The postponement is due to the absence of key stakeholders of the amendment bill.

The public hearing will now be held on a yet-to-be-decided date in January 2023. 

Absent from the public hearing were the majority of the members of the Senate Committee on ICT and Cyber Security, the minister of communications and digital economy, Isa Ali Pantami, and the director-general of NITDA, Katie Inuwa Abdullahi. 

The NITDA bill could have far-reaching consequences for internet freedom, media, social media companies, and all other technology companies operating in the country. The hearing was therefore supposed to allow tech stakeholders, media companies, civil society organisations, and the government to discuss the provisions of the increasingly controversial bill. 

During the hearing on Friday, Uzoma Nkem-Abonta, a member of the house committee representing Ukwa federal constituency of Abia state, called for the public hearing to be postponed until  January, citing the absence of most of the members of the house committee, the NITDA boss, and the minister of communications. Nkem-Abonta also claimed to not have received a copy of the bill before the hearing. His position was supported by Idem Unyime, representing Ukanafun/Oruk Anam federal constituency of Akwa Ibom state, who had similar complaints. 

The committee chairman, Yakubu Oseni, was forced to adjourn the hearing after present lawmakers remained unsatisfied with his arguments in favour of the continuation of the hearing. He had argued that there was no need for the NITDA boss to be present, that a copy of the bill was sent to all members of the House,  and a notice to the public hearing was sent to all members of the committee in the Senate and House of Representatives. 

Civil society organisation, Paradigm Initiative, in a press statement, criticised the short notice of the public hearing announcement and the inability of the house to make the content of the draft amendment of the bill public. The civil society organisation called the bill “another attempt at social media (plus others) regulation”.

There have been increased efforts by the Nigerian government to regulate its growing digital economy and tech ecosystem. First came the Nigeria Startup Act (NSA), which was passed by President Muhammadu Buhari in October. The proposed amendment of the NITDA Act, many have said, may unroll the gains the NSA would offer Nigerian startups. 

Davidson Oturu, a partner at Aelex Legal, told TechCabal that the NITDA Bill is incompatible with the NSA. The proposed amendment intends to impose an annual levy worth 1% of profit before tax on Nigerian startups with annual turnovers of over ₦100 million ($240,000), and fine startups operating without licences up to ₦30 million. One of the major strong points the NSA provide is tax breaks. 

Another problematic amendment is the removal of a clause that provides for the inclusion of six tech experts in the 11-person NITDA Governing Board. The chairmanship of this board is not also limited to individuals with tech experience; those with experience in other fields, including law, finance, engineering, and administration can fill the post.

A tech source close to the matter said that the proposed amendment will give NITDA too much power and create bottlenecks that might hinder the ability of Nigerian startups to create competitive technology. 

The startup, which is the latest African company to cut staff count, in August slashed employees’ salaries by 30% and team leads’ by 50% for three months, but just after the arrangement’s expiration period, the company is letting go of 20 of its remaining employees. 

Since its launch in 2017 by Nigerian duo, CEO Buchi Okoro and CIO Morris Ebieroma, Quidax has raised a total funding of $3.6 million, with its last funding of $3 million coming from the public sale of its token, QDX. Earlier this year, the startup spent millions of dollars on celebrity endorsement deals and TV sponsorships which culminated in website traffic that crashed its website briefly.

“We made some really hard decisions to position ourselves for the winter. My number one priority right now is to focus on the team morale and keep business operations running as smoothly as possible. I am sure the tide will turn and we’ll be stronger and wise for it,” Okoro shared in a written statement to  TechCabal. 

According to a company statement, laid-off employees will be offered a severance package and support in their transition. “We’ve been privileged to work with people who light up any room with their personalities, brilliance, and hard work. If the tides turn, these are people we would be eager to rehire. We can boast that they are more than capable of doing a great job anywhere,” the statement reads.

With crypto past its peak, a global downturn and the backlash of the FTX’s bankruptcy on the wider crypto industry, the startup in a statement said that a workforce trim is the business’s proactive measure to shield itself. “We’ve observed what’s happening with the global economy and we know that now is not the time to just chill and see how things go. Instead, it’s time to be proactive. Our priority is making sure that even if things get worse globally and in the crypto market, we can weather the storm and still provide value to our customers. As a result, we’ve had to scale down a couple of things, including our workforce,” Quidax said in a statement. 

“One quality that so many companies in our industry have is resilience. Crypto itself is resilient. 14 years ago, people laughed at the concept of bitcoin. Ten years ago, what ethereum was building sounded like a fairytale. But today, they are still here. Every now and then, they might change direction, but they are still here solving everyday problems,” the statement concludes.

In July, the country’s anti-money laundering agency, Asset Recovery Agency (ARA), petitioned a Kenyan High Court to freeze bank accounts belonging to Kandon and Kora Pay, another Nigerian fintech company, pending its investigation. Both companies were alleged to have siphoned $51 million or Sh6 million into the East African country.

The liquidity management startup, which was founded in 2019 by Ayowole Ayodele, allegedly served as a conduit for international money laundering activities. The ARA linked Kandon Technologies to seven other Nigerian firms—Flutterwave Ltd, Elivalat Fintech Ltd, Hupesi Solutions, Adguru Technology Limited, Boxtrip Travels and Tours, Bagtrip Travels Ltd, Cruz Ride Auto Ltd; and a Kenyan businessman, Simon Karanja—whose combined 56 bank accounts holding over $59.2 million (Sh6 billion) were frozen in July over similar allegations. The court froze funds worth $126,841 (Sh15 million) found in Kandon’s two UBA accounts, and $249,565 (Sh29.5 million) in Kora Pay’s Equity Bank account.

Following the court ruling, Kandon’s accounts were to be frozen during the 6-month investigation period, but 4 months into the investigations, the anti-money laundering agency withdrew its allegations, according to a court document filed on the 19th of October 2022 by state counsel Stephen Githinji, on behalf of the ARA director. 

Following this withdrawal, the agency, in a letter to UBA, requested that Kandon be allowed access to its frozen funds, as “the Agency has completed its investigations and does not intend to proceed with the matter. In this respect, we request the Bank to allow access of the funds to the account holders.”

In a document seen by TechCabal, Kenya’s National Police Service investigation arm, the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) in a letter addressed to Wetangula, Adan & Company Advocates—Kandon’s Kenyan solicitor— on September 11 revealed that the allegations leveled at Kandon technologies were not established. 

 A representative of Kandon had denied the allegations of financial impropriety, argued that the company was compliant with Kenyan laws and expressed plans to take necessary legal steps when TechCabal first reported the money laundering allegations. 

“Every transaction we did in Kenya was fully compliant, we’re working directly with the banks who have carried out KYC on us and are aware of the nature of our transactions and our beneficiaries,” the representative said. 

Speaking on the dropped allegations, Kandon’s founder and CEO Ayowole Ayodele said that the company has always maintained its innocence. “As a liquidity management startup offering treasury solutions and alternative trading, we always facilitate transactions for many of our partners doing legitimate business through licensed commercial banks in Kenya. We have records of these transactions, which are available and can be verified,” Ayodele said.

“We are delighted that all the authorities have cleared us, and I’m grateful to them for being fair and thorough during the investigations. It’s back to business for us to continue serving our partners and their needs,” he concluded. 

Yet, a local tech ecosystem has organically developed in Africa, inspired by the gains pioneered by global tech companies. Over the past few years, technology’s reach has grown larger, touching every aspect of society and as such, it became too important for African regulators to ignore.

The governmental regulation of the African tech sector kicked off with a bumpy start. Regulations were either vague, nonexistent or hastily constructed as governments tried to control what they did not understand. In truth, the ecosystem was young and most of the key technologies and products in this sprouting ecosystem did not exist until recently. 

African founders stayed up at night hoping that their government would not try to swiftly regulate products or industries they could barely comprehend. To put their minds and those of their investors at rest, they incorporated their startups outside the continent, in places like San Francisco, Delaware, and Mauritius, which were more stable. Despite not having a notable startup ecosystem, Mauritius, an African country, attracts startups from around the world with its low tax regime and non-complex regulatory framework. 

When African governments realized that they were losing valuable taxes due to this reputation for instability, they began to play catch-up by creating startup laws and getting more involved in the development of their country’s tech ecosystem. In the most successful tech ecosystems, government involvement plays an outsized role in grooming startups and raising overall competitiveness in the sector. 

The governments of multiple African countries including Nigeria, Ethiopia, Senegal, Kenya, and Tunisia have passed startup bills into law in the past few years. Nigeria, the latest to do so, brought together tech leaders and public bodies to design a law that will make it easier for Nigerian startups to build their products and scale their businesses faster. Before the formulation of its newly signed Startup Act, tech startups had to endure whiplash policies that oversaw a ban on ride-hailing companies and cryptocurrencies. But this Act seeks to ensure that tech regulation in the country is clear and stable. 

As a starting point, the bill is impressive. It establishes a clear line of communication between tech operators and the government through the Startup Consultative Forum, which is composed of startups, VCs, civil society organizations, angel investors, accelerators, and incubators who will represent the sector’s interest during regulatory processes. The Act also covers startup labeling, local content requirement, tax breaks, and access to funding including a  ₦10 billion fund from the federal government. 

This is similar to Tunisia’s startup bill which was signed into law back in 2018. It gave labeling to over 700 startups and facilitated the rise of AI giant Instadeep as well as other impressive AI startups in the country. 

Intensified government involvement is needed because governments have the ability to energize industries. For example, in other countries, governments are the country’s largest tech purchasers, but that is not the case in Africa. In fact, many African governments still prefer to buy digital services and products from foreign contractors.  

Taiwan, a small island of just 24 million people, became one of the most important places in the world through its technological capacity, a feat that is heavily credited to its government. But it also started small. When Taiwan realized that its local industries could not manufacture and export tech products like South Korea (which has Samsung and Hyundai), the government began supporting its local industries to build finished products for global brands. And by borrowing Western technologies, Taiwan was able to make a name for itself as an electronic manufacturing country and remained relevant all through the modern computer revolution until the rise of the internet. But the Taiwanese government knew that wouldn’t be enough, so it created Silicon valley-inspired science parks with tech-focused universities while incentivizing Taiwanese engineers abroad to return home and work there. Apart from birthing startups like Foxconn, members of its returnee engineer programme built the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), a chip-making foundry which produces the most advanced computer chips used by the likes of Intel and Apple. TSMC is now caught up in the tech tussle between the US and China, who both want to get hold of its chips. 

Startup regulations, when done right, have the capability to attract investors who support innovation and create jobs—effectively injecting money into the economy. Many countries have tried to replicate Silicon Valley’s model, which encourages investors to back smart founders capable of creating valuable innovation, but as Robyn Klingler-Vindra maintained in her book The Venture Capital State, successful venture capital policymaking around tech is one that considers their local context. The Taiwanese government, for example, introduced tax credits in 1983 to promote the development of its local tech ecosystem, which earned it the status of one of the most active venture capital markets in the world by the end of the 1990s. In Israel, the government took the first bet by launching the Yozma Fund in 1993 and then other investors followed suit. 

Prioritizing local context can help African countries get the best out of their tech regulations. The Nigerian Startup Act, for example, allows for ease of transfer of foreign technology, which will allow the country to use its large market status and huge diasporan population to acquire important technology from abroad. Transfer of technology is one of the ways for emerging economies to close the technological gap between them and more industrial nations. That said, good tech regulations involve continuous iteration, especially in tech’s fast-moving world, and to do this governments need to develop a better understanding of tech trends. This is why a clear line of communication between the regulated and regulators is important. 

The application of digital technology evolves continuously to meet the needs of millions of people and the decision to regulate this evolution will impact how these benefits develop. This is why tech billionaire Bill Gates wrote in his 1995 book The Road Ahead, “It is crucial that a broad set of people—not just technologists or those who happen to be in the computer industry—participate in the debate about how this technology should be shaped.” Ambiguous, exclusive and knee-jerk regulations hurt individuals, companies and their investors, as well as the economy itself. But good regulation can help move Africa into a stable tech ecosystem where investors can look for their next hit run.

This acquisition will allow Chipper Cash, which has a self-reported user count of 5 million, to add new online services and a new agent network to its offerings. This move is also an expansion strategy by the company into Zambia. 

According to Chipper Cash’s VP of Corporate Development, Laura Kennedy, Zoona’s acquisition will offer it “incredible innovation, a great partner network, complementary products and services, and talented in-country teams.”  For Zoona’s co-founder and CEO, Brett Magrath, this acquisition allows the two companies to combine their expertise to connect consumers and businesses across the continent while positioning themselves as the first choice provider of financial services for the people of Africa. 

Zoona pioneered the Zambian tech ecosystem when it was founded in 2008, developing the Tilt service that enables individuals and companies to pay and transfer to bank and money mobile providers in the country through cash, its digital channel, or its network of over 450 interoperable agents. The fintech, whose emergence coincides with the start of Africa’s mobile money industry, has processed over $3 billion worth of transactions since launch. In 2020, the Zambian company sold its business in Malawi to Cape Town-based payments company Mukuru, as it refocused its business to a B2B model.

CEO Ham Serunjogi founded Chipper Cash with Maijid Moujaled, who currently serves as the payment company’s President, in 2018 to offer fee-free personal and cross-border payment to Africa. Since then it has raised $300 million in venture capital funding and is now valued at $2.2 billion. Its services are available in Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Africa and Kenya, as well as in the UK and US. 

“Bringing these companies together under the Chipper umbrella will mean we can open up even more borders, bringing quality financial services to life in more countries and connecting more people across the continent,” Kennedy said.  

Chipper Cash did not share the financial terms of the transaction. The acquisition deal is also subject to the approval of relevant authorities.

That year, Facebook (now Meta), after seven years of operating its Johannesburg office, announced that its new Lagos office would house a team of engineers. It was the first time Meta was expressing optimism that a local African office can build products for the continent and the rest of the world. This coincided with the beginning of a romanticisation of Africa by the tech community. 

Earlier in 2019, Twitter’s then-CEO, Jack Dorsey, had rounded off an African tour by pledging to stay on the continent for a few months in 2020. In 2021, Twitter announced that it was setting up its first office in Africa. 

Africa’s tech ecosystem was burgeoning and was minting both startups and tech at an impressive rate. Everything seemed to be going well until wasn’t.

Soon after, tech went burst. Fallouts of the Russia-Ukraine war, reduction in ad revenue, increased competition for advertisers’ dollars, and dwindling stock market prices have brought tech to its knees. Tech companies which benefited from outsized revenue growth as a result of the pandemic are cutting down their investments for capital efficiency. After Meta sacked 11,000 employees, CEO and founder, Mark Zuckerberg admitted that he and many other people made a prediction “this would be a permanent acceleration that would continue even after the pandemic ended.” Jack Dorsey, who has since left the helm of affairs at Twitter, admitted to having hired too fast when Twitter laid off 3,700 employees earlier this month. But where does this leave the African offices of these giant tech companies?

Future of Big Tech offices in Africa 

Earlier this month, the newly assembled 20-person Twitter Africa team celebrated the launch of their office in Ghana, but in less than a week Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, sacked most of them during his mass layoff of 3,700 employees. This raised many questions about the importance of Africa as a market for Big Tech. Many asked why Musk couldn’t have retained the new team since they were small in size and served over one billion people.  

The team’s work provided cultural contexts across Africa’s 54 countries and moderated content in some of the most fragile places in the world, including Ethiopia. 

Oftentimes, when a big tech company opens an office on the continent, it is usually to represent diversity, establish relationships with the home government, or create non-technical teams. Sadly, non-technical workers in tech are disposable, as can be seen in the recent Twitter layoffs: Musk fired the entire content moderation, curation, safety and truth, and communications teams globally. Unsurprisingly, the layoffs-affected Africa office had no engineering team but curation, content moderation, sales, policy and communications teams. It’s evident then that in a tech world of fewer handouts and diversity offices, the future of Big Tech offices on the continent remains uncertain.  

One would think that the presence of an engineering team that worked closely with Twitter’s global engineering team, and India’s status as one of the world’s largest markets, would save Twitter India’s office workers from the sack hammer, but it didn’t. Elon sacked 90% of Twitter India’s 200 staff members. The Indian team, however, got a 2-month severance package, the US team got a 3-month package, while the team in Africa are getting nothing. India’s preferential treatment might not be unrelated to the several run-ins Twitter has had with the Indian government. 

Creating global value from Africa

In truth, commercially, the African market brings in little money for these global Big Tech, which explains why the continent ranks low on their priority list for expansion and product availability. For context, in the fourth quarter of 2020, Facebook’s earnings from the US and Canada alone were 20x more than what it got from Africa. Although Africa’s lack of economic attractiveness is complemented by a large population that is set to grow to the biggest in the world, not every tech company can afford to make long-term investments, especially during this tech winter. Most are here for a good time. 

If Africa wants to be taken seriously by these US-based tech companies, first of all, its value must go up. Undoubtedly, Africa has solid engineering capabilities. Microsoft’s metaverse flagship product Microsoft Mesh is, after all, being built out of its Lagos office. Meta’s newly launched Lagos office houses a team of about two dozen engineers building Africa-focused edtech Sabee—although TechCabal has been unable to confirm how Meta’s recent layoff affected them. 

African countries’ labour laws must also appropriately protect their citizens as mass layoffs become a norm in the tech world. 

Creating a valuable market and ecosystem is central to priming up the continent’s importance in the eyes of these companies. The onus falls on African governments to create economic conditions that improve the spending power of these customers so that they can get a corresponding quality of service and overall importance.

A sure way to succeed in the ever-changing world of tech is to find roles that suit one’s archetype, skills and passion.

Subomi Salami is a prime example of a career transition expert, as she has held roles in different fields, from management consultancy to product marketing to product management. Salami studied economics at the university and was on her way to becoming an economist or accountant when she started taking internships. In her second year at the university, she landed a management consultancy internship at KPMG, and by the next year, she secured a marketing internship at Google. She enjoyed Google’s work environment and the perks and became fascinated with the tech world. Soon after, she decided to pursue a career in tech. 

However, after she graduated from University, getting a job at a well-known tech company wasn’t a walk in the park. In the meantime, she got a job as an account manager at Softcom, a Nigerian tech solution company, where she sold the company’s tech tools to clients looking to scale. 

While at Softcom, she learned about product management from a friend and became interested in switching to that field when she did more research on what it entailed. However, she didn’t know how to. Eventually, she found out about Meta (formerly Facebook)’s Rotational Product Management (RPM) Programme—an 18-month programme that allows professionals without degrees or tech industry experience to transition into project management at Meta—and applied. After weeks of rigorous preparation, she aced the job interviews and got the job. 

Salami, now working from Meta’s office in London, is grateful for her career transition. Along the way, she was able to move countries, multiply her earnings, and improve the quality of her life. We caught up with her to discuss her process of transitioning into the different roles she has held. 

How did you get into Meta?

Back in January 2020, at the beginning of the year when everyone was planning out their lives, I doubled down on my job applications. I was interviewing for three product marketing roles at Google, thanks to the connections I made during my internship. Then COVID happened in March and Google paused my applications. But I was pretty optimistic I would get one of those roles. During COVID, I was working in a sales role, but it required meeting people so sales were low, especially in March, April and May. I had a lot of time on my hands so I continued applying for jobs. 

I had heard about product management, but I wasn’t really sure what I needed to do to become a product manager. It sounded like a more interesting role than product marketing, which I had experience in. I started trying to check how I could work as a product manager. Because I’ve always had this goal to start my career in big tech companies and then figure out things from there, I started applying for product management roles at Google and Facebook (now Meta). I applied for Meta’s Rotational Product Management Programme (RPM), went through a three-stage interview process, got an employment offer in October 2020, and resumed in June 2021.

What were the roles you held before Meta?

My first ever job was as a management consultant intern at KPMG, after which I joined Google as a  product marketing intern. At Softcom, I was a tech salesperson, so I worked with clients and sold the company’s products. When I joined Softcom, I was asked if I wanted to work in sales or marketing, but despite having experience in marketing, I chose sales because I wanted something that would allow me to speak with random people and build some of the soft skills that I wanted to have. I also loved the person who was heading the sales team, so I wanted to learn from him. 

How do students stand out and snag high-level internships as you did?

The first thing is research, a lot of people don’t have access to information. A lot of people don’t know there is a Google internship that happens every year. It’s the lack of access to information that people need to combat first. The second thing I’ll say is to become an interesting person. You can do this by reading books, watching documentaries, and TV shows and learning things outside of your course. It will help you have good conversations because, at the internship level, a lot of my interviews were very conversational. The only reason why those conversations were interesting was that I knew certain things. So, it is good to have knowledge about different topics and random things, it allows you to be well-rounded. 

Was that the same for the Meta interview?

It was a bit different. Those conversations still happen and still help. But a product management interview is similar to a case interview. So they ask you specific questions. There are two types of questions you can be asked: product sense and product execution. A product sense question might be a question on how you would build an apartment building for blind people. But of course, the question will be related to the work of the company you are applying to. You have to figure out how you scale things down, prioritise, and identify risks. Overall,  the conversations typically happen within the confines of these questions. 

What piqued your interest in product management?

To be honest, I just thought it was a cool job. I think back in 2020, I met a product manager in Nigeria and got to know about product management, but I didn’t know what he did. Then we had a conversation and he told me about his job. I felt it was cool and decided that it was what I wanted to do. I started doing more research into it. While working at Softcom, I always wanted to move closer to the tech part of things. But l was not technical at all. I initially thought product managers have to be super technical. I mean, if you’re working with engineers, you probably have to know how to code or understand some of these programming languages, or maybe you have a computer science degree so that you can understand their work. When I spoke with my product manager friend, I realized that there’s so much more to product management besides being technical. It doesn’t hurt to be technical but it is only a small part of the job. The role became more appealing and sounded like a good place to be in tech. Moreover, I was getting tired of sales and marketing. 

How then did you make your transition to product management?

Meta’s RPM programme is a good way to transition into product management, but it’s hard to get into. When I applied, I didn’t think I would get in. It was at the bottom of my list and I applied to make sure I covered all bases. My initial plan was to transition internally and work as a product manager for at least a year or switch workplaces to work as a product manager within Nigeria or study for a tech-related Master’s and then go on to become a product manager.

Those are long paths

Yeah, that was the long path. But that was all I could see. I really wanted to leave Nigeria and I wasn’t getting a job. So I thought of doing a Master’s degree. At the bottom of the list was getting a job. I don’t know why I stood out in the resume or CV stages, but it helped that I did practice a lot, as I had never done a product management interview before. Something I believe is that when you want something really bad, it shows. I practiced with a lot of people and the people I know that got in were those that wanted it really bad and did lots of practising as well. Since I had done a lot of interviews in the past from my job search, I was pretty confident with the idea of interviews. I had learned basic interviewing etiquette and just kind of how to hold the interviewer’s attention. 

How was settling outside the country and into a Big Tech company?

It was tough at first because it was a big change, even though I felt it was less tough because it was something that I had been anticipating for quite a while. It was tough because I had a new job in a new company, in a role I had never done before, in a place I had never lived before. There were a  lot of new things and adapting to the changes that brought took a while. Most of my immediate family still lives in Nigeria. I was homesick for a bit. I went back home after five months.  But making friends wasn’t difficult for me. A lot of my friends from Covenant had moved here as well, for school and jobs. So it wasn’t that hard to make friends even though the building of that community was slow. But I’m at the point where I’ve built a strong community here and I don’t feel lonely. In terms of my career, it was hard, because, for the first few weeks or months, I could not tell what a product manager did. I was so confused. The RPM programme turned out to be the best way to transition because there was a lot of support to figure out things.  

How did it help your career financially?

Using ₦750 Naira to £1 as the exchange rate, I would say I multiplied my earnings by at least 12 when I moved. Although, I will say money was not my biggest motivator when I was trying to get the job. If money was my only motivation, I probably wouldn’t be as passionate about product management because there are other easier ways to make money than being a product manager at Meta.

You sound like you enjoy your current job.

Yes, definitely. I don’t think there’s anything I could be doing as a job besides this. Maybe if there was an option of not having a  job, I might consider it. I haven’t seen any other roles that align with my natural skills: conflict mediating, talking to people, providing clarity and being proactive.  

What would you say is the best thing about your job and working at Meta? 

The best thing about being a product manager is that I’m the person that’s responsible for making sure we’re working on the most important thing for the user. That we’re constantly thinking back to who we’re building for, and why we’re building what we’re building. I feel like that’s such an important role. In a lot of companies, very few people do that. I was going to say the best thing was talking to people but it can get tiring. I do like that, but it’s not the best thing, it’s a good part. You get to speak to so many smart people from different backgrounds and build relationships. You make friends on the job because you have meetings with some people once or twice every week. The best thing about working at Meta, it has changed my life. I had always wanted to work in this type of environment. The culture here is very inclusive, welcoming, open and transparent. The benefits are great, you feel like you are taken care of.

What advice do you have for people who want to make a similar transition?

I will say always go the extra mile because most people don’t, so this already cuts out a lot of people and leave very few people to compete. If you really want something, do your research, and go the extra mile, you can switch from being an account manager, or a content writer to whatever role you want in tech. I transitioned from a regular account manager and I think anyone can do it. 

When I was applying for this job, I remember attending the information session. I also reached out to the recruiter about five days after I applied and hadn’t heard back. Then the recruiter responded to my message and said she had sent me an email for an interview. I felt like she saw my message, checked for my application, and probably liked my CV and felt I was a good fit. Most people don’t do that. Those were extra steps I took because I really wanted the job. After I got the interview invite, I did over 50 mock interviews. And because my favourite mock partners were in other time zones, I was sleeping late. Just to be clear, I don’t think anyone needs to do that number of mocks. But it shows how much I wanted it. I don’t know if doing 50 mock interviews helped me get the job but it probably helped me get more comfortable with interviewing and with the interview format. And I got the job, right?

If people see my process, they would understand what it means to want something. A lot of people say they want to transition into tech, get a relocation job or become a leader in their field, but the truth is that they don’t want it badly enough. Because if they do, they will figure out how ways to achieve these goals.

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We’re open to applications for Digital Nomads from across Africa. If you’re an African that is working or studying abroad or travelling the world, or someone that just transitioned into tech, kindly fill out this form.

Bernard Kafiu Sokpe, popularly known as Mistameister, a Senior Partnership Officer at the Twitter Africa office, tweeted a farewell message at 8:59 am today.

In April 2021, Twitter set up its presence on the continent by hiring a local team stationed in Ghana. Just earlier this week, it launched its office in Ghana.

Although TechCabal can not confirm the number of Twitter employees on the continent that were let go, the layoffs are set to affect Twitter’s new presence in Africa. It threatens the establishment of new offices on the continent, notably in Nigeria, where the establishment of a physical office is tied to the continued availability of the microblogging app in the country. According to several sources, Twitter’s Africa office is still open for now and the atmosphere at the Ghana office is “chill”.

On Thursday, an unsigned company-wide email, seen by TechCabal, braced up Twitter’s 7,500 employees for potential job cuts and instructed them to vacate the office and await emails that would decide their fate. Elon Musk’s buyout of Twitter on October 27th ushered in these layoffs that could potentially affect more than 3,700 employees. 

“In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce,” the email reads. “We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the company’s success moving forward.”

The email said that by 9 am Pacific time on Friday November 4, laid-off employees and unaffected employees would receive another email titled “Your Role at Twitter” via their personal emails and work email respectively.

Employees at Twitter’s Africa office who received the Friday email through their personal emails are still confused about the status of their employment as the emails say they are suspended. “For the avoidance of doubt, this suspension does not mean your employment has been terminated,” a part of the email reads. One employee called this layoff “stylish” and called out Elon for “coming for our jobs like the second coming of Jesus. In our sleep and like a thief in the night.” 

Although the social media company had banned employees from discussing “confidential company information” on social media, with the press or elsewhere, following the layoffs staff members have launched the hashtag  #OneTeam where they are sharing their layoff experience and expressing solidarity with one another. Former Twitter employees, including those on the Africa team, have also updated their social media bios to reflect their exit from the company.

Some insiders with knowledge of the matter said that while the US team is set to be on the payroll until January 2023, it is unclear if the African team will enjoy the same privilege. 

These layoffs also raised questions about the dispensability of African offices of tech companies. It also threatens the continued viability of Twitter as a voice for millions of Africans, who are now anticipating the glitches and fixes Musk’s reign will bring. 

However, on Thursday, former Twitter employees in a class action sued Twitter for the mass layoff’s short notice in violation of United States employment law. According to the US’s federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, large companies must give a 60 days notice before initiating mass layoffs. 

Maritime, founded in 2014, is a traditional financial institution that offers lending to micro businesses (which include freelancers, solo entrepreneurs, and side hustlers) and SMEs (which include businesses with up to 500 employees) in the maritime industry. But PayHippo’s acquisition of Maritime will help the MFB expand into new sectors.

Following this acquisition, Payhippo merchants will be able to accept deposits and send and receive money across various commercial banks in Nigeria.

Payhippo was founded by Chioma Okotcha, Uche Nnadi, and Zach Bijesse, to provide Nigerian small businesses with access to credit. According to the Lagos-based fintech, which has received $4.1 million in VC funding since it launched in 2019, it has disbursed over 25,000 loans to small and medium enterprises in Nigeria and earns over $4 million in revenue annually. 

First-time entrepreneurs in Africa often have a hard time raising capital, by way of credit, from traditional lenders. These cash-strapped founders are discouraged by financial bureaucracy, high interest rates and hard-to-meet collateral requirements.

Digital lenders that offer lower rates and flexible credit processes attract bootstrapped businesses seeking capital; these unconventional lenders have also given rise to a booming industry for digital lenders that are not bound by rigid financing laws. 

Speaking with TechCabal on a call, Payhippo’s CEO and co-founder Zach Bijesse revealed that the startup had begun mapping out acquisition plans since the beginning of the year. 

When the acquisition gets the green light, Maritime will adopt Payhippo’s corporate brand, while Payhippo will extend its digital services to existing Maritime customers. 

The date for the approval of the acquisition is still unknown, Bijesse had told TechCabal.

“Nigeria has an ever-growing need for SME lending solutions to help businesses meet their financial needs. We believe Payhippo is well-positioned to develop new and customized financial products for SMEs in the country.” Maritime Microfinance Bank’s Chairman, Adetola Atekoja said in a statement. 

In May 2021, Kenyan digital lender Branch acquired Century Microfinance bank, enabling it to receive deposits and enhance lending for individual and SME customers.

These content platforms range from Medium, which popularised self-publishing, to Substack, which allowed many writers to become independent and earn money, to Patreon, a platform making it easier for creators to raise funds for their projects. Writing collective, Everyto, built a vibrant community of business writers and created Lex, an AI-powered word processor that has the potential to cure writer’s block.

The latest company to join this trend is African content platform, Breach, which allows writers on the continent to write, edit, publish and share their work. Breach, a product of crypto company Nestcoin, was formerly a website that educated readers on crypto content and helped them make better investment choices. Before it pivoted into a content platform, it had amassed over 100,000 subscribers across five newsletters. After speaking with the community of readers it had assembled, Breach realised that there was an opportunity to build more than just that. 

Following this realization, Breach decided to go the full way and pivot into a creator platform. Due to the startup’s firsthand experience as a publication, Breach knew the tedious process of writing and wanted to improve it.  To do this, Breach is offering writers access to a community of like-minded people who can share ideas, collaborate, and support each other on their collective creative journey. 

As a creator platform, Breach will offer editorial support to some writers, and open up its 100,000-strong community to the writers on its platform by promoting articles that perform well. The platform also expressed commitment to helping creators explore all their personalities and voices, build creative communities, and get real-time feedback on their work. 

In a bid to promote quality writing, Breach will be assessing the proficiency and experience of writers interested in joining its platform. The platform will also ensure a seamless transition for writers with accounts on Substack and Medium,  by allowing them to move their articles to its platform. “This means that creators don’t miss a beat by switching from other platforms to ours. It also means that creators can initially try out our platform while still maintaining their lists on their other websites. All of this is to say that migrating to our platform is a smooth, nothing-to-lose process,” Breach told TechCabal in a statement. 

Monetisation is a headache for every media company and Breach also has ideas on how it will tackle it head-on. It’s exploring creating tips—like Twitter or Patreon—or paid subscriptions. It is also looking at offering ad space for its creators for sponsorship. 

African users who use the global content platform, Substack, encounter trouble getting paid because the platform’s payment processor Stripe doesn’t operate on the continent. Should Breach offer a solution to this issue, they will no doubt attract African creators to their homegrown platform.