Africa

1. Smartphone schools
2. Scarce student visas
3. Getting ticketed
4. Spray on kicks
5. Nollywood’s newbie

Also, parsing NBA’s close relationship with Rwanda’s Paul Kagame.

Hello! Welcome to Semafor Africa Weekend. These days there’s plenty of talk, and even some research, about the increasingly important role of Africa’s creative industries in the development journey. No major African development conference seems complete these days without a couple of panels about the entertainment sector or the potential of the sports industry. This is obviously a positive thing but it’s only the start.

These creative businesses have often been built organically but over time there’ll be a need for additional infrastructure or partnerships to operate on a pan-African or global stage. One way that might happen is through mergers and acquisitions such as the story we have below of Ticketmaster buying a South African ticketing company. Ticketmaster will likely invest in building out infrastructure beyond just South Africa over time. Needless to say, ticketing is a crucial part of the live entertainment industry.

Creative industries, like other sectors, will also benefit from greater competition and more seasoned operators. We see that in another story in this edition of a co-founder of FilmHouse, one of Nollywood’s most influential players, setting up shop on his own and thereby creating a rival to his former team. More of this, please.

🟡 The biggest story out of Nigeria for the past week has been the clash between billionaire industrialist Aliko Dangote and the country’s oil industry regulators, as Alexander explained here. He also looked at the mind boggling $220 million privacy abuse fine for Facebook/WhatsApp parent, Meta. Meanwhile, Martin looked into how major pharmaceutical companies are working with African authorities to boost early cancer interventions.

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Smartphones power learning in Africa

The share of learners in sub-Saharan Africa who used smartphones and tablets to access courses on digital learning platform Coursera. It was the highest rate among all regions covered in the company’s 2024 Global Skills Report. Many learners on the continent are developing technical skills, including in coding and IT, as well as business skills like auditing and risk management. The report highlights the need to expand internet access on the continent to accelerate skills development and lower youth unemployment. The majority of Africa’s internet traffic comes from smartphones, noted researchers.

Africa topped US student visa denials in 2023

Nearly 60% of all students from African countries who applied to study at universities in the United States last year were denied the requisite F-1 visa by the State Department, according to a new report. The denial rate for students from Africa was the highest among all regions but the US State Department insists it has in fact granted more visas in aggregate to African students than ever before.

Countries that saw denial rates rise by 10 percentage points or more in 2023 were all located in Africa and Asia. Southern Africa notably recorded a much lower denial rate of 19%, compared to the continent’s overall 57% denial rate. With the exception of South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Lesotho, denial rates for students from Africa have been increasing steadily since 2015, when the overall rate stood at 43%.

The new report was by non-profits Shorelight and the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration.

A State Department spokesperson, however, told University World News that 2023 saw the highest ever number of student and exchange visas issued to African countries in its history and 61% more than pre-pandemic 2019. “Our embassies and consulates in Nigeria, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Eswatini, Côte d’Ivoire and Madagascar all issued more student visas in 2023 than in any year in the past two decades,” the spokesperson reportedly said.

— Martin K.N. Siele

Ticketmaster acquires South Africa’s Quicket

US ticketing giant Ticketmaster acquired Quicket, a 13-year-old Cape Town-based ticketing company, to expand its footprint in Africa. Ticketmaster began operations in South Africa in 2022 but this deal will enable it to leverage Quicket’s local expertise in other countries including Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda and Zambia, the company said. The companies did not disclose the acquisition figure.

The companies said Quicket will remain a standalone business and benefit from Ticketmaster’s global presence and technological capabilities, such as the use of secure encryption for tickets.Ticketmaster is part of Live Nation Entertainment, the biggest live entertainment business in the world.

As Africa’s middle class grows and live performance becomes a much bigger part of the music industry’s revenue, there has been a push to build out local live industry infrastructure. Semafor Africa reported in January that advocacy group Global Citizen is building a pan-African ticketing platform to make it easier for international and African artists to plan their tours around the continent rather than the current “siloed” model with each country having multiple systems.

— Alexander Onukwue

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Spraying on Kenyan success

Kenya’s Hellen Obiri, the champion marathon runner and two-time Olympic silver medalist, is set to debut “sprayed on” running shoes at this year’s Paris Olympics. The new Cloudboom Strike LS shoes are made by Swiss sportswear company On. Obiri wore a development version of the shoes this April when she won the Boston Marathon for the second year running.

LS stands for LightSpray because a robot arm sprays the shoe’s entire upper part onto a foot form in just three minutes, spinning 1.5 kilometers of filament onto a racing midsole. The robot arm then passes the shoe along to another robot that sprays it with color. After curing in just three minutes, the shoes are ready to wear.

The lace-less shoes are designed to conform to users’ feet and eliminate distractions, the makers say. The sneaker also maintains a weight of just 170 grams. Marc Maurer, co-CEO of On, argued that the shoe represents a step towards “a more sustainable, circular future.”

— Martin

Nollywood’s newest player is a veteran

Nigeria’s film and television sector is set to welcome Nile Entertainment Group, a production and distribution outfit founded by Moses Babatope, one of Nollywood’s most prolific producers and investors of the past decade.

The company, based in Lagos and London, launches with a planned film production arm, international distribution, and a cinema chain. It also expects to set up a film village for productions. Nile will be led by a mostly female team of seasoned executives whose past work cuts across film, TV, and marketing.

Babatope co-founded FilmHouse Group and helped build what has become West Africa’s largest cinema chain. The group’s FilmOne division has made some of Nigeria’s top grossing films, including the 2016 comedy blockbuster The Wedding Party. It also has exclusive distribution rights with various Hollywood studios.

With Nile, Babatope is setting out to “create films that entertain, enlighten, and empower audiences of all backgrounds,” a statement said, ostensibly making it a FilmHouse rival.

— Alexander

Weekend Reads

🇷🇼 How does Rwanda’s multimillion-dollar investments in basketball and its vaunted NBA partnership stack up against President Paul Kagame’s human rights record and democratic credentials? In an essay for ESPN, Mark Fainaru-Wada traces Kagame’s relationship with NBA commissioner Adam Silver amid increasingly loud criticism of sports washing.

🇰🇪 Washington’s dalliance with Kenya’s embattled President William Ruto is put under the spotlight by Foreign Affairs. While the close connection with Ruto was a mistake, according to Michelle Gavin, it now means the US has to double down on Kenya and Ruto even as American influence on the continent wanes.

🌍 The expansion of Russia’s Orthodox church in Africa and its contribution to Moscow’s soft power is the subject of an analysis by the United States Institute for Peace. Moscow said last year it had established 200 parishes in 25 African countries. It has also recruited African priests, offering them higher pay and pledging investment in schools, hospitals and churches.

🇿🇲 The New York Times profiles Zambia’s Racheal Kundananji, the world’s most expensive women’s soccer player, and the impact of her success on the game in Zambia. Kundananji, who leads Zambia’s national team in the 2024 Paris Olympics, joined San Fransisco’s Bay FC from Madrid CFF in February with a $860,000 price tag in a deal that could eventually pay her $2.5 million.

🌍 Tech journalist Andile Masuku analyzes the evolution of venture capital-backed business models in Africa over the past decade, and the accompanying challenges and opportunities. Masuku ponders the balancing act fund managers on the continent must strike between short to medium term portfolio performance and long-term growth.

Week Ahead

July 28-Aug. 2 — The SADC Secretariat will host the Southern Africa Development Community Industrialization Week in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Aug 2-11 — Shein, the Chinese online fast-fashion giant, will open a pop-up store at the Mall of Africa in Johannesburg in its first move experiment with a physical store in South Africa.

Aug. 3 — Kenya’s new finance minister John Mbadi will appear before lawmakers for vetting. Mbadi is an opposition legislator nominated by President William Ruto as part of a plan to quell persistent protests by forming a government of national unity.

For Your Consideration

Aug. 25 — The World Bank Group Africa Fellowship Program is open for applications by candidates from sub-Saharan Africa interested in hands-on experience, economic policy, and research.

• Bill Ackman’s IPO push: A downsized goal, a big ask, and some typos.
• China’s relationship with the US is in for a reckoning.
• Young voters are moving toward Harris and feeling less ‘meh’ about voting.

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— Yinka, Alexis Akwagyiram, Alexander Onukwue, Martin Siele, and Muchira Gachenge