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.
South Africans at the moment…
It’s Wednesday…
1.Nigerian school management startup, Vericampus, has raised $60,000 in funding from BPI France, a French investment bank. This is a follow-on to their acceptance into the French Tech Ticket incubator programme earlier this year. According to Disrupt Africa, Vericampus will use the money to consolidate their presence in existing markets as well as expand operations in France and francophone Africa.
2. And the Nigerian government has finally presented grants worth N756 million to 81 young innovators who participated in the Aso Villa Demo Day (AVDD) event last year. Better late than never, right?
3. The London Stock Exchange has released its inaugural Companies to Inspire Africa 2017 report and it’s well worth a read. The report covers 42 African countries profiling the most inspiring and dynamic private, high-growth companies on the continent. There are, of course, the usual culprits – Jumia, Interswitch, ACE, M-Kopa, etc but also some interesting ones like Java House, Kiboko, Zoona, Kitea and many others.
+ It was interesting to see that Cameroon led the way in Central Africa, hosting eight of the 16 companies profiled in the region. It’s not hard to imagine what the 2-month internet shutdown in parts of the country must have done to their bottom line right now.
4. Today marks day 78 of the internet shutdown in Anglophone Cameroon. #
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.
Other interesting things…
+ South Africa is in a bit of a pickle at the moment. Last week, the president fired their finance minister and reshuffled 20 ministers and deputy ministers into new roles. The country’s currency has taken a turn for the worse since then and as at yesterday, rating agencies have downgraded its credit ratings to “junk status.”
+ Meanwhile, looks like Zimbabweans warned the South Africans but they didn’t listen.
+ There’s currently a meningitis outbreak in Northern Nigeria and the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control has been doing a good job of providing information and answering questions via its twitter account. Well done, guys.
+ Did I notice this because I’m (we’re) so used to bad service from public agencies? Most definitely.
+ IrokoTV is killing password sharing by limiting streaming to only one user per account.
+ Password sharing is almost synonymous with subscription services and it’s great that Iroko seems to have found a way to finally solve the problem. I reckon it will result in an increase in subscriber numbers.
+ While we’re on this matter, can we also have family/group plans?
+ Uganda’s Up Accelerate programme is now accepting applications into its second cohort. Young entrepreneurs with innovative ideas around sexual and reproductive health should apply here.
+ This was interesting to read even though I do not code… And I love the featured image – “The 100% Correct Coding Style Guide.”
+ I found out that Norway has a ‘Doomsday Vault’ to safeguard important data in case there’s an apocalypse, so naturally I’ll be sending in a few selfies for preservation #ForTheCulture
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Hot topics on Radar
+ This Thursday, we’re hosting Senior UX designer, Babusi Nyoni, on Radar. He’ll be answering your questions about big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence. He’ll also share his experience and best practices in user experience design, favourite design principles and his love for Kanye. Link
Upcoming events…
Abidjan: African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCA) conference, April 3rd to April 7th. Link
Lausanne: Seedstars World Summit, April 3rd to April 6th. Link
Ibadan: Data Hack Meetup, April 5th. Link
Lagos: IBM Bluemix Cloud Computing Platform Awareness Workshop, April 6th. Link
Cambridge: MIT Sloan Africa Innovate Conference 2017, April 7th to April 8th. Link
Lagos: Health x Tech Drinks, April 8th. Link
Lagos: Data Hack Meetup, April 8th. Link
Upcoming deadlines…
Urumuri Initiative: Applications close today. Link
Fincluders Startup Challenge: Application deadline is April 7th, 2017. Link
West Africa Global Impact Challenge: Applications close on April 7th. Link
That’s all folks!
Thanks for reading and sharing. Have a great day!
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