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African tech start-ups impacted by COVID-19
6 April 2020
South Africa is currently facing a 21-day lockdown. There are tough times ahead for many small businesses because only services deemed essential by the government will be able to continue trading. To get through this period, SA start-ups can register as an essential service provider on a new government portal – the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission’s (CIPIC) Bizportal to download a certificate to prove they’re essential service providers.
With the COVID-19 pandemic headlining news all over the world, Ventureburn has launched the first edition of a daily round up on the virus and how it’s affecting the African tech start-up sector:
Food challenge:
Ellen Fischat, managing director at Oribi Village Incubator in Cape Town, said in a statement that Oribi Village Incubator, the Wakanda Food Accelerator and the Southern Africa Food Lab of the University of Stellenbosch are calling food sector disruptors to work together, yet separately, on finding disruptive ways to eradicate risks of accelerated food insecurity in the context of the COVID-19 crisis. More information on the challenge’s process and prizes will be announced in the next few days, on the Oribi Village Incubator’s website.
New regulations for all ‘.za’ domain names:
Recently, the government also published a new regulation that requires all websites that end in “.za” to link to the Department of Health’s COVID-19 portal. There are over 1.2 million domains registered under “.co.za”, the commercial domain in the .za namespace. According to the tech publication TechCentral, enforcing this regulation will most likely face difficulties.
SA Meditation App for COVID-19:
Vimbo Health has launched the Vimbo App, which teaches users the skills they need to improve their mental health through self-guided, cognitive behavioural therapy-based content. Earlier this year, co-founded by Tafi Mazikana and Sherrie Steyn who have invested $50 000 in the business but are now seeking seed funding.
The Vimbo App plans to offer services that focus on employers’ and employees’ assistance programmes. The lockdown can harm mental health through anxiety which is driven by fear of yourself or family members contracting the virus and the self-isolation. This will apply during the lockdown period and when the crisis is over.
World Bank package:
Business Day reported that the World Bank is finalising a package to offer relief funding of up to $160 billion over the next 15 months. The impact of job losses across the globe could exceed an estimated $25 million. Meanwhile, Fin24 reported that a “gutted” Edcon CEO, Grant Pattison broke down in tears when he told suppliers in a conference call that the company does not have enough money to pay them. Edcon owns stores across Africa, including Edgars and Jet.
Free COVID-19 toolkits:
Mobenzi is a data collection platform, founded in 2009 by Andi Friedman and Pete Fowles. Mobenzi has developed free COVID-19 response toolkits which can be used by various organisations around SA. The toolkit consists of five templates which allow businesses to conduct surveys on their employees’ well-being during this tough time and give feedback on how they’re coping as a business. Mobenzi aims to submit this data to relevant government agencies and industry associations to assist in measuring the socio-economic effect of the COVID-19 crisis.
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