👨🏿‍🚀 TechCabal Daily – Ready, Set, AfriGo!

CRYPTO MARKET

Bitcoin	$22,818	– 1.38%
Ether	$1,570	– 2.73%
BNB	$303	– 1.01%
Solana	$23.82	– 4.02%
Name of the coin Price of the coin 24-hour percentage change		Source: CoinMarketCap

* Data as of 04:50 AM WAT, Janaury 27, 2023.

KENYA PUSHES FOR WORK-LIFE BALANCE

Despite what [some] founders may say, work-life balance exists and members of the Kenyan government want the people to have a taste of it.

One year after it was rejected, Kenya’s Employment (Amendment) Bill has once again resurfaced at the Kenyan Senate. 

At its core, the bill wants to give employees the “right to disconnect” by penalising employers who contact their employees outside work hours.

Clock in, log out

The bill was first proposed a year ago—in February 2022—by Senator Samson Cherargei who said, “The principal object of the bill is to provide for the right to disconnect in the digital age. The right of employees to have their personal time and privacy respected.”

An amendment to Section 27 of Kenya’s existing Employment Act, the bill defines the right to disconnect as “right to not be contacted by their employer outside of contractual working hours, except when necessary for the purposes of dealing with a workplace emergency”.

Unfortunately, the bill was rejected at the Senate, and other stakeholders like the Federation of Kenyan Employers (FKE) whose chairperson, Jacqueline Mugo, said the bill would “kill businesses”. 

The bill is back

Now, the bill has been resubmitted by Senator Cherargei who told Nation Africa that the bill still “seeks to address increased employee burnout. Digital connectivity has also been noted to be slowly eroding leisure time for employees, hence affecting their work-life balance.”

According to the provisions, employers must create policies that explain when and how they can contact employees outside stipulated work hours. The bill also provides that employees must not face disciplinary action if they fail to respond to messages outside work hours while employees who agree to work after hours should be duly compensated. 

The bill also penalises erring employers with a Ksh500,000 ($4,000) fine, or a one-year prison sentence. 

Zoom out: It’s still in the early days, but the FKE is shutting things down again. Chairperson Mugo, on Wednesday, told Nation Africa that if passed, the bill would prevent the government from creating jobs for the youth, and cause “disharmony and indiscipline” in the workplace. 

NIGERIA LAUNCHES DOMESTIC CARD SERVICE

Nigeria is going after MasterCard and Visa.

Yesterday, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced the launch of the country’s domestic card service, AfriGo. 

CBN had announced, in October 2022, that it was working with several stakeholders, including the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS) Plc and the Bankers Committee to develop a national card service similar to India’s RuPay.

Now, the CBN has apparently completed development of the service, which it’s calling AfriGo. 

What does it do?

Everything your Mastercard, Verve, or Visa cards can do.

Nigeria’s payments and cards market have an $18 billion value, and the CBN wants to tap into that. Debit and credit cards are issued by the above-listed companies, and now AfriGo will take a stab at it.

In addressing the launch, CBN governor Godwin Emefiele said, “At this time when foreign exchange challenges persist globally, it is important for me to say that we have come up with this card to ensure that all online card transactions will now, effective immediately, begin to go on the Nigerian national domestic system,” Emefiele said.

“NIBSS and CBN will work together to make sure foreign exchange is charged for only international transactions made on Visa and Mastercards, as we have it now. This is so because many of the cards we use currently charge in foreign currency. However, with the launch of the national domestic card, all domestic transactions are to be carried out on the national domestic card scheme,” he concluded. 

Zoom out: With the launch of AfriGo, CBN has officially restricted all dollar charges on domestic transactions. Nigeria also becomes the first African country to launch this homogeneous service, following in the footsteps of countries like India, China, Brazil and Turkey, which have launched similar services.

SOUTH AFRICA GETS ANOTHER DATA CENTRE

More data centres are coming to South Africa.

Cassava Technologies-backed data centre constructor, Africa Data Centres, has announced that it is building another data centre facility in Cape Town. The new facility will have an IT load of 20MW and is expected to be up and running by mid-2024.

Expansion drive

Africa Data centres stated that the construction of the data centre is part of the group’s ongoing investment in infrastructure in the Western Cape province, and reflects its confidence in the economy of the province and of South Africa, the continent’s largest IT infrastructure and services market.

Africa Data Centres further added that the facility is also part of its wide-scale African expansion drive, which will see the company building several new facilities across the continent.

Zoom out: Despite its pressing power challenges brought on by state-owned electricity provider Eskom’s seemingly never-ending troubles, South Africa continues to cement its place as the data centre hub of the continent. Tech giants, including Amazon, Google, Oracle, and Microsoft have also set up cloud regions in the country.

EVENT: STATE OF TECH IN AFRICA

We are launching our State of Tech report for Q4 today!

Join us this morning at 11 AM (WAT) on a special edition of TechCabal where we will be launching the State Of Tech report Q4. Speaking with us at this event are:

• Hannah Subayi, Country Officer & Equity Expert, Proparco
• Ismael Belkhayat, Founder, Chari
• Alexander Onukuwe, Reporter, Semafor Africa.

They will discuss insights drawn from the report, looking at the shifts brought about by innovative tech companies, government activities, and more.

Don’t miss the event! Click here to register.

IN OTHER NEWS FROM TECHCABAL

Swvl share price jumps as board approves reverse stock split.

Nambu Group raises seed round to create animal feed from fly larvae.

JOB OPENINGS

• Big Cabal Media – Senior Graphic Designer, Commercial Director – Lagos, Nigeria

• Big Cabal Media – Software Developer – Lagos, Nigeria (Hybrid)

• Flutterwave – User Policy Strategist – Africa

• Klasha – Senior Product Manager, Head of Finance, Senior Product Designer – Lagos, Nigeria

There are more jobs on TechCabal’s job board. If you have job opportunities to share, submit them at bit.ly/tcxjobs. 

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