In an age when the internet has become a go-to forum for many people to express themselves, the issue of mental health difficulties remains a sensitive one. However, a promising Nigerian health care startup, Mytherapist.ng, is capitalizing on the situation by harnessing technology to provide Nigerians with accessible, cheap, and stigma-free mental health care services….
The Fintech Association of Nigeria (FintechNGR) organized the World Fintech Festival (WFF), Nigeria, on November 11, 2021, in collaboration with the Singapore Fintech Festival (SFF). The event, TechSpark 3.0, Leveraging Emerging Technology for Digital Economy, was one of the breakout events held by important FinTech centers around the world. Ade Bajomo, President of FintechNGR, gave…
WhatsApp is said to be iterating on the rumored message reactions functionality. This has previously been discovered, and it appears to allow users to respond to a single message in a chat. A new reaction info page has been discovered in development, allowing users to simply identify who reacted to a message. Message reactions are…
Apple has announced that a new self-service repair program for the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 models would be available in early 2022, with an emphasis on common repairs such as damaged screens, battery problems, and camera issues. Users will be able to purchase repair components and tools directly from the company. Customers will soon…
OnePipe, a Nigerian fintech startup, has acquired $3,500,000 in seed funding to expand operations throughout Africa, bridge financial gaps, and improve the customer experience for businesses. OnePipe received funding from a variety of sources, including African impact-focused venture capital firm Atlantica Ventures, which co-led the seed round with Tribe Capital and V&R Associates. Canaan Partners,…
Burkina Faso’s government has prolonged the countrywide ban on mobile internet access for another 96 hours. This comes just days before opposition protests are scheduled. According to a statement issued by the administration of President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, the extension was granted under a legal clause linked to national defense and public safety. Authorities…
MojaPay, a South African fintech firm, has released a new app with the goal of changing the way people pay, receive, and save money. MojaPay, formerly known as digiToken and launched last year to assist customers in purchasing items such as power and airtime online, has rebranded and improved to provide seamless transactions and payments…
According to Absa Group, its cloud incubator effort is on track to exceed its objective of teaching 1,500 staff employees across Africa with cloud computing capabilities this year. Absa launched the cloud incubator program in March to help it along its digital transformation journey. According to Absa, 1,496 individuals successfully completed the training by the…
Aside from money, African female entrepreneurs want access to high-impact mentors who are eager to share their network and teach what they know. Eloho Omame and Odunayo Eweniyi unveiled their female-focused angel investment fund a few weeks into January this year. The angel fund, appropriately dubbed FirstCheck Africa, is on a mission to “advance equity,…
Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, South Africa’s Minister of Communications, says the government is considering plans to ensure that all South Africans have access to connectivity at home by 2024. Speaking at the annual Southern Africa Telecommunication Networks and Applications Conference (SATNAC), Minister Ntshavheni stated that the European Union has committed to delivering 1 terabyte to the home…
According to the newest danger landscape trends data from internet security firm Kaspersky, South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria are experiencing tremendous shifts in the landscape. While traditional, self-propagating malware is declining due to its ineffectiveness and inability to fly under security radars, the region will experience an increase in new cybercrime models in the following…
With major tech shifting toward virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), making room for the metaverse, there is a heated debate regarding the limits — or lack thereof — of this new technology. Skeptics are concerned that the metaverse may lead to the end of reality as we know it. Louis Rosenberg, a computer…
IBM has announced a new massive commitment and global plan to provide new skills needed for tomorrow’s jobs to 30 million people of all ages by 2030. To accomplish this goal, IBM has outlined a clear roadmap that includes over 170 new academic and industry partnerships. The initiative will make use of IBM’s existing programs…
With its upgraded Airtel Africa Developer Portal, Airtel Money, the mobile money platform, is driving greater efficiency for businesses to engage in seamless mobile money activity. The portal integrates remote payments with Airtel Money wallets using several Open APIs and solutions to provide greater ease of access to Airtel Money services across multiple business sectors…
MNT-Halan, Egypt’s leading fintech ecosystem, has announced the successful launch of Neuron, the proprietary core banking software that it developed and launched earlier this year. MNT-Halan began as a ride-hailing app for two- and three-wheeler vehicles in 2018, and has since evolved into a super app, becoming Egypt’s largest and fastest-growing lender to the unbanked….
Kaoun, a Tunisian fintech startup, has added new features to its payments app Flouci as a result of its participation in the Central Bank of Tunisia’s regulatory sandbox. Kaoun was founded in January 2018 by co-founders Nebras Jemel, Anis Kallel, and Rostom Bouazizi, who put their studies in the United States – at Harvard University,…
Startupbootcamp AfriTech and Telecel Group have opened applications for the second edition of the Africa Startup Initiative Programme (ASIP), which provides funding and support to selected companies. Startupbootcamp AfriTech was founded in 2017 as the first pan-African startup accelerator backed by multiple corporations. In March, Disrupt Africa announced a partnership with telecoms firm Telecel Group…
Following reports that the Indian government may ban cryptocurrency, the crypto market price charts were drenched in red on Wednesday, November 24. Bitcoin’s value has dropped by 25.51 percent to $46,601 on the Indian exchange CoinSwitch Kuber. On a global scale, the world’s oldest cryptocurrency has managed to keep its value above $50,000, despite the…
Twitter and Walmart are collaborating to launch an online shopping initiative via livestreams. The latest feature will allow users to make purchases from businesses directly on the microblogging platform while simultaneously watching a live broadcast. On November 28, the company will conduct its first live shopping stream test. Jason Derulo, a well-known R&B artist, will…
According to data from Kenya’s bureau of statistics, informal businesses power the country’s economy, accounting for 33.8 percent of GDP and 83.4 percent of total employment outside of small-scale agriculture. These businesses contribute significantly to the country’s economy, but they are underserved by traditional banking institutions, making it difficult for them to obtain the financing…
As Nigeria joins the rest of the world in commemorating the 2021 Universal Children’s Day, many students returned home with brand new laptops and desk computers, courtesy of the National Information Technology Development Agency NITDA’s efforts to improve and standardize a SMART digital education. “The gesture to Nigerian students was borne out of the Agency’s…
Busha, a Nigerian cryptocurrency exchange, has raised $4.2 million in seed funding to expand across Africa. Busha, which was founded in 2019, allows users to buy, sell, and manage their cryptocurrency portfolios through an easy-to-use mobile app. The startup has been expanding across Nigeria, and it has now raised a US$4.2 million seed round to…
According to reports, WhatsApp is working on increasing the time limit before you can delete messages for everyone in a chat. WhatsApp currently allows you to delete messages for everyone within 1 hour, 8 minutes, and 16 seconds. This limit, however, is expected to be significantly increased in a future update. WhatsApp is currently working…
A piece of virtual real estate in the online world Decentraland was sold for a record $2.4 million (roughly Rs. 17 crore) in cryptocurrency, according to the buyer and seller, crypto investor Tokens.com and Decentraland. Decentraland is a virtual world – also known as a “metaverse” – where users can buy land, visit buildings, walk…
Tek Experts, a leading technology support service company, has reached a milestone of over 1,800 employees in Nigeria, making it the largest market of its operations globally. This milestone was announced during a media visit to the company as part of efforts to communicate the essence of the industry’s relatively new niche of tech support….
Wowzi, a Kenyan tech startup, has announced plans to create one million gig jobs for African youth through its online marketplace by 2022, after successfully delivering over 150,000 paid jobs in 2021. The company, which makes scalable influencer campaigns available to brands and companies of any size or industry, has announced plans to expand partnerships…
Most Africans want to use various insurance products but are often put off by the associated high premiums. As a result, it is not surprising that insurance penetration across the continent remains low, with reported premiums per capita 11 times lower than the global average, according to a McKinsey study. However, the market may soon…
Dayo Koleowo’s career path has taken him from construction to food delivery to venture capital, but he believes the lessons he has learned will serve him well as he backs innovative African tech startups with early-stage VC firm Microtraction. Koleowo studied Quantity Surveying at university and went to work in the public sector preparing bills…
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, does not intend to implement end-to-end encryption (E2EE) by default on Messenger and Instagram until 2023. Last year, the company merged Messenger and Instagram chats as part of its plan to build a unified messaging system across all of its platforms. According to The Verge, while…
Three Egyptian startups are among the 12 selected from the MENA region to participate in the Techstars Riyadh accelerator, which provides US$120,000 in funding and other scaling support. Techstars Riyadh, which is run in collaboration with Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Communications and IT (MCIT) and Raed Ventures, invests US$120,000 in each selected company and provides…