Author: Staff Writer

Mitwa Kaemba Ng’ambi, the first female CEO of AirtelTigo Ghana has resigned and is heading to MTN Rwanda as the new CEO. Her last day in AirtelTigo Ghana was Friday, September 13, 2019. Ng’ambi is replacing Bart Hofker, who has been the CEO of the operations in MTN Rwanda since…

Microsoft owned LinkedIn is rolling out a new feature – LinkedIn Skill Assessments which seeks to validate your skill in particular areas. This entitles you to a “verified skill badge” if you pass the assessment. Each Skill Assessment is a series of short assessments constructed through a rigorous content creation…

Omidyar Network’s Luminate is to invest $1million to boost the capacity of journalists and publishers to report in the public interest. The investment will be in the form of a dedicated Hub, named Baraza Media Lab, which will provide Kenyan journalists, publishers, and media entrepreneurs a dedicated physical space to…

The Anzisha Prize has unveiled its top twenty finalists for 2019. They were selected from over 500 applicants round the continent. The Anzisha Prize, an African Leadership Academy and Mastercard Foundation partnership, is dedicated to identifying, supporting and celebrating young African entrepreneurs between the ages of 15-22 on the continent…

Paris-based fintech startup, FairMoney, has closed a 10 million Euro Series A round of investment led by Flourish, a venture of The Omidyar Group, the partners of DST Global, and existing seed investors Newfund, Speedinvest, and Le Studio VC. FairMoney intends to use the funds to scale the company’s engineering…

A new initiative, Africa-Europe Innovation Partnership, has launched in Nairobi, Kenya. It aims to support and connect innovation and technology incubators and accelerators in tapping into new markets, find their trusted partner across the Mediterranean as well as build new perspectives, knowledge and networks.  The Partnership also matches with the…

Google announced that its algorithm will now elevate original news reporting in search results. According to Google, “Recently, we’ve made ranking updates and published changes to our search rater guidelines to help us better recognize original reporting, surface it more prominently in Search and ensure it stays there longer. This means readers…

Spotify restricts family plan to ‘family members residing at the same address’

KaiOS Technologies, the company behind KaiOS – the mobile operating system for smart feature phones, has launched a Developer Portal. The KaiOS Developer Portal is a platform designed to support developers, designers, and engineers in developing applications. KaiOS-powered smart feature phones are now available in most African countries. Brands include…

South Africa based company, ERADA Technology Alliance Ltd (ERADA), has announced the receipt of €288 000 foundation grant from the De Beers Group to support our Saliva-based Malaria Asymptomatic and Asexual Rapid Test (SMAART) test, known as SALVA!, the world’s first ever saliva-based rapid diagnostic test for malaria. The foundation grant will prove instrumental in the final…

Vodacom invests over USD 150,000 to empower aspiring youth in Tanzania

Kuda, formerly known as Kudimoney, has raised  $1.6 million in pre-seed funding. The funding was led by investor Haresh Aswani along with Ragnar Meitern and other angel investors. Based on the investment, Aswani will take a position on Kuda’s board. The digital-only retail bank plans to use its seed funds to go from beta…

The new Apple iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max feature a triple-camera system, a marked difference from last year’s iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max which have only two rear cameras. It is also the same difference with the iPhone 11. The new phones were unveiled at the…

Apple unveiled the latest in the watch series – the Apple Watch Series 5 – at an Apple event in Cupertino today. Three key features of the new Apple Watch Series 5 include the following: an Always-On Retina Display – This means the phone never sleeps. So it’s easy to…

Apple introduced the new iPhone 11 with a powerful dual-camera system, offering an intuitive camera experience with the highest quality video in a smartphone and Night mode for photos.  The 6.1″ Apple iPhone 11 sports an all-screen Liquid Retina HD display (1792‑by‑828‑pixel resolution at 326 ppi). It measures 150.9mm (H)…

Uber is set to introduce a new transportation option – UberBus – for customers in Lagos, the most populous city in Africa. This was confirmed by Uber’s general manager for sub-Saharan Africa Alon Lits in a discussion with Quartz Africa at the recently concluded World Economic Forum in South Africa. This…

Reach Robotics, makers of the MekaMon robot, is shutting down, at least in its current form – in the consumer Robotics business. This announcement was made by the Nigerian CEO and co-founder, Silas Adekunle on his LinkedIn page. He however said the company will continue in the Non consumer Robotics…

A Nigerian, Joel Kachi Benson, has won The Lion Award for Best VR Story at the 2019 Venice Film Festival for his Virtual Reality documentary “Daughters of Chibok.” Joel Kachi Benson is the founder and Creative Director of JB Multimedia Studios based in Lagos, an independent production company committed to creating,…

DappRadar, a global platform for discovering and analysing blockchain-based decentralised applications (“dapps”), announced that it has raised $2.33 million in seed funding. Naspers, through its Naspers Ventures division led $2.33m fundraise along with Blockchain.com Ventures and Angel Invest Berlin. DappRadar says it will use the investment primarily for R&D, developing…

ABAN, the largest network of Angel Investors in Africa and AfriLabs, the largest pan-African network of technology and innovation centers, are proud to introduce Catalyst, an initiative to support the African start-up ecosystem and deliver real, measurable impact to stakeholders. Catalyst is a cross-stakeholder initiative that aims to increase the pool…