Africa is poised for a digital revolution, and visionary start-up founders and investors are taking centre stage.

This was highlighted during a side event of Mobile World Congress Kigali on October 18. It convened different tech start-up founders and investment experts under the theme "Sustainable impact: scaling digital innovation in Africa.”

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The event was organised by GSMA, a global organisation unifying the mobile ecosystem to discover, develop and deliver innovation that helps business and society thrive, in partnership with the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

Sharing Rwanda’s experience, Serge Priam Nsanzineza, the Innovation Ecosystem Analyst at Rwanda Development Board (RDB), highlighted the role of the Rwanda Innovation Fund launched in 2021 to support the formation of a mature innovation eco-system in the country.

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Nsanzineza said that Rwanda committed to forming an ecosystem-building team to ensure collaboration among innovation actors to facilitate deals.

"The team works with entrepreneurs to understand their challenges in raising capital and to tailor funding and support to their specific needs,” he said. "They also establish strategic partnerships, particularly in areas like sexual and reproductive health, and create opportunities for entrepreneurs to participate in events and programmes.”

Nsanzineza said that together with the Rwanda ICT Chamber, RDB established an investment residence programme to empower small and medium companies with sales strategies and deal structuring when approaching corporate clients.

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They offer support in areas such as legal and accounting to assist entrepreneurs in navigating business challenges.

Since 2013, in partnership with FCDO and other donors, the GSMA has supported more than 130 organisations with equity-free grant funding to test and scale innovative digital technologies and business models that boost local ecosystems, improve livelihoods, and drive prosperity.

Several of these have scaled over the years, whether through expansion, additional follow-on funding, or strategic partnerships.

The scaling journeys of these businesses and projects generated important lessons about raising follow-on funding, including that there are several pathways to scale, and that the fundraising journey is a useful way to measure and track scale in low- and middle-income countries.

Speaking during the event, Luisa Odell, Innovation Advisor at FCDO highlighted the organisation’s focus on climate finance, citing the UK government's commitment to spend £11.6 billion on climate finance from 2021 to 2026, including their partnership with Rwanda in the access to climate finance taskforce.

Odell acknowledged the challenges faced by start-ups due to global issues and applauded the positive steps taken by FCDO-supported enterprises in Africa in raising significant capital and benefiting impoverished communities.

"Despite significant challenges, we remain optimistic about the potential of digital innovation to reach populations at scale,” she said.

Gerald Otim, CEO and Founder of Ensibuuko, one of the start-ups based in Uganda that was supported, highlighted their mission of transforming community banking schemes, such as savings groups and credit unions, into digital banks for last-mile customers by automating their operations with data and money.

He said that initially, they focused on testing the solution in Uganda and achieved success by partnering with strategic mobile financial services providers like MTN, Airtel, and Stanbic Bank, allowing them to introduce innovative financial products such as mobile loans, savings, and payments. Ensibuuko recently expanded into Malawi with 50,000 customers already signed up, thanks to their strategic alliances.

Otim expressed hope to replicate their success in other markets and lauded GSMA and FCDO for their funding and for providing different tech start-ups with visibility and credibility.