Super Apps in Africa: Gozem, Jumia, PalmPay & the Future After Ayoba

Hey global Ghanaian citizens, Adrian here.

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Welcome to the Sound of Accra podcast if this is your first time.

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On today's episode, we're diving into a topic that affects how millions of Africans live,

work, pay and play and move around the continent every single day.

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And that is super apps, all right?

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Now, if you've been following African tech news recently, you may have heard that MTN is

phasing out its Ayoba app.

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I think it's still alive and I'm going to explain why in this episode.

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So I want to walk you through what's actually happening on the continent because while

Ayoba is shutting down, there are other players in the West, East and Central Africa

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quietly building their own versions of the Super App model.

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Now they might not be as loud or big as WeChat, but they're very real and they're shaping

how digital ecosystems are emerging here today.

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So let's get into it.

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And how you explain the super app was that instead of having 10 different apps in your

phone, one for rides, one for food, one for payments, one for messaging, another one for

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shopping, you've got one main app that does all of these things for you under one roof.

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And that's a great way to explain what a super app is because it makes life more simpler

and more convenient.

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And I believe since then, I think Anthony has gone on to pivot Shaq Express

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to becoming a platform which is focused on doing courier services for Ghana and beyond.

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So shout out to Anthony if you're listening.

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That's a nice little pivot that you've done.

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So let's continue on with the episode.

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right.

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So now if you live in Africa, especially in places where smartphones are cheap, but

storage is limited and data is not exactly cheap.

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that idea sounds pretty attractive, all right?

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But one app does everything means less clutter, less data and less headache, all right?

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That is the benefit of having the super app.

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And regarding the super app, it's always got a big promise attached to it.

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Now, Ayoba was MTN's attempt of a super app.

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it sat on top of MTN's huge Telecom customer database and they tried to layer services

around messaging and content.

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And that's exactly what MTN tried to do, but it didn't

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pay off as much as well for them.

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because now they're on the way out.

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But as we're seeing now, just having scale and a big brand doesn't guarantee that people

will adopt your app as their one-stop digital life hub.

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So let's look at who else is in this game.

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The first you need to know is called Gozem.

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So Gozem calls itself Africa's super app.

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in fairness, it's one of the closest we've got on the continent right now to that model.

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um They're active in francophone, western central Africa, places like...

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Togo, Benin and others and they started off in the space that makes a lot of sense for

super apps and that's mobility which is really popular in Africa right now.

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Think motorbikes, taxis, tricycles, cars, that sort of thing.

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Getting around Africa is so key and so critical because you've got people coming from the

rural areas to the busy cities and they need to move around in different ways and

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different people are coming from different levels of wealth.

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So mobility is massive.

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in Africa, moving goods, moving people around, moving all sorts of things and people.

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So you open Gozem, you can book a ride, you can get delivery of goods, you can shop from

different types of merchants, you can do all sorts of things, credit, you can pay for a

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built-in wallet.

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So over time, they've layered more services on top of that core mobility and logistics

offering.

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all sorts of things for Uber and you've seen it with Bolt as well in Africa.

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You've got Bolt food, all of the above.

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Now let's talk about two other names a lot of people already know in East and West Africa

and that's Safe Boda and that's Go Kada.

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So Safe Boda began in Uganda.

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You know, they are a motorcycle ride hanging platform.

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And with Safe Boda, what they do is that they essentially expanded to Nigeria later on,

and they are a big part of the transport fabric.

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Over time, Safeboater hasn't just stayed as a ride-hailing company.

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They've started moving into a super app territory by layering financial services around

that core mobility product.

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Things like a digital wallet, cashless payments, other small services that turn it from

simple ride-hailing app into more of an everyday utility.

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Then you've got GoKada in Nigeria.

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All right.

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And this is one app that they have, which is designed for everything, literally.

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And again, this app is designed around mobility once again, it's more of that's delivering

food, moving people around and moving goods around, similar playbook to.

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safe boda as well.

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Now many people originally knew gokada in Nigeria as a bike hailing startup and Lagos but

after changes they had to pivot hard that pivot then pushed them deeper into deliveries

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and logistics and then from there they started to look more like a platform than just a

transport app connecting users to couriers merchants and different services again not a

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fully blown super app yet but very much in that path of let's be the

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be addressed rather than messaging because messaging that problem is already solved, that

problem is already saturated.

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Now speaking of platforms that want to beat everything apps, we've got to talk about

Jumia.

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we cannot not talk about Jumia.

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Definitely go talk about Jumia.

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All right.

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Now, for those of you who aren't familiar with Jumia, it's mainly known as an e-commerce

platform.

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One of the first pan-African consumer internet brands to really, really go big.

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Marketplace, food delivery, logistics, you name it, they've tried it.

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They've got a main marketplace app, they've got food for restaurant and groceries, they've

got logistic networks, and they've got Jumia Pay for payments and financial services.

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They're one of the first players in the game.

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who you could say have entered that Super App territory as well.

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Palm Pay, for example, has built a strong presence in Nigeria and some other markets by

becoming the go-to wallet on people's phones.

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right?

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And because of this, inside the app, you can top up airtime and data, you can pay bills,

you can send and receive money, you can pay for merchants, you can do all sorts with Palm

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Pay.

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And sometimes,

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you can access credit and other financial products with Palm Pay as well.

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The strategy here is become the place where your money lives and moves.

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Once they've got that, they start adding more services, virtual cards, savings, loans,

maybe even in-app offers from partners.

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Think of mobile money.

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Mobile money is such a hugely popular product that almost everyone in Africa is using.

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And from there, people use mobile money to do lots of different things.

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Analysts looking at Nigeria's fintech space talk about growing a wave of these super

wallet apps.

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They may not deliver your groceries or hail your boda yet, but they're consolidating many

financial actions into one interface.

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For the user, money management, bill payments and day-to-day transactions all happen in

one app.

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So you've got this financial super app lane running parallel to the mobility super app

lane and it all gets very interesting here.

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Now with all this going on, you might be wondering why is Ayoba shutting down if the rest

of the ecosystem is so busy?

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And what does this say about the future of super apps in Africa?

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Ayoba has had some clear advantages.

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MTN's huge telecoms network, distribution power through pre-installs and data bundles and

the ability to zero-rate some usage.

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But the distribution is only half the story, the other half is product market fit.

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The African consumer doesn't just want more features in one app, they want reliability,

convenience, real everyday value and trust.

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Super apps tend to succeed when they latch onto a daily essential behaviour then build

around it.

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In China, that was messaging and payments.

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In some parts of South East Asia, it was ride-hailing and food delivery.

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In Africa, we're seeing that foundational daily behaviour split between mobility and

deliveries.

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That's why Gozem, Safeboda and Gokada are thriving.

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E-commerce and logistics, that's why Jumia and ShackExpress are thriving.

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It's a reminder that super apps is not a product you can just declare into existence.

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It's an evolution.

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You can earn it by solving a repeat high frequency problem really well, then expanding

horizontally from there.

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Where does this leave us indeed?

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If you zoom out, you can see three main clusters of super apps across Africa.

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Mobility, you've got e-commerce.

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and then you've got FinTech.

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Now, are any of these at WeChat level of dominance?

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No.

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Are they all operating in every African country?

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Definitely not.

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but they show that this super app idea is alive and well.

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It's just been adapted to different African realities.

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And that's the truth, honestly.

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Patchy infrastructure, extreme diverse markets, different regulatory environments, and

users who are very value conscious and data sensitive.

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Instead of one continent wide super app, we're more likely to see multiple regional

champions, each building from their own base, mobility, e-commerce, or finance.

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As we wrap up, here's the key takeaway.

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Ayoba shutting down doesn't mean the end of super apps in Africa.

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It just means the experiment is evolving.

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The winners won't necessarily be the ones with the biggest market budgets or the strongest

telecom backing.

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They'll be the ones who anchor themselves in a daily essential need, execute extremely

well on that core user case and also is also going to be the ones that will thrive in

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evolving economies as the world keeps changing.

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and there's also going to be the ones that will earn the right to layer additional

services on top of what is already successful.

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In other words, African Super App Story isn't just a single app, it's a wave of ecosystems

forming around how Africans move, shop, pay and live.

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So.

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If you guys enjoyed this breakdown and you want me to do some more deeper dives into any

of these areas, please let me know.

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If you made it to the end of the episode, please comment the word super app if you're

watching on YouTube or leave us a comment on Spotify or Apple podcast and give us a five

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star review.

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We'd love to bring on founders and operators from companies like this to share your

journeys with us.

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So feel free to get in touch.

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Drop us an email info at The Sound of Accra podcast or feel free to get in touch with us

on our website, thesoundofaccra.com.

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You've been listening to Adrian Daniels on The Sound of Accra podcast.

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Thank you so much for listening and I'll catch you in the next one.

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Don't forget to share this episode with a friend or family member who is interested in

African tech and digital innovation.