After a 5-year run in the East-African market, Ugandan-founded bike-hailing startup, Safeboda has announced its exit from Kenya. This may have resulted from the effect of COVID-19 among other unconfir…
How close is Nigeria to adopting a proper e-voting system?
After a series of projections since 2017, Nigerians are anticipating an e-voting process for major elections starting from 2021. But findings show that as of 2020, previous challenges are yet to be ad…
Why solving Nigeria’s housing problem is beyond proptech startups for now
Real estate startups (proptech) are innovating to solve the obvious housing problem in Nigeria. However, it appears they are constrained by the existing infrastructure such that the average urban resi…
Nigeria’s CcHub acquires Kenya’s eLimu to build the content creation arm of re:learn
A year after acquiring iHub, Nigerian incubation hub, CcHub acquires Kenyan edtech startup, eLimu to develop digital academic content for its education unit, re:learn; will soon expand to other Africa…
Only 10% of female-founded startups in West Africa have raised up to $1 million since 2010
A comprehensive analysis of tech startups in West Africa, that raised at least $1 million cumulatively in the past ten years, reveals that only 10% of them have at least one female co-founder.…
Nigeria’s broadcast regulator could be creating a difficult era for journalism
In an age where citizen journalism is gaining traction, Nigeria’s Broadcasting regulator fined three media houses for reporting the October 20 shootings with eyewitness accounts. How will this impact …
Why Facebook labelled content from #LekkiMassacre2020 incident ‘false’
Following the sad #LekkiMassacre incident of October 20, Facebook and Instagram labelled related content ‘false information’. However, there seem to be inconsistencies in how they came to …
#EndSARS: How to bypass an Internet shutdown in Nigeria
Following speculations that the Nigerian government could try to disrupt the ongoing #EndSARS protests by ‘switching off’ the Internet, here’s how you can stay one step ahead…
#EndSARS: Another sign that massive change can start online
With a movement that began online, Nigerians are collectively opposing the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) unit of the police force on an unprecedented scale. What results are there to show so far?…
Why Netflix needs more than cheap plans to drive massive growth in Africa
Netflix is expected to have 3.6 million African subscribers by 2025 and it’s driving this with pricing and local content. But as it tests a cheap mobile-only plan, current progress suggests the goal m…
You’ll soon be able to permanently mute WhatsApp messages
A feature on WhatsApp that lets users control who they get message notifications from, Mute, has been reviewed. Users can now mute chats for more than a year. Available to Android users in beta testin…
Serial entrepreneurs in West Africa received the most funding over the last decade
Techpoint Africa’s West African Startup Decade Report revealed that founders with more than one startup raised 82.7% of the funding recorded in the last ten years. Find out the edge serial founders ha…
How Africa’s changing Internet culture gave BBNaija its best outing yet
Defying the pandemic, Big Brother Naija (BBNaija), a popular Nigerian reality show, aired for 71 days this year. As the winner emerged on September 27, available data revealed it is a likely influence…
What is at stake if TStv delivers on its promise this time
Late last month, TStv, Nigerian pay-TV, promised a nationwide comeback, again. Besides the question of whether or not it will deliver on its promise, we examine the business model and any prospect to …
Orange partners Google to launch $30 4G smartphones for Africans soon
In a bid to further drive digital penetration in Africa and Middle East, French telco, Orange in collaboration with Google plans to release affordable 4G smartphones called Sanza — costing $30 …
Android app developers must now give 30% of all in-app purchases to Google
A Google Play policy that requests 30% take on all in-app purchase payments on all Android apps will soon be enforced. Having updated it for clarity, Google says this will kick off by September 2021…
It’s the era of audio messaging, but let’s not bet on voice tweets yet
Asides the ability to tweet voice on iOS devices – an option introduced in June – Twitter has started testing audio direct messaging feature. We predict that the latter has a higher chance of widespre…
How Ghanaian-based biometric startup, BACE Group is tackling identity theft in Africa
Africans face a major challenge with identity management. Addressing this with tech, Ghanaian-based BACE Group devised a face-recognition API to prevent identity theft and promote financial inclusion…
Enyata wants to build a sustainable community for African software engineers
With a wealth of experience at Andela and other tech companies, Oyelade Oladayo built Enyata to groom and converge tech engineers to grow an Engineering as a Service (EaaS) business.…
Facebook is opening its second African office in Lagos, Nigeria
Five years after opening a physical office in South Africa, Facebook has decided to open an office in Lagos, Nigeria, the first in Africa to house a team of local tech talents. This is to become opera…