- Flutterwave’s chief operating officer, Bode Abifarin, has left Africa’s largest startup after six years of leading the startup’s operations, in the latest high-profile exit from the payments giant.
- Former US agent identified as Binance executive detained in Nigeria. His name is Tigran Gambrayan, and he leads the Binance criminal investigations team.
Read: techcabal.com/2024/03/12/us-binance-executive-detained-in-nigeria/
- The global ride-hailing company Uber has pushed back against a suggestion that it failed to honour a 2020 agreement to share data with the Lagos state government. That agreement mandates ride-hailing companies to share users' trip information by giving the government backend access to real-time data
- Investors are rewarding Chams for a decision to move on from government clients after it lost $100 million executing a contentious National identity project.
- convincing farmers to collaborate with agritech companies has proven challenging since traditional brokers remain influential in controlling crop and market access.
- In today’s edition: Lagos moves to sanction Uber || Showmax faces fresh lawsuit || IFC sues Africa Talking || Gro Intelligence lays off 60% of its staff
- The secret to being a successful creator is crafting compelling stories that grab the audience’s attention in the first three seconds — a universal truth in the world of marketing.
- IFC, which holds a 20% stake in Africa’s Talking, recommended the company's sale to Infobip but could not push the acquisition through since it did not control Africa’s Talking board.
- Zenith—a tier-1 bank with a market capitalisation of ₦1.1 Trillion—signed a $10 million deal with Huawei for a storage solution, said two people familiar with the deal.
- Fintech giant Flutterwave is shutting down Barter, a virtual card service it launched in 2017, as it focuses on its enterprise and remittance business segments.
- In today’s edition: How Eyowo’s pivot to fintech stumbled || MTN recovers $7.8 million of stolen funds|| TowerCo secures new funds for Ugandan network expansion || Nigeria release guidelines for digital asset operators
- Eyowo was platform of choice for Tradermoni, a controversial collateral-free government loan to two million small business owners in 2019.
But five years later, it lost its banking licence
- MTN Nigeria, one of Nigeria’s largest telecom providers, has recovered over half of the ₦22 billion it lost when its Mobile Money service suffered a glitch in May 2022. The incident, highlights the scale of fraud in Nigeria's financial services sector.
- In today’s edition: Inside Verod-Kepple’s vision for African startups || CBK licences 19 more digital lenders|| OpenAI fires back at Musk || Ring Capital launches Africa-focused fund
- "The fact that you exist is not news. Whilst raising over a million seed in funds could guarantee you coverage, whether you've launched a new product or expanded, journalists will always ask, "So what?" What's the impact, the innovation, the human story?"
- With a $45 million war chest, Verod-Kepple Africa (VKAV), a venture capital fund, is investing around $1-3 million in growth-stage African startups. The fund has backed 11 startups and is looking to expand its portfolio.
- Results of a pilot collaboration between LootMogul, an Indian sports technology company, Cricket South Africa and the Durban Super Giants have revealed an increase in cricket gaming platform visits to 4.05 million monthly, with 48,177 new monthly games played, pointing to the potential impact…
- Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, is disabling all its Naira services from March 8 amid the company’s regulatory troubles in Nigeria.
- Deel, the American HR company valued at $12 billion, is acquiring PaySpace, a 20-year-old Africa-based provider of payroll and HR software, for an undisclosed amount.
techcabal.com/2024/03/05/deel-acquires-payspace-a-20-year-old-sa-payroll-provider/
- Africa has long grappled with the challenge of financial exclusion, leaving millions marginalised from accessing basic banking and insurance products. 14 million households and individuals are pushed into poverty every year due to out-of-pocket health expenditures or catastrophic health expenses…
- MTN Nigeria and Airtel Africa spent a combined ₦613 billion to expand their 4G and 5G networks by the end of 2022, regulatory filings from both companies show.
- In today’s edition: Africa Talking’s CEO sues company over unlawful termination || CIPC hackers want a $100k reward || Canal+ gets an extension || Bolt launches in Cairo days after Botswana entry
- On Monday TechCabal published a story about Brass, which has now been called into question by the company’s founder.
While we don’t typically publish transcripts of our conversations with interview subjects, we will make an exception in this instance.
- “It is expensive to run any kind of fintech. You can say you want to disrupt banks if you raise $1–2 million; in a few years, you need to raise $5–10 million. If it is overdue and you have not, things will get tricky,” said Sola Akindolu, the company’s CEO.
- Bilha Ndirangu, a former director of Africa’s Talking who accused senior company officials of misconduct, is suing the company she cofounded for unlawful termination of her appointment.
- In today’s edition: Nigeria suspends 4,000 BDCs || Regulators in SA want new data rules || South Africa’s business registry hacked || Musk sues OpenAI
- This article was contributed to TechCabal by Uche Aniche. 2Africa project is a Subsea Cable connecting three continents and about 33 countries in Africa, including Nigeria. At 45,000km, it is the world’s longest submarine cable and is expected to connect about 1.3 billion people and deepen 4G and…
- According to the company, introducing the commission charge forms part of a strategy to make further investments in Botswana, which inDrive describes as a “top priority market”.
- Nigerian authorities have imposed a $10 billion fine on Binance in its latest crackdown on the global exchange as s part of efforts to salvage the country’s volatile FX market.
- MTN Nigeria reported a loss for the full year 2023, its first in three years, after a Naira devaluation and rising cost of doing business ate into its margins. The telco reported a loss after tax of ₦137.0 billion in 2023 compared to profits of ₦348.7 billion in 2022.
- In today’s edition: Nigerian telecoms to disconnect 12 million subscribers || Spleet lays off staff || Nigeria gears up for Abuja Tech City || MoMo Virtual Cards are coming