Launch / Award Event #64 Building Bridges in Africa in the Digital Age

Summary

This discussion focused on digital platforms connecting private sector businesses with development opportunities in Africa, particularly highlighting the Hefez platform in Egypt. Tamer Taha introduced Hefez as a revolutionary platform bridging information and financial gaps for Egyptian companies seeking to expand into African markets. The platform provides structured information about projects and available financing, making opportunities more accessible to local businesses.

Maneesha Gardizi, representing GIZ, emphasized how such platforms enable smaller and medium-sized companies to access development cooperation projects, fostering innovation and creating a win-win situation. Alan Ananulu shared experiences from iVenture, a platform connecting startups in East and Southern Africa to regional opportunities, highlighting success stories and challenges faced.

The discussion explored how these platforms overcome infrastructure limitations in Africa, with Alan explaining the use of low-level tech and social media to reach entrepreneurs. Tamer introduced a new matchmaking feature on Hefez to enhance engagement between different stakeholders. The conversation also addressed regulatory obstacles, with Maneesha and Alan emphasizing the need for mutual agreements on e-signatures to facilitate cross-border trade and market entry.

An interactive poll revealed audience perspectives on barriers to cross-border collaboration, the role of digital platforms in improving Africa’s investment climate, and sectors needing solutions for development and growth. The discussion concluded with questions from the audience about incorporating venture capital opportunities and strategies for raising awareness about these platforms, especially in rural areas.

Keypoints

Major discussion points:

– The Hefez platform connecting private sector with development partners in Africa

– Challenges and opportunities for intra-African trade and investment

– Digital solutions to overcome infrastructure limitations

– Regulatory obstacles and potential solutions like e-signatures

– Importance of information sharing and trust-building for cross-border collaboration

Overall purpose:

The discussion aimed to explore how digital platforms and solutions can facilitate private sector engagement, cross-border collaboration, and development opportunities in Africa, with a focus on the Hefez platform and similar initiatives.

Tone:

The tone was generally informative and collaborative, with speakers sharing insights from their various perspectives. There was an optimistic undertone about the potential for digital solutions to overcome challenges, but also a realistic acknowledgment of existing obstacles. The tone remained consistent throughout, maintaining a professional and solution-oriented approach to discussing complex regional issues.

Speakers

– Tamer Taha: Representative of the Hefez platform

– Mahitab Assran: Moderator, GIZ Egypt

– Manija Gardizi: Representative from GIZ

– Allan Ananura: Representative of iVenture platform in Uganda

Additional speakers:

– Mariam Walid: Moderator, GIZ Egypt

– Ahmed (no surname available): Audience member from Egypt

Digital Platforms Connecting Private Sector with Development Opportunities in Africa

This comprehensive discussion explored the role of digital platforms in connecting private sector businesses with development opportunities across Africa, with a particular focus on the Hefez platform in Egypt. The conversation brought together representatives from various sectors, including Tamer Taha from Hefez, Manija Gardizi from GIZ, and Allan Ananulu from iVenture in Uganda, moderated by Mahitab Assran.

Introduction to Digital Platforms

Tamer Taha introduced Hefez as a revolutionary platform designed to bridge information and financial gaps for Egyptian companies seeking to expand into African markets. The platform provides structured information about projects and available financing, making opportunities more accessible to local businesses. This addresses a crucial challenge highlighted by Taha: “Actually they’re like Egypt and the Egyptian private sector have a lot of opportunities and potential to expand to the African region especially in sectors that we know Egyptian companies are competitive in like construction and manufacturing and so on yet there was a challenge on who to talk to in Africa or in any other country”.

Manija Gardizi, representing GIZ, emphasised the importance of such platforms in enabling smaller and medium-sized companies to access development cooperation projects. She noted, “For us as GIZ it was very very important to enable access actually also to smaller and medium-sized companies since in the development sector a lot of same and similar players and it’s basically often a dozen of them and the big ones like McKinsey etc are actually using the bidding and the tender situation of development companies”. This perspective highlights how digital platforms can foster innovation and create a more inclusive environment for businesses of all sizes.

Allan Ananulu shared experiences from iVenture, a platform connecting startups in East and Southern Africa to regional opportunities. He highlighted the success story of Marifa Sasa, a startup that offers future feed trainings to young people, as an example of how iVenture’s platform has facilitated growth and expansion for businesses.

Overcoming Infrastructure Limitations

The discussion explored various approaches to overcoming infrastructure limitations in Africa. Allan Ananulu explained iVenture’s strategy: “How we’ve been able to overcome this challenge is number one, to use low-level tech, not real-time tech. That means you get to post these opportunities on the platforms where these entrepreneurs are even in their leisure. For instance, Facebook”. This approach demonstrates the innovative ways platforms are adapting to reach entrepreneurs in areas with limited internet access.

Tamer Taha introduced a new matchmaking feature on Hefez to enhance engagement between different stakeholders. This feature aims to connect businesses with relevant opportunities and partners, further addressing the challenge of connecting businesses with opportunities.

Regulatory Obstacles and Solutions

The conversation addressed regulatory obstacles, with Manija Gardizi and Allan Ananulu emphasising the need for mutual agreements on e-signatures to facilitate cross-border trade and market entry. Gardizi stated, “From a very, very clear legislation perspective, the governments need to be here on board, and the governments basically need to have a mutual recognition of their own different e-signatures in order to facilitate more trade opportunities for these small, medium and large-sized business entrepreneurs”.

Allan Ananulu highlighted the challenges faced by startups when entering new markets, particularly in understanding different regulatory environments. Tamer Taha suggested the implementation of soft landing programs to help entrepreneurs navigate these challenges when expanding across borders.

Audience Perspectives and Concerns

An interactive poll revealed audience perspectives on the role of digital platforms in improving Africa’s investment climate. The audience identified South-South collaboration as the main way digital platforms can improve the investment climate in Africa. Additionally, traditional industries were identified as the sector most in need of solutions to bridge the gap to relevant opportunities.

Questions from the audience raised important points about incorporating venture capital opportunities and strategies for raising awareness about these platforms, especially in rural areas. In response, Tamer Taha mentioned Hefez’s plans to work on capacity building with businesses, focusing on how to write solid proposals for development partners.

Conclusion

The discussion provided a comprehensive overview of how digital platforms like Hefez and iVenture are transforming private sector engagement in development across Africa. While challenges remain, particularly in infrastructure and regulation, there is a strong consensus on the potential of these platforms to create more inclusive and innovative approaches to development cooperation in the region. The conversation highlighted the importance of adapting to local conditions, such as using low-tech solutions and social media platforms to reach entrepreneurs in areas with limited internet access. The speakers emphasized the need for continued collaboration between various stakeholders, including governments, development agencies, and the private sector, to fully realize the potential of digital solutions in fostering intra-African trade and development.

Tamer Taha: especially in our region. I will leave you with the QR codes if you would like to have a look on the on the platform and I’m looking forward to discussing with you about the platform and the private sector engagement in general. Thank you so much.

Mahitab Assran: Thank you Temer for the presentation and it’s it’s a very impressive platform the first of its kind I would say in in the region and maybe in the world connecting the private sector with development partners who previously would not be able to access such opportunities. So I can start with the first question with you Temer. How do you how do you I mean Hefez as as a revolutionary platform how would does it leverage these digital solutions to provide the private sector in Egypt specifically on the underserved sectors and underserved regions with opportunities from Africa and from the world?

Tamer Taha: Thanks for your question. Actually they’re like Egypt and the Egyptian private sector have a lot of opportunities and potential to expand to the African region especially in sectors that we know Egyptian companies are competitive in like construction and manufacturing and so on yet there was a challenge on who to talk to in Africa or in any other country and we worked with some different partners in terms of getting more information about the opportunities and the need for let’s say projects to be supported or implemented by companies by local by the private sector in general and I have been I show one example which is the ORA project in Grenada and the idea is to just find the right partner who has the right information try to translate this information in a language that can be understood by the local business and inform the local business in some way that the this is the project and this is the potential financing for the project available from the development partner and connecting the dots and I think it’s it’s always a matter of a gap an informational gap and a financial gap so the beauty of the platform it has filled in both gaps so it when when you visit the platform you’ll find a list of projects but also a list of financial entities who are available and who would support the implementation of the project whether in terms of guarantees whether in terms of financing the project and having a tender so companies can apply for the tender and it’s almost guaranteed that financing is almost guaranteed so in a nutshell I think what we did we the information was there we gathered the information in a well-structured way so that the companies can benefit from it and encourage also inform the companies or the existence of such platform and we saw a lot of companies for the first time they knew about the existence of such financial instruments the existence of such opportunities and it helped them really to expand more broadly and more regionally and the benefit from the existing tools.

Mahitab Assran: That’s fantastic. From the other side of the table here we have Manisha Gardizi representing a development partner that uses the Hafez platform and here it’s interesting to hear the other side my first question to you is how do you feel like Hafez platform has better served you as development partner and the second part of the question would be how do you think such a platform can guarantee equal access to all levels of businesses small, large, located in a big city, located in a small rural village.

Manesha Gardizi: Thanks a lot Mahitab. For us as GIZ it was very very important to enable access actually also to smaller and medium-sized companies since in the development sector a lot of same and similar players and it’s basically often a dozen of them and the big ones like McKinsey etc are actually using the bidding and the tender situation of development companies. So in the end of the day for us it was predominantly the idea behind of this matchmaking platform to enable access and equal access actually to a lot of smaller players in the bigger field of development cooperation and I think this is very much also the case if we are speaking about all the six different sectors in development cooperation if it’s education or we are speaking about digitalization or support of the private sector but also energy and climate all the different sectors often are in the hand of a dozen development consulting agencies. For this reason we think this has got a twofold perspective of supporting the countrywide or Africa wide even business market. On the one side you’re supporting small and medium enterprises which would normally never understand about the existence even of such a development cooperation and order finance platform or order finance projects because they normally never get in touch with this sector. On the other side you also enable an access of and also a sustainable kind of facility of opening this market to a various setup of smaller startups for instance. We saw startups which actually never cooperated with development actors and for this reason now they entered the market and we can foster innovation in a much bigger size also in our development projects. So I think it’s like a very perfected win-win situation for both sides of the party.

Mahitab Assran: Thank you Maneesha. Our third question is to Mr. Alan Ananulu, our virtual participant. Can we see him here on the screen? Alan could you turn on your camera? We should be able to see you. Before I ask you the question I just want to make sure that the participants here can see you. Hi Alan, yes we hear you but we still cannot see you. Oh I’ve switched it on, I don’t know. Let’s just give the technical team here a minute. Yeah well I could start with a question. Speaking Maneesha of small and medium enterprises and small startups, my question to you. Yes Alan, yes we well we see you in the top corner. Yes. Yeah. They’re working on it. We can almost see you now, almost. Okay so speaking of small and medium enterprises, your platform connects startups, small and medium enterprises in East and Southern Africa. to opportunities in the region. If you can tell us more about this initiative, and also if you can share with us a success story of how these startups have successfully collaborated together. Yes, finally, we see you on screen. Go ahead.

Speaker 1: Yes, it’s a pleasure to join in from Uganda. A good afternoon to you all. Yes, straight to the question. iVenture has been able to connect a startup called Marifa Sasa to opportunities in Southern Africa, in Botswana and Southern Africa to be specific. Some of the issues that we’ve faced, of course, barriers to entry and a lack of acceptance into the community with government support and that type of thing, which has been tremendous challenge for us. However, we’ve tried to address it through, number one, digitizing the services and trying to work remotely, which doesn’t nearly cut it as much as a physical interaction would do. But yes, we’ve had success with Marifa Sasa, which offers future feed trainings to young people. Future feed trainings are marketable jobs that they get to access as soon as they finish these courses that are offered on Marifa Sasa. And that’s one huge success that we’ve had. Thank you.

Mahitab Assran: Another question to you. Hello. Yes, can you hear us?

Speaker 1: Yes, yes, yes, I can hear you.

Mahitab Assran: All right, I have another question to you, Alan. Now, Africa as a continent has varying levels of infrastructure, not all countries and regions within even the same country are the same. How do you think digital infrastructure as well as physical infrastructure, so how do you think such digital solutions and digital platforms like iVenture, which I mean, if you can give us a minute and explain it to the audience, how do you think such platforms overcome these obstacles of lack of infrastructure sometimes and reach these underserved communities?

Speaker 1: Yes, that’s a beautiful question. And a big hurdle that I’m sure that even Haifa has faced since its launch. How we’ve been able to overcome this challenge is number one, to use low-level tech, not real-time tech. That means you get to post these opportunities on the platforms where these entrepreneurs are even in their leisure. For instance, Facebook. A lot of these entrepreneurs in Uganda specifically and East Africa are on Facebook a lot even in their leisure. So one way we’ve been able to overcome that is to put these opportunities there. But we’ve also been able to, that is essentially leveraging technology, but we’ve also been able to use things like WhatsApp, which we use to broadcast these opportunities to startups and SMEs. So it’s the leveraging of technology, which even in its low level of penetration, I mean, at least once a week, somebody will be able to get access to Wi-Fi or internet access. Maybe not daily, but somewhere, somehow they will get access to this information once they get onto social media, even in the lowest of the low internet-penetrating places. Thank you.

Mahitab Assran: Thank you, Alan. My next question is to you. You’ve told us that there is a new feature that’s going to be added to Hefez, a matchmaking feature. Can you tell us more about this feature?

Tamer Taha: Sure. After launching, we received a lot of requests, especially from the private sector and also other governments, especially in Africa, that they want to see products that they are looking for a partnership with the private sector, whether as implementers or as a triple-B private partnership and so on. From the other side, sometimes the government is looking to engage with the private sector, not as a service provider, but as a partner, as a partner who can not necessarily implement the product, but participate in a certain project with their expertise or their in-kind contribution and so on. So we thought of, in order to enhance the engagement and the dialogue between the different corners of the pyramid, whether the government partners, the private sector, or development partners, are looking actually for bankable projects and bankable partnerships between the government and the private sector. So we thought of having this business matchmaking hub, where any partner can think of an idea and a project, and they explain exactly what is this product about and what kind of partnership are they looking for. Are they looking for a financial partner who can finance and provide financing to the product? Are they looking for a government partner to implement the product? And they have, especially for startups, they have a technology, a certain technology that they want to have implemented by the government and to be piloted in a certain area and so on. So there are different types of partnerships, and this matchmaking hub should be able to, from one side, list what kind of requests exist, whether coming from the companies or coming from the government and so on, and what are the details, what is the… It shows also what some metrics, what is the ROI, what is the size of the product, what’s in which sector. So if I’m a company and I’m looking for a certain product in a certain sector, I can see a list of relevant products in my sector. Again, it’s all about creating a platform for venture partnerships and potential dialogue, and it’s all about also filling the information gap.

Mahitab Assran: Thank you, Taimur. Actually, just to both Maneesha and Alan, we can get him back on the screen. So maybe Maneesha, if you can maybe first start first. My question is, there are regulatory and legislative obstacles, or let’s say steps still to be taken. in order to better support intra-African trade and investment. In your opinion, what more in terms of regulation could be done to support private sector enterprises, regardless of their size, in intra-African trade?

Manesha Gardizi: Thanks a lot for the question. From a development perspective, and as a development partner for us, it’s quite interesting to have a more sustainable situation here. For this, we basically need more mutual agreements, for instance, like on e-signature. We think that the digital signature or the e-signature is an absolute way forward for a new, let’s say, more sustainable cooperation on a bilateral level, but also on a regional level for the different trade companies and also for different consulting agencies, but also for the ODA players from a general perspective. From a very, very clear legislation perspective, the governments need to be here on board, and the governments basically need to have a mutual recognition of their own different e-signatures in order to facilitate more trade opportunities for these small, medium and large-sized business entrepreneurs. For this reason, I think this is one of the prerequisites if we’re speaking about a pan-African perspective of how to foster an improved system for the platform logics and also for e-trade in general, and this would be basically my first suggestion. Thank you.

Mahitab Assran: Adam, I think some of your partners and your beneficiaries have had some experience actually attempting e-signature, so can you tell us more about your perspective?

Speaker 1: Yes. For sure, an e-signature would take us a long way, push the needle, if you like, in the right way to achieve scalability, because in my sector, which I’m most familiar with, I deal with a lot of startups which are characterized by, number one, the ability to scale and scale far and wide. So entry into new markets has been a big hurdle for us as entrepreneurs who would like to enter new territories. There are already issues of cultural norms that you have to understand. For instance, if I was to come and start selling in Egypt, there are already cultural norms which I would need to first understand as an entrepreneur. So when these other non-tariff barriers like market entry restrictions get in the way, it becomes quite a problem. Again, we’ve faced that in South Africa, where entrepreneurs even have a hard time getting a visa from Uganda getting into South Africa, just to start the conversation of understanding the culture, and that has been quite a bit of a problem. And yet, conversely, just neighboring Kenya, Kenyans can get into South Africa without a visa, so there’s a bit of an issue. And yet, if this e-signature was made available, then maybe we wouldn’t need visas and all these issues, and it would ease market entry and growth, for sure, for SMEs and startups who would like to scale and explore these new markets. Yes, those are my thoughts.

Tamer Taha: Depending on what Manija and Alan mentioned, I think there is a huge opportunity for the local platforms to connect together. What Alan mentioned, we’re discussing it also on a national level in terms of our startup policies, how to have soft landing programs where entrepreneurs from Alan’s network can come and know more about the regulatory environment in Egypt, how they can have incentives to expand their technologies or partner with local startups in Egypt. And I think it’s all about the trust, and access to information. And I think having such platforms, even if they’re digital in the beginning, but they can create long-lasting relationships that would actually enhance the inter-African trade, because we don’t need to build a lot of infrastructure, especially in the sectors that are tradable and that can be expanded fast, like startups and technologies.

Mahitab Assran: Thank you, Tamer. I think we’ll wrap up this part of our session. We now have an interactive exercise to do together. We’d like to hear from our audience your view on this topic. Mariam, yes, if you can share your screen and the QR code. Thank you for your support in moderating this online, Mariam. Thank you. Fantastic. So, we have a QR code here. You would like to scan it. There’s three poll questions that you can answer. Help us participate. The first question, I’ll read it aloud to you. What do you see as the main barriers to cross-border collaboration with regards to the private sector in Africa? The first answer or the first choice is legislation, infrastructure, lack of connectivity, or another option that you can add. We can’t view the other answers. We can’t see others, so let’s go for infrastructure. The second question, I’ll read it out. How can digital platforms improve the investment climate in Africa? We have three options of South-South collaboration, localization of funds, and fostering innovation. Thank you. Okay, I think the answers are coming in a very specific direction of South-South collaboration. Okay, shall we move on to our third question? Read it out. Read it out. So the third question is, which stakeholders or sectors do you think need solutions to bridge the gap to their relevant opportunities with the aim of further development and growth? Civil society, traditional industries, agriculture, or other? Okay. So far we have 100% on traditional industries. Very clear choice. All right. Thank you, Mariam. Ah, we have competing starting agriculture, so we give it a minute for more answers to come in. I think we still have a winner with traditional industries. Okay, so to wrap up this part of the session, are there any questions to our panelists? You can also turn on your camera, so if anyone wants to ask you a question. Also, if you want to go ahead and enter any of your questions in the chat, I can ask if anyone wants to unmute and ask a question. You can type your answers directly. We have a question here. Thank you. Just introduce yourself. Go ahead and take my mic if you wish.

Audience: It’s working now. Thank you very much. My name is Ahmed. I’m from Egypt. Thank you very much for the presentations. HAFES sounds like a wonderful platform. As a startup ecosystem, I was wondering if HAFES also incorporates opportunities that are provided by venture capitalists or angel investors, or is this something done on a separate platform? My other question is, I’m sure the information was done very neatly, but there’s always challenges. You mentioned making the tool for its users. I was wondering if you were, in collaboration with GIZ, spreading the word through a media campaign, some targeted door-knocking, especially in the rural areas of Upper Egypt, to make SMEs aware of this platform. Thank you.

Tamer Taha: Thanks a lot, Ahmed, for your important questions. Regarding the first question, as I mentioned, the development partners play an important role in the startup ecosystem, whether through funding investments, VCs who invest in Egyptian startups, or by providing capacity building, and also provide knowledge about certain sectors. What we do at HAFES, all the services, whether financial or capacity building, are divided by type of beneficiary. There’s always a category for startups, so they can check which type of financing or what type of opportunity is available. Around 90% of the opportunities are targeting startups, actually, and early-stage businesses, because they are the ones who need the most in terms of capacity building and so on. Regarding your second question, this is exactly what we’re going to do in 2025. We’re going to have roadshows across the country in partnership with business associations, chamber of commerce, and so on. All the governments will have a big media campaign, because we recognize that not everybody knows about the platform. Once they know, they say, okay, why didn’t I know about it before? Adding to this, what we heard also from the participants or the users of the platform, they said, okay, I’ve checked the tender, or I applied for this opportunity, but I wasn’t accepted. Another bigger company or a company with more experience have actually competed with me, and they got the contract, or they got the financial result. What we’re going to do, in addition to awareness, we’re also working on capacity building with businesses on how to have a solid proposal and how to write a proposal that would be of interest for the development partner to support. This will be done in the next year. We have a plan for this, and hopefully, we know the ecosystem, especially for startups and also for SMEs.

Mahitab Assran: For our online participants, I know there’s an issue with the audio now. We’re working on it, but if you want to send us your questions in the chat, I can read it out to our speakers. I’ll maybe give it a few minutes, and if any of our participants here have any questions. All right, then. Thank you to our speakers. Thank you, Alan, for joining us from Uganda and for your valuable insights. Thank you for having me. It’s been a real pleasure. Thank you. I invite anyone who would like to partner in accessing the East Africa market to reach out to you, and then maybe you will be able to connect them. Yes, for sure. Alan, thank you, Manisha. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you for your insights. It’s a pleasure having you. Thank you for our audience. Thank you all. Bye. Bye.

Agreement Points

Digital platforms enhance private sector engagement in development

Tamer Taha

Manija Gardizi

Speaker 1

Hefez platform bridges information and financial gaps

Platform enables access for smaller players in development cooperation

iVenture connects startups to opportunities across Africa

All speakers agree that digital platforms play a crucial role in connecting private sector businesses, especially smaller players and startups, with development opportunities across Africa.

Need for improved regulatory frameworks to facilitate cross-border collaboration

Manija Gardizi

Speaker 1

Need for mutual agreements on e-signatures to facilitate trade

E-signatures would help startups scale across borders

Both speakers emphasize the importance of implementing e-signatures and mutual agreements to facilitate cross-border trade and collaboration for businesses in Africa.

Similar Viewpoints

Both speakers highlight the potential of digital solutions to overcome infrastructure limitations and enhance inter-African trade, particularly for startups and technologies.

Tamer Taha

Speaker 1

Digital solutions overcome infrastructure limitations

Connecting local platforms can enhance inter-African trade

Unexpected Consensus

Focus on smaller enterprises and startups

Tamer Taha

Manija Gardizi

Speaker 1

Platform enables access for smaller players in development cooperation

Platforms foster innovation by enabling startups to enter development market

iVenture connects startups to opportunities across Africa

There was an unexpected consensus among all speakers on the importance of focusing on smaller enterprises and startups in development cooperation. This emphasis on smaller players challenges the traditional dominance of large, established companies in the sector.

Overall Assessment

Summary

The main areas of agreement include the importance of digital platforms in connecting private sector to development opportunities, the need for improved regulatory frameworks to facilitate cross-border collaboration, and the focus on smaller enterprises and startups in development cooperation.

Consensus level

There is a high level of consensus among the speakers on the potential of digital platforms to transform private sector engagement in development across Africa. This consensus implies a strong foundation for future collaboration and policy-making in this area, potentially leading to more inclusive and innovative approaches to development cooperation in the region.

Different Viewpoints

Approach to overcoming infrastructure limitations

Tamer Taha

Speaker 1

Hefez platform bridges information and financial gaps

Digital solutions overcome infrastructure limitations

While Tamer Taha focuses on bridging information and financial gaps through a comprehensive platform, Speaker 1 emphasizes using low-level tech and social media to overcome infrastructure limitations.

Unexpected Differences

Overall Assessment

summary

The main areas of disagreement were minor and primarily focused on different approaches to addressing infrastructure limitations and the specific implementation of e-signatures.

difference_level

The level of disagreement among the speakers was relatively low. Most speakers presented complementary views on improving private sector engagement in development and facilitating intra-African trade. The differences in approach reflect the diverse perspectives of development partners, platform providers, and startup representatives, which could lead to more comprehensive solutions when combined.

Partial Agreements

Both speakers agree on the importance of e-signatures for facilitating trade and expansion, but Manija Gardizi emphasizes the need for government-level mutual agreements, while Speaker 1 focuses on the benefits for startups scaling across borders.

Manija Gardizi

Speaker 1

Need for mutual agreements on e-signatures to facilitate trade

E-signatures would help startups scale across borders

Similar Viewpoints

Both speakers highlight the potential of digital solutions to overcome infrastructure limitations and enhance inter-African trade, particularly for startups and technologies.

Tamer Taha

Speaker 1

Digital solutions overcome infrastructure limitations

Connecting local platforms can enhance inter-African trade

Key Takeaways

Digital platforms like Hefez and iVenture are playing a crucial role in connecting private sector businesses, especially SMEs and startups, to development opportunities across Africa

These platforms help overcome information gaps and infrastructure limitations, enabling broader participation in development projects

There is a need for regulatory improvements, particularly around e-signatures, to facilitate intra-African trade and investment

Collaboration between local platforms and soft landing programs can enhance inter-African trade and help businesses expand across borders

Awareness campaigns and capacity building for SMEs are necessary to maximize the impact of these digital platforms

Resolutions and Action Items

Hefez to implement a new matchmaking feature to enhance partnerships between different stakeholders

Hefez to conduct roadshows across Egypt in 2025 to raise awareness about the platform

Hefez to provide capacity building for businesses on writing solid proposals for development partners

Unresolved Issues

How to address varying levels of digital infrastructure across different African countries and regions

How to ensure equal access to opportunities for businesses in rural or underserved areas

How to overcome cultural and regulatory differences when expanding businesses across African borders

Suggested Compromises

Using low-level tech and social media platforms to reach entrepreneurs in areas with limited internet access

Creating soft landing programs to help entrepreneurs understand regulatory environments in different countries

Actually they’re like Egypt and the Egyptian private sector have a lot of opportunities and potential to expand to the African region especially in sectors that we know Egyptian companies are competitive in like construction and manufacturing and so on yet there was a challenge on who to talk to in Africa or in any other country

speaker

Tamer Taha

reason

This comment highlights a key challenge in cross-border business expansion and sets up the need for platforms like Hefez.

impact

It framed the discussion around the importance of information sharing and networking across African countries, leading to further exploration of how digital platforms can address these challenges.

For us as GIZ it was very very important to enable access actually also to smaller and medium-sized companies since in the development sector a lot of same and similar players and it’s basically often a dozen of them and the big ones like McKinsey etc are actually using the bidding and the tender situation of development companies.

speaker

Manija Gardizi

reason

This insight reveals the current imbalance in access to development opportunities and the need for more inclusive platforms.

impact

It shifted the conversation to focus on how digital platforms can level the playing field for smaller businesses, leading to discussion of specific features and benefits of such platforms.

How we’ve been able to overcome this challenge is number one, to use low-level tech, not real-time tech. That means you get to post these opportunities on the platforms where these entrepreneurs are even in their leisure. For instance, Facebook.

speaker

Allan Ananulu

reason

This comment provides a practical solution to the challenge of limited digital infrastructure in some African regions.

impact

It broadened the discussion to include innovative ways of reaching underserved communities and highlighted the importance of adapting to local conditions.

From a very, very clear legislation perspective, the governments need to be here on board, and the governments basically need to have a mutual recognition of their own different e-signatures in order to facilitate more trade opportunities for these small, medium and large-sized business entrepreneurs.

speaker

Manija Gardizi

reason

This comment identifies a specific regulatory challenge and potential solution for enhancing cross-border trade.

impact

It steered the conversation towards the role of government and policy in facilitating digital trade, leading to further discussion on regulatory obstacles and potential solutions.

Overall Assessment

These key comments shaped the discussion by highlighting the main challenges in cross-border collaboration and trade in Africa, such as information gaps, unequal access to opportunities, infrastructure limitations, and regulatory barriers. They also introduced potential solutions through digital platforms, innovative tech approaches, and policy changes. The discussion evolved from identifying problems to exploring practical solutions and considering the roles of various stakeholders in implementing these solutions. This progression provided a comprehensive view of the complexities involved in enhancing private sector engagement across Africa and the potential of digital platforms to address these challenges.

How can digital platforms like Hefez and iVenture overcome obstacles of lack of infrastructure to reach underserved communities?

speaker

Mahitab Assran

explanation

This question addresses the challenge of varying levels of infrastructure across Africa and how digital solutions can be adapted to reach areas with limited connectivity.

What more can be done in terms of regulation to support private sector enterprises in intra-African trade?

speaker

Mahitab Assran

explanation

This question explores the regulatory and legislative steps needed to better facilitate trade and investment between African countries.

How can e-signatures be implemented across African countries to facilitate trade and cooperation?

speaker

Manija Gardizi

explanation

The implementation of e-signatures was suggested as a way to improve sustainable cooperation and trade opportunities on a bilateral and regional level.

How can soft landing programs be developed to help entrepreneurs expand into new African markets?

speaker

Tamer Taha

explanation

This area for research focuses on creating programs to help entrepreneurs learn about regulatory environments in different African countries and partner with local startups.

Does the Hefez platform incorporate opportunities provided by venture capitalists or angel investors?

speaker

Ahmed (audience member)

explanation

This question seeks to understand the scope of financial opportunities available on the Hefez platform, particularly for startups.

How will awareness of the Hefez platform be increased, especially in rural areas?

speaker

Ahmed (audience member)

explanation

This question addresses the need for outreach and communication strategies to ensure widespread knowledge and use of the platform.

How can businesses be better prepared to compete for opportunities on platforms like Hefez?

speaker

Tamer Taha

explanation

This area for further research involves developing capacity-building programs to help businesses create more competitive proposals for development partner opportunities.