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Spotify Showcases Nigerian, Other African Artists Impacting Global Stage

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Music has always been at the core of African tradition, weaving a rich narrative that showcases the variety of cultures and influences across the continent. Marking pivotal moments in Africa’s history, music has provided the backdrop to progress, evolving from songs of freedom to songs of expression.

While the annual commemoration of Africa Day is an opportunity to celebrate the strides that the continent has made, it’s also a chance to address some of the challenges that it continues to face. In a similar vein, the impact of African influence on the global music scene has also been a journey.

With exciting collaborations taking place and access to a broader audience, African creators now have more opportunities than ever before to discover new audiences and have their unique voices heard. 

To mark Africa Day Spotify took a look at the top streamed artists globally from the African continent. With fans from London to Paris and Amsterdam to Sydney streaming their music via Spotify, it’s not surprising that popular Nigerian singer and songwriter, Burna Boy, takes the top spot. 

Africa’s diverse music landscape with its distinctive genres continues to give rise to musical collaborations both on the continent and abroad. Burna Boy has used his particular sound to drive successful collabs including ‘Loved By You (feat. Burna Boy)’ with Justin Bieber and ‘Location (feat. Burna Boy)’ with British rapper Dave. Over the past 90 days (March – May 2021), ‘Loved By You (feat.  Burna Boy)’ has amassed over 31 million streams, globally.

Similarly, the phenomenal global success of Master KG’s hit Jerusalema (feat. Nomcebo Zikode), which led to an Afrobeats inspired remix featuring Burna Boy, garnered over 43 million streams, globally over the last 90 days (March – May 2021). African artists are not just featuring on the global stage they are owning it.

“Spotify has always celebrated Africa’s abundance of talent and diversity. Now with Spotify’s presence across Africa, we will continue to use the power of the platform to amplify African creators  to a global audience. This serves to offer artists even more opportunity to further strengthen their connection to their audiences as well as drive the discovery of their music to new audiences which, for us, is an integral part of the user’s listening experience. says Phiona Okumu, Head of Music, Sub-Saharan Africa.

 Spotify continues to drive initiatives that support African creators including, promoting key curated, flagship playlists such as African HeatAmaPiano GroovesRADAR Africa, and most recently, Gengetone Fire, which has driven further discovery and celebration of African influence.  Spotify also houses the Afrohub platform that promotes and brings to the surface culturally diverse music to users around the world. 

 The expansion of RADAR – Spotify’s global artists program that supports artists along every step of their music journey – has been instrumental in promoting talent from across the continent. To date RADAR Africa has welcomed several creators including, Elaine, rapper Willy Cardiac, Nigerian singer-songwriter Tems and AmaPiano hitmaker Focalistic (who also featured extensively in Spotify’s recent African Heat campaign) to the roster of  Africa’s RADAR artists.

 These young artists all have been influenced by the sounds of Africa with Focalistic listing South Africa’s classic Bacardi house music as the music he grew up on that continues to  influence his expressive AmaPiano. Focalistic also names top Nigerian producer, Fresh as one of his biggest African influencers.

 As Spotify continues to give listeners across the continent streaming access to the best African and international audio continent, it will continue to drive education around Spotify for Artistsa powerful free tool that artists are encouraged to make use of to better understand and build their audience and gain insight on how to best promote themselves. This, together with the expertise of Spotify’s music team and all the platforms’ initiatives will ensure that Spotify remains an instrumental vehicle for African creators looking to feature on a global stage.

 Additionally, kicking off on 24 May and running during the week of Africa Day, there will be an African takeover of Spotify’s Global X playlist. The playlist will spotlight Africa’s biggest artists across regions and on each day, the playlist cover will be dedicated to artists including Lady Du (SA)DaVido (NG), Sarkodie (GH)Sauti Sol (KE)ElGrandeToto (MR), Mohammed Ramadan (EG) andDiamond Platinumz (TZ). The Global X playlist is a key part of Spotify’s Global Cultures Initiative that promotes culturally diverse music from around the world.

 The top streamed African artists globally (March – May 2021)

The top streamed tracks by African artists globally (March – May 2021)

  1. ‘Copines’ – Aya Nakamura
  2. ‘Loved By You (feat. Burna Boy)’ – Burna Boy, Justin Bieber
  3. ‘Jerusalema (feat. Nomcebo Zikode)’ – Master KG
  4. ‘Location (feat. Burna Boy)’ – Burna Boy, Dave
  5. ‘Djadja (feat. Maluma)’ – Remix – Aya Nakamura, Maluma

The top streamed Nigerian artists outside of Nigeria (March – May 2021)

  1. Burna Boy
  2. WizKid
  3. Mr Eazi
  4. Rema
  5. DaVido
  6. Kizz Daniel
  7. Omah Lay
  8. VanJess
  9. Yemi Alade
  10. Olamide

The top streamed tracks by Nigerian artists outside of Nigeria (March – May 2021)

  1. ‘Nesesari (feat. Philkeyz)’ by Kizz Daniel, Philkeyz
  2. ‘On the Low’ by Burna Boy
  3. ‘Ye’ by Burna Boy
  4. ‘Joro’ by WizKid
  5. Ginger (feat. Burna Boy)’ – WizKid, Burna Boy
  6. ‘Essence (feat. Tems)’ – WizKid, Tems
  7. ‘Lento’ – Mr Eazi, J Balvin
  8. ‘Infinity (feat. Omah Lay)’ – Olamide, Omah Lay
  9. ‘Real Life (feat. Stormzy)’ – Burna Boy, Stormzy
  10. ‘Handle It’ – Yemi Alade, Frenna

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Technology

WATRA Advocates E-Governance and Technology to Boost Jobs for Youths In Nigeria, W/Africa

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WEST Africa Telecommunications Regulators Assembly (WATRA) has advocated greater adoption of e-Governance and concerted effort to expand the digital economy in Nigeria and other countries of West Africa. 

The executive secretary of WATRA, Aliyu Yusuf Aboki stated that this will boost investment and create quality jobs for young people in Nigeria and West Africa. He stated that despite the comparatively low rate of literacy in West Africa, there is a very wide scope for digitizing government services. 

He said he sees the enormous opportunity for e-governance as he travels across the 15 ECOWAS states. He explained that governments at all levels could increase their taxes dramatically by digitizing the identities of taxpayers and tax collection processes. He also emphasized that there is a great opportunity to expand access to education and healthcare through digital tools. 

 WATRA is a regional organisation that has the mandate to promote the adoption and harmonization of regulations that stimulate investment in telecommunications and increase affordable access for citizens.

 The WATRA boss cited the example of India where over 1 billion citizens, including the poorest citizens, could easily receive or make payments using their telephones through a government-supported platform, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

 Other government-backed digital schemes in the country enable municipal governments to manage healthcare online and citizens to store and readily access government documents such as tax returns on their phones. 

Aliyu pointed out that the digitalization of government services has transformed the lives of the 273 million Indians who are classified as living in poverty. While noting progress in the adoption of ICT to deliver and manage government services in West Africa, the WATRA boss emphasized the need to scale up existing schemes in the sub-region. 

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Africa Region

Africa’s Smartphone Market Declines 3.4% In Q1

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Africa’s smartphone market declined 3.4 per cent quarter on quarter (QoQ) in Q1 2023 to total 17 million units, the lowest level of shipments since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in Q1 2020.  That’s according to the latest figures announced by International Data Corporation (IDC), with the firm’s newly released Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker showing that rising inflation and local currency depreciations against the U.S. dollar have negatively impacted demand for smartphones across the continent.

Shipments of feature phones across Africa also declined in Q1 2023, although not to the same extent as smartphones. Feature phones remain relatively affordable and are still the preferred secondary device option for many consumers.

“Africa’s smartphone declined throughout 2022 amid weak consumer demand, and this has been exacerbated by rising inflation and higher device prices,” says George Mbuthia, a senior research analyst at IDC. “The average selling price (ASP) for smartphones grew QoQ due to high import costs and the fact that many vendors’ flagship devices are now equipped with 5G and have therefore moved up in price to the premium segment.”

Africa’s top 3 smartphone markets recorded a mixed performance in Q1 2023. South Africa and Nigeria both saw shipments decline QoQ, while the Egyptian market registered growth. South Africa was impacted by seasonality issues and weak demand, meaning vendors were unable to bring in new units while they continued to clear the channel. Egypt remains below its potential, but local assembly is picking up in the country and the government has now dropped its “letters of credit” requirement for vendors, both of which have helped the market to recover from its low base.

Transsion (Tecno, Itel, and Infinix) accounted for the largest share for smartphone shipments across Africa in Q1 2023, despite experiencing a decline in units. Samsung placed second, while Xiaomi came in third.

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Africa Region

M-KOPA raises $250m to scale high-impact consumer fintech across Africa

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M-KOPA, a leading fintech platform, today announced it successfully closed over $250m in new debt and equity funding to expand its financial services offering to underbanked consumers across Sub-Saharan Africa. This marks one of the largest combined debt and equity raises in the African tech sector, enabling M-KOPA to continue its rapid growth.

Over $200m in sustainability-linked debt financing was led and arranged by Standard Bank Group, Africa’s largest bank and long-term strategic partner to M-KOPA. Other participating lenders include The International Finance Corporation (IFC), funds managed by Lion’s Head Global Partners, FMO: Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank, British International Investment, Mirova SunFunder and Nithio. A further $55m in equity investment was backed by existing strategic investor Sumitomo Corporation, which is contributing $36.5m to the total raise and will engage closely with M-KOPA on new growth markets and products. Blue Haven Initiative, Lightrock, Broadscale Group and Latitude, the sister fund to Local Globe, also participated in the transaction.

M-KOPA’s fintech platform combines the power of digital micropayments with the Internet-of-Things (IoT) to provide customers with access to productive assets. In markets where individuals have limited pre-existing financial identities and conventional collateral, M-KOPA’s flexible credit model allows individuals to pay a small deposit and get instant access to everyday essentials, including smartphones, electric motorcycles and solar power systems, and then graduate to digital financial services such as loans and health insurance. M-KOPA’s solution embeds credit into the product through a smart digital connection, giving customers ownership instantly, which they can pay off through micro-instalments over time. The company has sold over 3 million of these products through a unique direct sales model that includes more than 10,000 agents. M-KOPA’s operations started in East Africa and successfully expanded to Nigeria in 2021 and, more recently, Ghana. From 2020 to 2022, M-KOPA recorded a compound annual growth rate of 85% in new customer acquisition, and was recently recognised as one of Africa’s Fastest-Growing Top 100 companies by the Financial Times for two consecutive years, in 2022 and 2023.

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