France’s top court has recognized the right of an Uber driver to be considered an employee, a ruling that could disrupt the U.S. firm’s business model and potentially require it to pay more taxes and benefits. The decision by the Cour de Cassation could also have ramifications for France’s wider…
Author: AdeO
Access Bank has concluded plans to unveil a new technology payment solution tagged FacePay that leverages on facial recognition and artificial intelligence to provide a secure, seamless and convenient way of making payments. The face recognition payment system allows the platform to identify and verify the user without he or she inputting…
Microsoft through its Microsoft for Startups initiative has launched the Global Social Entrepreneurship programme at a plenary session of the Sankalp Africa Summit 2020. The Global Social Entrepreneurship programme is aimed at elevating startups addressing an important social and environmental challenge through their products, services or operations. It is designed…
Nigeria has overtaken South Africa as Africa’s largest economy after a rebasing calculation almost doubled its gross domestic product to more than $500bn, data from the statistics office showed. Gross Domestic Prod for 2013 in Africa’s top oil producer was 80.22 trillion naira, or $509.9bn, the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics…
Twitter has told its employees to work from home to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. In a blog post, the social media giant said it was mandatory for staff in Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea to work remotely. The company also said it was “strongly encouraging” all…
Are you an innovator in a water utility? Would you like support to bring new ideas to life that meet the sanitation needs of underserved consumers? Let us help springboard your ideas with our support, capabilities and networks. Applications now open! TRANSFORM – a joint initiative between Unilever, DFID and…
TerraPay announced today that a consortium of investors, including Prime Ventures, Partech Africa and management acquired the company for an undisclosed sum. In addition, the same investors, joined by IFC, invested $9.6 million in TerraPay to fund the company’s expansion. TerraPay, a company incubated by Comviva, the India-headquartered mobile solutions…
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, has announced a $25 million local-currency investment in a risk-sharing facility to expand Union Bank of Nigeria’s lending to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria. The facility, which would cover as much as 50 per cent of…
Start-up Sandbox is a 3-month incubation program for early-stage start-ups to build, validate, develop their businesses into profitable & sustainable enterprises to stimulate the creation of jobs in Nigeria. The project is primarily aimed at the enterprise development of youth-led businesses and the capacity development of young entrepreneurs using experiential…
American renowned farm equipment maker, Deere & Co. is partnering with Nigerian startup, Hello Tractors to provide farmers in Africa with easy access to tractors simply by a button click. The U.S. company will be supplying its tractors via Hello Tractor’s technology, which allows farmers to hail the machines through an app…
Launching a startup isn’t easy. Bootstrapping to launch a startup is even more difficult. But the moment you launch it and you start seeing the money come in, it’ll be worth it. After all, what’s more, fulfilling than having a successful business that came from your sweat and tears. That…
Are you building a Financial Technology idea or project addressing any of the myriads of problems confronting the African continent? If you do, we have good news for you. Finance giant, Sky Capital has put together a Hackathon event to help you implement, scale and build a market-fit product. The…
The Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi has tasked Nigeria’s leading e-Commerce companies to join hands with the Federal Government in its strategic implementation of National Digital Economy Policy. The DG made this known when he received the Chairperson of Jumia Group, Juliet Anammah in his…
GreenTec Capital has announced investment into Kwiks, an innovative Moroccan digital platform that specializes in rapid personnel sourcing. The company leverages a proprietary platform with an expertly curated talent pool technologically supplemented with public and private data sources to quickly offer top-tier talent to its customers. Kwiks is neither a…
Vatebra Tech Hub, powered by the Bank of Industry, has selected three startups for its inaugural 6-month mentorship-driven incubation program. Chinyelu Chikwendu, a Director at Vatebra Tech Hub, told Business Insider SSA by Pulse that the essence of the program is to provide startups with needed mentorship and give them access…
While Facebook’s Libra Association is seeing an exodus of its initial partners, e-commerce giant Shopify has become its latest member. Shopify said on its official blog, that it has joined the company at a time when major companies like Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, and eBay ended their ties with Facebook’s ambitious crypto project.…
The Mastercard Foundation Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning in Information, Communications, and Technology (ICT) has announced the first cohort of 12 EdTech Fellows, companies that will benefit from the Centre’s support to expand their operations and improve secondary teaching and learning across the continent. The Fellows were selected after an Africa-wide…
The Next Einstein Forum today unveils its list of 25 finalists for its Invention to Innovation (Ci2i) competition in 5 categories which will take place during the Innovation Fair on March 10 and 11, 2020. Selected from more than 260 applications, this third cohort of Ci2i finalists represents ambitious African…
Jumia reported the value goods and services consumers ordered on its online-shopping platform slipped in the fourth quarter, as the company offered fewer promotions and sales of electronic devices fell. Jumia said gross-merchandise value, or the value of orders regardless of cancellations or returns fell to 301.2 million euros in…
Uber is getting into the advertising business. The company has reached a partnership with the ad-tech company Adomni to bring roof-top ads to its fleet. Drivers in Atlanta, Dallas and Phoenix will soon be able to put ad displays on their vehicles, and Uber plans to expand the option to…