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Good morning ☀️ ️
Yesterday, Salvador became the first country to make bitcoin a legal tender. Which country do you think is next?
In today’s edition:
- My Life in Tech
- How finance apps performed in 2020
- What tech investors fear and find interesting about Nigeria’s Twitter ban
- Apple’s new privacy safety feature won’t launch in three censorship-heavy African countries
Femi Iromini is improving the employability of students in Nigeria
Femi Iromini has been active in the African tech ecosystem for the past 5 years. As a young student, he ran many businesses — at one point, he performed due diligence for foreign investors looking to invest in African startups. Now he’s focused on improving the Nigerian education system and the employability of Nigerian graduates.
To understand how he got here, we take a look at his life’s journey.
At first he wanted to study Medicine
Reading Gifted Hands by Ben Carson at an early age sparked Iromini’s interest in medicine. This interest was also encouraged by his secondary school teachers. He was the best student in chemistry, physics and maths so naturally, they all thought he would do well to study medicine. So gained admission to study Medicine but had to leave because his dad didn’t like the school.
Then he switched to Geology
Iromini’s switch to geophysics is a story that many may relate with. It involves a rich uncle and a desire to be as rich as the said uncle.
One day, while he was at home, this uncle came around. As they played chess, Iromini asked him what he did for a living. He worked with the oil company ExxonMobil and he had studied geophysics.
Iromini recalled, “When my uncle mentioned geophysics, I thought to myself, ‘This must be God speaking to me.’”
Okay maybe it wasn’t God
A year into studying geophysics at Obafemi Awolowo University, he started questioning whether he had made the right choice.
In this week’s edition of My Life In Tech, I share the story of Femi Iromini, who is taking the Nigerian education system head on.
Increase your online sales with a Paystack Storefront – a free, beautiful seller page that helps you bring creative ideas to life.
🏾 Learn more at paystack.com/storefrontCan you smell what TechCabal is cooking?
Well, you probably can’t smell it right now but trust us, it’s amazing – and it’ll be here soon.
Can you guess what we’ll be unveiling? Reply this email with your guesses, I’d love to read them!
Keep the guessing coming 😉
How Finance Apps performed in 2020
2020 was a good year for finance apps. They were downloaded 4.6 billion times in 2020 (+15% YoY), according to AppAnnie. Here are some key takeaways from AppFlyer’s state of finance app report.
Markets: The market with the highest number of finance app installs in 2020 was India, followed by Brazil, Indonesia, US, and Russia; the fastest-growing markets were Egypt, Hong Kong, Turkey, South Africa, and surprisingly, the US.
User acquisition cost: $3bn was spent by finance apps on user acquisition in 2020. North America dominated with $985M, followed by Latin America with $540M. In Q1 2021, at least $1.2 billion has been spent on user acquisition.
Installs: Between Q1 2020 and Q1 2021 digital banking app installs jumped 45%, while traditional banking app installs grew by 15% rise within the same period.
Dig Deeper: Read the state finance apps 2021 report
Future Africa has invested $3 million in 13 African startups in 2021, doubling its fund deployments for 2020. It’s invested in companies like Termii, Ongair, Lami and Stitch and is on the way to invest $10 million this year.
Read its announcement here.
What tech investors fear and find interesting about Nigeria’s Twitter ban
For the second time in six months, a major government announcement is causing startup founders and investors to ponder the effect of politics and sudden regulation on doing business in Nigeria.
Remind me about the first
In February, it was the Central Bank of Nigeria’s ban on cryptocurrency transactions. This time it is the ban on Twitter, a social media platform that has been used for everything from crowdsourcing pro-bono lawyers to raising capital.
Back to the story
In January, Cowrywise raised a $3 million pre-seed round. It was led by Quona Capital, a multinational investment firm, with Lavingia and other investors participating.
Notably, a tech entrepreneur and angel investor from Silicon Valley, Sahil Lavingia’s decision to invest started from a simple direct message to Cowrywise over Twitter.
How could this ban affect the ecosystem?
Ido Sum, a partner at TLCom Capital, says the ban “may put a dampener on some foreign investments for tech companies in the short term but this is unlikely to be sustained.”
In this article, Alex shares the sentiments and fears of many investors in the Nigerian and African tech ecosystem.
In the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic has increased digitalisation and led to profound changes in all areas of life. Attend this event to learn more about how it affects you.
Register here
Apple’s planned privacy safety feature won’t roll out in three censorship-heavy African countries
At this year’s edition of Apple’s annual software developer conference, the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), there was one announcement that stood out.
What stood out?
Private Relay. This new feature encrypts all browsing history and prevents third parties from intercepting the communication between your device and the server you’re requesting information from. When turned on, nobody can track a user’s online activity – not even the internet service provider or Apple itself.
The feature is likely to go live later this year but Apple has revealed that it won’t be available in some countries due to “regulatory reasons”.
Countries where the company will not offer Private Relay include South Africa, Egypt, Uganda, Saudi Arabia, Belarus, Colombia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, the Philippines and China.
In this article, Michael looks into why three African countries are on the list.
The Business of creating content
How do you successfully create and monetize content?
This Friday, June 11th at 11 am, Fisayo Fosudo – a content creator/YouTuber will be discussing with Edwin Madu – Senior Editor at Techcabal on what it takes to create great content and make money off it.
Fisayo will be sharing tips he’s learned from creating content on his YouTube channel, building an audience, and getting paid for his efforts.
If you’ve got big dreams about your content creation career, you don’t want to miss this one.
Note: By clicking on the registration link for this event, you’ve indicated interest in the event and will get an invite to attend. To opt out, please ignore the invite
Ask us anything
We love the responses we’ve been getting and want more.
What’s a lingering question about an aspect of tech or the stories we share that you’ve been wanting to ask? Ask us here, we’ll be happy to answer your question and possibly share with the wider TC Daily audience. There are no stupid questions!
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IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
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<h2 style="font-size: 16px;margin-bottom: 0;"> Good morning ☀️ ️</h2>Yesterday, Salvador became the first country to make bitcoin a legal tender. Which country do you think is next?
<div style="text-align: left;margin-top: 20px;color: #373736;">
<p>
<strong> In today's edition:</strong>
</p>
<ul>
<li>My Life in Tech</li>
<li>How finance apps performed in 2020</li>
<li>What tech investors fear and find interesting about Nigeria’s Twitter banApple’s new privacy safety feature won’t launch in three censorship-heavy African countries
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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<h2 class="tc_heading" style="font-weight: 800;line-height: 1.3;font-size: 1.4em;margin-bottom: 20px;color: #101010; text-transform: uppercase;">Femi Iromini is improving the employability of students in Nigeria
<figure style="margin: 20px 0 30px; text-align: right;">
<p><a href="https://techcabal.com/2021/06/09/femi-iromini-is-improving-the-employability-of-students-in-nigeria/">
<img style="width: 100%; height: auto; border-radius: 7px;"
loading="lazy" src="https://x7d4c5z5.stackpathcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/tc/2021/06/Femi-Iromini.png"> </a></p>
</figure>Femi Iromini has been active in the African tech ecosystem for the past 5 years. As a young student, he ran many businesses — at one point, he performed due diligence for foreign investors looking to invest in African startups. Now he’s focused on improving the Nigerian education system and the employability of Nigerian graduates.
To understand how he got here, we take a look at his life’s journey.
At first he wanted to study Medicine
Reading Gifted Hands by Ben Carson at an early age sparked Iromini’s interest in medicine. This interest was also encouraged by his secondary school teachers. He was the best student in chemistry, physics and maths so naturally, they all thought he would do well to study medicine. So gained admission to study Medicine but had to leave because his dad didn’t like the school.
Then he switched to Geology
Iromini’s switch to geophysics is a story that many may relate with. It involves a rich uncle and a desire to be as rich as the said uncle.
One day, while he was at home, this uncle came around. As they played chess, Iromini asked him what he did for a living. He worked with the oil company ExxonMobil and he had studied geophysics.
Iromini recalled, “When my uncle mentioned geophysics, I thought to myself, ‘This must be God speaking to me.’”
Okay maybe it wasn’t God
A year into studying geophysics at Obafemi Awolowo University, he started questioning whether he had made the right choice.
In this week’s edition of My Life In Tech, I share the story of Femi Iromini, who is taking the Nigerian education system head on.
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<div class="content_cont tc_quiz" style="background-color: #ffffff;padding: 40px 20px;border: 1px solid #F23204;border-radius: 7px;margin-bottom: 40px;border-bottom: 5px solid #f23204;">PARTNER CONTENT
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<p><a href="http://paystack.com/storefront">
<img style="width: 100%; height: auto; border-radius: 7px;"
loading="lazy" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/MibOBkCAZ-madJE_qbr5cGXmMbLVsvGye05btQ4Vx5vQoNHWpTtxLMue3rePn9_QgJWIZNYDYWGdfaOuiY6s2maUIzVfMgrhiPtIFa-PLDECG713CvSVdbXBJLJfs8MO90e_GOx5"
> </a> </p>
</figure>Increase your online sales with a Paystack Storefront – a free, beautiful seller page that helps you bring creative ideas to life. 🏾 Learn more at paystack.com/storefront
</div>
<div class="content_cont" style="background-color: #ffffff;padding: 40px 20px;border: 1px solid #F23204;border-radius: 7px;margin-bottom: 40px;border-bottom: 5px solid #f23204;">
<h2 class="tc_heading" style="font-weight: 800;line-height: 1.3;font-size: 1.4em;margin-bottom: 20px;color: #101010; text-transform: uppercase;">Can you smell what TechCabal is cooking?
</h2>
<figure style="margin: 20px 0 30px; text-align: justify;">
<img style="width: 100%; height: auto; border-radius: 7px;" src=https://techcabal.com/wp-content/uploads/tc/2021/06/3-min.gif> Well, you probably can’t smell it right now but trust us, it’s amazing – and it’ll be here soon.
Can you guess what we’ll be unveiling? Reply this email with your guesses, I’d love to read them!
Keep the guessing coming 😉
<div class="content_cont" style="background-color: #ffffff;padding: 40px 20px;border: 1px solid #F23204;border-radius: 7px;margin-bottom: 40px;border-bottom: 5px solid #f23204;">
<h2 class="tc_heading" style="font-weight: 800;line-height: 1.3;font-size: 1.4em;margin-bottom: 20px;color: #101010; text-transform: uppercase;">How Finance Apps performed in 2020
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<img style="width: 100%; height: auto; border-radius: 7px;" src=https://meme-dev.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/uploads/2021/4/12/1618192188925-8583/tenor.gif>
</figure>2020 was a good year for finance apps. They were downloaded 4.6 billion times in 2020 (+15% YoY), according to AppAnnie. Here are some key takeaways from Apple Flyer’s state of finance app report.
Markets: The market with the highest number of finance app installs in 2020 was India, followed by Brazil, Indonesia, US, and Russia; the fastest-growing markets were Egypt, Hong Kong, Turkey, South Africa, and surprisingly, the US.
User acquisition cost: $3bn was spent by finance apps on user acquisition in 2020. North America dominated with $985M, followed by Latin America with $540M. In Q1 2021, at least $1.2 billion has been spent on user acquisition.
Installs: Between Q1 2020 and Q1 2021 digital banking app installs jumped 45%, while traditional banking app installs grew by 15% rise within the same period.
Dig Deeper: Read the state finance apps 2021 report
</div>
<div class="content_cont tc_quiz" style="background-color: #ffffff;padding: 40px 20px;border: 1px solid #F23204;border-radius: 7px;margin-bottom: 40px;border-bottom: 5px solid #f23204;">PARTNER CONTENT
