Author: Staff Writer

The consignment of protective and medical equipment donated by Chinese billionaire and Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma to help fight the coronavirus – COVID-19 have started arriving in African countries. The medical kits are being distributed in conjunction with Ethiopian Airlines. Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation had earlier stated that…

The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) announced that it has suspended all enrolment activities effective today, 24th March 2020. The commission said this was in line with the recent directive issued by the Federal Government of Nigeria for all Officers on Grade Level 12 and below to stay off work.…

Following the increase in the number of the coronavirus (COVID-19) cases, the Nigerian Stock Exchange announced that effective Wednesday, March 25 , 2020 all its trading floors will be temporarily closed. The exchange however said that remote trading will continue and its staff would be available through all our digital…

The World Health Organisation last weekend, launched a Health Alert service on WhatsApp to ensure people around the world get official, trusted health information and advice about the coronavirus (COVID-19). The new service, which is free to use, has been designed to answer questions from the public about Coronavirus, and…

The Africa Tech and Creative Group (ATCG) is announcing the launch of ten MyAfCFTA nodes located across Africa in CcHUB (Nigeria/Rwanda), Afrinolly (Nigeria), iSpace (Ghana), iHUB (Kenya), BongoHive (Zambia), HYBR Group (South Africa/Kenya/Nigeria), Sylabs (Algeria), The Tech Village Innovation Hub (Zimbabwe), Bliss Executives (The Gambia), The Innovation Village (Uganda). The…

French ride-hailing startup, Heetch, has suspended its operations in Cameroon. The company which started operations in the West African country in September last year, blames the coronavirus in France for the suspension of services in the country. According to the company in a statement: “French company Heetch started operations in…

Video streaming giant, Netflix will be switching from high definition streaming to standard definition to manage the increased usage of Internet by people staying at home because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) Netflix is acting on the request from EU Commissioner Thierry Breton. Netflix traffic accounts for a significant portion of the…

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Google has replaced its homepage logo with a doodle of Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis, to honour the Hungarian physician and scientist known as an early pioneer of antiseptic procedures and a pioneer in hand washing. In the 19th century, Semmelweis found out that the incidence of puerperal…

GT Bank Plc. one of the foremost banks in Nigeria has launched Beta Health, a low-cost health financing product that offers instant access to health insurance for Nigerians. Beta Health provides coverage for basic and essential health services such as; general consultations, treatment for malaria, Ante-natal care, amongst others, for…

Apple has unveiled a new MacBook Air which features the new Magic Keyboard, delivers up to two times faster performance and starts at a new lower price of $999. Starting with 256GB of storage, the new MacBook Air allows customers to store even more movies, photos and files.  And for…

Apple today introduced its most advanced iPad Pro. Armed with the A12Z Bionic chip, Apple says that this iPad Pro is faster and more powerful than most Windows PC laptops. The new iPad Pro adds an Ultra Wide camera, studio-quality mics and a breakthrough LiDAR Scanner that delivers cutting-edge depth-sensing capabilities, opening…

WhatsApp is reportedly trialling a new feature whereby you can send self-destructing messages in private conversations. This was first spotted by  WABetaInfo, which shows that the latest beta (version 2.20.83/2.20.84) for the Facebook-owned app includes a “Delete messages” option for private chats. According to Android Central, “Previous betas had already added…

Social media giant Facebook will be paying a $1,000 bonus to all employees to help them during the coronavirus outbreak. According to The Information, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement early Tuesday in an internal company notice. He said that the company wants to support employees working remotely because…

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…