The Flip

As MFS Africa announces its $100 million Series C, The Flip's Justin Norman and Sayo Folawiyo sit down for a conversation with MFS Africa's Founder and CEO, Dare Okoudjou.

[02:34]- First question, on MFS Africa's recent acquisition of Baxi, and their expansion into Nigeria.
[05:36] - Why Nigeria? And why now?
[09:15] - On MFS Africa's expansion capabilities. 
[12:49] - Beyond remittances. - on trade clusters and markets.
[18:05] - How does MFS Africa think about collaboration in the ecosystem while keeping the discipline to focus strictly on a B2B service? 
[22:26] - On sexiness and fundraising.
[29:51] - On valuations and fintech consolidation. 
[35:39] - Having scaled across 30+ countries, what does Dare think about regulatory fragmentation? And what does he wish happens from a governmental point of view? 

This season is sponsored by MFS Africa.

All this season, we're exploring value chains. And in the payments value chain, no fintech has a wider reach on the continent than MFS Africa. Through their network of over 180 partners - MNOs, banks, NGOs, fintechs, and global enterprises - MFS Africa's API hub makes connects over 320 million mobile wallets across 30+ countries in Africa.

As we began our exploration into retail and the so-called B2B commerce platforms, we kept asking about the nature of last-mile retail. Why is it so fragmented? And can we expect retail consolidation? 

In this episode, we explore why retail looks the way that it does in African markets, and how B2B commerce platforms are working to empower retailers in the context of the way in which last-mile retail works to meet the demands of their customers, the mass-market consumers across the continent. 

These platforms aggregate demand at the fragmented last mile, to ensure that products not only get to consumers but get to consumers more efficiently, with the aim to ultimately reduce the costs of goods, which, as we talked about last episode, are disproportionately expensive in African markets.

[05:12] - Why is retail in Africa so fragmented? As Twiga Foods' Peter Njonjo explains, it's largely due to the rate of population growth in urban cities across the continent.
[07:42] - How are B2B commerce platforms attempting to provide solutions for retailers in the context of massive fragmentation? We go on a journey of discovery with ZUMI's William McCarren.
[14:29] - So what exactly do B2B commerce platforms do, and how does retailer aggregation work? Sokowatch's Daniel Yu explains.
[16:52] - And as a result, these platforms can offer embedded finance offerings to SMEs and retailers who may not have previously had access to credit.
[22:07] - On the back of demand aggregation, platforms like Twiga Foods and Sokowatch are both needing to invest further upstream at the supply level of the value chain, as well.
[31:30] - A retrospective conversation with The Flip's host, Justin Norman, and b-mic, Sayo Folawiyo.

This season is sponsored by MFS Africa.

All this season, we're exploring value chains. And in the payments value chain, no fintech has a wider reach on the continent than MFS Africa. Through their network of over 180 partners - MNOs, banks, NGOs, fintechs, and global enterprises - MFS Africa's API hub makes connects over 320 million mobile wallets across 30+ countries in Africa.

As we continue our season on value chains, in this episode, we explore logistics. 

The cost of goods and food is disproportionately higher in Africa than anywhere else in the world, with consumers in some markets, spending 50% or more of their total income on food alone. A major reason for these high prices is logistics. 

So how do we fix this? How do we improve the efficiency of logistics on the African continent, and ultimately drive down the cost of goods?

[04:20] - On the role of containerization and efficient ports, with Jetstream Africa's Miishe Addy.
[11:37] - After we get through the ports, our goods are loaded onto a truck. We hear from Omar Hagrass on how Trella is trying to improve long-haul efficiency in North Africa and the Middle East.
[15:26] - From the port, we move on to the wholesale distributor. As we discuss with Daniel Yu, Sokowatch is aggregating small retailers at the fragmented last-mile and offering same-day delivery of fast-moving consumer goods. 
[22:37] - As the nature of retail evolves and more small merchants need logistics solutions, logistics-as-a-service providers like Sendbox are playing a role at the last-mile. We hear from its CEO, Emotu Balogun. 
[26:41] - But amidst all of this tech and innovation - what about infrastructure? To what extent is the problem just poor ports and roads? The Flip's b-mic, Sayo Folawiyo, and its host, Justin Norman, call up infrastructure investor Dami Agbaje for some insight. 
[32:42] - This episode's retrospective with Sayo and Justin. 

This season is sponsored by MFS Africa.

All this season, we're exploring value chains. And in the payments value chain, no fintech has a wider reach on the continent than MFS Africa. Through their network of over 180 partners - MNOs, banks, NGOs, fintechs, and global enterprises - MFS Africa's API hub makes connects over 320 million mobile wallets across 30+ countries in Africa.

This episode concludes our three-part fintech series this season. In the first two episodes, we tackled payments. In this episode, we explore the other layers of the financial services stack - namely, identity and data. 

Africa Stack is a play on India Stack - India's pioneering platform of open APIs and digital infrastructure that underpins the country's rapid move towards a paperless, cashless, and digital future. But whereas India Stack was built in one market, with one currency and one regulator, and with significant government investment, how does Africa Stack get built across a fragmented continent? 

[04:33] - What is India Stack, why is it important, and what does it mean for Africa Stack?
[07:20] - We explore one layer of the stack - identity - with Smile Identity's Mark Straub.
[08:51] - Identity is a distinct challenge in Africa due to the gaps left by governments. According to The Economist, in countries like Tanzania, Ethiopia or Malawi, for example, less than 20% of births are registered.
[12:50] - Another important part of identity is address verification - something that OkHi's Timbo Drayson is attempting to improve upon.
[19:25] - One reason why Africa Stack is important is because of the opportunities created by data layer and open banking startups, like Mono, as discussed with its CEO, Abdul Hassan.
[23:14] - Whereas Mono is tackling bank customers in bank-led Nigeria, Pngme is focused on USSD transaction data, the telco rails that power mobile money. We hear from Pngme's Brendan Playford.
[27:40] - Beyond data aggregation, there is a need for data empowerment, to create opportunities for real-time, customized credit, for example.
[30:25] - So how will Africa Stack come together across such a fragmented ecosystem? 
 

This season is sponsored by MFS Africa.

All this season, we're exploring value chains. And in the payments value chain, no fintech has a wider reach on the continent than MFS Africa. Through their network of over 180 partners - MNOs, banks, NGOs, fintechs, and global enterprises - MFS Africa's API hub makes connects over 320 million mobile wallets across 30+ countries in Africa.

In episode one of this season, we explored how money moves within borders in Africa. In this episode, we explore how money moves across them. 

[01:27] - Africa is the most expensive region in the world to send money to, according to the World Bank's Remittance Prices Worldwide report. 
[07:26] - Why are there such limited cross-border payment options within Africa?
[08:30] - And why is sending money across borders in Africa so expensive? AZA Finance's Elizabeth Rossiello tells the story of investment in infrastructure and liquidity, or lack thereof.
[13:39] - How do you create liquidity across markets and between curriencies?
[18:12] - How are fintechs providing better rates and leveraging technology to reduce the cost of cross-border payments?
[24:32] - On the chicken and egg game of infrastructure and payment volumes across borders. Ham Serunjogi, Chipper Cash's CEO, shares the companies outlook on making cross-border payments more accessible in Africa.

This season is sponsored by MFS Africa.

All this season, we're exploring value chains. And in the payments value chain, no fintech has a wider reach on the continent than MFS Africa. Through their network of over 180 partners - MNOs, banks, NGOs, fintechs, and global enterprises - MFS Africa's API hub makes connects over 320 million mobile wallets across 30+ countries in Africa.

We hear a lot, in the African tech ecosystem, that the competition is with cash. Virtually every country in the world is on some form of a journey to move from cash to cashless. Many African markets, however, are quite far on that journey. And to understand how to accelerate this trend on the continent, we first need to understand how money moves.

[04:55] - For most Africans, the mobile money experience starts with agent networks, like TeamApt's MoniePoint, in Nigeria.
[09:47] - Though increasingly, people are getting paid by employers directly into their mobile wallets. Bulk disbursement startups like Julaya, in Cote d'Ivoire, play a role here. 
[13:24] - But how does money actually move, between accounts and banks? The movement of money is powered by national payments switches. In South Africa, its payments switch is BankservAfrica. 
[20:06] - So now that we know how money moves, how are fintechs building greater utility into their mobile wallets, to compel users to keep money in them? 
[25:56] - How should we think about the design and extensibility of mobile wallets, in the context of physical wallets? 

This season is sponsored by MFS Africa.

All this season, we're exploring value chains. And in the payments value chain, no fintech has a wider reach on the continent than MFS Africa. Through their network of over 180 partners - MNOs, banks, NGOs, fintechs, and global enterprises - MFS Africa's API hub makes connects over 320 million mobile wallets across 30+ countries in Africa.

Introducing The Flip Season Three. This season is about value chains - we pop the hood across sectors and take an in-depth look at what's going on underneath. 

Each episode during our narrative episodes, The Flip's b-mic, Sayo Folawiyo, and founder, Justin Norman, sit down for a retrospective conversation on the topic explored in that episode. However, our current series of conversational episodes explored one theme across the series - digitizing analog and fragmented industries - we opted to have one retrospective conversation that reflects on the entirety of our 10 episode series.

In this episode, Sayo and Justin talk about people-centric tech startups, market segmentation, interoperability, specialization, and they may have even invested a new as-a-service category. 

3:54 - After a full season of episodes exploring those digitizing analog and fragmented industries, what did we learn?
5:17 - People heavy, high-touch businesses are a feature, especially in African markets.
10:10 - On segmenting the informal sector.
11:53 - A discussion on interoperability and the role of the middlemen.
15:35 - Introducing Middlemen as a Service.
16:04 - On specialization.

This episode is part of our conversational series sponsored by MFS Africa. MFS Africa’s competition is with cash, and throughout this series, we’ll feature other startups and entrepreneurs who are digitizing, better organizing, and aggregating analog and fragmented industries.

Follow The Flip on social media @theflipafrica.

 In this episode, we talk edtech with Wambura Kimunyu, the Group CEO of Eneza Education.

Throughout the series of episodes, we’re exploring the entrepreneurs in start-ups digitizing informal and fragmented industries on the continent. And for Eneza Education to remain affordable and accessible, it means distributing text-based content to basic mobile phones via SMS, and acquiring customers via radio advertising. We talk to Wambura about building a product for low-income students - 70% of whom live in rural areas,  the content development and distribution process,  balancing available technologies with the needs of their customers, how to price for low-income consumers, and more.

4:59 - First question, who are the customers that Eneza Education is serving?
6:08 - A deep dive into Eneza Education's products - the SMS-based Shipavu291 and Ask-A-Teacher.
12:20 - On the content development process and launching in a new country.
14:29 - On expansion - what role do development agencies and foundations play here?
16:22 - Eneza Education's pricing strategy.
20:46 - How is the company measuring impact, and what of impact are they creating?
22:26 - How does Eneza Education build their product with restraint? Why don't they have a mobile app?

This episode is part of our conversational series sponsored by MFS Africa. MFS Africa's competition is with cash, and throughout this series, we'll feature other startups and entrepreneurs who are digitizing, better organizing, and aggregating analog and fragmented industries.

Follow The Flip on social media @theflipafrica.

In this episode, we explore entertainment for mass-market consumers in Africa with Guy Kamgaing, the Founder and CEO of StarNews Mobile.

Throughout the series of episodes, we're exploring the entrepreneurs in start-ups digitizing informal and fragmented industries on the continent. And in the media space, that means building a product fit for the realities of mass-market consumers. In a world of abundant free content on YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, and other "data guzzling" platforms, StarNews is building a business selling a la carte microcontent bundled with telco data, and they're selling it to millions of African consumers, while simultaneously helping creators make money off of their content, as well. 

04:05 - First question, what is StarNews' background story?
06:52 - A deeper dive into the product, from both the content development and distribution perspectives.
10:30 - Why would a consumer pay for content when so much free content is readily available elsewhere?
15:47 - A discussion on StarNews' growth, and expansion from Côte d'Ivoire, across Francophone African countries, to South Africa.
18:05 - On partnering with telcos.
20:29 - How are the streaming wars between Netflix and Disney influencing strategy, and why is StarNews investing in content development?

This episode is part of our conversational series sponsored by MFS Africa. MFS Africa's competition is with cash, and throughout this series, we'll feature other startups and entrepreneurs who are digitizing, better organizing, and aggregating analog and fragmented industries.

Follow The Flip on social media @theflipafrica.