Joel Nwankwo

Writer, TECHist and Data analyst.

Fiber-Optic Connection in Africa

Access to internet makes it possible to read this. While it is easy for you, it is impossible for half the world’s population; with the majority of this half residing in Africa. Per the IFC, only 22% of Africa’s population is connected to the internet; this makes fiber-optic

Business

Worsening Case of SAPA. Even South African Startups Haven’t Been Spared

“This has been a difficult decision to make considering our passion to serve the Nigerian market,” the company wrote in a statement on its website. While we will no longer be operating in Nigeria, we will continue to keep abreast of activities in the Nigerian market and work towards a

Africa can’t Afford a Declining Fintech Sector

Fintech has proved to be the main driver of investment on the continent. With Africa’s fintech sector still at its early stages, it has transformed the financial market structure, allowing Africans access to a digital lifestyle. Africa’s burgeoning fintech sector has produced wealth, employment, and skills across the

Highlighting the Meteoric Growth of Paratus Namibia

When Paratus Namibia committed itself to build Namibia’s first carrier-neutral data center in Windhoek, it was an indication that the company was set out to develop the country’s digital landscape. The launch of the Armada data center in August this year came at a time when cloud services

Crypto Adoption

Cryptocurrency Adoption in Zambia Looks to be on the Rise as VALR Launches

Mature African markets like Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, and Kenya usually pop-up in cryptocurrency adoption discussions. Receiving high praise, they’ve accounted as the key markets for financial technology on the continent. Zambia’s crypto ecosystem has been transformative, making some strides in regard to cryptocurrency trading and adoption. Last

venture capital

Why SoftBank Vision Fund Deserve Africa’s Applause

Africa has seen a rise in venture capital investment as well, from $277 million in 2015 to $4.8 billion in 2021. That expansion has been powered by partnerships between international firms (Y Combinator, Tiger Global, SoftBank Vision Fund, Visa) and local investors (TLcom Capital, CRE Ventures, Future Africa, Kepple

Cape Town

Big City Big Dream. Discussing South Africa’s Silicon Valley (Silicon Cape)

A new company is usually more successful if launched in a large and mature ecosystem. Different types of individuals and organizations form a strong startup ecosystem. Silicon Valley in California is a typical example of a strong startup ecosystem. No other area in the world compares in scale and size

Equiano Cable

What the Rest of Africa can Learn from South Africa’s Cloud Advancement: Fibre and Connectivity

Advocating for cloud advancement means setting up regulatory and infrastructural framework necessary for cloud services. The high-capacity needs brought on by the arrival of broadband technology have helped to accelerate this development, which was initially fueled by the extremely quick growth of mobile telephony. Data transfers on various networks as

Business

You Can Now Game in the Metaverse

It was typical to see young people wasting their time doing what was considered to be “nothing” decades ago, when the game industry was still in its infancy. But the game business has seen countless revisions and modifications since those storied times. With the introduction of virtual reality and the

What is Keeping Foreign Investors Glued to South Africa?

South Africa has a budding startup ecosystem, being among the biggest tech ecosystem on the continent. 92% of Africa’s investment in tech was won by four countries: Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, and South Africa. Their sizable populations and high Gross Domestic Products (GDP) makes them desirable investment locations, and attractive

Growth Stage, Soonicorn, Unicorn. What Stage is Your Favorite Startup in?

Experts have generated different concepts to describe and understand startup stages. While moving from early stage to venture funding stage is easier to grasp, the stages that follow have been usually described by their latest funding rounds. This is vague. Describing startups by funding rounds can’t really hold as

Fintech

Now Stitching with Direct Deposit

Direct deposits should be a default for businesses. Its ubiquitous nature makes it more efficient than traditional deposits via banks. To fully automate transactions, South African payments and data API startup,  Stitch, has announced the launch of direct deposit or manual transfer as a payment method. Stitch’s direct deposit

The Ticking Time Bomb in Africa’s Startup Ecosystem

It is important to note that Africa’s burgeoning startup ecosystem benefits from the positive economic outlook from the West. These benefits are underpinned from the benefits it receives from the unclassical tech startup funding and growth. Transformation has been driven by technological innovation, economies of scale, globalization and financial

Satellite-Mania in Southern Africa

Telecommunications technology has developed several systems and tools in recent years. It aims to be at the forefront of digital process, regardless of the various circumstances that may block the communication and coverage, such as the weather or geographic location, in order for the various economic sectors to develop their

Yaga is Revolutionizing Second-hand Fashion in Africa

The coronavirus-enforced lockdowns ensured a surge in e-commerce shopping across Africa. Post-lockdown Africa was time for everything that happens online to thrive— and, in some ways, it has. For e-commerce startups, the larger customer base and increase in orders have translated into more earnings. To further increase efficiency of e-commerce,

Still no South African Startup Unicorn

There are currently 10 unicorn startups in Africa spread unevenly across the sub-regions. A unicorn achievement offers optimism to underserved markets, businesses and innovators that they are comparable to their global peers, and the supply of seed and post-seed funds for business-building support is increasing. According to a study on

Cloud

WHAT THE REST OF AFRICA CAN LEARN FROM SOUTH AFRICA’S CLOUD ADVANCEMENT: ENERGY

Africa possesses the potential for cloud growth but it depends critically on the continent ensuring it fixes energy barriers. Cloud computing offers an alluring value proposition for companies looking to avoid the high costs of infrastructure investment, which has been worsened by the lack of a reliable power supply in

AWS

Influx of Giant Global Data Companies in Africa Breeds Data Colonization

The data centers run by IBM, Microsoft, Amazon, and Oracle are expanding their capacity across Africa. Undoubtedly, the biggest data companies globally recognize an opportunity. African businesses are progressively switching to the cloud from their own servers, especially when international service providers, who at first did not have data centers

Currency Valuation

Kwacha Rise Yet to Spur Growth Among Zambian Startups

The Zambian government has demonstrated it possesses the political will to transform the economic fortunes of the country. While some of Africa’s heavyweights including South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya have struggled with rising inflation, Zambia has sustained its currency growth. The Zambian kwacha is the world’s best

Cloud

What the Rest of Africa can Learn from South Africa’s Cloud Advancement: Regulation

According to the Rise of the Africa Cloud research by Xalam Analytics, while having 16% of the world’s population and about 5% of the global GDP, Africa only contributes less than 1% of the world’s public cloud services revenue. Less than 20% of Africa is covered by clouds,

Microsoft Partners Planet Labs to Provide AI and Satellite Data

Planet Labs PBC and Microsoft Corp. have announced an expanded relationship to use artificial intelligence (AI) technology and satellite data to help African climate adaption programs. Planet Labs PBC is a provider of daily data and insights about Earth. The development of a related AI Innovation Council comprising regional partners

SAP Partners Coursera to Empower African Developers Through SAP Build

At the SAP TechEd conference, SAP announced the debut of a new solution to propel the next wave of business transformation by using the knowledge of business users, who are the experts. SAP Build, a low-code solution that draws on the distinctive depth and breadth of the SAP Business Technology

Business

Vodacom Launches International Roaming Bundles for Customers’ Connectivity

Customers of South Africa’s top network, Vodacom, who are traveling abroad for the holiday season can now reduce their international roaming expenses by utilizing the finest international roaming bundles. The 1GB and 5GB Travel Data bundles from Vodacom are now available with 7-day validity in more than 200 locations.

Business

FNB Commits $11.5M to Vumela Enterprise Development Fund for SMEs Growth

FNB this week announced an $11.5M (R200 million) investment to the Vumela Enterprise Development Fund, which was started in 2009 by FNB Commercial and Edge Growth, to help this industry even further. Between 2010 and 2021, the first three phases of the Vumela Fund invested a total of R

What Makes a City Smart?

Smart City has become a dominant narrative for the future of cities. The Smart City concept has become a leading idea in policy planning for sustainable urban communities. The element that seems to be shared by all ideas of city smartness is the application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)