News — africa technology

Peter Akwaboah first made his mark in sports. While in high school in Ghana, he was a multisport athlete. When he reunited with his family in the UK, sports was still an integral part of his personal development. 

However, he knew coming from a country with limited resources, his chances of succeeding among his peers who had everything was daunting.

“My peers were better, faster and stronger, given they had access to better facilities,” he says, according to this blog. Nonetheless, it did not deter him from seeking excellence. And true to his character, he managed to be part of his school’s athletic team.

Akwaboah was an unused substitute in his school’s athletic team. In one competition, he was asked to replace a colleague who didn’t show up. He grabbed the opportunity and set a new record in the high jump category and subsequently represented the UK in global competitions.

“‘This is my big chance,’ I thought—a chance to show everyone I am good enough. I dug deep, remembered everything I had learned in training and went for it. I broke the school record that day,” Akwaboah recalls.

Born in the UK, Akwaboah was brought to Ghana at a young age. He reunited with his family as a teenager to pursue higher education. He went to the University of Birmingham in the UK, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a Master’s degree in Engineering.

He joined Morgan Stanley in 2015 as Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Operations. Before joining Morgan Stanley, he worked as a software developer for many financial institutions in Europe.

After working at Morgan Stanley for a year, he became the Global Head of Shared Services Operations which includes managing the firm’s settlement and payments infrastructure. What’s more, he had an additional role as the chair of Morgan Stanley’s payment risk steering committee and member of the Federal Reserve Bank’s (FRB) Payments Risk Committee.

Akwaboah is now the new chief operating officer for Morgan Stanley’s technology and operations division. In his new position, Akwaboah will oversee the operations and technology strategy for the firm, including a team of 300 people.

“He brings significant experience, knowledge, and leadership skills to this strategically important role having led teams and worked across technology and operations functions during the course of his career,” Rob Rooney, the head of technology, operations, and firm resilience, said in a memo, according to the Business Insider.

Akwaboah has previously worked at Deutsche Bank in a number of Technology roles, including KPMG and IBM. He also worked at Royal Bank of Scotland for 10 years with his most recent role in the Asia Pacific as Chief Operating Officer responsible for Operations, Technology and Corporate Services across the region.

Finding business opportunities are one of Akwaboah’s hallmark. Thanks to his involvement, Morgan Stanley became one of the banks to co-lead a $3 billion bond sale for Ghana. Before that, the firm had never executed a deal with the government of Ghana.

Being separated by geographical boundaries does not limit Akwabaoha’s ability to undertake philanthropic activities in his country of origin. He is one of the major supporters of a hospital called the Foundation of Orthopedics and Complex Spine in Ghana. The hospital specializes in providing complex spine and joint replacement surgeries to adult and pediatric patients age 9 to 25.

In 2019, Akwaboah was honored with the 2019 Corporate Leadership Award at the FACE List Awards gala during the Pan-African Weekend.

Mubarak Muyika grew up with his aunt following the demise of his parents when he was only 11 years old. His dad was a civil servant who died when he was two years old while his mom was a high school teacher who passed away when was 11.

In high school, Muyika developed a passion for technology. While a student at Friends School Kamusinga, he won two awards in Kenya’s national science fair, the annual Kenya Students Congress on Science and Technology.

At age 16, Muyika ventured into entrepreneurship, focusing on technology. His first creation was “enhanced petrol tracker,” a tracking database to monitor mismanagement of oil resources by tracking oil tanker movement, oil flow and demand, according to Africa Middle East. His creation was well received and was duly recognized as the best student in the computer exhibit category at the annual Kenya Students Congress on Science and Technology.

He was spotted by one of Kenya’s richest men, Chris Kirubi, and offered a scholarship to study at Harvard, an offer he surprisingly turned town because he wanted to continue with his entrepreneurship drive.

He also built a functional website for a book publishing and distribution company owned by his guardians. He later taught himself PHP, Java and HTML which helped him to design an interactive website for the business.

In 2011, Muyika founded his own company known as Hype Century Technologies & Investments Ltd. The startup offered services such as web designing and web hosting in East Africa with a market focus on Small to Medium size businesses. In the following year, Muyika received the Anzisha Prize for young entrepreneurs for his work in Hype Century.

The success of his startup began attracting the attention of international investors. One of such investors was Jignesh Patel, who invested in his growing business with a 25% stake. In 2013, Muyika sold his 60 percent stake in the company in a deal that made him a millionaire at only 19. By the time he left the company in May, it had 14 employees handling about 1,800 domains.

“By May after our first financial year, we had about 1,800 domains which represented clients in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan and some in the RC (Republic of the Congo). That was something that I can say is the biggest achievement, in terms of where the company is today,” Muyika spoke about Hype Century’s success.

After relinquishing his stake in Hype Century, he launched a new venture called Zagace. It is an online business management toolkit for small and medium-sized companies. It has Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) capabilities, enabling its users to manage their inventory, accounting, human resources, and communications through a series of integrated apps.

In 2015, Muyika was featured on Forbes Africa’s 30 Under 30 as one of the most promising young entrepreneurs from Africa. ‘‘Mr Muyika is enterprising and focused, I recommended him to Havard University but noticed that entrepreneurship came first and he had no obligation to pursue the course,” said Kenyan businessman Kirubi.

If the retail industry wasn’t already in the midst of a transformation, 2020 with the coronavirus pandemic and the rise of contactless shopping would have ensured that. But one Black woman tech founder was already upending the status quo. In Episode 11 of the SistersInc. podcast, “Driving Innovation,” Dawn Dickson-Akpoghene shares how she’s shaping the future of retail with her smart vending technology company Popcom.

Despite now being one of the most well-known and successful founders in the Black tech space, Dickson-Akpoghene wasn’t originally planning for a professional life in that field.

“I went to school for IT and that was after I went to school for journalism. I got into tech because I started to see how the internet was disrupting media,” she says. “I wanted to be competitive in the job force—I had no intention of being an entrepreneur yet, I wasn’t thinking of starting a business. It sent me down a rabbit hole that changed my life.”

Instead of becoming the next VJ on MTV or BET as she had first dreamed, Dickson-Akpoghene became a serial entrepreneur. She’s a four-time founder. And now, with Popcom, she’s the one doing the disrupting, turning vending machines—the last thing you might think of as innovative—into the future of retail.

“We make the software that makes the vending machines smart. We partner with vending manufacturers to integrate our software to be able to collect customer data at the point of sale,” Dickson-Akpoghene says. That data can be anything from foot traffic to customer demographics to conversion rates, achieved using technology such as AI, computer vision, and robotics.

“Just imagine all the tools available on Google Analytics and Shopify and e-commerce, bringing those tools to the real world,” she continues. “Vending is so antiquated and there’s such a lack of data and innovation in the vending space. We really want to bring that innovation to allow retailers to sell direct to customer using vending machines.”

To hear more about Dickson-Akpoghene’s approach to innovation, including how she came up with her groundbreaking—and now patented—idea and how she’s breaking the mold even when it comes to financing her company, check out Episode 11 of the SistersInc. podcast.

Pharrell Williams has launched a new initiative to empower Black and Latinx entrepreneurs. Dubbed Black Ambition, the non-profit initiative seeks to provide a bridge to success for Black and Latinx entrepreneurs who are launching tech, design, healthcare, and consumer products/services start-ups.

Williams, who is widely known for his hit song Happy, said at a virtual conference that the inspiration behind the initiative is to give voice to underserved communities. Also, the long term goal of the initiative is to make entrepreneurship a norm in underserved communities.

According to one study, racism and lack of investment in Black communities have cost the U.S economy $16 trillion. The study also said if the investment were made in black communities, the U.S economy will grow by 5 trillion in the next five years.

“We need a voice,” Williams said.” We have the smallest slice of the American pie, in terms of ownership. The Asian dollar stays in this community for about 30 days; our Jewish brothers and sisters, their dollar stays in every community for 20 days. The African-American dollar stays in its community for six hours, because we don’t own much.”

The Grammy-winning artist and producer announced two prize competitions as part of the launch– The Black Ambition HBCU Prize and The Black Ambition Prize– which will culminate in one major national event to be held in July 2021. The competing teams will compete for these prizes by presenting to luminary judges and investors.

“Recent events and tragedies have illustrated the always existent stark divisions in the American experience, and while entrepreneurship has long been a tenet of the American dream, marginalized people have faced long-standing barriers to success,” a statement from Williams said.

“With Black Ambition, the goal is to help strengthen the pipeline of talented entrepreneurs and close the opportunity and wealth gaps derived from limited access to capital and resources.”

The Black Ambition HBCU prize will offer prizes and mentorship for current and former students at HBCUs as they develop seed or early-stage ideas and launch companies in tech, design, healthcare, and consumer products and services. The grand prize winner will receive up to a $250,000 prize and at least nine additional teams will receive smaller prizes.

The Black Ambition prize, on the other hand, will find, support, and seed early-stage companies in tech, design, healthcare, and consumer products and services.

Ventures must have at least one founder or co-founder that identifies as Black/African/African-American and/or Hispanic/Latino/a/Latinx. The grand prize winner will receive up to a $1 million prize and at least nine additional teams will receive smaller prizes.

A senior advisor for Black Ambition and partner at Bridgespan, Willa Seldon, notes that the initiative also aims to highlight the fact that there is a huge market opportunity. According to him, in 2019, Black and Latinx folks spent $3 trillion in the marketplace. “That’s a market that’s worth investing,” he said.

The Black Ambition has raised funding from Adidas, Chanel, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, The Rockefeller Foundation, Tony’s Chocolonely, and the Visa Foundation. Also, applicants who apply for Black Ambition will gain access to Betaworks studios, a startup and seed-stage company focused on early consumer-facing companies.

11-year-old Bajan environmentalist, Maria Marshall, was traveling with her mother when she saw a passenger in another car improperly dispose of a plastic bottle by throwing it outside the moving vehicle.

Perplexed by what she had just seen, Marshall wondered why plastic and other waste products couldn’t be properly disposed of, and as a means to sensitize the public and also contribute her very own quota towards protecting the environment, she decided to create a YouTube channel purposely for that.

In her video titled Little Thoughts On Big Matters, Marshall sent out a message on how to “reduce, recycle and repair” – which is her motto – by encouraging the use of reusable bags instead of plastic bags. She also reminded viewers of the need to always recycle plastic bottles.

According to Marshall, her channel “shows little children and adults how their little ideas can have good effects on our environment.”

The educative 1 minute, 29-second video went ahead to win two awards at the UNDP Small Island Future Fest 2019 and the 2019 National Independence Festival of Creative Arts (NIFCA), making her the youngest award-winning filmmaker in her native country.

Marshall’s video and activism did not also go unnoticed as her efforts were lauded by the Caribbean island’s Prime Minister, Mia Mottley, as well as award-winning Hollywood actor, Orlando Bloom.

In a recent interview with the British actor ahead of Universal Children’s Day on November 20, the young environmentalist recounted the incident with the passenger who threw the bottle out of the car and how it spurred her to start her activism.

“Because my mom is such a great driver we did not get into an accident, or anything like that since she had to swerve not to hit the object. Then I had a moment to think. Is this normal in Barbados, and why do people think this is a great idea to dispose of their plastics and other items in this way?” she asked.

Marshall also said if she was in charge of the United Nations, she’ll “change how people think about the environment and earth,” adding: “I notice that people think that there’s like another environment somewhere out there … well, we only have one environment, so we need to protect it.”

Following her interview with Bloom, she met prime minister Mottley, and the two discussed a host of topics on how to sustain the environment. The young activist also revealed she is planning on making a video about ocean sustainability and the need to protect its reefs, the country’s Government Information Service reported.

“We want you to help fight climate change because when all of us may be gone, it is you, your generation and your children that are going to have to be fighting its consequences. And so, the first thing we have to do is to educate people at all ages, and that’s what you are helping us to do,” the prime minister said.

Mottley also lauded Marshall for her interview with Bloom and encouraged her to keep up with her efforts.

“I genuinely mean that because you have what we didn’t have when we were growing up – the power of the Internet. You have the power to reach people in Australia, Africa and Asia, just with your message,” Mottley told her.

“One of the things that we’ve always said about Barbados is don’t mind how small we are; we punch above our weight…. So, don’t mind how small you are, you continue to punch above your weight.”

Marshall, who dreams of being a prosthetics doctor, also hopes to establish a club in her school so she and her mates can brainstorm on a host of issues and share those ideas, the Government Information Service reported.

Nigeria’s tech community has come out in full support of the protests rocking Africa’s most populous country this week, after years of battling the same police unit accused of harassment, beatings and murder.

When Toni Astro, a Lagos-based software engineer, posted on Twitter a harrowing account of his encounter with the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in 2019 – influential tech leaders launched the #StopRobbingUS campaign to denounce police brutality and impunity in Nigeria.

The feared police unit, which has now been disbanded following nationwide protests, had been accused of frequently harassing young techies in Nigeria’s commercial capital of Lagos, accusing young developers of being laptop thieves.

The movement was led by Bosun Tijani of the incubator CcHUB, Jason Njoku of streaming service Iroko, Iyin “E” Aboyeji of tech-collective Future.Africa and Oluyomi Ojo of design-startup Printivo, among others.

One year on, and the tech community is again backing the most recent protests as they spread throughout the world from Canada to the UK.

Paystack, a payment service provider that was recently acquired for over $200m, donated around $2500 to a civil society group called the feminist coalition which has been at the forefront of providing relief and support to the protestors. 

Another payments company Flutterwave has raised around $5000 to help get treatment for SARS victims. 

“Many of us are affected by this injustice – @theflutterwave staff have also been victims of the brutality of SARS, so we started an internal fund so we can help victims of SARS and support protesters. #EndSARS,” wrote CEO Olubenga Agboola on Twitter. 

The recent boon for Nigeria’s tech sector following Paystack’s acquisition may be short lived. 

Most businesses have closed shop after the Nigerian army opened fire on peaceful protestors in Lagos witnesses said, sparking further unrest. 

The uncertain situation and ongoing violence will also damage investor confidence in Nigeria’s tech scene, says Segun Awosanya, a tech-figure at the forefront of the #StopRobbingUs campaign said.

He said: “Nobody is going to invest in a country where there is no police or law and order. Right now people are hoarding money in their homes. People cannot go to banks because the banks are not open, there is no law and order.

Awosanya predicts the unrest will continue for several weeks and expects a state of emergency to follow the 24-hour curfew imposed on Tuesday.

Nigeria’s president Muhammadu Buhari addressed the nation on Wednesday warning citizens to desist from protests, but critics argue his speech did little to address the rapidly escalating situation.

Despite the growth of new Black-owned businesses springing up around the country, many of them do not receive the necessary resources they need to thrive like their white counterparts. Now, one venture capital collective is looking to turn more than 300 Black entrepreneurs into angel investors to support emerging Black brands.

The BLCK VC was created with the idea of bringing diversity to the investing ecosystem, especially in the case of Black businesses. Frederik Groce, principal at Storm Ventures and co-founder of BLCK VC, says programs like this are needed to help these businesses thrive.

“It is widely known that venture capital is sorely in need of initiatives that will increase diversity. Only 1% of venture-backed startups have a Black founder and less than 3% of venture investors are Black,” wrote Groce in a Medium article about the new initiative.

“It is hard not to see how these two numbers are tightly correlated in an industry built on “warm introductions” and “networking” as the main source of receiving funding and gaining employment. Networking isn’t only about transactional interactions (sure, there’s plenty of that) — it is also a means of knowledge transfer and education between colleagues. Engineering and maximizing these networking opportunities is critical in building a thriving community. To that end, it has been one of our primary focuses from the early days of BLCK VC..

“The goal of the program is to train 300 students over the course of three years to establish a new network of Black investors and advisers to invest in Black brands. It is our belief that programs like the Black Venture Institute will meaningfully drive more equitable access and opportunities and inspire others to work toward those same goals,” Groce wrote.

“It is our hope that graduating participants will go on to achieve everything from incredible operating careers, to becoming limited partners in funds, angel investing in the friends and family rounds of diverse founders, founding category-defining companies; and yes, becoming venture capitalists themselves.”

TANZANIA is rapidly walking towards a cash-free nation following a tremendous surge of mobile money transactions for both telephone and banking sectors.

The trend gained pace in the recent years following raising awareness, digital transaction easiness of mobile payment system and coming into force of the National Payment System Act, 2015.

The mobile money transaction, alone, in the first five months of this year reached 38.869tri/- compared to 94.6tri/- for the entire last year.

Moreover, the number of active registered accounts for mobile money was 26.3 million at end of May compared to 19.79 million in 2015.

The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) said in the past five years payments, clearing and settlement systems continued to operate efficiently with growing utilisation of digital channels in financial services delivery.

"The increase is mainly attributed to increased public awareness on the use of mobile phones as payment instruments that facilitate mobile banking more efficiently and conveniently," BoT said yesterday in a special statement attributed to five years achievement of the current regime.

The central bank said presently, most high value government payments, including tax, were being done electronically through payment systems managed by the BoT.

"The use of these payment systems have enabled the government to increase efficiency in making payments and reduce costs associated with payments using cheques," BoT said.

The law, according to the central bank, had improved the scope of regulations by addressing new electronic and mobile money transfers, intensifying increased use of digital financial services thus leading to reduced transaction costs and support growth of economic activities.

Therefore, the volume of mobile payment transactions has increased from 1.38billion in 2015 to 2.84billion in 2019 while the value of mobile payment transactions increased from 47.21tri/- in 2015 to 94.6tri/- in 2019.

The value of mobile banking, also, continued exhibiting growth as evidenced by its increased trend from 2.75tri/- in 2017 to 9.47tri/- in 2019.

Also in the first five months of this year, the value of mobile banking was 4.98tri/-.

An economist-cum-banker Dr Hildebrand Shayo said digital transaction increase in the economy could highly and affordably connect industrialists and suppliers with banks, and new markets for their goods and services.

"It also increases or accelerates business registration and payments for business licences and permits by reducing cost of doing business.

Digital financial services can also improve access to saving accounts and loans that electronic wage payments to workers can increase security and reduce the time and cost of paying employees," Dr Shayo noted.

However, the economist-cum-banker said there are challenges when many entrepreneurs and employees lack bank accounts, digital devices, and reliable technology infrastructure, among other things.

"Many entrepreneurs and employees lack documents such as government-issued identity cards or birth certificates, which are required to use digital services," he explained.

Currently, the central bank said, there are 37 commercial banks providing mobile banking services.

Mobile money usage was pushed up during the outbreak of Covid-19 when the central bank increased daily transactions limit from 3.0m/- to 5.0m/- aiming to minimize congestion.

"This, according to BoT, was a way of leveraging digital payment platforms and minimizing congestion".

The measures improved liquidity in the economy such that the impact of the Covid-19 could not induce serious economic effect as realisation of monetary policy goals remains encouraging than previously anticipated.

President Mokgweetsi Masisi on Friday announced the launch of free WiFi hotspots in the capital Gaborone, noting that information and communications technology (ICT) can help address some development challenges.

“It is against this background that the government deems it necessary that all citizens should have access to the Internet so that the ideal of leaving no one behind as envisioned by the sustainable development goals is realized,” said Masisi.

He emphasized the use of the Internet, which has become a daily necessity in the lives of many people and organizations alike as they use it for business transactions and networking.

The president said his administration is committed to the automation of some services, which include the payment of old-age pensions, utility bills, fines, e-health, e-agriculture and all forms of commerce.

In addition, Masisi highlighted how ICT can be used to stimulate economic growth and add jobs during the country’s 11th National Development Plan.

“Therefore, innovation and creativity will be the bedrock of economic diversification in our country,” he said

Zambia’s Zesco Limited says it intends to save about 12 megawatts of electricity through the installation of energy-saving bulbs.

The power utility, on Monday, through its spokesman, Henry Kapata, said the power utility has embarked on the replacement of incandescent bulbs with Light Emitting Diodes (LED) tubes and fluorescent tubes with LED tubes as part of energy-saving measures.

“These alternative energy bulbs are long-term that will help us meet the demand for electricity and the ever-increasing customer base,” he said in press release.

Kapata said power utility had since embarked on the distribution of the bulbs in some residential areas in Lusaka, the country’s capital, which is expected to be completed before the end of the year.

According to him, the power utility expects to install 147,456 LED bulbs with a lifespan of about 30,000 hours, suggesting savings of about 12 megawatts.

Power utility has procured 30,000 energy-saving bulbs and installed them in all its buildings.

Kapata added that power utility has also embarked on promoting the bulbs in industrial, commercial and public buildings to scale up energy efficiency.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most exciting technologies today, and Africa doesn't want to be left behind.

Today a majority of the AI industry is in North America, Europe and Asia.

Efforts are being made to train computer scientists from African nations, as AI can be used to solve many complex challenges.

In a bid to improve diversity, tech giants are providing investment to develop new talent.

In April, Google opened its first African AI research centre in Ghana.

The AI laboratory, based in Accra, will be used to develop solutions to help improve healthcare, agriculture and education.

Overcoming obstacles

Google's head of AI Accra Moustapha Cisse is from Senegal.

After completing an undergraduate degree in maths and physics in Senegal, he taught himself AI and then went to study in Paris, before joining Facebook.

There are very few AI researchers from Africa, and Mr Cisse has faced great obstacles in achieving his ambitions.

"Despite the support, many of us still have trouble making it to conferences. I have had papers accepted at meetings but been unable to attend because Western countries such as Australia denied me a visa, even though I was already settled and working professionally in Europe," he wrote in his blog.

"We need more efforts to overcome these barriers and to ensure that the benefits of AI arrive globally."

He has long been concerned that AI is a missed opportunity for improving African lives, and that the AI industry is missing out on talent from African nations, because they do not have access to the right education.

Today people often have to travel out of the continent in order to gain the IT skills they need, before returning to Africa to try to build new businesses.

To solve this problem, Mr Cisse has long advocated for better AI education across the continent, and he wants African governments to see AI as a key priority and support efforts to use AI for the good of humanity.

"AI has a lot to offer to Africa and Africa has a lot to offer to AI as well," he told the BBC.

"AI can help accelerate discoveries in various sciences, and it can help in areas where our human expertise is not enough."

Enhancing IT in Africa

One key area Mr Cisse believes AI can be a big help in Africa is in improving healthcare by automating diagnosis of diseases.

He also thinks that using AI to automate translations would make it much easier for African nations to communicate and do business, since there are 2,000 languages being spoken on a daily basis on the continent.

But in order to advance AI developments, Africa needs a robust IT industry.

In Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, the African Institute for Mathematical Scientists (AIMS) is running a one-year Masters degree programme in partnership with Facebook and Google to create the next generation of tech leaders.

The degree is the first Masters programme of its kind on the continent.

Talented scientists and innovators drawn from various African countries are being trained in machine learning, a type of AI.

"When we have young Africans working on this topic, we can imagine that they will easily be addressing some global challenges that our continent is facing," AIMS Rwanda president Dr Sam Yala told the BBC.

"When they are trained, some of them will work at universities and it's a way our students can pass their skills on to others."

Via BBC NEWS