The Africa Trade Exchange (ATEX), a business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce platform, was launched during the official opening of the 54th Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development (CoM2022) on 16 May in Dakar, Senegal. The launch took place in the presence of Senegal’s president, Macky Sall, who is also the Chairperson of the African Union.
The platform was developed by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), in collaboration with the African Union and the AfCFTA Secretariat to serve as a B2B and business-to-government (B2G) digital marketplace. ATEX will enable pooled procurement of basic commodities to ensure countries have access to scarce supplies in a transparent manner.
ATEX is connected to the digital ecosystem to support the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement and provide buyers and member States with quality products from verified suppliers in a more efficient way at average cost, thereby improving cross-border trade.
Africa Trade Exchange (ATEX) platform launched to facilitate trading under the AfCFTA
UN and partners detail the abundance and promise of diverse “Unconventional” water resources
UN and partner water experts say it’s time to increase the tapping of Earth’s diverse and abundant unconventional water resources – the millions of cubic kilometres of water in deep land-based and seabed aquifers, in fog and icebergs, in the ballast holds of thousands of ships, and elsewhere.
A new book, Unconventional Water Resources, published by Springer and compiled by experts at UN University’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), the UNU Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources (UNU-FLORES), and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), says these potential supplies can help many of the 1 in 4 people on Earth who face shortages of water for drinking, sanitation, agriculture and economic development.
Based on the most up to date information and data, and with contributions from renowned scientists, experts and practitioners worldwide, the book showcases the potential of different types of unconventional water resources – tapping offshore and onshore deep groundwater, for example, reusing water, moving water physically to water-scarce areas, and more.
The A-Team Advertisers
In the world of online advertising, it is vital to have a global scale reach with tailor made services to be impactful to the local customer. One such firm that has mastered the space of digital advertising is Eskimi.
The Ad-tech company features an in-house audience data and geolocation platform, rich media platform and media platform combining more than 65 Ad exchanges and 2.5M sites and apps. The firm helps brands build audiences for targeting and analytics, engaging with target audience with most innovative rich media ads and reaches 100% of online users within brand safe and measurable environment.
For over a decade, Eskimi has provided global Ad-tech solutions bringing return on investments to agencies and brands across various segments. Eskimi is trusted by partners like Mondelez, Barclays, Toyota, Vodacom and many more global brands together with local and global agencies.
Capital reached out to the firm’s CEO, Vytautas Paukstys for in-depth insights of how the firm functions and their potential joining of the Ethiopian market. Excerpts;
Capital: What is AdTech in a snapshot?
Vytautas Paukstys: AdTech is the short word for Advertising Technology. It is the broad term for the software and tools that help agencies and brands target, deliver, and analyze their digital advertising efforts. It involves tailoring your digital advertising campaign to the right target audience based on consumer data while leveraging tools and software solutions. Adtech emerged to streamline the digital advertising process as buying and selling digital ads became more complex.
Capital: What is ESKIMI? (Give us a brief about what your company does.)
Vytautas Paukstys: Eskimi is an AdTech platform with over a decade of experience working with a team of ambitious professionals that add the +1 to agency or brand’s marketing team. Eskimi combines programmatic, big data, research, creative innovations and digital media into a powerful platform to create and reach unique audience segments for Telecom, FMCG, Financial, and other business sectors. The platform combines over 1000 unique 3rd party and 1st party data points across user interests, location, devices, telecom data, behavior and many more to provide insights and targeting of your audience. Eskimi reaches 10 million+ consumers in Ethiopia.
Capital: What makes it different/or similar to Google ad?
Vytautas Paukstys: I have got so many people ask me this question over time. There are differences between Google display ads and Eskimi programmatic advertising platform just as there are similarities between the two. While Google display network or ads takes place on a closed network, programmatic is a method of buying ad space that involves multiple ad exchanges. Both display network and programmatic advertising use advanced data analytics and software to get the most effective ad placement. The Google display ads closed network impacts its reach while Eskimi programmatic advertising platform covers inventory from multiple ad exchanges, supporting a truly massive inventory that expands the advertiser’s potential reach, meaning ads can be seen by far more people than they otherwise would on a display network.
On the types of ads, Eskimi programmatic and display network advertising platforms both support a wide variety of ad types, including video and interactive HTML5. However, while display ads look like ads, native programmatic ads do not. Native ads are designed to fit seamlessly into the design of the web page they appear on. On the other hand, Eskimi programmatic also supports a lot of rich media which display does not.
Other areas include deep targeting options and efficiency you would get with the Ekimi DSP. In addition a key advantage of programmatic advertising is the automated, real-time nature of ad buying. This makes the whole process faster and more efficient.
Capital: What makes it different from other ad tech companies?
Vytautas Paukstys: Eskimi is the only AdTech platform that adds a +1 to any marketing team. Eskimi’s platform and service combination helps you set the right KPIs, delivers hands-on guidance and runs ad campaigns – all on your brand’s or agency’s behalf. Eskimi uses unique rich media creative that can be easily adapted to local context; DSP & SSP alike. Eskimi DMP data also allows for the definition and reach to relevant audiences. Eskimi offers support for media planning, campaign management and creatives. Eskimi also has a unique data platform for telecoms and device brands.
Capital: We hear you are planning to get in the Ethiopian market. If so how are you prepping for it? On what stage are you? What are you currently doing?
Vytautas Paukstys: Eskimi has been working with Ethiopian agencies and brands for more than two years now. We keep investing in localizing our solutions even more and offer constant innovative solutions to meet our clients’ needs. Programmatic advertising in general is quite a new concept for some of our clients, so investing in the education of market professionals is and will be one of the company’s priorities in Ethiopia.
Capital: What’s your evaluation of the market in Ethiopia? What are the opportunities in the Ethiopian market?
Vytautas Paukstys: Ethiopia is the second most populated country in Africa with a population of over 110 million people second to Nigeria. Also, the economic growth over the past ten years has been impressive as well. At the moment there are more than 10 million internet users who can be reached via Eskimi online advertising platform in Ethiopia. Due to the changes happening in the Ethiopian telecom industry, it is expected that the internet access will grow exponentially opening huge opportunities for even more rapid adtech development in the market.
Capital: Do you have new/or different plans for Ethiopia?
Vytautas Paukstys: Ethiopia is one of our emerging markets; we are making concerted efforts to continue to invest more on educating marketers in Ethiopia and help them to improve their digital marketing proficiency. We believe there is a huge return in contributing to the body of knowledge in digital marketing in the country and helping practitioners adopt the right tools and platforms in developing and implementing effective digital advertising campaigns.
Capital: What are the challenges that you could face in Ethiopia?
Vytautas Paukstys: Some of the major challenges Ethiopia faces include foreign currency shortages and the recent peace instabilities in the Northern part of Ethiopia. We believe that these challenges the country faces are short term and we hope to see a prosperous and peaceful Ethiopia.
Capital: How are you going to cope with these challenges?
Vytautas Paukstys: Over the past three months we have seen some improvements in both challenges. We are also looking for options to partner up with local marketing agencies to make sure that payments are in local currency.
Capital: What’s your view on the digital monetization progress in Ethiopia?
Vytautas Paukstys: As more websites and applications in Ethiopia are monetizing their platforms, our ability to serve ads to the population also increases. This is a win-win for all as owners of the platforms generate income from allowing ads on their platform thus helping us to grow our profile users as well.
Entrepreneurial Life Pattern
It is clear that the entrepreneurial spirit is not limited to any one religion. Other attempts to characterize a typical entrepreneur can produce abject futility when considering the life stories of numerous entrepreneurs. P. T. Barnum did not found the Barnum & Bailey Circus until he was seventy years old. “Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web” was started by two graduate students who wanted to keep track of their favorite websites. In just a few years their company, Yahoo!, had a $1.5 million IPO.
Famous Amos built his million-dollar cookie empire using a recipe from the back of the Nestlé’s chocolate bag available to every baker and housewife in the nation. Sandra Lee, who risked everything on home-show demonstrations, finally got her own accessories line and a Food Network cooking show. Frederick Tudor made a fortune by selling the free ice from ponds and lakes around his home. A dentist, Dr. Thomas B. Welch, an ardent opponent of “demon rum,” created a nonalcoholic beverage that tasted like wine for use in Communion.
Hall of Fame pitcher Albert Spalding is better known today for the special baseball glove he designed and produced. Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, a Seventh-Day Adventist who ran a health sanitarium, provided specialized cereal products for his patients in Battle Creek, Michigan. It was there that a sick cowboy who had lost his fortune in real estate scams, C. W. Post, got the idea for his own cereal company that would later compete with Kellogg’s company.
Many entrepreneurs grew up impoverished. Andrew Carnegie went from a “bobbin boy,” a child labourer in a textile mill, to one of the richest men to ever live in the United States. By contrast, J. P. Morgan sampled all the luxuries of his era in his youth, and his successful father arranged for his first job. He, too, amassed one of the largest fortunes in the history of the United States.
Some families even have a tradition of entrepreneurship. John W. Nordstrom started a Seattle shoe store in 1902 after his adventures in the Klondike gold mines. His three sons expanded the operation into the country’s largest independently owned shoe store chain. The next generation, John, Jim, and Bruce Nordstrom, took the company public as one of the most successful and admired clothing and shoe stores anywhere.
Perhaps the most amazing thing about these individuals, and thousands of other entrepreneurs, is that they have no life pattern. The old, the young, the idealistic, the pragmatic, the inventors, the innovators, the driven, the greedy, the compassionate, all characterize different entrepreneurs. Every successful entrepreneur, however, does have one characteristic in common with the others. The entrepreneur has faith and vision, in essence a driving motivation that infuses the individual’s commitment to at least one idea or product, and often more. For the true entrepreneur, challenges represent opportunities.
Indeed, it seems that entrepreneurs do not even see challenges in the same way others do. Consciously or subconsciously, entrepreneurs diminish the size of the hurdle to be cleared, or possibly some of them do not even perceive obstacles as existing at all. If anything, the traditional juxtaposition of the “glass half full” and the “glass half empty” does not apply to entrepreneurs at all, because to them, the half-full glass is already full.
Entrepreneurs do recognize serious threats to their concepts or businesses, but they seem to have an innate ability to separate genuine from perceived threats, which leads them to focus always on the most important issues. In turn, they pay little attention to competitors, especially in the early stages of their businesses. Most entrepreneurs concentrate so intently on their own product, idea, or operations that they have no time to worry about the actions of competitors. At some point, virtually every successful person, and certainly every entrepreneur, has been told “You can’t,” “It won’t work,” or “There are enough of those already.”
If Arnold Schwarzenegger had listened to critics who said that he could never succeed in acting with his accent, some of the biggest box-office hits in the world never would have been made. If Louis L’Amour had heeded any of the first 100 rejection letters he received, he never would have become the best-read novelist of all time of classic Western stories. And if a fourteen-year-old from Tennessee, United States named Jack Daniels had listened to his neighbors who insisted he be satisfied with the local moonshining, one of the best-known names in whiskey never would have existed.
While those people had persistence and determination, more than just hard work or a good idea is required to achieve success. A structural foundation must exist that ensures human liberty and a society based on law. Such notions as property protections, contract enforcement, copyrights, and other mainstays of free capitalist societies made it possible for Schwarzenegger, Daniels, and virtually all of the other entrepreneurs discussed above to take advantage of their own talents and abilities.
