Brands/Products
Airtel Nigeria’s COVID-19 Response Thrills NCDC
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The response of Airtel Nigeria to the COVID-19 pandemic last year has been recognised by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
The agency said it was impressed with the company’s role and support towards the COVID-19 response in Nigeria, commending the telco for deploying its resources in the fight against the dreaded virus.
Speaking at an event in Lagos, the outgoing Director-General of the NCDC, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, expressed appreciation to Airtel for providing digital outreach platforms, access, connectivity and joining in the national campaign to sensitize Nigerians on how to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Specifically, Mr Ihekweazu said the Airtel SMS channel was very effective in information dissemination and data gathering as it not only reached the targeted audience but was considered credible and authentic by the stakeholders.
“I commend Airtel for its support and on behalf of the NCDC, I will like to present an award recognizing Airtel’s efforts in fighting COVID-19 in Nigeria,” he said.
In his response, the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Airtel Nigeria, Mr Surendran Chemmenkotil, said the company will continue to leverage its digital resources and network infrastructure to fight infectious diseases in Nigeria just as it will continue to partner with the NCDC and other relevant governmental institutions.
“Airtel is pleased with the partnership with the NCDC and we will not rest on our laurels. As a key stakeholder and responsible corporate citizen, we will continue to collaborate with the government in creating opportunities and platforms that will protect and empower Nigerians,” he said.
During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Airtel offered the NCDC toll-free lines and phones to enable the agency to process the deluge of phone calls it was besieged with and also curtail the spread of the pandemic.
The telco also connected NCDC offices in the 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Nigeria with broadband services riding on its expansive and robust 4G network architecture.
Airtel said it believes that expanding the NCDC virtual, electronic and Internet access points will enable more Nigerians to get the much-needed help they require as well as facilitate instant sharing of important information that will greatly limit the current wave of the pandemic.
In April 2020, Airtel Nigeria announced a commitment of N1.97 billion towards the fight against COVID-19 in Nigeria. It offered free Short Message Services (SMS) to customers across all networks worth over N1.2 billion as well as complimentary data for customers to access educational sites worth over N494 million.
The telco also invested N200 million in refurbishing and equipping a 4-storey admission facility for the use of Specialist Units in the Department of Medicine at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH); N50 million to Lagos State Government to procure Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) for Lagos State Health Workers and N50 million for the procurement of a Molecular Laboratory provided by 54 Gene with the capacity for 300 tests per day for Ogun State.
Also, Airtel Nigeria employees were the first employee group to make a donation of N20 million from their personal contributions in support of the fight against the COVID-19 global pandemic in May 2020.
The donated sum was to support the Lagos State Government in the provision of relief materials to indigent residents and citizens as well as families who were badly affected by the lockdown.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
An institutional investor, First Ally Capital, has strengthened a leading Nigerian financial technology company, Mathesis Analytics, to scale its proprietary credit decisioning infrastructure.
It made this possible by injecting fresh capital into the firm, which specialises in AI-powered credit decisioning infrastructure, an action that will directly support the growth and scaling of Mathesis’ core mission of providing the intelligence and infrastructure needed to bridge the credit gap for millions of unscored or underscored individuals across Nigeria.
With this investment, Mathesis will enable financial institutions to confidently assess and extend credit to borrowers who lack a formal credit history by leveraging an expanded pool of alternative behavioural and transactional data.
To date, Mathesis’ systems have supported more than 8 million loans for over 2 million unique borrowers in Nigeria, and the company is actively deploying its infrastructure to establish a growing pan-African footprint.
With the investment from First Ally Capital, Mathesis is well positioned to transform how the credit ecosystem operates, driving financial inclusion in partnership with lenders across the continent.
A significant barrier to credit access in Nigeria, which prides itself on being Africa’s largest economy, is data fragmentation. Borrowers frequently build positive financial behaviours across multiple digital platforms by repaying microfinance loans, saving through fintech wallets, or servicing Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) facilities.
However, under traditional credit infrastructure, these achievements remain invisible to new lenders.
Mathesis addresses this challenge through the concept of Personal Equity—the quantified expression of an individual’s financial behaviour aggregated across every institution with which they have transacted.
By translating these disparate signals into a precise, portable measure of creditworthiness, Mathesis creates a comprehensive credit identity that reflects the full breadth of a person’s financial life.
“True financial inclusion cannot be achieved in a vacuum; it requires structural collaboration in which lenders and fintech companies work as partners within the ecosystem.
“This investment from First Ally Capital validates our approach to reshaping credit infrastructure. By quantifying Personal Equity, we empower lenders to safely look beyond the constraints of formal credit histories and recognise a borrower’s true creditworthiness. This capital enables us to accelerate our pan-African expansion while maintaining the robust, institutional-grade infrastructure our partners rely on,” the chief executive of Mathesis Analytics, Winston Osuchukwu, stated.
On his part, the chief executive of First Ally Capital, Mr Ebenezer Olufowose, said, “At First Ally Capital, we pride ourselves on being a one-stop destination for financial solutions, offering a diverse portfolio of services ranging from investment banking and asset management to trusteeship, inclusive banking, and real estate.
“Our investment in Mathesis Analytics reflects our strong belief in the company’s vision and our commitment to supporting forward-thinking enterprises that deliver excellence.”
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The chief executive of Canal+ Africa, Mr David Mignot, has disclosed that MultiChoice is now fully integrated into the media group.
Mr Mignot disclosed this via a statement issued on Thursday, noting that this development marks a new phase in the evolution of one of Africa’s leading pay television operators.
He noted that the integration positions MultiChoice within a global media organisation with an extensive international footprint.
“MultiChoice is now a full subsidiary of a truly international media group operating in 70 countries. The group was founded in France, is listed in London and Johannesburg, and has a strong African presence with operations in more than 45 countries,” Mr Mignot said.
The statement underscores the scale of the combined business, highlighting Canal+’s global reach alongside its significant investments across Africa.
The completion of the transaction is expected to strengthen MultiChoice’s position in the African media and entertainment market by giving it access to the broader resources, expertise and international capabilities of the Canal+ Group, while reinforcing the group’s commitment to the continent.
MultiChoice operates across sub-Saharan Africa through platforms including DStv and GOtv, serving millions of subscribers with entertainment, sports and news content.
By Adedapo Adesanya
FoodCourt, a Nigerian cloud kitchen startup backed by Y Combinator, has suspended operations after months of unpaid salaries and mounting debts to vendors triggered a staff strike and forced the company to halt customer orders, according to a report by TechCabal.
The publication reported that customers first noticed on March 4 that they could no longer place orders through the FoodCourt app after the company disabled ordering as kitchen workers, delivery personnel and branch staff embarked on strike over unpaid wages. The company also owed outstanding payments to vendors.
By April 19, FoodCourt had temporarily shut its last operating branch after suspending activities across its Lagos and Abuja locations while seeking fresh funding and restructuring the business, according to the report.
The company’s chief executive, Mr Henry Nneji, said the decision to pause operations was not caused by a single issue but by a combination of operational, organisational and working-capital challenges.
“It’s important to clarify that the decision to pause operations wasn’t driven by one single issue. We reached a point where it became clear that continuing to patch those issues while operating wasn’t the right long-term decision,” he said.
“The objective is to build a stronger business than the one that existed before the suspension. We fully intend to bring FoodCourt back,” he added in an emailed response.
The company acknowledged outstanding obligations to employees, vendors, riders and service providers, but declined to disclose the number of affected workers or the total amount owed. It said efforts were underway to resolve the liabilities as part of its restructuring process.
It was also reported that the startup’s financial difficulties worsened after expansion into additional locations increased operating costs, while its cloud kitchen model came under pressure from rising labour, logistics, food and marketing expenses.
Despite the shutdown, Mr Nneji said FoodCourt intends to relaunch after completing its restructuring, adding that the company believes demand for its products remains strong.
Founded in 2021 by Henry Nneji and Paul Adokiye Iruene, FoodCourt operates cloud kitchens under multiple virtual restaurant brands through its consumer app. According to TechCabal, the startup had previously disclosed raising $1.7 million, delivering more than one million meals and reaching $4.3 million in annual recurring revenue by the end of 2024.
