Author: Staff Writer

Tech giant, Google, has opened its first African Google Developers space in Lagos, Nigeria. “This space, in addition to housing our Google Launchpad Accelerator Africa programme, will be used for developer training and meetings, innovation, research and startup programs, as well as carrying out our commitment to empowering people through…

It is a sad day for ride-hailing startups in Lagos state as the state government has banned commercial motorcycles and tricycles from operating along major highways in the state. The state government has proscribed their operations in 6 Local Government Areas (LGAs), 9 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) and 10…

Grammy award winning musician, Wyclef Jean, has raised $25 million to fund music publishing services in Africa, the Caribbean and other developing regions through his newest venture Carnival World Music Group. Carnival World provides artists with music publishing and distribution resources needed to promote their music and earn royalties. According…

Kenyan agri marketplace start-up, Tulaa, has partnered with Nigeria-based logistics company, Kobo360, to bring smallholder farmers’ produce from farm to market. Tulaa sells inputs on credit to small farmers and trades their crop at harvest time by purchasing at farm-gate and delivering to wholesale buyers in urban markets. “One of…

Renowned American academic, business consultant, Clayton Christensen, has passed on at the age of 67. According to his brother Carlton, Christensen died Thursday evening of complications from cancer treatment in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Christensen coined the word “disruptive innovation”, having introduced the concept in the Harvard Business Review in 1995. The…

Telecoms giant, Vodafone, has quit from the Libra Association, becoming the latest company to exit the Facebook-led group trying to create a new global cryptocurrency. In October last year, Visa, eBay, Mastercard and PayPal walked away from the initiative. The number of companies has now whittled down to 20 from…

Paga, a Nigerian mobile payments company, has acquired an Ethiopian software company, Apposit for an undisclosed amount. This acquisition is part of its strategy to commence operations into Ethiopia later this year. Paga also intends to leverage the US incorporated Apposit to support its expansion into East Africa and Latin…

Veteran TV executive, Alex Okosi has been appointed YouTube’s Managing Director of Emerging Markets for YouTube in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Alex will be responsible for running YouTube’s business and partnership teams across emerging markets in EMEA including Russia, the Middle East, North and Sub Saharan Africa. He…

Lagos-based fintech startup, Flutterwave, announced that it has closed a $35m Series B funding round. The round was co-led by Grey Croft & eVentures with additional participation from CRE Ventures, Fidelity National Information Services Inc (FIS), Visa, Green Visor and Endeavor. Olugbenga Agboola, Co-founder and CEO of Flutterwave, in an email…

VerifyMe, a Nigerian startup which specialises in ID verification, announced that it has secured an undisclosed amount from Consonance Investment Managers. According to the Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Esigie Aguele, the funds would be used to expand strategic partnerships and bring new digital ID verification products to market.…

Alphabet, Google’s parent body, has become the fourth US company to hit the $1 trillion market capitalisation. It hit this number just before markets closed on Thursday, ending the day’s trading at $1,451.70 per share, up 0.87 percent. Alphabet joins the league after the likes of  Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. as the…

Google announced that it will phase out third party cookies in its Chrome browser. According to the tech company in a blog post, “Over the next two years Google intends to stop supporting third-party cookies in its Chrome browser” A cookie is a small piece of data sent from a website and…

As announced last week, Chinese smartphone manufacturer, Vivo, has launched the latest in Y-series portfolio , the Vivo-Y19, in Kenya. The new device, inspired and powered by the youth, premiers a 5000mAh battery, a Halo FullView Display, an AI Triple Rear Camera setup, premium design and enhanced features that guarantee…

PayU, a leading financial services companies under the Prosus brand, has acquired PaySense for $185 million. Additionally, PayU will inject a total of up to $200 million in the new enterprise in the form of equity capital; $65 million of the total amount will be immediately invested, while the balance…

Omidyar Network has announced the launch of PlaceFund, an independent nonprofit organization focused on solving the inter-related problems of insecure property rights, unsustainable land use and climate change. PlaceFund is built off a decade of experience as Omidyar Network’s property rights initiative. PlaceFund will identify NGOs with bold ideas focused on…

A lot of people entered 2020 with plenty of dreams and “Amens” but not many know that one of the simple lessons of life is saving to meet that financial goal. It is about having financial discipline to stick to a certain pattern of spending and saving. If you are…

The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has finally come out with a position on the use of Google Maps app by drivers on Nigerian roads. The official position by the FRSC Corps Marshal, Mr Boboye Oyeyemi, was provided at a press conference in Abuja, the country’s capital yesterday. According to…

The leading global smartphone brand Vivo is gearing to unveil its latest product the vivo Y19 to expand its Y-series portfolio in Kenya. The device is said to have decent specifications, with a 5000mAh battery, a FullView™ Display, and an AI Triple Rear Camera setup that will guarantee superb photography,…

Foreign Exchange company, Travelex, has been held ransom by hackers since New Year’s Eve. The attack forced the company to turn off all computer systems and resort to using pen and paper across its sites globally. Visiting the company’s sites, you will see a pop-up message announcing the attack. See…

Smartphone giant Vivo has partnered with OPPO and Xiaomi to bring an innovative new wireless file transfer system to consumers around the world. An initiative of the newly formed “Peer-to-Peer Transmission Alliance”, the new system enables seamless cross-brand file transfer with just one click. The new wireless file transfer system…