👨🏿‍🚀TechCabal Daily – Naira payments are making a comeback

CRYPTO MARKET: PAYING MORE FOR NFT CARS THAN REAL ONES

Bitcoin	$24,321	+ 6.02%
Ether	$1,881	+ 12.14%
BNB	$331	+ 4.62%
Solana	$44.15	+ 11.56%
Cardano	$0.54	+ 6.54%
Name of the coin Price of the coin 24-hour percentage change		Source: CoinMarketCap

* Data as of 06:00 AM WAT, August 11, 2022.

What’s better than luxury cars you can touch and feel? How about luxury cars no one can touch, feel, or steal?!

This is exactly what many crypto fans prefer. 

A study by UK-based mobility financing company, Vanarama, shows that crypto fans are paying more for NFT cars than they are for actual cars. The NFT of the Nissan GT-R sold for a whopping £1,919,123—10 times the £105,385 price tag of the actual car! The average price of a standard DeLorean DMC-12 is £41,169, but its NFT counterpart is priced at £151,095—more than 3 times the cost!

Whoever said the NFT hype has died down hasn’t met these guys. 

NIGERIA ORDERS GOOGLE TO BLOCK IPOB

The Nigerian government is ordering Google to block the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its affiliated groups from communicating via YouTube and other Google platforms. 

Side Note: IPOB is a secessionist group that believes in the emancipation of the people of eastern Nigeria. Over the last couple of years, members of the group have been involved in violent incidents with security officials, and this has led to the death of civilians. 

After labelling them as a “terrorist organisation,” the government says its interest in curtailing IPOB’s online activity stems from a need to protect internet users from their harmful effects on social media, especially as the 2023 presidential election approaches.

Google isn’t the first company the Nigerian government is warning about IPOB. Earlier in May, the Nigerian government also asked Facebook to curtail the activities of IPOB on its platform. 

What’s Google saying?

Google is doing what big companies do to big governments: diplomacy. 

The technology behemoth did not communicate whether or not it would block the groups called out by Mohammed. Rather, it expressed an understanding of the government’s concerns, asserting that Google platforms are not to be used for harmful objectives. It, however, added that the company already has measures that address the government’s concerns.

Big picture: In the past few years, the Nigerian government has been on an ambitious mission to control technology-enabled social conversations in the country. From the social media bill to the infamous Twitter ban and the NITDA draft, the Nigerian government has shown a lot of interest in regulating social media. This begs the question: is there more to their intent?

AIRTEL GETS A $125 MILLION REVOLVING LOAN FROM CITIGROUP

One of Africa’s largest telcos, Airtel Group, announced the signing of a $125 million revolving credit facility with investment banking group, Citigroup Inc, through its branch offices in sub-Saharan Africa.

Side bar: A revolving loan is a loan that a business arranges with a bank which allows the business to withdraw money any time, with a pre-established maximum amount. The facility is used by businesses that have low cash balances to cover operational and unexpected expenses. 

What does Airtel need the money for? 

Airtel says the credit facility aligns with its plan to raise debt in its local operating companies. The facility will include both local currency and US dollar-denominated debt, and will be used to finance Airtel’s operations and investments in 4 of its subsidiaries.

The revolving loan will expire in September 2024.

META’S CHATBOT CALLS MARK ZUCKERBERG “CREEPY”

South African startup DataProphet has raised $10 million in a Series A round led by Knife Capital, with participation from South Africa’s IDC and Norican.

What do they do? Prophesy?

Not exactly, but DataProphet is a prophet of sorts in the manufacturing sector. 

It has an artificial intelligence (AI) product called PRESCRIBE. PRESCRIBE collects data from about 100 million unique data points daily to make decisions that reduce clients’ non-quality costs by 40%. It gives feedback that reduces defects or poor-quality processes and increases manufacturer yield. 

It also has another product for manufacturers who are still in the development stage—CONNECT. It helps manufacturers to reduce risk and cost during the digitalisation of their processes by ensuring that their industrial data moves to the cloud securely. It collects data from thousands of devices across multiple plants and centrally displays and configures all their production information.

What will it use the money for?

The funds will be used to improve its AI product suite and support sales and operations in its markets. The investment will also be used to build a European and a US-based sales office to support customers and partners in other countries.

DataProphet primarily serves clients in the automotive, semiconductor, rubber, and foundry industries in Japan, China, India, Europe, South Africa, the US, and South America. 

The company says that unlike its competitors—Braincube and Seebo—it integrates some of the lowest data levels in factories.

OPPORTUNITIES

• The 2022 Female-Led Healthtech Startups in Ghana Call is now open to applications from healthtech startups in Ghana who have at least 1 woman on their leadership team. Five selected startups will receive $50,000 each in funding and incubation support from Villagro Africa and GTL. Apply by August 19.

• The ADMF CreaTech Animation Incubator 2022 is now open to applications from East African individual animators and teams who have unique animated series concepts they want to develop. Twenty selected animators/teams will participate in a 12-week BootCamp that will include mentoring and high-level training with established industry professionals. Apply by August 15.

• Fintechs focusing on financial inclusion in Africa can now apply for the CATAPULT: Inclusion Africa Programme 2022. Ten selected fintechs will participate in a one-week all-expenses-paid bootcamp, and participate in the Arch Summit event. Apply by September 15.

What else is happening in tech?

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