Last week, Jack Dorsey (CEO of Twitter and Square) tweeted that he would be coming to Ghana as well as other African countries including Nigeria, Ethiopia, and South Africa as part of a trip in November.
In his tweet, he doesn’t specify any reasons why he’s going to these countries apart from saying he would be spending a lot of time with some entrepreneurs.
But could there be other reasons Jack could be coming down to these African countries?
Here are four reasons we think Jack Dorsey is coming down to Ghana and other African countries next month:
1. Looking To Invest
A couple of years ago, Mark Zuckerberg, in a surprise visit to Sub Saharan Africa, visited Nigeria and Kenya where he ended up investing $24 million in Andela.
CEO of Google, Sundar Picah also paid a visit to Nigeria in 2017.
Jack Dorsey will be another Silicon Valley CEO to visit Sub Saharan Africa. Could he be looking to invest in local startups just like Mark Zuckerberg did with Andela?
2. Expanding Square Into Africa
Africa is a hotbed for fintechs at the moment and Jack may be looking to expand Square into the African region.
Square is Jack Dorsey’s fintech company which processes payment for merchants. Square is also the company behind the “Cash” app where users can send money to each other using their phone numbers.
Jack may be looking to explore the African landscape for potential expansion or partnership with local fintech companies.
3. Partnerships With AI Firms
In his tweet, Jack is seated with some African folks including Noel Daniel (Managing Partner of Kudu Venture), and Betelhem Dessie (Project Manager at iCog).
Kudu Ventures is a US-based Investment firm that recently invested $20 mil into iCog which is an Ethiopian Artificial Intelligence-focused company.
Could Jack’s trip be related to AI? Is he looking for AI firms in Africa to partner with?
4. Establishing A Physical Twitter Office
Currently, Twitter has offices mostly in the US and other places in Europe and Asia but not in Africa.
Jack might be following on some plans to establish a physical Twitter office in one of the African countries (our bet would be in South Africa).
The Twitter CEO’s trip might be related to all the above and none of them at all. He could just be paying a visit to Africa and doing some exploration.
We’ll know in November what he does when he officially starts his tour and eventually touches down in one of the African countries.
