Author: Staff Writer

Foremost Payments company, Interswitch has raised 23 billion Naira through the issuance of a 23 billion Naira Series 1 Fixed Rate Senior Unsecured Callable Bond via a Special Purpose Vehicle, Interswitch Africa One PLC. This is part of N30 billion debt issuance programme registered with the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The…

Attention all African EdTech startups aiming to improve educational outcomes on the continent: applications to take part in the fourth cohort of Injini’s incubation programme are now open! The first round of applications opened on Monday, 14 October 2019 and will officially close on Tuesday, 10 December 2019 at 11h59.…

UK based online food order and delivery service, Just Eat, has rejected a hostile takeover bid from South African tech group, Naspers. The bid was done by Europe’s largest consumer internet company, Prosus, on behalf of Naspers. Prosus offered Just Eat shareholders a 20% premium on the price offered to them…

The UK government has set up a ksh 1.3 billion ($12.5 million) fund to support startups in Kenya. The announcement was made by Peter Estlin, the Lord Mayor of the City of London during a visit to Nairobi last week. The fund will focus on Kenyan fintechs that increase financial inclusion…

Mubadala, Abu Dhabi’s state investment arm, has announced the launch of its first MENA-focused tech investment funds – a US$150m fund of funds and US$100m direct fund to capitalize on the growing startup scene in the region. This statement was made by Ibrahim Ajami, head of Ventures at Mubadala Capital…

According to Reuters, telecoms group Orange is selling its operational business in Niger. This statement was made by an Orange Niger spokesman, Roni Alhassane. Roni said discussions were ongoing with the buyer, Zamani Com S.A.S., to settle debts owed to creditors and unpaid taxes. Orange’s operations in Niger have been…

If you want to get anywhere in business, you need to be the best of the best. This means mastering the essential skills needed to get ahead. Knowing what these skills are will enable you to work on them and develop them accordingly. If you want to stay ahead of…

Leading telecoms giant, Airtel Africa, has signed an agreement with Pan-African bank, Ecobank to allow Airtel Money and Ecobank customers across Africa to improve their access to mobile financial services and carry out a variety of mobile transactions. This partnership will enable Airtel Money customers, through Ecobank’s digital financial services…

Deepening Interconnection and Cooperation to Jointly Build an Informationized Africa

OPPO leads fast charge in the 5G era with the launch of 65W SuperVOOC, 30W Wireless VOOC and VOOC 4.0

Beats by Dre has unveiled its first on-ear, noise cancelling headphones, named Beats Solo Pro. Beats Solo Pro adds the noise cancelling feature to the on-ear form factor shared by the company’s long line of previous Solo headphones. “The Solo form factor is incredibly popular, with over 30 million sold…

Nigerian lender, Lidya, is set to take its business to Eastern Europe, targeting specifically Poland and Czech Republic. It plans to disburse over $1.1 billion in loans over the next five years to small businesses unable to get bank loans. According to Ercin Eksin, co-founder of Lidya in an interview…

Uber has laid off another set of employees in its third final phase of restructuring to enable it prepare for the future. The first layoff of 400 employees which was in July this year affected the marketing function. The second, in September, affected 435 employees in the Product and Engineering…

American actress, writer, director, producer, and web series creator, Issa Rae has been revealed as Google Assistant’s second celebrity voice. John Legend was the first celebrity voice chosen by Google for this initiative. Henceforth Issa Rae’s voice is available as a cameo on the Google Assistant, in English for a…

Health care startup, Doctoora has won the NES25 startup pitch competition and is going home with 5 million Naira. Six hundred and eighty-nine (689) applications were received for the startup pitching competition and after a rigorous selection process, 10 finalists were selected. Doctoora beat nine other applicants to win the…

Days after PayPal announced that it was dropping out of Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency association, a host of other companies have opted out of the association. They include Mastercard, Visa and Ebay amongst others. This was expected from Mastercard and Visa as they had earlier indicated intention to leave. Since Facebook…

Just four months after ride-hailing company, Uber, said it was planning a boat service in Nigeria, it has started the pilot run of UberBOAT service in Lagos. The launch event happened on Friday and was chaired by His Excellency, the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu. The pilot run, which…

To commemorate World Sight Day (September 10), Google unveiled a new feature on Google Maps to aid visually impaired people. The feature, Detailed Voice Guidance, is particularly helpful to visually impaired people moving on foot. It can also be used to reassure people with sight and those who would rather…

Andy Rubin, the ex-Googler behind Essential Products has just tweeted some pictures about a new device from the company, probably in development, that looks more like a remote control than a smartphone. Is it the next smartphone we should be expecting from the company? Would it change the fortunes of…

Facebook announced that it has added ten more countries in Sub-sahara Africa to its Third-Party Fact-Checking Programme. When added to Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Cameroon and Senegal,  this brings the total in Africa to fifteen. The programme was launched in Nigeria in October 2018. In partnership with Agence France-Presse (AFP),…