Author: Akin Naphtal

Nigerian mobility fintech startup Moove, Uber’s exclusive vehicle financing and vehicle supply partner in Sub-Saharan Africa, has secured US$10 million in debt financing to enable it to expand across key markets. Founded in 2019 by British-born Nigerians Ladi Delano and Jide Odunsi, who have successfully built three other businesses in Africa over the last eight years through venture studio Grace Lake Partners, Moove is democratising vehicle ownership in Africa by providing revenue-based vehicle financing to mobility entrepreneurs. Moove embeds its alternative credit-scoring technology onto ride-hailing and e-logistics platforms, which allows access to proprietary performance and revenue analytics of mobility entrepreneurs…

Setting up a bank can be a long, expensive process with complex regulatory and compliance hurdles to overcome. However, with the emergence of Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS), an entity can provide banking services without batting an eyelid. With BaaS, non-banks including FinTech, and other entities such as professional bodies or schools can offer their own branded financial products such as debit, credit, or loyalty cards. In other words, BaaS opens up banking to third parties supporting the evolution of new services and enabling greater financial transparency. BaaS is assuming great importance because it offers a great potential to expand banking services, disrupting…

MTN Nigeria has officially announced that its Series One offer for the sale of 575 million shares held by MTN Group in MTN Nigeria to Nigerian investors has been oversubscribed following the successful completion of the public offer on Tuesday. In a statement issued and signed by the company’s secretary, Uto Ukpanah, the offer was oversubscribed with a valid application for a total of 801.97 million units, leading to the activation clause of an additional 86.25 million MTN shares. “In all 661.25 million MTN Nigeria shares were allotted. A total of 126.720 retail investors submitted valid applications and received full…

According to Global consultancy Turner & Townsend’s latest Data Centre Cost Index, the construction sector is in the midst of an international supply chain crisis as it continues to recover from the impact of Covid-19. Despite this adversity, 70% of this year’s survey respondents were optimistic that stronger-than-ever demand proves that the data-centre industry is recession-proof. The Index – which is in its fifth year – looked at global markets consisting of 44 locations including Nairobi and Johannesburg in Africa. Findings show that increasing costs in every market due to a year of supply disruption, did not deter data centre demand in…

The demand for software engineers is expected to grow by 22% between 2020 and 2030, according to a report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This figure is larger than the 4% average for other careers. One would be out of touch with reality to say they haven’t noticed this phenomenon in Lagos, Africa’s startup capital city, where mid to senior-level engineers are leaving in droves to seek better pay and opportunities in companies outside Africa. Andela has been pivotal to placing the continent’s tech talent globally. But since the unicorn changed its business model to a pure marketplace focusing on senior developers,…

Casava, Nigeria’s first 100 per cent digital insurance company, has secured US$4 million in pre-seed funding to provide affordable and accessible insurance products for millions of Nigerians. Launched last year, Casava aims to make insurance affordable for income earners by leveraging technology, behavioural science and empathy. The startup is a vertically integrated company with a wholly-owned microinsurance carrier in Nigeria and a full technology stack to power it. The US$4 million pre-seed funding round was led by Target Global with participation from Entrée Capital, Oliver Jung, Monzo founder Tom Blomfield and Stash founders Ed Robinson and Brandon Krieg. African founders…

In Nigeria, banking isn’t ubiquitous. Although the number of active bank accounts has been steadily increasing, a study by EFInA on trends in access to financial services released last year shows that many gaps remain. For instance, more than 42 million adults live in rural areas that lack basic banking services and over 60% of rural communities surveyed didn’t have a bank branch, mobile money agent, or ATM. While there are several conversations and efforts aimed at banking the unbanked, not enough is said about Nigerians that are underbanked. That is, those who have access to one financial product but…

Airtel Nigeria has announced a partnership with Spotify to provide music lovers across Nigeria with daily complimentary data to access songs on the Spotify platform. Under the partnership, Airtel +54 million customers who purchase weekly and monthly data bundles will get bonus data to enjoy Spotify with its over 70 million songs, including local favourites and Premium content without worrying about additional data costs. Spotify launched in the country early last year opening up its platform with 381M Monthly active users and 172 million premium subscribers worldwide. The Nigerian audience will enjoy the content loved by millions of teeming consumers.…

Bantu Blockchain Foundation has expanded its footprint in blockchain technology to Ghana, noting that considering the rate of adoption of blockchain, Africa can benefit from the use of blockchain technology to facilitate cross-border transactions, which will help reduce the high cost of remittances, enable access to financial services, ensure privacy, create jobs, unlock liquid from illiquid assets, improve the business environment and foster healthy competition. Mr. Ernest Mbenkum, the founder and Chief Executive Officer, Bantu Blockchain Foundation, at the launch of its first brand Influencers at the Bantu Xpansion programme in Lagos, said the overall aim of the initiative is…

According to a directive from the Data Protection Commission in collaboration with the Public Procurement Authority, businesses without data protection license may not be able to bid for government contracts. The Data Protection Act mandates all firms to obtain data protection license before beginning operations. Speaking at a press conference on the Data Protection Week, the Executive Director of the Data Protection Commission, Patricia Adusei Poku, said the new order has become necessary to protect clients and the general public from data abuse, since the country is embarking on many digital initiatives. According to her, obtaining a license from the…