GTTW: Ghana’s Model Companies: Startups Worth Copying, Cultures Worth Emulating

Yao Poga: Both arrived at the same time. They got an office at Harper Space.

Caleb: Yeah.

Yao Poga: Boats came in with just one human being.

Caleb: Yeah.

Yao Poga: Uber brought an entourage to Kumasi and then they came with their own systems and boats.

Caleb: Yeah, a full of riding boats came

Yao Poga: there to like build for the culture.

Caleb: Yeah.

Yao Poga: So it's easy for a taxi driver to convert and join boats but Uber is impossible. So they feel like they feel. Two times I went there, uh, I was trying to order Uber ride. It never came.

Guest: I think maybe Uber tried certain aspects and failed. Yeah but one thing also you need to know is Uber also owns shares in Yango definitely. So they're really very comfortable.

Caleb: No, but I say on the local market they will not behave in that space. And local market is what am I taking? What do I have? Cuz I'm, I'm t to get a market, get something. So I'm not focused on my investment in you locally maybe on the street

Guest: you are competing so. Yeah. And it's cannibalistic. It's not like you're creating new market.

Hubert: Ask you when Fido is. If you are taking a loan from Fido they are taking every information they want from your like they, when they are asking for information like things they would want to have access to on your phone. It's a lot of things, your contacts, everything.

Yao Poga: Oh really?

Hubert: Uh, yeah. Unless maybe they've changed it now but

Yao Poga: yeah, I think they've changed it.

Caleb: Yeah. Some time ago. Yeah, they asked, they asked a lot after all. So I didn't qualify like, like ah, uh, I give all this information.

Hubert: I'm joking.

Yao Poga: Hello everyone, welcome to Building by where we tell relevant stories about Ghana's tech ecosystem to fuel innovation and drive the growth of our digital economy. And we are back again. It's myself, Yao Poga, Caleb and we have a special host, Hubert from the Brief team. I mean if you come to a building byte event, you know who Hubert is. Uh, today we are in the Haptar Academy Studios. This show is proudly brought to you production support from Haptar Academy Studios and it's produced by Insight Lab so you might be watching us on YouTube on MX24. We air Life on MX24 on Thursdays at 8 to 9pm and on Sundays at 7pm so tell somebody about it. Ghana's tech story is live on national national television. So today we are going to a very interesting episode. There's an episode I'm calling an Insight episode. So we've done a couple of them. I think the last one we did was on the State of uh Ghana's. Yeah, Ghana's uh ecosystem. We did two parts of it. It was a very interesting conversation. We are back with another one and we have a very special guest with us. Very special. I mean dissect the issues. Yeah. Today we are looking at what a Ghanaian module company is. So when we say a Ghanaian model company what is that? And then we. What are some Ghanaian model companies that if you are building a startup you should be looking at. I mean not copying but taking inspiration from. And if you want to go work for someone like a company you should go work for. That's what basically what we are looking at today. We've broken it. I, I feel like I'm talking too much. So yeah we've broken it down into four sections. Yeah we have uh Agritech, we have Logistics and ah Mobility. We have Green uh tech and then we have Ogboro Fintech.

Hubert: Uh yeah.

Yao Poga: So we'll talk about it. I feel I'm talking to plenty. So we just do a dive into. We are starting with green tech and Fintech. So what's happening there? What are some model companies that are wet looking at or wet I mean highlighting.

Guest: Um so the list. Um notable ones that were colliding Kofa. Um they're into EVS manufacturing um of um electric bikes basically and um solar taxi. They've also been doing electric bikes and electric vehicles.

Caleb: Yeah. Cover also does batteries.

Guest: Yes.

Caleb: And battery swapping centers.

Guest: Yeah. Yeah. As part of the IV Solar taxi they do bikes and vehicles. I've not been seeing the vehicles of late. Yeah they had an interesting model where you could, you could buy it and um, you pay in installments.

Yao Poga: It's hard to see it because you don't know. You don't know it's an ev.

Guest: Yeah.

Caleb: Yeah.

Guest: And it's not also solar taxi branding.

Yao Poga: Branded.

Guest: Yeah. I think is very different.

Caleb: And the Wahoo bikes I think they are once we can also forget like you always see them now it's a common thing in delivery. You can't leave without it. You can't order. Right. I mean they'd live in not expect Wahoo bikes bike among the especially in Accra.

Guest: Yeah. And we have Charge Express. Um they have um battery charging docks all across Macra. I don't know if they're in other regions as well but yeah. And um the last one is Freeze Link. Um they are into um Agritech supporting um system. They help farmers um keep their food uh preserve their uh produce um and get it to market without losing a lot of of them. You know, traditional farmers lose a lot of their produce while transporting them. M. So freeze. Um, Link, um, has cold chain network where he helps farmers um, preserve their um, preserve their crops before it goes bad, um, so that they can get full market value and um, also the value of all the crops that they harvest. So basically that's the main two um that we have. Anybody want to say anything about that?

Yao Poga: So I want to give some stats in regards to funding raised for the Green Energy. So the stats we are using for this episode is from Innovation Spark. So they have reports from 2022 up until now. So we collated or gotten all the details from those reports and then we are using that for this episode. So for the Green Energy, a total from 2022 to 2024 the green energy raised US dollars. I think just this year alone has been. There'll be a number of reasons. Yeah, in terms of debt and then uh, debt and equity as well. I think uh, Kofa has reached 8.1. Wahoo has also raised some debt, debt vehicles as well. Yeah, it was like a very interesting, interesting mix for me. I want to ask you guys what, what makes the five companies that you mentioned a Ghanaian model company in your own, in your own west? I mean you have been there, you've been in the space, you've spoken to people going to the event, you've seen their products. Like what's, what makes, what makes them like a Ghanaian model company for you guys?

Caleb: I think for me um, definitely one foundation I want be being started in Ghana because most of, not most all these businesses were started here. For some have, for some they have like Ghanaian founders or Ghanaian co founders and others may have one or two um, foreigners part of it. But we believe Ghana being a ground to learn some of these especially in green tech makes position us better ah for um growth or leading in the green text space maybe across Africa and across the world. And it's interesting that um we not only have like a few or one but have m. Multiples when it. When you think about evs like multiple companies running, it clearly shows there's a, there's a market there and that market could be in Ghana because most people would have thought Ghana will not be a good place to launch like an EV or people purchasing ev. But we found a way to bring it down to the least common daily

Guest: activity is better than Nigeria I guess.

Caleb: Yeah, maybe not Nigeria but Ghana could be better than the most. When you compare like EV adoption, um, I mean the fact that um we factored into our culture Delivery was one thing we got along with and it's found its way in there. You, you think of it, um, along the side of inclusivity. I mean, you don't. You have females in some of even these industries where you'd have thought they were like pioneering industries. We may not have like female, female m. Whether, um, developers or operators in that field, but we realized we found them in some interesting ones. Even our female co founders as part of this. This organization. So that's an amazing.

Yao Poga: Taxi has. Has. Has uh, an entire engineer squad of females.

Caleb: Yeah.

Yao Poga: Who are assembling. Assembling, uh, bikes and assembly and stuff like that.

Caleb: Yeah. I think what has a project on that to working with females on one of their business. Business segments. Another thing too is the infrastructure they've created. I mean, we, we've mentioned it on a number of episodes that sometimes in Ghana we are solving one problem. You end up solving an ecosystem problem. And people like Wahoo. Kofa.

Yao Poga: Kofa in particular.

Caleb: Yeah.

Yao Poga: So I was in Kumasi for Demo Fridays. Obviously I spotted two of their charge stations and then the second one I spotted was 030.

Caleb: Okay.

Yao Poga: Which is like they literally have 30 of them.

Caleb: Okay.

Yao Poga: Across Accra.

Caleb: Wow.

Yao Poga: I don't know for other regions, but across Accra.

Caleb: M. Which is like.

Yao Poga: It's M. Massive.

Caleb: Yeah. That's a, uh, massive.

Yao Poga: It's. For me it's like something you see in a, uh, futuristic movie.

Caleb: Yeah.

Yao Poga: Or China.

Caleb: I don't think we ever guess like green tech would. Would move this fast in Ghana. And I. I believe it's less than, less than 10 years. Probably less than around five years if I'm.

Guest: Yeah, I think it's. It's less than five years.

Caleb: Less than five years.

Guest: I think Wahoo maybe around three years.

Yao Poga: If you're moving from, uh, Open Glue Shashi to. To Spanner. It's a billboard. I mean as at the time I record this podcast there. A billboard of Wahoo there. They try saying they are moving from just bikes and I go to power trucks.

Caleb: Yeah.

Yao Poga: Power.

Caleb: Yeah.

Yao Poga: And stuff like that. Like, it's. For me, like, it's so like, it's also amazing.

Caleb: Yeah.

Yao Poga: That's. They've proven the concept of just giving the bikes to delivery guys and M. It worked.

Hubert: Yeah.

Yao Poga: And now let's move on to like the average or like the more like more places that you can make like real impact.

Hubert: Yeah.

Yao Poga: Uh, tractors and stuff like that is so, so classic. Yeah.

Guest: I was gonna ask you a question. You reached out recently. Uh, you wanted to do a piece on people building in ev.

Hubert: Yeah, yeah, sure.

Guest: To know what your impression and what you were looking for.

Hubert: Okay, so I, I wanted to tell a story about the EV ecosystem in Ghana. This is a story I wanted to do last year. So I was actually in talks with.

Caleb: Wow.

Hubert: We did like two meetings and. But then it didn't get anywhere. I think they were looking at my numbers because that was one of the things they brought up. Like, okay, how many numbers do you have on social media? And then, I mean, last year I had just begun, so I think it didn't get anywhere. But anyway, um, I have ordering things a lot and most of the people who come to deliver, uh, are, ah, actually like, they have Wahoo bikes.

Guest: Yeah.

Hubert: And I remember engaging one of the drivers. I asked him, like, how much does he make, like in a week? Because like, I literally saved his number as his name. And then wahoo, because I wanted to interview him for that particular story. And then he was like, oh, he makes like 4,000 cities a M. Month. A week. Sorry, A, uh, week. No, a month. Like thousand cities a week and then 4,000amonth. And I was like, yo, that's more than some people sitting in the office. And then when you, when you compare that to the sort of like expense choices that he makes on the bike through the bike, it's not even that much because he just charges the batteries or he changes the batteries and it means that he's making a lot. So I mean, when you were talking about the key indicators of like, how, um, it's whether. If it's a Ghanaian company, considering the fact that, I mean, here in Ghana, when you talk about the economic situation, things can be quite difficult. I would say that this sort of like, serves, um, delivery riders very well in the case that they are not spending too much trying to do their job. But then they are ending much. Quite something. Yeah.

Yao Poga: Even these days those who are driving, uh, boats and Uber.

Hubert: Some of them, yeah. Actually last. Last two weeks I took an EV from here to Shine Hills.

Caleb: Wow.

Hubert: Like boat. Basically the guy picked us up. Actually, I didn't even know it was ev. Like, Evie, it's like satin. And then I wasn't hearing. I was like. And then I was looking at the dashboard. It's like, no, this looks a bit like different ev, futuristic. So I asked him, he was like, yeah, Evie. And then I think the guys were engaging him, like, okay, how far can he go? Like on a single charge? And he said something. I didn't pay attention. But what he said sort of like blew our mind. So I guess they are getting more for that sort of investment that is using EV compared to using gasoline cars or something like that.

Guest: Yeah.

Caleb: And, and I like how we are, we are making this experience available to all because now they even um, mass transport buses that run on, on evs like they pure EV smart transit I

Yao Poga: think, I think people EV and we've

Caleb: gotten comfortable with it like now you know this an EV car and it's, it's common in the streets of Accra. So I believe we are, we are transitioning fast green text space. We are doing well in numbers. May not be as significant as compared to other countries but we are seeing a clear impact in the lives of people and in the experiences of people in Ghana. So green tech I believe is a, it's a key space and Ghana is doing well. These are model companies and I've gotten the chance to meet young people coming out of university uh working on like batteries, working on transitioning electric or full powered cars. Electric cars and all that isn't. I, I didn't think these skills were even maybe would have taken us some years to get it but people are figuring their way out and getting all this. So that's a, a good industry.

Hubert: You know actually we even have. Ghana has like an EV conference, the ERA Mobility Conference. I think it's coming off in like October or something where people basically bring their EV solutions and interestingly there are even third party like I mean random um citizens who are actually shipping some of these EV products into the, into the system and people are purchasing and using them. So yeah it's good. We are making quick transition.

Caleb: Yeah. So, so standing on the merits why we chose some of these businesses Kofa and Wahu for Kofa before the model was an infrastructure led um model where adoption of evs was a good, a good thing creating infrastructure for that. So that means somebody can bring whatever EV car but there'll be a place you can charge, there'll be a place you can swap batteries. There'll be a place.

Yao Poga: They've strategically positioned them. Yeah vantage points. So the one in Kumasi is close to a filling station. Yeah, I've seen one at East Lagoon

Caleb: to close to a filling station.

Yao Poga: Usually one at uh.

Guest: I think they usually co locate them at filling stations. I don't know why stations have their real estate and also have a lot of people.

Hubert: Uh, I think one company that is also doing well is Ijanu. I don't know if you've heard of them. They are at the, I mean when you are getting to um, TV Africa. Most of the times when you get there you see like a lot of evs actually charging and recently I saw like three buses like full on buses on charge throughout the night. So I think they also, they've been there for a while.

Guest: Yeah, yeah. And also I've given, you know, honorary mention. I think also ZP Zippy is not mainly an EV company but you know, they're a delivery company that, you know, um, using EV vehicles. I think we had the founder in a previous episode, we talk about them trying to design ev, um, power station where anybody can come there and just pick up a battery pack and you know, use it for whatever they want to do. Probably charge their bike or something.

Caleb: So yeah, that's like one and I can think of about five to ten like EV companies that are selling like um, weather motorbikes, a lot of them. And I was surprised to see something as far as Buno East. They have massive shops. I was like, wow, uh, this thing is moving like faster than we think it's doing.

Yao Poga: Will it be faster than uh, ep, lpg, a switch from petrol to gas?

Caleb: I, I think, I think this will be faster. I feel evs are even faster. They are far ahead.

Yao Poga: I don't know if gas too, but gas, Gas. You have a taxi driver with gas.

Caleb: Yeah, but they are very. Right now they'll probably be definitely zero points, zero point something because majority, at least they have um, petrol of war. So like that's the common thing now. Now most of the philistines are cutting out gas actually like most of the filling stations that used to do gas are cutting out. But I think EVs are going to move faster than.

Guest: Yeah, I think you would see them faster. Um, yeah. Ah, and evs are uh, you know, electricity is getting way, way more expensive. Expensive, but they're still cheaper as compared to, you know, buying some floor. But although 4 is just much more available, you can get it anywhere than you know, getting an EV dock to charge your car. But I think they would, they would move way faster than gas. I think gas did not really pick up. It's. It started but somehow I don't know why they didn't.

Caleb: I think some of this is because of pricing and global price beyond the Ghanaian borders, it's difficult to control. But things like electricity country locally m.

Guest: People were concerned about the safety of gas.

Caleb: Yes.

Guest: I think that was also one of the major concerns. Might leak and you know, just. Yeah, yeah.

Caleb: So another reason we considered Wahoo too was that and riding on the Order they're going on the right to own model or the job creation model which before was very impactful for us as a um, as a country. Then um, we have growing youth and there's high unemployment, um, rates. You want to solve some of these challenges and I think Wahoo have found a way to solve that. Nice. I think it's like a flex to drive an EV bike. Whatever you're using to do, it's like a flex so can move to the next sector.

Yao Poga: Yes. So for the next we're looking at logistics and mobility and this is a very interesting sector for data in terms of money being raised in this sector. From 2022 to 2024 they've raised a total of US$53.2 million. And some companies which are doing well in the space uh, are ah, uh just Stream. Yango uh, is not a Ghanaian company but we add them because of what they are doing here locally. And companies uh, like ZP companies like Knock Knock which are a lot more sectorial focused and uh, sectoral focus and verticals and like that. And also like companies like HTEL also which is also very heavy in the distribution space. And also companies who came to build a culture and then left like global uh, and those who have just arrived like two deck.

Caleb: Yeah.

Yao Poga: And stuff like that. But let's go into the details. Who, who are the big, the big companies or who are the model companies that we think if you are building in ev, you are building the logistics piece. You should be looking at these guys.

Hubert: I'm surprised you know what is in there.

Caleb: He didn't mention it's actually the model. So both and just Stream are the model companies.

Hubert: Okay.

Caleb: That come to mention I have a

Yao Poga: personal beef with both

Hubert: everybody.

Caleb: So deep dive. Deep dive. Just Stream. Both amazing uh, ones I'll uh, pick on boats. It's interesting. I happened to start like my tech career. Basically started working with um, a delivery company or food delivery or home delivery company and they happened to share.

Yao Poga: I thought you're coming to see Boots.

Caleb: You know I happen to share an office with Boots. So we're in the same building.

Yao Poga: Ah yeah.

Caleb: This is in Kumasi. And I remember like Uber.

Guest: Was it both food or boats?

Caleb: It was boats, pure boats.

Guest: Okay.

Caleb: Uber was finding difficult to worked there. So I think Uber was reluctant. Uber didn't even come there before.

Yao Poga: Before he come. Before he come. So when we went to Kumasi. Yeah they gave us a um, deep, deep reason why we publish that episode. It's very interesting. Like I would want to oh yeah.

Guest: I think I had a conversation. I've had similar conversation recently.

Yao Poga: It's very interesting.

Guest: Or even the different culture of. Right. Hailing in Kumasi.

Yao Poga: So, uh, but they. So at the time when both. They both arrived at the same time.

Caleb: Yeah.

Yao Poga: They got an office at Harper Space.

Caleb: Yeah.

Yao Poga: Boats came in with just one human being.

Caleb: Yeah.

Yao Poga: Uber brought an entourage to Kumasi and then they came with their own systems and boats.

Hubert: Yeah.

Caleb: A full of Friday night boats came

Yao Poga: there to like build for the culture.

Caleb: Yeah.

Yao Poga: So it's easy for a taxi driver to convert and join boats, but Uber is impossible. So they feel like. They feel total. I went there, I was trying to order an Uber ride. It never came.

Hubert: Yeah.

Yao Poga: Boots again with you?

Caleb: No.

Yao Poga: So now.

Caleb: So now what has happened? What they. What they do now is that they don't show the price to the drivers. So when they join the city, they probably ask you like, how much is it? And do not argue. They just want to have an idea of it. Do not argue. Last time when they didn't argue again, price. But they just want to know. So when they get there, they knew that. Okay. I'm expecting this amount.

Guest: Really?

Yao Poga: M. Yes. My experience was different.

Hubert: Your experience is different. Every time I have taken boats in Kumasi, they have bargained with me.

Guest: Yeah.

Hubert: If you're not going to update, we are not coming.

Guest: It's not like, if you want, I'll get the next driver.

Caleb: The next driver for me, I think all my experiences have happened to like. They just ask the cost of it. I tell them we have cool. We drive.

Yao Poga: Who took us said what they do is sometimes even go to the extent of taking the person's number. So the person will take that. I'm not even them taking. The person will take their number and the person. If the person is going somewhere, they'll call you. They like. The last. Is they like that one because they can charge more.

Hubert: Yeah.

Yao Poga: And sometimes they also like asking. They bargain.

Caleb: Yeah.

Guest: Apparently that's the thing. I have taken boats in Kumasi once, but I. I don't remember having that experience. It's been a while.

Caleb: Yeah.

Guest: I don't think I had that experience or anything like that, but apparently.

Caleb: Yeah.

Hubert: I think recently I had an experience where.

Guest: Or if you have discounts. No, no, no.

Caleb: Yeah.

Guest: I think. Yeah.

Hubert: Recently had an experience where I think based on my conversation with the interaction with the driver, he seems to have come from Kumasi just fresh in Accra and he's doing both. And the guy calls me and like I Mean I order the ride, he calls me, he's like, oh please. I go and I tell him and he's like how much, how much was on the thing? And it was very surprising to me. And I was like, why you think we are in Kumasi? So but I didn't say that. Like I was just saying in my head. But then he came and then when I sat in the car and I was conversing with him and it's like, oh, he came from Kumasi. And I was like, oh, okay, then I get it. Because Kumasi drivers will always ask you like how much are you? How much is there? And then when you tell them they're like nah. Can you add something so that they come and pick you?

Guest: They're doing in a very nice way.

Caleb: I mean they have business. But generally I think both has uh, been significant. Like expanding to places where would have thought Uber would have gotten those areas. Both did that. They also did that well with getting to both food. Like was a smooth transition. Like both food came to us and it didn't feel weird. It was like part of the service. We didn't feel they were doing too much. We accepted it. I don't even know whether we started. Did you start from cars, using their cars for the deliveries and stuff before they brought on the bikes? Yeah. One of them, I don't know was Uber. Maybe Uber was the one started with the cars.

Guest: They both of them do carrier but I, I don't know if they ever.

Caleb: Yeah. So I think for m. Both food, um, culture they've done well with assimilative culture they've done well with also creating the sense of. Not the sense they actually did it like um, giving employment, making that impact, that life changing impact was one of the things both did, was doing that. Their graduate training programs and all that or ah, women training programs. At a point they assess about 20, 50 women give them experiences for like maybe six months or one year. Then they have assigned them to various branches origins to work. I felt like that was a good initiative. Like they got into the, the um, the system and built a really good business. In that case, um, they stood the test of time. Some came, some ran away. Um, some have still not grown their business beyond the original goals. But both have done well even though they are facing a tough challenges. People are younger.

Hubert: Yeah. I have a question actually. Um, let's say you have like a service that does both ride healing and then also career. Do you think because they do ride healing they sort of have an advantage over those who just do specifically career services. Let's say Boats and then Shark Express or something like that.

Caleb: I. I would think it might be different depending on how well maybe your primary business is doing or how well your secondary business is adding up for some. I don't. I could be wrong, but I believe until now, yeah, Yango deliveries were.

Hubert: Yeah.

Caleb: Like, better than Yango service. Car service.

Hubert: Yeah. Because to expand on that because I sometimes use the Yango like ride healing service. If I'm doing delivery, I'll just go for younger delivery. Yeah, I think I wouldn't switch.

Yao Poga: They're upselling you. Yeah.

Caleb: But also depends if I want. If I'm delivering a certain package and how I want it treated. If let's say I'm looking for a car down, I'll get a good. No shade, right. I'm m looking for a car, I'll get a good ride. You know, like I'll go for Uber. I'm living a fragile product.

Yao Poga: You go for Uber, like. Yeah, nobody will go for.

Caleb: Sorry,

Guest: you can't go for a bike for.

Hubert: Yeah.

Guest: Okay. But I think that the car.

Caleb: What, Uber has bikes now? Yeah. Nowadays. Yeah. Now they're doing for delivery.

Guest: Career services. Okay. I've not seen that yet. But I think the core of your, your question is, I mean is the same, it's the same business, the same logistics that you're doing so you could target different markets. So if you have more like markets, you have a, a bigger market. If I'm doing the same logistic, you know, moving people or moving food or you know, moving, um, packages, it gives me more, um, a bigger markets and probably gives me a bigger advantage. I think that's why companies like Yango started to do delivery. They started to do a marketplace buy and sell. It makes their, you know, their brackets much more wider.

Caleb: But let's also not forget much more revenue. They also spent a lot in the market, so it probably is a good way to recoup. Now the brand is built, what can we sell on it? Uber did very focused like marketing and targeting, the focus on getting there. But Yango made it like everybody can be part of it. Even though, even though I feel boat is in the middle somewhere, but I'm not getting.

Guest: The thing is, I think maybe Uber tried certain aspects and failed.

Caleb: Yeah.

Guest: But one thing also you need to know is Uber also owns shares in Yango definitely. So they're really very comfortable.

Caleb: Nobody local markets do not behave in that space. And local market is, what am I taking? What do I have? Because I'M um, I'm um, tasked to get a market, get something. So I'm not focused on my investment in you locally maybe on this.

Guest: I mean you are competing so.

Caleb: Yeah.

Guest: And it's cannibalistic. It's not like you're creating new market. So I think they will just.

Caleb: I believe new markets have come in. People have started using um, some of these deliveries and things just because maybe a ah, boat came in, a yango came in or zippy or anything.

Hubert: You, you have had a ride healing service, um, in another country before, right?

Caleb: Yeah.

Guest: Do you maybe the same you have

Hubert: like let's say Yongo for instance if you go to code iva. I think like the younger days, I mean in terms of service delivery is far like superior to Ghana. And like I find it interesting.

Yao Poga: What makes you superior, bro?

Hubert: The cars. The cars are just good.

Guest: Oh yeah, yeah.

Hubert: Very clean, very neat.

Guest: And even in Nigeria they come and they complain. Our cars are like very small and weird old cars.

Hubert: It's like in Ghana here we have a specific type of car for right here.

Caleb: Yeah.

Hubert: And it's. I don't know, it doesn't help with the service and even if you choose what comforts, whatever, like I don't really see a difference.

Caleb: No, no, no. Yeah. Okay.

Guest: Yeah.

Caleb: Under the car, under the particular company. Yeah, definitely. Sometimes you don't see much of the difference but there are some like you see different like when you pick an Uber and you pick like I've seen

Guest: an Uber comfort that's much more bigger.

Caleb: Yeah.

Yao Poga: Okay. So I think we are diving.

Caleb: It's a fruit company, um, logistic fruit company driving more of um, trade trade across African countries. And they've been amazing. I mean led by a woman and amazing men supporting. It's interesting that women goes like such a tough space but she's built a good business there. We see people um, using it to see people partnering with them, including other tech companies that um, move goods or food or anything from various countries. I know earlier they were working on a fintech product. I don't know whether it's been launched yet, but I believe Just Dream is like that model company that can break into a sector that we don't even associate as a typical like Ghanaian or ethical agenda sector. But if it was an amazing business on, on that allowing try to go on.

Hubert: I mean I think building bytes. When you guys are talking about these companies, you are talking about these big, big companies. We the agencies, we like the goalie Express and Yeah, nobody's mentioning Golie Express.

Caleb: Yeah. Definitely. I think Golie Express Goalie Goalie Express is also one new one I believe that is being driven on more of

Yao Poga: convenience around for six years.

Caleb: No, no, no, but no, no I'm talking about the massive adoption. Yeah it's been, it's been recent that the massive M works and it's all because FX worked. There was a, there was a space for convenience that people could fit in because if I was ordering for something like as 1 $1 $1 17c probably I'll choose to buy it here that maybe ship it on um goalie unless it's a very like high expecting that I don't want to be interested getting. But that's convenience that came around with the time. Yeah that our uh, FX rate was good. Um, things are managed well and now we could make such orders. It makes sense that some of these um, businesses have come on top and it's interesting I believe or Guli clearly explains that the FX rates or the economic condition of a country can affect the rise and fall of a business because it shows clear that as you said it's been around for like six years.

Hubert: Um, um, um yeah I think they just media services more easier and open to everybody to basically you just download the app and then you make your orders. Before then I think it was more like you text someone and the person does it. I don't know like I'm just speculating based on what I've seen online. But then now they have an app. You can just go on Amazon, copy a link to of your product and then you paste it in the app. It gives you like the estimated price for shipping and everything and then it just gives you like the process. So it will notify you whilst the thing is in transit until it gets here and then it just deliver it

Caleb: to your doorstep and it's affordable, very affordable for shipping. FedEx or Aramex or any DHL did something like that.

Guest: DHL I forgot to be the products similar to that but I think they failed. Um, I don't know why but yeah it was basically similar to that. You just get Amazon link, um, all the foreign shops just you can find them in there. The other gets delivered here.

Caleb: Yeah.

Hubert: And interestingly Goie Express is not really doing any advertising. The advertising is more organic like it's street, street run.

Caleb: Yeah.

Hubert: Like everybody knows the founder like so p. So yeah.

Caleb: So yeah Solomon, thanks for what you've done. Looking forward to having you.

Yao Poga: Yeah. So other companies in the logistics and mobility there's also Knock Knock and Haptel Haptel will talk more on the fintech side.

Caleb: Yeah.

Yao Poga: But uh, to start I like the fact that like I mentioned this somewhere. If I go to any in uh A any community and I'm taking a picture. If I stand in every prominent spot and take a picture there's an I could that I'll see a haptel stick out whatever in there and it's basically to see the distribution. Like the guys have figured out distribution and it's not just distribution identity.

Caleb: Yeah.

Yao Poga: It's not just in Accra.

Caleb: Yeah.

Yao Poga: Even in Kumasi. Even in Takra. Like they figured out distribution.

Hubert: I think you go to like a very random gobble sport and then they

Yao Poga: have to like it's, it's so so so so amazing. We'll talk more when we get to the fintech. Well one of the, one of that uh logistic uh distribution company which is more sectorial based. I don't know how their expansion is but I really like it. So. Knock knock.

Caleb: Yeah.

Yao Poga: You know Suvia. I know sue. Like every minute you see them pass

Caleb: I think you see them.

Guest: I think. Yeah. Their model is they want to deliver under uh 20 minutes or 15 minutes. 10 minutes. Okay. So I tried them once um, back in Spintex and they delivered under 50 minutes. I was, I was kind of surprised. So they, they locate. They are warehouse.

Caleb: Yeah.

Guest: Close to the areas that they serve so that they don't have to like move it very far and they can get its bracket. And also they, they target in a certain class of people.

Caleb: Yeah.

Guest: Clearly because their staff are you know a little bit expensive.

Caleb: Yeah.

Guest: So they wouldn't put it in a certain area that the kind of products they wouldn't sell.

Caleb: I was searching for some like some foreign products. Yeah. It's there and they deliver like on time, perfect like well packed and everything. And I feel like that was, that was.

Yao Poga: That's also a model, model company. I think most of the companies we are mentioning are um, not I don't necessarily Ghanaian companies but some of their companies in Ghana. Yeah.

Caleb: So the reason why maybe we choose companies like just Stream is their model for trade facilitation across Africa. I mean from Ghana to Africa is great. The reason why I choose both the model for localizing, localizing a global platform was amazing. The reason why really.

Yao Poga: Yes.

Caleb: So they understand localization very well. I mean for people like Hapto Distribution. Amazing.

Yao Poga: Fantastic.

Caleb: For people like Knock Knock like the efficiency excellence of services there you can be promises there. So that's amazing. If you're building companies in this industry I believe we should be looking out to. So the next sector. Yeah.

Hubert: What sector?

Yao Poga: I think we jumped. We jumped ag. Okay, so let's do Agritech next. And this a space that hut has done a lot of work in. So talk to us, talk to us about how.

Caleb: How is that not a lot? He has done some work.

Yao Poga: A lot of work. A lot of working. Talk to us about former. How was your experience working online? What did you, what did you see when you went up north? What was the things that uh, was interesting to you?

Hubert: It's quite interesting that you are saying that I've done a lot in Agritech. I. I don't really have a lot of experience in Agritech. But anyway, um, my experience with Farmer Line, so I got reached out by a friend. Um, Farmer Line was actually doing like a program, um, a sensitization program in the North. They were going to, um, were going to like a couple of. A number of communities, very like remote. Right. And um, I traveled with them. So we were in probably eight or nine communities and basically they were teaching them some. So let me, let me just break down. So for people who are not ne. People who don't really know about, um, like agric, One thing you have to probably understand is that in the north or in certain indigenous communities, they have their own specific indigenous crops that they plant. Now these crops have been cultivated for years, I mean since their forefathers. And then they pass their knowledge down to their uh, the people who come after them. Now it just happens that in recent years some of these crops or some of these indigenous crops are actually going extinct. Reason being that some of the farmers have stopped using. I've stopped like cultivating them. Now they are cultivating and then aside that they are also using a lot of fertilizer for some of the crops. Now based on the, the information that I got from Farmer Line, it happens to be that some of these indigenous crops are types that withstand drought. M. That is why their forefathers were basically cultivating them. And some of them actually, I mean international and international markets are very much like demanded. They are in demand. Like the cow pea, um, there are a number of them. So what Formaline was doing was basically teaching them to preserve these um, these indigenous crops. And then Farmer Line was also basically willing to give them. It's not like they were willing. They were giving them some of the seeds, these individual seeds so that they keep on cultivating them and letting them understand that, you know, this is something that your forefathers were Cultivating, they are able to withstand droughts when there is no rain. When there is, I mean when you're having issues with the weather and all that these crops are still like, you can still cultivate them. So they went through like a number of communities. Some as far. Like for instance, I don't know if any of you have been to sabotage.

Caleb: Um,

Hubert: like it's in the north. Like, like for instance, let me just give you, Let me just give you. Uh, it should be Upper East.

Caleb: Okay, right.

Hubert: Because we go to a place and then my phone just gave me a notification that tell itself welcome to, to. Okay, so very like fast. Yeah, I mean you could get to certain communities and you wouldn't see like a lot of people. Um, but then you have like a chief and then the chief calls and then everybody just comes. People just comes from their farm and then Farmer Line just sets up and then teach them. So that was my experience with, with Farmer Line. I don't know for any of the Agritech, but I think Farmer Line is really doing a good job in the North. And interestingly, they have like systems. I mean if you're talking about tech, they have like a short code that you can just do, um, you can type in your phone and then it reaches to a customer service or a customer care and then the basically help you with whatever. Like as a farmer they help you and then they have I think community reps, people who are like indig. Indigenous of the towns and then they go there to basically teach them like monthly or something. So yeah, Formula is doing good in the North.

Yao Poga: That's great. So that's why we have, we have Formula as one of our model companies. And then uh, I'll go to the data, the fundraised uh, from the agritech companies. From 2022 to 2024 there is a total of 101, 110 million US dollars. I think that was a year that they were like leading the force.

Caleb: Like yeah, they're raising the raising backwards.

Yao Poga: So that is it in terms of the model companies. I'll, uh, just list a couple of them, the five of them. Pharma Line of course is in there. Complete Pharma, Agrocenter, CEC Technologies and Agro Innova. So let's talk about them.

Caleb: Yeah, so, um, deep diving, some of them, Complete Pharmacy. But one of the things we find common among Agritechs is that there's the values of trust and community building and farmer first approach. You know, that's something like Agritech is not necessarily Tech, then there's. There needs to be some form of trust building. Whether you go through a chief route, whether I go through, um, an individual, you find community leaders or any route to go. There is an element of trust you have to build. Without element of trust, you can build a good agriculture. Especially if you are dealing directly farmers, even, even beyond dealing directly with farmers, even like things like for growth for me, where you're even crowdfunding people's projects. You need trust for people to give their monies to an event that is going to take a number of years to do, a number of months to do or start a farm somewhere. So trusts um, is a big thing to do there. You need to have that, that kind of trust. You also need a sustainability and inclusivity idea or mindset behind it because. No. The way you think farmers should be or the way you think a business, a farm should be run might not be the way they do it. You need to factor in what they have, what they are, what's available to them, what they can do. Uh, sometimes people think um, they just choose to use like inorganic fertilizers because they don't want to do well or that sometimes just maybe a lack of knowledge, sometimes a lack of a certain resource, whether it's dank or whatever, manure, whatever they can get in. Some years ago it was common, now it's not there. So the, you need to factor in some of these attributes, these values to build um, a good like agritech company. You can, you can't stand on tech only and build an Agatha company.

Yao Poga: Yeah. I think that point has been. Yeah. People say we shouldn't see it but. But I mean that point is. Yeah. Like agritech is not, it's not tech. There might be something else, but it's not, it's not tech.

Caleb: Yeah, it's not tech.

Guest: Tech.

Yao Poga: Yeah. For me, if I talk about the model companies, uh, one company that I've also. I mean it's not in here, it's supposed to be here.

Caleb: It's not saving greens, which I've had.

Yao Poga: Uh, I've Close enough, I've worked, worked with them. Close enough. 1. I love what they do in the sense that the empower farmers. I think one thing that cut across with all the agritech in the nice. They are literally like empowering farmers.

Caleb: Yeah.

Yao Poga: And this is not the type of empowerment that would say like youth empowerment. It's not that we try putting money in farmers pockets.

Caleb: Yeah.

Yao Poga: In your case I put in knowledge in farmers, data transfers to money so for saving greens, I like the fact that they are opening up like market access to farmers, those who grew maize. So they buy it. They also like give them aggregators, they fund their purchases and then they sell it at peak period. And they're making huge sums of money.

Hubert: Yeah.

Yao Poga: They also help them store the maize. Like so they have some material uh, that they give to the, the, they give to the farmers to store the maize. It can serve like two years. That's one head of.

Guest: Yeah.

Yao Poga: Uh, for like maize for two years on head of.

Guest: I think these are some of the tech parts of Agritech.

Caleb: Yes.

Guest: You know I think in Agritech maybe

Yao Poga: redefine might not be an app. Technology helping them save them three years. That if you put it inside and put it there two years it won't do any, any, any, any other, any other. And I think like it's, it's so, so amazing. And if so I went on a trip with them once and it was at a time that they were like paying back farmers. And the money, like the money one woman was thinking like bro, it's like no, no, no, no no no. Like that's like impact.

Caleb: Yeah.

Yao Poga: That's not vibes, that's not page deck impact. Like the guy is feeling his pocket. Yeah, that's type of impact. Like for me I feel like it's a model company though. Most of us don't hear about what they are doing. Maybe it's intentional. You don't maybe also hit some.

Caleb: Yeah. Before they make noise.

Yao Poga: I mean Kevin has been on the show uh to talk about what they are doing but I mean I feel like a lot more people should hear about this. And then also maybe people who want to build Agritex should know that. I mean this is, this is ah. Like like a good way to go about this. Right. It might not be an up, up way to go out.

Hubert: Like yeah. Because I, I used to wonder like you're creating apps but like who, who is going to use that? Is it a farmist? Like I mean there is a learning curve to this thing. Even them they are not even using smartphones. How are you going to like build

Yao Poga: an app for why formal lines hotline works because whatever number and then someone is on the other end ready to like pick up and then make, make, make that.

Caleb: And, and I like how all this um Agritech, uh are having physical footprint there. Some of them by building fulfillment centers, some m of them by having um, how do you call it? Agents.

Guest: Yeah.

Hubert: Indigenous to like indigenous of the various communities. Extension offices.

Caleb: Yeah. Like they have footprint because you can't sit in a car and think of your architect is going to work one day if you have a fulfillment center.

Hubert: Yeah. I mean the former line extension officers, they speak the language of the people. So like they are able to communicate directly to the people. There is no middleman to come and translate anything. They just talk to the people. Okay. We know our, uh, forefathers used to do this blah, blah, blah and then just goes.

Caleb: Yeah.

Hubert: I think another thing I didn't mention was. And probably you guys know which is. And families AI thing for the weather thing.

Guest: Yeah.

Hubert: I forgotten the name. Yeah. I think that's also like good. A good thing that is happening. Yeah, Yeah.

Caleb: I, I know another thing on, um, aggroing over trying to sell the product to last month delivery people in the most simplest way. So you can dial a short code or call and you get whatever farm product. And these are like from the farm to you, whether it's eggs, whether it's beds, whether it's what? Like they deliver it to you and they have partners of like institutions. They deliver these products. So you're getting at the best price that there's assured quality. But these people know like where they are picking from, who it's coming from, which farmers come from their farmers themselves and their farmers themselves. Like that's crazy.

Yao Poga: There are companies in Ghana doing stuff like please.

Caleb: Right.

Yao Poga: There are companies in Ghana doing stuff that's. Some people feel like someone asks you not a stupid question, but someone asks you, where are the Ghanaian companies? Like we've literally listed five, five each.

Hubert: Do you have yara Ghana inside? Love Yara.

Caleb: Yeah, yeah, yeah,

Guest: yeah. Okay.

Caleb: Yeah. But they built like many companies, maybe distribution network and trust when it comes to our products. Someone this. A week ago someone was saying that, see, put whatever you have to put in a yara bag farmer to buy it.

Hubert: Yeah. Because recently I was at the gaffer foul event today. Minister of food and agriculture was there and then Yaragan was present. I think, um, the donation that the minister made to the women like our D Farmers.

Caleb: Yeah.

Hubert: Was actually fertilizer from Yaragan. And Yaragana also made a contribution too.

Caleb: So Yara is one of the like key places when it comes to fertilizer. You can't take their name out. Yeah. You're hoping the Ghanaian fertilizer companies also come up and meet up to that kind of quality and standard and all.

Yao Poga: So in terms of the two that we are diving deep into, we have complete farmer in there and also have of system technologies in there. So I'll just do a little bit about assistive technologies and then we do a dive on complete farmer as well. So for C6 Technologies they've been around for like seven years now. And as one company which is doing a very interesting thing most of the time via Agritex, what you think is, I mean um, not software but then processes enhancement and stuff like that. These guys are doing hardware. So I have a hardware which helps you like measure, measure your maze, you know the moisture level and stuff like that. And it's built locally by a Ghanaian technologist. And it's also like they are not, they are not externally funded. It's a bootstrap company. Seven years. They have startups, they have like employees in there who are like, they are paying them salaries and stuff like that. I think like it's a very good Ghanaian model company in the sense that I mean you don't have to raise millions, you have the opportunity to raise meals, go raise millions. But you can also build something impactful in a very structured and a very proper way which is like what these guys are literally doing. Right? So I think you know a lot about complete farmers.

Caleb: I would say a lot. But yeah, complete format is a venture, venture backed, um, Agritech helping farmers um, have access to like global markets, giving them good prices, giving them assured markets. And I think we are glad to have the chief commercial officer on to talk about what they do. And you mentioned how if you have a land and you want to plant or grow something on it to get assured income now reach out to them and get that. So they've opened markets because of that. Definitely because you are financing like um, produce to other countries and all that. It comes to the cost sometimes the budgets are long. So they've raised, I think it should be a little about, a little, about $20 million. Um, I'm sure it will be more by the time this, it could be more by the time this episode comes out. But yeah, they are giving farmers opportunities and also touching lives um, more directly now even with their high, I mean agency to build fulfillment centers across the country that could, that could have, couldn't have come at any better time than now. So they're doing, they're doing very well that, um, very well. I mean the, our, our guests from there shared that one of the, the, the, the biggest certain produce farmer uh, assured them that he wants to stay on to be that producer because he's enjoying like having no competition, producing just what the company needs for whatever um, the Buyers outside is interested in getting and that is, that could be close to making that person a millionaire in one produce. And we feel this should be the time like where we have farmers who are millionaires. I mean I was told when it goes to Texas and they're having farmers conference like you see the private jets around and these are all farmers. I think this is a time we should do that. And I think complete farmer is taking farmers there.

Yao Poga: For me aside the complete farmer raising a lot of money now aside them have like structure systems aside the innovation they are doing. The part of the story I like, I love a lot is their resilience when it comes to like they pivoted like five times.

Caleb: Yeah.

Yao Poga: The guys like you were there.

Hubert: Yeah.

Caleb: Uh, they went here.

Yao Poga: It didn't work.

Caleb: Yeah, they did it.

Yao Poga: It didn't work.

Caleb: Yeah, they did this. It didn't work.

Yao Poga: And then you found something that worked.

Caleb: Yeah.

Yao Poga: Like so I mean you can pivot five times and still get it. Yeah, that's like a story that we don't usually hear a lot of that and I feel like it's a, it's a good model company. You want like better examples of how to build stuff, hard stuff. Yeah, that works. Like you've done the First, I didn't work. Try again.

Caleb: Yeah.

Yao Poga: Second I did try again. There's someone who has done it and it worked. So like for m. Me that's like.

Caleb: And one of the things you also notice across most of this architect founders or preesses they always had some link back to like farming or something. Either parents either uncle or something. So they, they understood what farming look like. They understood when you have produce and no one is buying it. They understand they've lived in some of these countries so it uh, it positions them to understand the problem. Well build with the people in mind and make sure they build like an, a human centered like um product. And that's been what they've done. Ultra successful.

Yao Poga: Totally, totally.

Caleb: This should be the people you should be looking.

Yao Poga: Yeah, look, look, look out for them. I mean we might not, there might not be a lot of case studies on them on the Internet but I mean we have interviewed them. Go listen to the episodes.

Hubert: Yeah.

Yao Poga: You find a lot of valuable insight. So move on to the last. And I don't want to say by, by, by the numbers, it is the most important sector. By the numbers is the most important sector locally and that's the fintech sector. It moves. I mean everything, all of this, all of these sectors we are talking about.

Caleb: Yeah. Because of fintech yeah.

Yao Poga: So to look at the stats, uh, they raised a total of US$452 million.

Caleb: And this is the venture capital money.

Yao Poga: Yes. And of course this is also from companies who have raised money and then uh, chop the money. Yeah, there are also from companies who have raised money and chop the money. So, so this sector was very difficult for us to like pick the top five. Top five Ghanaian model companies was very, very difficult for us. But I just run through them. So the first one is zp. Second one is Hypdo. Third one is Express Pay. Fourth one it's is Insano. Fifth one is a new entry, Affinity. So let's talk about it.

Hubert: Make the cut.

Yao Poga: Yeah. Piazza didn't make the cut.

Caleb: I think it's still fresh in town,

Yao Poga: but it's still very fresh now.

Guest: I would argue they're also not Ghanaian too.

Caleb: Yeah, but the number of, the number of company, I mean companies that could have gotten in. Seven Is there.

Guest: Interesting.

Caleb: There's no telco consortium. Um, yeah, mobile money should be there.

Guest: It should be there.

Caleb: Yeah.

Guest: M. But I mean the telco mobile money.

Yao Poga: So let's, let's just dive into it straight. What makes this five companies, a Ghanaian model company that you are building in Fintech? You should go and listen to what they are doing.

Guest: I was, I was thinking, so I was thinking of Affinity and I was thinking of Telco. I mean telco solve their unique Ghanaian problem at that time, you know, serving um, their unbanked people. I think that's Affinity is doing that um for you know, in this current dispensation, um is bringing on board um a lot of unbanked um people or semi bank people and giving them access to credit um in a unique way. We've um, talked to the founders and I think his is uh, his belief of how you know a financial institution should be run is a little bit different from what we see in Africa. You know in Africa you give out um, you, you run a bank account and you do a lot of charges.

Yao Poga: You make profits from.

Guest: Yes, from the charges. Anyway, you mentioned that. I think we were doing a transfer. Even their business account, there is no trans. Charges on their business. Yes, I, I've checked it and there is no charges on it.

Yao Poga: They told me it's 1% so far they have.

Guest: I mean I, I do the transactions and you check. I mean if it's 1% you would have finished that money. But yeah, there is though. You get it. And so far, I mean maybe they'll put the charges there. But so far uh, and there's no monthly charges. I think that the core belief is let's get people onto this platform, let's give them access to this platform, give them banking, um, assets, give them the opportunity to keep their money, make interest off it, move it from one place to another and you know, only make money of them when you know, they need this facility, um, you know, their loan facility. And I think it's very unique. Um, it's something that you know, it's, it's both trusts in, you know, the informal sector. Um, people know that. Okay, I won't. Because that's what you know, people are well worried about bank, you know, the information they know if you go and put your money in the bank by the time you realize. Yeah. And they wouldn't even give you access to credits as well. So affinity is building for a kind of different segments that you know and you know it's, it's focused on you know, giving people financial service and only you know, giving them um, these credit facility I think is a unique one and it's solving a different problem in, in a, in a very different way that normally you don't see in Ghana. So I think that's one thing to look about the ah, company, you know, think different about the problem. Um, you know, see how you can solve you know, the actual pain points of the customers you're serving.

Caleb: Yeah. For me one interesting one too was zp because I want to say something.

Yao Poga: So this, this is alleged uh, information. It's not verifiable. So I just say I like how they are set up in terms of how the August set up. So you know you're a financial institution so there's a, there's a literal finance part of it and they also attack companies. A literal tech part of it. These two parts are set up like differently and they have like different heads and it makes them like run like run like a, a uh, financial institution at the core and also run like a technology at the core. Most people don't do this like I know bad examples.

Hubert: How do you think it's set up like that?

Yao Poga: It sets up in a way that it makes you move faster. Right. So as, as a uh, as a financial institute at the core you are living up to all the standards that a financial institution should live up to as a bank, as a tech, as a core, as a, you are moving fast.

Hubert: Okay, so none gets in the way of this.

Yao Poga: Yes.

Hubert: Okay.

Yao Poga: So I know like there are bad examples locally that people try to bring bank culture into tech. Uh and it messes up everything. You end up shipping zero.

Caleb: No, not everything, but yeah, you can slow your speed.

Yao Poga: You build and build and build and build. Ship zero.

Caleb: Yeah.

Yao Poga: Even if you ship a scrap. But you guys, I mean because of the setup, like they are shipping. It's fantastic.

Caleb: Yeah.

Yao Poga: They just released a new. A new feature. So. Yeah, what's it called? They are. They are similar products to Quick Loan. Now they can give you as high as 10k. No, thank you. Yeah, loan facility because of.

Caleb: Based on your credit.

Yao Poga: Based on your credit.

Hubert: That's fire.

Yao Poga: Yeah, minimum.

Caleb: The cheapest interest rate is in the country.

Yao Poga: Yeah. Cheapest interest in the country. Uh, I don't know, but it's the cheapest, the cheapest interest rate. And like it's only possible because of how they are set up at the core. At the core. Very like how they set up at the core. And I. I feel like it's a model company that I mean don't go and copy it, but take inspiration from it. Right.

Hubert: So Iin is Ghan.

Yao Poga: 100% Ghan.

Hubert: Oh, wow.

Caleb: Yeah.

Hubert: But Fido is not.

Yao Poga: Fido is a company in Ghana.

Caleb: Started in Ghana,

Yao Poga: but it's a company in Ghana.

Guest: They have Israeli started in Israel. I think they run in Israel. Uh, they came to Ghana is the first like. Uh.

Yao Poga: But they're also doing fantastically well.

Hubert: Yeah. I think they recently introduced um, an option where you can basically like invest.

Yao Poga: I think they have savings. Savings now with Assets Bank. A new savings product with Access Bank. They also do like fantastically well. Yeah, yeah. So that's just. What.

Hubert: Have you ever been to a video office before? Like at the end of the month. Have you ever been to a video office at the end of the month before? It's like a banking hall.

Yao Poga: Okay.

Hubert: The place is full. It just shows you the number of people. You don't know if you do that.

Caleb: No, no. But what are the people doing?

Hubert: Because obviously maybe they have issues and then they trying to resolve.

Caleb: Resolve it.

Hubert: Okay. Like if you go to a federal office like at the end of the month or beginning of the month, it's basically like the place is like, um.

Caleb: Interesting.

Guest: Yeah.

Hubert: It shows that a lot of people are using it.

Yao Poga: Yeah. Know the up there for them. They also been around for a long time.

Caleb: I mean, I don't know the ones who to some extent pioneer like credit.

Hubert: Yeah, yeah, sort of.

Caleb: Yeah. Yeah.

Yao Poga: The digital one, they are the one with the digitally.

Hubert: I mean if you want to copy one of the copy.

Caleb: Yeah.

Yao Poga: I think for most people. Most people only remember that when they became pink. Yeah, but they were, they were orange before, like.

Hubert: Yeah, they change and I don't know if they want to target necessarily. Like the, I don't know, like the hike, I think.

Caleb: Yeah.

Hubert: Because even their influences are sort of like, you know, people, but their interest

Yao Poga: rate is not streets.

Hubert: It's not easy.

Caleb: Yeah. Yeah. But I think for me, I like

Hubert: model companies and if take their money and you don't pay.

Yao Poga: What's up? Don't try.

Hubert: Forget Quick Angels. Forget Quick Angels. Ask you when Fido is. If you are taking a loan from Fido. They, uh, are taking every information they want from your. Like they, when they asking for information, like things they would want to have access to on your phone. It's a lot of things. Your contacts, everything.

Yao Poga: Oh, really?

Hubert: Uh, yeah. Unless maybe they've changed it now, but.

Yao Poga: Yeah, I think they've changed.

Caleb: Yeah. Some time ago. Yeah. They asked a lot after all, so I didn't qualify.

Hubert: I'm joking.

Guest: Okay.

Caleb: So the mother companies I was mentioning,

Hubert: Zippy, please don't send me a loss.

Caleb: I think ZP has been one of the amazing model companies. I mean help people receive like remittances straight into their mobile phones. That's a game changer because Charlie, those times we're still, you know, the money going. You'll be at a, like a bank office for hours. And that one they'll ask you to are you sure? The person you're sending those then they'll do lots of background chance. But now with like a number you can Charlie, easy access like when the person is sending you are receiving. I think that's been like a major game changer when it comes to innovation and the opportunities. Knowing that remittances is one of the biggest contributions to Africa.

Hubert: Like expand to like the Caribbeans or something.

Caleb: They're the Caribbeans and they're doing amazingly well. So I mean that service was a game changer. I mean they've raised, I mean significant amount of money. But I can see their footprint across Africa and the Caribbean. As we've said, like multiple countries probably. I think maybe if I'm not wrong, she ever says about like about 20 countries. If I'm not wrong. Yeah. Ah, they're moving like significant amounts of money for um, residents in some of these countries. So ZP has been a game changer model company for people looking to make access, like make a service is accessible to many, which would have been difficult in many ways, but they've done that. And I mean doing well in terms of employment, doing well in terms of um, getting like young people building up them to improving their career and give them those opportunities and also creating like that. Also that linkage for other businesses across the world to work with them. One Major one is MoneyGram.

Guest: Yeah.

Caleb: So partner to like the mobile money service. Yeah. M m MoneyGrams engine for more uh, money payments or remittances. So it's been amazing. I think it's one model.

Hubert: One.

Yao Poga: One key company is HTel. We don't take that program.

Guest: Yeah. So, um, yeah. Hoptol has been running in the payment space for a while now. I think they, we could say they power almost everything. They, they touch every payment from ticketing.

Hubert: Yeah.

Guest: To government infrastructure, um, to, to, to anything. Just you want to buy utilities. They've been running a place now.

Yao Poga: School, hospitals.

Guest: Yes.

Hubert: I mean labs.

Guest: They touch almost every part of, you know, our economy doing pay. Um, that's the AC frustration. I mean, I mean Hoptal as a company, they build a lot of products as well. Beyond building like payment stuff for um, other company. Um, being a model company, I, I would think it's one of, you know, the best, if not the best, um, places to work. I mean, um, you know. Yeah. Bearing other issues. But I think, um, I, I've talked to people who've worked there. Um, they like the place. They like the, like the progression.

Yao Poga: Culture.

Guest: Yeah, the culture. I mean it's, it's as far as you do your best work, I think you'll be left alone. Um. From the people I've talked to afar. As you do your best work, you will be left alone. Um, there's opportunity for growth.

Yao Poga: Yeah, a lot of it.

Guest: Yeah.

Yao Poga: Um, there's someone we spoke to, we said he, he got promoted I think four or five times in a single year.

Guest: Oh yeah, yeah.

Caleb: Wow.

Guest: And I've seen people that, you know, I've started from like very low level and true. Now I see a lot of like head of engineer. There's this. I think it's. It's just because the company expands very fast. It expands very big. The growth is um, very fast. There's a lot to do and you know, people are coming in all the time. Um, I mean I don't see much people leave. People leave, but more people are.

Yao Poga: The chain isn't that much.

Hubert: I call. I call Hill the Google of Ghana.

Yao Poga: I wanted to use that but I didn't.

Caleb: Yeah, I don't feel, I called.

Yao Poga: I feel is a hap of God.

Guest: I think they are, they are, are. They are getting to that place where you Know, they'll, they'll be like the Silicon Valley like place to work.

Hubert: So soon we'll have like a htail mafia or something like that.

Yao Poga: It's already there. A few people from, you know, that

Guest: you know, have left and built quite successful companies and probably there'll be more. There'll be more. We could see something like similar to what we had at Pay Stack in Nigeria.

Caleb: And interestingly, haptel has been 100% bushed up.

Hubert: They are not doing fast.

Yao Poga: All the licenses you have to get.

Hubert: Yeah.

Yao Poga: I mean coming out of revenue

Caleb: and that's, that's, that's amazing.

Hubert: They should release their blueprint so people can come.

Yao Poga: And also like the fact that uh, they sometimes pioneer vectors.

Caleb: Yeah.

Yao Poga: So I think when Covet Hits they are one of the few companies who are running delivery, who started like the delivery services before the other guys came in. And right now they are living in. Yeah. Leading a new, a new uh, part of buying our pay liter. But for things that you don't expect to buy now.

Guest: Yeah.

Yao Poga: Ah, like helping us build a culture there. So you can buy now and pay later. Uh, you can order your food.

Guest: Yeah.

Yao Poga: And eat it now. Like it's so interesting and for me, like it's culture building in that smallest point. Right. Very near future. My pitch to what's it called a BMW office here, tell them that the guys are buying food and paying Lita they should come and buy a car.

Hubert: Right.

Yao Poga: I feel like it's crazy. Yeah. It's a step. That step that we are like they are helping the entire ecosystem move towards. It's fantastic.

Caleb: Yeah. And that company, I, I think um, I've had like very good reviews from Express Pay. It's amazing. Like m. One of the best customer. Customer service companies and they have a certain. Obviously like certain clients they, I mean they're certain. There's a certain demographic that uses their products and it clearly shows a targeted product demographic. If you go and try, try and use. I've used it for some time but

Yao Poga: simple question, yes or no.

Caleb: Right now I don't use it.

Yao Poga: Use Express Speed.

Hubert: Cut, cut, cut. So let me, let me take the position of the host here.

Caleb: Okay.

Hubert: Um, of all the companies that we've mentioned, which one is your favorite? Which one would you say the Prime. Top. Top model company is?

Yao Poga: Okay.

Guest: I, I think if favorite. You'd have to define anything. Favorites to work. Favorites to use.

Caleb: Okay. Yeah, that's a good.

Guest: I use some companies. I, I like some companies. Um, I would have to think about it for a minute.

Caleb: Pivot for what?

Hubert: What about you? No, just a model company.

Yao Poga: Model company. Uh, my favorite place to work would be up there.

Hubert: Okay.

Yao Poga: My favorite app to use will be affinity.

Hubert: Okay.

Yao Poga: If I'm building a company and I want to like, if I want to build a company a certain way, my favorite company will be complete farmer.

Hubert: Okay.

Yao Poga: And what again, what, what example can I use?

Hubert: It's okay.

Yao Poga: It's a tricky, it's a tricky one for me.

Hubert: Why is it tricky?

Caleb: Yeah, I mean maybe now I like, I use some so I admire them more than before. But uh, my top three, My top three. My top three, top three. Affinity ZP and Archie's Express.

Hubert: B. This guy. Everything is money, money.

Yao Poga: Okay, interesting.

Guest: Have you, have you, um, favorite to work? Maybe I'll say hotel, maybe. Um, is a big organization. So I don't like big organization, but I like the culture. So maybe favorite to work hotel. But what I use the most, um, maybe Express Pay and affinity. Yes.

Caleb: Yeah.

Guest: It's actually beneficial than using mobile money. You should try it. If you have a card and you put on its card, charges are way less.

Yao Poga: I've stopped using cards.

Guest: They are way less than mobile money. If you pay at a pos, you don't pay any charges.

Caleb: Wow.

Guest: Uh, if you pay. But if you pay ads, if you pay mobile money, there's charges. So it's actually cost beneficial using card.

Caleb: Yeah, I think the card is one of the things that has made it also attractive to that class of people. Some people use cards a lot because of traveling things and I think that's why especially gets in there.

Guest: So.

Yao Poga: Yeah. How about you?

Hubert: Like, so if I travel somewhere, I can still use it. Can you say like if I go to South Africa like this, you can

Guest: use it to do. I don't think you could. I'm not sure. I've not tried. So you can use it to do bank transfers. Um, so there's a list of banks, many Ghanaian banks. Um, um, I don't think you can use it when you travel, but I mean if you use a card when you travel, you'd want to put the card on ExpressV as well.

Caleb: Yeah. So when you put the card on it, you can use it like when you travel.

Hubert: Okay.

Caleb: You know the traveling card, like the card I can travel with. Yeah, if it's a, is it a visa or something?

Guest: So if you have a visa, you can put it on it. So if you are in like let's say you from the US you have a visa, you're studying express free, come

Yao Poga: and sponsor Us so that we do. I didn't even know this.

Caleb: You see.

Hubert: I don't know if you guys are doing marketing over come and sponsor us.

Yao Poga: I saw, I saw one of their. They doing some activation in town. Some um, QR code activation. Okay. So we're moving on to the next company, next model company infek, which is in Sano. Um, which is also a bush company. A bush draft company has footprint in over how many God knows how many ah countries. How many countries in Africa?

Guest: Yeah, they're in, they're in Rwanda I guess. Um, about five African companies.

Yao Poga: Yeah, a lot. A lot, a lot. And Bootstrap Solo. Founder.

Caleb: Founder. Yeah.

Yao Poga: Fantastic work being done. Currently being led by a former alumni alumini. Fantastic work going on there. And I think they are purely enterprise though. They have, they have consumer products is their product. I don't know if you know Bug,

Caleb: I've seen, I've seen this.

Yao Poga: What's it called? It's something like ZP but for consumers.

Caleb: Okay.

Yao Poga: So you can send money up and down from up to down. Yeah. And I got you fantastically well. I also hear that culture is also good. Like it's nice to work work there. We've hosted someone from there on one of the All Star episodes before.

Guest: That's how many Take care.

Hubert: Yeah, someone said that, someone said that fintech companies in Africa only encourage people to spend money.

Caleb: Now some are encouraging people to save and build a good.

Guest: I think that the problem is maybe people don't have a lot of disposable

Caleb: income to see that's also you just focus on where they can spend.

Guest: But also in Nigeria they've been very successful with um, some of these.

Yao Poga: Achieve is also helping people see.

Caleb: Yeah Achieve. Achieve is one of the great places helping people save.

Yao Poga: Okay.

Caleb: It has made a significant impact on like Gen Z savings. Yeah, Achieve has made that significant impact.

Yao Poga: So this brings us to the end of the Ghanaian model company episode. So uh, I mean we are all in Ghana but you know that if you want to build a social media company you are going to look at Max Zakubes playbook. I use. But locally these are some, some companies that are wet. I mean what's looking at when you are building.

Caleb: Yeah.

Yao Poga: For these various sectors I don't say go and copy them. You're saying take inspiration from, from them and then look at the ways that they build their businesses and then help let us inspire you to build your uh, business that you are building. Also if you are in school and looking to like get into a company these are some companies that you can start applying to. I mean, you can send out a code email to them.

Caleb: Yeah.

Yao Poga: Some of them, their CEOs numbers and stuff. Not numbers, emails are very easy to find. So, I mean, shoot your shot and then get into the Ghanaian digital ecosystem them. And this has been, uh, a very nice and engaging episode.

Caleb: Yeah.

Yao Poga: I hope you liked it. If you're watching on MX24, tell someone about it. If you're watching on YouTube, uh, subscribe and then, like, we see you on the next one.

Guest: Bye.

Caleb: Bye. It was a pleasure having the brief guy. Yeah.

Hubert: Also lastly, please, like, subscribe and share this with someone.

Yao Poga: Yes.

Caleb: Yeah, yeah. And follow brief.

Yao Poga: Yeah. Ram.