The current period clearly demonstrated our ability to live and collectively overcome difficulties and trauma through technology. The need to keep up and running those services essential to our daily lives as well as our economies and institutions despite the pandemic has revealed our -positive and negative - dependencies on digital networks and innovations across the African continent and around the world.
For several years now, Africa has become the place where technology applied to the real economy has been shaping the emergence of a new world for "The Next Billion Users". In 2019, the acceleration of the African digital ecosystem reached an important milestone with more than 2 billion dollars raised by start-ups, which represents a 75% increase compared to 2018. Digital financial services on the model of M-Pesa such as M-Birr in Ethiopia; drones that carry medicines or enable spreading or irrigation such as those produced by Kono Digital; Open Science platforms that promote vernacular scientific research in Artificial Intelligence such as Zindi; telecommunications infrastructures as community networks such as the Moja Network developed by the BRCK company, deployed and operated by citizens to meet their own access to education needs ... This tech 4 good, made in Africa is able to do "better with less" to serve communities, produce and distribute resources, heal, care, educate, feed, supply, transform, industrialize...
Strategic but fragile innovations
And yet these strategic innovation models are under maximum stress, due to the very difficult access to capital for African SMEs : estimations show SMEs are short of $331 billion, according to the International Finance Corporation. African Union’s forecasts plan for a negative growth of 0.9% due to the effects of the crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, which affects trade flows to the continent from the European Union, the United States and China, reduces remittances from diasporas, as well as foreign direct investment. Rising commodity prices, combined with falling demand for exports (oil, rice, minerals, or metals), affect both production and incomes. Added to these effects is the very tangible and global reality of rising mortality rates, declining tax revenues and increased public spending. These forecasts point to an increasingly challenging environment for micro, small and medium enterprises, which are yet a vital part of African economies. According to the International Labour Organisation, the informal sector in sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 89% of employment and SMEs for 38% of GDP. In these countries, the deployment of innovations is severely challenged. Under health, climatic, economic and geopolitical stress, the resilience of African entrepreneurial ecosystems is definitely being put to the test !
Supporting the resilience of African entrepreneurial ecosystems
And it is precisely because we see this resilience that we want to celebrate and support it. Sectors such as fintech, e-learning and telemedicine are already booming in a quarantined world, where measures of social distancing are the new paradigm. Other sectors - such as logistics and agriculture - are embarking on a journey to digitization and making a strategic shift. With resilient.digital-africa.co, we decided to map the support systems and all the drivers for resilience - communities, peers, families, business angels, mentors, teachers, investors, public policies - that contribute to the emergence of an innovation model enabling Africans to develop Africa through local ecosystems. We commend the work of these women and men, and innovative entrepreneurs, who are able to positively and sustainably transform their communities as well as the continent's economies. We wish to give them a voice and offer visibility to their solutions. From our 'use-case' section, we also and above all want to create a reference database in which committed and enthusiastic investors, willing to bet on Africa, will be able to identify future solutions and help them to scale up.
We are convinced that Africa can export its innovation model and solutions and inspire other players and emerging regions. We look forward to the moment when one of the solutions identified here has become a global reference. Many more will follow !
Enjoy the reading !