Author: Staff Writer

Dick Costolo has stepped down as the CEO of Twitter. The company has announced that Co-founder, Chairman and Square CEO, Jack Dorsey, will take over as the interim CEO while a permanent CEO is being sought. Dick effective date is July 1 but he will still be on the Board…

Funds managed by Blackstone and Black Rhino today announced that His Highness Emir Muhammad Sanusi II will join Black Rhino’s Board of Directors as Chairman. Black Rhino was formed in January 2012 to develop and to invest in transformational infrastructure projects in Sub-Saharan Africa’s power generation and fuel transportation sectors. “One…

According to Forbes latest list of highest paid athletes, Floyd Mayweather is the numero uno. This is the third time in four years that the 38 year old boxer a.k.a “Money” is taking the title. His $300 million earnings in the last 12 months is primarily made up of his…

Popular music streaming site has now reached more than 20 million subscribers and more than 75 million active users. At the end of May 2014, the Daniel Ek-led company had 10 million paying subscribers and 40 million active users. According to Spotify, this is good for the ecosystem – for…

Popular music streaming service, Spotify, is receiving  $115 million from Sweden’s TeliaSonera for 1.4% stake. With this investment as part of its latest funding round where  Spotify raised more than $500million, the value of the company is now about $8.53bn. This investment is part of TeliaSonera bid to join forces…

In line with its commitment to provide exceptional mobile Internet experience for Nigerians, leading telecommunications service provider, Airtel Nigeria, has launched ultra-high speed Wi-Fi service to enhance customer data experience in Lagos. With this development, residents and visitors to Lagos will have access to super-fast internet in public places and…

Nailab has announced that one of its season 1 startups, Wezatele, has been acquired by AFB, a financial services company that specializes in providing credit products to consumers in Africa. The acquisition, which is said to be estimated to be over $1million (Ksh 100million) is one of the largest acquisitions of a…

Paymill, the online payment solution and one of the fastest growing FinTech-Startups in Europe, is teaming up with PayPal. With this partnership Paymill is completing the range of payment methods offered by its online payment solution, which now covers nearly 100% of payments in most European countries. This allows online…

The telcos are vigorously trying to attract the youths with products and services targetted to this market. Airtel has the Airtel Trybe; Glo has #Generation G while Etisalat has Easy Cliq. If you are to choose any of the products based on the videos produced to promote them, which one…

As part of its Cliqlite product offering, Etisalat Nigeria will be premiering a new TV reality program “Kids Say the Darndest Things”. “Kids Say the Darndest Things” is a successful American reality based television show originally hosted by Bill Cosby which features children as the main stars of the show.…

parent company of the Ecobank Group, the leading pan-African bank with operations in 36 countries across the continent, is pleased to announce the appointment of Ade Ayeyemi as its new Group Chief Executive Officer. His appointment is effective from 1 September 2015. Mr Ayeyemi, 52, will replace Albert Essien, who…

Innovation Africa 2015, Africa’s leading summit for education and innovation returns for its fifth year in 2015 and will take place in Kampala, under the patronage of the Government of Uganda, hosted by Hon Jessica Alupo, Minister of Education & Sports. Innovation Africa is recognised as the leading high-level forum for education,…

Nigeria’s Dangote Cement has opened its sixth offshore cement plant in Ethiopia. This follows the other plants sited in Senegal, Cameroun, Ghana, South Africa, and Zambia. The cement company owned by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, commissioned the 2.5 million metric tonnes per annum (mmtpa) plant on Thursday 4th of June…

Millicom is to buy 85% of Zanzibar telecom (Zantel) from Etisalat. Millicom is buying Zantel for $1 and assuming debt obligations of $74 million. Zantel will also have up to $32 million in net current liabilities at the time of closing. Zantel is the leading mobile telecom operator on the islands of…

MasterCard has unveiled the two Nigerian children that would be mascots at the UEFA Champions League final holding in Berlin tomorrow. The chosen children – Abba Ahmed and Jordan Ubah – will walk through the tunnel and onto the pitch, escorting star players from FC Barcelona and Juventus. The player mascots…

Today, Facebook announced the launch of a version of Facebook that uses less data and works well across all network conditions. It is called Facebook Lite. This version is particularly targeted towards areas where networks are slow and not able to support all the functionality found in Facebook for Android.…

June 3, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick gave a special address to employees, driver partners and special guests reflecting on the past five years and looking ahead to the future. Uber is an American international transportation network company that operates the Uber mobile app, which allows consumers to submit a trip…

Diamond Bank Plc today announced its plans to issue MasterCard debit cards to millions of Diamond Y’ello account holders in a move that is expected to significantly expand financial inclusion and reduce cash-based transactions in Nigeria’s economy. The scheme, according to a statement made available to the press at the…

Pinterest has declared that it is entering the world of ecommerce with the launch of a “Buy” button on its app platform. What this means is that some of its 50 millions Pins (product images) would immediately form part of a huge product catalogue. According to Chao Wang, Engineering Manager…

MasterCard has become the first International Payments Network to enter into Somalia. This announcement was made at the World Economic forum today when the company announced its partnership with Premier Bank. With this partnership, Premier Bank will now issue and accept the first MasterCard-branded payment cards in Somalia. Somalia hasn’t…