The Nobel laureate has produced plays, poems, essays and even inspired a pop duo but he hasn’t written a novel for nearly half a century – until nowAt 87, Wole Soyinka is a Nigerian icon. His plays have been performed around the world, his poems anthol…
Religious rehab centres fill gap as Nigeria grapples with soaring drug use
With poverty deepening, state services are failing to cope with rising rates of addictionKola* was in secondary school in Nigeria when he started smoking cigarettes. He soon graduated to cannabis, heroin and eventually to crack cocaine. Access to drugs…
Extra Crunch roundup: China’s new data privacy law, fractional farming, debt vs. equity
China’s first data privacy laws go into effect on November 1, 2021. Will your company be in compliance? Modeled after the EU’s GDPR, the new regulations “[introduce] perhaps the most stringent set of requirements and protections for data privacy in the world,” writes Scott W. Pink, special counsel in O’Melveny’s Data Security & Privacy practice. […]
Plentywaka founder Onyeka Akumah on African startups and global expansion
Plentywaka, a combination of English and Nigerian that means “plenty movement,” has big plans to ameliorate the public transport infrastructure in Africa and beyond.
The Guardian view on Nigeria’s violence: the state is part of the problem | Editorial
For too many, the government encroaches upon their lives but cannot protect themIn his treatise Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes did not suggest that government was benevolent – only necessary. Without it, argued the philosopher, people would live in perpetual…
African fintech OPay valued at $2B in SoftBank Vision Fund 2-led $400M funding
Chinese-backed and Africa-focused fintech company OPay raised $400 million in new financing led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Bloomberg reported Monday, valuing the company at $2 billion. The round, which marks the Fund’s first investment in an African startup, drew participation from existing investors like Sequoia Capital China, Redpoint China, Source Code Capital, and Softbank […]
Mobility startup Plentywaka picks up $1.2M seed, acquires Ghana’s Stabus
Lagos and Toronto-based mobility startup Plentywaka has raised a $1.2 million seed round to scale its operations on the back of leaving the Techstars Toronto accelerator program last month. Canadian-based VC firm The Xchange led the round, SOSV and Shock Ventures participated, while Techstars Toronto made a follow-on investment. Nigerian firms Argentil Capital Partners and […]
Alerzo raises $10.5M Series A to bring Nigeria’s informal retail sector online
The process of digitizing the operations of mom and pop stores in Nigeria is serious business right now. In fact, it might be the second-best thing after fintech at the moment. Today’s news is from Alerzo, a little-known B2B e-commerce retail startup based in Ibadan, Nigeria. The company is announcing a $10.5 million Series A […]
A leaked bill for Nigerian startups reveals a theme of licenses, fees, fines, and sentences
For a while, there have been talks about revamping the outdated 2007 Act of Nigeria’s information and technology body, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA). The bill which established NITDA as the agency to oversee Nigeria’s technological transformation is quite outdated. This past decade, Nigeria has arguably become Africa’s most attractive destination for venture […]
How Adia Sowho helped steer Thrive Agric through the pandemic crisis
Nigeria’s less than two-decade-old ecosystem is evolving fast. But behind the funding and legitimate hype, there’s without a doubt plenty of learning that needs to be done in running a startup. In retrospect, founders in Nigeria do tremendous work when you consider the kind of harsh market they operate in. They are deserving of all […]