All about Business.
Over and above leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cloud services; it has been widely acknowledged that the key building block for true digital transformation is the need for businesses to become data-driven. Of course, this is a uniquely challenging task for almost every business. Dealing with the Data Challenge At the core of any data…
Ride-hailing company, Uber has announced the expansion of its services to two new cities in Nigeria, Port Harcourt and Ibadan. With this move, Uber’s services will now be available in five cities including Lagos, Abuja and Benin City. According to Uber, the move is intended to unlock growth opportunities in the cities for drivers who…
Made up of 250 top private companies leveraging technology to solve challenges in the financial services industry, CB Insights has unveiled the fourth annual Fintech 250. The Fintech 250 includes the most promising fintech companies from around the world, operating in capital markets, insurance, digital banking and wealth management. Companies in this year’s cohort have…
US-based tech monolith Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc, has announced its plans to invest $1-billion over 5 years to accelerate and support digital transformation across Africa through a series of new initiatives, from faster internet to backing startups. The announcements were first made during yesterday’s first-ever Google for Africa virtual event, which can be…
In today’s rapidly changing financial world, businesses are continually innovating to satisfy dynamic client expectations while adhering to severe regulatory standards. As these businesses spread their services across multiple locations, expanding distributed systems becomes increasingly difficult. To shed light on the complexities of this topic, Olamiposi Ogunyemi, a Senior Software Engineer with almost a decade of…
According to Keith Kalyegira, Chief Executive Officer of the Capital Markets Authority, the initial public offering (IPO) of telecommunications company MTN Uganda is expected to raise approximately $1.2 billion. MTN Uganda has previously announced that it had received approval to float 20% of its stock. MTN Uganda intends to launch an initial public offering (IPO) and list on…
Telkom South Africa has launched a new set of postpaid promotional deals and prepaid LTE deals offering more value to its mobile customers. These new data price reductions come not long after the semi-private telco announced its 1GB mobile data bundle reduction to R79 and the introduction of a new and affordable 1.5GB + 1.5GB All Network…
AppsFlyer, the marketing measurement and experience platform, has released their 2021 edition of its State of eCommerce App Marketing report, outlining key global trends to guide marketers in building a mobile-first experience that will drive engagement and sales for the upcoming holiday season. Having analysed over 750 million app installs across 7250 apps, and 3 billion remarketing…
A few years ago, the majority of South Africans had never made a single purchase online. Today, the local e-commerce market has experienced a massive boom as lockdown restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19, made online shopping feel like the safer, and sometimes the only, option for consumers. According to a 2018 report from shopping…
Keeping track of your finances can be one of the most important things you do. It allows you to manage your money and it will help you determine what you should spend your money on and what things might be better to wait on or go without for now. It’s now easier than ever before…
Contactless payments made using mobile phones will almost double over the next two years – twice as fast as the growth of contactless card payments. A study by Juniper Research found that the volume of mobile contactless transactions rill rise from 26 billion in 2021 to 49 billion in 2023, driven by enhanced security, convenience,…
Lagos-based startup smallChops is planning on expanding to other cities in Nigeria and across Africa having seen an average 20 per cent month-on-month growth since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Formed in August 2016 and first reported on by Disrupt Africa way back in 2017, smallChops allows users to order different finger food – “small chops” – packages…
According to a report published by the World Bank, it was observed that while Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) create 7 out of 10 jobs in emerging markets, access to finance has remained a key constraint to SME growth. The Report noted that access to finance is one of the most cited obstacles facing SMEs to…
The German government has pledged €100 million to the African Development Bank’s (AfDB) Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA), demonstrating its support for efforts to harness Africa’s renewable energy potential and accelerate the continent’s transition to sustainable energy sources. The announcement was made at the United Nations High-Level Dialogue on Energy, which took place on…
The World Bank has approved $11.5bn in lending to Western and Central African countries for 98 operations. The World Bank made this known in its ‘Annual Report 2021: From crisis to green, resilient, and inclusive recovery’. The bank said: “In fiscal 2021, the bank approved $11.5bn in lending to Western and Central Africa for 98 operations, including…
Every user has their pain point, and they’re looking for products or services that can help them address that pain point. When they encounter your offer, it’s a make-it-or-break-it opportunity for you to show them you have the solution. Make the right first impression, and you have a chance to convert your potential customer into…
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…
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 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…
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…
Two of Africa’s biggest startup stories of 2021 involve the billion-dollar valuations accorded to OPay, and Wave. Propelled by Chinese and American venture capital, each rose rapidly to own large shares of the financial services sector in Nigeria and Senegal respectively, primarily because of their sprawling mobile money operations. But Opay and Wave are just two among many companies…
Once the world’s leading producer of palm oil, Nigeria has seen an output decline over the last three decades. The country is the fifth largest producer of palm oil in the world, the main ones currently being Malaysia and Indonesia. CNN learns that a host of challenges are to blame for Nigeria’s palm oil production shortcomings,…
For any Startup or business, it is necessary to keep in mind that no business plan or strategy is foolproof. For this reason, business schools that teach entrepreneurship teach that startups should aim to fail fast forward frequently and frugally. The key is to accept that some form of failure is inevitable but, the way…
In June, Visa reported that the top market contributors for e-commerce in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) over the last three years were South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya with Ghana also showing growth having replaced Kenya in the top three contributors in 2020. “The three leading markets in SSA are starting to mature, providing the region with an established…
Frogfoot, a licensed open-access infrastructure provider, has announced its acquisition of the Link Africa Western Cape FTTH (Fibre to the Home) network. The deal comes a few months after MetroFibre Networx purchased Link Africa’s FTTH network in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. Frogfoot says in a statement that the deal will aid in solidifying the company’s position in…
LinkedIn earlier this month unveiled a new push around creators to bring more original content (and engagement) to its platform, but that’s not the only effort they are making to bring more activity to its networking site. TechCrunch has learned and confirmed that LinkedIn is also running a test around events — specifically, paid events. We were…
The lifeline of every business is enmeshed in the number and interactions of stakeholders as well as their activities in relation to the business. These stakeholders include the suppliers of the raw materials needed for the business to manufacture its offerings, the employees or human resources who engage in the production and the customers who are the end…
When it comes to gender equality in the business world, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg hit the nail on the head: “Knowing that things could be worse should not stop us from trying to make them better.” While access to opportunities, funding and support has improved for women in the startup space over the last couple of decades,…