TechCabal Daily – Where’s all that energy going?

South African President has given the communications minister new targets, a sign that South Africa is serious about improving its telecom sector.

Here are the targets for Communications Minister, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams:

• Ensure the current cost of mobile data is cut by 50%
• Ensure that the data price of 1GB data in SA is among the top 10 cheapest in Africa by 2024
• Reduce irregular expenditure by 100% by 2024
• Ensuring that the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) is adequately resourced to licence 4G spectrum.
• Issue a policy direction for 5G by December 2021 and ensuring that 80% of the population have access to the Internet by 2024.

Comparing South Africa to other African countries

Based on a recent survey on the average cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries in 2020 by British technology research firm Cable.

South Africa is ranked 148 out of 228 countries in the world. It has an average 1GB data price of $ 4.30, with the most expensive price being $30.4, while the cheapest is $0.32.

Here’s how South Africa 1 GB mobile data price compares to 10 randomly selected other African countries in the survey.

Zoom out: Looking at the cost of data from other African countries, the president is right that data price can reduce. But can it reduce by as much as 50%?

Also, If you’re wondering why is the data price high in South Africa, a possible major contributory factor is that the market is highly dominated by Vodacom and MTN. A year ago, the competition commission of South Africa asked these two companies to reduce prices by 30% – 50%. They should expect a similar request soon.

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Last week I wrote about how the Nigerian government is incentivizing Nigerians under-served or cut off from the national grid to own solar panels.

This week, this infographic from Energy Market and Regulatory Consultants (EMRC) points us to question what all the energy generated is used for. The outlier in this cohort is Nigeria, with the least total energy generated — 4,000 Mega Watts. 64% of this is used in residential areas, while 27% and 9% is used in commercial and industrial areas respectively.

For a country’s economy to grow it needs to invest in the production of goods & services, and these activities require energy.

Is this a case of wrong energy allocation to non-productive areas or is this an indicator that industrial production in Nigeria also happens in residential areas?

Let me know what you think.

Dig Deeper: Read the full presentation – A Roundtable Discussion on “Addressing Nigeria’s Power Problems”

Rise, the wealth management app that allows Nigerians to seamlessly build a portfolio of US stocks, US real estate and Fixed income with a minimum of $10 have launched a new app.
To get started, sign up, create a plan based on your risk appetite and financial goals, select how frequently you’d like to invest, and fund your plan. Rise takes care of the rest. Click this link to start investing with Rise.

African digital logistics company, Kobo360 has partnered with the International Finance Corporation [IFC] to launch the TechEmerge Temperature-Controlled Logistics program.

It aims to match innovators across the world with leading companies in Nigeria to pilot sustainable cooling solutions that will reduce losses in supply chains, strengthen access to TCL-dependent products and markets, and build commercial partnerships.

Next step: Apply here. It’s open until 31st January 2021

Every week Kay Ugwuede puts human faces to some of the innovative startups, investments and policy formations driving the technology sector across Africa.

In this week’s edition of My Life in Tech, she talked to Karen Adie the Director, Merchant Services, Trade Depot’s new fintech arm.

Kay says, “Karen Adie’s approach to leadership is one I haven’t come across expressed in many of the profiles I’ve written in this series. It’s like a dance, constantly changing each day to fit the needs of the teams she leads. Having started from the very basic rungs of the ladder in her career, Adie’s journey to leading Merchant Services at TradeDepot is a delightful read.”

Read: From wiring festival venues to leading fintech development at TradeDepot, Karen Adie’s slow and steady climb

How did you first sex education go? It may have been your parents trying to summarise the entirety of reproductive health and sexual intimacy in a 30 Minute cryptic talk that left you feeling confused or threatened.

In conservative societies, not many young adults, male or female, can walk into a pharmacy to buy a pack of condoms or contraceptives without getting some sort of side-eye from pharmacists or staff. They’re not expected to be sexually active as unmarried individuals let alone to flaunt it boldly.

In her recent article Kay talks about how WHISPA, a health tech product is proffering useful sexual health guidance to young adults in conservative countries like Nigeria.

Read: “Too embarrassed to buy a condom? Come here!”

“Everything is working😂😂😂. I look forward to my TC daily, I feel like a new generation old man that picks up his phone instead of a newspaper to read the news.”

Keep the responses coming.

We have over 80 responses so far to our survey.

Please fill the survey here and help us to get to over 100 responses. The more responses we get, the better we understand what’s working or not working.

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