By Gerald Maithya, General Manager, Microsoft Africa Transformation Office

Africa is often hailed as the birthplace of some of the world’s most exciting tech startups. From Cape to Cairo, small businesses across the continent have become catalysts for change, helping to drive economic prosperity and leaving their mark on local society. In fact, it’s predicted that Africa’s digital economy, fueled by hundreds of active tech hubs, could contribute nearly $180 billion to the region’s growth by the mid-decade.

Gerald Maithya, General Manager, Microsoft Africa Transformation Office –

Having produced several industry shakers in the fintech space, it’s perhaps not surprising that the continent has become a very attractive option for startup investment. According to BCG, the rate of growth in the number of African startups receiving financial backing between 2015 and 2022 was nearly six times faster than the global average. And during the first nine months of 2023 alone, these tech ventures raised around $1.4 billion.

With SMEs already accounting for up to 90 percent of businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa, much focus is placed on supporting this vital sector of the economy to reach the levels of success we’ve come to associate with Africa’s tenacious startup culture.

The question is – how do we empower the small business down the road to rise to the ranks of a Flutterwave in Nigeria or M-KOPA in Kenya?

The cloud effect

Much of the answer lies with providing these enterprises with the technology they need to drive operational efficiencies and scale their operations. Cloud technology, in the form of Microsoft Azure for example, has played an important part over the years in supporting Flutterwave’s core operations. Now as the company seeks to build on its success it is again looking to the expansion power of the cloud, building its next generation platform on Azure so that it can process high volume payments at scale, while also ensuring a seamless and secure payment experience for its clients.

Kenyan startup, M-KOPA, recently raised $250 million in debt equity. The company, which provides digital financial services to underbanked consumers, also relies heavily on the computing capacity of the cloud. In fact, its ability to process 500 payments per minute makes it possible for the startup to provide 3 million people across Africa with access to essential services such as solar power systems, digital loans, health insurance and smartphones.

Beyond fintech, small businesses are having a transformative impact on other key sectors such as healthcare. And as with Flutterwave and M-KOPA, many of these enterprises have something important in common – the backing of powerful technology.

In South Africa, Omnisient, is helping to elevate crucial decision-making across healthcare systems through a recent partnership with Altron HealthTech. The startup has created a platform that facilitates data collaboration across records and datasets and can securely match anonymised patient information in a safe environment for analysis. This allows Altron’s healthcare partners more insight into disease patterns and can improve treatments and medication efficacy. In the long term, Altron HealthTech hopes to use this information to support the healthcare industry in determining where new clinics, pharmacies and hospitals need to be built.

Another startup leaving its mark in the healthcare space, Zen Dawa, is helping to reimagine pharmaceutical operations across both rural and urban areas of East Africa by creating online access to pharmaceutical offerings as well as financing solutions for small businesses and pharmacy shops. By making use of Microsoft’s robust AI platform built on Azure, the startup is helping to contribute positively to the availability of essential medicines across East Africa.

There are still many questions to be answered, however, when it comes to drawing a larger number of the continent’s SMEs into the digital economy. Africa is still behind other regions in the world when it comes to digital infrastructure coverage, access, and quality. We are also still battling a shortage of skills and inadequate regulatory policy environments. In fact, with just 22 percent of the population online, Sub-Saharan Africa is still the world’s least connected region.

Supercharging Africa’s dynamic startup ecosystem

Addressing these issues will rely in no small part on the development of strategic alliances across both public and private sectors. These collaborations are pivotal to the development of comprehensive solutions to the multi-faceted challenges faced by small businesses in Africa. The FGN-ALAT digital Skillnovation Programme is a great example of this. A partnership between the Federal Government of Nigeria, Wema Bank, Get Funded Africa and Microsoft, the programme aims to train and equip one million micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) across the country by the end of June 2024. Already 350, 000 MSMEs have been impacted.

Beyond skills, these businesses require business mentorship and access to market and finance opportunities – through effective collaboration the initiative aims to address all these needs in a holistic manner, facilitating opportunities, for example, to receive debt financing, equity investment and grants.

And by tapping into the distribution networks of multi-national corporations, the opportunity for strategic alliances to reach vast numbers of SMEs across the continent is significant. A recent partnership between Orange and Microsoft aims to accelerate the digitisation of small businesses in Africa by leveraging the telco’s formidable network to provide SMEs with access to Microsoft solutions such as Microsoft 365, Copilot, Azure, and Dynamics 365.

Similarly, the FAST Accelerator programme, which was launched together by Flapmax and Microsoft, helps startups scale rapidly and access new growth opportunities by bringing together cutting-edge technologies and business development strategies. Accelerators such as these with vast resources at their disposal are experiencing considerable success in helping startups like Zen Dawa to scale. In fact, with the support of the programme, the company now plans to dramatically extend the number of pharmacies it services from 520 to 10,000 by the end of the year.

The more Africa can produce successful collaborations such as these, the more we’ll start to see a greater number of small businesses emerge as powerful economic contributors. These strategic partnerships hold the key to unlocking immense potential across sectors, empowering entrepreneurial ventures to drive new digital solutions to long-standing challenges and creating a ripple effect that reverberates throughout the continent

By Kehinde Ogundare, Country Head – Nigeria, Zoho Corp.

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are the lifeblood of the Nigerian economy. According to figures released last year by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), SMBs account for around 48% of Nigeria’s GDP. Additionally, they account for 96% of all businesses and 84% of employment.

To reach their full potential, SMBs must leverage effective business-enabling technology, including solutions for CX, finance, HR and employee productivity. However, it’s important to remember that not every business app is equal. It is essential for businesses to carefully select the apps they utilise, whether opting for a mix of best-of-breed solutions from various vendors or choosing to deploy a unified suite from a single vendor who offers end-to-end business solutions for all needs.

While there are no universal rules for what kind of app will suit a company best, there are a few guidelines that businesses can consider to ensure that they choose apps that are best suited to their business needs.

1. The app should have a single source of truth (to avoid data silos)

Even small businesses have data accruing from a variety of sources. This data can be incredibly valuable, helping the business make decisions about where it’s performing best and which areas it needs to work on. However, that can only happen if the app (or suite of apps) provides a single source of truth (SSOT). An SSOT aggregates data from across the organisation to a single location. This allows the business to make decisions based on a consolidated view of what’s happening across departments rather than trying to pick through individual data silos.

2. Check how well the solution scales

The goal of any business is to grow, and ideally, the chosen apps should evolve alongside it. However, many of the solutions marketed to SMBs lack scalability. Scalability isn’t just about adaptable pricing tiers; it also means that they should have a demonstrable track record of working with businesses of various sizes and providing them with the offerings they need to facilitate their growth.

3. Security

If you’re a small business, you might think that security doesn’t need to be a major concern. After all, how much value is a cyber-criminal going to get out of your business? But it’s high time SMBs prioritise cybersecurity. To understand why, you only need to look at the fact that Nigerian SMEs are among the biggest targets of cybercrime. The breaches that result from this criminal activity don’t just have a financial cost attached to them but can also do massive reputational damage, something which no small business can afford to bear. This is why it’s paramount to ensure that the app chosen complies with local data protection guidelines or regulations and will protect the data of the customers who trust you with their information.

4. Ease of use

If you’re running an SMB, it’s likely your team is small but wears many hats. Hence, it’s vital to ensure that any business app or suite of apps you select is user-friendly, especially for non-technical staff. Opting for easy-to-use apps has long-term benefits. As your business expands, seamless onboarding becomes crucial. The right app(s) significantly reduce training needs, enabling new employees to be productive team members from day one.

5. Customer support

Regardless of how easy an app is to use, there will be occasions when additional support is needed. The app provider should ensure support for customer businesses across a diverse range of channels for their convenience. From onboarding new customers to attending to queries, businesses should also evaluate how effective the vendor is with post-sales support.

Always aim for integration

Beyond the level of strategic impact that an app or a platform can bring to your business, another aspect to consider is how well the chosen app can integrate into your existing tech ecosystem. Ideally, the app should be built to accommodate integration, capability extension, and customisation needs in order to truly serve a business’ needs. When the app ticks the checklist discussed above, the ROI it can provide your business can be multifold.

Multichoice Limited has proceeded to increase packages price for DStv and GOtv as announce on Wednesday last week.

This is despite the order by Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal (CCPT) sitting in Abuja, restraining the pay tv company from increasing its tariffs and cost of products and services.

Recall that on April 24, the company announced that it would increase its price for its DStv and GOtv cable services, beginning from on May 1.

But CCPT in Abuja ruled that the firm should not increase its prices as scheduled.

The three-member tribunal, presided over by Saratu Shafii, gave the interim order on Monday following an ex-parte motion moved by Ejiro Awaritoma, counsel for Festus Onifade, the applicant.

In a ruling, the tribunal restrained multi-choice from going ahead with the impending price increase schedule to take effect from May 1, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice filed before it.

It also directed all parties in the suit to appear before the tribunal on May 7 at 10 a.m. for the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.

The petitioner had dragged Multichoice Nigeria Ltd and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) before the tribunal.

In the suit filed on April 29, Onifade, also a legal practitioner, sought two orders.

These include, “an order of interim injunction of this honourable tribunal restraining the 1st defendant whether by themselves, her privies, assigns by whatsoever name called from going ahead with impending price increase schedule to take effect from 1st May 2024, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.

“An order restraining the 1st defendant from taking any step(s) that may negatively affect the rights of the claimant and other consumers in respect of the suit pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.”

The company had, on April 1, 2022, hiked the prices of all its packages..

Despite the court ruling, a check by this medium revealed that the South African firm has gone ahead with the tariff increase as earlier proposed.

On its official website, the new prices are now being displayed and implemented.

For DStv Premium subscribers, the price has moved from N29,500 to N37,000. Also, the price for

Compact rate has moved from N12,500 to 15,700 while Confam and Yanga subscribers will now pay N9,300 and N5,100 respectively from their previous rates of N7,400 and N4,200.

Similarly, GOtv subscribers will pay the new tariff increase as the prices have also changed on their official websites.

The elite subscribers (Supa+ and Supa) will now pay N15,700 and N9,600 respectively as against the previous rates of N12,500 and N7,600 before.

In addition, the Max and Jolli subscribers are now expected to pay N7,200 and N4,850 respectively. The former rates were N5,700 and N3,950.

However, on average, Multichoice increased the prices by 25%.