African startups Magazine- Emerge Africa

Creating A New AfricaThe Brains, IndividualsAnd Organizations Propelling The Continent To New Frontiers

January - March 2014 • Nr. 1 • Emerge-Africa is published by the Emerge Africa Group

EMERGE AFRICAEMERGE AFRICA

Africa's Tech Companies of the FutureEssay by Okafor Dodoh

MOSTEnterprising

Start-upsMeet The Companies

And IndividualsChanging Africa’s Tech

And Business Ecosystem

• Interviews •

Churchill NanjeMambeEric MuttaGeorge William BakkaGospel Onuoha

SPECIAL FEATUREMeltwater Entrepreneurial

School Of Technology

EDITORIALTHE AGE

of rapid changes in

the world of information

dissemination

P r i c e : 9.9 9 U S D • S O L D AC R O S S A F R I C A

First Issue

INDEX

EDITORS’ TAKE - Our Criteria

The Age of rapid changes in the world of information disemination

3

CorruptionNET, South AfricaFighting Corruption Collectively, Effectively

16Mara Online, Uganda

Marrying Online Convenience WithInformative Exchanges

19

COVER STORY

Creating A New AfricaThe Brains, Individuals

And Organizations Propelling The Continent

To New Frontiers

7

5

Special FeatureMeltwater Entrepreneurial School Of TechnologyBuilding Tomorrow’s Entrepreneur, Equipping The Next Generation, Thrusting Africa Onto The Big Stage

❲AfricaEmerge

Digital Edition © 2013

January - March 2014

The Editorial TEAMAniekan OkonoCo-Founder / Business Development Head

Aniekan’s main strength is in motivating and help-ing those around him find and live to the fullest of their potential. Aniekan’s ideas, inspiration and leadership drive the team. He is also in charge of business development and commercialization.

[email protected]: aniekan.okonoWeb: twitter.com/AniekanOkono; www.facebook.com/aokono;www.miemagazine.com

Location: HelsinkiPhone: +358443629957Address: C/O Protomo Ylistönmäentie 24, 40500 JyväskyläFinland

Contact:

Leslie AsamoaCo-Founder / Lead IT Expert

A seasoned (20 years+) Systems, Solution and Business Application Analyst with Domain Specific Modelling (12 years) experience in the Enterprise (Enterprise and Project Architectures) skilled and experienced in ana-lyzing and converting systems, solutions or applications, through a defined set of multi-task processes including preparing an overview characterization of the system, so-lution or application.

[email protected]@gmail.comSkype: asamoal0Web: twitter.com/asamoal0

Phone: +358505553330Address: Ramsaynkuja 8B, 02450 Sundsberg, Kirkkonummi Finlandand Accra, Ghana

Contact:

Godwin ChukwukeluCo-Founder / Head Contacts And StrategyGodwin is a seasoned IT professional with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in computer science from the University of Nigeria Nsukka and Manchester respec-tively. He is best suited in the areas of business strategy development and idea generation. He ensures that the Emerge Africa magazine editions are outstandingly spe-cial and first-rate in its class. GOC as he is fondly called believes in innovation, commercialization and continuous integration of knowl-edge (Kaizen) across frontiers. GOC lives in Nigeria.

[email protected] Phone: +23408038099848Contact:

Michael Fidelis UmanahCo-Founder / Page Planner

Mike read mechanical engineering at the University of Nigeria and works with Leslie Asamoa in the technical department. Mike brings energy and imagination to the Emerge Africa team.

Phone: +2347062359125

Contact:

[email protected] web: Facebook.com/Michael Umanah

Okafor DodohEditor-In-ChiefA co-founder of Emerge Africa, Dodoh holds a de-gree in economics from the University of Nigeria. To Dodoh, Africans must rise and take their destiny in their own hands and this responsibility naturally falls on the youths. Creating a better continent is a shared obliga-tion and as a firm proponent of the power of the media, the Emerge Africa platform is founded principally to tell the story of Africa’s best and most enterprising youths, showcase their glorious inventions and patents to the world. To tell the story of a new, emerging Africa is an obligation the medium has assigned to itself and her editor-in-chief, also the founder of EaglePost Media (eaglepostng.com) would do his best to make this dream real. He lives in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city.

[email protected]: +2348051273647

Web: Facebook.com/Dodoh OkaforTwitter.com/eaglepostng

Contact:

The team will continuously explore the entire African continent to present the best stories of inventions, innovation, and creativity passionately pursued by enterprising Africans who are determined to transform the continent through technology and great ideas.

Please contact us:[email protected]

or call at: +2348051273647.

Emerge-Africa is published bythe Emerge Africa Group

Phone: +2348051273647

January - March 2014 EMERGE AFRICA 3

EDITORS’ Take Our Criter ia

IIn profiling the start-ups here, our selection team was guided by three important criteria:

• Relevance• Novelty• EaseOfAccess

Ideas offered by a start-up must be relevant to the Afri-can socio-econo-political eco-system. It must be such that is designed to address a certain, identified problem faced by spe-cific group within the region.

Start-ups like corruption-NET, BudgIT (from South Africa and Nigeria respectively) are particularly relevant in ad-dressing the problem of cor-ruption and poor knowledge of the budget process, prevalent problems in the countries where they operate.

NJORKU from Cameroun and mPAWA (Ghana) are of great help to the millions seek-ing blue and white collar jobs

within the continent. There’s little argument that sometimes, unemployment stems from what economists call “informa-tion asymmetry”.

With the bold initiatives tak-en by these founders, employers and prospective employees now know where and how to make contacts, creating value and wealth along the line, a signifi-cantly helpful leap if you ask me.

Paperight from South Af-rica is also increasing access to valuable, time tested books through the ages by making these books (from general in-terest, academic, history, self help, motivational books and so on) available in as many outlets as possible, turning these out-lets to copyright shops.

The founders get a straight A for novelty. Brainshare (from Uganda) and PULSE (Cameroon) are equally peer-

of rapid changes in the world of information dissemination

THE

AGE

From the EDITORS Our cr iter ia

4

less for seamlessly integrating education and social, mobile and web interaction thereby making more education attrac-tive for the millions of youths bored of the traditional educa-tion routine.

mVERIFIED from Kenya offers us a peep into the possi-bilities and accrued advantages of deploying modern commu-nication and technology tools in fighting forgery and fakery, two dangerous threats to cred-ible business transaction within the continent.

With their skills, the start-up entrepreneurs are letting us in on how we too can channel our best energies into fighting the prob-lems that are a daily cause of worry in our little environment.

M-Changa borrows an age-old tradition of raising money in East Africa and makes it an idea and a trend for this age. With their platform, anyone in need of money (with the right contacts and for the right rea-son) now has a suitable anchor for partnership with much convenience.

PriceCheck, another truly unique African creation keeps online shoppers safe from the exploitative tendencies of Shy-lock retailers. By creating a platform where prices are cross-checked, valid and informed decision are made. The idea has proven as timely as it is in-spired. Africa in the views of some is experiencing an online shopping boom and the dudes behind this innovative South African start-up are leaving nothing in their strides to see that the good times last forever.

All the start-ups profiled here were meticulously selected from

diverse ends of the continent.Methodically, they are re-

shaping the face of technology and information dissemination within our beautiful continent.

Without being said, they are making life easier and con-venient for the vast majority of our people.

The young and young at heart would be eternally grate-ful to the venture capitalists, institutions and brains behind these outfits.

For leading us through this age of rapid changes in the world of information dissemi-nation, high speed advances in innovative, barrier breaking business ideas and build-for-consumer convenience business models, they deserve our grati-tude, support and continuous encouragement. That is what we have sought to do here.

We hope you will enjoy the exciting insights and inspira-tions we will be serving in the accompanying pages.

Okafor DodohEditor in Chief

EMERGE AFRICA January - March 20144

❲

• SPECIAL FEATURE •

ENTREPRENEURIAL SCHOOL OF TECHNOLOGY

J

MELTWATER

Jorn Lyseggen, the brain and inspiration behind this inno-vative institution that has sup-ported several of Africa’s lead-ing start-up is a firm believer in the future of Africa as the home of the next big thing in tech-nology. To set the stage for this unprecedented era, The Melt-water Entrepreneurial School of Technology (which he runs), the leading tech training insti-tution in Accra Ghana trains and equips her students with the skills required to lead break-through global companies.

Mr. Lyseggen believes that Africa has such a massive pool of talents that if properly har-nessed would solve the problem of unemployment that is cur-rently afflicting the continent and in general stimulate the economy of the region.

Evidence that the efforts of the board, staff and students of MSET are yielding fruits is found in the impressive fact that the 139 graduands of the school have founded 13 companies, col-lectively employing an estimated 70 people.

The meticulous admission and training procedure at the school

makes failure (for the alumni) nearly impossible. To be admit-ted, one must have earned a de-gree from a university or institu-tion of higher training. Of the over one thousand that send in applications each year, not more than twenty are selected after sev-eral rounds of aptitude tests and other tough screening measures.

Since founding in 2007, the school has been renowned for offering the right kind of nurtur-ing, support and guidance to her students with the aim of turning them into extraordinarily suc-cessful entrepreneurs.

MEST, operated by Meltwa-ter Foundation is involved in the business of seeking out univer-sity graduates with special skills and talents- those with interest in entrepreneurship, technology

Building Tomorrow’s Entrepreneur, Equipping The Next Generation, Thrusting Africa Onto The Big Stage ❲

Name:

Jorn Lyseggen

Place Of Birth:

Korea, Dec. 1, 1968.

Nationality: Norway

Occupation: Entrepreneur

Education:

B. Science, Electrical Engineering (Bergen Ingeniorhogskol, Norway)

M. Science, Electrical Engineering, Specialization In Digital Signal Processing and Artificial Intelligence (Iowa State University, USA)

Entrepreneurship Training (Harvard University, USA)

Biggest Brands:

Meltwater News, Founded

in 2001

Meltwater Foundation and Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology

FOUNDER’SPROFILE

SP

6 EMERGE AFRICA January - March 2014

SPECIALFeature Meltwater Entrepreneurial School Of Technology

and business to take part in her programs.

On admission, the students, now called Entrepreneurs in Training (EITs) go through a rigorous two-year entrepreneurial training that combine an MBA-type education with hands-on training in software development, basic, essential business funda-mentals and entrepreneurship in a fast-paced, challenging, start-up environment where they develop software applications. When ready, these apps are launched in the global market.

Courses are handled by busi-ness professors, MBA consultants and software geeks who bring in several years of seasoned experi-ence in software and tech busi-ness in the USA, EU and Asia.

Collectively, these teaching fellows prepare the students for the challenges and thrills of the global market.

The training schedule includes the essentials of business man-agement, finance, communica-tion and advanced programming.

Here, students are by regula-tion required to develop software applications that will provide so-

lutions to pressing international problems, that would be accept-able in the global market and be eventually launched as real com-panies. This, it must be stated is the whole objective of the two-year training programme.

Theory and theorizing take the first year but whence the sec-ond year approaches, the students are required to form a team of three or four people and boot-strap their own software start-up.

For their final examination, the students present an investor pitch to a committee of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs that

include the school’s founder Mr. Lyseggen. Based on certain met-rics that included the strength of the software, its commercial vi-ability and global appeal.

The students receive seed funding that range from $30, 000 to $200, 000 from MSET in-cubator, located in the same en-vironment. When the ideas are funded, the newly formed start-ups move into the incubator to begin operations. Here, they are given access to office facilities at a small monthly fee.

The model for certain has worked as scripted. Between 2008 and 2013, the Meltwater Foun-dation, which runs the school, has invested over $1.5 million in these budding businesses.

In addition to seed funding, the MSET graduands gain ac-cess to a global network of advi-sors and mentors.

Mr. Lyseggen’s belief and con-fidence in the future of Africa is paying off significantly and some of the most important start-ups founded by graduates of his insti-tution are listed below.

S/N Start-up Service Pitch

1 Adsbrook Web and Mobile Advertising.

2 ClaimSync Electronically Collate And Process Medical Insurance Claims

3 DropifiWeb based messaging platform that allows companiesto easily visualize, manage, analyze and respond to incoming enquiries from existing and potential clients

4 Freelancepro.Me Allow Freelance writers build online reputation

5 Leti Games Online Mobile And Web Based Games

6 mPawa Mobile Job matching application for blue collar Jobs

7 Nandi Mobile Leveraging Enterprise-Customer Relations UsingMobile Messaging Platforms

8 Retail Tower Inventory Management For Online Retail Outlets

9 Saya Mobile Messaging


COVERSTORY New Frontiers

T

Creating

AFRICA

The continent of Africa and her people have variously been derided for her many deficits- economic, cultural and political.

For some, the Black Conti-nent is only synonymous with underdevelopment, war, hun-ger, deprivation, limited access to self-enhancing opportunities and for the extremely cynical, doom and doomed. There per-haps could be some measure of justification for this as the re-gion clearly lags behind most sections of the world in some key parameters for assessing de-velopment and living standards.

But then, a new Africa is emerging and sadly, very few are

noticing. Most observers are so fixated with the dominant view of the continent that they are unable to see how gradually, the continent’s story, fortune and fu-ture are being recast - by a dy-namic team of young innovative, dynamic, ambitious and futuris-tic computer programmers, app developers and out-of-the box thinkers - in all fields - from gov-ernance (anti-corruption, online certificate verification) to eco-nomic (e-trading, e-commerce, advertising), social interaction, education (e-learning apps are being developed almost daily), parenting, tourism and traffic. The adoption and enthusiasm

is so pronounced that no field is left behind.

From Ghana to Kenya to Ni-geria and whatever part of Af-rica you set foot in, you are al-most certain to encounter a new technology-driven business in the making; you would likely run into a mobile or web-based app developed to take care of a spe-cific problem affecting an area within the African eco-system.

As good a news as that is, the greater joy comes from know-ing that the dudes behind these wonders are neither Europeans, Americans nor Chinese but Af-ricans living in the continent. Without being loud or attention

a NEW

The Brains, Individuals And OrganizationsPropelling The Continent To New Frontiers

by Okafor Dodoh

COVERSTORY Creating a new Afr ica

8

seeking, they are systematically tackling our diverse problems as a people. More exciting for observ-ers like this writer is that the whole thing has the texture and thrill of a mass movement.

If you think the bigger econo-mies here would dominate this new era, then you are certainly wrong. Truth is - everyone and every country are in the game and many more are joining. In Bo-tswana, Pule Mmolotsi leads the way by developing an Oyester-like payment card for folks using the public means of transport, much similar to what you have in the metropolitan cities of London, New York, Rome and Paris.

The device called Olekard, a biometric card that passengers can load money into and make easy pay-ment with in buses, matatu, combi, or trains. Simply wave the card at

the terminal and you are good to go, payment is already made. Your fee is deducted automatically like it happens after each phone call on a prepaid platform.

When Mmolotsi’s invention reaches a wider-level adoption, passengers in his country can af-ford to travel with peace of mind as pickpockets and bigger crimi-nals are kept at bay - no one wants to rob a man without much phys-ical cash. Operators also can rake in more revenue as theft to driv-ers and touts are checked, thanks to this truly smart, truly African invention.

In Ethiopia, certainly one of the places ignored by tech-watchers (with only an estimated 1% inter-net penetration, mobile penetration is put at a paltry 17%), iceaddis, one of the most unique and important hubs in Africa is helping loads of tech-savvy Ethiopians to give life to their dreams.

Started in May 2011, the tech hub, accelerator and co-working space now boast of over 1000 members, developing not just mar-ketable and innovative ICT apps for the country but also giving at-tention to green and sustainable technologies generally.

Presently, one (there are 35 in all) of the companies that emerged


COVERSTORY New Frontiers


from Mekina offers Ethiopians an opportunity to rent, lease, buy and sell cars online.

In Tanzania, The Aim Group is taking marketing and brand-ing to an unprecedented height leveraging the popularity of the media - (traditional and social). They collaborate with major brands in the continent to gain new reaches for their messages.

Likewise in Kenya, with their huge mobile and web penetration, you have to be a magician to effectively cover all the profitable start-ups coming from that country of long-dis-tance runners.

The young Kenyans have simply taken the lead and their footsteps millions of others in other countries are following. Whether you are in the hunt for a company that offers you round the clock guide to tourist desti-nations via mobile, hot-dining spots in town and perhaps where to have a cool night sleep away from home, the start-ups in Ke-nya would more than surpass your expectation.

In Ghana, a lot is happening and thanks to the vibrant accel-erators (see our special feature), young Ghanaian graduates are becoming job creators and eco-nomic transformers rather than job seekers and victims of a vil-lainous system that most schools here make of her graduates.

Ghana’s start-ups are not only innovative, they are smart and proactive.

Cameroun too (they have good representation on our pro-

file section) is in the business. All over the country, youths are beginning to see options, imag-ine new future and more im-portantly, are giving life to their wild, imaginative ideas.

How about Nigeria (plenty coming from here in our pro-file section also) where 25-year old Sadiq has launched a traf-fic monitoring app to enable folks with android devices get first hand, up-to-the minute update on the traffic situation on their routes. With this app, congested roads can be avoided by folks with urgent appoint-ments to meet. Better business relations too can be guaranteed, all through the tech-wizardry of this Nigerian inventor. There’s nothing more Lagos residents can ask for.

Also in Nigeria, Iroko Part-ners is doing more than her part to see that entertainment, the African way, reaches every cor-ner of the earth. As the greatest online retailers of African mov-ies and videos with millions of patrons across the continents of

the world, there’s no doubting they have transformed them-selves into the new Missionaries and evangelists of the African culture and tradition.

Very significantly, there’s a shared belief among the drivers and pioneer of this new move-ment- as some have rightly called it - that the future is Africa’s.

In the words of Ashish J. Thakkar of Mara Group, “Afri-can tech space has a very bright future ahead and it’s probably one of the sectors that will define the continent’s future.”

Then according to Arthur Atwell of Paperight South Af-rica, “Africa is the most exciting place to be for entrepreneurs to-day, because there’s so much to be done, and that means endless possibilities. We solve real prob-lems here. Unlike so many entre-preneurs in developed countries, we don’t waste time building silly apps that make no impact on the world. That means Africa’s tech start-ups are, for the most part, creating real value that over the coming years will directly ben-

10

efit our economies, and grow our businesses into solid assets for customers and shareholders.”

In all, the transformation of the continent by means other than revolution and political horse-trading is being pioneered by the youths, the owners of to-morrow and there’s no evidence they are proclaiming uhuru yet.

Let’s be clear, there’s no Afri-can start-up that can yet rival the big shots in the industry at the global level.

The founders of Facebook, Google, Twitter, Yahoo, Micro-soft and all the rest will always retain prominence of space and mention. The founders and start-up owners all acknowledged the enormity of the challenges facing the young, innovative person here.

Mr. Thakkar succinctly paint-ed the picture thus, “the main challenges facing young Afri-can entrepreneurs are lack of experience, credibility and ac-cess to funding.” The difficul-ties in Maxwell’s view vary from country to country. In his native South Africa for example, “the biggest problem is the high cost of tax and regulatory compli-ance, and our banking regula-tions that put too much power in the hands of four or five banks.” Oluseun Onigbinde, the former bank staff who now functions as the team leader of BudgIT, puts it thus - “as an entrepreneur in Africa, you have to contend with the cost factors such as energy, taxation, unfavorable policies for small businesses, leadership defi-cit and the risk perspective of the society. Innovation is premised

on the ability to take a risk, to believe that the status quo needs improvement or that there’s an iron-cast window of opportunity that needs to be unveiled. A key challenge is how do you allow people to unleash their geniuses when they are still worried about the basics of food, clothing and affordable shelter? It ends up that people are wired to drift to safety - a paid employment im-mediately after leaving school.”

With these problems identi-fied by the individuals directly involved in the start-up ecosys-tem, it would be naive to simply wish them away and pretend that everything is perfect.

Like you would still read in

our interview segment, the jour-ney ahead is still far, the task demanding and the reward un-certain. What is needed is the in-dividual with the will, the tenac-ity and grit to overcome, conquer and dominate his field. Here is something we all should keep in mind: we are in a new world and Africa can no longer afford to stand and clap.

Here is a time to step into the arena and make a claim for the top prize. Tell whoever cares to listen that indeed, Africa is emerging.

Special thanks to Godwin Chukwukelu

for editorial assistance.

COVERSTORY Creating a new Afr ica



AFRICATOMORROW Column

PPredicting the future is about the most difficult engagement even for self-announcing fu-turistic minded persons. A hard task it is really and the one we are to embark on now is one such complex task: taking a peep into the future of tech firms in the continent. The main con-cerns are: 1. What problems would to-morrow’s IT-based companies in Africa be tackling? 2. Which group would be lead-ing it?3. How would they be funded?4. How can they compete on the global stage?5. How profitable would they be?

We can stretch the discourse further and find out what quali-ty of employment they would be creating and their overall impact

on the aggregate African econ-omy. Generally, there would be question of how the average folk rural/urban dweller within any of the continent’s villages and towns and cities profit from the inventions of the future.

Overall, we can break down this segment of the essay to these key components namely:

• Focus• Leadership• Funding• Competition• Profitability• ImpactNow we continue by identi-

fying (re-identifying really) the immediate challenges the con-tinent faces. It has been argued severally by almost all the experts (and non-experts as well) on Af-rica and African issues that cor-

ruption, poor infrastructure, lim-ited income borne out of dearth of a competent work-force and if you stretch it further- uneducat-ed citizenry are the key problems confronting the continent today.

Without an extensive argu-ment, we must admit that these problems are real and present. Now if the geeks who today are credited with some of the finest ideas and inventions all over the continent are to properly play the redemption role that the we all crave for, they must IMME-DIATELY begin to think up ways of tackling some of these lingering concerns.

Start-ups of the future must as a matter of urgency focus on ad-dressing some (if not all) of these identified problems facing the continent using innovative and groundbreaking means and ideas.

Looking at the Ideas and Innovations That Would Dominate Africa’s Socio-Economic andCultural Landscape in the Next Decade

Africa’sTech Companies

of the

FUTURE


These companies wherever they spring from must, even while local in operation maintain an African-wide perspective? How would the founders of Corrup-tionNET (from South Africa) assist Nigerians in tackling the age-old problem of greed and graft threatening the continued existence of that magnificently blessed nation? How does Budg-IT (from Nigeria) become opera-tional across all the nations of Af-rica in such a way that citizens in these diverse countries are aware of the budgetary process and cy-cle in their respective countries? I have met folks from several of these nations who do not know a thing about the annual budget of their government.

While knowledge of the es-timation of national income and expenditure as captured by the budget does not necessarily guarantee anything but it would certainly improve public sec-tor accountability. If this can be achieved on a continent-wide scale, you then can be certain gov-ernment operative would be more eager to be fairly judicious in the use of tax-payer’s funds.

As you all are aware, bad gov-ernance and leadership thrives here because elections in most of the countries of Africa do not guarantee the emergence of the best leaders and even more wor-risome, they often do not reflect the preferences of the electorates. That being the case, techpreneurs must begin to seriously consider putting together software pack-ages that would make rigging and electoral manipulations severely

difficult for those who reap from such unwholesome engagement. I am certain that when and if they do come up with this, there would certainly be no shortage of pa-trons. Citizens and electoral com-missions with interest on trans-parency and upright discharge of her duties would certainly lap up to the product and wait for this: at any cost. Yes, they would pay whatever they are charged, after all, it would be much more ex-pensive to have a faulty process that ultimately, would profit the wrong man.

In the area of agriculture too, there are loads of works to be done. Our farmers need the best inventions (IT-wise) they can lay hands on to get acquainted with all the latest happenings in their field. They need the mechanism to enable them keep abreast of the most productive seedlings and animal breeds, which stocks guar-antee the best yields and how to confront the many problems that afflict and stunt farmers and farm-ing here. There also can be a social network of sort for farmers across the continent. A fish farmer in Port Harcourt for instance would sure have plenty to learn from his colleague in Ghana. The same goes for those rearing livestock in Northern Nigeria, the palm plan-tation owners in South East Ni-geria and all the rest. Networking on an African wide level surely is the way to go. Tech experts and Angel Investors ought to be see-ing these opportunities and step in immediately. Food production has to be raised significantly and commercial farming quickly re-

place the dominant subsistence mode that is at play here.

There are a thousand and one areas that one can go on and on enumerating in virtually all the ar-eas - health, commendation must go to Katy Digovich for what she is doing with Ping in Botswana but there’s plenty still to be done. How for example does a rural res-ident in Zimbabwe access a doc-tor or preliminary medical advice in the dead of the night or even in the day without facing the rigour and burnout associated with the African transport system? Wher-ever you look, there’s work to be done- in arresting (minimizing) crimes, tackling the problems as-sociated with girl-child education and building a culture of entrepre-neurship amongst the populace. These areas should be attracting the attention and energy of our thinkers and best minds.

If the problems are identified, the next important issue would be finding the men and women (or boys and girls) who would take the lead in this revolution. University graduates and our Di-aspora population must be at the forefront as we drive into the new era, the smart age. This is where their advantage of higher train-ing and good exposure would count. It doesn’t matter where the knowledge comes from or how it is acquired. We must be radi-cal in seeking out the best ideas from places and other continents. There’s no point re-inventing the wheel and I would be the last to make such proposition. One thing we must ask and demand answers from ourselves is: how can we



learn from the advanced econo-mies? Put in another way, we must seek to find out what insight we can gather from the pioneers and ideators in India, China and US. If we can modify their inventions to suit our peculiar problems and environment, then we must have made a great headway.

Significantly, rich Africans and government must see the new op-portunities presented by the tech industries and set up funds and capitals that can be accessed by folks with brilliant ideas. Noth-ing demoralizes more as not hav-ing the right financial backing to pursue an inspired, potentially profitable idea. Our governments and rich individuals must step in immediately and make the much needed difference by way of ap-propriate funding. Governments across the countries and at differ-ent levels should be encouraged to put a certain sum aside each fiscal year for supporting these innova-tive start-ups. Tokenism would just not be enough.

Now there’s the important is-sue of competition. How can our start-ups compete on a global scale? It would be nice to see a truly African match to Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. Our inven-tors must be dreamers and big ones too. It would be dwarfish to be stuck at the local scene. Start-ups of the future must continually adapt to new emerging market realities. They must know where the wind is sailing and avoid be-ing caught on the wrong side of the tides. Profitable, mutually beneficial partnerships must be sought and when found must be

leveraged to build big, profitable and world class corporations. Af-rica deserves no less.

Businesses require profit to stay in the game. No matter how sound and innovative an idea is, if it cannot meet its running cost and earn something for her inves-tors, then the future of that very enterprise is in real doubt- (except of course it is a charity organiza-tion). Inventions therefore must be monetized and access beyond a certain level that should cost the users some money. Whatever you are inventing or offering the us-ers (individual or corporate), at-tention must be placed on prof-its. You should go for it. Do not forget that the founders of the big firms in the ecosystem today are all billionaires. We all should be thinking at that level.

Beyond all these, we should be focused on creating something that would benefit the general-ity of Africans now and in the long run. Whatever you create, think of enhancing lives, mak-ing it easier for our people here to reap the benefits and riches it has pleased the Almighty to be-stow on these shores. We must spend our waking hours seeking to employ our best gifts to re-writing the chequered history of this beautiful continent we call ours. It is a duty, an obligation we must all rise to meet.

Okafor Dodoh

Lives in Abuja, Nigeria


A rica’sMOSTENTERPRISING START-UPS

f❲

Meet The Companies And Individuals Changing Africa’s Tech And Business Ecosystem

From The Team: The Emerge-Africa team would like to specially thank all the founders (from diverse countries of the continent) and resource persons who of-fered us plenty of help as we worked the materials for this project. We owe all of you our gratitude. Thankyou.

BackgroundChurchill: I am a young Cam-eroonian entrepreneur. I hail from a small village in Cam-eroon called DikomeBalue. I am self-taught software and web developer and I have over 8 years experience developing web and mobile applications in Africa. InspirationChurchill: As a kid, my dad discussed alot of sciences with me. This induced in me alot of interest in science and research.

My drive comes from the fact that I always want to re-search and develop new things to impact my world. Njorku’s ReachChurchill: Virtually, we already serve thousands of people across Africa and we plan to setup op-erations in every African coun-try. We are going to work alot with local partners to operate in every Country in Africa. Entrepreneurial ChallengesChurchill: In Africa, we don’t yet have alot of success stories to motivate parents to let their children take the risk of entre-preneurship. Nowadays alot of parents are not yet comfortable letting their child wander into the unknown world

of entrepreneurship. Another very serious problem is the lack of access to capital, be it in the form of loans or venture capital. African Innovators and Continental ChallengesChurchill: In Africa we need to learn alot about volunteering and patience. African inventors and entrepreneurs need to learn to do things without immedi-ate returns, long term plans and patience.

For example: It took Mark Zuckerberg years of hard work with little or no returns to turn facebook.com into a billion dollar company. SupportChurchill: Well, I would say most governments are try-ing but they are not impacting enough. I won’t blame them because they didn’t grow with entrepreneurship being the norm hence they can’t under-stand. So I would say the gov-ernment and private sectors or NGOs haven’t had alot of im-pact to the growth of Africa’s entrepreneurial culture.

In the next 10 to 20yrs, alot will change as you will have el-

derly people that have a say and understand entrepreneurship, innovation and development. Mentorship and Support (to wannabe programmers)Churchill: Currently in my community (Buea, Cameroon), I have an unofficial mentoring program at my office where I train young people in the uni-versities here and others on how to build web mobile and enterprise applications.

I am not paid for this but I believe we don’t yet have entre-preneurs that are viable enough so we need to create them by training them first before sup-porting them to build their own companies. Your projection for the Africa’s Techspace In The Next DecadeChurchill: I believe alot of mil-lionaires will be created and alot of families will be taken out of poverty. Health, education and overall well being will improve at a tremendous rate. Advice to Start-up foundersChurchill: Enjoy the hard work and be patient. The goods will come. (See more of Njorku in our Profile Section)

Churchill NanjeMambe

• Interviews •

Churchill NanjeMambe is the creative genius behind one of Africa’s most-talked about start-ups - Njorku of Cameroon - whose specialty is in helping job seekers across the continent keep track of the job openings in real time and make applications where their skills match the advertised vacancy. In this on-point interview with Emerge Africa’s edito-rial team, Churchill talks about mentoring, leading-from the front approach to business and Africa’s tech and business future among other key issues. You will find it a great read.

On Mentorship, The Future Of Entrepreneurs In Africa And Why The Start-ups of Today Must Keep Their Focus


M

❲ MARA ONLINEUGANDA

Marrying Online Convenience With Informative Exchanges

Mara Online is an online and mobile eco-system that allows users to communicate, interact and collaborate with each other via social portals, while building communities that are centred around common interests and information needs.

The platform is a conver-gence of web and mobile tech-nology that creates user-driven experiences spanning from edu-cational tools for entrepreneurs to highly interactive mobile ap-plications that provide connec-tivity to people across the globe. It allows users to communicate, interact and collaborate.

Referred in many circles as Africa’s answer to Skype, the founder, Ashish J. Thakkar be-lieves the medium would be the first most inspirational choice for connecting African youth across the continent and to the

world. Later in the year, Mara Online will launch 3 mobile ap-plications – Mara Messenger, BuzzMe, and Mara Connect, a free mobile VoIP, will allow

smart-phone and tablet users across Africa to call and text for free, both domestically and in-ternationally.

The 31 year old Ashish re-mains optimistic Mara Con-nect will shake up the market and become the premier choice for connecting people in Af-rica and beyond, while reduc-ing consumers’ costs for mobile communication.

With the every-day, consis-tent advancement in web and mobile technology, there’s sim-ply no restriction to the dreams,

vision and let’s-change-the-world attitude of the dream-ers at Mara Group, the parent company of Mara Online.

Their dedication and drive will continue to define the interactive and mobile mes-saging landscape for youths and young-at-heart across the continent.

In May when the company was launched, Aishish and his men had a jet fly over Silicon Valley with a Mara-branded banner that read, "It’s Time For Africa."Does anyone still doubt them?

Founded in 2013


❲ NJORKUCAMEROON

Simplifying The Job Search Conundrum

IIf the dream of Churchill Nanje Mambe, the outside-the-box thinker behind Njorku platform will come true soon enough, the incidence of high-scale unem-ployment ravaging the continent of Africa with her youths being the biggest victim would be a thing of the past. Now don’t get me wrong, Mambe would not is-

sue a decree mandating jobs for every unemployed African youth,

I think that would be an un-reasonable expectation but at the very least, he would deploy every resource available to him to ensure that all the jobs avail-able are communicated to as many persons as are interested and wait for this - at no cost! He and his team believe that in

the hunt for job which is major occupation for several youths across the continent, informa-tion is key and one needs to know where the jobs are, what the requirements are and then finally decide whether or not to apply. To give life to this idea, call it obsession if you like, he founded the online job search engine called Njorku.

Njorku is a job search engine that helps users to find fulfilling jobs across Africa. Active in seven countries - Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Egypt, Uganda, South Africa and Ghana, the platform offers free and unlimited access to hundreds of thousands of job listings regularly. It is the emerg-ing job search engine for Africa, with thousands of unique visitors per month and growing steadily month-on-month.

Launched in March 2011, Njorku has given job seekers free and unlimited access to hundreds of thousands of jobs from com-pany websites and job boards

across Africa. The company has a very strong team of professionals around the world and raised seed funding from a Canada-based technology company and a busi-ness angel in France.

Her offices are located in Bal-timore, MD United States and Buea, SWR Cameroon.

So when next you see a job seeker in your location, direct him/her to visit Njorku and start sending applications because al-ways, there will be something for everyone. He can’t wait for any better news.

Stay updated with our developments, be sure to be first to know when will be up with something.

Founded in 2011


❲ PROWORKNIGERIA

Project Management Platform For The World, By Afr icans

FFounded by the Nigerian trio of Francis Onwumere, Opey-emi Obembe and Ernest Ojeh, Prowork aims to ease collabora-tion and enhance productivity of team members.

With Prowork, available on Mobile (Blackberry, Android and Java supporting phones- Android and ios versions also), Web, and a functional API, project teams can stay on top of every development irrespective of their location at any time of the day. The application offers enormous advantages to busy business operatives in these areas: Software development, Managing personal To-Dos, Event Planning and Sales.

The founders, partners at Digital Craft Studios employed their extensive knowledge of the complexities of the Nige-rian (African) business terrain to

develop a business solution that would be relevant to the users and claw its way atop the chart in an industry dominated pres-ently by foreign operatives.

The platform’s numerous ad-vantages include its low entry requirements, zero migration cost and its availability in almost all the popular mobile platform (blackberry and Java OS). Its other edge is its SMS integration option which keeps team mem-bers in the loop even when they are offline, a clear indication that they are aware of the unreliability of the internet here at times.

With SMS Integration, proj-ect members can receive task as-signments, task update and noti-fication via SMS. They also can send task update via SMS. The beautiful thing again is that the SMS appears as private messag-ing between team members.

On the Prowork platform, all you need to get started is your email address and password. With that, you can create your Prowork account. You can assign tasks to members who do not have an account by just adding

their email to the project. In-stantly, they are notified.

To guard against service fail-ure, Proworks, according to in-formation made available by the founders, uses Rackspace cloud file for content distribution. The main architecture is APACHE/PHP/MySQL/MongoDB. To facilitate speed on the app, Var-nish Cahe and APC are em-ployed by the developers.

By marrying convenience and professional brilliance into one platform, Mr. Onwumere and his colleagues are hoping to claim a substantial share of the market within the continent, giving pro-fessionals in Africa and beyond an app that multiplies their ef-ficiency and raise productivity several times over.

One cannot but wish them the best as they gear up to confront the stiff challenges new businesses face in a niche dominated by big names as America’s Microsoft and other European giants.

Founded in 2012


Founded in 2012

❲ mPAWAGHANA

Smart Solutions For Blue Collar Jobs

FFor Maxwell Kofi Efrem Don-kor and his colleagues at In-nokiq- a start-up based in Accra Ghana, connecting blue collar workers with employers across the continent of Africa is a huge obsession and mPAWA, a job matching service developed by the quartet (the company’s four cofounders) offers the vehicle to make this dream a reality.

The graduates of Meltwa-ter School of Entrepreneurial Technology understand the pe-

culiar job situation faced by this group of workers and believe strongly that if a technological-ly driven, intelligent solution is deployed, the incidence of low placement rates for this catego-ry of workers would be greatly reduced. mPawa supports the posting of jobs and the onwards notification to blue collar work-ers in Africa.

The overall idea is to bridge the gap that exists in the current blue collar recruitment space;

that is getting blue collar work-ers into a centralized location and allowing employers to easily reach them.

The company’s vision is to become the premier and most creative provider of mobile and online recruitment application in the blue-collar staffing in-dustry. Innokiq aims to create



ENTERPRISINGSTART-UPS mPAWA

user-friendly and simplified ap-plications that will be an inte-gral component in any business environment.

This can be done by devel-oping innovative applications that meet international stan-dards. But beyond this, the company’s grander vision is

to tackle Africa’s huge unem-ployment problem.

With the application, all in-terested person with certain skill set need do is to send an initial message and receive an auto-mated text detailing him with steps to create his profile. When he replies to the text, a profile is created for him and stored on the server.

Employers can then search for people to do specific tasks and select from a long list of potential employees. They also have the opportunity to see previous tasks executed by the

would-be employee. Accord-ing to Maxwell, mPAWA has matched thousands of jobs since 2012 when they became operational.

The company’s operation ex-tends to Kenya where mPawa is in partnership with O'dumont Consulting Limited (OCL). O'dumont Consulting Limited is a Kenyan registered company that seeks to provide profession-al recruitment services across the dynamic spectrum of Hu-man Resource functions target-ing the African Region.

OCL attracts, cultivates and connects organisations to talent in the African markets. OCL's partnership with Innokiq brings to fruition the company's dedi-cation to bringing better job op-portunities to the informal job

sector by appropriately connect-ing employers and blue collar job seekers in Africa.

The Company’s address (19 Banana Street East Legon, Ac-cra Ghana) is certainly poised to become a must-visit location for groups, agencies and individuals seeking to learn how to effec-tively take care of the informa-tion asymmetry that makes it hard for employees with limited paper qualification to place jobs that match their skills.

One can only pray that the mPAWA idea is replicated across the many countries of the continent as this would go a long way in solving the eco-nomic and social hardship as-sociated with unemployment - especially for the blue collar workers.

mPawa supports thepostingof jobsandtheonwards notif icationto blue collar workersinAfrica

❲ M-Changa KENYA

Fund Raising Like Never Before

FFor millions of folks across East Africa, fundraising is a way of life. Funds are raised daily for wedding and funeral ceremo-nies, payment of tuition and for community projects.

It is common knowledge that this practice has been with the people of this region for ages but with the advent of mobile technology, a whole new chap-ter has been opened and this is where M-changa comes in.

M-Changa turns tradition-al giving practice on its head, places it into hyper-drive and lets popular mobile technolo-gies do the rest.

What you get in return is a personalized and automated mobile phone experience that manages fundraising cam-paigns from start to finish.

M-Changa according to the founders, Kyai Mullei an expe-rienced IT/business consultant,

David Mark, a serial entrepre-neur and recognized expert in Human Interface design and Jefkine Kafuna, a proficient de-veloper with over 7 years' com-mercial experience and a track record of delivering quality so-lutions using a range of differ-ent technologies, offers the fol-lowing advantages:

• Helps you raise more money, from more people, in a fast, efficient and transparent way.

• Will allow you to invite unlimited number of con-tributors, automatically keep track of payments to your fundraiser, and to send re-minders to everyone in your fundraiser.

• Enables anyone globally to participate in fundraising.

• With M-Changa, your money is secure and can be withdrawn at anytime.

• You can invite anyone in the world via SMS and all your friends on Facebook and Twitter.

• More importantly, setting up a fundraiser on M-Changa is free.

Founded in 2012



• Payment is made through popular vendors as M-Pesa and Airtel Money.M-Changa is involved with

a number of noble initiatives across Kenya, notably the fol-lowing:

1. Save The Cradle:Save the Cradle is a com-

munity project that aims to save lives at the Pumwani Maternity Hospital by mobilizing people to raise funds towards the up-grading of the deteriorated fa-cilities and the introduction of the Patient Centered Care.

2. Support a Student - Daystar Duremo:

Daystar University students are socially responsible and are aware that some of the students at the university experience fi-nancial difficulties in raising money for college fees from time to time.

Under the D.U.R.E.M.O association, Daystar Univer-sity students hold fundraising

events to raise money for needy students. As a way of enhancing their collection activities, Day-star University chose M-Chan-ga as their mobile fundraising platform.

With the acceptability and reach of M-Changa, there’s lit-tle doubt that the organization will in the future dominate the fundraising stratosphere in Af-rica. What more, with the qual-ity and nobility of the causes

they throw their weight behind, it is safe to believe that attract-ing richer donors and philan-thropists with deeper pockets will come quicker than anyone may have imagined.

One thing is certain though: the fundraising terrain as we know it in East Africa is revo-lutionized for good and M-Changa will continue to set the pace into the foreseeable future. Uhuru it is really!

ENTERPRISINGSTART-UPS M-CHANGA

❲ PriceCheckSOUTH AFRICA

Finding The Best Prices At A Cl ick

SSeen as the largest price com-parison site in South Africa and Africa as a whole, PriceCheck was thought up in 2006 by local Internet brainiac, Kevin Tucker.

He knew that with more and more South Africans wising up to the advantages of online shopping, a price comparison website would be just the tick-et. He began to create a place that brought bargain hunters to within clicking distance of the retailers who could offer them the best deals. It wasn’t long

before retailers also saw the ad-vantages.

By becoming part of Pri-ceCheck they could ensure that their products were being seen by thousands of new buy-ers. The company, according to its operatives only deals with the shops that are committed to bringing shoppers the best products and prices.

With a proven track record of consistency and speed, all a customer needs do is to relax in his couch knowing that what-ever he’s ordered is on its way safely to his doorstep, irrespec-tive of his location.

Its wide array of collections includes thousands of books, DVDs, electronics, games, cameras, music, and more. For millions of SA’s online shop-pers, PriceCheck is the leader when it comes to the fastest and most relevant search, com-prehensive product listings, trusted brand names & cred-ible vendors, wide-ranging re-views and most sophisticated

price comparison technology. A measure of its reach, relevance and progress is attested to by its winning the "App of the Year" at the BlackBerry Live confer-ence in Florida, USA in May 2011, staving off competition from around a hundred thou-sand other entrants.

PriceCheck is owned by MIH Internet Africa, a part of the Naspers Group based in Cape Town, South Africa.

With technology and inter-net playing an increasing role in the daily economic activities of urban areas, South African mid-dle income earners and as more and more consumers take to on-line shopping, PriceCheck’s fu-ture looks ever brighter. Africa truly is emerging.

Founded in 2006


EA: Our readers would be pleased to meet you, can we know a few things about your background.Eric: I was born in 1983 in Dar-es-salaam, Tanzania. My father was a government accountant and my mother was a school teacher before they both quit their jobs to enter the music production and distribution business. I discov-ered computers in 1995 playing the classic game Prince of Persia. Started programming in 1997 at age 14 and I have been at it for 16 years now. I came back to Tanza-nia in 2006 after spending a few years studying in the UK, worked a little and then started my soft-ware start-up, Problem Solved Ltd in 2008.EA: What powers your drive to continually invent and create?Eric: From the moment I wrote a program that printed my name

on the screen at

the push of a button, I have al-ways loved inventing and creat-ing computer software. The idea of using magical incantations (i.e. codes) to control a machine and make it do useful things has always satisfied my desire to have an effect on the universe – to prove that I am here. It also helps that writing code can be a very profitable business. This matters because writing great software requires sacrifice. A great reward makes it worth doing over and over again.EA: What expansion plan is your organization putting in place? How can your platform extend her operations to other countries in Africa?Eric: I have global ambition. My main product, Minishop, is a small business accounting pack-age. It is unlike anything else

you’ve seen before which is why it keeps winning international awards, with the last one being a healthy $328,000 grant. Min-ishop solves a problem faced by over 100,000,000 small and me-dium businesses worldwide: the problem of accessing finance.

Our business model is de-signed to scale across borders and while based in Tanzania, we are already in Kenya and hope to enter Uganda as well as Rwanda before end of the year. We are just following the demand and requests for Minishop have come from Botswana, Ghana, Nigeria and Zambia. I hope to meet the demand in those countries and more once I secure extra growth capital next year.EA: Tell us about Minishop and small businesses, how specifi-cally does your innovation help small business holdings across


• Interviews •

Eric Mutta

Born 25th July 1983, Eric Mutta has cemented his place as Tanzania’s most enterprising and audacious programmer. The founder and CEO of Problem Solved Limited launched his flagship brand - Minishop - earlier this year and has several awards for his vision and we-can-change-the world mindset. Eric is one of the many innovative youths championing the emergent Africa. With a knack for solving seemingly intractable problems using empowering technological means, Eric has an unshakable faith in the future and place of the new Africa, the one that is built around knowledge, exploiting the innumerable advantages of informa-tion technology and where people are justly rewarded for their efforts.In this exciting and revealing interview he granted Emerge Africa’s Dodoh Okafor and Godwin Chukwukelu, Eric talks about his background, motivation, innovation and finest ideas.

The Man Leading Tanzania Into The New World

the continent?Eric: When running a small business, CEO means Chief Ev-erything Officer. You have to do all the work and it is hard to find enough hours in the day. Most business owners struggle with accounting. Keeping record of income, expenses and stock need discipline. You must be organised or things become a mess. Min-ishop helps you stay organised, reduces the amount of manual work you need to do and gives you useful reports so you always know where you stand. In terms of reach, Minishop is already growing in both Tanzania and Kenya. Other countries can be served and I am looking for local partners to help market, sell and support it in their countries.EA: What are the peculiar chal-lenges of entrepreneurship in the continent? What obstacles are there in the way of innovation and creativity?Eric: This has stopped being in-teresting to me since it has all been spoken about before. I am

much more interested in the op-portunities for entrepreneurship and things which facilitate inno-vation and creativity. In Tanzania we have 46 million people, infla-tion has dropped to single digits, real GDP is among the top ten fastest growing, we have a whop-ping seven mobile operators, we are a landing point for the SEACOM fibre cable, and we have East Africa’s first 4G LTE network. Computer imports en-joy complete tax exemptions; we have one of the top universities on the continent, three tech hubs and increasing investor interest from global quarters.

In Tanzania right now, en-trepreneurship, innovation and creativity are not only expected, they are inevitable. My story is the first of many to come and I believe those who bet on Africa today, warts and all, will reap the greatest rewards tomorrow.EA: How can African inventors and entrepreneurs pool strength, resources and intelligence to solve the continents many challenges-

say in the area of education, agri-culture and governance?Eric: I don’t believe in pooling resources for the sake of pooling resources. Where such teamwork makes sense I believe it will hap-pen naturally. Much more than teamwork, we need successful leadership. Some daring fellow to run to the front of the line and do something amazing, others will follow with little or no prompt-ing.EA: What is the major plank of support for the African entrepre-neur? What has been the contri-bution of government, organized private sector and NGOs to growth of Africa’s entrepreneurial culture? Eric: In this regard I would like to acknowledge people like Jon Go-sier (http://jongosier.com/) who believe in Africa and organise competitions like Apps4Africa (http://apps4africa.org/) which I won in 2012, getting a $15,000 prize that jump started my rise to world domination. Then come trusts, like the Financial Sec-tor Deepening Trust (www.fsdt.or.tz) which are funded by de-velopment partners


and run competitions like SME Finance Innovation Challenge Fund, which I won in 2013, get-ting a $328,000 grant to spread Minishop to over 130,000 SMEs in Tanzania.

Challenges and competi-tions with significant awards help call out some of the best entrepreneurs and are critical to growing Africa’s entrepreneurial culture. They wouldn’t be pos-sible with the support of the tech hubs like Kinu (www.kinu.co.tz) and TANZICT (http://tanzict.or.tz/). Last but not least there is DEMO Africa (http://www.demo-africa.com) where start-ups can go and strut the best of their stuffs to a global audience. I was invited last year (courtesy of App4Africa) and met many awe-some people.EA: What in your opinion can Government Institutions and corporate organizations do with much commitment now to ad-vance the growth of new busi-nesses.Eric: I think one major area is in procurement of software sys-tems. Most government institu-tions procure software like they procure chairs and the process favours larger companies (mostly

foreign) at the expense of smaller

(indigenous) ones. To help promote small business growth, software p r o c u r e m e n t should be sourced from the local market or con-tracted directly

to indigenous developers. By so doing, they are encouraged and large patronage created for them. With that, their revenue base can be expanded and they can cre-ate greater employment, an issue that cannot be tackled by out-sourcing or importation. EA: What programs do you have in place for aspiring African soft-

ware developer? How do you support start-up founders?Eric: By example, by succeeding publicly. By challenging them to be the best and then get better.EA: Do you get any support from established western IT giants like Google, Microsoft, Cisco and Yahoo? What is the nature of that support- finance, training or manpower? Eric: Microsoft is awesome. They have the BizSpark program (http://www.microsoft.com/bi-zspark/) which gives me access to

thousands of dollars of genuine software at no cost so I can grow my start-up. Their development tools are excellent and available in free Express editions too. I have access to their entire team in Kenya to help with any issue I may have. Nokia too has been helpful, through people in their Nairobi office, in terms of mak-ing introductions to larger com-panies like Intel.EA: What prospect and future do you imagine for Africa’s start-ups of today? Eric: We will see stronger stock markets emerge and one of the hottest, public, multi-billion dol-lar software companies in 2023 will be African.EA: Let’s move away from strict business issues now, how do you relax, what are your hobbies?Eric: I am a movie junkie. I love watching series and movies at the end of a ard day of coding. When I have friends over I enjoy play-ing video games. Going out to eat good food is something I do every couple of weeks, especially to celebrate some major victory in deal-making. EA: Finally Eric, do you have any advice or message for start-up founders in the continent?Eric: You are African. Endurance in the face of unspeakable chal-lenges is built into your DNA. This is your moment. Rise up, solve problems and get paid.


"My story is the firstofmanytocomeandIbelieve thosewho betonAfricatoday,wartsand all, will reapthe greatest rewardstomorrow."

❲ CorruptionNETSOUTH AFRICA

Fighting Corruption Collectively,

NNimi Hoffman, the founder and brain behind this brilliant start-up believes, like many experts do that corruption thrives be-cause much of the time, we keep quiet and fail to bring corrupt acts and individuals to public attention.

The graduate of Rhodes and Oxford University with special-ties in the areas of quantitative analysis, experimental design, online journalism and experi-mental analysis has taken it upon himself to reverse this un-pleasant trend by employing the powers of the modern means of communication and social

exchange to mobilize reports against corruption and indi-viduals who engage in acts that undermine public interest.

CorruptionNET is an open-source mobile platform that allows citizen reporters to file anonymous journalistic reports to newsrooms giving details of corrupt practices and abuse of public resources.

To see that access is availed every interested person, the platform (estimated to cost $10, 000 to complete) is de-signed in such a way that re-ports can be sent in via SMS or MXit, South Africa’s popular

social networking platform.Mr. Hoffman understands

that by uniting against corrup-tion, we inevitably must have served warning signals to in-dividuals and institutions that profit from the scourge that it will no longer be business as usual. Collectively, we must stay grateful to him and his team (Andrew Saxe, an engineering student at Stanford is promi-nently here) for deploying their massive energy against this vice that is threatening to rob Af-rica of whatever remains of her future.

In the truest sense of it, the fight against corruption has been democratized and it is now up to us to take it up.

Speak against bribery, nepo-tism, contract inflation and all such subtle schemes that com-bine to make governance in this part an exercise in debauchery and godless looting. I am sure Nigerians are taking note.

Founded in 2012


❲ BrainShareUGANDA

Fusing Learning, Social ization and Creative Exchange Into One Box

FFor Charles Muhindo, the CEO of CodeVision Ltd, life is best lived when one’s skills are applied to creating solu-tions that will hand us a better tomorrow.

His most known creation, BrainShare is a clear demon-stration of this guiding belief. BrainShare is social education app that aims to connect people across Uganda and the world through education.

An online classroom, it en-ables people to learn while net-working, enabling collaboration on a wide range platform.

The app is the leader in on-line student support and skill testing and offers an ef-ficient and affordable way for students to pre-pare for exams through series of topical tests. She boasts of a team of dedicated and helpful staff and agents, able and willing to offer as-sistance as speedily as needed.

For students in tertiary institutions, they can easily download sample projects/dis-sertation and be guided pro-fessionally on how to go about their projects.

According to the founder, they app is designed to help students undertaking their final year projects and dissertations.

For folks wanting to improve their reading skills, there also is something in the store for you-

there are hundreds of courses and thousands of exam ques-tions to download and make your learning acquaintances. Support is offered to pupils and students from primary to O’ and A’ level and even up to ter-tiary level. And now this: there are no charges involved.

For this graduate of computer engineering from Makarere Uni-versity who has vast knowledge of SMS and USSD based ap-

plications, continuous re-search is a way of life and this has brought quite a number of rewards.

He is listed amongst Africa’s 40 top entrepre-neurs by Global Initiative For Science and technol-ogy. Who says innova-tion does not pay?

Founded in 2013


❲ PULSECAMEROON

Easing The Burden Of Communication For Universities, Colleges, Scholars and Students

AAccording to statistics, there are more than 5, 000, 000 students in Sub Saharan Africa, attend-ed to by 1, 000, 000 professors spread across 624 institutions.

Of this figure, Cameroon has a share of 49 universities and around 600, 000 students figure.

This by any standard is an impressive statistics. What however is troubling is that presently, there’s no affordable top of the class technology ca-pable of handling and facilitat-ing the high demand for edu-cational resources in this region.

This yawning gap is what the quartet of Horace, Nara, Quincy and Leslie sought to fill when they collaborated with education instructors and experts to found PULSE.

The technology is a web/mobile based University Blackboard (SAAS) built to quicken ease of communica-tion among universities and educators via SMS, email and or Internet with their students.

Be it the announcement of a course update, assignments, or even exam results, PULSE

is designed to see to that in the simplest and easiest way.

The entire platform is built on open source software.

The main technology frame-work used is Kohana, which a rich HMVC php5 framework, enabling the rapid development and deployment of applications.

It's also modular thus giv-ing the possibilities of plug and play of new features or modules to be developed. The mobile site is built on jQuery Mobile.

The present platform pro-vides the functionality to or-ganize different groups of in-formation into course groups.

These course groups repre-sent different unique courses being taught at a given institu-tion, due to appropriate visu-alization of resources, groups are easy to enter.

In this case students who intend to follow and receive updates from a certain course

Founded in 2010



- similar to in-class course, which students attend.

Therefore adding new infor-mation to a group can be com-pared to lecturer giving an in-class announcement or faculty pasting an announcement on the notice board, as members of the group will notified instantly through email, SMS and web whenever a group is updated.

The focus on user interface and interaction make it an in-tuitive & effective method to communicate.

The platform is hosted in the cloud and also in Camer-oon thus the institutions do not need to deploy any addi-tional technical infrastructure to use it.

The founders say PULSE was born out of need to solve the problem of inefficient com-munication channels used in

the University Of Buea (UB) and countless other Univer-sities in Cameroon. Prior to the founding of PULSE, the students and faculty re-lied solely on Notice Boards, Class Announcements and Mouth to Mouth method of communication.

The start-up made it to the final stage of an MIT organized competition for start-ups.

In future, the projection is that this platform would become the primary commu-

nication channel for universi-ties and colleges across Africa. Presently, about $10, 000 has been raised as seed capital.

With PULSE, learning, education and communication in Africa is sure to get more exciting.We are eagerly look-ing forward to it.

ENTERPRISINGSTART-UPS PULSE

Infuture,theprojectionisthatplatformwouldbecometheprimarycommunicationplatformforuniversitiesandcollegesacrossAfrica.

❲ BudgITNIGERIA

Democratizing The Budget Process In Nigeria

EEven for professional econo-mists like this writer, trying to make any sense of some of the figures contained in the nation-al budget proposal presented

towards the last quarter of each year by the president to a joint session of the national assembly is simply scary.

If then an economist with some measure of training in numerical and quantitative valuation of public expenditure and income is discomforted by the warren of whole numbers and decimals that make up the national annual estimation of outflows and income that is the budget, imagine then where folks with no such advantaged training in the subjects of

econometrics, intermediate and advanced micro and macro eco-nomics would find themselves as they seek to understand this all-important document that if religiously implemented could form the fulcrum around which the nation’s economic and social progress revolves.

This harrowing gap between budget articulation, debate, implementation, execution and feedback is what the team at BudgIT intends to fill with their novel idea. BudgIT as a tool aims to redefine participa-tory governance.

The founders announced that BudgIT as an idea was con-ceptualized and hatched at the Tech-In-Governance, a 48 hour gathering organized by Co-Cre-ation Hub in February 2011.

As I did infer earlier, many Nigerians, with little or no knowledge of accounting and public financial management, are lost when they see (if they ever get the chance to) the bud-gets of the different arms of government.

Most media releases of the Nigerian budget only have the macro figures as the finer details that trickle down to the citizens such as neighbourhood projects are not fully explained.

The maze of millions and billions in the “thick” budget documents tend to confuse and it is difficult to put in clear con-text on how public funds are ac-tually spent.

BudgIT’s innovation within the public circles comes with a

Founded in 2011

BudgIT offersmobileand online solutionto trigger discussionsaround the budgetand take the budgetbeyondanewsitemtoafocalpointofdebateamongNigerians.



creative use of government data by either presenting them in simple tweets, interactive for-mat or infographic displays.

The team understands that in a democracy, every citizen has the right to know how his/her taxes are expended in the delivery of public infrastructure and services.

Equality and open access to governance is entrenched in de-mocracy and its institutions and as such, budgetary information as a vital asset needs to be un-derstandable and accessible to all Nigerians. BudgIT offers mobile and online solution to trigger discussions around the budget and take the budget beyond a news item to a focal point of de-bate among Nigerians.

It is hoped that if and when they do succeed, proper under-standing of the role and place of

duely articulated budget within the country’s macro-economic terrain will no longer be the exclusive preserve of a few eco-nomic gurus and experts whose penchant for even more com-plex analysis often leaves major-ity of us wondering if we really are in the frame of things.

By exploiting the popular-ity and reach of the new media, more Nigerians will now have the unique opportunity of un-derstanding the intricate details of budgetary arithmetic that ul-timately affect and define their lives within each fiscal year.

ENTERPRISINGSTART-UPS budgIT

❲ PAPERIGHTSOUTH AFRICA

Making Books Accessible For All Of Us

AArthur Attwell and his team (Tarryn-Anne Anderson - con-tent manager, Nick Mulgrew - head of communications, Yazeed Peters - development manager, Dezre Little - Finance Manag-er, Oscar Masinyana - content curator, Philippa Dewey - rights expert, Marie-Louise Rouget - PR Intern) at this Cape Town based start-up believe strongly that books of diverse contents,

shapes and year of first publica-tion should be made available for reprint to anyone with a printer and internet connection.

The idea then is that any business anywhere in the world can buy into the initiative and instantly become a print-on-demand outlet.

Their grand vision is to make days of expensive and inacces-sible books history and this they

are convinced can be done quite simply. By registering with Pa-peright for free, copy shops any-where in the world have access to an online library from which

Founded in 2012



they can legally print out books, magazines and other documents for their customers.

All a customer has to do to get a book is to walk into a Pa-peright outlet, and ask for one.

No complicated rights agree-ments; no waiting. You can defi-nitely ask for more if you are a lover of books.

Paperight lets publishers earn licence fees from legal print-outs of their books, cutting out expensive distribution and printing costs, and passing those savings on to customers.

A customer pays the out-let (e.g. a copy shop) for their print-out, and the outlet uses Paperight to pay the publisher.

Paperight makes buying and

selling books easier and, overall, more cost-effective for everyone anywhere.

Now for all you lovers of business, political, sports and fashion magazines, academic and general interest books, the emergence of this budding en-terprise on the scene would surely gladden the heart.

Reading bestsellers and frontline authors now is as easy as walking into the next copy shop in your neighbourhood, place your order and relax with a bottle of soft drink and be-fore you realize it, your favou-rite book/magazine is already in your palm. A great experience to look forward to with fren-zied anticipation.

ENTERPRISINGSTART-UPS PAPERIGHT

• Interviews •

EA: Tell us a little about yourself. George: I am George William Bakka, 22, Founder and CEO, Angels Finance Corporation. We are a dynamic home for youths, entrepreneurs, investors and corporate groups building companies and organizations, driving change and spiralling Africa’s growth and prosper-ity. Open now in uptown Kam-pala, we are always welcoming you to a unique environment optimized for business, collabo-ration, learning, and creating impact. Angels set up the Mara Launchpad in partnership with Mara Foundation, a business support centre offering office space and visibility to start-up businesses. This year we proudly announce that we are bringing the Unreasonable Institute to Africa. We are launching Un-reasonable East Africa.EA: You certainly have your hands on a whole lot. What drives you?George: Our vision is to see a developed, equitable and pros-perous Africa. With a market of over 900 million people, Africa has a strong consumer base waiting to explode.

Start-ups have smart solutions to help this market live up to its real potential and also uti-lize this market as we elevate the millions out of poverty. Through Unreasonable East Africa, over the next three years we want to help build over 30 regional and pan-African companies solv-ing some of the most intractable challenges on the continent.EA: Considering that the prob-lems demanding solutions are common across other African countries, is your target market limited to East Africa alone?George: The Unreasonable East Africa is just launched in East Africa and would be operat-ing mainly with entrepreneurs from Kenya and Uganda for the first year. We hope to ex-pand our operations in the next few years to other countries in the region when we figure out what really works for these en-trepreneurs.We are taking all the steps to build a strong pro-gram that adequately meets the needs of the entrepreneurs and enable them to

grow and expand.EA: As a successful entrepreneur with vast experience and numer-ous encounters with other entre-preneurs, could you share your thoughts on the prevalent chal-lenges faces by entrepreneurs across the continent?George: It should be noted that the general public here in our continent except in a few coun-tries is just in the process of fully appreciating the ‘entrepreneurial journey’ and the practical chal-lenges that come with it, the good news is that slowly entrepreneur-ship is gaining acceptance and legitimacy in Africa. However for the most part, African entre-preneurship culture is defined by necessity – entrepreneurship as a means of survival, a last resort, not the pursuit of opportunity or aspiration.

It would be interesting if ef-forts were placed upon chang-ing this mind-set from necessity to opportunity for Africa is the new beacon of opportunity. That aside, young entre-


George William Bakka

George W. Bakka, one of Africa’s youngest and brightest entrepreneurs is also one of her most enthusiastic and passionate. George, the founder of Angels Finance Corpo-ration also doubles as the co-founder and COO of UNREASONABLE EAST AFRICA.A genial fellow with a personality anyone would be delighted to discuss and share interest-ing ideas with and expect meaningful contribution. In this extensive interview he granted Emerge Africa’s Dodoh Okafor, he discusses his drive, the objectives and goals of his in-stitute and how it has come to change the dynamics of entrepreneurship in East Africa. George’s insights and grasps of economic and social issues are amazing and you would be greatly fascinated and inspired by the progress he has made with his team to give Af-rica and Africans a new identity, a reason to believe in our future and destiny as a people.

of Unreasonable East Africa

Meet

preneurs still lack a few things like experience, market linkages, business skills development, le-gal framework development, in-depth and unique understanding of their different sectors and the networks. Learning from some-one who has already walked the journey can drastically accelerate the process, that’s why mentor-ship plays a key role.

Business leaders in Africa need to devote some time in their busy schedules to sharing their vast experience with these entre-preneurs and networks for them to widen their market and get more business. An endorsement

from a mentor can go a long way in creating customer confidence and credibility for young busi-nesses and helping them attain the potential to build, grow and expand their businesses.It is the

effect we want to

see spread and implemented in the region through Unreason-able East Africa.EA: You are aware of some of the many problems (hunger, political instability, poverty and diseases) afflicting several of our people here in Africa, as a problem solv-er, is it possible for you and your colleagues (other inventors) to team up and tackle some of these challenges using technology and advantage of higher knowledge?George: As we all know, you can get much more done in partner-ship with other people than you can do by yourself. This is what has defined our story and de-

velopment and we think it may apply to any one who is looking at building something of signifi-cance. Pooling our resources and learning to work together is im-portant and it be done through using incubation centres, acceler-

ators and

increasing presence of business hubs [co-working spaces] in Af-rica. Let’s learn how to start small and aim at growing big.EA: Going by the scale of your works and the magnitude of your outlook, you must be receiving plenty of support from well-es-tablished organizations. Can you let us in on some of these?George: In my opinion, there is willingness from both the pri-vate and public sector to sup-port young entrepreneurs. For example, Uganda’s Youth Ven-ture Capital Fund was launched in February 2012 with Ush25bn ($10m) to address the challenges of funding.

We have seen many entrepre-neurial competitions, start-up weekend like events in the East African region and accelerator program and our entering the market through the Unreason-able East Africa program will significantly increase the support avenues the entrepreneurs need. The focus then should be on en-suring that these programs work and make an appreciable impact on the targeted entrepreneurs.EA: Now tell us, how do you mo-tivate and inspire young and as-piring entrepreneurs? George: Like I said earlier, we are launching Unreasonable East Africa based on a successful model of the Unreasonable Insti-tute. Each year, they unite 25 en-trepreneurs working on solving tough social and environmental challenges from every corner of the globe under one roof for 6 weeks in Boulder, Colorado. There, they receive training from

50 mentors. In the process,


they develop plans to scale their operations and their team, receive legal advice & design consult-ing, and build relationships with more than 100 potential funders and over 1,000 local support-ers. So far, 82 companies from 36 countries have gone through the program in four years, 86% of them are still alive and active, 76% have managed to raise funds totalling to USD 27 million and they have had a revenue growth of up to 280% within one year of completing the program.

Each year we will unite 10 ventures solving tough social and environmental challenges from across East Africa to live under 1 roof in Kampala, Uganda for 6 weeks. The entrepreneurs will receive specialised training and support from 50 top notch world class mentors ranging from Ka-mran Elahian, an entrepreneur who is a founder of 10 compa-nies with a market capitalisation of USD 3 billion to some senior advisors in World Bank.

These entrepreneurs also get to interact and work with over 30 investors, financiers and Angels. Our goal is to provide them with the knowledge, resources, tools and global network they need to maximise and scale their im-pact. Unreasonable East Africa will run for the first time in 2014 and is open to teams that meet our criteria. It will run from June 25th – July 31st, 2014. Applica-tions for the 2014 Institute will open on 23rd September, 2013. Keep checking www.Unreason-ableeastafrica.org.EA: Give us your projection for the Africa’s techspace in the

next decade.George: Because of a fragile start-up ecosystem in East Afri-can region and Africa as a whole, start-ups here have challenges to overcome, one of the largest of which is access to finance. Thou-sands of young African start-up founders can’t access credit from banks because our traditional financial and other economic institutions take long to adjust and adapt to the changing times. Without this much needed cap-ital injection, the growth trajec-tory of most start-ups is slow and flat.

I see a future with increased availability and diversity of fi-nancing options for start-ups, a number of unconventional initiatives need to be adopted which will most probably lead to real growth in the African start-up ecosystem. ur business leaders need to address our leadership challenges, Africa needs to create multi-billion dollars companies through these many start-ups created every day. We need to see a Facebook, ebay and the likes grow from the continent. We must however be wary of placing all the attention on techpreneurs o n l y.

We must also be looking at other sectors like agriculture where am certain we have the capacity to grow something bigger than the American Garden.EA: What advice or message do you have for start-up founders in the continent? George: Business especially for start-ups is not smoothly up and to the right all the time, the path to success is more of a roll-er coaster ride. Keep informed reading books. I like to recom-mend biographies, economics and political books and any oth-er book that keeps me informed. But most importantly, stay faith-ful to your dream no matter how unrealistic it may seem to others. Recognize that starting a busi-ness takes hard work. Seek sup-port from those who have more experience than you.

37

Editor’s Note: In our next issue, we will run a full profile of Unreasonable East Africa where we would be speaking with the entire team - Joachim Ewechu, CEO/co-founder, Mandela Ivan, CFO/co-founder and Beyamba Gilbert who functions as the CRO. Book an advance copy as soon as you can.

Special thanks to Emerge Africa’s Godwin Chukwukelu for coordinating and offering editorial assistance.

January - March 2014 EMERGE AFRICA

EA: Tell us about yourself.Gospel: My name is Gospel On-uoha, originally from Nigeria and currently resident in Finland. I have a degree in Mechanical En-gineering in Nigeria and Profes-sional Study in Business Engi-neering in Finland. I have over 6-year track record of delivering quality solutions using varieties of modern technologies. A serial entrepreneur, product front-end developer and security solution expert with a massive commercial experience.

I am also the founder of af-riscope.net and justbuyorsell.com. Afriscope.net was founded in 2008 in Nigeria with the sole mission of offering a technol-ogy-driven security, intelligent surveillance and control system

focused design, integration, distribution,

and installation to clients wish-ing to procure, design, imple-ment and integrate highly com-plex security projects. Afriscope.net was nominated in 2012 by Institute for Government Re-search & Leadership Technology as the Best Company in Security System Integration Design, En-gineering & Monitoring.EA: Our readers would be pleased to know about your other start-up, justbuyorsell.com and how relevant it would be to the business ecosystem in Nigeria:Gospel: justbuyorsell.com was founded in 2013. In this period of financial crisis and dwindling economy, companies are laying off staff, government and compa-nies cutting down spending and cost of living on the rise.

Nigerians, inclusive of stu-dents, home mums or dad, em-ployed or unemployed, home or abroad are looking for new ways of earning additional income to support daily needs. Justbuyor-

sell.com is developed to provide Nigerian sellers both domes-tic and international an auction marketplace they can leverage to become self employed and better citizen of the nation. It creates an opportunity for every Nigerian both home and abroad to actively participate in online ecommerce business in Nigeria and make a living doing so.

With just an internet con-nection, sellers can list unlimited number of items for free. There is no buying or selling listing fees,

38

Gospel Onuoha

Our editors read the inspiring story and personalities behind Nigeria’s premium auction site justbuyorsell.com and made efforts to reach the main man behind it all and have him share his story, ideas and inspiration with us. The interview revealed a lot about the young founder’s mindset and his hunger to raise the bar on ecommerce in Africa. We enjoyed our chat with Mr. Onuoha from his base in Finland and we are certain you would learn a lot reading his story.

Gospel Onuoha on his inventions, the future of Africa and advice for start-up founders

• Interviews •


No signup fees and sellers with no capital and logistic to own a physical shop can leverage on justbuyorsell.com to sell products and those with capital but cannot set up own ecommerce shop and can now set up own online shop and sell their products to both lo-cal and international clients irre-spective of geographical location. It provides a tool for Nigerians in diasporas to actively sell product to the Nigeria market.

Users can sell both new and old stuffs online, open an online store with personalised url, sell as an individual/company or open a free store, set a fixed price and/or auction to the highest bidder, No limits on the number of items/products, purchase.

Users can enjoy features like buynow, make a low bid and win, or make an offer, use the store-front portal to reduce levels of surplus inventory, along with as-sociated inventory carrying costs. There is also the possibility of broadcasting listed products to social media sites such as Face-book and Twitter.

Justbuyorsell.com is designed to be 100% fraud free and buy-ers are 100% protected, hence the positive and negative feedback mechanism and the escrow

payment system. Justbuyorsell.com also has a market forum that provides both sellers and buyers the opportunity to discuss prod-ucts and technology trends.EA: What inspired the forma-tion of this company?Gospel: I visited Nigeria in July 2012 and I came back with a handheld electric painting ma-chine that I wanted to use to re-paint my apartment.

When I arrived Nigeria and discovered that I could not use the machine and needed to sell it. I searched online for an auc-tion site but could not see any auction site where to sell the product. I asked questions and I was directed to Computer Vil-lage Ikeja or Alaba International Market (Lagos) to sell the prod-

uct. I made effort to visit these places but when I came back home and was unable to sell the machine in those areas, I started thinking that there has to be a solution.

There has to be an auction platform in Nigeria where users can sell anything both used and new from the comfort of their homes. I came back to Finland and started developing justbuy-orsell.com.EA: What specific area(s) of need are you targeting?Gospel: Making online auction possible in Nigeria for both in-dividual, corporate and govern-ment establishments.EA: Any expansion plans in place?Gospel: For the first year, we are targeting the Nigerian market; we plan to move to other West African markets in the second year starting with Ghana.EA: You have a handy team; we would like to know about your partners or team members.Gospel: I will just give you a pro-file of some of the key individu-als behind the whole idea.EA: Give us your take on the future of Africa

39

"African economy isdeveloping rapidly.This period providelots of opportunitiesforthosethathavetheright thinking andtherightfocus."

January - March 2014 EMERGE AFRICA

as a business and investment des-tination.Gospel: A recent survey indi-cates that Africa is the best place to do business after Asia because of the rapid economic development we are witnessing in Africa now.

Africa has registered strong growth despite the infrastruc-ture constraints. According to figures from development or-ganizations, in 2012 there were over 800 active infrastructure projects across different sectors in Africa, with a combined value in excess of US$700 billion. The large majority of infrastructure projects are related to power (37%) and transport (41%).

A critical mass of African economies will continue on this journey. Despite the fact that there will undoubtedly be bumps in the road, there is a strong probability that a number of these economies will follow the same develop-ment paths that some of the Asian and other rapid growth

markets have over the past 30 years. By the 2040s, we have no doubt that the likes of Ni-geria, Ghana, Angola, Egypt, Kenya, Ethiopia and South Af-rica will be considered among the growth powerhouses of the global economy.EA: Any advice for the young African entrepreneur?Gospel: African economy is de-veloping rapidly. This period provide lots of opportunities for those that have the right think-ing and the right focus.

Self employment is the key to economic freedom in this our growing population. Africa entrepreneurs must start cre-ating the job for ourselves and becoming architects of our own business success.

Entrepreneurs with the right business model are the ones that can tap into these opportu-nities created by the African de-veloping economies. Creativity, knowledge and innovation are the driving force for every suc-cessful start-up.

40

Name:Gospel OnuohaFounder & Lead developerBackground:Proven product designer and serial entrepreneur.

Professional study:Business Engineering - Oulu University of Applied Science, Finland

Security & VMS system design & Installation certified – Mirasys Finland

B. Eng Mechanical Engineering

Name:Alexader CharlesDeveloperBackground:Proven lead developer.

Professional study:Bachelor, Computer Applications Bharahiar University

Name:Ernest NnadiukwuMarketing Research & PRBackground:Bsc Hospitality Management - Finland

B. Sc Economics Statistics

M. Sc. Economics Estonia

Professional study:Founder and C.E.O – zilot.com

Co – Founder – lokalhouse.com

Editor - miemagazine.com


African startups Magazine- Emerge Africa

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