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| A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR |
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Tek Experts, a leading, global provider of business and IT support services with presence in 7 countries, is recruiting heavily for Technical Support Engineers in its Lagos office. With presence in seven countries and counting, including Nigeria, Tek Experts boasts of providing various service options including developing technologies that enhance the customer experience by enabling global teams to work more effectively. Whether it’s providing follow-the-sun software support services that deliver exceptional customer experiences, developing technologies that enable sales teams to increase and retain revenue or training and developing people to be the best they can be, Tek Experts’ focus is always on putting the customer first. Interested candidates can apply here. Apply now for the career opportunity of a lifetime.
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OpenView, a South African free to air satellite service has secured the rights to show live English Premier League matches on its platform. The TV platform will show one live Premier League match every week beginning with the 2019/2020 football season which kicks off this weekend. With the popularity of English football in Africa, the news could prove pivotal for OpenView’s growth.
Founded in 2016, OpenView provides users with local and foreign content from 20 TV stations. As a free to air platform, the service is available through a decoder and users pay no subscription charges after buying the device. It’s the sort of model used by the now defunct Kwese Pay TV platform. Unlike Kwese though, OpenView could be around for the long term thanks to rising user adoption and revenue. The service reportedly adds 30,000 new users each month, while the total number of users is 1.57 million. The inclusion of live English football could fuel more grow, and there are plans to include more of such sports content in the future. This could prove a new challenge for DStv, Africa’s biggest pay TV service, since football is one reason it appeals to customers. |
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| Microsoft has appointed Jack Ngare as the Managing Director of its newly launched Africa Development Centre in Kenya. He will lead a team that will develop technologies and other solutions for the local market and scale them for global impact. Ngare joins the Microsoft team after more than 15 years of experience spanning different business roles. His experience includes stints in the telecom business and in the financial services sector. Before joining Microsoft, Ngare was the Managing Director of Finserve Africa, a virtual mobile money operator in Kenya. |
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| Safaricom has invested $4 million into mPesa Global to support its expansion into other markets. mPesa Global is the international remittances arm of mPesa, the popular mobile money platform in East Africa. The global arm was launched late last year to allow mPesa users send and receive money with global remittances services such as Western Union and World Remit. mPesa Global also supports platforms like Alipay and PayPal. Within five months of its launch, the service processed 101 billion Kenyan Shillings ($976 million) worth of diaspora remittances. The new investment will help the service enter new markets on the continent. |
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| UK beverages company, Diageo has announced a $219 million commitment to renewable energy development in 11 of its 12 production refineries in Africa. Part of this sum will also go into developing sustainable practices for water recovery, purification and reuse facilities at its plants in Uganda, Kenya and Nigeria. The company says the move is part of efforts to follow sustainable business practices that align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). |
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| This September, TechCabal is holding a gathering of the most knowledgeable and influential entrepreneurs, investors and policymakers in the mobility industry for our next TC Townhall event. Together we will explore activities, trends and challenges in Africa’s mobility sector and what the future holds. Some confirmed speakers include Omobola Johnson, Nigeria’s former minister of communications and Senior Partner at TLcom Capital, Uche Ogboi, who was recently appointed COO at Lori Systems, Obi Ozor, CEO at Kobo360 and Osarumen Osamuyi, Founder at The Subtext. Join us on the 27th of September, 2019 at TC Townhall: Mobility to get more exposure about the industry from the most important stakeholders. Want to find more details about the event and sponsorship opportunities? Click here. |
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| Why does population data matter? What is the value of knowing how many people there are in the country and who they are in terms of age and other metrics? In this article, Nicole De Wet-Billings reminds us that population statistics are important indicators and they should be used to guide how policies are developed. |
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| Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) wants to impose a new tax on transactions in the ecommerce industry. According to the Chairman of the FIRS, Tunde Fowler, the agency will is planning to introduce an “automated” 5% VAT for every ecommerce transaction, and it could begin implementation by early 2020. I write that the proposed tax regime could have adverse effects on not just the ecommerce business, but on the cashless policy developed by Nigeria’s Central Bank (CBN). With bank card transactions growing at incredible rates, the new FIRS VAT could force people to return to the “dark days” of cash-only transactions. |
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MTN Group now has 240 million telecom subscribers across 20 countries according to its consolidated financial report for the first six months of 2019. The report was released on August 8, and it showed that the South African conglomerate gained 7.7 million new subscribers during this period. Total revenue for the company grew to $4.82 billion while its profits stood at $1.02 billion. MTN wants to fuel more growth by expanding its data, mobile money, financial, digital and data services to more markets. It has announced that Ayoba, its instant messaging app, will expand to South Africa, Nigeria, Uganda, and Liberia by the second half of 2019. The company is already expanding its mobile money and financial services in Nigeria, where it recently secured a licence from the country’s banking regulator.
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CrossBoundary Energy Access (CBEA), a power sector financier, will invest $5.5 million for the development of 60 mini grids in Tanzania. It will create the mini-grids in partnership with PowerGen Renewable Energy, a mini-grid developer. The plan is to make electricity accessible to 34,00 people and businesses living in rural areas of Tanzania. According to TechMoran, PowerGen will develop the mini-grids, while CBEA will buy them up upon completion. This will help provide needed capital to allow PowerGen pursue similar projects in other locations.
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That’s it for now,
We’ll be back next week Wednesday.
– Abubakar
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