Bolt, one of the leading ride-hailing services in the world, has appointed Femi Akin-Laguda as the Country Manager for its operations in Nigeria. Having served in various capacities at Bolt over the last three years most recently as City Manager for Lagos where he engineered the introduction of an identity…
Author: AdeO
Nigeria has emerged as the top investment destination in Africa as the country received $663.24 million in 2019. This is according to a 2019 Africa Venture Capital Report released recently. A further analysis of the report by WeeTracker, a global tech media platform with a marked focus on the African…
United Bank for Africa Plc has appointed Oliver Alawuba as the chief executive officer of UBA Africa to oversee the bank’s 20 African country operations, except Nigeria. A statement said he succeeded Victor Osadolor, who retired from the group’s board, after nine years of working with UBA. The bank also…
Daimler AG, the parent company for Mercedes-Benz, plans to recall about 745,000 of its vehicles in the U.S. because of concerns about faulty sunroofs that could fly off. Mercedes-Benz vehicles from its C-, CLK-, CLS- and E-Class lines sold between 2001 and 2011 will be recalled because the bonding between the…
KudiGO, a Ghanaian fintech startup has officially started operations in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy. KudiGo which builds comprehensive and reliable financial models to help businesses receive payments and track inventories is also looking to expand to East Africa in the coming years. It raised a seed funding of $450,000 from…
It is the New Year and quite a number of small businesses are already strategizing for 2020. One important item on the list would be planning the budget. A good small business budget will help the business take control of managing and planning their finances. To help in the development…
Commercial banks in Nigeria have commenced the implementation of the reduced bank fees after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) reviewed them last year. The CBN had reduced the withdrawal fee charged for the use of other banks’ Automated Teller Machines from N65 to N35 and pegged electronic transfer fee…
The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) has opened its application portal for applications from African entrepreneurs across all African countries, for the 2020 cohort of the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme. In 2019, 3,050 African entrepreneurs benefited from the Programme, a number which will meaningfully increase in 2020. The TEF Entrepreneurship Programme…
Bolt (formally known as Taxify) has announced its latest entry into two other Nigerian states-Abeokuta and Enugu- as part of its expansion. The ride-hailing company made the announcement via its official Twitter handle. This launch will drive Bolt’s operating cities to 11, adding Enugu and Abeokuta to Lagos, Owerri, Ibadan, Kano,…
Generating a steady supply of new leads and building your pipeline is a critical part of developing a profitable startup. However, it can be a challenging process. The upside to resource-intensive campaigns, constant A/B split testing and content-marketing initiatives is often a marginal improvement in your conversion rate, which can be…
Tesla has reportedly secured more than $1.4 billion loan from multiple Chinese banks in order to help fund the construction of its new gigafactory in Shanghai. The loan will be distributed across five years and will be used to both set up the new gigafactory and to help finance Tesla’s…
Festival Coins, a Nigerian event organisation and ticketing startup, has secured funding from early-stage Venture Capital firm Microtraction. Founded by Folayemi Agusto and Nosa Oyegun, Festival Coins is an event technology company that helps event organisers reduce costs, maximise revenues and harness granular data from attendees. The startup provides tools and services…
The pan-African network of tech and innovation hubs has launched the AfriLabs Capacity Building Programme (ACBP) at the just concluded AfriLabs Annual Gathering 2019 which was held at the African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Many promising African individuals and groups establish hubs to help build more sustainable and…
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has reduced the withdrawal fee charged for the use of other banks’ Automated Teller Machines from N65 to N35. The N35 ATM fee according to the CBN should be imposed on customers after the third withdrawal within one month. The new directive was part…
U.S. ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc. has agreed to pay 4.4 million U.S. dollars to settle federal investigations into claims of sexual harassment within the company, a federal commission said Wednesday. Uber will set up a 4.4-million-dollar fund to compensate anyone who “experienced sexual harassment and/or related retaliation after January…
MTN has announced that it intends to launch its mobile money service, MoMo in South Africa in January 2020. The service, which is already live in Nigeria, will allow customers to send, receive, save and spend money as well as pay for goods and services using their mobile phones. It…
Jumia, the eCommerce company which pioneered Black Friday in Africa in 2014, has reported that the 2019 Black Friday hit a record high, attracting over 100 million unique visits to the firm’s website. In an infographic unveiled just two weeks after the end of the Black Friday campaign, Jumia shows…
The co-founders of Truecaller-Alan Mamedi and Nami Zarringhalam- have announced that the world’s largest caller-identification system will launch ‘Truecaller Pay’ in Nigeria in the first half of 2020 as it readies for a possible IPO. The launch if and when it happens will signal Truecaller’s pivot into Nigeria’s already competitive…
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a grant of $5 million to enable the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme to scale up its outreach and impact to 1,000 select youth entrepreneurs. The grant follows the signing of a letter of intent between the Bank and the Tony Elumelu Foundation,…
Gricd has emerged the winner of the 2019 GreenHouse Lab (GHL) Demo Day following a pitch competition held at the Cedar Hive & Co-working Space, Ikoyi. Gricd which pitched alongside 10 other startups, builds Internet of Things (IoT) enabled smart active cooling devices that store and transport temperature-sensitive vaccines and pharmaceutical…