Why Africa's Loyalty Programs Need a Revolution — And One Startup Is Building It
Points Africa is tackling Sub-Saharan Africa's fragmented loyalty landscape while digital skills programs expand across the continent, even as infrastructure failures expose the cost of outdated systems.
Syntheda's AI technology correspondent covering Africa's digital transformation across 54 countries. Specializes in fintech innovation, startup ecosystems, and digital infrastructure policy from Lagos to Nairobi to Cape Town. Writes in a conversational explainer style that makes complex technology accessible.
Walk into any mall in Accra, Lagos, or Nairobi, and you'll likely have a wallet stuffed with loyalty cards — each one locked to a single retailer, most gathering dust because the rewards feel impossible to reach. Points Africa, a Ghana-based startup, thinks this fragmentation is costing both consumers and merchants real money, and they're building what they call Sub-Saharan Africa's first shared loyalty network to fix it.
The concept is straightforward: instead of juggling separate reward programs for your grocery store, fuel station, and favorite restaurant, you'd earn and spend points across all of them through a single currency. According to TechCabal, Points Africa's platform allows multiple merchants to issue and redeem the same reward tokens, creating a network effect that makes loyalty programs actually useful for consumers while giving smaller merchants access to retention tools previously available only to big brands.
This matters because Africa's retail landscape is dominated by small and medium enterprises that can't afford to run standalone loyalty programs. "Most loyalty schemes in Africa are siloed, which means customers have to accumulate points separately with each brand," the company explained to TechCabal. By pooling merchants into a shared network, Points Africa is essentially democratizing customer retention — a mom-and-pop shop can now offer the same loyalty perks as a multinational chain.
Digital Skills Push Gains Momentum
While Points Africa works on consumer engagement, other initiatives are tackling the continent's digital skills gap head-on. WeThinkCode and IDC-SEF announced a partnership to equip 44,000 young people with digital literacy, combining learning with earning opportunities in what ITWeb describes as community-driven programs. Students won't just learn coding or digital tools in isolation — they'll deliver that knowledge back to their communities, creating a multiplier effect.
Investec's Invest-ED program is taking a similar approach, linking education choices directly to career readiness. According to ITWeb, the initiative focuses on future-focused thinking, recognizing that digital skills aren't just about technology — they're about preparing young Africans for an economy that's increasingly built on platforms, data, and connectivity.
These programs arrive at a critical moment. Mobile money has already demonstrated how digital tools can leapfrog traditional infrastructure across Africa, but the talent pipeline to build and maintain these systems remains thin. By embedding skills training into community structures and tying it to real economic outcomes, these initiatives are addressing both the supply and demand sides of the digital economy.
When Legacy Systems Fail
The urgency of digital transformation becomes painfully clear when old systems break down. Johannesburg's billing system — built on SAP — has effectively frozen the city's property market, trapping buyers and sellers in what ITWeb calls "bureaucratic limbo." The platform's failure means residents can't get the clearance certificates required to sell their homes, turning what should be routine transactions into months-long nightmares.
This isn't just an inconvenience — it's a warning. As African cities digitize services from tax collection to business registration, the quality of those systems determines whether digitization becomes a catalyst for growth or a new form of dysfunction. Johannesburg's mess shows what happens when governments prioritize procurement over functionality, choosing big-name vendors without ensuring the systems actually work in local contexts.
The contrast with Points Africa's approach is instructive. While the startup is building new infrastructure from scratch, designed specifically for African markets, Johannesburg is stuck with an imported system that wasn't adapted properly. One represents Africa's digital future — homegrown solutions built for local needs. The other represents the pitfalls of treating technology as a plug-and-play commodity.
Building Africa's Digital Layer
What connects these stories is the recognition that Africa's digital transformation isn't just about adopting technology — it's about building the right infrastructure, training the right people, and designing systems that actually solve African problems. Points Africa's unified loyalty network only works if merchants and consumers see immediate value. Digital skills programs only succeed if they connect learning to livelihoods. Government systems only deliver if they're built with end-users in mind.
The good news is that entrepreneurs, educators, and some institutions are getting this right. The challenge now is scaling what works while avoiding the expensive mistakes of legacy thinking. As mobile money demonstrated, when digital solutions are designed for African realities rather than imported wholesale, they don't just work — they set global standards.