Business/Brands & Marketing
TECH ROUNDUP: CBN Launches SabiMONI
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CBN has launched SabiMONI
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M-KOPA has secured 0 million in new funding
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Gricd has raised .5 million in a seed funding round
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Airtel Africa has reported a 5% drop in its profit
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has launched SabiMONI, an e-Learning platform that it says would help provide individuals with the opportunity to be trained and to become Certified Financial Literacy Trainers through self-service. “We must take deliberate steps to upscale financial capability through financial education programmes. The shortage of skilled and experienced persons to drive financial education remains a major hindrance,” Godwin I. Emefiele, the CBN Governor said.
Gricd has raised $1.5 million in a seed funding round to support its expansion across Africa and the delivery of new solutions that it says will make it easier to insure perishable goods on the continent. The company has also rebranded as Figorr. “At a time where the price of everything seems to be rising and the global economy is experiencing significant challenges, unnecessary wastage should not be compounding these issues,” CEO Oghenetega Iortim said.
Airtel Africa has reported a 5% drop in its profit for the first quarter of 2023, citing challenging operating environments and worries about currency devaluation as causes. Airtel made $750m in profits, compared to $755m from last year with revenue at $5.25m from $4.71m last year.
M-KOPA has secured $250 million in new funding, including $55 million in equity and over $200 million in debt, as part of its new focus which will include financing electric motorcycles. “We’re very excited about electric mobility and we’re sure that in the next couple of decades, there will be a big switch in ownership where electric motorbikes will scale when there’s financing to go with them,” CEO Jesse Moore said.
POLITICS
SEC has said that the safety of investors and their investments in the capital market is one of its cardinal objectives in rolling out its Regulatory Incubation Programme for Fintechs. “The principal plan is to provide an avenue of new solutions without compromising on investor protection which is our key objective,” Director, Registration, Exchanges, Market Infrastructure, and Innovation, Abdulkadir Abbas said.
The Secretary-General of the Amalgamated Union of App-based Transport Workers of Nigeria, Ayoade Ibrahim has accused Bolt and Uber of sponsoring internal elements to hijack the union. “I haven’t seen anywhere where employees would set up a union for employers to manage for them. But that is what Uber and Bolt practice globally. They always try to impose their rules over any country’s teams of engagement,” Ibrahim said.
WORLD NEWS
Microsoft Corp has gained EU antitrust approval for its $69 billion acquisition of Activision. It now has until May 24 to appeal a decision by Britain’s Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) to block the deal.
Yintao Yu, the former head of engineering for ByteDance’s U.S, TikTok’s parent company has accused the technology giant of a “culture of lawlessness,” including stealing content from rival platforms Snapchat and Instagram in its early years, and called the company a “useful propaganda tool for the Chinese Communist Party.” Yu macde the allegations as part of a wrongful dismissal suit filed last week.
