Author: Akin Naphtal

Member of Parliament for Ejisu and Deputy Minister of Finance, Dr John Kumah has urged the minority in Parliament to live above their partisan interest and support the passage of some critical bills such as the E-levy Bill. He said the minority’s position on the bill was stampeding the government’s ability to pursue swift fiscal consolidation and re-anchor the economy on the path of sustainable growth. In a statement, Dr Kumah noted that Parliament may not be able to extricate and absolve itself from blame when the economy takes a nosedive due the non-passage of critical bills, including the e-levy.…

Meta is expanding the availability of Facebook Reels for iOS and Android to more than 20 countries across sub-Saharan Africa. Meta is also introducing better ways to help creators to earn money, new creation tools and more places to watch and create Facebook Reels. Prior to this launch Reels was available on Facebook in India, Mexico, Canada, the U.S, and is now available across sub-Saharan Africa in: Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda, Tanzania, Swaziland, South Africa, Seychelles, Senegal, Rwanda, Nigeria, Namibia, Mali, Malawi, Lesotho, Kenya, Guinea, Ghana, Cape Verde, Cameroon, Burkina Faso. Commenting on the launch Nunu Ntshingila, Regional Director for sub-Saharan Africa…

Central Bank of Kenya has granted Cellulant a Payment Service Provider authorisation in Kenya, enabling the company to expand its payments offering for businesses, banks, and consumers. Founded in 2003, Cellulant is among the pioneer Financial Technology (fintech) Companies in Kenya and Africa at large and has a history of driving innovation through creative technical solutions delivered with a streamlined user experience. Over the last decade, the company has evolved in its payments solutions, from mobile banking services to offering a full-stack one-stop-shop payments platform for global, regional and local businesses. The authorisation permits Cellulant to continue enabling businesses to…

The Administrator at the National Identification Authority (NIA), Cecilia Erzuah, has pleaded with mobile telecommunication networks to extend the deadline for the registration of SIM cards across the country. According to her, since the exercise begun, scores of Ghanaians have not been able to participate, and therefore the need for the mobile network operators to consider a possible extension to the end of the year. Speaking to the press on Tuesday, she explained that there’s a backlog of people who are yet to receive their Ghana Cards, hence, the timeline for the SIM registration must be reviewed to accommodate such…

A cyber rapid-response team (CRRT) is being deployed across Europe, after a call for help from Ukraine. The newly formed team of eight to 12 experts, from Lithuania, Croatia, Poland, Estonia, Romania, and the Netherlands, has committed to help defend Ukraine from cyber-attacks – remotely and on site in the country. According to a CRRT official, “we can see that cyber-measures are an important part of Russia’s hybrid toolkit”. It comes after the UK and the US blamed Russia for cyber-attacks earlier this month that temporarily took a small number of Ukrainian banking and government websites offline. The Lithuanian Ministry…

Ten game development studios in Africa have come together under one umbrella, the Pan Africa Gaming Group (PAGG), in an effort to unify the continent’s gaming sector, which is currently fragmented. The association is further envisioned to drive the uptake of gaming in the continent, and grow developer talent. The announcement was made today against the backdrop of the Africa Games Week 2022, which is taking place in Cape Town, South Africa. The PAGG said they aim to grow the industry by two times annually, and to put Africa “on the map of the global game industry.” The gaming studios…

In the past one decade, a $1 billion jobs market — microwork — has emerged around technologies that split activities into piecemeal tasks to be completed by many people over the internet, mostly using mobile devices. The allure of microwork opportunities has grown to capture the interest of Africa’s youth, who stand to earn up to $7 per day, against a daily urban income rate of $4.35 urban earning average for low-income groups, according to a study conducted in Kenya by Mercy Corps Ventures (MCV), the impact investing arm of global development agency Mercy Corps. Microwork has the potential to create jobs…

TradeDepot, a B2B marketplace that connects micro-retailers with distributors and manufacturers of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs), has acquired Green Lion, its competitor in Ghana, for an undisclosed amount, paving the way for its growth, and the delivery of its services across the West African country. The acquisition involves a full take-over of Green Lion’s assets, relationships in Ghana and its employees. Green Lion had developed fintech solutions to enable traders access financing, and a digital ledger Wysr, which retailers use for stock monitoring and bookkeeping. Green Lion was co-founded by Jorge de Rojas, Enrique Moreno de la Cova and Miguel de Rojas in 2018. Green Lion has…

The global chat commerce’s total addressable market is worth an estimated $80 billion and is seen as the third big wave of digital commerce after e-commerce and app commerce markets. As the largest digital platform in the world with more users than the internet’s 4.7 billion users, it only makes sense for businesses to communicate and transact with consumers through chat channels. Founded in 2000, Clickatell is a pioneer in this mobile communications and chat commerce space. The company helps businesses communicate with their customers via mobile messaging platforms and today is announcing that it has raised $91 million in a new financing round.…

The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, has indicated that the introduction of the electronic levy (E-levy) for revenue mobilisation to improve the economy was a better option than going to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for assistance. The E-levy, he said had the potential of raking in GH¢7 billion for the country if it had commenced this year, a figure which according to him was higher than what the country received under the last IMF intervention in 2015. “What will the IMF give you, the last time they did it was a billion dollars in a three-year programme which was…