Hey Guys,
Welcome to the midweek edition of the Big5 Daily. We are here to brighten your day with the top gists.
Enjoy a good read.
Good news! Ten techpreneurs have been selected as finalists of Jack Ma’s Africa Netpreneur Prize Initiative. The selected were chosen after pitching their business alongside 10000 other applicants across the 54 African countries. Some of the startups on the list include Thrive Agric, DrugStoc, Afrikrea, Black Swan, LifeBank and Scientific.
Moving on, police officers in Egypt has been randomly searching mobile devices of citizens during the current administration of President Abdel Fatah Al Sisi. Social media policing in the country has led to the arrest of 1900 people who were allegedly found to be involved in protesting and spreading fake news.
A $6.8 million fund has been availed by Enygma Ventures to support female-led startups in South Africa. One good news is that unlike other venture capitals, Enygma Venture fund is available for startups across all sectors of business. Interested female entrepreneurs can apply here.
Lidya, a fintech platform that renders lending services to SMEs has plans to expand to the Czech Republic and Poland. The company plans to disburse $1.1 billion to businesses in the agricultural, pharmaceutical and retail sectors within the next five years.
Finally, the Telco operators in Ghana have been directed to stop the expiration of voice and data bundles. This was announced by the Ghanaian Ministry of Communications because customers were not getting the value for their money. Telco operators were also instructed to stop the instant deduction of the communication service tax of customer airtime purchase.
Before you go, Kenyan hip hop singer, Juliani visited Facebook’s New York office in Manhattan and captured the daily and monthly statistics of Africans who use the platform per country.
Forgot about this clip on the FB Manhattan office visit. real time view of active users on the platform across the world and per country.
Kenya sisi hao!! pic.twitter.com/OsZRENlNQl
— I am Eliud Kipchoge 🇰🇪 (@JulianiKenya) October 9, 2019
The short clip revealed that 33 million Nigerians, 28 million South Africans and 9.9 million Kenyans actively use the platform monthly. This information might be useful to startups looking to set up social media platforms in these regions.
Nice having you around today. See you same time tomorrow.
Bye.