Hello Quartz Africa readers
The thought of owning a fraction or a share or a fully digital asset (NFTs, altcoins etc.) doesn’t seem so strange. In the US, the success of retail apps like Robinhood rests on the understanding that not everyone can buy a share of Amazon or Apple, but millions can buy a small fraction of such shares.
Cue ARTSPLIT, a Nigerian-based platform that wants to apply the same principles, but for African art and African art collectors, allowing users to own a piece by an African artist for just a few dollars.
“What if art was an investment or financial instrument?” Mr. Onyinye Anyaegbu, ARTSPLIT’s Executive Director of Operations and Production, citing one of the driving questions behind the creation of ARTSPLIT. Each investment-grade artwork is divided into 100,000 lots, and users can bid to own the African artwork, which can then be sold on the secondary market.
ARTSPLIT
While Artsplit is still in its infancy, there are promising signs: $5 million in funding, nearly $1 million in transactions on the app since its launch in April this year, 8,000 users in 54 countries, 78 auctions, and 55 art listings from Africa’s most popular artists.
ARTSPLIT auctioned for the first time in 1977, “Agbogho Muo” from the Ogolo series of artworks by one of Africa’s most influential artists, Ben Inwon. Despite historically low prices for African artworks on the international market, the auction was oversubscribed, pushing the price of the artwork up from its reserve price of $0.50 to $1.05 at the end of the auction.
Through this new initiative, investing in the arts will reduce barriers to entry, understand how much individuals (especially Africans) value our art, and connect people where they are – less investing in business-to-business applications on mobile phones or laptops. It will be done in a few clicks.
-Ciku Kimeria, Africa editor
What to see in a brief description of the Quartz Africa member
in digits
28: Out-of-pocket health expenditure as a percentage of health expenditure in Kenya
2.2: Number of health facilities per 10,000 people in Kenya
11 million. Africans who fall into poverty every year due to out-of-pocket medical bills
0.51: Number of drug workers per 10,000 population in Kenya
1:99 Number of doctors per 10,000 population in Kenya
Find out more about Tibu, a Nairobi-based health technology startup, in this coming Wednesday’s edition of Quartz Africa Member Brief. To receive member briefs directly in your inbox (and 40% savings) Become a member today!
This week’s stories
Kenyans don’t trust technology to conduct general elections… Kenya has made great strides in technological advancement, but its tech-savvy population still wants to see votes counted and verified manually. Faustin Ngila explains the paradox of the country waiting for a week to announce a new president.
But the new president-elect has promised to make Kenya a global technology leader. Faustin Ngila looks at the task ahead of William Ruto, who faces a legal challenge after winning the election. Until the dispute is resolved, Kenya’s macroeconomic future is fraught with uncertainty.
Big Tech scoffs at moving US developers to Africa.. Microsoft and Amazon are hiring software developers in Africa and will help them relocate to North America and Europe, reports Alexander Onkwue.
You can now post selfies from the top of Mount Kilimanjaro. Tanzania has rolled out a high-speed broadband network on the slopes of Africa’s tallest mountain. Faustin Ngila reports on what this means for tourists.
Nigeria’s inflation has reached a 17-year high. Africa’s largest economy experienced its sixth consecutive month of inflation in July and reached its highest level since 2005, Alexander Onkwue reports.
Charging Ghana’s rising interest rates
Nigeria and Kenya are not alone in their macroeconomic woes. A similar story of high inflation is playing out in Ghana, where the July figure was 31.7 percent, Alexander Onkwue noted. What should be done about this? The Bank of Ghana has called an emergency monetary policy committee meeting and raised interest rates by the highest percentage in two decades.
An interested person
Contemporary Art Museum
In the year Born in 1939 as the first of ten children into a humble family in Madagascar, Ramili, known as the father of black and white photography in Madagascar, would become the first Malagasy photographer to own his own studio and laboratory.
He made landscapes and portraits of his countrymen. In these photographs, he captures the essence of Madagascar between colonialism and independence, using light and shadow to tell a story to convey emotion and movement through time and memory.
Ramillie’s photographs show Madagascar evolving, his work beginning when the country was still under French colonial rule and ending well after it became a republic. In the year Ramilli, who died in 2017, was at the height of his power and popularity from the 1970s to the 1990s.
Joela Ranaivosen from Antananarivo explores his lasting legacy with a visit to the Hakanto Contemporary Museum exhibition to celebrate his pioneering work.
Contemporary Art Museum
Pay attention to the creator of Quartz Africa 2021
When 18-year-old programmer Xaviera Coo was thinking about what kind of machine to design for First Global, an international robotics competition, her first thought was to develop a program that would “benefit society.” Her second thought was how to deal with the issue of product pollution to the environment.
In response to these priorities, she developed a remote-controlled garbage disposal robot that can pick up debris and place it in a designated area as a trash or recycling robot. The invention won the inaugural Margaret Junior Award at the JFD, France’s women’s innovation network.
Check out the Quartz Africa Innovators 2021 list, which showcases the pioneering work being done by Kowo and other female African innovators.
Distributor
iProcureA Kenyan company that connects agricultural producers with retailers has raised $10.2 million in Series B funding. It was a mix of debt and equity financing. Investors in the round include Investors and partners (I&P), Novastar Ventures, CeniarthAnd British International Investment (bi)
The beginning of Nigerian accounting Pastel He collected 5.5 million dollars in the seed round TLcom Capitalwith participation Global Founders Capital (GFC), Golden Palm Investment, DFS Labs, Ulu Ventures, Plug and playAnd Soma capital. Pastel launched in 2021 and has 45,000 small business vendors using the app to track their business.
Quartz gems
Crypto domain names are hot, crypto itself is not
This crypto website does not include Shiba Inu-Tim coins.
The .eth domain, managed by the Ethereum Name Service, serves as a public profile for displaying one’s Ethereum blockchain transactions and holdings—and can also be traded as NFTs. In July, ENS reported record numbers: 378,804 .eth domain names were registered, 25,000 names were renewed and generated $3.9 million in net revenue.
Why bother? A three- or four-digit ENS domain can get you in online social communities and bragging rights like 999 and 10k clubs. But it’s not cheap: membership in these clubs can cost you tens of thousands of dollars.
This boom comes at a strange time for the broader crypto industry. With domain sales ending, most crypto assets are down. But this speculative boom is what Internet entrepreneurs have been doing for decades: buying domain names for a dollar.
We like others
The world mourned the death of the Somali Shakespeare. For the BBC, Junaidi Farah commemorated the death at the age of 79 of renowned Somali poet Mohamed Ibrahim Warsame Hadrawi, considered Somalia’s greatest poet.
Buju BNXN is in trouble for spitting on the police. Daily Post reporter Fikayo Olowolagba details the drama that led a popular Nigerian musician to brag about spitting in the face of a police officer on Twitter.
A wildfire killed 37 Algerians. The New York Times’ Cora Engelbrecht and Massinisa Benlakehal explain how the North African country’s intense heat wave and strong winds have killed dozens of people.
Al Qaeda and Islamic State threats are growing in Africa. Washington Post reporter Ishan Tharoor explains how jihadist militant groups are the cause of insecurity in Africa.
An exiled Chadian rebel leader returns home. After 17 years in exile, Timan Erdimi returned to his country to participate in national negotiations to pave the way for elections after the military took over last year, Reuters reported.
ICMI
Win $50,000 in startup funding. Meet and compete with African high-tech startups from Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and Senegal at the 2022 MEST Africa Challenge and stand a chance to win $50,000 in equity investment. (August 31)
AfDB is offering paid internships.. Anyone under the age of 30 in Africa can apply for this year’s African Development Bank Virtual Internship Program and advance their career. It comes with a monthly fee, medical insurance, airfare and visa fees. (September 1)
🎵 This short presentation was made by Preto Show (Angola) listening to “Pedra”.
This week’s summary goes to 🇰🇪, 🇳🇬, 🇹🇳, 🇬🇭, 🇬🇭, 🇲🇬,
Best wishes for a fruitful and thought-provoking week ahead. Please send any news, comments, suggestions, ideas, Somali poetry, .eth domain names to africa@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter @qzafrica For updates throughout the day.
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