Year 6 | Edition 6 | 17 February 2023
 

GetFundedAfrica, uqudo partner to promote technological advancement in Africa

GetFundedAfrica, Africa’s tech-based marketplaces for founders, angel investors and venture capitalists, has partnered with uqudo, EMEA’s innovative digital identity companies, to promote digital identity and technological advancement on the African continent.

GetFundedAfrica connects African founders with global mentors, coaches, corporates, investors, and governments. Its community boasts 2,500+ startups and 50, 000 SMEs across the African continent. uqudo has had a long heritage of...

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Mastercard Trust Centre partners with Nigerian fintech startup NowNow to improve cybersecurity for SMEs

Mastercard has partnered with Nigerian digital payment startup NowNow, to help SMEs reduce the risk of cyberattacks. There has been a significant increase in cybercrime in recent years.

According to the Nigerian Communications Commission, Nigeria loses an estimated USD500, 000, 000 (Five Hundred Million United States Dollars) yearly due to cybercrime. SMEs are a huge target for cybercriminals as they typically do not have the resources to defend themselves or to act accordingly once they have been breached. NowNow supports SMEs with...

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Central Bank of Nigeria renews Cellulant’s payment service solution provider license

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has renewed Cellulant’s Payment Service Solution Provider License in Nigeria. This license enables Cellulant to continue providing online and offline payment solutions, including collections, check-out, biller aggregation, and payout services securely to thousands of businesses across Nigeria.

Cellulant’s digital payments platform, Tingg (www.Tingg.Africa)- enables businesses to seamlessly accept and make payments offline and online. A single integrated digital payments solution, Tingg addresses the complex...

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[Kenya] Insurtech startup Lami joins forces with Unchorlight to provide insurance covers for Boda Boda riders

Digital insurance provider Lami Technologies is partnering with Unchorlight Kenya (UNK), to provide boda boda riders in the country with access to suitable and reliable insurance covers. UNK is a mobility fintech company that delivers a rent-to-own model finance service known as ZARIBEE for boda boda riders in Kenya.

ZARIBEE services aim to empower riders with easier access to motorcycles by supporting them with affordable digital credit to acquire riders’ “own bikes'' and accelerate the power of the country by supporting them to form a “reliable community”...

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African identity verification platform Smile Identity raises $20 million funding for Pan-African expansion

Smile Identity, Africa's KYC onboarding and identity verification platform, has announced the successful completion of its Series B funding round, raising $20 million.

Led by Costanoa and Norrsken22, with participation from Commerce Ventures, Courtside Ventures, Two Culture Capital, Valuestream Ventures, Intercept Ventures, Latitude, Future Africa, and 500 Fintech. Lexi Novitske from Norrsken22 will also join Smile Identity's Board as part of the Series B. This brings Smile Identity's total funding to $31 million, including...

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Mart Networks launches distribution of Ring Home Security products in Kenya

Mart Networks, a value-added technology distributor, has launched the distribution in Kenya of select devices of Ring LLC,  a home security and smart home company owned by Amazon.

The launch follows a partnership agreement signed recently between the two entities, in which Mart Networks will offer Ring devices for the first time in Kenya, delivering home security solutions that are accessible and effective. Ring provides reliable, easy-to-install do-it-yourself (DIY) home...

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Treepz launches in Kenya as it continues its African expansion plan

Treepz which was founded in September 2019 in Nigeria, has announced today that it has further expanded its operations in East Africa, with a focus on Kenya, just over a year after launching in Uganda and Ghana.

With the launch of Treepz Kenya, it is the company’s 4th country where it operates from in 3 years. This new expansion follows  investments made in Treepz in the last couple of months led by GIIG Africa Fund along with MoAngels, Roselake VC, Unpopular VC, Goodwater Capital and BKR Capital...

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SC Ventures partners with Yabx to expand access to financial services in Africa

SC Ventures , the innovation, fintech investment and ventures arm of Standard Chartered, has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Yabx , a company incubated by Comviva and part of the Mahindra Group , to address a deep need for responsible consumer finance in Africa.

Africa has more than 700 million mobile wallets and around 450 million bank accounts, but access to formal credit remains severely limited due to poor credit infrastructure and the slowly evolving risk appetite of financial services players...

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Mastercard partners with Copal to launch Egypt’s first family payments mobile application

Copal, Egypt’s first digital payment solutions application specifically designed for families, has entered into a strategic partnership with Mastercard to introduce the first family payment and expenses management application in Egypt.

This seamless solution aims to further drive financial inclusion in the country through the integration of underbanked youth into the formal economy. The introduction of Copal in the Egyptian market is designed to provide a seamless and innovative cashless experience for all family members...

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Switchcom Distribution and Tarana announce partnership to expand next-generation fixed wireless in South Africa

Switchcom Distribution, a South African information and communications technology distributor, and Tarana, manufacturer of the carrier-grade Gigabit 1 (G1) next-generation fixed wireless access (ngFWA) platform, are partnering to bridge the digital divide in Southern Africa.

Switchcom is adding the Tarana G1 platform to their product portfolio. The industry technology allows operators to deliver reliable, high-speed internet, in either 3 GHz licensed or 5 GHz license-exempt spectrum, resulting in an unparalleled user...

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Cybersecurity firm Infopercept appoints Jitendra Bulani as CMO

Cybersecurity solutions and services company Infopercept Consulting has today announced the appointment of Jitendra Bulani as Chief Marketing Officer. Bulani brings 15 years of global marketing experience at cybersecurity companies.

He will be responsible for driving awareness and demand for Infopercept’s offensive security, defensive security and security compliance solutions as well as services globally. Prior to joining Infopercept, Bulani was at Sophos for more than...

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Nigerian digital bank Umba launches its operations in Kenya

Umba, a pan-African digital bank that acquired Kenya’s Daraja Microfinance Bank last year has officially launched its operations in the country. The financial institution has been operating only in Nigeria but has its eyes set on several African markets.

The move now enables Umba to offer full banking services in Kenya, including current accounts insured by the Kenya Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC), interest-bearing savings accounts, fixed deposit accounts, lending, and...

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Kenya's data center market to generate over $100 million in revenue by end of 2027, report

Kenya's data center market is at a growing stage, being driven by the growing demand from SMEs and rising internet penetration rate. Major Data Center companies in the Kenyan market are icolo.io, IX Africa, Africa Data Centers, PAIX (Pan African IX Data Centers Kenya Ltd.) among others.

Kenyans' preference for mobile commerce is expected to lead to an increase in the demand for data centers in the nation. Additionally, new entrants are significantly accelerating market expansion in the upcoming years by meeting the demands...

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[Interview] Seyi J. Matanmi, Founder, Hosteet, Nigeria

Seyi J. Matanmi is a technology product developer and entrepreneur. Educated in software development, research and analytics, he currently leads the cloud services outfit, Hosteet, operating out of Lagos, Nigeria.

Please introduce your company, how it came to be and what you do.

Hosteet was founded with the mission of making it easy for businesses to take advantage of the power and scalability of the cloud. We started out as a small team of tech enthusiasts, and now we've grown to become a leading provider of cloud hosting solutions. Our services include a range of products...

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[Interview] Gbolahan Tobi Ayediran, MD, Suit-U Travels, Nigeria

Gbolahan Tobi Ayediran is a Nigerian entrepreneur and the founder of an NGO dedicated to creating support and opportunities for widows and orphans, while running an agency for travel and tourism.

Could you tell us about your company?

We are a travel agency founded in 2018 in Lagos, Nigeria, with the aim of contributing effortlessly to the travel world by creating strong relationships between the countries of the world. Suit-u Travels provides all travel needs to all members of the public, individuals and corporate entities...

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[Column] Anna Collard: ChatGPT: What cybersecurity dangers lurk behind this impressive new technology?

It is now possible to use a publicly available artificial chatbot to generate a complete infection chain, possibly beginning with a spear phishing email written in entirely convincing, human-like language and eventually causing a complete takeover of a company’s computer systems.

Researchers at Checkpoint recently created such a plausible phishing email as a test. They only used ChatGPT, a chatbot that uses deep learning techniques to generate text and conversations that can convince basically anyone that it was...

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[Column] Lelen Udayan: Achieving a frictionless customer experience in fintech

By definition, a truly frictionless customer experience (CX) is unobtainable even though it is the end state every fintech company strives for.

Along the way, the focus falls on providing enhanced experiences that stem from the points of friction identified across the customer journey. In doing so, businesses can improve on the products, processes, and services they deliver. According to Gartner, this requires fintechs to remove the elements that create unnecessary friction or make it...

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[Column] Rebatho Madiba: Digital transformation is nearly a teenager

In 2015, the World Economic Foundation identified six megatrends that were set to change the face of business and society and every single one was aligned with the concept of digital transformation.

From how the internet would become a social and physical extension of people’s lives and experiences through to compute and storage everywhere to the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) and the digitisation of matter, these trends are now an inherent part of society today...

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[Column] Pierre Havenga: The data center revolution in Africa – deploying technology for tomorrow

Africa is rapidly emerging as a major player in the global data center market, with a number of countries investing heavily in the development of data centers.

This growth is being driven by a number of factors, including the increasing demand for cloud-based services, the growth of the digital economy, and the increasing adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. The data center revolution in Africa has become a crucial step towards deploying technology for tomorrow. With the rapid growth of digital transformation in...

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[Column] Didi Onwu: Understanding youth entrepreneurship in Kenya - why FinTech is an attractive sector

Boasting one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa, Kenya is on the rise to become a powerhouse of innovation on the continent. This is largely in part due to the country’s thriving culture of entrepreneurship and its significant startup ecosystem.

Kenya has a long and storied history with entrepreneurship as the country’s early start to independence led to the growth of its informal sector and meant many Kenyans were self-employed in their own small enterprises. As such...

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[Column] Anthony Mwangi: Why Kenya needs a stable and predictable tax regime

The importance of predictable and stable policies in driving the realization of a country’s socio-economic goals cannot be over emphasized. One of the key elements on this front is taxation, which is fundamental for any Government raising revenue.

It is through taxation that the Government works towards the efficient provision of public goods and services. To the investors, a stable tax regime allows businesses to consciously make investment decisions without worrying about the...

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