Author: Smart Megwai

Intrinsic, owned by Alphabet – Google’s Parent company, has purchased multiple divisions of Open Robotics, the creator of the popular robotics software packages Gazebo and Robotic Operating System (ROS). This is few months after it completed the acquisition of Vicarious, a robotic software startup. In particular, Intrinsic is acquiring Open…

KoBold Metals, a US-based start-up backed by a coalition of billionaires, including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, has committed a sum of $150 million to developing the Mingomba copper-cobalt mine in Zambia. As part of the investment deal, KoBold agreed to pay $115m to the owners of the Lubambe Copper Mine, in which…

Billionaire Elon Musk has just completed the sale of another 22 million shares, which brought in a total of $3.58 billion (£2.9 billion), BBC reports. No news yet for the recent share sales, however, some regulatory documents with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission confirmed the shares were sold…

A new research has found that over 300,000 Android smartphones have been infected by recently discovered malware called ‘Schoolyard Bully,’ which steals Facebook login information such as email, phone number, password, ID, and name. The Schoolyard Bully Trojan, which sources claim has been active since 2018, comes in the form…

Instagram has released a slew of updates today aimed at streamlining users’ ability to stay in touch with their social circles. Among the many new features being introduced to the platform is one called Notes, which might potentially rival Twitter in popularity. Twitter Note is a new way to write…

Lagos State Government has announced it is actively working on a plan to digitise all land papers in the state. “When complete,” the state government stated, “interested persons in property acquisition or real estate transactions can access information on government portals relating to properties and land in Lagos State from…

Twitter’s CEO Elon Musk has announced the way his company verify users on the platform will be changed. He made this known in a reply to a tweet by Mike Solana, revealing that “we will remove all legacy blue checks. The way in which they were given out was corrupt…

The Federal Government through the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, yesterday issued a circular, sighted by PM News, to airline operators that pre-arrival or post-arrival testing for COVID-19 is no longer a requirement for international travellers. “COVID-19 Travel Testing: Pre-departure and Post-arrival COVID-19 PCR tests are no longer required for all…

Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and former of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was arrested by The Royal Bahamas Police Force following a report that the United States had filed criminal charges against him. According to a statement released today and cited by BNO and other news organisations, the Office of the Attorney General…

African startup, Chipper Cash, which specialises in cross-border payments, has had to lay off a significant number of employees. The layoff, though unannounced, was confirmed by one Erin Fusaro, who happens to be the company’s Vice president of Engineering, after she posted on LinkedIn the demise. Commenting on the layoff,…

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has released a new policy that caps weekly over-the-counter (OTC) cash withdrawals to N100,000 for corporate bodies and N100,000 for individuals. “Withdrawals above these limits shall attract processing fees of 5% and 10%, respectively,” via CBN. This announcement is contained in a circular sent…

The Nigerian Communication Commission, through its Computer Security Incident Response Team (NCC-CSIRT), have raised an alarm on the threat posed by a TikTok viral challenge called “Invisible Challenge”. The Commission’s Director of Public Affairs, Mr Reuben Muoka, said that hackers are using the challenge to spread an information-stealing malware known…

Airtel Africa Plc has secured a credit facility of $194 million from the International Finance Corporation, (IFC), a subsidiary of the World Bank. This follows a recent $125 million investment from CitiBank signed by Simon O’Hara, Group Company Secretary titled, ‘Airtel Africa’s First Sustainability-Linked Loan Facility. The new investment amongst…

After its debut on mobile devices in October 2021, Google announces it is bringing the continuous scroll feature to desktop Search results, as it hopes that users will be able to see more helpful search results with fewer clicks. The company tweeted this, via its @Google handle on Twitter yesterday,…

Spanish LaLiga, one of Europe’s most popular football leagues, has announced plans to implement Web3 technology into its competition. Starting 2023, the football institution says the new system, provided by Gol-Ball™, a third-party company, will use blockchain for tracking soccer balls that were used to score a goal. It will…

Facebook has begun testing new ways for users on its dating app, Facebook Dating, to verify their age is 18 or above. The company today made the announcement in a blog post, noting that the goal is to ensure that only adults are using the service, and to continue its…

Google has opened a new research and development centre solely for the purpose of making tech for people with disabilities. Named the Accessibility Discovery Centre, it is “a space where our engineers, researchers, product teams and partners can build new kinds of accessible technologies to remove more of the barriers that people with…

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) is notifying Nigerians, most especially startups in Nigeria, about a fraudulent website that is soliciting applications under the guise of the National Startup Investment Fund Programme. The website, which, as of this writing, is currently down, was disguised to collect sensitive information of…

The African Development Bank, in partnership with the Government of the Republic of Angola, has launched its collaborative ICT initiative RASME in Angola, after a three-day training session in Luanda, the country’s capital. RASME, which stands for Remote, Appraisal, Supervision, Monitoring and Evaluation, is a set of real-time digital data-gathering…

LinkedIn, owned by Microsoft, has started to roll out a new feature for users’ DMs, called Focused Inbox. Focused Inbox employs an AI relevance algorithm to separate incoming messages into two tabs, “Focused” and “Other”, so it’s easy for members of the professional network to sort and respond to the…