Authorities in Beijing announced on Saturday that Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi will develop a plant in Beijing capable of producing 300,000 vehicles per year for its electric vehicle segment. The plant will be erected in two stages, and Xiaomi will also establish its vehicle unit’s headquarters, sales, and research offices in the Beijing Economic and…
African Tech Vision, an entrepreneurial and mentorship initiative to encourage the growth of female-founded firms, is now accepting applications. The six-week African Tech Vision program will begin in January and will be led by an experienced volunteer team from around the world. The program was designed to be truly founder-centric, with founder growth defining its…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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….
A recent survey conducted at the request of Kaspersky by Toluna research agency observed the technical challenges families faced during mandatory remote learning following lockdown measures that were implemented globally at the onset and continued in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. More than half of Nigerian families (58 percent) with two or more children…
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revealed that the country’s digital currency will be implemented in four stages, culminating in the eNaira’s interoperability with those of other central banks. Mrs Rakiya Mohammed, Director of the CBN’s Information Technology Department, stated this at the licensed payment service providers’ engagement session in Lagos on Monday, as…
Kenyan startups have been invited to apply for grants of up to EUR100,000 (US$113,000) from the develoPPP Ventures programme’s second cohort. DEG – Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH – launched the develoPPP Ventures program earlier this year on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development. It aims to empower startups by…
GoDaddy has disclosed that the domain registrar experienced a security breach that allowed attackers access to the data of over 1 million active and inactive Managed WordPress users. Demetrius Comes, GoDaddy’s chief information security officer, stated in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that the company discovered suspicious activity in its Managed…
On May 15, 2021, I received a message from a lending company informing me that Mrs. X, whom I met during my National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in 2020, had not repaid a loan they had taken. I was supposed to be listed as an emergency contact. I was told not to believe this person…
A delegation from Cameroon’s Ministry of Public Service and Administrative Reforms recently visited Nigeria to inspect the depth of E-government implementation in Nigeria, which was developed and implemented with the assistance of the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), and to tour the level of infrastructure invested in achieving the heights Nigeria has achieved thus far….
17th November 2021: In February 2022, Saudi Arabia will host the largest technology event ever launched, LEAP, bringing together the global technology community under one roof to tackle the world’s most pressing socio-cultural challenges. LEAP, which will take place in Riyadh from the 1st to the 3rd of February 2022, is set to become a…
The doors to the exhibition halls of Gallery B57 are open a few streets away from Eko Atlantic City, revealing a black and white portrait of Instagram Influencer, Sanchan. During the global lockdown last year, Ade Adekola, a Nigerian-born international visual artist, put out an open call on Instagram for people interested in having their…
With the holiday season quickly approaching, South Africans and consumers worldwide may find fewer gift options on store shelves as a result of product shortages and delays caused by pandemic-related closures of ports and factories. According to a new global Oracle retail consumer research study, more shoppers are concerned that supply chain and delivery delays…
A group of state attorneys general is investigating Instagram and its effects on children and young adults, alleging that its parent company Facebook — now known as Meta Platforms — ignored internal research about the physical and mental health risks it posed to young people. A bipartisan coalition of attorneys general from California, Florida, Kentucky,…
“Something good is a frontier; something better is also a frontier and something excellent is just another frontier! You can always go beyond these frontiers! And so what is excellent? Just a frontier!” — Mehmet Murat ildan “There exist limitless opportunities in every industry. Where there is an open mind, there will always be a…
The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) has approved a $150 million facility for ETC Group Limited to address the company’s working capital needs and to develop its agriculture value chain, which will benefit smallholder farmers. The AfDB stated that the investment would take the form of a trade and agri-finance package, including a $75 million…
MTN Group announced today that it is ceasing operations in Yemen, in the Middle East. The company has been steadily withdrawing from its Middle Eastern operations, having left Syria in August due to “intolerable” operating conditions. MTN is also in talks to sell its operations in Afghanistan. MTN’s exit from Yemen, according to the company,…
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is taking a decisive regulatory move to ensure sustainability, profitability and fair competition in the Special Numbering Service (SNS) segment of the nation’s telecommunications sector. This move informed the decision of the Commission to hold a Stakeholders’ Forum on the ‘Determination of Call Termination Rate for Special Numbering Service Providers in Nigeria. ‘ The…
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has issued a statement regarding its observation on eNaira, the new digital currency of Nigeria’s central bank (CBDC). The IMF, in the statement, said: “The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) officially launched the ‘eNaira’, a central bank digital currency (CBDC), on October 25, 2021. This is the second CBDC fully…
Microsoft, the global tech giant, is establishing the Africa Transformation Office as part of doubling its investment on the continent, as well as an effort to continue to enable “African-led for Africa” ??digital transformation. The company has also announced that the Africa Transformation Office (ATO) will be led by new Managing Director (MD) Wael Elkabbany….
It had been three days since the lights went out on the off campus streets of the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA). Exams were approaching, and students trooped out of their lodgings to find public places—barbing salons, electronics and grocery stores, eateries—to charge their phones and laptops. In a corner, at one such place,…
When it comes to technology and digital life, the pandemic has been the ultimate accelerant of increased online behaviour. When our movements were physically restricted, we turned to our devices to find digital solutions that enable us to continue with our lives. People have excelled by working, attending school, and even socialising online; but the…
Paratus Namibia and Ongos Connect have signed a commercial connectivity agreement, confirming that Paratus will be the technology/infrastructure partner to bring fibre connectivity to over 11,000 new residents in Ongos Valley, Namibia’s first smart city development. The agreement is the conclusion of a two-year planning process during which time Paratus has been working on building…
There is absolutely no doubt that South Africa is in the midst of a major unemployment crisis. The latest stats show that the official unemployment rate is 34.4%, a record high. The expanded unemployment figure, which includes discouraged job seekers, sits at an even more alarming 44.4%. Such high levels of unemployment are unsustainable and need to…