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This Week: African creators get a boost

By Timi Odueso Oct 29, 2022

Image source: Techcabal

Editor’s Note

Week 43, 2022
Read time: 5 minutes

This week is for the creators! From Spotify’s $100,000 fund launch to support African podcasters to the launch of Breach, a new publishing platform for writers, there’s a lot of interest in the African creative scene lately.

Read on to learn more about this, and other interesting stories like how MTN South Africa is on the hook for falsely promising subscribers chargers. Happy reading!

Pamela Tetteh Editor, TechCabal.

Editor’s Picks

	Nigeria to release new currency notes This week, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced that the apex bank would be redesigning four of the country’s notes: the ₦100, ₦200, ₦500, and ₦1,000 notes. Why? To stem the circulation of counterfeit notes and retain control of cash flow. Read more about it.
	54gene CEO steps down Nigerian genomics startup, 54gene announced that its CEO and co-founder, Dr. Abasi Ene-Obong has resigned from his position. This comes two months after it laid off 95 employees due to funding restraints, and a few weeks after another C-Suite employee, Ogochukwu Osifo, who was vice president of engineering, resigned. More about it here.
	Safaricom pilots 5G commercially in Kenya Safaricom has rolled out 5G commercially in Kenya. The telco started testing 5G back in April 2021, piloting in select Kenyan cities, including Nairobi, Kisii, Kisumu, and Kakamega. However, mobile data users in Kenya will have to wait their turn as Safaricom is only launching 5G on its WiFi service. More details here.

	Ride-hailing drivers strike in Kenya Three months ago, Kenya enacted the Digital Taxi Hailing Regulation which will cap all commissions on ride-hailing apps at 18%. Now drivers in Kenya are protesting because the government is taking too long to enforce the law. Read more.

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	MTN in trouble over false advertising In South Africa, MTN is at loggerheads with the country’s advertising regulator, the Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB). The ARB ruled that MTN misled customers by not disclosing terms and conditions for a promotion which promised subscribers free chargers. Here’s the news.
	Spotify launches $100,000 fund for African podcasters Streaming platform Spotify invested $100,000 into the African podcast scene. The platform announced a new grant called the Africa Podcast Fund which is aimed at supporting up-and-coming podcasters across the continent. More here.
	Nestcoin launches new platform for African creators Crypto company, Nestcoin has relaunched Breach, its educative website, as a content platform where African creators can write, edit, publish and share their work. Read more.
	Binance and Utiva to train 50,000 Africans Global crypto platform Binance has partnered with Nigerian edtech Utiva to educate 50,000 youths (ages 18–35) from 19 African countries by providing them access to an e-learning platform for 12 months.The programme will also award 1,000 participants with a scholarship to learn top technology skills at Utiva. Read more.

Who brought the money this week?

Nexta, an Egyptian fintech company, raised $3 million in funding led by eFinance, Egypt’s leading provider of digital payments solutions, and the backbone of the Egyptian government’s digital transformation strategy.

Egypt-based cleantech, Karmsolar received $2.4 million from Qatar national bank Alahli (QBN ALAHLI) and Ezdaher Financial Advisory, an Egypt-based debt advisory firm.