Author: Staff Writer

I am sure most people did not know about the term “social distancing” before the advent of coronavirus. The coronavirus pandemic has introduced new ways of doing things and the way we communicate and relate with one another. Social distancing is a term applied to certain actions that are taken by…

Airtel Kenya has announced that it will waive all its mobile money transaction fees to customers. Earlier in the day, Safaricom issued a similar statement to that effect. Safaricom waived fees on its mobile money transfer service M-Pesa, for all transactions below Ksh1,000 ($10). According to Prasanta Das Sarma, the…

Nigeria’s first open living lab and pre-incubation space, Co-Creation Hub (CcHub) is looking to fund and provide research and design support, via its Design Lab, for coronavirus (COVID-19) related projects. These include, but not limited to, projects in the following areas: Last mile communication: educating the public and ensuring the right…

American electric vehicle and clean energy company, Tesla, rolled out its first car in 2008. It was the Roadster and the company only sold 2,500 of it. Now in 2020, in its 12th year, it is celebrating the production of its 1 millionth car. This announcement was made by Elon…

54Gene, Kobo360, Piggyvest and Tizeti are the four Nigerian companies listed in FastCompany’s 10 Most Innovative Companies (MIC) in Africa for 2020. This was revealed in this year’s MIC list which features 434 businesses from 39 countries. FastCompany claims that these businesses are the ones making the most profound impact…

Nigerian-based startup, Field Intelligence, announced that it has raised $3.6 million, successfully closing its Series A funding round led by Blue Haven Initiative, with investors including Newtown Partners via the Imperial Venture Fund, Accion Venture Lab, and others. According to the company, the funds will be used to fund the…

Cairo-based fintech company, Khazna, has raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding with the aim of providing mobile financial services to the underbanked in the country. The funding round was led by Egyptian VC Algebra Ventures, with Accion Venture Lab participating. Founded in 2019 by Omar Saleh, Ahmed Wagueeh, Fatimah…

Tunde Kehinde Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer, Lidya Holdings, Inc, Nigeria and Chinny Ogunro, Chief Executive Officer, WellSpring Health, Nigeria are the two young leaders representing Nigeria in this year’s class of Young Global Leaders. 10 Africans were named in the list of 115 people selected this year. Each year,…

WomenChoice Industries, a Tanzanian-based manufacturer and distributor of low-cost, affordable menstrual hygiene management (MHM) reusable sanitary towels, has secured $200,000 from Gray Matters Capital’s coLABS. This new funding is expected to help WomenChoice Industries reach out to 500,000 women and girls from low-resource settings, to use its reusable sanitary towels…

Upto $3 million in total will be awarded to 80 programme participants worldwide

Youverify, a Nigerian startup focused on identity and background verification, has raised $1.5 million in an investment round led by Orange Digital Ventures, the strategic Corporate Venture Fund of the Orange Group. Co-founded by the company’s CEO, Gbenga Odegbami and launched in 2018, Youverify aims to help companies automate the…

Twitter announced that it has received a $1 billion investment from investment firm, Silver Lake. The social media company has also entered into a deal with Silver Lake and another investment firm, Elliot Management, to allow incumbent CEO, Jack Dorsey retain his seat at the helm of affairs. Twitter will…

Global Payments leader, Visa and Nigerian based payment company, Paga, have entered a strategic partnership to provide alternative payment channels and financial transaction opportunities for their merchants and customers. With this new arrangement, Paga customers have access to Visa credentials (physical and virtual cards) tied to their Paga accounts and…

Actis, a leading investor of private capital into global emerging markets, has acquired a majority stake in Rack Centre, a leading Nigerian data centre. Though the actual stake and amount invested was not disclosed, The investment is part of Actis’ US$250 million pan-African data centre platform. The buy and build…

Renault recently unveiled the all new shape-shifting electric concept car called the Renault Morphoz. It is a beauty to behold. The Morphoz was expected to make its debut at the Geneva Motor Show scheduled to take place on the 3rd March 2020 but the event was cancelled due the government’s…

It seems Twitter has finally decided to have its own vanishing posts like Snapchat and Instagram Stories. It will be called Fleets. Fleets are a way to share fleeting thoughts. According to Twitter Brazil Product Manager, Mo Al Adham, in a blog post, translated into English, “Fleets are for you…

Teacher resource marketplace and educator media hub is acquired by global edtech company

Nigerian based technology investment company, Microtraction, has changed its terms of engagement. They will now be offering $25,000 for 7% of your company. This new deal replaces its previous deal of $15k for 7.5% with an additional $50k convertible note at $1m valuation cap in companies that show significant progress.…

Google Country Director, Juliet Ehimuan-Chiazor, has been appointed a Non-Executive Director of Nestle Nigeria. The appointment was effective from February 24, 2020. She was named Forbes’ top 20 youngest power women in Africa, and featured in BBC Africa Power Women series. Juliet Ehimuan is a thought leader on digital business…

Tech giant Apple Inc has agreed to pay up to $500 million to settle litigation following a lawsuit accusing it of quietly slowing down older iPhones as it launched new models. This was done to make owners to buy replacement phones or batteries. In 2017, the company admitted to introducing…