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Samsung extends cloud discontinuation service by an extra 30 days

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Samsung extends cloud discontinuation service by an extra 30 days

Samsung had announced since October of last year that it was getting out of the cloud game. Thus, users of the Samsung Cloud service now had to migrate all of their date to Microsoft OneDrive platform.

The company had also given enough time for this to happen, previously setting the due date for the migration to happen to August, 2021. Now, the South Korean OEM has come out with an extension that allows an extra 30 days so that users can get all of their date to the OneDrive platform by September 2021 instead.

Users who do not migrate their data before the end of the due date will no longer be able to complete that operation from October. However, Samsung maintains that users will still be able to access and download the cloud data in October. From November, though, all of the service and its infrastructure become disabled – so much that users cannot even download the data that they have stored on the cloud.

We recommend that if you’re using the Samsung Cloud, now is a good time as any to make the migration. Even if you would not be migrating, consider downloading your data and storing in a safe place.

PayHippo secures $1 million funding to expand services in pre seed round

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PayHippo secures $1 million funding to expand services in pre seed round

PayHippo was launched last year in Nigeria as a digital solution providing vital loans to SMEs in the country and Africa at large. The selling point of the company was that they would be able to approve loans – in three hours or less – for those whom banks and other credit facilities might look down upon because of their credit history.

After spending a year in the market, it is laudable that the start-up has now secured a $1 million pre-seed funding to scale its services even higher.

The company has enjoyed stellar success with its in-house, alternative credit score model which it uses to assign loans and loan limits to those who come through the digital doors for fast cash. Given a 97% repayment rate of loans, it stands to reason that whatever the company is doing simply works.

The start-up had been running on the goodwill and funding of some Nigerian angel investors, family and friends as well as colleagues who believe in the idea. Now, the likes of Launch Africa, Sherpa Ventures, DFS Lab and Hustle Fund, among others, have come together to help the start-up attain even new heights.

The current funding will not only increase the rate of loans that can be given out but also empower the start-up to develop new products for the target market. Going this way, they stand to become one of the next best things to come out of Africa in the fintech space.

Paystack now listed as official African payments partner to WooCommerce

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Paystack now listed as official African payments partner to WooCommerce

WooCommerce is one of the biggest ecommerce service providers in the world. To that extent, even ecommerce retailers in Nigeria and Africa prefer the solutions that the platform brings to offer their goods and services online. However, the problem of payments for African merchants has persisted for a long time now.

That is the issue that startups like Paystack and Flutterwave, among others, have stepped up to solve over the years. As of the time of this writing, the African space has made an even closer leap towards being on par with the rest of the world in terms of seamlessly offering their products and getting paid without hassles.

WooCommerce partners Paystack.

The WooCommerce platform has officially recognised Paystack as its official payment partner for the whole of Africa. This means that the payment service is naturally integrated into the WooCommerce offering now, allowing seamless setup, management, collections and remittances from the vendors who choose to use it.

Given the solid framework that Paystack has built over the years, it is both laudable and logical that they be the ones to secure such a partnership.

Going forward, Paystack will now be listed alongside Stripe (which acquired the former company last year) as an independent payments provider on the WooCommerce service, all dedicated to the African landscape.

Netflix breaks into the Nigerian market with even cheaper plans than before

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Netflix breaks into the Nigerian market with even cheaper plans than before

Netflix, since breaking into the Nigerian and African market, has been trying to get more people on the platform with great deals.

Just as they do in India, they are bringing one of the cheapest plans to this market since they know that they can make more from the numbers. Likewise, once they have established a hold it would be easier to raise the prices and still trust the loyalty of users.

In a new move, the company is now rolling out its cheapest plans ever to the Nigerian and other sub-Saharan markets. The only catch here is that the plans will be mobile only. Seeing as this is where most users view their content in the country, that makes sense from a lot of standpoints. It also means that the company can focus on mobile quality outputs without putting too much strain on its servers.

Before the rollout of this new plan, the cheapest plan from the giant streaming service costs just NGN2,900 per month. This new plan sees that price drop to NGN1,200 per month.

For those whom price had been a barrier of entry in the past, we believe this is as good as it is going to get.

Ghana goes digital, conducting census with the aid of satellites and tablets

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Ghana goes digital, conducting census with the aid of satellites and tablets

Every ten years since 1981, Ghana has sought to conduct a nationwide census which estimates the number of people living within the shores of the country at any one time. As of the last census in 2010, this number was pegged at a modest 24.6 million. Even though the next one would have been in 2020, the coronavirus pandemic made that impossible.

Now that the country is ready to start counting again, they have made giant strides to ensure the count goes smoother, faster and better this time around: deploying a digital model of counting.

The government has been working on using satellite imagery and tablets to map the areas as well as inhabitants better. This plan has long been in the works, so much that it has even been tested on select areas to see how efficient and accurate it might be. The results of those tests must have been very impressive for a larger launch like this to have been sanctioned.

Leveraging data capture tech which will allow the improved understanding of the citizen demographics too, more than 67,000 field agents have already been trained and deployed to carry out the census program.

However, this did not come cheap. Estimated to have cost some $84 million, representing a 50% increase over the figures from the last census, Ghana will be looking to recoup the investment over the next couple of years, and in the speed/ accuracy of the current exercise.

Jiji acquires Cars45 in undisclosed deal amount to build out autos section better

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Jiji acquires Cars45 in undisclosed deal amount to build out autos section better

It is not every day that we hear about a major acquisition in the Nigerian space. Thus, when the news hit that Jiji had completed the acquisition of Cars45, it was a welcome one to most of us.

For most of you reading this piece, you already know who both brands are and what they bring to the table.

Jiji has been a top classifieds provider in the Nigerian space for some time now. Connecting buyers and sellers, it has been estimated that the brand has over $10 billion worth of merchandise listed on it. of those, the bulk (more than $7 billion) is from real estate while about $3 billion is from automobiles.

Going by that, it is not too difficult to see why Cars45 is a nice acquisition for Jiji right now.

Likewise, the fact that Jiji has been plagued by a lot of trust and safety issues in the past means that they have to take a proactive approach to things. With this acquisition, they can improve their automobile section, cut out the middlemen and infuse a higher level of trust into the sales of cars on the platform.

Now that Cars45 has also been looking to consolidate its services in Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana, there is no better time for a bigger investor to come in.

In the coming weeks and months, we will start to see the changes that this acquisiton brings with it – and what that holds for the future.

Google partners Unity to bring improved gaming to the Chromebooks

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Google partners Unity to bring improved gaming to the Chromebooks

Google has been trying to create an ecosystem around its product for some time now, which is mostly like what Apple has already been able to achieve.

Here, we see how they are working hard to make the Chromebook and Android platform integrate seamlessly. To that end, the search engine giant has partnered up with Unity to improve the gaming models obtainable on the Chromebooks.

The partnership is designed to ensure games from the Android platform can be better ported to Chromebooks.

Given the jump in the sales and purchases of Chromebooks in 2020 alone, moving up to 100% of the year-on-year purchases, it makes sense that Google is trying to boost the user experience this way. Likewise, it is interesting to note that Unity is looking to allow other Android developers code game controls on the platform for an even better experience.

For now, it is only a waiting game to see if this partnership will bear the fruits that both parties want – or it would be one of those experiments that they toss to the trash sometimes later.

Google to start testing new feature that lets users know which content to trrust

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Google to start testing new feature that lets users know which content to trrust

Many platforms, like Facebook and Twitter, have moved to combat the flux of fake news for some time now. Google has to be the biggest of such platforms that had not made such a move in the past. Given the new feature that the search engine giant is debuting, all that is soon to change.

According to the reports, this feature will alert users when a search query brings results that ae subject to change in a little amount of time. In other words, news items will be most affected in this new update.

The magnitude of such a huge update is that the Alphabet-owned company is only testing it out with the US region before rolling it out for the rest of the world. This will help users keep track of developing stories and not take anything that they get back from results on the search engine as the gospel.

In a world where blogs can publish anything and get it seen on the news channel – without as much repercussions as traditional news outlets – such a move is bold and necessary from the search engine giant.

It remains to see if it catches on, how well it works, and if there would be a global release or the feature will be tossed to the bin later.

Airtel Nigeria teams up with AXA Mansard to offer health insurance to subscribers

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Airtel Nigeria teams up with AXA Mansard to offer health insurance to subscribers

Airtel Nigeria is boosting its services to users, ensuring it is not only their telecoms provider but also a partner for everything else.

That has seen them branch into the mobile money niche and now, they are making it to the insurance section too. By dialling the *987*7# short code on your Airtel SIM, you can now register for AXA Mansard health insurance packages.

AXA Mansard is the best provider for this service since they have access to more than 1,000 hospitals all around the country. They also provide coverage for a lot of different cases, carrying even malaria in their portfolio. Besides that, you also get access to inpatient and outpatient care, family planning, immunisations and ambulance services, among others.

The fact that AXA Mansard is fast growing and keeps adding more services and hospitals to its services is also another fine idea to get started with them. Now, with this initiative, it becomes way easier for people to access healthcare and improved health insurance without worrying about all the restricting paperwork.

OctaFX Dual Life is the New Superpower

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OctaFX Dual Life

It takes a hero to recognize another hero. So just know you aren’t reading this by mistake. We found you, just at the right time.

Remember Clark Kent?

Who we know to be “Superman”; the man who worked two jobs; as a hero and a Journalist. Yeah that man is a representation of everything you are.

You may not be jumping from building to building by night and then switching to a student by day, nor are you flying with a cape around the city. You are doing much more…with your feet on the ground anyways.

We see you working a 9-5 and then performing as an artist under the disco light. Or that friend of yours who works as an art director and a Fashion stylist; the one who is a certified nurse and an actress too. Or the one who trades, is an investor and also works as a software developer.

The truth is; we chase these dual lives because we want to be free financially, but deep down, we know it’s in our DNA; that being Nigerian comes with the zest to do more, be more and earn more.

OctaFX Dual Life: Be a Photographer and a Forex Trader

Regardless of the motive, we just have to commend the tenacity woven into our skins. We’ve been presented with more opportunities to double up on our “hustle” From side gigs to freelance and now forex trading. And, like every other gig that we take on, this one requires mastery; nothing that’s impossible for us.

With a brand like OctaFX committing totally to guiding traders on its platform and ensuring that they achieve their set goals, Nigerians are in for more big wins.

Tipsters—being us the writers—are hinting that OctaFX will be kicking off an empowerment campaign in the coming weeks. We all can only expect the unthinkable from a brand with such lofty goals as facilitating financial freedom for everyone.

So get your zest on. No doubt that adding “Forex trader” to your Dual life automatically makes it a “Triple-Dual Life.”

Check out the #DualLifewithOctafx challenge here and this side too.

Article was first published on NaijaTechGuide with title Dual Life is the New Superpower