Johnstone Kpilaakaa

Nigeria’s Treepz expands its vehicle rental offering into Kenya

About a year after its first East African expansion, Nigeria-founded mobility startup, Treepz has expanded its vehicle rental offering into Kenya.

Smile Identity lands $20M Series B for pan-African expansion

Africa's leading KYC onboarding and identity verification platform, Smile Identity has secured a $20 million Series B to grow its team and expand its offering across Africa.

Francophone Africa’s Qotto secures $8M Series A

Francophone Africa-focused cleantech company, Qotto has raised $8 million in a Series A equity-debt round to scale its operations in existing markets and expand to Ivory Coast.

President Buhari signs Nigeria’s first business facilitation bill into law

President Muhammadu Buhari has signed the business facilitation (miscellaneous provision) bill 2022 to tackle bureaucratic constraints to doing business in Nigeria

Why Ethiopia wants to sell 45% of Ethio Telecom

The Ethiopian government wants to sell 45% of its telecom Ethio Telecom, which lost its monopoly in 2022, a figure up from the 40% sale announced in November 2022.

YC-backed Curacel secures $3M seed to expand its insurance offering into North Africa

Nigeria-based insurtech, Curacel has secured a $3 million seed funding to expand its drive insurance experiences across Africa.

Pade HCM lands $500k pre-seed to automate HR processes for African businesses

Nigerian HRTech company, Pade has secured $500,000 pre-seed in a round led by Zrosk IML, Zedcrest Capital, Microtraction, Expert Dojo, and Resilience 17

BD Insider, Letter 149: Chaos in Nigeria as citizens scramble for new notes

In Letter 149, we examine the cash shortage in Nigeria, Starlink's Rwandan launch and Yango's woes in Cameroon.

Inside the card fraud that claimed $4M from Safaricom

Kenya's leading telco, Safaricom lost over $4 million in SIM card fraud on its lending platform, Fuliza loans in 2022. Suspects have been arrested by the Kenyan authorities.

Yodawy secures $16M Series B to drive e-pharmacy adoption in Africa

To drive e-pharmacy adoption in Africa and the Middle East, Yodawy has secured $16 million in a Series B round co-led by Delivery Hero Ventures and Global Ventures.

Supreme Court suspends Nigeria’s demonetisation process

Following a lawsuit by three Northern governors challenging the Naira redesign, Nigeria's Supreme Court has temporarily halted the enforcement of the Feb. 10 Naira swap deadline.

Flutterwave expands into North Africa

Nigerian fintech, Flutterwave has obtained payment services provider and payments facilitator licenses from the National Bank of Egypt.