Are Ghana's Government Tech Solutions Pushing Out Local Startups?
Payday is back in Rwanda and Bolt gets selfie verifications
What’s happened this Week:
Payday relaunches in Rwanda with help from Starlink
Bolt introduces selfie verification for drivers in South Africa
and more!
Is Ghana Government getting in the way of local startups in Ghana?
The Ghana Government is trying to digitise a lot of its services in the areas of tax, health and payments. But in doing so, it may be excluding local players who have already built solutions to help with some of these problems.
Does the Government need to work on an e-pharmacy platform when mPharma is already in that space? Wouldn’t it be better to rather build a platform that mPharma could plug in and feed data? Maybe other health startups could be involved.
We took a look at whether the Ghanaian Government needs to stop building its own tech solutions and maybe focus on more collaborative effects with the tech ecosystem.
In The News This Week:
Smile Identity Acquires Ghanaian ID Verification Company Appruve For Undisclosed Amount
Smile Identity, a KYC compliance and ID verification partner for African fintechs and businesses, has acquired Inclusive Innovations, the parent company of Appruve, a Ghanaian developer of identity verification software.
Payday Re-Launches in Rwanda with SpaceX’s Starlink
Payday, the leading Pan-African neobank issuing global (USD, GBP & EUR) accounts to Africans, has announced its re-entry into Rwanda, following the official launch of SpaceX’s Starlink in the East African country.
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42Markets Group Secures $10 Million Growth Capital Injection from Convergence Partners
42Markets Group, the financial and capital markets fintech investment group, has secured $10 million in growth funding from Convergence Partners, a leading private equity investor dedicated to the technology sector across sub-Saharan Africa, after it recently closed its Convergence Partners Digital Infrastructure Fund (CPDIF) at $296 million.
Bolt Introduces Driver Selfie Verification Feature in South Africa
Bolt, the leading on-demand mobility platform in Africa, has introduced a driver selfie verification feature to increase passenger safety by combating driver impersonation in South Africa.
Story Features
Can Bluesky Be The Twitter Replacement We’ve Been Waiting For?
But ever since Elon Musk bought the platform and started implementing his own policies, some users soured have started to sour on Twitter. Some other Twitter alternatives like Mastodon have emerged but haven’t caught on as much with users.
But another alternative called Bluesky has emerged and is slowly gaining popularity. Can Bluesky be the best alternative to Twitter?
Africa Ecosystem Funding Activity
Applications open for $100k Africa Food Prize - Disrupt Africa
SA rewards app Maholla raises $1.5m seed funding to help it scale - Disrupt Africa
New “What’s Your Story” Podcast Episode
In this episode, we speak to Maureen Okojie. She's the co-founder of SEND, a digital freight forwarder and customs broker that's solving some of the biggest supply chain problems on the continent.
The new season is sponsored by Paystack, a leading payments company in Africa.
The new episode is now available on podcast platforms
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