Author: Kanyali Muthui

In Nigeria, where an estimated 38 million people, or 36% of adults, remain financially excluded, the government has set a target of 95% financial inclusion by 2024. 

While this may seem like an ambitious goal, that will require institutions to re-strategize initiatives and policies to accelerate the delivery of financial inclusion services, a lot of tech-backed firms are being developed in the West African country to help achieve this goal. 

Among them is Lagos-based FinTech unicorn Interswitch which seems to have heeded that call, leveraging its position as a market leader in digital payment services to bridge the massive financial inclusion gap and help bring as many people into the financial and economic fold as possible.…

This and other challenges including unpredictable prices of farm produce and a lack of working capital often plague small restaurants and food vendors across the continent. 

This is what largely drove the creation of TopUp Mama- Former Kibanda TopUp- in Kenya. 

The firm launched in February 2021 in Nairobi and has reported significant growth over the past year since its inception. 

Founded by Njavwa Mutambo, Emilie Blauwhoff and Andrew Kibe, the startup has grown 10-fold in just over a year with more than 3,000 merchants (1,000 active) using its platform to make orders every month.…

In the East African powerhouse, agriculture insurance startup Pula Advisors was featured on the list for its innovation and impact in using technology to provide agriculture insurance to millions of smallholder farmers in emerging markets.

The firm which was founded in 2014 has used technology products through agriculture insurance and digital agronomy to advise and ensure many farmers adapt to an increasingly unpredictable climate.

“Farmers in emerging markets are the most hardworking citizens of the world yet the most likely to already feel the impact of climate change. The future is in farmers’ hands; they only need the appropriate technology and tools and then they can feed the world,” The firm’s CEO Thomas Njeru said.…

The additional Gbps will be part of the highly anticipated global submarine cable. It is aimed at increasing the availability of high-performance and reliable internet connectivity access across the continent leveraging Liquid’s 100,000km of terrestrial fibre across 12 countries. 

While acting as a new global internet route between Asia, Europe and the USA, the additional capacity will help increase the proliferation of faster and more affordable internet, Cloud and cyber security services to the African people and businesses.

“We are delighted to provide new subsea capacity between Mombasa, Karachi and Marseille, with extensions planned towards Singapore and Asia. This creates a cost-effective, low-latency and diverse route that our customers can leverage to serve their business-critical connectivity needs. The submarine cable will be ready in 2022,” Liquid Dataport (a division of Liquid Intelligent Technologies) CEO David Eurin said. …

• The African firm which provides shared transportation services for both intracity and intercity movement acquired the Turkish firm at around US$40 million
• Swvl currently repurposes underutilized, privately owned buses or minivans for different purposes throughout the day
• Swvl said the acquisition of Volt Lines would add an incremental US$4.3 million of annualized revenue to its balance sheet

Egyptian startup Swvl has expanded into Turkey after it recently acquired B2B transportation-as-a service operator Volt Lines. 

The African firm which provides shared transportation services for both intracity and intercity movement acquired the Turkish firm at around US$40 million.

The acquisition now gives Swvl access to Volt Line’s tech as well as over 110 corporate client contracts. 

Swvl currently repurposes underutilized, privately owned buses or minivans for different purposes throughout the day. 

Some of these include shuttling intercity commuters along fixed routes, providing rides between cities and driving corporate employees to work …

This comes after a few weeks ago, a law firm threatened to sue Meta (formerly Facebook) and Sama over the alleged unsafe and unfair work conditions dolled on its content moderators. 

Nzili and Sumbi Advocates alleged that Sama had breached a number of rights including the health and privacy of its Kenyan and international staff. 

The law firm demanded that both Meta and Sama adhere to Kenya’s labour, privacy and health laws, including that it provides its content moderators with adequate mental health insurance and better compensation.

Additionally, the law firm demanded that the two firms recruit qualified and experienced health professionals for the content moderators. …

• Through its app, Zenda allows parents to pay fees directly to schools, all while streamlining collections by enabling schools to accept and manage online payments
• Parents do not necessarily need to provide bank deposit slips as proof of payment because all transactions on Zenda happen in real-time
• Zenda’s users have increased 20 fold, with the app reaching over US$100 million in annual contracted payment volumes by the close of last year

UAE- based startup Zenda is now eyeing Africa as its next frontier market for growth. 

The company which is looking to change how parents pay school fees and the way in which educational institutions manage the collection of fees is looking to expand its reach to Africa. 

Formerly known as nexopay, the firm plans to penetrate the African market through Egypt in the coming months as the firm embarks on a growth drive accelerated by a US$9.4 million seed …