Bolt Food to Exit Both Nigeria and South African Markets in December

Ghana to waive import duties on EVs and Csquared raises new funds

Nov 17, 2023

What’s happened this Week:

YellowCard launches PayPal USD for Africa
Cellulant expands to Egypt
and more!

Bolt Food, the food delivery service run by Bolt, the transportation startup, was in the news this week. The company announced that they were leaving not only the Nigeria market but also the South African market by December this year.

The company stated that it was because of “economic conditions”.

However the company did announce that they were launching a new “Scheduled Order” feature for Kenya where users can place a food order ahead of time.

Bolt Food is still currently available in the Ghanaian market at the moment

In The News This Week:

CSquared Raises $25 Million To Invest In Neutral Broadband Networks In Africa

Pan African technology company CSquared has raised $25 million to invest in Africa’s telecommunication infrastructure.

Yellow Card, an African crypto fintech company has launched the PayPal USD (PYUSD) in the African region. This new stablecoin from PayPal, issued by Paxos, will open new opportunities for digital financial transactions between Africa and the United States.

The Finance Minister of Ghana, Ken Ofori Atta, in a budget reading to parliament on Wednesday 15th November, announced that the Finance Ministry would waive the import duty of electric vehicles (EVs) for public transportation in Ghana.

In the rest of the news:

Tech Events In Ghana

We’re putting together events that will be happening later in Ghana this year. You can check them out here:

Check Out The Events

Africa Ecosystem Funding Activity

SA insurtech startup Pineapple secures $21.3m Series B funding - Disrupt Africa
Nigeria’s Zenith Bank launches $73k startup competition - Disrupt Africa
Harvard’s Africa Business Club offers startups $50k cash prizes - Disrupt Africa
Egyptian ed-tech startup Akhdar secures 6-figure funding round - Disrupt Africa

Podcast: Africa Apps and Data with Michael Zaitsev, AppsFlyer

On today’s episode, we talk to Michael Zaitsev, the Managing Director in Africa for a company called AppsFlyer.

We discussed the trends of apps in the African region, the rise and popularity of fintech apps, and whether AI will play a part in app development in the future.

The episode is also available on Spotify, Apple, and Afripods.

Listen Now

Video: How Starlink Is Making Progress in Africa

SpaceX, the rocket company built by Elon Musk has been making major strides with Starlink, its satellite internet company. Starlink launched its services in the US in 2019 and has been expanding its services to almost every continent including Africa.

So how is Starlink doing in terms of progress in delivering its satellite service in Africa and which countries are currently being offered services?