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Hello, welcome to today’s edition of TC Daily! If this mail was forwarded to you, please take a moment to subscribe so you don’t miss out on future editions.
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| Kenyan recycling startup, Mr Green Africa, has raised a new disclosed amount of funding from DOB Equity, Unilever and the Global Innovation Fund (GIF). Mr Green Africa works with over 2,000 waste collectors to pick up trash in Nairobi and recycles them. The company then sells the recycled products on domestic and international markets. With the new funding, the green company said it will expand its operations in Kenya while improving its supply and trading models. |
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| The Ethiopian government is partnering with Chinese company, Alibaba Group, to develop the country’s digital economy. The partnership was announced on Tuesday following a meeting between the Ethiopian Minister of Innovation and Technology, Getahun Mekuria, and the founder of Alibaba Group, Jack Ma. As part of the arrangement, Alibaba Group will invest in the development of a tech city in Ethiopia and will encourage other Chinese companies to make investments in the African country. Importantly though, the Ethiopian government wants to leverage Alibaba’s Ant Financial platform to improve financial inclusion in the country. The move is part of a recent push to liberalise certain sectors of the Ethiopian economy, opening it up to more domestic and international players. |
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| Three African startup business leaders are among the eight people selected to join the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Global Business Forum (GBF) Mentorship Programme. They include Iyin Aboyeji, co-founder of Flutterwave and Andela, Chris Folayan, Founder and CEO of Mall for Africa; Eghosa Omoigui, Founder and Managing Partner of EchoVC. They will provide mentoring to high profile startups from Africa and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). |
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| The #PitchdriveAsia Tour organised by CcHUB in partnership with GoogleforStartups starts tomorrow. Ten African deep technology and hardware startups will converge at the Design Lab in Kigali, Rwanda for a two-day bootcamp and continue through five Asian cities known for their deep tech and hardware ecosystems. Learn more here and sign up to follow the tour. |
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| Endeavor Nigeria is launching our flagship annual scaleup entrepreneurship forum, Catalysing Conversations on Friday, September 13, 2019, in Lagos. Catalysing Conversations 2019 will be chaired by H.E. Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (SAN, GCON), Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and features guest speaker, Efosa Ojomo, co-author of ‘The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty’.
Other speakers include Endeavor Entrepreneurs – Bukky George (HealthPlus), Etop Ikpe (Cars45), GB Agboola (Flutterwave) and Kene Okwuosa (FilmHouse).
Catalysing Conversations is an invite-only event, but we are opening up 10 guest slots to TechCabal Daily readers. If you’re interested in attending, please register your interest through this link. |
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| “Made in China” products are popularly known to be cheap. But when the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) kicks in next year, it could be cheaper to buy “made in Ghana” or “made in Nigeria” products instead. Rules of origin under the AfCFTA agreement is expected support the removal of custom duties on products that are made in Africa, which would in turn support the continent’s manufacturing sector as well as intra-African trade.
However, the agreement is yet to fully agree on what products fit the description of “made in Africa”, neither has it decided on what products should qualify for customs exemptions. Both of these are rules of origin issues that experts say could affect the effectiveness of the free trade agreement. In addition to these, I write that the agreement has also focused heavily on physical goods and has paid scanty attention to the digital economy. For instance, the country of origin for maize that was cultivated and harvested in Togo is easy to identify. But what is the country of origin for a cloud-based software? |
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| Tautona, a South African cognitive automation company, has been selected to participate in Lloyds Lab, a 10-week UK-based accelerator programme for insurtechs. The programme provides support and mentorship to startups using technology to improve the insurance industry and also provides an inroad for such companies to work with Lloyds, a leading UK finance company. On its part, Tautona uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the insurance claims process; a process that typically requires human intelligence. Using proprietary technology, the startup allows insurance companies to respond to claims request based on certain data, which could lead to significant cost and time savings. |
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| The Nigerian government has appointed Kashifu Abdullahi as the new Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA). NITDA is the government body charged with developing information technology activities as well as IT regulatory policies in the country. Abdullahi replaces Ilssa Pantami as the head of the agency. |
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| Africa’s venture capital sector is growing, but still faces significant challenges, such as a lack of follow-on funding and angel investors, writes Stephen Timm, editor of Venture Burn. |
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| Archives serve as a haven for physical pieces of evidence to support stories of the past, and they extend the memory of a society. But Nigeria is in danger of losing many of these pieces of evidence due to the terrible state of its national archives, writes Wole Olayinka. In this article, he provides an understanding of the issues and the importance of taking urgent actions to resuscitate these archives. |
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That’s it for today,
See you tomorrow.
– Abubakar
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