Here are this week’s top headlines on startups, entrepreneurship, innovation and tech around Africa.
InterContinental out. Barely four years after establishing a presence in Nigeria, UK-based InterContinental Hotels Group Plc (IHG) is exiting the country following "a disagreement with local partners over the terms of how to bring the property out of receivership", according to Bloomberg.
"Local partners" here likely refers to Skye Bank Plc, which the Federal High Court in Lagos ordered to take over the debt-laden hotel last year. The exit comes as no surprise following recent allegations of a breach of contract by Skye Bank.
SAS signs $30 million contract with Nigeria's BeepTool. Sky and Space Global (SAS) is a British public company on a mission to install a constellation of 200 nanosatellites in equatorial Low Earth orbit. They recently signed a 5-year contract with Nigerian mobile payments startup, BeepTool in a bid to bring affordable messaging and payment services to African markets. Read more on TechMoran.
Google's new Chief Marketing Officer. Google has announced the appointment of former Vodacom SA executive, Mzamo Masito as its CMO for Sub-Saharan Africa. Read more on IT News Africa.
Finland to fund African startups. The government of Finland has raised €8.7m to fund technology startups in SA, Botswana, Namibia, Tanzania and Zambia through the Southern Africa Innovation Support (SAIS) programme. Read more on Innovation Village.
According to a recent report by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in Egypt, the country's ICT sector grew by 12.5% for the financial year of 2016/2017. Read the report.
Meanwhile.... the National Bureau of Statistics has revealed that Nigeria’s active voice and internet subscriptions took a downward trend in Q3 of 2017, Read more on Vanguard News.
