Author: Staff Writer

BitPesa, the first and largest blockchain payments platform for Africa and Europe, announced today their acquisition of TransferZero, an international, online money transfer platform that specializes in sending money to consumers and companies in 200 countries using over 50 different currencies. TransferZero, the first fintech company licensed by the Bank of…

Anike Lawal from Mamalette (Nigeria), Jacqueline Mutumba Nambooze, DigiHealth (Uganda) and James Steere, I-Drop Water  (South Africa) are part of the 15 man cohort participating the 21st edition of Blackbox Connect taking place from February 26-March 9 in Silicon Valley. Blackbox Connect consists of a two-week immersive residential experience at Fact0ry in San Francisco, offering the opportunity…

Nigerian based eCommerce firm, MallforAfrica has announced its expansion into eleven new markets on the continent. The app will now be available in Angola, Botswana, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Guinea, Malawi, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Uganda. “This is an exciting time for Mall for Africa as our…

Nike has revealed Nigeria’s Super Eagles collection to the upcoming 2018 Football World Cup taking place in Russia this summer. It is part of the 27 country collections released by Nike yesterday. Nike’s energetic collection for the Nigeria Football Federation is imbued with the “Naija” spirit In a press release,…

Foremost African financial institution, Guaranty Trust Bank plc, has launched the Dusty Manuscript Contest to give budding writers the opportunity to win publishing deals for their finished, but yet-to-be published, manuscripts. Organized in partnership with publishing houses Okadabooks and Farafina, the contest is part of the Bank’s YouREAD initiative which…

Fresh from divesting from its African assets, Konga.com and OLX in Sub-saharan Africa, Naspers has announced another investment in Indian based online food delivery service, Swiggy. This is, in addition to the $80 million investment in the same company in 2017. This time around, Chinese e-commerce company Meituan-Dianping participated in the…

Singapore Telecoms, (Singtel) has announced that it is spending $413 million (Rs 2,649 crore) on shares in India’s Bharti Telecom. This could increase Singtel’s stake in Bharti Telecom by up to 1.7 percentage points to 48.9% and its holding in Bharti Airtel, by up to 0.9 percentage points to 39.5 %. The…

Now is a great time to be an entrepreneur in Africa. There has been a recent boom in small businesses and start-ups, and there are lots of companies who are looking to help entrepreneurs grow. If you are an entrepreneur or a small business owner you may be wondering how to take your…

Celebrating Safer Internet Day (SID) under the connected theme of “Create, connect and share respect: A better internet starts with you”, Facebook today announced a number of partnerships across Africa with over 20 non-governmental organisations and government agencies – with the aim of raising awareness of emerging online issues and helping to explore ways to…

Naspers has shut down all its offices across Africa except for South Africa. Our sources said the staff across the offices were informed today and they have been given till the end of March 2018. Though the sites will still be available in these countries, they will be operated remotely.…

Today, Lloyds Banking Group in United Kingdom, has banned the use of its credit cards for the purchase of cryptocurrencies. Its credit cards include cards of Lloyds Bank, Bank of Scotland, Halifax and MBNA. The bank has joined other banks like Virgin Money, Citigroup, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase. According to…

Nigerian technology company, Zinox Technologies, has reportedly acquired eCommerce giant, Konga.  Financial and structural details are still sketchy as it is not known whether Leo Stan Ekeh’s Zinox bought out Kinnevik and Naspers. Both companies invested more funds into Konga last year and even Konga’s CEO Shola Adekoya said their…

Orange is launching an offer in Africa to provide access to educational content from the best international universities and training centres Orange and the CNED (National Distance Learning Centre) have announced a partnership to facilitate access to educational content on smartphones in Africa. The announcement was made during the Global Partnership for…

The Pew Research Center has collected data surrounding how much money flows in and out of countries the world over. In 2016, Nigeria received more than $5.6 billion in remittances from the United States alone. During the same period, Egypt received more than $850 million, Ghana received more than $580…

Innovation Village is giving away one (1) Nokia 3 smartphone. Launched in 2017, the Nokia 3 smartphone is a beautifully designed Android phone with all the essentials. Operating System: Android &.0 Nougat CPU MTK Quad-core 1.3Ghz 8 MP autofocus cameras, back and front LTE 4G connectivity 5” polarised HD Corning®…

Two US based investment firms, TPG Growth and Evolution Media, have acquired a majority stake in South African based entertainment company, . TPG Growth is the middle market and growth equity investment arm of private equity giant TPG while Evolution Media is the investment and advisory services firm created by Creative Artists Agency and TPG. “By partnering…

Taiwanese mobile phone manufacturer, Asus, has announced that it will launch the Zenfone 5 at the upcoming 2018 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. This was done via a tweet as shown below and it has also created a page for the countdown to the launch https://twitter.com/ASUS/status/958641073877929984 The press event is…

If you don’t want the usual uberX or UberSELECT options in Kenya, Uber has introduced another option called uberCHAPCHAP. Why uberCHAPCHAP you might ask? For one is cheaper for the customer. Check out the comparison in the three options According to an Uber spokesman in a statement, “With the launch of…

LifeBank, Nigeria’s digital blood bank, has raised $200 000 for expansion nationwide. Investors in this seed round include EchoVC Partners, a Lagos-based venture capital firm and Fola Laoye, an angel investor with over 20 years of experience in Nigeria’s healthcare industry. Co-Creation also participated in this funding round. Before this funding,…

In an update on its Advertising Policies page, Facebook has created a new policy that prohibits ads that promote financial products and services that are frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices, such as binary options, initial coin offerings and cryptocurrency. According to Rob Leathern, Facebook’s Product Management Director in a…