Grace Ashiru
More than 88,500 telecom operators, entrepreneurs, corporations, and governmental institutions came to the event in Barcelona to network and make relationships that matter through connectivity.
The event is put on by GSMA, a group of mobile network carriers from around the world. In September, the International Trade Centre (ITC) and GSMA started a Working Group to help more small companies in underdeveloped nations connect to the internet.
The 4YFN innovation hall had firms from Benin, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. The name stems from the idea of looking to the future, or “4 Years From Now.”
Sparco, a Zambian startup, received first place in a global pitch competition for financial technology startups.
For African tech startups, the exhibition offered a chance to find new business prospects and show the world what Africa has to offer regarding technology. Technology increases financial inclusion and connects people to digital services. This is especially true in Africa, where many people use mobile money instead of traditional banks.
The ITC Pavilion companies use financial technology (fintech) and marketing technology. (martech). By traveling to Barcelona, the businesses were able to attract more attention and strengthen their partnerships or relationships with telecoms.
Beem in Tanzania and LAfricaMobile in Senegal are marketing platforms that give individuals access to several services that assist businesses in improving their client communications.
In Uganda, Sparco, ChapChap, and GnuGrid make getting financial services and credit scores easier. In Benin, FedaPay does the same thing.
Sparco and ChapChap were asked to pitch at the main Fintech Battle competition. They were up against Austrian and Spanish startups. By winning the competition, Sparco got a lot of good coverage, qualified for the 2024 edition, and met more investors.
The ITC Pavilion, centrally located at the event, provided startups with easy access to influential players in the mobile and connectivity industries, facilitating connections and business opportunities.
For businesses that already had clients and partners in Europe, the event helped them become even more rooted in the European market and solidified their relationships with those clients and partners.
Granryd Mats, the head of GSMA, talked to the team about their continuous cooperation with ITC, which puts small enterprises at the center of connectivity and highlights how fintechs and mobile money help people in Africa access financial services.
The work of the startups is altering the tech business in Africa by fixing challenges, including a lack of access to credit scores, a high number of people who don’t have bank accounts, and a deep digital gap. African startups may show the world what they can do by sharing their work at international events like 4YFN.
We are so happy that we were able to go to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where we saw amazing new developments in 5G technology, AI, the Internet of Things, and more.
Anata Ba, LAfricaMobile’s head of sales, said The greatest method to compare products, technologies, and solutions that can be profitable for our region across all developments is to attend the event. As we seek to connect the people of Africa with the rest of the globe, we have also encountered tremendous potential customers and prospects. Now on to work to materialize all this!” Source
