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If you found yourself logged out of Facebook yesterday, don’t be alarmed; your account hasn’t been hacked.
Three Meta-owned platforms, Facebook, Instagram and Threads, were offline for two hours yesterday, affecting millions of users across the world. While Meta is yet to reveal what caused the outage, users across the world are slowly regaining access to their accounts.
Fintech
Inside the company easing Lagos traffic jams
In Lagos, losing your cowry card is synonymous with almost the start of a bad day. For a city rocked by traffic, commuting in Lagos is extreme sports. Not only are Danfos—the iconic yellow buses—expensive and slow. The buses are less comfortable for passengers and are often traffic-bound.
Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) buses, however, are an alternative to this dread. Relaunched in 2018, the buses provide commuters with a more comfortable way to travel with dedicated BRT routes—helping them dodge the city’s dreaded traffic jams—and fewer stops, helping them to cover more ground quickly.
In 2020, through a partnership with Touch and Pay Technologies, commuters of the BRT buses began using Cowry cards, for payments. Now the the fintech says it processes 500,000 daily payments worth almost one billion niara monthly.
How have cowry cards become a permanent item in the wallets and purses of Lagosians and its many exploits in the state?
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Crypto
Binance discontinues naira services
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, is exiting the Nigerian market.
Yesterday, the company announced that it would halt Naira deposits after March 5, and withdrawals by March 8. Any remaining Nigerian Naira (NGN) balances in users’ Binance accounts will be converted to USDT. Additionally, by March 7, all current NGN spot trading pairs will be removed, and the Naira will cease to be an accepted payment method on Binance Pay—Binance’s payment solution.
Why? Binance shut down its Nigerian Naira (NGN) services due to ongoing regulatory scrutiny in the country—a decision that affects roughly 10 million Nigerian users.
The company had previously disabled the ‘sell’ feature and limited Nigerian users’ buy option to a price of ₦1,802 ($1.15) involving the USDT/NGN pair as the naira fell to record lows in February.
A regulatory scrutiny: The exchange’s troubles escalated following a ban on Binance’s website last week after Nigeria’s Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) arrested two Binance executives upon their entry into the country. Nigerian authorities accused Binance of participating in “illegal transactions” and imposed a substantial fine of $10 billion, but the company denied any knowledge of such penalties.
The challenges coincide with Yemi Cardoso, Nigeria’s CBN governor, revealing that “illicit flows” totalling $26 billion had passed through Binance Nigeria from undisclosed sources and users. The governor also hinted at the likelihood of stricter regulations and forthcoming actions from security agencies.
In other countries like Kenya, the East African country is responding to its greylisting by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) by pushing for new regulatory reforms, with the Blockchain Association of Kenya (BAK), a crypto advocacy group, leading the charge. The reform will introduce a regulatory sandbox to vet and license crypto entities within the country.
Streaming
Canal+ ups Multichoice acquisition bid by 20%
Canal+ is in an unrelenting race to acquire South Africa’s MultiChoice, the leading pay-TV company in Africa.
After MultiChoice rejected an initial offer of R105 ($5.52) per share, Canal+ has enhanced the deal to R125 ($6.59), representing a 20% increase per share. This values MultiChoice at $2.9 billion and comes one day after the company was granted an extension until April 8, 2024, to make its offer.
Maxime Saada, Chairman and CEO of Canal+, expressed confidence in their understanding of the value of MultiChoice and announced a collaboration agreement between the two entities, with MultiChoice granting exclusivity to Canal+.
What’s next? MultiChoice will form an independent board to evaluate the offer. The Public Investment Corporation (PIC), the second major shareholder in MultiChoice, will also play a part in the decision. By April 8th, Canal+ must submit a formal offer, and both companies are working with financial advisors to finalise the deal.
Why a deal still seems likely: The extension of the buyout, along with the exclusivity agreement and Canal+’s raised offer, signifies a serious attempt at acquisition. The integration of both companies’ operations forms a pay-TV powerhouse with an expanded reach of almost 50 million subscribers and potentially increased resources for content creation. This has the potential to benefit both companies and subscribers.
However, the final offer price and terms may vary from the current proposal as negotiations progress and financial advisors become more involved.
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Acquisitions
US HR firm Deel acquires PaySpace
Since Stripe acquired the Nigerian fintech company Paystack for over $200 million in October 2020, African companies have seen continued interest from global firms. This is evidenced by private equity firm Medius Capital’s $100 million acquisition of expense management firm Expensya in 2023, and BioNTech’s $713 million purchase of InstaDeep, an AI firm founded in Tunisia.
And now Deel, the American HR company is acquiring PaySpace, a 20-year-old Africa-based provider of payroll and HR software, for an undisclosed amount. This marks the third high-profile acquisition of an African company by a global player within the last 18 months.
Launched in 2007 by the Clark brothers (Bruce, Clyde, and Warren) alongside George Karageorgiades, PaySpace, tackles inefficiencies in traditional payroll and HR software. The platform boasts over 4,000 customers across Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa.
What’s in for Deel? The simple answer is that the acquisition will strengthen Deel’s presence in Africa. According to Deel CEO, Alex Bouaziz, Payspace “is one of the best technologies” the HR company valued at $12 billion had seen. Bouaziz told Techcrunch in an interview that his team was dying to acquire the HR company.
While Deel’s move underscores the increasing attractiveness of African tech companies to global players, the combined efforts of both players could reshape the future of work for African businesses and employees.
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Crypto Tracker
The World Wide Web3
Source:
|
Coin Name |
Current Value |
Day |
Month |
|---|---|---|---|
 Bitcoin |
$64,019 |
– 4.95% |
+ 50.53% |
| Ether |
$3,519 |
– 1.45% |
+ 54.06% |
 Solana |
$122.63 |
– 5.11% |
+ 26.94% |
| MANTRA |
$0.31 |
– 4.38% |
+ 74.76% |
* Data as of 10:33 PM WAT, March 5, 2024.
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Opportunities
- The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and Tech4Dev have opened applications for the DigitalforAll Challenge 2.0. The program, which is divided into three categories: Young Learners (Ages 12-18); Youth Category (Ages 19-45); and Civil Servants, will reward winners and runners-up in each category with cash prizes. the winner from each category will receive ₦10 million cash, while the first runner-up will get a consolation prize of ₦7.5 million. The second runner-up for each of the categories will receive ₦5 million. Apply here.
- Applications are now open for the 2024/2025 PTDF Overseas Postgraduate (Masters & PhD) Scholarship Scheme. The award includes the provision of flight tickets, payment of health insurance, payment of tuition and bench fees (where applicable), and the provision of allowances to meet the costs of accommodation and living expenses. Apply by March 18.
- The 2024 OWSD Early Career Women Scientists (ECWS) Fellowship Programme ($50,000 award) is open for application. The fellowship programme supports early-career women scientists to lead important research projects in those countries which have been identified as especially lacking in scientific and technological resources. Apply by March 14.
What else is happening in tech?
Written by: Mariam Muhammad & Faith Omoniyi
Edited by: Timi Odueso
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