The Real AfCFTA Gap Isn’t Trade. It’s Trust.
AfCFTA Needs a Data Rail: Why African SMEs Need a Data Passport AfCFTA’s big promise is simple: an African business
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Tag: Africa
The Quiet Strategy to turn M-Pesa from a Kenyan success story into a single, pan-African, cross-border payments rail
Vodacom and Safaricom are quietly building a pan-African, telco-owned payments rail, using ownership (equity), infrastructure (JV) and product (cross-border M-Pesa) to move from “national telcos” to “regional financial infrastructure providers”.
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Why Africans Don’t Trust Fintech’s and Mobile Money (Yet)
Let’s start with a simple truth: access isn’t the same as trust.
We’ve spent over a decade celebrating Africa’s financial inclusion boom — the millions of new mobile wallets, the rise of fintech titans from Lagos to Nairobi, the mammoth stats that make development economists beam. Yet, I keep coming back to one uncomfortable question: do Africans trust the financial systems we’ve created for them?
Because if they don’t, then all we’ve built are digital doors — not open ones.
Infrastructure Investments: Building Africa’s Digital Backbone for Growth
Having sat on two investment committees—one in insurance, another in venture capital—as well as the board of Ghana’s GIFEC (which allocates universal access funds for ICT infrastructure), I’ve seen firsthand how capital allocation decisions shape long-term outcomes.
Insurance investments emphasize stability, risk management, and sustainable returns.
Venture capital emphasizes growth, agility, and the capacity to back bold bets.
GIFEC balances financial stewardship with national inclusion goals, investing in connectivity for underserved communities.
These three lenses—risk, growth, and inclusion—mirror the balance Africa must strike in digital infrastructure investments. Governance, therefore, is not a footnote. It is the multiplier that ensures that capital, once deployed, creates lasting resilience and inclusion.
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Strong Pipes, Fragile Foundations: Rethinking Africa’s Wholesale Connectivity Strategy
When African govermment talk about digital transformation, the headlines often focus on fintech, AI, or e-government portals. Yet beneath these ambitions lies a more basic truth: none of it works without robust, affordable, and resilient connectivity.
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What Ghana’s AI Policy Could Learn from Rwanda, Senegal, and Egypt
Ghana Cannot Afford to Delay: Lessons from Rwanda, Senegal, and Egypt for a National AI Policy
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer a distant aspiration.
It is fast becoming the most critical driver of productivity, competitiveness, and governance transformation.
The African Union estimates that AI and other Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies could add $1.3 trillion to Africa’s GDP by 2030 (PwC, 2022).
Yet, as this opportunity emerges, African nations are not moving at the same speed.
Ghana has pockets of excellence—research groups, private sector pilots, and enthusiastic startups—but it has no comprehensive, resourced national AI strategy.
This is not just a gap. It is a risk.
As the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation, NITA, and other stakeholders begin conversations about a future AI policy, Ghana has an opportunity to learn from the deliberate and well-funded strategies of three African peers: Rwanda, Senegal, and Egypt.
Africa’s Digital Sex Economy is quietly growing and investors are funding it : Size, Trends, and the New Hustle
Africa’s Digital Sex Economy is quietly growing and investors are funding it : Size, Trends, and the New Hustle
Across Africa’s urban hubs—from Lagos to Johannesburg, Accra to Nairobi—a new economic frontier is quietly booming: the digital sex economy. Once confined to the backstreets and brothels, sex work has now migrated to private screens and subscription platforms. Powered by mobile technology, platforms like OnlyFans, Telegram, WhatsApp, and anonymous digital wallets, a new generation of African women (and some men) is reimagining how sexual labor is marketed, monetized, and consumed.
So Telcos Want to Become Banks—Now What? Rethinking the Future of Retail Banking in Africa
So Telcos Want to Become Banks—Now What? Rethinking the Future of Retail Banking in Africa By 2023, MTN Mobile Money
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Rethinking the Talent Equation:How Ghana Can Compete in a Global Brain Economy
Rethinking the Talent Equation:How Ghana Can Compete in a Global Brain Economy As Ghana prepares for BRT 2025 under the
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Making the Case for Open Banking in Ghana: A Strategic Imperative for the Bank of Ghana
A New Way to Power Finance in Ghana Imagine being able to use a single mobile app to see your bank accounts, mobile money wallets, savings, insurance, and even your loan eligibility—all in one place, in real-time. Now imagine that app recommending the best savings plan or offering a better loan deal from a different bank with just a few clicks. That is the power of Open Banking.
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