Africa Tech News

Chari, a Moroccan B2B e-commerce and fintech startup announced that it has acquired a 100% stake in Diago, an Ivorian app that connects neighbourhood shops to FMCG producers and importers. The all-stock transaction was facilitated by AF Legal and RBB International firms, representing Chari, and Houda Law Firm, representing the Ivorian upstart. Chari’s CEO Ismail Belkhayat says the secret of a succ...

Boomplay, a Chinese-owned music streaming platform for African artists and songs, has launched in Côte d’Ivoire. Boomplay Côte d’Ivoire General Manager, Paola Audrey Ndengue, says Boomplay is committed to contributing to the dynamism of the Ivorian music industry’. With the launch of Boomplay, Ivorian artists now have access to 70 million active users on a platform where they’ll be paid per stream...

The Nigerian government has set out to regulate social media platforms with a new Code of Practice. Plans for the Code of Practice were announced in January by the Director-General of NITDA, Mr Kashifu Inuwa. The National Information Technology Development Agency announced that it had developed a draft Code of Practice for Interactive Computer Service Platforms/Internet Intermediaries. The NITDA H...

Egypt’s first network of angel investors announced its investment of an undisclosed amount in Nigerian fintech company CredPal. Cairo Angels’ investment, was made through the Cairo Angels Syndicate Fund, a micro venture capital fund that invests between $100,000 and $250,000 in post-seed and pre-series A startups across the Middle East and Africa. CredPal says that it serves over 85,000 active cus...

Access Bank is reportedly set to acquire Kenyan Sidian Bank by buying out the entire stake of Centum Investment in the bank for $36.7 million. If the deal goes through, this will be the Nigerian bank’s second acquisition in the Kenyan market. The Bank says the deal will see Access Bank take over the 83.4% shares currently belonging to Centum and its subsidiary Bakki Holdco Ltd. Access Bank CEO Roo...

The European_Commission is going to force smartphone manufacturers like Apple and other electronics makers to equip their devices with a standard USB-C charging port. EU lawmakers agreed to a single mobile charging port for mobile phones, tablets and cameras. It means equipment makers will have to comply with the new terms by 2024. EU commissioner Thierry Breton says they have a deal on the #Commo...

The boss of Goldman Sachs-backed digital bank Starling has doubled down on criticisms of crypto, calling digital currencies a threat to the safety of payment infrastructure. Founder of Starling Anne Boden warned that a lot of crypto wallets are being connected directly to payment schemes. Boden says it is a threat to the safety of payment schemes around the world. Regulators are concerned about th...

We frequently hear of foreign companies acquiring African companies however, we rarely hear of African companies acquiring foreign companies. Africa’s largest fintech interoperability hub, MFS Africa, will reportedly acquire US-based payments software company Global Technology Partners in a $34 million deal. MFS Africa’s acquisition of GTP will allow MFS Africa to offer its users prepaid cards, an...

Nine African startups representing 8 countries have been selected to participate in the second edition of the Norrsken Impact Accelerator, a prominent early-stage accelerator. Norrsken Foundation has been courting Africa since it announced in 2019 the launch of its entrepreneurship hub, Norrsken House, in Kigali, Rwanda. The first outside its headquarters, Sweden, the hub also features an African-...

Johnny Lee, general manager of games at Solana Labs, says Solana Ventures and Solana Foundation have set up a $100 million investment and grant fund to deploy capital into South Korean web3 startups. He says the fund will focus on gaming studios, GameFi, NFTs and DeFi in South Korea. Head of communications at Solana Labs, Austin Federa, says the fund is backed by capital from the Solana community...

New research by Mozilla Foundation says TikTok is fueling misinformation and political tension in Kenya ahead of its August general elections. Mozilla made the conclusion after reviewing 130 highly-watched videos sharing content filled with hate speech, incitement and political disinformation. Mozilla Tech and Society Fellow Odanga Madung say the videos were not purged from the short video platfor...

India’s central bank proposed integration between UPI and credit cards as a significant boost for a fast-growing payments protocol that has become the most popular way individuals in the South Asian market transact online. Governor of Reserve Bank of India at a briefing, Shaktikanta Das says UPI facilitates transactions by linking savings or current accounts through users’ debit cards. He says it...

When the company formerly known as Facebook announced its plan to rebrand, it also announced a new stock ticker. Execs said that after ten years as FB, its NASDAQ listing would transition to MVRS for the metaverse. However, after the investment fund listed under META vacated the symbol in January, Meta Platforms quickly confirmed that it would use META instead, while at the same time announcing it...

Twitter has agreed to pay $150 million in fines after the US government sued the social media company alleging that it misled consumers about how it protects their personal data. According to the federal lawsuit, Twitter failed to tell its users for years that it used its contact information to help marketers target their advertising in violation of a 2011 privacy settlement with the Federal Trade...

Elon Musk has faced questions from the US Securities and Exchange Commission about how and when he disclosed his large stake in Twitter last month, prior to agreeing to buy the social media company. The SEC asked him to advise why the initial disclosure does not appear to have been made within the required 10 days from the date on which he acquired a stake in the company greater than 5%. Musk had...

A federal antitrust lawsuit over the long-shuttered alternative app store called Cydia has now been given the green light to proceed after its initial complaint was dismissed. The Cydia app store, which once featured apps and other tweaks that weren’t permitted by Apple’s official App Store policies, is suing Apple for its alleged unlawful monopoly over iOS app distribution — a monopoly that contr...

The Supreme Court just blocked a controversial law that allows Texas residents and the attorney general to sue social media companies over their content-moderation decisions. The law, HB 20, prohibits tech platforms from removing or restricting content based on the viewpoint represented in the user’s expression and was designed with conservative claims of tech’s liberal ideological bias in mind. T...

Talk360 is looking to bridge the challenge of establishing payment services as it creates a new payment platform that will integrate all available payment options across Africa. It says this product will open up businesses to the largest pool of localized payment options in Africa. The startup is also looking to expand its international calling operations across Africa after closing a $4 million s...

The Cairo Angels Syndicate Fund has announced an undisclosed investment in Finclusion Group, a sub-Saharan African fintech platform. Finclusion offers buy-now-pay-later services, salary advance schemes, loan services, and transactional banking to individuals and SMEs across 5 countries—South Africa, Eswatini, Namibia, Kenya, and Tanzania. The startup reportedly has over 240,000 customers across it...

Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced on Twitter that Starlink, the satellite internet service launched by SpaceX, his space exploration company, has been approved in Nigeria and Mozambique. The company received two licenses, which include the International Gateway license and Internet Service Provider license, and will be trading as Starlink Internet Services Nigeria Ltd. The Nigerian Communications Comm...

Canada says it plans to ban the use of China's Huawei Technologies and ZTE 5G gear to protect national security, joining the rest of the so-called Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network. Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne says Providers who already have this equipment installed will be required to cease its use and remove it under the plans announced Champagne added that companies will...

Washington, DC, Attorney General Karl Racine sued Mark Zuckerberg accusing the Facebook co-founder of misleading the public on the company's handling of privacy and personal data in connection with the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The suit, filed in DC superior court, represents Racine's latest attempt to hold Zuckerberg personally liable after a judge rejected an attempt last year to name Zuckerb...

Stellantis, the parent company of Dodge, Jeep, and Chrysler, has selected Kokomo, Indiana, as the site for its next electric vehicle battery factory. Mark Stewart, chief operating officer of Stellantis, says the new facility will create 1,400 new jobs and cost $2.5 billion to construct, though Stellantis and Samsung are willing to spend up to $3 billion on the project adding the cost will be split...

A group of more than 40 Democratic members of Congress has asked Google to stop collecting and retaining unnecessary location data out of fear that it could be used to identify and prosecute people who have obtained abortions. The democrats in the letter say they believe that abortion is health care and will fight tooth and nail to ensure that it remains recognized as a fundamental right. They sai...

Twitter announced that it has rebranded its Twitter Media website to Twitter Create. The social media giant says the website is a new hub for creators to access resources, product information and tips for getting the most out of Twitter. With this new rebrand, the company says it wants to make it easier for creators to understand how they can use Twitter’s creator products and connect with other c...