Africa’s CEOs have spoken

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It’s event season! And this week we have two very special events coming up.

First is Afrotech Fest in London this Saturday! It’s going to be a fun day of:

• Delicious African Food 🥘 

• Punchy and Powerful Conversations 📣 

• Connection + Networking 🤗 

• Afrobeat DJs 🎉 

We sold out last week - and added another 50 tickets. We’re down to our last 15 - make sure you grab yours here. 

Next, we have a very special webinar coming up on Thursday.

We’re sitting down with Henry Ward (CEO of Carta, the cap table management unicorn valued at $7.4 billion) and Marvin Coleby (CEO of Raise).

We’re deep diving into ‘the African Exit’. Save your spot here.

Speaking of events… last week, we went to the Africa CEO Forum in Kigali, Rwanda.

The leaders of Africa’s biggest companies had a lot to say.

Today, we’re sharing our highlights and learnings from the event.

Let’s get into it!

African companies make the continent go round.

They make up 80% of production, handle 75% of credit, and employ 90% of the working-age population.

Last week, they came together at the Africa CEO Forum in Kigali, Rwanda.

It's the continent’s biggest private sector meetup, and it drew over 2,000 business leaders, investors, and policymakers.

We caught the talks, deals, and funny moments on and off-stage.

And here are four things we learnt from the CEOs of Africa’s biggest companies.

1. Moving around Africa is hard - even for the ballers

A French national can travel around Africa more easily than Africans on their own continent.

Even Africa’s richest man thinks it’s a joke.

“As an investor, as someone who wants to make Africa great, I have to apply for 35 different visas on my passport,” Aliko Dangote told the forum.

Dangote's been Africa's richest man for 13 years straight.

His net worth is estimated at $13.6 billion.

And he owns Dangote Industries, the biggest conglomerate in West Africa, which is dabbling in all sorts of sectors.

“I really don't have the time to go and drop off my passport in embassies to get a visa,” he joked.

In 2018, only 22% of African countries allowed Africans to visit without visas.

Last year, it climbed to 28%.

But shouldn’t Africans travel visa-free on the continent, like most Europeans in Europe?

When it happens, trading within Africa will be easier.

Talent, investors, and founders will move around the continent more easily.

And Africans will finally get to be tourists on their own continent.

Only five countries - Rwanda, Benin, The Gambia, Seychelles, and Kenya are now visa-free.

But, the call for a visa-free Africa is getting louder.

And it’s coming from everyone - including influential business leaders like Dangote.

2. AI is here - and African CEOs are embracing it

There's a joke that every new feature ChatGPT rolls out kills 1,000 startups.

Whether it’s funny or not depends on if you're at the table or on the menu.

No shocker, Generative AI hogged the spotlight at the Africa CEO Forum.

In February, McKinsey found that 84% of telcos using Gen AI for customer service were cutting costs.

And 45% of them had lowered costs by 6% or more.

MTN, Africa’s biggest telco is at this table:

• In 2019, MTN rolled out an AI chatbot to talk to their mobile money users on WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and SMS when they need help

• Then, last year, MTN South Africa introduced an AI chatbot to help employees with customer support

On stage, MTN Group CEO Ralph Mupita reminded CEOs not to ignore AI and what it can do for their companies.

But he also flagged a big issue: AI models aren't trained with Africa in mind.

To stay ahead, we need our own AI that speaks our language and integrates African patterns.

One startup that's taken the lead on this is Pindo.

Pindo is a Rwandan startup pioneering Voice AI in African languages.

The technology helps companies provide automated education, healthcare, or financial services - without human agents.

Millions of people who were once excluded because of language barriers and limited digital skills can now benefit from this technology.

We will likely see more companies using AI-focused services like Pindo to cut costs and become efficient.

3. Africa’s e-mobility dream vs reality

Fossil fuels have a hate-hate relationship with the environment.

In 2022, Total Energies said they're building the world's longest pipeline to export crude oil.

It will link Uganda's oil wells to the Tanga port in Tanzania.

On a panel, CEO Patrick Pouyanné was grilled on why they keep cooking the planet.

He explained that the world still relies on oil and gas - and we can't switch off energy systems overnight.

“We need to invest in new oil wells for now and press harder towards clean, renewable energy,” Patrick said.

He’s got a point.

The world is getting big, and Africa is getting bigger.

A swelling population means more energy is needed to cook, move around, and turn raw materials into products.

If you live in Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, or Zanzibar, you know how crazy a single day of fuel shortage can get.

Long lines at gas stations.

Public transport price hikes.

And stranded businesses that can’t run.

Sure, electric mobility is gaining traction.

But Africa is still the least electrified continent, with nearly 600 million people in the dark.

To light up every home by 2030, Africa has to connect 90 million people annually — three times faster than before.

When more people start adopting electric vehicles, electricity demand will increase.

But our power grids can’t handle it yet.

Even now, demand outstrips supply in major economies like South Africa and Nigeria.

Nigeria has had four nationwide blackouts this year, where the power grid collapsed.

Electricity is the future. But we’re not ready - so we can’t stop investing in fossil fuels (yet).

4. Institution Meets Innovation

Tech startups in Africa began as disruptors of old industries.

• Fintechs believe that banks exclude people.

• B2B e-commerce sees the fault in our stores.

• While to e-mobility, vehicles that run on gas are everything that’s wrong with the world.

It may appear that startups and the old guards are on different teams.

But on the ground, they're working together closely to benefit customers.

Startups are bringing tech to the big table.

And founders turned up for a forum that’s typically packed with business execs from large companies.

In true Tech Safari spirit, we hosted a side event to explore how startups and big companies work together.

We had an incredible speaker lineup, including:

• Mark Straub - Founder and CEO of Smile ID. They help traditional banks and fintechs like Flutterwave verify their customers’ identity and detect fraud. They helped Flutterwave reduce fake sign-ups by 90%.

• Rahul Jain - Co-founder and CEO of Peach Payments. They make online commerce and digital payment acceptance easier and more accessible in Kenya, Mauritius and South Africa. They give sellers a complete toolkit to accept, manage and disburse payments through the web and mobile. Recently, they partnered with Nedbank, one of SA’s biggest banks, on a direct EFT solution.

• Remy Muhire - Founder and CEO of Pindo - a Voice AI company that personalises communication in African languages. In Rwanda, they work with the government to automate customer calls and messages in Kinyarwanda. 

Kigali delivered a proper Africa CEO Forum:

Business leaders spoke openly about the challenges we all feel across the continent.

• Things like visa requirements to move around and electricity supply.

• We got to see Africa's place in AI, and how we need to build AI tools that speak African.

• And finally, it was exciting to see how startups and big companies work together instead of competing.

Did you attend the African CEO Forum? Hit reply and tell us what you thought of it.

And that's a wrap!

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