Author: Staff Writer

This week started on an interesting note for Startup CEOs that had caused ex-employees and even current employees heartaches and the #Horriblebosses trended for quite a while. The main offender cited was Ebun Okubanjo, the CEO of Bento Africa, a payroll startup with operations in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda…

Famous TikTok Star Khaby Lame has been chosen by Pepsico to promote its new Nitrogen-infused cola, Nitro Pepsi. According to Marketing Dive, the silent Senegalese-Italian star with over 135 million TikTok followers has been recruited for the print, billboard, and TV ad campaign that will use the tagline “a smoother…

MTN Group is pleased to announce senior leadership appointments to operating companies in Nigeria, Iran and Sudan, all of them internal candidates, as we focus on executing on our strategy to drive growth, de-leverage faster and reveal value in our fintech and fibre businesses. The appointments are effective 1 April…

Nigerian-based agro-processing company, Tomato Jos, has launched the first wholly made in Nigeria Tomato Mix. The tomato paste, packaged in a 65gm sachet, is the first consumer product from the company’s multi-billion Naira factory based in Kaduna, in the Northern part of Nigeria. The company raised EUR 3.9 million in…

Technology giant Microsoft confirmed that it was hacked by a group called DEV-0537, also known as Lapsus$. The company made this statement in a blog post on Tuesday this week. The group had earlier claimed to have hacked Microsoft and posted a file it claimed contains partial source code for…

Can You Learn Basic Russian in One Year? Whether it’s for work, school, or personal reasons like traveling, you may have a need to learn Russian. Perhaps you have a specific timeline and need to learn Russian relatively quickly. If you need to learn basic Russian in just a year,…

Today, President Muhammadu Buhari commissioned Dangote Fertilizer plant, Africa’s largest granulated fertilizer complex at the Lekki free trade zone, Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos state. Other dignitaries that were present at the event include Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Adeniyi Adebayo, Minister of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development, Dr. Mohammad Mahmood Abubakar,…

Payments and tech giant Visa, has entered into a collaboration agreement with Bantu Blockchain Foundation to facilitate fast and secure transactions on the Bantu Blockchain. This integration is expected to directly boost Africa’s gig economy by significantly reducing the current friction and interoperability challenges when making payments within the continent.…

Powered by People, a Kenyan e-commerce platform announced that it has raised $5million in a funding round led by Susa Ventures and Golden Ventures. Other participants in the round include Flexport Ventures, J Ventures, and the founders of DraftKings, Fabric. The same company raised $1.5 million in seed funding about…

Klas, an online tech company that allows anyone to set up an online school and deliver live classes, announced that it has raised $130k in an angel funded round led by a host of investors including Tola Adesanmi (Spleet), Odunayo Eweniyi (Piggyvest), Nadayar Enegesi (Eden life), Njoku Emmanuel (Lazerpay), Leonard…

Burkina Faso’s African architect Diébédo Francis Kéré has emerged the winner of the 2022 Pritzker Architecture Prize. He becomes the first African and first black person to receive this distinguished prize in four decades of the prestigious award. The Pritzker Architecture Prize was created to honor a living architect or…

Kenyan based agri-tech, Apollo Agriculture, announced that it has raised $40 million in a funding round led by SoftBank Investment. Other participants include Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Yara Growth Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, CDC, and existing investors including Anthemis Exponential Ventures, Flourish Ventures, Leaps by Bayer, SBI, Breyer Capital, and TO Ventures…

After years of apparently turning a blind eye to password sharing, Netflix is working on limiting users sharing their passwords. The streaming giant issued a press release stating that subscribers will now pay to share Netflix outside their households. According to Chengyi Long, Director of Product Innovation, the sharing of…

Chances are you have heard of the company called “Apple”. Yeah, the company that makes iPhones, iPods, Macbooks, iWatches, and a host of other products. In 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak established Apple because the computers available at the time were impractical and too expensive for them. The goal…

Streaming giant, Spotify and sports giant FC Barcelona have entered into a strategic partnership reportedly worth $310m that will make Spotify become the Main Partner of the Club and the Official Audio Streaming Partner. This partnership will also see the FC Barcelona Stadium rebranded to Spotify Camp Nou. According to both companies in a…

Kenya-based fintech 4G Capital announced that it has secured $18.5 million in a Series C funding round from global private equity firm Lightrock to scale its lending operations. Launched by Hennessy-Barrett in 2013, 4G Capital provides micro-loans and enterprise training to power Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, (MSME) growth. The new…

Sokowatch, an Africa based B2B e-commerce company, announced that it has raised $125 million in a series B funding round led by by Tiger Global, the world’s largest venture capital firm, and Avenir Growth Capital. Other participants include VNV Global, Binny Bansal (Co-Founder of Flipkart) and Sujeet Kumar (Co-Founder of Udaan), as well as…

Onyeka Akumah has announced his exit as Chairman and Shareholder at Farmcrowdy, a global Agri-tech company focused on solving inefficiencies in the food value chain. Farmcrowdy initially started out as a crowdfunding business which focused on boosting food security in Nigeria. It crowdsourced from individuals and corporates, via its online…

Mercy Corps Ventures, the impact investing arm of Mercy Corps, has just launched their Crypto For Good Fund. The objective of the Fund is to drive global financial inclusion through a series of pilots, building an evidence base to prove the scalability of blockchain-enabled solutions in making a positive impact on…

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), in conjunction with theIndependent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), the National Information Technology Development Agency(NITDA) and the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) raided some digital lending firms allegedly violating consumer rights over the weekend in Lagos, Nigeria. The joint operation…