All about Tech.
Google Trends publishes the top searches for every day of the week and covers 4 African countries in which it sees the most activity, namely Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. The top search trends from along the week provide an interesting insight into the minds of each country, what captivated users the most and what…
The 6th Orange Digital Center in Africa and the Middle East, which is committed to digital development and innovation and aims to teach young people in digital technology and improve their employability, was inaugurated by Orange Cameroon and the German Development Cooperation. The highest political and administrative authorities from Cameroon, Representatives of Germany and France in Cameroon,…
Nigerian retail-tech startup Alerzo has acquired fintech company Shago Payments as it looks to build on already impressive growth that saw its annualised September transaction volume exceed US$155 million. Founded in 2019, the Ibadan-based Alerzo is an all-in-one technology and services platform that transforms how Nigeria’s informal retail stores operate. Retailers can order stock, have it delivered…
In emerging economies, where spending billions to build public transit infrastructure can be out of reach, startups are using technology to meet the mobility needs of a rising urban middle class. Swvl, Treepz, Jatri, SafeBoda, Urbvan, Chalo and Buser are just a few of the startups that have popped up in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America in recent years, all with…
Google Search is undergoing a change that will allow users to continuously scroll results on mobile devices. With the latest update, Google Search on mobile will automatically list out more results when users scroll to the bottom of a results page. The new feature released by the search giant will eliminate the need to click…
According to Facebook vice president of global affairs Nick Clegg, Instagram will adopt new methods to steer kids away from hazardous content and encourage them to “take a break” from the platform. Haugen, a former Facebook product manager, testified before Congress on the company’s internal research that found Instagram to be hazardous, particularly for teen…
Mobile network provider, MTN Nigeria announced in a statement that the nationwide service outage that was experienced by its subscribers on Saturday, 9th October 2021 was a result of a disruption in its core network. The South African-owned company is the largest telecoms provider in Nigeria with about 71 million subscribers in Nigeria as at 2020. The outage…
Impact Africa Network is creating From Here Ventures, a $25 million venture capital fund that will invest in African firms. From Here Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in extraordinary entrepreneurs that are building revolutionary businesses in Africa. Impact Africa Network, a non-profit startup studio founded in 2019, is now in its…
You have heard about Rent Small Small, right? Well, the Nigerian property technology startup that is reorganising the home rental market has been accepted to join the Techstars Toronto Accelerator Programme starting this October. Rent Small Small is just celebrating its third year anniversary. Techstars is an operational investment company that helps founders and early-stage entrepreneurs scale their…
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has called on countries to make digital data flow for the benefit of all. On this, UNCTAD said the world needs a new global governance approach to enable digital data to flow across borders as freely as necessary and possible. The UN trade and development body…
Tech giant Microsoft has announced that it has expanded its Azure Availability Zones, making them generally available in the Johannesburg data centre region (SA North) of South Africa. Azure Availability Zones form an important building block of comprehensive business continuity and disaster recovery strategy by ensuring resiliency and availability of business-critical applications and data through modernised…
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos, professionals and experts in the technology sector have stressed the importance of technology in the drive towards the smart city project of the state. Specifically, Governor Sanwo-Olu expressed his administration’s commitment to greatly invest in technology, which according to him, is critical to the development of the state and nation…
A massive 2.4 terabytes per second (Tbps) Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack has been mitigated by Microsoft, the company says. The attack targeted an Azure customer in Europe and was 140% higher than the highest attack bandwidth volume Microsoft previously recorded in 2020. This attack occurred in early August of this year and is currently believed to have…
MTN Uganda is offering free shares to Kenyan investors in a bid to motivate them in buying stocks in the telecom firm. MTN Uganda yesterday opened an initial public offering (IPO) at $250-million yesterday. South Africa’s MTN Group is currently selling 4.47 billion shares in its Ugandan arm at a price of Ksh6.20 ($0.056) per…
Internet security provider Kaspersky has blocked more than 206,000 mobile malware attacks across the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (META) region in just 6-months measured, between January to June 2021. Out of these attacks, a combined 30,000 originated from Nigeria (14,071), Kenya (10,697), and South Africa (5,499), respectively. Significantly, for the African countries monitored, Nigeria…
There is a persistent issue when it comes to the lack of education and how it contributes to the cycle of poverty, especially in underdeveloped areas of the world. According to UNESCO, more than 617-million children worldwide are lacking knowledge in basic subjects. The situation is alarming in Sub-Saharan Africa where out of 100 children,…
The successful completion of the Azura Edo 450 MW gas-fired power project in 2016 was hailed at the time as setting the blueprint for future independent power projects in Nigeria. The $900-million plant, which gathered 20 international banks and equity financing partners from more than nine countries, took over six years of project development and…
Global biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) have announced a new partnership to establish connections between African healthcare innovators and AstraZeneca’s A.Catalyst Network of more than 20 global health innovation hubs. The joint venture seeks to drive the development of engineering solutions that have the potential to address local challenges with…
African unicorns have made big news in recent months, with four startups having recently reached a $1 billion valuation or more this year alone, taking the total up to seven. Two of the new entrants are in fintech, one in edtech, and one in general technology. These and other technology-enabled sectors are where emerging market investors are…
Kenyan logistics startup Sendy has completed a strategic equity investment in Ivory Coast-based counterpart Kamtar to boost the former’s expansion plans in West Africa. Launched in 2015, Sendy offers a marketplace for last-mile package delivery and logistics services, allowing customers to send packages and documents using a mobile application that connects them to motorcycle riders, and drivers…
From my perspective, GitOps has completely changed how to achieve flawless Continuous Delivery. The infrastructure as code (IaC) approach of the GitOps methodology has revolutionised the software delivery process. Through the utilisation of version control systems, particularly Git, GitOps revolutionises the way teams deploy and manage applications and infrastructure. Declarative infrastructure management principles and the…
The African tech startup space has continued to be dominated by financial technology companies. These fintech companies have gained more traction, attracted more funding and generally have positioned themselves as the beacons of the African tech space. ? All the top 6 funding raised on the continent so far in 2021 have been raised by…
Kenya is all about the news. No, literally, “Habari”, a common greeting in Swahili, means “Any news?” in English. Everyone has their favourite publication. And every publication has a different story. Data-driven digital media is taking the place of print in Kenya. As the world becomes busier and more digital, the consumption of media has…
From the energy that goes into making smartphones to the fact that even emails create carbon emissions, the world’s internet addiction comes with costs to the climate. But could digital technology be part of the solution to climate change, as well as the problem? Ahead of next month’s COP26 climate talks, AFP looks at five…
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…
MarketForce, the Kenya-based B2B platform for retail distribution of consumer goods and digital financial services, has made Nigeria its first port of expansion in the wake of its funding round. Co-founded in 2018 by Tesh Mbaabu and Mesongo Sibuti, MarketForce is a B2B retail marketplace that empowers informal merchants in Africa to source, order and pay for…
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…
Designing websites came naturally to Onyeka Akumah even as a college student, but his greatest epiphany was in a moving bus in Lagos. Today, his bus-hailing solution is going places. What do you get when you have a mother who wants you to make all the money in the world and a father who wants…
Google announced Thursday that it would no longer allow ads or monetization for content that promotes climate change denialism. The policy change will apply to publishers, advertisers and YouTube creators, who will no longer be able to make money from content that “contradicts well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change.” Google plans to…
Ghanaian startup Kaazi has launched the public beta of its football talent identification and recruitment platform, which will be available to all football players in Africa. Founded in July by Nana Yaw Oppong-Mensah, a former football player, coach and scout, Kaazi is a web-based platform that allows football players to build their own profiles by adding videos…