Hey there! Today’s TechCabal digest is brought to you by DIYlaw; get N2000 off your next company incorporation here with our coupon code – DIYLAWTC. Here’s everything interesting in African technology today.

Monday…arghhh. Grab your coffee, let’s go.

1. 500 Startups’ Geeks on A Plane Africa tour begins today in Lagos. Details in the events section. And I can tell you that the only way to escape the GOAP train (if for some weird reason, you are so inclined) is to leave Lagos this week. I can’t find the full schedule in one place, but Dave McClure and his posse intend to hit as many places as they can. Tech hubs, restaurants, “Nollywood” (unlike Hollywood, it has no real address).

+ This morning, Bankole will be presenting an introduction to the Lagos technology ecosystem at the first event, at which he will either make history or be exposed for a hack who has no clue what they’ve been talking about for the past five years. He’s not nervous at all. If you really care, hit reply and he might send you the current slide preview.

2. Post mortem: Hypercube, a Zimbabwean technology hub shut down in December of 2015. It wasn’t clear why at the time, except that it had somehow run out of steam. Less than two years later, an audit that was commissioned after the fact is reporting donor fund mismanagement. Bah. Link

3. In other tech hub news, Lagos’ iDEA Hub is not shutting down. They are just moving. From Yaba to Victoria Island, which is rather counter-intuitive if those places mean anything to you (it’s kind of like a tech hub moving from Silicon Valley to Wall Street), and I haven’t had time to ask why, but moving is not the same thing as shutting down, abeg.

4. Congratulations, Mr Biya, you’re making history, shutting down the Anglophone Cameroon’s internet for more than two months. Soon, you’ll be officially channelling the DPRK’s dear leader.

Are you awake yet? Other things happening…

+ We’re still keeping an eye on Etisalat Nigeria versus banks, don’t touch that dial.

+ Not quite the tweet of the week, but South Africa telco market share numbers are interesting. And the fact that both of SA’s two top telcos are roughly equal to the size of MTN’s subscriber base in Nigeria.

+ Kangpe, Nigerian health tech startup helps patients get in touch with doctors and is in the current YCombinator cohort just got its obligatory TechCrunch feature. Link

+ Like his former MTN Group boss, former MTN ZA CEO, Mteto Nyati doesn’t like South Africa’s proposed ICT policy. It could devastate the economy, he is reported to have said. Link

+ Strikes be damned, Uber’s food delivery service is expanding to Pretoria. Let them eat. Link

+ Filed under stuff you can’t make up is the African trade event in the U.S that had no Africans, because they couldn’t get visas. This isn’t a drill, people. Africa-conference-that-isn’t-happening-in-Africa organisers, take note. Link 

+Chuka Ofili is hosting a two-day masterclass for technical leads and serious backend developers in Lagos on the 24th and 25th. It’s free, but there’s only 30 seats. Do yourself (or a friend) a favour and apply to attend. Link.


This April, ChatClass NG is offering a 2-month program designed to develop and support social media managers. The program will feature a thorough masterclass, real-life assessments and internships. Apply here if you’re interested. Deadline’s April 1st.


Hot topics on Radar

+ Nothing to see here, check back tomorrow. Or check for yourself, you might see something we didn’t.

Upcoming events…

Lagos: Geeks On a Plane Africa tour, March 20 – March 23. Link.

Lagos:

Silicon Yaba townhall meeting at CcHub, March 21. Link.

Accra: British Council Enterprise Africa Summit, March 22 – March 24. Link.

Dublin: Women in Tech Africa Ireland chapter meetup, March 22. Link.

Lagos: Cashless Africa Conference, March 22 – 23. Link.

Accra: Geeks On a Plane Africa tour, March 23 – March 25. Link.

Lagos: Innovention Series 2017, March 23. Link.

Lusaka: Demo Africa Innovation Tour, March 23. Link.

Stellenbosch: Launchlab water and waste management challenge workshop, March 23. Link

Lagos: ReCode Nigeria hackathon, March 24. Link.

Lagos: DevOps with Chuka, Mach 24 – March 25. Link.

Lagos: She Codes Africa, March 25. Link.

Kaduna: Facebook bot party at CoLab, March 25. Link.

Lagos:  Startup Grind with Chris Kwekowe, March 25. Link.

Osogbo: Django Girls free programming workshop for women, March 25. Link.

Upcoming deadlines

West Africa Mobile Awards 2017, March 24. Link.

Please help our events aggregation algorithm get smarter! Add your event

Thanks for reading!

You might feel that March is matching all over you, but this week will be great, we promise. Also, if you got that joke, we wonder about you…chances are you’re an extra tacky Nigerian. Or you’ve been around Nigerians too long. Don’t let that stop you from sharing the digest, though.

Tola helped write today’s edition, but just in case you were wondering, the bad joke, the lack of a fun GIF, five-minute delay, and any other bloopers you might spot when you read this are definitely Bankole’s fault.

Hey! Catch up on all things African tech in today’s TechCabal daily digest here – 

Bankole Oluwafemi Author

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