Airtel denies claims that it plans to exit Kenya

April 24, 2021

After the signing of the National ICT Policy 2019, some rumours emerged that Airtel might be planning to exit the country. This line of thought might have been fuelled by the fact that the company’s regional CEO made some comments about the viability of the business under the new policy.

Well, the company has now come out to establish that they do not plan on leaving the Kenyan market anytime soon. In fact, they continue to make valuable investments in the country to help bolster the reach of the network and add on more subscribers than before.

As of the time of this writing, the telco confirms that more than 200 sites have been upgrade from 2G and 3G networks to the 4G level helping to boost the standard of voice calls and internet usage across select parts of the country. With that, they are still working hard on upgrading and improving the networks in other untouched regions.

Airtel users in the country can now rest easy since their favorite telco has announced plans to continue expanding its operations within the borders of the country.

Uber and Bolt drivers in Lagos commence strike action. Here’s why

O. Christopher

April 21, 2021

Uber and Bolt drivers in Lagos commence strike action. Here’s why

The two of the biggest ride hailing services in Nigeria – Uber and Bolt – seem to have lost favour with their drivers as the latter group has gone on a strike action against the companies.

Over the years, both companies have engaged in a lot of promotions and offers in a bid to win customers over. To do this, they have to lower their fares and apply some discounts to the riders. However, the drivers claim that the company is not taking those costs out of its own pockets but shelving them onto the drivers.

Likewise, drivers are disgruntled that both companies are taking a 25% cut from their earnings without doing any other thing than providing a platform for them to work on. As part of the strike action, there are demands for the commissions to be brought down to 10%.

Seeing as economic hardship mounts in the country and the pump price of fuel keeps going up in the same vein, it is not out of place that these drivers are complaining bitterly right now.

Many Nigerians now depend on these ride hailing platforms, so such a strike action will leave both companies largely under-staffed and they would have to meet with the drivers to determine a course of action soon.

ScholarX partners up Airtel to make eLearning even more accessible

O. Christopher

April 14, 2021

ScholarX partners up Airtel to make eLearning even more accessible

ScholarX was launched in 2016 with the sole aim of allowing users access a wide range of scholarships that matches their needs at intent at the time.

The start-up has grown rapidly since then, being accepted into a host of laudable accelerator programmes and accessing a series of funding in the process. To even better their services, the company has now secured the rights to work with Airtel, enabling it to further expand its services to more Nigerians.

The partnership with Airtel introduces a new mobile learning platform dubbed ‘LearnAM.’ This platform has been designed such that it offers content in the local languages (Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo) while also incorporating Pidgin English. Thus, it makes sense that they can reach a wider audience base and provide quality eLearning to them all.

At the same time, it should be noted that partnering with Airtel this way means that they can tap into the wide customer base which Airtel has built over time to deliver this platform to even more people.

Securing a GSMA Fund for Mobile Internet Adoption and Digital Inclusion to make this happen, ScholarX is committed to taking affordable education and learning opportunities to all and sundry.

Twitter announces plan to build African HQ in Ghana

O. Christopher

April 13, 2021

Twitter announces plan to build African HQ in Ghana

Twitter has been present in Africa for a long time, but only virtually.

Now, the Jack Dorsey-owned company is looking to expand physically into Africa and have chosen Ghana as their preferred base of operations. This would serve as the continental headquarters of the business – and the president of the country lauds this as a welcome development.

To back this up, Twitter has announced openings for new roles across categories like product development, design, engineering, marketing and communications, among others, to quickly launch and hit the ground running in the country.

It should be noted that Nigeria has a larger population and an even bigger internet user base than Ghana. This should have made the country the first choice for Twitter. Thus, some people have blamed the Nigerian government for being hostile to development and foreign brands – as well as the current state of insecurity – as why we lost out on such a fine deal.

No matter which it is, this is still a fine win for Africa as a whole as we got recognised well enough on the Twitter space to deserve our very own HQ.

SEC comes for investment startups, bars them from selling foreign stocks

O. Christopher

April 9, 2021

SEC comes for investment startups, bars them from selling foreign stocks

In what can be said to be the country’s latest policy attack on fintech startups, the SEC has now asked trading and investment platforms to stop offering foreign stocks to Nigerians.

It should be noted that Robinhood-style aps like Chaka, Risevest and such other investment platforms have been offering Nigerians access to both local and international stocks which they can invest their money in. The latest circular from the SEC has deemed such activities illegal and any fintech that does not stay off offering such services might soon face the long arm of the law.

This is not the first time that SEC Nigeria is making such a move. Back in December of last year, the body accused Chaka, an investment platform of this sort, of advertising and selling stocks illegally in the country. The fintech came out to deny the allegations via its CEO and ever since, we have not heard anything else of the matter. Till today, anyway.

The users of these apps have been in a state of panic as they do not know what would happen to their funds which are already on those platforms. However, official emails have started going out to users to assure them that their funds are stull safe and secure as they work with the SEC to regulate the situation.

Gokada appoints new CEO as the company achieves profitability status

O. Christopher

April 8, 2021

Gokada appoints new CEO as the company achieves profitability status

Since the tragic death of the Gokada CEO in 2020, the company has been without top leadership. However, it has been run collectively by the likes of Nikhil Goel working with others and the company has been able to 10X its revenue under his management.

It is, thus, little wonder that the same person be promoted to the role of CEO of Gokada Nigeria.

Speaking with TechCabal, Goel confirmed that the company does not have any plans of leaving Lagos anytime soon. He also confirmed that they had been able to spin off their business into one that focused on deliverers as they could not just sell off all of the bikes that the start-up had already acquired.

His foresight and direction have already helped the company to reach profitability in the last twelve months and there is a high chance that they only keep going up.

It is also remarkable to note the G-Hub plan that the company launched which allowed them to do a revenue split between themselves and the owners of certain locations when pickups and delivery happen on their property.

All of these point to the fact that Gokada is ready to break into even more niches and adapt better to allow them become better at what they do.

Huawei to launch Watch 3 with Harmony OS under the hood

O. Christopher

April 7, 2021

Huawei to launch Watch 3 with Harmony OS under the hood

When the Google Android-Huawei issue first started, there was a lot of news in the market about how Huawei will come out with its own HarmonyOS.

That looked like something that would truly make a difference but it ended up being one of those things that we just hoped for but never got. Well, the company might be debuting this OS on their Huawei Watch 3.

Yes, not the GT watches. this is the first time after the launch of the Huawei Watch 2 in 2017 and start of the Watch GT series that the company will go back to that naming system.

It is also interesting that they will not have LiteOS on this one nor use the Google Wear OS, but opt for the in-house OS.

If the leak is anything to go by, this new watch should make the market in May. There is no official confirmation on this yet but there could be some element of truth here.

In the coming days, we should hear mor about this watch if it is truly to hit the shelves when the rumours say it is.

FG extends NIN-SIM linkage once again to May 6

O. Christopher

April 6, 2021

FG extends NIN-SIM linkage once again to May 6

If, for one reason or the other, you are yet to link your NIN to your SIM cards, the FG has given Nigerians yet another period of grace from now till the 6^th of May to do so.

It should be recalled that the whole NIN-SIM linkage first made the waves in December 2020 after which the FG allotted a timeframe of 2 weeks for the exercise. However, give that most people did not even have an NIN to begin with, the program was extended till February to allow people go get their NIN and link to their mobiles.

Even in February, the government postponed to April and even though we are not even done with the first full week in the month yet, news for another extension is already making the rounds.

While this move surely allows those without an access to NIN centres get their affairs in order and make the move happen, it is also detrimental to others who need to retrieve their main SIMs as telcos also lose massive revenue every month.

For now, there is no guarantee that we won’t have another extension of this program but it remains a waiting game to see where we go from here.

Mastercard invests a further $100 million into Airtel mobile money venrure

O. Christopher

April 2, 2021

Mastercard invests a further $100 million into Airtel mobile money venrure

We reported some weeks ago that Airtel was trying to raise some cash by selling off some assets, and they got that in the form of a $200 million injection into its African mobile money department. It seems that the good news is not over for the brand yet, though, with Mastercard now bringing new money on board.

The card issuing company has invested an $100 million into the mobile money business as Airtel is on the move to sell as much as 25% of the business to willing investors. With the two major money moves that the company has now seen, it is impressive to note that it is yet to selloff even a fifth of the business.

This is not the first time that Airtel and Mastercard will be doing a deal together so we know that something fruitful will come out of this new partnership. Likewise, we expect to see which other companies will take up the remaining stake that Airtel plans on selling, of which we have close to 15% left.

That said, it should also be noted that the $2.65 billion-valued Airtel start-up is not hard for cash in any way. In fact, they have maintained a good debt ratio on their books and will be looking to leverage such a strong financial strength to bring in bigger players in the industry.

Telcos lose more than #10 billion as consumers lament SIM lockdown

O. Christopher

March 31, 2021

Telcos lose more than #10 billion as consumers lament SIM lockdown

Since December 2020, the FG has put a lockdown on the purchase, registration and activation of new SIM cards in the country. This was done to enable the citizens get their NIN done and link to their SIM cards. The government has since extended the given deadline by two months but that is not sitting down well with everyone.

On the part of the users themselves, it is now impossible to retrieve important SIM cards used for business which might have been lost or damaged within these months. Even though there is an uptick in the number of citizens who now have their NIN, the FG is saying nothing about lifting the sales restriction soon.

Unfortunately, the people are not the only ones feeling the brunt of this move.

Telcos have also lost a cumulative NGN10 billion or more between December 2020 and February 2021 alone on the back of the inactive lines which they have on their books. At an average of NGN1,420 revenue per SIM user and considering the 7.6 million inactive lines within that timeframe, the financial figures are not a far stretch.

SIM losses and need for reactivation will continue happening in the coming months and it is estimated that these telcos could lose more than they have already had to weather.

The FG should find a balance soon so that everyone – both the businesses and their customers – can come out with a happy ending amid all these.

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