African Tech Roundup
African Tech Roundup
Africa-focused technology, digital and innovation ecosystem insight and commentary.
Inside Money & Moves: Tinashe Mukogo On Merging Corporate Expertise With Independent Media
Episode Overview:
This episode features a relaxed, peer-to-peer conversation between two media entrepreneurs—African Tech Roundup co-founder and executive producer Andile Masuku, and Money & Moves founder and writer Tinashe Mukogo.
They explore how Mukogo draws on his background in consulting (Deloitte), corporate venture capital (Next47), and organisational finance (Siemens), along with his CA and INSEAD MBA credentials, to deliver sophisticated yet accessible analysis of African businesses.
Joshua Bicknell On How Balloon Ventures' 'Boring Business' Portfolio Drives 0.5% Of Uganda's GDP
Episode Overview:
This episode features a deep conversation with Joshua Bicknell, co-founder of Balloon Ventures, exploring how the organisation evolved from a non-profit connecting young people with informal entrepreneurs to becoming a financial institution that's deployed over $14 million in loans to SMEs across Kenya and Uganda, while openly sharing portfolio data to prove the viability of SME lending as an asset class.
Key topics:
- The false gospel of universal entrepreneurship
- Defining
Ochuko Ogra On Backbone Connectivity Network's (BCN) Nigeria Growth Strategy
This episode features a brief check-in with Ochuko Ogra, Chief Transformation and Strategy Officer at Backbone Connectivity Network (BCN), sketching Nigeria's digital infrastructure landscape.
Episode overview:
BCN has over 1,000 km of wholly-owned fibre infrastructure, primarily in the North-Central and North Eastern parts of Nigeria. Citing its stronghold in Northern Nigeria to its expanding national footprint, Ogra shares how BCN is leveraging its two decades of experience in Nigerian telec
Alan Knott-Craig Jr On Life After Mxit's Royal Fail (2016)
Listen in as Alan Knott-Craig Jr, son of Alan Sr, the pioneering co-founder and first CEO of Vodacom, one of South Africa's leading mobile network operators, and later the feisty CEO of challenger telco Cell C—takes us through a transformative career moment that set the stage for his future ventures.
Episode overview
This early 2016 conversation finds Alan Knott-Craig Jr in a moment of trademark forthrightness. Fresh from his tenure as CEO of Mxit, once Africa's largest social network with over
Building Bridges: Maya Horgan Famodu's Silicon Valley-Africa Crossing Playbook (2017)
Episode overview
This unfiltered 2017 archive dialogue captures Maya Horgan Famodu (Founder and Partner, Ingressive Capital) before she became known for straight-talking LinkedIn posts about founder insights and personal growth.
Fresh from investment banking, she was forging new pathways between Silicon Valley capital and African startup innovation via carefully-curated investor tours—laying the groundwork for the launch of Ingressive Capital's investment months later.
Listening back, you can
Talent Tales: Ethiopia's Quiet Tech Rise vs Nigeria's Developer Gold Rush (2018)
As we wind down 2024, we're diving into our archives to serve up some memorable throwback conversations.
Whether you're a long-time listener revisiting these gems or discovering them for the first time, these conversations capture pivotal moments in Africa's tech journey. In today's episode, we're rewinding to 2018...
Episode overview:
Join us as we eavesdrop on a fascinating corridor conversation from Afrobytes Tech Marketplace in Paris featuring Amadou Daffe, who has since transformed Gebeya
Why Carbon CEO Chijioke Dozie Is Ditching Nigeria's Free Banking Playbook
Meet Chijioke Dozie, the co-founder steering Carbon through Nigeria's increasingly noisy neobank scene. In this candid chat with Andile Masuku, Dozie makes a case for zigging while others zag—specifically, charging for value while competitors burn cash on free services.
It's a stance that might raise eyebrows in Nigeria's price-sensitive market, but as you'll hear, it's backed by 12 years of hard knocks and savvy iteration.
Episode Overview:
Carbon spotted a massive gap in Nigeria circa 2012
Ambar Van Der Wath Unpacks Baobab Network's $20K Toe-Dipping Investment Proposition
Ambar van der Wath—who leads investor relations at one of Africa's leading accelerator slash VC firms, Baobab Network—discusses with Andile Masuku how the firm is creating accessible entry points for cautious investors interested in early-stage African tech startups.
Episode Overview:
Picture this: You're an international investor curious about African tech, but you're not quite ready to write million-dollar checks or commit to a 7-year fund lockup. That's exactly the puzzle Baobab Network is
Koltronics Nigeria's Lanre Kolade and the inside story of Google's Equiano cable landing in Togo
This episode features an illuminating dialogue with Lanre Kolade, Chairman of ConnectedCompute, CEO of Koltronics Nigeria and former CEO of CSquared, exploring the intricate dynamics of infrastructure development and digital transformation across Africa.
Episode overview:
Andile Masuku engages with Kolade to unpack his 26-year journey in African broadband connectivity, examining the delicate balance between commercial viability and developmental impact in major infrastructure projects.
Kolade
This Is Connectivity a la VC With Accion Venture Lab's Jasiel Martin-Odoom
This episode features a candid conversation with Jasiel Martin-Odoom, Africa Investment Officer at Accion Venture Lab, exploring the intersection of venture capital and connectivity-focused content creation and ecosystem building in African tech.
Episode overview:
Andile Masuku sits down with Jasiel Martin-Odoom to unpack his unique approach to ecosystem engagement, scaling personal impact through content creation and driving value for founders across Africa. Reflecting on his experience transi
Victor Mapunga On Building From First Principles In Africa's 'Tech Graveyard'
In a landscape where African tech startups often chase buzzwords and quick wins, some founders are taking a more fundamental approach to innovation. This episode explores how one Zimbabwean entrepreneur is building sustainable tech ventures by focusing on first principles.
Episode overview:
In this deeply candid conversation, Andile Masuku sits down with Victor Mapunga, the widely-covered founder of blockchain-based identity startup FlexID and authorised Starlink satellite internet service prov
Britam Director Shares Strategy on Modernising Insurance for Africa's Digital Age
In a rapidly evolving financial services landscape, traditional African insurers are racing to modernise their operations and product offerings to meet changing consumer needs. This episode explores how one of East Africa's largest insurance providers is navigating this transformation.
Episode overview:
In this first instalment of a special two-part miniseries on digital transformation across Africa's insurance and healthcare sectors, Andile Masuku, sits down with Evah Kimani, director of partne
Safaricom Ethiopia's Network Chief on Building Network Infrastructure From Scratch
In October 2022, Safaricom launched its telecommunications services in Ethiopia, marking a major milestone as the first private operator to enter the Ethiopian telecom market. This move broke the long-standing monopoly of state-owned Ethio Telecom and was seen by many as a significant step towards liberalising the country’s telecom sector.
The company had officially been licensed in July 2021, with a record $850 million licensing fee—the largest foreign direct investment in Ethiopia at the tim
Future in the Humanities EP 1/3: Touching Brains
In the opening episode of the Future in the Humanities podcast mini-series, titled "Touching Brains", Wits University research collaborators Sahba Besharati and Victoria Williams let us in on their multidisciplinary exploration of the complex impact of COVID-19 on human interaction and touch.
Featuring insights from various studies and discussions around the experiences of parents and caregivers during the pandemic, Andile Masuku (host), examines the significance of physical contact, the resil
Future in the Humanities EP 2/3: Everybody Gets A Conspiracy
In this episode, Wits University media researchers Samuel Olaniran and Iginio Gagliardone guide an audio tour into the complex world of conspiracy theories in the era of social media and global crises.
Drawing from multiple research findings and expert dialogues, Andile Masuku (host) grapples with the complex function of conspiracy theories in our society. Rather than dismissing them solely as social ills, he investigates their potential as tools for challenging authority and frameworks for unde
Future in the Humanities EP 3/3: Slave Ride
In the third and final episode of the Future in the Humanities podcast mini-series, titled "The Gig Economy's Hidden Costs", Wits social scientist and researcher Fikile Masikane guides an exploration of the complex realities facing gig workers in the Global South, particularly food courier riders in Africa.
Featuring insights from a study conducted with Edward Webster, Andile Masuku delves into the challenges and contradictions of the gig economy, examining how promises of entrepreneurship and
Digital Transformation Pulse Check: Undersea Cable, Remote Power Supply & Terrestrial Fibre Optic
In this special edition of the African Tech Roundup podcast, taped at the fringes of the inaugural Africa Digital Transformation Strategy Summit (convened by NOVACOM Summits), Refiloe Mpakanyane investigates the state of digital transformation in Africa through conversation with four seasoned corporate C-suite executives spearheading corporate innovation in Africa.
Dr Juliet Ehimuan is formerly Director of Google West Africa. Juliet posits three critical pillars of digital transformation: acces
ATRUC S2 EP4: Can AI be trusted? with Jania Okwechime & Wessel Oosthuizen
In this African Tech Conversations episode, guest host Kate Bryne chats with avid AI proponents Jania Okwechime (Partner at Deloitte - West Africa Data Analytics Leader) and Wessel Oosthuizen (AI Lead - Deloitte Analytics). Listen in for deep insights about the pros and pitfalls of AI and to grasp the profound potential impact AI might have on the Web3 universe as we build it out.
EDITORIAL DISCLAIMER: While the Celo Community Fund supports this African Tech Conversations episode, African Tech
UNAJUA S13 EP3: Is the "play-to-earn" trend over-hyped? feat. Kate Byrne
In this UNAJUA episode, Kate Byrne parses through majorly-hyped trends like "play-to-earn" to pinpoint the true potential of the extraordinary new level of connectivity and engagement enabled by applied Web3 technologies.
This podcast is the third and final instalment of the three-part UNAJUA Series focused on distilling a handful of global Web3 buzz trends like crypto, NFTs, the metaverse and even AI— reflecting how they are unfolding within an African context.
Kate has served as a C-Suite ex
UNAJUA S13 EP2: How is the world taking to the crypto meltdown? feat. Kate Byrne
In this UNAJUA episode, Kate Byrne gauges the ongoing fallout of the current global meltdown in crypto markets and speaks on the current international tenor in crypto adoption.
This is the second instalment of a three-part UNAJUA Series focused on distilling a handful of global Web3 buzz trends like crypto, NFTs, the metaverse and even AI— reflecting how they are unfolding within an African context.
Kate has served as a C-Suite executive leader at blue chip brands such as Katapult X, SOCAP Gl
UNAJUA S13 EP1: Are NFTs over? feat. Kate Byrne
This is the first episode of a UNAJUA Series focused on distilling a handful of global Web3 buzz trends like crypto, NFTs, the metaverse and even AI— reflecting how they are unfolding within an African context. Offering minimum viable insight in this series is the inimitable Kate Byrne.
Kate has served as a C-Suite executive leader at blue chip brands such as Katapult X, SOCAP Global, Inc, Fast Company and the George Lucas Education Foundation. She is currently the Chief Impact Officer of PopVe
UNAJUA S12 EP3: What is 'Delegated Proof of Stake'? feat. Jordan Muthemba
This is the final episode of the three-part UNAJUA Series focused on what sets blockchains apart. Seasoned Kenyan blockchain developer and Web3 enthusiast Jordan Muthemba is on strike for this series.
In this podcast, Jordan Muthemba explains how blockchain (network) users vote and elect delegates to validate the next block using a concept called Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS).
Jordan is a full-stack developer with over five years of experience in Kenya's buzzy IT scene. He is currently servi
UNAJUA S12 EP2: What are 'Proof of Work' and 'Proof of Stake'? feat. Jordan Muthemba
This is Part 2 of a three-part UNAJUA Series focused on what sets blockchains apart from each other. Seasoned Kenyan blockchain developer and Web3 enthusiast Jordan Muthemba shares insights on this series.
Jordan is a full-stack developer with over five years of experience in Kenya's buzzy IT scene. He is currently serving as a smart contract developer and Web3 project advisor on a handful of projects for the likes of Canza Finance, SendVillage and Ubrica. He is also an active Celo Community ed
UNAJUA S12 EP1: Are all blockchains the same? feat. Jordan Muthemba
This is Part 1 of a three-part UNAJUA Series focused on what distinguishes different types of blockchains from each other. Seasoned Kenyan blockchain developer and Web 3 venture builder Jordan Muthemba shares insights on this series.
Jordan is a full-stack developer with over five years experience in Kenya's buzzy IT scene. He is currently serving as a smart contract developer and Web3 project advisor on a handful of projects for the likes of Canza Finance, SendVillage and Ubrica. He is also an
Gqom: The Babusi Nyoni Story
This special piece of podcast storytelling offers a compelling glimpse into the heart and mind of one of Africa's most gifted multi-hyphenate technological innovators, Babusi Nyoni.
Babusi is a Zimbabwean creative technologist, social entrepreneur and gqom producer with an extraordinary personal story. He is a self-taught tech pro whose project credits include creating what Forbes magazine described as “the world’s first AI football commentator” for the UEFA Champions League final (on behalf o
ATRUC S2 EP3: Journey Into The Cryptoverse With Hope Ditlhakanyane & Nzwisisa Chidembo
Standing in for Musa Kalenga on this African Tech Conversations instalment is Andile Masuku, whose day job is serving as Head of Community at Founders Factory Africa (FFA).
Andile extends a recent lunch break exchange he had with his FFA colleagues Hope Ditlhakanyane (Head of Venture Sourcing) and Nzwisisa Chidembo (Head of Engineering) at the office. This podcast offers a candid glimpse into the personal blockchain investment and venture building proclivities of two top-drawer African tech in
UNAJUA S11 EP3: How do you vet the investment worthiness of blockchain startups?
This is the final episode of a three-part UNAJUA Series focused on the Blockchain Africa investment opportunity, featuring venture capitalist Hope Ditlhakanyane and venture builder Nzwisisa Chidembo.
In their respective roles at hybrid investor, venture builder and accelerator company, Founders Factory Africa (FFA), Hope and Nzwi have recently collaborated to vet the investment worthiness of two African blockchain tech startups, which eventually landed FFA's backing.
In this episode, Hope an
UNAJUA S11 EP2: Crypto as a personal investment opportunity? ft. Hope Ditlhakanyane & Nzwi Chidembo
This is the second episode of a three-part UNAJUA Series focused on the Blockchain Africa investment opportunity, featuring the passionate South African venture capitalist Hope Ditlhakanyane and seasoned Zimbabwean venture builder Nzwisisa Chidembo.
In their respective roles at hybrid investor, venture builder and accelerator company, Founders Factory Africa, Hope and Nzwi have recently collaborated to facilitate VC investment in two promising African blockchain tech startups. Nzwi was an early
UNAJUA S11 EP1: Is African VC into blockchain tech? ft. Hope Ditlhakanyane & Nzwisisa Chidembo
This is the first episode of a three-part UNAJUA Series dealing with investing in African blockchain tech. And we're stoked because it's the first to feature two voices.
The first voice you'll hear is that of Hope Ditlhakanyane. Hope is a venture capital pro helping African tech founders land the resources and support they need to build and scale their startups. Hope is particularly committed to backing woman founders, and to that end, she's an active woman-focussed angel investor. She currentl
BONUS: Can PAXFUL deliver on being Africa's 'Uber for money'? feat. Ray Youssef
This throwback bonus episode features a chat with Ray Youssef taped in 2019. Ray is Co-founder and CEO of Paxful, a US-headquartered peer-to-peer Bitcoin marketplace he dubbed at the time the "Uber for money" with a mission to “make the poor rich”. (A rambunctious ambition, to be sure.)
That year, Ray was one of the speakers at the Blockchain Africa Conference, and we thought it might be handy to reshare this podcast as a reflection cue for deliberations at this year’s virtual instalment of the
ATRUC S2 EP2: Convening 'Blockchain Africa' proponents with Sonya Kuhnel
This African Tech Conversations episode features Sonya Kuhnel. In 2014, Sonya co-founded Bitcoin Events, a company that hosts some of South Africa's leading cryptocurrency and blockchain events - not least, the annual Blockchain Africa Conference. Sonya is also the Co-founder at Xago, a startup offering an XRP cryptocurrency exchange, gateway and payment platform built on the Ripple blockchain.
In this conversation, Musa Kalenga invites Sonya to leverage her enviable ecosystem vantage point an
UNAJUA S10 EP3: Should you set up a DAO? feat. Justin Irabor
Thinking about starting or joining a DAO? In the last of a three-part share focusing on how DAOs work, Nigerian creator, scientist and knowledge worker Justin Irabor offers a handy take about whether or not you should.
OP-ED: How African Digital Currency Innovation Found Roots in a Village by Michael Kimani for Kenyan Wallstreet (kenyanwallstreet.com/sarafu-communi…al-currencies/)
EDITORIAL DISCLAIMER: While the Celo Community Fund supports this UNAJUA Series, African Tech Roundup maintains co
BONUS: Binance is bullish on the 'Blockchain Africa' opportunity feat. Emmanuel Babalola
Self-taught software developer and serial digital product creator Emmanuel Babalola is Director for Africa at the world's largest crypto exchange, Binance. Emmanuel is also the interim CEO of a social payments app for cash and crypto called Bundle. In this conversation with Musa Kalenga, Emmanuel shares a little bit about his personal Web3 journey to date and outlines Binance's 'Blockchain Africa' aspirations.
Editorial Disclaimer: Bitcoin Events is the presenting sponsor of this podcast conve
UNAJUA S10 EP2: How do you set up a DAO? feat. Justin Irabor
This is the second of a three-part share explaining how DAOs work. In this episode, Nigerian creator, scientist and knowledge worker Justin Irabor offers pointers on setting up a DAO.
OP-ED: How African Digital Currency Innovation Found Roots in a Village by Michael Kimani for Kenyan Wallstreet (kenyanwallstreet.com/sarafu-communi…al-currencies/)
EDITORIAL DISCLAIMER: While the Celo Community Fund supports this UNAJUA Series, African Tech Roundup maintains complete editorial oversight. Opinion
UNAJUA S10 EP1: Why DAO? feat. Justin Irabor
This is the first episode of a three-part UNAJUA series that explains how Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs) work.
Nigerian creator, scientist, and knowledge worker Justin Irabor presents the series. On this podcast, Justin tackles the question, Why DAO? by offering reasons why anyone intent on building valuable things on the Web would do well to lean into the decentralised autonomous organisation trend.
Now, the last five years have seen Justin go from being a content writer to
ATRUC S2 EP1: You Had Me At Blockchain with Michael Kimani
In this instalment of African Tech Conversations, Michael Kimani talks Musa Kalenga through his somewhat unlikely personal blockchain journey—a story that begins with a laptop, $600 and repurposed writing skills and leads to the birth of the Blockchain Association of Kenya.
Michael is a Kenyan blockchain enthusiast, data wrangler and entrepreneur based in Nairobi. Michael has advised numerous Africa-focused blockchain projects and is currently co-founder at airtime digital money marketplace, Fo
African Creative Business, Today S1 EP2: Ayanfe Olarinde - Visual Artist
This is the second episode of the African Creative Business, Today (ACBT) capsule mini-series, which explores in-trench personal and professional realities at the intersection of creativity, business, and technological change.
In this podcast, Nigerian visual artist Ayanfe Olarinde talks about how her art journey emanated from personal scribbles grappling with imperfection and a quest for acceptance. In her art, Ayanfe exploits several mediums, including ink, paint, wire, and discarded objects.
UNAJUA S9 EP3: Noteworthy African Web3 Plays feat. Michael Kimani
This is the third and final instalment of our three-part Web3-themed UNAJUA series featuring Kenyan blockchain enthusiast, data wrangler and entrepreneur Michael Kimani.
On this podcast, Michael will draw on his live industry experience to offer examples of Web3 plays in Africa worth keeping an eye on, and he'll hint at trends in the space that he's backing with his own time, effort and money.
Michael is a Kenyan blockchain enthusiast, data wrangler and entrepreneur based in Nairobi. Michael h
UNAJUA S9 EP2: What Is A DAO? feat. Michael Kimani
On this UNAJUA podcast, Michael Kimani briefly introduces Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (commonly known as DAOs). He also shares a bit of the emerging trend of building internet businesses designed to share the commercial upside with users, explaining how internet entrepreneurs interested in building Web3 solutions would do well to lean into this dynamic.
Michael is a Kenyan blockchain enthusiast, data wrangler and entrepreneur based in Nairobi. Michael has advised numerous Africa-focu
African Creative Business Today EP4 - Ntambwe Harlem Mufoncol - Baziks
African Creative Business Today EP4 - Ntambwe Harlem Mufoncol - Baziks by African Tech Roundup
UNAJUA S9 EP1: What Is Web3? feat. Michael Kimani
In this opening episode of an UNAJUA Series focused on demystifying the ‘Web3’ trend and unpacking how it is unfolding within an African context, Michael Kimani offers ‘minimum viable responses’ to pertinent crowdsourced questions.
Michael is a Kenyan blockchain enthusiast, data wrangler and entrepreneur based in Nairobi. Michael has advised numerous Africa-focussed blockchain projects and is currently co-founder at airtime digital money marketplace, Fonbnk, where he spearheads growth for Afric
UNAJUA S8 EP3- Can Streaming Help David Take On Superstar- Feat. Yaw Asamani
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In the third and final episode of this music industry-themed UNAJUA series featuring Yaw Asamani, Yaw takes sets out the pros and pitfalls of music streaming and outlines the potential for smaller artists to enter the orbit of some of the world's biggest musical acts. Yaw reckons that the music industry is the cornerstone of the current global 'creator economy' boom—a trend he expects to expand even further.
Yaw Asamani is a music tech entrepreneur. Y
UNAJUA S8E2-Are Homegrown Music Platforms Key To Profitability For African Artists-ft. Yaw Asamani
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The second instalment of this music tech-themed UNAJUA series featuring Yaw Asamani addresses how global streaming platforms aren't necessarily geared towards enabling African artists to cultivate sustainable livelihoods. Yaw also explains how artists might make leverage audience analytics to build and expand their reach.
Yaw Asamani is a music tech entrepreneur. Yaw previously founded DooWapp, an app for adding playable song lyrics to messages and po
UNAJUA S8 EP1: Artists Using Tech To Stand Out In A Crowded Global Field ft. Yaw Asamani
In this music tech-themed UNAJUA series, Yaw Asamani taps his live industry experience to explore how African artists are using a plethora of social and technological platforms to find their voices, build audiences and monetise their art. Listen in to learn how the streaming era has ushered in lucrative opportunities for African artists to develop and dominate niche audiences and serve loyal international fan bases.
Yaw Asamani is a music tech entrepreneur. He previously founded DooWapp, an app
BONUS: Scaling What Works And Ditching What Doesnt With MiWay Blink feat. Christiaan Steyn
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Christiaan Steyn is the head of a new South African insuretech startup called MiWay Blink. In the second episode of this two-part conversation, Christiaan lets us in on developing an insuretech startup during a pandemic and building on the success of its incumbent parent company.
MiWay Blink was launched in Johannesburg, South Africa, during the thick of the COVID pandemic. In this instalment, Christiaan taps into the launch of MiWay Blink and how th
UNAJUA S3EP4-Does Society Need Centralised Financial Institutions To Mediate Value-Ft.Ronit Ghose
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In the fourth and final instalment of this blockchain-themed UNAJUA series with Citi Group's Ronit Ghose, Ronit explores the philosophical basis for backing the centralisation or decentralisation of global finance. He also tackles the notion of tokenisation and how societal consensus regarding the value of money shapes commerce and culture.
Ronit Ghose is the Global Head of Banking, Fintech, and Digital Assets for Citi Global Insights (Citi Group). Ro
BONUS- The Emotions And Economics Of Live Music Curation In A Post-COVID Scene Ft. Christine Msibi
Enjoy the first episode of the four-part mini-series African Creative Business, Today (ACBT) capsule mini-series in a slight change of pace. The ACBT series explores in-trench personal and professional realities at the intersection of creativity, business and technological change.
In this podcast, self-titled "professional music enthusiast" and live music curator Christine Msibi talks about navigating the post-COVID realities within South Africa's vibrant creative industry. Christine is an arts
BONUS: Why would anyone launch a car insurance startup in a pandemic? ft. Christiaan Steyn
Christiaan Steyn is the head of a new South African insuretech startup called MiWay Blink. In the first episode of this two-part conversation, Christiaan reflects on how the COVID pandemic has delivered growth challenges and opportunities for insurance startups and incumbents alike.
MiWay Blink was launched in Johannesburg, South Africa, during the thick of the COVID pandemic. In this instalment, Christiaan offers context-setting insights about the progress of Africa's insurance industry from h
UNAJUA S7 EP3: How are mobile telcos disrupting incumbent financial institutions? ft. Ronit Ghose
In this blockchain-themed UNAJUA series instalment, Citi Group's Ronit Ghose talks about how mobile telcos are eagerly peddling digital banking services— disrupting traditional financial corporations in the process. Ronit also explains how blockchain tech is poised to upend mobile payment norms, ushering in a decentralised contract dispensation.
Ronit Ghose is the Global Head of Banking, Fintech, and Digital Assets for Citi Global Insights (Citi Group). Ronit is also the lead author of the Cit
UNAJUA S7 EP2: Digital Money 2.0 - Whose Liability Is It Anyway- Feat. Ronit Ghose
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In the second episode of this digital money-themed UNAJUA series, Ronit Ghose breaks down the fundamentals of Digital Money 2.0. Listen in to hear Ronit frame terms like cryptocurrency, commercial bank money and electronic money. He also explains why the question of Whose liability is it anyway? is critical to understanding how the global financial status quo is being challenged.
Ronit Ghose is the Global Head of Banking, Fintech and Digital Assets
UNAJUA S7 EP1: Will blockchain-enabled fintech disrupt the global financial system ft. Ronit Ghose
This opening episode of a crypto-themed UNAJUA Series featuring Ronit Ghose takes a close look at how blockchain tech is (re)shaping the global financial services industry.
In this podcast, Ronit answers the question, "Will blockchain-enabled fintech solutions completely disrupt incumbent financial institutions." He'll speak to some of the most significant geopolitical policy shifts shaping how incumbent financial institutions are thinking about blockchain tech adoption/deployment and cite som
UNAJUA S6 EP3: African Insuretechs- To Collaborate Or Disrupt- That Is The Question Ft. Henry Mascot
The final instalment of this UNAJUA series featuring Henry Mascot addresses how insurtech startups are either looking to collaborate with insurance incumbents or choosing to disrupt them. Henry cites noteworthy attributes of innovative startups that have made headlines of late. He also talks about how various 'non-financial' sectors are vying to get in on the tech-enabled insurance distribution game.
Henry Mascot is the founder and CEO of Curacel, a Pan-African insurance technology platform that
UNAJUA S6 EP2: How might insuring Africa drive broad socioeconomic impact? ft. Henry Mascot
In this UNAJUA episode, Henry Mascot highlights the untapped gains of Africa's insurance market. Henry suggests how technology might fuel social and economic development and offer insight into how the insurance industry is already proving to be a driver of economic growth. Finally, he touches on three innovative ways that technologies like data analytics and artificial intelligence are currently being used to cover Africa's insurable risks.
Henry Mascot is the founder and CEO of Curacel, a Pan-
UNAJUA S6 EP1: Is Africa's insurance industry poised for a steep growth trajectory ft. Henry Mascot
This UNAJUA series opener featuring Nigerian insuretech founder Henry Mascot shares in-trench perspectives about Africa' growing insurance industry. Henry offers insights about the dynamics of insurance adoption, elucidating how economic development plays a vital role in its adoption. Listen in to hear why Henry believes Africa's insurance industry is poised for rapid growth.
Henry Mascot is the founder and CEO of Curacel, a Pan-African insurance technology platform that uses artificial intelli
UNAJUA S5 E2: Can technology disrupt Nigeria's open drug markets? ft. Vivian Nwakah
In this UNAJUA episode, Vivian Nwakah offers insight into the dynamics of Nigeria's open drug markets. Vivian highlights the counterintuitive ways that drug regulation affects the supply-side logistics of local and international drug producers. She believes that the intelligent use of technological solutions in the supply process will allow for medications to be sourced and distributed more safely and reliably.
Vivian Nwakah is the co-founder & CEO of Medsaf, an enterprise pharma supply chain s
UNAJUA S5 E1: What is the state-of-play In Nigeria's healthcare sector? ft. Vivian Nwakah
In this UNAJUA series opener, Vivian Nwakah breaks down Nigeria's healthcare scene—highlighting the size of the sector as well as the disparity of healthcare access between the rich and less well off.
Vivian Nwakah is the co-founder & CEO of Medsaf, an enterprise pharma supply chain company based in Lagos, Nigeria. Vivian is a serial entrepreneur and strategist and whose accolades include recognition by Forbes, the British Royal Family, and the Women in Africa Initiative.
In this episode, Viv
UNAJUA Throwback S1 EP2: Can gaming startups compete with Facebook & Tencent? ft. Lucy Hoffman
Part 2 of this UNAJUA Throwback series takes us back to when Lucy Hoffman, co-founder and head of operations at the Cape Town-based mobile content development startup Carry1st, joined Andile Masuku and Osarumen Osamuyi for an extended insight-rich chat—published on March 10th 2020. (Since then, Carry1st has gone on to close a $6 million Series A led by Colorado-based VC firm, Konvoy Ventures.)
In this episode, Lucy Hoffman outlines Carry1st's user adoption strategy and suggests how startups lik
UNAJUA Throwback S1 EP1: Does African mobile gaming have super-platform potential? ft. Lucy Hoffman
This UNAJUA Throwback episode takes us back to when Lucy Hoffman, co-founder and head of operations at the Cape Town-based, American mobile content development startup Carry1st joined Andile Masuku and Osarumen Osamuyi for an extended insight-rich chat (published on March 10th 2020). Since recording this conversation, Carry1st has closed a $6 million Series A led by Colorado-based VC firm Konvoy Ventures.
Listen in to learn why, as glitzy ecosystem trends like fintech and mobility continue to d
UNAJUA S4 EP3: Can Africa's agri-supply chain be fixed? ft. Karidas Tshintsholo
This UNAJUA podcast is the third and final episode of a three-part series featuring agri-tech founder, Karidas Tshintsholo. In this episode, Karidas addresses how access to market might be improved for African farmers, and how the playing field might be levelled for new entrants.
Prior to founding KHULA!, Karidas co-founded a South African media company called the Money Tree Group and is currently an Advisory Board Member of the prestigious Anzisha Prize.
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UNAJUA S4 EP2: Does access to certified inputs impact farmer success? feat. Karidas Tshintsholo
In this episode, South African agritech startup founder Karidas Tshintsholo addresses questions like What effect does access to certified inputs have on overall farmer success? and How can easier access to technical advisory & services improve yields?
Prior to founding KHULA!, Karidas co-founded a South African media company called the Money Tree Group and is currently an Advisory Board Member of the Anzisha Prize for young African entrepreneurs.
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UNAJUA S4 EP1: What lies are often told about Africa's agriculture sector? ft. Karidas Tshitshonlo
This UNAJUA series features a South African agritech founder called Karidas Tshitshonlo. Karidas has a lot of insight to share from his agribusiness adventure thus far, but before we get to that.
Karidas T. shares his take on how innovation in agriculture is providing new opportunities not only to the farmers but to the consumers as well. Khula App is a South African app that connects farmers to a formal marketplace. By using the app, African farmers can now list and track the delivery of their
UNAJUA S3 EP2: Does Brachiaria trump Napier grass? feat. Mwihaki Mundia
Mwihaki Mundia gives a perspective of how brachiaria grass is exceptionally suited for the Sub-Saharan African livestock farmers especially looking at what climate and soil type does it thrive in. She further weighs in on the dynamic “rivalry” with fodder options such as the popular Napier and Brachiaria grass.
On this instalment, Mwihaki Mundia argues that Brachiaria grass is well-suited for Sub-Saharan African livestock farming and unpacks which climates and soil types are best suited to grow
UNAJUA S3 EP1: Should brachiaria grass be a big(ger) deal across Africa? feat. Mwihaki Mundia
This UNAJUA Series - presented by Kenyan die-hard environment advocate and comms pro, Mwihaki Mundia - offers a minimum actionable response to the question: "Could the adoption of Brachiaria grass be a game-changer for livestock farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa?"
As part of her Communications Specialist role at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) Nairobi, Mwihaki distils expert research into technologies that improve smallholder farmers' livelihoods in Sub-Saharan Africa. Her adv
BONUS: Unpacking The $ATRU Social Token With Andrew Berkowitz Part 2 - How To Earn $ATRU Token
In this bonus, episode (the second of a two-part conversation), Socialstack Co-founder and CEO Andrew Berkowitz joins African Tech Roundup Co-founder and Executive Producer Andile Masuku to discuss some of the technicalities of the $ATRU launch.
They discuss the merits of launching the token on the Celo blockchain and share details about how you can ready yourself to earn the token in the coming weeks.
PART 1: Unpacking the $ATRU Token with Andrew Berkowitz Part 1: Re-imagining Media Ownership
UNAJUA S2 EP2: Can an African research insights startup be commercially viable? feat. Peter Kisadha
This podcast is the second in the two-part UNAJUA series unpacking the question, "What does it take for a Ugandan research insights startup to become a commercial success?" presented by founder and researcher Peter Kisadha.
In this episode, Peter speaks on whether it's possible for an African research insights company to be commercially viable and puts forward why he believes the business opportunity tied to servicing Africa's research gap is hugely underrated.
HAVE YOUR SAY: Click on the UNAJ
BONUS: Unpacking the $ATRU Social Token with Andrew Berkowitz Part 1 - Re-imagining Media Ownership
In this special bonus episode (the first of a two-part conversation), Socialstack Co-founder and CEO Andrew Berkowitz joins African Tech Roundup Co-founder and Executive Producer Andile Masuku to unpack the rationale behind the launch of the $ATRU token—which the two organisations have partnered to launch on the Celo blockchain.
PRESS RELEASE: www.africantechroundup.com/atru-token/
CREATE A CELO ACCOUNT: https://celowallet.app
RESOURCES ON SOCIAL TOKENS AND THE CELO BLOCKCHAIN:
Exploring the
UNAJUA S2 EP1: Why would anyone launch a research insights business in Uganda? feat. Peter Kisadha
This UNAJUA podcast the first of a two-part series highlighting ecosystem insight gaps that African research startups might help to address.
Presenting the series is Ugandan founder and researcher Peter Kisadha. Peter has just recently joined early-stage investment outfit Future Africa as an associate researcher. He previously worked for the mobility tech company, Eywa, and, before that, he interned at Jumia Group's classifieds arm in Uganda. He is also the co-founder of the tech innovation da
UNAJUA S1 EP3: What is driving the capital boom in Africa's tech ecosystem? feat. Derin Adebayo
In this final instalment of our UNAJUA learning series themed: "Is the African technology ecosystem at an inflection point?" Nigerian analyst and researcher Derin Adebayo unpacks what is driving the increase in capital flowing into Africa's tech ecosystem. Derin also suggests what the various types of money making its way into the market might signal and analyses the role local and international investors play in the space.
Have your say by clicking on the UNAJUA tab at AfricanTechRoundup.com (
UNAJUA S1 EP2: What have founders learned from Africa's early internet startups? feat. Derin Adebayo
This UNAJUA installment features Nigerian analyst and researcher, Derin Adebayo's second "minimum actionable response" to the question:
"Is the African technology ecosystem at an inflection point?"
In this podcast (the second in a three-part series), Derin shares what he reckons the founders of Africa’s first generation of internet startups have learned and suggests what lessons might be gleaned from other emerging markets.
Have your say by clicking on the UNAJUA tab at AfricanTechRoundup.com
UNAJUA S1 EP1: How significant is the opportunity for tech companies in Africa? feat. Derin Adebayo
Welcome to the first episode of African Tech Roundup's new learning podcast series called Unajua. The word 'unajua' is a word in KiSwahili that means "do you know?"
Here's how the Unajua Series will work... First, we'll crowdsource pertinent questions from you, The Village, and break them down into 3 to 6 bite-sized sub-questions. Then, we'll invite a revolving door of Villagers who know a little more than a thing or two about how things work in our ecosystem to offer what we're calling 'minimu
Constructive Development Finance Frameworks With Jean Bosco Iyacu
In this conversation with Andile Masuku, Jean Bosco Iyacu thoughtfully interrogates the sustainable impact of progressive development finance versus the sketchy outcomes of foreign aid.
Jean Bosco is a former banker and fellow of the Harvard Kennedy School. He is the director of programmes at Access to Finance Rwanda, an organisation which promotes financial inclusion for low-income clients. Listen to hear why he's not a fan of foreign aid and explain why a robust development funding market is
Contemplating COVID-19's Impact on Africa's Economic Outlook with Landry Signé & Iginio Gagliardone
Professor and Founding Co-Director of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Globalization 4.0 at Thunderbird School of Global Management Landry Signé joins Andile Masuku and guest co-host Iginio Gagliardone for a heartfelt discussion about how the COVID-19 crisis might alter Africa's economic growth trajectory.
Landry is a Senior Fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution and his passionate perspectives about the merits of democracy feature heavily in this
Ozow's Mitchan Adams On COVID-19: Well-positioned South African payments players are coining it
Ozow Co-founder & Head of R&D, Mitchan Adams, joins Andile Masuku and guest co-host & Lettuce Co-founder Simon Dingle for this beefy flagship episode to discuss the current state-of-play in South Africa's digital payments processing scene.
Mitch reveals why Ozow is actively recruiting and onboarding new hires right now and explains why the startup is seeing a sharp spike in revenue even as the global COVID-19 crisis continues to unfold.
Listen in for actionable insight about South Africa's co
Is The Super-Platform Hype Surrounding Africa's Mobile Gaming Industry Real? feat. Lucy Hoffman
In this instalment of the African Tech Roundup podcast, Andile Masuku and Osarumen Osamuyi are joined by Lucy Hoffman, co-founder and head of operations at the Cape Town-based, American mobile content development startup Carry1st.
Listen in to learn why, as glitzy ecosystem trends like fintech and mobility continue to dominate headlines, Lucy and the rest of her team at Carry1st are quietly bullish on the mobile gaming industry’s low-key commercial case and “super-app/super-platform” potential
Vietnamese-style Africa-focused Fintech Innovation With Quan Le of Binkabi
Andile Masuku catches up with Binkabi CEO, Quan Le to learn how his company is working to lower the world's reliance on the US dollar for imports and exports. Listen in to hear how Quan and his team are cutting out middlemen by turning agricultural commodities into tradable assets and automatically matching inbound and outbound trades which enable farmers to directly participate in global trade networks and retain more profits from their harvest.
Binkabi is a London-headquartered cross-border p
Accion's Michael Schlein on Financial Inclusion, Fintech & Impact Investment Sceptics
Michael Schlein is a huge fintech fan, and as the President and CEO of Accion, one of the world's largest nonprofit impact finance organisations, he's backing startups which seek to advance financial inclusion by giving people financial tools to improve their lives.
In this candid conversation with Andile Masuku, Michael shares useful context about Accion's origins and makes a case for increased cooperation between legacy financial institutions, governments and impact investment non-profit org
Shift The Power: Challenging Development Cooperation Power Dynamics Between The Global North & South
This brief firelighter conversation was taped live on-stage at SPARK’s 7th Annual IGNITE Conference in Amsterdam (https://spark.ngo/ignite-conference-2019/). It was a discussion provocatively themed “Shift The Power” – for which Andile Masuku (moderator) was joined by the Dutch Ambassador for Youth, Education and Work in the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tijmen Rooseboom, Evelijne Bruning, who is the Netherlands Country Director of The Hunger Project and the Executive Director of INJAZ Leba
Unpacking Arab Identity & Socio-economic Dynamics with Arab Economies Researcher Salam Said
In this podcast, Andile Masuku chats with Dr Salam Said, a seasoned Middle Eastern economics researcher who specialises in Arab economies, Arab trade policies and the political economy of Syria.
Andile taps Dr Said's extensive professional and lived experience as he attempts to wrap his mind around some of the ways Arab identity and geopolitical dynamics (past and present) inform the socio-economic policies of nations that tend to dominate the global news cycle for all kinds of complex reasons
South Sudan: Micro-finance Diaries with Yengi Lokule of Rural Finance Initiative (RUFI)
African Tech Roundup and SPARK (https://spark.ngo) have partnered to produce a seven-part podcast miniseries interrogating the progress being made in advancing entrepreneurship and job creation in some of the world’s most fragile regions.
The series uncovers pragmatic first-hand insights about the challenges of deploying market-relevant approaches to entrepreneurship, economic policy design and implementation, education interventions and the provision of business support.
The first episode of
African Fintech Signal Check 2019: What Can Africa Learn From India? (Part 2) feat. Arunjay Katakam
So, unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll have noticed that a 'brick' several hundred million dollars heavy has descended on the continent in an unprecedented period of time, most of it venture capital earmarked for fintech startups in Nigeria.
On this episode, Indian tech founder Arunjay Katakam joins Andile Masuku and Osarumen Osamuyi to extend our conversation about the implications of all the hype surrounding Africa's fintech scene and what the broader implications might be for the
African Fintech Signal Check 2019: Nigeria's Killing It! (Part 1) feat. Wiza Jalakasi
The last couple of months or so have been rather eventful for Africa's fintech scene— particularly in Nigeria where Interswitch notably attained unicorn status in November following Visa acquiring 20% of the company for a reported $200 million.
Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey's much-publicised visit to Africa last month also did much to put a global spotlight on the continent’s fintech arena, and the subsequent capital raises by OPay (backed by Opera) and PalmPay (backed by Transsion) drew
Is The Africa-China/China-Africa Tech & Innovation Dynamic Win-win? feat. Iginio Gagliardone
In this episode of the African Tech Roundup podcast, Andile Masuku and The Subtext’s Osarumen Osamuyi are joined by Iginio Gagliardone for a candid introductory chat about the budding Africa-China/China-Africa tech collaboration dynamic.
Iginio is an Associate Professor in Media Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand and an Associate Research Fellow in New Media and Human Rights in the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy (PCMLP) at the University of Oxford. He is also the auth
Dr Shingi Munyeza & Allon Raiz on Entrepreneurial Strategy and Zimbabwe's Commercial Potential
After hosting of a live panel session at #Leaderex2019 in Sandton, Johannesburg themed, "Accelerating Zimbabwean Entrepreneurial Ventures", Andile Masuku, sat down with Zimbabwean businessman and presidential advisor Dr Shingi Munyeza and South African entrepreneur Allon Raiz for a relaxed podcast taping.
Before making his mark as an entrepreneur, Dr Munyeza built a storied corporate career that saw him grow from being a clerk at Ernst & Young to a heavy-hitting advertising industry executive,
Africa's Motorcycle Taxi Hype + Africa's AI Revolution? feat. Babusi Nyoni & Osarumen Osamuyi
In this episode of the African Tech Roundup podcast, Andile Masuku is joined by the Zimbabwean AI Practitioner, Booking.com UX Designer and UNHCR Innovation Consultant, Babusi Nyoni, and the Nigerian Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Africa's Talking and Founder and Author of The Subtext, Osarumen Osamuyi.
This jam-packed show features the following topics:
1) What does the world post-Facebook’s Libra announcement look like? This is a follow-up discussion to deliberations made in Episode 130 - o
Will Facebook's Digital Currency Libra Be Good For Africa? feat. Michael Kimani & Simon Dingle
In this in-studio taping of the African Tech Roundup podcast, Andile Masuku is joined by the Kenyan digital money analyst Michael Kimani and the South African crypto entrepreneur Simon Dingle to discuss how Libra and the proposed Calibra network stacks up against existing cryptocurrency concepts like Bitcoin, and to establish whether or not Facebook's digital currency might be good for Africa.
It's safe to say that the world hasn't been quite the same since Facebook and its high-powered corpora
Ray Youssef believes Paxful is the "Uber for money" crypto platform Africa's been waiting for
Ray Youssef is Co-founder and CEO of Paxful, a US-headquartered peer-to-peer Bitcoin marketplace he dubs the "Uber for money". The platform allows people to swap gift cards, currency and alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins), all without the need for banks or intermediaries.
In this chat with Andile Masuku - which, incidentally, was taped before Facebook's recent Libra announcement - Ray reveals why Africa is delivering some of his company's most significant business wins and unpacks the thi
South Africa's New Banking Wave + Huawei Or The Highway? + Kenyan Repat Diaries feat. Mark Karake
Joining Andile Masuku and guest co-host, Vije Vijendranath, for this episode of the African Tech Roundup podcast is Kenyan repat, founder of Impact Africa Network and host of the Chini ya Maji podcast, Mark Karake.
Following professional stints in Silicon Valley, working for the likes of Google, TrustArc and Oracle, Mark decided to return to his native Kenya in March 2018 to get involved in early-stage startup acceleration and investment activities in Nairobi.
In this show, Andile, Vije and Ma
Jumia's NYSE Listing + Are Blockchains Safe? + Security Token Offerings, Yay or Nah?
Good friend of the show, entrepreneur, investor and incurable blockchain technology fanatic, Simon Dingle, joins Andile Masuku and Musa Kalenga to chat through three big questions:
1) What are we to make of Jumia’s much-publicised New York Stock Exchange listing?
2) Is blockchain technology as full-safe as we are often led to believe?
3) How excited should we be about PopCom founder, Dawn Dickson, becoming the first black woman to raise over $1 million for her company via a security token offer
Investment Diaries With Dr Nigel Chanakira Part 2 - Patient Capital & Savvy Commercialisation
This is the second and final part of an insight-filled conversation Andile Masuku had with one of Zimbabwe’s most well-known and well-respected business people, the economist turned banker, entrepreneur and investor, Dr Nigel Chanakira. In this instalment, Dr Chanakira shares entrepreneurial wisdom around commercialising market-relevant tech and innovation and explains why he remains pragmatically bullish about Zimbabwe’s investment prospects.
Dr Chanakira is probably most famous for founding
Investment Diaries With Dr Nigel Chanakira Part 1 - Worst investment decision in Zimbabwean history?
This podcast is the first instalment of a two-part conversation Andile Masuku had with one of Zimbabwe’s most well-known and widely-respected business people, the economist turned banker, entrepreneur and investor, Dr Nigel Chanakira.
Dr Chanakira is probably most famous for founding Kingdom Financial Holdings Limited in 1997, and for orchestrating that company’s much-publicized merger and demerger with the Meikles Africa group before eventually selling out to the Mauritius-based AfrAsia Holdi
London Village Diaries With Dayo Akinrinade of Africlick Part 2 - Pan-African dating solutions
This is the second instalment of a 2-part conversation with Africlick founder Dayo Akinrinade, which was taped at the fringes of the London stop of Afrobytes' 2018/19 International Event Series.
Africlick is a new dating and networking app that aims to connect people of African and Caribbean heritage through their culture, and in this episode, Dayo sketches the magnitude of the business opportunity she is looking to convert and unpacks her company’s growth focus.
Dayo holds a Bachelors degree
London Village Diaries With Dayo Akinrinade of Africlick Part 1 - Working in tech while black
Dayo Akinrinade is the Founder of Africlick, "a new dating/networking app for professionals and creatives of African and Caribbean heritage".
Dayo holds a Bachelors degree in Computer Science from the University of Manchester and a Masters in Technology Entrepreneurship from University College London and has spent over ten years working in IT Management Consulting— delivering analytics and financial transformation programmes at Accenture and Deloitte. While embedded at those firms, she designed
Conservation Meets Conscious Capitalism With The Desert Date Company's Lauren Servin
This bonus podcast miniseries episode features Lauren Servin, the American Founder and "Chief Tree Officer" of the Desert Date Company. The Desert Date Company is a natural ingredient supplier and skincare brand based on the banks of the Nile River in Northern Uganda.
Lauren was previously SPARK’s South Sudan Country Manager – a role she inhabited for four years. In that role, she implemented an agribusiness entrepreneurship development programme focused on value chain development.
In this con
Kahawa 1893's Margaret Nyamumbo on disrupting fair trade in the global coffee industry
Kenyan Margaret "Maggie" Nyamumbo is the Founder and CEO of Kahawa 1893, a San Francisco-based coffee company intent on revolutionising the global coffee supply chain and closing the industry's abhorrent gender gap.
Prior to launching her bid to "disrupt fair trade" in the international coffee sector, Margaret worked on Wall Street evaluating retail and consumer companies, and, before that, she was a Private Sector Development Consultant specialising in emerging economies at the World Bank. Mar
Heidi Lovett of Swerve Robotics on plans to ignite enthusiasm for STEM in Botswana's youth
Former live theatre production specialist Heidi Lovett is the Executive Director of Swerve Robotics, a Washington-based organisation which uses applied-STEM education programmes to empower young people to pursue advanced STEM studies and career opportunities.
Heidi initially started Swerve Robotics club (originally the Gothic Lawn Gnomes FIRST LEGO League team) as a means to channel her son's creative engineering inclinations at a young age. She enjoyed coaching his team so much that when he le
Simanga Madhlabuta of Zimbabwe Investment Tours & Wisdom Gakaka of Cyrex on thriving in Zimbabwe
Mere days before 2018 came to a close, Andile Masuku sat down two bright, young Zimbabwean entrepreneurs to learn what it takes to engineer business success in Harare.
Simanga Mdhlabuta is commercial sales and business development professional and Wits MBA who gained invaluable corporate experience working for leading Zimbabwean entrepreneurial giants such as Innscor, Econet and Africom. Simanga has also made meaningful entrepreneurial plays of his own in the investments and property industries
Wajenzi's Alain Nkurukiye on Galvanising Diasporans to Back Economic Growth in Africa
Alain Nkurukiye is a Corporate Strategy and Economic Policy MBA who hails from Burundi, but has lived and worked in the Netherlands for the better part of 10 years. Through his startup, Wajenzi, he aims to channel all his professional competencies into narrowing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) financing gap by stimulating the African Diaspora to invest systematically in their countries of origin.
Listen in to hear to hear Alain explains why he's all fired up about Wajenzi's mission and
The Joy of Missing Out - Should African Founders Reject Hypergrowth VC Doctrine?
Co-founder and Co-MD of Secha Capital Rushil Vallabh joins Andile Masuku and Musa Kalenga for the very first in-studio taping of 2019. Andile, Musa and Rushil chat through some notable signals and trends they've observed in Africa’s digital, tech and innovation ecosystem over the last month or so, then unpack issues raised by a New York Times (NYT) article entitled, More Start-Ups Have an Unfamiliar Message for Venture Capitalists: Get Lost - penned by Erin Griffith - which caused quite a stir o
Talking Successful Social Enterprise with Jordanian Raneem Muqbel of TEENAH
Jordanian Raneem Muqbel is the co-founder of a social manufacturing enterprise called TEENAH that works with Syrian refugees and their host communities in Jordan to produce high-quality custom printed bags for clients across the MENA region and in Europe. Raneem also happens to be a specialist in economic empowerment projects with the Jordan River Foundation, a World Economic Forum Global Shaper and a Swedish Institute Fellow.
This conversation offers a brief glimpse into how entrepreneurship
Development Finance Diaries with Musa Sillah and Mohamed Alhadi of the Islamic Development Bank
This podcast features two separate conversations Andile Masuku had with senior executives working for the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB). Both exchanges yielded intriguing insight into the values, investment outlook and business MO of the world’s preeminent provider of sharia-compliant development finance.
The first part of this episode features a brief chat with Musa Sillah, the Director of the Africa and Latin America Department at the IsDB. Sillah explains what distinguishes the IsDB from
WeThinkCode's Dylan Richts on developing South African coding talent and pursuing regional growth
South African Dylan Richts is Head of Partnerships at WeThinkCode, a Cape Town-headquartered non-profit organisation which works with public and private partners to "source and train world-class African digital talent" and provide students with a path to employment within the continent's tech and innovation ecosystem.
Dylan formerly worked for the Mayor of London's promotional agency, assisting global tech companies looking to expand their operations to the UK, as well as London-based tech bus
Shaqodoon's Mustafa Othman on the State of Somalia & Somaliland's Entrepreneurship Support Ecosystem
In this podcast, Andile Masuku chats with Mustafa Othman. Mustafa is the Somali Co-founder and Communications and Technology Manager of an organisation called Shaqodoon which operates in Somalia and Somaliland. Shaqodoon, which translated to English means “job seeker”, was born out of a USAID funded youth empowerment project called the Somali Youth Livelihoods Program, which was supported by the Education Development Center (EDC).
Shaqodoon serves up programmes designed to help unemployed and o
Gutsy Entrepreneurial Moves With Morris Dougba of Green Gold Liberia and Ayham Maksoud of Al-Maksoud
This candid conversation - led by Andile Masuku - features two remarkable entrepreneurs. The first is Morris Dougba, a second-generation Liberian cocoa farmer and University of Liberia accounting graduate who fled his homeland to live in the US to escape civil war.
Morris has since returned to his country to found a company called Green Gold Liberia, which produces charcoal briquettes using organic waste. Green Gold is determined to end Liberia’s ecologically damaging reliance on charcoal produ
Dotun Olowoporoku of Starta on identifying billion-dollar startup potential in Africa
Academic turned startup founder and investor, Dotun Olowoporoku, is the Managing Partner at Starta, a platform that "makes it easier to build, discover and track high growth businesses in Africa through startup education, data and growth consulting". Dotun is also a General Partner at the Nigerian VC outfit, Ventures Platform and the host of the Building the Future with Dotun podcast (http://thestarta.com/podcast) which features Africa-focused tech and innovation ecosystem actors who are doing t
University of Oxford's Alexander Betts & SPARK's Yannick Du Pont on Innovative Foreign Aid Strategy
In this relaxed three-way conversation, Alexander Betts, Professor of Forced Migration and International Affairs and William Golding Senior Fellow in Politics at the University of Oxford's Brasenose College, and Yannick Du Pont, the Co-founder and Director of the Dutch NGO SPARK, join Andile Masuku to discuss the awkward state-of-play within the global foreign aid industry, reference instructive live case studies and attempt to define what “winning” at helping turbulent regions of the world navi
The African Fintech 2018 Retrospective with Viola Llewellyn of Ovamba Part 2
2018's last in-studio taping of the African Tech Roundup podcast is a two-part affair which guest features the force of nature that is Viola Llewellyn. Viola is the UK-born, Cameroonian Co-founder and President of an award-winning fintech platform called Ovamba. Ovamba relies on proprietary technologies to connect African SMEs to sources of short‐term capital to fund their growth.
Viola has spent over 15 years working in the management consulting, technology and alternative finance sectors at f
The African Fintech 2018 Retrospective with Viola Llewellyn of Ovamba Part 1
2018's last in-studio taping of the African Tech Roundup podcast is a two-part affair which guest features the force of nature that is Viola Llewellyn. Viola is the UK-born, Cameroonian Co-founder and President of an award-winning fintech platform called Ovamba. Ovamba relies on proprietary technologies to connect African SMEs to sources of short‐term capital to fund their growth.
Viola has spent over 15 years working in the management consulting, technology and alternative finance sectors at f
TransUnion Africa's Lee Naik on embracing collaboration and harnessing democratised technologies
Lee Naik is the CEO of TransUnion Africa, a subsidiary of the giant American consumer credit reporting agency, TransUnion, that’s listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Prior to joining TransUnion Africa, Lee spent 18 years at Accenture, where he served as Managing Director of Accenture Digital in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Since signing up to lead TransUnion Africa in January 2017, he’s been tasked with shaping the company’s continental growth strategy— a process that’s so far necessitated the recrui
Ovamba's Viola Llewellyn on encoding African IP and the need for Pan-African digital standards
The third and last episode of African Tech Roundup's (https://africantechroundup.com) miniseries (http://bit.ly/atrudigitalassets) on digital assets features Viola Llewellyn, the UK-born, Cameroonian Co-founder and President of an award-winning fintech platform called Ovamba. Ovamba leverages proprietary technologies to connect African SMEs to sources of short‐term capital to fund their growth.
Viola has spent over 15 years working in the management consulting, technology and alternative finan
MzansiSat's Bernard Greyling can't wait to launch African geostationary broadband satellites
In this conversation with the Chief Technical Officer at MzansiSat, Bernard Greyling, Andile Masuku learns about the South African geostationary broadband satellite startup's mission to partner with African states in deploying and operating space hardware that would significantly improve public access to low-cost internet access.
Listen in to hear Bernard explain the innovative public-private ownership model that MzansiSat trying to sell African nations— one that promises to empower countrie
EOS Nairobi's Felix Macharia and Raise's Marvin Coleby unpack the African Digital Asset Framework
In this podcast - the second episode in African Tech Roundup's (https://africantechroundup.com) three-part miniseries on digital assets (http://bit.ly/atrudigitalassets) - Andile Masuku chats with two gifted distributed ledger proponents who are co-architects of the African Digital Assets Framework - ADAF (http://adaf.io).
ADAF is the first open-source software platform to create transnational standards for digital assets and distributed ledger technologies— in line with pan-African developmen
Talking Transsion, Android vs iPhone and Xiaomi's Pocophone F1 with Nendo's Mark Kaigwa
Following a sunny Johannesburg lunch al fresco, Nendo (https://nendo.co.ke) Founder and CEO Mark Kaigwa and Andile Masuku chat about a few consumer tech issues that are currently trending in their lives.
Listen in to learn why the music streaming service Boomplay is thriving in Africa, how Transsion's African digital domination strategy seems to be coming together nicely, why Xiaomi's Pocophone F1 smartphone is shaking things up in the global high-end mobile device market, and why Mark and Andi
African IP diaries with UCT's Prof Caroline Ncube and Thomson Reuters' Saidah Nash Carter
This podcast is the first instalment of a three-part miniseries (http://bit.ly/atrudigitalassets) produced by African Tech Roundup (https://africantechroundup.com) to spark a broader debate about the nature and value of African digital assets within the context of the world’s emerging digital economy.
Joining Andile Masuku for this conversation are two distinguished Cape Town-based innovators. First, the Zimbabwean-born Professor of Intellectual Property at the University of Cape Town’s Facult
Is Venture Capital a Ponzi Scheme? feat. Grant Phillips of PhilTech Consulting
Joining Andile Masuku and guest co-host Rushil Vallabh of Secha Capital on this African Tech Roundup podcast is Grant Phillips. Grant is the Founder and CEO of PhilTech Consulting and has partnered with both Convergence Partners and Stockdale Street (the Oppenheimer Family’s South African private equity outfit) to "build out technology ecosystems across Africa". He was previously the CEO and Chairman of the Nairobi-based credit reference bureau and debt management outsource organisation CRB Afri
Sureswipe's Paul Kent on competing in South Africa's crowded payments startup scene
Paul Kent is Co-founder and Managing Director of Sureswipe, a South African payments solutions startup dedicated to making card payment acceptance easy and accessible for small and medium-sized retailers and service providers.
Sureswipe started out as a business division of the cloud-based clinical and billing practice management software firm, Healthbridge, before it evolved into the Point-Of-Sale (POS) product driven startup it is today. Since 2008, Paul has helped to grow Sureswipe into one
Lyndsey Duff of What3Words on inducting a new global addressing standard
South African Lyndsey Duff is the South Africa Country Manager at What3Words— a British startup which provides a precise physical location solution that has broken up the world into a grid of 3m x 3m squares and assigned each one a unique 3-word address.
Prior to joining What3Words, Lyndsey oversaw inward investment at the South African High Commission UK, following stints at the Palace of Westminster and the South African Chamber of Commerce.
In this brief chat with Andile Masuku - taped at
Masakhe Foundation's Mpilo Ngcukana & Thulani Fesi on why KwaLanga Cape Town needs a youth tech hub
On this podcast, Andile Masuku chats with two exceptional, Cape Townian entrepreneurs who are both actively involved in a youth-focused tech hub initiative called the Masakhe Techville Creative Technology Center in KwaLanga township, where they both grew up. The project is an initiative of the Masakhe Foundation.
Mpilo Ngcukana co-founded the Simon Deporres men’s clothing brand in 2007 - while studying Finance and Economics at the University of Cape Town, and is currently working to launch an a
Gig economy diaries with SweepSouth's Aisha Pandor and LULA's Velani Mboweni
This podcast features two South African startup founders working the trenches of the emerging gig economy.
Human geneticist-turned-entrepreneur Aisha Pandor is the Co-founder and CEO of SweepSouth, an on-demand booking platform for home cleaning services. SweepSouth is quite notably the first South African start-up to be accepted into the 500 Startups Accelerator in Silicon Valley.
Velani Mboweni is the Co-founder and CEO of the ride-sharing service, LULA. This Global Fellow of the San Franc
Cachet Consulting's Anita Mendiratta on how Africa's tourism industry has progressed since the 90's
Anita Mendiratta is the Canadian Founder and Managing Director of Cachet Consulting, a firm which services governments, multinational corporations and global NGO’s.
Anita has over two decades of tourism and economic development experience gleaned on almost every continent and possesses an enviable grasp of the economic, social, political and environmental dynamics impacting nations grappling with change. She is currently a Strategic Advisor to CNN International, a Board Member for the Thebe Gr
Google South Africa's Mich Atagana on reflecting everyday Africans online
This super-chill conversation, taped at the fringes of Africa Tech Summit 2018, features Google South Africa’s Head of Communications and Public Affairs, Mich Atagana. Mich is an exceedingly well-travelled former-journalist who, as Editor of Memeburn and Ventureburn, previously covered emerging tech and startups on the continent.
Mich was a GSMA Global Mobile Awards judge for 4 years (from 2014 to 2017), and also formerly penned a column for CNN which featured insight about leading tech compani
Kenya's Tourism and Wildlife Minister Najib Balala on progressive policy frameworks
Honourable Najib Balala is Kenya’s Minister of Tourism and Wildlife. After previously serving in that cabinet position once before, from 2008 to 2012, and subsequently serving as Chairman of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, Hon. Balala was re-appointed as Kenya's Tourism Minister in 2015.
Following the establishment of Kenya’s new Constitution in 2012, Hon. Balala was responsible for delivering the country’s reformed Tourism Bill and providing the sector with a policy designed to
Travelstart's Stephan Ekbergh on startup success in Africa's online travel booking industry
Stephan Ekbergh is the Founder and CEO of Travelstart. He is a Swedish entrepreneur who is probably best known for growing Travelstart from a provocative online travel startup in Scandinavia to one of the world’s largest online travel agencies servicing emerging markets in Africa and the Middle East.
Prior to founding Travelstart, Stephan was a touring DJ and entertainment entrepreneur who performed at events all over Europe. After founding Travelstart in 1999 and steering the business to profi
The Sunday Times' Pearl Boshomane Tsotetsi on lifestyle journalism politics & travelling while black
Pearl Boshomane Tsotetsi is the Lifestyle Editor at the Sunday Times (South Africa). Pearl was voted one of Mail and Guardian's Top 200 Young South Africans in 2015 and assumed her current role in 2017. She previously served as Editor of Daily Planet, an intersectional pop culture and social commentary website covering the arts, feminism, racism, social media and digital consumer trends.
In addition to working at the Sunday Times, the self-proclaimed "Blonde Bombshell" writes and curates for h
Airbnb's Chris Lehane on growing the sharing economy and democratising travel and tourism
Chris Lehane is Airbnb’s Head of Global Policy, Public Affairs and Communications. Chris engages with policymakers around the world to safeguard the rights of people who have bought into the travel industry giant's home sharing proposition. He also frequently contributes to public discourse around the societal hazards, economic benefits and democratisation potential of the new "experience economy" Airbnb is propagating.
In the 1990's, Chris served in various positions in the Clinton Administrat
Pesapal's Mark Mwongela talks fintech's impact on Africa's travel and tourism industry
Mark Mwongela is the Co-founder and CEO of Pesapal, a leading Kenyan mobile, online and point-of-sale (POS) payment platform operating in seven African countries including Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Kenya. Previously, Mark served as Technical Director at Pesapal— overseeing the firm's product development efforts, and prior to that, he was Managing Director of Variant Technology Management Consultancy.
In this conversation with Andile Masuku - taped at Africa Travel Summit 2018 (http
Hacking Remittances and Other Stories feat. Herbert Banhire of AMA.ZING (Zing Holdings)
According to a recent World Bank report, it's more costly to send money to Africa than to anywhere else in the world. On average, a 12% remittance fee is charged for every USD200 sent to the continent. Just last year (2017), African Diasporans reportedly sent home USD38 billion, and doubtless, a solid chunk of that sum served to line the pockets of financial incumbents who are only too happy to promote the status quo.
In this episode of the African Tech Roundup, Herbert Banhire, AMA.ZING's Head
Tonjé Bakang of African Leadership Academy on Afrostream's demise and failing forward
You might recall that in September 2017 the Cameroonian former Founder & CEO of Afrostream and current Chief Brand Officer of African Leadership Academy's Anzisha Prize, Tonjé Bakang, published a heavily-publicised Medium post in French announcing that his VOD streaming service was shutting down. Here is Tonjé's letter in English— translated by Audrey Lang: http://bit.ly/tonjéokayafrica. Our very own Andile Masuku even wrote a syndicated op-ed for Business Report South Africa (http://bit.ly/tonj
Konnect Africa's Jean-Claude Tshipama on Eutelsat's African satellite broadband strategy
Congolese Jean-Claude Tshipama is the CEO of Eutelsat's Konnect Africa subsidiary which delivers satellite broadband connectivity services in Africa.
Jean-Claude has over 16 years’ experience in telecommunications, computer and Pay TV industries’. He holds an MBA from HEC-Montreal in Canada and a Master’s degree in Economics from the Protestant University in Congo.
Jean-Claude was formerly the Commercial Director at Celtel in DR Congo, and also previously served as Director of Sales and Distri
Uber crypto-geek Simon Dingle unpacks his book In Math We Trust: The Future of Money
South African Simon Dingle has worked with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies since 2011, designing products that make it easier to engage in an increasingly digital world. He has proved to be especially gifted at using his broadcasting, writing and speaking talents to make complex crypto-related matters simple for audiences all around the world
Simon previously led the product team at one of the world’s earliest Bitcoin exchanges and spearheaded collaborations on several other popular fintech
Ìmísí 3D's Judith Okonkwo is bullish on VR and AR tech adoption in Africa
At the fringes of Afrobytes Tech Marketplace 2018, Andile Masuku caught up with virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) evangelist, founder of the Lagos-based Ìmísí 3D and co-founder of the We Will Lead Africa initiative, Judith Okonkwo, to take in her compelling arguments for why VR tech ought to be more enthusiastically embraced across Africa.
Listen in to hear how Judith and her team at Ìmísí 3D - an "Extended Reality (AR/VR) creation lab dedicated to growing a community of AR/VR dev
Thomson Reuters' Sneha Shah on delivering market-relevant data, insight & tech business solutions
As Managing Director of Thomson Reuters Africa, Kenyan-born Sneha Shah oversees the firm's Financial, Risk, Tax and Legal businesses across the continent. Initially founded as a news agency in 1851, today Thomson Reuters is frequently cited by media watchdogs as an "invisible information giant" worth monitoring closely as it delivers unprecedented amounts of data, along with automation and digitisation solutions to financial institutions, governments and corporates around the globe.
Sneha holds
aKoma Media's Chidi Afulezi on viable digital media models and backing African content creators
aKoma Media Co-founder and COO Chidi Afulezi is "a Naija boy true and true". Chidi is an electrical engineer with product-development experience earned working in America's digital wireless network industry. Chidi's resume also features executive stints at top media and entertainment brands such as Time Warner, Sony Music and CNN. While at CNN, Chidi met and began plotting a media coup with one the network's leading international anchors, the Kenyan Zain Verjee, with whom he co-founded aKoma.
I
Gebeya's Amadou Daffe & TechPoint.ng's Adewale Yusuf talk Ethiopian tech swag and taking on Andela
This year's Afrobytes Tech Marketplace event attracted a large, impressive Ethiopian delegation of tech innovators sporting some serious swag. Ethiopia boasts a solid track record of meaningful digital innovation in spite of the fairly insular political and economic outlook that prevailed in the past.
Today, tech ecosystem heavy-hitters like the Ethiopian founder of investment advisory firm Ibex Frontier, Zekarias Amsalu, and the Senegalese founder of the IT expert online marketplace Gebeya, Am
BongoHive's Simunza Muyangana on delivering context-relevant tech ecosystem support in Zambia
BongoHive Co-Founder and Director of Entrepreneurship, Simunza Muyangana reckons that Lusaka has what it takes to become one of Africa's choicest tech and innovation hubs. When it launched in May 2011 BongoHive was Zambia's only technology and innovation hub. Today, no small thanks to Simunza and his team's context-relevant ecosystem upliftment efforts, the early-stage startup scene in Zambia is more vibrant than its ever been.
In this throwback conversation with Andile Masuku - taped at Africa
#VillageDiariesAmsterdam Pt 2 w/ Augustina Austin, Babusi Nyoni, Danai Musandu & Tania Habimana
On Tuesday, June 5th, 2018 the international African Tech Roundup LIVE Tour launched with a live podcast event in The Netherlands dubbed #VillageDiariesAmsterdam.
For the second (and final part) of the evening's programme, hosts Andile Masuku and Musa Kalenga were joined by a stellar lineup of African tech and innovation ecosystem insiders who have past and present links to Amsterdam. Namely, Tania Habimana (Co-founder and Head of Digital and Strategy: Nonzēro Africa), Babusi Nyoni (UX Designe
Secha Capital's Rushil Vallabh & Brendan Mullen on proving a hybrid SME investment model
South African Rushil Vallabh and American Brenden Mullen are the co-founders and co-managing directors of a Johannesburg-based, venture capital outfit called Secha Capital. Secha’s mission is to “provide patient capital to established African SMEs” - primarily within FMCG and agri-business industries - and to support them by providing access to best-in-breed, hands-on business consulting.
In this conversation with Andile Masuku, Rushil and Brendan expound on Secha’s hybrid investment thesis an
Cellulant's Ken Njoroge & Velocity Capital's Allard Luchsinger on 2018's biggest fintech deal so far
A couple of hours before the recent #VillageDiariesAmsterdam event went down, Andile Masuku managed to land a sit-down with Cellulant Founder and CEO, Ken Njoroge, and Director of Private Equity at Velocity Capital, Allard Luchsinger, in order to glean insider perspectives on what went into closing Cellulant's historic round of funding.
A few weeks ago, digital payments firm, Cellulant, announced the close of a $47.5 million investment round led by TPG Growth— a deal which included Endeavour C
#VillageDiariesAmsterdam Pt 1 - A fireside chat with HYBR Founder & CEO Charles Ojei
On Tuesday, June 5th, 2018 the international African Tech Roundup LIVE Tour launched with a live event in The Netherlands dubbed #VillageDiariesAmsterdam.
For the first part of the evening's programme, hosts Andile Masuku and Musa Kalenga were joined by headline guest, Nigerian Partner and CEO of HYBR, Charles Ojei.
Prior to founding HYBR, Charles was Director of Enterprise Business at Samsung Electronics West Africa and earned nearly two decades of sales, business development, strategy and t
HEADS UP: Andile and Musa are going to Amsterdam and Paris
Look out, Amsterdam! We're coming!
Joel Macharia of Abacus on creating access to African financial markets via micro investments
Joel Macharia is the Founder and CEO of Abacus (https://abacus.co.ke), a Kenyan fintech firm that builds web and mobile software designed to help people anywhere in the world gain access to African financial markets.
Joel previously founded and headed up the consumer financial news publication, PesaTalk.com, and prior to that, he served as the Africa Head of Product Development for the Mobile Money team at the Kenyan mobile commerce and payment technology provider, Cellulant.
In this convers
Edmund Olotu of TechAdvance on building out digital payments infrastructure in Nigeria
In this conversation with Andile Masuku, TechAdvance CEO, Edmund Olotu, sketches Nigeria's digital payments infrastructure landscape and explains why he feels the time is right for his company to participate more actively in the discourses around the next wave of data analytics-driven tech in Nigeria.
Listen in to hear Edmund unpack TechAdvance's ambitions to take the game to competitors like Interswitch and position to be the platform partner of choice for big corporate and government-owned en
Interoperability, Data Ownership & Steward Ownership feat. Oliver Sauter of WorldBrain
In this episode of the African Tech Roundup podcast, Oliver Sauter— Co-founder and Head of Strategy, Product & Operations at https://WorldBrain.io, joins Andile Masuku and Musa Kalenga for a meandering conversation that explores the link between the trend towards interoperability and idealised notions of individual data ownership.
As Africa grapples with the reality of large swathes of its population being either digitally "invisible" or completely oblivious to the commercial value of the perso
Boomplay Music's Chinasa Udeala on delivering Africa-relevant music streaming services
Chinasa Udeala is Regional Director for East Africa at Boomplay Music. The music streaming platform is a subsidiary of the Chinese firm Transsnet Ltd which also owns TECNO Mobile.
In this quick chat with Andile Masuku, Chinasa explains how Boomplay is attempting to outsmart the likes of Spotify and Apple Music to deliver localised digital downloads and streaming service offerings that are relevant to key consumer markets on the continent.
Listen in to hear Chinasa unpack Boomplay’s revenue st
Helen Anatogu of Nigeria's iDEA incubator on how African founders should position to land funding
Helen Anatogu is the Chief Executive and Programme Director of the Information Technology Developer Entrepreneurship Accelerator (IDEA) in Nigeria.
In this throwback conversation with Andile Masuku – taped at the African Angel Investor Summit 2017 - Helen shares her thoughts on the startup investment landscape and factors in on how African founders ought to position themselves to land much-needed funding.
YegoMoto's Karanvir Singh on surfing the mobility wave to launch an ambitious platform play
Kigali-based Singaporean, Karanvir Singh, is the CEO and MD of Yego Innovision Ltd— a company which has launched a cashless transport service called YegoMoto in Rwanda, which is essentially an 'Uber for motorcycle taxis' or "motos" as they are commonly called.
In this conversation with Andile Masuku – taped at the Africa Tech Summit Kigali 2018 (www.africatechsummit.com/kigali/) – Karanvir fields questions about surfing the global mobility wave to launch an ambitious platform play with the pot
Facebook's Breach of Trust + Blockchain Straight Talk feat. Marvin Coleby of Raise Impact
It's fair to say that Facebook is the elephant in pretty much every room at the moment. In this month's instalment of the African Tech Roundup podcast, Marvin Coleby joins Andile Masuku and Musa Kalenga to factor in on some of the biggest tech and innovation headlines that have trended over the last month or so— not least, Facebook's diabolical data privacy gaffes.
Marvin is a venture lawyer who hails from The Bahamas and his startup, Raise Impact (http://raiseimpact.io/), is harnessing blockch
NISK Capital's Sara Oon on providing turnkey startup and SME advisory in East Africa
The Kigali-based Sara Oon is Co-Founder and Partner at NISK Capital, a Nairobi-head quartered boutique advisory and investment outfit serving Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.
Sara, a Singaporean, holds business degrees from Princeton University and the University of California, and in this conversation with Andile Masuku – taped at Africa Tech Summit Kigali 2018 (www.africatechsummit.com/kigali/) - she speaks on the challenge of helping East African startups and SME’s overcome the funding gap, and ab
RapidLion Film Festival's Eric Miyeni on African cinema asserting itself on the global stage
The runaway global success of the Marvel blockbuster sensation, Black Panther, has ignited debate about the influence and business potential of African cinema.
In this Mapo Radio (http://bit.ly/MapoRadio) interview, Thembekile Malindi speaks with South African author, filmmaker and founder of the BRICS-focussed RapidLion Film Festival (https://filmfreeway.com/RapidLion), Eric Miyeni, about the state of South Africa's feature film industry and the need for Africans to master the business of ma
Caine Wanjau of Twiga Foods on the challenges of scaling an actual business and why not to ICO
Caine Wanjau is the Chief Technology Officer of Twiga Foods, a Nairobi-based distributor of fresh fruit produce that's leveraging tech to introduce business efficiencies to one of Kenya's more logistically-challenged industries. Caine holds degrees from Monash University and Strathmore University specialising in Computer Technologies and Engineering (Hardware).
In this conversation with Andile Masuku - taped at Africa Tech Summit Kigali 2018 (www.africatechsummit.com/kigali/) - Caine talks abou
Insight Publicis Nigeria's Feyi Olubodun on his book The Villager: How Africans Consume Brands
Feyi Olubudun’s new book, The Villager: How Africans Consume Brands, puts forward a lens for helping Africa-focussed brands and businesses achieve commercial success by correcting their perception of the African Consumer, or as he posits, “The Villager”.
Feyi is the CEO of Insight Publicis Nigeria, one of West Africa’s leading creative agencies, and in this chat with Andile Masuku he unpacks insights gleaned from observing many brands fail to crack "the African opportunity". Listen in to hear h
Lagos Angel Network's Collins Onuegbu on traditional angel efforts vs. business angel investment
Collins Onuegbu is the Nigerian Founder of Signal Alliance as well as a Director of the Lagos Angel Network.
In this conversation with Andile Masuku - taped at Africa Tech Summit Kigali 2018 (https://www.africatechsummit.com/kigali/) - Collins frames the massive business opportunity that is Nigeria, explains the difference between business angel investment efforts and less disciplined traditional angel funding activities, and unpacks why he believes that Africa’s early-stage startup scene would
A Peek Under the Hood Of South Africa's Mobility Scene feat. Obakeng Morapeli Matlhoko
Back on the show for the first time since contributing his fair share of involuntary hot takes on Episode 109 entitled "Investor Bias Debate 2.0 + Should Africa Embrace Uberisation?" (http://bit.ly/investorbias) Tapsnapp Founder, Vije Vijendrenath assumes co-hosting duties in Musa Kalenga’s absence. Andile Masuku chats to him about the workarounds he's deployed to secure funding for two startups that he previously struggled to get investors to take seriously-- namely, www.tapsnapp.co and www.you
Andela's Wambui Kinya unpacks Andela's gig economy strategy and addresses common misconceptions
Wambui Kinya is the Chief Strategy Officer at Andela-- a startup helping companies overcome tech talent shortages by delivering high performing distributed engineering teams that leverage some of Africa's finest coding talent.
Wambui joined Andela after spending over eighteen years working within the professional services space (spanning digital, mobile marketing and technology consulting) in North America, Europe and Africa for companies such as ThoughtWorks (where she notably served as Grou
Karabo Songo and Musa Kalenga of House of Brave on evolving creative agency models
Karabo Songo and Musa Kalenga are the savvy business minds behind FastGro-- the 100% black-owned investment firm which just acquired a 25.1% share of the independent agency, House of
Brave (HOB). As part of the deal, Karabo has been appointed the business' Group CEO, while Musa has assumed the position of Chief Future Officer.
In this conversation with Andile Masuku, Karabo and Musa share how they plan to go about applying platform thinking and leveraging technological innovation to thrive wit
Venture Garden's Bunmi Akinyemiju on Sure Remit's ICO success and executing smart platform plays
Bunmi Akinyemiju is Co-founder and CEO of Nigeria's Venture Garden Group-- a global technology firm which owns several fully-developed SaaS intellectual properties. Bunmi has over 16 years of entrepreneurial experience in high-tech sales, solutions development and management, and has so far led the development of over 20 proprietary technologies in multiple sectors globally.
In this conversation with Andile Masuku, Bunmi unpacks the platform strategy driving Venture Garden's approach to incuba
What's Trending at #ATRULive Meetup Kigali (Feb 13, 2018)
So, we invited friends of the African Tech Roundup podcast to join us for drinks at the Kigali Marriott's Iriba Bar between 4:30 PM and 6:00 PM on Feb 13th, 2018-- the day before the Africa Tech Summit Kigali conference. And when the homies demanded an impromptu podcast session, we gladly obliged. Listen in to hear what was trending at the recent #ATRULive Meetup Kigali.
The Fake News Episode feat. Anim Van Wyk of Africa Check
We aren't even halfway through the first quarter of 2018 but already, we've seen a fair amount of questionable 'factual' content do the rounds on social media.
In this episode of the African Tech Roundup, https://AfricaCheck.org Editor, Anim Van Wyk, joins Andile Masuku and Musa Kalenga to examine the seriousness of Africa's fake news problem and chat through recent highlights from Africa's emerging tech and innovation scene.
Listen in to hear Anim explain why you shouldn't trust anyone - not
Lidya's Tunde Kehinde on addressing Nigeria's $30 billion small business credit gap
Tunde Kehinde is the co-founder of Lidya, a branchless internet bank that aims to ease Nigeria's estimated $30 billion small business credit gap. Tunde holds a honours degree in finance from Howard University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
He previously co-founded the logistics startup, Africa Courier Express (ACE). Before that, he co-founded Jumia.com and served as the e-commerce giant's Managing Director.
In this chat with Andile Masuku, Tunde reflects on his founder experience an
Kola Aina of Ventures Platform reckons African capital and local context are underrated
Kola Aina is the Founder and CEO of the Nigerian-based pan-African seed-stage fund and accelerator, Ventures Platform. The firm's portfolio includes well-publicised Nigerian rising startup stars like Paystack and Printivo, as well as promising, lesser-known ventures like the Cameroonian wifi entertainment platform, Viva.
In this conversation with Andile Masuku, Kola unpacks his firm's investment thesis and their Y Combinator-esque approach to startup incubation and acceleration. He also shares
On Your Marks for 2018: Is the Lean Startup Approach Legit?
In the first full African Tech Roundup podcast of 2018, Andile Masuku mulls over Gefira Solutions Founder and CEO Bert Bruggeman's assertion that we can't just "app our way" to solving all of Africa's problems.
Then, he ponders which hybrid investment approaches might prove successful in fueling African startups in 2018, and echoes the questions posed by Seyi Fabode’s blog post entitled: “Is It Time To Dump The ‘Lean Startup’ Approach?”
Also, in this episode, Andile gives a quick update on t
Bert Bruggeman of Gefira Solutions on why hardware development is key for Africa
Bert Bruggeman is the Belgian Founder and CEO of the Silicon Valley-based technology advisory firm, Gefira Solutions. Bert has an impressive 25-year track record of successful technology product development and C-level leadership in a broad range of high-tech industries.
Gefira Solutions is keen to act on their expansion agenda within Africa's hardware development and innovation space. In this conversation with Andile Masuku, Bert unpacks his organisation's vision and explains why Africa ca
mSurvey's Kenfield Griffith on why he's bullish on 2018 and why data analytics is a gamechanger
Montserrat native Kenfield Griffith is co-founder and CEO of mSurvey-- a data analytics SaaS startup based in Nairobi Kenya. In 2012, Kenfield partnered with Kenyan Louis Majanja to launch the business following an extended visit to Nairobi to conduct some research for his MIT PhD on the use of technology as a means to improving communication.
In this conversation with Andile Masuku, Kenfield explains why he's bullish on 2018 and unpacks how mSurvey's data analytics platform is delivering solid
Rich Tanksley of NeuBridges on the massive growth potential of commercial digital media in Nigeria
Rich Tanksley is the Senior Vice President of Special Projects at the Nigerian-American consultancy, NeuBridges.
Formerly the CEO of Pulse.ng, Rich continues to be the Ringier-owned online media platform's brand ambassador. Prior to that, he spent three years working at the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) in Ghana as a senior faculty member and headed up Africa operations for Seedstars.
In this conversation with Andile Masuku - taped at Afrobytes Tech Conference 2017 - R
Alec Fokapu of FiftyFor on bridging the cultural divide between big business and African SMEs
French-born Cameroonian Alec Fokapu is the founder and CEO of FiftyFor, a B2B rating platform for African companies.
FiftyFor uses an algorithm to compute ratings on governance structure, financial strength, operational capability, and the social and environmental impact of African companies.
Alec has 10 years of experience working as a financial analyst in international infrastructure projects at Total and Crédit Agricole CIB. Prior to launching FiftyFor in 2014, he founded an investment fir
The 2017 Year-end Rundown + African Venture Capital Done Right feat. Rushil Vallabh
By this time last year, Africa's tech and innovation media community had started to go into hibernation for the Festive Season. But this year’s different…
Bitcoin is doing the thing, America’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is poised to put net neutrality out of its misery, Uber is bracing for a severe regulatory backlash after trying to conceal a 2016 data breach affecting 57 million users, and complex corruption allegations continue to dog the JSE-listed IT service management giant,
Maya Horgan Famodu of Ingressive Capital on becoming a venture capitalist in 2017
2017 has seen Maya Horgan Famodu transition from overseeing efforts to assist corporations and investors integrate into the African tech ecosystem via Ingressive's market entry and operations services, to becoming an early stage tech venture capitalist at Ingressive Capital.
In this conversation with Andile Masuku, Maya explains how she's leveraging her Nigerian-Swedish-American heritage, her bullet-proof professional reputation and the insights she's continuing to glean via Ingressive's legacy
Co-Creation Hub Nigeria's Femi Longe factors in on the #NotOurManifesto farce
This Medium blog entitled, "Startups4Africa: This is NOT OUR MANIFESTO" by Co-Creation Hub Nigeria Co-founder Femi Longe has caused quite a stir on social media: http://bit.ly/2AxCEMv.
In this chat with Andile Masuku, Femi explains why he couldn't keep his pen still after he returned to Nigeria following the recent EU-Africa Summit, where a "collaborative" document entitled "Startups 4 Africa: Manifesto for the development of a thriving community of African-European startup ecosystems" was pres
Khaled Ismail on how KI Angel and HIM Angel funds pursue inter-Africa startup growth
Khaled Ismail is the Chairman and Founder of two Cairo-based angel funds— KI Angel and HIM Angel. He also serves as advisor to Algebra Ventures, Egypt’s leading technology venture capital outfit, which focuses primarily on Series A and Series B investments in Egypt and the MENA region.
In this conversation with Andile Masuku - taped at the fringes of African Angel Investor Summit 2017 (www.AAIS2017.com) - Khaled relates how he went from being a career technologist to founding seven tech ventur
Ido Sum explains how TLcom Capital got in on Andela's $40M Series C
Israeli investor Ido Sum is a Partner at TLcom Capital— a venture capital firm with a presence in Nairobi, Lagos and London. Since 1999, the firm has invested in Telecom, Media and Technology (TMT) companies in Europe, Israel and Sub Saharan Africa and currently manages total commitments in excess of €200 million.
In this conversation with Andile Masuku - taped at the fringes of African Angel Investor Summit 2017 (www.AAIS2017.com) - Ido fields questions regarding the prevalence of investor bia
Kenyan post election reflections with PesaCheck.org Managing Editor Eric Mugendi
In this conversation, Andile Masuku asks PesaCheck.org Managing Editor, Eric Mugendi, to reflect on the unprecedented leveraging of digital technologies by leading actors in Kenya's controversial elections, and to factor in on how the country's emerging tech ecosystem is doing in the aftermath.
Should Africa-focused Investors Hunt Gorillas, Gazelles Or Unicorns?
Last week, Africa’s early stage investor community came together for the 4th annual African Early Stage Investor Summit (#AAIS2017). At this exclusive investor-only event, hosted at Workshop17 in Cape Town, South Africa, key stakeholders in the ecosystem exchanged insights on best practice, shared lessons learnt, and debated what the roadmap for the future ought to look like.
In this African Tech Roundup episode, Andile Masuku and Musa Kalenga discuss some of the more contentious issues unpack
Timothy Kotin on how SuperFluid Labs delivers business value via data analytics solutions
Timothy Kotin was born and bred in Ghana. He is the co-founder and chief executive of SuperFluid Labs-- an ambitious African data analytics firm which supports enterprise clients spread across multiple sectors. Superfluid has offices in Kenya, Ghana and Germany.
Kotin holds an MPhil. in Engineering for Sustainable Development from the University of Cambridge and a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Harvard University. Prior to co-founding Superfluids Labs, he
Do African Startup Pitch Competitions Offer Anything More Than Pre-allocated Peanuts?
The Facebook-sponsored TechCrunch Startup Battlefield competition which took place in Nairobi recently brought together fifteen African startups for a glitzy pitch session that offered entrants the chance to win $25,000, as well as the opportunity to go on and compete for $50,000 at the Disrupt Cup, which will be held in Silicon Valley next year.
After the Kenyan logistics startup, Lori Systems, won the Nairobi event murmurings of alleged tournament rigging started doing the rounds and eventual
Yannick Lefang of Kasi Insight reckons reliable market research is key to business success in Africa
Electrical engineer, Yannick Lefang, is the Founder and CEO of Kasi Insight-- a research and advisory firm that provides African consumer data and actionable insights. Since 2013, Yannick's firm has been intent on empowering business leaders and entrepreneurs with the game-changing insight they need to tap into the continent's fast-growing markets.
In this conversation with Andile Masuku - taped at Afrobytes Tech Conference 2017 - Yannick explains why even some of the most-quoted macroeconomic
Divercity's Sean Godoy says proptech could help Africa overcome post-colonial property challenges
Sean Godoy is the Founder and Executive Director of Divercity Property Solutions. He has cross-sector experience in the property industry in both South Africa and the UK.
In this conversation with Andile Masuku, Sean explains why he's excited about the global rise of real estate tech aka proptech. He believes that this trend could facilitate the democratisation of land and property ownership in Africa and help iron out the continent's complicated post-colonial land and property situation.
Adebayo Alonge explains how RxAll's AI-driven spectrometer authenticates medicines
Adebayo “Ade” Alonge is the Nigerian co-founder of RxAll, a platform which provides patients in the developing world with authenticated and verified medicines. Prior to this, Ade was a strategy consultant with the Boston Consulting Group, and before that, he spent eight years working a Sanofi, Roche, and BASF.
In this absorbing, not-so-quick chat with Andile Masuku, Ade unpacks the state of play within Nigeria's pharmaceutical mass market, and explains how RxAll is enabling direct access to aff
The Great Bitcoin Surge And Cryptocurency Mining feat. Simon Dingle
South Korea has reportedly become the latest notable nation to follow the likes of Nigeria and China by outlawing the use of cryptocurrency. Given these developments, policymakers all across the continent are no doubt mulling over the merits of banning Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). They are probably concerned that by shunning cryptocurrencies, they might end up being on the outside looking in on a lucrative financial trend that may well prove impossible to rein in regardless.
In this episode o
Bertil van Vugt on how VC4Africa's new startup academy is boosting aspiring founders
Bertil van Vugt is Business Development Lead at the Amsterdam-based organisation, VC4Africa.
In this quiet chat with Andile Masuku, taped at Afrobytes Tech Conference 2017, Bertil gives us a sense of the mind space tech industry business opportunities occupy in the average European. Given his vantage point, he's also well-placed to factor in on how Africa's tech ecosystem is coming along in terms of growth.
Finally, Bertil also unpacks the noble rationale behind the recent launch of VC4Afric
Internet Society's Michuki Mwangi separates hype from reality regarding Africa and the internet
Michuki Mwangi is the Regional Development Manager for Africa at the Internet Society where he has worked in the African Regional Bureau to promote Internet growth and sustainability since 2008.
As the Internet Society is celebrating its 25th year anniversary in 2017, Michuki reflects on the progress being made to enable more and more Africans harness the life-changing potential of the internet. Among other things, Andile Masuku asks him who can be trusted to help bring Africa online given the
African Billionaire Watch And Other Political Conversations feat. Sinclair Skinner
A few weeks ago, Africa's richest man, Nigeria's Aliko Dangote, baffled many pro-African investment proponents by telling Bloomberg that if things go the way he plans, come 2020, a significant chunk of his wealth will be deployed abroad.
In this African Tech Round-up episode Andile Masuku and Musa Kalenga are joined by Bitmari co-founder and self-proclaimed "pre-racial thought leader", Sinclair Skinner, for an unfettered family-style straight-talk session which literally went all over the place
Adedana Ashebir on Village Capital's investor bias report + do expats & repats care about Africa?
**Apologies for the poor sound quality**
Adedana Ashebir has recently been tasked with heading up Village Capital's business on the continent.
In this conversation, Adedana walks Andile Masuku through some of the thinking behind and the findings published in Village Capital's implicatory Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funded report called Breaking the Pattern: Getting Digital Financial Services Entrepreneurs to Scale in India and East Africa.
Among other things, this fintech-focused researc
George Asamani on how DooWapp music messaging could become as ubiquitous as emojis
George Asamani is an exceedingly well-traveled 39-year-old Ghanaian who currently calls Addis Ababa home. He is the co-founder of a music and messaging app called DooWapp-- an alumnus of Telefónica's Wayra startup accelerator in the UK.
In this conversation, taped at the Enterprise Africa Summit 2017 hosted by the British Council in Accra some months ago, George gave Andile a sense of the positive innovation vibes that he's absorbed while living and working in various African markets over the
Kenya's Twiga Foods Closes $10.3M Series A Investment Round Led By Wamda Capital
The last few weeks have seen three promising African tech startups land significant investments-- namely, the Nigerian digital payments firm, Flutterwave ($10 million), the Kenyan mobile-driven food supply platform, Twiga Foods ($10.3 million), and the South African fractional investments service, EasyEquities ($7.5 million).
In this installment of the African Tech Round-up, Andile Masuku and Musa Kalenga discuss the merits of the Flutterwave and Twiga deals, but somehow, we forgot to chat abou
Charlene Chen reckons Bitpesa is well-positioned to surf the blockchain wave
Charlene Chen is the Chief Operating Officer of BitPesa-- an online payment platform founded in Kenya that leverages Blockchain settlement to lower the cost and increase the speed of business payments to, from and within sub-Saharan Africa.
In this chat with Andile Masuku, Charlene explains how BitPesa helps clients, that range from African businesses and multinational companies paying suppliers as far as China and Dubai to international remittance companies, use their API services for white-l
Eunice Baguma Ball explains why the Africa Technology Business Network is backing #FoundingWomen
Eunice Baguma Ball is the Ugandan Founder and Executive Director of the Africa Technology Business Network (ATBN). For over 10 years, Eunice has worked at the intersection of tech and social enterprise - leveraging her engineering background to build an impressive reputation as a tech and innovation specialist.
In this chat with Andile Masuku, Eunice gives her take on the state of African women in tech, comments candidly on some of the cultural hurdles women continue to face in what is still la
Kenya General Election 2017: The fake news factor with Eric Mugendi of PesaCheck.org
Eric Mugendi is the Managing Editor at PesaCheck.org. In this chat with Andile Masuku, taped on Monday, August 7th, 2017 - a day before Kenya's General Election - he factors in on how fake news has influenced public sentiment in the lead up to the highly-contested polls.
We deliberately asked Eric to weigh in on the fake news situation before his insights were clouded by the election results. We've also been intentional about waiting for the official outcome to be declared before releasing thi
Investor Bias Debate 2.0 + Should Africa Embrace Uberisation? feat. Vije Vijendranath
A couple of weeks ago, a think piece by Andile Masuku entitled "We simply must not allow investor bias to persist" - featured in African Independent and Business Report - caused a bit of a stir on Twitter. The hubbub surrounded the article's tackling of the sensitive issue of investor bias that appears to be prevalent in Africa's startup finance scene.
Cited in Andile's piece are research findings published in a recent Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-funded report by the American VC outfit, Vil
Barbro Ciakudia on how Invest Africa is stoking enthusiasm for African investment in London
Barbro Mutombo Ciakudia is VP for Business Development at Invest Africa. Invest Africa is a private members club based in Mayfair, London and was founded by Rob Hersov in 2013 as a means for business leaders, private investors, and entrepreneurs to gain insight into Africa and to be exposed to the continent's vast opportunities.
They offer a multi-service platform for access and investment into Africa which aims to be a link between capital and expertise into Africa, and information and opport
Jean-Paul Melaga went from Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi exec to co-founding Smart Phorce
Jean-Paul Melaga is a recovering finance professional who's had a successful career in top-tier international banking. Jean-Paul worked for the likes of Standard Chartered Bank and Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi before becoming co-founding the mobile market research startup, Smart Phorce.
In his last banking gig before pursuing a more personal entrepreneurial agenda, Jean-Paul served as Head of Africa at the Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi, where he was tasked with turning powerful people within that organ
Arthur Musah's documentary Naija Beta highlights the untold potential of Lagosian youth
Naija Beta is a documentary that follows a team of Nigerian and Nigerian-American MIT students who dream of shaking up education in Nigeria and head to Lagos one summer to teach technology to high-schoolers through a competitive robotics camp. As they seek to contribute to a new and better Nigeria, their ideals are tested by reality.
Arthur Musah is the film's director and hails from Ghana and Ukraine. Naija Beta premiered in 2016 at the Pan African International Film Festival in Cannes, and wo
Uber Drivers In South Africa Are Now Considered Employees Of The Ride-hailing Service
According to a ruling made by South Africa's Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), an employer-employee relationship does, in fact, exist between Uber and driver-partners. This follows Uber being dragged to the CCMA several months ago by seven driver-partners who alleged that they were unfairly deactivated by the service.
The ride-hailing service has long contended that it is simply a virtual marketplace that connects drivers and passengers and not an employer-- citing
Baba Zoumanigui reflects on his fruitful executive career at IBM
In this chat with Baba Zoumanigui, IBM's General Manager for French Speaking Africa, he shares insights drawn from his international IT career.
Baba gives us a sense of the lucrative value IBM is determined on unearthing in Africa and reflects candidly on what it takes for an African IT pro to navigate and thrive in a corporate scene dominated by Europeans and North Americans.
Rebecca Enonchong on #BringBackOurInternet and why she's fed up with African foreign aid
Rebecca Enonchong is an award-winning Cameroonian-born technology entrepreneur who is affectionately known as the "Queen of African Tech". Rebecca is the founder and CEO of AppsTech, and quite notably a co-founder and Vice-President of the African Business Angels Network (ABAN).
In this catch-up chat with Andile Masuku, Rebecca reflects on the #BringBackOurInternet campaign she continues to back, explains why she's annoyed by all the foreign aid money flooding Africa's tech scene and gives us a
Cisco's Shaun Kirby on why the global mobility industry is ripe for disruption
Shaun Kirby oversees product development for Cisco's automotive and connected car business unit. He is responsible for evangelising and acting on trends that will disrupt and transform the world's mobility industry. In this conversation, he explains why he's excited about IoT and talks about whether it's sensible to anticipate that Africa will leapfrog the traditional motor vehicle to adopt more advanced mobility options, this as the global trend towards ride-sharing and self-driving vehicle dep
Wolf Stinnes on Dimension Data's cutting-edge top-tier sport and health IoT solutions
Wolf Stinnes is smart buildings and digital cities solutions architect at Dimension Data. In this conversation, he talks about some clever top tier sport and health tech solutions that he and his team are beta testing and taking to market at the moment.
Naspers CEO Bob Van Dijk Accused Of Blowing Roughly $25.6 Billion Of Shareholder Value
It's no secret, Africa's largest tech company by market cap, Naspers, has been buckling under the pressure to perform for some years now. The fact is, the company hasn't scored any big wins in any of the legacy internet and pay-TV verticals it once used to dominate with ease.
Naspers' most recent financial results seem to validate the notion that except for the firm's exceedingly lucrative 33 percent stake in the Chinese cash cow that is Tencent, there seems to be little else to write home ab
Rockwell Automation's John Lewis doesn't buy that factory automation is destroying livlihoods
John Lewis is the Director Business Partnering at Rockwell Automation. In this conversation with Andile Masuku, taped at the Internet of Things World Forum 2017 hosted at London's Tobacco Dock (creaking floorboards and all), John talks about how his company is adapting to changing times by drafting software developers and tech-savvy business specialists who can speak to the myriad of optimisation challenges faced by their clients all over the world. He also rebuffs the widely-held belief that th
Malawi Secures $72.4 Million Credit Line From The World Bank To Advance National Digitisation
The Sub-Saharan Africa heads of the likes of Huawei, Oracle, Cisco, IBM and perhaps even Amazon, Facebook and Google, have no doubt already booked first class tickets to Lilongwe to advise the Malawian government on what to do with the $72.4 million line of credit the country has secured from the World Bank to "help Malawi build the digital foundations needed to help the country connect to the global digital economy". This development comes in the wake of the World Bank resuming "budget support
Anton Jooste outlines what's at stake if Africa doesn't gear up for the new digital economy
Anton Jooste is Dimension Data’s Global Director for the Internet of Things. In this chat, he contextualises the promise of IoT for African enterprises and citizens, and candidly outlines what's at stake if Africans don't prepare themselves to participate in the new digital economy.
AppDynamics' Prathap Dendi unpacks the life-changing potential of IoT for the world's poorest
Prathap Dendi is an engineer-turned startup executive with over 15 years of experience in technology leadership positions in companies ranging from startups to giants. He is currently the general manager for emerging technologies at the application performance management and IT operations analytics start-up AppDynamics, which Cisco recently acquired in the US for a whopping $3.7 billion.
Prathap hails from the South of India and in this conversation he shares insights regarding how technologic
Cisco Africa's David Meads is adamant that technology should benefit the average African citizen
David Meads has lead Cisco’s Operations across Africa since 2012 and is responsible for the company’s go-to-market strategy across the continent as well as the field execution of that strategy.
As Cisco’s VP for Africa, David is responsible for how Cisco partners with African Government’s and private sector companies alike to help them define and implement Digital strategies that will help them unlock the full potential of the "Internet of Everything".
In this conversation, David explains how
Exclusive Africa-focussed Insights From IoT World Forum 2017
This week's African Tech Round-up is dedicated to sharing insights gleaned from the recent Internet of Things World Forum (2017IoTWF)hosted in London.
The Global IT and networking giant, Cisco, convened the invite-only gathering to facilitate dialogue among key stakeholders and innovators in business, government and academia and to “bring industry leaders together to collaborate, network, partner and solve the challenges facing IoT”.
To ascertain how the trend towards IoT adoption is likely to
The Expat Founder Debate & A Busload Of Accidental Hot Takes feat. Mark Kaigwa
Kenya's finest digital-head, Mark Kaigwa, joins Musa Kalenga and Andile Masuku on this week's African Tech Round-up for two glorious hours of straight-talk.
Using the biggest tech and innovation headlines from the past couple of weeks as a springboard, the trio chats candidly about everything from major broadband infrastructure developments to cyber security issues-- touching on the implications of M-PESA's imminent interoperability and even discussing the politics of Africa's startup funding
Etop Ikpe talks about life after the successful close of a $5M Series A for Cars45.com
Etop Ikpe and his team at the Nigerian vehicle marketplace, Cars45.com, are no doubt feeling great following the successful close of the company's $5 million Series A funding round a couple of weeks ago. Given the tough time Nigeria's e-commerce industry has been having of late, the significance of this achievement is not lost on us.
Previously the Commercial Director of Konga-- one of Nigeria’s largest online shopping platforms, and formerly the CEO and Co-MD of DealDey, Etop is unquestionably
Nigeria's Cars45.com Riding High After Landing $5 Million Investment
Etop Ikpe and his team at the Nigerian vehicle marketplace, Cars45.com, are no doubt feeling great following the successful close of the company's $5 million Series A funding round a couple of weeks ago. Given the tough time Nigeria's e-commerce industry has been having of late, the significance of this achievement is not lost on us.
Previously the Commercial Director of Konga-- one of Nigeria’s largest online shopping platforms, and formerly the CEO and Co-MD of DealDey, Etop is unquestionably
Scientists Successfully Remove HIV Virus From Mouse Cells Using CRISPR
Scientists have found a way to remove the HIV virus from the DNA in mouse cells using CRISPR/Cas9 technology. According to the journal, Molecular Therapy, use of the technique has led to the complete elimination of infection in mouse organs and tissue after just one treatment. Now, that's the kind of international tech news that really gets us excited around here!
And, yes! The team at the African Tech Round-up is back from a much-needed break, and we're super-stoked to catch up on news like th
Monica Brand Engel of Quona Capital on why impact investment gets a bad rap
Monica Brand Engel is a Peruvian American investor and entrepreneur who has been involved with a number of investment vehicles and products aimed at broadening financial inclusion.
Monica spent her formative years in Silicon Valley and is a disciple of agile development and user-centered design. The financial inclusion businesses she helped launch include Quona Capital, Accion Frontier Inclusion Fund and its predecessor fund, Frontier Investments Group, Anthuri Catalysts (Cape Town venture c
Allard Luchsinger of Velocity Capital Private Equity talks making sound bets on African startups
Allard Luchsinger is the Director for Private Equity at the Dutch VC firm Velocity Capital Private Equity.
Allard supports all of Velocity’s portfolio companies as an active board member for TradeKing, an innovative US online brokerage firm; 8 Securities, Asia’s next-generation online broker based in Hong Kong; Five Degrees, a progressive banking software provider from The Netherlands; as well as Cellulant, a leading mobile commerce and payment technology provider from Kenya.
He joined Velocit
Stephen Ozoigbo of the African Technology Foundation on plugging startup pipeline gaps
Andile catches up with Stephen Ozoigbo at the inaugural Enterprise Africa Summit that was recently hosted by the British Council in Accra, Ghana.
Ozoigbo is the CEO of The African Technology Foundation. He has dedicated his energies to addressing the obvious gaps in Africa’s tech startup pipeline by championing some of the most high profile ecosystem growth initiatives on the continent— not least, by serving as Managing Partner of Lions@frica, being an key executive supporter of DEMO Africa an
Talking Ladders and Trampolines With Musa Kalenga
We’re still in celebration mode for crossing 100 weekly podcasts in a row. And so as promised, this week, we’re sharing more awesomeness from that event.
Enjoy this candid fireside chat with the talented digital specialist, marketing maven, author, former Africa Client Partner at Facebook, current Head of Brand at IAB South Africa, and Founder and CEO of a new adtech startup called Microtising, Musa Kalenga.
In this conversation, Musa shares loads of insights on starting up in Africa, and tal
Jacques de Vos of Mezzanine Ware on harnessing IoT to improve business efficiencies
Jacques de Vos is the MD of the Vodacom IoT subsidiary, Mezzanine Ware.
Mezzanine deploys mobile (GSM) enabled solutions and helps clients (primarily within the healthcare, agriculture and education services) develop innovative business models that harness IoT technologies to achieve cost efficiencies and improved accessibility.
The Big 100: State of the Startup LIVE
This is our 100th episode! To everyone who's ever listened in to the show, interacted with us via social media, recommended the podcast to other people, made an audio contribution, emailed a comment or question, been featured as a guest, attended one of our live events, tuned in to a live stream on Facebook, or even come on board as a podcast/event sponsor, thank you. We all did this. The love is real, and we salute you!
To celebrate this milestone, we're publishing live audio taped at the Afri
Talking Access To Higher Education With Bola Lawal Of ScholarX
It's been barely a week since we hosted the African Tech Round-up LIVE: State of the Startup event in Johannesburg, and believe it or not, next week will mark the 100th podcast we'll have published in consecutive weeks.
We've done our best to deliver the biggest digital, tech and innovation headlines from Africa and beyond while offering candid analysis and commentary, as well as useful insights gleaned from some of the Africa's leading entrepreneurs, executives, investors and technical talent
The Tech Minute 17-03-2017
The Tech Minute 17-03-2017 by African Tech Roundup
Etisalat Nigeria's Creditors Call In Massive Debt + Simon Dingle On Bitcoin And Blockchain Tech
Mobile telcos on the continent are certainly having a rough time of it on the continent. In the same week that MTN South Africa CEO, Mteto Nyati, announced his resignation, a consortium of banks including Guaranty Trust Bank, Access Bank and Zenith Bank reportedly assumed control of Etisalat Nigeria over an outstanding $1.72 billion loan.
Media reports suggesting that Etisalat Nigeria failed to meet its debt servicing obligations since 2016 have led to speculation over what might have contribut
The Tech Minute 10-03-2017
In this Tech Minute, Brian Lupiya shares the latest on Etisalat Nigeria's $1.72 billion credit dispute with a consortium of banks including Guaranty Trust Bank, Access Bank and Zenith Bank, and reveals which international VOD subcription service has set its sights on seven African countries.
Music credit: Muzikid
The Tech Minute 08-03-2017
Oops... Amazon is still recovering from their embarrassing human error that caused a massive outage of their Simple Storage Service, leading to significant portions of the web to go down for several hours.
For more on that story and one other major news item from the past week, listen in to this Tech Minute with Brian Lupiya.
Music credit: Muzikid
Pule Taukobong of CRE Venture Capital on grooming African founders for success
Pule Taukobong is a Founding Partner at CRE Venture Capital (CRE VC), a seed-focussed fund which invests in technology-enabled startup companies in Sub-Saharan Africa. Their impressive portfolio includes stakes in startups like Andela, Esaja, Angani, Flutterwave and more recently, Yoco.
Pule is responsible for the group's deal flow and performs industry and financial due diligence on both incoming business plans and targeted companies, while also sitting on several startup advisory boards.
In
Nokia's New Dumbphone Dominates Headlines + The Kalenga Conundrum
Whatever you think of Nokia's re-introduction of the legendary 3310 device, you've got to hand it to HMD Global for completely owning Mobile World Congress 2017 in terms of capturing headlines. In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to recall any other major announcement made at the world's premier mobile showcase this year.
In this week's African Tech Round-up, Andile Masuku is joined by Zambian author, speaker and marketer extraordinaire, Musa Kalenga, to work out how much of the hype surrounding Nok
The Tech Minute 02-03-2017
In this Tech Minute-- media reports have surfaced alleging SAP South Africa Managing Director Lawrence Kandaswami's involvement in a kickback scandal linked to the Department of Water and Sanitation. For more on this and other leading tech news from the past week, be sure to spare a minute to listen in.
Music credit: Muzikid
Katlego Maphai of Yoco on innovating within South Africa's mobile payments scene
Katlego Maphai is the co-founder and CEO of the South African mobile payments startup, Yoco.
Yoco launched out of beta in October 2015 and the venture has since acquired over 6 500 merchants, has gone on to process approximately $76,7 million (R1 billion rand) in annualised transactions.
The company has recently announced the conclusion of a Series-A funding round (sum undisclosed) led by two foreign, fintech-focused institutional investors-- US-based Quona Capital (manager of Accion Frontie
The Tech Minute 22-02-2017
In this Tech Minute, Brian Lupiya unpacks how Kenyan banks have teamed up to take on the disruptive threat posed by M-Pesa, and touches on two other leading stories from the latest African Tech Round-up podcast.
Music credit: Muzikid
Business Angels, Blackberry and Tech Bubbles
We're often asked what informs our opinionated take on the biggest tech and innovation headlines each week. Our secret is having five to ten times as many conversations per week than most people.
From established tech entrepreneurs and high-flying C-suite types to striving startup founders, career tech-heads, VC’s, business angels and everyday Africans who are leveraging tech to make a better life for themselves, we talk to everybody.
On this week's African Tech Round-up we've decided to let y
Tomi Davies of ABAN on Africa becoming a serious tech investment destination
While at the World Business Angels Investment Forum 2017, Chris Campbell, co-founder of both the African Business Angels Network (ABAN) and the South African Business Angels Network (SABAN) catches up with Nigerian angel investor and president of ABAN, Tomi Davies, to get his thoughts on how readily the world is starting to think of Africa is a serious tech investment destination.
The Tech Minute 15-02-2017
In the same week that Neotel officially became part of Liquid Telecom (a subsidiary of the Econet Group), Anglophone Cameroon clocked a month of going without internet access. Brian Lupiya shares the details in this Tech Minute.
Music credit: Brian Lupiya
Image credit: Edouard Tamba
Alison Treadaway of Striata on the merits of South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act
Alison Treadaway is a director and shareholder of the South African eBilling and eMarketing software and services company, Striata. In this chat, Alison unpacks the noble aims of South Africa's imminent enaction of the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPI), and highlights some of the pain points that this ground-breaking piece of legislation is expected to address-- gaps that other African countries will no doubt seek to plug through passing personal data laws of their own.
The South African Reserve Bank Is Warming Up To Blockchain Technology
The continent's two most prominent central banks-- the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), have decidedly different attitudes towards the notion of adopting virtual currencies.
While the CBN has recently warned the country's financial institutions and citizens that virtual currencies are not legal tender, the SARB has displayed a willingness to emulate Tunisia by launching a blockchain-based digital version of the South African Rand. With bitcoin showing sig
The Tech Minute 08-02-2017
In this Tech Minute, Brian Lupiya gives the lowdown on an impressive large-scale green project in Cape Town, South Africa and touches on two other leading stories from the latest African Tech Round-up podcast.
Music credit: Muzikid
Lionel Chmilewsky of Cambridge Broadband Networks is bullish on multipoint microwave tech
Lionel Chmilewsky is the CEO of Cambridge Broadband Networks (CBNL), a UK-based, privately-held multipoint microwave tech firm which has an impressive client list that includes seven of the world’s top ten mobile operators-- among them, African biggies like MTN and Vodacom. Lionel shares insights on the state of play on the continent’s wireless network scene, and explains why recent advances in multipoint microwave tech are potentially game-changing.
Internet Blackout Persists In Anglophone Cameroon
The Indomitable Lions of Cameroon are probably still celebrating their win against The Pharaohs of Egypt in the AFCON final. How ironic that roughly 20% of the Central African country’s population was unable to celebrate their national team’s win on social media thanks to the government’s ongoing broadband blackout following anti-government protests in the north-west and south-west regions of that country. No doubt some Cameroonians-- particularly the tech heads who make up the nation’s “Silicon
The Tech Minute 01-02-2017
Got a minute? This brisk, energetic podcast presented by Brian Lupiya delivers the top three digital, tech and innovation stories featured in the latest episode of the African Tech Round-up (AfricanTechRoundup.com).
Music credit: Brian Lupiya
Kwesé TV Poised To Give DStv A Haircut
Africa's 'high-end' VOD scene is hotting up, and for home-grown heavies, ShowMax and Kwesé, the race to achieving critical mass is on.
ShowMax is on the prowl for mobile telco partners that can help it hack growth while leveraging the enviable stash of international licensed content that its mothership, DStv, has in its vault. Meanwhile, Kwesé has the benefit of being part of the Econet Group-- a huge potential advantage in that they might exploit Econet's established mobile distribution networ
The Tech Minute 24-01-2017
Got a minute? This brisk, energetic podcast presented by Brian Lupiya delivers the top three digital, tech and innovation stories featured in the latest episode of the African Tech Round-up (AfricanTechRoundup.com).
Music credit: Brian Lupiya
Mastercard Launches 2KUZE Agtech Marketplace For Farmers In East Africa
Several well-respected voices we featured on the show last year predicted that we would see some major agtech plays happen in 2017. Sure enough, Mastercard made headlines last week for launching a digital marketplace platform called 2KUZE which connects smallholder farmers, agents, buyers and banks in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The app allows farmers to buy, sell and receive payments for agricultural products via their feature phones.
If this initiative works half as well as we hope it will, i
Fintech News Dominates Holiday Headlines + Insights From CES 2017
The team at the African Tech Round-up has returned from the Festive break, and so we’re officially back to our normal programming.
At the tail-end of this episode, Andile Masuku chats with Nicholus Steward, founder and CEO of the Swazi Bridge Project. He attended the world’s biggest tech show, CES 2017 in Las Vegas two weeks ago, and he’ll be sharing insights he gleaned from the event.
We’re also catching up on some biggest stories that broke while we were on holiday, including Standard Bank
Discussing Inclusive Value Chains With Simon Carpenter of SAP Africa
We are one week away from returning to our regular coverage of the week’s biggest digital, tech and innovation headlines, once the team at the African Tech Round-up returns from the Festive break.
This week's show features yet another sneak preview of Season 6 of the African Tech Conversations series. Andile Masuku chats with Simon Carpenter, Chief Technology Officer at SAP Africa. With 2017 well and truly underway, Andile finds out what innovation trend Simon is most excited about.
Music Cred
Unpacking Africa's Solar Power Revolution With Chad Larson Of M-KOPA Solar
This week's episode of the African Tech Round-up features a snippet from Andile Masuku's full-length sit-down with Chad Larson-- one of the three founders of the Kenyan solar power start-up M-KOPA Solar. Chad serves as the company’s Finance Director and Chief Credit Officer. He has lived in Nairobi with his wife and three boys since the company launched in 2011.
Chad is a qualified CFA and an Oxford MBA who previously served as the CFO of the Africap Microfinance Investment Fund, based in Johan
Talking Venture Capital With Eline Blaauboer of TBL Mirror Fund and Safaricom Spark Venture Fund
This week’s African Tech Conversations sneak-peek is drawn from an in-depth chat Andile Masuku had with Eline Blaauboer, Managing Partner at both TBL Mirror Fund and Safaricom Spark Venture Fund.
Eline’s worked in the venture capital and private equity sector in both Europe and Africa for last 14 years— gaining loads of experience with new investments and portfolio management, negotiation and structuring of investment rounds and deal flow generation.
Her latest undertaking is something called
Olivier Laouchez Of TRACE on evolving in the digital media space
Olivier Laouchez, who hails from Martinique (French West Indies), is the charismatic co-founder and CEO of Trace, one of the world's leading urban entertainment platforms which reaches over 200 million multicultural and multiethnic youth in 140 countries around the world.
Initially a print magazine published in New York and London, Trace was relaunched as a multimedia group in 2003, and now operates 20 TV channels under several sub-brands and formats: TRACE Urban, TRACE Tropical, TRACE Toca, TR
Ringing In The Festive Season With Dr Solomon Assefa of IBM
The team at the African Tech Round-up is on break, but while we’re away over the next four weeks, the show will go on!
In place of our regular programming, we’ll share sneak-previews of episodes from the brand-spanking new season of the African Tech Conversations series which starts on Friday, December 16th, 2016. The series features the likes of Eline Blaauboer, Managing Partner at TBL Mirror Fund and Safaricom Spark Venture Fund, Chad Larson, Co-founder and Chief Credit Officer at M-KOPA, Si
Brett Parker of SAP Africa on helping large enterprise clients maintain their competitive edge
Brett Parker is the Managing Director of SAP Africa. In this chat with Andile Masuku, he reveals some of the most critical strategic decisions made by SAP’s global leadership back in 2010, that helped the software giant maintain its dominant position in an increasingly competitive global market. Brett also highlights some of the fascinating greenfield opportunities SAP is pursuing on the continent and explains why SAP is well-positioned to partner with enterprises looking to navigate digital tra
Dr Chakib Bouhdary of SAP clears up commonly held misconceptions regarding digital transformation
Moroccan-born Dr Chakib Bouhdary is SAP’s global Digital Transformation Officer. In this chat with Andile Masuku, he shares some of the most common misconceptions he encounters regarding digital transformation when he interacts with executives around the world. Chakib also comments on the strategic mindset driving the trend towards large enterprises keenly making big plays outside their traditional businesses.
Zebra Cabs Raises $21.6 Million To Take On Uber And Taxify In South Africa
SA Taxi-owned Zebra Cabs has raised just over $21.6 million from Futuregrowth Asset Management to expand their owner-driver scheme in Johannesburg, and to take on Uber and Taxify. Their big hairy audacious goal is to have 3 000 cabs on the road by 2020.
This development has got us wondering how many players Africa’s ride-sharing market can sustain. There must be easier ways to make a buck, but it seems the prospect of carving out a decent chunk of a potentially multi-billion dollar industry is
Dr Vukosi Marivate of South Africa’s CSIR on the importance of data security regulation
This is a lively chat Andile Masuku had with Dr Vukosi Marivate, a Data Scientist and Senior Researcher at South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). They speak about the trend towards countries around the world passing laws that require the personal information of their citizens to be hosted on servers within their borders. We reached out to Vukosi after having some insightful engagement with him on Twitter last week; following our coverage of Russia blocking LinkedIn
Senegal Launches A New Electronic Currency
Senegal is now the second African country after Tunisia to adopt an electronic currency. eCFA is equivalent in value to the country’s physical tender and will be available on all mobile money and e-wallet platforms. This development has led to e-money proponents speculating which African country might be next to adopt electronic money. Zimbabwe, perhaps?
It’s popularly been argued that given the persistent economic troubles that have dogged the country, Zimbabwe might very well be the continent
Milena Taieb on how Believe Digital Studios is disrupting traditional broadcasting
Milena Taieb is the Head of Video for France, Africa and the Middle East at Believe Digital Studios— the world’s leading multi-channel network (MCN) specialising in multi-platform distribution, audience development and content monetisation. Believe Studios is YouTube’s #1 Partner in Europe, garnering 4 Billion views per month, across 60 Genre Channels and 10K Partner Channels.
In this chat, Milena reveals how Believe has upended the traditional music and video production business, and why despit
Kenyan Agritech Startup WeFarm Secures $1.6 Million In Funding
How much of an over-achiever is Elon Musk fixing to become, though? In the last week, he’s added providing global internet coverage via a massive satellite network to his audacious To-do List. In this week’s African Tech Round-up Andile Masuku reflects on how Musk’s latest ambition might upset net neutrality watchdogs around the world who might not trust SpaceX to responsibly execute on something they don’t trust the likes of Google and Facebook to do.
Also in this week’s show is more about per
Vodacom South Africa To Launch An SVOD Platform Called Vodacom On Demand
Trace TV is fixing to launch arguably the most hotly anticipated SVOD offering of the year, Trace Play. Their ambitious roll-out will involve making Trace Play available in English and French in 100 countries around the world. Trace’s Co-founder and CEO Olivier Laouchez is clearly serious about making sure that Trace TV remains the #1 urban network outside of the US.
This past week, Vodacom South Africa announced the planned launch of an SVOD of their own called Vodacom On Demand. They plan to
Jason Njoku on iROKO exploiting traditional media plays on the way to a digital-led future
Jason Njoku is the inimitable Nigerian founder and CEO of the internet and entertainment group, iROKO. In this chat with Andile Masuku, Jason talks about how his group of companies is making lucrative traditional media plays while growing digital content platforms and producing local content for what's likely to be mobile-driven future.
Ntambwe Harlem Mufoncol of Baziks Pulse talks taking on music streaming in the DRC
Ntambwe Harlem Mufoncol, one of the co-founders of Baziks Pulse— a neat music streaming platform from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In this chat Andile Masuku, Ntambwe shares how well African music lovers has so far taken to their recent launch and explains what makes their platform better suited for the African market than their global competition.
Highlights From DISCOP Johannesburg and Digital Lab Africa (featuring Jason Njoku of iROKO)
Andile Masuku and Brian Lupiya spent three days last week at DISCOP Johannesburg— Africa’s biggest multi-screen, multi-platform marketplace, assessing trends within the continent’s digital content scene.
They spent most of our time collecting insights at the fringe of Digital Lab Africa (DLA)— a DISCOP partner initiative that aims to be a springboard for African multimedia talent looking to launch worthy projects and business ideas within digital music, web creation, virtual reality and video g
The Kenya Revenue Authority Says Uber Will Not Be Subject To Value-Added Tax
In this week’s African Tech Round-up, we ask the question, “Should Uber’s wings be clipped before they change the world as we know it?”
Lawmakers on the continent appear torn between adopting the pragmatic approach of embracing technological innovation and actively resisting the very real threat of change bringing with it the decimation of the traditional livelihoods of thousands of people who are simply not prepared or willing to adapt.
In the past week, the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has
80: Kenya Commercial Bank Gets Hacked?
So, Episode 80 of the African Tech Round-up, aka the episode that nearly never happened, is finally out.
In an interview Andile Masuku just taped for the upcoming season of the African Tech Conversations series, Co-founder and Chief Credit Officer of M-KOPA Solar, Chad Larson, shared words he lives by that epitomise why I’m glad the team didn’t give up on publishing the podcast this week— despite the ridiculousness that made it nearly impossible to do so. “Done is always better than perfect,”
Rwanda Launches World's First Drone Delivery Service
Rwanda has helped Africa beat the rest of the world to rolling out a commercial drone delivery service.
The land of a thousand hills has partnered with the UPS Foundation, Gavi, and the Californian drone startup Zipline, to start using drones to deliver life-saving medical supplies to hard-to-reach places in the country.
Zipline's autonomous drones will now fly blood and plasma to places where poor road conditions often result in delays to time-critical deliveries of medical supplies for hou
Julian von Plato on how PockitTV & Stream.Digital are pushing short-form digital content
Digital video content creator, streaming evangelist and co-founder of Pockitttv, Julian von Plato joins Andile Masuku to chat about VOD trends and the adoption of streaming technology on the continent.
In this conversation, Julian explains why he believes that mobile is the future of video content consumption in Africa, and why PockitTV, Sstreamm's new VOD platform (in partnership with MTN), is a great way for savvy video producers to distribute their content.
Tecno Plans To Start Manufacturing Mobile Devices In Nigeria
This week’s African Tech Round-up episode is jam-packed. Digital video content creator, streaming evangelist and co-founder of Pockitttv, Julian von Plato joins me to chat about VOD trends and the adoption of streaming technology on the continent, then TechCabal.com’s Editor-in-chief, Bankole Oluwafemi aka Lord Banks factors in on MTN’s ongoing run-ins with the Nigerian Communications Commission.
The past week saw internet access being blocked in Ethiopia in an effort to quell violent anti-gove
The Co-Founders of Airbuy on promoting financial inclusion
Andile Masuku chats with the four co-founders of a promising South African start-up called Airbuy— a business which plans to help people convert airtime into “airbucks” that they can use to purchase goods and services online. The chaps are still celebrating their recent win at an MIT Global Startup Labs competition hosted at Wits University, and they allow us a peek under the hood of their passionate entrepreneurial hustle.
MTN Group Accused Of Sneaking Nearly $14 Billion Out Of Nigeria
There’s blood in the water. Nigerian lawmakers are flexing their might with a confidence rarely seen in decades past— at least as far as taking large corporates to task for flouting regulations.
According to some media reports a member of the Nigerian Senate has put forward a motion for the house to investigate MTN Nigeria’s potential collusion with leading commercial banks to facilitate the illegal repatriation of funds over the last ten years. MTN is being accused of sneaking just under $14 b
Kenyan Solar Company D.Light Lands $22.5 Million To Fund Growth
In a week which saw Yahoo announce that it had suffered the worst cyber-breach in history, and all three of Egypt’s incumbent mobile telcos opting not to bid for the 4G licenses being floated by the Egyptian government, Kenyan solar company, D.Light, shone brightly by announcing that they had raised $22.5 million in funding from leading VC’s, debt financiers and non-profit organisations. The money will be used to grow D.Light’s PayGo business globally— a pay-as-you-go offering which enables low-
Barclays Africa's Blockchain Transaction A World First
It’s been a busy week for the continent’s fintech scene.
The past week saw MTN South Africa announce that it would be discontinuing its mobile money service due to “a lack of commercial viability”. This revelation comes months after Vodacom South Africa ended it’s catastrophic attempt at copying and pasting Kenya’s M-Pesa magic.
Meanwhile, Madagascar became only the second African country after Tanzania to to roll out mobile money interoperability across the country's mobile networks.
But ea
Ernesto Spruyt of Tunga.io on plugging the world into African coding talent
Ernesto Spruyt is the founder of https://tunga.io, an online market network that provides international clients access to African coding talent. He also happens to serve as Chief Mentor for Telegraph Media Group’s DigitalX accelerator program in Amsterdam.
Among some of the things Ernesto chatted to Andile Masuku about is what prompted him to come to Africa looking for coding talent, and what he reckons African coders who aspire to having international careers ought to be keeping top of mind.
Ismael Rachdaoui on how nextwi is leveraging WiFi technology in innovative ways
Ismael Rachdaoui is the young, Moroccan founder of nextwi, a marketing platform that leverages Wi-Fi technology to help small and large business owners (primarily in the the hospitality industry) engage their clients/guests more intuitively based on their social profiles and online preferences and behaviour.
Brian Ondari of AirKlip on building the perfect personal assistant for varsity students
Brian Ondari is both the co-founder and Chief Operations Officer at AirKlip, a promising Kenyan startup that aims to become every university student’s personal assistant by creating a simple collaborative environment (app) for students and administrators.
Harry Hare of DEMO Africa on unearthing promising founding talent
Harry Hare is the founder and publisher of CIO East Africa, an ICT information platform that has a monthly print publication (CIO East Africa), an online ICT portal (www.cio.co.ke) and a series of events including the CIO Executive Breakfast Series, the CIO Golf Series and the CIO 100 Awards and Symposium.
He is also the founder and Director of African eDevelopment Resource Centre, as well as the founder of DEMO Africa 2012, a flagship initiative of LIONS @frica which has showcased over 150 sta
Afrimarket Lands €10 Million To Deploy E-commerce Platform Across Francophone Africa
The French e-commerce startup, Afrimarket, has raised €10 million from the Global Innovation Fund and the private sector arm of the French Development Agency (AFD), Proparco, as well from as a handful of individual investors such as the co-founder of PriceMinister, Olivier Mathiot, who’s been granted a seat on Afrimarket’s board.
At a glance, the company seems to have it made-- except that growth within the e-commerce sector across the continent has consistently failed to meet expectations, and
Lexi Novitske of Singularity Investments believes the world's next unicorn will be African
Lexi Novitske is the Principal Investment Officer for Africa at Singularity Investments. Lexi is based in Lagos and has interesting insights on picking winning investments as an outsider working in a continent with a notorious dearth of data. She strongly believes that Africa could very well deliver the world’s next unicorn.
Mark Zuckerberg Goes On A Charm Offensive In Nigeria And Kenya
Mark Zuckerberg’s much-publicised trip to the continent spawned dozens of think-pieces in the blogosphere this past week.
Many pundits clearly view Mark’s 'surprise' visit to Nigeria and Kenya as an affirmation of the continent’s importance as a valuable source of under-utilised tech talent, and as a hot-bed of home-grown innovation. Others read it as a pre-cursor to a massive wave of foreign investment that's expected to wash over the continent’s technology industry. We, on the other hand, can
Angel Investor Farouk Jivani on adopting a hands-on approach to investing in early-stage startups
Farouk Jivani is a business consultant-turned angel investor who has invested in a couple of Kenyan startups-- one of them being the music downloads platform, Mdundo.com.
In this chat, Farouk describes the allure of African markets to angel investors based abroad, and shares on what it's like to be a hands-on investor in early-stage businesses that have the potential to be the next big thing.
Tsholo Mogotsi on the City of Joburg's smart-city aspirations
Tsholo Mogotsi in the Director for Economic Development Facilitation at the City of Joburg. In this chat with Andile Masuku Tsholo talks about the City of Joburg's commitment to lead the continent in providing it's citizens with the most advanced web-enabled infrastructure. He also sheds light on the role of public institutions in promoting innovation on the continent.
Amrote Abdella on Microsoft's efforts to remain relevant in the face of disruption
Amrote Abdella is the Director for Venture Capital & Start-ups and Africa Initiatives (Microsoft 4Afrika) at Microsoft.
In this chat with Andile Masuku, Amrote shares what it’s like to be embedded in one of the world’s largest tech companies, and being deployed in arguably the world’s fastest growing tech market(s).
Listen in to hear Amrote’s take on how Microsoft is responding to next generation tech biggies like Google and Uber’s disruptive ambitions and what Microsoft might consider their n
Stephen Ozoigbo talks leaving investment banking to promote African innovation
Stephen Ozoigbo is the CEO of the African Technology Foundation and the Managing Partner of the US State Department-backed Lions @frica initiative.
In this conversation with Andile Masuku, Stephen talks about his journey from investment banking to being one of Africa's foremost tech and innovation evangelists.
Stephen's high-profile community-building efforts within the continent's burgeoning tech ecosystem allows him to eloquently address the challenge of keeping up with global innovation fa
Naspers Wilting In The Heat + DEMO Africa 2016 Highlights
The gravy train may well be over at Africa’s largest tech company (by market value)— Naspers.
Naspers CEO, Koos Bekker, told investors late last week that the coming year is going to be a trying one for the company. At this point, Naspers has only one card up its sleeve, and it’s called Tencent Holdings. After all, Naspers’ 33 percent stake in the Chinese technology company currently accounts for almost half its revenue, and its internet and pay-tv businesses are stalling at a time when they de
Econet Wireless Set To Roll Out Shine's Ad Blocking Service
Econet Wireless has recently announced that all ±40 million of their subscribers in Africa will benefit from Shine’s ad blocking service— starting with those in Zimbabwe.
This deal represents Shine’s first deployment on the continent, following partnerships they’ve struck with the likes of the Caribbean mobile operator, Digicel, and Three Group in the UK and Italy.
There’s no doubt about it, life is about to get a little tougher for online media platforms that rely on ad revenue to survive, as
Not-so-little Trademark Faux Pas Leaves Safaricom and Craft Silicon Red-faced
Safaricom and Craft Silicon both took an “L” this past week.
As it turns out, they neglected to trademark the Little Cabs brand name before launching their ride-sharing service some weeks ago. And now, they’ve had to drop the word “Cab” from their brand after the “Little Cab” trademark-holder went to court to defend his right to use that name. From now on, they are to be known as Little.
The whole situation is more than a little embarrassing to say the least, and reminds me of the wisdom MiPho
Babusi Nyoni Of M&C SAATCHI Abel on the rise of AI-deployment
Babusi Nyoni is a Cape town-based Zimbabwean digital all-rounder. Babusi is the Digital Creative Group Head at South Africa’s #1 ranked through-the-line agency, M&C SAATCHI Abel.
Andile Masuku catches up with Babusi to discuss an AI-enabled campaign he recently masterminded and executed for a global FMCG brand, and to chat about the rise of machine learning and artificial intelligence in general. Tune in to hear him factor in on what the world might look and feel like when those technologies be
MTN Group Reports Losses In Mid-Year Results For 2016
MTN Group’s warning that their interim financial results for the period ending June 30th 2016 would be unpleasant did a lot to absorb the shock when reality struck last Friday— the day the report eventually dropped.
Despite revenue for the interim period improving by ±US$5.7 billion, MTN reported an after tax loss attributable to equity holders of just over US$401 thousand. That translates to a headline loss per share of nearly US$0.20. Compare that with 2015’s headline earnings of just under U
Kinnevik's Half-Year Financial Report Sheds Light On Their Investment In Nigeria's Konga
Who knew that a little quarterly update by a publicly-traded Swedish investment firm could get Nigeria’s e-commerce fraternity all worked up? Not we.
So, as Kinnevik was going about its business last week, the firm released its Second Quarter Report which detailed the performance of its subsidiaries around the world. That simple act of due diligence on Kinnevik’s part (which admittedly is something that happens every quarter without fail, but only garnered media attention in Nigeria this time r
Telkom South Africa In The Lead With Game Changing Mobile Packages
Data costs need to come down significantly if Africa is ever going to realise the dream of making access to the internet available to every single person living on the continent.
As things stand, according to a new research report by Global Market Insights, an estimated 590 million Africans still do not have access to electricity, to say nothing of reliable web access.
However, South Africa’s largest telecoms operator, the government-owned Telkom, has announced some game-changing 4G/LTE data-
Jaco Van Zyl Of PulseIt on navigating the challenges of the the online voucher business
Jaco Van Zyl is the co-founder and MD of the South African startup, PulseIt— a company which is looking to give online voucher firms like Vouchercloud, Groupon and Shazam a run for their money.
In this chat Jaco Van Zyl explain swhy so many VC’s and African tech firms seem quite bullish on the online voucher business, and why he thinks his startup has what it takes to steal market share from more established international players and fend off newer players like ttrumpet who are just as hungry f
Codeacademy Receives $30 Million Investment Lead By Naspers Ventures
There’s no doubt that online education is a hot ticket at the moment.
While the folks at Andela are probably still celebrating landing $24 million worth of investment courtesy of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and others, the New York-based Codecademy has closed a $30 million Series C investment round led by Naspers, through its Naspers Ventures division.
Codecademy plans to use the funds to extend its global reach, build its mobile presence, and beef up its course content. It does seem that
Will Facebook's OpenCellular Crush BRCK?
Last week, the global digital behemoth that is Facebook announced that they’ll be rolling out the OpenCellular system worldwide. OpenCellular is said to be an inexpensive, weather-resistant and fully customisable platform that will be able to serve as a wireless access point for connecting devices using 2G, LTE or even Wi-Fi.
While this move by Facebook is no doubt just a footnote in the company’s playbook for achieving complete digital dominance, one wonders if this could signal the beginning
African Spirit American Spin
It’s the 4th of July, and in honour of the fact that our biggest audience outside of Africa is based in the USA, this week’s African Tech Round-up episode has a decidedly American spin.
Playing guest-host in this instalment is very good friend of the show, aka “The American Homie”, Trevor Wolfe— Co-founder and CEO of Delvv.io.
Trevor is fresh off a plane from Europe and the States where he’s successfully closed a round of funding for his crowdsourced research startup. In addition to factoring
Kenya's Buni.tv Acquired by Trace TV
One of the more surprising things that came out of a recent conversation Andile Masuku had with BT’s Managing Director for Sub-Saharan Africa, Oliver Fortuin is his answer when asked (somewhat unfairly) what disruptive trend could potentially render BT redundant in the next decade. His answer? The trend towards consolidated media ownership. Listen in to this week’s African Tech Round-up to hear Oliver unpack that answer.
Meanwhile, the French Urban television network Trace TV’s acquisition of K
Uber Domination
Despite the considerable push-back Uber has experienced in certain African markets, the firm’s march towards utter and complete world domination continued last week as they launched in Tanzania’s capital city, Dar es Salaam.
Dar es Salaam is the 3rd African city Uber has taken to in as many weeks (following Luanda, Uganda and Accra, Ghana) and their 475th location worldwide. Since launching in Johannesburg in 2012, Uber has quietly gone about silencing many of the doubts that sceptics have had
Charles Murray of ttrumpet on the ultra-competitive world of lifestyle apps
Ever wonder what it might be like to run a startup that’s owned by a successful tech company, backed by one of Africa’s wealthiest entrepreneurs? Well, one thing is for sure— it’s no walk in the park. At least, that’s according to Charles Murray.
Charles is a director of a messaging and internet calling app called ttrumpet that’s looking to capture a big share of Africa’s digital vouchering market. ttrumpet-- dubbed a "lifestyle app", is a subsidiary of Fastcomm, a tech group that boasts having
Is MTN Nigeria's Nightmare Over? (feat. Charles Murray)
On Friday, June 10th 2016 MTN’s stock price on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange jumped by 20%. This happened in the wake of the news that the firm’s nine-month Nigerian nightmare might finally be coming to an end.
MTN has reportedly struck a deal with the Nigerian government, and is set to pay the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) $1.7 billion over three years— significantly less than the $5.2 billion they were initially fined for flouting SIM card registration regulations months ago.
W
Naspers Now Worth Over ZAR 1 Trillion
If there were a race to being Africa’s largest media and internet company, out of fairness to other firms in the running, Naspers would probably be asked not to enter.
After seeing its share price rise to an all-time high on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange last week— reaching R2,320.73 per share, pushing its market value to R1,02 trillion (±$6,7 billion), it’s now a matter of “catch me if you can” as far as any of the firm’s competitors closing in on them.
In this week’s African Tech Round-up
Ghana's Police Threaten Social Media Blackout
Turns out Ghana’s top cop— Inspector General of Police John Kudalor thinks that blocking social media access across the country might be necessary to ensure Ghana’s national security on election day in November 2016.
Mr Kudalor reckons that Ghana might do well to learn from the example set by other countries on the continent and around the world that have take similar steps in the recent past— Uganda no doubt being top of mind.
It's likely that the Inspector General’s comments might have been
Brian Anderson unpacks FIS Africa online stokvel (savings club) solution
Brian Anderson is the Head of Sales and Business Development at Fidelity National Information Services (FIS), a NYSE-listed firm specialising in banking and payments technology as well as consulting and outsourcing solutions— which acquired one of the world’s leading financial software and technology services companies SunGard in 2015. The company services 20,000 clients in 130 countries and has 55,000 employees and $9.3 billion in revenue. Brian speaks to Andile Masuku about the company's next
Uber Driver Partners Attacked In Johannesburg (feat. Brian Anderson)
Late last week a violent attack on two Uber partner vehicles in the Sandton Central Business District led to the injury of three police officers who attended the scene to calm things down, and also resulted in the damage of two law enforcement vehicles.
The assault on the Uber partners’ cars is said to have been carried out by a group of meter taxi drivers unhappy with Uber’s disruption of their livelihood. One man has reportedly been arrested in connection with the incident.
Meanwhile, the qu
Vodacom Admits That M-Pesa Roll-out In South Africa Flopped (feat. Dominique Collett)
Vodacom is finally pulling the plug on their disastrous six-year attempt to roll out M-Pesa in South Africa. (The service will be shut down on June 30th 2016.)
Funny thing is, Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub has blamed his company’s diabolical failure to meet their target of enlisting at least 10 million active users on South Africa’s relatively well-established banking industry. (By the end of 2015 they had only managed to onboard a paltry 76,000 active users.)
However, Joosub’s assertion does no
What's The Big Deal With WiFi? (feat. Riaan Graham)
Following our coverage last week of the partnership between VAST Networks and Ruckus Wireless to deliver on Africa’s largest single deployment of WiFi infrastructure at the recently opened Mall of Africa in Midrand, South Africa— we thought it might be a good idea to invite a certified WiFi-freak to help us understand why WiFi may indeed be “the next big thing” in terms of ushering in seamless connectedness on the continent.
Joining me on the African Tech Round-up this week is Riaan Graham, Ruc
Vodacom Eats Humble Pie Over Please-Call-Me Idea
There’s no doubt Kenneth Nkosana Makate is celebrating Workers’ Day in style following a South African Constitutional Court judge ruling that Vodacom owes him a big fat cheque for profiting from his Please-Call-Me idea for well over a decade. This brings to a close Nkosana’s 15-year legal battle with the mobile network. Or does it?
In this episode of the African Tech Round-up, Tefo Mohapi and I unpack this landmark case and speculate over just how much Nkosana’s legal team might gun for in term
Tax Free Mobile Devices vs. Drone Delivered HIV Testing Kits
There is so much hype around the potential of technological innovation to lift Africa out of poverty and usher the continent into an era of peace and progress.
I get a little annoyed when such rhetoric is bandied about by corporate marketers who know better than to think that free WiFi and cheap mobile devices will solve the massive structural socio-economic problems plaguing the continent.
Providing the backdrop for this week’s discussion on the African Tech Round-up is the news that the Mal
A Year Of Great African Tech Conversations
And so our First Birthday Celebration continues…
Over the past year, our sister podcast, African Tech Conversations, has featured relaxed in-depth chats with leading entrepreneurs, innovators and thought-leaders from Africa’s tech scene. In place of this week’s discussion on the African Tech Round-up, we’re sharing memorable moments from the series.
In this episode, you can look forward to hearing candid bits and insights courtesy of Mteto Nyathi, Alan Knott-Craig Jr, Matsi Modise, Ashley Veas
Celebrating The African Tech Round-Up's First Birthday!
The African Tech Round-up turns one today, and it’s difficult not be sentimental.
It’s been an incredibly rewarding year! We set out to provide some much-needed coverage of the biggest digital, tech and innovation news stories from the African continent— minus all the PR-soaked click-bait and consumer-driven tech chatter one tends to find all over the web. We’ve certainly done our best to deliver on that mandate.
In producing the show over the last 52 weeks, we hope that like us, you’ve come
Mbwana Alliy of Savannah Fund on the advantages of being a homegrown venture capitalist
Mbwana Alliy is the founder and managing partner at Savannah Fund, an Africa focused Technology Venture Capital fund that runs both an accelerator and seed investments in e-commerce, gaming, education technology and social networking.
In this not-so-quick chat with Andile Masuku and Tefo Mohapi, Mbwana shares insights on the venture capital scene in Sub-Saharan Africa, and fields tough questions about the very public troubles at one of his more high-profile investments-- the cloud data servic
Tawanda Kembo of BitFinance & Vusi Ndebele of PayNow on Zimbabwe's emerging tech scene
At Afrikoin Joburg 2015, hosted at Alpha Code in December 2015, Andile Masuku spoke to two leading Zimbabwean startup founders with businesses in the fintech space, and asked them to unpack why Zimbabwe might be the perfect use-case for disruptive fintech innovations.
Nigerian House of Representatives Calls For MTN Nigeria To Pay Over $10bn
MTN’s West African headache is now officially a chronic migraine. Just as the MTN Group thought the worst was over, lawmakers in Nigeria’s House of Representatives decided to shake things up. Some members have declared any concession (promised or granted by the Nigerian Communications Commission) in terms of the $5.2 billion fine that MTN Nigeria was charged some months ago, “unlawful”. Others have gone as far as saying that if Nigerian law is correctly applied, the fine ought to be doubled. We’
Lungisa Matshoba Of Yoco & Shafin Anwarsha Of Giraffe on repping Africa's startup scene abroad
Lungisa Matshoba is a Co-founder & Director of the Cape Town-based fintech startup, Yoco, and Shafin Anwarsha is Founder & Head of Product at Giraffe— a Johannesburg-based mobile recruitment startup. The two are well-regarded poster boys for South Africa’s emerging startup scene. Both their firms are currently enjoying a season of relative success as their businesses continue to gain traction and land the backing of venture capitalist interests.
Among other things, Lungisa and Shafin chat to A
Geraldine Mitchley of Visa Sub-Saharan Africa on buying in innovation
Geraldine Mitchley is the Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships and Emerging Payments at Visa Sub-Saharan Africa. Andile Masuku caught up with her at Nest.vc's recent #WhatsNext #FinTech event in Johannesburg and asked her to describe Visa's approach to acquiring fintech startups that might be able to deliver the type of innovative solutions they might have difficulty developing in-house.
How Ridiculous Is This? South Africa Is Looking To Ban Netflix!
There are media reports doing the rounds regarding South Africa’s Film and Publication Board (FPB) Chief Operating Officer Sipho Risiba supposedly giving Netflix a two-week ultimatum to comply with its regulatory requirements (whatever those are), or risk facing tough sanctions.
Word is, Risiba recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the Kenya Film Commission in a show of support for Kenya's mission to regulate Netflix’s activities within that country. Despite details around this mat
Dare Okoudjou of MFS Africa on the future of mobile money in Africa
Dare Okoudjou is the CEO of MFS Africa-- a firm which specialises in “making simple and relevant financial services accessible through mobile phones across Africa”. His international consulting background and current role as overseer of MFS Africa’s business across 22 African countries inform his perspectives on what might be next for the continent’s fintech scene.
In this chat with Andile Masuku, Dare factors in on a broad range of topics, including what financial services incumbents might be
Sechaba Ngwenya of Creditable on playing nice with financial services incumbents (for now)
Sechaba Ngwenya is the co-founder of fintech startup, Creditable, that is currently enjoying the support of VC’s like Nest.vc while “playing nicely” with financial incumbents like DBS Hong Kong to establish the commercial viability to their innovative banking solutions.
Sechaba lets Andile Masuku in on what it’s taken to get his company to the relatively peachy phase they are now operating in, and dishes on the tricky business of securing the trust of existing financial institutions that have h
Will These FinTech Startups Disrupt Incumbents?
Last week, the Standard Bank Incubator in Johannesburg played host to Nest.vc’s forum on finance and technology. The gathering formed part Nest’s monthly entrepreneurship speaker series and showcase dubbed #WhatsNext.
It is the very first #WhatsNext event that Nest has hosted in Southern Africa— doing so in partnership with Standard Bank South Africa, and with support provided by iAfrikan and the African Tech Round Up.
In this week’s discussion, Zimbabwean tech entrepreneur and Business Anal
Vodacom Accused Of Stealing An Idea, Again!
Vodacom is reportedly fielding a lawsuit filed by a South African company called Ndabenhle Business Enterprises CC. Word is, Ndabenhle is alleging that Vodacom stole the “Airtime Advance” idea from them and ran with it, leaving them in the cold. Vodacom’s Airtime Advance innovation allows prepaid subscribers who run out of airtime to get R5 or R10 in prepaid minutes on credit and only pay it back when they recharge, with a little interest of course.
In this episode of the African Tech Round-up,
Aaron Fu on Nest.vc's distinct approach to deploying venture capital in Africa
Andile Masuku had a lively chat with Aaron Fu, Managing Partner (Africa) at NEST recorded during his first proper visit to Johannesburg in December 2015. They talked about everything from what he’s personally looking forward to in 2016 to what strikes his fancy in his professional capacity as the head of a leading VC firm on the continent.
Craig Wilson on the the best from Mobile World Congress 2016
Andile Masuku chats to Stuff Magazine South Africa Editor, Craig Wilson, about all the biggest news to come out of the Mobile World Congress 2016-- that went down in Barcelona.
Mobile World Congress 2016 (feat. Craig Wilson, Talib Graves-Manns & Brien Jordan-Jack)
Aspirational mobile trends like virtual reality are all well and good, but as Africans we must still grapple with the practical implications of having a massive percentage of mobile users on the continent continuing to rely on feature phones.
In this week’s episode of the African Tech Round-up, Stuff Magazine South Africa Editor and good friend of the show, Craig Wilson joins Andile Masuku to unpack some of the highlights of Mobile World Congress 2016— which wrapped in Barcelona just over a wee
Talib Graves-Manns And Brien Jordan-Jack on starting up while black in the US
Andile Masuku got to hang with two interesting African-American entrepreneurs who were in South Africa on business, and gleaned insights on the start-up scene they hail from.
Talib Graves-Manns is the Entrepreneur in Residence with Google for Entrepreneurs and Code2040 at the American Underground in Durham, North Carolina. Talib is also the Co-Founder of three startups: RainbowMe Kids, Point AB, and Life on Autopilot.
Brien Jordan-Jack is an aerospace engineer, and a celebrated commercial ai
Nigeria's Communications Comission Accepts MTN Nigeria's 'Chump Change' Settlement
It would seem that MTN might be off the hook over the small matter of the several billion dollars it owes/owed the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC)— proving to many that “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”, or as Tefo Mohapi so eloquently put it in this week’s episode of the African Tech Round-up, “TIA”.
MTN Nigeria seems to have taken the casual legal advice of a certain Kyle Torrington of LexNove who joined me on last week’s show and suggested that the
Museveni Won, But Did Uganda Decide?
Uganda’s most closely contested election in decades pitted the victorious incumbent, Yoweri Museveni, against seven other candidates, including his former doctor, Kizza Besigye, and ex-prime minister, Amama Mbabazi.
While polls leading up to the election showed that Mr Museveni had a comfortable lead over his nearest rival, there was still the open question of the winning candidate needing to secure more than 50% of the vote to avoid a run-off with the second-ranked contender. (Mr Museveni even
#FreeBasicsMustFall
Facebook is still smarting from having Free Basics kicked out of India. Clearly no one was more upset by India’s emphatic rejection of Mark Zuckerberg’s walled garden project than venture capitalist and Facebook board member, Marc Andreessen, who took to Twitter last week to express his frustration at the country’s decision— a move that was met by global outrage.
Nevertheless, we have Andreessen to thank for inspiring our discussion on this week’s episode of the African Tech Round-up, and re-i
Siya Xuza And Dr Jerry Gule factor in on promoting homegrown tech innovation
Siyabulela Xuza is a young engineering graduate from Harvard, who got his start in science very young, experimenting with rocket fuel in his mother’s kitchen in a little rural town in the Eastern Cape, South Africa.
While still very young, he would later become quite well-known for his prowess in the field of energy engineering, winning numerous awards and endowments from around the world— so much so that he even had a planet named after him.
These days, he’s back on the continent, and alongs
Should Uber Leave Kenya?
No doubt about it— it’s an unsettling time to be an Uber driver in Kenya. This past week, more reports of intimidation and violence against Uber drivers have been reported in Nairobi. And you can be certain that the beef is not over Uber’s shocking new logo.
It appears Uber’s presence in the East African nation has begun to to seriously offend the nationalist sensibilities of some Kenyans. In this week’s discussion on the African Tech Round-up, Tefo Mohapi and I try and wrap our minds around t
SEACOM Experiences Second Major Outage In As Many Weeks
The soul-destroying Twitter outages and more recent SEACOM broadband disruptions notwithstanding, the team at the AfricanTechRoundup.com has been extremely busy since we properly got 2016 on the go a few weeks ago. So busy in fact, that Tefo Mohapi was unable to join Andile Masuku on the show this week. (Heads up. This week’s episode will be uncharacteristically short, but informative, nonetheless.)
Music Credits:
Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Music licensed under Creative Commons: B
Apple, Sony And Samsung Face Child Labour Allegations In The DRC
We had to face a tough truth this week. The fact is that we are complicit in the perpetuation of horrible crimes against humanity. And if you’re reading this right now, it’s likely that you are too.
If you’re an enthusiastic user of the useful tech products made by the likes of Apple, Sony and Samsung (as we are), then you’re contributing to the on-going exploitation of children as young as seven years of age in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In this week’s episode of the African Tech Roun
Why Is South Africa Looking To Regulate Services Like WhatsApp?
African lawmakers are struggling to come to grips with the opportunities and threats presented by various important innovations being spurred by technological advancement— this as they carry out the unenviable task of safeguarding public welfare.
In this week’s episode of the African Tech Round-up, Tefo Mohapi and Andile Masuku discuss some of the more troublesome regulatory issues that are cropping up in countries like South Africa, Kenya and even Morocco— where VoIP apps have recently been ba
Netflix & Buffering (featuring Emeka Okoye and Aaron Fu)
We’re just loving this trend of brilliant Africans crashing our podcast recordings. The last time that happened we had a total blast with Rebecca Enonchong, Mark Kaigwa and Thebe Ikalafeng.
This week, Nigerian software engineering heavyweight, Emeka Okoye, literally walked into the room as Tefo Mohapi and Andile Masuku were chatting about about how Africa seemed to be responding to Netflix’s surprise roll-out of its service to pretty much every corner of the planet. Be sure to listen in to hear
Musa Kalenga & Kali Ilunga Get You, Digital Africans, Pumped Up For 2016
Happy New Year!
The African Tech Round-up team is only one week away from being back on strike to bring you the most important digital, tech and innovation news from across the African continent.
This week though, we round off our coverage of the Annual Round-up 2015 with two awesome keynote addresses. The first is one is entitled, “Where To From Here” presented by Musa Kalenga who is Africa Client Partner at Facebook, as well as Head of Brand, IAB (SA). And the second talk entitled, “Digital
Craig Wilson, Kojo Baffoe and Jade Brennan Talk Gadgets & Apps Trends In Africa For 2015
We let you in on a panel discussion from the Annual Round-up 2015 that covered some of the past year’s highlights from from a gadgets and apps perspective.
Andile Masuku leads this laid-back conversation with Deputy Editor of Stuff Magazine and Technology Analyst, Craig Wilson, Director of Project Fable, Kojo Baffoe and Digital Content Specialist at Caxton Magazines and Contributor at TechGirl.co.za, Jade Brennan.
While we talked about everything from wearables to virtual reality— highlighting
Andrew Taylor & Mich Atagana Discuss 2015 Tech Startup Trends For Africa
In the second instalment of our four-part Annual Round-up 2015 insights series, we bring you a panel discussion on African startups featuring Google South Africa’s Head of Communications & Public Affairs, Mich Atagana and Entrepreneur Magazine Columnist & Co-Founder of LexNove, Andrew Taylor.
Mich has had the unique privilege of not only covering the birth, progress, and often, the demise of many startups on the continent, but also working for some as well. Her current role at Google gives her
Dominique Collett-Antolik & Brandon Doyle Talk 2015 African Fintech & Telecoms Trends
Over the next four weeks the we are taking a much-needed break.
Cue peaceful ocean sounds
But we’ve made sure that over the next four weeks, in place of our regular programming, we’ll be sharing exclusive content from the Annual Round-up 2015 event we hosted at the Wanderers Club, Johannesburg on November 26th 2015. The Event was powered by the good people at Opera Africa, who are totally all about helping us “do more” (on the web).
This week, we kick things off by sharing a stimulating panel
Mbwana Alliy Talks About Startup Governance & Funding Tech Startups In Africa
We attended Afrikoin Johannesburg on 3 December 2015.
At the event, Andile Masuku posed a question that led to a very lively debate about whether improved “access” to seamless, more affordable financial services does in fact equal “inclusion” for Africa’s poorest— especially given how centralised the world’s computing power is, and how huge stashes of Bitcoin are held by a relatively few well-resourced interests.
We also caught up with Savannah Fund founder, Mbwana Alliy for a chat after the e
Safaricom Becomes The Latest Mobile Service Provider To Be Sued
We're still buzzing from the great time we had at the Annual Round-up 2015, that Tefo Mohapi and Andile Masuku hosted at The Wanderers Club in Johannesburg last week. Many thanks to those of you who made it out on Thursday morning, and a big thank you to our incredibly generous and insightful guest panelists and speakers. Also, big up to our event partners, Opera Africa, Stuff magazine, and iAfrikan.com.
It was an chilled morning of intelligent, retrospective conversations-- which took stock o
The Angani Saga Sets Silicon Savannah Ablaze
Kenya’s tech scene aka Silicon Savannah is on fire! At least, that’s according to commentators like Brenda Wambui, who’s recent blog posted on Medium threw serious shade the way of some looming figures in Kenya’s tech ecosystem following the diabolical fallout at cloud services firm, Angani.
It turns out that some of the details surrounding this story that we reported on some weeks ago— details whose validity we later questioned, might in fact be accurate.
In this week’s episode of the Afric
The Mark Kaigwa, Thebe Ikalafeng & Rebecca Enonchong Episode
This week's instalment of the African Tech Round-up was recorded at the African Media Leaders Forum, which wrapped in Johannesburg on the weekend. And what a treat it is!
The show is an all-Africa affair— what with Mark Kaigwa stopping by. Mark is easily one of Kenya’s leading proponents of social media, as well as a respected innovator within digital tech in general. He is also the Founder and CEO of the Nairobi-based digital agency, Nendo Ventures— well-known for the Nendo Social Media Trend
Dealdey Reportedly Sacks 60% Of Its Work Force
With so few high-flying start-up successes in Africa’s tech eco-system, one has to wonder just how alarmed we should get when word of job cuts and other such cost-cutting measures starts to dominate headlines. After all, this sort of thing happens in business all the time!
That said, why does it seem like Nigerian startups are having a particularly hard time at the moment? Following signs of distress showing up at the countries startup poster children, Jumia and iROKOtv in recent weeks, Nigeria
MTN Nigeria Stunned By Unprecedented $5.2 Billion Fine
It’s been a truly awful week for the MTN Group— what with a $5.2 billion fine imposed on MTN Nigeria (the group’s largest and most profitable subsidiary) by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for failing to disconnect unregistered SIM cards timeously, the news of which led to considerable market panic and a subsequent 16% drop in MTN’s share price.
This week, MTN also started fielding allegations of engaging in highly sophisticated tax evasion practices such as using transfer pricing
Massive Downsizing At iROKOtv And South Africa Considering Police Body Cameras
This week’s African Tech Round-up is chock-full of important digital, tech and innovation news from across the African continent— not least, the unfortunate rumoured in-fighting and financial distress at Jason Njoku’s media startup, iROKO Partners.
Also, we’re happy to have our content producer, Peter “The Enigma” Peele back from a a hectic trip to Dubai where he attended GITEX Technology Week 2015. We managed to convince him to jump on the mic with us this week and share some highlights from h
Mobile Service Providers In Africa Call For Regulation Of OTT Services Such As WhatsApp
Last week it was Strive Masiyiwa's Econet Zimbabwe alluding that OTT (over the top) services such as WhatsApp and BBM are the reason they are seeing a drop in voice calls revenue and overall revenue.
Now this week, MTN South Africa CEO, Mteto Nyati, has called for South Africa's communications regulator, ICASA, to look into regulating these OTT players because they haven't invested anything in telecoms infrastructure and they are "reaping large profits".
Is this a fair call?
Isn't it up to u
Everything Is Difficult & Other Nuggets Of Wisdom From Nic Harry's Tech4Africa Talk
Tefo Mohapi was invited to speak at Tech4Africa 2015 last week. He shared on the important work that he and his team at iAfrikan are continuing to do in spearheading the ground-breaking Report Xenophobia campaign.
While at the event, Tefo was lucky enough to sit in on a talk by Nic Haralambous, who opened his talk with this outlandish statement, "I believe everyone who starts a business is a bit broken." Nic is the founder of Nic Harry— a successful Cape Town-based “luxury men’s sock company” h
Volkswagen Up In Smoke As The South African Government Investigates
In what is arguably the largest cybercrime scandal affecting cars to date, Volkswagen has admitted to installing software in some of their diesel-powered cars to give out false emission data results during tests.
This scandal affects their other brands like Audi, Skoda and SEAT and has seen the South African government, through the departments of Environmental Affairs and Transport as well as the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications, state that it is investigating into Volkswagen So
What's The Big Fuss About Apple Ad Blockers?
As avid consumers of new media, it’s hard not to love the ad blocking features Apple has worked into iOS9, and the clever ad blocking apps that are selling like hotcakes on mobile app stores everywhere.
But content publishers are claiming that ad blocking is tantamount to taking the bread out of their mouths, and warn that ultimately you and I will suffer as great content— traditionally funded through ad revenue, will no longer be viable to produce. Meanwhile, it doesn’t help that fake media tr
How To Build Products For Africa And Avoid Failing Like The Altech Node
Citing “increased competition” and “unfavourable market conditions” Altron is puling the plug on the Altech Node console and will discontinue its video-on-demand offering come the end of October 2015.
The news comes in the wake of Naspers’ recent launch of the Netflix-clone, ShowMax, which the tech giant is clearly not sparing any expense in promoting. (By the way, you may as well take advantage of ShowMax’s free seven-day trial offer to check out what all the fuss is about.)
The Node’s spect
Cashflow Rules Everything Around Me Alludes iROKOtv's Jason Njoku
Launching a start-up in Africa is not for the faint-hearted. Very few promising ventures-- even those that achieve solid traction, can expect to land Silicon Valley-type investment offers that might allow a founder the liberty to concentrate solely on growth, versus say, survival.
This week's discussion is inspired in part by a recent blog post by iROKOtv Founder and MD, Jason Njoku, written in response to a question posted on a popular Nigerian tech message board by someone who was curious to
Evolution Of Mobile Phones, What's Next?
You probably remember how popular Nokia's 3310 device was when it launched back in 2000. Affectionately known as “Die Hard” by ardent fans, it was for many the possession that would make them truly feel a part of 21st Century civilisation.
It’s pretty incredible how far mobile telephony has come in the 15 years since Nokia launched the record-breaking 3310 handset. Who could have guessed that in 2015, Nokia would be a faltering giant, Africa would be at the forefront of the world’s mobile-first
What Defines An African Startup? + The Week's Biggest News
Back in Episode 3 of the African Tech Round-up we asked the question: “What is a startup?” A lively discussion ensued— inspired by an eloquent piece written by David Adamo Jr, a Nigerian Computer Science PhD student at the University of North Texas.
Since then, the highly-opinionated founder of Hotels.ng, Mark Essien, and Project Isizwe CEO, Alan Knott-Craig Jr, have both since penned articles (When Startups In Nigeria Suddenly Got Serious and Venture Capital In Africa Is Hard) which contribut
Does Africa Need More Cheap Smartphones? + The Week's Biggest News
For many recently married couples, the diamond engagement ring is one of their biggest assets— albeit an emotional asset, symbolising love and lifelong commitment. In financial terms it isn’t an asset at all, considering the fact that it loses at least 50% of it’s retail value the moment you leave the jewellery store. Rough, isn’t it?
And yet still we feel compelled to buy diamonds for our loved ones, and continue to fuel a global billion-dollar industry. One has to admire the ingenious marketi
Scary Software Upgrades + The Week's Biggest News
Microsoft certainly got millions of people excited a while ago when they announced that their latest version of Windows would be free. However, Windows users in most of Africa have begun to balk at the "not-so-free" implications of this recent innovation-- which by the way, is essentially a compulsory upgrade.
Internet access is still relatively limited in most parts of the continent, and there's plenty of data showing that most people primarily connect to the web via mobile networks which deli
Importance Of Accurate Data For Africa + The Week's Biggest News
There is no doubt that "wherever there is chaos, there is opportunity". A popular conspiracy theory suggests that the lack of quality data on the African continent suits devious corporate and government interests who are looking to maintain the status quo which enables them to continue making hay in the proverbial darkness.
In this week's African Tech Round-up, we share the exciting news of the launch of a platform called Accur8Africa-- which aims to improve the accuracy of data on the continen
Hackathon Hype Or Help? + The Week's Biggest News
You know it’s a slow news week when the week’s biggest news involves the CEO and the CFO of South African telecoms firm, Neotel, going on leave. Granted, it is “special leave”.
Be that as it may, broadly speaking we are totally digging the prevailing positive sentiment we are sensing in Africa’s tech scene. Following the “let’s launch an incubator” trend that we have observed on the continent in recent months, the “let’s host a hackathon” craze is increasing momentum— fueled by a number of comp
What Are You Going To Do When They Come For You? + The Week's Biggest News
Think back to high school. Remember how the new dude always got all the girls whispering, or how the new girl got all the boys trying to walk her home? Now, if the newbie rolled into town with discernible signs of affluence (i.e. dope clothes, or an expensive scent), the singles market would get particularly frenzied. And when the newbie possessed a hint of exoticism (i.e. a foreign accent, or an unusual taste in music), even the kids involved in some of the most stable couplings might start fee
Are Kenya And Ethiopia Violating Citizens' Privacy? + The Week's Biggest News
Many people are conflicted about the need for “cyber mercenaries” like Hacking Team to exist. Blind idealism might contend that it is simply not right for corporatised hacking syndicates with dodgy ethical standards to secretly assist government intelligence agencies (and well-heeled private clients) to snoop on targets.
However, living in a world where the modern wonders of the internet and mobile devices are harnessed to conduct criminal activities in increasingly devious ways may demand that
Nest.vc Launches In Africa + The Week's Biggest News
Everyone loves a good love story. Especially when things go according to plan: start-up founder meets venture capitalist with deep pockets, tons of real-world experience, great contacts and, of course, a tried and tested system for navigating to success.
For most African tech startups who have been financed by one of Africa's leading venture capital funds, this idyllic scenario couldn't be further from reality.
Exclusive to the African Tech Round-up, Hong Kong’s only private, full service star
Net Neutrality Conundrum + The Week's Biggest News
As concerns continue to be raised over the potetial threat to internet neutrality posed by Facebook's aggressive roll-out of its Internet.org platform, South African telecoms operator, Telkom is proving that the public's growing distrust of big tech firms is not unfounded.
Large tech firms seem only too happy to test limits of what is ethically acceptable in terms of violating personal privacy, while capitalising on the lack of consensus around what constitutes internet neutrality.
Little fuss
Video Streaming Stuttering In Africa? + The Week's Biggest News
The race is still on to discover the formula for successfully distributing digital content in Africa. In a recent blogpost, Jason Njoku, the outspoken founder of iRokoTV, announced that his company would soon retire the desktop version of their platform (for African users) to concentrate on building a mobile application that he says will better service the African consumer. The article is basically an eloquent admission that iRokoTV's efforts to "win Lagos" and then conquer the rest of Africa ha
Game Over For Startup Seed Funds? + The Week's Biggest News
Nigeria's "company that builds companies", Spark, announced last week its plans to drop some startups it invested in. This announcement comes just a week after 88mph's notice that it will be "taking a break" from investing in African startups.
While it is not uncommon for investment funds to pause on-boarding when funds available for employment are temporarily exhausted, it seems odd that 88mph would go out of its way to alert the public to something that would occur in the normal course of bus
Everyone's Not So Favourite Driver + The Week's Biggest News
Uber's Roman-style campaign to achieve utter and complete worldwide domination has encountered a teeny tiny setback in Kenya. Much to the surprise of many, the company is yet to enjoy the runaway success it has become accustomed to.
In last week's episode of the African Tech Round-up we reported on Uber's plans to run a limited experiment to allow its Kenyan customers to pay for trips using cash and M-Pesa. This followed claims made by the company that the slow adoption of their service in Keny
Is This The Worst Internet Censorship Law Ever? + The Week's Biggest News
The internet is undoubtedly the untamed "wild west" of the modern technological age. To counteract the malicious threats that lie in wait for innocent users of the web (on and offline), South Africa's Film and Publication Board (FPB) has recently taken it upon itself to "regulate content" through a set of draft regulations-- while claiming that children are at the top of their protection priority list
In this week’s discussion we debate the potential unconstitutionality of this new regulatory f
Mark Vs. Marek + The Week's Biggest News
Nigeria's tech scene was abuzz last week following Mark Essien's hotel booking platform Hotel.ng securing international investment co-led by Omidyar Network and the EchoVC Pan-Africa Fund. However, for undisclosed reasons the parties involved have chosen not to make public the fine points of the deal. This week we debate whether it does Africa's tech ecosystem any good for important transactions like these to happen behind closed doors, and for details to remain secret. While we're at it, we pok
Bitcoin and the Blockchain: Worth Embracing? + The Week's Biggest News
There are three prevailing views on bitcoin and the blockchain: 1) that it's a scam, 2) it's one of the most fascinating technological developments of the decade, and 3) it's just another tech fad that's not worth trying to grasp, nevermind fussing over. View number three is probably held by the vast majority of people on the continent. This week, Tefo Mohapi and I (Andile Masuku) will try and establish whether the hype around bitcoin and the various useful applications of the blockchain (which
Open Source vs. Proprietary Software + The Week's Biggest News
As long as "Microsoft" remains synonymous with "Proprietary Software" the jury will be out on whether proprietary software is superior to open source software (OSS). For many ardent proponents of OSS, this debate is mostly about rooting for the 'little guy', but in this week's discussion, your hosts Tefo Mohapi and Andile Masuku, will start a conversation about the pros and cons of both regimes, and highlight some issues that they think should headline this debate.
Then they will leave it up t
Are Tech Hubs in Africa Effective? + The Week's Biggest News
Tech and innovation hubs are all the rage in Africa at the moment. With reportedly as many as 150 in existence from Cape to Cairo, these organisations are undoubtedly "da flava" in donor funding terms. However, it seems that the question of whether or not these hubs are actually effective at achieving what they set out to do is rarely asked.
In his article "Startup Incubators in Africa and why they don’t work" Hotels.ng founder, Mark Essien, asserts that tech and innovation hubs have precious l
What Is A Startup? + The Week's Biggest News
The word "startup" is often used loosely in the world of tech, and frequently worn as a badge of honour by individuals and organisations who aspire to the glamour commonly associated with modern-day entrepreneurship. In this week’s African Tech Round-up Podcast, Tefo Mohapi and I attempt to pin down a definition for the term and determine what business ventures qualify to be classified as startups. Our discussion is inspired by an article by David Adamo Jr-- a Nigerian Computer Science PhD stude
Does Diversity Matter? + The Week's Biggest News
On the second episode of the African Tech Round-up we get an update on progress being made by iAfrikan and Ushahidi’s Report Xenophobia Initiative (ReportXenophobia.co.za), find out which African country Facebook’s Internet.org app will be rolling out into next, reveal details regarding the latest tech firm seeking delisting from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, prepare to bid farewell to South Africa’s largest e-commerce brand, examine whether or not the vinyl record is making a bold comeback a
Introducing The Report Xenophobia Initiative + The Week's Biggest News
In the very first episode of the African Tech Round-up Podcast, hosts Tefo Mohapi and Andile Masuku share a little bit about themselves before diving straight into the Africa's most noteworthy digital, tech and innovation highlights from the past week.
Most importantly, Tefo and Andile discuss a promising tech-driven initiative called reportxenophobia.co.za launched by iAfrikan-- in association with Ushahidi, that aims to nip the recent occurrence of xenophobic violence on the African continen