Google Opens 6th Accelerator Programme for African Start-Ups

By Aduragbemi Omiyale Three Nigerian startups are among the 11 small firms selected by Google for its Artificial Intelligence (AI) First Accelerator Program for Africa. The beneficiaries will undergo a 10-week accelerator journey and will get $350,000 as an allocation in Google Cloud Credits, and further enjoy mentorship sessions, technical guidance, and networking opportunities to enhance their reach and impact. The 11 startups were picked from a vast pool of innovative talent. At the end of the scheme, they would be required to use cutting-edge AI to address both the continent’s challenges and broader global issues. “At Google, we’ve been

By Modupe Gbadeyanka On Wednesday, October 11, 2023, stakeholders within the telecoms and ICT ecosystem gathered at Fraser Suites in Abuja to discuss Modernization and Digitization, the theme of an event organised by Airtel Nigeria. The Director of Airtel Business at Airtel Africa Plc, Mr Luc Serviant, while addressing the participants, emphasised the company’s commitment to fostering collaboration and partnerships that drive progress and innovation. He highlighted Airtel Nigeria’s dedication to endowing the public sector through cutting-edge technologies, enabling transformative change on a national scale. “At Airtel, we are happy to discuss connectivity, innovation & technology, digital pillars, cloud security,

By Aduragbemi Omiyale The Managing Director of Payment Processing & Switching at Interswitch Purepay, Mr Akeem Lawal, has said the company will always throw its full weight behind conversations aimed at improving the payments industry. Mr Lawal said this ahead of the 2023 annual conference of the Committee of e-Business Industry Heads (CeBIH) scheduled to take place from Tuesday, December 5, 2023, to Wednesday, December 6, 2023, in Lagos. He is one of the speakers slated to attend the event with the Managing Director of Verve International, Vincent Ogbunude; and the Managing Director of Digital Infrastructure and Managed Services at

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Salesforce and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have expanded their strategic partnership, deepening product integrations across data and artificial intelligence (AI). The new and enhanced integrations will include streamlining purchasing options for customers via the AWS marketplace, enhancing customer experiences through unified data management, empowering developers with new AWS compute and development services, securely bringing AWS data and AI services to Salesforce’s Einstein 1 Platform, and ensuring seamless customer service with service cloud and Amazon connect. It was gathered these features will enable customers to seamlessly and securely manage their data across Salesforce and AWS, and safely and

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has made clarification on its position on the sharing of gifts at Annual General Meetings (AGMs) of companies, emphasising that “light refreshment’ is not in any way construed as “gifts” under its rules and regulations. The apex capital market regulatory agency backed this up by citing Rule 602 (4) of its Rules and Regulations, which states that, “Public companies shall not distribute gifts to shareholders, observers and any other person at Annual General Meetings/Extra-Ordinary General Meetings.” In 2019, SEC amended its Rules and Regulations to stop listed companies from distributing gift items at AGMs.

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The management of Arik Air has commenced a one-month promo that will allow passengers purchase a one-way ticket for as low as N16,000. According to the company, the promotion is to reward its customers, who have remained loyal to it despite the few challenges. Arik Air’s Chief Executive Officer, Captain Roy Ilegbodu, while commenting on the development, said tickets can be purchased at any Arik Air City Office, Airport Ticketing Office, online at www.arikair.com or the Arik Mobile App. He noted that the promo runs from March 6 to 20, 2017, but customers are advised to buy

When diamonds and gold were found in South Africa in the late 1800s, the economy was transformed. Following that, a large amount of global money was invested. The nation has grown a well-developed industrial base in the years after World War II, and it has undergone extremely volatile growth rates, including several years when it was among the highest in the world. South Africa, on the other hand, has had persistent economic difficulties since the late 1970s, owing to its apartheid policies, which caused many countries to suspend foreign investment and enforce more harsh trade restrictions against it. Namibia has

By Dipo Olowookere A new project to identify and dismantle the organized crime networks making billions in illicit profits behind wildlife trafficking between Africa and Asia has been launched by INTERPOL. Targeting high profile traffickers in Asia sourcing wildlife from Africa, the project will provide a strengthened law enforcement response in source, transit and destination countries, particularly those linked to the illicit trade in ivory, rhinoceros horn and Asian big cat products. With environmental crime estimated to be worth up to USD 258 billion and linked to other criminal activities including corruption, money laundering and firearms trafficking, the project led

By Dipo Olowookere As of November 29, 2021, at least 114,900 consumers and merchants have activated the eNaira wallets since it was introduced in October 2021, a report by TheCable has revealed. A breakdown showed that the consumer wallets constitute about 112,870 of the activated wallets, while the merchant wallets account for just a little over 2,000 wallets. The eNaira, which is Africa’s first Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in October, is the electronic version of the Naira, the country’s currency. The launch of the digital Naira, which was aimed to serve

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Date for the 2017 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Honeywell Flour Mills has been postponed to another day. A statement issued on Friday by the foremost flour milling firm revealed that the event will now hold on Friday, September 22, 2017 and no longer Thursday, September 21, 2017, earlier fixed for it. The statement signed by Mrs Yewande Giwa on behalf of the company said, “We hereby notify the general public of the following changes in the details of Honeywell’s 2017 AGM; “The date of the AGM has been changed from Thursday, September 21, 2017, to Friday,

By Adedapo Adesanya Nigerians have been warned by the Enugu Youth Coalition group on the recent photographs in circulation of women returning from their annual ‘August Meeting’ being purported as a protest against the Fulanis and herdsmen in Enugu State. This was according to a press statement released by the group, signed by its National Coordinator, Dr. Edwin Obune, who stated that there was no form of protest against anybody or group by the women or youths in the state. The group urged Nigerians to see the content as the creation of mischief makers, describing it as another lie manufactured

By Dipo Olowookere Fall Armyworm keeps spreading to larger areas within countries in sub-Saharan Africa and becomes more destructive as it feeds on more crops and different parts of crops, increasingly growing an appetite for sorghum and millet, in addition to maize. The pest could spread to Northern Africa, Southern Europe and the Near East, warned the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today. The agency called for a massive scaling up of the Fall Armyworm campaign to train more than 500,000 farmers to manage the pest through Farmer Field Schools in sub-Saharan Africa. “Fall Armyworm could leave 300