Dear colleagues and friends,

As we enter the second half of May, Western media is catching on to the fact that the expected disaster hasn’t taken place in Africa and that the reason behind it may be based on more than dumb luck and a youthful population. In her piece entitled “What African Nations are Teaching the West about Fighting the Coronavirus?”, former New York Times East Africa bureau chief Jina Moore writes: “A rather obvious possibility stares us in the face: What if some African governments are doing a better job than our own of managing the coronavirus?”

Of course, we may choose to ignore biased reporting (after all, what’s new), but that would be to our own detriment. I strongly encourage you to read this fascinating essay by Nanjala Nyabola in which she writes: “Whatever journalists commit to print and broadcast during this period will be among the primary pieces of information that future scholars will analyze to try to understand what we were all doing as the world fell apart. But so far, when it comes to Africa, the first draft is an incomplete and inaccurate story of a continent waiting to be saved. If only the first story enters the archive, the creativity and agency of swaths of humanity will be lost, which will have consequences beyond the pandemic.”

One of these consequences may be the retraction of funding and investment to Africa, even when a key issue for African businesses is that they are chronically under-capitalized to begin with. But as you know, I always look for the silver lining, and when I see the enthusiastic readership of HUSTLE & FLOW, I continue to think that great things are on their way. This week, I’ll talk about the major new undersea cable project announced by a consortium including Facebook and various telcos, OPay’s plans to build Africa’s first “super app”, and how much it costs to produce TV series across the continent.

As always, please reach out with your comments, questions and requests for Zoom calls at marie@restless.global, and catch up on previous editions of HUSTLE & FLOW at www.restless.global/hustleflow.

Happy reading to all,

Marie

INTERNET INFRASTRUCTURE

The big news last week was the announcement of a major new undersea cable by a consortium including China Mobile International, Facebook, MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone and WIOCC. The fully-funded project, called 2Africa, will connect 23 countries in Africa, the Middle East and Europe, with 21 landings in 16 African countries. Expected to go live in 2023/24, 2Africa promises to deliver more than the total combined capacity of Africa's current cables. The 2Africa cable has been designed to improve resilience and maximise performance in a context where fiber-optic incidents are still frequent - two major cable breaks greatly impacted connectivity throughout the continent this year.

Meanwhile, just a few weeks after launching in Kenya, Google’s high-altitude mobile internet solution Loon has signed a deal with Vodacom to expand the South African mobile operator’s network to remote areas in Mozambique.


MOBILE 

Mobile operators’ Q1 results continue to trickle through, confirming strong growth overall in terms of data and mobile money usage. The MTN Group reported a 11% increase in sales, led in part by growth in data traffic in Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa, as well as 6.6 million new subscribers, for a total of 257.3 million. However, MTN also confirmed that it had reduced spending plans for the full year to $1.1 billion in order to focus on preserving cash and maintaining its networks as it navigates the COVID-19 pandemic. Airtel Africa reported a 21% decline in its total net profit at $65 million for the first quarter, mainly due to higher finance costs, but its numbers remain strong overall, with a 56% growth in data usage leading to a 39% growth in data revenue year-on-year, while mobile money revenue went up by 29.5%, driven by subscriber growth and a more robust distribution infrastructure. Airtel Africa announced that it had continued to invest in various future growth opportunities over the period as it expanded its distribution, modernised and expanded its network with 65% of sites now on 4G, and acquired new spectrum in Nigeria, Chad, Tanzania and Malawi.

In Nigeria, both operators lead the way in terms active internet users, with 56.49 million for MTN and 36.17 million Airtel, according to the latest industry report released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). They’re followed by Globacom and 9Mobile with 30.95 million and 7.94 million internet subscribers respectively. The country’s total number of active internet users increased by 3.29 million to hit approximately 132.01 million at the end of February this year. 


E-COMMERCE 

In this new episode of “Can Jumia leverage the pandemic for its own survival?”, Jumia’s Q1 earnings revealed a slight 4% narrowing of its operating losses (still at $47.3 million though) even as revenue dropped by 7%. The impact of COVID-19 varied by product category and country, with sales of consumer electronics, phones and fashion, as well as Jumia Food orders (linked to the closure of partner restaurants) dropping sharply. However, on the bright side Jumia saw a four-fold surge in grocery sales while Jumia Pay’s total payment volume reached $38.4 million in the first quarter, a 71% year-on-year increase. 

However, a future competitor might be revving up its engines as Norway-based, Chinese-owned Opera continues to deploy its strategy to build a multi-service “super app” in Nigeria as the foundation to expand on the continent. The Opera mobile browser has long been popular across Africa. In 2018 the company launched its OPay mobile money platform in Nigeria, and a year later raised an enormous $170 million round to develop OPay as the financial utility to support a large suite of internet-based commercial products that now include OMall, a B2C e-commerce app; OTrade, a B2B e-commerce platform; OExpress, a logistics delivery service; OFood, for restaurant delivery; ORide, a motorcycle ride-hail service; and Olla, a mobile phone line pre-loaded with its apps. OPay’s strategy is to replicate the success of Asia’s super apps such as WeChat, Grab and Go-Jeck. The end goal wouldn’t be dissimilar to Jumia’s, which is also seeking to dominate several verticals, but the approach is different: rather than building everything on top of e-commerce, which is immature in Africa, Opera is starting where Africa is leading the world: fintech. And this seems to be working so far: between January and April OPay’s offline and online transaction volume increased by 44%.


FASHION

On the fourth anniversary of her brand Tongoro, Senegalese fashion entrepreneur and HUSTLE & FLOW favorite Sarah Diouf released ‘Made in Africa’, a 30-min documentary about her journey building her Dakar-based label Tongoro which highlights the importance of local craftsmanship on the continent.

Talking about craftsmanship, when we consider African fashion we mostly think of clothes and accessories, but rarely of fine jewelry, despite the fact that Africa is home to precious raw material such as gold or gemstones. CNN has a great article this week about the new wave of African fine jewelry designers such as Vania Leles from Guinea-Bissau or Sierra Leone-born Satta Matturi, who counts Rihanna as a client. Rosenkrantz Africa specializes in tanzanite, a deep blue gem that can only be found in a small mining area in Tanzania. Over a decade ago during my journalism days, I descended 400 meters into the ground to film miners excavating the precious stone with high-pressure water hoses - quite an unforgettable experience. The brand’s founder Iver Rosenkrantz recently opened Zimbaqua, Africa's first woman-only mine for aquamarine and tourmaline based in Zimbabwe. Now that’s something I’d like to see.


VISUAL ARTS

Over the past few years, photography has become one of Nigeria’s most exciting art forms, especially thanks to its quest to document Lagos’ thriving youth culture. This week, two of Lagos’ most promising young photographers/visual artists, each with their own distinct styles, get a shout out in the press: OkayAfrica talks to Thompson Ekong (aka TSE) about his eye-catching work which has landed him collaborations with Nike, Davido, Rema, Santi, Teni and 6LACK, while multidisciplinary creative Daniel Obasi is his own muse in inspired self-portraits for I-D.

Belgian non-profit Africalia has launched a call for proposals to support “the production of artistic works during, in reaction to or following the crisis”. Africalia will allocate 50 “Creativity is Life” grants of €1,500 per artist in its countries of intervention: Burkina Faso, Senegal, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Uganda. The submission deadline is June 2.


LITERATURE

While book events worldwide have been put on hold, the virtual festival Afrolit Sans Frontieres is using Facebook and Instagram to host frank discussions around writing, creativity, sex and violence through a series of hourlong readings and Q&A sessions. Afrolit already held two editions over the past two months, and will return for a third entitled “Future. Present. Past.” on May 25, to coincide with Africa Day. Meanwhile, the 8th edition of the Ake Arts and Book Festival, initially scheduled to be held in Lagos from October 22 to 25, will now take place exclusively online.


MUSIC

In previous editions of HUSTLE & FLOW, I’ve talked about how, despite the tough blow dealt to the African music industry by the cancellation of live events, many artists had quickly pivoted to social media to continue to grow and engage their audiences during the pandemic, while the forced digitalization of most activities was boosting music streaming. But for another, more traditional category of musicians who make a significant portion of their income from European “World Music” festivals, the closing of borders is an issue that may threaten their livelihoods over the long term. These artists, despite being internationally renowned, might rarely if ever perform in their home countries, do not have large digital-savvy local audiences, and are completely dependent on foreign festivals to survive. A World Music network of industry professionals is now exploring the idea of creating a specific solidarity fund to support them. 

If you haven’t had enough of online telethons after Lady Gaga’s “One World: Together at Home” last month and Canal Plus’ “Africa at Home: Together against Corona” this past weekend, there’s more coming your way. On May 25, MTV and YouTube will partner to present an “Africa Day Benefit Concert #athome” hosted by Idris Elba, and I’m hearing that Trace TV is planning its own event as well. 


SPORTS

The Nigeria Football Federation has disclosed that Pricewaterhouse (PWC) had been given the contract to recruit coaches for the national male (Super Eagles) and women (Super Falcons) teams, following a set of structured criteria. The Super Falcons’ coaching job is open to Nigerian and expatriate coaches indiscriminately, as long as they meet the standard set by PWC. I’m very curious to see the result of this process.


BROADCAST

WarnerMedia and Canal+ Group have launched TNT and Cartoon Network within Les Bouquet’s Canal+ pay-TV offer in Rwanda. This follows efforts by Canal+ to reinforce its English-speaking channel proposition in a country where half of the population counts as English-speaking. Canal+ is already the leading pay-TV operator in French-speaking Africa but has recently started to make moves that suggest it is looking at expanding beyond the language barrier, including the acquisition of ROK Studios in Nigeria and the planned launch of its pay-TV services in Ethiopia.

Meanwhile in South Africa, local telenovela Gomora (not to be confused with gritty Italian crime drama Gomorrah) has become the most-watched TV show on all of DStv with 2,5 million viewers in April, just one month after its release.


FILM

Nigeria continues to slowly and gradually ease its lockdown, but there is no telling yet when the country’s 40-odd cinemas will be able to reopen. But Nigerians’ love for the big screen remains strong. A recent survey by the Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN) showed that 95% of respondents miss going to cinemas, especially for the cinema experience (88%), while 68% are willing to return to cinemas if and when safety measures are put in place. For now, AFRIFF, Nigeria’s most prominent film festival typically taking place in November, is going on as planned, and submissions are currently open until July 1.


VOD

If you are a regular reader of HUSTLE & FLOW, you know what I think of Jeffrey Katzenberg’s ill-conceived, mark-missing, “quick bite” mobile VOD service Quibi. When asked to explain its anemic downloads a month after launch, “I attribute everything that has gone wrong to coronavirus. Everything,” Katzenberg said. “Is it the avalanche of people that we wanted and were going for out of launch?” he said. “The answer is no. It’s not up to what we wanted. It’s not close to what we wanted.” Hmm. Well. Quibi is also not close to what users wanted, so that’s that. What do people want to do with their phones? They want to TikTok. And while Katzenberg is busy blaming the pandemic, young TikTok creators are amassing huge audiences and attracting the favors of everyone from top brands to Hollywood. Watch out Dance Glitch .


CONTENT PRODUCTION

Productions around the world are starting to reopen, as they did in South Africa a week ago. There, the Independent Producers Organisation (IPO) has criticized the South African regulator’s recent move to exempt television broadcasters from local content quotas during the pandemic, saying it contradicts the government’s plea to support local productions and could further weaken the already struggling sector. No such hand-wringing in Nollywood though, or anywhere else for that matter, as producers would just like to be able to go back to work.

Broadcast Media Africa took advantage of the slowdown to conduct an industry survey on “Creating ‘Quality’ Local Content For Global Digital Audiences” in which 56% of respondents identified the lack of structured financial infrastructure as the main barrier to creating “world-class” local content in Africa, while 30% mentioned the “expectation of higher production value and increased quality with reduced production budgets” as another big obstacle. Let’s talk about this a little bit because the widespread belief among western producers or broadcasters that “producing content is cheap in Africa” is indeed a profound misconception that regularly leads to frustrations and disappointment on both sides. In reality, Africa’s lack of infrastructure and scarcity of skilled professionals drive prices up in content production like in many other sectors. Here’s a down-and-dirty benchmark of TV series prices so that we can all know what we’re talking about: across Africa in small to medium markets, local free-to-air (FTA) stations may pay as low as $2,500 to produce a one-hour episode; in Nigeria producers may work with $5-15,000/episode (raised from sponsorships for an FTA broadcast or through a Pay-TV commission); in South Africa national broadcaster SABC used to commission shows for $40-70,000/episode; in Francophone Africa Canal+ can invest up to $60-100,000/episode (but only if it really really wants a show); and finally at the top of the range Mnet/Showmax can put up to $100-150,000/episode for its most premium South African projects. Does this mean that producing a one-hour episode of scripted TV in Africa actually costs that much? Not at all. These are just the prices that broadcasters are able to sustain based on their own business models. To meet these budgets, producers have to call in various favors to access free equipment or locations, and cast and crew often work for very little. If so much African content looks bad, it’s often because people are not paid properly so they will cut corners to go fast and move on to the next job. My personal assessment is that it would probably cost as much to produce a medium-range quality show in Africa than it does in Europe, so roughly between $150-600,000/episode. Thought that Netflix’s Queen Sono looked good? It was made for $400,000/episode. 


ANIMATION

Remember Niyi Akinmolayan’s lovely coronavirus animation? Well people loved it so much that Anthill produced a second episode, turning what could have been a one-off PSA into “an educational series about two smart kids teaching everyone about good health, culture and science” for which the studio is now raising funds. That is exactly the right way to leverage a cause-led or charity-funded project: use an opportunity emerging from a particular context (in this case the need for an educational video during a global health crisis) to create or pilot characters (IP) that can outlive that particular context.