Technology – Page 2 – Africa Tech Digest

Nigerian agritech startup Releaf secures $4.2M to scale its food processing technology

15Sep

By Africa Tech DigestNo Comments

Agri-tech, Start-ups

Nigerian agritech startup Releaf secures $4.2M to scale its food processing technology

The distance between their farms and the nearest processor is key for smallholder farmers who need to process their crops. And though Nigeria’s food processing systems have a keen resemblance to the West with respect to big factories and huge economies of scale in high-demand cities, farmers still suffer from poor logistics networks. With distance and logistics problems, farmers’ crops can go bad and when factories buy them, it affects their processing yields and price. Farmers, witnessing post-harvest loss, also get paid less and miss the opportunity to invest in their crops production. Nigerian agritech startup Releaf is solving this by building proprietary hardware and software solutions to make these farmers and food factories more efficient and profitable. Today, the company is...

How early-stage venture capital firm, Saviu Ventures, is funding Francophone African startups

15Sep

By Africa Tech DigestNo Comments

ecommerce, Start-ups

How early-stage venture capital firm, Saviu Ventures, is funding Francophone African startups

It can be argued that most of the progress made in the African startup space has been concentrated in one part of the continent. One legacy of colonialism in Africa is language, with the United Kingdom and France colonising most of the continent. As a result, English and French are two of the continent’s most widely spoken languages. That difference is also seen in the developmental gap between Francophone and Anglophone African countries, with the latter significantly ahead of the former. However, the gap has gradually closed as more startups have sprung up in this region in recent years. Continue reading Image: Disrupt Africa

UN Launches the First Regional Online Portal to Bring Together all African Countries with Data and Evidence on Sustainable Development

14Sep

By Africa Tech DigestNo Comments

Africa, Telecommunications

UN Launches the First Regional Online Portal to Bring Together all African Countries with Data and Evidence on Sustainable Development

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, September 14, 2021/APO Group/ -- Measuring and evaluating progress on the Sustainable Development Goals in Africa became much easier as a group of regional UN entities launched the first online data portal that brings together statistical data harvested across all countries on the continent. Today, 17 regional UN entities, under the Africa Regional Collaborative Platform (RCP), unveiled the Africa UN Data for Development Platform. This is the first platform to serve as a one-stop-shop repository that captures high-quality data and evidence on the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs from all the African countries. It is also the first of its kind to raise the profile of statistical progress toward the African Union vision – Agenda 2063. “With barely nine years lef...

What will it take to build the future of e-commerce in Africa?

12Sep

By Africa Tech DigestNo Comments

Africa, ecommerce

What will it take to build the future of e-commerce in Africa?

From the early days of trade by barter to the days of online shopping, commerce has come a long way. Consumers no longer have to wait long periods to get their goods delivered or limit themselves to trading within their environs. Now, consumers can place orders from the comfort of their homes and have them delivered in a short time, ranging from a few hours to a few days. This increase in convenience has led to a corresponding increase in consumer spending. In Africa, the average spending by online shoppers has risen steadily over the years. How much progress has the industry made? In 2020, the African e-commerce market was estimated to be worth $20 billion, and between 2014 to 2018, the number of online shoppers on the continent increased annually, at an average growth rate of 1...

Nigerian one-click checkout platform OurPass raises $1M pre-seed, wants to build ‘Fast for Africa’

11Sep

By Africa Tech DigestNo Comments

ecommerce, Nigeria, Start-ups

Nigerian one-click checkout platform OurPass raises $1M pre-seed, wants to build ‘Fast for Africa’

We like to buy things online ranging from e-commerce stores to subscription-based sites. However, no one enjoys the hassle when you have to always re-log into different sites and stores. I mean, shopping can be a whole lot more fun if a fast logging and checkout system existed across all your favorite online stores. In the U.S., high-flying startup Fast already caters to this need. Although the company is building a global product, it is limited in Africa, and OurPass has taken an interest to build one for the market. The Nigeria-based startup, which describes itself as the “Fast for Africa”, has also closed a $1 million pre-seed round to scale across the country. The round was led by Tekedia Capital and angel investors from Fortune 500 companies, the company said. E-commer...

How Scrapays is helping Nigerians get value from waste with USSD technology

11Sep

By Africa Tech DigestNo Comments

Nigeria, Start-ups

How Scrapays is helping Nigerians get value from waste with USSD technology

Being the most populous country in Africa, Nigeria faces a number of urban challenges and uncollected trash is high on the list. Waste collection methods driven by local authorities remain inadequate, particularly in rural areas. Furthermore, most Nigerians are not inclined to collect and dispose of their waste properly. In Lagos, for instance, where trash volume grows by 15,000 tons daily, only 40% of waste generated is collected and just 13% is recycled each year. The rest – including materials that could feed the local recycling industry – litters the streets and clogs open drains. Over the past few years, trash-for-cash initiatives have emerged in Nigeria, looking to tackle the widespread waste problems by incentivising Nigerians while supplying recycling plants with much-needed...

Facebook Launches Campaign to Take on Fake News in Nigeria

11Sep

By Africa Tech DigestNo Comments

Apps, Nigeria, Social Networks, Telecommunications

Facebook Launches Campaign to Take on Fake News in Nigeria

Facebook is collaborating with Nigerian companies Big Cabal Media and Comic Republic to launch the #NoFalseNewsZone educational campaign aimed at helping individuals identify fake news and educate them on how to minimise the spread of false information across Nigeria’s internet and otherwise. “We are super excited to be working with Big Cabal Media and Comic Republic to launch #NoFalseNewsZone in Nigeria,” said Oluwasola Obagbemi, Facebook’s Corporate Communications Manager for Anglophone West Africa, quoted by the Guardian Nigeria. Obagbemi says that the social media giant is committed to the well-being of individuals and communities. Continue reading

ICASA Cancels Spectrum Auction in Attempt to Avoid Lengthy Court Battle

7Sep

By Africa Tech DigestNo Comments

5G, Africa, Telecommunications

ICASA Cancels Spectrum Auction in Attempt to Avoid Lengthy Court Battle

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), the country’s communications regulator, has announced that it will not be publishing invitations to apply (ITA) to participate in the long-awaited auction of high-demand spectrum in South Africa. ICASA says that the move was made to avoid a lengthy court battle against several litigators that had issues with how ICASA was handling the auction. The regulator is likewise withdrawing an ITA for the licensing of the planned wholesale open-access network (WOAN), pending court approval. “ICASA has now decided to consent to an order setting aside its decision to publish the invitations to apply (ITAs) in order to avoid a long, drawn-out litigation, the effect of which would only be to delay further the licensing of high-dema...

5 Reasons Why 5G Makes a Real Difference

5Sep

By Africa Tech DigestNo Comments

5G, Telecommunications

5 Reasons Why 5G Makes a Real Difference

Over the last 36 months, 5G has rapidly gained mindshare in society as a vital technology. But not all stakeholders in industries adjacent to the telecom industry understand what makes 5G different from its predecessors. In this post, we describe a set of strategic choices made for previous mobile generations of which we made a single choice. 5G makes it possible to embrace both options, thereby unlocking larger opportunities earlier in the deployment cycle. Here are 5 Reasons Why 5G Makes a Real Difference: 5G is for Both Consumer and Business Users The introduction of 4G was consumer-led, with infrastructure and device technology development centred around smartphones for consumers. Businesses adopted consumer technology through a more visible, bring-your-own-device (BYOD...

Zip acquisition of Payflex means Africa is ripe for BNPL disruption

4Sep

By Africa Tech DigestNo Comments

Africa, ecommerce

Zip acquisition of Payflex means Africa is ripe for BNPL disruption

Australian buy now, pay later (BNPL) company Zip this week acquired South Africa-based BNPL player Payflex for an undisclosed amount. It’s a piece of news that once again highlights the hype around BNPL services and the quest for global dominance among the leading players. This year we have covered BNPL services from the likes of Afterpay, Klarna and Affirm. And tech and payments giants Apple, Square, PayPal and Visa have joined in the action, too, massively funneling cash to their respective BNPL initiatives (for one, Square acquired Afterpay). Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. are key markets for BNPL services. The U.S. market is so big that the number of BNPL service users is expected to hit 45 million by year’s end, representing an 81% growth from last year. But desp...