| Timon Capital is an early-stage venture firm that’s been active in Africa for the last 18 months, closing over six investments in Sub-Saharan Africa in that time. This week, they’ve released a compensation survey with 50 participating companies across Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa as a tool for entrepreneurs, hiring managers, investors, and job seekers. You can find more about the survey at: https://www.timoncapital.com/african-startup-compensation-survey
timoncapital.com | @timoncap |
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| Moi University, a Kenyan university, has launched a range of locally-assembled devices targeted at students, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and government institutions. The devices include desktops, laptops and workstations using the MU Fortune brand name. Launched in partnership with Portuguese firm, JP.TK, the devices were assembled by the university’s MU technologies Digital Assembly Plant. According to the school, the plant has a capacity to produce 4,000 devices per day. The newly launched devices will retail for between $290.11 and $967.02. |
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| Nigerian regulators are concerned about fair competition in the country’s telecom sector, Bloomberg has reported. In an interview, Babatunde Irukera, Vice Chairman of Nigeria’s Federal Competition & Consumer Protection Commission, his agency is not using subscriber numbers as a signal to address antitrust issues; instead, the focus is on data capability and data infrastructure. Although no formal enquiry has been initiated, he said: “early indications show that, depending on how it ends, we may have to take certain actions.” According to Bloomberg, previous antitrust concerns have bordered on how MTN, Nigeria’s biggest telco, has secured additional broadband. But Irukera did not mention if any telco was the target of any future enquiry. |
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| South African ticketing company, Computicket has lost an appeal to overturn a 20 million rand ($1.368 million) court ruling at the Competition Appeal Court. Owned by Shoprite, Computicket’s court case originated from 2008 when ticketing rivals challenged its dominance at the country’s Competition Commission. By January this year, the Competition Tribunal fined the company for abuse of dominance between 2005 and 2011. Computicket appealed the decision at the Competition Appeal Court but has now lost the case. |
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| Kenya’s biggest telecom company Safaricom has removed expiry dates from data bundles. While celebrating its 19th year in business, the company said it was “starting afresh” and unveiled new data bundles for subscribers that had no expiry dates. This comes days after a lawyer sued Safaricom, Airtel Kenya, Telkom for having expiry dates on data bundles. |
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| At TechCabal, we’ve been running a series called #MyLifeInTech to profile the humans behind the most innovative startups, investments and policy formations driving the technology sector across Africa. In our latest entry, Kay Ugwuede spoke with Dr Olubayo Adekanmbi, the founder of Data Science Nigeria, an organisation that is developing talent and research in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Nigeria. |
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| A MESSAGE FROM OUR PARTNER |
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The Young Adults and Youths Affairs (YAYA) has just announced the launch of the 2nd edition of it’s pitch drive series called Kingdom Hack 2019. This year’s edition looks to discover, Invest and Scale innovations the potential to transform Nigeria’s economy through sustainable income redistribution.
YAYA is calling on students, developers, designers, fintech, startups and individuals with innovations that demonstrate innovative solutions with strong potentials to enable Financial Inclusion, Health, Agric financing, Education, etc.to apply here, Click here for more information. |
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| The only “international” road into Sierra Leone from Liberia is a lonely muddy bush path, Toke writes in the latest #JollofRoad entry. The team is currently in Sierra Leone, but the experience so far has been somewhat educating. Toke figures that the underdeveloped road is a signal that Sierra Leone and Liberia may not be the best of friends and trade between the two could be a “nightmare”; hello AfCFTA. But that’s not the only experience. Read about their first day in the country and their thoughts using the leone, Sierra Leone’s currency. Visit jollofroad.com every day to catch up on all the stories from the road! |
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The next edition of the TechCabal Townhall is here! And this time, the focus is TC Townhall: Edtech & the Future of Work. Holding on November 29, 2019, we are bringing together regulators, government agencies, investors, entrepreneurs, NGOs, social enterprises and schools to set a strong agenda about how to leapfrog Africa’s education challenges and prepare our citizens for future jobs. If you would like to attend the townhall, please fill this form and we’ll keep you updated with the agenda.
We are also putting together a map of the African edtech industry. If you have an edtech startup or you are a technology company doing significant work in the industry we would like to hear from you. Please fill this form. |
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| Although Nigerian banks denied asking telecom companies to increase USSD charges for customers, documents posted by The Cable reveal that the “idea” to do so actually came from banks. According to the online report, Nigerian banks did not want to pay higher prices for USSD transactions as proposed by telcos. So they asked for an “orderly implementation” of end-user billing, a quiet way of saying “charge customers directly”. The Nigerian Ministry of Communications has asked telcos to pause implementation, but that hasn’t ended the drama around USSD. The Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) has asked the government to allow the industry’s regulator to enforce the new pricing. |
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| Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has renamed the Ministry of Communications to the “Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy”. According to a press statement, the previous name was limiting and obsolete. The new name, however, repositions the Ministry for the “objectives of a digital economy”. The Ministry is led by Isa Pantami, the former head of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA). During his time at the agency, Pantami increased focus around online data protection, setting up policies around public wifi and the introduction of the Nigerian Data Protection Regulations (NDPR). Apparently, he wants his Federal Ministry to develop a similar focus for the digital space. |
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| Wakanow has announced Adebayo Adedeji as its interim CEO. Adedeji, now the former Chief Operating Officer, will replace Obinna Ekezie, the company’s founder. Launched in 2008, Wakanow is an online travel company. Over the last 11 years, it has grown to become one of the most popular travel agencies in Nigeria. But when the Nigerian recession occurred in 2016, the company reportedly witnessed low sales and faced financial distress by January 2018. However, in December 2018, it secured $40 million funding from one of the world’s largest private equity firms, The Carlyle Group. |
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| Join key regulators at the Nigeria Fintech Week (29th and 30th October 2019) including the DG, Central Bank of Nigeria, Mrs Aishah Ahmad; DG, Securities & Exchange Commission, Ms Mary Uduk; Immediate Past Governor, Central Bank of Sierre Leone, Dr Patrick Conteh, CEO, Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation NDIC, Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim, among others. Learn more here. Secure your seat by registering on the website or send your inquiries to enquiries@nigeriafintechweek.org. |
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That’s it for today,
We’ll see you tomorrow.
– Abubakar
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