TECH ROUNDUP: Opera increases stake in OPay, TikTok banned in Netherlands

• Opera has increased its stake in OPay to 9.5% from 6.4%

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• Liquid Intelligent Technologies has acquired Egypt-based Cysiv MEA

• CBN has raised MPR to 18%

• TikTok banned in Netherlands for public officials 

Opera the consumer internet brand and developer of the eponymous web browser has increased its stake in OPay to 9.5% from 6.4%. This follows the conclusion of the 2022 sale of Nanobank for $127 million.

Opera OPAY

In February this year, Nanobank sold the majority of its business in Asia to OPay in exchange for OPay shares to an unnamed PE firm. Prior to this, Opera, the Oslo-headquartered consumer internet group held 42% of Nanobank, a lending business it had formed by combining Opera’s microlending business with Mobimagic’s point-of-sale business. READ MORE.

By choosing OPay shares instead of cash, Opera settled for $35.9 million less than the book value of its investment in Nanobank, leaving the internet brand with a net fair value of $76.3 million as of year-end 2022. The company said it considered this, “to be reflective of the underlying fair value of its Nanobank receivable as of year-end.”

Liquid Intelligent Technologies has acquired Egypt-based Cysiv MEA, formerly SecureMisr to extend its operations into the Middle East and Africa.

The London-based tech company said that it will rebrand Cysiv MEA to “Liquid C2.” “We are thrilled to be joining the Liquid family and to be part of an industry-leading brand like Liquid C2. We are now in an even stronger position to enable our enterprise customers in Egypt and the MENA region to accelerate their digital transformation,” Sherif Shaltout, VP of Operations, Cysiv MEA said.

POLITICS

The monetary policy committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria has voted in its February 2023 meeting to raise its monetary policy rate to 18% from 17.5%, representing a 50 basis point increase.

The Central Bank wants NIBSS to manage the Open Banking registry, but the banking industry says there is another way. Industry professionals say that while they have no qualms with NIBBS building the registry, it is best for the registry to be run by a separate entity. They argue the settlement corporation—which was co-created by the CBN and the Nigerian Banker’s committee—cannot be both regulator of open banking and a participant in the open banking system.

SOCIAL MEDIA 

The Netherlands asked government officials to immediately stop using TikTok and similar apps on their mobile work devices amid fears of security violations. Apps from companies based in countries with an “offensive cyber program” against the Netherlands represent an increased espionage risk, the Dutch government said in a statement yesterday.

A study conducted in Q4 2022 in 12 Nigerian cities by Orange Business Intelligence Technology discovered that about 86% of smartphone users in Nigeria are using Android phones, while 13% use IOS devices and the remaining 1% rely on Windows phones, despite the huge iPhone hype.

WORLD NEWS

China’s Baidu has unveiled its chatbot, Ernie Bot to rival Open AI’s ChatGPT. The launch triggered a roller coaster in its share price last week as the Baidu shares plummeted as much as 10%– 14% after a succession of analysts approved the AI chatbot.

Google has announced a limited public rollout of its ChatGPT competitor Bard. “You can use Bard to boost your productivity, accelerate your ideas and fuel your curiosity. You might ask Bard to give you tips to reach your goal of reading more books this year, explain quantum physics in simple terms or spark your creativity by outlining a blog post,” Google VP of Product Sissie Hsiao and Google VP of Research Eli Collins wrote in a joint blog post.

ENIGERIA NEWSPAPER