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Kenyan B2B Digital food distributor Twiga Foods raises US$23.75 million and will expand into Francophone Africa next year
Most food in African countries comes from under-capitalised small farmers and is sold in the informal sector. Kenyans spend over 50% of their disposable income compared to 10% spent by Americans. Twiga Foods is using digital processes to change things. Russell Southwood spoke to its CEO and co-founder Peter Njonjo about what the company has planned.
Since launch in Nairobi in 2014, Twiga has been building Kenya’s only end-to-end distribution for fresh and processed food, sourcing from more than 17,000 producers and delivering 3 times a week on average to over 8,000 retailers. Twiga’s digital platform and logistics network links retailers with farmers and food manufacturers, presenting a convenient and reliable alternative to the current inefficient and expensive farm/factory-to-market processes.
At the end of October, It raised US$23.75 million in a Series B equity round led by Goldman Sachs with participation from existing investors including the International Finance Corporation, TLcom Capital and Creadev. An additional $6 million in debt was raised from OPIC and Alpha Mundi.
Its CEO and Co-Founder Peter Njonjo is an accountant by profession and worked for Coca Cola for 21 years so is not your typical young African entrepreneur. But his time with Coca Cola clearly gives him extremely key logistical experience for Twiga Foods.
The idea for the company has an interesting element of happenstance:”It was a series of pivots. The business was not always well-defined. Co-founder Grant and I share a passion for country music. I was looking to do something in the restaurant business and I was raising money. We had a common consultant and we started to look at the agri-value chain for exports”.
“There’s a huge export market for bananas and we thought we could just put up a shed and a notice saying we’re buying bananas. That’s when we started to discover the problems that existed in agriculture. We pivoted to the opportunity to sell locally. We’d already spent a lot of money. The more we looked, the more we saw that there were loads of inefficiencies in the market and that led us to what you can see today”.
In order to prove the proposition and to ensure it could deliver efficiencies, it has had to own a fairly high level of physical assets – like trucks – for a start-up company: “The challenge in markets in Africa is that you have to build the IP and the enabling environment. The latter is very hard for start-ups to do. We own most of our trucks and assets but now we’re better known, we can lighten our balance sheet and that’s the pivot we’re involved in now. We want to move to be a more asset-light company”.
The engagement of “blue chip” investors like Goldman Sachs and the IFC has begun to change the attitude of the banks to the company:”Banks are like blisters. They show up when all the work is done.”
Its current market is Nairobi which as a fresh foods market is estimated to be worth US$2 billion annually with a further U$4-5 million in processed foods on top of that:”At present it’s all very fragmented but Nairobi is very sizeable. We see the model having legs in other markets. I used to live in Lagos and the challenges are the same across all cities.
In Sub-Saharan Africa today consumers are spending 50% of their disposable income on food. That’s the same amount as Americans were spending 100 years ago. Now the percentage spent on food in the USA is down to 10%:”This frees up resources to spend in other sectors. We have not benefitted from the commercial production of food”.
One of the causes is fragmented, informal retail sector. 90% of food retailing in Kenya is in the informal sector and 98% 98% in Nigeria. South Africa is the exception at 60% but outside of SA, it’s nearly always 80-90%:”In some markets it’s about bananas but in others it’s about cassava. The food basket is different but the problem is the same”.
So how does Twiga improve the productivity of smallholder farmers?:”As we start formalizing the supply side, farmers can formalize production. There’s no investment in growing food because the market is so fragmented. What we do creates an ecosystem of small and medium size farmers who can go to the bank and get credit based on what they sell us”.
“They can use that credit for investing in irrigation systems. Some farmers are moving to irrigation and are better able to use their land despite climate change. They are getting 3-4 times the yield than they were before. They’re also finding new ways of producing food. It leads to better capitalized and better skilled farmers”.
The planned expansion is likely to be in Francophone West Africa. Njono is attracted by the combination of low inflation and stable currencies:”We want to be very diligent. There are 14 cities so we want to work out which ones might we go to. We want to mitigate our risk. We’re working through that and building a team to get into that space. We’re doing the tech stack in French and English and I have good relationships on the ground”. The expansion is likely to happen in Q3/4 next year.
“The key thing for us as a company is transitioning from being a tech-enabled company to being a tech-led company. In most ecosystems what’s lacking is the frictionless movement of goods. We want to do that without a huge investment in physical assets. It would have a huge impact. You can do good business and make a massive impact, generate reach and empower people”.
Start-Ups and Investment++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Senegal’s NIMA Codes to launch address app in 15 African countries
Senegalese startup NIMA Codes — a digital mapping service for locations without formal addresses — has upgraded its app and plans to go live in 15 African countries in 2020.
The pre-seed stage startup launched in 2018 around an API that uses mobile-phone numbers to catalog coordinates for unregistered homes and businesses in Senegal.
NIMA Codes is adding a chat tool to its platform, to help users locate and comment on service providers, and is integrating a photo-based location identifier, NIMA Snap, in the application.
“What we offer right now is a reliable street-addressing product. Because it’s very difficult for people…to communicate location in Africa and a lot of services are using location. So we need a service that can communicate reliable locations,” NIMA Codes co-founder and CEO Mouhamadou Sall told TechCrunch.
By several rankings, NIMA Codes has become a top-three downloaded navigation app in Senegal (for Android and iOS). The platform has 16,000 subscribed users and has recorded more than 100,000 searches, according to Sall.
Read the full article on TechCrunch here: https://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/telecoms-en/46323/senegals-nima-codes-to-launch-address-app-in-15-african-countries
Andela Launches Egypt as First Fully Remote Center
Andela, a global technology company that builds distributed engineering teams with Africa's top software engineers today officially launched its operations in Egypt. In a ceremony attended by Andela’s Co-founder and CEO, Jeremy Johnson, ITIDA VP, Ahmed El Sobky, and Andela’s Country Director in Egypt, Ms Rama El Safty the company announced that Egypt would be its first fully remote centre.
Following the ceremony, the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) signed an agreement with Andela that will see them support the company’s efforts to select and invest in at least 200 of the top software engineers in Egypt. Those engineers will get the chance to work with some of the leading technology companies in the world without having to leave Egypt, and in the process represent the Egyptian ICT sector on a global stage.
The MoU comes in line with Egypt’s ICT strategy that targets increasing the annual export of ICT services, which was valued at USD 3.67 billion in 2018, through attracting investments, and creating more job opportunities for Egyptian youth and Andela’s move into the country plays a crucial role in achieving this.
Speaking on the launch, Jeremy Johnson says, “Andela builds world-class engineering teams, and we are excited to be enhancing our talent pool as we expand into Egypt. We’ve been impressed by the incredible engineering talent we’ve seen so far across the country, and we’re excited to help raise the profile of Egypt’s tech ecosystem on the global stage.”
Moreover, Engineer Hala El Gohary, ITIDA CEO said: “We are pleased to be working closely with Andela to continue to invest in Africa’s most talented software developers. So, we are happy with the company’s decision to invest in Egypt where it gets access to a rich talent pool and enjoys geographic proximity to international markets that perfectly fits the engineering-as-a-service business and would further boost the company’s growth.”
Commenting on the agreement, Rama El Safty says, “Egypt’s ICT sector has seen significant growth over the last years, as the government has actively focused on strengthening and accelerating digital transformation. We would like to thank the Minister of Communications and Information Technology and ITIDA for collaborating with us during our move into our first MENA region market.”
The Engineering-as-a-Service company began exploring operations in the North African country in 2018 and has to-date hired over 80 top engineers from Cairo, Alexandria, Damnhour, Port Saeed and Mansoura. Andela runs on a remote working model, whereby Andela engineers join engineering teams of leading technology companies to help them build products quickly and cost-effectively.
The move into Egypt comes as Andela looks to strengthen its team of over 1,200 software engineers, located in Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, and other countries in Africa, who help power the technology teams of more than 200 tech companies around the world including Viacom, BBC, Github, and Coursera.
Andela Egypt is currently accepting applications for a number of software engineering positions on andela.com/egypt.
Source: Press Release
Wefarm secures $13 Million in funding to scale its Smallholder Agricultural Ecosystem
Wefarm, a digital network for global small-scale agriculture, has announced it has raised $13 million in a Series A financing round led by Silicon Valley venture capital firm True Ventures.
This financing round will help Wefarm further scale its network of 1.9 million farmers, and its newly created Marketplace, to connect farmers in Africa, even those without internet access, to the information, products and services they need to be more successful. Investing alongside True Ventures are AgFunder and June Fund, among others. The company received significant follow-on investment from LocalGlobe, ADV and Norrsken Foundation.
Wefarm Marketplace allows farmers to easily access quality products and services, such as seeds, fertilizers and a range of other non-agricultural items from trusted retailers and brands. In line with Wefarm's bottom-up model, all products, services and retailers on the platform have been recommended by Wefarm users and can even be purchased through SMS.
Disproportionally, smallholder farmers lose too much time and money due to fake or faulty agricultural products. Farm yields in many parts of Africa are just one-fifth of farm yield in the United States or Europe. Poor-quality seeds and fertilisers also limit growth in plants and animals. Given that smallholder farmers grow roughly 70 percent of the world's food, Wefarm intends to use its technology to help close this yield gap.
The company’s funding announcement coincides with another notable growth milestone of reaching $1 million in total sales from the Wefarm Marketplace in just eight months since launch; that’s faster growth than both Amazon and eBay in their early stages.
With Marketplace sales growing at more than 40 percent month on month, the business is on a rapid growth trajectory. Over the next 12 months it aims to diversify into supporting farmers with both financing and delivery, as well as enabling them to trade the commodities and crops they grow, with the goal of becoming a key part of the global supply chain on behalf of the farmer.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Wefarm.
Kenyan e-logistics platform gets funding for East Africa expansion
Sendy, a Nairobi-based on-demand delivery platform has secured $2-million in funding from Dutch impact investor Goodwell Investments, the latter announced in a post on its website this week.
The startup, which was founded in 2014, offers package delivery and logistics services. Using a mobile application, customers can connect with motorcycle riders, drivers of vans and pickup trucks, to send packages and documents across the country.
In the last three years, Sendy has completed over 180,000 deliveries with 700 drivers on its platform, the Amsterdam-based investor said. The startup’s primary revenue stream is a per delivery commission charged to the logistics partner and in 2018, it recorded revenues of $1.5 million.
Currently operating in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, the firm plans to cover all of East Africa’s markets in the near future. The latest funding from Goodwell will be used towards achieving that goal.
While the startup taps the growth potential in the region, it would simultaneously be improving access to basic products and services – at significantly lower prices – for lower-income groups.
By simply connecting individuals and businesses to third-party delivery drivers, Sendy is helping to reduce logistical costs which account for over 40 percent of the consumer price in East Africa today.
Poor infrastructure, limited use of technology, inefficient capacity utilization and a lack of pricing transparency in the region all contribute to the largely inflated prices of foods, basic items, and health services.
The startup is addressing this issue, removing the friction from supply and demand. This enables savings of over 20 percent on the logistics costs according to Joel Wanhoji, the East Africa senior investment manager at Goodwell.
With a reduction in logistics costs for local manufacturers and small businesses, spillover social benefits of the platform include reduced product prices and more widely affordable goods. It also serves as a stable source of income for drivers on the platform.
“Sendy is already a gamechanger in the logistics sector,” said Wanhoji. “Its cutting-edge technology brings efficient capacity utilization and transparent pricing to a sector that was previously seen as being beyond change.”
In addition to its cost-saving service, Sendy is also exploring new distribution models such as the “agency model” which is in the pilot phase. The new model involves the aggregation of packages at a central collection point before they are delivered to the customer, thereby increasing efficiency and improving margins.
Sendy was founded by Meshack Alloys, Malaika Judd, Evanson Biwott and Don Okoth. In November 2015, it became the first startup to receive funding from the $1 million Safaricom Spark Fund after which it secured $2 million in investment in 2017.
Source: Ventures Africa
In Brief – Start-up News and opportunities
Startupbootcamp AfriTech 2019 Demo Day has selected top ten startups to pitch for its third edition of the SBC AfriTech series. The DEMO Day is set for Thursday, 7 November 2019 and will see startups show off their solutions, which span financial services, retail, agriculture, property, big data, commerce and more. Asilimia (money transfer, Kenya), Cinnamon Clubs (saving clubs management, Uganda), Curacel Systems (health claims switch, Nigeria) and Databotics (process automation, South Africa).
SA equity crowdfunding platform Uprise.Africa has been named the top ICT startup at the 2019 State Information Agency (Sita) Digital Public Service Awards. The awards, which form part of the government’s 13th Govtech conference, were held on Sunday (27 October) evening at the International Convention Centre (ICC) in Durban. The award category recognises up-and-coming startups in the information communications and technology (ICT) sector which have demonstrated growth in turnover and have created a successful business model that is able to create jobs. Uprise.Africa — which currently has three campaigns on offer to investors on its platform — beat finalists business marketplace Sokoni Business Market and edtech social enterprise Priyo Tech to come out tops in the ICT Startup category.
The CEO of Naspers South Africa, Phuthi Mahanyele-Dabengwa has reaffirmed the company’s commitment to drive more investment in backing South African tech founders and entrepreneurs. during a panel discussion:“…we established the Naspers Foundry, a South Africa focused tech-business funding initiative with a ZAR 1.4 billion (roughly $100-million) commitment to back promising entrepreneurs in South Africa.” she added. Of the total ZAR 4.6 billion commitment that the company announced last year, which includes the ZAR 1.4 billion for Naspers Foundry, the group has so far invested ZAR 1.3 billion of its original pledge in its existing South Africa businesses Takealot, Mr D Food and Superbalist, as well as Media24 and OLX. Naspers Foundry made its first investment of ZAR 30 million in online cleaning services company, Sweepsouth in June this year. This female founder-led business has created
15,000 jobs for domestic cleaners.
Nigeria’s leading e-payments company Interswitch has acquired a majority stake in healthcare technology startup e-Clat. The deal was completed on September 30, 2019, and it involves Interswitch acquiring a 60% stake in e-Clat through the purchase of shares from current shareholders and subscription to new shares issued by the company.
In its constant drive to help micro businesses grow, uKheshe, South Africa’s cheapest and most convenient QR cash card and micro transaction platform, will reward 20 entrepreneurs with R25 000 this summer in its “Go cashless” campaign. Clayton Hayward, co-founder, uKheshe, says that financial inclusion remains an ongoing objective of the start-up and should become a broader concern across the continent: “As one of the key drivers working to reduce utter poverty, financial inclusion is a global issue and we are confident that our cash card approach will continue to make a positive impact.” To encourage use and further educate the unbanked and underbanked, uKheshe has launched an inspiring competition offering R25 000 to one lucky entrepreneur each week, starting on 8 November 2019: “We will reward 20 entrepreneurs by the end of February for simply sharing what they do to make money and
how a cash card has helped to increase revenue and enabled their micro-business to grow,” says Hayward. Entries are pouring in with the hashtag #gocashless and businesses ranging from caterers, freelance consultants, bakers, photographers, home industries and many more are sharing their business stories: “It is heart-warming to read how the uKheshe QR cash card is helping so many diversified micro businesses prosper. There is no limit to what this solution can do for the local economy,” says Hayward.
Energy++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Pay-as-you-go solar market leader, Greenlight Planet, partners with leading telecom operators in sub-Saharan Africa
Greenlight Planet, the market leader in the rapidly expanding pay-as-you-go (PAYG) solar industry has successfully partnered with major telecom operators in Africa. Recognizing the natural synergy between the telecom and pay-as-you-go solar industries, the company is pursuing a strong telecom-focused strategy that aims to have a far-reaching impact on more than 600 million unelectrified consumers across the African continent.
The company has collaborated with more than fifteen telecom operators, banks and payment gateways to make Sun King products more affordable and accessible for rural individuals, increasing long-term value for a common consumer base. Full-fledged sales and distribution partnerships have been launched with three leading telecom operators, Vodacom (Tanzania), Orange (Burkina Faso) and Telma (Madagascar), to enable sales of solar-powered energy solutions through each operator's subscriber base and mobile money channels. In addition, Greenlight Planet has integrated its innovative PAYG technology platform with leading mobile money providers across sub-Saharan Africa, enabling consumers to make continuous installment payments in a secure and simple way. Greenlight Planet establishes unique operating models with each telecom partner to best serve and work with each service provider's strategic
goals, local business model and competitive landscape.
Mr. Dhaval Radia, Senior Vice President at Greenlight Planet, says “The time is right for telecoms to look beyond their traditional revenue earning models and explore innovative partnerships that can lead to a sustained increase in ARPU and customer retention. By expanding to rural consumer segments with value-added services such as PAYG solar products for daily energy and infotainment, telecom operators can help deliver higher value to their customer base.” Recent collaborations between PAYG solar companies and telecom operators have demonstrated that PAYG solar customers are amongst the most active profiles of mobile money users in sub-Saharan Africa, many opening their first mobile money account specifically to purchase a PAYG solar home system.
Ninety-eight percent of Greenlight Planet’s PAYG customers make roughly 60 mobile money payments between $2 and $5 each over a period of twelve to twenty-four months to complete their installment payment plans for a PAYG solar device. The company has processed nearly 40 million mobile money payments from customers in Africa in the last three years.
With more than 100 million mobile money subscribers, and nearly 600 million people that lack reliable access to electricity on the African continent, opportunities for the telecom and distributed energy sectors to join forces remain tremendous. Since inception, Greenlight Planet has installed nearly six million solar products, benefitting over 24 million individuals, across Sub-Saharan Africa through its direct distribution channels in Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda and through more than 200 strategic alliances in 32 countries across the African continent. The company will showcase its flagship Sun King range of solar-powered products at the upcoming AfricaCom conference from 12th to 15th November 2019 in Cape Town.
Source: Press Release
In Brief
A Spanish-Japanese renewable energy business group is set to invest more than $200 million in two solar power projects in Zambia to alleviate loadshedding. The development will add 200MW to the country’s national grid in 2020, the government informed media. This renewable capacity will help alleviate loadshedding in the country. Univergy Solar will develop and implement a 135MW project in northern Zambia and another 65MW project in Zambia’s Copperbelt, the Zambian embassy in Tokyo said in a statement. According to Reuters, the Japanese firm will sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Zambian government to start work on the projects in the first quarter of 2020.
The two projects are expected to be completed between six and eight months. The MegaMillion Energy Company launched Africa's first lithium-ion mega-factory at the recent 2019 Batteries and Electric Vehicles Conference hosted by the uYilo eMobility Programme.
Project partners include Aceleron, the UK developer of sustainable and reusable battery solutions, and Total Access to Energy Solutions (TATES), both of which are committed to providing off-grid Kenyans with cleaner and more affordable power. The first stage of this unique project will see Aceleron convert TATES and its partners’ waste lithium-ion battery cells into repairable, upgradable and affordable long-cycle reusable battery packs to bring cleaner power to more than 800 people in off-grid communities across Kenya and the surrounding area including Benin, Rwanda and Libya. TATES will provide lithium-ion waste material from its solar lanterns scheme – a project providing light to Kenyans without electricity access and with low incomes. It will also use its network to encourage other companies to contribute their battery waste to the project.
ICT4D++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Start-up Turn.io upgrades social impact messaging and engagement to smartphones – dealing with hundreds of thousands of queries and responses using machine learning
NGOs and other not-for-profits are beginning to migrate with their vulnerable, low-income users to social messaging apps like WhatsApp used on smartphones. Russell Southwood talks to Gustav Praekeltof Praekelt.org about how to deal with millions of active users in a digital age.
Praekelt.org has incubated a start-up called Turn.io aimed at connecting organizations with their audiences using messaging platforms. The genesis for it was the work Praekelt.org has been doing with non-profits over many years, reaching vulnerable people across Africa, largely using SMS and USSD.
According to Gustav Praekelt:”The use of messaging platforms like Telegram, Viber and Messenger was increasing as smartphones grew in penetration. We wanted to follow our users and there was a very high penetration of WhatsApp in South Africa”. Praekelt.org got accepted into the WhatsApp Business API pilot programme.
It pioneered the work it created in this programme using MomConnect, a digital maternal health programme that was launched in partnership with South Africa’s National Department of Health in 2014:”We’ve celebrated five years of providing them with a service with 3 million registered and 1 million active users. It’s pretty scaled by now”.
So it started with a serious scale of users who wanted to make use of messaging platforms (largely WhatsApp) and it made a very big difference to the process of communicating with them. Previously SMS messaging has a relatively low response rate and the messages were limited by the number of characters. Worse still, as the number of messages generated increased with the number of users it became harder and harder to both track and respond to them:”We went from 5,000 questions from users per month to hundreds of thousands of questions.”
“There was no tool to deal with this type of communication where there might be as many as 100,000 interactions. We also didn’t see any tools optimized for behavior change. Most tools that were available were about selling things but we wanted to guide people through things like health. There was also a lot of interest for using the tool outside of our own uses. So we set up a separate start-up and we’re still invested in it”.
So what does it do? There are four steps that address the problem of how “impact organizations in frontier markets speak to massive cohorts of users”:
It connect organizations to these large cohorts using messaging platforms like WhatsApp, and Android Messages:”Turn sits on WhatsApp, Telegram, Google Messenger ans so on. We’re agnostic.”
It manages engagement with users, using Natural Language Processing & Machine Learning to triage the most urgent conversations, ensuring conversations start at the right time with the right people.
It guides behavior because it knows where the person is in their journey and whether they have done a certain type of visit.
Last but not least, it provides tracking mechanisms to look at the impact of the use of the service.
It has partnered with value-added service provider infobip for a long-term relationship focused on social impact:”They have given us a special deal where they have zero-rated the access up to a couple hundred thousand users with data free response time”.
“In terms of business case, broadly speaking it can be used by social impact organizations, social enterprises or for profits. Indeed any organization aiming to improve its social impact.
“The ones that have had traction are in the health field because that’s our background but there’s also agriculture organizations supporting smallholder farmers and financial inclusion organizations like SABAC (a Stokvel, a savings and investment organization) with 70,000 users. It is using our product to manage these users.”
The South African jobs portal Kandua “makes amazing connections with artisans like plumbers, finding them new clients. WhatsApp becomes the audit trail for the artisan, who can be very vulnerable if they have no other way to invoice.”
Praekelt rattles off a long list of users including Nivi (health), FunDza Books (literacy and reading); and Girl Effect (sexual health and reproductive rights):”We see lots of organizations who want the tool because they are signing up hundreds of thousands of users.”
Turn.io is expanding into India with two healthcare partners who have 4.5 million users on Whats App. He estimates that 70% of users in South Africa have smartphones and 50% in countries like Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria.
He thinks that 80-90% smartphone use will happen in in major markets in the next 2-3 years:”Once you get to 30-40%, you get a critical mass. People start saying to themselves I can’t talk to my friends unless I understand how to do it. Then there’s going to be that long tail that might take another 2-3 years to change. So we’ll continue to have SMS live so that you don’t exclude the most vulnerable.”
He stresses that the transition to digital messaging is not just about the user’s income:”For the more open and tech savvy younger users, it opens up new opportunities. It’s cheaper than SMS and allows them to connect to friends and do things like finding jobs.”
Source: https://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/telecoms-en/46305/start-up-turnio-upgrades-social-impact-messaging-and-engagement-to-smartphones-dealing-with-hundreds-of-thousands-of-queries-and-responses-using-machine-learning
Senegal launches online database to track the traffickers
A new online database of human trafficking cases will help Senegal crack down on a rampant crime that is little understood, highlighting hotspots and profiling crooks in a bid to curb the growing trade in people, the government said on Wednesday.
The 'Systraite' system will collect information on victims, convictions, traffickers and more, hoping better data cuts opportunities for crime, a justice ministry official said.
The West African country is a source, transit and destination country for trafficking, with children forced to beg on city streets and young women trafficked for sex work in mining camps.
But there is no reliable data on how common this is or where it is happening, said Awa Ndour, a programme officer in the National Unit for Combating Trafficking in Persons (CNLTP).
"In Senegal, we don't have enough formal statistics to be able to do an evaluation," Ndour said.
"We wanted to create a data collection system that will allow us to analyse the evolution and trends in human trafficking," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Systraite was officially launched last week in partnership with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and with funding from the U.S. Department of State.
IOM, a United Nations agency, provided computers and internet modems to juvenile courts and prosecutors so they can enter data into the system, as well as organising training.
"It's an important step because what poses a problem most of the time is data," said Candide Migan, a programme assistant at IOM. "At the very least this will shine a bit more light on which cases make it to the courts."
The system is in a pilot phase in five regions, with a goal to expand it nationwide.
Anti-trafficking experts have pushed for technology to be used more in the fight against human trafficking, in part because the criminals themselves increasingly use tools such as mobile apps and cryptocurrency.
In West Africa, authorities are just starting to use digital systems at a basic level to share information and work together.
Human Rights Watch estimates that 100,000 children are forced to beg in Senegal, usually as students at Koranic schools where many families consider it tradition.
This is the most prevalent form of trafficking in the country, according to IOM, although many cases of forced begging are not prosecuted under the anti-trafficking law.
Source: Reporting by Nellie Peyton; editing by Lyndsay Griffiths. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation
South Africa: Tackling Gender-Based Violence Through Tech
The theme of gender-based violence will be the focus of the first of four hackathons taking place in Cape Town and Johannesburg over a one-year period as part of an initiative by the US Embassy in South Africa called Hackathons for South Africa: Digital Solutions for Real World Challenges. The inaugural hackathon will be held in the EY premises at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town from Saturday the 23rd to Sunday, the 24th of November 2019. Emerging software developers, IT professionals, trainers, civil society organisations, students, academics and professionals with expertise relevant to the theme are all invited to attend the event and create innovative digital solutions to the problem of gender-based violence. During the hackathon, attendees will explore what can be done to make communities safer, investigate how best to respond to threats, and produce tech that could save
lives.
The winning team will walk away with R25,000, the runner up will receive R15,000 and there will be R5,000 in spot prizes up for grabs. What’s more, with implementation partner Silicon Cape being an ecosystem enabler for tech-enabled startups, the winner will be connected with accelerators, mentors and other relevant community members such as developers, angel investors and venture capitalists to help bring their solution to life. Amazon Web Services will also give the winning team access to the low cost, easy-to-use infrastructure needed to scale and grow via the AWS Activate programme which includes benefits like $10,000 worth of AWS Promotional Credits, valid for two years; AWS Business Support valued at $5,000 which is valid for up to one year and a solution architect technical whiteboarding session. To participate in the hackathon, or for more information, please go to https://www.buildcommunityhackathons.co.za or email hackathon@siliconcape.com.
Source: Press Release
In Brief
Liquid Telecom has won the ‘Most Innovative IoT Solution’ award at the recently held World Communications Awards in London. Liquid Telecom was recognised for helping thousands of fish farmers in Western Kenya and Nyanza to monitor and protect freshwater fish populations using Internet of Things (IoT).
Today, Paradigm Initiative is thrilled to announce that its first Digital Rights and Inclusion Learning Lab (DRILL) will begin operations in February 2020, and will operate from its new headquarters in Lagos, Nigeria. DRILL has a mission to host innovative learning around digital rights and inclusion in Africa, and serve as a space for both practice and reflection. The Learning Lab will involve, and connect, different stakeholders and create dialogue amongst researchers, social innovators, policymakers and actors, the private sector, as well as civil society. As a lighthouse for digital rights and inclusion advocacy in Africa, learning activitie will take place at the Lab in order to evolve new thinking on digital rights and inclusion strategy for Africa. There are a variety of activities that will take place, including, but not limited to, focused future-facing research; presentations;
ecosystem meetings and discussions focused on digital rights and/or inclusion hosted within the ecosystem; and general communication about the lab’s activities. DRILL will offer a space for big thinking, evaluation of digital rights and digital inclusion programs, and future-proofing ecosystem activities. DRILL will host innovators, researchers and/or entrepreneurs-in-residence at the PIN HQ so they can host biweekly ecosystem/sector meetings (to share insight/ideas), biweekly presentations (to share outcomes of their research and/or work) and work with the Executive Director to record a monthly DRILL podcast on topical issues.
Innovation in Africa++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
BMW set to launch electric Mini in South Africa in 2020
BMW Group South Africa (BMW SA) will launch the fifth fully electric vehicle (EV) to enter the local market in the middle of next year – the Mini Copper SE.This move means BMW SA will also be the first manufacturer to have two EV models available in the local market.
The Mini SE will add to the BMW i3, the Nissan Leaf, the Jaguar I-Pace and the Mercedes-Benz EQC, with the latter also expected on South African roads in 2020.
BMW Group South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa CEO Tim Abbott says it is too early to reveal the selling price of the Mini SE.
He reiterates, however, that he would like government to significantly reduce the current 25% import duty on EVs, which is leftover legislation from the era of golf cart imports.
He adds that EVs are not about the price paid up front, but rather the lifecycle costs, considering the fact that these vehicles do not have to pull up at the pumps every week.
“EVs are still taxed 25%. We need government to support the global move to EVs. Besides, 25% of nothing, is nothing.
“We need a proper tax regime to really kickstart the EV industry in South Africa.
“We have a long journey ahead of us in South Africa [regarding EVs]. My fear is that we’ll be a rule-taker and not rule-maker.”
BMW will offer 25 electrified vehicles – a term which includes hybrids – to the world market by 2023, with more than half of this number full EVs.
By the end of this year, BMW will have 500 000 electrified vehicles on the road globally. This is set to increase to one-million vehicles by 2021.
Source: Engineeringnews.co.za
South Africa’s first ever blockchain-based property register pilot
The Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa (CAHF), research consultancy 71point4 and Seso Global have partnered to develop South Africa’s first blockchain-based property register. The pilot study area consists of almost 1 000 properties located in four sites in Makhaza, Khayelitsha. All the properties are Government subsidised properties that have not yet been registered on Deeds Registry.
According to Daniel Bloch, the CEO of Seso Global, a blockchain property registry company, this will be the first working example of a blockchain-based property registry in South Africa. Aside from creating an immutable record of who owns which house, the Seso platform facilitates and records transactions such as sales and transfers out of deceased estates and integrates with third parties who facilitate transactions, including mortgage lenders. “For the time being, property owners will record these transactions at the Transaction Support Centre, a walk-in housing advice office created by CAHF and 71point4 located in the area. But over time, we will record transactions through the Seso app” says Bloch.
The benefit of the blockchain solution is that it allows the data to be stored in a decentralised, secure database that can be updated without any loss of historic data. This means there is a secure, back-to-back record of all transactions that is completely tamper-poof. Eventually the vision would be to integrate this record into the Deeds Registry when other impediments to transfer have been removed.
South Africa has a serious titling problem. According to Kecia Rust, the CEO of CAHF, the government has built over three million RDP houses since democracy. But CAHF’s analysis of deeds office data indicates that only 1.9 million of these properties have been registered. The National Department of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation (NDHSWS) estimates that the title deed backlog for RDP properties built prior to 2014 currently stands at 511 752. These properties were given to beneficiaries, but no title deeds were registered and handed over. At the same time, there is a backlog of 351 470 title deeds on newer properties.
Registering these properties so long after they were built and handed over to subsidy beneficiaries is an administratively complex task. In some cases, original subsidy beneficiaries are no longer living in the properties. Some beneficiaries might have passed away, some might have tenants in their properties while others have sold their houses informally.
“To create a register of property owners we first had to go door to door to find out who lives in each property and to establish how they came to be there” says Melzer, founder and lead consultant at 71point4. “We hired a team of 17 enumerators and trained them to collect information and capture supporting documents. Thankfully we can leverage smart phone to collect the data, but it still requires a significant effort. It took us two months to cover these areas.”
But the effort is well worth it. Properties in the area sell for over R200 000 informally – and would sell for more if they were listed on a trusted registry and were ‘bankable’. This would enable buyers to obtain mortgage finance and create affordability. Without access to mortgages, buyers have to pay cash for a house, or use an expensive unsecured loan. There are also significant benefits to the City of Cape Town of being able to access an accurate and up-to-date record of property ownership. Without it, the City cannot collect revenue from households in the area who are not indigent nor can City departments facilitate building plan approvals.
In many cases in the pilot areas, the original beneficiary is still living in the property. “We hope that these properties can be registered in the deeds registry within a few months, and we are working closely with the City of Cape Town to facilitate that” says Melzer. “Where the beneficiary no longer lives in the property, we are in the process of tracing the beneficiary to confirm information we have gathered on who owns the property. We will also be working closely with the City on a resolution process where ownership is disputed.”
It will take some time before all the required information has been collected and validated. It will also take time for validated properties to be registered on the deeds registry. In the meantime, we will enable property owners and occupants to keep those records up to date.
“We will also be using Seso’s platform to manage other client service requests that come to the Transaction Support Centre from all over Cape Town” says Rust. “These include helping clients to regularise informal sales and wind up deceased estates. Going forward, as the country moves towards an electronic deeds registry, we hope the lessons we have learned will provide valuable evidence to inform the development of accessible, secure, affordable and efficient mechanisms to facilitate property market transactions. This is important across the market, but particularly in entry level segments of the market where existing mechanisms are simply too costly”.
CAHF, Seso Global and 71point4 have a working agreement to extend this pilot into other areas and use cases. There are hundreds of thousands of RDP properties around the country where no primary transfer has taken place. In addition, in many areas where title deeds were issued, property owners have transacted informally, which means there is no longer an accurate record of ownership at the deeds registry. Blockchain-based solutions can help there too. Blockchain can also enable households who live in informal settlements and rural areas to record and maintain land records and secure their rights. “We are very pleased with the pilot results. We think the solution we have developed is scalable, and replicable” says Bloch. That does not mean it is easy but, says Melzer “blockchain technology together the potential value we can unlock makes it worthwhile”.
Source: Press Release
In Brief
Volkswagen and Siemens have launched an electric mobility car project in Rwanda as part of the Moving Rwanda Initiative. Volkswagen will provide four e-Golfs and one charging station for the initial phase of the pilot project making Rwanda the first on the African continent to have Volkswagen launch such a pilot project. The pilot project, which will form part of Volkswagen’s operations in Rwanda, was officially announced today by Thomas Schäfer, CEO of Volkswagen Group South Africa and responsible for the Sub-Sahara Africa Region, in the presence of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Rwanda, Right Honourable Dr. Edouard Ngirente. During the pilot phase, four e-Golfs and one charging station will be introduced in the capital of Rwanda, Kigali. Volkswagen has signed a joint development agreement with Siemens to provide the charging infrastructure for the electric cars. With the launch
of the pilot project, Rwanda becomes the first African country to introduce a Volkswagen electric car
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