TC Weekender | TechCabal https://techcabal.com/category/newsletters/tc-weekender/ Leading Africa’s Tech Conversation Sat, 16 Mar 2024 12:24:52 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1.1 https://techcabal.com/wp-content/uploads/tc/2018/10/cropped-tcbig-32x32.png TC Weekender | TechCabal https://techcabal.com/category/newsletters/tc-weekender/ 32 32 Nigerian businesses are forced to navigate high-flying delivery prices https://techcabal.com/2024/03/16/nigerian-businesses-are-forced-to-navigate-high-flying-delivery-prices/ https://techcabal.com/2024/03/16/nigerian-businesses-are-forced-to-navigate-high-flying-delivery-prices/#respond Sat, 16 Mar 2024 12:24:50 +0000 https://techcabal.com/?p=130676 The evening of her traditional wedding, Titilayo, a 27-year-old project manager, received a call to come and pick up a package she had ordered from the delivery station. The package contained her wedding shoes, and they had arrived three days late, just when the wedding was wrapping up and guests were leaving. 

A week ago, when Titilayo had ordered the shoes from Lagos and the vendor asked what delivery options she preferred, Titilayo hadn’t realised that the real cost of the price difference between the options meant not wearing the shoes for her wedding at all. She had been presented with three options: ₦18,000 for next-day doorstep delivery via DHL; ₦7,500 for doorstep delivery which would take three to five days; and ₦5,000 for a package drop at the nearest motor park (the delivery station), from where she could pick the shoes up. Titilayo lived less than 10 minutes away from the park and three to five days seemed like a reasonable wait time for her shoes to arrive; she chose the third option. 

Her shoes did get delivered to the station all right, but Titilayo had already worn something else for her wedding: a pair of champagne-gold sandals her sister had hurriedly purchased from the nearby market that morning. They were nothing close to what she wanted, but she didn’t have the time to be choosy.

Titilayo is one of many customers who have to experience delayed deliveries due to the increased cost of more efficient methods.

In February 2024, DHL increased the prices of their deliveries in Nigeria by 100%. Their reason was pretty obvious: the naira was devaluating and increasing operational costs for the company faster than they were able to make profit. 

In the past month, the price of sending a 2kg box that’s about 45cm in length and 20 cm in height from Abuja to Lagos via DHL has increased from ₦20,000 to ₦39,000. People might be able to justify paying exorbitant delivery fees for more expensive items like generators or refrigerators, but not a lot are willing to pay that much for shoes or dresses. This has pushed small business owners in the country into exploring other delivery options which are more tedious, delay-laden, and unsafe.

In an email sent to partners in February, DHL wrote:

“As a network business, we face the constant pressure of balancing currency exchange rates and we make the necessary budgetary decisions to counteract these effects where possible. Unfortunately, the situation in Nigeria has continued to surpass our budgeted levels.

“To ensure operational continuity and keep connecting the world with high-quality service, DHL will levy a Currency Surcharge to all Time Definite International (TDI) shipments. The surcharge percentage will be 100 percent, effective March 1, 2024, and is applicable to transportation charges.”

Iman Muhammad is the founder of Iman Hammad, a fashion brand based in Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja. The businesswoman, who has a large customer base in Lagos, shared that she’s lost several customers in the past two months due to the inflated delivery costs.

Express deliveries from Abuja to Lagos used to cost about ₦20,000 via DHL and were affordable for most of her clients until the price hike on March 1. Now, the same package costs about ₦48,000, which many clients find unreasonable. 

“To some extent, I understand them,” she shared. “How do you buy a dress for ₦45,000 and spend over ₦40,000 transporting it?”

To meet her customers’ demands for swift deliveries, Muhammad began going to the motor park in Jabi to waybill the items so they reached Lagos the next day. Despite being cheaper, it soon proved to be unsustainable as it was an incredibly stressful process. 

“I got a lot of calls from clients about how rude the drivers were, which was affecting my brand,” she said. “And even when I got a dispatch rider in Lagos to pick up on my behalf, it was such a hassle coordinating the entire process, and so I gave up.”

Now, Muhammad uses SendBox, a logistics service based in Abuja. While it takes about five working days to deliver clothes to clients outside Abuja, it costs her about ₦7,000 for each package—about the same amount she paid for waybills.

When logistics companies broke into the Nigerian e-commerce space, their premise was simple: providing a faster way to send parcels from one part of the country to another. Unfortunately, the naira came tumbling, crushing everything in its fall, including promises of logistical ease. As long as economic factors strain the logistics sector, small businesses and consumers will be locked in a battle between affordability and efficiency.

Hera Samaila, who lives in Abuja, runs Hera’s Closet, a popular social media clothing store in Lagos. While a large number of her customers are within the state, she has a healthy client base in other cities outside like Abuja and Port Harcourt. In the four years since she’s been running her store, she has experimented with different delivery channels in a bid to find the most sustainable option for her buyers in other states. 

At first, Samaila started using night buses to deliver to clients as they were cheaper than options like DHL and arrived the next day. She soon realised that this option was risky business as she was left stranded after several incidents involving broken-down vehicles and truant drivers.

“These people [the motor park drivers] have no insurance for your items, and if anything happens, you alone will bear the cost,” she shared. “I get a lot of customers now who ask me to use that option so they get their orders faster, but I don’t oblige.”

While Samaila has found an interstate delivery service that costs between ₦6,000 and ₦7,000 and takes three days on average, there are still some customers who complain about the costs. 

Samaila has tried several different tricks to lessen the load of delivery fees for her customers. Some of these include subsiding delivery costs, an endeavour she soon had to give up as it was eating into her profits; arranging for shared deliveries; offering stockpiling for up to three months; and even driving around Abuja to drop off packages herself.

Lola Oyegunle, who sells shoes on Instagram, typically uses a small air freight service to bulk-send orders to cities like Abuja and Benin and then have her representative there dispatch individual orders. According to Oyegunle, this ensured that her clients received their parcels in good time and was also cheaper than using the service for individual doorstep deliveries.

In the past two months, however, the price of next-day deliveries has doubled, forcing her to seek out other delivery methods, all of which take longer to arrive.

“I have to explain to customers that not only have the prices of shoes almost doubled due to the currency devaluation, but that delivery costs have followed,” she said. 

The cost of an economy one-way flight ticket from Lagos to Abuja now ranges from ₦90,000 to ₦145,000. In October 2023, these tickets sold for between ₦55,000 to ₦70,000. Within the last four months, flight prices have risen as high as 100% in some cases, with stakeholders blaming jet fuel prices and other operational costs. 

Osita Okonkwo, chief operating officer of United Nigeria Airlines, shared that the naira inflation has affected multiple facets of their operations, including the purchase of aviation fuel, which first went from ₦800 to ₦1,000 per litre in October 2023, and then rose to ₦1,300 in February this year.

According to him, all airlines operating in the country were forced to increase their prices or face even more losses than they currently do.

Oyegunle now uses slower but cheaper delivery methods and uses only the air freight service for specific customers who request next-day deliveries. 

International deliveries aren’t left out of the price-hike conversation. In December, shipping a 2kg parcel from Nigeria to the United Kingdom cost about ₦30,000 and ₦33,000 to the United States and Canada. In the past month, however, these fees have almost doubled. 

Sending a 2kg parcel from Nigeria to the UK and the US now costs about ₦65,000 and ₦75,000 respectively via companies like ShipNaija, according to Muhammad.

Fuelled by rising internet penetration and the youth population, Nigeria is one of the largest markets for e-commerce in the world, with a projected revenue of $2.6 billion by the end of 2024. The last-mile logistics space has fed into e-commerce growth and is now one of the fastest-growing on the continent despite the challenges facing the sector. In the past year, the sector has been hit with a number of policy challenges including a fuel subsidy removal and currency devaluation which have significantly affected operations.

]]> https://techcabal.com/2024/03/16/nigerian-businesses-are-forced-to-navigate-high-flying-delivery-prices/feed/ 0 👨🏿‍🚀TechCabal Daily – How Eyowo’s pivot to fintech stumbled https://techcabal.com/2024/03/08/techcabal-daily-how-eyowos-pivot-to-fintech-stumbled/ https://techcabal.com/2024/03/08/techcabal-daily-how-eyowos-pivot-to-fintech-stumbled/#respond Fri, 08 Mar 2024 05:30:00 +0000 https://techcabal.com/?p=130143
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TGIF 🎉

Happy International Women’s Day!

To celebrate #InternationalWomensDay, TechCabal brings you three female founders from Bamboo, SendStack, and SHOP F.A.W.L. They will be speaking on building startups in Africa, revenue being the cheapest form of funding, their thoughts on AI automation, and their hopes for the future. 

Catch them on our YouTube channel!

Fintech

How Eyowo’s pivot to fintech stumbled

Depending on who you ask, Softcom was the dream place to work. The software agency had great perks for employees—including work retreats to Dubai and SA—and lucrative contracts from clients like Coca-Cola, MTN, and the Nigerian government.

In 2021, the company stopped building software for its client and took an ambitious turn to produce a fintech giant in Eyowo. Everyone loved Eyowo. Early users also gushed about the product. Ex-employees believed they could change the world.

However, five years down the road, salary delays, service outages, and ultimately, a revoked licence, meant that this bet failed. How did such a promising product with its sights on becoming a fintech giant run into problems?

Dig Deeper here

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Telecom

MTN Nigeria recovers $7.85 million of the $14 million lost to MoMo glitch

In June 2022, MTN Nigeria, the Nigerian arm of one of Africa’s largest telecom companies, disclosed a ₦22.3 billion ($14 million) mobile money fraud that involved 18 Nigerian banks on its mobile money platform— MTN MoMo. The fraud happened due to a glitch on the platform, one week after its launch in May 2022.

Despite MTN’s ₦16 billion ($10 million) investment in MoMo, its 2022 financial report revealed that MoMo incurred a loss of ₦10.5 billion ($6.5 million) due to the glitch.

The news: MTN has successfully recovered ₦12.5 billion ( $7.85 million) of the funds lost during the glitch in its mobile money service. However, the remaining balance of ₦9.5 billion ($5.97 million) will be absorbed by MTN Nigeria under a shared services cost agreement between the telecom company and its MoMo service.

How has this loss affected MoMo’s service?  As at June 2023—one year after its launch— the service was reportedly still seeking adoption by Nigerians. MTN Nigeria’s CEO, Toriola, noted slower-than-anticipated business development. Regulatory approval delays and challenges with NIN requirements hindered MoMo’s growth. However, Toriola expressed satisfaction with MoMo PSB wallet base, which has increased from 3.3 million monthly active users to 5.3 million, supported by 326,000 MoMo agents and 324,000 merchants.

Meanwhile, MTN Nigeria has also swallowed its first loss in three years. The telecom reported a loss after tax of ₦137.0 billion ($86 million) in 2023 compared to profits of ₦348.7 billion ($218.9 million) in 2022, after a naira devaluation and rising cost of doing business ate into its margins.


Investments

TowerCo Uganda secures $40 million to expand network coverage in Uganda

In July 2023, Ubuntu Towers Uganda rebranded into TowerCo of Africa Uganda after TowerCo of Africa (TOA)—a tower infrastructure company—acquired a 90% stake in Ubuntu Towers.

Already managing a network of towers spanning 360 locations, with most utilising hybrid energy solutions, TowerCo is keen on adding more sites in a few years.

Fueled by a $40 million investment, TowerCo Uganda wants to expand its reach by constructing 506 new towers in underserved areas in Uganda. The project aims to expand mobile network coverage in Uganda from 65% to 95%, reaching remote areas currently lacking access, and will enable rural communities to access 4G and 5G data services.

The investment: The European Investment Bank, in partnership with ACP Trust Fund, will provide $16 million, and $12 million each will come from the Development Bank of Austria (OeEB) and the Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries (BIO) over the next 10 years.

Multiple mobile operators will share the towers and a significant portion will be solar-powered for sustainable development. The tower construction is expected to create 2,000 jobs and be completed within the next two years. TOA also operates in Madagascar, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Tanzania.

Zoom out: In other African countries like Zambia, following their announcement of digital centres for free internet access, the Zambian government plans to construct 60 new 4G mobile towers specifically targeting remote areas.

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Crypto

Nigeria releases guidelines for Digital Asset Operators

Last year, Nigeria’s Security Exchange Commission (SEC) began processing the application of digital exchanges on its capital market, a move to attract the country’s young digitally-savvy population.

The commission’s head of securities and licence investment at the time said it was going to register tokenized assets backed by equity, debt, and real estate. 

Now, as the NGX inches closer to including digital assets in the capital markets, it has released new guardrails to mitigate risks associated with the asset class. 

The news: Yesterday, the commission released new regulations aimed at licensing and registering new digital and virtual asset service provider (VASPs) entrants to the capital market. The regulations, aimed at reducing the participation of bad actors from trading in the capital market, packs a punch with three separate guidelines, including Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT), Anti-Money Laundering (AML), and Countering Proliferation Financing (CPF) onboarding manual. 

The new regulation is another litmus test for Nigeria’s crypto landscape which has seen Binance discontinue providing naira services in the country after the government blamed it for currency speculation and remanded two of its executives. 

While exchanges in the country are gearing up to include digital assets in their list of trading options, it remains to be seen if Nigeria will not go back on its word given its relationship with crypto.

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TC Insights

Funding tracker

This week, MDaaS Global, a Nigerian healthtech startup, raised $3 million in pre-Series A funding. Aruwa Capital Management and Newton Partners co-led the round, while Ventures Platform participated. 

Here’s the other deal for the week:

  • Moroccan finTech start-up Tookeez announced a fundraising round of $1.5m from the Azur Innovation Fund. 

Before you go, our much anticipated State Of Tech In Africa Report for Q4 2023 is now out. Click this link to download it.

Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn for more funding announcements. You can also visit DealFlow, our real-time funding tracker.

Crypto Tracker

The World Wide Web3

Source:

OneLiquidity logo

Coin Name

Current Value

Day

Month

Bitcoin $67,331

+ 1.51%

+ 52.41%

Ether $3,877

+ 0.93%

+ 59.78%

Tether USDt

$1.00

– 0.00%

+ 0.07%

BNB $470.52

+ 10.03%

+ 55.24%

* Data as of 11:07 PM WAT, March 7, 2024.

OneLiquidity GIF

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Job openings

There are more jobs on TechCabal’s job board. If you have job opportunities to share, please submit them at bit.ly/tcxjobs. 

Written by: Mariam Muhammad & Faith Omoniyi

Edited by: Timi Odueso

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]]> https://techcabal.com/2024/03/08/techcabal-daily-how-eyowos-pivot-to-fintech-stumbled/feed/ 0 A $1.63 million bounce back https://techcabal.com/2023/12/05/a-1-63-million-bounce-back/ https://techcabal.com/2023/12/05/a-1-63-million-bounce-back/#respond Tue, 05 Dec 2023 07:00:00 +0000 https://techcabal.com/?p=124568
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Good morning☀ 

Do you remember Paxful, that bitcoin marketplace that shut down because all its staff—engineers, compliance team members, and security personnel—left to work elsewhere? 

Well, its CEO, Ray Youssef, has found a new adventure.

Youssef was recently appointed  CEO of a similar business, NoOnes. Like Paxful, NoOnes allows users to buy and sell bitcoin and stablecoins; and also like Paxful, most of NoOnes’ users are in Africa. So Youssef’s local knowledge should come in handy

Startups

Sky.Garden relaunches after Lipa Later’s $1.6 million buyout

a photo of a happy man
Image source: Zikoko Memes

Kenyan e-commerce startup Sky.Garden, has relaunched following a Ksh250 million ($1.6 million) buyout by BNLP company, Lipa Later Group in December 2022.

The relaunch includes a move into social commerce and building a merchant marketplace to connect 100,000 merchants in the next year.

A relaunch? Yes. In September 2022, Sky.Garden revealed plans to shut down its operations on October 16, 2022, citing difficulties in securing additional funding. However, in November 2022, the e-commerce startup rescinded its shutdown announcement, stating it had found a buyer without disclosing the buyer’s identity. In December, it was revealed that LipaLater had acquired Sky.Garden.

Under new ownership, the e-commerce startup is relaunching with four new products. 

What products? Sky.Garden has introduced new products—Sky.Tickets, Sky.Logistics, Sky.Commerce, and Sky.Wallet—to support its expansion into social commerce. Sky.Wallet offers financing and bill payments, Sky.Logistics provides same-day delivery for local businesses, and Sky.Commerce integrates social interactions with e-commerce, revolutionising customers’ online shopping experience.

Additionally, Sky.Garden has also introduced Lipa Later’s buy-now-pay-later model as a convenient alternative payment option.

Zoom out: In September 2023, after Lipa Later secured $5 million in private debt issuance, the company still planned to raise $20 million for its expansion plans. This relaunch aligns with the growing e-commerce market expansion in Kenya and Africa, driven by increased internet penetration and more affordable data costs. 



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Funding

Mastercard invests $27 million in three African funds

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Mastercard, through its Africa growth fund, will invest in three African investment firms: Chui Ventures, VestedWorld, and SME Impact Fund. The three firms will receive $9 million, $10 million, and $8 million, respectively. 

Who are the invested companies? Chui Ventures is a Kenyan early-stage venture capital firm that invests in gender-inclusive startups in Kenya and Nigeria. The firm has a portfolio of over 20 startups, including Fastizers, CrowdForce, Taeillo, Pngme, and Lifestores Pharmacy.

VestedWorld is a Nigerian impact investment firm that invests in businesses that are driving financial inclusion and social progress in Africa. The firm has a portfolio of over 30 businesses across Ghana, Kenya, and Nigeria, including Sabi, Shuttlers, Anka.

SME Impact Fund, the third recipient of the fund recipients, is a Tanzanian fund manager dedicated to fostering growth in the country’s agricultural sector. The firm has made 44 investments worth over $15 million, directly impacting 23,000 smallholder farmers and generating more than 3,000 employment opportunities.

Lights out: The latest investment brings Mastercard’s funds to five on the continent. The firm had previously invested $2.2 million in Aruwa Capital Management and $5 million in Inua Capital. Launched in 2022, the Africa Growth Fund is a $200 million fund aimed at bridging the financing gap in Africa’s impact investment landscape. The fund collaborates with a network of partners who offer comprehensive business development services to portfolio companies, including fund advisory, communications, and diversity/inclusion support.


Telecom

MTN launches AI Chatbot

Image source: TechCabal

MTN offers an AI chatbot for its employees alone.

The telecom has launched SiYa, an in-house AI chatbot to assist employees with inquiries about company policies and share insights from MTN’s knowledge base. 

MTN expects the interactions with SiYa to shape the way customer engagement is done at the company.

A little about SiYa: The chatbot, SiYa, takes its name from Siya Kolisi, the rugby Springbok captain. MTN said it chose the name to embody qualities—unity, harmony, and effective communication. 

It is unclear whether MTN is creating a version of SiYa for public use. But MTN South Africa is committed to helping its workforce benefit from the use of artificial intelligence-powered tools. This raises questions about whether other South African telecommunications companies will follow suit with similar AI-powered tools in the future. 

This is not MTN’s first rodeo at building AI-powered solutions. In 2019, MTN launched Mobile Money (MoMo) “chatbot”. The chatbot enabled users to navigate MTN’s MoMo services, including payments, on various social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger and via SMS, and provide other useful information.

Pay With Transfer support on the Paystack API

We made it possible for merchants to white label a Pay with Transfer option on their custom checkout experience. Learn more →

Big Tech

Google’s Gemini AI launch delayed to 2024

Google has rescheduled its plans to launch its new AI model, Gemini, to early 2024. 

Sources with knowledge of the decision say the launch event was originally slated for next week, but the AI model is having challenges in responding to non-English prompts. 

Image source: Zikoko Memes

How has Google been faring in the AI race so far? In recent years, Google AI has achieved notable milestones. In 2020, Google AI introduced Meena, an NLP model capable of engaging in human-like conversations. In 2022, the development of PaLM showcased a versatile machine learning model handling tasks like question answering, translation, and code generation. In 2023, Bard, Google’s large language model, emerged as a rival to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, uniquely capable of offering information on recent events, setting them apart.

What’s different about Gemini? Gemini will stand out as a revolutionary multimodal AI system. This means that it will be capable of comprehending and producing diverse forms of content, including text, images, and even websites, from sketches or written descriptions. It is also said to have unmatched text and image generation capabilities, and is “built to enable future innovations, like memory and planning”.

Analysts argue that Gemini, with its advanced features, may alter consumer awareness, and become a threat to ChatGPT, the most popular AI model.

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Crypto Tracker

The World Wide Web3

Source:

OneLiquidity logo

Coin Name

Current Value

Day

Month

Bitcoin $41,744

+ 2.55%

+ 18.57%

Ether $2,227

+ 0.37%

+ 18.38%

IOTA

$0.32

– 10.27%

+ 88.72%

Chainlink $15.62

– 2.77%

+ 25.62%

* Data as of 5:32 AM WAT, December 5, 2023.

OneLiquidity GIF

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Will agency banking die or evolve?

Join Paystack and TechCabal on December 5 in a conversation with experts from Paga, MTN MoMo, DFS Lab, and Moniepoint.

We will be discussing what the future looks like in the agency banking sector as profit margins continue to grow slimmer. Will we see more players exit the scene like Kippa and Black Copper have? Or will agency banking providers find ways to adapt?

It is happening today. Register now.

Job openings

There are more jobs on TechCabal’s job board. If you have job opportunities to share, please submit them at bit.ly/tcxjobs. 

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]]> https://techcabal.com/2023/12/05/a-1-63-million-bounce-back/feed/ 0 Kenya police seize Worldcoin equipment https://techcabal.com/2023/08/12/kenya-police-seize-worldcoin-equipment/ https://techcabal.com/2023/08/12/kenya-police-seize-worldcoin-equipment/#respond Sat, 12 Aug 2023 10:06:49 +0000 https://techcabal.com/?p=117591

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Editor’s Note

  • Week 32, 2023
  • Read time: 5 minutes

Hello👋🏾

Time for your weekly dose of African tech-tastic updates 🌍🔌.

Your thoughts mean the world to us, so please sprinkle a little magic on our TC Weekender by sharing your insights in this 3-minute survey.

Pamela Tetteh Editor, TechCabal.

Editor’s Picks

Kenya police seize Worldcoin equipment

Kenyan law enforcers stormed into a Nairobi warehouse and carted away equipment belonging to Worldcoin – the crypto project scanning people’s eyes in exchange for about $50.

Learn more.

Senegal arrests Starlink sellers

After hitting the off-switch on the internet, the Senegalese government is now rounding up Starlink sellers, accusing them of illegally hooking folks up with internet.

Learn more.

Sendy is in acquisition talks

Word on the street is that Kenyan logistics startup Sendy is deep in talks with potential buyers.

Learn more.

Vodacom acquisition of Maziv halts

South Africa’s competition referee just blew the whistle on Vodacom’s game plan to snatch up Maziv, the owner of Dark Fibre Africa, South Africa’s second-largest fibre network operator.

Learn more.

DStv exits Malawi

Looks like the show’s over for DStv in Malawi. Multichoice is unplugging the service after a court order to cease any further subscription price hikes. .

Learn more.

TC Live: Reducing the cost of crossborder payments

Join us next Friday at 11 AM (WAT) with experts in the payment and international trade industry as they share perspectives and potential solutions on navigating the challenges of cross-border payment in Africa.

Register here

Slow internet in SA

The West African Cable System (WACS) and the South Atlantic 3 that connect South Africa to the global network broke. South Africans were left to juggle load shedding and internet speeds that move slower than a snail.

Learn more.

Payday on Twitter for Nigerians

Several Nigerian influencers and X (formerly Twitter) Premium users were greeted with credit alerts, receiving payments of between $251 and $500 for being active on the platform.

Learn more.

Safaricom finalises $257 million deal

Safaricom Ethiopia has bagged $257 million from the World Bank’s private investment arm for its greenfield telecommunications project.

Learn more.

The African startups in Ycombinator’s summer class

Y Combinator has dropped the curtain on its star-studded lineup for the Summer 2023 class. There are three African startups on the list.

Meet them.

Who brought the money this week?


  • Nigerian mobility company Moove raised $76 million in an undisclosed funding round led by Mubadala Investment Company with participation from Blackrock and other undisclosed investors.
  • Talents Arena, an Egyptian human resource(HR) company, raised $750,000 in pre-seed funding from UI investment.
  • Egypt-based Bugaurd, a cybersecurity company, secured $500,000 in seed funding.
  • FinMeUp, a South-African fintech company, raised undisclosed funding from SAAD and Blu Sky Investments.

What else to read this weekend?

Written by: Ngozi Chukwu

Edited by: Pamela Tetteh

18, Nnobi Street, Surulere, Lagos, Nigeria 

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]]> https://techcabal.com/2023/08/12/kenya-police-seize-worldcoin-equipment/feed/ 0 Kenya suspends Worldcoin https://techcabal.com/2023/08/05/kenya-suspends-worldcoin/ https://techcabal.com/2023/08/05/kenya-suspends-worldcoin/#respond Sat, 05 Aug 2023 07:42:35 +0000 https://techcabal.com/?p=117276

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Editor’s Note

  • Week 32, 2023
  • Read time: 5 minutes

Happy new month 👋🏾

Here is your weekly update on Africa’s tech ecosystem! 🚀

We value your feedback, so please take this quick 3-minute survey to tell us how we can make TC Weekender even more exciting for you.

Pamela Tetteh Editor, TechCabal.

Editor’s Picks

Kenya suspends Worldcoin’s operations

The Kenyan government has suspended Worldcoin, a crypto project which is offering Kenyans tokens worth about $54 or KES 7,000 in exchange for their eye scans.

Learn more.

Senegal shuts down its internet again

Once again, the Senegalese government has shut down access to the internet. If this feels like like déjà vu, it is probably because this happened twice in June. They hve also banned a really popular social media platform this time.

Learn more.

Nigeria really banned Binance

Nigeria’s Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) has clarified that the crypto exchange it banned is the Binance we all know, and not an entity called “Binance Nigeria Limited.”

Learn more.

Y Combinator bets on food delivery again

There are three African startups in Y Combinator’s summer 2023 class. One of them, ChowCentral, a food-delivery startup in Nigeria, extends Y Combinator’s bet on food delivery in Africa.

Learn more.

Event: Africa Social Impact Summit

This August, join key players and leaders across the African private and public sectors, the government, donor and civil society communities, as they discuss policy-shaping ideas and new impact investing strategies for Africa at the 2nd edition of the Africa Social Impact Summit.

Save your seat here.

Anonymous Sudan attacks Nigeria

Anonymous Sudan, a pro-Sudan hacktivist group, is claiming responsibility for cyberattacks on MTN Nigeria and Nigeria’s National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).

Learn more.

Big Cabal Media lays off workers

Big Cabal Media, the parent company of TechCabal, Zikoko and Citizen, has cut its workforce by 19% across its business units.

Learn more.

GSK exits Nigeria

Global pharma and biotech company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) announced its exit from Nigeria after 51 years of operations in the company.

Learn more.

Flutterwave’s $end Mobile rebrands to Send App

Payments company Flutterwave has rebranded its $end Mobile product to Send App, and has has expanded its recipient countries to include Egypt and Sénégal.

Read more.

Who brought the money this week?


  • Nigerian health tech company Remedial Health raised $12 million in Series A funding in a round co-led by QED Investors and Ventures Platform.
  • Traction, a Nigerian-based fintech company, secured $6 million in a seed round; the round was led by Pan-African investor Ventures Platform and Multiply Partners; other participating investors included P1 Ventures and other investors.
  • Emtech a Pan-African fintech company, raised $4 million in seed round.

What else to read this weekend?

Written by: Ngozi Chukwu

Edited by: Pamela Tetteh

18, Nnobi Street, Surulere, Lagos, Nigeria

]]> https://techcabal.com/2023/08/05/kenya-suspends-worldcoin/feed/ 0 Copia lays off staff for the third time https://techcabal.com/2023/07/29/copia-lays-off-staff-for-the-third-time/ https://techcabal.com/2023/07/29/copia-lays-off-staff-for-the-third-time/#respond Sat, 29 Jul 2023 08:00:00 +0000 https://techcabal.com/?p=116862

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Editor’s Note

  • Week 31, 2023
  • Read time: 5 minutes

Hello 👋🏾

This week, we bring you updates from Kenya, Nigeria, and Senegal.

By the way, have you had a chance to complete our quick 3-minute survey yet? If not, we’d really appreciate it if you could spare a few moments to do so.

Pamela Tetteh Editor, TechCabal.

Editor’s Picks

Copia lays off staff for the third time

Copia, a Kenyan e-commerce platform, has laid off 25%—350 members of its workforce. This is the third time this year that Copia has trimmed its headcount.

Learn more.

CBN retraces its steps

Nigeria’s central bank unfroze 440 bank accounts of some companies that it previously accused of “illegally trading” in foreign exchange. This includes tech startups like BetNaija, RiseVest, Bamboo, Chaka, and Yellow Card.

Learn more.

Flutterwave accounts remain frozen in Kenya

This week, Judge Nixon Sifuna of the Kenyan High Court refused a request from Kenya’s Asset Recovery Agency (ARA) to drop their case against Flutterwave.

Learn more.

Hackers unveil themselves

A pro-Russian hacktivist group called Anonymous Sudan claimed responsibility for a series of Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks on websites of Kenyan media, hospitals, universities, and businesses, including Safaricom.

Learn more.

Entering Tech

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Starlink launches in Kenya

Namibia has given its official seal of approval to crypto exchanges by introducing the groundbreaking Namibia Virtual Assets Act 2023.

Learn more.

Freelancers to pay taxes in Kenya

The Kenyan government now mandates that Upwork collect and remit Value-Added Tax (VAT) on goods and services, including freelancer services.

Learn more.

Sonatel acquires 5G licence

Telecomms company Sonatel—Orange Senegal—has acquired 5G licence in Senegal.

Learn more.

Airtel Africa loses $151 million

Airtel Africa has reported a loss after tax in its Q1—April 1 to June 30, 2023 results.

Read more.

Who brought the money this week?


  •  Kenyan agritech company Farm Works raised $4.1 million in pre-series A funding. The round was led by Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund, other participating investors included Livelihood Impact Fund, Vested World, a number of family offices, and angel investors.
  • Clafiya, a Nigerian health-tech company, secured $610,000 in pre-seed funding from Norrsken Accelerator, Acquired Wisdom Fund (AWF), Hustle Fund, Voltron Capital, Microtraction, Ajim Capital, and other investors.
  • Kenyan health-tech company, Zuri Health, raised an undisclosed funding round from Five35 Ventures.

What else to read this weekend?

Written by: Ngozi Chukwu

Edited by: Pamela Tetteh

18, Nnobi Street, Surulere, Lagos, Nigeria

]]> https://techcabal.com/2023/07/29/copia-lays-off-staff-for-the-third-time/feed/ 0 Bundle Africa shuts down its exchange platform https://techcabal.com/2023/07/22/bundle-africa-shuts-down-its-exchange-platform/ https://techcabal.com/2023/07/22/bundle-africa-shuts-down-its-exchange-platform/#respond Sat, 22 Jul 2023 08:09:23 +0000 https://techcabal.com/?p=116417

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Editor’s Note

  • Week 30, 2023
  • Read time: 5 minutes

Hello 👋🏾

In this week’s edition, we cover major updates in the tech and business landscape, including Bundle Africa’s restructuring, Nigerian ride-hailing drivers’ demand for reduced commissions, smartphone shortage in Kenya, and more.

Have you filled out this 3-minute survey yet? Please do if you haven’t.

Pamela Tetteh Editor, TechCabal.

Editor’s Picks

Bundle Africa shuts down its exchange platform

In a significant restructuring move, web3 startup Bundle Africa has shut down its exchange services after three years of operation. The company will shift its focus entirely to its peer-to-peer service Cashlink.

Learn more.

Nigerian ride-hailing drivers demand 10% commission

The hike in fuel prices in Nigeria has left ride-hailing drivers grappling with increased expenses. So they want to reduce the commisions of ride-hailing app companies to 10%.

Learn more.

Ethiopia lifts social media ban

Great news hit Ethiopia on Wednesday. The country finally lifted its ban on social media platforms like Facebook, TikTok, Telegram, and Youtube.

Learn more.

Netflix blocks password sharing in SA

South Africans’ days of freely sharing their Netflix passwords with friends outside their household are officially over.

Learn more.

Shortage of smartphones in Kenya

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has had enough of tax evasion and is cracking down on more businesses. Unfortunately, this crackdown is causing supply shortages for phone vendors and increasing the prices of available phones.

Learn more.

Entering Tech

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Starlink launches in Kenya

Starlink is now available in Kenya. Kenyans can get the broadband internet service for Ksh6,500/month ($45.9) with a one-time hardware cost of Ksh92,000 ($649.72).

Learn more.

Safaricom to launch Starlink rival

Elon Musk’s Starlink will face a new rival in Kenya’s satellite space. Kenya’s top communications company, Safaricom, has partnered with AST SpaceMobile to launch satellite internet services.

Learn more.

Canal+ is smelling blood

The French broadcasting giant, Canal+, has just upped its stake in the Multichoice to 31.7%! That’s a power move because according to South African law, once a shareholder crosses the 35% threshold in a listed entity, they’re obliged to make a takeover offer.

Learn more.

A $966.8 million thumbs up

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has given Kenya’s new taxes a $966.8 million (Ksh136.7 billion) thumbs up 👍 . But the president’s opposition party and numerous Kenyan citizens are taking to the streets to protest these taxes vehemently.

Learn why.

Telkom plans to sell its tower portfolio

South Africa’s biggest Internet Service Provider (ISP), Telkom, has plans to sell its Swiftnet tower within the next two months.

Read more.

Who brought the money this week?


  • Egyptian fintech company Flash raised $6 million in a seed round. The round was led by Addition other participating investors, including Flourish Ventures and angel investors.
  • Nigerian Health tech company Pharmarun received $10,000 in equity-free funding from the Pitch2Win competition.
  • Mycover.ai, a Nigerian-based insurtech company, raised $1.25 million in a pre-seed round. The round was led by Ventures Platform. Other participating investors included Founders Factory Africa and Techstars.
  • Tunisian mobility company, Kaco secured undisclosed funding from UGFS North Africa.

What else to read this weekend?

Written by: Ngozi Chukwu

Edited by: Pamela Tetteh

18, Nnobi Street, Surulere, Lagos, Nigeria

]]> https://techcabal.com/2023/07/22/bundle-africa-shuts-down-its-exchange-platform/feed/ 0 House of reps oppose CBN’s social media KYC requirement https://techcabal.com/2023/07/15/house-of-reps-oppose-cbns-social-media-kyc-requirement/ https://techcabal.com/2023/07/15/house-of-reps-oppose-cbns-social-media-kyc-requirement/#respond Sat, 15 Jul 2023 09:21:36 +0000 https://techcabal.com/?p=115976

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Editor’s Note

  • Week 29, 2023
  • Read time: 5 minutes

Hello 👋🏾

This week’s news roundup takes us on a journey across Nigeria, Kenya, Equatorial Guinea, and Egypt. Enjoy!

Oh, before we dive in, can you to spare 3 minutes and fill out this survey? Your feedback means the world to us.

Pamela Tetteh Editor, TechCabal.

Editor’s Picks

CBN’s social media KYC rule to take a pause

Nigeria’s House of Representatives has asked the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to press the pause button on their plans to make social media handles a mandatory ID for know-your-customer (KYC) operations.

Read more.

Lawyers caught using ChaGPT again

South African lawyers, in the midst of arguing a case at the regional court in Johannesburg, got caught red-handed for presenting fake precedents concocted from ChatGPT. This is not the first time such a thing has happened.

Learn more.

A swahili-speaking Bard

After some delays due to data privacy concerns, Google has announced the global debut of its multilibual AI chatbot, Bard. Swahili is the first African language the multilingual chatbot can speak.

Learn more.

Airtel launches 5G in Kenya

Airtel took the baton and became the second telecom company to launch 5G in Kenya. They followed in the footsteps of Safaricom, which launched their 5G back in October 2022. It’s a race to lightning-fast connectivity, and Kenya is zooming ahead at full speed.

Learn more.

NFCCPC and Google to weed out abusive loan apps

In a bid to protect lenders, Nigeria’s Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (NFCCPC)and Google app store are respectively working to weed out pesky loan apps.

Learn more.

Entering Tech

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Egypt to launch satellite this year

Egypt’s space dreams are taking off! The Egyptian Space Agency is setting its sights on launching the NExSat-1 satellite before the year’s end.

Learn more.

Flutterwave to the rescue

Flutterwave has launched Tuition, a payment product enabling African users to pay school fees locally and abroad using local currencies. They’ve also partnered with IATA to enable airlines to receive payments in local currencies.

Learn more.

Safaricom to launch new VC funds

Safaricom is planning to set up two new venture capital subsidiaries which will be tasked with identifying and investing in tech startups in Kenya. Will they replace its $1 million fund, Spark Venture Fund?

Learn more.

Kenya pauses new Finance Act

Kenya’s Finance Act is causing quite a stir! Justice Mugure Thande has ordered a temporary stop to the implementation of the country’s freshly approved Finance Act 2023

Learn more.

Equatorial Guinea’s e-visa

Equatorial Guinea has partnered with VFS Global to launch a new e-visa service that aims to attract more tourists and business travellers to the country.

Learn more.

Who brought the money this week?


  • Nuru, a solar company in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), raised $40 million in equity funding.
  • MYDAWA, a Kenyan online pharmacy, received $20 million in an undisclosed round from Alta Semper Capital, a private equity firm.
  • Zuvy, a fintech company, secured $4.5 million in debt and equity funding from TLG Capital.
  • Egyptian fintech company Masroofi raised $1.5 million in an undisclosed round from undisclosed investors.
  • Kenya-based B2B company Revivo raised $ 635 K in pre-seed funding from Raba Partnership, Village Global, Musha Ventures, Satgana, and strategic business angels. 

What else to read this weekend?

Written by: Ngozi Chukwu

Edited by: Pamela Tetteh

18, Nnobi Street, Surulere, Lagos, Nigeria

]]> https://techcabal.com/2023/07/15/house-of-reps-oppose-cbns-social-media-kyc-requirement/feed/ 0 Medsaf lays off all its full-time staff https://techcabal.com/2023/07/08/medsaf-lays-off-all-its-full-time-staff/ https://techcabal.com/2023/07/08/medsaf-lays-off-all-its-full-time-staff/#respond Sat, 08 Jul 2023 08:00:00 +0000 https://techcabal.com/?p=115563

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Editor’s Note

  • Week 28, 2023
  • Read time: 5 minutes

Hello 👋🏾

Have you responded to our 3-minute survey yet? Please do so and return to delve into this week’s top tech stories.

Pamela Tetteh Editor, TechCabal.

Editor’s Picks

Mesaf lays off all its full-time staff

Nigerian healthtech startup, Medsaf has laid off all its full-time employees. Former employees allege that their salaries and benefits remain unpaid.

Read more.

SomBank & Mastercard launch cards in Somalia

Mastercard and SomBank have joined forces to introduce cards as a means of facilitating payments in the country. They believe that cards offer a superior alternative to the recently launched standard QR code, SOMQR, by the government.

Learn more.

A super comeback

In July 2022, Union54 halted its services after it experienced a $1.2 billion chargeback fraud. Now the Zambian startup is making a comeback and building its payments service into a chat platform.

Learn more.

Ethiopia offers a new telecoms licence

Ethiopia has kicked off the bidding process for a new telecommunications licence. Safaricom bought the one the country sold last year and has gained 2.1 million customers in eight months.

Learn more.

Deadline for crypto license looms

A new crypto regulation in South Africa will see crypto exchanges unable to operate in the country without licences by November 30.

Learn more.

Entering Tech

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SA’s Department of Justice breaks the rules

South Africa’s Information Regulator has fined the Department of Justice R5 million ($266,331) for not renewing its licences for antivirus software.

Learn more.

Bolt gets a CFO

Ride-hailing platform Bolt has picked Mikko Salovaara as its new chief finance officer (CFO). The announcement follows Bolt’s profit gains, having experienced notable growth for the first time since 2018.

Learn more about him.

How social media impacted Nigeria’s elections

The EU Election Observation Mission published its report showing more social media activity during Nigeria’s 2023 elections.

Learn more.

Kenya has a unified payroll system

The Kenyan president, William Ruto, has ordered the implementation of a Unified Payroll Number (UPN) system in all state agencies to reduce the government’s wage bill and streamline payroll management.

Learn more.

Starlink isn’t going to SA soon

This week, communications minister Mondli Gungubele reiterated that it must meet the SouthAfrica’s internet service provider (ISP) ownership equity rules first.

Learn more.

Who brought the money this week?


  • Nuru, a solar company in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), raised $40 million in equity funding.
  • MYDAWA, a Kenyan online pharmacy, received $20 million in an undisclosed round from Alta Semper Capital, a private equity firm.
  • Zuvy, a fintech company, secured $4.5 million in debt and equity funding from TLG Capital.
  • Egyptian fintech company Masroofi raised $1.5 million in an undisclosed round from undisclosed investors.
  • Kenya-based B2B company Revivo raised $ 635 K in pre-seed funding from Raba Partnership, Village Global, Musha Ventures, Satgana, and strategic business angels. 

What else to read this weekend?

Written by: Ngozi Chukwu

Edited by: Pamela Tetteh

18, Nnobi Street, Surulere, Lagos, Nigeria

]]> https://techcabal.com/2023/07/08/medsaf-lays-off-all-its-full-time-staff/feed/ 0 Mobile data is literally money in Kenya https://techcabal.com/2023/07/01/mobile-data-is-literally-money-in-kenya/ https://techcabal.com/2023/07/01/mobile-data-is-literally-money-in-kenya/#respond Sat, 01 Jul 2023 09:54:27 +0000 https://techcabal.com/?p=115139

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Editor’s Note

  • Week 26, 2023
  • Read time: 5 minutes

Hello 👋🏾

Buckle up and dive into interesting African tech news, with a focus on the happenings in the vibrant East African country of Kenya.

Plus, we need your genius insights to sprinkle some extra pizzazz on this newsletter, so please take our survey and help us unleash the full force of awesomeness upon you!

Pamela Tetteh Editor, TechCabal.

Editor’s Picks

Kenyans can now pay with data

Kenya’s biggest telecoms operator, Safaricom, has launched a new service that will allow customers to pay for products and services using their internet data balance.

Read more

CBN draws a line

While Kenya pushes the boundaries with payments technology, the central bank of Nigeria (CBN) has imposed restrictions on the maximum transaction amounts permitted for residents using contactless payment technology.

What are the limits?

What’s the deal with South Africa’s new identification bill?

South Africa’s identification bill has people losing sleep about the privacy risks of consolidating all citizens’ ID information into a single system.

Learn more.

Nigerian banks to do social media checks

In more news about controversial rules, a wave of raised eyebrows swept across Nigeria when the CBN made it mandatory for banks to request customers’ social media IDs as part of the Know Your Customer (KYC) process.

Is this a big deal?

Kenya’s digital sex offenders registry

Kenya has launched the first digital sex offenders registry in Africa. Now with a few simple clicks, you can find out if someone is a registered sex offender in Kenya.

Learn more.

Entering Tech

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Ethiopia’s Safaricom gets a new CEO

Wim Vanhelleputte from MTN Group will assume the position of CEO at Safaricom Ethiopia, succeeding Anwar Soussa in the role.

Learn more.

Kenya to tax influencers and crypto bros

Kenya’s Finance Bill 2023 mandates digital content creators, crypto traders, and digital lenders to pay taxes.

How much?

inDrive is licensed in Kenya

inDrive, a ride-hailing platform, has obtained the necessary licences to operate within Kenya. Unlike Uber and Bolt, it allows customers and drivers to bargain the cost of trips.

Learn more.

Flutterwave enters 5-year deal with Microsoft

Flutterwave has entered into a five-year technological agreement with technology giant, Microsoft. Now, the fintech company build a new generation of payment services on Microsoft Azure.

Find out.

Free data for Ugandan refugees

The Ugandan government has partnered with the World Bank to provide Internet access to 1.5 million refugees living in Uganda’s refugee communities.

Learn more.

Who brought the money this week?


  • Kenyan fashion e-commerce company, ShopZetu, raised $1 million in pre-seed funding. Chui Ventures led the round.
  • Tappi, a Kenyan e-commerce company, secured a $180,000 grant from Orbit Startups.
  • Ghana-based web3 startup, Mazzuma, raised an undisclosed amount of venture funding from Adaverse.
  • Zoie, a South African-based health-tech company, also closed an undisclosed amount in funding from 4DX Ventures and E Squared Investments.

What else to read this weekend?

Written by: Ngozi Chukwu & Hannatu Asheolge

Edited by: Pamela Tetteh

18, Nnobi Street, Surulere, Lagos, Nigeria

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