The Islamic Corporation for the development of the Private Sector (ICD) (www.ICD-idb.org), the private arm of the Islamic Development Bank Group (IsDBG), on Thursday launched the “ICD Finnovation Award 2020”, to recognize, showcase and encourage financial institutions that provide an outstanding solution for the financial industry.The COVID-19 pandemic has created…
Author: Oluwasegun Olukotun
Apple on Wednesday announced it is starting a program to cut down its App Store commissions for software developers who make $1 million or less in proceeds each year from the store. According to its policy, the company takes a 30% cut of most purchases made on the App Store,…
Autochek, the automotive technology company that aims to build solutions for the African market, has raised $3.4 million in pre-seed funding round, co-led by TLcom Capital and 4DX Ventures with inclusion from Golden Palm Investments, Lateral Capital, Kepple Africa Ventures, MSA Capital, and some local angel/seed investors. The start-up will…
A scientist from Nottingham Trent University has developed a new antiviral face mask that can kill viruses including Covid-19 and Influenza upon contact. The masks could be available as early as December 2020 according to reports. In terms of its features, the new face mask has five layers in contrast…
Video conferencing service, Zoom, is rolling out new features that will enable users to remove and report “Zoombombers,” or intruders who break into meetings to disrupt them. The features which were launched on Monday are currently available on Zoom desktop clients for Mac, PC, Linux, and mobile apps. Users are…
Plentywaka, the first bus-hailing app in Nigeria, today announces the launch of WakaCab, a new car-hailing service with fully-trained drivers for commuters within Delta State starting with Asaba. In an ambitious move to tackle Southern Nigeria’s limited transport links, the transport startup has broken into the hotly-contested taxi-hailing space to…
Panasonic Corp has appointed Yuki Kusumi as the company’s next chief executive officer. Kusumi who was the former head of the company’s automotive business will now replace Kazuhiro Tsuga, the man credited for masterminding a partnership with Tesla Inc. Panasonic on Friday revealed that Kusumi will officially resume office in…
Google Photos has announced a change to its storage policy. The company says it will no longer offer unlimited free photo storage, a change that will impact storage for other Google products including email. Google’s photo storage commenced operations in 2015 with promises of unlimited uploads to users. Five years…
The Central Bank of Nigeria has launched the Private Sector-led Accelerated Agriculture Development Scheme (P-ADDS) to complement the Accelerated Agriculture Development Scheme (ADDS) engaging 370,000 youths in agricultural production. This is in line with its developmental mandate to continue to develop and introduce development finance programmes and schemes to expand…
Game publishing giant Ubisoft has rolled out its subscription service called Ubisoft Plus on Amazon’s game streaming platform called Luna. Ubisoft launched the service a couple of weeks ago. With a monthly subscription of $15, game lovers will be allowed access to an extensive assortment of Ubisoft’s games and can…
The Nigerian Communication Commission has reported an increase in the total number of subscribers to the Global System of Mobile Communications GSM) in the country. The numbers hit 204.87 million in September 2020, growing by 15 percent year-on-year. According to the latest monthly report by the commission, the four mobile…
The Corporate Affairs Commission has said it is ready to incorporate a new technology that will revamp the process of company registration in Nigeria in line with global best practices. According to the commission, applicants will be able to print their certificates with verifiable QR code from any location in…
FBNQuest Merchant Bank, New Hampshire Capital and Kairos Investments Africa have announced plans for a national meter asset finance and management SPV (“MAPCo”) that would attract long term financing for the mass roll-out of prepaid smart meters to millions of electricity consumers in Nigeria who currently are not metered by…
Nigerian Artificial Intelligence startup Airsmat has launched an Artificial Intelligence powered software platform to support farm owners and other corporate organizations. The platform will allow them to gain access to practical intelligence that will help push for efficiency in cost savings, boost their business operations, and improve their profitability. The…
Apple has announced that the iPhone 12 Mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max will be available to pre-order from tomorrow, barely a month after the smallest and largest of Apple’s new iPhones were announced. iPhone lovers can begin to pre-order the two iPhones from 13:00 GMT on November 6, before…
The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), the pan-African multilateral EXIM bank, partners with the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), the Trade Finance Arm of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group; and the Arab Bank For Economic Development in Africa (BADEA), to launch a US$1.5-billion Collaborative COVID-19 Pandemic Response Facility (“COPREFA”)…
TikTok has entered into a licensing agreement with Sony that will allow songs from thousands of Sony artists to become available on the Chinese video-sharing platform. The agreement will allow TikTok users to access sound clips from Sony Music Entertainment’s catalog of artists for use in their videos. The company’s…
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Monday announced it has given its nod of approval to two mobile network operators (MNOs), MTN Nigeria and 9Mobile, to carry out a trial on the workability of embedded Subscriber Identification Modules (e-SIM) Service in Nigeria. NCC also noted that the trial will span one…
Popular messaging app, Whatsapp has revealed it is launching a feature that allows users to send self-destructing messages that vanish after seven days. WABetaInfo teased users with the feature in November last year and now WhatsApp has confirmed it in a new FAQ WhatsApp explained: “You can send messages that…
Microsoft has revealed that Microsoft Teams now has 115 million daily active users. A surge attributed to the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella made the revelation today during an earnings call with investors. Nadella said, “Teams now has more than 115 million daily active users,” adding:…