Titan Trust Bank Limited (TTB), one of Nigeria’s fastest-growing and most customer-focused financial service providers, has purchased Union Bank of Nigeria Plc. Union Global Partners Limited, Atlas Mara Limited, and other majority shareholders agreed to sell their 88.39 percent stake in Union Bank to Titan Trust Bank. In a notification to the Nigerian Exchange Limited…
The Federal Government of Nigeria has replaced the outdated National Identification Number, NIN slip, and polycarbonate card with a suite of digital tokens. According to TechEconomy.ng, the Digital Token was created to replace the 11-digit NIN for all purposes. According to the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), the card ID is no longer required with…
Coca-Cola scored a sort of coup in 2010 when they managed massive resource cost savings by using business intelligence for their sales data. The brand was having difficulty integrating data from 74 different bottlers’ databases, which were all different in terms of capabilities and analytical tools and were spread across the country. The company required…
The year 2021 has been an eventful one for businesses all over the world. From major technological advancements to widespread supply chain challenges, the last 12 months have kept business owners and marketers on their toes. And, with no end in sight to the excitement, it’s more important than ever to keep an eye on…
Stranerd, a Nigerian startup, has launched a peer-to-peer learning platform where students can ask and answer homework-related questions, with the service designed to give the brightest students opportunities to help others who may be less skilled in specific subjects. Stranerd began as an Instagram page in 2018, but only recently became a standalone digital product….
Africa’s startup ecosystem rebounded in 2021, bringing in a record $4 billion before the end of the year, reflecting a surge in investor interest in the continent’s rapidly growing tech marketplace. Africa now has seven unicorns, according to Wee Tracker: Jumia, Interswitch, Flutterwave, Andela, Wave, OPay, and Chipper Cash. Five of these have become unicorns…
Blockchain startups from Egypt and Zimbabwe have been invited to apply for the Africa Blockchain Incubation Programme, which aims to foster innovation and creativity in the field of distributed ledger technologies. The Africa Blockchain Incubation Programme seeks ambitious individuals who are forward-thinking, innovative, and have strong computer science backgrounds. Qualified candidates will go through a…
App for making short videos Triller will go public through a reverse merger with video-tech firm SeaChange International, the two companies announced on Wednesday. The combined entity will be worth around $5 billion. The proposed merger has been approved by the boards of both companies, and the transaction is expected to close in the first…
Smart Applications International, Africa’s leading high–tech technology solutions provider, has joined forces with the Kenya Healthcare Federation (KHF), the Health Sector Board of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA), to promote strategic Public–Private Partnerships aimed at achieving national healthcare access. The collaboration will allow the Kenya Healthcare Federation to have an automated system powered by…
COVID-19 has accelerated the adoption of digital payment platforms by millions of people across Africa. The need for contactless transaction methods transformed what was once a nice-to-have into a requirement. Indeed, while the pandemic has increased the adoption of digital payments across industries, demographics, and payment types on the continent, Africa has been at the…
TikTok is truly unstoppable: the video-sharing platform has surpassed Google to become the most popular website in the world, according to Cloudflare’s 2021 Year in Review internet traffic rankings. TikTok made Cloudflare’s top ten list last year, ranking seventh in popularity behind Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Netflix, and Amazon’s.coms. Aside from TikTok’s surge to the…
The EdTech sector grew by 30-35 percent in 2020, and it is expected to grow by 20-25 percent by the end of 2021. This is strong evidence that a growing number of people prefer online learning, with paper textbooks and rigid learning plans gradually falling out of favor. Analyze Product Demand One of the major…
Field Intelligence, a Nigerian e-health startup that is digitizing the supply chain and transforming access to essential, life-saving medicine, claims to have saved the Nigerian government US$2 million in losses due to expired medication over the last five years. Field Intelligence, founded in 2015, is the leading pharmaceutical supply chain provider in Nigeria and Kenya,…
Fifteen startups have progressed to the second stage of the E-Track Programme, which is run by UCT GSB Solution Space in collaboration with ayoba. The E-track Program is a three-stage venture acceleration program aimed at high-impact individuals, aspiring entrepreneurs, and experienced founders. The first phase is Venture Launch, which focuses on validating the venture concept;…
As we get closer to Christmas, the crypto market appears to be on its way to a quick recovery following days of constant dips. Bitcoin is currently trading at $51,484 per token on the Indian exchange CoinSwitch Kuber, up 0.80 percent. In recent days, Bitcoin’s low-lying values in India have hovered around $50,000. The world’s…
After experiencing rapid growth, Nigerian startup Get It Done Now, a mobile fintech e-commerce platform where users can access services, loans, and insurance, is expanding to Spain. Get It Done Now, founded in mid-2018 by Alberto Rodriguez and Bode Bamgboye after they met while studying for an MBA at the IE Business School in Madrid,…
Nigeria has moved one step closer to enacting its Nigeria Startup Bill (NSB), which aims to strengthen the country’s technology ecosystem and enable the sector. President Muhammadu Buhari has worked with the Presidency and leaders in the Nigerian technology industry on the bill, which has now been approved by the Federal Executive Council and is…
Collaboration between IT and business is critical for business innovation in the future. The financial benefits, on the other hand, are well worth it. The Collaborative IT-Business Model is an open innovation architecture that aims to create a collaborative network of diverse stakeholders to generate new ideas. IT and business must collaborate to break down…
Planet42, a startup that fights transportation inequality by putting cars in the hands of people who are unfairly ignored by banks, has just announced a $30 million round of equity and debt financing. The $6 million equity round was led by South African conglomerate Naspers, with participation from other existing investors including Bolt founders Martin…
2016 is the year. Idris Marcial Monthe recently completed the Abidjan Founders Institute. Monthe was feeling quite confident after an incredible three months of learning from the best. With little to no experience in the financial sector, he and Daniel Dindji had just launched their payment gateway, CinetPay, in the same year. They met at…
WhatsApp is developing two new visual indicators to inform users about the use of end-to-end encryption in various parts of the messaging app. On the iOS version of WhatsApp, the features were discovered on the app’s Call and Status screen. Users are informed on the calling screen that their personal calls are protected by end-to-end…
Pipit Global, an international cash payments platform, and Cellulant, a pan-African payments company, have expanded their partnership agreement to include eighteen Sub-Saharan African countries. The companies will provide both B2B and B2C payments services to existing and emerging financial institutions, eCommerce merchants, billers and billing platforms, mobile money providers and eWallets, digital financial service providers,…
Google Maps has begun to roll out a feature that highlights the busiest parts of your city or town. The new feature, dubbed ‘Area Busyness,’ is intended to help you avoid crowds by instantly detecting whether your neighborhood or a section of your city has more than the usual number of footfalls. The feature is…
Smartphone cameras are no longer just the most convenient option; they are quickly overtaking traditional digital cameras in terms of computational power and innovation. Users can capture more details and render images accurately in complex lighting conditions thanks to increased sensor size and resolution. Many aspects of image processing have been improved by artificial intelligence…
In a tweet exchange with Grammy-winning rapper Cardi B, former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey stated that he believes Bitcoin will eventually replace the US dollar. Cardi B asked on Twitter if cryptocurrency would eventually replace the US dollar, to which Dorsey replied, “Yes, Bitcoin will.” Dorsey, who now leads Block (formerly Square), a digital payments…
Zuri Health, a Kenyan startup, has expanded its operations into Senegal through a partnership with telecoms firm Expresso Senegal. In January, Disrupt Africa reported on the launch of Zuri Health, which enables users to book appointments with any medical professional or hospital in their region, book laboratory tests, communicate with practitioners via message or video,…
Drugstoc is a health-tech startup that offers hospitals and pharmacies a procurement platform for all medications, consumables, and small medical equipment. Chibuzor Opara and Adham Yehia founded the startup in 2017 with the goal of closing the supply chain gap in Nigeria’s medical sector. In November, the company raised $4.4 million in a Series A…
Life is returning to normal as Covid-19 vaccinations become more widespread around the world. However, this is not the world we knew before the pandemic. Because of the long-term nature of this global crisis, customer needs and daily lifestyles have changed. This, in turn, will alter my expectations for the world in 2022 and beyond….
According to a new forecast, TikTok is the world’s third-largest social network, trailing only Facebook and Instagram. Insider Intelligence — the firm formerly known as eMarketer — predicts that TikTok will reach 755.0 million monthly users in 2022, after growing by 59.8 percent in 2020 and 40.8 percent in 2021 in its first forecast on…
KeyTec, a South African startup, describes itself as a “one-stop-shop for video telematics and vehicle data,” offering smart solutions to businesses of all sizes. KeyTec was founded just over a year ago after founder Michael Roberts saw a real need for maintaining and supporting assets and vehicles in the field, as well as the frustration…