The Lagos State Government has introduced Edutainment – the process of entertaining the pupils while also teaching them at the same time – to enhance better understanding and a further improvement in teaching and learning abilities of teachers and pupils. Speaking at the Y2021 Lagos State Festival of Instructional Materials held Wednesday at the Adeyemi-Bero Auditorium, Alausa,…
Nigerian e-commerce platform, MallforAfrica has announced the shut down of its operations. The MallforAfrica app is no longer on the Google Playstore and Apple Store. A closure notice written on its website read this: “Dear Amazing Customers, At this time MallforAfrica is no longer taking any orders. We appreciate your patronage over the years and…
Earlier this week, the SQUID cryptocurrency, inspired by popular Netflix series Squid Game, raised scam suspicions after its value dipped by 99.99 percent and its website went defunct. Now, the trading value of this Squid token has soared by 600 percent in the last 24 hours, data by CoinMarketCap revealed on Thursday. Currently, the token…
Google trends have shown a surprising increased interest in Halloween by Nigerians. Google Search queries in the week leading up to 31 October 2021 showed top searches like ‘When is Halloween?’, ‘Halloween meaning’ and ‘History of Halloween’ Halloween, regarded as a Western tradition, is celebrated each year on 31 October in the United Kingdom (UK), Ireland, Scotland,…
Applications for Google’s three-month virtual accelerator programme are now open to startups located in Algeria, Botswana, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. Successful early-growth stage startup applicants (from seed to Series A) will gain access to equity-free support alongside the best of Google’s…
South African startup FinMeUp has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding to help it add a host of new features to its financial education platform. Launched last year by Higgo van Biljon, FinMeUp has developed a gamified app that aims to take users, either entrepreneurs or investors, on a journey from education to execution. The startup…
AURA, one of South Africa’s leading security and medical response marketplaces, has appointed David Myers as its COO. Previously a GM and Regional Operations Lead at Uber for Europe, Middle East & Africa, Myers brings with him decades of experience that will stand him in perfect stead for this position, according to a statement from…
I have read and digested the very comprehensive independent submission made by e-Live consultant, Kelvin Mulungwe on the e-commerce race in Africa between Jumia and Konga. The submission is one I recommend for all young African entrepreneurs who want to mount the global stage as successful entrepreneurs. This is a very important investigation which basically…
The company formerly known as Facebook just announced its plans to sneak around Apple’s infamous platform fees, the latest beat in an ongoing war between major software companies and the creator of iOS. In a Facebook post Wednesday, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg said that the social network would give eligible creators on its platform new custom links that allow…
Twitter has been steadily updating its rebuilt API following its mid-2020 relaunch. Most recently, the company added support for Twitter Spaces to its developer platform. Today, it’s announcing support that will enable developers to build better Twitter bots by launching new end points that allow you to tweet, delete tweets, post polls, use Reply settings and tag people in images….
Netflix on Tuesday released a set of mobile games playable for free by subscribers of the global streaming service as it strives to be the go-to venue for entertainment. Two of the games are based on the hit Netflix horror series “Stranger Things” and the remaining three are basic card or skill games, according to…
Egyptian tech startups have raised almost US$800 million between them since January 2015, with more than 50 per cent of that – over US$400 million – having been secured in the first three quarters of this year. That is according to the newly-released Egyptian Startup Ecosystem Report 2021 from Disrupt Africa, which dives into the local ecosystem by…
Kenyan startup WorkPay, which builds human resources (HR) and payroll solutions for Africa, has expanded into Nigeria. Originally called TozzaPlus until it rebranded in 2019, WorkPay is a cloud-based human resources management and payroll solution for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in Africa. The startup’s time tracking and salary disbursement tools help African businesses save money and time…
An innovation incubation centre funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) has been launched at the Pan African University Institute for Basic Sciences, Technology and Innovation (PAUSTI) at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Nairobi, aimed at promoting innovation development, market linkages, and technology transfer. The PAUSTI Incubation Centre of Excellence has been set up…
At the National Conference of Startups “Algeria Disrupt 2020,” the Algerian Startup Financing Fund was officially launched. The fund, which has raised $7.2 million in its first year, will focus on the country’s most innovative startups. Yacine El Mahdi Walid, Minister Delegate to the Prime Minister, remarked on the sidelines of the occasion that the…
Credit startup, Payhippo has announced a $3 million seed funding raise. This brings the fintech startup’s total raise to $4 million in just four months. It raised $1m pre-seed for its large scale expansion in July. The round was led by influential African fintech founders and financial leaders Ham Serunjogi and Maijid Moujaled, co-founders Chipper Cash. Other investors include…
Microsoft SwiftKey keyboard app is getting a new Cloud Clipboard feature that allows users to copy and paste texts between Android and Windows. Microsoft has updated the SwiftKey Keyboard with version 7.9.0.5. Once the latest version is installed, users will be able to copy text to their Android smartphone or tablet clipboard and paste it…
ShipBlu, an Egypt-based e-commerce startup backed by Y Combinator, has raised a $2.4 million seed round headed by Nama Ventures, with participation from 1984 Ventures, Orange Ventures, Starling Ventures, and other VCs and angel investors. ShipBlu is designed to provide a one-of-a-kind e-commerce shipping experience. ShipBlu uses its fleets to deliver shipments on schedule, thanks…
After Facebook changed its name to Meta to reflect its engagement with the metaverse, Microsoft too is gearing up to launch its own version, which is likely to focus on the corporate world. Speaking about the metaverse, a space where digital avatars of people interact at work and play, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella tweeted that…
Just days after rebranding itself, Facebook announced plans to delete a trove of the most worrisome data that the world’s biggest social network collected on more than a billion individuals. In a blog post Tuesday, Facebook’s newly named parent company Meta explained that it would close shop on its facial recognition systems and delete a massive collection…
Microsoft is bringing back Google Wave, the doomed real-time messaging and collaboration platform Google launched in 2009 and prematurely shuttered in 2010. Maybe we should’ve seen this coming. Back in 2019, Microsoft announced the Fluid Framework (not to be confused with the Fluent design system). The idea here was nothing short of trying to re-invent the nature of business documents…
The Femtech Accelerator Program, launched by Organon and Flat6Labs, aims to help female-founded digital health start-ups in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) flourish by assisting them in developing products, determining market fit, and improving business models. Organon, a global healthcare company with the mission of making every woman’s day better and healthier, has…
The Information Security Society of Africa-Nigeria (ISSAN) has expressed worry about Nigeria’s leading role in online fraud in Africa. ISSAN, which claimed that some $2 trillion was at risk, said all efforts must be harnessed to correct the menace. The President of ISSAN, Dr. David Isiavwe, who disclosed this at a webinar, organised by the…
Airtel Africa and UNICEF have announced a new five-year pan-African partnership to help accelerate the roll-out of digital learning through connecting schools to the internet and ensuring free access to learning platforms across 13 countries. Airtel Africa, a leading provider of telecommunications and mobile money services in Africa, is the first African private sector partner…
Telkom Kenya Limited, the Helios Investment Partners and Government of Kenya joint venture, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Ericsson, the telecommunications company, and NEC XON, the systems integrator, to add 2,000 wireless sites onto Telkom Kenya’s network by 2023. The approximately $100-million nationwide rollout is part of Telkom Kenya’s long-term network expansion…
Standard Bank, Africa’s largest bank by assets, has partnered with Flutterwave, Africa’s leading payments technology company, to enhance digital payments across Africa. Flutterwave and Standard Bank are collaborating to build e-commerce, card issuing, payments, collections, USSD, lending, and buy-now-pay-later capabilities for customers in Nigeria, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana, Mauritius, Cote D’Ivoire and Malawi. The integration will help customers…
Nigerian startup AmplifiHub has developed an online platform that empowers music producers, arrangers and songwriters in Africa to connect with more customers and make more money. Founded in 2019, AmplifiHub provides musicians with revenue generating opportunities like owning an online beat store, connects them with potential customers via a chat feature, and helps them collaborate with creative…
Online giant Google and Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani opened advance orders in India on Monday for an entry-level smartphone billed as the world’s most affordable, joining the race to tap into the booming budget market. Ambani’s conglomerate Reliance Industries announced in July last year that it would partner with Google to launch the 4G…
Applications are open for the Yunus Environment Hub’s GrowUp incubation programme, which is seeking solutions for sustainable food systems in East Africa. The Yunus Environment Hub (YEH) is the global social business network that creates solutions for the environmental crisis. Co-founded and led by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus, the YEH supports and develops social…
Five tech-enabled Kenyan startups have been selected for the second edition of the NINJA Accelerator, embarking on a 12-week programme that concludes with a demo day in January. Powered by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in partnership with Double Feather Partners, Deloitte Tohmatsu and GrowthAfrica, the NINJA Accelerator helps startups address specific issues in order to help…