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This week: Competition in Kenya

By Timi Odueso Nov 05, 2022

Image source: Techcabal

Editor’s Note

Week 44, 2022
Read time: 5 minutes

This week, there’s quite a lot to catch up on in tech.

While Nigeria moves to regulate your favorite social media platforms, AWS opens a new office in Lagos. Uber drops its commission rates for drivers in Kenya just as a new competitor YEGO enters the scene, and now South Africans have one less excuse to give to charity, as they can now make charitable donations in bitcoin, thanks to Luno.

These and many more interesting stories are in this week’s edition. Happy reading!

Pamela Tetteh Editor, TechCabal.

Editor’s Picks

	Nigeria moves to regulate social media Nigeria’s information regulatory agency, NITDA, has approved a new Code of Practice. The Code requires all internet platforms with over 100,000 users to register in the country, pay tax, and delete any content contrary to Nigerian law within 24 hours. Read more about it.
	Kenyans to pay more for Facebook ads This week, Meta announced that all Facebook ads in Kenya will be subject to the country’s 16% value-added tax (VAT) starting November 1. The tax will be added for both business and personal ads. More about it here.
	AWS launches Nigerian office Seven years after launching its first African office in Johannesburg, South Africa, Amazon Web Services is opening up shop in another African country. This week, the cloud service provider opened up its office in Lagos, Nigeria. More details here.

	YEGO goes to Kenya Kenyan ride-hailing services were joined by a new competitor this week. Rwandan platform YEGO Global entered Kenya with a 12% commission rate for drivers. Over 5,000 drivers have joined the app in its first week alone. Read about this drag race.

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	Uber reduces commissions in Kenya 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 more.
	South Africans can now make donations in bitcoin This week, cryptocurrency platform, Luno and food distribution non-profit organisation, FoodForward SA announced a partnership that will enable South Africans to make charitable donations using bitcoin. More here.
	Payhippo acquires Maritime Microfinance Nigerian digital lender, Payhippo acquired Maritime Microfinance Bank, a financial institution that offers loans, supports investments and accepts deposits and savings. Though the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is yet to approve this acquisition, Payhippo says this acquisition will enable them to directly access Nigeria’s Inter-bank Settlement System (NIBSS). Read more.
	MTN will provide insurance for Africans The MTN Group and Sanlam, one of the largest non-bank financial service providers on the continent, have announced a partnership to offer insurance across Africa. The partnership will be implemented using MTN Group’s insurtech platform, aYo. Read more.

Who brought the money this week?

Egyptian fintech, MoneyFellows raised $31 million in series B funding. The round was led by CommerzVentures, Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), and Arzan Venture Capital. Other participating investors include Invenfin, National Investment Company (NIC), and existing investors such as Partech, Sawari Ventures, 4DX Ventures, and P1 Ventures.

Nigerian prop-tech company, SmallSmall raised $3 million in seed funding from Oyster VC, Asymmetry Ventures, Vivaz and Niche Capital, as well as other individual angel investors such as Ean Fannan of Chartboost, Adam Meghji of Universe, Jimmy Ku of Flutterwave, Samir Goel and Wemimo Abbey of Esusu, Jason Njoku of Iroko and Tunde Kara of Vendease.

South Africa’s privacy-by-design company Omnisient raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a round led by Buffet Investments and KLT. Other participating investors include One5, ENL, Investec, Nedbank, and the Shoprite Group.