TC Daily

TechCabal Daily – Nigerian-Based Manufacturer Raises $9 Million to Produce Electric Vehicles

13th March 2020

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13 – 03 – 2020

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You can now trade on one of the world’s largest trading platforms for a much smaller fee. Deposit up to 18,000,000 NGN on Binance at a flat fee of just 150 NGN via bank transfer. Click here to start trading.

JET Motor Company, a Nigerian-based automobile manufacturer, has raised $9 million from Canadian-based Africa Development Capital, Greatman Legend and a number of Asian investors. The company will use the money to fund the research and development of its electric vehicles which it has called JET EV. According to a press release TechCabal received, it already has prototypes that can travel over 300km (distance from Lagos to Benin) on a single charge. JET has signed an agreement to use GIG Logistics’ pickup centers as charging points and it has an order from the latter to deliver 50 JET EV vehicles over the next 2 years.

Opera is planning to launch a data centre in South Africa later this year. Its goal is “to reduce latency and provide Opera users with a faster network,” MyBroadband reports. Opera’s declaration coincides with the recent announcement by London-based private-equity firm Actis. Actis wants to invest $250 million over the next three years in data centers based on the continent. The PE firm recently acquired a stake in Nigerian-based Rack Center.

The opportunity? Africa currently accounts for less than 1 per cent of total available global data centre capacity, despite being home to about 17 per cent of the world’s population. Growing smartphone penetration and the adoption of business software is fueling an increase in demand for data centres.

Nigeria’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has been somewhat impressive. At the centre of efforts to contain the virus in the country is the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). So far the country has only two confirmed cases and the agency is intensifying efforts to trace & monitor those who had contact with the index case. However, behind the scenes, the NCDC’s coronavirus response is supported by a combination of basic setups like a 24-hour call centre, software-assisted data collection and logistics management. Reporting from the NCDC’s office in Abuja for TechCabal, Alex investigated the tech tools powering its response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Do you have tech ideas or solutions that can innovate the energy sector in Nigeria? Then participate in the GPI Innovate Energy Hackathon. Awesome cash prizes to be won and participants also get a chance to work with GPI after the event. Register NOW! Entries close March 27, 2020.

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In the last 30 years, not only are less women accessing and using the web especially in least developed countries, the ones who do are more likely to experience abuse and harassment online in extremely terrifying proportions. “The web is not working for women and girls,” Tim Bernes-Lee, inventor of the world wide web said in an open letter marking the 31st birthday of the web. Kay has more about the problem in this TechCabal article.

There’s a new $24 million fund for women-led and African tech startups! Announced by Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Canada, the fund, Hummingbird Impact, will back scalable, tech-enabled social ventures at the pre-seed, seed and Series A stages. Hummingbird is a gender-lens impact investor that believes local and female founders are best positioned to unlock opportunities for women and marginalized populations in Africa. EWB Canada is a not-for-profit with an investment program that bets on social enterprises. Its portfolio companies include FarmDrive (Kenya), Rent to Own (Zambia) and Viamo (Ghana).

The Central Bank of Nigeria is planning to change the licensing guidelines for microfinance banks (MFBs). In a draft document published earlier this month, the bank stipulated new minimum capital requirements for MFBs. The new proposal has split the most affordable licenses for fintech startups into two with strict requirements about where they can operate. Abubakar takes a dive into the implications for digital banks and other fintech startups.

First City Monument Bank (FCMB) is holding the first edition of its biquarterly pitch competition, EPIC Pitch, on March 27. The event, organized in partnership with Passion Incubator will hold in Lagos at Hub One by FCMB. Startups can apply here before March 23 for a chance to get funding, product feedback and access to corporate partnership opportunities.

You’ve reached the end.

We’ll see you next week! Take care.

– Olanrewaju

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