Is Ghana's Mainstream Media Suffering an Identity Crisis?
Flutterwave CEO says they are getting IPO Ready and Kenya starts process to regulate digital assets
What’s happened this Week:
Bolt partners M-Kopa to distribute EV Motorbikes
South Africa licenses 75 crypto firms
and more!
Falling Walls Venture Call For Applications
The Falling Walls Global Call aims at promoting scientific findings and fostering discussion on research and innovation among a broad audience from all parts of society. As part of it, Falling Walls Venture highlights science start-ups that have translated breakthrough scientific thinking into successful business models.
Start-ups can be nominated by universities, academies, scientific institutions, companies, and foundations worldwide.
For more information on the submission process and selection criteria visit https://falling-walls.com/venture/nominate-a-startup/ and https://fallingwalls.com/global-call/
The Global Call runs from 1 March – 15 May 2024
In The News This Week:
Bolt and M-KOPA Partner To Launch Electric Motorcycles in Kenya
Bolt, a leading on-demand mobility company in Africa, in collaboration with M-KOPA, a leading African fintech platform, has launched their electric bike fleet in Kenya.
Kenya Establishes Multi-Agency Group To Regulate Cryptocurrencies and Digital Assets
Kenya’s government has moved to regulate the operations of cryptocurrencies in the country as it seeks to protect its users by establishing a multiagency technical working group.
Flutterwave Is Preparing To Be IPO Ready According To CEO Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola
At Semafor’s World Economy Summit in Washington DC, Flutterwave’s CEO Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola stated that the company is putting things in place to be IPO Ready.
In the rest of the news:
NBA Africa Launches Accelerator Focused on Early-Stage African Startups
Seychelles To Implement “Document Wallet” To Its Digital ID Platform in 2024
Madica Announces First Set Of African Fintech Portfolio Companies
Afriex Expands Its Money Transfer Network, Connecting Europe to Africa
Ghana Ministry Of Communication Working On “Local Content” Legislation For Telecoms Sector
Nigeria Launches Its First Multilingual Language Model As It Develops Its National AI Strategy
VC Firm TLcom Closes Africa’s Largest Early-Stage VC Fund at $154 Million
Deep Dive
Is Ghana’s Mainstream Media Currently Facing an Identity Crisis in the Digital Age? - Ghana’s media landscape has been a beacon of progress and freedom in West Africa, particularly since the 1992 constitution enshrined media freedom as a fundamental right. But since the arrival of the digital era, the mainstream media appears to be having an identity crisis.
Why This Matters: A study by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism highlighted the ethical challenges within the Ghanaian media, noting that the rapid growth of media outlets has not always been accompanied by adherence to journalistic standards.
Digging Deeper - The excessive politicization of media houses, coupled with commercial pressures, has raised concerns about the media’s ability to perform its expected responsibilities.
Between the lines - In a study on representation on radio, 291 general interviews and 259 expert interviews were conducted, and found that out of the 259 expert interviews on the shows, only 30 were women representing 5.37%.
Africa Ecosystem Activity
SA AI startup Spatialedge raises $3.1m funding to scale in retail - Disrupt Africa
Egypt’s Beltone partners with Citadel Holdings to manage $30m VC fund - Disrupt Africa
Egyptian HR-tech startup bluworks raises $1m pre-seed round - Disrupt Africa
Follow Our WhatsApp Channel
Join our WhatsApp channel to get news on tech in Ghana and Africa on your phone:
PODCAST: Building a Community for Wikipedia editors with Sandister Tei, Co-founder of Wikimedia Ghana User Group
In 2012 Sandister Tei co-founded Wikimedia Ghana User Group, a community of volunteer editors focused on improving and promoting Wikipedia’s knowledge projects in Ghana.
In this episode, we ‘delved’ into the birth of the community, and the role they play in advancing digital literacy among others.
Stat of The Day
According to the AI Index Report, Google currently spends the most on training its AI Language (Gemini Ultra). Google is spending $191.4 million on training
View more data insights below: