• Kenya’s Twiga Foods has launched Twiga Fresh, a new subsidiary that will grow the company’s range of private label products
• The business-to-business e-commerce company said it has invested $10 million into the company, to scale the production of domestic horticultural staples like onions, tomatoes and watermelons 
• Twiga Foods CEO and co-founder Peter Ndegwa said Twiga Fresh will be funded through debt in partnership with Development Financial Institutions in the long term

Twiga Foods has announced the launch of Twiga Fresh, a new subsidiary that is focused on modern and commercial farming, to help supply informal retailers and urban consumers with lower cost, better quality, and safe food.

The Kenyan-based business-to-business e-commerce company said it has invested $10 million into the company, to scale the production of domestic horticultural staples like onions, tomatoes, and watermelons, significantly lowering the cost.

The investment in Kenya will make this one of the largest single …

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.…

• A Pan-African crypto exchange dubbed Mara has been launched today and announced $23 million in funding from several investors
• Mara has also announced a partnership with the Central African Republic, which just passed a bill legalising Bitcoin as legal tender
• Mara’s mission is to become the portal to the crypto economy for the African population

Mara, a Pan-African crypto exchange, launched and announced $23 million(KSh 2.7B) in funding from various investors, including Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Research (FTX), and Distributed Global.

Other investors include TQ Ventures, DIGITAL, Nexo, Huobi Ventures, Day One Ventures, Infinite Capital, DAO Jones, and nearly 100 other crypto investors, and angels including Amit Bhatia and Hamad
Alhoimaizi.

In addition, Mara has also announced a partnership with the Central African Republic, which just passed a bill legalising Bitcoin as legal tender.

As part of this partnership, Mara will become the official crypto partner of the Central African Republic …

• Chidi hopes that activism will eventually see European museums return all stolen artwork to Africa. However, he dreams of building a metaverse that comprises all the pieces Looty reclaims
• The Looty project started operation in November 2021 but will officially launch its website on May 13. The upcoming website will only support the purchase of NFT art via cryptocurrency
• Aside from Chidi, the project also involves two other Nigerians and a Somali, with each team member specializing in 3D design, NFT technology, or editing
• The project has already created 25 NFTs, among them the famous “Benin Bronzes” in Nigeria that were looted 125 years ago

During the pre-colonial error in Africa, a wide range of valuable artefacts were taken away to the western countries. About 60 years later, Africans feel the need to get the artworks back to preserve their history. However, one Nigerian art firm called Looty has come …

Due to the pandemic, the topic of innovation in education has never been more crucial. 

While most developed countries moved their classes online with ease, many developing countries have had a hard time adapting to the home-school model due to a lack of infrastructure and the high cost of data.

According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 91.3% of the world’s learning population was impacted by global shutdowns brought about by the pandemic.  

This means that about 1.5 billion students were not in school, a situation that largely impacted developing nations, a lot of which are in Africa. …