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).
1 – Profiling mobile internet users in Africa ?
Since we’ve established that Kenyans enjoy the fastest broadband speeds in Africa and we should all board family-sized carriages and move to Nairobi, what’s left to be known is what some internet users in Africa actually spend their time doing on the internet when they are on their mobile phones.
For one, based on insights gleaned from the top ten Google Play apps by country, WhatsApp appears to be the dominant app across five African countries — Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, SA, and Tanzania — surveyed by Afridigest. It’s also worth noting that Facebook owns half of the top ten apps in each of these countries.
The rankings also suggest that Kenya is a hotspot for micro-lending (Tala and Branch), ecommerce is popular with South Africans (Wish and Joom), and Tanzanians love their videos (Azam TV and ITV Tanzania). Source
2 – Damn your privacy ? ?
Word that the Nigerian Army has begun monitoring the activities of Nigerians on social media, isn’t the kind of thing you want floating around outside a Charlie Brooker script or a cyberpunk setting, but that seems to be the case at the moment. According to a report by Leaders NG, the Nigerian Army has said that it will start monitoring social media to sieve out ‘fake news and anti-government sentiments’, and react to them ‘appropriately’. And one way they will go about implementing this is through the development of “strategic media centers”. Link
Bonus: Uganda’s ethics conundrum
Uganda’s Minister of Ethics and Integrity has said that the country’s pornography…detector will be arriving soon. For some context, the government announced about a year ago that it had placed an order for a South Korean-made porn-detecting machine to fight the prevalent porn culture in the country (Uganda was ranked third in porn searches in the world). The government has now set up an…anti-pornography committee to implement the new…anti-porn law. Errr.??♂️ Link
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What else is interesting?
+ Medsaf, a Nigerian eHealth that’s trying to simplify the process of buying and selling medication, was named the most promising startup at the recently concluded Seedstars event in Lagos. They will represent Nigeria at the Seedstars Summit in Switzerland for a chance to secure up to $500,000 in equity investments. Link
+ Uber Uganda cut prices in February, so drivers started showing riders screenshots of fake (read: overpriced) rides after cash trips. Wild.
+ Bankole recapped the first session of TEDGlobal 2017 in this post, ‘A new map: Deep history and the far future at TEDGlobal’. Link
+ 9 things we learnt from our AMA session with Yele Bademosi. Link.
+ Today is Taslim Okunola’s birthday, so go wish him an amazing one.
Opportunities
+ Union Bank is launching an acceleration programme with CcHub. The carrot seems to be strategic partnerships with and support from the bank. Link.
+ Are you developing open source VR/AR technologies that can help improve children’s lives? The UNICEF Innovation fund is offering $50,000- $90,000 in equity free funding. Apply by September 17, 11:59pm EDT.
+ AppsAfrica Innovation Awards are now open. The deadline for entries is September 10. Link
+ Apply for the Silicon Valley Accelerate Programme. Deadline is 22 September. Link.
+ PrognoStore is hiring full-stack engineers who can work with JavaScript, Java, Spring MVC, and test automation frameworks. Link
+ Imisi 3D and Hardware Lagos are organizing a hardware challenge to build an all-in-one solar powered VR headset. Find out more here and register here. Applications close on September 3.
Upcoming events
Lagos: Datalytics Meetup will hold tomorrow, 5:30pm (WAT) at CcHub’s 6th floor. Deets.
Lagos: On Wednesday, August 30, ABAN, VC4A, LAN, and V8 will host an investor masterclass around the topic of startup valuations. The session will be facilitated by Tomi Davies. Email events@v8africa.com for an invite.
Abuja: The Abuja Masterclass on the 31st of August will be ‘an introduction to Angel investing’ conducted by Tomi Davies. Check it out if you’d love to deepen your understanding of early-stage investing. Link
Lagos: At this month’s Usable meetup on the 31st, the discussion will be about the steps to take to recruit the right users for your research. Link
Lagos: MEST Masterclass, on September 1st: A Masterclass session for startup entrepreneurs looking to learn what angel Investors look for in startups. Link
Lagos: Paystack is organizing a Y-Combinator Lagos Meetup on September 23. Meet YC founders and gain insight into the process. Link.
