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Welcome to the Big 5 Daily.
Let’s dive in, shall we?
We have news that MasterCard has partnered with Angaza to propel its QR payment technology growth across Africa, Latin America and other emerging markets. The partnership will give Angaza customers access to MasterCard’s digital payment solution, for solar home systems and water pumps- powered by Angaza’s pay-as-you-go (PAYG) embedded metering and monitoring technology. Angaza is a platform that creates the technology, which enables businesses to offer life-changing products to anyone, anywhere.
Next on the Big 5, a Nigerian based startup has launched an Agritech platform ‘Agrilet’ on Friday, the 1st of March 2019. Agrilet is a platform that gives farmers access to larger market, machineries which will yield improved farm inputs. It also give micro funders an impressive return-on-investment which helps their dream come alive through an increased source of income. The platform was founded by brothers, Victor Yunusa (CEO) and David Yunusa (C00) on May 2018, and launched March 1, 2019.
See also: Google Cloud and SAP calls for Submission, Rwanda, OneWeb to Launch Communication Satellite and more
Moving on, More than 20 innovators from Kenya joined 20 contemporaries from Basque, a region that spans the border between France and Spain, to take part in the Africa Basque Challenge (ABC). The challenge was to find social and technical solutions to bridge the urban-rural divide in today’s rapidly developed world. The winning team, comprising of Kenyans and Basque County, came up with an idea called HOCO which seeks to boost sustainable development in rural areas by producing construction materials out of coconut waste. They won a €6,000 fund and six months mentoring to help shape their idea.
Also, Safaricom’s M-PESA is now accessible to the members of National Social Security Fund (NSSF). The announcement was made official yesterday in a meeting between the two organizations at Safaricom headquarter. NSSF says that the partnership will play a key role in transitioning its operations to a cashless system that is projected to increase convenience by automating payment services.
Finally, MTN and Ericsson have signed a five year contract extension to provide mobile Money services in 13 countries across Africa and the Middle East. This contract includes the deployment of the Ericsson Wallet Platform in new markets to deliver next-generation mobile financial services to MTN customers. Ericsson Wallet Platform is an integrated mobile solution that combines Ericsson Wallet Platform and Ericsson Charging. It also allows mobile operators to reuse existing assets and bundles for the user’s m-commerce needs
That’s it for the Big 5 guys.
Thanks for joining!