00:10Welcome to the special edition of Business Africa.
00:13I'm your host Afolake Unloyi and we're live here in Paris at the sixth edition of Business Africa Forum where
00:20business leaders are changing the rules of trade on the African continent.
00:26One of the topics to be spoken about is on financial sovereignty. Locked out by global platforms such as PayPal,
00:33Africans are now turning to homegrown systems such as DigiPay to create their own independent payment systems and regain control
00:41of their digital economy.
00:42For years global finance treated Africa as a risk rather than a market. Major payment systems like PayPal either ignored
00:52us or imposed restrictions that penalized our people.
00:55Instead of conforming to a banking model that didn't fit, Africa innovated for its own survival. While the world waited
01:04for traditional bank accounts, Africa turned the mobile phone into a universal bank branch. Today the mobile wallet is the
01:12primary instrument of payment.
01:15Actually, we say informal, but I don't like that word. It is already formal. And I say it's formal because
01:21everyone has a mobile phone today. Everyone has mobile banking. So, it is already formalized. Now, as I say, it's
01:30more about creating adapted products to reach that population via these distribution and communication channels.
01:34But the revolution isn't finished. To achieve true financial sovereignty, Julien Gakpay, the founder of Minna, an investment platform dedicated
01:44to West Africa, argued that the continent must channel the $100 billion the diaspora sends home every year away from
01:52foreign fees and directly into African growth.
01:56The first is having finance that looks like us. Notably coming from the diaspora, which sends $100 billion per year.
02:05I think we must use this amount to invest in companies. In terms of sovereignty, it makes sense to use
02:11money from the African diaspora to fund our companies.
02:15The need is clear. A system that rewards African resilience instead of penalizing its exclusion.
02:25To dive into how African innovators are building sovereign payment solutions, I spoke to the CEO and founder of DigiPay,
02:33Mr. Ngasaki Zoni. Thank you for joining us on the show.
02:36Now, for the longest of years, African businesses have been excluded from international payment platforms such as PayPal. How were
02:44you able to identify this gap to create your business?
02:50Okay. Okay. But at the time, we were excluded because our populations also exclude financial systems.
03:01So financial inclusion was therefore a duty of our states in order to allow populations to come into contact with,
03:08say, to be included in the financial system and to have access to economic markets, etc.
03:15But technology did it. That mobile money, with the advent of mobile phone, mobile money came into being and allowed
03:24populations to have a payment instrument, which is the wallet.
03:31And so, rich in this situation, and thanks to open finance, we are able to set up a platform that
03:38will integrate mobile accounts into the international payment system and therefore made it possible to override the established systems of
03:47the major ones that penalized our populations for the simple fact that they were not included financially.
04:01Let's talk about financial sovereignty in practical terms.
04:05Let's talk about financial sovereignty in practical terms. How is Digipay building independent financial rails to reduce reliance on foreign
04:09systems?
04:15That's already a situation, I think, that has been favorable for Digipay because at the level of our states, there
04:23are central banks that have embarked on the construction of payment infrastructures.
04:29The case of CEMAC, the case of CEMAC, which proposes an interoperability system, a payment system with full interoperability, which
04:42allows actors such as Digipay with local routes to connect and to be able to offer payment services throughout the
04:52subregion through the electronic payment switch.
04:59And in addition, thanks to our partnership with foreign actors, channeling money transfer flows in the Reuni Pounds department abroad,
05:10and this means that actors or the regulators of GMAC, for example, rely on actors like us to make outgoing
05:20remuneration.
05:23As African fintech rise, what are the biggest challenges, skill and trust across the continent and promoting operations?
05:34In terms of trust, there is no problem because having a mobile account involves KYC. So you have to be
05:42well known. So there is a process, a procedure, which implies that we propose that we present our identity, that
05:54we know the holder of the account.
05:56So in terms of trust, so in terms of trust, the problem does not arise because mentalities have evolved and
06:03populations have understood that money is not necessarily on the phone and the fact of losing your phone does not
06:11necessarily mean losing money.
06:14It is mainly in terms of efficiency. It is mainly in terms of efficiency. That's a problem. It's still a
06:21challenge because we work with international players. And as a result, we work in a pre-financing method called pre
06:30-funding.
06:31So we are often called to open our positions abroad. And with regulatory constraints due to exchange regulations or exchange
06:40control, we have enough difficulties.
06:42Because we have enough difficulties at this level.
06:46Mr. Ngasaki Zoni, thank you so much for your time. It's been a pleasure.
06:49And thank you for your time too. Thank you.
06:53Beyond the Silicon Valley hype, a pragmatic revolution is taking place in Africa, where entrepreneurs are not just using AI
07:01for novelty, but for survival, cutting costs and boosting SME growth. The next set of meetings, we'll be talking about
07:07that.
07:10In Africa, artificial intelligence is no longer experimental. It's becoming essential for business growth.
07:17AI expert Joelle Okolue Tamatio says the biggest barrier isn't technology but perception.
07:25She says using AI is simpler than it seems and accessible to anyone willing to try.
07:31I'm thinking of a company I worked with that produced its reports, entirely manually reports, that took two to three
07:39days each time they had to be done. So, we implemented automation with AI. In terms of productivity, it allowed
07:47them to gain the equivalent of 1 to 1.5 full-time employees per month.
07:55But for this revolution to be sustainable, it must be sovereign. Relying on foreign data sets isn't just a technical
08:02error, it's a risk to national security and public health.
08:05When you have data sets used to identify the most suitable molecules, for example, and those data sets are primarily
08:15based on North American Caucasian populations, the risk is that all other populations are not taken into account.
08:24Data sovereignty, data sovereignty, data diversity, and data localization are important not only for productivity, but also to maintain oversight
08:34on what is being shared. Keeping this data confidential and stored locally is essential.
08:42By focusing on local data and simple tools, African innovators are ensuring the continent's digital future is built by Africans
08:50for Africans.
08:56Why do African businesses look to Europe rather than their neighbors for business?
09:02The goal at Business Africa Summit is to break trade silos. To explore whether the handshake economy actually works, we
09:09spoke to entrepreneurs transformed by regional networks. Have a look.
09:14In Europe, real estate offers stability with returns averaging 3 to 5 percent.
09:20But for many in the African diaspora, the bigger gains are back home, where land values in some cities have
09:27risen 10 to 20 times over two decades.
09:31Kumba Ba is a real estate developer connecting European investors to markets in Côte d'Ivoire and Senegal.
09:38With my husband, we bought land for 3,000 euros, about 2 million CFA, in 2005.
09:44Today it's worth 120,000 euros, growth you'd rarely see in France, especially with such low entry costs.
09:53That growth is driven by rapid urbanization.
09:57West Africa's urban population is expected to double by 2050, increasing demand for lands in cities like Abidjan and Dakar.
10:07But high returns come with risks. Land disputes and unclear ownership remain common, making trusted local networks essential.
10:18In Africa, having a strong network is crucial. Starting without one is extremely difficult.
10:25Our real estate project was easier to launch because we already had people on the ground who understood the ecosystem.
10:35With more than 50 billion dollars in remittances flowing into sub-Saharan Africa each year, diaspora investors are increasingly turning
10:44to real estate.
10:45And platforms like the Business Africa Summit are helping turn that interest into secure investment by connecting capital with the
10:54right people on the ground.
10:58We've come to the end of this special edition of Business Africa. Thank you for watching. For more business stories
11:05and updates, stay tuned to Africa News or visit us online at africanews.com. See you soon.
11:18Business Africa was presented by Turkish Airlines.
11:21Business Africa was presented by Turkish Airlines.
11:21Business Africa was presented by Turkish Airlines.
11:21Business Africa was presented by Turkish Airlines.
11:21signs.
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