Starting November 20, 2025, you will use a new digital arrival card to enter China. This change ends the use of the old paper form that travellers used to fill out on the plane. The digital arrival card is part of a larger plan to make travelling to and through…
Author: Smart Megwai
Smart Megwai
Smart is a technology journalist covering innovation, digital culture, and the business of emerging tech. His reporting for Innovation Village explores how technology shapes everyday life in Africa and beyond.
The new data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) looks like a simple “number go up” story. Active telephone subscriptions climbed to 173.54 million in September. Broadband penetration hit a new record of 49.34%. Teledensity, which is the number of active lines per 100 people, also ticked up to 80.05%.…
The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) is taking a strong stand against deceptive practices in business. Their enforcement team, led by Mrs. Boladale Adeyinka, has shut down five large textile warehouses in Kano. These closures are not due to cleanliness or tax issues, but because of scams involving…
Recall that just last week, a new economic report from a think tank called Quartus Economics made a bold suggestion: our cash system is broken, and the CBN should fix it by introducing N10,000 and N20,000 notes. The response from the people who actually run the businesses and employ the…
Prince Nnamdi Ekeh, the Group CEO of Konga, was just honoured in London at the House of Lords. And not with one, but two massive awards on the same night: the Forbes Best of Africa E-commerce Leadership Award and the Distinguished Euro Knowledge Award for Emerging Leadership. It’s a huge…
Stallion Group has unveiled four new vehicles from its MG range, and it’s not just another launch. This is a four-pronged attack on every single segment of the Nigerian auto market. And the star of the show, the one that everyone is talking about, is a car that seems custom-built…
Starting tomorrow, Nigeria’s top online shopping sites will begin a month-long shopping event called Black Friday. Here’s what to expect: However, many Nigerians have a big concern: “Am I going to get scammed?” We’ve all seen it happen. A tempting 60% discount on a TV that just had its price…
If you’re a fintech founder in Nigeria, to whom do you answer? Is it the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which governs all things payments and banking? Is it the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that oversees digital investments and assets? Or is it the Data Protection Commission (NDPC), or…
The new Postmaster General of NIPOST, Engr. Tola Odeyemi has apparently been reading her social media mentions. She just announced the launch of the agency’s Digital Payment Solution for Inbound Postal Items, a significant plan that is built with some of Nigeria’s biggest tech names. But the real headline isn’t…
When was the last time a N1,000 note felt valuable? Think about the physical reality of money in Nigeria today. To buy a tank of fuel or a week’s groceries, you need a stack of N1,000 notes. A new economic review by Quartus Economics, first highlighted in a report by…
Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja has officially ordered eight central commercial banks to unfreeze 13 bank accounts, including some linked to the FCT Investment Promotion Agency and the United Nations Youth Global Foundation. This order brings to an end a two-year saga for these account…
Moniepoint, a leading Nigerian financial platform, just built an AI-powered chatbot, ‘M,’ to make its deep data on the informal economy easy for anyone to understand. This isn’t just a product launch. It’s a profound shift in how we understand the sector that, as it turns out, is the nation’s…
Google just announced $2.85 million (that’s R49 million) in funding for South Africa. The announcement was made at the AI Expo Africa in Sandton, the perfect backdrop for this kind of news. But let’s be real. This isn’t just a simple donation. This is a highly strategic, two-pronged ecosystem build,…
OpenAI is giving away its ChatGPT Go plan for free for a whole year to every single new and existing user in India. But the real story, the one that’s way more interesting, is why. This isn’t about generosity. It’s a direct, calculated, and frankly brilliant counter-attack. First, you have…
It started with a post on a dark corner of the internet, on a Telegram channel. A hacker group calling itself “Kazu” makes a horrifying claim. You can see it in a screenshot they posted. They claim to have hit M-Tiba and stolen 2.15 terabytes of data. They say it’s…
You know, at first glance, this looks like another big government training program. 10,000 people… oil and gas… But when you dig into why this is happening and how they chose the skills, you realise this isn’t a “nice-to-have” initiative. It’s a data-driven, almost military-style response to a massive economic…
You just saw the N179 billion price tag. That’s the massive cheque Access Holdings is writing to buy the National Bank of Kenya (NBK). But this isn’t a simple, straightforward purchase. When you look closer, this deal is a fascinating, high-stakes chess game. The real story isn’t just the price;…
You’ve got to love a comeback story. South Africa is officially dusting off the blueprints for a project that was once its national “moonshot,” a piece of technology so advanced that it was leading the world. Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa just announced that the government plans to lift the “care…
You know, for most of us, the idea of “upgrading” a phone is about getting a better camera or a faster processor. We debate whether the new iPhone is worth it. But there’s an entirely different conversation happening right now, and it’s not about luxury—it’s about a lifeline. It’s about…
There’s a war happening right now, but it’s not being fought with guns. It’s a war of ones and zeros, fought across continents from a keyboard. And the big news? The good guys just landed a massive blow. INTERPOL and AFRIPOL just wrapped up a two-month-long sweep called “Operation Catalyst.”…