Victoria lied to you, I'm not fun.
As you already know, Victoria is going on a much-needed break, and she has entrusted me with keeping Techpoint Digest delivered to your inbox.
In her last email to you, she said I'm fun, but this couldn't be further from the truth. I'm actually super fun, and I'll do my best to keep the newsletter as engaging as possible.
In the meantime, tell me what you like the most about Victoria's newsletters, and I'll try to maintain the standard.
Without further ado, here's what I have for you today:
- OPay CEO steps down.
- Senegal's second Internet shutdown in 2023.
- Threads loses 50% of its users.
OPay CEO steps down
Olu Akanmu has stepped down as OPay-Nigeria's CEO, two years after he took office.
Akanmu announced his departure from the fintech company on Twitter (now X), saying it was the end of one chapter and he was moving on to the next.
Akanmu had a great track record at OPay.
As of December 2022, OPay had the largest agency banking network in Nigeria with over 500,000 agents.
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I made a list of companies with the most PoS agents in Nigeria as of December 2022, you can check it out here.
Keep in mind that much has changed since 2022, and a little birdie told me that Moniepoint now has the largest agency banking network in the country. I'll give you the actual figures if you ask nicely.
Zoom out: Akanmu is not the only C-level employee who recently left OPay.
Dotun Adekunle left his role as CTO in October 2022. Olaniyi Alao, a former Compliance Officer at OPay, also left the company for Paystack this year. Something's definitely up at OPay.
Senegal's second Internet shutdown in 2023
Unfortunately, people in Senegal might not be able to read this newsletter because their communications minister, Moussa Bocar Thiam, announced the country's second Internet shutdown in 2023, starting yesterday.
The first one was in June 2023.
Both times, the decision followed protests regarding the opposition leader, Ousmane Sonko.
Sonko was sentenced to two years in prison in June for "corrupting the youths." The decision sparked violent protests across the country, leading to the death of 15 people.
Internet shutdowns are costly. Senegal's last shutdown cost the country $300,000 every hour. This time, it could be much worse, as the constant shutdowns could cause foreign investors to lose confidence in the country.
Zuck's Threads is losing users
Meta's Twitter rival, Threads, made history when it crossed 100 million signups in just five days. However, it's not rainbows and unicorns again for Threads as it has lost half of its users.
What really happened? According to an internal meeting heard by Reuters, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees that the platform had lost half of its users.
Interestingly, Threads performed even better than Meta executives anticipated. The company is now going to focus on adding features that will keep users on the platform for longer.
I'm not very fond of Threads because . Or maybe I should see a therapist.
