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Quantum computing, blockchain, and AI hold a huge potential in reducing emissions while helping developing economies adapt to climate change hazards.

What can tech do to avert the global climate change crisis?

Many crypto traders in Africa who used FTX-linked platforms are left in shock, unable to withdraw their funds and with nowhere to file their grievances.

FTX's collapse has sent shivers down the spine of Africa's crypto community

African e-commerce company Jumia reported $50.5 million in revenue for this year’s third quarter with declining operating losses (33%) and increasing gross profit (29%) compared to last year, while active customers and the value of services sold improved marginally. 

The ‘Amazon of Africa’ is reducing staff and cutting premature products in its new era

American billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates has pledged to use 5.4% of his net worth to finance Africa’s health and agriculture sectors, which he believes anchor the continent’s progress.

Bill Gates pledges 5% of his wealth to Africa's health and agriculture

Akinwumi Adesina, the president of the African Development Bank, stresses the importance of easy travel within Africa

For Africa to prosper, Africans need to be able to move

The Kenyan government now wants to tax crypto transactions in all exchanges in the country, even as the global crypto market undergoes a mass meltdown.

Kenya wants to tax crypto transactions

Bukayo Saka scored two World Cup goals for England but had scored off the pitch in Africa before that.

How European soccer stars Saka and Rüdiger are honoring their African roots

Until it collapsed this month, FTX was becoming a force for normalizing cryptocurrencies in Africa, through marketing campaigns that enlisted entertainers, and investments in startups like Chipper Cash.

FTX’s collapse coincides with increasing crypto regulation in Africa

The crypto winter, marked by plunging bitcoin and ethereum prices, as well as the collapse of companies like FTX, Celsius, and Voyager, is now triggering layoffs at Nigerian crypto companies. At least two startups, Quidax and Lazerpay, have acknowledged their ongoing pains.

Crypto Winter: Nigerian crypto startups are laying staff off to stay afloat

An easy mobile-loan scheme that catapulted president William Ruto’s rise to power in Kenya only a few months ago has quickly turned into a lightning rod for data privacy concerns.

Kenya's Hustler Fund is raising data privacy concerns

When Egypt devalued its local currency last March, the pound lost nearly 14% of its value, driving Nehad Mahmoud, a journalist in her thirties living in Cairo, to give up her old ways in order to keep up with the rising cost of living.

Rising costs are leading to the rise of buy now pay later plans in Egypt

A 22-month power blackout in Mekelle town, located 933 km north of Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, has come to an end after the government restored electricity on Dec. 6.

Electricity is back in Tigray after a two year blackout

Meta sees a huge metaverse business potential in Africa—$40 billion added to the continent’s GDP by 2031. This ambitious goal has one major caveat, “only if the metaverse were to be adopted and grow in a similar way as mobile technology.”

Meta wants to bring the metaverse to Africans through their cell phones

Most people became aware of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) last year when Beeple’s Everydays: The First 5,000 Days sold for $69.3 million sale at Christie’s in New York. Though blockchain technology and web3 were becoming better known, for most, it was still unclear what impact NFTs would have on the global art scene.

Nigerian artists carve their own path in the NFT space

More investments in Africa could see the Biden administration reduce China and the EU's dominance in trade with Africa

Why the US is backing the Africa Continental Free Trade Area

Botswana recorded the highest improvement from 2021 to join Mauritius, South Africa, Morocco, and Tunisia in the top five list, edging out Kenya

Which African countries were most innovative in 2022?

The country is enforcing the ban to put a stop to loss of billions of dollars from raw lithium exports, enough to repay its debts

Zimbabwe has banned the export of raw lithium

Before there was jazz, soul, R&B, rock, or hip hop, there was the beat of African drums. All 8 billion of us on this planet have our ancestral roots on the African continent, and the same is true for many of the most widely consumed sounds and rhythms that move us.

How music can boost African economies and increase regional integration

African music has always been great. But now more than ever, the world is taking notice, thus opening up more opportunities in the global entertainment market for Africa’s talents.

The future of global music is African

Mercury exposure can be deadly. So why are gold miners in Zimbabwe using the dangerous chemical—and risking their lives in the process?

A push for gold leaves a toxic legacy in Zimbabwe

The new year began with news of enhanced government service delivery in Kenya, with the gazettement of an official digital payments platform for all government services.

Why is Kenya's new digital payments platform so glitchy?

First phase of Lagos' new elevated rail system has been commissioned and testing will now begin ahead of operations that will transport 250,000 passengers daily

Lagos gets a new elevated rail network

While the World Bank projects growth in most African nations, critical economies like Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya will record a slump

World Bank projects impressive growth for Senegal in 2023

Internet blackout is still ongoing in Ethiopia’s Tigray region even after a truce was signed last November to end two years of war

Internet shutdowns cost Ethiopia $146 million in 2022

The country is now courting the Turkish firm that is building the Tanzanian railway for financing and construction

Uganda has turned to Turkey to build its railway after China talks fell through

After the project of removing toxic content on ChatGPT was completed, Sama closed its Nairobi office, rendering all 200 content moderators jobless

Open AI underpaid 200 Kenyans to perfect ChatGPT—then sacked them

Known for its 'teranga' (hospitality), Senegal is making news globally and regionally for its dynamic sports, arts, and culture scenes

National pride and culture drive Senegal’s football success

When the war in Ukraine disrupted wheat exports, University of Kisangani students set out to manufacture pasta with homegrown cassava.

As wheat prices rise, a food staple in the DRC gets reimagined

With streaming services today in a global race for eyeballs, market leaders such as Netflix, Disney Plus, and Amazon Prime Video have had to look beyond the borders of their home markets, especially with increased competition in North America and Europe.

Africa's streaming war hinges on local content

The two west African countries are now gearing up for tech-based economies where knowledge on 4IR is the new business capital

How Ghana and Gambia are planning to bolster their digital economies

The power crisis in South Africa is crippling its economic development

South Africa's power blackouts will cost the economy $1.3 billion this year

The gray listing of Africa’s leading economies—South Africa and Nigeria—by global anti-money laundering and terrorism financing watchdog, Financial Action Task Force (FATF), is expected to present far-reaching setbacks to the two countries’ economic growth.

South Africa and Nigeria graylisted for money laundering

Unable to prove that M-Pesa is a bank, Safaricom has been sued for using customer money to lend out as overdrafts, and doing little to curb SIM swap fraud

Why Safaricom, east Africa's biggest telecom, is getting sued by its customers

Africa is gradually splitting into two. The Somali and the Nubian tectonic plates are slowly disintegrating from each other, while the Arabian plate continues to pull away.

The split of the African plate could gift six landlocked countries a coastline

Health tech startups on the continent are setting the example for disrupting traditional retail pharmacy

African online pharmacies are leapfrogging an e-commerce giant

Unilever is cutting down production in Nigeria. The company has cited the country’s worsening economic condition for its move, which could now add to the woes of Africa’s biggest economy.

A cash crunch and an expensive dollar are squeezing Unilever out of Nigeria

South Africans spent at least 9.5 hours a day online in 2022. This was the highest in the world, exceeding the global figure by around three hours, a study showed.

South Africa is the world's most internet-addicted country

Zems wind their way through almost every street in Cotonou, the economic capital of Benin. These fuel-guzzling motorbike taxis emit harmful fumes, adding considerably to the city’s pollution.

Mauto's e-motorcycles are changing Benin's bike-taxi scene

Three million out of South Africa’s 60 million citizens lack basic education. Their lack of literacy and numeracy adversely affects the productivity and profitability of businesses.

Illiteracy is costing Africa's most developed nation $6.7 billion every year

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is pushing for an audit of the country’s mining contracts with China, which it says heavily favour Beijing.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is auditing mining deals skewed towards China

As Chinese companies have become active in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in the building of infrastructure projects, they’ve earned a reputation for paying their local workers badly in comparison to their Chinese colleagues. But the authors of a new study have found that the reputation is undeserved, at least in Ethiopia and Angola, where the study was conducted.

A surprising finding about how Chinese companies pay in Africa

South Africa’s commercial capital, Johannesburg, remains Africa’s wealthiest city. Also called the “City of Gold,” it is home to the largest number of dollar millionaires in the continent, according to the World’s Wealthiest Cities Report 2023. The study was compiled by international investment migration firm Henley & Partners and global wealth intelligence firm New World Wealth.

With 14,600 millionaires, Johannesburg is Africa's wealthiest city

Foreign investment in Kenyan stocks has nosedived.
In March, the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), east Africa’s biggest bourse and Kenya’s only such institution, recorded a six-year low of 30.1% in foreign investment, data from Kenya’s Capital Markets Authority (CMA) shows. Local investors are keeping it afloat.

Foreign investors are fleeing Kenya’s stock market

The decision by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to float the naira freely has come with an unwanted outcome: a historical fall of the value of currency against the US dollar.

Nigeria's naira recorded a historical plunge after being floated freely

SweepSouth, one of South Africa’s best-known home cleaning companies, is not quite Uber for home cleaning. The service is not available on demand; you submit a request online and hear back on WhatsApp two hours after you pay, with details of your assigned cleaner.

This African VC-backed home cleaning service is expanding to its biggest market yet

Kenya’s tech startup ecosystem—amongst the hottest on the continent—is looking to attract even more overseas interest as the country launches an International Financial Center and giant tech firms renew their interest in east Africa’s Silicon Savannah.

Nairobi’s “silicon savannah” just got more attractive to investors and startups

Competition in Africa’s startup ecosystem is heating up as French-speaking nations put up a spirited battle for the top slots in an African startup ecosystem that has so far been dominated by the “big four”—South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, and Egypt. Morocco and Senegal top a list of some of Africa’s biggest movers on a Global Startup ecosystems ranking—a trend that could significantly boost the visibility of startups in those countries and provide access to investor growth funds.

Senegal and Morocco lead Francophone Africa’s rise in startup rankings

The scramble is on for Zimbabwe’s billion dollar remittance industry with local and international fintech institutions vying for a share of the pie against legacy banks and traditional money transfer agencies. Diaspora remittances to Zimbabwe surged from $1 billion in 2020 to $1.4 billion last year. This mirrors the continent-wide significance of contributions by diaspora Africans to national development and sustaining family and friends back home. 

The battle for a share of Zimbabwe’s billion dollar remittance industry

Nigeria and Turkey, each with more than 50% monthly active adult crypto traders, top the list of 40 countries surveyed. South Africa, Russia, and India are in the top ten.

The share of active crypto traders among Nigerian adults is the world’s highest

In 2016, two graduates of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, conceived a mobile phone-based money transfer and payments service App known as Wave, launching in Senegal two years later. It picked up steam and expanded to Cote D’Ivoire in 2021.

How Wave rose to become Francophone Africa’s first unicorn

With the launch of AfCFTA, the cultural economy is one sector that should be a significant focus given its potential to provide additional value to the economic growth and development of African countries.

How AfCFTA can boost Africa’s cultural economy

This past week, Ingressive Capital, a $10 million venture capital fund started by Maya Horgan Famodu with its headquarters in Nigeria, celebrated five years since it was started. Horgan Famodu launched Ingressive at age 25; today, the fund is focused on leveling the playing field for female entrepreneurs: About 40% of its portfolio companies are founded or co-founded by women.

Local funding for early-stage startups is taking off in Africa

Africa’s health systems were creaking even before the covid-19 pandemic and the cause was the continent’s low capacity in the manufacturing of medicine locally, the delays in shipping drugs to the continent, and after months of waiting, the high costs especially to customers outside of urban areas.

Health experts want big pharma to manufacture drugs in Africa

At a time of growing interest in social commerce in Africa, Instagram has started working with African startups focused on helping vendors sell more through DMs, by letting those startups connect to its messaging APIs.

Nigeria-based Bumpa is adapting Instagram messaging for vendors selling through DMs

In June, MFS Africa bought Oklahoma-based Global Technology Partners in a cash-and-shares deal worth $34 million. It was, as the Financial Times described it, a rare instance of an African firm buying a US fintech company, underscoring the global ambitions of the continent’s tech innovators.

Techstars is bringing its accelerator program to Africa

Jumia has recorded a marginal increase in 24-hours deliveries, and it says much about the putative Amazon of Africa’s trajectory. Between April and June (pdf) 2022, around 60% of its deliveries of physical goods were made within a day, according to Jumia’s latest quarterly report released yesterday (Aug. 10). In the first three months of this financial year, the figure stood at 57%.

Jumia’s quarterly customer orders are rising as a key metric improves

African soccer is getting a new annual club competition that may generate money for participants at a scale never seen before in the continent. At least that’s the hope for the Africa Super League.

A "Super League" is promising to make African soccer clubs richer than ever

One month after graduating from the University of Lagos in November 2017, Timi Bolaji received an offer to become a software engineer at Microsoft after scaling through a process that was focused on hiring computer science graduates from African universities. He joined the company’s team in Seattle a year later and has been there since, working on the Xbox Cloud Gaming team.

Microsoft is leading Big Tech’s push to relocate African developers to North America

A new cybersecurity center in Togo is poised to add into efforts by individual African countries to secure the continent’s cyberspace. In November 2021, Kaspersky reported that Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya recorded a combined total of 81 million cyber attacks in three months, signaling how cybercrime is rising in tandem with internet penetration. In the second quarter of this year, phishing scams rose by 438% and 174% in Kenya and Nigeria respectively, from the previous quarter.

Togo's new cybersecurity center will serve the whole of Africa

The demand for cloud-based services in Africa is rising, but the continental tech ecosystem is largely underrepresented in the provision of these services. While there has been a rise in the number of data centers across Africa, keeping on-premise servers running and secure generates huge extra costs. Covering server maintenance costs, power consumption, and keeping top cloud talent ends up costing local companies more than they bargain for.

The scramble for Africa's data is taking place on the cloud

Nigerians in seven cities, including Lagos and Abuja, will get a taste of how 5G internet connectivity works in a few weeks as MTN begins a formal open pilot of the technology. “Customers with certain enabled devices will be allowed to connect with and try out the new service where coverage is available,” the company said in a statement.

MTN is leading Nigeria’s first 5G rollout

Kenyan director, Wanuri Kahiu, has broken into Netflix’s top 10 ranked movies with her film Look Both Ways. The film, which was released on 17 August, is currently ranked second on the top 10 movies on Netflix globally, while it is the number one film in 61 countries including Kenya, Canada, Bolivia, Sweden, and the UK.

Netflix's current second ranking movie has a Kenyan director

In June this year, Ethiopia’s central bank issued a statement saying that crypto business in the country is illegal. Less than three months later, the country seems to have reversed this decision, instead requiring cryptocurrency operators to register with the national cybersecurity agency—the Information Network Security Administration (INSA)—within 10 days.

Why Ethiopia has moved from banning crypto to regulating it

How large is the market for financial services in Africa in dollar terms?
It is one of the most asked questions when investors assess an African fintech startup’s potential.

Africa is still scratching the surface on fintech penetration and growth

When Kenya began implementing the Finance Act in July, chief executive of e-commerce and delivery startup Wasoko Daniel Yu had already started the search for an African government “which is heavily interested in supporting our mission.” And that led to his relocation from Nairobi to Fumba, Zanzibar where he is setting up the startup’s tech head office.

Why Wasoko is setting up a tech hub in Zanzibar

At e-mobility startup Roam’s assembly plant in Nairobi, an engineer tests a new electric battery he has just designed. He mounts the battery on one of the waiting bikes, loads a150 kg-metallic box on it and rides it round the warehouse. “See how silent and powerful it is? This is the future of two-wheeler mobility,” co-founder and chairman of Roam (formerly Opibus) Filip Gardler tells Quartz.

Electric batteries are fueling the shift from petrol-powered bikes in Kenya

After making a handful of investments over the years to test their theses, Nigeria’s venture capitalists are raising follow-on funds to strengthen their portfolios for an evolving economic climate.

Nigerian VC firms are still willing to invest—but they’re asking harder questions

The old yellow cabs that whizz around Senegal’s capital city of Dakar are hard to miss. Beckoning at oncoming traffic, passengers compete on street corners to secure themselves a ride. Unlike many other African countries, ride-hailing apps are not yet common in Senegal.

Ride-hailing apps make first foray into Senegal

Duolingo, the US ed-tech firm that specializes in teaching the world how to speak different languages, has now added South Africa’s Zulu language to its catalog. But rather than focusing on exam fees charges on e-learning sessions, it is partnering with local telco Vodacom which will enable its 45 million subscribers access the language training for free.

Why Duolingo is making Zulu free to Vodacom's 45 million subscribers

As more countries in Africa keep testing 5G networks, their citizens are upgrading from 4G smartphones to 5G-enabled ones, so they can be part of what Big Tech foresee will be the ignition point of the global digital economy.

Chinese brands are in the lead as Africa's demand for 5G smartphones grows

South African pay TV company Multichoice is facing pressure in Nigeria to change its subscription model, from offering fixed monthly prices to pay-as-you-view options.

Africa's pay TV leader may be pushed to change its subscription model in Nigeria

A decade after starting operations in Brazil, payments provider EBANX has grown into a billion-dollar company with around one billion transactions completed in 15 countries. It carved a niche by helping global companies like Spotify, and Uber receive payments from customers living in Latin America. Last October, it filed documents for an initial public offering in the US, though the process has slowed down due to the ongoing economic downturn.

Africa’s payments startups are about to face competition from a Brazilian unicorn

Initiatives using new technologies for agriculture have recently emerged to support farmers dealing with the impacts of climate change in Egypt.

Technology is changing the face of farming in Egypt

Big Data and analytics has become an invaluable segment of every business in the world but as the demand for data scientists grows globally, a talent shortage exists, with it being worst felt in Africa.

Why Africa needs more data scientists

In Ghana where English is the official language for education and commerce, four in five people speak Twi either as a first or second language. Different variations have extended its usage to other west African towns in Benin and Côte d’Ivoire, bringing the estimated number of speakers to 18 million people.

Ghana’s most popular language will be available to more people online

If you’re looking to spend the least in mobile internet, then any of the seven northern African nations will be a good choice, according to data published by UK-based internet affordability analysis firm Cable.

The world's most affordable mobile internet is in north Africa

Oil producing giant Shell has bought Daystar Power, a Nigeria-based company that provides businesses with solar energy solutions, marking its first acquisition of a renewable energy provider in Africa.

Shell bought Nigeria’s Daystar Power as a first push into African renewable energy

Silicon Valley-based startup Polygon is joining Africa’s blockchain revolution, targeting to support the continent in the next phase of blockchain advancement after millions of dollars were injected into the tech sub-sector last year.

Demand for blockchain developers is rising in Africa

Senegal wants to push for sustainable sports in Africa, by installing air cleaning devices in stadiums and running tracks. A significant link between air quality and professional sports has pushed Senegal to install air cleaning and monitoring devices in its stadiums, four years before it hosts the 2026 Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Africa’s first Olympic event.

Why Senegal is investing in air quality in stadiums

Estimates show that climate funding to Africa, which contributes the least to climate hazards, stands at $30 billion per year despite a promise of $100 billion. Amid failed promises of climate funds to a continent that contributes the least to climate change yet suffers the greatest devastation, climate activists are pushing for more: a tenfold increase in climate funding commitments to Africa from the west’s 2009 $100 billion figure to $1.3 trillion. These calls were made during a recent pre-COP27 media conference in Kigali, Rwanda.

Why Africa wants $1.3 trillion in climate financing

The magic figure is $7 billion, per Africa's venture capital group. In nearly every region, startups raised considerably less venture capital money in the second quarter of this year than the same period in 2021, Africa being the only exception. Between January and June, no other region even came close to matching the continent’s funding growth.

Venture capital investment in Africa is headed towards another record year

Open banking, the practice of sharing third-party access to financial data through the use of application programming interfaces (APIs) within data privacy rules is gradually gaining prominence in Africa, which still grapples with several pain points in payments.

Open banking could be what Africa needs to deepen financial inclusion

The Ubuntu philosophy, which was supposed to pivot pan Africanism, has struggled to become a reality—with certain African countries seeking a protectionist agenda even under the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (Afcfta.)

Google’s $1 billion Africa investment is anchored on the ‘spirit of Ubuntu’

The looming threats of climate change and food insecurity, plus the hype surrounding the COP27 climate summit is drawing in more investors into Egypt.

Tech startups are scrambling to save Egypt's farmers from climate change

For the first time ever, football lovers in sub-Saharan Africa will watch all 64 matches in this year’s World Cup in 4K video resolution, thanks to South African streaming service Showmax.

Sub-Saharan Africa will livestream all World Cup matches for the first time ever

Startup travel aggregator AfroAtlas says a new partnership with Lufthansa Group has given it direct access to an AI-powered platform that could reduce the cost of access to air transport services in eastern Africa.
AfroAtlas CEO Ahmed Ugas says the German company’s New Distribution Capability (NDC) platform will consolidate online portals and help tame many of the challenges passengers, travel agencies, and airlines experience in booking and changing travel.

AfroAtlas and Lufthansa have a plan to make African air travel cheaper

The country’s capital markets have been tremendously improving in the past two years, scoring highly in areas such as trade and settlements automation. Kampala could soon dislodge Nairobi from its status as the financial capital of eastern Africa if Uganda continues with measures that have seen it rise to become the regions’ most developed financial sector. This is according to the sixth edition of the 2022 Absa Africa Financial Markets Index (pdf) released by the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum(OMFIF), a London-based banking think tank and Absa Bank, one of Africa’s leading banks.

Uganda has the most promising financial sector in eastern Africa

Despite its huge popularity in Africa, soccer has a great untapped potential to transform Africa's cultural and creative landscape. Soccer is not only the preeminent sport on the African continent but is the single greatest cultural unifier. Nothing else unites people from Ras ben Sakka in Tunisia to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa like the round ball.  

Football can transform the African cultural and creative ecosystem

MTN is banking on its 34.5 million subscribers in South Africa to spread awareness through its altMTN metaverse platform. South Africa’s mobile network operator MTN Group wants to tap into its wide network of 34.5 million subscribers in Africa to lead the way in popularizing the metaverse in the continent. Present in 17 countries in Africa, the company has announced a new metaverse platform -altMTN - and a virtual music concert in November to help unlock the potential of immersive experiences.

MTN is holding Africa's first metaverse music concert

“We are in a crisis. I do not exaggerate when I say so,” Nana Akufo-Addo, the president of Ghana, said in a televised address on Oct. 30.

An IMF deal is just the first stage in resolving Ghana’s crisis

Last week, the Central Bank of Nigeria announced an unorthodox inflation-fighting measure: a redesign of its 100-, 200-, 500-, and 1,000-naira currency notes. Forcing people to exchange old notes for new ones, the bank believes, will mop up the huge volumes of currency stashed in private safes, outside the banking system.

Nigeria's surprise move against inflation: redesigning its currency notes

Last year, Safaricom, East Africa’s largest telecommunications firm, promised to launch 5G services by the end of 2022. The Nairobi-based company got there a month early, rolling out 5G in Kenya on Oct. 27, and aiming to connect 10,000 homes and businesses by March next year.

Kenya has 5G now. But who can afford it?

Singapore-based cyber security firm Group IB and Orange CERT, the IT security arm of French telecommunications company Orange have revealed in a new report that 12 African countries lost millions of dollars to a hacking group based in an unknown French-speaking African country.

A hacking group stole $11 million from 12 African countries

Uganda is riding on a biofabrication 3D printing technology to print human organs to help thousands of patients who die of organ failure in the country.

Uganda plans to print 3D human tissue in space

Africa will lose 64% of GDP to climate change by 2100

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