Author: Akin Naphtal

The latest Google Pixel Stand is less of a “must-have” accessory if you’re a Pixel phone owner and more of a “nice to have.” For $79, its primary job is fast wireless charging, and it does that well. But unless you’re a Pixel 6 or 6 Pro owner and you’re really sold on one of the stand’s handful of extra features supported by your phone, then you’d be better off saving your money and getting an inexpensive third-party charger. The aptly named Pixel Stand (2nd gen) is Google’s second take on a fast wireless charger built to complement its Pixel phones.…

The National Information Development Agency (NITDA) has said that it was partnering with relevant stakeholders to come up with a code of conduct for social media activities in Nigeria. According to NAN, this was made known by the Director-General of NITDA, Mr Kashifu Inuwa, during an interactive session with journalists on Monday in Abuja, to kick-start this year’s ‘National Protection Week’. Inuwa said the effort was to protect Nigerians from data privacy intrusion, adding that the agency was putting measures in place to impose more sanctions on data privacy violators such as Loan Application platforms breaching its users’ privacy. Inuwa…

PayedIn Technology, a fintech company empowering the offline to online transitioning for organisations, businesses, and entrepreneurs, said it had launched a simple-to-use payment solution in Nigeria. The company said in a statement that in support of the digitalisation of the economy, all organisations, businesses, and entrepreneurs should have access to a secure and easy-to-use electronic payment solution. It said the current payment solutions available in the country were complex and often required complicated hardware, payment intermediaries or complex systems integration. According to the statement, only the top 20 per cent of organisations, businesses and entrepreneurs with the requisite skills, capabilities,…

Mastercard and Network International have collaborated to launch a new digital payment acceptance technology that enables mobile phones to act as payment terminals for 500,000 new merchants in African and Middle Eastern countries. They said in a statement that the new payment solution would run on Network International’s Tap on Phone technology. According that the statement, ‘Tap on Phone’ tech is powered by Mastercard Payment Gateway Services, which gives small and medium-sized businesses the ability to accept payments through a smartphone. The firms said, “Customers will simply tap their card or device to make the payment on the SME merchant’s…

As part of its effort to ensure its customers have easy access to their funds and carry out seamless transactions, Baobab Microfinance Bank has launched a new mobile app. The bank in a statement said the mobile app known as MyBaobab will offer its customers a new banking experience, built on cutting-edge technology, with ease of usage and excellent customer experience. According to the Managing Director / Chief Executive Officer Dr. Kazeem Olarewanju, “our aim is to ensure our customers have access to their funds to carry out transactions while keeping safe at all times. In view of this, customers…

One Payment Limited, a subsidiary of the leading Pan-African digital payments group, DPO Group has been granted a licence by the Central Bank of Nigeria to provide certain types of payments services to businesses across Nigeria. This licence enables the DPO Group to operate as an independent payment solutions services company in Nigeria as it does across over 20 other countries in Africa. DPO offers merchant aggregation services to over 60,000 active merchants, including eCommerce companies, airlines and travel agents. Local and global businesses trust DPO Group because its robust and reliable network allows merchants to accept payments in the…

Kenyan fintech startup Zanifu has raised a US$1 million seed funding round to help it scale and further develop its platform, which provides short-term working capital loans to MSMEs in the FMCG supply chain. Founded in 2017 by Steve Biko and Sebastian Mithika, Zanifu launched operations the next year and has already disbursed over 85,000 loans worth over US$13 million to over 7,000 MSMEs in Kenya. The startup has now raised an oversubscribed seed funding round to help it scale further, and advance its product development. Investors included Saviu Ventures, which invested in a pre-seed round in early 2020, as…

The deployment of fifth-generation technology has got a boost as the Federal Government through the Central Bank of Nigeria has placed the telecommunication sector on the priority list for access to foreign exchange (forex). The Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA) in late 2021 said Nigeria needs about $500m and 6000 base stations to roll out 5G in 10 cities. The CBN’s decision means telcos can now access adequate forex to acquire major equipment from overseas for 5G deployment and enhance their other forex-related activities. In November 2021, the Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria, Gbenga Adebayo,…

Oracle opened a data centre in South Africa on Wednesday to provide local cloud services across Africa for the first time, joining the likes of Microsoft and Amazon Web Services in setting up facilities in the country. Africa is the US company’s 37th “cloud region” — an area that allows customers to get faster access from a local data centre, in this case in Johannesburg. Oracle is racing to open at least 44 cloud regions this year as it plans to catch up with cloud computing rivals such as Microsoft, Amazon and Google. Report about Oracle’s Africa data centre plan…

Check Point® Software Technologies, provider of cyber security solutions globally has extended the Check Point Quantum portfolio with Quantum Lightspeed Firewalls to introduce the biggest network security revolution in the last decade. Quantum Lightspeed sets the standard for firewall performance to enable Hyper-fast datacenter security for every enterprise: 5 times better firewall throughput – Up to 3 Tbps per system / 800 Gbps per single gateway10 times faster – Ultra-low latency at 3 microseconds20 times better price-performance than competing solutions With the emergence of distributed SaaS applications and the need to better support remote workers, the modern data center is…