Hi, Quartz Africa readers!
Yaba Savannah
There’s been a lot of excitement about the African tech startup space for a few years now. While in the early years there was a tendency to try and explain the various African city startup ecosystems with descriptors analogous to Silicon Valley, we’re now at the point where both local entrepreneurs and investors want to be taken on their own terms with their own local context.
Yet, the ecosystems are still quite young. For both entrepreneurs and potential investors, the culture of venture funding can still be fraught, especially for those who haven’t spent time obsessively following Silicon Valley businesses over the years.
There have been questions as to whether the problem is the local environment with the specific challenges of each country or whether it’s the quality of entrepreneurs or even their investors. Seyi Taylor, co-founder of Lagos-based Big Cabal Media, uses the phrase du jour, when he describes the knowledge gap in the young ecosystems as a problem “on all sides.”
VC4Africa, an online community for startups, has teamed up with a raft of the who’s who of African investors and partners to develop a learning platform called Startup Academy aimed at improving knowledge for founders. The platform, which is backed by a Dutch government program, offers free learning modules in starting, growing and financing a business, led by various African investors and executives. The idea is to share experience tailored for the African experience, unlike most startup online information which focuses on the Silicon Valley experience.
Veteran angel investor, Tomi Davies, says investors need a critical mass of competent founders and staffers in Africa. He’s one of several investors offering their expertise on VC4Africa’s platform. “Once we have engaged, we can continue the education in a structured way that should yield a more vibrant venture market opportunity space.”
Supporting the long held maxim investors bet on the person behind a startup rather than the startup itself, he says investors will benefit by discovering better deals if there’s an overall improvement in the prospects. Big Cabal’s Taylor puts it another way, suggesting betterlocal investors are also needed, but “the quality of startups getting seed funding needs to improve.”
Eschewing the hype and fanfare in favor of nuts and bolts fundamentals will go some way towards achieving both goals.
— Yinka Adegoke, Quartz Africa editor
Stories from this week
Why the obsession with old African music is flirting with neo-colonialism. Western DJs and niche record labels have over the couple of decades plowed through Africa’s pop music archives, rediscovering old hits to curate and reissue. Abigail Gardner asks if “crate digging” is yet another scramble for Africa.
Uganda’s government should stop its obsession with porn and policing morality. In August, Uganda’s government constituted a nine-person committee to monitor and prosecute consumers of pornography. For a government incapable of providing basic public services, Rosebell Kagumire argues that what it sees as challenges facing the nation are far removed from reality.
Imagining Steve Biko as the anti-Mandela ignores his greatest contributions. Forty years since his death, the anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko’s face is printed everywhere in South Africa and his words used as a rallying call in grassroots movements. Reflecting on his legacy, Lynsey Chutel explains why the iconization of Biko continues to grow.
The first book to celebrate black women photographers in three decades. This year Laylah Amatullah Barrayn published an anthology featuring works by 100 black female photographers from across the world. Lily Kuo spoke to Barrayn about the inspiration behind the book and the state of African female photographers today.
Egypt hopes to revive its tourism after years of security fears. A failed revolution, airline disasters, and a series of terrorist attacks undermined Egypt’s tourism sector since 2011. But as Abdi Latif Dahir reports from Cairo, 2017 is proving to be a crucial year to revive the sagging tourism sector.
Ethiopia’s tense ethnic federalism is being tested—again. Ethiopia is a federal republic whose government is built on a federation of ethnically-based states. This distinct model of governance is facing strains again writes Tom Gardner from Addis Ababa, as deadly clashes flare between ethnic Oromos and Somalis.
Chart of the week
Nigeria’s retail boom needs to bet more on the middle class. Nigeria’s economic woes over the past two years have slowed the pace of investment and growth of mega shopping malls. But as Yomi Kazeem reports, investors might be better suited to leverage the promise of the middle class by building smaller-sized, neighborhood malls.
Other Things We Liked
Nigeria’s foremost megachurch is becoming a city. In Ogun state in Nigeria, the Redeemed Christian Church of God is turning its international headquarters into a city. Reporting for The Guardian, Ruth Maclean documents how this megachurch has built its own power plant, private estates, banks, schools, supermarket, and even an amusement park.
A Ugandan musician is taking his activism to parliament. Bobi Wine, a popular reggae artist in Uganda, was recently elected to parliament by a 78% margin. After spending his career criticizing the government over corruption and human rights abuses, the singer is hoping to become an agent of change in a country that has had the same president for three decades, Julian Hattem writes for Huck Magazine.
How the NSA built a secret surveillance network for Ethiopia. The US and Ethiopia have worked closely to fight terrorism in the Horn of Africa. But as Nick Turse writes in The Intercept, leaked documents it published show how the US National Security Agency established surveillance networks for the country to catch terrorist sympathizers, illicit smugglers—and to silence dissent.
Keep an eye on
Accelerating Africa 2 (Sept. 18) at Quartz headquarters. Investors and fintech startups will gather to discuss the future of finance in Africa at the Quartz office in New York. The event is a partnership between Invest Africa, Lateral Capital, and Quartz Africa. You can sign up to attend the event here.
Kenya to decide on lending rate decision (Sept. 18). Kenya’s central bank is expected to announce its lending decision.
Africa at the United Nations General Assembly. (Sept. 18-27). UNGA and various side events kick off in earnest this week in New York. African leaders including Nigeria’s president Buhari, Rwanda’s president Kagame and Namibia’s president Geingob will join global leaders at the 72nd session.
Our best wishes for a productive and thought-filled week ahead. Please send any news, comments, suggestions, better names for African tech ecosystems and VIP passes for the best UNGA week parties to africa@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter at @qzafrica for updates throughout the day.
If you received this email from a friend or colleague, you can sign up here to receive the Quartz Africa Weekly Brief in your inbox every week. You can also follow us on Facebook.