CRYPTO MARKET

Bitcoin	$15,811	– 4.47%
Ether	$1,102	– 6.65%
BNB	$254	– 5.48%
FTX Token	$1.29	– 8.24%
Binance Coin	$1.00	0%
Name of the coin Price of the coin 24-hour percentage change		Source: CoinMarketCap

* Data as of 21:20 PM WAT, November 21, 2022.

KENYA TO TAX CRYPTO TRANSACTIONS

The Kenyan government wants to tax crypto transactions. 

It is making a new amendment to the capital markets bill to introduce a 20% excise tax on every crypto transaction fee charged in the country. The country seems to be toeing the steps of another East African nation, Ethiopia, which first banned crypto before regulating it.

Has Kenya banned cryptocurrency?

Kenya’s central bank has been cautioning citizens against the use and trade of crypto but that hasn’t deterred its tech-savvy population. The country has a high crypto adoption rate with about 6.1 million crypto traders. 

If the bill is approved, Kenyans will be subjected to remitting capital gains tax or income tax to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) for the sale or use of crypto. News of the bill has not been welcomed by the country’s crypto community. 

Many users think that the government is only interested in taxing the space for self-serving interest and to protect traders. Others are enraged and maintain that the government has no jurisdiction over decentralised platforms so the taxes will only be exercised on “unsuspecting users on centralised exchanges”.

Bad timing: The global crypto market is experiencing a meltdown that has already wiped over $2 trillion off the global market this year. More recently, the third largest crypto exchange platform, FTX, collapsed, leading to several crypto traders around the world losing access to their crypto assets. The confidence in crypto investments is being tested—the Kenyan government couldn’t have chosen a worse time to soften its stance against crypto.

DSTV AND SUPERSPORT TO BROADCAST THE WORLD CUP IN 4K

Clearer paths to the Wold Cup are opening up for African streamers.

On DStv’s Channels 216 and 217, SuperSport will stream the 2022 World Cup matches in 4K for fans. Both the DStv Explora Ultra Decoder and the DStv Streama gadget support 4K quality viewing of the 64 matches on both channels.

Additionally, SuperSport deployed teams in Qatar specifically to cover the five competing African nations, Cameroon, Ghana, Morocco, Senegal, and Tunisia.

With an eye toward viewing African nations, they will provide coverage of the event in a variety of languages: Zulu, Setswana, Sotho, Portuguese, English, Pidgin, Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, and Amharic in South Africa, Nigeria, and Ethiopia. The game will be aired in English, Swahili, Sheng, Twi, and Luganda throughout the rest of Africa.

This news comes months after Showmax—another MultiChoice product—announced that it would stream World Cup matches in 4K. The streaming option is available to subscribers on Showmax Pro who should also be able to access a Live option so they don’t miss out on all the interesting goals. The streaming service will be available on smartphones, tablets, laptops, smart TVs, and smart boxes running on both Android and iOS systems.

THERANOS FOUNDER SENTENCED TO 11 YEARS IN PRISON

Elizabeth Holmes, the storied founder of the now-defunct Silicon Valley healthtech startup, Theranos, has been sentenced to an 11-year jail term following her convictions for wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. 

It’s been four years since she was first charged, and almost two decades since she began her incriminatory acts, but the controversial heroine-turned-fraudster is finally tasting justice in a not-so-friendly way—relocating from a $135 million estate to a correctional centre, which will be her new home until 2034.

Backstory: In 2003, when the 19-old Holmes began working on her startup idea, a healthtech solution that hinged on a proprietary blood testing equipment that needed only a prick of blood to work, it seemed like the beginning of something great. Like some other famed founders, Holmes dropped out of the university to pursue her dreams, pulling together some of her Sanford University professors to work on Theranos, the startup she’d founded. 

Her idea was incredible and could truly revolutionalise the health sector, but there was one major problem: Edison, the proprietary equipment, did not just work. 

What did Holmes do at this point? She lied to the world, convincing everyone that cared to listen that her equipment was working perfectly. The world believed her, and she quickly rose to fame and wealth while secretly testing patients’ blood with traditional blood testing techniques. 

Holmes fooled investor upon investor, raising over $703 million from VC firms to place Theranos’ valuation at its $10 billion peak. She also topped Forbes’ list of America’s richest self-made women with a net worth of $4.5 billion.

Eventually, Holmes ran out of luck when John Carreyrou, a Wall Street Journal reporter, published a revealing and damning report on the company, kickstarting a wave of troubles, litigations, and sanctions for Theranos until what remained of the company was dissolved in 2018. 

Zoom Out: Elizabeth Holmes’ story is a classic example of what happens when greed becomes a founder’s key ingredient for building and scaling a startup. Stories like hers reinforce the idea that startups are not the legitimate means to siphon money from investors to build personal wealth. Founders worldwide who are already toeing this path will have Holmes’ 11-year sentence as another reason to reconsider their ways and do what startups should really do: solve real problems.

CHIPPER CASH IS SET YO BUY ZOONA

Pan-African cross-border payment app Chipper Cash is set to acquire Zambian fintech company, Zoona Transactions International.

This acquisition will allow Chipper Cash, which has a self-reported user count of five million, to add new online services and a new agent network to its offerings. This move is also an expansion strategy by the company into Zambia. 

According to Chipper Cash’s VP of corporate development, Laura Kennedy, Zoona’s acquisition will offer it “incredible innovation, a great partner network, complementary products and services, and talented in-country teams”. For Zoona’s co-founder and CEO, Brett Magrath, this acquisition allows the two companies to combine their expertise to connect consumers and businesses across the continent while positioning themselves as the first choice provider of financial services for the people of Africa. 

Zoona pioneered the Zambian tech ecosystem when it was founded in 2008, developing the Tilt service that enables individuals and companies to pay and transfer to bank and money mobile providers in the country through cash, its digital channel, or its network of over 450 interoperable agents. The fintech, whose emergence coincides with the start of Africa’s mobile money industry, has processed over $3 billion worth of transactions since launch. In 2020, the Zambian company sold its business in Malawi to Cape Town-based payments company Mukuru, as it refocused its business to a B2B model.

CEO Ham Serunjogi founded Chipper Cash with Maijid Moujaled, the payment company’s president, in 2018 to offer fee-free personal and cross-border payments to Africa. Since then it has raised $300 million in venture capital funding and is now valued at $2.2 billion. Its services are available in Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Africa and Kenya, as well as in the UK and US. 

“Bringing these companies together under the Chipper umbrella will mean we can open up even more borders, bringing quality financial services to life in more countries and connecting more people across the continent,” Kennedy said.

Chipper Cash did not share the financial terms of the transaction. The acquisition deal is also subject to the approval of relevant authorities.

EVENT: Z! FEST

2022 has been a lot. From crypto crashes to inflation, and even regulation scares, our heart rates and hairs have been up all year.

Our sister publication, Zikoko, wants to bring that all down to the dance floor with the second edition of its festival, Z! Fest. 

Z! Fest’s Class of ‘22 offers techies the chance to break away from their screens in a party designed for stress relief. If you like food, drinks, loud music, and the sheer threat of meeting new cool people, then Z! Fest is the place to be.

Register now to join Ayra Starr, YKB, Yinka Bernie, Dwin the Stoic and other artistes at Z! Fest. 

IN OTHER NEWS FROM TECHCABAL

 The Next Wave: Why African VC is still on an upward march.

Here’s why data protection is important for startups.

OPPORTUNITIES

• Applications are open for the UK Research and Innovation African Research Leaders’ Programme. Talented researchers in sub-Saharan Africa leading quality health research in the region can apply to get up to £750,000 in funding. Apply by December 1.

• The Fondation Maison des sciences de l’homme and the Institut Français de Recherche en Afrique of Nairobi are offering a three-month-long fellowship in France for postdoc researchers from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, and Eastern Congo (Kivu) who have presented their thesis from 2017. Laureates will receive a monthly stipend of €1,600 at the start of each month. Apply by December 9.

• If your startup or innovation is focused on climate-smart agriculture practices, apply to the THRIVE|Shell Climate-Smart Agriculture Challenge for a chance to win $100,000, a spot in a prestigious accelerator, publicity and more. Apply by December 11.

• Applications are now open for Apple’s Entrepreneur Camp. The immersive virtual camp will give founders and developers from underrepresented communities mentorship, technical support and access to the alumni network. Apply by December 5.

What else is happening in tech?

SHARE THIS EDITION