Will Ghana's New Digital Transport System Make a Dent in Local Transportation?
Wahu Mobility opens new factory in Ghana and EBANX's expects a big boost in digital commerce in Africa
What’s happened this Week:
Ghanaian EV startup Wahu Mobility opens new factory in Ghana
Ghana partners with Cote D’Ivoire for free mobile roaming between the two countries
and more!
This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Kora
Kora is a leading fintech company that offers fast, secure, and low-cost cross-border payments for businesses and individuals in Africa.
With a presence in countries including Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya, Kora makes digital payments easy for business owners by prioritizing convenience, flexibility, and affordability.
Read more about how Kora is disrupting the payment space in Africa with its cross-border solutions and innovative finance products
In The News This Week:
Wahu Mobility Inaugurates Its Factory For Local Production Of EV Bikes In Ghana
Wahu Mobility, a Ghanaian Electric Mobility startup that manufactures EV bikes, has inaugurated its first local factory for local production of EV bikes.
Digital Commerce in Africa to Expand 25% per Year By 2026 According To EBANX Report
According to a digital payments and commerce report by EBANX, a global fintech company that connects local payment methods from Africa, Latin America, and India to global digital commerce, Africa has emerged as a frontier for the new online consumer class, representing an estimated 10 million new consumers in 2024 and trailing only Asia as a region
Ghana Implements ECOWAS Free Roaming Initiative with Cote d’Ivoire
The Ghana Minister for Communications and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, announced on February 18th that Ghana had successfully implemented the ECOWAS free roaming initiative in collaboration with Cote d’Ivoire.
In the rest of the news:
African Healthtech Company ‘My 1Health’ Connects Patients with Global Healthcare Expertise
Deloitte and AFIS Release 3rd Edition of African Financial Industry Barometer
Bareconnect Wants To Empower Creators With Tools To Create Online Websites
Hohm Energy Raises $8 Million to Scale Adoption of Rooftop Solar Across South Africa
Techstars Hosts Demo Day in Lagos With Presentations From 12 African Startups from Its Second Cohort
Deep Dive
Will Ghana’s New Tap N Go System Face The Same Challenges From Past Digital Transportation Projects? - Last week, Ghana’s Vice President launched a new digital transport system that allows passengers to use a multi-functional, cross-utility card or a mobile app to access and pay for public transport services across the country by tapping the card or the phone on a fixed machine in a bus.
Given past experiments with the Government attempting to modernize public transportation with technology, it’s hard to see the Tap and Go project being a success in the long term.
Why This Matters: The Ghana Government does not have a good track record when it comes to public transportation.
The Aayalolo Bus System was launched in 2016 and made use of transport cards which enabled riders to purchase credit. But the project has so far failed to scale and is a general failure.
Zooming Out: Ghana’s public transportation system runs on the “trotro” system and local taxis. Ride-hailing services like Uber, Bolt, and Yango dominate most of the app-enabled transport systems in most Ghanaian cities including Accra and Kumasi.
PODCAST: Filming An NFL Superbowl Ad with Yaw Apenteng from Sun Up To Sun Down Productions
On today’s episode, we talked to Yaw Amponsah Apenteng, founder of the production team Sun Up To Sun Down. We spoke to him about the recent NFL Superbowl ad “Born To Play” which aired after the Superbowl Half Time show.
Africa Ecosystem Activity
Nigerian digital bank FairMoney in talks to buy Umba in $20M all-stock deal - Techcrunch
Partech closes its second Africa fund at $300M+ to invest from seed to Series C - Techcrunch
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Stat of The Day
According to data by ApplyBoard, Guinea and Ghana were the top two countries that had the fastest-growing student population in Canada between 2022 and 2023.