African Tech Roundup

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 out-of-school youth aged between 15 and 24 years acquire marketable work and life skills. Many of these initiatives are delivered thanks to strong partnerships the organisation has struck with local communities, government, international NGOs and the indigenous private sector.

Mustafa studied for a Computer Science degree at the University of Westminster and has gained a wealth of hands-on management experience while working in the youth employment, entrepreneurship and education space in Somalia and Somaliland.

Listen in for insight into the state of the region’s growing entrepreneurship support ecosystem and to get a sense of what interventions are working and why.

Editorial Disclaimer:

SPARK (spark-online.org) is the presenting sponsor of this podcast, which is part of an African Tech Roundup miniseries (bit.ly/FragileStatesMiniseries) focused on inclusive economic progress being made in vulnerable states.

African Tech Roundup retains full editorial control over all published content. Opinions expressed by the host, Andile Masuku, and his guests, do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the presenting sponsor, SPARK.

This podcast series was taped at the fringes of SPARK’s 6th annual IGNITE Conference (bit.ly/IGNITE2018Roundup) - a premier gathering of refugees, entrepreneurs, educators, private sector actors, government leaders, academics and NGOs.

Image credit: Shaqodoon

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 production activities, which destroy the country’s ancient rain forests.

Also on the show is Ayham Maksoud, a Syrian civil engineer born to an entrepreneurial family. After completing an engineering Masters degree at the University of Aleppo, he founded a steel structure manufacturing business called Al-Maksoud for Steel Constructions in Syria in 2011, before being forced to abandon it a year later when war broke out in Syria.

Ayham then emigrated to Libya where he re-established his business, but alas, he was forced to desert the second factory he built and migrate to Turkey when Libya was gripped by violent conflict in 2014. He has since incorporated Al-Maksoud for the third time in Turkey and is currently cultivating a solid business reputation with Turkish customers and many others all over the world.

Listen in for fascinating first-hand insights about what it takes to realise entrepreneurial success in difficult places, and to learn why the world needs more true-to-life stories like the ones you’re about to hear.

Editorial Disclaimer:

SPARK (http://spark-online.org) is the presenting sponsor of this podcast, which is part of an African Tech Roundup miniseries (http://bit.ly/FragileStatesMiniseries) focused on inclusive economic progress being made in vulnerable states.

African Tech Roundup retains full editorial control over all published content. Opinions expressed by the host, Andile Masuku, and his guests, do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the presenting sponsor, SPARK.

This podcast series was taped at the fringes of SPARK’s 6th annual IGNITE Conference (http://bit.ly/IGNITE2018Roundup) - a premier gathering of refugees, entrepreneurs, educators, private sector actors, government leaders, academics and NGOs.

Image credit: Magnus S

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 their bit to shape Africa's future.

Dotun previously founded Yhello Technologies (formerly known as meals.co.uk), an on-demand food delivery platform in the UK. He exited that business after striking a deal with Just-eat.co.uk, one of Europe's leading food ordering platforms. Following that, he joined a UK-based angel syndicate fund called Potential VC to spearhead the firm's early-stage startup investment efforts in Africa, before going on to found Starta.

In this conversation with Andile Masuku, Dotun talks about his fascinating journey from postdoctoral research fellow to founder and investor, and unpacks his thesis for identifying and backing billion-dollar startup potential in Africa.

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 navigate towards sustainable economic growth should look and feel like.

Alexander is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader whose research at the University of Oxford centres on refugee assistance, with a focus on East Africa. He has authored ten books and co-authored Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System (Penguin Allen Lane and Oxford University Press, 2017) with Paul Collier— a book named by The Economist as one of the 'Best Books of 2017'. Alexander previously worked for the UNHCR and currently serves as a Councillor on the World Refugee Council while leading the IKEA Foundation-funded Refugee Economies Programme.

Yannick has worked in the fields of higher education and economic development in post-conflict countries since 1994. He previously worked for the Netherlands Minister of Development Cooperation, the Dutch PAX, the Evert Vermeer Foundation and the Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael. At SPARK, Yannick leads teams which run programmes that promote SME-growth and facilitate youth job creation in 15 fragile states, primarily in North and Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. In addition to his work at SPARK, Yannick also serves on the boards of the Max van der Stoel Foundation and the LittleBitz Foundation, the advisory board of the Center of Theory of Change and the steering board of the Knowledge Platform on Security and Rule of Law.

Editorial Disclaimer: SPARK (http://spark-online.org) is the presenting sponsor of this podcast, which is part of an African Tech Roundup miniseries focused on inclusive economic progress being made in vulnerable states. African Tech Roundup retains full editorial control over all published content. Opinions expressed by the host, Andile Masuku, and his guests, do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the presenting sponsor, SPARK.

This podcast series was taped at the fringes of SPARK’s 6th annual IGNITE Conference (http://bit.ly/IGNITEConference2018) – a premier gathering of refugees, entrepreneurs, educators, private sector actors, government leaders, academics and NGOs.

Image credit: Bill Wegener

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 firms like of IBM, Unisys, KPMG and Preston Gates Ellis. She currently serves on the Boards of Directors of ActivSpaces, AH Partners, the European Women in Payment Network and the International Women’s Think Tank.

In this, the second part of Episode 125, Viola joins Andile Masuku and Musa Kalenga to factor in on a “hype vs. reality” themed conversation about the development of Africa’s fintech landscape in 2018. To skip straight to that discussion, head to [40:09] and listen in to hear why Viola is sick and tired with the on-going continent-wide obsession of fintech startups looking to build "last-mile" solutions.

Topics discussed in this episode:

France's EDF signs deal for USD1.37 billion hydro project in Cameroon [1:26]

Cameroonian health-tech entrepreneur Melissa Bime wins the Anzisha Prize [5:04]

Benin repeals social media tax [10:57]

Novastar Ventures closes USD72.5 million fund for West African Investments [13:17]

Ethos announces USD69.8 million AI Fund [14:24}

The African Digital Asset Framework (ADAF) is launched [19:35]

Econet Group posts great results despite Kwese's poor performance [28:44]

Econet and Safaricom not content to stay in their lanes [33:38]

African Fintech 2018 Retrospective Discussion [40:09]

Resources referenced in this episode:

Breaking New Ground In Fintech: A Primer On Revenue Models That Create Value and Build Trust | Omidyar Network and Oliver Wyman (http://bit.ly/OmidyarNetworkFintechReport)

Image credit: Tito Pixel

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 firms like of IBM, Unisys, KPMG and Preston Gates Ellis. She currently serves on the Boards of Directors of ActivSpaces, AH Partners, the European Women in Payment Network and the International Women’s Think Tank.

In this, the first part of Episode 125, Viola joins Andile Masuku and Musa Kalenga as they start to factor in on a “hype vs. reality” themed conversation about the development of Africa’s fintech landscape in 2018. Listen in to hear Viola's candid take on the unfortunate current state-of-play in Cameroon’s Anglophone region.

Topics discussed in this episode:

Nigeria plans to build an additional 18,000km of fibre infrastructure [41:33]

Ashish Thakkar of Mara Group announces plans to launch a smartphone brand called Maraphone [46:50]

Tanzania vs. journalists [51:29]

Anglophone Cameroon crisis update [53:29]

Resources referenced in this episode:

Nigeria's National Broadband Plan 2013-2018 | Nigerian Presidential Committee on Broadband (http://bit.ly/NigeriaBroadbandPlan2013)

A new model of microfinance for Africa, and beyond | TED Institute (http://bit.ly/ViolaLlewellynTEDTalk)

The Democratisation of Financial Services | SLUSH (http://bit.ly/ViolaLlewellynSLUSH)

26 Women of Colour Diversifying Entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley, Media and Beyond | Vanity Fair (http://bit.ly/BlackWomenVanityFair)

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 recruitment of key senior talent, the orchestration of major tech platform updates, and the expansion of the firm’s range of information solutions.

In this conversation with Andile Masuku - which forms part African Tech Roundup’s podcast miniseries on digital assets (http://bit.ly/atrudigitalassets) - Lee offers insight into how data-led legacy corporates like TransUnion Africa are grappling with the prospect of a future led by democratised technologies and open source collaboration.

Editorial Disclaimer: Raise (https://getraise.io) is the presenting sponsor of this podcast, which is part of an African Tech Roundup miniseries focused on digital assets. Raise is a founding member of the African Digital Asset Framework - ADAF (http://adaf.io). African Tech Roundup retains full editorial control over all published content. Opinions expressed by the host, Andile Masuku, and his guests, do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the presenting sponsor, Raise.

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 finance sectors at firms like of IBM, Unisys, KPMG and Preston Gates Ellis. She currently serves on the Boards of Directors of ActivSpaces, AH Partners, the European Women in Payment Network and the International Women’s Think Tank.

In this conversation with Andile Masuku, Viola speaks on the importance of finding smart ways to ensure that Africa secures its unique and invaluable IP, touches on the overlooked advantages of adopting Pan-African digital standards for the establishment and trade of assets in various sectors, and sketches the role that Africa’s financial services industry needs to play in helping us all thrive in an increasingly digital world.

Editorial Disclaimer: Raise (https://getraise.io) is the presenting sponsor of this podcast, which is part of an African Tech Roundup miniseries focused on digital assets. Raise is a founding member of the African Digital Asset Framework (http://adaf.io). African Tech Roundup retains full editorial control over all published content. Opinions expressed by the host, Andile Masuku, and his guests, do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the presenting sponsor, Raise.

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 countries to deliver affordable broadband access to their citizens and enable them to break their costly reliance on outsourced broadband satellite services in one fell swoop.

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 development objectives. ADAF intends to complement the African Union’s Single Africa Digital Market initiative, which seeks to leverage technology to stimulate digitised pan-African economic integration.

Andile's first podcast guest is Felix Macharia, a Kenyan senior medical student who is the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of EOS Nairobi— where he leads product development and decentralised protocol research. Felix is also an affiliate scholar with the Institute for Blockchain Studies in New York.

Also on the show is the Bahamian technology and securities lawyer-turned-founder and CEO of Raise, Marvin Coleby. Marvin is a published researcher specialising in regional trade financing and international investment arbitration, and also serves as an advisor to the Africa Blockchain Alliance and the Agentic Group, alongside advising partners such as Coindesk, MIT and IBM.

Listen in to broaden your understanding of what constitutes a digital asset and learn why adopting a pragmatic Pan-African framework for dealing with digital assets might well be in the world's best interests.

Editorial Disclaimer: Raise (https://getraise.io) is the presenting sponsor of this podcast, which is part of an African Tech Roundup miniseries focused on digital assets. Raise is a founding member of the African Digital Asset Framework (http://adaf.io). African Tech Roundup retains full editorial control over all published content. Opinions expressed by the host, Andile Masuku, and his guests, do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the presenting sponsor, Raise.