Instagram is launching a new way to interact with Stories. The photo and video sharing platform has introduced a new Private Story Likes feature, which allows users to like other people’s Instagram Stories without sending a direct message (DM). Previously, users could only re-share the stories or leave a comment on them. In addition, responses…
The story of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has recently spread like wildfire, and Africa has joined the party. Some of these digital assets, ranging from art and music to games and videos, are worth millions of dollars. In case you’re unfamiliar, NFTs are unique and non-interchangeable units of data on the blockchain, a digital ledger that…
Bayo Adekanmbi has been appointed to lead Airtel Africa’s strategy, partnership, and sustainability roadmap. The position is based at the company’s headquarters in the United Kingdom, and Adekanmbi is now a member of the executive committee and reports directly to the CEO, Segun Ogunsanya. Adekanmbi will be “responsible for leading strategic business-wide initiatives, including innovation,…
According to a recent TIME article, Meta-owned Facebook has come under fire for its treatment of African content moderators. TIME revealed that Sama, the company in charge of Facebook’s Sub-Saharan Africa content moderation since 2019, was subjecting content moderators in Nairobi to poor pay and working conditions. Sama also provides data labeling services to tech…
MoneyHash, an Egyptian fintech startup that uses a universal API and a unified checkout experience to help businesses consolidate and grow their payments and financial tech stack, has announced a US$3 million pre-seed funding round as it exits beta and prepares to launch across the Middle East and Africa, has announced a US$3 million pre-seed…
Ndovu, a Kenyan wealth-tech startup, has begun operations after securing a pre-seed funding round in October, with the goal of providing users with easy access to global financial markets. Ndovu, which was founded in 2020 by Radhika Bhachu, Ro Nyangeri, and Gianpaolo De Biase and is available on iOS and Android, allows users to invest…
Nawy, an Egyptian prop-tech startup, has raised $5 million in seed funding to help it expand across the region. Nawy, founded in 2016 by Mohamed Abou Ghanima, Abdel-Azim Osman, Ahmed Rafea, Aly Rafea, and Mostafa El Beltagy, allows users to search for homes online based on criteria such as unit size, price, and location. So…
Stitch, a South African API fintech startup, has raised a Series A funding round of US$21 million to expand its team, launch new product offerings, and enter new markets across the continent. The Stitch API enables developers to quickly connect apps to financial accounts, allowing their users to share transaction histories and balances, confirm their…
A Nigerian rights group has asked the High Court to compel the government to publish an agreement with Twitter that resulted in the social media company’s services being restored last month after a six-month ban. Last June, Nigeria suspended Twitter after the US company removed a post by President Muhammadu Buhari threatening to punish regional…
Remedial Health has received a $1 million pre-seed investment to digitize pharmacies and reduce the supply of counterfeit and substandard pharmaceutical products, beginning in Nigeria and expanding to the rest of Africa. Global Ventures and Ventures Platform led the round, with participation from Ingressive Capital, Voltron Capital, Opeyemi Awoyemi’s (Jobberman co-founder) Angel Syndicate Fund, and…
Google honors Valentine’s Day with an interactive 3D Doodle featuring two hamsters expressing affection for each other. Users must solve the puzzle in order for the hamsters in the Doodle to clear their path for the meeting. The interactive Google Doodle can be shared online with your loved ones to commemorate Valentine’s Day 2022. It…
Finance options and transactions are undergoing a massive transformation all over the world. Payments, lending, asset, and wealth management are all being reshaped by digital technologies as individuals and organizations adopt more effective digital solutions to solve problems in virtually every aspect of life. Nigeria’s financial landscape has not lagged. According to a McKinsey report…
Payment structure narratives are changing as a result of technological advancements. Naturally, this convenience increases the risk of payment fraud. Each new payment method carries its own set of risks. Evina, a mobile anti-fraud specialist, examined the prevalence and evolution of this threat in 2021, with a focus on the African continent and the Middle…
Malawi’s government and the African Development Fund (ADF) have agreed to a $14.2 million grant to improve infrastructure and create a more efficient and transparent digital payment system. The Bank Group’s concessional financing window, ADF, will provide funding for the December-approved Support for Digitalization, Financial Inclusion, and Competitiveness (DFIC) project. “The DFIC project is aligned…
South Africa has asked a court to fine Huawei Technologies’ local unit for violating hiring rules and to order the company to change its practices, the labor department announced on Friday. According to the department, approximately 90 percent of the company’s employees were foreign nationals, in violation of “employment equity” regulations that impose a 40…
Financial management no longer entails poring over blotchy ledgers. Even the tried-and-true spreadsheet has become obsolete. Instead, there are a plethora of useful tools and apps that can manage the majority of your company’s finances with the click of a button – and in some cases, automatically – without you having to do anything. Competition…
WhatsApp has begun to roll out a new voice call interface. The most recent rollout is only available to a limited number of Android beta testers. Waveforms for group voice calls are also stored on the device. In addition to the updated voice call interface in the new beta release, WhatsApp has been spotted working…
Twitter said on Friday that it had fixed a software bug in its microblogging website that had caused service disruptions for thousands of its users. Twitter had previously stated on its status page that it was experiencing an increase in the number of application programming interface errors, which are a set of protocols for developing…
Nawah Scientific, an Egyptian life sciences and biotech startup, has received funding from the Cairo Angels Syndicate Fund (CASF) as part of its ongoing Series A round. Nawah Scientific, which was founded in 2015, is an online platform that receives experiment requests, collects samples, conducts tests, and digitally returns results. Its goal is to allow…
Mdundo, an Africa-focused music streaming service, is counting on more collaborations with telcos across the continent to increase its earnings and user base. Last year, the company signed agreements with MTN and Airtel in Nigeria, as well as Vodacom in Tanzania, which appear to be paying off, as its user base nearly doubled as it…
YouTube is getting ready to jump on the Web3 bandwagon, incorporating elements like non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the metaverse into its platform, which is reportedly used by over two billion people worldwide. Web3, which will be largely supported by blockchain technology, is regarded as the Internet of the future, bringing with it cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and…
LAGOS, Nigeria, February 10th, 2022 – Today, Acronis, the global leader in cyber protection announced the availability of a new Acronis Cyber Cloud Data Center in Lagos, Nigeria. The new data center, one of the 111 new data centers being deployed by the company, gives service provider partners access to a full range of cyber protection…
Kenya’s central bank has asked the public to share their thoughts on the possibility of adopting a digital currency by May 20th, just one day after it was revealed that Zambia is also testing its viability. Nigeria was the first African country to launch its central bank digital currency (CBDC), dubbed the eNaira, in October…
Binance, a major cryptocurrency exchange, will invest $200 million in Forbes, the media company announced on Thursday, as it prepares to go public through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). Binance’s investment will replace half of the $400 million in private placement commitments already announced by Forbes and SPAC company Magnum Opus Acquisition Limited. Forbes…
YouTube and TikTok, according to a recent study published by mobile marketing company URL Genius, track users’ personal data more than any other social media app. However, while YouTube collects your personal data primarily for the purpose of serving you more relevant ads, TikTok allows third-party trackers to collect your data – “and from there,…
A few months into the coronavirus pandemic, in April 2020, a team of four African-origin students in Sweden—including The Gambia-born Lamin Darboe, who had recently moved to Stockholm to pursue a master’s degree—participated in a climate action challenge organized by the Norrsken Foundation and Stockholm Innovation & Growth (Sting). Though the team, which also included…
Mr. Green Africa, a Kenyan plastics recycling pioneer, has received a significant investment from impact investors and key industry stakeholders in order to scale its business model across the continent. Mr. Green Africa is a circular recycling company that has created a technology-driven plastics collection model that allows waste to be collected at the point…
Google announced today that the newly launched Hustle Academy will provide free training to 5,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurs in Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa. Google Hustle Academy is a bootcamp-style training program designed to assist entrepreneurs and small business owners in positioning their companies for investment opportunities and developing viable business…
In yet another ambitious move to improve the aesthetics of Lagos, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the government of Lagos, has rolled out 1000 new cars to kick-start Lagos Ride, a government-backed ride-hailing service. The new Lagride in Lagos State, 1000 more to join soon. The goal is 5000 taxis. This is commendable ? pic.twitter.com/wHEISunKP9 — OTUNBA ?? (@ManLikeIcey) February 8, 2022 Some…
In 2018, two Nigerian siblings, Olugbenga Abejirin and Mayowa Abejirin, who have technical skills in programming and software development, with the former having over a decade of entrepreneurship experience, seized an opportunity to build and deploy smart classrooms in some Nigerian schools. The project was successful in its early stages until the pandemic struck in…