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Fueled by a growing and increasingly urbanized population, the African internet economy has the potential to contribute up to $180 billion to the continent’s GDP by 2025.
In a first-ever collaboration between IFC and Google, the e-Conomy Africa 2020 report surveys the continent’s internet landscape and details how tech entrepreneurs are creating a resilient and transformative digital economy that is helping boost innovation, create jobs, and reduce poverty.
Meet some of the tech entrepreneurs who are building Africa’s digital future.
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Talking Tech: Shola Akinlade, Paystack
Shola Akinlade is the cofounder and CEO of Paystack, a Nigeria-based payments startup that has been called “Africa's response to Paypal and Stripe.” In “Africa Talks Tech,” Akinlade discusses how focusing on local nuances helped him build a successful business.
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Africa Talks Tech: Bucking Expectations to Build a Start-up
In the third “Africa Talks Tech” conversation, entrepreneurs Aisha Pandor, CEO of SweepSouth, and Belal El-Megharbel, CEO of MaxAB, swap stories of how their families imagined much different careers for them. In both cases, becoming an entrepreneur required resolve and a steadiness of purpose—along with a few sacrifices along the way.
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Talking Tech: Aisha Pandor, SweepSouth
Aisha Pandor, CEO and cofounder of SweepSouth, never expected to end up as an entrepreneur. In “Africa Talks Tech,” Pandor discusses the ups, downs and sacrifices she and her family made on the path to starting an on-demand booking platform that connects clients and domestic workers.
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Talking Tech: Belal El-Megharbel, MaxAB
Belal El-Megharbel is the CEO and cofounder of MaxAB, a digital platform to manage procurement and delivery of grocery products to mom-and-pop shops in Egypt. In “Africa Talks Tech,” El-Megharbel describes how he grew his business from a small warehouse outside Cairo to a platform that features 22,000 retailers selling everything from dairy products to laundry detergent.
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Africa Talks Tech: Expanding Start-ups Across Africa
In the second Africa Talks Tech conversation, entrepreneurs Amadou Daffe, CEO and cofounder of Gebeya, and Obi Ozor, CEO and cofounder of Kobo360, explain how their personal values helped them tailor businesses that can solve Africa’s specific challenges.
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Talking Tech: Obi Ozor, Kobo360
Obi Ozor is the CEO and cofounder of Kobo360, which is often referred to as the “Uber” of trucks. In “Africa Talks Tech,” Ozor reveals how his vision is transforming the way African goods move across the continent.
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Talking Tech: Amadou Daffe, Gebeya
Gebeya has trained and graduated about 800 tech professionals and has matched a third of them with employers across Africa and around the world. In “Africa Talks Tech,” Gebeya’s CEO and Cofounder Amadou Daffe shares the passion that has compelled him to make Africa competitive.
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Africa Talks Tech: Transforming Africa’s Digital Marketplace
In Africa Talks Tech, entrepreneurs Peter Njonjo of Twiga and Niama El Bassunie of WaystoCap share the highs and lows of building and running tech start-ups in Africa and outline their goals for pan-Africa expansion.
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Talking Tech: Niama El Bassunie, WaystoCap
Like the winding highways that connect the five African countries in which WaystoCap operates, Niama El Bassunie’s journey to becoming a tech entrepreneur took many twists. In “Africa Talks Tech,” she reveals how she navigated others’ expectations of her, learned how to tell her story to potential investors, and has nurtured WaystoCap as a community as well as a tech platform.
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Talking Tech: Peter Njonjo, Twiga
Peter Njonjo’s mission was straightforward: make food more affordable for Kenyans, who spend about 46 percent of their household income on food—among the highest percentage in the world. But building a digital marketplace to help farmers and vendors buy and sell more efficiently was more of a challenge than he could have imagined. In “Africa Talks Tech,” Njonjo explains how he scaled those obstacles, helping Twiga become one of the most funded start-ups on the continent.
