Ethiopia Shuts down Internet Access to prevent Exam Malpractice, Africa’s Smartphone Market Declines in Q1 2019 and More

BigFive Ethiopia

Happy weekend guys,

Its been a rainy day here in Lagos, Nigeria. What’s the weather update at your end? We hope you are having a good day.

Here’s a compilation of today’s Big 5 daily to keep you going.

Did you know that today is the media launch for Meet the Farmers Conference, organizers of the Innov8agric challenge in Nairobi, Kenya? Catch a sneak peek of the event @meetthefarmersconference handle on Instagram. Also, gear up for Rwanda’s media launch on the 21st of June 2019.

Ethiopia has joined the likes of Algeria, Sudan, Liberia, Chad and Somalia in shutting down internet access in its country. The country shut down internet access on the 11th of June 2019 to prevent examination malpractice in the country, the connectivity has been off for 4 days. Is this the new norm in Africa?

The International Data Corporation (IDC) released a report on Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. The report revealed that the African Smartphone market shipment declined by 7.1% in the first quarter of 2019.  The decline in Nigeria and South Africa’s economy caused the decline.

WorldRemit, a global Fintech company has launched a new feature to aid SMEs to pay their employees and contractors on time. The ‘WorldRemit for Business’ feature will make it easy for businesses to receive payment from the UK within 24 hours. The service is available in 140 countries, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and Kenya inclusive.

Stockholm’s Norrsken Foundation has launched an entrepreneurship hub in Rwanda. This was launched in a bid to support tech startups. Norrsken will leverage the hub to provide investment funds between $25,000 to $100,000 for early-stage startups. It will, however, expand to $1 million in the future.

Max.ng—Nigerian based on-demand motorcycle, has raised the sum of $7 million from undisclosed investors. They plan to leverage the fund and expand to Ghana, Ivory Coast, and another Nigerian city before 2020.

…and that brings us to the end of today’s edition of the Big 5 Daily!

Hope you had a good read?

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