Reverse Pitch Implementation at TICAD
JETRO held "J-Twende (Japan-Africa Collaboration Hub): Reverse Pitch by Leading African Companies" on August 21, 2025, at the thematic event "TICAD Business EXPO & Conference (TBEC)" during the 9th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD9).
J-Twende Program Overview
Basic Concept: JETRO's business program that facilitates matching between leading African companies (Challenge Owners) seeking to solve business challenges through collaboration with Japanese companies by viewing Africa's social issues as business opportunities for Japanese companies, and Japanese companies with technologies and services that can contribute to problem-solving.
Three Focus Areas: Challenge Owners communicate their company challenges and recruit Japanese companies for partnerships along three key African priorities: "earning power," "human resource development," and "city development."
Challenge Owners' Issues and Needs
During the reverse pitch, Challenge Owners communicated "real local needs" to attending Japanese companies and called for collaborative partnerships to solve challenges.
Participating Companies and Their Challenges:
- ELARABY Group (Egypt): Innovation in home appliance manufacturing and sales
- GAMING SEKAI (Morocco): Strengthening hub functions for expanding legitimate Japanese manga and anime product distribution channels
- Jendamark (South Africa): Human resource development and energy solutions in the automotive industry
- MMR, MES (Democratic Republic of Congo): Joint development of critical minerals and solutions for electronic waste issues
- MTN Ghana (Ghana): Construction of digital financial infrastructure
- SIFCA (Côte d'Ivoire): Building sustainable agriculture and food industry value chains in West Africa
- Sovereign (South Africa): Value-added chicken products and risk mitigation solutions
- STL (Kenya): Africa's first local semiconductor manufacturing and value addition
- TGI (Nigeria): Advancement of Nigeria's agricultural value chain
- UAC (Nigeria): Manufacturing DX and sustainability challenges for overcoming manufacturing and distribution issues
Future Development
Matching Support: JETRO will solicit proposals from Japanese companies regarding pitch content, arrange business meetings with Challenge Owners, and provide support according to business negotiation progress.
Information Access: Overview of challenges faced by Challenge Owners and information necessary for business proposals are available on the J-Twende website.
Regional Representative Participation: The two South African companies are members of the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber, with Chief Executive Officer Denise Van Huyssteen presenting on their behalf.