Villgro Africa has celebrated its 5th anniversary as they go beyond boundaries to the rest of Africa, committed to tackling some of Africa’s health challenges by supporting social entrepreneurs with homegrown solutions. The last five years since inception, working through the social enterprises, Villgro Africa has enabled access to healthcare to those at…
Author: AdeO
MTN has finally sold its 18.9% stake in Jumia, as part of its asset optimisation strategy that has seen it exit some of its non-core business ventures. According to reports, MTN got $142.32m from the sales of the shares. Jumia, which is listed in New York, operates in 14 African…
JPMorgan has launched a new business division dedicated to blockchain technology, called Onyx, after the bank’s own digital currency was adopted for commercial use this week. JPM Coin , which was created last year, has been picked up for round-the-clock global payments by a “large technology client” this week, Takis Georgakopoulos,…
54gene has launched its Clinical Program Services (CPS) division, which will provide end-to-end clinical development services, intelligence, logistics, and infrastructure and ultimately enable successful conduct of clinical trials in Africa, starting from Nigeria. The launch comes at the same time as the appointment of 54gene as the Nigerian country partner…
Jumia Nigeria, has announced that its 2020 Black Friday campaign will close the revenue gap created by the COVID-19 lockdown for most businesses in the country. The event, which is slated to hold from November 6th to 30th, will also provide shoppers with amazing deals which will help consumers to…
MTN Nigeria recovered from elevated volatility caused by COVID-19 to record massive revenue growth from digital and fintech services in the nine months ended 30 September. During the period under review, MTN says, it experienced volatility in both voice and data revenue, affecting the trajectory of its overall service revenue,…
Refinitiv has released the investment banking analysis for Sub-Saharan African for the first nine months of 2020. According to the report, investment banking fees in Sub-Saharan Africa reached an estimated US$40.9 million during the third quarter of 2020, less than half the value recorded during the second quarter of 2020…
With a pool of talented finalists from more than 15 African countries, the 2020 Anzisha Prize – the premier award for Africa’s youngest entrepreneurs – goes to Alaa Moatamed, a young female entrepreneur whose venture provides business owners with an affordable and convenient delivery service for customers. EdTech entrepreneur Matina…
Airtel Africa plc, a leading provider of telecommunications and mobile money services, with a presence in 14 countries across Africa has announced the appointment of Kelly Bayer Rosmarin as a non-executive director with effect from 27 October 2020. Ms. Bayer Rosmarin will replace Arthur Lang who will step down as…
Mastercard has launched a new low-cost payments solution that enables small business owners to move their businesses online and accept a range of digital payments from their customers. The “SME-in-a-Box” solution is powered by Mastercard’s payment technologies and that of its StartPath fintech partners, including onboarding technology provider Signzy and…
Network data from the NetBlocks Internet Observatory confirm widespread disruption to social media and online communication platforms via multiple internet providers in Tanzania as of Tuesday 27 October 2020. The incident comes on the eve of Tanzania’s presidential and national assembly elections and the service outages are ongoing at the…
The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and Africa50 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to develop and launch the Millennium Impact for Infrastructure Accelerator (MIIA) Development Partnership. The new MIIA entity will be a global investment platform designed to spur and attract impact investments in Africa by developing bankable infrastructure deals…
Ant Group, the Chinese financial technology company owned by Jack Ma, is set to raise around $34 billion when its shares begin trading in Hong Kong and Shanghai in the coming weeks. If everything goes as planned, it would make its initial public offering the largest on record. The company,…
Dedalus Global and Ibex Frontier have announced Jack Dorsey as the closing keynote for this year’s Africa Fintech Summit. The Summit is being held virtually on November 9, 10, and 12. As the Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of Square, Inc., Dorsey is considered to be one of the biggest influencers…
A U.S. judge in San Francisco has rejected a Justice Department request to reverse a decision that allowed Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google to continue to offer Chinese-owned WeChat for download in the U.S. app stores. U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler said the government’s new evidence did not change…
Udok, a South Africa healthtech startup has raised 518,000 euros (R10 million) from venture capital firm FinEx Capital to expand its connected care services across the Southern Africa country. Founded in 2018 to facilitate the delivery of online doctor consultations, Udok has been providing remote consultations directly to patients and via…
VC4A and ABAN are eager to announce the 7th and virtual edition of the Africa Early Stage Investor Summit (#AESIS2020). The Summit will take place on 3 & 4 November online. With a number of record-level deals making the headlines over the last year, Africa’s startup industry is ripe for investment. VC4A…
Yahoo has announced that its 19-year-old service platform Yahoo Groups will shut down on December 15, 2020, after a steady decline in usage. Verizon which took ownership of Yahoo in 2017 made this announcement known via the Yahoo Groups website and emails sent to Yahoo Group users. ”Yahoo Groups has…
Contrary to the viral tweet that the Pay-TV platforms DStv and GOtv have been hacked, a representative of the company who pleaded anonymity said that the platforms were not hacked but undergoing system maintenance. MultiChoice Nigeria had earlier in the week sent messages to subscribers that there will be a…
Nokia, a Finnish telecoms giant, has announced that it is working with NASA to ensure that the new wave of lunar astronauts will be able to post their experience to their Instagram account if they so desire. Nokia will receive $14.1m funding from the US space agency to build a…