Ten teams of 21 budding African social entrepreneurs have been selected as winners of the Resolution Social Venture Challenge at the Baobab Summit in Johannesburg. Winning teams earn a fellowship that includes seed funding, mentorship and access to a network of young global changemakers to pursue impactful projects in their communities. A collaboration between the…
The energy sector of sub-Saharan Africa is not yet able to meet the needs and aspirations of its citizens, with almost 600 million people lacking access to electricity. Only seven countries — Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Ghana, Namibia, Senegal and South Africa — have electricity access rates exceeding 50 percent. The rest of the region…
Jack Ma the CEO/Founder of Alibaba Announces 4 Projects To Support African Youths Youth connekt summit in Kigali, Rwanda. The billionaire arrived with a delegation aboard three planes that landed at Kigali international airport to attend the summit also attended by Rwanda President Paul Kagame. Under project number one – Jack Ma has invited 200…
HUB8, a global provider of web hosting, domain services has launched its Nigerian-focused website, HUB8.NG with a promise to help Nigerian brands, businesses and organisations succeed online through its wide range of web services. The web hosting company which is poised to help Nigerians kick-start their online adventure as a ‘Growth Partner’ is offering free…
Israel as a Startup Nation is doing well for itself in bringing out great innovations from Israel to the world.The Tel Aviv Startup ecosystem which is ranked the 3rd in the world is a major contributor to Israel being a leading innovation ecosystem. There is so much African Startups can gain from the Israel Innovation…
Nigeria Innovation Summit 2017 will focus on Technology,Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Nigeria.The summit will hold on September 7-8,2017 at Sheraton Hotels,Ikeja lagos. The Nigeria Innovation Summit is an annual event that focuses on the need for the country,businesses,organisations,entrepreneurs in Nigeria to become more innovative and apply innovation to drive sustainable development as we work together to…
PayU has rolled out strategies to intensify efforts to connect businesses to Nigeria’s online payment market. Annual online payments in Nigeria is estimated to surpass N200 billion this year from N167 billion in 2016. Country Manager of PayU Nigeria, Ms Juliet Nwanguma, says, “In order to pursue PayU’s aggressive expansion in the online payment market…
The Next Einstein Forum (NEF), an initiative of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) in partnership with Robert Bosch Stiftung, today announces the launch of NEF Africa Science Week in 13 African countries throughout June 2017. NEF Ambassadors, local science and technology champions, together with support of local academic, public and private sector stakeholders…
Organisations across the world are investing in the digital transformation to remain relevant to their customers and survive disruption. The Internet of Things (IoT) is one element in this transformation journey and has the potential to transform every industry, even traditional ones. According to Dr Muneer Zuhdi, Director of Solution Line Management in the Global…
Roman Oseghale, an Architect, Business Analyst and CEO. of IntelServe Inc. a Canadian Business Analytical Services company, has identified human capital development as the key to developing sustainable economic growth for Nigeria. Speaking at The Platform recently, Mr. Oseghale argued that Africa which is one of the 6 continents is the richest in Mineral Resources but the…
With new-generation services starting today in Benin, Cameroon, Kenya, Lesotho, Nigeria, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania and Uganda, Konnect Africa (www.Konnect-Africa.com) is confirming its bold ambitions for Sub-Saharan Africa. The company’s innovative service offerings and products, included packaged offers inspired by ‘pay as you go’ models and Wi-Fi hotspots schemes, have already convinced a number of…
West Africa’s premier Connectivity and Data Center Solutions Company, MainOne has reinforced its commitment to building out West Africa’s Data Center capacity at the Data Center Africa Summit taking place at the DataCloud Europe 2017 conference in Monaco this week. During the event, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Ms. Funke Opeke was nominated as one…
South Africa, Mauritius, Kenya lead Innovation in sub Saharan Africa in the recently released Global Innovation Index for 2017. Each year, the Global Innovation Index( GII ) surveys some 130 economies using dozens of metrics, from patent filings to education spending providing decision makers a high-level look at the innovative activity that increasingly drives economic…
Orange is strengthening its corporate venture strategy by creating a new Africa section in its flagship programme for investment in start-ups, Orange Digital Ventures . As part of this initiative, the Group is committing 50 million euros corresponding to half of the direct investments made via its new Orange Digital Ventures Africa programme; the other…
Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands, the USA and the UK are the world’s most- innovative countries, while a group of nations including India, Kenya, and Viet Nam are outperforming their development- level peers, according to the Global Innovation Index 2017 coauthored by Cornell University, INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Key findings show the…
Johannesburg will once again host the world’s largest and most important Sub-Saharan African entertainment content market, DISCOP Johannesburg. This year DISCOP Johannesburg has created a program specifically aimed to support and develop independent producers from across Africa. The 6th edition of DISCOP Johannesburg will take place from October 25th to 27th at the Sandton Convention Centre, specifically scheduled so…
Vision Mobile in partnership with Intel,HTC,Microsoft,Qualcomm and a host of other companies,is conducting the 2017 Developer Economics Survey. The Developer Economics Q3 2017 survey is the 13th developer survey by research firm VisionMobile. This is an independent survey, aimed at measuring the pulse of the developer community. This survey tracks all the latest trends on…
Photo shows: (L-r): Reginald Osuji, project executive; Loveth Igbo, project executive; Tony Ajah, director, all from Nigeria Innovation Summit;Rosemary Agu, direct sales manager, DigitalPR-Wire; Olajide Ojeniyi,Western Regional Coordinator, Nigeria Innovation Summit and SamuelSalami, director, Operations, DigitalPR-Wire, during a press conference to announce preparations of the Summit, held in Lagos on Wednesday Nigeria Innovation Summit (www.innovationsumit.ng),…
Photo shows: (L-r): Reginald Osuji, project executive; Loveth Igbo, project executive; Tony Ajah, director, all from Nigeria Innovation Summit;Rosemary Agu, direct sales manager, DigitalPR-Wire; Olajide Ojeniyi,Western Regional Coordinator, Nigeria Innovation Summit and SamuelSalami, director, Operations, DigitalPR-Wire, during a press conference to announce preparations of the Summit, held in Lagos on Wednesday DigitalPR-Wire’s innovative approach to…
Recently I was thinking of the increase in adoption Over -The Top (OTT) content players have gained and the consequent dilemma it’s wrapping around operators who now have to grapple with the concern of who owns and influences the consumer. This also got me thinking about something else we tend to hear a lot, that…
4 Nigerian Startups have been accepted into Google Launchpad Accelerator.The Startup companies are:Delivery Science,Gidi Mobile Limited,Flutterwave and Paystack .This was announced today through Google blog post. Google Launchpad Accelerator is a 6 months Program where the selected Startups: Work closely with Google for 6 months Get 2 weeks of all-expense-paid training at Google Headquarters Get Equity-free support Have…
The Africa Competitiveness Report was first published in 1998 and has, since 2007, been a biennial project highlighting areas that require policy action and investment to ensure Africa’s sustained growth. As the result of a longstanding collaboration, the report incorporates the knowledge and expertise of the African Development Bank, the World Bank Group and the…
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has created an incredible online resource: ‘YAS! Youth for Africa and SDGs’.YAS! is an online portal for African Youth Entrepreneurship. The portal aims to support the development and growth of youth entrepreneurship in Africa by providing the following services: Help entrepreneurs begin their entrepreneurship journey by providing the answers that…
Funke Opeke,CEO MainOne Experts at the International Telecoms Week conference in Chicago have highlighted the need to accelerate investment in Africa to facilitate the continent’s broadband data explosion. Based on the theme “Achieving A Connected Continent: Leading The Data Explosion Across Africa”, the expert panel session with participation from Google, Facebook, WIOCC, Liquid Telecom and…
Picture above from L-R: Mr. Ifeloju Alakija, Head, Regulatory Services, MainOne; Mr. Femi Odubiyi, Honourable Commissioner of Ministry of Science and Technology; Ms. Funmike Olayera, Sales Manager, MainOne and Mrs. Funmi Balogun, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Science and Technology during the launch of free public Wi-Fi at Alausa, Lagos State recently. The Lagos State Government…
The MasterCard Foundation is partnering with Michigan State University (MSU) for the AgriFood Youth Opportunity Lab, a five-year, $13 million collaboration. This partnership will support 15,000 young people aged 18 to 24 in major bread basket food shed regions surrounding Lagos and Dar es Salaam to access employment and entrepreneurship opportunities. AgriFood Youth Opportunity Lab…
Africa’s premier infrastructure summit, AFC Live, has welcomed more than 600 leading thinkers from government, academia, business and finance and fuelled ground breaking debate on both the opportunities and the challenges of investing in infrastructure in Africa. Keynote speakers including HE Yemi Osinbajo, Acting President of Nigeria, and Professor Chukwuma Soludo, the former Governor of…
Facebook has selected 60 finalists from the hundreds of entries it received from across the Middle East and Africa for the Bots for Messenger Developer Challenge. The Bots for Messenger Challenge is a contest to recognise and reward developers who create the most innovative new bots on Messenger. Developers, in teams of up to three…
Microsoft recently revealed plans to deliver the complete, intelligent Microsoft Cloud for the first time from data centres located in Africa. This new investment is a major milestone in the company’s mission to empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more, and a recognition of the enormous opportunity for digital transformation in…
Pics:African Innovation Foundation Founder, Mr Jean-Claude Bastos de Morais meeting with H.E. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo, the President of Ghana to discuss investment opportunities and hosting IPA 2017 in Ghana. The African Innovation Foundation (AIF) in collaboration with the Government of Ghana, represented by the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), Ghana…