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| A MESSAGE FROM OUR PARTNER |
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| Nigerian tech entrepreneur, Segun Adeyemi has joined South Africa’s Jumo as Country Manager for Nigeria. Adeyemi is one of the co-founders of fintech startup, Amplify which was acquired by One Finance Limited in March. His new role at Jumo will involve setting up and building the business in Nigeria. Founded in 2015, Jumo enables anyone with a cell phone and mobile wallet access to credit, savings, insurance and other financial services. The fintech company closed a US$ 52 million equity funding round about a year ago to expand into new markets. It currently employs over 350 people in 11 countries across Africa, Asia and Europe. |
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| Facebook is expanding its efforts to fight fake news in Africa. Its fact-checking program in partnership with Africa Check will now cover content in local languages including Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa in Nigeria, Afrikaans, isiZulu, Setswana, Sotho, Northern Sotho and Southern Ndebele in South Africa, Swahili in Kenya and Wolof in Senegal. The fact-checking program was first launched in 2018 in Kenya to stop the spread of misinformation but Facebook faces a bigger challenge with Whatsapp given its popularity on the continent. |
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| Interswitch’s former Developer Relations Lead, Ada Nduka Oyom has joined Google as Developer Relations Ecosystem Community Manager, sub-Saharan Africa. Oyom’s new role entails interfacing with developer communities, start-ups & tech hubs to grow & manage developer outreach & programs including Google Developer Groups across sub-Saharan Africa. She has a four-year career in tech and is the founder of She Code Africa where she’s focused on matters bothered around women in tech. Oyom was one of the women featured in TechCabal’s Tech Women Lagos photo series. |
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| Tek Experts, a leading, global provider of business and IT support services with presence in 7 countries, including Nigeria, is recruiting heavily for Technical Support Engineers in its Lagos office. Tek Experts provides service options that enables global teams work effectively by developing technologies that enhance customer experience. 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 in the opportunity of a lifetime? Apply here! |
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| Freight logistics startup, Kobo360 has raised $30 million; $20 million in venture funding and $10 million in debt financing. The startup will invest the money in product development as well as to take advantage of the newly-minted Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). It will do so by adding more drivers, 25,000 of them, and launching in 10 new countries on the continent. In this TechCabal article, I wrote about what the AfCFTA means for haulage companies and startups including Kobo360 and Lori Systems. |
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| Join Obi Ozor, CEO at Kobo360 and other influential entrepreneurs, investors and policymakers in the mobility industry on the 27th of September at TC Townhall: Mobility. Tickets are now available for purchase and a 10% early bird discount is available for readers who buy their tickets before the end of the week with the code TCMobility. Further discounts apply for companies/individuals buying at least 5 tickets. If you require the discount code for that, please fill this form.
TC Townhall: Mobility will feature interactive panel sessions, enlightening fireside chats, workshop sessions and product demos. Speakers and participants will explore activities, trends and challenges in Africa’s mobility sector and what the future holds. Newly confirmed speakers include Taiwo Ketiku, VP Investments at EchoVC; Chinedu Azodoh, Co-founder at MAX; Oluwatoyin Oshinowo, Co-founder/VP Product at FieldInsight; Kola Tubosun, Linguist for African Languages at Google and Emeka Ajene, MD/Co-founder at Goziem. |
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| According to the Wall Street Journal, Huawei technicians helped governments in Uganda and Zambia spy on their political opponents. This ultimately led to the arrests of the opponents. The report notes that Huawei engineers in Uganda used Israeli spyware, Pegasus, to infiltrate opposition leader Bobi Wine’s WhatsApp in 2018. In Zambia, engineers assisted the government in accessing the phones and Facebook pages of a group of people running a pro-opposition blog. While Huawei has denied these allegations, weak data protection and privacy laws make it easy for such to happen in many African nations and it’s almost impossible for victims to seek redress. |
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| The AfCFTA is the largest trade agreement since the World Trade Agreement. Once the agreement goes into effect, Africa will become a single market with a population of 1.2 billion and a combined GDP of about $2.2 trillion but there are challenges facing the success of the AfCFTA. Abubakar explores questions about rules of origin and the implications for tech startups. |
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| Cowrywise has launched a new feature that will allow Nigerians to invest in dollar-based assets using their local currency. The new feature is a result of a partnership with United Capital, a local investment services organization and it will enable users to invest in Eurobonds and earn in dollars. The minimum investment amount is $100. Cowrywise has continued to add more product features as it seeks to differentiate itself and build customer loyalty. A few weeks ago, it launched Stash, a wallet with a virtual account number that makes it easier for users to move money between their CowryWise accounts and bank accounts. |
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| The DOEN Land Restoration Prize is welcoming applications from startups working to finance the restoration of degraded land or in big data and technology to reverse land degradation. Startups with water-saving soil technologies and technologies focused on improving livelihoods and communities are also welcome to apply here before October 15th. |
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| British, online shuttle service, Zeelo has officially launched in South Africa. The company started beta testing in Durban last year after raising £4.25m. It now has more than 20,000 vehicles on its platform. Zeelo will face competition from Egypt’s Swvl, Africa’s top-funded transport/logistics startup. It recently closed a $42 million round in June, launched in Kenya and is looking to expand into Nigeria and other markets. |
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| Uber Eats will now accept bicycles, roller skaters and skateboarders as delivery partners in Kenya. The company is doing so following a similar move by its competitor, Glovo. The new features allow users to earn money after completing deliveries. Last year, Uber Eats said it was looking to increase its workforce in Europe, Africa and the Middle East (EMEA) as part of its plans to increase market share amidst local rivals. The number of staff members in EMEA is expected to increase from 300 in 2018 to 900 this year. |
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That’s All,
We’ll be back tomorrow.
– Olanrewaju
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