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Jeff Bezos, Amazon and e-Commerce Wealth: Can Konga Defend Africa’s Position?

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By Kingsley Collins

On Tuesday, July 6, 2021, the world awoke to the news that Jeff Bezos, founder of e-commerce giant, Amazon, had further left the rest of the world behind in the wealth accumulation race.

The Amazon boss and world’s richest man is now worth a record $211 billion.

In the process, he became the richest ever person in history and the first to gross $211bn. Reports in the media indicate that the last time anyone neared this amount was in January when Tesla boss, Elon Musk briefly hit $210 billion.

Bezos’ latest jump came after Amazon shares rose 4.7% after the Pentagon announced it was cancelling a cloud-computing contract with Microsoft Corp, which it had rivalled for the juicy contract. The development raised Bezos’s fortune by $8.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Interestingly, Bezos’ rise to the record books of stupendous wealth through his e-commerce money-spinner has also had a direct impact on his ex-wife.

Mackenzie Scott, who parted ways with the Amazon boss in 2019, also saw her wealth jump by $2.9bn on Tuesday, making her the 19th-richest person in the world, according to Forbes. Scott ended up with 4% of Amazon’s shares after she split from Bezos, having helped him start the e-commerce company in 1994 as the first employee. Despite publicly announcing that she has given away over $6bn since she divorced Bezos, the philanthropist ex-wife of the Amazon boss is still worth a massive $59bn. Meanwhile, Scott had recently re-married after falling in love with a science teacher, Dan Jewett, whom she met at her son’s school in Seattle.

Indeed, the rise of Jeff Bezos brings into glaring highlight the unmitigated power of e-commerce.

For many financial experts and other industry watchers, the potential is there for Bezos to eventually smash through the billionaire mark and become the world’s first trillionaire. This is hardly surprising when you consider the sheer potential of the industry and the way it has catapulted Bezos – whom many hardly gave a chance when he started out – to the zenith of the global rich list.

Global spend on e-commerce is at an all-time high and one can hardly bet against any seasoned player in this industry.

Empirical data from Statista, a German-headquartered company focused on market and consumer-based insights reveals that in 2020, retail e-commerce sales worldwide amounted to 4.28 trillion US dollars. Further, it projects that e-retail revenues are projected to grow to 5.4 trillion US dollars in 2022. With such huge figures swirling around the industry, it would hardly come as a surprise to see Amazon and its record-breaking former CEO, Bezos re-defining the definition and frontiers of wealth in the 21st Century.

Evidence from advanced economies the world over has shown that e-commerce and, by extension, technology remains arguably the most prominently positioned industry capable of determining the wealth of nations.

If you take a look at the top five list of the most valuable countries in the world, or better still, focus on how countries like the United States of America, the UK and China, have leveraged the power of local enterprise in creating thousands of jobs and ushering in prosperity for generations yet unborn, the pre-eminence of Big Tech and e-commerce behemoths in the mix, cannot be wished away. Undoubtedly, the example of Jeff Bezos, who is currently sprinting away from the rest of the world in the art and science of amassing sustainable wealth, is one that has shown that e-commerce is the future.

Gone are the days when crude oil or fossil fuel was considered the bastion of wealth generation; or when the strength of nations was illustrated in the amassing of arms and warheads.

The 21st Century is slap-bang in the middle of a global e-commerce race, one in which the second half of this century may well usher in a period where nations and entire continents will rely on mega-players as key partners to governments and other sub-national entities in the task of sustainable development and wealth creation.

But where does this leave Africa in the scheme of things?

In 2017, e-commerce in Africa was valued at $16.5 billion, with the sector expected to cross the $75 billion mark by 2025.

However, the reality is that the global e-commerce race is one in which Africa is currently punching lightly in. The continent is in need of a standard-bearer, a reliable leader which it can count on to hold its own in the global scheme of things.

Of all the current players in the African e-commerce space, Konga, a Nigerian-owned platform remains, in my estimation, the most equipped and best placed to deliver the goods.

The reasons are hardly far-fetched.

I have followed e-commerce globally for over 10 years and while Africa is still considered an outlier in the global e-commerce race, the massive strides recorded by Konga over the past three years make the company a powerful candidate that can rival the likes of Amazon and Alibaba, among others.

On a recent trip to Nigeria, I had confirmed the huge excitement that Konga was generating among investors in the international market over a potential listing on world renowned stock exchanges, such as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the London Stock Exchange. Konga is – to put it in the words of one of my acquaintances, a business partner and one of the UK’s most active angel investors – a pot of gold that he is waiting to put his last dollar in.

According to this acquaintance (who I cannot name owing to privacy concerns), Konga is a business out of Africa that himself and many others, who hold huge investment interest in e-commerce, are following closely. In his opinion, there is currently a waiting game for Konga to go public, even as he disclosed that he had recently reached out to the management of the company on this.

While in Nigeria, my research uncovered quite some interesting facts and opened my eyes to the buzz about Konga.

Indeed, there is hardly any other e-commerce player in Africa that can account for the leverage which Konga is currently enjoying as a result of its composite nature. Brick and mortar stores were a recent addition to the sphere of e-commerce which centred, from inception, on online shopping. But the management of Konga had the insight of being the first to fuse these two channels, thereby opening up a new frontier in the world of e-commerce. It is hardly surprising to see the likes of Amazon following suit.

But this is hardly what has made Konga the ideal candidate to defend Africa’s position in the global e-commerce race.

In Konga, Nigeria and Africa have a brand that has defied the pitfalls that have long been adduced as the downfall of most players on the continent. These include payments, logistics, technology, customer service, warehousing/inventory management, quality of products offered, ethics/corporate governance, strategy/tact and trust.

In all the aforementioned areas, Konga is winning.

Through KongaPay, a mobile wallet licensed by Nigeria’s Central Bank, Konga remains arguably the only e-commerce player in Africa with a certified payment system. Furthermore, Konga has resolved the challenge of logistics which it even aids other external parties troubleshoot through Kxpress, its in-house delivery company. No other company better understands the terrain in Africa’s biggest economy than Konga – a factor that testifies to the edge that the company holds even when pitted against global giants like Amazon and Alibaba on this turf. My findings also reveal that the company owns either directly or indirectly about 14 massive regional warehouses across Nigeria, including the biggest in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial nerve-centre.

In the area of technology, Konga is believed to be home to a well-fortified arsenal of tech talents building and maintaining the many apps driving its operations and keeping many fintech platforms alive in Nigeria. This is in addition to its ongoing investment in cloud computing and AI.

There are reports that the company has also recently diversified into the healthcare sector, with feelers predicting that another major disruption is in the offing.

And in the area of products quality, ethics and trust, Konga has further put a big gap between itself and others. There is a general consensus among thousands of Nigerians who participated in a survey I carried out that Konga remains the most reliable and trusted player in Nigeria’s e-commerce market, which research shows, currently accounts for nearly 35% of the African whole.

Equally worth hailing is the fact that Konga, till date, is yet to raise any form of external investment. This is a big testimony to the belief of the management of the company in its strategies and long-term vision for the business.

There is no disputing the fact that the management of Konga has mined from the experience of its current owners – the Zinox Group –  whom I understand, operate arguably Africa’s biggest technology group and who have been in business for many successful years. One can only advise the management of Konga to stay true to their tact and continue to interpret and align with the DNA of their business ideals.

In Konga, Africa has a battle-ready war-horse that the continent can ride on in unlocking the undoubted potential of e-commerce as the new gold.

The earlier the Nigerian Federal Government and its counterparts across the states wake up and embrace this powerful platform, the better for the future fortunes of the country.

Kingsley ‘Bobby’ Collins is a visiting researcher to Nigeria and a global e-commerce enthusiast

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Digital Economy

Digital Technologies Directly Benefit 70% of SDG targets- ITU, UNDP and partners

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More than two-thirds of the UN’s targets for sustainable development can benefit directly from digital technologies, according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), organizers of SDG Digital which opened today at United Nations Headquarters in New York.  

With digital technologies so closely linked to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the SDG Digital event highlights how safe, inclusive and scalable digital solutions can put the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development back on track amid concerns that the world may miss the vision for people, planet and prosperity that was set in 2015. 

The SDG Digital Acceleration Agendaa global analysis of the connections between digital technologies and sustainable development, was released as part of SDG Digital to provide a roadmap to governments on their digital transformation journey and to promote action and financing.  

“With only a fraction of the SDGs on track at the halfway point of the 2030 Agenda, it is urgent to ensure that everyone, everywhere can build their own digital futures,” said ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin and UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner in the foreword of SDG Digital Acceleration Agenda. “The recent breakthroughs in digital technology have unleashed unprecedented opportunities, and with them new avenues for digital innovation in our race against time to fulfil the promise of the 2030 Agenda.”   

Uniting around digital to drive sustainable development  

According to UN assessments, progress on half of the 169 SDG targets is either weak or insufficient at the 2030 Agenda’s halfway point. Thirty per cent of the SDG targets have either stalled or gone in reverse.   

With digital transformation demanding joint efforts between the private sector, financial institutions, civil society, the UN, governments and young people, SDG Digital brings together experts, policy-makers and business leaders to explore the achievements, gaps and solutions on how digital technologies can support the 2030 Agenda.  

Scale and innovation accelerate transformation  

The SDG Digital Acceleration Agenda, developed by ITU and UNDP together with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) as knowledge partner, and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) as Agenda supporter, shows how digital technologies kickstart economic and societal transformation by creating scale and efficiencies.  

The Agenda features digital solutions that are already demonstrating how tech can directly benefit 119 of the 169 SDG targets, or about 70 per cent, including in areas such as climate action, education, hunger and poverty.  

“When you look at these game-changing digital solutions, you can see the actual building blocks that can drive us toward universal and meaningful connectivity,” said Bogdan-Martin. “This is how we can – and will – work together to ensure our shared digital future is inclusive, sustainable, and safe and responsible – and to do it in this decade.”  

Data in the SDG Digital Acceleration Agenda suggest that countries which improved their digital maturity—as measured by digital affordability and infrastructure indices—outpaced their peers in SDG progress for selected income levels.  

The Agenda also profiles the opportunities for sustainable development offered by advancements such as generative AI, 5G networks, and blockchain.   

Financing and joint action bring scale and innovation  

Digital transformation requires considerable investment in connectivity infrastructure, building up digital skills, and creating the conditions for job retraining and new opportunities.   

SDG Digital highlights that the funding gap of over USD3.7 trillion for the SDGs should focus international efforts on enablers—such as infrastructure and connectivity—as well as the pooling of resources through collaboration including the private sector and the utilization of diverse financing methods.  

Digital public infrastructure as a catalyst for the SDGs   

The formal opening of SDG Digital is part of the UN’s SDG Action Weekend, a series of High Impact Initiatives focused on mobilizing further leadership and investment to bring progress to scale between now and 2030. This includes the UN High Impact Initiative on Digital Public Infrastructure to scale inclusive and open digital ecosystems for the SDGs.

Today’s decisions by countries on how to build their digital public infrastructure (DPI) will have lasting consequences on their opportunity to grow and innovate, and to achieve the SDGs by 2030.   

As highlighted in a recent G20 publication supported by UNDP, DPI – built on robust governance and strong local digital ecosystems – can deliver value and high impact across all of the 17 SDGs to leave no one behind.    

“Digital public infrastructure represents the ‘roads and bridges’ of our new era on which countries can ‘transport’ a range of vital services to citizens, from e-health and e-government services to online education and social protection,” said Achim Steiner. “As our global community’s shared plan for a better future in the Sustainable Development Goals faces challenges, bold investments in DPI by governments are a tried-and-tested means to get them back on track — an ambition that the UN is matching by empowering 100 countries with a range of now-vital DPI solutions to ensure that everyone, everywhere can build their own digital futures.”  

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Digital Economy

Championing An Inclusive Digital Identity Approach In Africa – At Scale

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As digitisation accelerates across Africa, the demand for liveness detection and online identity authentication services has become critical. The act of identifying ourselves is under rapid transformation, especially when it comes to using biometrics to access financial and governmental services. If executed correctly, this offers an opportunity for greater inclusivity than ever before.

Gur Geva, Founder and CEO of iiDENTIFii, says, “Face biometrics offers a ground-breaking solution to identity verification (IDV) on the continent in that it is secure and simple to use. Yet this solution will only truly work if the algorithm that underpins face biometrics is trained on the full scope of African faces and can be executed at scale.”

Historically, proof of identity was only available to those who could fulfil a rigid set of criteria. One of the main barriers to a person opening a bank account, for example, would be the inability for them to prove their identity without any formal identity document or proof of formal address. According to the World Bank, 57% of Africans still do not have any kind of bank account, including mobile money accounts. This translates to about 360 million adults in the region and approximately 17% of the total global unbanked population without access to formal financial services, a recent study by BPC and Fincog found.

Sustainable Development Goal 16:9 aims “to provide legal identity for all, including birth registration by the year 2030”. Digital identity plays an active role in meeting several other SDGs, including universal health and education access and financial inclusion.

Remote face authentication is a crucial step in bridging the digital divide in Africa.

Geva explains, “The digitally excluded are missing out on access to social and financial inclusion. Those who do not have access to newer technologies are disadvantaged in healthcare, education and financial support. The mere ability to confirm one’s identity digitally is a key that opens the doors to essential financial and civic services without the risk of impersonation or fraud.”

Diversity in face recognition is the key factor for success in Africa. Yet historically, a large-scale database of African faces has been lacking. Thanks to new developments in technology, this barrier is no longer in place. Geva adds, “Respecting diversity in biometric authentication is a core consideration in our business. For this reason, we have trained our algorithm on over 50 million African faces. This translates into identity for all, but specifically identity for all Africans.”

Through a triangulated authentication process, iiDENTIFii’s technology establishes that the person on the other end of the screen is real, live and transacting at that moment. This multi-faceted facial scan is further verified with key data from the person’s ID document and information from the relevant government databases. “Identity fraud has historically been difficult to detect. Our technology can authenticate and automatically onboard a person in under 30 seconds. Our algorithm vastly reduces false accept and reject rates, fully protecting consumers and businesses,” says Geva.

A focus on verifying a living person, in other words establishing ‘liveness’, ensures that correctly mapping and verifying a diverse range of faces is possible. Geva explains, “With our technology, we are able to establish 3D passive and 4D biometric liveness. Our 4D Liveness is resilient to deepfake and replay attacks. It comprises different colour lights that reflect in a certain sequence off the user’s face which helps determine true biometric liveness.”

Inclusivity in technology extends beyond diversity. It also raises the issue of accessibility. “We have created a technology platform that can be used by very low-end through to very high-end smartphones,” says Geva, “Users can also access the platform via a mobile Software Development Kit (SDK), as well as web-based/browser SDK – which allows them to just click on a link to authenticate themselves, as opposed to downloading a large SDK onto their phones.”

With a simple, fast and secure approach that takes the full scope of African faces into account, biometrics becomes a compelling catalyst for financial and social inclusion. Geva concludes, “We believe that, with the right technology, all Africans can claim their identity and use it to their safety and benefit.”

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Digital Economy

Interswitch Group Partners Credit Bank of Kenya and IFAD to Deepen Remittance Play

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Interswitch Group, Africa’s leading integrated payments and digital commerce company, has announced a partnership with Kenyan lender, Credit Bank, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Ria Money Transfer.

The partnership will facilitate the provision of diaspora cash remittance services to rural recipients in Kenya through the Savings and Credit Cooperative Society (SACCOs).

Tagged the Affordable Remittances and Enhanced Financial Inclusion Programme, the initiative will enable unbanked rural remittance receivers to access formal banking services through a basic and transparent bank account and see Interswitch and its partners collaboratively train and build capacity for over 1,350 SACCO members.

Credit Bank projects that during the initial phase of the programme, it will reach at least 1,200 Kenyans living in the diaspora and facilitate at least 1,500 rural recipients back home to open a bank account for the first time.

Thus far, the initiative has onboarded three SACCOs that will be engaged in the next 16 months, with projections to onboard seven more over the next 36 months. The SACCOs will have their staff appointed as sub-agents in the rural Kenyan areas which are currently underserved by formal remittance providers.

Speaking on the partnership, Founder and General Managing Director of Interswitch Group, Mitchell Elegbe stated that the collaboration is indeed a significant stride towards bridging the financial divide, empowering more individuals and businesses in Kenya with access to modern payment solutions, and creating a more inclusive financial ecosystem for all.

“This partnership with Credit Bank of Kenya and IFAD marks an important step as we continue to expand our reach and provide innovative solutions for our customers worldwide. As we all know, remittance plays a crucial role in the lives of many people, and we are committed to making it simpler, faster, and more affordable” he added.

According to Romana Rajput, the Country General Manager of Interswitch Kenya, “SACCOs form an important part of our financial services in Kenya where we come together to save money and improve the quality of our lives through lower interest rates loans to acquire important purchases like land, homes, educate our children, improve our businesses and much more. Working with SACCOs and their members will make transfers quicker and more convenient for beneficiaries.”

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