Author: Staff Writer

FBN Holdings (FBNH) has sold off its remaining 65% stake in its Insurance subsidiary, FBN Insurance to Sanlam, a South African financial services group. Before this sale, Sanlam already had 35% of the Insurance company. This gives Sanlam 100% ownership of FBN Insurance Limited (FBNI) and its subsidiary, FBN General…

Alexis Ohanian, one of the co-founders of Reddit, has stepped down from the Reddit board in the wake of the US protests against the police killing of George Floyd. He is also calling on the board of the American social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website to fill…

Seasoned Telecoms Executive, Alan Sinfield, has been appointed as the new CEO of 9Mobile. He takes over from Stephane Beuvelet, who has been in an acting capacity since the new board took over the company in November 2018. He becomes the first substantive CEO since the company changed its name…

Mobile money operator, Paga, has launched an online donation platform called Donate.ng. Donate.ng is a fundraising and empowerment platform for charitable organizations who are helping the less privileged in our communities. With Donate.ng, organizations raise awareness and access financial support from donors both locally and abroad. According to Folakemi Falodun, General…

OjaExpress, a Nigerian-backed startup, has been accepted in the prestigious Techstars Kansas City Accelerator class of 2020. Founded by Nigerians Boyede Sobitan and Fola Dada based in America, OjaExpress is a digital platform that allows users to shop online from the comfort of their homes for ethnic, cultural and religious ingredients. It…

Universal Music Group has announced the launch of a new label, Def Jam Africa, in Africa. Def Jam Africa will follow the blueprint of the iconic Def Jam Recordings label, and it will be dedicated to representing the best hip-hop, Afrobeats and trap talent in Africa. The label will initially…

In Nigeria, the Governor of Kwara state, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, has directed the slashing of the Right of Way (RoW) fee for telecommunications firms (telcos) from N5,500 per linear metre to N1 per kilometre of fibre. The directiva is contained in a statement issued by the state’s Commissioner for Communication, Murtala…

Donald Trump, the President of the United States of America has stated that the country will be cutting ties with the World Health Organisation over the body’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. He announced this at a press conference at the White House on Friday. According to him, “China has…

Starting a small business is an exciting thing to do. New opportunities lie in front of you, and it’s all on you how you’ll develop the business and how fast you’ll grow. But as a new business owner, one thing is most oftenly skipped and that’s getting the right insurance.…

Innovative drone delivery company, Zipline, has made its debut drone delivery in America six months ahead of schedule. The company had planned to commence its service in the US, North Carolina to be precise, in October 2020, under an agreement signed at the beginning of this year with Novant Health, which…

Ghana’s healthcare startup, mPharma, has raised $17 million in a new funding round led by Novastar along with UK’s development finance arm, CDC Group and previous investors including Dr. Daniel Vasella, ex-chief executive of Novartis, Silicon Valley investor Jim Breyer and Dompe Holdings. According to the CEO, Gregory Rockson, this…

Estonian based on-demand transportation company, Bolt, announced that it has raised €100 million ($109 million) from Naya Capital Management, a London-based investment firm via in a convertible note. This now raises the company’s valuation to €1.7 billion. The company recently raised a 50 million dollars debt facility from the European Investment…

Nigerian Fintech company, Carbon, has launched Carbon Express – a keyboard extension that allows customers to access Carbon services from within whatever app they are using. With Carbon Express, a customer can securely make payments and transactions without leaving his or her social apps. Carbon Express enables users to initiate…

Nigerian agro-processing company, Tomato Jos, has raised EUR 3.9 million in its Series A funding round to boost the transition to its next stage of growth — the processing and distribution of tomato products. Since its inception in 2014, the company has focused on securing its supply chain through primary…

Social media giant, Facebook, has acquired Giphy, the popular platform of sharable animated images. According to an Axios report, the deal is worth around $400 million. Minutes after the Axios report, Facebook shared a blog post stating that GIPHY is joining the Facebook company today as part of the Instagram…

Some global companies have come together to build 2Africa, a comprehensive subsea cable to serve the African continent and Middle East region. The companies are China Mobile International, Facebook, MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, Saudi Arabia-based telecom firm STC, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone and African telecom firm WIOCC. The parties have appointed Alcatel…

Effective Monday 18th May 2020, Uber drivers and delivery persons would be required to take selfies to confirm that they are wearing face masks before going online. This is one of measures Uber is implementing in its response to the ease of the pandemic lockdown as cities begin to reopen…

POCO, a spinoff brand from Chinese electronics giant Xiaomi, has introduced a new smartphone called the POCO F2 Pro. This new smartphone is essentially a rehashed Redmi K30 Pro. It is coming out two years after its predecessor Pocophone F1. Xiaomi created the POCO brand to launch high-end, premium smartphones…

TECNO Nigeria, a global premier mobile phone brand, has announced the launch of the groundbreaking Spark 5 smartphone. Equipped with five cameras and a powerful 5,000 mAh battery, the Spark 5 will bring photos and videos to life on its 6.6 inch dot-in-display. The SPARK 5 brings unmatched quality in…

Novastar Ventures recently held the final closing of Novastar Ventures Africa Fund II (NVAF II) with total commitments of $108 million While Novastar’s first fund was limited to East Africa, NVAF II expands its geographic reach from East to West Africa in search of founders building breakthrough businesses in the…