Author: Staff Writer

Nigeria’s medical supplies logistics company, LifeBank, has added drone delivery as its latest mobility solution. Hitherto, Lifebank has been able to deliver medical supplies either by bikes or boats. With the successful test of the first drone flight which took off in Ethiopia, it can now boast of being able…

In a pulsating televised finale event “Africa’s Business Heroes” which took place yesterday in Accra, Ghana, Temie Giwa-Tubosun of Lifebank Nigeria won the 1st prize of $250,000 in Jack Ma’s Africa Netpreneur Prize. The ten finalists made their pitches before four world class judges which consisted of Alibaba founder Jack…

OPPO yesterday launched the new Reno2 Series in the Nigerian market by 7pm at the LASWA Jetty, Ikoyi, Lagos. The Reno2 and Reno2 F models are the latest of OPPO’s popular Reno series that will change the boundaries of users’ creativity, coming packed with photography-enhancing features. The quad-camera setup includes 5x…

Today, KaiOS Technologies announced that Life, an in-house educational app for KaiOS-powered smart feature phones, is now available in Africa. KaiOS users in Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, and South Africa can now find the app available for download via the KaiStore, with more countries coming soon. Life serves as a trusted educational resource for first-time internet users, and…

PalmPay, an Africa-focused payments startup is launching in Nigeria on Wednesday after receiving $40 million investment from a group of investors led by Chinese mobile-phone maker, Transsion. Transsion is the Chinese company behind smartphones brands, Tecno, Infinix and itel. According to a Transsion spokesman, the investment came via Transsion’s Tecno subsidiary,…

Egypt-based online pharmacy Yodawy, announced that it has raised $1 million in Series A round led by Egypt’s Algebra Ventures and CVentures, with participation from ASI Ventures, an angel investor firm. Founded in 2018 by Karim Khashaba, Sherief El-Feky, and Yasser AbdelGawad, Yodawy is Egypt’s largest online medication ordering and…

Pan- African ecommerce giant, Jumia has released its 3rd quarter results for the period ending 30th September 2019. Its results show an increase in the company’s losses from €40.6 million in Q2 to €54.6 million in Q3, a 34% increase. The company attributes a large portion of the dismal performance…

Orange is partnering with itel, the leading mobile brand in Africa and, once again, with KaiOS Technologies, maker of the leading operating system for smart feature phone KaiOS, to launch a new 4G version of the Sanza Phone, “Sanza XL”. This was announced at the ongoing AfricaCom event taking place…

To unveil the high-end Reno2 Series, OPPO Mobile Nigeria recently announced a brand partnership with Nigeria’s leading fashion and style entrepreneur, media personality and acclaimed writer, Toke Makinwa on its Social Media pages. Speaking about this partnership, the Marketing Manager, OPPO Mobile Nigeria, Nengi Akinola emphasised that the partnership with…

Prosus company, OLX Group, has announced its intention to invest $400 million in Frontier Car Group (FCG), making it the company’s largest shareholder. OLX first invested US$89M in FCG in 2018, providing capital for the Berlin-based start-up to enhance its services and expand to new geographies, including the acquisition of…

Chinese smartphone maker has unveiled a new smartphone in the Kenyan market named the “Vivo V17 Pro” heralding the setup of a regional office in Kenya. The new V17 Pro houses a total of 6 cameras on the front and back that allow users to redefine their selfies with the…

OPay, a one-stop mobile-based platform for payment, transportation, food & grocery delivery, and other important services, has gotten the approval by the Central Bank of Nigeria to carry out International Money Transfer services in Nigeria. With the approval, OPay will start facilitating remittance B2B, B2P and P2P remittance services into…

Global financial services group Visa is set to spend $200 million to acquire 20% stake in Nigerian based payments group, Interswitch. According to a Sky News report, both companies are in advanced talks and the transaction could be announced as soon as this week. Update: Both companies have put out…

Electroneum (ETN), a cryptocurrency startup based in England, has launched its mobile top-up service across 15 mobile operators in Uganda, Nigeria and Tanzania. This brings the total number of countries to six. It launched mobile top up in Brazil across four top mobile network operators This means that Electroneum users…

Reports has emerged citing Uber’s entry in the Online Ads space. According to Techcrunch, Uber will become an ad platform, selling space inside its Eats app to restaurants hoping to lure in more food delivery orders. Though it’s not yet clear how the ads will work or look, they may help…

The Nigerian Senate has reintroduced a bill seeking a 150,000 Naira fine and/or 3 year jail sentence for the abuse of social media in the country. Interestingly, the bill was jettisoned some years ago after Nigerians cried against its promulgation citing it as a draconian and anti-social media” law. In…

Chinese smartphone maker, Xiaomi, has introduced a new smartphone, the Mi Note 10 which is the world’s first 108MP penta camera smartphone. The Mi Note 10 is the global variant of the Mi CC9 Pro which launched in China on the 5th of November. The Mi Note 10 will sold…

Google launched a new local Traffic Tab on Google Maps in Nigeria on Wednesday. At the 3rd Google for Nigeria event held early in the year, Google launched navigation instructions in a Nigerian accent. At the same event, it also promised to launch improved navigation maps for Lagos commercial bus…

WeFarm, the world’s largest farmer-to-farmer digital network announced that it has raised $13 million in a Series A round of funding to expand its network of farmers. This round is being led by True Ventures, with AgFunder, June Fund; previous investors LocalGlobe, ADV and Norrsken Foundation; and others also participating. This brings…

Stanbic IBTC has launched the Stanbic IBTC @ease wallet, in line with its commitment to deepen financial inclusion and drive its digitization agenda. The product is set to provide a unique range of financial services to the informally served, the underbanked and the unbanked on various structured platforms with the…