Author: Staff Writer

Tanzanian classified platforms, ZoomTanzania and Kupatana, announced that they are merging to form a new online marketplace. ZoomTanzania is owned by Roam while Kupatana is backed by Frontier Digital Ventures. The two platforms have been long time competitors in the Tanzanian market and with this merger, they become a formidable…

China’s central bank has launched pilot versions of its digital yuan wallet application on mobile phone app stores in a bid to expand its usage to more people in the country. The “e-CNY (Pilot Version)” app was developed by the People’s Bank of China’s (PBOC) digital currency research institute and…

Sony has announced the next generation virtual reality system for the PS5 console – PlayStation VR2, and the new VR controller, PlayStation VR2 Sense controller. This was made known by Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Jim Ryan at the CES 2022. According to Hideaki Nishino, Senior Vice President, Platform…

Ex- Theranos founder, Elizabeth Holmes was once touted as “the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire” by trumpeted Forbes magazine. Now she has been convicted of duping investors into believing her startup Theranos, had developed a revolutionary medical device that could detect a multitude of diseases and conditions from a few…

Tech giant Apple has become the first US public company to reach $3 trillion in market value roughly 500 days after it hit $2 trillion level in August 2020. It was also the first publicly traded US company to hit a $1 trillion market cap during intraday trading on 2…

Aumet, a US-based and MENA-servicing B2B healthcare marketplace announced that it has acquired Egypt-based Healthcare supply chain solutions startup, Platform One for an undisclosed amount to become fully active across Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Jordan with more than 5,000 active pharmacies on its platform. Founded in 2015 by Yahya…

Apple is reportedly offering its employees up to $180,000 to retain them and ward off competitors like Meta. According to Bloomberg, “Apple has issued unusual and significant stock bonuses to some engineers in an effort to retain talent, looking to stave off defections to tech rivals such as Facebook owner…

Meta has announced that it is shutting down Jobs on Facebook outside of the United States and Canada effective 22nd February 2022. No reason was given for the decommissioning. This was mentioned in a product announcement that the Jobs on Facebook product was changing on February 22, 2022. Launched in…

China’s search engine, Baidu, has unveiled the first metaverse platform in China, called Xi Rang (It means “land of hope” in English). According to a report from South China Morning Post (SCMP), the platform “can be assessed via smartphones, computers or VR goggles, allowing users to create avatars and interact…

Nigerian born Fireboy DML (real name Adedamola Adefolahan) and British Ed Sheeran have done a remix of Fireboy’s famous song “Peru” and it is really blowing up the airwaves. This affirms the growing acceptance of Nigerian music in the global space. The video of the remix was released on YouTube…

The US Food and Administration Administration (FDA) has approved the first antiviral pill, Pfizer’s Paxlovid. According to the US FDA, Pfizer’s Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir tablets and ritonavir tablets, co-packaged for oral use) can be used for the treatment of mild-to-moderate coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in adults and pediatric patients (12 years of…

By using international SWIFT transactions you can send money transfers in different currencies to any bank (national or private) in Europe and the world. It is very handy if you work with international partners, or handle business abroad. There are two major problems, the first one is the time to process a SWIFT transfer. The second…

Delivery Hero, one of the Prosus companies, has announced that it would be leaving Germany for the second time and divesting from the Japanese market. In a pre-Christmas announcement, one of the world’s leading local delivery platform “plans to scale down its German operations, foodpanda Germany, to a Berlin-based hub…

It is unimaginable but true. Who would have thought that Google with all its services – Maps, Translate, Photos, Flights, Books and more – would ever be dethroned? Well, Google has been relegated to 2nd place as the most popular domain and it had to be TikTok. According to tech-security…

Software giant Oracle announced that it has agreed to buy Cerner, a leading health information technology provider for $28.3 billion. Founded in 1977, this is Oracle’s largest acquisition to date as it intends to boost its revenue and expand into healthcare industry with this acquisition. The deal sees Oracle acquiring…

Merck, a leading science and technology company, recently announced that it has signed an agreement with Innovative Biotech (IB), a Nigerian biotechnology company to design the manufacturing process for the first vaccine production facility in Nigeria. “We are committed to expanding access to life-saving and life-enhancing therapies to patients across…

Facebook now known as Meta, has announced that as from January 1 2022, all Facebook ads in Nigeria will attract 7.5% Value Added Tax whether for personal or business purposes. This means that when budgetting for your marketing spend for 2022, you need to factor in 7.5% for VAT. According…

Treepz’s mission to provide commuters with convenient and affordable means of transportation within cities and across Africa, is further accomplished with its newest partnership with CMS Taxi and Motor Nigeria Limited (CMS T&M) in Lagos. This partnership will see the CMS T&M passengers have access to a more convenient payment…

Ford Foundation announced its commitment of $3 million to launch the Extractive Industry and Climate Change Governance Fund, a five-year initiative to promote and support a more equitable governance of natural resources that leads to sustainable and inclusive development in West Africa. Focusing primarily on Nigeria and Ghana, the fund will…

Entersekt, a South African device identity and authentication solutions firm announced that it has received a significant investment from Accel-KKR, a leading technology-focused private equity firm. Entersekt says that the investment will enable it accelerate its roadmap, hire top talent and fuel expansion into new markets. “We are very excited to…