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African Startups in the credit scoring space

January 6, 2020 Dianne Jacobs

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African startups with solutions in the credit scoring and financing space will have the chance to secure a testing phase for their technologies with French utility company ENGIE at Africa Tech Summit Kigali in February. Taking place for the third time on February 4-6, Africa Tech Summit Kigali brings together tech leaders, MNOs, banks, investors, entrepreneurs, governments, trade bodies and media to drive investment and collaboration in the African tech space. For the second year, Disrupt Africa has reprised its partnership with Africa Tech Summit Kigali to host the two-day Africa Startup Summit,…

Afrikamart Agritech startup aims to be largest African fresh food supplier without owning any farm

December 20, 2019December 20, 2019 Editor

Senegalese Agritech startup Afrikamart aims to be the largest quality fresh food supplier in West Africa. The company aims to become the largest quality fresh food supplier in Africa without owning any farm. ITBusinessDirect spoke to Mignane Diouf its Directeur Général, here is our conversation, In your own words, describe Afrikamart? Afrikamart is an outsourced digital purchase department providing solutions for its customers to help them source good quality fruits and vegetables in their local area or internationally. We leverage on digital to connect the different stakeholders on the value chain,…

Paxful and Binance partner to provide financial inclusion

December 19, 2019 Dianne Jacobs

Binance has announced a partnership deal with Paxful, to provide financial inclusion around the globe. Starting immediately, Paxful- a peer-to-peer bitcoin (BTC) marketplace and web-based Virtual Bitcoin Kiosk – will be integrated and directly available on the Binance platform for new and existing Binance users. Binance is a leading global cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume and users. “Paxful is proud to be partnering with Binance in our joint efforts to bring bitcoin to the masses,” said Ray Youssef, CEO and co-founder of Paxful. “They share our passion and vision for the…

Microsoft 4Afrika pledges its support to farmers

December 19, 2019 Dianne Jacobs

Microsoft, through its 4Afrika Initiative has pledged support to the One Million Farmers Platform through disruptive agricultural technologies. As part of the partnership, Microsoft will be providing technical and business support to 14 Kenyan innovators selected to build technology solutions for the platform, a World Bank initiative, that aims to improve the productivity, profitability and resilience of one million African farmers. “Agriculture is a priority area of investment for us, not only because of the enormous number of livelihoods it supports and the economic growth it drives, but also because it…

The Internet and Mobile taking over the delivery space

December 18, 2019 Dianne Jacobs

For the longest time, restaurants held takeaways as an afterthought. Well, not anymore. The food catering business has gone past the takeout era and has evolved so much that delivery has become the hot trend in Kenya. The great digital revolution, burgeoning e-commerce and the convenience of mobile money which allows buyers to pay for their deliveries right off their phones, has spurred a whole new industry that is today the food delivery market. And Kenyans, enticed by the convenience of ordering online from their favorite local restaurants and having…

High Tech Solar pumps for underground freshwater

December 18, 2019 Dianne Jacobs

High-tech solar pumps mapping underground freshwater reservoirs across Africa are collecting data that can help prevent them running dry, the project’s developers said on Tuesday. Manufactured by British social enterprise Futurepump, the solar pumps are being used by thousands of small-scale farmers in 15 African nations, including Kenya and Uganda, as a cleaner, cheaper option to diesel and gasoline-powered ones. The pumps’ sensors record real-time data such as energy usage and pump speed in each location, which is shared with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) to calculate groundwater extraction…

Big tech companies accused of Child labor

December 17, 2019 Dianne Jacobs

Apple, Google, Microsoft, Tesla, and Dell have all been named in a federal lawsuit from parents who say their children were injured or killed in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, The Guardian first reported. International Rights Advocates , a human rights litigation and advocacy group, filed the suit yesterday in the US District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of 14 Congolese children and parents, accusing the five major companies named in the suit of “knowingly benefiting from and aiding and abetting the cruel and brutal use of young…

Mali based insurtech startup OKO Finance helps rural farmers access crop insurance

December 17, 2019

Malian insurtech startup OKO Finance has helped many rural farmers to access crop insurance for the first time ever. Founded in 2017, OKO develops affordable mobile-based crop insurance products to provide smallholder farmers with the financial security they need, regardless of unstable climate trends. CEO Simon Schwall, spoke to ITBusinessDirect about their plans and activites, here is the conversation What is the story behind OKO Finance? Before starting OKO I worked for a very successful micro-insurance provider called BIMA. I was their local CEO in Papua New Guinea and Fiji…

New tax on Digital Markets under new law

December 17, 2019 Dianne Jacobs

Kenya will start levying new tax on digital markets under a new law signed by the President early in November. The Finance Act seeks to broaden the Income Tax Act net to include income accruing through a digital market place. The law defines the digital marketplace as “a platform that enables direct interactions between buyers and sellers of goods and services through electronic means.” In addition, a similar change has been made to the VAT Act making digital market services subject to value-added tax. It’s not clear yet who will be affected or how the…

Drivers and travelers connected via app

December 16, 2019December 16, 2019

After completing their university studies in computer science, classmates Ngugi Waithima and Denis Kiprono looked for jobs in vain. In June, the two former students of computer science at Mount Kenya University met in a Nairobi office in a job-hunting mission. Later over a cup of tea, they discussed their challenges in search of non-existent jobs. Their talk shifted to escalating traffic jams in Nairobi and the problems people face when travelling over the festive season. It’s from their traffic discussion that they hit some sort of Eureka moment. They…