Digital Economy Inclusion for Prosperity

Chidi OKPALA is the CEO of Asante Financial Services Group, a leading provider of Digital Financial Services to Africans and African Businesses. 

Prior to that, he was the Group MD Fintech and Digital at Atlas Mara, where he led the digital financial services agenda. Before Atlas Mara, he was CEO for Airtel Money Africa where he built the Mobile Money business in 17 countries and lead one of the most ambitious financial inclusion initiative in Africa. Earlier, he was the Group Executive in charge of Retail Banking for UBA across 19 markets in Africa.

 He is a graduate of the Sloan MSc program at the London Business School as a Chevening Scholar. He also has a BSc in Finance and an MBA from the University of Nigeria.

To create a future built on shared prosperity for Africans, digital economy inclusion will be the facilitator and accelerator. Africa contributes less than 1% to the global digital economy; which accounts for 15% of global GDP. For example, during this COVID pandemic, over 300m African children and youths have been out of school because of none access to the internet. 

We have partnered with MasterCard, Samsung and leading Telcos in Africa to facilitate affordable finance to enable Africans own smart devices and have access to the internet. We developed the business model and will underwrite the loans. 

Access to the digital economy opens up new channels of communication between people and governments, while offering greater access to public information and basic services like education, healthcare, Finance and opportunities for entrepreneurship. It is the ticket to real inclusive growth.

Access to the Digital Economy has an indelible impact on human development, enhancing democratic governance and other development areas such as healthcare, finance, education, agriculture, employment, crisis prevention and the environment.  

However, only 17.8% of households in Africa have internet access and the continent accounts for only 21% of worldwide internet users. It is estimated that over a quarter of a billion school children in Africa have been affected by COVID-19 and most of them lack the digital tools to continue their education online.

Reliable, high-speed internet is also key to ensuring that hospitals and medical institutions can access the global information network and resources necessary to fight COVID-19 and other deadly infectious diseases.

The average cost of 1GB of data on the continent is 7.12% of average income, with some countries having rates as high as 20%, which is way above the 1 – 2% deemed to be affordable. Even with a reduction in smartphone prices to as low as $55, affordability remains a big challenge in Africa.

All of which has been complicated by the deplorable digital gender gap in Africa” with a 33.8% internet penetration rate for men and only 22.6 % for women in 2019.

Our project seeks to facilitate Digital Economy inclusion for 100m Africans by 2020. Asante has strategically partnered with MasterCard, Samsung and two of the leading Telcos in Africa (MTN & Airtel) to enable affordable ownership of smart devices (smartphones, tablets and laptops) especially for women and youths. 

Each partner brings its strategic assets to ensure a compelling, sustainable and affordable proposition. MasterCard brings their "Pay on Demand" application, Samsung provides the devices and the KnoxGuard device application, the Telcos provide access to their subscribers and affordable data bundles. Asante designed the business model, developed the consumer and retailer APPs and will underwrite the device loans while bearing 100% of the credit risk.

The pilot project will be launched in Uganda in July, in partnership with Airtel. This will be followed closely with Nigeria, in partnership with MTN. About 20 Sub-Saharan African countries will be covered by 2025 to be able to impact 100m women and youths.

Only about  35% of Africans have access to smartphones or any device that gives them access to the internet. More deplorable is the digital gender gap in Africa with a 33.8% internet penetration rate for men and only 22.6 % for women in 2019.

Over 150m African students in Universities and Colleges have been impacted by COVID-19 as they have been unable to continue their education because of no access to the internet. 

Thus, our project targets about 100m youths and women in Africa without access to the internet due to inability to afford a smartphone. 

We are working very closely with two of the largest Telcos in Africa (MTN and Airtel) and they have provided us with empirical facts to support our thesis and formulate a model to solve the crisis. 

Our purpose in Asante is to ADVANCE FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE AND IMPROVE THE WELL BEING OF AFRICANS.

We are in constant exploration of opportunities to further our core agenda. We are convinced that real, tangible inclusive growth in Africa requires Financial and Digital Economy inclusion and the starting point for Africans has to be the ownership of a SMARTPHONE.

Hence, we reached out to like-minds that have the core strategic assets to ensure a highly impactful and sustainable initiative hence the collaboration with MasterCard, Samsung, MTN and Airtel. 

We selected Uganda for the pilot because of its size and availability of fundamentals to test, learn before rollout across Rest of Africa. 

My passion is driven by the mission and purpose of Asante, which is to ADVANCE FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE AND IMPROVE WELLBEING OF AFRICANS AND AFRICAN BUSINESSES.

Secondly, i am African and committed to debunking the so-called Afro-pessimism that nothing good comes from Africa. This explains our mission as a firm and our resolve to be at the forefront of initiatives that will catalyse inclusive growth with shared prosperity for the continent and its people.

I am privileged to have overseen retail financial initiatives in Africa, over the last 25years and across 26 countries in Africa. I have also achieved this across 4 key industries - Strategy Consulting, Commercial Banking, Telecommunications and Fintech; a rare combination. 

Even though Asante is a young firm, we have supported Micro Small and Medium Sized Enterprises in Africa with over $30m in loans over the last 30 years. 

So, i understand the geography, terrain and the target retail segments.

In 2012, i had the mandate of the Bharti Airtel board to embark on the most ambitious financial inclusion initiative in Africa by building Airtel Money to be the most impactful mobile money service in Africa.

The hurdles were aplenty; internal buy-in, regulatory, financial, gruelling travels and the geographical spread of the 17 markets. I embraced the challenge and within 4 years, established the most successful mobile money business in Africa at that time - 30m customers, 200,000 agents with $2B and $12m in monthly transaction value and revenue.

In 2012, i had the mandate of the Bharti Airtel board to embark on the most ambitious financial inclusion initiative in Africa by building Airtel Money to be the most impactful mobile money service in Africa.

The hurdles were aplenty; internal buy-in, regulatory, financial, gruelling travels and the geographical spread of the 17 markets. I embraced the challenge and within 4 years, established the most successful mobile money business in Africa at that time - 30m customers, 200,000 agents with $2B and $12m in monthly transaction value and revenue.

We are currently closing an Equity round and at an advanced stage of a debt finance program - $50m in tranches of $10m

We have also engaged a number of foundations for grants and concessionary credit

We currently have some working capital to launch a pilot in Uganda; about $1m. And expect to have closed the Equity round by August to scale Uganda and roll out in Nigeria. Additional funding will be for scale and expansion

For expenses, we have a budget of $250,000 for each country roll out to cater for personnel, technology deployment, call center and office (with F&F)

Grant Giving Foundations and Development Finance Institutions