Today, there is a Silicon Savannah in Nairobi and a computer village in Lagos. They are infrastructure that were unthinkable just a decade ago. And as a result, the continent is brimming with chaotic and innovative energy.

The GDP growth of Africa is expected to reach around 4.1% by 2025. It is easily one of the fastest-growing regions on the planet. It might sound astounding, but if you take into consideration digital architecture, which includes 570 million users along with 855 million mobile data subscriptions, and if you also notice that the mobile money sector in the region accounts for an astonishing 74% of all global mobile money transactions, the maths adds up.

Of course, where there is growth, there are parasites. The hackers and cyber criminals are outpacing the defensive capabilities of the continent. These nefarious individuals and organisations are weaponising the same APIs, mobile payment gateways, cloud platforms, and other technological advancements that are facilitating the financial inclusion of the region.

There are several malicious groups to worry about, such as the local Yahoo Boys and international groups with state sponsorship, like the hacking group Anonymous Sudan.

This is what happens when you have high digital adoption and low cybersecurity maturity. There’s a gap that is perfect for criminals who want to siphon the continent’s economic gains. Nobody really knows how much of the economy is at risk, but there are even studies that claim that cybercrime causes Africa almost 10% of its GDP. There are conservative estimates that are also alarming, which tell us the number is in the billions. And more than money, reputation and structure are at risk.

The stakes can’t get any higher. Africa is trying to emulate the European Union (EU) through the African Continental Free Trade Area. This organisation, like the EU, is trying to bind the continent into a single market where people can move and trade freely. But this ambitious goal is under threat by cybercriminals.

The financial institutions in Nigeria lost over ₦52 billion to fraud in 2024 alone. And South Africa was dog-piled by ransomware attacks, which were striking with precision at its critical infrastructure. This is a theoretical and operational threat that affects everything about the economies of these nations. The breadth of the issue is so wide that it can affect the issuance of Kenyan visas and the stability of the Central Bank of Uganda.

The anatomy of digital boom

If you have to understand the magnitude of the cyber threat to Africa, you have to understand Africa’s digital story, which is unique in the history of economics. The West had to go through industrialisation over centuries, having to go through so many different types of technologies and slowly evolve into the economy it is today. For example, there were copper wires and land lines, desktop computing, and then mobile connectivity in Europe.

But Africa was colonial and far behind the times. When globalisation hit and technology was being transferred to every nook and corner of the world, Africans skipped telegrams, landline telephones, and desktop computers and jumped directly to the age of mobile connectivity. It is called the “leapfrog effect” and is most visible in the financial sector, which happens to be the bedrock of Africa’s identity. Look no further, in today’s sub-Saharan Africa, there are about 1.1 billion homes with registered mobile money accounts. That’s almost half the global total. And in 2024 alone, these platforms processed about 81 billion transactions, which can be valued at a staggering $1.1 trillion.

The mobile-centric architecture democratised finance, and millions of unbanked individuals are now in the formal economy, sending money to relatives in rural villages and paying for solar power or accessing microloans by pressing a few buttons.

Small and medium enterprises benefited greatly from this. Currently, they contribute about 50% of total GDP and constitute 95% of all registered businesses. Unfortunately, these SMEs are most vulnerable to these cyber attacks as they don’t have the resources to defend themselves and aren’t informed enough to take precautions.

The integration of technology into the daily life of common Africans essentially means that a cyber attack on Africa doesn’t just affect corporations and can also disrupt the subsistence of its citizens.

The infrastructure of vulnerability

The nations of Africa have prioritised speed over security when building digital infrastructures. And this is what industry experts call a maturity gap, where technology is built too fast to be secured. The continent’s digital growth is mostly driven by artificial intelligence, application programming interfaces (APIs), and cloud adoption. These technologies facilitate the connection of disparate financial services. However, they do come with systemic risks. For example, a third-party payment processor can be compromised, which would cascade into banks, telecom operators, government portals, and so on. It is a domino effect where all this interconnectivity creates a risk to the economy as a whole.

And the physical infrastructure supporting this massive boom is expanding at an astounding pace. There are investments in undersea cables, such as Google’s Equiano and Meta’s 2 Africa, and there is also a proliferation of local data centres, thus reducing latency and, of course, data costs too.

Security engineers believe that the modernisation of infrastructure, including shared digital infrastructure (SDI), where governments and companies pool resources, broadens the attack surface. The larger the system, the easier it is for it to fall.

The economic calculus of cybercrime

Determining the exact cost of cybercrime in Africa is difficult, as we discussed earlier. The UN Economic Commission for Africa has a disturbing statistic, pinning the losses at 10% of GDP. One must note that Africa’s GDP is around $2.8 trillion, which should imply that almost $300 billion is lost annually. Many economists are skeptical about this data, but if it’s true, it would mean that cybercrime is actually taking away more money than what is required to combat malaria and HIV combined.

INTERPOL doesn’t truly agree with the UN estimates and believes the direct losses must be in the range of $4 billion to $10 billion annually. While this isn’t the jaw-dropping 10% of GDP, it is still 0.15% to 2.13% of total GDP. To put things into perspective, Sierra Leone has a GDP of $4 billion, and this figure is an exact equivalent.

No matter the precise data, it’s an undeniably alarming trajectory. In Nigeria alone, financial institutions lost ₦52.26 billion to fraud in 2024. There was around a 7.63% increase in fraud cases. The attacks are becoming more precise, targeting high-value, high-net-worth individuals or organisations.

They are no longer casting a wide net, but spearing specific whales. The cost of data breaches in South Africa reached $2.95 million in 2034 (one of the highest in the world) before slightly coming down to $2.45 million in 2035, due to better detection technologies.

The spectrum of threats

There is a wide array of attacks ranging from crude, volume-based to highly sophisticated and targeted campaigns. The spectrum can range from a lone hacker in a cafe to a state-sponsored operative from a distant capital.

Ransomware was just a nuisance once upon a time, but it’s one of the most dominant threats in the economy right now, with South Africa and Egypt bearing most of the brunt of the assault.

In 2024, South Africa reported approximately 18,000 ransomware detections, closely followed by Egypt with around 12,000. Both Nigeria and Kenya also experienced significant threats, with thousands of incidents occurring.

Most of the targets are strategic and high-value. Hackers usually target critical infrastructure, government databases, or major financial institutions. And they also encrypt data to paralyse operations of an organisation or individual and demand a ransom for not blackmailing victims with threats to leak their private data to the public. Organisations like Kenya’s Urban Roads Authority (KURA) and Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) are prime examples of organisations that had to pay due to ransomware attacks.

And then there is business email compromise (BEC) and phishing. Phishing is still the primary vector for initial access. Phishing victims in Africa rose from 26% to 32% in 2024. In BEC attacks, which usually follow phishing, fraudsters compromise legitimate email accounts of executives or finance officers and authorise fraudulent wire transfers. It’s most prevalent in West Africa, where there are criminals who have honed their skills over decades.

Digital sextortion is one of the worst forms of cyberattacks. Criminals often use explicit images generated with AI to blackmail victims. With the rise of AI, criminals no longer need real photos; they can use deepfake technologies to blackmail anyone sensitive about their public image. This can disproportionately affect women and public figures.

And finally, there is DDoS. DDoS, or distributed denial of service attacks, has moved beyond vandalism to become a real tool of geopolitical coercion. The high-profile attack by Anonymous Sudan against Kenya’s digital infrastructure in 2023 and 2024 exemplified this shift. Although they claim those attacks were political and for the benefit of the nation of Sudan, security researchers believe Anonymous Sudan may have ties to Russian cybercrime ecosystems like KillNet. This connection was observed when they targeted Kenya’s eCitizen platform, M-PESA services, and power utilities. The attack was so humiliating for Kenya because they were issuing digital visas, which no longer worked, and they had to roll back to issuing visas on arrival. It caused so much chaos in Nairobi without even firing a shot.

Of course, things are at their worst when there is a spy or a colluder in your organisation. For example, Access Bank in Nigeria lost over 800 million Naira because of an employee who was colluding with cybercriminals. If you have underpaid or disgruntled employees, criminals might recruit them to work as insiders.

The insider threat is very difficult to detect because no amount of sophisticated monitoring of the digital infrastructure is going to prevent internal sabotage. Employees might be tempted to sell their credentials if they are going to be paid much more by a criminal than by their employer, especially in poor regions like Africa.

The future of defence

The future of cybersecurity is defined by the sovereignty of data. We are going to see a lot of data nationalism rise, where nations demand that their data be stored locally. This might complicate the operations of global tech giants, but it will spur the growth of local cloud infrastructure.

Rwanda’s Data Governance Policy is a good example of this. However, we are playing a game of catch-up as quantum computing is moving too fast; any current encryption standard is easily overcome by hackers in a matter of weeks or months. Even if Africans use the current technology available in Europe, by the time they implement it, they will be left behind by all the technological advancements happening in the world and adopted by malicious actors. If they want to be ahead of the game, they have to prepare for post-quantum cryptography.

Experts like Dr. Bright Gameli Mawudor predict that attacks will be fully automated, meaning the hacker will be an AI in the near future rather than a human being. He also warns that automated scripts could theoretically compromise national central banks if there are vulnerabilities, suggesting that the future of war is going to be machine against machine, where humans are either spectators or victims.

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The banking industry’s resilience is demonstrated by data from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), which indicates that profits have increased from $1.09 billion during the same period last year.

CBK Governor Kamau Thugge claims that March was the banks’ best-performing month, with pre-tax profits hitting $184 million.

On the other hand, August saw the lowest profits of $119 million, the only month since January when profits fell below $136 million. Despite this minor decline, the banking industry has continued to grow while other economic sectors have experienced severe disruptions.

Kenya had a difficult year, marked by challenges such as severe flooding and rain from March to June, political turmoil with anti-government demonstrations in June and July, and limited liquidity.

Despite challenges, banks have shown resilience, with the finance and insurance industry expanding by 7% in the first quarter of 2024, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.

However, in the second quarter, this growth slowed to 5.1%. According to the CBK, the banking industry will expand by 6% for the entire year, which is the slowest growth since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the economy in 2020, when growth was only 5.9%.

The general economic outlook seems more muted. The CBK has revised its prediction for the growth of the national economy from 5.4% to 5.1%. This change follows a slowdown in the second quarter, when growth slowed to 4.6% compared to 5.6% during the same time last year. Lending has decreased, which has also affected Kenyan banks.

The loan book for this sector was $27.2 billion at the end of August, a $1 billion decrease from $28.2 billion at the end of 2023. As the value of the Kenyan shilling increased relative to the United States dollar, this indicates both a decrease in lending and a depreciation of loans denominated in dollars.

The expansion of private sector credit has decreased dramatically; in August, it was only 1.3%, the lowest level in over five years. At the same time, the non-performing loan ratio rose to 16.7%, the highest level in 18 years. High credit costs have coincided with an increase in defaults and a decrease in borrowing. In February 2024, Kenya’s benchmark lending rate reached a 12-year high of 13%.

The CBK implemented consecutive reductions to the benchmark rate, bringing it down to 12%, in an effort to alleviate the burden on borrowers in response to these economic pressures. Reviving economic activity and encouraging borrowing are the goals of this.

In a statement, CBK said, “The Monetary Policy Committee noted the sharp deceleration in private sector credit and the slowdown in economic growth during the second quarter of 2024. It concluded that there was scope for further easing of monetary policy to boost economic activity while ensuring exchange rate stability.”

The performance of the industry will still be strongly correlated with more general economic developments, such as initiatives to control inflation, exchange rate swings, and international financial circumstances.

Strong security over PoS rollout

Network International, a Middle Eastern and African digital commerce enabler, has reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring strong cybersecurity measures as it launches new payment solutions in Kenya.

Judy Waruiru, its Regional Managing Director for East and South Africa, said, “We are introducing our point-of-sale (POS) solutions as part of our strategy to enter the in-person payments market in Kenya, a key hub for East Africa.”

Network International is providing merchants with new point-of-sale solutions at no cost as part of this rollout, enabling companies of all sizes to conveniently accept payments in-store or while on the go.

In order to accommodate a variety of payment preferences, customers will also have the option to pay with cards or mobile wallets. As the number of digital transactions in the area rises, the business is expanding its service portfolio and addressing growing concerns about payment system security.

During an interaction with African Banker, Paul Mutethia, Head of Commercial at Network International Kenya, said, “The risks in cyberspace have increased, especially Denial of Service, malicious codes, botnets, and bugs which hamper operations. We secure our internal systems when they interact with the external environment. Our transactions are encrypted, and all our solutions are secure. We ensure there is no exposure to cyber-attacks because we hold sensitive customer data.”

He revealed that there is a dedicated department within the company that handles threat management and cyberspace monitoring. It would be better to close the business if you don’t make any investments in cybersecurity.

According to data from the Central Bank of Kenya, there are only slightly more than 55,000 point-of-sale machines in the country. This is insignificant when you consider that the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics reports that there are 7.4 million registered micro, small, and medium-sized businesses (MSMEs). This reveals a serious weakness in the infrastructure for digital payments for companies across the nation.

The most recent products from Network International include contactless payment systems, improved mobile payment gateways, and e-commerce solutions designed to increase convenience while upholding strict security regulations.

JPMorgan Chase eyes presence in Nairobi

JPMorgan Chase, the biggest bank in the world by market capitalisation, is expanding in Africa, with plans to open an office in Nairobi, Kenya.

The bank is the largest lender in the United States, with $4 trillion in assets and operations in more than 100 countries.

It received an operating license from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) just days before Jamie Dimon, the CEO of the bank, travelled to the country. The action is part of the bank’s strategy for global expansion and demonstrates its increasing interest in making investments in the African market.

The bank has identified Africa, which has the youngest population in the world, as a key growth region due to its fintech innovations and the rise in institutional bankers.

In October 2024, JPMorgan Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon travelled to Kenya as part of a trip to Africa that also included stops in South Africa and Nigeria.

“We are opening our first branch in Kenya, which we are really happy to do. We want to add a country or two in Africa every couple of years or so. And when you do it, you are basically covering the government, maybe some big government enterprises, and the multinationals that are going in there with traditional banking services,” Jamie Dimon said during an event in Nigeria.

Sailepu Montet, a former executive at CBK, has been appointed as the bank’s new Country Manager for Kenya. He has more than 20 years of banking experience and a solid foundation in financial markets from both the public and private sectors.

According to Dimon, the bank’s primary areas of interest are treasury services, commercial and investment banking, and possibly some lending in Kenya. Nevertheless, it does not currently have any plans to provide asset and wealth management services in the country, which are already offered in Nigeria and South Africa.

“We are not doing asset and wealth management now, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen in the next few years,” Dimon added.

Nairobi was selected as the site for JPMorgan Chase’s office because of its growing prominence as a technology hub and its status as the gateway to the wider East African market, which makes it a desirable location for companies wishing to grow throughout the region.

Ten international banks, including Bank of China, Access Bank of Nigeria, Bank of Kigali, First Rand Bank and Nedbank of South Africa, Rabobank of Mauritius, and French lender Societe Generale, have representative offices in Nairobi.

The bank must, however, differentiate its offerings in various markets, such as Kenya, where regional and local lenders are well-represented. There are 46 commercial banks in the nation, providing services to 55 million people.

Nigerian banks go big

One of Nigeria’s leading commercial banks, First Bank, is now planning to expand to at least three African countries in its next growth phase, starting in 2025.

According to the Deputy Managing Director of the bank, Ini Ebong, the countries being targeted include Ethiopia, Angola, Cameroon, and Ivory Coast.

He asserted that there are growing opportunities in markets across the African continent, similar to “what we saw in the early 2000s in some of the larger African markets. We believe it is an opportune time to take part in this phase of growth.”

In December 2024, the Ethiopian parliament passed a law that allows foreign banks to open subsidiaries in Ethiopia. Foreign firms will only be allowed to own 49% of shares.

Also, during a panel session at the recently concluded Africa Financial Industry Summit, Ethiopia’s central bank governor, Mamo Mihretu, said the country had been working on the legislation that would finally open the banking sector to foreign competition over the past year.

FirstBank, which has been operating in Nigeria for 130 years, began establishing subsidiaries in other African markets in 2011 when it acquired Banque International de Credit, one of the leading banks in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In November 2013, it acquired subsidiaries of International Commercial Bank Financial Group Holdings AG (ICBFGH) in The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Guinea. It purchased ICB Senegal the following year, completing its acquisition of West African assets and operations of ICBFGH. FirstBank also has operations in London and Paris, France, as well as a representative office in Beijing, China.

In January 2025, news emerged about Bidvest Bank being sold to Nigerian-based Access Bank, which is set to expand the latter’s operations in South Africa substantially. Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed Bidvest is now eyeing the disposal of 100% of its holdings to Access Bank.

Bidvest is expected to raise R2.8 billion from the sale, which will then be used to settle its existing debt. Access Bank, on the other hand, plans to implement Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) ownership, including an Employee Stock Ownership Plan. The acquisition is expected to close in the second half of 2025, subject to regulatory approvals in South Africa and Nigeria.

The Bidvest Bank book, which mainly consists of leased assets, loans and advances, totalled R6 billion in December, and was funded by deposits of R8 billion. In its most recent financial year, Bidvest Bank generated a trading profit of R371 million and an operating income of R377 million.

Speaking of Access Bank, the largest lender in Nigeria by assets, it has established itself as a full-service bank with over 60 million customers globally across three continents, serving three principal segments: retail, business, commercial, and corporate.

Following the acquisition, Bidvest Bank is set to be merged with Access Bank’s existing South African subsidiary to create an enlarged platform to anchor the regional growth strategy for the SADC region.

Using Bidvest Bank’s local capabilities and its established pan-African presence, Access Bank now hopes to have increased capacity for intra- and inter-Africa trade, connect businesses, and create new opportunities for regional integration.

The Nigerian-based company noted that South Africa’s banking sector is the largest in Africa, with a combined tier-one capital exceeding $42.2 billion in 2022. Despite a tough operating environment, the industry still achieved headline earnings growth of 2.5% year-on-year and maintained strong profitability (ROE of 17%) in the first half of 2024. Access Bank will now leverage the latest acquisition to strengthen its business and SME banking as well as its foreign exchange services, while also introducing new services tailored to the South African market.

Access Bank has already been operating in South Africa since 2021 after it acquired Grobank Limited. Grobank, which was previously known as Bank of Athens, was primarily focused on agriculture before Access Bank transformed it into a retail banking operation. The group currently offers personal, business, and corporate banking in South Africa.

Banks embrace WhatsApp banking

In order to process payments more quickly and interact with customers more effectively, Kenyan banks are increasingly using WhatsApp banking. Conversational banking is encouraged by this model, which also streamlines customer journeys and improves user intuitiveness.

Kenya’s Housing Finance Group, commonly referred to as HF Group, became the first major bank in the country to deploy WhatsApp banking in 2019.

HF Group CEO Robert Kibaara said, “Customers can simply add HF’s WhatsApp phone number to begin a secure banking chat session.”

Since 2019, the KCB Group, Kenya’s biggest bank by assets, has also adopted WhatsApp banking. KCB hopes to improve its communications by utilising widely used messaging platforms as part of a larger plan to offer individualised services.

A subsidiary of South Africa’s Absa Group, Absa Bank Kenya, followed suit in 2021 by launching the “Abby” WhatsApp banking service.

A Mumbai doctor’s loss of $2,000 from his WhatsApp wallet raised cybersecurity concerns, while many Kenyan consumers were ecstatic about the new banking model at the time.

“We have put up stringent measures to make WhatsApp banking secure for everyone. We have several security layers on the platform,” the bank’s head of digital channels, Andrew Mwithiga, told African Banker.

In 2022, Equity Group, which has the largest customer base in Kenya, introduced the Equity Virtual Assistant, a WhatsApp banking platform. With its open banking model, I&M Bank has also entered the WhatsApp banking space, initially providing customer service for non-transactional enquiries.

Through its AI-powered chatbot, Zuri, M-Pesa, the top mobile money platform in the world, has integrated WhatsApp banking since 2020. In Kenya, M-Pesa is used by more than 95% of households.

According to Statista, as of January 2024, 86% of Kenyan internet users were using WhatsApp, making it the most popular messaging app in the country. In Kenya, there were 7.9 million WhatsApp users as of 2023.

Meanwhile, an €8.51 million loan from the African Development Bank has been approved for Senegal’s “Programme to Promote Efficient Lighting Lamps” (PPLEEF), a groundbreaking project aimed at promoting energy efficiency in the nation. This establishes a new standard for sustainable development in Africa and is the bank’s first entirely focused demand-side energy efficiency investment project.

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Metropolitan Group Holdings, the holding company that owns the two hospitals, is sold by Evercare Health Fund for USD 54.9 million to minority co-owner Metro Group Plc, which currently holds a 41.8% stake in the business.

The combined annual revenue of the two hospitals was over Sh1 billion, according to the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) data.

The 134 beds at Metropolitan Hospital and the 42 at Ladnan provide the two facilities with 5.8% of the 3,000 private hospital beds in Nairobi County.

The Gates Foundation, TPG Rise Fund, IFC, British development fund BII (formerly CDC), US development fund DFC, Philips, and Medtronic are among the investors in the Texas Pacific Group (TPG), which manages the fund.

It runs healthcare institutions in developing nations throughout South Asia and Africa.

Once the deal is done, the organization that founded Metropolitan Hospital 27 years ago will again hold the majority of the hospital’s stock.

In 1995, Metro Group, then doing business as Metropolitan Health Services (MHS), opened a hospital in Nairobi’s Buru Buru Estate. Later, the company sold some of its shares to the general public, bringing the total number of shareholders to over 500.

Abraaj Holdings was initially invited in by the group, led by Dr Kanyenje Gakombe and Dr Robin Michira, as an outside investor in the hospital.

After that, Metro mainly focused on financial assets and commercial real estate, with an asset base worth more than Sh560 million.

Bill Gates-backed Evercare became a shareholder in Metropolitan Group Holdings in 2019 following the collapse of Abraaj, once the largest buyout fund in the Middle East and North Africa, due to a dispute with investors over the use of funds in its healthcare fund. The Dubai-based company then filed for provisional liquidation in 2018.

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In February, the Government of Kenya commenced rehabilitation works on the old Nairobi-Nanyuki railway line to speed up the implementation of development projects. It is reported that the project will cost Sh25 billion.

The Government of Kenya will be paying Sh3 billion, in addition to Kenya Railways, counties and other entities contributing for the project, media reports said. With the revival of the Nairobi-Nanyuki Railway line, the Kenyan government is expected to generate more than Sh370.4 million revenue annually.

It appears that the rehabilitation work will cost approximately Sh1.8 billion, media reports said. Kenya Railways head of commercial operations James Siele, told the media, “In the first year, we will be handling a total of 106,000 tons of fuel, 94,000 tons of conventional cargo and 24,000 head of livestock for the imports category and export goods amounting to 50,000 tons.”

Also, the Kenya Pipeline Company will be charging Sh82,000 for a single 50-ton fuel tank — with petroleum being the main produce. Vivo Energy Kenya seeks to transport 14 million litres of fuel each month from Nairobi to Nanyuki.

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It is reported that shortage in fuel products is seen in Nairobi, Western Kenya, Mombasa and other major African countries. Against this background, the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority has issued a warning against those dealers who will be charged financial penalties, jail terms and revocation of licences, media reports said.

Petroleum stations run by individual dealers in major African countries have reported shortage in stock. The Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority said in a statement, “A number of Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) are deliberately holding back sales to non-franchised petroleum retailers otherwise known as independents, in anticipation of a price increase.”

The authority will permanently revoke licences for those involved in the hoarding. The price of fuel has dropped since the pandemic started as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) cut its output, media reports said.

In May, prices closed at $37 per barrel and had started at $26 per barrel. However, over the next few weeks, the fuel prices are expected to go up to more than $50. Also, ease of lockdown restrictions has led to higher fuel consumption and increasing demand against reduced production will hike the prices further.

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The IMF pointed out that Africa is a great platform for fintech startups and SMEs to capitalise on the pool of unbanked and underbanked populations. Two years ago, the continent exceeded $1 billion in venture capitals to startups.

It appears that Johannesburg, Nairobi, Lagos, and Capetown are the four emerging fintech hubs in Africa. Of the four African cities, Johannesburg houses major establishments such as Standard Bank Group, FirstRand, Absa Group, Nedbank Group and Investec—enhancing its characteristics to become one of the hotbeds for fintechs in the world.

A report titled Findexable Global Fintech Rankings 2020 noted that “Nairobi is Africa’s second-largest fintech hub, with an estimated 20 percent of African fintechs and an emerging ecosystem of local investors and venture capital firms complemented by a steady rise of international investors and growing interest from global technology firm.”

Kenya is also developing its own charm in fintechs. Last year, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) signed a fintech cooperation agreement to strengthen the country’s fintech infrastructure.

Africa has created a conducive environment to drive fintech innovation by enabling the private and public sectors to collaborate.

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The Nairobi-Naivasha Standard Gauge Railway and the Inland Container Depot are expected to transform the country’s logistics on a large scale. Based on the ICDN operations performance report, a total of 418,830 twenty-foot equivalent units were handled in 2019, compared to  257,972 TEUs handled in the previous year. 

The increase in ICDN volumes was a result of the Port of Mombasa’s growth which reached the maximum handling capacity of 1.4 million TEUs in 2019. The year before recorded 1.3 million TEUs, a local media reported. 

Nairobi ICD manager Peter Masinde, told a local media, “This has been achieved as a result of improved efficiency along the logistics chain from Mombasa to ICDN. This especially after the head of public service circular of June, 2019 aligning government agencies involved in the cargo clearance process.”

ICDN recorded the highest volume of 39,817 TEUs last July, while March saw the lowest volume of 30,958 TEUs being handled. Also, exports measly increased by 17.7 percent equivalent of 2,076 TEUs, compared to 11,701 TEUs in 2018.

Last year, imports accounted for 62.8 percent of the total cargo traffic, while  exports at 3.3 percent and empties at 33.9 percent respectively. This is in comparison to 8.9 percent, 4.5 percent, and 26.6 percent respectively in the previous year. 

Managing Director Daniel Manduku said that a team with KPA members and the business community will be established to address issues related to Naivasha ICD. 

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Sendy is being supported by Toyota Tsusho Corporation, a trade and investment subsidiary of leading Japanese automotive organisation Toyota.

Being a delivery associate for transporting packages across Kenya, Sendy offers a mobile software tool and web portal that facilitates people and minor businesses to contact drivers and book on-demand or arranged delivery services anytime, any day round the clock.

In its bid to increase its presence in the regions of East Africa, the startup was seeking funding.

Established in 2014 by Don Okoth, Evanson Biwott, Malaika Judd and Meshack Alloys, Sendy provides on-demand door-to-door package delivery services that are based in Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya.

Currently boasting of around 50,000 customers, Sendy offers its services to more than 4,000 businesses across the country’s major cities of Thika, Mombasa, Kisumu and of course, Nairobi.

Among the 16 startup firms with which Toyota Tsusho signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) last year, Sendy hires more than 60 individuals out of which 50 percent work in the engineering department.

Malaika Judd, one of the co-founders of Sendy, said that the challenge posed by logistics is so big that all efforts are invested in the process of deriving answers to overcome it.

And, she added that companies such as Sendy would benefit a great deal with the advent of e-commerce.

Commenting on the impact that delivery partners such as Sendy are having on the market, Dennis Awori, the chairman of Toyota in East Africa said that the costs of transporting spare parts from one place to another or to a consumer, has reduced by about 35 percent because of Sendy.

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Additionally, the VGSC4E shall empower the SMEs through training and development that shall enable the companies’ Sales teams to sharpen and boost the requisite Selling skills and capacities. “We invite SMEs to undertake this specialized training in order for them to ably reach out to the market and customers effectively with the right products, product information and packaging. A business that can’t sell its products shall remain moribund and as dead as the Dodo,” he adds.

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July 13, 2016: The UAE National Committee for the World Trade Organization recently held its seventh meeting at the headquarters of the Ministry of Economy in Abu Dhabi which was chaired by H.E. Eng. Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy. The meeting was attended by H.E. Abdullah Bin Ahmed Al Saleh, undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy for Foreign Trade and Industry, with other representatives from ministries and authorities.

The agenda addressed the major outcomes of the 10^th WTO Ministerial Conference held in Nairobi, Kenya from December 15 to 19, 2015 and the important developments in the multilateral track of the conference. The participants also reviewed the key results of the third Trade Policy Review of the UAE which took place at the WTO headquarters in Switzerland from June 1 to 3, noting the positive results and major observations during the review.

The Committee meeting touched as well on vital developments related to the agreement to facilitate trade within the framework of the World Trade Organization at the local level, the Protocol amending the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and the ratification of the Protocol’s procedures, as well as the agreement on environmental goods. It also discussed issues related to the trade policy of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

H.E. Al Mansouri thanked all the committee members for their efforts in following up on the topics listed in the multilateral negotiation agenda under the umbrella of the WTO and emphasized the importance of protecting the UAE’s trade interests.

The Minister also praised the positive results and the global acclaim given to the UAE’s third Trade Policy Review, which was conducted in line with nationwide efforts to establish a flexible policy; further diversify the economy; enhance competitiveness; continue the great strides made in achieving sustainable growth; build an economy based on knowledge, innovation and advanced technology; and encourage creativity.

H.E. Al Saleh reviewed the key results of the 10^th WTO Ministerial Conference as well as the future negotiation framework and the challenges involved. He also addressed the more than 260 comments and questions of other countries during the UAE’s latest Trade Policy Review.

The National Committee members raised a number of observations and intervened on issues included in the minutes of the meeting based on different competences.

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