Author: Akin Naphtal

Football or soccer, the latter commonly used in the US, is the most popular and watched sport globally with over five billion football fans according to its apex governing body, FIFA. While the World Cup, its pinnacle event of football and arguably the world’s most popular sporting event, shows the popularity of the sport in full colors, it’s the yearly leagues in different countries across Europe, South America, Asia and Africa that puts diehard nature of football fans on display. FIFA says Latin America, the Middle East and Africa represent the largest fan bases across the world. With fans of various…

Ghanaian cancer research and diagnostics company Yemaachi Biotech has closed a US$3 million seed round to advance its mission of diversifying precision oncology globally. Founded by Yaw Bediako, David Hutchful, Joyce Ngoi, and Yaw Attua-Afari in 2020, Yemaachi uses cutting-edge immunogenomics, bioinformatics, and artificial intelligence to accelerate the development of cancer detection and cure strategies which have high efficacy regardless of ethnicity. Dedicated to accelerating precision oncology in Africa and beyond by expanding access to research and diagnostics, Yemaachi has developed a first of its kind pan-African genomic and clinical knowledge base and research platform, which combined with deep clinical…

President Joe Biden said on Monday that intelligence indicated a growing Russian cyber threat to the US. He said Russia was “exploring” cyberattack, but the US would use “every tool” to prevent and respond to such a move. Mr Biden suggested Moscow could act in retaliation for sanctions imposed on it after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia’s foreign ministry has said bilateral ties between Moscow and the US were on the “verge of rupture”. Mr Biden has previously warned of a possible cyberattack from Russia, saying on 24 February the US was prepared to respond. In Monday’s statement, Mr Biden said that…

A South African judge has put the brakes on a $270 million real estate project that includes a regional headquarters for Amazon, saying that indigenous people who consider the land to be sacred must be consulted. Judge Patricia Goliath said in a ruling on Friday that Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust (LLPT), owner of the 37-acre site in Cape Town, must stop construction immediately pending “proper and meaningful consultation” with the Khoi and San indigenous populations. “This matter ultimately concerns the rights of indigenous peoples,” Goliath said in the ruling, which was shared with CNN Business by the Observatory Civic Association, one of…

Kenya-based agritech Apollo Agriculture, which helps farmers access high-quality farm inputs, financing and markets, plans to double the number of farmers it is serving by the end 2022 and to introduce other products that deliver more value per acre of land. This is after raising $40 million in Series B funding in the equity round led by Softbank Vision Fund 2. Apollo uses the satellite imagery data of farms and AI to rate the credit-worthiness of farmers. It plans to use the new funding to refine its technology and deliver more products and services to farmers. Launched in 2016, the startup…

A wholesale e-commerce platform based in Kenya with hubs in the Americas, Asia and Europe, Powered by People, has secured $5 million in seed funding to increase its transaction volumes by growing the number of small brands using its B2B online marketplace to reach international buyers. The equity funding was led by Susa Ventures and Golden Ventures with participation from a number of investors including Flexport Ventures, J Ventures, and the founders of DraftKings, Fabric. It brings the total funding raised by the startup to $7 million, having previously received support from a number of investors including the Founders Factory Africa,…

MTN Group has announced senior leadership appointments to operating companies in Nigeria, Iran and Sudan, all of them internal candidates, as its focus on executing strategy to drive growth, de-leverage faster and reveal value in our fintech and fibre businesses. The appointments are effective 1 April 2022. “A vital enabler of our strategy is having the best talent, culture and future-fit skills,” says MTN Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita. “Today’s announcement demonstrates the depth of talent within the Group, as well as the strength of our succession planning.” Following the recent appointment of MTN Nigeria Chief Operating Officer Mazen…

Nigerian startup Pivo is providing an all-in-one financial services platform for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the supply chain sector, offering them access to banking, lending and insurance solutions. Formed by Ijeoma Akwiwu and Nkiru Amadi-Emina in July 2021 and launched in public beta in September, Pivo is targeted at any business that deals with the import, export, manufacture, distribution and retail of FMCG, logistics and haulage, and clearing and forwarding. Pivo has three main products. Pivo Capital, its flagship product, gives SMEs access to loans worth as much as US$50,000. Pivo Finance, meanwhile, offers customers access to a…

Nigerian startup CodeLn, an online tech talent marketplace, has launched Insight, a smart applicant tracking system that helps startups manage job applicants and monitor their job vacancies, for free. CodeLn is an end-to-end technical recruitment platform, helping companies easily recruit software developers by automating the entire process. It claims to reduce technical recruitment time by 80 per cent. The startup’s new platform, Insight, is a smart, easy-to-use application tracking system where recruiters can post jobs, share jobs, receive job applications, manage job applications, and collaborate with team members to rate and hire candidates from any field. Key features include a…

Nigerian agri-tech startup ThriveAgric has raised US$56.4 million in debt funding from local commercial banks and institutional investors to grow its 200,000-strong farmer base and expand into new African markets, including Ghana, Zambia and Kenya. Founded in 2017 and fully operational since 2018, ThriveAgric empowers farmers in Nigeria to sell their products to FMCGs and food processors, leveraging its proprietary technology to access finance as well as improve productivity and sales to promote food security. The technology, an agricultural operating system, works entirely offline, dispatches USSD to farmers, and powers Android apps used by field agents to help digitally collate…