Bitcoin rose on Friday to its highest level since around mid-September, bolstered in part by seasonal factors as well as supportive comments overall from US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Thursday. In testimony to Congress, Powell said the Fed had no intention of banning cryptocurrencies, in response to a question from House Representative Ted Budd. Some…
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has postponed the launch of the eNaira — its digital currency — slated to launch on October 1, 2021. According to The Punch, the launch was postponed to prevent it from clashing with the lineup of events planned for the Independence Day celebration. In a statement attributed to the CBN’s Director of Communications,…
A Nigerian e-Commerce website developed by a startup, Oaklinks.NG has launched its range of services into the market on the month that the nation is celebrating its 61 years of independence with a promise to offer Nigerians top range of goods and services, particularly gadgets. In a statement issued today, October 1st, to launch the e-Commerce website, Mr….
The Internet Society Foundation has launched a new grant program to advance Internet access and connectivity around the world. Known as the BOLT program, these grants aim to support teams of creatives, technologists, researchers, and social/cultural workers to develop solutions to Internet connectivity, particularly among communities where current technologies are unavailable or inaccessible. US$200,000 grants will be awarded to…
High hopes for seamless intra-Africa trade under the terms of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) got a boost this week with the formal roll-out of a payments platform by the Africa Export-Import bank (Afreximbank), the continent’s trade finance institution. The platform is called the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System, or PAPSS, and was first launched…
Zimbabwe is cracking down on social media and mobile money platforms to root out alleged “illegal currency dealers” that the government blames for a plunge in the value of the country’s local unit of exchange. But economists and tech experts warn that this amounts to shooting the wrong target. Jee-A Van De Linde, an economist…
Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari announced on Friday that the current Twitter ban would be lifted, but only if the social media giant met certain conditions. The president disclosed this during his televised broadcast to Nigerians on the country’s 61st Independence Day anniversary. He acknowledged the fact that Twitter is used to disseminate information. Still, he warned about…
The NFT space has had quite the year, and while it can be difficult to separate the billions of dollars in crypto speculation from the potential infrastructure shifts, plenty of mainstream tech companies are dipping their toes into the space and signaling future interest. This time it’s TikTok’s turn. The fast-growing social media platform, which…
Africa Tech Alliance Forum 2021 (#AfriTECH) has received support from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), African ICT Foundation (AfictF) and InnovationBed.Africa. The Forum sponsored by Zoho (Platinum sponsor), Rack Centre, CloudFlex Computing Limited Digital Encode, Galaxy Backbone Limited, Notion Technologies, NewWave Ecosystems Limited (Konn3ct.com) and Zinochrome International Nigeria Limited, also enjoys…
Facebook has announced a set of new features to enhance integration between Instagram and Messenger. The new features include cross-app group communication, new group typing indicators, and polls on Instagram DMs (direct messages). The cross-app group feature chat allows people to start group chats between their Instagram and Messenger contacts, while with the group typing…
Cryptocurrency buying and selling platform Luno has conducted a survey of over 1000 of its customers in South Africa in August 2021, along with customers in the UK, Malaysia and Indonesia. Luno found that 82% of South Africans who hold cryptocurrency on its platform expect the bitcoin price to rise significantly, some believe as high as…
Recently, global engineering talent outsourcer Andela reached the highly exalted status as a unicorn startup – a startup with a valuation of $1-billion or more. Andela joins an exceedingly exclusive group as one of Africa’s 5 startup unicorns currently operating. The first startup in Africa to achieve a ten-figure valuation was Jumia. The Nigerian-founded company is…
Andela, a global engineering talent outsourcing company launched in Nigeria in 2014 has secured a $200-million investment during a Series E funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, the venture capital arm of Japanese mega-corp SoftBank. This latest funding round brings Andela’s total valuation to $1.5-billion, officially making it Africa’s fifth unicorn startup. According…
Nigerian startup Verto, a B2B payments platform that provides a fast, simple, and reliable way for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to make payments to their suppliers in over 200 countries across 39 currencies, has raised a US$10 million Series A round to boost its geographical expansion. Launched in 2018 by co-founders Ola Oyetayo and…
Cairo based Pravica, a communication platform using Blockchain technology to empower user privacy and security through decentralised identity, has announced an investment (amount undisclosed) from CV VC (Crypto Valley Venture Capital). CV VC is a leading blockchain venture capitalist and incubator of global tech disruptors who are driving the fourth industrial revolution. Commenting on the investment and…
South African startup Sun Exchange, a peer-to-peer solar leasing platform, has raised a further US$2.5 million in funding by way of a convertible note investment from an existing investor to help it scale more quickly. Launched in 2015, Sun Exchange enables anyone, anywhere in the world, to buy remotely-located solar cells that power schools, businesses and other…
mLab Southern Africa has opened applications for its StartUp Accelerator, offering selected companies access to mentorship, business clinics and grant seed funding. The mLab StartUp Accelerator 2021 is open to startups based in Gauteng, Limpopo and the Northern Cape, and will provide 15 businesses with a range of support mechanisms for a period of six months. It…
Nigerian ed-tech startup Edves has raised a US$575,000 seed funding round to help it improve its product and bring more schools online. Formed in 2016, Edves is an academic portal that automates operations in schools and colleges from admission to transcript generation. The platform reduces teacher and administrator workload and gives them opportunities to mark attendance and…
General Motors is rolling out Ultifi, a new end-to-end software platform in vehicles starting in 2023 that executives say will usher in a sweeping set of capabilities, including giving drivers access to in-car subscription and using over-the-air updates to offer new apps and services. The software platform can be used to give owners greater access…
Google announced today it will be applying AI advancements, including a new technology called Multitask Unified Model (MUM) to improve Google Search. At the company’s Search On event, the company demonstrated new features, including those that leverage MUM, to better connect web searchers to the content they’re looking for, while also making web search feel more natural and intuitive….
TikTok is expanding its investment in e-commerce. Earlier this year, the video platform began piloting TikTok Shopping in the U.S., U.K. and Canada, in partnership with Shopify. The deal allowed Shopify merchants with a TikTok For Business account to add a Shopping tab to their TikTok profiles and sync their product catalogs to the app to create…
Nigeria’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) website has gone live, signaling that the eNaira digital currency will be launched on October 1. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sent local banks a paper last month that detailed the architecture of its soon-to-be-launched virtual currency, as well as details on the duties given to participants in the currency…
Tiktok announced in a blog post that it now has more than one billion monthly active users throughout the world, making it the only non-Facebook or Google-owned social networking app to do so. Despite an attempt by former President Donald Trump’s government last year to shut down Tiktok in the United States, the app’s popularity…
Vodacom, one of SA’s leading network providers, has announced a partnership with mobile payments cybersecurity company, Evina, in a major step forward in mobile user safety. According to a statement from Vodacom, mobile users in Africa’s most advanced economy will now join the ranks of the tens of millions of consumers globally that are protected…
Andela helps companies build remote engineering teams by providing them with access to the best software engineers in the world. Launched in Africa in 2014, the network today represents engineers from more than 80 countries and six continents. Through Andela, thousands of engineers have been placed with leading technology companies including Github, Cloudflare and ViacomCBS. “Andela has always…
Open banking is a system where banks allow or authorize third parties, such as financial technology or fintech companies, to access their clients’ financial data to build applications or services. Anchored on providing better customer experiences, open banking in Africa has stirred a lot of interest, including banking apps with detailed analytics of finances, the…
The third edition of the Cyberchain Conference, which is a two-day event, will kick off on the 19th of November at the Lagos Oriental Hotel. With the theme for this year unveiled, the conference will revolve around “Enabling The Digital Economy.” The Cyberchain convener, Jude Ozinegbe, made it clear during a media parley that the…
Gokada, the Nigeria-based last mile delivery, logistics and transportation startup, has launched in Ibadan following consolidated growth in Lagos. Founded in 2018 as a ride-hailing app, Gokada has evolved to become a leading food delivery, parcel delivery, and last-mile e-commerce fulfillment solution. The startup secured US$5.3 million in Series A funding in 2019, but was then hit by Lagos state’s…
Senegalese delivery startup Yobante Express, an online marketplace that connects local couriers with local commerce to optimise domestic, cross-border and last mile delivery, has raised a US$1.2 million bridge funding round as it looks to build on its impressive growth. Founded in November 2018, Yobante Express is a web and mobile platform that uses gig economy, independent…
Cairo-based startup Pravica, a communication platform using blockchain technology to empower user privacy and security, has secured an undisclosed investment for a Swiss VC firm to help it scale operations. Founded in 2019 by Mohamed Abdou, Pravica utilises blockchain to empower user privacy and security in the communication industry, specifically messaging apps, where enormous amounts of data…