Final Report: New Media Operations at AAE

During my internship as a new media operator at AAE, I focused on African small and medium financial enterprises (with Dukka as the primary research object) and gained systematic insights through multi-platform research and case analysis. The following summarizes my internship experience from three aspects: operational observations, project outcomes, and professional development insights.  

Operational Observations  

African small and medium financial enterprises exhibit a landscape where strengths coexist with weaknesses, and opportunities intertwine with challenges.  

1.Their core strengths lie in local demand adaptation: enterprises like Dukka offer integrated “payment + management + data” solutions that align with local needs, such as Nigeria’s cashless policy, effectively addressing the shortage of standardized financial tools for local SMEs. They also leverage international collaborations, particularly relying on China’s supply chains to reduce hardware costs, while their core teams demonstrate resilience through localized strategies to navigate market uncertainties.  

2.However, notable weaknesses persist: infrastructure limitations (fragmented logistics and unstable internet) increase operational costs and hinder scalability; low digital adoption among local SMEs leads to insufficient data accumulation, impeding financial service expansion; and heavy reliance on external supply chains and short-term local funding creates vulnerability to global market fluctuations.  

3.In terms of the external environment, opportunities arise from supportive government policies for digital transformation, vast untapped potential in digital payments (with over 50% of Nigerian households still relying on cash), technological innovations like AI and P2P payments, and deepening China-Africa cooperation. Conversely, threats include intense competition from players like Paga and Flutterwave, tightened global capital since 2024, fluctuating regulatory policies, and reduced consumer spending power due to inflation.  

Project Outcomes  

During the internship, I completed several practical tasks centered on African small and medium financial enterprises:  

First, I finalized a SWOT analysis report focusing on Dukka, which outlines the industry’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, providing a reference for the Association to understand the current state of these enterprises.  

Second, by tracking Dukka’s operations and learning from other interns’ perspectives on similar issues, I refined my understanding of the operational and development models of African small and medium financial enterprises, gaining deeper insights into their day-to-day development and growth logic.  

Third, I expanded my information search channels, collecting data from diverse sources including corporate updates, industry news, and policy documents, which laid a solid foundation for my research and content creation.  

Professional Development Insights  

This internship significantly enhanced my capabilities and knowledge in multiple areas:  

Firstly, my information retrieval skills improved markedly. I learned to efficiently sift through complex data, quickly identifying valuable information such as corporate dynamics and industry statistics from various platforms, which greatly boosted my work efficiency.  

Secondly, my communication skills were strengthened. Exchanging ideas with others and organizing research information required clear expression and active listening, helping me collaborate more effectively in a team setting.  

Thirdly, my analytical abilities developed gradually. Through observing Dukka and similar enterprises, I became better at extracting common patterns from specific cases, such as summarizing key factors for industry development from enterprises’ strategies to address challenges.  

Most notably, as a communication studies student, I acquired practical financial knowledge.Concepts like “supply chain collaboration” and “digital payment models,” which were once unfamiliar, now make sense to me. I can now understand how enterprises operate through technology and data, and recognize the impact of policies and market demand on financial businesses. This cross-disciplinary knowledge gain is extremely valuable to me.  

Conclusion  

This internship provided me with an in-depth understanding of African small and medium financial enterprises, enhancing both my practical skills and knowledge reserves. I will carry these experiences forward, continuing to focus on the industry trends and accumulating more useful experience for future new media operations work.