Author: Akin Naphtal

Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Mr Houlin Zhao has called on Nigeria’s Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami) to use his good offices as Chairman of the World Summit on the Information Society(WSIS) to encourage the participation of other relevant sectors like education and agriculture, in the WIS process. This will enable the engagement of the global agriculture sector in the use of technologies to enhance food production and the use of emerging technologies to enhance education, among others. Mr Zhao made the call today Monday, 30th May 2022 during a meeting…

Moroccan logistics and digital freight startup CloudFret has raised US$1 million in funding to help it expand further in African and European markets. Founded by Driss Jabar in 2021, CloudFret is a transport and logistics company that connects truck loaders and carriers. The platform uses artificial intelligence technology to detect empty cargo vehicles travelling between Europe and Africa, and connects them with goods needing transporting. The US$1 million in funding came from Plug and Play, PRC Ventures ICAV, Azur Innovation Fund, AfriMobi, and business angel Khalid Zitouni, and will be used to help CloudFret expand further in European and African…

Nigerian digital banking startup Grey has announced the expansion of its service to East Africa, starting with Kenya, in partnership with fintech company Cellulant. Launched in 2021 by Idorenyin Obong and Femi Aghedo, who wanted to help Nigerians easily exchange to local currency and access the foreign currencies in their accounts, Grey offers an international money transfer service that enables its users to send and receive international payments without restrictions quickly. Its products include foreign bank accounts, instant currency exchange, and international money transfers. In partnership with Cellulant, which is the company’s payments processor, the Y Combinator-backed fintech startup has…

Interswitch, an African payments company, has received a $110 million investment from LeapFrog Investments and Tana Africa Capital to help it expand its digital payment services across Africa. Interswitch, with a market capitalization of $1 billion, is one of Africa’s most valuable electronic payment companies. Among the fintech’s most notable products are its POS terminals, and online consumer payment systems like Quickteller and Verve, which have issued more than 35 million active cards since its inception in 2013. “We are thrilled to bring LeapFrog and Tana on board, as we continue our work to promote the future of the African…

TRB Advisors led a $10 million bridge round for Africa-based healthcare startup CarePoint, with participation from Breyer Capital, Beyond Capital Ventures (BVC), M3 Inc, Asia Pacific Land/ Natural World Limited, and Alan Waxman. Dr. Sangu Delle launched CarePoint, which was previously known as Africa Health Holdings. “We began looking at healthcare because we knew that any socioeconomic development would need us to address healthcare issues as well.” To put it in perspective, we (Africa) account for around 16% of the global population, 26% of the global disease burden, but only 3% of global healthcare employees and 1% of global healthcare…

The use of technology or the internet to connect patients to doctors  goes as far back as 1994 (PDF) in the MENA region, when Egypt is considered that date is 2002. But wars, doctor and patient resistance, poor infrastructure, lack of funding, poor system quality, and lack of information technology training have hindered the adoption and growth of telemedicine in the MENA region. These challenges and the pandemic which force the world to rethink access to healthcare, has created an underserved market for online medical consultation in the region. Esaal, a health and wellness startup, which has enjoyed unprecedented success…

Nigerian cryptocurrency exchange Yellow Card has added Ivory Coast to the list of 16 countries in which it operates as it continues to expand across the continent. Formed in 2018 and launched in Nigeria in 2019, Yellow Card makes it easy for anyone, anywhere in Africa, to buy cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDT Stablecoin using cash, mobile money, card, or bank transfer. The company claims to be “building a new financial infrastructure for the African continent”. Last year the startup raised US$15 million in Series A funding to ramp up hiring and continue its expansion across the continent, and…

Nigeria’s Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami said technology-led with effective service delivery which puts citizens in the picture, is the key idea underlying public sector reforms in the country. Professor Pantami made this disclosure today Thursday while delivering his keynote address titled Emerging Technologies, Partnerships and Collaborations on Citizens-Centred Technology Governance at the 11th African day International Conference on collaborations on citizens-centred technology conference, organised by the Republic of Slovenia. Professor Pantami in his virtual address informed participants that “citizens-centred governance involves new ways of enabling citizens to prosper. It aims at providing an…

The recently launched Boris Bison Youth Empowerment Business Incubator (‘BB Incubator’) in Douala, Cameroon, together with pan-African video game publishing company Ludique Works and Finnish tech learning accelerator network Start North have announced an MoU to introduce their technologically advanced learning environments or ‘5G Mokki Tech Spaces’ across Africa. The new partnership comes just weeks after Boris Bison Youth Empowerment Business Incubator’s opening ceremony in Douala, during which Cameroon’s Minister for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, Social Economy and Handicrafts Bassilekin III Achille offered founder and CEO Boris Ngala his congratulations and personal support. According to a statement released to the…

Elon Musk, Tesla owner, has expressed the readiness of Starlink, his internet service company, to operate in Africa as the network provider looked to expand beyond the United States and European market. Musk sent Starlink representatives to Nigeria in May last year to meet with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on the launch of the network in the country. The meeting was to prepare the ground for the entry of Starlink in the Nigerian market to provide competition for MTN Nigeria, Airtel Africa, 9mobile, and Globacom, the four networks currently operating in the nation’s telecommunication industry. In a post on…