Author: Akin Naphtal

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…

Moroccan B2B e-commerce and fintech startup Chari has raised a bridge round of funding that values the company at US$100 million. Founded in 2020 by husband-and-wife team Ismael and Sophia Belkhayat, Chari allows traditional proximity store owners in Morocco to order products and have them delivered. It works with more than 50 per cent of the proximity stores in Casablanca, has expanded into Tunisia, and in August announced the acquisition of mobile credit book application Karny. A participant in the Y Combinator S21 batch, the company raised a US$5 million seed round late last year, and now aims to take…

Mr Ike Nnamani is the Founder/Chief Executive Officer of Medallion Communications, a leading data centre company in Nigeria, with tentacles in other African countries. In this interview with Techberg, he speaks on the formation of the company, prospects and challenges as well as other ICT industry issues. Excerpts: How did the idea of starting Medallion start? The medallion was conceived around 2001/2002 when the telecom industry in Nigeria was undergoing full deregulation with the licensing of several telecom operators by the Regulator. I realized there was a place for a carrier-neutral service provider who will act as a bridge across…

BezoMoney, Ghana’s leading fintech provider of out-of-the-box financial tools and solutions for young people and the unbanked has launched its new savings platform, BezoSusu. The platform allows users to make deposits through their mobile money wallets or bank accounts, track and monitor the growth of their money and eventually reach set savings goals. BezoSusu is a part of Bezomoney’s growing portfolio of products and services tailor-made to help mainly young people and the unbanked make smart money moves and earn their way to financial freedom. With Bezosusu, customers who are keen to save, have access to a growing selection of…

IFC and the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) has launched a new call for applications for IFC ScaleX, a new programme aiming to help tackle the financing gap that women entrepreneurs still face, particularly in emerging markets, by backing accelerators. IFC ScaleX, for which IFC has partnered with Village Capital for implementation, is a performance-based initiative that will award up to US$25,000 to business accelerators that have helped women-led companies in emerging markets raise equity financing. The aim is to incentivise accelerators to actively help women unlock funding opportunities, catalysing a total of US$40 million into women-led startups over the…

South African mobile gaming startup Carry1st has raised a US$20 million Series A extension round from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Avenir and Google to help it scale across Africa. Founded in 2018 and based in Cape Town, Carry1st is a mobile games publisher serving the first generation of African smartphone users, which has so far reached millions of users across the region with games such as Mine Rescue and SpongeBob: Krusty Cook-Off. The startup has also launched proprietary payments and an online marketplace to better monetise content. Carry1st raised US$6 million in Series A funding in May of last year,…