Seeds of Opportunity: The African Growth Series

In this week's issue, you will learn more about:

Green Hydrogen in Namibia

The world is becoming increasingly conscious about its emissions, and as a result, a move away from carbon-heavy energy generation is well underway. The developed world is driving this transition towards clean energy is limited by its renewable energy potential. Given todays geopolitical risks, investing in a host of renewable sources is vital in order to procure clean energy as cheaply as possible. Enter green hydrogen, the current buzzword of the global energy sector which offers a great opportunity to not only decarbonize the energy space, but also other hard-to-abate sector such as the manufacturing and transportation industry. The entire African continent is well endowed in renewable energy potential and is suitably positioned to take advantage of this transition and leapfrog hefty investments into fossil fuels. Several countries are being assessed in terms of their suitability to produce green hydrogen for the global market. One of these countries is Namibia. The country is enriched in renewable energy potential, and already has experience with solar PV and wind sources, generating and approximate 46 GWh of electricity annually. Namibia’s Hyphen project is envisioned to be one of the pioneering cost-effective green H₂ projects in the world. The Tsau region is one of the top 5 locations in the world to produce cost-effective green H₂ and NH₃, benefitting of the suitability of wind and solar PV resources as well as access to key land and sea export routes. The country is also ideally located to export excess generated electricity and export the produced hydrogen to global as well as to neighbouring markets. Namibian Ports Authority has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the port of Rotterdam, based on the premise of positioning Namibia as a major supplier of green H₂ to Europe. The ports in Namibia need to position themselves to facilitate the movement of project materials and other components as well as export of green hydrogen and other by-products to international markets. The country plans on developing further green H₂ projects as the government eyes this unique opportunity as a great economic benefit to the entire nation.

Female entrepreneurs join Africa's fintech boom

In the last decade, Africa has become a hotbed for fintech innovations with start-ups providing products and services that cater for the unbanked population. The uptake of fintech in the region has been incredibly positive, with 60% of all investment into African start-ups going to fintech companies. The region's fintech industry continues to be a trailblazer with recent data indicating that 3.2% of all fintech firms in the region are founded solely by women. This is double the global average for 1.6%. The continent's fintechs also have the most female board members compared to any other region, according to 2021 data. However, there still remains a stark funding gap between male- led and female-led start-ups as females continue to struggle with gender biases that stifle their ability to access finance, gain exposure and grow their businesses. Greater representation of women and increased support of these women founded fintechs will most likely unleash successful innovations, products and services. Therefore, to address these challenges, the industry needs to have some formal training on gender biases, to ensure that the industry realises that their actions and decisions can adversely affect women entrepreneurs.

Opportunities for AI in Africa

Part 1 of 3

Artificial Intelligence (AI) can help begin to solve Africa's economic issues through monitoring and improving food production, and translating the 2,000 plus spoken languages throughout the continent to improve access to financial services and remote healthcare. Other areas where using AI could help include education, transport and public services for disabled and able-bodied people. The issue is that Africa's AI landscape is one with the 'Haves and the Have Nots', with countries such as Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Ghana, and South Africa who have functional AI ecosystems. Whereas other countries struggle to build the foundations for AI to survive.

South Africa is the leading country in AI adoption with several AI research groups, international investors, technology hubs, organisations and conferences such as the Deep Learning IndabaX AI conference. Across the continent, the African-led community around AI research and collaboration attracts global attention and funds. According to Investment Monitor’s African e-Connectivity Index, 28% of the sub-Saharan population has internet access which impacts the development of AI. The software does not depend on the internet, but most development and innovation in AI are related to devices that connect to the internet. So as internet access grows, so do opportunities for local and international AI players. As these African countries "come online", they could receive foreign funds and global research to develop AI-driven applications that focus on solving context-specific issues.

To find out more about opportunities in Africa, please contact Lynne Martin.

Lynne Martin

Sales Contact, Frost & Sullivan Africa

• lynne.martin@frost.com
• +27 21 680 3260