Travel
Tourism is increasingly becoming one of Africa’s
significant contributor to GDP. According to the
2017 World Travel & Tourism Council report, we’re
looking at a total contribution $108.0bn (7.1% of
GDP) in 2016, with a forecast to rise by 3.4% in
2017, and to rise by 4.8% per annum to $178.5bn
(7.3% of GDP) in 2027. While it’s easy to fall into
the trap of thinking all of these only comes from
export, there is a growing trend of locals looking to
explore other parts of Africa - from neighbouring
cities, to countries and then further out.
Technology has also made it more convenient
more than ever for travel suppliers and consumers
to showcase and find products and services
including ticket purchase, customized or tailored
packages, visa advisory, and even credit facilities
to reduce the burden of purchase. The mobile
phone, internet and social media are also enabling
entrepreneurs develop business models; recipes
for entrepreneurs further disrupt how travel is
supplied, consumed, and managed.
Education
What we learn, how we learn, and where we learn
is changing and with this comes opportunities for
technology entrepreneurs to disrupt this industry.
With innovation, 3 main areas to be looking at
include Distance Learning Higher Education,
Supplementary Education, and Publishing.
According to Statista, these have a Sub-Saharan
Africa market size of $250Mn, $200Mn, and
$30Mn respectively in 2017. Why focus on
these 3 segments? Virtual learning is increasingly
becoming popular due to its affordability and
convenience.
Beni American University, Nigeria’s first online
university, offers 4-12 week courses for $100 -
$300. This removes a lot of barriers to learning
but there is so much more to unlock in this niche
especially when it comes to Supplementary
Education which is now spans from primary level
to executive level of education. Mobile devices
and apps are quickly replacing books and titles
with smartphones and tablets becoming cheaper
and adopted by educators.
Media
First came print with newspapers and magazine,
then came radio, followed closely by the television,
and the internet happened and opened up an
industry that now has the likes of BuzzFeed,
Gimlet, and Netflix. These are global leaders in
online print, audio, and video content and unlike
many maps that has the African content as dark
spot, Netflix has Africa lighting up and Nigeria
among other African countries are now regular
features on BuzzFeed.
You may say but all of these are VC funded
companies which are hard to compete with. After
all, local players such as Multichoice are not
smiling. Well, you don’t have to go head-to-head
with Netflix to disrupt the media industries. You
can focus on other value propositions such as
discovery, and content sourcing or venture into
spaces not yet occupied - we’ve got OMGVoice
and Zikoko vying f