Africa

➚  Buy: PayShap. A payment system that enables the rapid transfer of money between phones was launched in South Africa today (March 13). PayShap, which is backed by the South African Reserve Bank and local banks, allows unbanked customers to send and receive money as well as make interbank transfers. The platform, which is primarily intended for small transactions, will be developed further to enable payments to be made through apps such as WhatsApp.

➘ Sell: Naspers. The South African media giant with stakes in telecoms, internet and newspaper companies shut down Foundry, its venture capital fund for South African startups. Foundry was a $100 million fund launched in 2019. Its portfolio ranged from Planet42, which rents out used cars, to on-demand home cleaning service SweepSouth. Naspers said it closed Foundry to adapt to a changing global investment climate, Techcrunch reports.

The length of the rail network to be modernized and expanded in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital, Kinshasa. The mass transit system overhaul is being developed by the African Finance Corporation and Trans Connexion Congo. Once complete, the rail network is expected to bridge significant shortcomings in transportation in one of Africa’s most populous cities.

🌍 U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will begin a tour of Ethiopia and Niger on Wednesday (March 15). In Ethiopia, he is expected to discuss implementation of the cessation of hostilities which in November ended two years of fighting in the northern Tigray region. And in Niamey he is expected to focus on ways to advance the U.S.-Niger partnership on diplomacy, democracy, development, and defense.

🇲🇱 Mali’s military junta has postponed a constitutional referendum scheduled for March 19, citing the need to have electoral representation across the country. The referendum is the first step toward transitioning to civilian rule after elections scheduled for February 2024.

🇿🇲 Zambia’s anti-graft agency arrested the country’s auditor general last week for allegedly conspiring to defraud the government and for obtaining goods under false pretenses. The top-level arrest comes at a time when the southern African nation is contending with burgeoning external debt and seeking to restructure a $12.8 billion loan under the G-20 common framework.

🇰🇪 Kenya’s cabinet secretaries will appear before parliament on a weekly basis from March 23 to answer questions from the public, outline government policy, and table reports concerning the work of ministers. The new rule aims to ensure executive accountability of President William Ruto’s government.

President Kagame softens stance on ‘Hotel Rwanda’ activist

THE SCOOP

Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, in an interview with Semafor, suggested there is a way to move forward on the possible release of activist Paul Rusesabagina, who came to prominence after his portrayal in the Hollywood movie Hotel Rwanda.

Just three months ago, at the Semafor Africa Summit in Washington DC, Kagame pushed back strongly at what he described as “bullying” by U.S. authorities and other human rights organizations. Concerns had been raised after Rusesabagina, 68, was sentenced by a Rwandan court in 2021 to 25 years in prison on eight terrorism charges tied to an organization opposed to Kagame’s rule.

Kagame told Semafor’s Steve Clemons that “there is work going on” to resolve the issue with Rusesabagina. “We’re not people who want to get stuck in one place and not make any movement forward,” the Rwandan president said during an interview at the Global Security Forum in Doha, Qatar.

“There is a discussion looking at all possible ways of resolving that issue without compromising the most fundamental aspects of that case and I think there’s always going to be a way forward,” said Kagame.

Rusesabagina’s family, who have campaigned for his release, declined to comment.

KNOW MORE

Rusesabagina, who was portrayed as a hero in the movie Hotel Rwanda for protecting ethnic Tutsis from genocide, was sentenced along with 20 others. In May 2022, about a year after his first trial, Rusesabagina was designated as a “wrongful detainee” by the US State Department which also said the trial process had not been fair.

In December Kagame questioned why his country should release him just because of his fame or his status as a U.S. permanent resident.

“We will make it clear: There isn’t anybody going to come from anywhere to bully us into something to do with our lives and we accept it,” the Rwandan president said at the Semafor Africa Summit.

Rusesabagina has denied being responsible for alleged violence carried out by the National Liberation Front, which is the armed wing of the political group Rwanda Movement for Democratic Change which he leads.

YINKA’S VIEW

This is a significant change of language for Kagame when it comes to the Rusesabagina issue. In the recent past Kagame has often pointed to the court case as being the final arbiter.

Now his tone has changed. As he told Steve, his country has in the past “forgiven the unforgivable.”

But if you take a step back it becomes easier to see why Kagame might want to get this out of the way sooner than later and also why he would want to do so “without compromising the most fundamental aspects” of the case.

There would have been concerns in Kigali with the designation of Rusesabagina, a U.S. permanent resident, as a “wrongful detainee”. It suggests his trial was a sham and adds Rwanda to an unappealing shortlist of countries including China, Russia, and Venezuela among others who have detained U.S. citizens wrongfully.

As we come up to the 29th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide next month it’s worth noting Rwanda has worked hard since then to be seen as a country which upholds the rule of law. The designation of “wrongful detainee” suggests otherwise.

The challenge here is that the government will no doubt want this to be resolved without effectively agreeing the court trial process was flawed and Rusesabagina will probably not want to be labeled as a freed ‘terrorist’.

ROOM FOR DISAGREEMENT

While parties close to the US government and others on Capitol Hill have been working quietly behind the scenes putting pressure on President Kagame to resolve this matter, this isn’t the reason there may have been some movement here, says Jeffrey Smith, founder of human rights advocacy organization Vanguard Africa.

“I would contend that the public pressure on the Kagame government, mainly from the Rusesabagina family, is what ultimately prompted Kigali to sit at the negotiating table,” says Smith, whose group repeatedly criticized Kagame’s human rights record. “This pressure — in the form of public advocacy, naming and shaming, and strategic global outreach — helped to create the space that was needed for a dialogue between Washington and Kigali.”

NOTABLE

• Hotel Rwanda has ended up being a double edged sword for the government of President Paul Kagame. The film introduces the world to the atrocities committed but on the other hard some of the film’s historical inaccuracies helped build up Paul Rusesabagina’s profile.

Share story here.

Kenya’s mobile money service subscriptions increased by 1.2 million, between October and December last year, to 38.6 million, according to the country’s communications agency. The data also showed the number of mobile money agents increased by 3.5% to 318,607 during the same period, up from 307,928 in the previous quarter. Mobile money agents connect consumers and mobile money service providers by registering new customers and helping people to deposit and withdraw funds.

SVB’s crash spurs interest in home-grown solutions for Africa

Anxiety among African tech investors and founders over the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank last week was eventually tempered by the US Federal Reserve’s promise to fully repay all of the bank’s depositors from Monday (March 13).

But it drew attention to African startups’ reliance on international banking services.

As SVB’s troubles mounted, African founders and some of their backers began panicking about their portfolio companies’ deposits at a bank known for catering to half of US startups’ savings and credit needs for 40 years.

As fears grew, Chipper Cash, a pan-African fintech valued at more than $1 billion, issued a statement assuring the market it had “only about $1m” in SVB but that it had “absolutely no impact” on its business. SVB’s investment arm led a $100 million round in Chipper in 2021.

“Only about 4 or 5 of our 100-plus companies had accounts at SVB,” Zachariah George, managing partner of Launch Africa Ventures, told Semafor Africa. His firm alerted companies in their portfolio on Thursday (March 9) to transfer money out of SVB as soon as possible, he said.

While some investors like Future Africa’s Iyin Aboyeji spoke highly of SVB’s relationship with African tech, others noted that the continent’s startups were less exposed because the bank had not always been welcoming to opening accounts for them.

“Most startups in Africa use Brex or Mercury,” one investor who did not want to be named told Semafor Africa. But even Mercury has had a curious relationship with African startups; it restricted at least a dozen accounts last year, without notice.

Investors now say African banks offering dollar-denominated accounts could credibly complement banks overseas.

— Alexander Onukwue

Kenya’s trade minister Moses Kuria told a parliamentary committee last week that the country’s dollar shortage is “out of government control.” He blamed it on rising U.S. interest rates and the culture of importing “everything,” which he said had left the country’s dollar reserves virtually empty.

• The U.S government is considering plans to lift restrictions on aid and financial assistance to Ethiopia, sources close to the matter told Foreign Policy. However, some lawmakers in Congress and human rights advocacy officials are opposed to the move, arguing that President Joe Biden has not held the Ethiopian government to account for possible war crimes.
• Gambian health officials, with the help of the World Health Organization, found more than 70 children died of Acute Kidney Injury linked to cough syrups contaminated with toxins. The cough syrups were imported from India. A Reuters investigation said the cases appear to be the first documented examples of poisoning through exposure to ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol from medicines that were imported rather than produced domestically. The deaths highlight the difficulties faced by poorly resourced countries in identifying and removing harmful products.

Lovers of innovative design have descended on Kenya’s capital for the annual Nairobi Design Week. The festival, which began on Saturday and is in its eighth year, gives creatives an opportunity to showcase their work. Hundreds of exhibitors will display projects on themes ranging from climate change and African cultures to beauty and diversity until March 19. Visitors can also attend talks and workshops. Adrian Jankowiak, the festival’s founder and creative director, said the event had evolved into a platform for promoting opportunities for thousands of creatives in Kenya and other parts of the world. “We’re ushering in a new era of what it means to be a creative,” he told Semafor Africa. “It’s about creating the change we want.”

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— Yinka, Alexis, Alexander and Muchira