A happy new month to those that missed our last newsletter, BD Insider, Letter 123. For everyone else, you are welcome to our second Monday of August where we will be sharing Letter 124 with you.
For this newsletter edition, we will examine:
- how payment systems are a cause of strike in Nigerian public universities
- why Nigeria’s government wants YouTube to bar proscribed groups
- Kenya’s stance on meme duplication for commercial use
- Amazon Prime Video’s launch in Nigeria
- the latest African Tech Startup Deals (in PNG and an interactive format)
- job opportunities, events, and more.
We don’t want to be paid via IPPIS, ASUU to the FGN
ASUU (Academic Staff Union of Universities) has been on strike for almost six months (170 days), yet no one has come out to give us a coherent and balanced reason why this might be the case.
To uncover this, we spoke to members of ASUU and a Nigerian journalist that is actively covering the issue and they explained to us that one of the reasons for the strike is a war over the choice of the payment system, IPPIS vs UTAS.
Although the Nigerian government insists that these lecturers should enrol on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), the striking lecturers have insisted that the payment system does not accommodate the peculiarities of payments in the Nigerian university system.
What are these peculiarities? An example of this peculiarity is the payment of allowances. For instance, if Professor A lectures at UNIJOS, he is entitled to allowances even when he is on a sabbatical leave at another university within the country. IPPIS does not recognise this, as well as other earned allowances that lecturers are entitled to.
What’s the way out? Approve UTAS (University Transparency and Accountability Solution) or allow lecturers to not be enrolled on IPPIS.
Following an agreement with the Government, the university lecturers built a payment platform—UTAS, but it appears that the platform doesn’t meet competency tests, according to government authorities like NITDA
“NITDA tested UTAS against IPPIS, ignoring the peculiarities [such as sabbatical and other earned allowances] that have been the argument regarding the payment system—IPPIS is designed for core MDAs,” Deborah Tolu-Kolawole, a Nigerian journalist covering the issue told Benjamindada.com. “ASUU wants the government to either approve UTAS or allow them to not be enrolled on IPPIS.”
Read our full coverage on the matter by clicking the button below.
Bar proscribed groups from YouTube, FGN to Google
The news: The Nigerian government has asked Google to block the use of YouTube channels and live streams by proscribed groups in the country for spreading hate and disinformation.
Lai Muhammed, Nigeria’s Information and Culture Minister stated this during a meeting with a team from Google, last Thursday.
“We want Google to look into how to tackle the use of private and unlisted YouTube channels and YouTube live streams by proscribed groups and terrorist organizations,” Muhammed said. “Channels and emails containing names of proscribed groups and their affiliates should not be allowed on Google platforms.”
Charles Murito, Google’s Regional Director for sub-Saharan Africa on Government Affairs and Public Policy said that the platform has introduced a program called “Trusted Flaggers” for citizens trained to track and engage with online content in order to flag any content of serious concern.
Zoom out: Regulating social media in Nigeria has been a top priority for the various MDAs responsible for digital communication. In 2021, the Nigerian government banned Twitter after it deleted a tweet that President Muhammadu Buhari threatened IPOB.
The government has also introduced several legislations such as the Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulation Bill 2019 and the recent Code of Practice for Interactive Computer Service Platforms/Internet Intermediaries introduced by NITDA—National Information Technology Development Agency.
The 2023 elections and social media: The Minister further stated that the controversial NITDA Code of Practice that seeks to regulate social media will enable the curbing of the excesses on internet platforms.
“This Code couldn’t have come at a better time, as the country prepares for general elections next year,” Lai Muhammed said. “We are committed to working with platforms like yours [referring to Google] as well as the civil society, lawyers, media practitioners, and other relevant stakeholders to ensure responsible use of the Internet and to protect our people from the harmful effects of social media.”
Critics have said that the Code of Practice is an attempt to gag free speech. “They [referring to the government] are hiding tyrannical provisions inside dubious [and] ambiguous rules. All of this jargon is to hide repression in plain sight,” Chioma Agwuegbo, the Executive Director of TechHerNG argued.
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Kenya’s stance on meme duplication for commercial use
The news: Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO) has warned that the commercial use of memes that have the faces or identities of Kenyan citizens without their permission is illegal, and defaulters will either be fined or jailed—Section 36 (6) of Kenya’s Copyright Act states that it is an offense to sell works that require authentication, failure of which a fine of a maximum of Sh800,000 (~$6.700) or a term not exceeding 10 years, or both could be imposed.
“Corporate bodies must consider conducting due diligence on the status of photographs or videos before being tempted to join the fun,” Kenya Copyright Board’s Executive Director, Edward Sigei said in a press statement on Friday (August 5, 2022). “While the use of memes in social media is tolerated, its creation and use for commercial purposes can attract significant civil liability and must be cleared from the authors.”
The trending Kenyan comic artists: This advisory on memes and copyright law from the KECOBO came after a video made by two Kenyan comedians—Arap Marindich and Tula Chemoget went viral on social media with users generating several memes.
The video is an imitation of the World Rally Championship drivers who participated in the June 2022 Safari Rally that took place in Kenya’s Nakuru county.
Of note: In May 2022, Sabinus, a Nigerian comedian reportedly sued Peak Milk for the unauthorised use of his trademark phrase “Something Hooge” to advertise and promote their product.
Amazon Prime Video’s launch in Nigeria
The news: Last week, Amazon Prime Video announced the launch of its localised streaming platform in Nigeria.
What it means: With the launch, the global streaming platform will introduce the discounted Amazon Prime membership offerings to customers and also invest in local production— the first local Amazon Originals for Nigerian users will be Gangs of Lagos and LOL: Last One Laughing Naija.
LOL: Last One Laughing Naija is an unscripted series featuring 10 famous Nigerian comedians competing to be the “last one laughing”. The show is hosted by Nigerian comedian Basketmouth. Meanwhile, “Gangs of Lagos” is a high-stakes action-crime thriller that follows a group of friends who each have to navigate their own destiny, growing up on the bustling streets and neighbourhood of Isale Eko, Lagos.
“We know our customers want to see locally relevant faces, places, and stories alongside our global content on Prime Video, so we’re excited to be bringing Nigerian customers these brand-new local Amazon originals,” Wangi Mba-Uzoukwu, Head of Nigerian Originals at Amazon Prime Video said.
Zoom out: According to Digital TV Research, a London-based business intelligence company, the number of subscription video-on-demand users in Africa is projected to reach more than 5 million by the end of this year, and triple to 15 million by 2026.
Other streaming services including Netflix, Disney+, Netflix, Canal+, Showmax and Ariseplay are tapping into Africa’s largest consumer market—and other countries like South Africa and Kenya, to harness the video streaming potential.
BD Africa Funding Tracker
Get free access to our carefully-curated, real-time updated Funding Database for 2022.
In the meantime, these are the African startup deals of the week August 1-7, 2022.
Noteworthy
Here are other important stories in the media:
- Digital nomads should consider visiting these eight African cities.
- In India, Moove wants to replicate its success in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Bumpa has integrated Meta to hasten Instagram sales for business owners
- Bloomberg selected four Africans for its New Economy Catalysts class of 2022.
- Meta, TikTok, and Twitter have all expressed readiness for Kenya’s general election.
- Nigeria’s Kora named as a Commonwealth-sourced foreign direct investment (FDI) project for the West Midlands.
BD Trivia of the Week
Get your thinking caps and let the games begin. Keep in mind that all words submitted must be found in the dictionary.
Let’s go! #BDTrivia pic.twitter.com/HVY9DiKZby
— Benjamindada.com | Premium tech blog (@dadabenblog) August 5, 2022
Remember, you stand a chance to win a free feature for your favourite startup when you answer the question correctly on Twitter.
BD Trivia always comes up on Friday, so be on the lookout.
Opportunities
Jobs
Every week, we carefully curate open opportunities in Product & Design, Data & Engineering, and Admin & Growth.
Product & Design:
- Okra — Design Lead (Remote)
- Sendwave — Head of Product
- Paystack — Expansion Product Manager (Côte d’Ivoire)
Data & Engineering:
- Lendsqr — Backend Engineer (Remote)
- Seamfix — DevOps Engineer (Lagos, Nigeria)
- Chipper Cash — Senior Security Engineer
Admin & Growth:
- Yellow Card — Country Manager (Zambia)
- Visa — Marketing & Digital Director
- Mastercard — Communications Director, West and East Africa
Other opportunities:
- For startups: Apply for the Smile For Success program to get $10,000 in usage credits to enable identity verification at your startup.
- For African early-stage startups: MEST Africa opens application for $50k Africa Challenge.
- For women (and men): Apply for Stutern’s African Tech Sis Scholarship to get 50% off to learn Product Design, Frontend, and Backend Engineering.
- For Lagos-based fintech and proptech startups: The ARMS Labs Lagos Techstars Accelerator Program is now accepting applications from early-stage African fintech and Proptech startups.
Thanks for reading.
You can get in touch with us by emailing hello@benjamindada(dot)com and we’d reply within the hour.
