TechCabal Daily – Tanzania finally says yes to vaccines.

GHANA’S TECH ECOSYSTEM

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Ghana?

The Ashanti kingdom? Relaxed and easy-going people? Jollof rice wars with Nigerians?

Here’s what pops for us when we hear of Ghana. First, is Twitter setting up its Africa Headquarters in Ghana; next is Google launching its AI lab in Accra.

There’s a lot of interesting things happening in Ghana’s Tech Ecosystem and in July, we went on a journey to explore it. We met with key players on the field and had a literal taste of the economy. 🍴

Here are a few things we learnt.

Funding and what Ghana could do better

There are five countries leading venture capital investment in Africa and in 2020, Ghana displaced Rwanda on the list. 

According to Partech Africa’s report, Nigeria is at the top of the list with $307 million in investments while Ghana is fifth with a whopping $111 million. 

A snag to venture capitalism in Ghana is the minimum capital requirement all foreign startups must meet. For wholly-foreign startups, the minimum capital is $500,000. For joint ventures between non-Ghanaians and Ghanaians, the minimum is $200,000. Oh and one more interesting bit: both are subject to an increase to $1,000,000 if the venture commences trading activities in Ghana  

Understandably, many startups do not have access to that kind of capital. 

On the bright side: Nine local startups have raised money this year. Amongst them are BezoMoney, a digital savings platform; Jetstream, which helps African businesses manage their own cross-border supply chains; and a digital farming platform, Complete Farmer.

Daniel Adeyemi did a great job of covering the ecosystem and its prospects in The dawn of Ghana’s tech ecosystem.

JOIN IYIN ABOYEJI AT THE FUTURE OF COMMERCE

QUIZ:

Find the answer at the bottom of this newsletter

VACCINATIONS KICK OFF IN TANZANIA

What’s happening in Tanzania?

Last week, COVID-19 vaccinations began in Tanzania as President Samia Suluhu Hassan took the first vaccination shot during a live ceremony at the State House in Dar es Salaam.

Why is that important?

Well, in the early days of the pandemic, late ex-president John Magufuli downplayed the seriousness of the virus and urged citizens to turn back to God and “pray coronavirus away.”

Tanzanians were encouraged to believe that COVID-19 is a facade or a pick-one-leave-one virus that only infects Godless people.

Amidst the clamor for vaccines by African countries, ex-President Magufuli questioned the safety of the shots and urged Tanzanians to turn to herbal medicines instead. Earlier in February, the press ran a live showing of the Health Minister and her deputies drinking natural concoctions made of ginger, garlic, and lemons (An aside: this sounds delicious though).

What’s changed since then?

The president has, literally. 

In March 2021, John Magufuli sadly succumbed to an illness some speculate was COVID. His successor, Samia Suluhu Hassan, became Tanzania’s first female president. 

To battle the spread of the virus in the country, she and her officials first have to battle her people’s mindset towards COVID. There’s a worry amongst public health officials that people won’t step up to receive the shots and so a public vaccination of the leader seems like a great start. 

If the present mindset was sculpted by a governing administration, surely it can be changed by another one? 

Damilare Dosunmu examines Tanzania’s inoculation in Tanzania first female president kicks off COVID vaccinations after year-long denial

TC Insights: Transport Charges

Let’s play a little guessing game. If Akello sends money from the UK to his mum in Kenya and he also sends money to his business partner in the Philippines, which one of these will accrue higher charges?

If you said Kenya, you are most likely to be correct. In the first quarter of 2018, the average cost of sending $200 to anywhere in Sub-saharan Africa was about $19 about 20% than the remittance charges for any other region.

In 2018, Africa received about $65 billion in remittances but the cost of sending that amount is estimated to be about $1.8 billion annually. 

Historically, remittance costs have fallen. They fell from 14% in 2008 to about 10% in 2014. There’s no new data to suggest much has changed in the last two years. Since 2015, the average cost has been between 9 – 10%.

Remittances make up 2.5% of Africa’s GDP but they are the lifeblood of the economies in some countries. In Liberia, Comoros, and the Gambia, remittances make up over 20% of GDP.

What the high charges imply is that while remittances make up a huge portion of the income in many African homes, recipients sometimes give up a sizable amount of the money sent to them.

In some cases, senders bear the additional charges. Two of the major reasons for these high remittance charges are bank regulations and exclusive agreements. Bank regulations put in place to check money laundering and terrorism financing drive up administrative costs which affect the cost of remittances. In some cases, the nation’s post office has an exclusive agreement with a money transfer service. And since the post office is more widespread, consumers have no other option. Competition typically drives down costs.

While the rise of crypto has resulted in many businesses using it for cross-border transactions, it is still not widely used for sending home. Much more needs to be done to encourage innovation in remittances.

Get all our reports here and watch videos from our events. Got any research requests? Send them to us here.

JOB OPPORTUNITIES

Every week, TechCabal shares job opportunities in the African ecosystem.

• TechCabal – Senior Editor (West Africa)
• TechCabal – Senior Writer (Africa)
• BambooHR –User Experience (UX) Designer/Researcher
(Remote)
• Citibank – Digital Client Support
(Kampala, Uganda)
• Stears Data – Technical Team Lead
• The Republic – Social Media Editor
(Lagos, Nigeria)
• SafeBoda – VP of Operations
• Global Financial Integrity – Policy Analyst
(East and Southern Africa)

There are more opportunities here. If you’d like to share a job opening or an opportunity, please fill this form.

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