Digest

TechCabal Daily: “Injects”, “pumps” or “pours”?

By Tola Agunbiade Apr 12, 2017

Hey there! Here’s everything interesting in African technology today. Not subscribed? Click here to get this goodness in your mailbox every day at 7am (GMT + 1).

Today’s Wednesday…

1. Naspers has invested the sum of $69 million into South African online retailer, Takealot, making Naspers Takealot’s single largest shareholder. This new investment will see Naspers own about 50% of the company. The first one occurred in 2015 and it was worth $51 million.

+ I love how htxt reported this. In their words, “Naspers pours almost R1 billion to grow Takealot.com”. There’s “injects,” “pumps,” and now “pours” because, you know, money get levels.

2. In more funding news, Nigerian online comic startup Comic Republic has raised funding from two investors – angel investor Tseyi Hammond, and Nigerian stationery brand, Aviva. The amount raised wasn’t disclosed but we know each investor contributed “seven-digit Naira investments .” The plan? Moar African-inspired comics.

3. Alliance for Affordable Internet has released their 2017 Affordability report. The verdict? Just 5 out of the 27 African countries surveyed have “affordable” internet (Affordable internet = 1GB of mobile prepaid data for 2% or less of the average monthly income). These countries are Mauritius, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, and Sudan.

+ Other fun facts – 1GB of mobile prepaid data costs an average citizen nearly 18% of their monthly income, 25% of the African population is online, there’s a 16% mobile broadband penetration rate, and the internet gender use gap is at a rate of 23%.

4. 85 Days – That’s how long internet has been down in Anglophone Cameroon. #BringBackOurInternet

Want to get into photography, but don’t have an expensive DSLR right now? Learn how to take amazing photos at the SmartPhone Photography Workshop By WakaFire on the 12th of April. Register here!

Other interesting things…

+ The Great Emmanuel Quartey (I’m the only one who calls him that), shared the 8 marketing tools he uses to run The Flint. Why he chose them, how he set them up, and how they help him automate subscriber acquisition and engagement. Link.

+ Black Rhino VR, a company that produces virtual reality videos for clients, is the brainchild of Brian Afande, Dan Nduati, and Micheal Ilako. The Kenyan startup wants to change the African narrative, one VR video at a time, and they are well on their way. Techweez’s Martin Gicheru wrote this wonderful piece about them. Link.

+ Word is, rent for office space & luxury homes in Nairobi has dropped due to oversupply and an exit of expatriates. Or at least that’s what this survey carried out by Knight Frank Africa says. Link.

+ Over in Nigeria, the Central Bank (CBN) has opened a special foreign exchange window for SMEs to buy $20,000 per quarter. This means small and medium enterprises will be able to import finished and/or semi-finished items not exceeding the sum of $20,000. This offer is available to enterprises with employee strength of between 10 to 199, and asset base of between N5 million to less than N500 million. Link.

+ Big Brother Nigeria (BBN) ended last Sunday, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to stop talking about it. Data is the new oil and BBN was one huge bloc. First, Rosebud Anwuri made a forecast about how the votes would be shared. It wasn’t quite accurate, but she still shared her methods. Link.

+ Then @zebbook shared his findings from tracking the BBNaija hashtag throughout the course of the show. Beautiful. Link.

+ Congrats to @iam_JayKay and team for winning the Konga university developer challenge, Game of Codes. Grand prize – N500,000 along with a paid opportunity to work with some of the best engineers in Nigeria. Link.

+ And finally, Kanye West’s favourite noises. HEH!

This Thursday’s Radar AMA will be with Ferdinand Ezeaniekwe. Ferdinand owns Ferdicon, an e-commerce site that sells phone cases, smartwatches, and computer accessories. Before launching Ferdicon, Ferdinand was as a vendor on other platforms like Jumia and Konga, but decided to venture out on his own after realising he had a strong enough customer base. He’ll be available to answer all your questions on Thursday at 2pm. Save the date!