Author: Staff Writer

Google has just released its 2016 most searched words. The 2016 “Year in Search” previously known as Google Zeitgeist, provides a snapshot of the trends that captured the global community’s interest during the year. As can be imagined, Pokémon Go, iPhone 7, Donald Trump topped this list this year. Google also…

Amazon’s Video on Demand (VOD) service, Prime Video, has launched in over 200 countries globally including Nigeria. Customers can sign up for a Prime Video membership at PrimeVideo.com and watch on Android and iOS phones and tablets, Fire Tablets and popular LG and Samsung smart TVs. Amazon Prime members in…

Liquid Telecom, a subsidiary of Econet Wireless Group, has extended its footprint into Tanzania with the acquisition of a majority stake in Raha, Tanzania’s leading Internet Service Provider. Established seventeen years ago, Raha today serves over 1500 businesses as well as a growing number of retail customers with a range of…

For inventors, entrepreneurs and engineers seeking to create prototypes, 3-D printing is a dream come true. Building prototypes can now be done more easily, more quickly and less expensively than ever before using 3-D printing technology. For instance, Amazon is using a cutting-edge facility in Cambridge to 3-D print rapid prototypes…

Following the remarkable 2016 Black Friday campaign that beat all-times sales record of + 30% gross bookings a day, Jumia Travel is back in the deals business with a new campaign dubbed “Travel Wednesday” running every Wednesday on the company’s official website. The promotions, also called “Dream Deals” consist of…

Slack has just launched a video calling feature to make communication among team members more exciting. It is not just one-to-one but also group video calling. Slack added voice calling early this year and it has seen a huge uptake. So it is expecting that this new video calling feature will help…

Ringier Africa Digital Publishing, Ringier Africa’s new media publisher, is expanding its news & media portfolio with the digital launch of Men’s Health and Women’s Health in Nigeria and Ghana. The Sub-Saharan Africa content partnership with the leading global fitness publishing brands will commence in December 2016. The expansion of…

Bill Gates has announced the launch of a $1 billion fund, Breakthrough Energy Ventures to invest in clean energy. This fund will invest in scientific breakthroughs that have the potential to deliver cheap and reliable clean energy to the world. In a new post on his personal blog “a new model…

We decided to look at the top celebrities in Nigeria that are followed on Social Media. We considered three main social media platforms for this purpose – Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. We then summed up the followers on the three platforms to come up with the list. So here are…

Finnish-Kenyan online career and recruitment platform, Fuzu, has raised 1.75 million EUR for expansion in Africa and Asia. With this injection of new funds from Finnfund, Barona and Polkuni, Fuzu intends to commence expansion in the African and Asian markets. The total funding raised for the expansion in Africa and Asia…

From the recent happenings, it would seem that Ringier One Africa Media (ROAM) is strategically re-organising its portfolio in Africa. The International media group Ringier joined forces with One Africa Media in May 2016 to bring all their African Classifieds assets under one roof – Ringier One Africa Media. Now that…

Two freelance writers and startup enthusiasts, Kelechi Udoagwu and Tolu Agunbiade, have come together to create an online platform – Skrife – that creates quality written content. Though Skrife was founded in December 2015 and has been in private beta for several months, it is now officially launching to the public. The founders of Skrife…

Novartis is partnering with the Kaduna State Ministry of Health and Vodacom to implement the first ever SMS for Life 2.0 program in Nigeria. The program aims to increase the availability of essential medicines and improve care for patients across the region by using simple, available, and affordable technology. SMS…

Japanese food giant Ajinomoto buys 33% stake in Promasidor for $532 million. This is its latest towards becoming a top-10 global food company. Ajinomoto Co., Inc. is a Japanese food and chemical corporation which produces seasonings, cooking oils, TV dinners, sweeteners, amino acids, and pharmaceuticals. In particular it is the world’s…

Iyinoluwa Aboyeji’s Flutterwave and five other fintech companies have been selected as the first members of the FIS HiPo (short for “high potential”) Network. The FIS HiPo Network is a collection of firms that have demonstrated substantial promise in the development of new tools and technologies that deliver purposeful innovation for our…

According to YouTube, “Mobile proved to be a key platform for viewers again this year. In fact, across the five Super Bowl ads on our Year-End Leaderboard, 81 percent of watch time came from mobile devices, with over 205 million combined mobile views.” Here are the top 10 ads on…

We are getting close to the end of 2016 and as is the tradition, YouTube has come up with the top ten of everything on YouTube – videos, ads Here are the top 10 music videos for 2016. In music, Fifth Harmony was numero uno with the year’s top music video…

Econet Wireless Zimbabwe has launched a new EcoCash wallet called Ecocash Rand Wallet. This is a wallet that allows customers to cash in, cash out, send money and conduct other basic financial transactions using the South African Rands. According to the General Manager of Ecocash, Natalie Jabangwe-Morris, the need for this…

BMCE Bank of Africa announced the winners of the second edition of the African Entrepreneurship Award, which allocates annually $1 million. The award ceremony, chaired by President Othman Benjelloun, was held on Monday December 5th to compensate the most significant and sustainable businesses in the award’s three categories: education, environment and uncharted.…

Africa’s foremost financial institution, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, has partnered the British Council, the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities, to sponsor the installation of the Wind Sculpture VI by renowned British-Nigerian artist, Yinka Shonibare MBE in Ndubuisi Kanu Park, Ikeja, Lagos. The installation of the Wind…