Hello guys, it is once again the Big 5 Daily.
We kick it off with great news as Amazon Inc has followed Apple Inc. to become the second U.S. company to reach $1 trillion in market value, reflecting the online retailer’s striking transformation from a profitless bookseller into a disruptive force of commerce.
Shares of Amazon climbed 1.9% in midday trading Tuesday, briefly topping the $2,050.27 needed to push the company’s value above $1 trillion.
Also in Kenya, logistics platform, Bwala Africa closes ksh24 million debt financing, and launches Bwalapay. With Ksh 24m debt financing, Bwala Africa is now rolling out 8 new trucks, four of which are directly funded by CFC and the other 4 funded internally by Bwala, bringing the cost of total invest to Ksh 23,000,000. The terms of the debt financing were not disclosed.
Tanzania’s Start-up, Nala Wins Ecobank Fintech Challenge 2018… Nala, a start-up that builds smartphone-based mobile money products that simplify mobile money transactions has emerged winners at the Ecobank Fintech Challenge.
Nala was rewarded with a cash prize of USD$10,000 while USD$7,000, and USD$5,000 were given to Virtual Identity and Wallet.ng who came second and third respectively.
Moving on, the leading start-up competition for emerging markets, Seedstars World has announced nine Senegalese start-ups that will be pitching at this year’s Seedstars Dakar pitch event.
The event, which will hold on September 7th with nine start-ups competing to represent the country at the Seedstars Summit in Switzerland.
In some other news. The Republic of Benin has followed the new trend among African countries like Uganda and Zambia by taxing its citizens for using the internet.
Beninese will now have to pay 5 CFA francs ($0.008) per megabyte consumed using internet and social-media apps like Facebook, WhatsApp, and Twitter and 5% levy on texting and calls in addition to already existing taxes. Heavy news.
….and that’s all for the day.
See you tomorrow