CRYPTO MARKET

Bitcoin	$16,718	– 0.41%
Ether	$1,183	– 0.94%
BNB	$247	– 1.86%
FTX Token	$1.03	– 4.24%
Name of the coin Price of the coin 24-hour percentage change		Source: CoinMarketCap

* Data as of 05:36 AM WAT, December 19, 2022.

SUN KING GETS $70MILLION EQUITY INVESTMENT

Image source: CEO Business Africa 

Solar energy products provider, Sun King, has secured a $70 million equity investment led by LeapFrog Investments. The funding is an extension of the $260 million Series D round the solar company announced this April. With this investment, Sun King has closed its Series D round at $330 million, bringing its total funding since inception to $550 million.

What will Sun King do with the funding?

Sun King is a provider of off-grid solar energy products in Africa and Asia. According to the company, it has delivered solar energy to 165,000 homes per month across eight African countries .

The company will use the funding to scale its business presence and expand its pay-as-you-go solutions to entail larger setups capable of powering appliances like refrigerators.

 It will also exit all of its prior institutional investors completely.

RWANDA PARTNERS WITH ZIPLINE

Image source: This Day Live 

Drone delivery firm Zipline has partnered with the government of Rwanda to provide about two million instant deliveries and fly more than 200 million autonomous kilometres in Rwanda by 2029.

Rwanda is planning to integrate drones into its national operations in the financial, e-commerce, and eco-tourism sectors. This partnership is the first of its kind on the continent.

This year alone, Rwanda’s ministry of agriculture delivered more than 500,000 doses of animal health vaccines and more than 8,000 units of swine semen to vets and farmers using Zipline.

Rwanda hopes that increased access to instant delivery, such as Zipline offers, can bring the country closer to solving its national health and security problems.

TC INSIGHTS: WHAT SHOULD AFRICA PRIORTISE?

Africa’s digital skeleton is gradually adding flesh to bone. Countries like Rwanda and Ghana are doing more to achieve digital transformation across basic yet tedious processes, with the former launching a one-stop platform for accessing public services in 2015 and the latter digitizing national identification. 

But there’s still more to be done to drive development, job creation, and economic growth, and there are different areas that African countries that are trying to achieve these could focus on. 

An expert survey by the OECD in 2020 showed that policymakers and other stakeholders believe that when it comes to creating more jobs, providing digital infrastructure should receive greater priority over digital skills, digital solutions for agriculture and anything else. 

Digital infrastructure is a core need and the foundation for a lot of these other areas to function. However, focusing solely on building infrastructure over other components of digitalisation could have more delayed, long-term effects on economic growth, compared to others like improving access to finance. 

Take South Africa, for instance. 98.5% of businesses are SMEs, and they contribute 39% to the country’s GDP. Yet, South Africa has a $30 billion SME financing gap, and analysts predict that about 60% of businesses could shut down due to the spending contractions imposed by the pandemic. 

Unlocking growth in South Africa will clearly require paying more attention to SME financing. A priority area should therefore be enabling easier access to credit since traditional financial institutions are historically averse to financing SMEs. This would then mean driving compliance with the country’s Protection of Personal Information Act, which came into effect in 2020, as companies need data to give loans.

In some economies, it is clear what they should focus on. Ethiopia’s economy, for instance, is largely dependent on agriculture (40% of GDP and 75% of the workforce). So perhaps Ethiopia should focus on providing adequate digital solutions for smallholder farmers. 

On the other hand, countries like Sudan and Cameroon with no specific data protection laws in place should consider drafting and implementing legislation for that first, because with further digitalisation comes the risk of data leakage.

Every country should recognise where it falls short and first direct its efforts at those areas instead of applying a one-size-fits-all approach.

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TC INSIGHTS: GROWTH HANDBOOK

Are you an early-stage startup trying to hack growth?

TechCabal Insights has created a handbook to help you on your growth journey. It contains useful insights from experts that touch on key areas such as building a growth strategy, maximising online and offline channels, building a strong community, and others.

In this handbook, we share some top tips and best practices for startups looking to scale their growth efforts and effectively reach their audience.

To get a sneak peek into the handbook, click here.

You can also pre-register here to get paid access once it goes live.

IN OTHER NEWS FROM TECHCABAL

KYC can serve as a catalyst for DeFi adoption in Africa.

Cyber threats in Africa’s e-commerce and payment sectors.

JOB OPPORTUNITIES

• Binance – SEO Content Specialist – Lagos, Nigeria

• Klasha – Senior Product Manager, Senior Product Designer – Lagos, Nigeria

• ETAP – Growth Associate – Africa (Remote)

• Digital Vision East Africa Limited – Android Developer – Nairobi, Kenya

• Optica Limited – Data Analyst – Nairobi, Kenya

• Habaripay (GTCO) – Front End Developer, UI/UX Designer – Nigeria

• Fooji Inc –Full Stack Developer – (Africa) Remote

• MTN – Senior Manager, Digital Marketing – Nigeria

• Big Cabal Media – Learning & Development Executive, Software Developer, Commercial Director, Sales Associate – Lagos, Nigeria (Hybrid)

• Zikoko – Money Writer, Inside Life Writer, HER Writer, Copy Editor – Remote

There are more jobs on TechCabal’s job board. If you have job opportunities to share, submit them at bit.ly/tcxjobs. 

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