| In the space of nine days, co-founder of civic technology startup BudgIT, Oluseun Onigbinde, came under venomous attacks on Twitter following his appointment as Technical Advisor to the Nigerian Minister of State for Budget and National Planning. How could he have taken an appointment from a government he often criticized, his critics asked. He resigned just days later without officially taking the role. In this week’s edition of ‘My Life in Tech’, a series where we profile some of the most interesting people in African technology, Onigbinde opens up on that episode, why he wants Nigerians to care about governance and much more. It’s another must-read from Kay Ugwuede’s deeply insightful weekly column. |
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| Applications are officially open for The Mentor Matchup Challenge 3.0. To apply, entrepreneurs in any of the six sectors of interest must make a 1-minute video pitch outlining what they would do with $20,000 in seed funding. The six areas of interest are agriculture, e-commerce & retail, financial services, food & hospitality, logistics and manufacturing. Eligible startups are advised to apply here before the November 18 deadline. |
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| OPay is facing perhaps its first-ever backlash from customers. On Tuesday, users found out they had to pay a 2% charge for transferring money to other banks, at a minimum rate of N15 per transaction. OPay apologised for not communicating the increased fees to its customers. The company then revised the fee to N45 for the first transaction a user makes in a day, while subsequent transactions will incur a flat 1% processing fee. When we asked, the company hinted it was done to encourage intra-app transactions within its ecosystem. But that doesn’t seem to have assuaged the concerns of their customers who got used to paying only N10, Abubakar writes in this TechCabal article on the ongoing development. |
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| Join Oluwaseyi Ladejobi, LSETF Head of Employability at TC Townhall: Edtech & the Future of Work.
She is responsible for the implementation of the $4million Lagos State Employability Support Project in partnership with UNDP, the $10million Employability Programme in partnership with USADF amongst other programmes. Under her leadership, the programme has trained over 5,000 youths across various skills and placed over 53% in jobs and on the entrepreneurship track.
TC Townhall Edtech & the Future of Work will hold on November 29, 2019. We are bringing together regulators, government agencies, investors, entrepreneurs, NGOs, social enterprises and schools to set a strong agenda about how to use technology to leapfrog Africa’s education challenges and prepare our citizens for future jobs. Buy your tickets here. To enjoy our early-bird discount, click here or use the code TCEDTECH at checkout. Further discounts apply for companies/individuals buying at least 5 tickets. Please click here to enjoy our corporate discounts.
We are also putting together a map of the African edtech industry. If you have an edtech startup or you are a technology company doing significant work in the industry we would like to hear from you. Please fill this form.
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South Africa will pilot its new e-visa system in the coming weeks as it aims to attract investors and people with skills that are critical to building the economy.
Speaking to BusinessTech, Department of Home Affairs spokesperson Siya Qoza said that the pilot will be relatively limited to begin with as it aims to test the resilience of the system. Nigerians will have to wait as Kenya will be the first nation to be the beneficiary of a system that promises applicants 20 minutes to complete a visa application process.
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A bill seeking to regulate social media in Nigeria has scaled through first reading on the floor of the Nigerian Senate. The bill named “Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulation” Bill proposes a three-month jail sentence or a fine of N150,000 ($413) for offenders. The Bill’s sponsor Sani Musa, senator representing Niger East Senatorial District, has sought to allay fears that it will be used to muzzle the press and curtail free speech in the country, by saying it is meant to protect Nigeria’s “fragile unity”. But his assurances are unlikely to do much to shake the feeling that the Bill is designed to curb free speech in Nigeria. The past four years has seen a sharp increase in the number of journalists and activists detained over seemingly bogus charges and one wonders what the state could achieve with a law that officially cements its position on these matters.
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| Logistics company GIG has launched an app called GIGGO aimed at making the movement of parcel easier across Nigeria. GIGGO allows GIG to adopt the partner model made popular by ride-hailing companies like Uber; allowing vehicle owners to sign up as partners who deliver items upon requests from the end-users via the app. Wole Olayinka, who was at the app unveiling for TechCabal, has more. |
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| What’s there to do in Guinea-Bissau? That’s the question the #JollofRoad team (Fuad, Toke, Kayode, Tosin and Captain Taiwo) got around to figuring out on their first full day in the capital, Bissau. With a population of 1.8 million people, Guinea Bissau is the smallest of the seven countries the team has visited, writes Toke. So they went to a market and ended with an all-time fav: food.
It’s Day 46 of 80 and the team has visited 7 countries so far. Visit jollofroad.com every day to catch up on all the stories from the road! And join the conversation on Telegram and WhatsApp. |
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Thanks for reading,
We’ll be back tomorrow!
– Aanu
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