but when I came back home and was unable to sell the machine in those areas, I started thinking that there has to be a solution. There has to be an auction platform in Nigeria where users can sell anything both used and new from the comfort of their homes. I came back to Finland and started developing justbuyorsell.com. EA: What specific area(s) of need are you targeting? Gospel: Making online auction possible in Nigeria for both individual, corporate and government establishments. EA: Any expansion plans in place? Gospel: For the first year, we are targeting the Nigerian market; we plan to move to other West African markets in the second year starting with Ghana. EA: You have a handy team; we would like to know about your partners or team members. Gospel: I will just give you a profile of some of the key individuals behind the whole idea. EA: Give us your take on the future of Africa

January - March 2014  EMERGE AFRICA  



Name:

Gospel Onuoha

Founder & Lead developer Background: Proven product designer and serial entrepreneur.

Professional study: Business Engineering - Oulu University of Applied Science, Finland Security & VMS system design & Installation certified – Mirasys Finland B. Eng Mechanical Engineering

Name:



Alexader Charles Developer Background:

Proven lead developer.

Professional study: Bachelor, Computer Applications Bharahiar University

Name:

Ernest Nnadiukwu

Marketing Research & PR Background: Bsc Hospitality Management Finland B. Sc Economics Statistics M. Sc. Economics Estonia

Professional study: Founder and C.E.O – zilot.com Co – Founder – lokalhouse.com Editor - miemagazine.com



as a business and investment destination. Gospel: A recent survey indicates that Africa is the best place to do business after Asia because of the rapid economic development we are witnessing in Africa now. Africa has registered strong growth despite the infrastructure constraints. According to figures from development organizations, in 2012 there were over 800 active infrastructure projects across different sectors in Africa, with a combined value in excess of US$700 billion. The large majority of infrastructure projects are related to power (37%) and transport (41%). A critical mass of African economies will continue on this journey. Despite the fact that there will undoubtedly be bumps in the road, there is a strong probability that a number of these economies will follow the same development paths that some of the Asian and other rapid growth

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markets have over the past 30 years. By the 2040s, we have no doubt that the likes of Nigeria, Ghana, Angola, Egypt, Kenya, Ethiopia and South Africa will be considered among the growth powerhouses of the global economy. EA: Any advice for the young African entrepreneur? Gospel: African economy is developing rapidly. This period provide lots of opportunities for those that have the right thinking and the right focus. Self employment is the key to economic freedom in this our growing population. Africa entrepreneurs must start creating the job for ourselves and becoming architects of our own business success. Entrepreneurs with the right business model are the ones that can tap into these opportunities created by the African developing economies. Creativity, knowledge and innovation are the driving force for every successful start-up. 