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Last week it was Spotify Greenroom. Yesterday morning, Facebook officially launched Live Audio Rooms. Another Clubhouse competitor.
It also began rolling out its new podcast listening experience that lets users listen to podcast episodes while they browse Facebook.
In today’s edition:
- This Nigerian-Taiwanese couple and their love for online gaming
- How do you avoid investment scams?
- Airtel Nigeria makes health insurance available via USSD
- Shopify is now a payment company too
This Nigerian-Taiwanese couple and their love for online gaming
In an exam hall in 2012, Olaide met the woman he would one day marry. When they started dating, he introduced Ying-Yi (who is half-Nigerian and half-Taiwanese) to online gaming. Now married, they are an ardent gaming couple.
Seven years later
In 2019, when Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf a 16-year-old got $3 million for winning a fornite tournament, Olaide Akanji was part of that tournament. He even made it to the top 1,000, out of the initial 80 million people who started, before dropping off.
On TechRepublic, a weekly radio show, the couple share the story of their love for gaming with the radio show hosts and Alex.
What’s it like being a Nigerian online gamer?
Olaide: I have been playing video games since I was a kid. My first Playstation 2 was from my dad. I became very good at gaming but I felt it couldn’t take me anywhere because our 300kbps internet was so bad. Playing online was just impossible.
Then I moved to the UK to study software engineering and everything was better. I dived into e-sports and built a following on Twitch. But I was not comfortable with a foreign audience. Gaming was more fun when I moved back. I could chat and banter on my streams in Pidgin and Yoruba.
Our problem here is that when you click on a button for any of those actions, it needs to travel to a server in Europe before it returns to Nigeria. And if you are playing against someone in Europe, their ping is much faster. I may shoot him first but it may not get to him when I do; then he shoots a second later and wins. That’s why you have not seen Nigerians breakthrough internationally.
Read more: A Nigerian-Taiwanese couple, on their love for online gaming
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🏾 Learn more at paystack.com/storefrontHow do you avoid scams in Nigeria?
“Do you want to double your money in 10 days?”
Investment scams tend to start off the same way.
Whether it’s a social media advert or a video of a celebrity telling you that an ‘investment platform’ made them millionaires overnight.
They all echo an alarming promise: “give us your money and we will give you more returns than you’ve ever seen in the market – oh and did we mention your money is sure to come back to you?”
But…
Investment is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It requires work. The work on your part as the investor is to perform due diligence and ensure your money is going to the right place.
In this article, Edwin spoke to finance experts who shared tips on how to spot and avoid investment scams in Nigeria
Airtel Nigeria makes health insurance available via USSD
Airtel has collaborated with AXA Mansard, a leading healthcare service provider, to launch a new service that gives its Nigerian subscribers access to health insurance through their mobile phones.
How it works: By dialling the short code *987*7#, Airtel users can now enroll for health insurance plans from AXA Mansard, with access to over 1,000 hospitals nationwide for healthcare services.
What it covers: Some of the covers provided in the AXA Mansard Health plans include malaria cover, inpatient, outpatient, specialist medical consultations, immunizations, family planning, ambulance services, dental care, etc.
Why it matters: Despite the importance of having a health insurance plan, the uptake of insurance products among most Nigerians has been consistently low. As of 2018, about 97% of Nigerians covered in a survey did not have any health insurance.
We are excited to be partnering with Fintech Week London to give our community 15% off with the code TechCabal15. Taking place 12-16 July, Fintech Week London explores the biggest trends in financial services including big tech and big banks, open banking, digital identity and much more. For the full agenda and to register go to https://fintechweek.london.
Shopify is now a payment company too
Last week Shopify changed from being just an e-commerce company to also being a payments company.
How?
It announced Shopify’s one-click checkout (Shopify Pay) will become available to all merchants selling on Facebook and Google—even if they don’t use Shopify. This is the first time that a Shopify product will be available to merchants who don’t use Shopify to manage their stores
The stats: In 2013, it launched Shopify Payments – an easy checkout solution for merchants. Two years later, when Shopify went public, revenue from payment was $38m. Last year, that revenue jumped to $2b.
Zoom out: Currently, Shopify powers over 1.7 million businesses in more than 175 countries, with its new partnership with Facebook and Google its customer base is expected to snowball.
Shopify’s expansion is also an attempt by Facebook, Google, and Shopify to take on Amazon.
Event: Digital Africa
If you’re young, skillful in the area of technology and looking for an exciting new career in a dynamic, fast-paced environment abroad, then you should probably consider Europe. Getting a job in Europe is now made easy through the help of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
To know more about the IOM Match Project, register for and attend the three-day Digital Africa Conference and Exhibition starting today, June 22nd.
Happening this Friday
This Friday, June 25th at 11 am (WAT), Tayo Oviosu – Founder/CEO, Paga will speak on TechCabal Live.
Tayo will speak about some of the partnerships that have been pivotal to Paga’s growth and what it took to find and cultivate them. He will also share useful tips for fintech startups looking to scale through partnerships.
He will be joined by Tomilola Majekodunmi – Co-founder/CEO, Bankly; Elsa Muzzolini – General Manager (Mobile Financial Services) – MTN Nigeria; Abubakar Suleiman – CEO, Sterling Bank; and Tosin Osibodu, Co-founder and CEO of Chaka
The event will be moderated by Mayowa Kuyoro, Partner and Head of West Africa Financial Services at McKinsey & Company.
If you’re an innovator in the fintech space, work in financial services, or are simply eager to learn how growth and collaboration work in Africa’s financial sector, then you should join this webinar.
Registerhere.
This event is brought to you in partnership with Chaka and will offer expert insights from McKinsey & Company.
Note:By clicking on the registration link for this event, you’ve indicated interest in the event and will get an invite to attend. To opt-out, please ignore the invite.
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