Noel Ok. Tshiani is the founding father of Congo Business Network. In this interview for TechCabal, he speaks with Malick Diouf, CEO of LAfricaCellular, and Marie-Laure Lepas, Country Director primarily based in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, about their experiences in the startup area in Africa.
Can you inform us about your background and what led you to start out LAfricaCellular, the primary multi-channel, multi-operator, and multi-country digital cloud communication platform in West and Central Africa?
Malick Diouf: My identify is Malick Diouf, CEO and co-founder of LAfricaCellular, a multi-channel communication platform serving to African companies to simply work together with their clients on cell phone. I’ve a number of years of expertise in the telecommunications business between Africa and Europe with a strong background in cell service innovation in specific.
As a telecommunications engineer with a grasp’s diploma in info programs administration, I attempt to capitalise on the success of my experiences to advertise innovation and cell applied sciences as drivers of progress for companies and organisations in Africa.
How does LAfricaCellular’s platform assist purchasers interact with their goal audiences utilizing numerous communication channels resembling SMS, USSD, WhatsApp Business, voice, and airtime?
MD Our all-in-one platform presents a novel entry level for African firms to facilitate their interactions (advertising, notifications, customer support, and different functionalities) with their clients on their cell phones. Regardless of the kind of telephone their clients have, smartphone or not, related to the web or not, we provide these firms the likelihood to achieve their goal clients effectively. The icing on the cake: we additionally permit them to deal with their communications and companies to non-literate clients in native African languages.
What challenges did you face whereas constructing and launching LAfricaCellular, and how did you overcome them?
MD The first main problem we confronted was a lack of understanding. I feel that our Country Director, Marie-Laure Lepas, has largely spoken on this level. The bodily presence and proximity to the market contributed rather a lot to enabling us to beat this primary robust barrier.
This was not essentially a novelty for us, as now we have been working in a number of different African international locations for a while. But the agility which is one in all our robust values – to not say our DNA – was as soon as once more put to make use of to fulfill this problem.
In your opinion, how essential is efficient communication for companies in West and Central Africa, and how can LAfricaCellular’s platform contribute to their success?
MD: The marketplace for digital communication in Africa may be very fragmented with robust variations. Reaching clients by way of their cell phones stays a problem for African firms and establishments because of three main constraints:
- The expertise combine is dispersed with 62% of customers on 2G expertise, 34% on 3G and solely 4% on 4 or 5G.
- Many cell operators provide the identical communication merchandise and function independently with out built-in platforms or companies.
- A good portion of cell customers have low literacy ranges and a choice for voice companies in native African languages.
LAfricaCellular addresses every of the communication bottlenecks recognized above by providing an all-in-one multi-channel answer together with a disruptive native language answer.
Looking to the long run, what are your plans for the expansion and enlargement of LAfricaCellular, and how do you see the corporate evolving to fulfill the altering wants of purchasers in the area?
MD: Our mission is to assist all African firms to create a robust connection with their very own clients in order that they will develop their companies. Today, we’re primarily in West and Central Africa. But I’m not afraid to inform you that our ambition is continental. We are conscious of the particular challenges in our continent however we depend on agility and proximity with our clients to fulfill these challenges.
Can you inform us about your background and the way you grew to become concerned in the startup scene in Kinshasa?
Marie-Laure Lepas: Coming from the sphere of selling with my first diploma, I then obtained a grasp’s diploma from ICHEC Brussels Management School from which I reoriented myself in direction of the sphere of finance. I labored as a Finance and Audit Manager and then as a Fraud and Corruption Risk Manager in a European administration division with a deal with mission monitoring.
But conscious of the significance of recent applied sciences and the digital divide affecting Africa and girls, and impacting their place in the economic system, and I made it my dissertation subject. In 2018, I launched an initiative to carry primary digital training to deprived girls.
After that, I had the chance to work as a Financial Input Manager in the negotiation and implementation of worldwide initiatives in the sphere of telecommunications and digital expertise. Through its imaginative and prescient and values, LAfricaCellular has met my mission to take part in the event of Africa, right here by means of tech.
What has been your main achievement since LAfricaCellular began operations in Kinshasa, and how does it mirror the corporate’s mission and imaginative and prescient?
ML: LAfricaCellular’s imaginative and prescient is to make the cell phone progress driver in Africa. Currently, our major achievements in Kinshasa revolve round our collaborations with a number of gamers in the banking sector and fintechs whose merchandise immediately tackle the wants of Kinshasa and the Congolese inhabitants in basic. This brings options that reply to their difficulties and thus contribute to enhancing their well-being.
Suitable banking and fintech options, resembling permitting retailers to promote their merchandise by accepting digital funds, permit them to promote extra, and farmers to obtain their funds irrespective of the place they’re situated in distant areas. By offering wonderful service to those entities, we’re fulfilling our mission to assist all companies on the continent to create a robust connection with their very own clients and to develop their companies.
How have purchasers responded to LAfricaCellular’s answer in the market, and what affect has it had on their companies?
ML: LAfricaCellular is a brand new participant in the market in the Democratic Republic of Congo however has almost a decade of expertise in a number of different African and European international locations. The presence of LAfricaCellular, an skilled and licensed firm with a variety of happy clients, has delighted clients in the Congolese market and has been very properly acquired.
Moreover, wholesome competitors between markets and applied sciences is as efficient as that between firms. Indeed, the good thing about the latter is immediately felt by the client because it exerts downward stress on costs but additionally an enchancment in the standard of merchandise and companies supplied.
In your opinion, what are the distinctive challenges and alternatives of managing a startup in Kinshasa, and how have you ever addressed them?
ML: The first problem is the lack of understanding adopted by administrative procedures. The first one was overcome by our direct and day by day presence in the market in addition to proximity to the important thing gamers in the sector (regulators, suppliers, clients, and related firms).
The agility and expertise gained in numerous international locations permit LAfricaCellular to adapt rapidly, with a view to satisfying its clients as greatest as potential. The dimension of the DRC market, and the quite a few wants nonetheless to be met in the sphere of value-added companies in most sectors of exercise: banks, insurance coverage firms, internet companies, logistics, IT companies firms are all alternatives to be seized.
Looking to the long run, what are your plans for the expansion and enlargement of LAfricaCellular’s operations in Kinshasa? And how do you see the corporate persevering with to innovate as you proceed to offer worth to your purchasers?
ML: For this primary yr of operation, our major goal is to stabilise our positioning. Through the distinctiveness of its major worth proposition: an all-in-one, multi-channel, multi-operator, multi-country platform with user-friendly ergonomics and detailed statistics in actual -time, LAfricaCellular has already confirmed its place amongst progressive African firms.
However, in a means of steady enchancment, we frequently overview our answer proposals to adapt them to market wants. Also, now we have a division totally devoted to analysis and growth which permits us to arrange merchandise on the chopping fringe of innovation whereas respecting worldwide norms and requirements. Moreover, LAfricaCellular has obtained a certification from Bureau Veritas: the ISO/IEC 27001, which is the usual for info safety administration programs (ISMS).
…. to be continued
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