Hi guys, hope you all had a great start to your week yesterday?
Once again, we are back with the Big 5 Daily, where we bring you the hottest and latest in Africa and World Tech.
We start with very big news as the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) was yesterday, chosen by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) for the role of the designated provider of space weather information to the entire African continent. In this role, they will serve the aviation sector in the African Airspace and in so doing, improve the performance and reliability of technological systems when providing information. SANSA joins the Russia-China centre as the only two ICAO-designated regional space weather centres in the world.
Calling on all Tech Entrepreneurs looking to scale-up to get their pitches ready, MEST has now opened up applications for its 2019 MEST Africa Challenge. Now in its second year, the MEST regional challenge will hold in 5 cities namely, Accra, Lagos, Nairobi, Abidjan and Capetown and it will emerge different finalists from these regions. The final pitch, which will hold in Nairobi, Kenya will see the finalists vying for $50,000 in equity investments and other forms of support. Are you interested? Apply here.
On a low note, we are quite sad to learn that Gloo, a major Nigerian ecommerce platform is shutting down operations. The CEO, Olumide Olusanyan (@docolumide) made this announcement in a tweet yesterday. This is just coming off the heels of DealDey, another Nigerian ecommerce giant shutting down. However, it is not all gloo*m*(right???), as he also announced that they will be launching a new business they have been working on over the past 18 months. We wish them all the best.
Yesterday, Microsoft South Africa’s Managing Director, Zoaib Hoosen resigned his position after 5 years and will be replaced by Lillian Barnard. Barnard, who currently occupies the role of Director in the Public Sector Unit will assume her position on the 1st of March. She will be the first woman ever to do so. Huge news.
Finally, WeeTracker recently released its 2018 Venture Investments Report and it predicts that Uganda will become a major tech investment destination in Africa. This is in part, due to the success of SafeBoda, a transport tech startup has experienced. The report also highlighted that fintech is the fastest growing sector in Africa, accounting for 40% of the total funding raised. It is quite an insightful report, read here.
With this, we round up the Big 5 Daily. Stay with us for more. See you tomorrow.