Author: Staff Writer

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has awarded a total of $4 million to eight startups that are revolutionizing household solar power across Africa through the Scaling Off-Grid Energy: Grand Challenge for Development. The announcement was made by Power Africa Coordinator Andrew M. Herscowitz at the 22nd session of the UN Climate…

Social entrepreneurs are individuals whose innovative solutions help solve society’s most pressing social challenges. They draw on business techniques to find solutions to the everyday challenges that confront us in society but unlike regular entrepreneurs their primary aim is to create impact and improve lives, not to make profit. However,…

I remember there was a time when Nigeria (in 2009) passed a law that all commercial motorcyclists and passengers on bikes must wear helmets. It was a major issue for the passengers of commercial bike riders in Nigeria (okadas) as they didn’t want contract any hair infectious diseases. And the commercial…

Jaguar has unveiled its first all-electric sports car – the Jaguar I-Pace concept. The SUV was introduced at the Los Angeles Auto Show this week. It is thought that this will put Jaguar in direct competition with Tesla, particularly with the Model X. The I-Pace runs off a liquid-cooled 90kWh lithium…

Jumia Travel Nigeria has celebrated its 3rd year of doing business in the country and also marked the second edition of its awards ceremony at Intercontinental Hotel, Victoria Island today. A total of 28 Lagos hotels were awarded under five categories namely, Customer Choice, Best Partner Hotel, Best Hotel Partner,…

MedTrucks, Nanoé, MaTontine have won in the 2016 Orange Social Venture Prize or Africa and the Middle East. The announcement was made by Bruno Mettling, CEO of Orange MEA during the AfricaCom Awards ceremony held in Cape Town, South Africa, last night. The Orange Social Venture prize aims to encourage start-ups in Africa and Middle…

Agric-tech startup, WeFarm has secured £1.3m in seed funding. The peer-to-peer agtech network that enables small-scale farmers to access and share vital agricultural information even without internet, has also reached over 100,000 users. The round is led by LocalGlobe, a UK-based venture capital firm focused on seed investing, whose other investments…

Celebrating four years of technology innovation, Infinix Mobility Nigeria launched two new smartphones yesterday at a press briefing held in Lagos – “the Infinix Zero 4” and “Infinix Zero 4 Plus”. Speaking about the flagship launch and celebrating 4 years of existence, Regional country manager, Bruno Li described his excitement…

Messaging pioneer Jongla today announced that the company has secured €5 million in a Series B investment round. This makes a total of €12 million that it has secured to date. Investors in this new round include Arto Boman, Henry Sjöman, Matti Kallio, Gustav Nyberg, Kristian Pentti, Circlion Capital Oy, Kontino Invest Oy,…

Cactus Capital, the investment arm of Cactus Advisors, announced that it has invested undisclosed amounts into two new African ventures – Flutterwave and E-Factor. The announcement was made by Cactus Advisors’ founder and CEO, Zach George at the Allan Gray Orbis E2 Accelerator program at Standard Bank Future Labs in Cape Town. He said…

The Bosch Power Box (BPB) in Nigeria will increase the success it has already established in Sokoban Wood Village, Kumasi Ghana, launched in 2016. German -based multinational, Bosch Group, is set to bring the BPB concept to African artisans, the informal sector, often the driving force of African economies. This…

Safaricom’s taxi hailing service, Little, is coming to Nigeria in 2017. This announcement was made by Kamal Budhabhatti, CEO, Craft Silicon, speaking at a Fireside Chat at CIO 100 on Thursday evening. “We are now only operating in Kenya but we are launching in Uganda soon. Safaricom is a good partner…

Kirusa, a global leader in providing mobile and social media solutions, today announced that its InstaVoice service has reached the remarkable landmark of 100 million monthly active users. InstaVoice is highly popular amongst the mobile subscriber base in Africa. Nigeria tops the list of most number of users for this…

AppsAfrica.com has announced the winners in the AppsAfrica Innovation Awards 2016. The announcement was made at a pan-African mobile and tech awards party in Cape Town, South Africa last night. This year the awards attracted over 200 entries from 25 countries, with the winners on the night hailing from South Africa, Nigeria,…

Naspers’ Property24.com has acquired its competitor, Private Property. According to iOL, Naspers’ investment relations officer, Meloy Horn, confirmed the deal last Friday. “Property 24 has reached an agreement to acquire Private Property, subject to approvals. Due to confidentiality agreements, details of the transaction will only be disclosed once the deal closes,”…

Serial entrepreneur and digital expert, Onyeka Akumah has launched a new platform in the agricultural space. It is Farmcrowdy Farmcrowdy is Nigeria’s first digital agriculture platform which offers Nigerians a new way to participate in Agriculture using their online technology. In a recent press release, it was stated that Nigerians around…

If there is one innovation that has disrupted the world of telecoms, it is Jan Koum’s Whatsapp. The Ukrainian-American internet inventor and computer programmer has been making telcos all over the world, sleepless nights. Imagine chatting freely on whatsapp! This has assisted or influenced businesses all over the world especially…

The Platform Nigeria is organising a “Young Professionals Bootcamp” – a 5 day in residence program for high potential 20-25 year olds to learn world class practical training for success in the marketplace. The program has been streamlined into 5 key sectors: Entrepreneurship Public Sector/Social Entrepreneur Creative Industry Corporate/career Politics/Governance Speakers include:…

Samsung has announced that it is acquiring auto and audio products maker, Harman for $112.00 per share in cash, or total equity value of approximately $8.0 billion. HARMAN is the market leader in connected car solutions, with more than 30 million vehicles currently equipped with its connected car and audio systems, including…

Obinnia Abajue has been appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of Hygeia HMO Limited. The Board of Directors announced that this takes effect from 1st November, 2016. Max Coppoolse, Chairman of the Board of Directors, stated that the Board of Directors is delighted that Obinnia will oversee the entire activities of…