Feature/OPED
Setting Africa up for a Post-Mao China Type Economic Revolution, the Zedcrest Perspective
By Adedayo Amzat, GMD, Zedcrest Group
The People’s Republic of China was officially founded in 1949, but the economy didn’t really find its feet until the start of economic reforms in 1978, after the topsy turvy turbulence of the two periods of “The Great Leap Forward” 1958-1960 and the “Cultural Revolution 1966-1976.”
What changed in China? Emerging from decades of war before the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, Soviet-style socialism became a focal point of governance, largely due to the expected nationalistic tendencies arising from periodic civil wars and at least two main war programs against regional arch-nemesis, the Empire of Japan. Socialism led to mixed results with massive state-controlled investments in the industry.
However, the lack of private incentives and public disillusion with Marxist-Leninism led to the misallocation of resources, and an eventual collapse of the system. Sustainable growth didn’t really start until the advent of Deng Xiaoping as the Supreme leader of the People’s Republic of China from 1978. Despite being a socialist republic, Deng unleashed a culture of innovation and market-economy reforms, the eventual bedrock of the tremendous economic development of China till today, taking GDP size from 50billion dollars in 1960 to 14.3 trillion dollars in 2020, an economic miracle by all standards.
When we started Zedcrest in 2013, our conviction was that Africa was exactly where China was in the early 80s and despite continuing struggles, has the opportunity to develop continent-wide growth in a similar fashion as China. All it would take is focused leadership, a MORE connected continent and an explosion of Innovation across the continent. We then set our vision along with those tenets, with the dream to build a core of African-wide financial services businesses and a satellite of Investment portfolios. Seven years later and achieving domain leadership in the financial markets, consumer lending and now Investment management, we have now turbocharged both our continental ambition in our core businesses and in our early-stage investing initiatives to support Innovation across the continent.
Officially starting in 2019, we have invested rapidly to test our hypothesis and make up for lost grounds. Investing directly and in partnerships with co-investors and syndicates, we have backed 30+ early-stage businesses with cheque sizes ranging from $25,000 to $250,000 (US Dollars). With the potential of the continent becoming more established with the surging interests from larger and seasoned global investors, we have joined the likes of Idris Bello at Afropreneur, and Kola Aina at Ventures Partners as “discovery investors”, investing early enough and helping founders through the rough periods of market and business validation.
A STOPLIGHT ON SOME KEY INVESTMENTS
Koniku – ‘Intelligence is Natural’ led by Osh Agabi, is building sensing and thinking machines, with synthetic neurobiology at its core. Koniku’s flagship device, the “Koniku Kore” is a wetware device that can detect and interpret smells and process that data for use in aviation security, policing and medical research. A future where diseases and threats can be detected by the power of “smell” is one envisaged by Koniku.
The company recently announced its partnership with the global aircraft manufacturer, Airbus.
Koniku’s work for Airbus is in aircraft and airport security. Both companies are co-developing solutions for detecting biological hazards and spotting chemical and explosive threats. Airbus will install Koniku’s Konikore; a small device that looks like a jellyfish. The device can perform the bomb-sniffing roles that have come to be associated with police dogs. In the best conditions, Konikores are expected to detect substances within 10 seconds.
Bankly – Banking the Unbanked
We met Tomi and Fred in 2019, and immediately connected with the glint in their eyes. Despite the explosion of Fintech services, most digital banking products are built almost exclusively for the about 30million already banked people. Who is working on bringing the remaining 50million adults into the digital world? This is where Bankly’s work becomes very important. We led the pre-seed round of Bankly in 2019 and it has been beautiful to see their work blossom.
Working with agents, Bankly has built custom solutions to onboard unbanked users onto its digital platforms, leading with savings as a product.
Bankly recently concluded a seed raise of $2million, led by new investors Flutterwave and Vault.
Bento Africa – The Operating System for Salaries and Lives
Formerly known as Verifi, the leading payroll software solution firm has made a lot of progress in the last two years while also rebranding its name to Bento Africa. Bento believes that Salaries are the operating system that life is built upon and has partnered with other startups like Nigerian edtech startup, Schoolable; property rental platform, Kwaba; consumer firm, Zedvance among others to enable its users to do more.
TalentQL: Boosting the Competitiveness of African Talents
Understanding the importance and value of tech talent in Nigeria and the diaspora, TalentQL, one of Zedcrest’s portfolio companies is creating a diverse and sustainable pipeline for tech talent for companies anywhere in the world.
TalentQL recently got accepted into Techstars Toronto. The African-focused talent recruitment and outsourcing company joined nine other startups in the accelerator’s class of 2021.
Other portfolio companies are:
…Driving the Next Generation of Fintech Solutions
Onepipe
Working with open banking frameworks, Onepipe is an aggregator of Application Software Integrations (APIs) into a standardized gateway, offering businesses the opportunity to be a one-stop-shop for digital financial services with one integration.
Spektra
Prince Boakye Boampong is building a unified alternative payment network that does not require a bank account for over 1billion Africans with Spektra. Essentially, he is building Alipay, but for Africa.
Tanda
In funding Kenya startup, Tanda, Zedcrest is supporting the founder, Geoffrey in promoting financial inclusion by converting neighbourhood dukas (micro-retailers) who account for over 70% of consumer purchases across Africa into a one-stop-shop for basic financial services.
Lenco is building a better banking and expense management experience for businesses across Africa
Indicina is building Africa’s credit infrastructure by enabling the much-needed risk innovation
Kaoshi is leveraging Open Banking API technology to unlock cross border finance, specifically the finances of the diaspora to their home countries.
Julaya: Starting out of Francophone Ivory Coast, Julaya is building the digital account for African small and medium-sized businesses.
Fintor: The Los-Angeles based company turns real estate investment opportunities into micro-equity shares starting at around $5 to make investing in real estate available to everyone.
Thundr: A mobile-first equities trading platform that is designed to make investing easy for both green and expert investors alike. The YC-backed startup is pioneering commission-free investing in Egypt.
Yoello is a payments platform building infrastructure that connects banks and payment networks to merchants’ consumers.
SUDO: An API platform that enables you instantly issue physical and virtual cards with more control & flexibility at scale
….Revolutionising Healthcare
Helium Health is a startup leading the digitization of Africa’s medical industry by providing a suite of cutting-edge technology solutions for all healthcare stakeholders in emerging markets. The startup raised $8million in 2020 to fund its African wide expansion.
Amara Medicare aims to revolutionize the 3-in-1 services of Ophthalmology, Dental and ENT practice.
Lora DiCarlo is changing the world by empowering individuals to embrace their sexuality with positivity and confidence, with technology that solves our most important sexual health and wellness issues. The company announced the coming on board of Cara Delevingne as co-owner and creative advisor.
Contraline is a medical device company developing a long-lasting, non-hormonal, and reversible male contraceptive using advancements in hydrogel technology.
Bypa-ss is digitizing healthcare information exchange between healthcare providers to deliver the best quality of care to their patients.
….Building the Future of Education
Abwaab: Founded in 2019 by former Uber, Careem, and Mawdoo executives, Abwaab’s online platform enables secondary school students in the Middle East & North Africa to learn different subjects at their own pace with the help of engaging video lessons and interacting with tutors, test themselves using tests and quizzes, and track their performance using different tools. The company just completed a $5.1million seed round and is now live in Jordan, Egypt, Saudi, and Palestine.
Utiva: Utiva is building talents for the future of work. With Africa needing to retrain a generation of workers to adopt the required skills set for the digital economy, Utiva is leading this mission by combining remote learning models with instructor-led approaches to help people acquire the skills they need to make a transition into new tech roles.
….Building Logistics Infrastructure
Freterium: Moroccan startup, Freterium is giving superpowers to the logistics team with its AI-driven platform. Freterium’s cloud-based transport management platform offers the easiest and most automated way for manufacturers, retailers and logistics firms, to manage their daily road freight shipments.
SOTE: Based in Kenya, Sote is building the digital logistics infrastructure for Africa. SOTE’s mission is to grow the GDP of the continent by facilitating growth of trade. The company provides a combination of ERP solutions, underwriting models, and software-driven supply chain services across the continent.
FLYR Labs FLYR’s cirrus platform is a modern and cutting edge Revenue Operating System (ROS) for the airline industry.
XTI Aircraft Company is a cleantech aviation company developing the world’s first hybrid-electric long-range vertical takeoff airplane.
….Providing Basic Human Needs & Improving Sustainability
Zenfix is providing savoury and nutrient-dense foods in Nigeria.
Zumi Africa: Zumi is revolutionizing the apparel supply chain in Africa by connecting apparel wholesalers and retailers in a transparent, affordable marketplace.
Tagaddod is a renewable energy and waste management company started in February 2013 and operating in Egypt. Currently focusing on clean fuels, Tagaddod is working on biodiesel production from Vegetable Oils.
….Providing Enterprise Services
Simpu helps businesses start and nurture quality relationships with their customers. With a one-tap experience platform, businesses can interact with customers across multiple channels in real-time.
Appruve builds identity and financial solutions for firms to verify data they collect from their customers across their lifecycle. Appruve provides verification services around identity and financial profiles, fraud detection and management.
Youverify is building trust in Africa by helping businesses and individuals confirm identity and physical addresses. Using artificial intelligence, Youverify confirms a user’s identity document and compares it with their facial biometrics. This information can be cross-checked against more than 300 databases locally and globally.
By Luke Kyohere
The global payments landscape is undergoing a rapid transformation. New technologies coupled with the rising demand for seamless, secure, and efficient transactions has spurred on an exciting new era of innovation and growth. With 2025 fast approaching, here are important trends that will shape the future of payments:
1. The rise of real-time payments
Until recently, real-time payments have been used in Africa for cross-border mobile money payments, but less so for traditional payments. We are seeing companies like Mastercard investing in this area, as well as central banks in Africa putting focus on this.
2. Cashless payments will increase
In 2025, we will see the continued acceleration of cashless payments across Africa. B2B payments in particular will also increase. Digital payments began between individuals but are now becoming commonplace for larger corporate transactions.
3. Digital currency will hit mainstream
In the cryptocurrency space, we will see an increase in the use of stablecoins like United States Digital Currency (USDC) and Tether (USDT) which are linked to US dollars. These will come to replace traditional cryptocurrencies as their price point is more stable. This year, many countries will begin preparing for Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), government-backed digital currencies which use blockchain.
The increased uptake of digital currencies reflects the maturity of distributed ledger technology and improved API availability.
4. Increased government oversight
As adoption of digital currencies will increase, governments will also put more focus into monitoring these flows. In particular, this will centre on companies and banks rather than individuals. The goal of this will be to control and occasionally curb runaway foreign exchange (FX) rates.
5. Business leaders buy into AI technology
In 2025, we will see many business leaders buying into AI through respected providers relying on well-researched platforms and huge data sets. Most companies don’t have the budget to invest in their own research and development in AI, so many are now opting to ‘buy’ into the technology rather than ‘build’ it themselves. Moreover, many businesses are concerned about the risks associated with data ownership and accuracy so buying software is another way to avoid this risk.
6. Continued AI Adoption in Payments
In payments, the proliferation of AI will continue to improve user experience and increase security. To detect fraud, AI is used to track patterns and payment flows in real-time. If unusual activity is detected, the technology can be used to flag or even block payments which may be fraudulent.
When it comes to user experience, we will also see AI being used to improve the interface design of payment platforms. The technology will also increasingly be used for translation for international payment platforms.
7. Rise of Super Apps
To get more from their platforms, mobile network operators are building comprehensive service platforms, integrating multiple payment experiences into a single app. This reflects the shift of many users moving from text-based services to mobile apps. Rather than offering a single service, super apps are packing many other services into a single app. For example, apps which may have previously been used primarily for lending, now have options for saving and paying bills.
8. Business strategy shift
Recent major technological changes will force business leaders to focus on much shorter prediction and reaction cycles. Because the rate of change has been unprecedented in the past year, this will force decision-makers to adapt quickly, be decisive and nimble.
As the payments space evolves, businesses, banks, and governments must continually embrace innovation, collaboration, and prioritise customer needs. These efforts build a more inclusive, secure, and efficient payment system that supports local to global economic growth – enabling true financial inclusion across borders.
Luke Kyohere is the Group Chief Product and Innovation Officer at Onafriq
In a heartfelt statement released today, the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) has extended its warmest congratulations to Ghana’s President-Elect, emphasizing the importance of learning from Ghana’s recent electoral success as Nigeria gears up for its 2027 general elections.
In a statement signed by its Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Comrade James Ezema, the CNPP highlighted the need for Nigeria to reclaim its status as a leader in democratic governance in Africa.
“The recent victory of Ghana’s President-Elect is a testament to the maturity and resilience of Ghana’s democracy,” the CNPP stated. “As we celebrate this achievement, we must reflect on the lessons that Nigeria can learn from our West African neighbour.”
The CNPP’s message underscored the significance of free, fair, and credible elections, a standard that Ghana has set and one that Nigeria has previously achieved under former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015. “It is high time for Nigeria to reclaim its position as a beacon of democracy in Africa,” the CNPP asserted, calling for a renewed commitment to the electoral process.
Central to CNPP’s message is the insistence that “the will of the people must be supreme in Nigeria’s electoral processes.” The umbrella body of all registered political parties and political associations in Nigeria CNPP emphasized the necessity of an electoral system that genuinely reflects the wishes of the Nigerian populace. “We must strive to create an environment where elections are free from manipulation, violence, and intimidation,” the CNPP urged, calling on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to take decisive action to ensure the integrity of the electoral process.
The CNPP also expressed concern over premature declarations regarding the 2027 elections, stating, “It is disheartening to note that some individuals are already announcing that there is no vacancy in Aso Rock in 2027. This kind of statement not only undermines the democratic principles that our nation holds dear but also distracts from the pressing need for the current administration to earn the trust of the electorate.”
The CNPP viewed the upcoming elections as a pivotal moment for Nigeria. “The 2027 general elections present a unique opportunity for Nigeria to reclaim its position as a leader in democratic governance in Africa,” it remarked. The body called on all stakeholders — including the executive, legislature, judiciary, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and civil society organisations — to collaborate in ensuring that elections are transparent, credible, and reflective of the will of the Nigerian people.
As the most populous African country prepares for the 2027 elections, the CNPP urged all Nigerians to remain vigilant and committed to democratic principles. “We must work together to ensure that our elections are free from violence, intimidation, and manipulation,” the statement stated, reaffirming the CNPP’s commitment to promoting a peaceful and credible electoral process.
In conclusion, the CNPP congratulated the President-Elect of Ghana and the Ghanaian people on their remarkable achievements.
“We look forward to learning from their experience and working together to strengthen democracy in our region,” the CNPP concluded.
By Kenechukwu Aguolu
The proposed tax reform, involving four tax bills introduced by the Federal Government, has received significant criticism. Notably, it was rejected by the Governors’ Forum but was still forwarded to the National Assembly. Unlike the various bold economic decisions made by this government, concessions will likely need to be made on these tax reforms, which involve legislative amendments and therefore cannot be imposed by the executive. This article highlights the purposes of taxation, the qualities of a good tax system, and some of the implications of the proposed tax reforms.
One of the major purposes of taxation is to generate revenue for the government to finance its activities. A good tax system should raise sufficient revenue for the government to fund its operations, and support economic and infrastructural development. For any country to achieve meaningful progress, its tax-to-GDP ratio should be at least 15%. Currently, Nigeria’s tax-to-GDP ratio is less than 11%. The proposed tax reforms aim to increase this ratio to 18% within the next three years.
A good tax system should also promote income redistribution and equality by implementing progressive tax policies. In line with this, the proposed tax reforms favour low-income earners. For example, individuals earning less than one million naira annually are exempted from personal income tax. Additionally, essential goods and services such as food, accommodation, and transportation, which constitute a significant portion of household consumption for low- and middle-income groups, are to be exempted from VAT.
In addition to equality, a good tax system should ensure equity and fairness, a key area of contention surrounding the proposed reforms. If implemented, the amendments to the Value Added Tax could lead to a significant reduction in the federal allocation for some states; impairing their ability to finance government operations and development projects. The VAT amendments should be holistically revisited to promote fairness and national unity.
The establishment of a single agency to collect government taxes, the Nigeria Revenue Service, could reduce loopholes that have previously resulted in revenue losses, provided proper controls are put in place. It is logically easier to monitor revenue collection by one agency than by multiple agencies. However, this is not a magical solution. With automation, revenue collection can be seamless whether it is managed by one agency or several, as long as monitoring and accountability measures are implemented effectively.
The proposed tax reforms by the Federal Government are well-intentioned. However, all concerns raised by Nigerians should be looked into, and concessions should be made where necessary. Policies are more effective when they are adapted to suit the unique characteristics of a nation, rather than adopted wholesale. A good tax system should aim to raise sufficient revenue, ensure equitable income distribution, and promote equality, equity, and fairness.
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