Author: Staff Writer

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who served two terms as President of Liberia from 2006 to 2017, is the fifth recipient of the Ibrahim Prize, which recognises and celebrates excellence in African leadership. The Ibrahim Prize aims to distinguish leaders who, during their time in office, have developed their countries, strengthened democracy…

The Boston Dynamics Spot Mini is certainly getting cleverer by the day. A new video released by Boston Dynamics shows a redesigned Spot Mini that can open doors. The video shows a Spot Mini approaching a door and having to call on the new buddy with an electronic arm to…

The L’Atelier art competition is one of the longest-running and most prestigious visual arts competitions on the African continent. It was established in South Africa 33 years ago, but in recent years has been expanded to include a number of other African countries in order to reach more young artists…

Apple has announced the availability of Apple Music Student Membership plan in 82 countries this month. It is now available in 79 countries and three other countries will be added on the 26th of February. It was first launched in 2016 The Apple Music Student Membership plan offers eligible students a…

Startup.Info has announced the winners of the “Startup of the Year 2018 competition” following an awards ceremony which took place in Casablanca at the end of last month. Following the success of the first edition of “Startup of the year Africa”, the collaborative startup magazine Startup.Info has reiterated its commitment to…

Just some weeks after rolling out its online classifieds service, Facebook Marketplace,  in South Africa, Facebook says it will be rolling out this service in three new African countries in the coming weeks. They are North African countries – Egypt, Algeria and Morocco. Facebook Marketplace is a platform where people buy and…

Endeavor has opened a new office in Lagos, Nigeria, making its the 31st location globally and 5th in Africa. Launching with support from local business leaders and a partnership with Omidyar Network, Endeavor Nigeria will support  entrepreneurs and companies that have passed through the initial start-up phase and who demonstrate the potential…

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…