All about Tech.
Gricd, a cold chain technology company that uses the Internet of Things to enable last mile delivery of temperature-sensitive products, has partnered with Nigeria’s National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) to distribute 4.2 million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. This batch of Moderna vaccines…
Gmail’s Undo Send feature has been updated for both Web and iOS users. The feature that allows users to recall emails will now be available in a variety of time frames. Users can ‘unsend’ an email by tapping the send button 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 20 seconds, or 30 seconds before it is delivered to…
Panda, a South African startup, has launched a mental health support app that provides users with online tools, activities, and support to help them manage their mental health. Panda is the brainchild of Alon Lits, former GM and director of Uber South Africa, and Allan Sweidan, a mental health expert and clinical psychologist who co-founded…
eHealth Africa is a non-governmental organization that was founded in 2009 with a simple goal in mind: to provide access to healthcare to hard-to-reach communities and underserved areas in Africa. To effectively design, implement, manage, and evaluate health projects, the organization employs appropriate technology. With offices in Kano and Abuja, eHealth Africa has projects in…
Wages for formal-sector employees in Nigeria are paid monthly; however, wages for informal-sector employees are paid daily. When salaried employees are unable to make ends meet between paydays, they now have three options: borrow, take out a loan, or request a salary advance. However, most loans have exorbitant interest rates, and salary advance schemes can…
Thanks to cutting-edge 3D printing technology, a new neighborhood near Mombasa, Kenya, will be built in record time. 14Trees, a joint venture between Holcim and CDC Group, the UK’s development finance institution, announced today that it will develop Africa’s largest 3D-printed affordable housing project. The 52-house Mvule Gardens project will be built in Kilifi, Kenya,…
Living with a disability can mean different things to different people. Faustina Urassa, Programme Officer at Tanzania’s Kilimanjaro Association of Spinal Cord Injury (KASI), sees it as an opportunity to assist others who have lost their ability to walk. Urassa teaches people with spinal cord injuries how to use wheelchairs. “If you have the appropriate…
Chatbots—artificial intelligence (AI) systems that enable customer engagement via SMS, speech, or chat applications like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp—are becoming a popular way for businesses to interact with their customers. While chatbots are not widely used by businesses in Africa at the moment, a number of African startups are working to expand this AI use…
Facebook Messenger announced today that it is beginning to test a new “Split Payments” feature that allows users to split the cost of bills and expenses via the app. According to the company, the new feature is a “free and quick” way to manage finances through Messenger. The new feature will be available to US…
Microsoft has adopted a new aggressive strategy to discourage users from downloading Google’s Chrome Web browser. When users try to download Chrome using Microsoft Edge, the Redmond-based company now displays prompts that discourage them from downloading and installing Google’s Web browser. The prompts are available for both Windows 10 and Windows 11, though only a…
Zindi is all about using artificial intelligence to solve real-world problems for businesses and individuals. And the crowd-solving startup from South Africa has done just that in the three years they’ve been in business. Last year, a team of data scientists led by Zindi used machine learning to improve air quality monitoring in Kampala, while…
In a future update, Android Auto will receive a slew of new features. Following the update, users will be able to send quick replies to messages via their vehicle’s touchscreen. Previously, Android Auto users could only respond to messages with their voice. Furthermore, Google announced that Android Auto can now be set to launch automatically,…
According to reports, YouTube Premium subscribers on Android and iOS will soon be able to use the ‘Listening Controls’ feature. The new feature gives users more control over their music listening experience on the platform. It allows you to play, pause, fast forward, and rewind videos. When you enable this new feature, it will replace…
Tesla has quietly launched the Cyberquad for Kids, just in time for the holiday season in the United States. The Cyberquad for Kids is an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) based on the Tesla Cybertruck. It is powered by a lithium-ion battery that can travel up to 15 miles (24 kilometers) on a single charge. Tesla‘s Cyberquad…
Last Friday was a memorable event for the team as Data Science Nigeria (DSN) celebrated five years of innovation and impact while pursuing its overall goal of raising one million Artificial Intelligence (AI) talents and leading the development of AI solutions that improve the quality of life and wellbeing of over two billion people in…
Arnergy, a leading distributed utility company that provides solar energy solutions, has announced the launch of the Diaspora Initiative – a ground-breaking program that allows the global Nigerian diaspora to invest in solar energy solutions on behalf of local individuals and businesses. The Diaspora Initiative, the first of its kind from an African solar company,…
A mega yacht has been sold for a whopping $650,000 in the Sandbox virtual gaming world. This virtual luxury ship, which is part of the metaverse, is called the “Metaflower Super Mega Yacht,” and it has two helipads, hot tubs, and a DJ booth, among other lavish amenities. The Metaflower yacht has become the most…
Even though it lacks a few key capabilities, Samsung’s Internet browser improves with each iteration. We revealed earlier this month that Samsung is testing a few features with the beta version of the browser, but there was no indication of when they would be made available to everyone. It appears that today is the day…
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….
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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….
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…
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…
SIMcontrol, a leading mobile data connectivity platform for African enterprises, has announced the release of its fully-managed mobile APN product, which connects company data SIM cards through a private and secure virtual network. The new APN-as-a-Service allows data to be pooled across multiple mobile networks. This enables businesses to more effectively manage deployed mobile data…
Olarm, a home and business security startup, provides users with easy control over their alarm systems via its app. The Olarm app allows users to remotely view and control their alarm system from their smartphone, just like a traditional key panel, but it also includes additional features such as alarm status such as arming, disarming,…