The Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (HiiL) will later this month host the first annual HiiL African Justice Innovation Symposium, bringing together key stakeholders from the worlds of law, activism, technology and business to discuss the existing innovations in justice delivery and the opportunities and challenges that present themselves in the world today. The symposium,…
Cameroonian startup Agrix Tech has developed a mobile app that helps farmers to prevent and treat crop diseases utilising machine learning technologies. Founded in August 2018, Agrix Tech is using mobile and machine learning technologies to overcome vital agricultural challenges on the continent. “Most of the small-scale farmers in developing countries are self-taught farmers who lack proper…
What Are Standard Operating Procedures? Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) is a detailed and systemized instruction that is expressed in a step-by-step sequence on how the roles of employees should be carried out. A standard operating procedure is usually created by the employer in order to create a company culture that transcends individual differences in carrying out…
WhatsApp has started rolling out its anticipated multi-device support for a large number of users on both Android and iOS to let them use their account on secondary devices, without requiring their phones to be connected to the Internet. Users can leverage the new feature to connect WhatsApp on up to four devices simultaneously to…
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has officially declared that the auction of the 3.5 Gigahertz (3.5 GHz) spectrum for the deployment of Fifth Generation (5G) technology in Nigeria, will take place on December 13, 2021. According to the Information Memorandum (IM) presented by the Commission at a stakeholder engagement forum organised on 5G spectrum in…
MTN Nigeria and Airtel Africa Plc have secured approval in principle to operate a Payment Service Bank (PSB) in the country. The two leading telcos made this known in regulatory filings on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) on Friday, November 5. Techeconomy.ng understands that the PSB operators provide financial services through digital means to low-income earners…
Approximately 6 million people in the US workforce have quit their jobs after making more money from cryptocurrency investments than from their low-income jobs, according to a new survey by intelligence firm Civic Science. Civic Science surveyed over 17,000 respondents across the country for a period of seven months, starting from April 20, 2021 to…
Some Twitter users on iOS are starting to get access to a feature that makes it easy to search an individual user’s tweets. For those with access, when you navigate to a user’s profile, you’ll see a search icon in the top right corner of the screen on the user’s profile banner, next to the…
A former upstart Instagram rival is suing Meta, formerly known as Facebook, over allegations that the company violated antitrust laws by cloning a competing product and ultimately killing its business. The app, Phhhoto, launched in 2014, inviting users to create and share short GIF-like videos. If that sounds familiar, that’s because the same functionality was popularized in Boomerang,…
This week, the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) got underway in Glasgow, turning the world’s attention to the global climate crisis and the solutions needed to address this. But many solutions already exist… in Africa. “Whilst we are delighted that nearly 500 global financial firms have agreed to align $130 trillion – 40%…
In the afternoon of October 20th, 2021, the opening session of the 10th Meeting of China-Africa Think Tanks Forum was held in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. As a companion warm-up event for the upcoming session of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Senegal, this Forum brought together more than 200 political, academic, media and business representatives…
WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, and other Facebook apps have started showing the company’s new ‘Meta’ branding on both Android and iOS devices. The update comes a week after Facebook announced that it is changing its company’s name to Meta. The renaming is aimed at going beyond traditional social media and better reflecting the company’s ongoing investment…
Facebook, the social media platform owned by Meta, removed a post on the page of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed for allegedly violating its policies against inciting violence. The post in question, uploaded to Facebook on Sunday, asked citizens of Ethiopia and of its capital city of Addis Ababa to use ‘any type of weapon’ to…
Amazon.com is seeking approval from US communications regulators to deploy more than 4,500 additional satellites as part of the company’s effort to deliver broadband Internet to areas around the world that lack high-speed service. Amazon had said previously it planned to spend at least $10 billion to build 3,236 such satellites through its Project Kuiper programme. Late on Thursday…
More fuel for social audio: Berlin-based social audio startup Beams, which is building a platform for sharing and consuming short-form audio recordings — as a sort of bite-sized/deconstructed and/or collaborative podcast format which it bills as “audio-based social media” — has doubled its seed funding, adding another $3 million to close out the round at $6M….
Bicycle community delivery platform Errand360, which was built to serve users with demand for quick and short errands within their communities and on-demand delivery services, has raised an undisclosed amount of pre-seed funding to expand across Africa. Launched earlier this year, Errand360 bicycles serve users with a variety of delivery services, with the first phase of rollout…
The company formerly known as Facebook has been discussing the possibility of opening retail stores way before it rebranded itself as Meta, according to The New York Times. Apparently, discussions about opening brick-and-mortar shops started last year, though nothing has been finalized, and the project could still end up being scrapped. If Meta does open physical outlets, however,…
Egyptian e-health startup Bypa-ss has raised a US$1 million pre-seed funding round to further improve its platform and accelerate its expansion plans. Founded in 2019 by Andrew Saad, Bypa-ss has developed an end-to-end health information exchange (HIE) platform called HealthTag where healthcare professionals and patients are able to securely access medical records stored in a cloud-based database. Having originated…
Access to affordable, reliable and environmentally sustainable sources of electricity is a pressing issue for the growing number of Data Centre operators across Africa. These facilities need to ensure a high availability of power to mitigate downtime, but many African countries face frequent power outages. Existing Data Centres have relied on diesel-fuelled generators to sustain operations…
Kenyan startup BasiGo, an electric vehicle technology and financing company working to bring electric bus services to Sub-Saharan Africa, has launched operations in Nairobi having secured KES100 million (US$900,000) in funding earlier this year. BasiGo provides state-of-the-art electric buses along with charging and maintenance services for bus operators, making these vehicles affordable through a financing model…
Revital Healthcare (EPZ) Limited, a Kenyan medical supply manufacturer, has received nearly $4 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to expand production of auto-disable vaccine syringes. This funding will enable Revital to increase syringe production volume from approximately 72 million to nearly 265 million annually towards the end of 2022, enough to cover more than…
New Google Ads scam is stealing crypto wallets, a new research from Check Point Research (CPR) warns. The new scam has enabled wrongdoers to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth cryptocurrency in the past weekend. According to the report, scammers are placing ads at the top of Google Search that imitate popular wallet brands, such…
Today, Amazon Web Services (AWS), an Amazon.com, Inc. company, announced that the first operational solar project it has enabled in South Africa has begun contributing renewable energy to the electricity grid. Located in the Northern Cape, South Africa’s largest province, the 10 megawatts (MW) solar project will supply renewable energy to AWS data centres and…
Commercial banks in Nigeria shut down 234 branches and 649 Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) in 2020, according to reports from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The global financial body disclosed this in its Financial Access Survey 2021 Trends and Developments. According to details from the reports, the closure of banks and ATM service points across…
The AfCFTA Secretariat and its partners on the 4D, ProPer and Caravan Initiatives, AfroChampions and the Arab Bank for Economic Development (BADEA), have announced the winners of the AfCFTA Caravan Prize. A key criterion for the selection of the finalists and semi-finalists is for an organisation and its founders to conceive and implement models, concepts,…
South African startup Michanic is connecting customers and fleet owners with trusted, qualified and vetted mechanics in Gauteng and Cape Town. Formed in 2016, Michanic allows users to request instant service and repair quotes from its online platform, saving up to 35 per cent compared to dealerships and independent garages in the process. The startup was founded…
The ??current leadership of Nigeria’s Digital Economy sector has continued to attract global attention as foreign investors seek partnerships with the Federal Government in that regard. The People’s Republic of China on Thursday, 4th November 2021, expressed interest in long term partnerships and collaborations with the Nigerian Digital Economy sector. This position was made known…
Africa’s telecommunication giant, MTN, has announced its plan to sell 101 billion naira ($244 million) worth of shares in its Nigerian carrier unit as it continues to dispose of its assets to pay off existing debts. According to a statement released by the mobile-network operator on Thursday, it will issue 575 million shares in MTN…
Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen welcomed Facebook’s announcement that it would scrap facial recognition, but urged close government oversight of the move to ensure the social network lived up to its pledge. Facebook made the announcement on Tuesday, partly in response to growing scrutiny from regulators and legislators over user safety and abuses on its platforms. Activists…
There are many uncertainties in business and the more a business begins to grow, the more there is an increase in the number of uncertainties, which could be expanding to a new geographical location, promoting team members to handle more challenging task, engaging in the production of a new line of products or seeking partnerships…