Author: Akin Naphtal

The Global smartphone market returned to growth in October after more than two years of slump, helped by a recovery in the emerging markets, according to data from Counterpoint Research. The data showed that global monthly smartphone sell-through volumes grew 5%, making October the first month to record year-on-year growth since June 2021, breaking the streak of 27 consecutive months of negative year-on-year growth. The global smartphone sales have been under stress for last two years affected by various issues starting with component shortages, inventory build-up and lengthening of replacement cycles, Counterpoint said in its report. “Following strong growth in…

Crezco, a UK fintech company using open banking to make B2B invoice and bill payments as convenient as B2C card payments, has achieved several major business milestones through securing funding and integrating its technology into global small business platform Xero. Crezco has secured $12m in Series A funding from MMC Ventures and fintech-focused 13books capital to enable further growth. Additionally, its recent agreement with Xero has resulted in the technology partnership being integrated into its bill payment feature which will be launched to UK small businesses at the end of the month. Underpinned by Crezco’s account-to-account payments API, Xero will…

Ghanaian insurtech startup, Brolly, has partnered global ride-hailing company, Bolt, to offer insurance solutions exclusively in Ghana, with Brolly seeking to provide ride-hailing drivers with convenient daily premium payments. Backed by finance and insurance firms, Techstars and Allianz, Brolly, prior to its collaboration with Bolt, had successfully piloted its pay-as-you-go auto insurance solution, allowing drivers the option to pay premiums daily or weekly. This initiative was tested with over 2,000 ride-sharing drivers, setting the stage for Brolly’s partnership with Bolt. Through this collaboration, Bolt drivers in Ghana can now seamlessly access insurance directly within the Bolt driver app, eliminating the…

In its bid to help create a digitalised Africa, Smartphone giant, Huawei, took centre stage at the AfricaCom Conference held in Cape Town, with the company’s Sub-Saharan Africa President, Leo Chen, championing digitisation and decarbonisation for the continent’s sustained growth. Addressing the audience at the conference which ended on 16th November, Chen spoke on the transformative potential of the digital-physical convergence era, asserting that Africa could advance digital economy development by embracing advanced and inclusive connectivity infrastructure. Chen believes that “developing connectivity infrastructure that is more advanced, more future-proof, and more inclusive and accessible is the first and foremost priority…

Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles has collaborated with DHL Express to conduct a pilot test featuring the ID.Buzz Cargo fleet in South Africa. Over the next six months, four ID.Buzz Cargo units will be stationed at DHL Express Service Centres in Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban. These units are earmarked for specialized last-mile delivery services as part of DHL’s local pilot initiative aimed at achieving global zero emissions logistics. This collaboration marks a significant step in realising Volkswagen Group South Africa’s electric vehicle strategy for the Volkswagen brand in the country. “Our partnership with DHL Express on the ID.Buzz Cargo test…

Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, has disclosed on X, Tuesday night that the Federal Government has launched a portal for the Startup Support and Engagement Portal. According to him, the portal, which is a key requirement of the implementation of the Nigeria Startup Act, is meant to drive the identification and aggregation of startups in the country. He tweeted, “We are pleased to announce the launch of the Startup Support and Engagement Portal, https://startup.gov.ng/, a key requirement for the implementation of the Nigeria Startup Act. The startup portal will drive the identification and aggregation…

ChatGPT-maker OpenAI has announced that Sam Altman, the company’s ousted co-founder, will be rehired as CEO, following his sudden dismissal last week from the startup he co-founded. The Firm disclosed that the board will be restructured, with Bret Taylor as Chair, and Larry Summers and Adam D’Angelo as members. The statement was made known by the company’s official X account some minutes ago. According to the statement, it says it is still working to figure out the modalities and necessary details to have the former leadership back. READ ALSO: Vertiv trends forecast sees intense focus on AI enablement and energy…

Uber Technologies, announced it proposed offer of $1.2 billion aggregate principal amount of Convertible Senior Notes due 2028, which is subject to market conditions and other factors. The notes are being offered only to persons reasonably believed to be qualified institutional buyers pursuant to Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Uber also intends to grant the initial purchasers of the notes an option to purchase, within a 13-day period beginning on, and including, the date on which the notes are first issued, up to an additional $180.0 million aggregate principal amount of the notes. Uber intends…

MTN has disclosed in a recent statement that there would be periodic reviews of the company’s tower contracts to drive efficiency and ensure optimal performance from vendors. According to the CEO of MTN Nigeria, Karl Toriola, he stated and said this was against the backdrop of the recent award of tower contracts to ATC and the fact that another 1,500 site contracts would soon be due for renewal. He made this remark during the MTN Nigeria’s Capital Markets Day, which was held at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja. He said: “Efficient tower contracts are key in driving cost-effective, deep broadband penetration…

Chat app, Telegram, boasting over 700 million monthly active users, has been experiencing outages in Kenya for more than two weeks, disrupting the activities of primary users of the app, and forcing them to use other platforms. Despite the prolonged disruption, Kenya’s Communications Authority (CA) has not officially confirmed the situation, leaving users and digital rights advocates in the dark. The disruption, which only happens during daytime, and is happening alongside the ongoing Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations, has led people to suspect that Telegram’s offline issues were deliberately created to prevent students from using the app to…