Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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French health institutes are also looking closely at the acces-
sibility of drugs, a topic that is in line with World Health Orga-
nisation objectives. For example, the pharmaceutical group
Sanofi has worked in collaboration with the University of Ber-
keley, the Institute for OneWorld Health (IOWH) and the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation to cut the cost of drugs used to
combat malaria, one of Africas plagues, and in particular the
price of one of the components, artemisinin. It has designed
a synthetic product which went into production in 2012. The
project was initiated by Sanofis Access to Drugs Depart-
ment, whose aim was to supply ACT treatments (Artemisinin
Combination Therapies) at cost price to populations without
the means to pay for them. To achieve this, we had to find a
balance price that wouldnt be damaging to the sources of
artemisinin originating from traditional agriculture. The aim
was to create a balance between production and costs and
avoid speculation.
Drug accessibility at Sanofi
The emergence of a scientific community
32 LE MOCI - Special issue - March 2014
Theres a tremendous desire to consume
in Africa, but the ability to do so remains
limited. Hence the success of prepay-
ment for mobile phones, one of several
segments in which Oberthur Technolo-
gies (OT) has taken a position and deve-
loped its offer to meet the special needs
of African markets.
Fifteen years ago, it was in Africa that
mobile phone operators invented pre-
payment. Today, over 70 % of the conti-
nent is equipped with a mobile phone
with monthly recharges by the user at a
cost of 7 to 15 USD, which is equivalent
to several hours of calls a month, explai-
ned Julien Traisnel, MoreMagic Business
Development Director at OT.
First came the scratch card offers used
to recharge a prepaid account. The
French group then moved into electronic
top-up centres. You no longer have to
buy a card and scratch it. You give your
phone number and youre sent an SMS
telling you that your account has been
recharged. This cuts the operating costs
and offers a more user-friendly service. It
also meets the special needs of the Afri-
can market and its appetite for special
offers. Price/usage flexibility is very strong
in these regions where you can launch
closely targeted, effective promotional
campaigns, such as, for example, offe-
ring double the number of free calls or
SMS for any recharge carried out on the
day of a football match sponsored by the
operator.
The supplier of secure identification solu-
tions has transposed the prepayment
system to bank cards: sold in supermar-
kets, you can recharge them without
having a bank account: a major opportu-
nity for a continent in which banking ser-
vices are still available only to the weal-
thiest 10 to 15 %, said the specialist.
And from prepaid bank cards it was only
a short step to Mobile Money, a concept
that was actually invented for Africa. It
Prepaid cards:
Africas mobile money revolution
was launched in Kenya and then spread
across the continent and on to Afghanis-
tan, the Philippines, etc. In fact, it was
the operators who began to take an inte-
rest in this non-banking part of the popu-
lation and designed a prepaid wallet, vir-
tual therefore electronic, linked to a
mobile phone, explained Julien Traisnel.
You either have a smartphone applica-
tion, an SMS menu or a USSD menu.
You open an account with a Mobile
Money agent approved by the mobile
operator and you deposit money via the
distribution network. You can then trans-
fer this money to someone who has a
mobile phone hosted by the same ope-
rator. So you can pay your bills, tuition
fees, etc.
The same operator: Oberthur Techno-
logies wanted to free the African consu-
mer from this restriction and created
inter-operability. Up to then, a prepaid
phone or bank card could only be used
between clients of the same mobile
phone operator. This was the closed
loop or closed garden system. OT,
which manufactures and supplies bank
cards worldwide, designed a Mobile
Money offer with a payment card that
could be used in any network that accep-
ted these cards: the Companion Card.
All that remained was to transpose the
wallet idea to television. As for mobile
phone prepayment and prepaid bank
card dematerialisation, OT was chosen
by Canal+ Overseas last July to demate-
rialise the renewal of prepaid television
subscriptions in Africa. In other words,
Canal+ subscribers will be able to ins-
tantly recharge their pay-TV account from
their sofa, using their mobile phone.
Today, were having the greatest suc-
cess with Mobile Money services in the
broader sense, i.e. dematerialised finan-
cial services via a mobile, in Kenya,
Uganda and Tanzania, in other words,
East Africa. Its peer-to-peer: rural wor-
kers sending their money via Mobile
Money to their families in town.
The activity is having an increasing
influence on African economies. In return,
Africa has become an increasingly impor-
tant market for the French group and now
accounts for some 10 % of its worldwide
earnings.
Telephones, banking services and television for all. These targets set by Oberthur Tech-
nologies, which specialises in smart card technologies, are made possible by demateria-
lised prepayment. A revolution that began in Africa.
TECHNICAL PRODUCTS
Today, over 70 % of the continent is
equipped with a mobile phone with monthly
recharges.
T
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The wallet idea, transposed to television
34 LE MOCI - Special issue - March 2014
Does a group like Orange have the capa-
city to meet the African market's special
needs? Its a big subject. The French
telephone operator is established in 18
countries on the continent and sees them
as 18 different markets The key factor
is our ability to adapt our innovation coun-
try by country. The priorities are often very
different from one country to another and,
thanks to the deployment of our network,
we can listen to the market and find the
right innovations, even though theyre
sometimes small markets. It also allows
us to identify our objectives for the years
to come, explained Arnauld Blondet,
Oranges marketing director for the emer-
ging countries, who also pointed out that
the French group had just been voted
telecommunications company of the
year in Africa by Frost & Sullivan preci-
sely for its use of bold growth strategies.
This in-house policy is echoed by African
consumers' hunger for all kinds of inno-
vation, which can sometimes lead to
unexpected results. People have so little
that any innovation finds a customer, a
use, etc. Which is why we mustnt
construct the innovation for a single,
unchangeable purpose; the innovation
needs to be placed in the users hand.
When we launch a service, we see more
and more that, at the end of the day, its
used for something other than we initially
imagined.
This hunger leads to an acceleration in
evolutions much greater than what is
seen in mature markets like Europe. The
low age of populations means that theyre
capable of making technological leaps:
They can go from a total absence of tele-
phones straight to a smartphone. Theyre
moving into data more quickly than in
Europe; Orange Money type services are
hugely successful. So, in certain areas
were moving forward more quickly than
in Europe. The same applies to dynamism
and the ability to deploy new services.
Telecommunications:
user-driven innovation
And were also testing concepts in Africa
that could be of interest to European
countries.
The example of the deployment of Face-
book USSD in Africa in early 2012 is ins-
tructive. Its Facebook without the Inter-
net! said the director, who sees it as real
progress in the spread of the Internet for
all. USSD technology allows users of
basic telephones (not smartphones), with
no Internet access, to link up to the social
network. In practical terms, the user
sends a code to the Orange platforms,
which send back a text page that looks
like a web page, but with no images or
videos. Here, too, the use of Facebook
is instructive, as its a real means of
meeting people and working together.
In some African countries, clients use it
in an almost professional way, several
hours a day, as a communication and pro-
motional tool. So, from the same base
and the same services, were seeing
really specific uses and habits that we
hadnt always identified very scientifically
before. Oranges major success in Africa
this year was the Emergency Credit.
Depending on the markets, between 20
and 50 % of clients are already using it
on a monthly or ongoing basis. It comes
either in a prepaid version, i.e. a
consumption credit that allows you to
add credit when youre down to zero, or
in a Pay for Me version which is nothing
less than the old reverse-charge call that
was well-known in Europe once upon a
time. However, the great difference and
innovation compared to the latter is that
they are transposed to mobiles, specifi-
cally for the African market. That too is
what innovations about: re-using
concepts but adapting them, said the
director.
What are the future themes for Orange
in Africa? The Mobile Government,
without a doubt, in line with what other
major French companies are doing, such
as Gemalto and Oberthr Technologies
(see our article), in partnership (or not)
with Orange. While the operator sees the
slowness and complexity of decision-
making as the major difficulties in setting
up these government programmes, the
process is launched and the demateriali-
sation of administrative documents is ine-
vitable. People are already using Orange
Money to register for universities in the
Ivory Coast, Mali, Senegal, Niger, Mada-
gascar and Cameroon, said Arnauld
Blondet. Before, you had to turn up at
the registration office with a wad of notes.
In Niger, for example, theres a real before
and an after.
In early 2011, Orange set up a Technocentre in Abidjan to identify the specificities of Afri-
can markets and, in particular, to develop multimedia, even though most Africans have
entry-level mobile phones rather than smartphones.
TECHNICAL PRODUCTS
Orange is testing new concepts in Africa
(here, its HQ in Douala).
F
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Deploying Facebook without Internet
36 LE MOCI - Special issue - March 2014
Africa is on the verge of an economic
boom like the one we saw in China 30
years ago and India 20 years ago. All the
lights are green. And in most countries, the
climate is very favourable to their moderni-
sation and democratisation. And thats
where we come in, explained Eric Billiaert,
Gemaltos communications director for
government programmes. Democracy in
Africa? Weve been talking about it for
decades. But now somethings really hap-
pening. To ensure more transparent elec-
tions and strengthen democratic pro-
cesses, weve been called in by a number
of African countries in the last two years to
work with them before the elections to set
up biometric records of the entire popula-
tion in order to more clearly introduce that
simple principle that we all know: one voice,
one vote, said the director.
Among other sophisticated technologies,
the world leader for digital security has des-
igned a sort of suitcase that is autonomous
as it is battery-operated, fully equipped with
a PC, light, camera and fingerprinting sys-
tem, etc. These suitcases are transported
the length and breadth of the country to
register people, check their identity and
issue them with a digital document for
voting. Project management has become
an essential part of our work as it requires
registering as was the case in Burkina
Faso 6 million people in 3 months, trai-
ning 3,000 others and sending 200 t of
equipment and 3,500 registration kits. It
has become our business. Were up
against the best in Asia because theyre
obviously on the African continent and very
aggressive; were also up against German
and local competitors too.
The suitcases are competitively priced,
and specially designed for Africa to stand
up to the rain, tropical temperatures and
conditions sometimes so Spartan that
registration operations have to be carried
out for 8 hours at a stretch in schools, with
no electricity, in remote corners of Africa.
Mobile digital solutions
to strengthen democracy
South Africa has decided to turn another
page in its post-apartheid history by rene-
wing all of its national identity cards. Having
drawn up very precise specifications, Pre-
toria decided to implement its project and
Gemalto, awarded the tender, delivered the
new national digital cards to South Africas
national print works so that the first cards
could be issued on 18 July last year: Nel-
son Mandela was one of the first reci-
pients for his 95th birthday! Apart from
the highly symbolic aspect, these secure
identity cards open the way to the deploy-
ment of a range of electronic government
services in the future.
Other pages are turning, again with this
French technology that aims to be innova-
tive and adapted to the African context. For
example, Gabon has embarked on a wide-
ranging social security programme, a way
for the government, explains Eric Billiaert,
to redistribute the nations resources, ema-
nating mainly from oil, through social bene-
fits. And one of the key elements of the spe-
cifications was to ensure that these benefits
were redistributed to the right people. The
important thing was to identify nationals
quickly and securely and to tell the others
that the programme was aimed only at the
Gabonese; and also to say that, although
the range of benefits is limited for the
moment, it is available to all, starting with
the most destitute. To me, thats a sign,
said the director.
In Algeria, Gemalto designed a new elec-
tronic health system (CHIA) in 2009. Over
13,500 practitioners were identified using
tokens (USB keys fitted with a micropro-
cessor) and a patient who tries to see a
doctor for the fourth time in a week has his
card frozen.
So, some great leaps forward for many Afri-
can countries, and even in relation to
Europe, particularly France, where were
still working to dematerialise births, mar-
riages and deaths, which are still in the
registers. But Africa isnt the only winner.
For the French group, the continent has
been a very strong vector for growth since
around 2009.
Of the 80 government programmes in
which Gemalto is or has been involved, 15
% are in Africa. Each client country often
has one, two or even three programmes.
The economic boom in Africa is encoura-
ging countries to opt for this sophisticated
technology, concluded Eric Billiaert.
Gemalto, world leader for digital security, has found markets booming in Africa. Major
technological leaps are underway, improving what had become reoccurring problems in
Africa: governance and citizenship.
TECHNICAL PRODUCTS
Eric Billiaert, Gemalto communications
director for government programmes.
D
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Digital suitcases helping towards demo-
cratic elections
38 LE MOCI - Special issue - March 2014
ECONOMIC ANALYSIS BY ZONE AND COUNTRY
A
T
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T
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C
O
C
E
A
N
I
N
D
I
A
N
O
C
E
A
N
Rabat
Algiers
Tunis
Tripoli
Cairo
Khartoum
Juba
Asmara
Mogadishu
Nairobi
V
i
c
t
o
r
i
a
Djibouti
Moroni
Dodoma
Pretoria
Gaborone
Windhoek
Luanda
Cabinda
Brazzaville
Kinshasa
Libreville
Sao Tome
Accra
Lome
Yaounde
Bangui
Ndjamena
Malabo
Abuja
Porto Novo
Niamey
Ouagadougou
Bamako
Monrovia
Freetown
Conakry
Bissau
Banjul
Praia
Dakar
Nouakchott
Yamoussoukro
Lusaka
Harare
Lilongwe
Mbabane
Maputo
Maseru
Antananarivo
Port-Louis
Bujumbura
Kigali
Kampala
Addis Ababa
ZAMBIA
MALAWI
NI GERI A
B
E
N
I
N
Port-Louis
MAURITIUS
ALGERI A
LI BYA
T
U
N
I
S
I
A
EGYPT
SUDAN
SOUTH
SUDAN
ETHI OPI A
KENYA
RWANDA
BURUNDI
T
A
N
Z
A
N
I
A
Moron
COMOROS
ANGOLA
(ANGOLA)
Mbabane
seru
SWAZI LAND
Maseru
LESOTHO
NAMI BI A
BOTSWANA
DEM. REP.
OF CONGO
CENTRAL
AFRI CAN
REPUBLI C
UGANDA
M
O
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A
M
B
I
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U
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C
A
M
E
R
O
O
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CHAD
GABON
NI GER
EQUATORI AL
GUI NEA
GUI NEA
BI SSAU
SI ERRA
LEONE
LI BERI A
I VORY
COAST
G
H
A
N
A
SAO-TOME
AND PRI NCI PE
mara m Asm AA m
ERI TREA
Djibouti
DJ I BOUTI
S
O
M
A
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A
ogad s u
V
i
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t
o
r
i
a
ni ni
OS
S
E
Y
C
H
E
L
L
E
S
MOROCCO
MALI
BURKI NA
FASO
SENEGAL
GAMBI A
CABO
VERDE
T
O
G
O
S
O
U
T
H
A
F
R
IC
A
C
O
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G
O
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A
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I
A
G
U
I
N
E
A
M
A
D
A
G
A
S
C
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ZIMBABWE
North Africa
including the AMU
Arab Maghreb
Union (AMU)
Economic Community
of West African States
(ECOWAS) including UEMOA
Economic and Monetary
Community of Central Africa
(CEMAC)
Countries within
the franc zone
East Africa
and the Indian Ocean
Southern Africa
Development
Community (SADC)
Nor
inc
Eco
of
(
Ara
Uni
Eco
Ara
Eco
Five zones for one continent
LE MOCI - Special issue - March 2014 39
The 2013 results
of the CIAN survey
This 25th edition of the CIAN Barometer presents the business pros-
pects of French companies established on the continent, for 31 African
countries over the period 2012-2014, along with their assessment of
the business environment. This testimony from the people in the field is
a special feature of the Barometer and makes it a unique reference tool
for investors.
The CIAN Barometer is drawn up following a sur-
vey carried out every summer among the heads of
subsidiaries or companies established in Africa,
who are asked to comment on a number of points,
divided into two parts:
the first, cyclical, focuses on the companys busi-
ness prospects: earnings, investment, profitability,
claims on the Government and claims on local pri-
vate industry;
the second, more structural, concerns an
assessment of the business environment in the
country concerned: 39 criteria spread across seven
major headings infrastructures, administration,
the economy and finance, social, sociocultural,
input costs and sustainable development.
In 2013, 514 company executives commented on
the progress of their activities across the entire
African continent (70 in North Africa, 183 in West
Africa, 121 in Central Africa and 140 in Southern
and Eastern Africa and the Indian Ocean).
The overall trends in the results are very much in
line with previous years companies are doing
profitable business despite a difficult business envi-
ronment in Africa but the analysis by region helps
to qualify this continental overview. However, one
point emerges that is common to all four regions:
an overall deterioration in the business environment
in which investors are operating.
An assessment of
company activity 2012-2014
Methodology
The survey focuses on the trends shown by five
indicators over the financial years 2012, 2013
and 2014:
earnings: growth, stagnation, decline;
investment: recovery, interruption, reduction;
results: in profit, break-even, deficit;
level of sovereign debt: high, normal, low;
level of debt over the local private sector: high,
normal, low.
The graphs on the following page show the trends
by large geographical areas, which are then bro-
ken down for each of the 31 countries assessed
this year.
Africa is a dynamic and rapidly-growing market, as
can be seen from the activities of the companies
that have invested there. Prospects are positive
for the vast majority of them.
Their earnings have increased and should
continue to do so for the coming year: 58 % of
companies surveyed declared higher earnings in
2012, 51 % in 2013 and 62 % in 2014.
The trend in West Africa, although positive, is the
least so: 52 % in 2013 and 58 % in 2014. Fore-
casts are the most encouraging in the Maghreb,
where only 44 % of companies enjoyed a growth
in earnings in 2013, while 20 % more (64 %) pre-
dict growth for 2014.
Certain countries stand out as having very clear
positive or negative prospects, highlighting the
vitality of the English-speaking markets in Africa,
whereas the French-speaking markets demons-
trate a certain sluggishness.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The people responsible for the CIAN survey would like to thank all the
companies that took the time to respond, along with all the organisa-
tions that helped to distribute it locally: CIAN members, external trade
advisors, local French chambers of commerce and industry, employers
organisations and French economic missions and embassies.
The responses received directly from operators make this Barometer the
only genuine field survey available to investors and the stakeholders in
African development. It assesses only those countries for which the
number of responses received was considered sufficient in proportion to
French economic presence in the country.
40 LE MOCI - Special issue - March 2014
ECONOMIC ANALYSIS BY ZONE AND COUNTRY
2012
2013
2014
2012
2013
2014
2012
2013
2014
2012
2013
2014
2012
2013
2014
49 17 34
33 23 44
27 64 9
43 31 26
37 43 20
26 51 23
54 20 26
21 69 10
27 57 16
37 29 34
37 36 27
34 42 24
27 52 21
24 53 23
26 61 13
Global trend in profit (%)
Profit Balanced Loss
Government's outstanding liabilities (%)
Global trend in turnover (%)
Global trend in investment (%)
Level of debt in the local private sector (%)
Low Normal High
Low Normal High
Recovery Deterioration Stagnation
Recovery Deterioration Stagnation
2012
2013
2014
2012
2013
2014
2012
2013
2014
2012
2013
2014
2012
2013
2014
17 63 20
27 52 21
33 59 8
48 33 19
49 30 21
55 28 17
23 56 21
30 62 8
33 17 50
45 32 23
44 30 26
44 35 21
28 53 19
27 58 15
27 64 9
Global trend in profit (%)
Profit Balanced Loss
Government's outstanding liabilities (%)
Global trend in turnover (%)
Global trend in investment (%)
Level of debt in the local private sector (%)
Low Normal High
Low Normal High
Recovery Deterioration Stagnation
Recovery Deterioration Stagnation
2012
2013
2014
2012
2013
2014
2012
2013
2014
2012
2013
2014
2012
2013
2014
20 58 22
51 29 20
30 61 9
48 29 23
49 31 20
26 18 56
56 22 22
27 8 65
30 56 14
40 34 26
40 33 27
39 39 22
25 54 21
55 25 20
24 63 13
Global trend in profit (%)
Profit Balanced Loss
Government's outstanding liabilities (%)
Global trend in turnover (%)
Global trend in investment (%)
Level of debt in the local private sector (%)
Low Normal High
Low Normal High
Recovery Deterioration Stagnation
Recovery Deterioration Stagnation
North
Africa
West
Africa
2012
2013
2014
2012
2013
2014
2012
2013
2014
2012
2013
2014
2012
2013
2014
18 68 14
20 22 58
31 61 8
59 18 23
57 23 20
22 63 15
60 21 19
22 72 6
26 63 11
38 30 32
36 27 37
38 33 29
17 26 57
19 29 52
19 62 19
Global trend in profit (%)
Profit Balanced Loss
Government's outstanding liabilities (%)
Global trend in turnover (%)
Global trend in investment (%)
Level of debt in the local private sector (%)
Low Normal High
Low Normal High
Recovery Deterioration Stagnation
Recovery Deterioration Stagnation
2012
2013
2014
2012
2013
2014
2012
2013
2014
2012
2013
2014
2012
2013
2014
18 68 14
20 22 58
31 61 8
59 18 23
57 23 20
22 63 15
60 21 19
22 72 6
26 63 11
38 30 32
36 27 37
38 33 29
17 26 57
19 29 52
19 62 19
Global trend in profit (%)
Profit Balanced Loss
Government's outstanding liabilities (%)
Global trend in turnover (%)
Global trend in investment (%)
Level of debt in the local private sector (%)
Low Normal High
Low Normal High
Recovery Deterioration Stagnation
Recovery Deterioration Stagnation
Central
Africa
Africa
(Continent)
Southern
Africa,
East
Africa
and
Indian
Ocean
Company
activity
2012-2014