Here is a summary of the tech news in Africa this week with coverage of the regional and continental news. The top headlines this week feature announcements like Safaricom’s license to start operating in Ethiopia, a social innovators event in Kenya and more.
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A detailed look into the tech news in Africa this week
Safaricom gets formal nod to start operations in Ethiopia: Safaricom-led consortium has received a telecommunication operator licence in Ethiopia after incorporating a local company, setting the stage for Kenya’s largest telco to start operations in the market of over 100 million people.
The Ethiopian Communications Authority (ECA) said Thursday in a statement that the Global Partnership for Ethiopia has incorporated and registered its local company Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia PLC.
Social innovators invited to attend Techstars Startup Weekend Nairobi: Social innovators have been invited to attend Techstars Startup Weekend Nairobi, which takes place on July 23-25 with the aim of creating an environment where people can come together to solve pressing social and economic problems through innovative solutions.
Startup Weekend is a flagship programme by Techstars, an American-founded seed accelerator that has accepted more than 2,500 companies and has a combined market capitalisation of more than US$200 billion. The model seeks to support participants to move from innovation to entrepreneur in 54 hours.
Pipit Global Partners with Cellulant to Power Remittances in Africa: Pipit Global Partners with Cellulant to offer remittances in Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Mali, Senegal, and Ghana, consumers can now avail of transactions through the pipit platform at lower rates than ever before.
“Going live in these countries is a big step forward for intra-African remittances. 70% of African’s who migrate stay on the continent of Africa where the cost of sending money home across African borders is much higher than the fees for sending cash home from the EU – and can reach 20% in some corridors. Pipit, along with Cellulant, can now solve this problem by making it cheaper and safer for migrants to send cash to their families at home.” said Ollie Walsh, CEO of Pipit.
Nigerian e-health startup CridMD acquires pharmaceutical company to ease scaling: The startup has built an active subscriber base of more than 3,000, and to spur quicker expansion has now used some of the US$2.6 million in seed funding it raised earlier this year to acquire CP. Incorporated in 2009, CP is exiting the Nigerian market and relocating to Canada, so the deal was mutually beneficial.
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