Maxine Moffett

Integrating small businesses into the digital economy

With social distancing becoming the norm, online marketplaces have proven to be a necessity. This is why Bridge Africa started the #ConnectivityIsProductivity program to integrate 10,000 businesses into the digital economy through an online marketplace with direct payment systems, limiting physical interactions at markets and in turn slowing the spread of COVID-19.  

Maxine Moffett

Entrepreneur Name: Maxine Moffett, Ashoka Fellow   

Organization:  Bridge Africa Ventures  

Website: www.bridgeafricaventures.com  

Country: Cameroon  

Field of action: Economic Resilience

Needs support to achieve greater impact in: Fundraising, Digital Technical expertise, Marketing and communications 

The mission of the social enterprise before and after Coronavirus

Bridge Africa Ventures is working to increase digital literacy and lower the cost of access to online information in Cameroon. Through this work, they are bridging the digital divide that excludes Cameroonians from the benefits of digital infrastructure and information exchange. They believe that accelerating Cameroon’s digital evolution will fuel the nation’s economic growth, providing Cameroonians with new access to the global digital economy. Their outreach efforts to improve digital literacy include training individuals, small businesses, and COs to use Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in their work, and to develop websites that provide useful information on their services to a national and international audience.

Due to the strict measures put in place due to the possibility of contracting COVID-19 virus in crowded places like the market, merchants are unable to sell their products in person. Bridge Africa’s program acts as a catalyst for merchants and their buyers.

Bridge Africa Ventures is training and educating business operators to use the new online marketplace #ConnectivityIsProductivity platform to make money. They are on a mission to:

  • Integrate 10 000 SMEs and agriculture actors to make a living online, using the online marketplace and the direct payment systems for the platform’s users.
  • Limit social and physical interaction between customers and vendors.
  • Transition the business operators to becoming fully digital, which may have been difficult for users who don’t have the financial or technological ability to use the internet.

Their goal is to connect 10 000 businesses and expand to 10 other countries in Africa. Currently, Bridge Africa Ventures has reached a laudable milestone of 7 000 unique users on the #ConnevitivityIsProductivity platform.

Create the post-COVID world. 

Help Maxine and her team develop their solution!

Bridge Africa Ventures‘s concrete needs facing Covid-19:

  • Digital expertise: to access coding skillsets to develop a new version of the platform, www.bridgeafrica.com, which will include the new marketplace and a digital payment integration.
  • Marketing and Brands: to cover the advertising cost of the solution on social media platforms, billboards, local media outlets, and television.
  • Legal expertise: to help in company incorporation, preparing for and reviewing Investors’ term sheets.
  • Funding and Financing: to reach and prepare for potential funders, investors, and venture capitalists in the hopes of raising 250 000 GBP in the next year.
SUPPORT