Posts by Alastair Tempest

In another development in Tanzania, a startup fintech, Mipango, has launched an artificial intelligence-based app that provides users with free financial advice on iOS and Android devices. Mipango is a personal finance…

Jumia’s revenues fell by 10% in the second quarter, dashing hopes that the COIVD lockdowns would lead to a flood of online orders. Revenue for the quarter fell to $41.1 million. There was…

There have been reports that some countries have provided students with free data during the pandemic. We have heard of some individual educational institutions, such as TUC in SA, providing…

U.S. blockchain research firm Chainalysis  reports that monthly cryptocurrency transfers to and from Africa of under $10,000 – typically made by individuals and small businesses – jumped more than 55%…

The plan to launch a new currency (“the eco”) to replace the CFA franc used by several countries in West Africa may not happen for at least 5 years. Last December, the 8 countries which use the…

Tralac held a 2 day conference on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)  21-22 September, which stressed that the negotiations were progressing satisfactorily despite COVID.  The conference stressed that…

At the time of writing, a US court has stopped the Trump administration from its plans to prevent TikTok upgrades on US cell phones, and Oracle and Walmart are on…

The new Secretary-General of the AfCFTA, Mr Wampele Mene, has said that during the forthcoming negotiations on ecommerce at the AfCFTA (see our report below), attention will be given to…

Ghana-born entrepreneur Ashifi Gogo, moved to the United States in 2001 as a student and founded Sproxil in 2009 to tackle the problem of counterfeit medication in Africa. Sproxil’s mobile authentication technology,…

The M-Pesa mobile-money service, founded in 2007 by Vodafone and Safaricom, is used by over 200,000 African businesses to make payments. COVID has had a big impact on small and…