Dear colleagues and friends,
First off, Ramadan Kareem to those of you celebrating.
Me, I love Kenyan humor. One of the best places to hang out for comedy is Kenyan Twitter during a power cut, and last week, KOT (Kenyans on Twitter) came through once again. After the IMF approved a new $2.34 billion loan for Kenya, outraged citizens lashed out on the platform through the hashtag #StopGivingKenyaLoans, pleading with the IMF to quit enabling the gross corruption and unaccountability of the Kenyan government. At the time of writing, a petition asking the IMF to cancel the loan had gathered 234,000 signatures.
On the positive front, there’s also been some good news coming out of East Africa. Tanzania’s new President Samia Suluhu Hassan, to whom we had given the benefit of the doubt despite her non-mask-wearing ways, has ordered the country’s information ministry to lift its ban on media houses which were penalized during her predecessor’s regime. This may mark the beginning of a detente with the country’s creative class, after years spent at the mercy of Magufuli’s unpredictable whims.
This week in HUSTLE & FLOW, I’ll talk about the rise and rise of African fintech and MTN Money’s self-declared $5 billion valuation, the arrival of Impact X Studios in the African content space, and the sacrilege of Twitter setting up shop in Ghana and not in Nigeria. But you’ll also learn about why Nairobi leads in fashion, arts, and general coolness, new Egyptian archaeological discoveries, an 8-months pregnant gold winner, a white-passing mixed race detective, and what I want for Christmas.
As always, you can consult previous editions of HUSTLE & FLOW and subscribe to this newsletter by heading over to www.restless.global/hustleflow. Abeg, please remember to add a quick note to your LinkedIn invites so that I know you are a reader. This would dramatically increase your chances of not being ignored.
Happy reading to all,
Marie
INTERNET INFRASTRUCTURE
Mauritius-based telecom giant EMTEL has launched METISS (Meltingpot Indianoceanic Submarine System), a new 3,200km fibre optic cable connecting South Africa, Mauritius, Madagascar and Reunion Island to a tier 3 certified data center in Port Louis. The new infrastructure is already connected to several major cloud services such as Azure and AWS and to internet exchange points with solid backhauls in Mauritius and South Africa, and is expected to significantly reduce latency in the region.
As internet access and usage continue to grow exponentially across the continent, governments are increasingly experimenting with ways to regulate - and tax - the sector. Since 2018, Ugandan internet subscribers have been required to pay a $0.055 daily tax to use social media apps such as Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp. The measure, however, backfired deplorably, leading to a decline in the number of internet users, failed revenue targets as many users started using VPNs, and even social unrest. Now the Ugandan government is considering a new strategy: a 12% tax on internet data usage beginning from July 1. A controversial proposal, as many fear it may further frustrate the development of the country’s internet sector, as well as limit freedom of expression and access to information.
TECH & CREATIVE INFRASTRUCTURE
2020 was the year in which the true potential of Africa’s tech and creative industries was revealed. Nigeria in particular emerged as a powerhouse in the making, with monster raises, valuations and exits in its fintech sector, the announcement of groundbreaking film and TV content partnerships, and the continued strengthening of Afrobeats’ hold on the global charts. Now the Nigerian government, in partnership with the African Development Bank (AfDB), has announced the upcoming launch of a $500 million fund aimed at further supporting and enabling the growth of the country’s Creative and Technology sectors. The facility will be managed under the auspices of the Nigerian Innovation Programme (full disclosure: I am the Creative Industries expert on this project led by PwC Nigeria), designed to bridge the existing gaps by focusing on four pillars - human capital, financing, infrastructure and enabling environment.
MOBILE
Following Airtel Money’s recent $2.56 billion valuation, MTN has valued the current worth of its own mobile money business at $5.15 billion. The company said it would consider a spin off and public listing of its mobile money arm if this emerged as the best way to unlock further value. Looking at market trends, it is safe to expect that in a few years’ time several of the continent’s telco-owned mobile money businesses (including Airtel Mobile Commerce and Safaricom’s M-Pesa) will have joined the ranks of Africa’s most valuable publicly listed companies. According to GSMA, transactions from mobile money services in sub-saharan Africa currently amount to about $490 billion annually, with major markets such as Nigeria and Ethiopia yet to roll-out.
E-COMMERCE
It’s been some time since we haven’t talked about super apps in HUSTLE & FLOW. A new development to look forward to this year will be the South Africa launch of VodaPay, Vodacom’s new super app in partnership with Alibaba’s Alipay. Vodacom already has experience with mobile money products and operates Kenyan platform M-Pesa in several African countries. Now, besides allowing users to pay utility bills, transfer money or purchase goods, the new VodaPay platform will also let them hail rides, stream music, and access other lifestyle services. Super apps, which are already dominant in Asia, have been steadily building momentum in Africa, where they are typically anchored around a core service such as a mobile money solution or a ride-hailing fleet, which allows them to build an initial customer-base. Leading panafrican super app players include the Chinese-backed OPay and e-commerce giant Jumia, while smaller companies such as Togo’s Gozem, Algeria’s temtem, and Uganda’s SafeBoda are at the moment still focused on their home markets.
LITERATURE
Five African writers have been shortlisted for the 2021 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Three Nigerian authors - Ola W. Halim for An Analysis of a Fragile Affair, Vincent Anioke for Ogbuefi and Franklyn Usouwa for A for Abortion - have been selected alongside Namibia’s Remy Ngamije for Granddaughter of The Octopus and Moso Sematlane's Tetra Hydro Cannabinol from Lesotho.
ARCHITECTURE
The Holidays are still a long way off, but I wouldn’t mind receiving this as a Christmas present. Dom Publishers has released an ambitious, 7-volume Sub-Saharan Africa Architectural Guide, covering the history of significant buildings in 49 countries in Africa. Editors Phillip Meuser and Adil Dalbai collaborated with a network of 350 local experts to ensure that the guide showcased the most important works in each country as well as interesting examples of everyday architecture. According to Meuser, “Africa is not only very rich in different types of architecture. The continent is a great resource for a theoretical debate on the future of the city."
VISUAL ARTS
Art Review takes us on a tour of Nairobi’s burgeoning contemporary art scene, which has in recent years established itself as a dynamic hub for East African art, thanks in part to the curatorial and promotional efforts of a growing list of contemporary art spaces. These spaces, which include Circle Art Gallery, the GoDown Arts Center, the Kuona Trust, the One-Off Contemporary Art Gallery and online platform GravitArts, have been instrumental in building collectors’ interest for home-grown talents as well as for artists from neighboring Sudan, Ethiopia and Uganda. The innovative Circle Art Gallery in particular has led the way since 2013, hosting the annual East Africa Art auction which attracts art buyers from across the region, and participating in art fairs in Johannesburg, London, Dubai and Paris.
HERITAGE
Less than one week after the ceremonious transfer of 22 Egyptian mummies to the new Cairo museum, archaeologists have discovered a 3,000 year-old lost city buried under the sand in Luxor. The city, named “The Rise of Aten”, was in existence around 1,390 BC during the reign of Amenhotep III, and was later inhabited by succeeding Kings including Tutankhamen. The discovery is regarded as the second most-important archaeological find since the tomb of Tutankhamen himself.
Meanwhile, the pace of the return of Nigeria’s stolen Benin Bronzes is heating up, with another British institution - the Horniman Museum in London - now considering repatriating some of the artifacts in its custody.
FASHION
Kenyan multi-talented creatives Sunny Dolat and Noel Kayoka have co-directed LOOKU, a short film celebrating Nairobi’s affair with fashion and style. The 5-minute film is an audiovisual accompaniment to Wauzine—a limited three-issue digital publication by the British Council East Africa Arts Programme through Creative DNA.
MUSIC
This will be nothing new for regular readers of HUSTLE & FLOW, but this Quartz article does a good job at explaining why “the world’s biggest music companies are scrambling to sign African artists”. If you have missed that train somehow, now is the time to catch up.
SPORTS BUSINESS
A couple FIFA news this week: Following discussions initiated earlier this year between DRC’s president Felix Tshishekedi and FIFA president Gianni Infantino, FIFA, the Football Association of the DRC (FECOFA) and the government of DRC have signed an MoU for the creation of a school championship, that will launch first DRC before being rolled out across the continent. As part of the initiative, DRC is pledging to incorporate football training in its national education curriculum. Meanwhile, South African pay TV channel SuperSport has secured the sub-Saharan broadcasting rights for all 64 matches of the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup.
And yes, there is a video of it: 8-months pregnant Nigerian athlete Aminat Idrees has won a gold medal in the Mixed Poomsae category in Taekwondo at Nigeria’s recently concluded National Sports Festival. Thankfully, Poomsae is not a fight but a tactical combination of movements against imaginary attacks, which means that Idrees was never at risk of receiving a blow.
BROADCAST
Still in Nigeria, following the approval of $23 million in public funding and the establishment of a dedicated task force, the government has announced the recommencement of the Digital Switch Over (DSO) process from analogue to digital terrestrial broadcasting. After a long delay due to lack of funding and overall chaos, 31 out of the country’s 36 states are, embarrassingly, yet to commence the transition. Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed estimates that the sale of new spectrum licenses could net the government over $1 billion and has the potential to create one million jobs in a span of 3 years.
In Zimbabwe, the communications authority has announced plans to issue more television and radio licences to independent stations. This transformation comes after 60 years of broadcasting monopoly, as Zimbabwe had only one television station since 1956. The liberalization of the country’s broadcast sector started last November, when an initial 6 new players were awarded commercial television licenses.
Russell Southwood from Balancing Act caught up with Monde Twala, Senior VP and GM of ViacomCBS Networks Africa, to find out what the American company has been up to on the continent while others were making moves. ViacomCBS Networks Africa claims to reach more than 100 million viewers across 48 territories in Africa through its 10 separate TV channels, 5 consumer websites, and various mobile and social media sites. Twala mentioned the launch of The Culture Squad, a platform that seeks to give African creatives and trendsetters a bigger stage across the network’s youth brands MTV, MTV Base and BET Africa. In addition, MTVBase has commissioned several music-focused reality shows, while BET Africa has invested in Isono, its first original drama series which has also just launched on BET France, and Nickelodeon has started producing local animation. Perhaps more interestingly, Twala hinted that ViacomCBS’ streaming services Paramount+ and Pluto TV were on the pipeline for an Africa roll out, and that they would be introduced first through partnerships with mobile networks, and affiliate Pay TV or Free-To-Air channels.
Finally, SABC and A+ Ivoire are teasing some new and noteworthy releases of their own this month, with telenovela The Estate for the former (featuring a sleek opening sequence), and La Derniere Voix for the later, a series by Canal+’s favorite director Alex Ogou in partnership with Universal, built around a panafrican singing competition.
VOD
MTN Uganda has announced the launch of Kibanda Xpress, a new local VOD channel aimed at boosting Uganda's film industry. Kibanda Xpress will stream local and international audio and video content on the YoTV mobile application, starting with a catalogue of 150 Ugandan movies.
Working Wives, a 13-episode dramedy series about the lives and loves of a group of Harare women from a millennial's perspective, is the first Zimbabwean series to be acquired by panafrican service Showmax. Adapted from a blog created by Sharon Bwanya and loosely reminiscent of the Real Housewives franchise, Working Wives was first released as a web series before being picked up by Showmax. All the way back in 2014, An African City broke ground by becoming the first African web series to be plucked from YouTube and given the TV treatment when Canal+ invested in a second season of the show. As the African content ecosystem continues to develop and mature, we can expect to see more creators transitioning from social media to traditional broadcast or global platforms.
FILM
South Africa’s surprise Netflix hit My Octopus Teacher has won the Best Documentary Award at the 74th BAFTA. Set in a kelp forest off the Cape of Storms, the documentary shows a free-divers experience with an octopus who helps him discover that human beings are inseparable from nature. My Octopus Teacher is also shortlisted for this year’s Oscars in the Best Documentary category.
CONTENT DEVELOPMENT
The arrival of new investors in the African content space is always worth celebrating. This particular debut has been in the works since 2019, but then, you know, Covid. Impact X Capital partners Erica Motley and Eric Collins have now announced the launch of Impact X Studios, a new vehicle to fund, develop and package projects that focus on inclusion and diversity globally and in Africa. You may remember that a couple months ago Impact X invested in comics and animation company YouNeek Studios. The fund has now revealed its content slate, which includes Live Connection, a documentary series about European afrobeats artists and culture, and Blind Ambition, a series by writer-director Kagiso Lediga from South African prodco Diprente.
In other content development news, South Africa’s Quizzical Pictures and Australia’s Goalpost Pictures have teamed up to co-produce Detective Cooper for M-Net. The crime series, which is the first TV collaboration between the two countries, is an adaptation from the book A beautiful place to die written by Australian-South African author Malla Nunn. It is centered around a mixed race detective who passes as white in apartheid South Africa.
Stay Gold Features and Topic Studios have partnered to finance and produce Nanny, a horror film written and directed by Sierra Leonean-American filmmaker Nikyatu Jusu, in her feature directorial debut. Jusu’s script boasts some proper cred: it was selected by the 2019 Sundance Institute Creative Producing Lab & Summit, Sundance’s 2020 Writer’s Lab, and the 2020 Director’s Lab, and landed on the 2020 Black List.
ANIMATION
The Kwetu International Animation Film Festival (KIAFF) held its inaugural, virtual edition in early April in partnership with NuellaTV, presenting 50 animation works from around the world with a focus on films “Made in Africa”. I am proud to report that From Here to Timbuktu, a short film I produced through my Kenyan studio Buni Media back in 2013 (but that the team wisely decided to re-edit and re-release last year) won the award for Best East African Film. The jury beautifully stated that “This truly legendary quest for knowledge is an artful story steeped in African history, tradition and even politics whose sounds and visions take us to places where only the brave go and come back with a sense of confidence and hunger for more African history”. From Here to Timbuktu was initially meant to be the pilot episode of a full animated series about ancient African history called Once Upon A Time in Africa, but unfortunately and very frustratingly, we were not able to finance it at the time.
SOCIAL MEDIA
After a well-publicized Africa tour which took him to Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia and South Africa in 2019, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has announced that the company was setting up its first continental office in Accra. The choice of Ghana was made based on the country’s embrace for free speech, online freedom and open internet, as well as its status as host of the Secretariat of the African continental Free Trade Area. Nigerians on Twitter were none too pleased to find out that their country had been passed over for their much smaller neighbor, leading to a revival of the long-running, friendly-but-still-serious “jollof war” between the two countries. Many Nigerians were however quick to acknowledge Nigeria’s blatant non competitiveness when it comes to ease of doing business, as the country continues to grapple with unpredictable and overzealous regulations, lack of infrastructure, and perpetual forex challenges.
And finally, following the success of Master KG’s Jerusalema on the app, Tik Tok has announced a pan-African licensing agreement to pay royalties to African artists through the Composers Authors and Publishers Association (CAPASSO) and Southern Africa Music Rights Organisation (SAMRO), covering repertoire belonging to 21 separate collective management organisations. The new deal ensures that songwriters, composers and publishers across Africa can benefit when their music is used on Tik Tok. It comes after Tik Tok’s expanded global agreement with Universal Music Group signed in February, and similar deals signed with Sony Music and Warner Music Group late last year.