Author: Paul Adepoju

Developing Mauritania’s significant renewable energy resources will allow the country to grow its local economy and improve access to energy, according to a report released today by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), in association with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The Mauritania Renewables Readiness Assessment finds that development…

Total has announced it is offering free Wi-Fi access at its service stations in South Africa. According to the energy company, its customers can now check email messages as well as perform other internet-based actions of their device’s via the to the free Wi-Fi service. The service is being offered…

Telecoms company Safaricom through the Safaricom Foundation has established a Kshs 50 million Technology for Good Innovation Fund which would grow social innovation locally. The fund is aimed at investors in the social innovation field who may need technical and entrepreneurship support to develop and deploy mobile technology solutions. The…

Omenuwoma Okson Dovie, an Abuja-based musician popularly referred to as Baba 2010 is asking MTN Nigeria to pay him N500 million as compensation for the network’s unauthorized and derogatory usage of his four songs “Gentleman “Ometena”, “Twisted” and “Unity Song.” According to Dovie, MTN turned the four songs into caller…

Samsung Electronics West Africa recently announced the launch of a new brand theme, Dream Your Dream, which seeks to nurture the aspiration of young Nigerians who have great dreams with the potential to impact the country positively. Speaking on the new theme and forthcoming campaign, Managing Director, Samsung Electronics West…

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is inviting applications that address specific challenges defined in the grant programs. The Foundation’s Grand Challenges Explorations is seeking innovative global health and development solutions and is now accepting proposals for its latest application round. Applicants can be at any experience level; in any…

Today, Orange is launching Africa’s first mobile crowdfunding platform in Côte d’Ivoire, it is called Orange Collecte. With this platform, private individuals and charities can finance their personal (weddings, birthdays, etc.) and charitable projects (fundraising, events, projects, etc.) by making an appeal through their mobile network. This novel solution is…

Startups and SMEs in Nigeria can access a $6 million fund arranged by the Bank of Industry (BoI) as investment commitment. The BoI said the money could be accessed through the Venture Capital Fund being raised by Grow Africa Equity Partners Limited. Disrupt Africa reported that the Venture Capital Fund…

Aflix which launched its Hollywood movie steaming service in Africa has rebranded to SmartVOD even as it strives to become Africa’s preferred OTT Hollywood premium service. Earlier branded as Aflix by SmartVOD, the service promised to offer over 2,000 hours of premium content at just $9.99 per month, with new…

The startup innovation arms of Singtel (Singtel Innov8), Orange (Orange Fab), Deutsche Telekom (hub:raum) and Telefónica (Telefónica Open Future) have partnered to select and invest startups in Africa and elsewhere, helping them grow and expand to other markets. Expected to help them launch them beyond their respective home markets, the…

Airtel has announced it is considering exiting the Kenyan market as a result of the failure of the regulator, the Communications Authority, to act on Safaricom’s market control. “Airtel is likely to exit Kenya if the market structure is not addressed in terms of dominance,” chief executive Adil El Youssefi…

FreeConferenceCall.com has just launched free conference calling services in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa. FreeConferenceCall.com is already the 5th largest audio conferencing company by voice minute volume globally and will now serve customers across Africa. The world’s largest free conference calling service in a statement made available to Innovation Village…

Cataleya, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Epsilon Global Communications group, has been selected by Liberia Telecommunication Corporation (Libtelco), Liberia’s national operator and sole licensed fixed-line communications provider, to deliver a turnkey solution for interconnection, billing, and session and application management. The foundation for the solution will be Cataleya’s Orchid…

In today’s crowded and competitive business environment, startups across the world are seeking global opportunities that will rapidly scale their business. To address this need, MasterCard today announced the launch of Start Path Global – a unique six-month partnership programme for startups that extends Start Path’s existing footprint to a…

The Co-Creation Hub is officially launching TechSQUAD this week. TechSquad is a platform which connects Nigerian organisations that operate without a dedicated technical team to vetted local technologists to work on their digital technology projects. TechSquad provides organisations with access to pre-qualified Project Managers as well as software developers and…

Following the down turn in the international price of crude oil and its effect on oil dependent economy like Nigeria, the Nigeria president, Muhammadu Buhari has reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to foster development of non-oil sectors and the speedy diversification of the country’s economy. Reacting to the president’s plan, experts…

ICT ministers in Africa have approved projects and programmes in communications and ICT of the African Union (AU) and frameworks for the harmonisation of policies and regulations in the continent presented by a special technical committee at the headquarters in Addis Ababa. The first-of-its-kind meeting was organised by the Department…

Airtel has said it has extended its operating hours to allow its subscribers that are yet to update their records as well as register their SIM cards in line with the directives of the Industry Regulator, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), to do so. The extension of operation hours affect all…

Telecoms giant Safaricom has said it does not plan to run a television station even though ithad applied for four broadcasting licences from the Communications Authority. In a gazette notice dated July 23, the CA disclosed that the giant telco had applied for commercial free-to-air, Internet protocol TV services, subscription…

Long Term Evolution (LTE) according to Nigeria’s largest network MTN is the key technology that will deepen broadband penetration in the country. The company also predicted that there would be a sharp rise in broadband penetration by 2017 with the rollout of LTE. Senior Manager, Transmission Access Planning Network Group…