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DVD, game and video rental industry is the fastest dying industry in the world.
If you are thinking of making a career or creating a business in that industry, let’s hope you’re thinking like the founders of MTN’s app Yabadoo.
Number two on the list of fastest dying industries in the world is Library and Archive.
These days, whatever people want to read, they ask Google on their smartphone. The only problem. There is really no local content on the internet except for entertainment and celebrity news websites. That’s why you need skills in content marketing.
What about those Yellow Pages? I’m talking about those printed directories which were published every year, listing companies and their addresses. They have been replaced by their online cousins like Google My Business.
To complete this dying list, Business Insider includes photo studios, newspaper publishing, telephone apparatus manufacturing, sound and recording studios, book stores, stationery product manufacturing; textile and fabric finishing.
However, in this post, we want to talk about the hottest industries for today’s Cameroonian entrepreneurs who want to disrupt.
5 Most Seductive Industries For Cameroon Digital Startups
1. E-commerce – a growing market with niche opportunities for Cameroonian aspiring entrepreneurs
Believe or not. Cameroonians are getting accustomed to buying stuff online even though e-commerce giant JUMIA has not been able to turn in profit.
Thanks to e-commerce giants like Amazon and COVID-19, consumers have got used to the convenience of online shopping. All it takes is a click or a tap, and you can get anything delivered.
As mobile money and mobile wallets continue to grow, coupled with the fact that Cameroonians have begun to trust online retailers, it’s becoming harder and harder to find someone who has never considered buying something online.
This is good news for Cameroonian entrepreneurs harboring product ideas.
For aspiring entrepreneurs, It’s true the global e-commerce market is super competitive. That’s the more reason you should never try to outrun the big guys.
Find a niche to specialize in! If you nail the product-market fit, you’ll be on the right track to building an e-commerce empire.
2. FinTech – a tech trend that’s come to stay in Cameroon
Throughout the world, FinTech (or Financial Technology) has been a hot startup industry for years. In Cameroon, FinTech was born out of frustration.
According to the 2017 FinScope survey, just 10% of Cameroonians had a bank account while 36% are financially excluded.
On the other hand, 48% of Cameroonians use other non-bank formal products and services like Mobile Money.
Factors like this have lead to the growth of different kinds of Fintech companies:
Lending
Fintech companies in the lending industry simplify the way by which people borrow money. In the past, people turned to banks or credit unions to obtain loans. Today, fintech companies can offer this service online.
Payments
There are various Payment Aggregators in Cameroon. A good example is PayUnit. With PayUnit, you can accept MTN Mobile Money, Orange Mobile Money, Express Exchange Mobile Money, YUP, Master/VISA, PayPal on your website or app. All this thanks to a simple merchant account that takes less than 5 minutes to set up.
International Money Transfers
In Cameroon, you’ll agree with me. The diaspora has a huge role in our economy. Just about every family has a brother or sister abroad. Sending money back home is something we can’t live without.
Personal Finance
Traditionally, people need to talk to financial advisors in banks to get personal finance advice.
Today, many commercially available apps can offer advice and help with budgeting.
Equity Financing
Fintech companies in this sector make it easy for business owners to raise money. Some of them connect accredited investors with vetted startups. Others use crowdfunding models and allow anyone to invest in new businesses. In sum, they simplify the business fundraising process.
Insurance
Fintech companies are also venturing into the insurance market, but they mostly focus on distribution. They use apps to reach customers that don’t have insurance coverage. As such, they let people who want to borrow a friend’s car to buy insurance for just a few hours. But since insurance is a highly regulated sector, organizations in this category typically partner with traditional insurance companies.
3. Cyber security – an essential element for Cameroon’s digital economy
It’s true that the “Next Billion Users” don’t really care about their privacy as people in the developed world, cyber security remains a big issue.
The more time we spend online, the more we’re exposing ourselves to data breaches and violations of our digital privacy.
For companies, this threat is ever growing.
Here are a few starts that makes you want to think as an entrepreneur:
- There is a hacker attack every 39 seconds.
- 300,000 new malware is created every day.
- 15% of breaches involve Healthcare organizations, 10% in the Financial industry and 16% in the Public Sector.
- According to Dataprotect, Sub-Saharan African Banks are particularly vulnerable to cyber attacks.
- The average cost of data breaches was estimated at $150 million in 2020.
- The banking industry incurred the most cybercrime costs in 2018 at $18.3 million.
- By the end of 2020, security services are expected to account for 50% of cybersecurity budgets.
- 50% of large enterprises (with over 10,000 employees) are spending $1 million or more annually on security, with 43% spending $250,000.
- Multi-factor authentication and encryption are the biggest hacker obstacles. And this is just the tip of what’s going on in this industry.
This state of affairs creates endless opportunities for entrepreneurs willing to bet on cybersecurity and data protection as a business.
For aspiring entrepreneurs, sure, starting a cybersecurity company is not easy. You probably can’t do it 100% online, from home. But you can start by offering consultancy services to local companies, for example, running tests, updating their systems, and just educating them about cybersecurity best practices. Then, as you grow your team, you’ll be able to cover even more ground.
4. FoodTech – From supply chain management, food safety, delivery processes, order management and even the cooking itself, there are plenty of areas to be disrupted in Cameroon.
I’m assuming you read the news.
Tech team comprising a telecoms engineer, certified machine learning engineer, software developer, crop pathologist and two agronomists launched Agrix Tech, a Yaoundé-based startup which has been rolling out it’s platform across Africa since Jan. 2020.
Their technology helps detect plant diseases and offers both chemical and physical treatment as well as prevention measures.
Their service is timely as African farmers lose an estimated 49% of expected total crop yield per annum – the highest in the world – according to the Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International.
But, that’s not where FoodTech ends.
From supply chain management, food safety, delivery processes, order management and even the cooking itself, there are plenty of areas to be disrupted.
For aspiring Cameroonian entrepreneurs, this is another opportunity to grasp.
5. EdTech – a solution to worldwide problems
If education is something that you’re particularly passionate about, EdTech – or Educational Technology – may just be the startup industry for you.
It’s a lucrative industry, with global investments reaching a staggering 16.3 billion USD in 2018.
Just think how many students and teachers you could help by coming up with a disruptive idea and carrying it through. We need so many new solutions for integrating learning with our digital lives, automating processes, making learning more accessible via online courses and training, and so on.
Startups around the world have started coming up with fascinating projects, such as virtual reality learning experiences, AI-based learning assessment and learning analytics using big data.
If you need some inspiration, check out this post on the top edtech startups in Europe.
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