In her opening speech, “What technology can’t fix”, keynote speaker Nanjala Nyabola, author of „Digital Democracy, Analogue Politics: How the Internet Era is Transforming Politics“ in Kenya, illustrated the key limits but also the opportunities of technology. “It was great to be at re:publica Accra and to see so many leaders of various social and digital rights movements on the continent — and indeed from around the world.“, said Nanjala Nyabola. „I got a chance to share some of the ideas from my research with people from all over the world in a very open and warm atmosphere which I’m truly grateful for.”

Another highlight was a fireside chat with Prof. Nii Quaynor, who decisively shaped the internet in Africa and presented his vision of the networked continent. In his talk “How the Media Can Survive in a Facebook Economy”, Bernardino Avle, general manager of the local channel Citi FM & Citi TV, offered a comprehensive overview of the Ghanaian media landscape and its transformation through social media.“What a finale for the year 2018! re:publica marks a new chapter with its first event on the African continent.”, said Andreas Gebhard, managing director and co-founder of re:publica GmbH, is pleased about the successful kick-off in Accra.

Tech for good

At re:publica Accra, the main partner, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), also announced the extension of the regional program “Make-IT” in Ghana. The program is a joint initiative of BMZ, companies, associations and social enterprises to improve the local framework conditions for technology start-ups in order to open up growth and employment potential for entrepreneurs in the digital sector of partner countries.

„The first edition of the re:publica on African soil was an absolute success. In Accra many new ideas were born and connections made between people who want to create digital solutions for Africa. Now it’s time to implement the ideas. We are supporting this with a new digital center in Ghana, which will become a meeting place for start-ups, researchers and governments,” said German Development Minister Gerd Müller (BMZ).

The 110-hour program of the re:publica in Accra (#rpAccra) was rounded out by art performances, exhibitions, journalism workshops, film screenings, yoga classes and live music — including rap-matador M.anifest and his band.“The 21st century is African and digital society is global, so we all need to get onto the same level discourse and discuss eye-to-eye. With re:publica, we provide the right platform. One thing is clear: Accra has been a great success, and now let’s all look forward to re:publica 19 in May in Berlin!”, said Andreas Gebhard.

You can find the highlights from re:publica Accra in images here as well as in videos here in the coming days.

Originally published at gharage.

re:publica Accra: a Successful Premiere was originally published in gharage on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Building a community to foster local innovationCreating a pipeline of qualified investment opportunities Developing a platform to showcase the innovation initiatives of member enterprises
Speaking about the programme, Director of Vodafone Business Solutions, Angela Mensah-Poku, said: ‘’We are excited about this unique programme, which among other benefits, will help address two of the key challenges facing SMEs — innovation and funding. It is such a great honour for us as telecommunication network to be fronting this wonderful initiative that will change the face of SMEs in Ghana. It is our belief that the outcome of this programme will serve its purpose.’’

At the event SME’s got an opportunity to speed network with investors, connect with Tech Start-ups from the MEST Incubator on their latest innovations and learn more about Vodafone’s Digital Agenda.

Otema Yirenkyi, NexInnova’s Founder and CEO said: “We chose Kukun to host the maiden event because the place is run by a young entrepreneur, located in an area earmarked for creatives and tech entrepreneurs. We hope in the Kukun over breakfast we were able to nurture and hopefully ignite some investment opportunities.”

Originally published at gharage.

Vodafone partners NexInnova to accelerate SME business growth was originally published in gharage on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Books have long been a brilliant way of sharing ideas, communicating opinions and passing on history. Within these contexts, there’s almost always an element of storytelling. But stories themselves have a place in enhancing creativity, and building an audience for their tellers. When it comes to recent digital means to publishing stories, there are fewer alternatives to The-Everything-Store as Amazon has become the de-facto means to sell books online.

However, a home for the niche market of African writers, and their stories, seems missing. Country Tales is a startup that wants to change that narrative, and tell a better story in online publishing for Africa(ns). The startup is building a catalogue of “purely Africa literature”, comprising different genres.

The promise of Country Tales is to debut African writes who are deprived of a platform to showcase themselves and their works to gain as much traction and popularity as possible, that would push them towards their dream of becoming fully fledged authors. If you have any close relationship with writers, this is some refreshing news.

CEO Elikem expounds the idea and reason, for Country Tales, and the vision for it. New writers in Africa face major challenges when it comes to showcasing themselves and their works to a larger audience of readers. As a result, they litter their writings on Internet forums, social media, and even in the comment sections of websites that commanded great traffic. Upon thorough research, we found the stumbling block to be the unavailability of a platform that seeks to address their needs. To solve this problem, we developed this platform that not only helps them to gain traction and popularity, but also offer them other free services such as proofreading, cover art designs for each literature they choose to publish on our platform, and promoting their works for free.

Courage Elikem Agamah, Founder, Country Tales

As writers upload their books, uniquely identifiable standardised barcodes are generated which allow readers to scan and search for the books and other related content with those barcodes.

As at the time of writing, Country tales offers its services to writers free of charge. This includes proofreading, cover art design, publishing their works, promoting the writers and their literature.

For readers, it’s obviously a great place to pass the time, and enjoy some stories from writers. It’ll be great to follow and grow along with writers, as is the norm with most creators and their audiences.

The current team at Country Tales is made up of two programmers, Courage and James, who keep the website up, Samuel a marketer who work on publicity as much as possible, and an editor, Esenam, who edits and manages the web content.

Beyond visiting the website, you can also follow the startup and find more purely african literature via their social media channels, Facebook and Twitter.

For the several Africans coming online, and wanting to share their stories through books and short stories, Country Tales is a startup which will help their dreams come true. The value is even better for African in diaspora, and non-Africans who just love reading African literature.

Originally published at gharage.

Country Tales Is Changing The Story for African Literature was originally published in gharage on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

After hosting competitions in 16 countries in Africa in only five months, Seedstars World has identified the most promising startups in each country, highlighting local startup ecosystems. These African startups will be representing their countries in the finals in April, at the Seedstars Summit in Switzerland. Cowtribe is the first last-mile animal vaccine delivery platform in Africa. Founded in 2016, it safely delivers the vaccines to farmers in the remote areas. They were selected “Best Startup in Ghana” and are representing the country at the event. Only the Tanzanian finalist is yet to be found.

The largest startup competition for emerging markets is now hosting its entrepreneurship forum for emerging markets from December 11th to 13th in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, at Seedspace Dar es Salaam and Kisenga LAFP International Conference Center. Tickets can be purchased at the event website.

“Unless you share knowledge, learning does not happen. I hope to learn more from the startups because a lot of times you think you know, but then you meet people who have so much more knowledge to share”, Emanuel Feruzi, mentor for the Startup Bootcamp, said.

Marcello Schermer, Expansion Manager at Yoco, Eldrid Jordaan, Founder of Govchat, or Doreen Kessy, Chief Business Officer at Ubongo, are some of the prominent names joining the event as well.

“For the past five months we have made Africa our home and went on an interesting journey deep into 16 startup scenes in the Region, not only scouting for the best tech entrepreneurs but working directly with them and other passionate ecosystem builders. We aimed at making a difference everywhere we went. We are very excited to bring the entire network together in Dar es Salaam, to dive into the different ways technology and entrepreneurship can rapidly impact and improve people’s lives by tackling local social challenges directly”, says Claudia Makadristo, Regional Manager for Africa at Seedstars.

The Seedstars Africa Summit is designed to facilitate meaningful discussions about topics that range from the policies designed to support entrepreneurship in the country and the region to the success factors and improvement opportunities of the African tech scene. The organization decided to open the debate to other countries and regions, aiming to foster wider knowledge exchange, by partnering up with Canton de Vaud, Luminate and Fondation Botnar to include startup delegations from Switzerland, Zimbabwe, and Tanga, respectively. The event is sponsored by I4ID, Seedspace Dar es Salaam, the Swiss Embassy in Tanzania and Zambia, Merck, and Google, among others.

“The summit will provide an opportunity to reflect and inspire with like-minded innovators and change makers, about scalable solutions for transforming services and making them more inclusive and human-centered”, Sachin Gupta, Team leader at I4ID declared.

Tickets can still be purchased at the event website.

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Cowtribe Represents Ghana At Entrepreneurship Forum For Emerging Markets In Africa was originally published in gharage on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Survey54, a mobile survey platform aimed at Africa and the emerging markets, have produced a report which investigates the perspectives and expectations of Ghanaians, with regards to the quality, accessibility and delivery of healthcare services in Ghana. They have utilised mobile technology paired with Artificial Intelligence, which has revealed an overall negative perception of the Ghanaian healthcare system.

This data is key as it suggests that there is much improvements to be made by the government, despite the numerous interventions implemented over the years, aimed at refining the healthcare system. With problems such as negligence concerning the accessibility of healthcare services in rural areas, it is no wonder that there is a general negative perception of the service a whole.

Key findings of the Report

A group of 250 people aged between 18–40 years, all resident in Accra, were surveyed from a range of socio-economic backgrounds, as to ensure diversity within the sample. Responses show that over 60% of participants lacked confidence in doctors & nurses and another 82% failed to trust the quality of medicines sold at local pharmacies. When asked which they preferred, respondents expressed more confidence in private hospitals, due to the minimal wait times and higher customer satisfaction, despite the fact that they provide a similar quality of healthcare at a higher price. Additionally, most respondents failed to believe that the government is doing enough to improve the overall quality of healthcare in Ghana.

Finally Survey54 concludes the report by providing suggestive points, based on the highlighted inconsistencies, which could improve the public’s perception of Ghana’s national healthcare service. This includes the need for the government to exercise consistency when implementing policy, relevant to the healthcare system. There is also room for the development of private-public sector partnerships along with the improvement of healthcare financing strategies, amongst other things.

Originally published at gharage.

Survey54’s Report on Ghanaians’ Views on Healthcare System was originally published in gharage on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Airbus Bizlab launched #Africa4Future Challenge with GIZ Make-it, InnoCircle, and MEST Africa in Toulouse, France on 30th October 2018. The goal of the challenge is to find and connect African aerospace startups with intrapreneurs at Airbus who will work with the startups to speed up innovation and scale their product/service across Africa.

Startups who are actively working on Automation and Drones, Electrification, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, Data analytics, Material composites & Manufacturing are eligible to apply here. Applications are open from 30 October 2018 to 30 November 2018.

Following review, ten applicants will be selected to join the six-month #Africa4Future acceleration program starting on 7th January 2019. Selected teams will receive:

Access to industry-leading experts at Airbus sites in Europe

Feedback on their technology and business models from top engineers

The opportunity to showcase their startups at the Paris International Airshow in June 2019

The opportunity to launch a collaboration project in partnership with key Airbus departments

They will also receive space within MEST Incubators in Accra (Ghana), Lagos (Nigeria), Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Cape Town (South Africa) or Nairobi (Kenya) from January to June 2019, where they will have the opportunity to become part of the vibrant, global MEST tech startup community.

During the program, the ten selected teams will participate in a mix of virtual and physical workshops. International travel, accommodation, and food will be covered for one person per team, for all workshops.

Workshops with travel covered:

15–17 January: Kick-off in Nigeria

04–17 March: Workshop in Europe at Airbus

13–24 May: Workshop in South Africa

19–26 June: DemoDay at the Paris International Airshow (France) and CeBit Hannover (Germany)

To register for the challenge, visit https://www.airbus-bizlab.com/africa4future. For inquiries and/or more information, email Kelechi at MEST: kelechi@meltwater.org.

Originally published at gharage.

Airbus Bizlab launches #Africa4Future Challenge + accelerator with MEST, GIZ, InnoCircle was originally published in gharage on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

It seems we never finish talking about payments, fintech and e-commerce. The market we find ourselves in is constantly growing with several options that tackle one form of payment or the other. An area that has been less looked into is group fundraising. I worked on a similar idea/startup myself in 2014 so what PayPutt is working on now caught my attention.

Payputt is an instant, transparent and convenient way for Ghanaian individuals, groups and organisations to raise funds for their causes — social or economic. It is a purely donation-based platform allowing donors from any part of the world to support local causes while giving Ghanaians the power to donate offline using local payment systems like mobile money and ATM cards.

For fundraisers, the value of Payputt lies in convenience and the access to a wider pool of potential donors globally. Spinning up a campaign and collecting contributions instantly from both local and global donors while ensuring transparency in the use of funds is the dream of most fundraisers in Ghana. With Payputt, they can create and share a campaign within minutes and start receiving donations instantly. Fundraisers can also post updates to ensure donors are following the use of funds.

For donors, Payputt brings the convenience of locally and globally supported payments and transparency to the use of funds. No more walking to banks or front desks, no more questions about how much has been donated, no more shrouded secrets. Even more useful, donors can send in their contributions via USSD, which is quite convenient.

Payputt has helped raised funds for causes ranging from charity, educational to religious and health. These causes include activities for girls in robotics by STEMBees, the MEST Community’s support initiatives, even weddings. This doesn’t exclude religious groups who raise funds to support their evangelistic work, and the product is being adopted by groups and non-governmental organisations in their fundraising efforts.

Kamil, a co-founder had this to say about the product and why it’s relevant for our market.

“Crowdfunding has existed in Ghana for decades if not centuries. Surprisingly, it has not evolved much. Worldwide, it has become one of the most important ways of funding some of the greatest causes and ideas we’ve seen. However in Ghana, we’re still stuck with donation boxes, bank accounts that require people to walk to banks, complicated record-keeping, high transfer charges and many more problems that hinder the effectiveness of fundraisers. Payputt is here to change this.”

Payputt has stayed stealth and under controlled growth and is now open to the general public for fundraising towards business ideas and social causes.

Payputt was founded and built by a core team of three with other support team members:

• Kamil Nabong, co-founder, is currently a Senior Fellow at the MEST Incubator in Accra. He has a background in Land Economy but spent all his years after Bachelors in IT and Entrepreneurship. He co-founded Dropifi in 2011 to help online merchants engage with customers in a better way. Dropifi later became the first African startup to be accepted into 500 Startups in Silicon Valley. In 2015, he co-founded Simple Merchant, a UK based software-as-a-service startup, to help online merchants automate their shipping operations. At Payputt, Kamil is the Chief Generalist setting the vision and strategy as well as dabbling in everything from product development to business development.
• Aliu Wahab, also a co-founder is a co-founder of PollAfrique, a Ghanaian software startup that enables market research through SMS, USSD and IVR (Voice). Together with PollAfrique, he has worked as the Chief Engineer of Techmerge, an independent software consulting firm crafting their solutions and many others through their partnership with GES and other firms. Aliu mainly focuses mainly on product development at Payputt.
• Anton Hagerstrand, the 3rd co-founder is a Senior Engineer at KRY in Sweden. An expert in web application security and search, Anton has worked for several high technology companies including Meltwater, FindWise AB and Transistor AB, all in Sweden. At Payputt, he focuses entirely on product development.
• Nana Prempeh Agyeman who leads Sales/Marketing is a co-founder of Asoriba, Ghana’s largest church management system and has been very supportive in our sales and marketing initiatives, bringing aboard some of our most successful campaigns to date.

Contact Payputt

Website: www.payputt.com
Phone Number: +233 552 501 810
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/payputt
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/payputt

Kamil Nabong
Email Address: kamil@payputt.com

General Support
Email Address: support@payputt.com

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Originally published at gharage.

PayPutt Is Making It Easier For You To Raise Funds For Causes was originally published in gharage on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

re:publica — Europe’s largest conference on digital topics and society — has announced the program of its first Ghanaian edition in a joint press conference with the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). re:publica, BMZ and local partners want to show that digital transformation creates perspectives and innovation locally. Under the banner “Next Level”, re:publica Accra will take place for the first time on the African continent from December 14–15, 2018. The venue will be the stunning Round Pavilion at the trade fair in Accra.

Four stages, four topic lounges, over 100 program sessions and more than 150 speakers

Today, the event organizers announced further first-class speakers and program highlights at the intercontinental press conference in Berlin and in Accra: among other speakers, Rebecca Enonchong will be speaking on the economic effects of internet shutdowns, Tefo Mohapi (the editor of iAfrikan) explains the conditions necessary for digital freedom of opinion and Professor Nii Quaynor talks about the history and future of the internet in Africa.

“We are particularly glad that the majority of the over 240 submissions we received from our Call for Participation are from speakers from all over Africa and cover several exciting topics such as open data, message verification, digital art and Afro-futurism. This promises to be an enriching exchange between all players in digital society from the global south and north, both in Africa and with Africa”, says Sandister Tei, curator of the thematic track “Media and Journalism”.

With the thread “Tech for Good”, the main partner of re:publica Accra, BMZ, sets a focus on this topic and gives a platform to people who consider the opportunities which digitalization offers to solve global problems. Since 2013, the BMZ has cooperated with re:publica GmbH, and this was also their first year as the main partner of re:publica Berlin.

re:publica Accra: Next Level!
Today the motto of the first re:publica in Accra was also announced at the press conference: with the “Next Level”, re:publica wants to convey the trailblazing aspects of the event and emphasizes that it helps shape and promote the discourse on digitalization and social transformation. “We are proud of the diverse program we put together for the re:publica in Accra and look forward to the countless inspiring sessions — and of course the continent-wide dialogue with the communities!”, says Andreas Gebhard, CEO and managing director of re:publica.

Originally published at gharage.

Europe’s biggest Digital Conference Presents Highlights of the First re:publica in Accra was originally published in gharage on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The payments, banking and financial sectors are currently at the height of change, defined by innovation and development in technology and regulation.

As consumers, businesses and governments adapt to a digital world, the desire for tech enabled solutions that improve traditional transaction methods and financial services is growing rapidly.

West Africa in particular is ripe for disruption with it being home to one of the 3 fastest growing economies in Africa. With a massive unbanked population, West Africa offers an abundance of lucrative opportunities.

Seamless West Africa is a multi-brand event, with 500+ attendees and a world leading strategic conference. The event will welcome market leading industry players from central banks, commercial banks, insurance, e-tailers, telcos, merchants, government, fintechs and tech startups, all looking to procure and collaborate with the latest tech and services on the market.

The conference is a C-level platform that will focus on global trends and disruptors, how market players can capitalise on the opportunities and best respond to the threats. Addressing the big issues from fintech disruption to financial inclusion, blockchain and regtech, we will host over 70+ world class thought leaders and welcome hundreds of conference attendees.

With keynote addresses, interviews, roundtables, panels, pre-event workshops and track sessions that focus on challenges and opportunities within the industry, the content has been designed to educate, inspire and empower commerce leaders to improve their innovative strategies and integration — effectively cultivating their bottom line.

With a thought provoking, dynamic agenda and a wide variety of engaging and forward thinking topics, this globally attended event promises to push the boundaries. This is made evident with the first ever regional Central Bank Panel which discusses the importance of creating partnerships that safeguard financial stability while working with disruptors and promoting the adoption of fintech innovation.

Combining our history and our passion for innovation, we are committed to bringing you the most exciting event for this brave new world of commerce and build essential connections to drive businesses forward in 2018 and beyond.

We look forward to welcoming you to Seamless West Africa, Ghana.

Originally published at gharage.

Accra To Host Seamless West Africa, Nov 5–7 On Payments, E-Commerce and Fintech was originally published in gharage on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Pan-African entrepreneurial training program, seed fund and tech incubator, ​Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST), today announced the launch of its fourth incubator and tech hub in Nairobi, Kenya. This will serve as its flagship East African space, joining hubs in Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa, as part of a growing network of Pan-African incubators.

The Nairobi launch comes less than a year after ​the opening of MEST Africa’s Lagos and Cape Town hubs​ in November 2017. The Nairobi space will also host the new East African office of its parent brand, global leader in media intelligence and AI-Driven Outside Insight, ​Meltwater​, who is also expanding into the region. The incubator will provide the same on-the-ground support, access to resources and global MEST network enjoyed by portfolio companies in Accra, Lagos and Cape Town.

Following the ​announcement of a $700k investment in 7 startups from the 2018 MEST cohort, one of the first companies to move into the Incubator in Nairobi will be recent investment Sharehouse, an ‘Airbnb for warehouses.’ They will be joined by existing portfolio companyNestmetric​, a platform that makes business insights and predictions through Machine Learning accessible to all types of businesses.

“MEST is thrilled to officially establish our presence in East Africa with the launch of our Nairobi incubator,” MEST Managing Director Aaron Fu said. “A truly Pan-African tech hub, we now have a presence across all corners of Sub-Saharan Africa: West, South and now East. I personally look forward to engaging even more deeply with the incredibly vibrant tech and startup community thriving in Nairobi, which I’m happy to call home.”

The Nairobi incubator is located on the 7th floor of Pinetree Plaza, on Kaburu Drive (Ngong Road). It opened with an official launch event on the evening of September 20th, where the MEST community and friends of MEST were joined by leading members of the Nairobi tech, startup and investor ecosystem.

“It’s exciting to see MEST launch in Nairobi,” I-DEV Founder & CEO Jason Spindler said. “Our recent Africa Tech Survey of key thought leaders and investors shows Kenya is a fast-growing and leading hub for African tech startups that are designed to scale from their DNA. With the

MEST network in West and South Africa as well, it’ll be no time before we see Nairobi startups take on a Pan-African footprint.”

MEST established an initial presence outside of Ghana beginning with Nigeria in 2015, and expanding to Kenya and South Africa in 2016, when the first classes of Nigerian, Kenyan and South African Entrepreneurs-in-Training (EITs) were accepted into the program. Today, MEST is truly Pan-African, with a presence in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Cote d’Ivoire, and Entrepreneurs-in-Training from 12 African countries.

Since its inception in 2008, the Meltwater Foundation has invested $20 million into the program, supporting aspiring African entrepreneurs through the training program and incubator. Now in its 10t​ h​ year, over 330 individual entrepreneurs have graduated from the training program and over 55 tech companies have been launched via seed funding and mentorship from MEST. Three companies — Claimsync, AdGeek and Saya — have been acquired.

MEST entrepreneurs have developed solutions addressing local and global markets, received outside follow-on funding from global investors, and have gained admittance to top accelerator programs such as ​Y-Combinator​, ​500 Startups ​and ​TechStars​. MEST entrepreneurs have also been selected by President Obama as representatives of the African business community ​at the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, D.C.; have been named ​Mandela Washington Fellows​, a flagship program of Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI); and have been selected for Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Africa.

About MEST

Launched in 2008, MEST is a Pan-African training program, seed fund and incubator for technology entrepreneurs in Africa, providing critical skills training in software development, business and communications. Headquartered in Accra, Ghana, MEST is funded by the Meltwater Foundation, the non-profit arm of ​Meltwater​, a global leader in media intelligence and AI-driven Outside Insight.

Originally published at gharage.

​MEST launches East African Incubator in Nairobi was originally published in gharage on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.