Tag: technology
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“Blitzscaling” in African Markets: Opera’s Opay Optimizes Its Operations
Recently, OPay, the Chinese-backed super app operating in Nigeria made an announcement that garnered plenty of attention. Best known for its lime-green ‘Uber for motorcycle taxis’ service, the company, which is backed by Softbank and Meituan Dianping (China’s other super ...
OPay’s Failure Prompts Reflection in Nigeria’s Tech Community
Last week's announcement by the Chinese-owned Nigerian-based e-commerce and payments company OPay to suspend four of its services (ORide, OTrade, OCar, OFood) caught a lot of people by surprise. After raising an impressive $170 million in a Series B funding round last fall from some ...
China’s Space Program Becomes New Soft Power Message in Africa
China's Ambassador to Botswana Zhao Yanbo was among a number of Chinese envoys and embassies who celebrated this week's launch of the Long March-3B rocket, which carried the new Beidou Navigation Satellite System into orbit. The new nav system presents an immediate challenge to the U.S.-led Global ...
China’s Unconventional Agricultural Assistance in Zambia
Daisy Kambandu, the country program manager for the Chinese-run Agricultural Technology Demonstration Center (ATDC) in Zambia, joins Eric & Cobus to discuss China's unconventional approach to agricultural assistance. In contrast to most traditional aid programs, ATDCs like the one near Lusaka ...
How China’s Technology Startups Are Scaling Across Africa
Computer Village in Lagos, Nigeria is a curious combination of old and new. Dirt roads are lined by hundreds of kiosks featuring the latest mobile phones and computers. Hawkers and criers call out deals at the entrance to both bric-a-brac sheet ...
Many of Washington’s Top Africa Experts Participate in All-Day Hearing on the State of U.S.-China-Africa Relations
Nine of the top Africa experts in Washington testified in an all-day hearing on Friday organized by the congressionally-mandated U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC). The hearing, entitled "China’s Strategic Aims in Africa," coincided with this ...
Why China Needs to Do a Better Job in Monitoring and Evaluating Its Agricultural Development Projects in Africa
Since I started working for a non-profit organization, one of the most frequently asked questions I get is: “so, if you’re giving out free money, how do you measure your success and failure?” This, of course, is a fair and relevant ...
Chinese Pay-TV Operator StarTimes’ New App Will Help You Determine if You’re Infected With COVID-19
Chinese-owned African pay-TV giant StarTimes launched a new service on its StarTimes ON platform that is intended to help users determine if they are infected with COVID-19. Think of this as a sort of pre-diagnosis. ...
Huawei Joins COVID-19 Relief Effort in East Africa With High Tech Donations
The Chinese telecom giant Huawei is stepping up its CSR efforts in East Africa to support governments in the region with various technology solutions to aid their fight to contain the outbreak of COVID-19. These donations, and the accompanying media coverage, ...
Africa Could Be the Winner as the U.S. Attempts to Stifle Huawei
This much is clear: 5G is coming. About 100 times faster than current mobile speeds, it will deliver faster internet to more people. One square kilometer of 4G can support about 4,000 devices. With 5G that jumps to about one million devices. But this ...
Mobolaji Adeoye: More Chinese VC Investment is on its Way to Africa in 2020
Mobolaji Adeoye, founder of Consonance Investment Managers, is a highly-regarded early-stage investor in the African start-up sector and provided his outlook for the year ahead in the VC space that attracted $1.27 billion of venture capital investment in 2019. Mobolaji Adeoye's ...
2020 Will be a Big Year in the China-Africa Tech Sector
China's role in the African tech market is rapidly evolving away from just being a source of low-cost electronics to becoming the indispensable player in the continent's rapidly developing market for digital services, networking equipment and venture capital financing.