TechCabal Daily – France’s largest telco, Orange could launch in Nigeria & SA in a few months

Hello, Welcome to TC Daily! In today's digest, France's largest telco is looking to launch in Nigeria and South Africa in the next few months. And it also has an imminent IPO, according to reports. Jumia is in the news again, in a quest to find new revenue streams ASAP. Also, there's funding news from Egypt and South Africa possibly proving investors are continuing to seek opportunities despite the ongoing crisis. Finally, we bring you a rich trove of very insightful content about building during and after a crisis from our Bullish on Africa conference and TC Live session with Odunayo Eweniyi, COO PiggyVest. Please take a moment to subscribe to our newsletter if this email was forwarded to you. Let's dive in!

France's largest telco Orange says it could possibly enter the Nigerian and South African markets. CEO Stephane Richard, according to reports, says it could happen in a few months rather than in a few years. The telco is presently in 18 countries in the Middle East and Africa, its fastest-growing market. While Orange has a huge presence in francophone Africa, in the anglophone region it is barely in the telecoms space. In South Africa, it only has little investment in e-commerce, WiFi access and offers B2B services including cloud and security services. It is an investor in pan-African e-commerce company, Jumia. In Nigeria, it tried to buy a 65% stake in Etisalat Nigeria in 2017. Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that the company was considering an initial public offering of its Middle East and Africa business suggesting that it is looking to double down on its operations in the region.

Chefaa, an Egyptian on-demand medicine delivery startup has closed an undisclosed amount in pre-Series A funding. The round was led by 500 Startups, Saudi Arabian fund Vision Ventures, Womena and some other investors. According to Vision Ventures, the seven-figure investment will allow the startup to expand within the region. Founded in 2017, Chefaa allows patients to order medicine and other products from pharmacies. It recently launched a white-label product and now plans to use its latest investment to grow its operations team and launch a B2B service for SMEs.

In South Africa, Futuregrowth Asset Management has invested in fintech LifeCheq. In 2018, Futuregrowth invested in Yoco, one of the best-funded fintechs in the region. It made the investment in LifeCheq through its Futuregrowth Development Equity Fund (DEF). LifeCheq is a personal finance startup that provides individuals and entrepreneurs not currently served by the formal wealth management sector with expert advice. It was founded in 2015 and it has a corporate service for employers who want to offer their employees a financial wellness programme.

Jumia Kenya has begun offering its logistics service to external clients. Previously, its logistics service exclusively supported its e-commerce and food delivery business. Jumia's logistics network comprises several logistics entrepreneurs and companies including big players like POSTA and Wells Fargo with thousands of bikes, vans and hundreds of pick up stations. This move is the latest in Jumia's quest to find new revenue sources as it continues to record losses. As its losses reached $1 billion in Q2 2019, CEO Sacha Poignonnec and CFO Antoine Maillet-Mezeray stressed the need to diversify Jumia’s revenue sources. It first turned to its digital payment service JumiaPay and has since launched different services in some of its locations including advertising services in Kenya and subscription-based delivery service in Nigeria.

Facebook has launched a new digital skills training programme called My Digital World. The social media giant says the new programme will integrate all its digital literacy programmes and will be available to all young people in Sub-Saharan Africa aged 13 and above. The programme also targets teachers, parents and guardians. Facebook is looking to train close to 20,000 participants this year across Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Zambia, Senegal, Cote D’Ivoire and Ethiopia on safe, responsible and beneficial usage of digital platforms. Big tech companies including Google and Facebook offer digital skills programme in the region to help close the huge digital literacy gap that exists but it's also an opportunity for them to build loyalty among youth audiences and in some cases onboard new users.

One unintended consequence of coronavirus lockdowns has been the bump in digitization and in the adoption of digital tools/services. African governments haven't been left out. In Cameroon, the government has finally digitized the process for its public service recruitment. Public Service Minister Joseph Le made the announcement last week citing the need to reduce crowds because of the pandemic. The government launched its new online platform on June 8. About 3,600 people are expected to be recruited into Cameroon's civil service this year following a series of competitive entrance examinations conducted last month by the government. The old recruitment method required candidates to submit several documents physically. Public gatherings are currently banned in Cameroon because of COVID-19.

Last month, we held our Bullish on Africa digital conference featuring different speakers from across the world and very electrifying sessions. From Kola Aina's exciting keynote address on funding Africa's future to his very insightful fireside conversation with Amandla Ooko-Ombaka, Associate Partner at McKinsey; a riveting discussion with Ben Harburg, Managing Partner, MSA Capital and other conversations about edtech, health tech and investing during a crisis. We've got a rich trove of very enlightening content about building during and after a crisis. You can watch all the videos from the conference here. Also, check out our TC Live session with Odunayo Eweniyi, COO, PiggyVest about building in tough times and managing digital savings during a crisis.

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