The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that the amount of blood donated in Africa increased from approximately 3.9 million units to 4.4 million units between 2013 and 2016, but this only accounts for half of the blood that is required. The following five African startups are utilizing technology to make access to safe blood more widely available. # International Day of Blood Donors

If you need money for your company, one option is to apply for a loan; however, the requirement of collateral is frequently a burdensome thought. For this reason, we have compiled this list of different sources of loans for small businesses that do not require collateral.

In honor of #GlobalWellnessDay, we will explore the ways in which apps and platforms are helping to protect Africans from developing mental health disorders, as well as discuss how technology is helping to protect mental wellness in Africa.

@SputnikATX is an early-stage investor that looks for founders with a purpose before making an investment. Our conversation with @Austin VC, a partner at the company, provided us with unique insights into the investment philosophy of the company. Continue reading to find out.

It was unfathomable a decade ago that electric vehicles (EVs) could one day become a viable alternative to the conventional gasoline-powered automobiles. During that time, electric vehicles were more prevalent.

Are you the owner of a local shop or company? Do you want to find out how to keep your company going with the help of technology? Or do you simply wish to launch your own internet-based company in 2021? Register for the SME Clinic in 2021 to gain knowledge on how to get your business off the ground and growing online.

In Kenya, Bolt's food delivery service now uses both electric bikes and tuk-tuks in addition to traditional delivery vehicles. Africa is waking up to the trend of using renewable energy in technological processes as efforts are being put toward using renewable energy in these processes.

Following the government's decision to halt Twitter's activities in Nigeria, the hashtag #VPN began to appear on the trending topics section of Twitter on June 4th. Even while virtual private networks (VPNs) can get over the Twitter ban, how secure and private are they? Is using a free VPN actually free of charge?

Although this is not the first time the Nigerian government has attempted to censor the Internet, the path that they have chosen is certainly one of the most peculiar. We take a look at the legal issues that have arisen as a result of the Nigerian Twitter ban.

Improving your small business should be viewed as an ongoing project if you want it to be successful. We have outlined five different ways that you can make use of a variety of technological tools to make your company even more successful.

IMEI, the Twitter ban, and now there's a firewall for the internet The government of Nigeria is cracking down on its cyberspace in a manner very similar to that of China. How life-threatening will it become? Let dive deep

The Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has ordered all broadcast stations to deactivate their Twitter handles and stop using user-generated content, in what appears to be another attempt by Nigeria's broadcast regulator to stifle journalism ( UGC).

According to recent reports, Nigeria is reportedly collaborating with China to construct an internet firewall. Should it be constructed, it would grant the government complete control over the information that Nigerians have access to on the Internet... even VPNs

Critics view the Nigerian government's decision to prohibit Twitter as yet another attempt to stifle citizens' rights to express themselves freely, and they have every right to do so. However, how will this decision affect Nigeria's commercial sector? Let's find out.

The Nigerian government has declared that Twitter will no longer be accessible within the country. It's possible that social media platforms like Facebook and others are next. Let's see if we can make sense of this together.

Twitter is launching a new feature called Birdwatch to harness the collective intelligence of its users in yet another effort to combat the spread of false information. Would this help in any way to reduce the amount of inaccurate information that is spread on the platform?

Tolulope Williams, an attorney who is also a fan of really cool toys, recently acquired an electric motorcycle from a trade fair in Asia. That purchase inspired him to establish Siltech, an electric vehicle (EV) assembly company with a focus on Africa.

Kibanda TopUp, a startup based in Kenya, has raised $460,000 in pre-seed funding. The company's goal is to increase the contribution of restaurants to Africa's gross domestic product (GDP).

Airtel Africa sells its Tanzanian towers to SBA Communications Corporation and Paradigm Infrastructure Ltd for $175 million in order to reduce its debt. This sale comes several months after the company disclosed plans to sell 4,500 towers across five different countries.

A partnership between Releaf and OnePipe will hopefully make it simpler for oil palm farmers in the states of Cross River and Akwa Ibom to gain access to digitized versions of traditional financial services.

In spite of the fact that it has the fourth-largest cattle herd in all of Africa, Nigeria still imports milk to the tune of $1.5 billion each year. Is it possible for technological intervention to save this industry? Dive in.

Comparatively speaking to junior and intermediate level developers, Africa's talent pool for senior software engineers is significantly smaller. The new program offered by TalentQL aims to change that, and it boasts mentors from companies such as Tesla, Google, and Microsoft.

Akindele Phillips will take over as Chief Executive Officer of @farmcrowdy, which recently made the shift from crowdfunding to full-fledged technology-enabled agriculture. The company recently made the announcement. The company's former chief executive officer, @onyekaakumah, has announced that he will be assuming a position on the board of directors.

As a result of the NIN registrations and the prohibition on the purchase of new SIM cards, Nigeria has experienced a loss of 15.5 million subscribers. After a period of six months, Nigeria made the least amount of progress in terms of the growth of subscribers when compared to the previous years.

According to a modification that was made to the terms of service for YouTube, beginning on June 1, 2021, video creators located outside of the United States who are not members of the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) will have the possibility of having advertisements appear on their videos without the possibility of receiving payment. What kind of effects would this have on African creators?

Chipper Cash, an African startup that focuses on cross-border payments, has just raised $100 million in a Series C funding round, led by SVB Capital, making it Africa's next unicorn. The value of the startup company is currently estimated to be between $1 billion and $2.5 billion.

@bfree africa was established in 2020 by two Nigerians and a German, all of whom had previously worked for large digital lending fintech startups. Using AI algorithms and management solutions, the company is currently assisting over 300,000 debt consumers in repaying their loans.

Following the release of Microsoft Edge in 2017, Microsoft had intended to bring an end to Internet Explorer (IE). In addition, the company plans to stop supporting IE by the end of June 2022. Will Nigerians miss IE? Will they make more use of Edge?

In the past three days, numerous responses have been made in response to the most recent licensing criteria that have been issued by Nigeria's banking authority. We analyze the implications of this for financial technology companies and consider if the responses are appropriate.

Child pornography is punishable by law in the vast majority of African nations. However, very few countries have any laws at all that pertain to adult pornography, and even fewer have any laws at all that pertain to its distribution on the internet. The government of Kenya is considering instituting a ban on pornography and also censoring the internet. Why?

In honor of International Children's Day, we are shining a light on 11 young businesses that are striving to equip children in Africa with the knowledge and abilities necessary to thrive in an increasingly competitive world.

@enye tech, a company founded in Nigeria and based in the United States that is registered as a non-profit in the United States, primarily focuses on upskilling aspiring engineers and assisting the process of product building for startups through a founder-engineer pairing program.

@crib md, a Nigerian healthtech startup, previously raised $250k in a pre-seed round, and has now raised $2.6 million in a seed round led by @SputnikATX, @norrsken org, and @GuardianNigeria. With this funding, the company plans to grow its team and increase its annual revenue to $24 million.

Mozare3, an Egyptian agritech startup that was established in 2020, has successfully raised more than one million dollars in a pre-seed round of funding to further develop its technology, grow its team, and expand its network of farmers.

BundleAfrica has announced the launch of its own native token, which will be used to pay users and move the company closer to achieving its goal of expanding beyond Africa. Are users willing to put in effort in exchange for BXD tokens?

Mono, a Nigerian API fintech startup, has raised a total of $2 million in seed funding. This comes after the company successfully raised $500 thousand in pre-seed funding in the previous year and was accepted into the Y Combinator Winter 2021 batch in the month of February.

According to @fDiIntelligence, South Africa has the most potential to become the future tech ecosystem of Africa. In spite of the fact that it has more tech startups than any other country, Nigeria was not included in the top five. Let's dive in.

Flat6Labs, an Egyptian venture capital firm with headquarters in Cairo, recently raised $10 million from investors, which will allow it to provide up to $96,000 in seed funding and up to $191,000 in follow-on funding to Egyptian startups.

Ethiopia has granted the first private national telecoms license to Safaricom's consortium, Global Partnership for Ethiopia, three months after denying Safaricom's claims that it had been shortlisted on its list of bidders.

After having asked Nigerians to register for a National Identification Number (NIN), the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has now mandated that individuals submit the one-of-a-kind numbers that are associated with their mobile phones. What does this imply for you moving forward?

It is speculated that Elon Musk's tweet was the cause of the precipitous drop in the value of cryptocurrencies that has occurred over the course of the past few days. How should investors respond, despite the fact that this is not the worst crash that the market has ever seen?

The Federal Government of Nigeria has given its approval to two new regulations for NIPOST, both of which are similar to previous ones. We take a look at what this means for businesses operating in the logistics space in Nigeria.

The Nigerian telecom regulator known as @NgComCommission has just published its report on subscriber complaints for the first quarter of 2021. When compared to the numbers from the past, there has been a significant increase. Investigate the possible factors that led to this result.

The call for suspension by the Senate comes just two weeks after the Nigerian Communications Commission signed an agreement to kick-start the deployment of 5G technology. This further complicates the situation.

The call for suspension by the Senate comes just two weeks after the Nigerian Communications Commission signed an agreement to kick-start the deployment of 5G technology. This further complicates the situation.

APEX Medical Laboratories is a health technology startup based in Malawi that was established in 2017 by two medical lab technologists with the intention of addressing deficiencies in the public health system of the country, which is primarily supported by the government.

Android users will be able to communicate more naturally with their devices and enjoy increased levels of privacy thanks to upcoming updates to Google's ecosystem. How much of an improvement will the features make to people's lives, despite the fact that they are exciting and futuristic?

All unregistered SIM cards will be disabled in December, but Ghanaians will have a grace period of six months, beginning in June, to re-register their SIM cards with Ghana Card. Is Ghana trying to emulate the success that Nigeria has had?

The annual report for Safaricom's business reveals an increase in revenue from Internet data services, but a decrease in revenue from messaging and voice services. And this happened for the very first time on their mobile money platform, M-Pesa, which saw a drop in revenue of 2.1 percent.

It has been reported that Future Africa has already invested $3 million in African startups in 2021, which is twice as much as it did in 2020. In the meantime, it has been reported that female founders have received up to one million dollars.

Homzmart, an Egyptian online marketplace startup that had previously raised $1.3 million in seed funding in 2020, has now secured $15 million in Series A funding as it prepares to expand into the MENA region.

Bosta, an Egyptian company that specializes in last-mile delivery and logistics, was able to secure $6.4 million in a Series A round of funding led by Silicon Badia. In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, as well as all throughout Africa, the courier service is working to improve eCommerce delivery.

Telda, an Egyptian financial technology startup that was founded just one month ago, was able to secure $5 million in funding in a pre-seed round led by Sequoia Capital. The startup anticipates using the funds raised to expand its operations in Egypt and to supply close to one million cards within its first year of operation.

It would appear that Twitter is accelerating its plans to monetize its platform as a result of the recent launch of several new features. Reportedly, it is working on a plan called Twitter Blue, under which users will be charged $2.99 per month for access to these features.

In 2017, the founders of @QuidaxGlobal launched a WhatsApp group that allowed users to purchase and sell cryptocurrencies in a secure environment. According to reports, the business completed more over $3 billion in transactions in 2021. Additionally, the startup, which is supported by Techstars in Toronto, is progressively creating cryptographic infrastructure in Africa.

Despite government crackdowns, the cryptocurrency trading platform Binance reports massive growth in the number of users and transaction volume on the African continent.

Convexity Blockchain Hub (CBHUB), the first dedicated blockchain hub in Nigeria, has just launched in Abuja, and in light of this, we take a look at what this means for the blockchain ecosystem in Nigeria.

The financial results for the first quarter of 2021 for Airtel Africa show a significant increase in revenue compared to the first quarter of 2020. Surprisingly, Nigeria continues to be the most lucrative market, outselling East Africa and Francophone Africa by a combined total of $162 million and $64 million, respectively.

Jumia's financial performance was a mixed bag during the first three months of the year 2021, with profits going down and revenue going down even further. If we look at the numbers for the company over the past 18 months, how well do they show a path towards profitability?

44 Because it preys on vulnerable children and could have an impact on their mental health, Facebook has been forced by the attorneys general of the states in the United States to remove Instagram as an option for children. In spite of the fact that everyone is welcome, what's the catch?

As Lycamobile prepares to become Uganda's third national telecommunications operator, we take a look at whether or not this development is cause for celebration.

The discussion about how slowly women are being included in the ecosystem of technology seems to have become irrelevant. It was recently shown by a report on Africa's project management that was published by Practical Product that having this discussion is still worthwhile.

Maviane has secured finance of $3 million from a single investor, MFS Africa, with the intention of expanding its operations throughout Central Africa. But could this be MFS Africa's plan to gradually take control of the fintech market on the African continent?

iXperience, an edtech firm based in South Africa, has successfully acquired $2.5 million in Series A funding, lead by Kalon Venture Partners. The funds will be used to grow the team, fund innovations, and form strategic alliances.

Despite the fact that the Nigerian government has lifted the prohibition on the registration of new SIM cards, it is still difficult for Nigerians to obtain new SIM cards. I'll explain why.

At the same time that Clubhouse is releasing its beta version of its app for Android, Facebook is beginning its first test of Live Audio Rooms, which is a feature set that is similar to Clubhouse and allows Facebook users to participate in group voice conversations.

At the Building from Ground up series event that took place on April 30, 2021, the UK Nigeria Tech Hub welcomed Jessica Hope, the Founder of Wimbart. This event was held in conjunction with Techpoint Africa. The following are the most important things that we learned:

The Android version of the app has been made available by Clubhouse. Currently only available to people living in the United States, the startup has plans to expand its customer base in the near future. There is a possibility that the addition of this new feature will result in an increase in revenue for the platform.

As a result of a fare increase of 13 percent for the economy option, Uber X, riders in the state of Lagos will now be required to pay a higher price for their Uber rides. Is this a means of lowering commissions, as drivers demanded during the most recent strike action?

@AfroChartsCom is an online music streaming platform that covers all 54 African countries. It was established by a web developer who was born in Burundi. However, rather than concentrating on the few established markets, it zeroes in on emerging and undeveloped ones.

Facebook has implemented a feature similar to one that can be found on Twitter, which requires users to read an article before they can share it. The company is making this change in the hopes that it will assist it in preventing the spread of false news on its platform.

Over one hundred million dollars have been invested in the financial technology industry in Nigeria, which has led to over fifty percent of the country's fintech startups reporting revenues of over five million dollars.

Get to know the people who teach at Techpoint Startup School ( Port Harcourt edition)

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) granted SpaceX a license and a landing permit for a maximum of 4,408 satellites in January 2021. The license authorized SpaceX to transmit signals from Starlink satellites to Nigeria. According to the most recent information, the company intends to apply for a license to fully launch its Internet service in Nigeria by the end of 2021.

Two new policies have been implemented by the Federal Government of Nigeria. One that could lead to more government ICT contracts being awarded to Nigerian startups, and the other that reiterates its call for NIN registration to be made mandatory.

Users will be able to send and receive money through their Twitter profiles thanks to a new feature called Tip Jar that Twitter is rolling out. The feature, which is currently accessible to a restricted number of users only, will soon be made available to a wider audience.

Gabon marked the first country in which the continent's most popular app, @GozemAfrica, expanded its operations beyond West Africa by launching an e-hailing service. We consider this foray in the context of some previous experiments involving African super apps.

In spite of the possibility that blockchain technology will take some time to catch on in Africa, Ethiopia is determined to be a leader in the field by implementing a blockchain-based identification system for five million students. Is it possible that this could spark widespread adoption?

Paystack, a payments company based in Nigeria, has expanded its operations to South Africa almost seven months after it was acquired by Stripe for a total of $200 million. The company, which boasts enormous numbers, has ambitious plans to dominate Africa's expanding eCommerce market.