Announcement
News from Jumia
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…
Read MoreMeeting Education Needs During COVID
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…
Read MoreThe Bitcoin Boom in Africa
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%…
Read MoreDelay in the launch of the new West African Currency
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…
Read MoreThe AfCFTA Continues to Gather Momentum
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…
Read MoreThe Future of TikTok
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…
Read MoreDiscussions on Global Online Trade Continue at the WTO
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…
Read MoreIdentifying Counterfeit Goods
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,…
Read MoreBanking and Mobile Money News
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…
Read MoreCybersecurity
As we reported last month, the SA’s Cybersecurity Bill still awaits the President’s signature. Meanwhile in its regular report on cybersecurity, Kaspersky, whom we have often quoted in this Newsletter, says there…
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