Nigerian neobank, Carbon, has shut down its debit card operations. Carbon Co-founder Ngozi Dozie made this known in a substack post yesterday. According to him, the fintech has already sent an email to all its debit card holders announcing that they would be discontinuing all card operations on the 19th of June.

Though he was not specific about the reason for shutting down the debit card operations, he may have alluded to the high cost of operations denominated in the dollars as being the possible reason. He said, “When I take a step back with the benefit of hindsight (and a card operation bill denominated in USD$), I question why practically all neobanks are pushing cards or even getting into it. Was this the right strategy for ALL of us, or was Carbon just unlucky?”

In June 2021, Carbon launched its debit card after entering into a five-year partnership with tech giant Visa to issue virtual and physical debit cards to its customers across Africa. Its promise of “delivering an unparalleled banking experience that is both safe and reliable across all touchpoints” with the debit card seems to have come to a halt.

Continue reading: https://innovation-village.com/nigerian-neobank-carbon-shuts-down-its-debit-card-operations/

Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, has been banned by the UK’s financial regulator. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has ruled that the firm cannot conduct any “regulated activity” in the UK.

It also issued a consumer warning about Binance.com, advising people to be wary of adverts promising high returns on crypto asset investments. Binance said the FCA notice would have no “direct impact” on the services it provides from its website Binance.com.

Binance’s existing crypto exchange is not UK-based so despite the FCA ruling, in practice there will be no impact on UK residents who use the website to purchase and sell crypto-currencies.

The FCA does not regulate cryptocurrencies but requires exchanges to register with them. Binance has not registered with the FCA and therefore is not allowed to operate an exchange in the UK.

Binance said that the firm’s relationship with its users had not changed, stressing: “We take a collaborative approach in working with regulators and we take our compliance obligations very seriously. We are actively keeping abreast of changing policies, rules and laws in this new space.”

The FCA move comes amid pushback from regulators around the world against cryptocurrency platforms.

Binance.com is an online centralised exchange that offers users a range of financial products and services, including purchasing and trading a wide range of digital currencies, as well as digital wallets, futures, securities, savings accounts and even lending.

Binance Group is currently based in the Cayman Islands, while Binance Markets Limited is an affiliate firm based in London. The firm has multiple entities dotted around the world and Binance Group was previously based in Malta.

The FCA said that Binance Markets Limited (BML), which is owned by Binance Group, is not currently permitted to undertake any regulated activities without the prior written consent of the FCA. It has until Wednesday to comply with the ruling.

The regulator also stressed that no entity in the Binance Group holds any form of authorisation, registration, or licence to conduct a regulated activity in the UK.

Source: https://innovation-village.com/uk-financial-regulator-bans-cryptocurrency-exchange-binance/

The 2021 BET awards have come and gone and award-winning gospel singer, Kirk Franklin, emerged the winner of the Dr. Bobby Jones Best Gospel/Inspirational Award with his song "Strong God".
Other nominees include

- Bebe Winans - “In Jesus Name”
- CeCe Winans - “Never Lost”
- H.E.R. - “Hold Us Together”
- Marvin Sapp - “Thank You for It All”
- Tamela Mann – “Touch From You”

Incidentally Kirk Franklin and Lil Baby kicked the show off with their uplifting collab "We Win," an offering from the forthcoming, LeBron James-starring movie, Space Jam: A New Legacy.

Click on the link to read more about this.....https://www.christianitynigeria.com/2021/06/kirk-franklin-wins-dr-bobby-jones-best.html

The Co-founder and CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey via a tweet on Monday, announced that the company’s presence in the African continent would be in Ghana.

Since the announcement, Nigerians have been questioning why the Jack Dorsey-led company chose Ghana over Nigeria to locate the Twitter headquarters.

It is unsurprising that Nigerians are reacting this way. This is because we have an incurable sense of entitlement as the giant of Africa and more importantly, we have one of the most vibrant Twitter communities or users in Africa.

According to a report by Portland Communications, Egypt tweets the most out of any country in Africa, with 28% of all geolocated Twitter volume (amounting to 500 million tweets). Nigeria (360 million geolocated tweets), South Africa (325 million geolocated tweets), Kenya (125 million geolocated tweets), and Ghana (70 million geolocated tweets) round out the top five tweeting African countries. Overall, there were 1.6 billion geolocated tweets in Africa in 2015 – a 34-fold increase from our initial research in 2012.

Even with this, Nigerians still feel that any company headquarters that comes to West Africa should automatically land in Nigeria. This is not the case as many of these international tech giants consider humongous factors before settling for a place to birth their business.

Click on the link to continue reading...https://innovation-village.com/why-are-nigerians-unhappy-that-twitter-selected-ghana-as-its-african-headquarters/

The onslaught of Nigerian government regulators on fintech startups is very worrisome considering the fact it is one of the most vibrant sectors driving the economy.

Investors from all over the world are taking advantage of digital finance, microcredit needs of Nigerians and the largely unbanked population to invest heavily in these startups.

Paystack, a wholly Nigerian startup was acquired by Stripe for over $200 million. Also, Flutterwave earlier this year raised a whopping $170 million to expand into North Africa. Cowrywise, Termii, and Afriex among many others having raised between 1m and 4 million dollars.

It is estimated that there are over 250 Fintech startups in Nigeria and Nigerian startups contributed more than 17% of the over $1 billion funds raised by African startups in 2020. In March alone, five Nigerian startups raised $202 million.

You see the dollars are rolling in not only for the fintech startups but the whole Nigerian tech landscape or ecosystem. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why the regulators are tightening the noose around these fintechs. If this continues, it may affect these dollars.

Additionally, the fintechs are giving banks a serious run for their money in the race to boost financial inclusion in Nigeria. They are innovative, fast and tech-driven. Another assumption is the banks alongside the CBN are trying to clip the drawn-out wings of the fintechs?

Go to https://innovation-village.com/timeline-of-regulatory-clamp-down-on-fintechs-in-nigeria/ to continue reading

Just a day after the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) warned stock trading and investment platforms like Bamboo, Rise, Trove, and Chaka among others against selling securities of foreign companies listed on Securities Exchanges outside Nigeria, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has now ordered non-banking institutions in the country from using the Bank Verification for validation of its customers.

This was made public via an email Paystack and non-banking institutions sent to its customers informing them about the new regulation.

Paystack said, “We’ve recently been made aware of a regulatory directive from the primary custodian of Nigeria’s BVN service to all their partners to suspend the provision of the BVN validation service to their third-party partners. This directive affects every non-bank in Nigeria that offers BVN validation service.”

The company said in line with the development, it has temporarily suspended its BVN validation service effective midnight of April 8, 2021.

Before this new directive, the CBN AML/CFT Regulation 2018, allowed Banks and other companies to use Bank Verification Number (BVN) as forms of identification for users who wanted to open an account.

In line with the aforementioned, all institutions or customers who want to open an account or have a business relationship with a bank or other non-banking institution shall provide proof of address, while operators of the account shall be required to provide other forms of identification, such as international passport/driver’s license/national identity card and Bank Verification Number (BVN).

This is no longer possible for non-banking institutions and they have to find other means to perform their Know Your Customer (KYC). The visible and most immediate alternative is the National Identity Number which is the closest thing to the BVN.

Surprisingly, the CBN is yet to release an official statement on the new regulatory policy.

Source: https://innovation-village.com/cbn-stops-non-banking-institutions-from-providing-bvn-validation-services/

Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States, is back online with a new website, https://www.45office.com, after he was banned from social media sites in the aftermath of the January Capitol insurrection.

The website offers a narration of the former President and his wife, Melania Trump.

The website describes him as the person who “launched the most extraordinary political movement in history, dethroning political dynasties, defeating the Washington Establishment, and becoming the first true outsider elected as President of the United States.”

“His inspiring, groundbreaking campaign proved pollsters, pundits, prognosticators, and the corporate media spectacularly wrong. He mobilized voters with massive rallies, reached America’s hearts and minds with his vision for national rejuvenation, and overcame virtually every entrenched power structure—political and financial—and achieved a decisive victory, winning states no Republican presidential candidate had won in decades.”

Trump has been off the Internet since the January 6th Capitol insurrection that killed five people and led the Justice Department to charge at least 150 people with insurrection, a number that could increase to 400 or more.

Click https://innovation-village.com/trump-is-back-online-with-new-website-after-social-media-bans/ for more on this.

During the second day of its Mega Launch 2021 event on Tuesday big Chinese smartphone maker, Xiaomi pulled the wraps off its first official foldable smartphone after resurrecting its Mi Mix series with the Mi Mix Fold, the company’s first commercial folding phone. Xiaomi claimed the foldable screen had been tested to last for 1 million folds, while the hinge can go for at least 200 bends.

The company has previously showcased an ambitious prototype foldable for which the screen could be folded in two places, but unlike these other previous outlandish Mix devices and concepts, the Mi Mix Fold is a pretty conventional folding phone that uses a big-screen-on-the-inside / small-screen-on-the-outside design similar to Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold series and Huawei’s new Mate X2.

The inner screen is an 8.01-inch 4:3 OLED panel with 2480 x 1860 resolution, a standard display brightness of 600 nits (900 peak), and support for Dolby Vision HDR. Xiaomi says the display is able to withstand being folded 200,000 times. The outer screen is 6.52-inches with a 90Hz refresh rate. Xiaomi is making big claims about the Mi Mix Fold’s audio capabilities, with four Harman Kardon-tuned speakers and what the company describes as 3D panoramic sound.

People in China are able to preorder it as of today, and it’ll ship on April 16th. Prices start at 9,999 yuan (around $1,521) for a model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, going all the way up to 12,999 yuan (around $1,978) for a 16GB / 512GB ceramic special edition. There’s no word yet on a release outside of China.

Go to https://innovation-village.com/xiaomi-announces-its-first-folding-phone-mi-mix-fold/ to learn more about the phone

[img][/img]

Acclaimed Nigerian singer-songwriter Sinach, who is also one of the top 10 most subscribed artists in Africa on YouTube, will treat viewers to a celebration of joy and freedom during a 60-minute live stream on her YouTube channel on Easter Sunday.

The virtual concert, Sinach Live: A Celebration of Joy, will be streamed exclusively on YouTube on Sunday, April 4 2021, at 6PM WAT. It promises a unique performance by this global star, who will bring an uplifting message of love, healing and hope through music during this Easter celebration.

Says Sinach: “I am particularly delighted to be able to connect with my friends from around the world on the YouTube platform, where they can expect me to minister some of my popular songs, and others from my new album, Greatest Lord.”

Says Google spokesperson, Addy Awofisayo, YouTube Content Partnership Lead, Google, Sub-Saharan Africa: “Music is a universal language that has the ability to uplift and connect people across the world. YouTube is proud to be able to host this very special concert from Sinach, and delighted to promote courage, optimism and joy at this time when it’s much needed.”

Continue reading at https://www.christianitynigeria.com/2021/03/sinach-live-celebration-of-joy-concert.html

American financial services and software company, Stripe, has acquired Nigerian payment processing company Paystack for $200 million. This acquisition heralds the company's entrance into Africa.
Stripe led a number of other companies, including Visa and Tencent in an $8 million in a series A funding in 2018, bringing Paystack’s total investment to date to more than $10 million before this acquisition.

According to reports, terms of the deal are not being disclosed but sources close to it confirm that it’s over $200 million.

Founded in 2015 by Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, Paystack currently has around 60,000 customers. Paystack helps businesses in Africa get paid by anyone, anywhere in the world.

Shola Akinlade alluded to the fact that Paystack was not for sale when Stripe approached them. “For us, it’s about the mission. I’m driven by the mission to accelerate payments on the continent, and I am convinced that Stripe will help us get there faster. It is a very natural move.”

However one can say that this is a major for Paystack as "the deal will give the company a lot more fuel (that is, investment) to build out further in Nigeria and expand to other markets, CEO Shola Akinlade said in an interview with Techcrunch.

Stripe was founded in 2010 by Irish entrepreneur brothers John and Patrick Collison. In May 2020, Stripe expanded its services in 5 new markets in Europe: the Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, and Malta

Patrick Collison said that while acquiring Paystack after investing in it was a big move for the company, people also shouldn’t read too much into it in terms of Stripe’s bigger acquisition policy.

“When we invest in startups we’re not trying to tie them up with complicated strategic investments,” Collison said. “We try to understand the broader ecosystem, and keep our eyes pointed outwards and see where we can help.”

Source: [url]https://innovation-village.com/stripe-acquires-paystack-for-200m-to-expand-into-africa/
[/url]

The tech ecosystem has continued to show financial support for #EndSARS as the protest continues globally.

#EndSARS started on Social Media but migrated to the streets some days ago when youths decided enough was enough.

Even though the Inspector General of Police announced the disbandment of Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), the protests are still going on across the nation and in some nations around the world.

Here are some of the techies that have contributed funds to the #EndSARS as it is a protest that they can relate to

FLUTTERWAVE
The funds flow for the #EndSARS support started with Flutterwave whose CE, Gbenga Agboola, announced that the company had raised N2m and decided to open it to the public.

Read on at https://innovation-village.com/tech-startups-others-support-endsars-financially-as-protests-continue/

A lot has been happening to Thrive Agric in the last couple of days owing to the current payout crisis in the company. The company has been unable to pay returns on investments made by subscribers. The subscribers took to social media to vent their anger even when the company said that the reason for the late payment was the COVID-19 pandemic.

So the company has made some organisational changes to steer the business out of her current challenges and prepare the company for the future. It announced the appointment of Adia Sowho as interim CEO to manage the current payout crisis. Before now, Adia was the Vice President for growth at fintech startup Migo and Director of Digital Business at 9 Mobile (Etisalat Nigeria).

According to a statement from Uka Eje, the co-founder, Adia is “to guide Thrive Agric through a turnaround exercise so that we survive the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the business.”

“Adia has a lot of experience with building businesses from the ground up and shaping them to operate at scale. I asked her to support us, recognizing that she has the required expertise to move us past this period successfully.”

Continue reading... https://innovation-village.com/thrive-agric-appoints-adia-sowho-as-interim-ceo-to-manage-payout-crisis/

Uber Nigeria has increased fares on its UberX with effect from Tuesday, October 6, 2020.

UberX is the most popular private car service on offer at Uber, commonly referred to as the ‘low-cost option’ for riders.

This was disclosed by the company, in an e-mail shared with riders.

The ride-hailing firm increased its minimum fare from N400 to N500, Base from N200 to N220, per kilometer from N60 to N65.

The firm explained that the decision was taken to balance reliable earning opportunities for driver-partners, as well as a reliable and affordable service for the riders.

It stated, “While we have always tried to keep prices as low as possible, we need to be aware of the increased costs for driver-partners.

“This comes after implementing an in-depth earnings review to ensure that the Uber app continues to be a reliable economic opportunity for driver-partners, as well as an affordable option for riders.

“We believe that these fares remain competitive, and we’re committed to offering high-quality service to driver-partners in Lagos.”

Credit: https://innovation-village.com/riders-to-pay-more-as-uber-increases-fares-in-nigeria/

There has been a recent silent executive mass exodus in Nigeria’s leading automotive trading platform, Cars45 that seems to signify that there is a discord among the senior executives at the top and the board in the company.

If it had not been for the report from Weetracker, not many people would have known that the CEO/co-founder Etop Ikpe and eleven senior executives have left the company. In fact, Etop Ikpe who served as the CEO since its launch in 2016, left the company two months ago.

Then came the disclaimer on the company’s Instagram handle that notified the public of eleven senior executives that were no longer in the employment of the company with effect from August 25, 2020. The public notice went on to add that “They are not authorised to represent the company in any matters whatsoever.

The mass exodus of these senior executives would suggest that there was a fallout between the Board members and the executive team.

Cars45 was founded in 2016 by Etop Ikpe, Iyamu Mohammed, Sujay Tyle, and Peter Lindholm. In 2017, the company raised a $5 million Series A round from the Frontier Cars Group, a holding company whose backers include Balderton Capital, EchoVC, TPG Growth, and NEA.

Frontiers Cars Group, co-founded by Sujay Tyle, raised $58 million in funding in 2018 and got $400 million in 2019 from Naspers’ OLX. It is interesting to note that Sujay Tyle quit FCG in August 2020.

Continue the story here https://innovation-village.com/why-the-recent-executive-exodus-at-cars45/

Microsoft is said to be in talks to buy TikTok's operations in America even Trump's administration is weighing on China-based ByteDance Ltd. to divest its stake in TikTok’s U.S. operations. Trump administration officials say that they have been concerned that TikTok poses a threat to national security and may be banned.

Bloomberg reported that the president was poised to announce an order that would force ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations.

“We are looking at TikTok. We may be banning TikTok,” Trump told reporters Friday at the White House. “We are looking at a lot of alternatives with respect to TikTok.”

This deal would give the software company a popular social-media site and relieve U.S. government pressure on the Chinese owner of the video-sharing app.

Though Bytedance is based in China and has repeatedly disagreed with the accusations that it feeds user data to China, it has not been able to convince the Trump administration otherwise. To show this, ByteDance hired a U.S.-based chief executive officer, Kevin Mayer to be the CEO of TikTok and COO of ByteDance, reporting directly to the company CEO Zhang Yiming. ByteDance has considered making other organizational changes to satisfy U.S. authorities.

ByteDance was founded by Zhang Yiming in 2012 and is reportedly worth over US$100 billion as of May 2020

Source: https://innovation-village.com/microsoft-is-in-talks-to-buy-tiktok-operations-in-us/

American President, Donald Trump responds to Twitter tagging his tweet as Fake News.

Earlier, for the first time ever, Twitter tagged President Donald Trump's tweet with a fact checking label.

The President had tweeted that "there is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-in Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent..."

A blue exclamation mark and a "get the fact about mail-in ballots" check was put under the tweet. A click on the tag under the President's tweet leads users to a page that describes Trumps assertions on mail-in ballot as unsubstantiated.

Twitter has always been under pressure to check or remove certain tweets which many people may find misleading. This led to the policies that were put in place to remove misleading tweets about the pandemic.

According to company spokesperson Katie Rosborough, the tweets “contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labeled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots.”

Of course, you would not expect the American President to take this lying low. He has responded saying....Click the link below

https://innovation-village.com/twitter-tags-president-donald-trumps-tweet-as-fake-news/

Firstly, I must confess that it seems kinda absurd that there should a link between a biological virus and a telecoms network infrastructure. But there is a conspiracy theory linking the novel coronavirus to 5G broadband technology.

This theory is causing havoc in the UK and even gone viral on social media in Nigeria.

These are the two major corona conspiracy theories circulating on social media:

That the coronavirus is transmitted through the use of 5G technology;
That 5G can suppress the immune system, thus making people more susceptible to catching the virus.
In the UK, there are reports that this has caused mobile telephone masts to be set on fire in Birmingham, Liverpool and Melling in Merseyside. BBC confirms that the posts were shared on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram – including by verified accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers.

At the government’s daily coronavirus briefing earlier, Mr Gove said conspiracy theories linking 5G with Covid-19 were “just nonsense, dangerous nonsense as well.”

There is also another video that has gone viral about this issue. As reported by Daily Mail, a woman posted a video of herself confronting workers who were laying fibre optic cables in East London and labelling them killers, over a conspiracy theory claiming that 5G caused the global coronavirus pandemic.

In Nigeria also, there are some of the tweets going round about the seemingly destructive nature of 5G and the link to the coronavirus
This led the issuance of a press statement by the Nigerian Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Matanmi, denying the the issuance of the 5G license in the country.

According to him, “His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, places a premium on the welfare, health and security of Nigerians. As such, our desire for technological advancement will never be at the expense of the health and welfare of our citizens.”

He mentioned that a 3-month study trial commenced on the 25th of November, 2019 in order to critically review and study the health and security implications of deploying 5G in Nigeria.

“Government will not act on the speculations only, but rather we will take an informed decision on 5G after due consultation with experts and the public.” he added.
SO IS THERE ANY LINK BETWEEN 5G AND CORONAVIRUS OR HEALTH HAZARDS?
As far as I know, there has been no scientific evidence linking the coronavirus pandemic to 5G, nor any immediate negative health effects to 5G.

5G is the fifth generation of wireless communications technologies supporting cellular data networks. Large scale adoption began in 2019 and today virtually every telecommunication service provider in the developed world is upgrading its infrastructure to offer 5G functionality.

5G frequencies may be higher than that of 4G and other earlier networks, but they are still far lower than the limits stipulated in international guidelines.

Click tp continue reading..https://innovation-village.com/corona-conspiracy-theories-is-there-any-link-between-5g-and-the-coronavirus/

Ziing, the Savings and Investment app from Investment One, has unveiled a new improved user interface and new features.

The old app had a slider which takes you through 3 different pages. With the new app. you have all the information on one page giving the user the ability to decide where he wants to go to with a click.

Another important new feature on the app is the “Biometric Login”. Ziing has been enhanced with Fingerprint Authentication for login. It highly accurate, easy to use and available for fingerprint enabled devices.

This option is activated at initial password login after update of the app

Other features and functionalities that have been improved on the new Ziing app include the following:

- Easier Onboarding: Existing Investment One clients can now seamlessly signup on Ziing. Simplified and improved process.
- Setting up Goals (zPlan): Additional features that include an estimate of how much to be contributed periodically. An estimate of expected interest is also displayed.
- zSave Transfers: Ability to save beneficiaries when using this option. Users will no longer need to copy and paste or remember emails or phone numbers of individuals they have transacted with.
- Security Pin Revamp: Improved process regarding setting and resetting security details on Ziing.
- App Speed: Improvements on speed, loading times and time on tasks.
- Stockbroking: Ability to trade stocks with funds in your zSave or directly from your bank account.

To access the new Ziing app user interface and features, update your existing app or for new users, go to the Google Playstore for the Android version and Apple App store for the iOS version.

Ziing is powered by Investment One Financial Services

At the #GoogleForNigeria event yesterday, YouTube announced that it was teaming up with local music superstar, Mr. Eazi to support emerging talent in Nigeria.

The announcement was officially made by YouTube’s Global Head of Music, Lyor Cohen in a fireside chat on stage with Mr. Eazi at the event.

This is part of YouTube’s longer term-commitment to work with a number of key partners in Nigeria to support emerging talent in the country.

In the initial phase, YouTube will partner with the artist and the emPawa Africa initiative to support 10 emerging Nigerian music artists to build their craft, increase their fanbase and connect with the world through YouTube.

According to Cohen, “The contributions will go toward enabling the artists to shoot videos, record music and get mentoring.

“It is critical to develop the next generation of talents and there is so much talents exploding out of Nigeria and the African continent right now; as Africa is setting the tempo all around the globe. We are incredibly proud that YouTube has been a mainline for African artists to connect all over the world.”

“By supporting one of the leading African trail-blazers like Mr Eazi and his emPawa initiative, we are excited to see how these artists supercharge their careers and grow their fan base on YouTube.”

Read the full article at https://innovation-village.com/youtube-partners-mr-eazi-to-support-emerging-talent-in-nigeria-through-empawa/

lets expand the selection. Lets include groups like Rooftop MCs, e.t.c Oops they are really not many