CIO Africa February 2022 Edition

VOL 23 | ISSUE14 | FEBRUARY 2022 EDITION

JUMIA KENYA: A CASE STUDY OF E-COMMERCE

Inside >>

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Cloud Security: Important Trends to Know JUMIA KENYA: A CASE STUDY OF E-COMMERCE VULNERABILITY AND HUMANITY The Broken Rung: Get To The Top Early

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The CIO Africa Highlights SURVEYS · OVERVIEWS · TECHNOLOGY · EXPENDITURE · PROJECTIONS Compiled by Insight Wells Research, this year’s edition of CIO Africa highlights a case of the three A’s - namely adaptation, analysis and adoption. Throughout the CIO100 Africa submissions, we witness companies not only brace for the pandemic’s impact, but also adopt new ways of doing things as a business survival strategy with IT taking centre stage as a key enabler to business profitability.

Megatrends Report Highlights 2021

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>> Contents VOL 23 | ISSUE 14| february 2022 EDITION

CIO AFRICA EDITORIAL TEAM PUBLISHER Harry Hare

OPERATIONS DIRECTOR

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>> GUEST EDITOR

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>> THE ROUNDUP

Andrew Karanja

Commercial Director Aliza Thobani

Editor-in-Chief Carol Odero

WRITERS Kevin Namunwa Steve Mbego Tasha Francis

TECH COLUMNISTS Robert Yawe Michael Michie

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>> THE LEAD

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>> Thinking aloud

MARKETING MANAGER Vanessa Obura

EVENTS MANAGER Ellen Magembe

OPERATIONS MANAGER Naomi Kangethe

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FINANCE MANAGER Teddy Mukabane

EVENT EXECUTIVES Mellisa Dorsila Joan Jepkosgei Justin Maganga Felix Moturi

>> cio100 recap

Virtual & Hybrid Events Coordinator Stacey Njeri

PHOTOGRAPHY Arthur Kuwashima

BUSINESS CONSULTANT Njambi Waruhiu

EVENTS PLAN LEAD Bonface Shikuku

ADMIN STAFF

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Videlis Syovata Priscilla Egehitsa Daniel Mwaha

TRAINING Rose Waguthi

CREATIVE DESIGN Samuel g. Ndung’u

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www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2022 | CIO AFRICA

>> HARD TALK

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>> HERNOVATION

Business | Technology | Leadership Leverage the CIO East Africa digital services to build stronger business relationships with the most valued customers and prospects.

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>> Contributors

CAROL ODERO Editor-in-Chief

>> EXECUTIVE TEAM

Harry Hare Chairman & Publisher

Andrew Karanja Director

>> ACCOUNTS

>> SALES TEAM

Teddy Mukabane Finance Manager

Vanessa Obura Marketing Manager

Aliza Thobani Commercial Director

Robert Yawe CEO, SYNAptech Technologies

>> ADMIN

NGENGI KAMAU SENIOR ACCOUNT Manager

BILLY OMINGO ACCOUNT Manager

Kevin Namunwa STAFF Writer

Steve Mbego STAFF Writer

Tasha Francis Editorial Intern

MICHAEL MICHIE Head of IT, TripleOKLaw

Ambrose Gahene Tech Writer

Arthur Kuwashima Lead Photographer

>> OPERATIONS

>> HYBRID EVENTS >> CREATIVE TEAM

Naomi Kangethe HEAD OF OPERATIONS

Stacey Njeri Virtual & Hybrid Events Coordinator

Videlis Syovata administrator

SAM NDUNG’U CREATIVE DIRECTION/ GRAPHIC DESIGN

IAN WAGGA Digital Marketing/ Graphic Design

>> EVENTS TEAM

Ellen Magembe Events Manager

Mellisa Dorsila Events Assistant

PUBLISHED BY:

Joan Jepkosgei Account Executive

Justin Maganga Account Executive

PRINTED BY:

Felix Moturi Audience Generation Executive

Purity Kamau Accounts Assistant

Contacts eDevelopment House 604 Limuru Road Old Muthaiga P O Box 49475 00100 Nairobi, Kenya +254 725 855 249 Email: info@cioAFRICA.co

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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The content of CIO Africa is protected by copyright law, full details of which are available from the publisher. While great care has been taken in the receipt and handling of material, production and accuracy of content in this magazine, the publisher will not accept any responsility for any errors, loss or ommisions which may occur.

>> LETTER FROM THE EDITOR IN CHIEF

NEW BEGINNINGS ARE OFTEN DISGUISED AS PAINFUL ENDINGS “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” – Genesis 1:1 When I was 9, my then English teacher whose name I cannot recall for the life of me, tasked the class to write 5 things about a cow. I came home, told my Mum – she was a high English and History teacher at the time – about this ‘thing’ I was supposed to write about. My older brother overheard this conversation and in his very Zen, infinite, 13- year-old wisdom, calmly taught me how to write a composition. “Don’t say obvious things such as ‘a cow gives us milk. A cow has four legs.’ Use our imagination and write something no one else would think about.” And I have followed that advice since. And here we are.

Words have power. We know how childish sticks and stones will break my bones/but words will never hurt me really is. Words hurt. Words build empires. Just take a look at the apocrypha. Words make babies. Words make businesses, Kings and Queens rise and fall. Words, they are things that say what we think or feel. They are things that draw us closer and intimately, or they can so very easily destroy. Words make people cry. They give people life. Words, they have power. As an editor cum writer, I live and die by my words.

I am resistant to any force that takes my power with words away. But even I have to agree people are assessed – a nicer way of saying judged – by their actions. It is one thing so say, “I’ll do it,” and quite another to actually do it. Doing it gives you a promotion, better assignments and yes, more money. Now, at the beginning of the year, people have returned to their jobs. It is the era of The Great Resignation. In America, 4 million people left their jobs in July 2021. This is affecting the C-Suite too.

With the ongoing pandemic, leaders are having to address physical and mental health concerns, managing remote staff and address the impact COVID is having on their employees.

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As CIOs, you must be above average communicators. You can’t simply geek out in a corner and grunt. CIOs, after all, need to translate tech to CEOs and on occasion, to CFOs whether it is before, during or after the purchasing of technologies. You need to communicate this with your team. You need words to state your case. And the first rule of leadership tends to be communicate.

Communicate. Communicate. Even if you have to overcommunicate. CIOs are increasingly getting pegged as C-Suite leaders. That means dealing with senior management and top leadership issues.

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In Conversation With God, An Uncommon Dialogue, God tells Neal Donald Walsh, the author, that words are the least effective method of communicating. Instead, it is the non-verbal cues we need to observe. But we have chosen to lean heavily on words, making them mean more than perhaps they should.

Communicating is the only way to get that raise, that promotion, that job, that great employee, get that work done. But communication, though it counts for a whole lot, is only the beginning of leadership. And as Lao Tzu said above, when one door opens, there is an end. At the tip of that end, is a new beginning. Now, are you ready for 2022? www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2022 | CIO AFRICA

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>> GUEST EDITOR

Cloud Security: Imran Chaudhrey

Important Trends to Know

Country Manager-East Africa, Fortinet

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With cloud security continuing to be a hot topic in 2021, Fortinet and Cybersecurity Insiders decided to ask cybersecurity professionals around the world and across all industries for their latest insight. The brand new 2021 Cloud Security Report reveals how more than 500 cybersecurity professionals —from technical executives to managers and IT security practitioners — are responding to security threats in the cloud, how their organizations are using cloud, and the best practices they are prioritizing. Let’s take a look at some of the key findings.

From a big picture point of view, hybrid and multi-cloud, whether as a chosen strategy or simply where organizations end up, are very much the norm.

The report found that a majority of organizations are pursuing a hybrid or multi-cloud strategy (71%) and site a number of reasons for this—including integration of multiple services, scalability, or business continuity reasons. 76% of organizations are using two or more cloud providers.

That of course does not mean that onpremises has gone away. In fact, hybrid still accounts for more than one-third of deployments. What it does mean is that organizations are now operating in an expanded and diverse digital landscape.

A Sophisticated and Challenging Threat Landscape Given the similarly expanding digital threat landscape, it’s perhaps not surprising that security remains a concern. Virtually all respondents indicated that they were at least moderately concerned about the security of public clouds, nearly onethird being extremely so. That said, it’s not threat actors that top the list of cloud security threats, misconfiguration wins that vote. Misconfiguration of

unavoidable part of their cloud journey without the right tools and embrace a strategy that simplifies cloud operations. With the right solutions and strategy, organizations can achieve visibility and control throughout their cloud deployments and downstream evolution. Organizations are grappling with a diverse set of tools that deliver disparate controls and highly variable security posture, specific to each cloud platform.

Considering these challenges facing their organization, 78% of surveyed cybersecurity professionals would find it very helpful to extremely helpful to have a single cloud security platform offering a single dashboard while allowing for configuration of policies to protect data consistently and comprehensively across the cloud.

The Fortinet Adaptive Cloud Security portfolio offers organizations the ability to bridge this complexity. Deeply integrated, cloud-native solutions provide consistent visibility, protection and control through consistent policies that span the diverse array of multicloud and hybrid cloud environments.

At the same time, cybersecurity professionals are operating under tight budget constraints, with cost being the primary criteria for deciding which security solution to implement. Despite this, cloud security is a critical enabler and a robust, adaptive cloud security strategy is an important part of achieving the business goals that they are looking to realize with cloud.

For those organizations struggling with their cloud adoption, some of the biggest barriers cited by those surveyed have been a lack of visibility (53%) and not enough control (46%) in cloud environments.

A Cloud Security Strategy That Bridges Complexity Addressing the challenges outlined in the 2021 Cloud Security Report clearly requires that organizations accept that complexity can be an

This common security framework not only delivers uniform security posture, it also simplifies cyber defense, compliance reporting and data sharing.

Teams are free to adopt whichever cloud platform suits their particular needs, confident that their data and applications will be safe, resilient and securely accessible in each.

Cloud is now a critical part of the digital landscape for most organizations, and often a key enabler for future success. Aligning security strategy and business strategy is key to ensuring that this future is one you can always trust. Fortinet’s adaptive cloud security solutions provide the necessary visibility and control across cloud infrastructures, enabling secure applications and connectivity from data center to cloud.

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Organizations continue to rapidly adopt cloud to meet key business objectives—and that trend doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon. The report indicates that 33% of organizations are running more than half of their workloads in the cloud today.

cloud security remains the biggest cloud security risk according to 67% of cybersecurity professionals. Further, the complexity of managing multicloud environments is clearly adding to what is already a challenging task.

Fifty-eight percent of those surveyed noted that their biggest concern when securing multi-cloud environments was ensuring data protection and privacy for each environment.

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A Diverse Digital Landscape and the Role of Cloud Security

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Digitalsecurity, everywhere you need it.

Protect the possibilities with Fortinet.

www.fortinet.com Copyright © 2021 Fortinet, Inc. All rights reserved.

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>> NEW APPOINTMENTS

Congrats on your

STEVE MBEGO

Writer

NEW APPOINTMENT

Google Hires James Manyika As First Senior VP of Technology and Society Google has hired ZimbabweanAmerican consultant, researcher, and writer, James Manyika, as the company's first Senior VP of Technology and Society. He will help explore the company's impact on society and shape its points of view on subjects including AI, the future of work, sustainability and other areas that could make a significant difference.

Manyika, who is currently the McKinsey Global Institute Director which helps companies and governments (including tech leaders) make decisions based on economic and cultural trends,

will report directly to Alphabet Inc. and Google Chief Sundar Pichai. He'll help build leadership on technological impact at the company and will focus on toplevel, longer-term initiatives.

“I’m thrilled that James Manyika will be joining Google’s leadership team. He’s spent decades working at the intersection of technology and society and has advised a number of businesses, academic institutions and governments along the way,” Pichai said in a statement.

Matsi Modise Appointed Chair Of Technology Innovation Agency Of South Africa Matsi Modise has been appointed as the Chair of the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) of South Africa.

While announcing her appointment on her LinkedIn page, Matsi said: A new year, a new chapter as the newly appointed Chairperson of the Technology Innovation Agency of South Africa…

I’m extremely excited about this opportunity.

Harnessing my governance, entrepreneurship and venture capital experience and leveraging my extensive network in the ecosystem, I look forward to my term” Not new to the tech startup and entrepreneurial space, Matsi is the Non-Executive Chair and Investor at Finclusion Group, the Founder and CEO of Furaha Afrika Holdings, Vice-Chair of SiMODiSA, Chair of Kuehne + Nagel, and sits on the board of The Innovation Hub. 12 www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2022 | CIO AFRICA

Tae Sun Lee Takes Over As Samsung MD For East Africa South Korean multinational Samsung Electronics has appointed Tae Sun Lee as its East African Managing Director effective January 2022.

He takes over from Seok Min Hong who has been at the helm of the company since September 2017.

Lee previously served as the Strategic Director Integrated Mobility Division at Samsung Electronics South Africa.

Lee has immense experience in Samsung which he has served for over 18 years, 9 years of which has been in mobile business in South Africa and others supporting the Middle East and Africa Business from the company’s headquarters in South Korea. He joined the firm in August 2003 where he supported mobile operations for key Middle East markets, a role he held for five years before rising through the leadership rank to that of

Commenting on her appointment, Wangui said, “I’m excited to take on this new role as I have seen the rapid growth of food delivery in Kenya and the growth that the business brings to the digital economy.

The impact of convenience and on-demand commerce on the market is evident. Not only is Uber Eats creating unique work opportunities, but our operations have a positive knock-on effect for restaurants, merchants and delivery people.”

Wangui joined Uber in 2019 as Strategy and Planning Lead for Uber Eats Sub-Saharan Africa. Before this role, she worked at Koko Networks, an international technology company dedicated to bringing clean and affordable energy to low and middle-income households in Nairobi.

The new GM started her career as a legal intern for an African law firm, Bowmans, and later moved to McKinsey and Co. as a management consultant. She is a legal graduate with an undergraduate degree in Law and a Master’s degree in International Business and Commercial Law from the University of Manchester.

“I am very excited to have joined Samsung Electronics East Africa, I believe that this market has a great deal of potential for our Samsung products. I look forward to serving our customers and working together with the East African Team,” Said Lee. In his new role, he will be responsible for 14 markets.

IBM Appoints Ana Paula Assis GM of EMEA IBM has appointed Ana Paula Assis as its new General Manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

Paula takes over from Marta Martínez Alonso who has retired from the organisation after 19 years.

As General Manager for EMEA, Assis will oversee business operations, driving revenue growth, client satisfaction, and employee engagement in a region that includes more than 100 countries.

Assis, who has been with IBM for more than 25 years, has held several other executive roles with the firm. These include General Manager for the Latin American region, during which she drove sustained growth, and increased market share.

She also held multiple strategic business positions in the US as well as holding the role of Vice-President of software sales in China.

Rob Thomas, Senior Vice President, IBM Global Sales, stated, “Ana Paula is a remarkable leader who combines outstanding business eminence and IT industry depth with a relentless focus on talent and diversity development, which has earned her several recognitions," said Rob Thomas, senior vice president of IBM Global Sales.

"Her deep technical expertise in areas like data, automation, security, and hybrid cloud has been critical to her success in driving IBM’s growth strategy. Most recently, she had a pivotal role in securing a flawless experience for our clients during the IBM/ Kyndryl spin-off.” www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2022 | CIO AFRICA

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Uber Eats has appointed Wangui Mbugua as the General Manager for its Kenya business in a bid to steer the growth of delivery services in the country.

The firm credited Lee for growing the Samsung mobile market share in South Africa making it SA’s most preferred smartphone brand.

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Wangui Mbugua Appointed General Manager Of Uber Eats Kenya

Managing Director of the East African market.

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>> NEW APPOINTMENTS

Dr Daniella Munene Appointed Africa Health Business Head of Operations Africa Health Business (AHB) has appointed Dr Daniella Munene as the company’s Head of Operations.

Dr Munene is a pharmaceutical professional with over 15 years of experience in strategic planning, business development, team leadership and management of key stakeholder relationships in the health sector.

Dr Munene currently also serves as a Director at the Kenya Healthcare Federation (KHF), providing strategic direction for the federation of private health sector actors in Kenya. Prior to working in this position, she held the position of the Chief Executive Officer of the Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya, focusing on advocacy, policy, stakeholder engagement, team leadership, mentorship and coaching. Her experience comprises positions within the public, private and development space.

Commenting on her appointment, Dr Munene said, “It is a real honour to have been appointed Head of Operations at Africa Health Business. I am very excited at the prospect of leading the consultancy side of the company as it continues to grow. I am keen to continue working with local and international partners to strengthen Africa’s healthcare systems via solid public-private partnerships.”

Dr Amit N. Thaker, AHB Executive Chairman said, “I am delighted to announce the appointment of Dr Munene as our Head of Operations, effective immediately, leading the consultancy team and overseeing the AHB Knowledge & Network Platform. I envision a great future for Africa Health Business with Dr Munene joining the leadership team at the company. Please join me in welcoming Dr Munene in her new role at Africa Health Business.”

FSD Africa Makes Major Board Changes, Announces New Chair

FSD Africa has announced major changes to its Board with the appointment of a new Chair and three new non-executive directors who will help drive the organisation’s vision of strengthening and deepening Africa’s financial sector particularly in the area of green finance.

14 www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2022 | CIO AFRICA

Frannie Léautier, a highly experienced finance and development expert with a PhD in civil engineering has joined FSD Board as Chair replacing Vincent Rague who has stepped down after seven years in the role.

Frannie brings global experience in both public and private finance and a passion

for the transformative role financial markets can play in tackling poverty and inequality with a particular focus on gender lens investing and green finance. She has previously held senior leadership roles at the the World Bank, the African Development Bank and Trade and Development Bank Group

After working in development finance for many years, Frannie has also set up two companies and in her current role as Senior Partner and CEO at Southbridge Investments, an investment firm providing financial and advisory solutions for private and public sector clients across Africa, she has worked successfully to attract innovative financing to Africa.

FSD also appointed David Karanja, Greta Bull and Kanini Mutooni as nonexecutive directors.

David Kanja is the former Assistant Secretary-General for the Office of Internal Oversight Services at the United Nations and a former chair of UNICEF’s independent Audit Advisory Committee.

Greta Bull is Director of Women’s Economic Empowerment at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the former CEO of CGAP, an independent

think tank focusing on financial services for the poor.

Kanini Mutooni is Managing Director of the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, a US foundation that invests in entrepreneurs providing private sector solutions to global problems, and a former chair of the Global Innovation Fund, a $250M investment vehicle supported by the UK, US, Canadian, Australian and Swedish Governments.

In a statement, Mark Napier, CEO, FSD Africa stated, “On behalf of our whole team, I am delighted to welcome these new members to our Board.

They all bring extraordinary breadth of experience in development and finance at the highest levels with a global perspective and deep understanding of the African context. I am confident that they will bring huge value to FSD Africa. We have ambitious plans for the future and we are humbled to

have the support of a Board with such excellent skills as we head into the next phase of our mission to reduce poverty and inequality by tackling the most intractable financial market challenges in Africa.”

New FSD Africa Board Chair, Frannie Léautier said, “I am honoured to be joining FSD Africa at a pivotal point in its and Africa’s development. The organisation has an excellent track record in deepening financial markets in Africa, piloting innovations in areas such as financial inclusion and capital markets. The finance sector has a vital role to play in helping Africa deal with the consequences of both the pandemic and climate change as well as provide funding for sustainable development.

This is an exciting moment for FSD Africa to build on its successes and contribute further in a genuinely transformational way.”

Angela Kyerematen-Jimoh Joins Microsoft As Strategic Partnership Lead For Africa Angela Kyerematen-Jimoh has joined Microsoft as the Strategic Partnership Lead for Africa at the newly formed Africa Transformation Office (ATO).

During her 11 years stint at IBM, she held different leadership positions including that of Chief of Staff to the Senior Vice President of Global Markets and Sales. She was also appointed General Manager of IBM Ghana in 2015 becoming its first female General Manager in Africa.

Prior to joining IBM, the experienced marketer previous roles include Marketing Manager London and North Europe for French software company GL Trade and Marketing Manager in London for ABN Amro and UBS Investment Bank. www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2022 | CIO AFRICA

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Before transitioning to Microsoft, Angela, who has over 20 years of experience of work in finance and tech in Africa and Europe, was the Regional General Manager for IBM North, East and West Africa where she led the organisation’s business and strategy.

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In this new role, She will focus on leading Microsoft’s ATO strategic partnerships with governments, financial institutions, telecommunication operators, multinationals and international organizations across the African continent.

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Writer

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THE LATEST NEWS, TECHNOLOGY, TRENDS AND INNOVATIONS FROM ACROSS AFRICA! 16 www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2022 | CIO AFRICA

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Writer

>> THE ROUND-UP

Opibus First Electric Mass Transit Bus Introduced In Kenya

Cyber And Health Risks Top CEOs Concerns In 2022 While the ongoing brought forth many challenges for companies, cyber and health risks remain a top concern for CEOs in 2022, a global survey shows.

Findings from PwC’s 25th Annual Global CEO Survey indicate that like last year, cyber and health risks rank as the leading global threats as identified by 49% and 48% of CEOs, respectively.

“This first electric bus is set to be launched commercially mid this year. Following this, the platform will be tested at scale in commercial deployment of 10 buses during the second half of 2022. In doing so, we ensure that we gather valuable feedback to continue the development of the product for an optimized market fit. It feels great to be the first movers in this very exciting space” Dennis Wakaba, Opibus Project coordinator Public Transport said.

Opibus said in a statement the deployment of the buses will initially be in peri-urban areas around Nairobi Metropolitan. Along with the bus deployment, the company also plans to install several charging points for the EV buses in the operating area.

Compared to its diesel counterpart, the firm says the new electric bus is silent,

“Since the electric bus does not have a combustion engine or manual gearboxes, there are no oil/filters/ gaskets that need to be changed.

This translates to an 80% reduction in maintenance expenses, compared to a diesel bus. Taking into account the electricity charges which are also significantly lower than the ever-increasing diesel price, the total operating expenses are lowered by 50% and will revolutionize the public transport sector in Africa,” it said.

Seen as a largely untapped opportunity, the African market for electric mass transit vehicles continues to attract investment.

Last year, BasiGo, an electric vehicle start-up also launched its operations in Nairobi after raising $1 million in preseed funding. BasiGo buses which cover about 250 kilometres daily will come in 25 and 36 seater capacities. On the other hand, Opibus come in a 51-seat capacity with a range of 120 kilometres.

BasiGo plans to sell the EV buses at the price of their diesel equivalent.

From an industry perspective, the survey established that cyber risks are top of mind for financial services CEOs, 59% of whom cited cyber as a key threat. Notably, manufacturing (40%) and consumer (39%) CEOs displayed lower concern levels about cyber, despite those sectors’ high volume of cyber-attacks.

A high percentage of hospitality and leisure CEOs (75%) are concerned about the impact of health risks on their business. And 49% of energy, utility and resource CEOs see climate change as a key threat in the coming year,15 points higher than the percentage across all industries.

Overall, the survey found that most CEOs are most optimistic they have been in 10 years about the prospects for a stronger economy in the coming year. The findings indicate that more than three-quarters of CEOs, 77%, predict the global economy will improve, while only 15% expect worsening conditions. In Africa, 85% of CEOs expect that global economic growth will improve and 8% expect it to decline.

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The firm, which raised $7.5 million in pre-series A funding last year, is now conducting a pilot test before commercial deployment of 10 buses during the second half of 2022 in Kenya and the pan-African market by the end of 2023.

produces zero emissions, reduces 80% of the maintenance cost and lowers overall operational costs by 50%. Brand new Opibus electric buses will cost $100,000 and $60,000 for conversions.

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Swedish-Kenyan EV start-up Opibus has introduced the first locally designed and assembled all-electric mass transit bus in Kenya.

The Survey which polled 4,446 CEOs in 89 countries and territories between October and November 2021 ranked macroeconomic volatility as the second major concern with 43% of CEOs either very or extremely concerned about the potential impact of inflation, fluctuations in GDP and labour market issues in the coming year.

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>> THE ROUND-UP

Kenyan e-Commerce Firm Copia Global Secures $50M For Expansion In Africa

Kenyan B2C e-commerce company Copia Global has raised $50 million in Series C round to grow its model across East Africa and to expand into other African countries.

The company also plans to expand into Nigeria, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique and Malawi depending on socioeconomic and political macroeconomic conditions.

“While mobile technology underpins all we do, it is Copia’s relentless focus on building trust – by providing low prices, quality products, reliable delivery and uncompromising customer service – that has enabled Copia to succeed in a market that many perceived impossible,” Tim Steel, CEO of Copia, said.

The round was led by Goodwell Investments. Other significant participants in the funding were previous investors LGT Lightrock, DEG Equity and Perivoli Innovations. They are joined by new investors Zebu Capital, the US Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and Koa Labs. It's total funding since its inception now stands at $103 million.

Els Boerhof, the managing partner at Goodwell Investments, added: “People in rural areas in Africa typically travel to the nearest city to buy essential goods such as building materials or medicine, which is costly and time-intensive: on average rural Kenyans, for example, spend over an hour and ~$4 per commute. Copia’s e-commerce model is built for the unique requirements of the African market and will save many Africans a lot of time and money. We see it as one of the next big leapfrogging technologies; just like mobile phones leapfrogged landlines and solar power leapfrogged the grid, Copia is leapfrogging retail. We are delighted to continue to support Copia by leading their Series C round.”

Launched in Kenya in 2013 by Tracey Turner and Jonathan Lewis, the company harnesses mobile technologies and a network of local agents and proprietary to reach its customers.

Currently operating in Kenya and Uganda, the company targets people who do not have Internet access through a network of 30,000 agents. Customers can also place orders online, by phone or via USSD messages. To date, the company says it has fulfilled more than 10 million orders.

18 www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2022 | CIO AFRICA

Equity Rolls Out New Till Number Platform For Integrated Digital Payments

Equity Bank has rolled out an enhanced centralized digital payment solution for merchants through One Equity Till Number.

The solution, a first in the Kenyan market, has an interoperability feature that enables merchants to receive payments from multiple payment channels or mobile wallets through a single till number.

Merchants can receive payments from customers using Mpesa, Airtel Money, PesaLink, Equitel and Equity Mobile using One Equity Till Number without having to subscribe for multiple Paybill/ Till numbers for their businesses.

“The new till number platform will make it easy and convenient for merchants, both small and large business, to collect all their payments directly into their bank account without having to do several transfers from mobile wallets to bank account, since there is no limit to the amount of money a merchant can receive. Moreover, the merchant can access the money instantly at no charge. The centralised collection account will in turn improve their credit score thus enabling merchants to access higher credit facilities from the bank to enable them to expand their businesses,” the Bank said in a statement.

According to the lender, “the One Equity Till Number will support micro, small and medium enterprises around the country to conduct their business conveniently.

Businesses will now be able to get the

Microsoft To Acquire Activision Blizzard With Eyes Set On The Metaverse

Equity says its innovation and digitization strategy has seen its mobile and internet banking channels process 86.8% of all transactions as of Q3 2021.

Currently, 98% of all its transactions take place outside the branch, solidifying the Group’s position as a digital financial service provider.

Last week, the Lender announced that it will shorten the time frame to settle PayPal withdrawals from three business days to 24 hours or one business day.

Microsoft, on Tuesday, made public the deal, which is expected to close in the fiscal year 2023 pending regulatory approval. It revealed that the “acquisition will accelerate the growth in its gaming business across mobile, PC, console and cloud and will provide building blocks for the metaverse”.

When the transaction closes, Microsoft will become the world’s third-largest gaming company by revenue, behind Tencent and Sony. The planned acquisition includes iconic franchises from the Activision, Blizzard and King studios like “Warcraft,” “Diablo,” “Overwatch,” “Call of Duty” and “Candy Crush,” in addition to global eSports activities through Major League Gaming.

The acquisition also bolsters Microsoft’s Game Pass portfolio with plans to launch Activision Blizzard games into Game Pass, which has reached a new milestone of over 25 million subscribers.

“With Activision Blizzard’s nearly 400 million monthly active players in 190 countries and three billion-dollar franchises, this acquisition will make Game Pass one of the most compelling and diverse lineups of gaming content in the industry. Upon close, Microsoft

will have 30 internal game development studios, along with additional publishing and esports production capabilities,” the company said.

“Gaming is the most dynamic and exciting category in entertainment across all platforms today and will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO, Microsoft.

“We’re investing deeply in world-class content, community and the cloud to usher in a new era of gaming that puts players and creators first and makes gaming safe, inclusive and accessible to all.”

Phil Spencer, CEO, Microsoft Gaming said, “Players everywhere love Activision Blizzard games, and we believe the creative teams have their best work in front of them. Together we will build a future where people can play the games they want, virtually anywhere they want.”

Technology companies are in the rush to invest in the Metaverse, which is an updated Internet to accommodate spatial experiences. The rush was bolstered after Facebook rebranded to Meta to signify its focus on building the Metaverse.

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Further, merchants/ businesses will enjoy great benefits from the service as it provides instant onboarding and ease of reconciliation. The service will offer freedom and convenience to customers who will now have a simple and instant payment solution irrespective of the mobile payment channel used.

The service will also include QR code payments for customers wishing to scan-to-pay from their payment channels including Equity Mobile App, M-VISA, Masterpass QR and UnionPay.

Microsoft Corporation has announced plans to acquire gaming company Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion.

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most out of their activities by devoting their time to their clients as the Equity solution simplifies their operational needs from a payment standpoint”.

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>> THE ROUND-UP

Ugandan Fintech Asaak Raises $30M To Expand Motorcycle Financing

South Africa Launches KENYA Satellites To Monitor Ocean South Africa has launched three nanosatellites into orbit to help monitor shipping off its coast.

The satellites, which were developed

by Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) as part of South Africa’s new Maritime Domain Awareness Satellite (MDASat-1) were launched on Thursday. They travelled to space on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Rocket via the Transporter 3 (Dedicated SSO Rideshare) mission.

Ugandan fintech start-up Asaak has raised $30 million in pre-Series A equity and debt funding to support the acquisition of motorcycles and smartphones by taxi operators.

The round was led by new and existing investors including Resolute Ventures, Social Capital, HOF Capital, Founders Factory Africa, End Poverty Make Trillions, Decentralized VC and a number of angel investors.

Formed in 2016, Asaak offers financial services, via a digital platform, to entrepreneurs who otherwise would not have access. It advances loans to drivers who operate motorcycle taxis (bodabodas) based on their financial and behavioural data, such as the number of trips completed on mobility apps, including Bolt, SafeBoda, Uber, and Jumia. The start-up uses data from these third-party platforms to generate a credit score for the borrowers.

To apply for a loan, all a driver needs is to submit their riding history on any of the hailing platforms. Qualified drivers usually receive motorcycle financing of about $1,500 within three days of signing up. They pay an interest of 20 www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2022 | CIO AFRICA

between 1 to 4% depending on their credit score.

Last month, Asaak patterned with Untapped Global, an innovative investment company focused on emerging markets, to provide financing for over 2,000 motorcycles over the next 12 months.

Although Bodabodas are a popular mode of transport across Africa, the market remains largely untapped and unregulated.

However, it has lately attracted the attention of private investors keen to bring order into the industry through the use of technology to make it easier for drivers to locate customers and regulate pricing.

Last month, for example, Google announced it invested an undisclosed sum from its Africa Investment Fund in Ugandan bike-hailing start-up, Safeboda.

Moreover, a number of startups such as Opibus, eBee Africa and Mazi Mobility have emerged with the goal of providing electric motorcycles for the African market.

The MDASat-1 constellation will enable South Africa to detect, identify and monitor shipping traffic in its territorial waters in real-time using Automatic Identification System (AIS) data. AIS is a radio system for tracking maritime traffic, primarily for collision avoidance.

The mission is a significant milestone for South Africa as it marks the first launch of a satellite constellation developed fully on the African continent. It reduces the nation’s reliance on third-party foreign providers for the vital Automatic identification system (AIS) data.

CPUT’s Acting Chief Engineer on the project, Nyameko Royi, noted that increased visibility in space by more nations bodes well for all.

“This mission would mark the first constellation of satellites developed and designed in Africa. The more we get people involved in space, the better, the more data we extract from space- the better for the world. This is a significant milestone for CPUT and South Africa,” he said.

MDASat-1 is CPUT’s third satellite mission. It comes after ZACube-1 which was launched in 2013 and ZACube-2 in 2018. Its successful launch paves way for the final development of the MDASat-2 constellation which will consist of six nanosatellites.

ICT Fraternity Mourns Suhayl Esmailjee

Centum RE Secures $150M Investment

“May we live respected, and die regretted”, an unknown Author once remarked. To those who knew Suhayl Esmailjee, an ICT industry captain, he was a rare gem whose death has left a void in the sector in Kenya and Africa at large.

Centum Real Estate has signed an agreement to raise $150 million through a share subscription facility with GEM Global Yield LLC SCS (GEM).

“As the VP in my previous organization, I must say I really enjoyed working with him. He believed in his juniors and gave everyone an opportunity to think outside the box. I piloted Google digital skills for Africa in west Africa thanks to Suhayl Esmailjee. This is very sad indeed,” Roselyn Amolo said.

“Really sad. He was such a good man. We worked together at Africa Online and was a great mentor to the Sales teams. Really sad,” Gladys Ong'ayo Ogallo posted.

“A true icon! I and many others owe you a debt for where we are in our careers and lives today. You made me a leader fresh out of college and opened doors for me,” Lawrence Mungai said.

Suhayl began his illustrious career in the ICT sector as an account manager for the first Kenyan ISP company Africa Online Ltd in 1998. At Africa Online, he served in different leadership positions including that of General Manager (Tanzania), Head of Pan African Business, and Managing Director (Kenya).

He left Africa Online Ltd in 2008 to assume the role of Chief Operating Officer at Wananchi Group. After two years, he joined Ericsson as Strategic Program Director and later decamped to GEMS Education in 2013 where he was first appointed Commercial Director for Africa (2013) and later Regional Director -East Africa (2014). Suhayl then moved to Centum Learning Limited in 2016 where he was Vice President of Business Development - Africa. In 2018, he became the majority shareholder and Managing Director of Security Solutions and Automation company CAPCOM Ltd where he served till his demise.

CIO Africa sends our deepest condolences to the family of Suhayl Esmailjee. May his soul Rest in Peace.

The share subscription facility will allow Centum Real Estate to draw down funds by issuing shares of common stock to GEM. Centum Real Estate will control the timing and the maximum size of such drawdowns and has no minimum drawdown obligation.

Dr James Mworia, the Managing Director of Centum PLC noted, “The commitment by GEM is a major vote of confidence in Centum Real Estate and its business model and this investment will go a great way in significantly scaling up the business of Centum Real Estate.

He added, “The commitment by GEM provides an independent market validation of the attractiveness of the Centum Real Estate business model, demonstrates depth of investor interest and helps us in strengthening market confidence in the business of Centum Real Estate. We are quite pleased with this development and look forward to attracting even more investors into Centum Real Estate”.

Centum Real Estate says it is currently developing over 1,400 homes, many of which have already been completed.

Another 3,000+ homes are in the pipeline to be developed in the near term.

“Another 3,000+ homes are in the pipeline to be developed in the near term. Additionally, Centum Real Estate holds bulk development rights across its land banks for its future housing development and for sale to other real estate developers,” it added.

Some of Centum’s ongoing real estate projects include the Riverbank apartments and the Loft Residences within the Two Rivers complex and the luxurious Awali Estate villas and 1255-Palm Ridge apartments in the Coastal Vipingo Development Limited.

It earned $9.7 million in revenue from the sale of houses in the six months ended September 2021.

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“Very sad news! RIP Suhayl!! The greatest corporate leader ever!! It's really a great loss to his family and those of us who were mentored by him. May his family find solace during this difficult period,” Jonathan Tungu commented.

“Centum Real Estate is pleased to announce that it has signed an agreement with GEM Global Yield LLC SCS, the Luxembourg based private alternative investment group, to provide Centum Real Estate with a share subscription facility of up to $150 million for a 36-month term following a public listing,” the company said in an announcement.

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The death of Suhayl, which occurred on Monday following a short illness, was occasioned by an outpouring of grief on social media. Former colleagues, who took to social media to express their grief, described him as a sociable man, humble leader and a mentor to many.

GEM is a $3.4 billion alternative investment group with operations in Paris, New York, and the Bahamas. It manages a diverse set of investment vehicles focused on emerging markets across the world.

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>> THE ROUND-UP

Equity Ventures Into Insurance Business

Equity Group has received a license from the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) to operate a life insurance business in Kenya.

IRA issued the license to Equity Life Assurance (Kenya) Limited (ELAK), a subsidiary of the Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed firm on Monday.

The move is seen as growth and diversification of the Group in the financial services industry after acting as a bancassurance intermediary for Britam Holdings for the last 14 years.

Dr James Mwangi, Equity Group CEO and Managing Director said in a statement, “Our inspiration is to offer insurance to all categories of consumers and make insurance accessible, affordable and inclusive in line with our purpose of transforming lives, giving dignity and expanding opportunities for wealth creation” Speaking during the issuance of the license, IRA chief executive Godfrey Kiptum termed the entry of Equity Group into the insurance market “proof that the industry in Kenya continues to be attractive to investors.”

“We continue to receive interests from foreign-based financial institutions ranging from brokers, insurers, reinsurance brokers, and re-insurance companies looking for investments in the Kenyan Assurance market. This underscores the position of Kenya as a viable investment destination,” Kiptum said.

Equity’s entrance into the insurance market takes the total number of licensed insurance companies in Kenya to 57 with five re-insurance firms operating in the country.

The Kenya insurance industry currently is valued at $2.1 billion. Equity’s entrance into the sector brings the total number of licensed insurance companies to 57.

With an insurance penetration currently estimated at 2.4%, Kenya ranks fourth in Africa after South Africa, Morocco and Egypt.

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Kenyan Fintech Startup Alvin Raises $740K Preseed Funding

Kenyan fintech startup Alvin has raised $740,000 pre-seed funding to hire a new team and scale its operations in Kenya.

The startup which was founded in May last year and launched its flagship product, the Alvin App v1 Labrador private beta helps people align their daily spending with their savings goals. It features automated expense tracking for M-Pesa, and the ability to create a budget in just two minutes, showing users how much they can spend on different things.

The pre-seed round was led by Nigerian venture capital firm, Ingressive Capital and featured Future Africa and Voltron Capital. Others include the CEO of Paystack Shola Akinlade, the former CEO of Dondé Tony Nicalo, East Africa-focused VC Zephyr Acorn, B2B SaaS-focused US seed fund Forum Ventures and UAE-based consultancy Tahseen Consulting.

Angel investors from Kenya and the United States also participated in the round.

While commenting on the announcement, Alvin’s CEO Winston Reid said, “We’re excited to have such missionaligned partners and strategic angels onboard the Alvin journey to help us build an ever more intuitive and powerful personal finance app for all of Africa faster and more efficiently. This capital will enable us to hire key personnel quickly and scale faster as we transition from the private beta stage of the Alvin App v1: Labrador to the first public version of Alvin later in the quarter,” he said.

According to Wiston, the app will help “Millions of Africans who struggle to save long enough because it is still too difficult to know where one’s money is going (making it easier for a person to overspend), and hardly enough guidance readily available on how to get from wherever you are today to where you need to be in order to buy that plot of land, or that first car/etc., debt-free”.

The Alvin app will launch publicly in Kenya in the next few months.

Huawei Partners With African Universities To Train 1M New ICT Professionals

The government of Rwanda came up with the smart meter initiative to provide enhanced safety, security, accountability and transparency in the motorcycle transport sector.

The smart meters calculate distance, waiting minutes of the ride and process the cost of the ride. They automatically generate fare after a passenger is dropped off.

With the revised costs, passengers will now be charged $0.29 for the first two kilometres and $0.10 per kilometre for the rest of the journey. Beyond 40 kilometres, the tariff changes are $0.18 per kilometre.

According to statistics, only 30% of taxi drivers are using smart meters in the City of Kigali. However, the government of Rwanda has announced that all Kigalibased riders will not be allowed to work without smart meters after January 7th.

Although motorcycles have grown to become an integral part of the transport sector in Africa, they remain largely unregulated. Its growing potential has attracted private investors keen to bring order into the industry and reap huge profits in return. Last year December, Google announced it invested an undisclosed sum from its Africa Investment Fund in Ugandan bike-hailing start-up, Safeboda.

Kenya alone has a total of over 1.6 million registered motorcycles growing with an average of 16,500 units imported per month into the country. Motorbike riders in Kenya have often been blamed for causing accidents with many lacking licenses and insurance cover.

Under the theme of “Connection, Glory, Future”, Huawei has invited bright university students from 70 countries and pursuing courses in Information and Communication Technologies to test their talents through an intense assessment.

The students will be tasked with designing and building innovative solutions on Huawei technological platforms, including the Cloud to address areas such as environmental protection and close societal gaps with digital skills.

Besides the traditional Network and Cloud Track, it includes an Innovation Track that will for the first time stretch the students’ creativity.

With a target of 700,000 skilled professionals trained by the year 2023, the firm is using its annual ICT assessment to examine the students for their ICT knowledge, practical skills and innovation acumen.

The program also serves as a platform for talent placement, with 350 students having succeeded in getting jobs over the last 5 years.

The need for IT talent in Africa continues to be a headache for companies looking for professionals in the field. So much is the problem that it has led to talent poaching among players in the industry.

However, experts agree that Africa will continue to experience a shortage of technology workers if they do not change their education systems to adapt to the demand. There is also the need for talent nurturing to ensure more young people pursue IT and related courses. www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2022 | CIO AFRICA

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The government of Rwanda in partnership with Yego Global Motors have reintroduced the use of smart meters targeting motorcycles commonly known as moto-taxis almost a year after it was suspended. The smart meters had been stopped after complaints by drivers and passengers that the costs were prohibitive.

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Rwanda Reintroduces Smart Meters For Taxis

Huawei Technologies in collaboration with universities across Africa has set an ambitious goal of training nearly 1 million new ICT professionals. The partnership aims to increase academia collaboration and the need to advance the digital transformation of local industries.

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>> THE LEAD

Kevin Namunwa

Writer

JUMIA KENYA: A CASE STUDY OF E-COMMERCE Betty Mwangi is barely three months old at Jumia Kenya, where she has been named CEO. With an exclusive in the offing, we had to make sure we had a oneon-one with the woman helming one of Africa’s success stories.

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>> THE LEAD It could be said that the expression ‘time flies like a thief in the night’ is not entirely new. After all, Nigerian musician Burna Boy once sung exactly that.

Sometimes, we do not realise how fast time has moved until we look back and realise the progress that we have made.

Now, technology keeps making our lives easier daily. Enough to make us forget about the normal things including that very same time. Take 2010, for instance.

Over a decade ago, Africa had not yet engaged with the term ‘e-commerce.’

Today, e-commerce is part of our daily lives.

One of Africa’s biggest e-commerce brands has since grown into a household name - Jumia. The now listed company fashioned out of thin air, a barely there e-commerce market that has reaped big. Started in Nigeria in 2012 by co-CEOs Jeremy Hodara and Sacha Poignonnec, exMcKinsey consultants, who dreamt of an e-commerce Africa, Jumia has grown and become a something of a revered brand. Their key markets being Nigeria, Egypt and Kenya. Jumia’s most notable achievement was their listed at NYSE in April 2019, only for the share price to plummet to $2.15 in August 2019. But all is not lost. 2022 is expected to be the year of Jumia. The year they finally make a profit. Jumia attracts a billion visits a year, handle logistics, and is also a payments platform. Yet they are still referred to as a start-up.

In Kenya, Jumia is undoubtedly the leading e-commerce platform and has, over the years, gained the trust of most Kenyan online buyers. It has not been an easy journey. Jumia capitalised on the continent’s digital transformation and has grown hand in hand with technological penetration in the country.

In December 2021, Jumia Kenya announced a change at the helm. Jumia Kenya’s founding CEO Sam Chappatte would be handing over the new CEO, Betty Mwangi. You might know her as the 1st Director M-Pesa, Business & Strategy Development, Innovation. Or, 26 www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2022 | CIO AFRICA

perhaps her five-year stint at Britam Holdings Ltd., as Group Commercial Director. The changeover came as a surprise to the tech world though to be fair, Sam Chappatte had been at Jumia Kenya since 2016, rising from CEO to Executive Vice President, New Retail.

Apart from being a golfer and playing the piano almost her entire life, I learnt Betty has a troublesome history with Chemistry. The very same one you and I probably struggled with. In fact, Betty wouldn’t be this Betty were it not for divine intervention and serendipity.

What’s your general thought on e-commerce growth and what does the future hold?

Globally, things are happening a little bit faster. Everyone is thinking about digitisation so there’s a lot of innovation. This comes with the need to simplify our day to day lives. I believe e-commerce will become a big player as entrepreneurs come out to showcase these tech innovations and how they will simplify our daily lives.

COVID-19 has shown all the relevance of e-commerce and consumers are using it more for their daily needs. Our mission is to continue to make people's lives easier by helping them shop every day and pay for millions of products at the best prices.

We will continue to find innovative ways to make a meaningful impact on the lives of Kenyans. We remain focused on growing usage of our platform, further developing Jumia Pay while driving monetisation and going deeper into rural and remote areas, where the demand is continuously increasing. We are increasing the numbers of Pick-upStations across the country.

Overall, we are absolutely convinced that we have the right strategy to build the winning e-commerce platform in Kenya. The strong momentum we see on our platform usage and the traction we have with brands and sellers give us further confidence in the great opportunity we have ahead of us and

our ability to capture the largest slice of this growing pie.

What is your comment on Jumia’s progress in e-commerce?

We are very innovative, are the leading e-commerce platform, and aim to continue to stay ahead of the growth trajectory and help grow e-commerce locally. E-commerce represents less than 1-2 per cent of all the transactions in Africa, versus 12 per cent in the US and 20 per cent in China. It is still early.

10 years ago, before Jumia, there was no e-commerce. Today, it is a reality and growing. Different factors helped gain momentum kike internet penetration, growth of the middle class, adoption by the sellers, etc Where do you think Jumia is at in terms of its position to help in the growth of e-commerce?

We believe technology has the potential to transform everyday life in Africa for the better. Jumia helps consumers access millions of goods and services conveniently and at the best prices, while opening up a new way for sellers to reach consumers and grow their businesses. Our deep understanding of economic, technical, geographic, and cultural complexities across Africa enables us offer a solution that addresses the vast needs and preferences of both sellers and consumers. We have a deep knowledge of the logistics and payment landscapes and use this to navigate the unique challenges of operating an e-commerce business in African markets.

Tell us something new we don’t know about Betty.

Maybe to deviate a bit. Did you know that I was discontinued from Alliance Girls High School in Form 5 due to poor results in Chemistry? This, despite having a passion for sciences! I could not balance my science score (Physics, Biology, Chemistry) and teachers suggested that I do more of the Arts. I was very lucky because our

I’m very passionate about being involved in things that positively impact lives so Jumia can expect passion and commitment from me. I am excited by the opportunity to have a positive impact on the everyday lives of Kenyans through e-commerce. I look forward to working with the team to expand the Jumia universe and trust that my experience and passion for digital innovation will help to propel Jumia to greater heights.

To be successful, most people, if not all, have to fail a lot. Do you have experience in this?

(Laughs) Without naming names, we went, we launched something somewhere when we were in some organisation somewhere, without consulting customers and getting customer insights. My team and I, all 10 of us, ended up being the only one using the platform. It was a very expensive development. But the way I look at failure, Kevin, is you’ve got to fail. You can’t win all the time. The critical thing about failure is what you learn from it.

Yes, we did fail. We lost a lot of money.

We got into a fair amount of trouble, but we came out learning we can’t launch anything without customer insight.

I believe out of every failure, there is something positive that comes out of it.

The aim is to recover quickly, move on and take key learnings in every failure.

Give us an example of a project, in your career that you think you gave your best and have been successful with.

I’m pretty proud of a few things I’ve done. I worked for Safaricom as you know. I was at the helm of M-Pesa between 2007 and 2016. That was really exciting. It is why I’m talking about

What do you do outside work? What hobbies take work off your brain?

I enjoy cooking. Most of the time I am trying out new recipes. The latest dish I prepared was Indian Biriani. Proper Indian Biriani, and it took so many hours to prepare. I think it was a bad decision because I slaved in the kitchen for almost 6 hours! But, the guests loved it and I reminded them I am never cooking that again!

I also enjoy playing the Piano and I have played ever since I was only four years old. I have one in my house, and I am always practicing one tune or another whenever I pass by my living room. My dad made me choose between piano and football when I was four. I chose the piano.

Are you a reader? Tell me some of your favourites and what you’re reading now.

It’s also something that most people don’t know about me; I like to read. The things that I love to read are Asterix and TinTin comics. Currently, I’m actually reading three books simultaneously. I have three Jeffrey Archers – his most recent. I love stories, thrillers and mysteries.

What drives Betty every day? Where do you draw your motivation?

Apart from positively impacting the life of a common mwananchi? Because that really drives me. I am a Christian first. I have great faith in God and that motivates me every day. I also have a son, Matthew, who is very intelligent with an amazing sense of humor and very loving. I draw a lot of inspiration from my immediate family too.

My career spans roles of positive impact over the years and that is satisfactory.

Jumia is improving someone's life, we are creating a positive impact on someone and helping them save time and money by shopping online and staying safe. We help consumers access millions of goods and services conveniently and at the best prices while opening up a new way for sellers to reach consumers and grow their businesses. This has helped drive the much-needed employment to our youth and create more opportunities for the entire ecosystem.

How are you liking the Jumia staff so far?

I love the team, the energy, the passion.

They are young, energetic, creative and passionate, it is a really exciting atmosphere. I am so glad to be working with an intelligent, innovative, energetic team of young tech-savvy people who have positioned Jumia as a household e-commerce name in Kenya and Africa.

Their passion for what they do is unmatched!

Did you get time to work with Chappatte during the handover?

I have had the great pleasure and continue having a great pleasure of working with Sam. I find him a really well accomplished person in this whole conversation about e-commerce and an extremely visionary person. His big impact comes from his love for people.

He has also made me believe that without the team then there is very little you can achieve.

He is a seasoned e-commerce expert with great knowledge in the industry and overall. Sam has walked with me throughout my Jumia induction journey, which has been fantastic and has helped me have a fantastic base to e-commence. He is also a lot of fun to work with and comes with a good sense of humor. Sam is also a visionary and I can’t wait to see what he ventures into because it will be big. Among the things that stand out for me from him as he passed the baton, is the importance of the people, the team, and that everyone

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What should Jumia expect from you in the time that you will be at the helm?

impacting lives positively on a day to day basis which is very similar to what is happening at Jumia. I also loved what I was doing at Britam, which was bringing in a new strategy of breaking down Silos and build a really big distribution strategy.

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headteacher, Mrs Joan Waithaka, knew someone in the UK. I was transferred to there to continue my studies. I was 16.

I am also a professional swimmer, and I participated in a lot of championships.

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>> THE LEAD plays for the team as our core value.

What’s the uptake of e-commerce in Africa and who is at the forefront of embracing e-commerce, and, what are they doing right?

I think what’s happening in the whole e-commerce space as opposed to who is at the forefront is that it is getting busier and busier because of the fastpaced movement towards digitisation and the constant need to make life easier. Although Jumia is confident as a best in the class leader in the markets it operates within, we encourage innovation and competition across the continent. Jumia’s deep understanding of economic, technical, geographic, and cultural complexities which are unique to Africa enables us to offer a solution that addresses the vast needs and preferences of both sellers and consumers. We are seeing more players coming into this space, interesting space and since we are growing the e-commerce pie, the more the merrier.

How does Jumia make money?

Look at Jumia as a marketplace.

We partner with vendors/sellers who come and bring their goods into the marketplace where they’re sold to customers. Our model has got to be win-win concerning all the stakeholders- vendors, buyers, delivery people and ourselves. It is a leading e-commerce platform in Africa. Our marketplace is supported by our proprietary logistics business, Jumia Logistics, and our digital payment and fintech platform, JumiaPay. Jumia Logistics enables the seamless delivery of millions of packages while JumiaPay facilitates online payments and the distribution of a broad range of digital and financial services.

We optimise all the experience for all stakeholders - customers, quality products at the right prices, vendors biggest reach and exposure to customers for their products making it a win-win for all parties. We are constantly refining our model as advised 28 www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2022 | CIO AFRICA

by customers and vendors on how to better it.

How does Jumia perform across Africa in terms of countries, and do you find anything they have in common, or that is vastly different, from country to country specifically in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.

We operate in 11 countries in Africa: Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, Côte d'Ivoire, Morocco, Ghana, South Africa, Tunisia, Algeria, Senegal, and Uganda. Generally, we apply the same principles where we have customized our services to take into account locals in-country. Every country where Jumia operates has a unique environment. We are committed to working on solutions that allow everyone to access our multi-purpose innovative platform is the path to Africa’s future by empowering both small businesses and consumers in the continent.

How do you use the data that you generate?

Every decision that we make is data based on insights which are being gathered from customer behaviours. So, data is the pulse of this organization and its what guides decisions that are being made.

How do you ensure that your customers get the right kind of experience?

The only way to do this is to keep listening to our customers. We welcome positive feedback but we particularly like negative feedback because it gives us an opportunity to improve and to grow. We talk about keeping the customer in the room. So when we launch something, we make sure that the customer is involved in every step of the way. We make sure whatever we are doing resonates with the end user.

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EAST AFRICA | WEST AFRICA | NORTH AFRICA | SOUTH AFRICA

A PEEK INTO THE FUTURE OF AFRICA

HYBRID EVENT - NAIROBI

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of interconnected data centres

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>> COMPUTER LEARNING CENTRE

ARTICLE by

CAROL ODERO

CLC Africa, Check Point Sign Cyber Training Partnership Cybersecurity in Africa is increasing with several countries such as Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa becoming a haven for hackers. CLC Africa and Check Point are here to keep us safe

32 www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2022 | CIO AFRICA

Computer Learning Centre (CLC) Africa, and Check Point Software Technologies, have announced their training partnership bringing together Aunally Maloo, the Group CEO, and Pankaj Bhula, Regional Director, Africa from Check Point Software Technologies Limited.

market and demand, which walks alongside skill shortage.

The cybersecurity industry is worth $11billion worldwide. Africa accounts for about $2billion of this. Keep in mind Africa experiences 3X more cyberthreats than anywhere else in the world. The partners stress this is fundamentally, and at the end of it, always about one thing - knowledge. That, and the huge

This makes South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya with their improved connectivity ripe for cyber plucking.

This is especially critical when you pay attention to data. Its increasing value cannot be underestimated. If it falls in the wrong hands, only God knows what would happen, aside from selling

The reality is, the demand on the internet is higher than it was two or three years ago. With more people and more potential for criminal breaching, more education is required, hence the partnership. We do have the advantage of learning from more developed states. And, there is a growing middle class in Africa who engage with digital transformation faster probably because they are using technology more.

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"There is always demand for training in cybersecurity, That is where the world is going," stated Bhula. While the world opens lethargically and suddenly all at once, there is no denying that thanks to COVID, people no longer travel as much. That hasn't stopped Computer Learning Centre (CLC) Africa from training. However, this has not been without its challenges, considering CLC's virtual classes, key among them being connectivity. It is all designed to address the skills gap and bridge the knowledge divide.

Maloo said "We have been here for three years. The tech may have changed over the years. Imagine looking at cloud, cybersecurity and digitalisation. And the last couple of years we have had vendors such as AWS and Check Point coming in. Now, most of the training is on the cloud. More and more people are using devices to connect especially at home. We believe that the need for security will grow, And people are looking for platforms that can provide those skills."

L to R: John Onyango, Country Manager East Africa, Check Point Software, Pankaj Bhula, Regional Director, Africa, Check Point Software, and Aunally Maloo, Group CEO, CLC Africa. www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2022 | CIO AFRICA

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>> COMPUTER LEARNING CENTRE it and making money. That is what cybersecurity protects.

How then, does one protect themselves?

"This is why we need partners," Bhula says. " Our primary duty as vendors is to teach corporates. We deal with large enterprises to help them protect themselves and their employees, and some of them will want to offer it to the consumers."

Ideally, when trying to reach a consumer, Check Point would be reliant on a broader ecosystem. For instance, it is possible to approach banks, or say, Safaricom, and ask them to embed this technology in their technology and give it to the consumer as a secured product.

Having just released the Check Point Cybersecurity Report 2021, Bhula said

there are trends that will not be going away anytime soon, one of them being working from home and working from anywhere. It means cybersecurity and its practitioners are not going away anytime soon.

"Gone are the days of people traveling to the office and sitting behind the brick wall and being protected by that. Or banks being connected to the network, and installing security at that level.

People are logging in from anywhere, and everywhere even on their home devices, or use their partners' or children's devices to log onto the office network which can compromise them.

That WFH trend is not going to stop. 70 per cent of the workforce will be working from home, 90 per cent of those will be breached in some way or form on their mobile device."

Another trend is everyone moving to the cloud. "You will see a lot of that.

What we are picking up in Africa is that some of the citizenship services supplied by governments may become targets. Hackers will not target you as an individual, but they will be targeting governments. If they bring governments to their knees, around the supply of water or electricity, you can imagine the damage."

It is abundantly clear businesses will not disclose if they are hacked. To this, Bhula said, "There are two kinds of companies. Companies that are hacked and do something about it, or companies that are hacked and don't even know."

L to R: Aunally Maloo, John Onyango, Country Manager East Africa, Check Point Software, Group CEO, CLC Africa, and Pankaj Bhula, Regional Director, Africa, Check Point Software Technologies Limited.

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>> THINKING ALOUD

Michael Michie

36 www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2022 | CIO AFRICA

VULNERABILITY

AND HUMANITY

Last year at the CIO Africa CIO100 Symposium & Awards I had the pleasure of a conversation that started randomly between Kelly Bentley, (Co-Founder & Chief Rebel, The Rebel Element), Tania Ngima, (Inaugural Member – Technical Committee at Kenya National Innovation Agency (KENIA), and myself reshape my thinking about technology. While I was trying to figure out the perfect anatomy of a financial app, trying to make these apps as sticky as games, they opened my eyes to something else on the other side. While I was trying to figure this all out, I had unintentionally left out a very critical part of my equation; the human.

I looked at the human component purely from the perspective of how they would

Rarely do you find tech that will go out of its way to stop you from excessive use, harmful use or careless use. Well, you can mention a few things that have such safety and wellness controls and most of them would be games. Games that try to reward you for putting down the controller to go smell the roses for period. Games that ask you to take a break after extensive gameplay periods. The effects of our tech beyond their core function are rarely thought through and maybe 2022 should be the year we think about from the human perspective.

At tech building is where it starts, with finding the fun in failure and this loop of fail and try again is sweet it can lead to new discoveries with a lot of value. However, there is another thing missing, and that is vulnerability. The vulnerability that what you are building could be abused and you can play a role in stopping that abuse.

While we need to build tech to perform certain business functions and return results to the business, we need to consider the strain it has on those who build it and that it’s built with people who are vulnerable enough to accept that the tech can be abused and will work to build the tech to be safer for humanity, reduce chances of abuse.

For instance, a financial services app would warn users of the dangers reckless spending, debt traps from excessive borrowing and encourage financial literacy.

A social media app would be built without an infinite scrolling feature, one that is built with mental health banners and stop to allow users to get away from the instant gratification that such applications create.

Additionally, those building the tech need to be in environments that create a safe mental space and allow them to fail and then become vulnerable through their work. If those building tech can be in a space where as a team they can be vulnerable, then they can be honest about what potential harm their tech has and how best to address it and still meet business objectives.

Having tutorials for complex functions on tech would also help create a community that is comfortable with learning how to use new tech as opposed to the beaten down line of “keep it simple” or “users will be able to figure it out.”

Building tech should not always be about being the next and best, capturing data, maximising transactions and repeatability of use. Tech should be built by teams that express vulnerability to ensure that the tech is safe for humanity. In 2021, we wanted more accessibility in tech. In 2022, we move a step further to vulnerability and humanity.

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A few years back I wrote an article about finding the fun in failure. About the beauty of breaking some eggs to make an omelette, allowing ourselves to be okay with trying and failing, learning from that lesson and picking ourselves up to try again and again. This year, I think we should focus on the people tech affects and how it affects them.

use the tech, the long-term implications of the use of tech were not factored in. When I factored it in, I was shocked by how much it changed my perspective.

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Technology has become centre stage for us. It has consumed us. We build new tech, apps, websites, technology driver services and products, and that demand for these and more is booming. When do we catch our breath and smell the roses?

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>> CIO100

STEVE MBEGO

Writer

Kevin Namunwa

THE CIO100 NEWS OVERVIEW

Writer

How Conversation AI is Assisting Companies with Customer Service Companies are turning to conversational AI chatbots to enhance their business processes as well as meet the increasing demand of their customers who want immediate feedback. In days gone by, the advent of AI made people a little defensive. Questions arose around job security and the creeping redundancy of humans in the workforce.

However, the perceived divide between AI and customer service lessens daily.

We can’t reasonably expect businesses to be available whenever we choose to interact with them, after all.

Conversational AI chatbots remove the burden of common, low-value tasks like answering questions around business opening times, contact details, confirming orders or deliveries, checking stock levels, or scheduling and

amending appointments.

Ask yourself. How much time do your valuable customer-facing agents spend on these tasks, and where could their energies be better channeled?

James Bayhack, Sub-Saharan Africa Director at CM.com, says the shift to Conversational AI chatbots is necessitated by a real-time response that modern customers expect when interacting with companies via digital platforms. “Your customers may have multiple ways in which they like to communicate. They might want to use WhatsApp on their phones, or email when they’re at their desks. They might want to ask questions about your services or products on Facebook Messenger. You need to meet your customers where they’re choosing

to engage with you. Importantly, you need to be available when they want to talk. Getting back to someone quickly is key, and this is possible through conversational AI chatbots,” he says.

He adds that “Through CM.com’s Conversational AI Cloud, companies can serve their customers tailored messages at the right time and thus ensuring maximum efficiency.” What’s more? CM.com’s Conversational AI Cloud allow companies to design personalised conversations based on Q&As and dialogues to offer the best possible experience without a single line of code.

The self-learning capabilities identifies gaps and suggests relevant answers from auto-answers to auto-dialogues to improve conversations based on recommendations.

Combining The Power of Tech to Empower Life

Organisations should leverage technology to create jobs and opportunities for the underserved in the community, Laura Chite Co-Founder HerNovation and the Chief Commercial Officer at StepWise says.

Laura, who spoke at the Africa CIO100 Symposium & Awards on Combining The Power of Tech to Empower Life 38 www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2022 | CIO AFRICA

highlighted the need to focus more on women and people with disabilities (PWDs). “We should look for ways to grow more women and PWDs in technology and IT leadership.

Technology allows anybody to work from anywhere and that means that PWDs don’t have to move from point A to B to access the workplace. From wherever they are, they can deliver services,” she said.

achievements? These are things we need to think about,” she said.

Laura also called on the positive portrayal of women and PWDs in media, advertising, and entertainment to end stigmatization. At the same time, she asked the underserved groups to brand themselves well for the job market.

“How do we portray ourselves? Is it in a positive way? Do people want to hire us? Do we proudly talk about our

According to United Nations statistics, there are currently over 600 million PWDs throughout the world; 400 million live in developing countries and 80 million in Africa. Often overlooked, PWDs could help narrow the demand for IT talent in Africa when given the right training, resources and working environment.

StepWise, a company based in Austin Texas and has an office in Kenya scopes, recruits and trains the underserved in the community. They offer several services from a technology perspective including software development, Business process outsourcing services and technology training.

How To Secure Today’s Remote Working Environments the dispersed software service, installed applications and on-premise applications. Employees must also have a similar experience from wherever they are logging in from. They should extend secure collaboration to their contractors and partners as well as enable strong authentication,” she advised.

When COVID-19 came, most companies asked their employees to work remotely which ushered in many IT challenges key among them cybersecurity risks. Kendi Ntwiga Nderitu, Country Manager Microsoft, Kenya says the shift led to a sudden spike in the need for remote access to apps, VPN scalability constraints, bad actors exploiting COVID-19 themes and VPN vulnerabilities.

Kendi shared her thoughts on Securing Today’s Remote Working Environment where she noted that companies allowed their employees to use their personal devices to access

corporate resources thus posing a greater cybersecurity risk. They also experienced challenges onboarding and managing new and personal devices and difficulties in rolling out security controls. According to Kendi, organisations must consider three key areas when securing their remote working environment. These include enabling remote access to applications, managing devices and applications, and protecting corporate resources.

“In enabling remote access to applications, companies must ensure that users must have secure access of all their applications including

Kendi highlighted that managing remote devices and applications is the most critical aspect of securing your remote workforce. “This means managing remote personal and corporate devices and apps. Companies should remotely provision and deploy new devices. Deploy and manage virtual desktops and proactively manage updates, patching and policy”.

To protect corporate resources, Kendi advised organisations to put in place policies that protect sensitive data and guide the behaviour of employees at home. She added that they should also protect data by securing data in their cloud apps, securing their endpoints as well as keeping employees safe from phishing and malware attacks.

How To Address The Human Element In Your Tech Agenda

According to her, organisations can entrench the human element culture through partnering with stakeholders that improve value for their clients.

For example, a video game company partnering with a food company to raise awareness about healthy eating among

kid gamers.

Kelly stated that businesses can be more people-centric when they manage change quickly and effectively. “Businesses need to entrench change in their culture. Chaotic change processes make companies lose humanity. When you are chaotic, you don’t have the time to look at the human side of what you are doing in your environments.”

She also advised companies not to overlook soft skills when hiring saying, “If you want to build resilience in your business, and to have employees who can adapt to change, entrench change and do it at speed, you need people with soft skills”.

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Kelly emphasised the need for companies to be more people-centric if they want to address the real needs of their customers. “When you think about technology and why it comes into existence, the human element is what starts it and always what finishes it. You can’t have any kind of digital transformation without addressing why it is needed in the first place.”

Kelly explained that companies that fail to factor the human element in their processes, services and products tend to have lower engagement from customers and other stakeholders.

“They identify a human need, they create for the human element but along the way, they start to forget that is what triggered it. Later they start asking questions why their customers and stakeholders are disengaged yet what they have created is important to them.”

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As companies undergo digital transformations they need to factor in the human element for better results.

Failure to do so would result in having inferior products or services, dissatisfied and disengaged customers as well as demotivated personnel according to Kelly Bentley Co-Founder of The Rebel Element.

The Rebel Element helps organisations design and implement stakeholders’ engagement strategies. www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2022 | CIO AFRICA

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>> CIO100

Firms Banking on New Tech To Improve Products & Services – Safaricom Guru Series

CIO100 Delegates Visit iColo.io Data Centre in Mombasa Delegates at the Africa CIO100 Symposium & Awards got a rare opportunity to visit African carrierneutral colocation services provider Icolo.io highly guarded MBA1 data centre in Mombasa, Miritini. iColo. io boasts of another data centre in Nairobi (NBO1) and a third one (MBA2), is currently under construction in Mombasa, Nyali and is set to be completed in January 2022.

Organisations in Africa are banking on new technologies including Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to enhance customer experience, observed a panel of industry experts who spoke at the inaugural Safaricom Business Guru Series. The soon to be monthly event intends to bring in IT experts to discuss how technology affects their organisations. Launched at the Africa CIO100 Symposium & Awards, the techies were hosted at Sarova Whitesands Beach Resort and Spa, Mombasa.

Kris Senanu, Chief Enterprise Business Officer at Safaricom said the telco was in the process of remodelling its business to focus more on technology solutions in the future. “For the next few years, we want to move from being a telco to a techno. We’re leveraging on technology to build an eco-system where we can support SMEs and offer convenience to the end-user,” he said.

He added that, “Superior customer experience comes from the ability to give the customer an easy way to engage with you. Ultimately, companies that take advantage of technology will come out on top in enhancing customers’ experience”.

Jane Mwai, CIO, Standard Chartered Bank said, “With our digital bank, we have deployed a lot of machine learning, AI and APIs with third parties as well 40 www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2022 | CIO AFRICA

just to make sure we can have the products that our customers want.”

Rose Muturi, thee Managing Director, East Africa Branch International, said the finance app has invested in new technology to aid in data gathering and disbursement of funds to their customers. “We use machine learning to remove the bias in lending decisions.

We use a lot of data to make decisions and all of it is automatic. We use data gathered by AI to launch into markets because it makes decision making easier,” she said.

John Kamara, Founder at Afyarekod and Adalabs, stated that technology has enabled the organisation to be more effective by making them customer centric. The experts called on a favourable regulatory environment to allow them to take deploy new technologies in their organisations.

By now, we have figured out that the pandemic has upended business at the organisational and industrial level as customers moved online and the firms respond in turn. Companies have been forced to come up with digital or digitally-enhanced offerings to meet the new demands of clients.

There is the need for firms to address emerging issues associated with this transformation such as digital divide, cybersecurity threats and data protection among others.

According to iColo.io, two of its data centres are situated in the coastal town because it is the landing station for all of the undersea cable operators and an international network hub for internet traffic in the region. Overall, the Company’s two data centres which serve a broad spectrum of clients including global content providers have been instrumental in improving Internet experience to the 200 million people living in the East Africa region.

The MBA1, which began operations in 2017, can host 250 racks across its 4,000m2 IT space. It features redundant power complete with backup generators. It can support up to 675KW IT power and a 2 MVA site load. It also has multiple fibre entries from multiple carriers that ensure completely redundant connections. The hyperconnected, Tier-III data centre also has a working and living space for clients’ engineers.

The NBO1, located in Karen, can host 250 racks across its 650 m2 IT white space. It can accommodate an IT load of 825kW. On the other hand, MBA2 will provide an estimated capacity of 1.6MW megawatt and 1,200 square meters of IT space. The new facility is projected to host over 600 customer racks making it Icolo. io largest data centre in Kenya.

Whereas Africa accounts for less

than 1 per cent of the world’s co-location data centre supply, the number is projected to rise in future due to increased Internet connectivity and smartphone penetration.

According to a GSMA report on The Mobile Economy, 615 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa will subscribe to mobile services by 2025, equivalent to 50 per cent of the region’s population.

28 per cent of the total connections will be on 4G by 2025 and 3 per cent will be on 5G. The bulk of data centres are located in South Africa with the rest spread across Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana.

Little Cab Calls On Firms To Embrace Digital Transformation Little Cab CEO, Kamal Budhabhatti, has called on firms to embrace digital transformation if they want to survive. Delivering his keynote address, The Right Technologies For Your Digital Transformation Journey, Kamal explained how digital transformation is the main reason Craft Silicon’s subsidiary company, Little Cab, has fitted well into the African market. To him, the taxi-hailing company, which operates in East and Central Africa, survived because of digital transformation. “Were it not for digital transformation, we could not have survived,” he said.

Through digital transformation, companies can adapt to market conditions, streamline their process and create a better customer experience. Kamal said Little Cab made changes on their digital platforms to create better customer experience through localisation and the use of new technology.

“We tailored our products to fit with the local people preferences. We also upgraded our servers which now updates us with the location of our 100,000 active drivers after every five minutes. We also invested in a heat map that guides our drivers’ areas that have a high demand for service. We turned to Artificial Intelligence to improve the security features of our app by recognising drivers faces. When COVID-19 came, we modified our facial recognition system to ensure that drivers put their masks on,” he said.

Kamal said companies do not need to hire foreigners to drive digital transformation as experienced locals can do the job. “Kenya has talent. Our technical team is 100 per cent Kenyan. “We should look for the solutions here and not abroad,” he stated.

Money or Environment? Why Tech Talent Switch Employers the staff,” Kamal noted.

“The greatest asset in any organisation are the people. The war is not big tech versus small tech. IT is all sectors that are being affected by the need for Safaricom’s Njuguna had a different talent. There are enough tech skills in idea. In his opinion, it should be about the community. If you do not engage in developing talent from the grassroots. the right process, you need to employ That big tech need to understand that the right people that will align to your the only solution is increasing the pie. company’s culture. You don’t pay talent “You pay them double, but you have not by compensation only. Employees want trained them. Yet there are so many to work in organisations that they feel unemployed Kenyans who have no motivated, get training opportunities. jobs. Why take a developer developed Companies need to invest in retention by another company if you are honest strategies,” Nyawira said. Salim agreed about developing the industry?” He with Njuguna, citing that poaching will pointed out, adding, “What we should always be there. It has been existent in think about is how to develop talent different industries. “Poaching has been from the grassroots. We need to look at there across all industries. At the end how we can make the pie bigger.” of the day, money will not be enough.

Risking companies’ future to lock people Kamal and Cecilia disagreed with doesn’t work for entrepreneurs. Money Kariuki, stating that money is not cannot buy understanding of the vision. necessarily the biggest motivator. “You Apart from salary, what else do you need to a team that you really take offer to employees. I have experienced care for. Money is not the only person poaching. It was very emotional,” he that motivates people. When there is a said. purpose, money becomes secondary to www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2022 | CIO AFRICA

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Ali was joined by George Njuguna (CIO Safaricom), Phares Kariuki (CoFounder Pure Infrastructure), Kamal Bhudhabhati (CEO – Craft Silicon), Cecilia Nyawira (Partner – Millar Cameron) and Ahmed Salim (Managing Partner – Disruptive Media Ltd). Phares spoke of money as the big motivation for switching employers. He said that employees will walk away to a better offer if you do not pay them well. “For a long time, if you worked for a person who does not pay you well, you walk

away. We don’t have a shortage talent.

The fundamental problem is all people are in business. As a businessperson, you should pay well. We under-price our employees,” Phares noted.

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Without a doubt, the Africa CIO100 Symposium & Awards brought together big players in the IT and tech sector in Africa where they came together to address the main issues in the sector.

One particularly heated panel discussion was the Kahawa Thungu fireside chat discussion on Talent Wars And How Big Tech reaps where they have not sown. Moderated by AHK’s Ali Hussein, the beachside discussion was vibrant with panellists attempting to solve the conundrum of big tech scooping talent from smaller tech companies.

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>> TECH LEADERSHIP

Kevin Namunwa

Writer

How Jumia Invested in a Non-Existent Market and Made E-Commerce Big in Africa

CIO Africa caught up with the man who has led Jumia to become a revered e-commerce platform in Kenya. Here, Sam Chappette, the outgoing CEO says how he did it.

That e-commerce has grown over the past two years is not in doubt. It has, in fact, really contributed to the growth of technology in Africa. It is a sector that did not exist in the market a decade ago yet now it has grown into one of the biggest industries locally.

Jumia has been at the forefront of e-commerce in Kenya and Africa as a whole. A sit down with the outgoing CEO of Jumia, Sam Chappatte, debunks Jumia’s journey in the market.

Sam has been part of Jumia since its early days and at the helm as the company soared through hardships to become the leading e-commerce platform in Kenya. He now leaves the mantle to one Betty Mwangi as he ventures into other things in tech after achieving what he pretty much set out to when Jumia debuted in the market.

“E-commerce had been around, but it was not yet so in Africa. We saw a lot of potential with the growing smartphone penetration, and a population of early adopters of the technology.” Sam says, breaking down the gap they saw in the market then.

“Jumia has succeeded in my view because we have rolled with the punches and played the field. From Day 1, we were well capitalised and had systems in place to scale. But that’s not enough. It took a tonne of hard work from a large number of smart people.

There’s no shortcut.” He adds, “We have learned a lot of things along the way, and strive to stay low on ego but ambitious.”

42 www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2022 | CIO AFRICA

The uptake of technology obviously played a big role in Jumia’s growth so far and will still play an even bigger part in the continuity of the business, even after Sam leaves the helm.

“The digital economy does not just happen. It is driven by companies and people that step up and invest their time and capital to make it happen,” observed Chappatte. “Over the past 10 years, many companies have driven this growth. Looking ahead, there is a lot to be optimistic about - the infrastructure and smartphones are there. And I hope growing competition between telcos will drive down prices of data fast. This will drive the growth of the digital economy and jobs that it will bring with it.”

As for Jumia, it has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in educating the market and helping digitise businesses and customers. Jumia was both a beneficiary of this digital wave, and at the same time, paddling furiously under the water to drive that wave.

They faced a lot of challenges along the way too, as Chappatte recollects.

“We’ve been through many phases.

When we started, it was just the classic marketplace challenge. We needed to create both demand and supply. You need to sell the dream to both sides.”

Then there were the phases of hyper growth.

The outgoing CEO called upon African governments to support entrepreneurs because they in turn will drive the

digital economy and job creation across the continent. “Governments need to acknowledge that it’s not only about foreign direct investment (FDI). It is also about human capital (talent),” he says. “The government can invest in entrepreneurship development programmes, and create the right incentives to support these entrepreneurs. Make it a no brainer for an entrepreneur of a big company to create a hub in Kenya. Incentivise entrepreneurs locally, help them get funding and get wealthy. This will attract more money & more talent and have a big multiplier effect on the economy.”

The future of e-commerce looks bright.

So far, Jumia is starting to invest in electric vehicles. They recently signed a partnership with eBee Africa for use of electric bikes for delivery. Chappette says this will go a long way towards reducing the delivery charges for customers, make more money for the rider and protect the environment all at once.

Chappatte, The Man. There is, of courses, more to Chappatte than meets the eye. Despite having grown up and studied in Europe, he always wanted to work in Africa. He was always on the lookout for ideas that will thrive in Africa. He always knew this continent possesses opportunities.

Growing up in the United Kingdom, he schooled in both Belgium and London.

He did his Bachelor’s at the Trinity

College in Dublin, Ireland. He then had his Master in Management at ESCP Europe, doing a year in London and a year in Madrid.

He jokes about his year at Madrid where he ‘pretended’ to speak Spanish and wrote his essays using Google translate. Chappette then joined Boston Consulting Group (BCG) immediately after university.

Staying there for about five years. However, during this time, he was still thinking of what he could do in Africa.

“When I joined BCG, I wanted to get exposure to different industries and spend as much time on the ground on the continent as I could. I was the guy they sent to the off-the-beaten-track places. I got to know Botswana’s mines pretty well. When I made the jump from BCG, I was looking to join a team that had set out with a big mission in Africa. That’s when my journey with Jumia kicked off.”

“It wasn’t that obvious a move at the time. My friends thought I was nuts. I took a 50 per cent pay-cut and a flight to Ghana just as the Ebola outbreak was heating up,” he explains. ”I then spent the first couple of months sleeping on a mattress in my intern’s apartment.” At the time Sam moved to Ghana, Jumia and the e-commerce industry they kicked off were just getting going. Jumia had launched in the first set of markets, with Nigeria as the crown jewel. Sam joined to lead the expansion into six new territories, later permanently settling in Kenya. Over the last five years, he’s built the business into the household name we identify with today.

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Chappette identifies Kenya as one of the best places anyone can live, and has long-term plans to live here.

“We love Kenya. My wife is an entrepreneur. She started a business called Kenyan Originals (a cider and craft beverage company). We both see amazing opportunities in Kenya. I hope I can continue to play a part in the growth of the digital economy in Kenya long-term. We want to bring up our kids here too.

They are obviously already speaking better Swahili than us!” he exclaimed. “Nairobi is a great hub of smart, ambitious, worldly people. The ecosystem is getting more and more exciting, and I believe will continue to retain and attract some of the world’s top talent. It’s a great place to live.” the former Jumia boss noted.

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From sleeping on a mattress on the floor at his intern’s apartment to playing a key part in the emergence of the biggest e-commerce company in Africa, Chappatte is clearly a man who loves to take on challenges. Small wonder then that his hobby is mountaineering; and that he is currently on the lookout for the next mountain to climb. www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2022 | CIO AFRICA

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ARTICLE by

CAROL ODERO

Editorial Intern

Tasha Francis

The Broken Rung

When it comes to women in leadership, there is one little yet very significant step that matters. And it is this step that will propel a woman into top leadership Have you ever wondered what the problem is with women and management? Why are they so few?

Don’t they want opportunities more money? More opportunities? Are they not confident enough? What really IS the problem?

To answer that question at the 2021 HerNovation Convention required digging a little deeper. It turns out there is this tiny little thing that gets in the 44 www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2022 | CIO AFRICA

way of glory for women. And it is called The Broken Rung.

McKinsey’s Women In The Workplace Report 2019 states that this invisible barrier, this rung, can be traced back to whether or not you land yourself your very first promotion. “The term “broken rung” was coined following a five-year study by McKinsey & Company and Sheryl Sandberg through LeanIn. Org. Data from 590 companies which

showed that women in entry-level jobs were less likely to be promoted to the first level of managerial positions.

This, in turn, limits the number of women available for promotion into higher levels of management and dramatically shrinks the diverse talent pool available.”

Laura Chite, Co-Founder HerNovation, says “Here is what happens with women; from an entry level jobs

>> HERNOVATION

The Women in the Workplace Report 2019 picks up in this, stating that there are bright spots at senior levels, but companies need to get onboard sooner, that wat the pipeline helps them make real progress. Fixing this Broken Rung is the first step towards achieving parity.

Companies, it is noted, need to infuse best practices to eliminate bias when it comes to hiring and promotions.

This is the thing that will give women a fighting chance.

Alongside The Broken Rung, Chite talks about the Sticky Floor Metaphor where women get stuck at the lowest level of corporate hierarchy. “We find this happens to women all the time.

We get frustrated. We know what we are doing. We do it very well. However, even if we get to the point where we are comparing salaries, we are earning much less.”

But why does this Broken Rung even exist?

First off, it is presumed women do not ask for promotions or raises. It turns out that women do, in fact, seek out their managers and ask for these opportunities. A 2017 study, Do Women Ask, surprised researchers who discovered that women actually do ask for raises as much as men. They’re just more likely to be turned down. It also showed the probability of women negotiating was just as high as men’s.

Here is what actually happens when women ask. Both McKinsey’s research and the Do Women Ask? study found that “while men and women ask for pay raises at broadly similar rates, women are more likely to be refused or suffer blowback for daring to broach the topic.”

What now?

As it so happens, it takes two.

“Companies have the tools to [fix the broken rung]. We know this because they are using them to crack the ‘glass ceiling,’ by increasing the percentage of women at the very top. Now it is time to extend those practices to the rest of the organization,” Kevin Sneader and Lareina Yee say.

That obligation falls to the C-Suite executives, especially if they happen to be female. Advocacy for promotions and raises has to start with a champion at the top, especially in instances where there exists a female CEO. It comes across clearly through Everline Kamau Migwi, Territory Director, VMWare, who echoed similar sentiments stating that “To make significant steps, you need sponsors.

You need those powerful executives who throw you in the deep end and give you the opportunities you need to make career steps.” Having high-level executives rooting for you can be a huge plus for your career. As a woman in tech, you do need someone in power to put you forward as a recommendation that is taken seriously. Having someone powerful in your corner cannot be emphasised enough.

Except for the fact that companies do not move as fast as on would hope, leaving this in the hands of the candidate.

Martin Lanik, the CEO of Pinsight and Lead Author of a 2020 research report titled Repairing the Broken Rung: Overcoming Bias in the Leadership Pipeline, said that fewer than 10 per cent of organisations use objective data to identify future leaders — leaving a lot of room for bias in these decisions. “In most companies, it becomes a self-perpetuating cycle that’s keeping women and minorities behind. Men hold more managerial positions; managers make nomination decisions about who has high potential; men hold more positive assumptions (biases) towards other white men when evaluating leadership potential; more men are identified by their managers as high-potential employees; highpotential employees get access to more developmental resources and are more likely to be promoted; [and] as a result, men are promoted more often and hold more managerial positions.”

It is evident that investing in a woman’s career from the beginning is far more likely to make her a viable candidate for a managerial position. One of the avenues an organisation can use to build their pipeline is through leadership training, especially when it is personalisesd.

Finally, for the woman who wants to get to the top, finding a mentor, who then turns into a sponsor, is definitely one way to help yourself up the ladder. Women must also do the work by making themselves seen in the company. Burrowing your head deep into your work will not get you noticed.

Instead, you will need to look up, and reach out to senior-level employees.

Make yourself indispensable by sharing that fascinating article to the boss, get active on LinkedIn and let it open your eyes to what those in the position you are striving to attain are doing, read about your industry, and embrace continuous learning. Basically, be such a badass they will have no choice but to promote you.

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Forbes observes that “As a result, men hold 62 per cent of manager-level positions, while women hold just 38 per cent. The impact of this initial Broken Rung is only magnified further up the corporate ladder, all the way to the top, where 79 per cent of C-suite executives are men. We wonder why we don’t have equality in leadership, but it’s really an issue that can be traced all the way down to that first promotion.”

It disproved the myth that women are reluctant to negotiate. This was confirmed by a separate second study

by McKinsey in collaboration with LeanIn.org. McKinsey’s study went even further revealing that North American workers found that women actually negotiate for pay raises at a slightly higher rate of 31 per cent to men’s 29 per cent. The Harvard Business Review’s paper titled Research: Women Ask For Raises As Often As Men, But Are Less Likely To Get Them proclaims the obvious.

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perspective, women are not promoted to managerial level. For every 100 men, 72 women were hired or promoted.

Few women are moved from entry level jobs to the next level in their careers, the pipeline of women headed into leadership gets smaller and smaller.”

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>> HARD TALK

ROBERT YAWE CEO, Synaptech Solutions

You Snooze You Lose When we were younger, like very young, we would make the statement “you snooze you lose” when someone missed the chance to take advantage of an opportunity. I suspect we snoozed when it come to the ownership of the acronym CIO which is what is emblazoned on the cover of this publication.

CIO as relates to this publication stands for Chief Information Officer but within the corporate world it has acquired new meanings and the one that seems to be getting greater traction is Chief Innovation Officer.

For years those of us in the technology space had assumed that the CIO was cast in stone within the profession but that seems to have been an oversight especially since we did not formally lock it down as did, for example, the finance people with CFO. The age-old problem of technologists refusing to understand business and instead preferring to remain as technicians continues to this day and unfortunately, apart from myself, no one else is trying to remedy the situation.

When the term was data processing it was quickly usurped by accounting and placed under them as they were the owners of the data that was being processed. Then after a while someone decided to rebrand the activity to ICT which I suspect was due to us learning RPG allowing for the conversion of data to information on one end and on the other end the copier getting a network card.

We flogged that horse long enough as we sat comfortably just below the ExCo as we refused to see how the information, we were generating affected the organisation 46 www.cioafrica.co | FEBRUARY 2022 | CIO AFRICA

as a whole instead locking ourselves away keeping the lights on instead of learning about the bottom line.

More recently, the finance people whose spreadsheets had become nothing more than front ends to the data lake, realised they might be relegated back to bean counters in a technology driven environment.

So, they looked around and the only way they could remain relevant was if they took over the ICT function. To avoid friction with the techies, they decided to come up with a new title CIO which they then positioned within the ExCo where they knew most of the IT heads did not want to ascend towards.

Innovation is about creating new products based on data, if you follow the journey of Safaricom you will see clearly how all its products are results of analysing data which therefore means that the business development team must obviously become data and information experts to remain relevant.

Once the BDs realised this it become obvious what the next step was, to take control of the CIO position and rebrand it from Chief Information Officer to Chief Innovation Officer as we move from information to knowledge generation. By out sourcing the IT function to the cloud it means that they have little need for the traditions IT technical skills.

Have the reports of the death of the CIO, as we know it, been grossly exaggerated?

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