TC Daily

TechCabal Daily – Central Bank, please regulate us

Alexander Onukwue 11th August 2020

Digital lending has a naughty reputation in Kenya. Companies in the sector are often described as overcharging interest to customers, or offering strenuous repayment terms. Borrowers have been reported to apply for loans from multiple lenders, using credit from one provider to offset debt to another.

The Digital Lenders Association of Kenya, which represents 17 major players, wants to help reform the industry’s image. In a statement on Monday, the group threw its weight behind a plan by the Central Bank of Kenya to regulate digital lending in the country, Bloomberg reports.

At the moment, lenders do as they please. There are no ceilings on interest, leading to bizarre rates that are up to 180% in some cases. Agreeing with the Central Bank’s intentions to sanitize microcredit, the DLA wants regulation to initiate best practices based on transparency and fair market pricing.

The Central Bank wants to regulate monthly interest rates that can be charged per loan class, creating a standard that will bind all 50-plus operators in the sector. Each company will require the authority’s consent before introducing new credit product offerings to the market.

South Africa began a one-month pilot digital census on Monday, in a bid to use online and telephone data capturing tools in the 2021 Census. According to Stats SA, the government department for statistics, the trial is ongoing in selected areas around the country and will be useful in understanding how to carry out remote data collection when the main event happens next year.

Smartphone
penetration is 91% in South Africa. The ubiquity gives the government a platform to reach people in remote areas who may be left out of a process as critical to policy formulation and national planning as a census is. With their mobile phones, respondents can complete census questionnaire on their own, or may have an agent guide them over the phone.

Should this trial and subsequent census thrive with the assistance of remote tools, it would further show the e-governance possibilities that African governments can achieve with necessary bedrock internet infrastructure. However, questions will remain as to how quality assurance will be effected with regards to ensuring that data points reported by respondents over the phone or online truly reflect realities in the homes. (I can think of at least one country where this concern could become a heated objection).

Co-creation Hub and iHub are inviting applications for the 2nd cohort of their Women in Business program. The initiative is designed to support Nigerian and Kenyan tech and non-tech businesses led by women.

Participants can look forward to getting support to expand their businesses in multiple locations, gain expert advice on building and retaining strong teams, and accessing a robust network of high-value entrepreneurs, investors and potential clients. Learn more about the benefits of and criteria for participation here.

Deadline for the application is on August 15, 2020. Click here to apply.

After temporarily shuttering between April and May, businesses are increasingly re-opening in Nigeria. Public places of worship re-opened this past weekend. Eat-in restaurants will re-open at 50% capacity in Lagos.

But one group that was affected in April continues to stay locked down: schools.

Cases are rising and no government – state or federal – wants to risk exposing students to the coronavirus. Abubakar Idris explores this conundrum, considering the growing burden of e-learning on parents and students, and how a possible re-opening could be coordinated.

Acquisitions in Africa’s tech industry are rare. However, in the past year, we have seen at least four major ones. There’s a growing appetite for exits.

This Friday, August 14th, for the 7th episode of “Building in Africa” we are interviewing, Victor Basta – Founder and Managing Partner of M&A advisory firm, Magister Advisors. Basta has advised on over 120 transactions across 25 years and helped found and build three successful corporate finance firms in the process. His firm is focused on M&A exits and larger financing rounds.

Some of the African transactions Basta’s Magister Advisors has participated in
include Twiga Foods’ Series B round and Cellulant’s $47.5 million Series C round. Also, Magister has invested in Kenyan-based transport startup, Sendy.

Basta will answer questions about how big mergers, acquisitions and public offerings get done. Attendees will be able to ask him burning questions in an interactive session.

The event is open to experienced and aspiring entrepreneurs as well as everyone else who is playing in the African technology industry. Register here to attend the event.

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TechCabal Daily – Central Bank, please regulate us

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