Bonjour,

Following the country’s general elections on Saturday, the government of Gabon declared it would impose a nighttime curfew and shut down Internet access.

Communications Minister, Rodrigue Mboumba Bissawou, announced the overnight curfew would begin on Sunday to “counter the spread of calls for violence… and false information.”

On Saturday morning, voters went to the polls for presidential, legislative, and local elections in which President Ali Bongo Ondimba, a descendant of a family that has ruled the Central African nation for more than 50 years, was running for re-election.

Here’s what I’ve got for you today:

• Visa partners banks and fintechs in Kenya to launch contactless payments
• Nigeria gets $500m loan

Visa partners banks and fintechs in Kenya to launch contactless payments

Visa is working with local banks and fintech companies in Kenya to launch contactless payments. Customers will be able to transact without a physical wallet or a card.

Customers can use the Thales-powered service by tapping their Near-field communication (NFC) enabled smartphones at any contactless payment terminal to make in-store purchases using their banking app.

Why is it important? Contactless payments are more secure than magnetic-stripe cards, which are easily skimmed by fraudsters, in addition to their convenience.

According to Investopedia, a contactless transaction’s data entry is encrypted, making it difficult to steal or intercept. Due to the documentation of every transaction, the customer and the company can more easily keep track of their money. The advantage of having less cash on-site for vendors is lower security risks.

Have we seen this before? In June 2023, Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), Visa, and Thales collaborated to launch a contactless payment service.

In May 2017, Safaricom launched the M-PESA 1Tap, a contactless payments service, in Nakuru County.

Four months later, over 90,000 customers and 2,000 merchants signed up, and the telco extended the service to five additional counties: Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Eldoret, and Nyeri. However, the contactless payments service died a natural death.

Nigeria gets $500m loan 

Nigeria has received a loan of $500 million to support entrepreneurship and innovation in the digital industry.

Bosun Tijani, Minister for Communications and the Digital Economy, announced this at a dinner hosted by the Ministry of Communications and the World Bank in his honour.

According to him, the government will work with the Bank of Industry (BoI) to domicile the funding locally to support the growth and development of domestic companies and, ultimately, the nation’s economy.

Tijani stated his desire to work with institutions that will ensure Nigerian businesses benefit from the funds.

The government wants to use the fund to attract more investment and increase the resources available to local business owners. It plans to add more investors to increase the funding available to assist Nigerian innovators.

Local funding will become more readily available in the coming months, and as it does, the government plans to leverage that money.

What’s more, Shubham Chaudhuri, the World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, stated that the international financial institution is collaborating with the federal government to guarantee the effective implementation and registration of digital national IDs for all Nigerians.

He asserted that at least 148 million people of working age should have access to a digital national ID by the middle of next year, marking a significant advancement in inclusion and accessibility.

Last week on Techpoint Africa

• Somali government bans TikTok, Telegram to combat misinformation
• Kenyan fintech startup, Zanifu, wants to provide more financial services on the back of a $11.2 million pre-Series A
• How this startup made ₦100m selling small chops online, with just 9 employees
• Moniepoint makes Kenyan foray with the acquisition of Kopo Kopo
• Default on the government-backed Hustler Fundin Kenya has reached $20m
• NALA launches payments from the UK and EU to Nigeria, plans to allow Nigerians to send money abroad
• TikTok to open an office in Kenya and work with the government to moderate content on its platform
• MTN’s fintech and Saana Capital partner to allow MoMo users to send and receive money across Africa
• LemFi raises $33 million Series A to ease remittance for immigrants
• A Flutterwave IPO is inevitable, but is it imminent?
• Tech Operators Mixer 2023: Spotlighting the unsung heroes of the African tech space

What I’m reading and watching

• Looking for your next book? These 9 authors have reading recommendations for you
• The Two People We’re All Related To
• How many species of Human were there?

Opportunities   

• GitLab is looking for a remote Product Manager. Apply here.
• Are you interested in Technology Risk, or an IT Auditor or Data Analyst? Apply for this Visa-sponsored opportunity in the UK. Apply here.
• Wellahealth is hiring for customer service roles in Uyo and Abuja, Nigeria. Check out this tweet to apply.
• Interswitch is looking for a UI/UX designer. Apply here.
• Apply for the AWS Startup Builds Accelerator 2023 for pre-MVP founders before September 22, 2023, here.
• Gen F, a three-month initiative sponsored by Founders Factory Africa, is open to idea-stage founders. Participants will receive a monthly stipend, an experimentation budget, and access to experts to help them test and launch their ideas. Apply here.
• MTN MoMo is hosting tech developers and innovators from 15 African countries, including Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Ghana, and Cameroon, to participate in its online application programming interface (API) hackathon. Apply before September 3, 2023, here.
• If you are a software engineer, creative designer, product manager, design researcher, or a techie looking for an internship role, please, check out this website.

Have an amazing week!

Victoria Fakiya for Techpoint Africa.