Africa – Africa Tech Digest

Google sets up $50M fund to invest in African startups

6Oct

By Africa Tech DigestNo Comments

Africans in Tech, Start-ups

Google sets up $50M fund to invest in African startups

Google plans to invest up to $50 million in African early and growth-stage startups via its Africa Investment Fund, ramping up efforts to support more businesses on the continent. Google made known its plans today in a virtual event where CEO Sundar Pichai announced the tech giant’s intentions to commit $1 billion over the next five years in tech-led initiatives in Africa. These initiatives range from improved connectivity via Google’s subsea cable Equiano to investments in small businesses and startups. Until now, Google had fulfilled its obligations in the latter through its Google for Startups Accelerator Africa program and the recently launched Black Founders Fund. Continue reading Image: Getty Images

Facebook to Expand Planned Undersea Cable Network in Africa

16Aug

By Africa Tech DigestNo Comments

Social Networks

Facebook to Expand Planned Undersea Cable Network in Africa

Facebook Inc. and some of the world’s largest telecommunications carriers, China Mobile Ltd. and MTN Group Ltd., are set to build a wider-than-earlier planned giant sub-sea cable in Africa. The companies plan to add the Indian Ocean island countries of Seychelles and Comoros, as well as Angola and a new connection to Nigeria, according to a statement released on Monday. This is in addition to a recently announced link to the Canary Islands and would bring connection-landings to 35 in 26 countries. Continue reading (Image Credits: Unsplash)

Tech Events this Week: World Financial Innovation, Fundraising in Africa and others

9Aug

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Events

Tech Events this Week: World Financial Innovation, Fundraising in Africa and others

Hi guys, welcome to another great week. To help you get the week rolling on a smooth note, we have curated a list of interesting events in the tech scene just for you. These events are scheduled to hold between August 9th – 14th, 2021. On Thursday, Raise simple will be hosting an online workshop on fundraising in Africa. The theme of the event is Fundraising in Africa: Why is Cap Table Important? It will focus on the importance of a clean cap table and equity for African Startups. The workshop will host Conrad, Managing partner at Adili Corporate Services and Fane Kemuwa, Legal Engineer at Raise amongst others Date: Thursday, August 12, 2021Time: 10:00 AM WAT Continue reading (Image Credits: technext.ng)

Infobip to Power Expresso Senegal Customer Communication with Whatsapp

8Aug

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Africa, Mobile, Telecommunications, West Africa

Infobip to Power Expresso Senegal Customer Communication with Whatsapp

DAKAR, Senegal, August 5, 2021/APO Group/ -- Global leader in business communications services Infobip (www.Infobip.com) announced today it will provide WhatsApp customer communication services and its Conversations CPaaS-based contact center solution to leading Senegal mobile operator Expresso. Mobile operators worldwide are increasingly adopting cloud-based customer communication solutions, in no small part driven by the COVID-19 pandemic which stressed the need to make remote services available to subscribers. As one of the most popular messaging apps in the world, WhatsApp is widely used to connect brands and mobile users, and Infobip has been a launch partner of WhatsApp business messaging. Continue reading (Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Infobip)

19Jan

By Africa Tech DigestNo Comments

Central Africa, East Africa, Nigeria, Southern Africa, Tech Policy, West Africa

Zimbabwe’s internet blackout shows how powerless major telcos are against governments

Internet access was restored in Zimbabwe late on Wednesday, but on Thursday WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter remained inaccessible. More than 600 people were arrested this week as police armed with AK-47 rifles rounded up protestors, according to the Associated Press. At least six people were killed when the military was deployed to quell protests against high fuel prices on Monday. Amnesty International reported eight deaths, while the Association of Doctors for Human Rights reported treated 68 cases of gunshot wounds and more than 100 other cases of assaults. A tense calm returned on Thursday. Zimbabweans were protesting a fuel hike that would see the price of petrol and diesel rise by 150%in a country that already had fuel shortages. Amid the violent crackdown on prot...

31Dec

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Africans in Tech, East Africa

Inside the world of a Kenyan cryptocurrency miner

Eugene Mutai is well aware of the risks of mining virtual money. "Sometimes I ask myself: will the bubble pop? "He's right to be, cryptocurrencies are volatile. That hasn't stopped him from operating in this shadowy and controversial corner of the global financial system. A few years ago Mutai was working odd jobs on farms in rural Kenya. Now he's a cryptocurrency miner in Nairobi. His apartment where he mines, is dimly lit blue and drowned with the low drone of a self-made cryptocurrency computer rig. Mutai began researching cryptocurrencies last year. "I was curious about what was making these alternative coins drive. "Bitcoin was hard to mine by that point in time," Mutai tells CNN. There were already many Bitcoin miners. Instead, Mutai started mining Ethereum, a similar but less we...

30Dec

By Africa Tech DigestNo Comments

AI, East Africa, North Africa, Southern Africa, West Africa

Drones driven by AI will track illegal fishing in African waters

Across the African continent, drones are finding innovative uses -- from monitoring displaced populations to delivering critical medical supplies. Moroccan technology startup ATLAN Space is developing artificial intelligence (AI) to guide autonomous drones so they can scan large areas for "environmental crimes" like illegal fishing, poaching or deforestation. In June, ATLAN Space won the National Geographic Society's $150,000 Marine Protection Prize to implement a pilot project to combat illegal fishing in Seychelles. Drones will be armed with information about illegal fishing hotspots, explains Badr Idrissi, CEO and co-founder of ATLAN Space. Once a drone detects a boat, AI will enable it to verify whether it is a cruising boat, tanker or fishing vessel. The drone will then esta...

30Dec

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Space, West Africa

Why NASA chose Senegal to observe a frozen world beyond Pluto

On a night in August, an object called 2014 MU69 passed in front of a star and blocked its light. This phenomenon, called a stellar occultation, lasted just a second and was visible only in certain regions in Africa (more exactly in Senegal, Mali and Algeria) and in South America in Colombia.MU69 is an icy object of the Kuiper Belt, (informally named Ultima Thule) which was discovered in June 2014 with the Hubble Space Telescope.NASA is pursuing this object to learn more about the origins of our solar system. Senegal was chosen to observe this occultation, because of its political stability, and the existence of a community of amateur astronomers and scientists.The choice of Senegal was made despite the challenging climatic conditions in August (rainy season), which offered a probab...