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Nigeria: Concerns With Money Lenders Data Breach Protection Law

Abidemi Ogunyemi-Aderibigbe
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Nigeria: Concerns With Money Lenders Data Breach Protection Law

Data breach in Nigeria is becoming a menace as lots of private organizations now use customers’ information for other purposes rather than what it was intended for hence infringing on the privacy of Nigerians.

Micro-Money lenders are the biggest defaulters in this regard as they have lately developed a fondness for abuse of personal data of Nigerians by muddling through their debtors’ phones to have access to their contact list and afterward send random messages to the contacts about their debtors defaulting in the repayment of the loan.

This act is a data breach of privacy, abuse of the debtors’ personal data, and a betrayal of trust to their customers as people who were not involved in the loan agreement sealed with their customers are now being notified through unnecessary calls and life-threatening messages. 

Section 17(a) of the FCCPA, 2019 empowers the  National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC)  to administer and enforce provisions of every Nigerian law with respect to competition and protection of consumers.

The Commission has hereby stated that they would soon begin to prosecute money lenders who abuse their debtors’ data.

Steps Taken to Curb Data Breach 

NITDA is said to have received over 40 petitions from members of the public on the personal data abuse aiding data breach by some micro-money lenders companies. It has recently sanctioned an online lending platform, Soko Lending Company Limited (Soko Loans), for privacy invasion.

NITDA stated that this action was necessary after receiving a series of complaints against the company for unauthorized disclosures, failure to protect customers’ personal data, defamation of character as well as carrying out the necessary due diligence as enshrined in the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR).

“Soko Loans grants its customers uncollateralized loans and requires the loanee to download its mobile app on their phone, and activate a direct debit in the company’s favor. This application gains access to the loanee’s phone contacts”, NITDA said

A report from one of the complainants is that when he was unable to meet up with his repayment obligations due to insufficient funds in his account on the agreed date the direct debit was to take effect, the company unilaterally sent privacy-invading messages to the complainant’s contacts.

Thorough findings revealed that a lot of Nigerians who were neither a part of the loan transaction nor gave their consent to the processing of their data have confirmed the receipt of such messages in recent times. Also, the firms are found to embed trackers that share data with third parties in their mobile app without the knowledge of its users about it or using the appropriate lawful basis.

This adds up to “Use of the non-conforming privacy notice, contrary to Article 2.5 and 3.1(7) of the NDPR. And “Insufficient lawful basis for processing personal data, contrary to Articles 2.2 and 2.3 of the NDPR. It also is an “Illegal data sharing without appropriate lawful basis, contrary to Article 2.2 of the NDPR. The firms’ action can as well be sum up to “Unwillingness to cooperate with the Data Protection Authority, contrary to Article 3.1 (1) of Data Protection Implementation Framework and non-filing of NDPR audit reports through a licensed Data Protection Compliance Organisation (DPCO), contrary to Article 4.1(7) of the NDPR.”

Despite NITDA saying it had made strident efforts to get many of such firms to change their unethical practice, they still do it with impunity. The Agency has stated that it will partner with other agencies such as the Federal Consumer Protection agency for enforcement and prosecution of offenders of the data breach and make a concerted regulatory approach that would ensure that Nigerians get required reprieve from the illegal use of their personal data by money lending operations, and other similar firms,  NITDA’s spokesperson Hadiza Umar had stated in a statement.

One of the laid down measures by NITDA to ensure the data protection of Nigerians is by issuing licenses to more data protection companies. The Agency said this initiative was necessary to ensure maximum protection from possible data breaches and ensure Nigeria is not blacklisted in doing genuine businesses with the rest of the world. The Director-General of NITDA Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi has also stated that the agency has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the European Union (EU) Data Protection Council, making Nigeria the first African nation to take such a giant step. 

“NITDA is venturing into data protection to make sure that our country is not blacklisted. Eleven (11) companies have been licensed for this purpose and additional 16 licenses have been approved. Nigeria has signed an MoU with the EU Data Protection Council to give it an international outlook. Data is our new oil. For this reason, NITDA is putting in place an administrative Redress Panel to henceforth handle all issues that will arise from the practitioner. NITDA has also set up a legal team to take up any legal issue that may arise. We are also going to have a National Advisory Council to offer advice from time to time where necessary. Data protection advocacy has to be a continuous process. All we want is to ensure that all we do in Nigeria is in line with international best practices,” Abdullahi stated.

Muili Ologbebe a data protection expert said lots of data controllers and hosts are guilty of breaching peoples’ rights. He stated that this has made Nigerians stand up to protect themselves from likely data breaches considering its damage effects.

He as well pointed out that, many contemporary IT policies are obsolete and NITDA should be proactive by incorporating more advanced IT policies. Also, NITDA and other agencies should up their game and do thorough findings regards data holders to ensure total compliance.

NITDA says it has begun the process of licensing and partnering with a qualified institution to set the standards, prepare exams and issue certifications on data protection skills in the country. These processes are part of the implementation of the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR), a subsidiary of data legislation in the country, it said.

NITDA DG who revealed this has also stated that to keep abreast of trending innovations in order to keep data credible, there is a need for Data Protection Officers(DPOs) to improve their capacities by adopting the best practices for Data Privacy.

Abdullahi admonished them that Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Services are essential elements in safeguarding data from being breached thereby enhancing the data integrity.

He thereby slated that it was essential to incorporate AI into data protection to ensure its accuracy and consistency. He also said there is a need to filter and categorize data elements that will determine the cloud adoption policy to imbibe.

“One of the ideas we are considering is to have an industry association for DPOs and a proposed DPO Forum that would be a peer review mechanism and a point of contact with regulators to shape policies and propose standards for the industry”, he said.

According to him, since the issuance of the NDPR in 2019, NITDA has empowered DPOs by drafting, engaging the public, and publishing the NDPR Implementation Framework to shed more light on the provisions of the NDPR for ease of interpretation and application.

He further indicated that the Agency’s partnership with the DPOs has created new jobs with over 7,600 roles in the Data Protection sector.

“We look forward to Nigeria leading Africa by certifying 350,000 persons with local and global competence in data protection by 2024”, he stated.

 

 

 

International TECH Demo Day

Hassan Barakat
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International TECH Demo Day
International TECH Demo Day will be holding live on the 14th of December, 2021. You can join via zoom anywhere you are in the world.

If you are looking for ideas, international partnerships, or opportunities in the tech space.

This is for you.

Registration is now on for our exciting international tech demo day. We will be showcasing the incredible technologies that are changing our lives for the better. Companies from Cape Town to Aberdeen, as well as ASBN organizations in between, will be showing their innovations or how their companies are incorporating technology into the core of their operations, and how it may benefit you and your company.
The Africa Scotland Business Network is a membership network of highly skilled business individuals and firms that is completely independent. We accept firms from other nations who have a genuine interest in interacting with enterprises in our network, while our concentration is primarily Scottish and African.

ASBN is home to member companies with game-changing innovations. ASBN tech members have either created revolutionary technologies that have improved our lives or have worked with technology at the heart of their businesses.

Date and Time of the Event

  • 14th December: 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM (WAT)
Register now

Event Lineup

Session 1
1. Solariskit
2. CHAPS (UK Gov agri innovation centres)
3. Riiot Digital
4. Tricres
5. Tigerfish Software
6. Workstreme

Session 2
7. Access Partnership
8. Abergower
9. Ecom Africa
10. Scots of the World
11. IDU Software
12. The Business Anecdote

Speaker

Claire Alexander M.Inst.D’S picture
Claire Alexander M.Inst.D Director, Africa Scotland Business Network, GLOBAL SCOT

Alliance for Africa, AFA Organised Training on Technology to Track and Curb Violence Against Women and Girls

Hassan Barakat
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Alliance for Africa, AFA Organised Training on Technology to Track and Curb Violence Against Women and Girls

The Alliance for Africa (AFA) has organised a training session for women and girls to familiarise them with technology that can be used to track and prevent violence against women and girls. The technology will include the use of an app that allows people to report gender-based violence (GBV) and receive immediate referrals from GBV response services.

Faith Kalagbor, an AFA programme officer, revealed this during a one-day workshop in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, with funding from the African Women Development Fund (AWDF), for women and girls to improve their understanding on technology concerns in order to combat GBV.

If put into practice, the training, according to Kalagbor, will help to strengthen effective communication channels and bridge the gap between the survivor and provider, as it will go a long way toward achieving the training’s objectives of “Addressing Systemic Inequalities through Increasing Women’s Voices and Activism in South East, Nigeria.”

“This training is a capacity building on technology and leadership for women and girls in Enugu and Ebonyi State,” she explained. The goal is to bring women up to speed with technical advancements in terms of women’s rights.

“Today’s meeting has the potential to bring women up to speed on technology and other strategies to combat GBV.

“This conference isn’t simply to teach you about technology; it’s also to get you thinking about how you might use technology to automate reporting situations, because putting this data on a digital platform will help to bridge the gap between survivor and provider.”

“This training will also ensure that there is record and evidence that these things are occurring, because we’ve found that government institutions frequently deny that they are occurring or have escalated.” But now we’ll get real-time data from both service providers and survivors, as well as third-party reporting that isn’t necessarily from service providers.

“It brings data to life and will be updated on a daily basis since individuals will be reporting all the time.” It will be available on the app, and AFA has created a tool to that helps people report and get instant referral service from GBV response services,” she stated

State program officer CIRDDOC Nig Mrs. Goodness Mgbaja praised AFA for the training, describing it as an eye-opener for women and girls to realize that with technology, GBV, and other issues impacting women and girls will be addressed more quickly in Ebonyi State.

She then urged all of the attendees to engage in advocacy in order to attract the government to establish a technical environment that empowers women and girls in the field of information and communication technologies.

“Women make up nearly half (47%) of the workforce in Ebonyi state, but they hold less than a third (28%) of the leadership roles in technology,” she mentioned. As women, we must advocate for the government to build a technical environment that empowers and encourages girls and young women to pursue employment in the field of information and communication technologies.

“A shadow pandemic of Gender-Based Violence has been triggered by COVID-19 and related containment measures” (GBV). Millions of girls and women’s safety and well-being have been jeopardized by this global evil. Domestic abuse reports have tripled in our communities, and because the majority of domestic violence remains unreported, the problem is likely to be far worse. This violence may be physical, sexual, verbal, psychological, or financial, and often occurs in households, where digital technology can provide significant benefits. “I’d like to express my gratitude to AFA for putting together such a program,” she remarked.

DSP Loveth Odah, the State Police Public Relations Officer, praised AFA for the training and urged women and girls to speak up without fear and always report to the police. Speaking up, she believes, will aid in lowering the rate of VAWG in society.

African Blockchain Lab Raises $6M Series Pre-A Funding

Mena Adediran
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African Blockchain Lab has raised $6M in a Series Pre-A round. This investment will be used to launch the crypto app it has developed named VIBRA, in order to promote the adoption of digital currencies in Africa.

The investment round was led by notable African venture capital firms such as Lateral Frontiers VC, Musha Ventures, and CRE Venture Capital; blockchain investors were also participants, such as Dragonfly Capital, LeadBlock, Krypital, Hashkey Capital, amongst others. 

African Blockchain Lab was founded in 2018 by Everest Ventures Group as part of its effort to push the “mass adoption” of digital currencies or assets as well as the adoption of blockchain technologies, across Africa.

Speaking on the investment round, Steven Grin of Lateral Frontiers expressed that cryptocurrency has potentials that are realizable, and it deepens the access to financial services to millions. “We have seen the importance of user experience and community building when adopting new technologies and we are confident in VIBRA’s management team mission of making crypto a mainstream product for African consumers,” Grin said.

The VIBRA app is a crypto trading app designed for the African market. VIBRA is said to offer easier methods for crypto beginners to learn about the market and trade with community experts. The launch is starting in Nigeria and will eventually carry on to other emerging markets across Africa. 

African Blockchain Lab also plans to release new products such as VIBRA Earn, where users can earn interest from saving crypto assets.

Vincent Li, the co-founder of African Blockchain Lab, said, “With the backing from our strategic investors, we intend to bring world-class tech stacks, projects, and innovation to the African continent, starting with our first product VIBRA.”

Fintech Solution, Earnipay Improves Financial Well-being for Salaried Employees

Hassan Barakat
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Fintech Solution, Earnipay Improves Financial Well-being for Salaried Employees

Fintech solution, Earnipay, is improving financial well-being for salaried employees by allowing employees flexible access to their accrued salaries on any day of the month.

In 2019, Onwuzulike started a waste cycle business in Ghana, he noticed employees were not happy about being paid at the end of the month. Because most of them were coming from the informal sector, the monthly payment cycle made them broke and unable to cater for their daily expenses. For this reason, after they receive their first salary at the end of the month, many of the workers quit the company in search of other jobs.

Onwuzulike then conducted a poll of 100 formal employees in his network to determine how frequently they ran out of money before payday and what their employers did to help them.

Onwuzulike’s original goal for Earnipay was to create a salary advance solution, similar to others that previously existed in Nigeria, some of which were backed by traditional banks. However, plans were revised after a 100-person poll revealed that 90% of paid staff would prefer to have flexible access to their earned salaries.

Individual employees are not eligible for Earnipay, thus businesses must sign up and onboard their personnel. Employees can take up to 50% of their daily accrued wage as earned at the moment of access from the Earnipay app at any point during the month. The withdrawal is funded by Earnipay.

For example, dipping into one’s pay on the ninth day of the month entitles them to half of what they’ve earned over the previous nine days. Their company deducts the amount removed from their compensation at the end of the month, uses it to reimburse Earnipay for initially funding the withdrawal, and then gives the employee the balance as their monthly salary.

Withdrawals have different degrees of transaction fees. Withdrawals between $5,000 and $10,000 are charged a cost of $500, while withdrawals between $10,000 and $50,000 are charged a price of $1,000.

“It works just like an ATM,” Oyetunji said.

Earnipay
Earnipay

 

When Earnipay was piloted three months ago, Onwuzulike assumed that the solution would be effective exclusively for low-wage workers and informal workers, but the app’s users’ income profiles vary, according to Onwuzulike. He remarked, “One of our customers earns a million naira each month.”

So far, 17 businesses have registered as active users on the app, with their employees using Earnipay over 400 times.

Shorter payment cycles have undeniable advantages. An employee may, for example, view their daily paycheck breakdown on the app, and unlike a loan or salary advance, which are borrowed monies, an Earnipay withdrawal is earned wages.

Even yet, some of the dangers that come with taking out a loan or taking out a salary advance may apply here as well. For example, an earner who is unable to manage their personal finances may wind up dipping into their paycheck before payday for the most frivolous reasons and may continue to struggle to restrict their spending even after getting their salary amount at month’s end.

“The primary issue here is, we’re not financially educated,” Oyetunji remarked in response to these concerns. If you’re not financially disciplined, Earnipay may not make a difference to your spending habits whether you get your money at the end of the month or access it [daily] while you work.”

Now, as Africa adjusts to the global reset imposed by the pandemic, financial well-being in all sectors of employment is more vital than ever. “We’re in the midst of a financial health crisis,” Oyetunji remarked. “People’s quality of life suffers as a result of their inability to meet their basic necessities.” How can we have on-demand spending but not on-demand access to our earned salaries?”

The Earnipay team began developing the platform in July, secured undisclosed pre-seed funding in August, and launched their Minimum Viable Product (MVP) in September.

“Our goal is to cooperate with companies to increase employee financial well-being,” Onwuzulike said of Earnipay’s ambitions for 2022. We provide financial decision-makers with tools to help them make better financial decisions and improve their quality of life. We give financial education to advise employees on the best methods for managing their finances, as well as other items to aid them.

Egypt’s Flat6Labs Program Introduces 9 Tech Startups at Latest Demo Day

Abidemi Ogunyemi-Aderibigbe
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Egypt’s Flat6Labs Program Introduces 9 Tech Startups at Latest Demo Day

Cairo-based Flat6Labs program introduces nine (9) of their most innovative tech startups at the latest demo day. This is the first in-person dem since the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak that took place on the 24th of Nov at Nile Ritz-Carlton hotel.

The nine(9) graduate startups from the 17th cycle of the Cairo Seed Program were chanced to take the stage and present their new products and services to various potential stakeholders such as investors, corporates, customers, and lots more who will be looking forward to supporting the scalability of the business.

The highly-tailored Flat6Labs program offers training and coaching sessions, multiple networking opportunities, perks and services, and legal support to the cohort to get maximum value to grow and make an impact.

The Flat6Labs Cairo program provides startups with cash funding of about EGP1.5 million (US$95,000) in exchange for up to 10 percent(10%) equity. 

 “Our present Fund size allows us to provide a better suitable investment to our startups at this current times, helping them get the right talent and survive longer. Flat6Labs Egypt now offers seed tickets up to EGP 1.5 million and our follow-on funding tickets to selected startups can reach 3 million Egyptian pounds,” says the managing Partner of Flat6Labs Egypt, Marie Therese Fam.

The outstanding cohort of the graduating startups for the fall 2021 cycle of the Cairo Seed program which started on 24th August 2021 has worked on developing their solutions across various sectors which include E-commerce, Health Tech, IoT devices, Food & Beverages, SaaS, and EduTech(Education Technology).

The Nine(9) graduate startups include:

  • Edupay fintech: which aims at simplifying transactions and interactions in education through empowerment to education seekers and rendering assistance throughout their journey
  • Elmawkaa: a B2B web/mobile app on e-commerce that connects contractors with suppliers seamlessly.
  • Kokens: a Kitchen as a Service(KaaS) online platform that transforms online food recipes into a menu available to everyone to launch their virtual food brands.
  • PacknSave: web/mobile app on e-commerce store that provides for online bulk grocery buying.
  • Qubx: this is an on-demand 3D radiological service provider that helps surgeons easily plan for their surgeries.
  • Venu:  a platform that aids modern tech solutions to enhance users’ experience with restaurants while increasing the restaurant’s productivity, profitability, as well as customer engagement.
  • Zatona Eats: is an all-in-one meal planning and ordering application that provides an end-to-end solution for personalized meal plans, cooked meals, scheduled delivery, nutrition therapy, as well as medical supervision. 
  • Zr3i: this is a web/mobile app that provides crop monitoring, management, and farm-to-fork product traceability services to the Egyptian Market and the Arab world.
  • Waseya: this is an online will maker that allows users to write a legally binding will, calculate one’s Net Asset Worth, and compute the Islamic shares of each inheritor while complying with local laws and the Islamic jurisprudence.

 His excellency Dr. Amr Talaat, Egypt’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology, and Ahmed El Alfi, Flat6Labs’ Founder honored the flat6Labs team with their presence and commended the creative solutions provided by the startups to tackle some of Egypt and the region’s most pressing issues.

The next cycle of the Cairo Seed Program will commence in February 2022 and prospective startups are encouraged to apply through this link

 

Microsoft Imagine Cup Global Students Contest 2022

Abidemi Ogunyemi-Aderibigbe
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Microsoft Imagine Cup Global Students Contest 2022

The Microsoft Imagine Cup contest for global students is a skilled-based competition that will help to develop your own skills to prepare you and the world as part of your journey to the future.

Imagine Cup contest seeks to honor ground-breaking, accessible, most innovative, and appealing software that is built with the aid of Microsoft tools and technology.

Over the past 20years, over 2 million student competitors have signed up for this challenge to build and learn together making an innovative impact as well as a significant difference in their communities.

To build your skills: get access to curated training and mentorship from Microsoft experts to help bring your ideas to reality.

Shape the world: Reinvent solutions to solve pressing challenges in a community and build a project to carry along in your career portfolio.

Discover your Passion with Microsoft Imagine Cup

Bring to life your reimagined ideas with a purpose-driven application through the use of Microsoft Azure technology.

You could win and get access to

  • Mentorship and training from distinguished Microsoft Experts
  • Industry pro’s through strong networking
  • Privilege to showcase your ideas
  • Funds to continue with your project and take it to the next level

Additional resources

Build technology skills

Try Microsoft learn helps you get started in the cloud, utilizing free learning paths and tutorials in Azure Cognitive services and more. So, Sign up and get your studentship verified, you get access to $100 cloud credit along with free downloadable developer tools to help in your project.

Details About the Competition

The Application Deadline is January 2022.

The rules and regulations for eligibility and judging criteria for the 2022 Microsoft Imagine Cup can be found in IC22 Official Rules and Regulations-79d82ae8bbd7
The training content spells out everything required to create a successful project for any competition or hackathon.

You will be exposed to information about strategies to create a team down to the best ways to pitch your products to the judges if you follow through with the training.

Schedule for the Competition

  1. Registration and Submission, Join the Discord community, take part in Build Your Epic kick-off event and Epic Challenge now – January 2022
  2. Announcement of Online Semifinals: All submissions are judged – February 2022 
  3. Announcement of World finals: Teams in the top category begins to compete to advance – Date to be announced 
  4. World Championship: The 2022 winner is announced and crowned – Date to be announced 

 

For more information, click HERE

 

 

 

 

 

TradeDepot Raises $110M Series B Funding round, from IFC, Novastar

Hassan Barakat
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TradeDepot Raises $110M Series B Funding round, from IFC, Novastar

TradeDepot has raised a $110M Series B funding round from IFC Novastar to extend Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) service to retailers in Nigeria.

The company, which is based in Nigeria and the United States, connects consumer products brands with thousands of shops and assists with distribution.

The Series B funding comes almost 18 months after Partech Africa and the International Finance Corporation co-led a $10 million fundraising round (IFC).

This time, IFC led the round, with participation from Novastar, Sahel Capital, CDC Group, Endeavor Catalyst,, and prior investors Partech and MSA Capital. Arcadia Funds, a lender that specialized in P2P and marketplace lending as well as insurance-linked products, led the debt financing.

Wale Ayeni, IFC’s head of Africa Venture Capital Investment,, and Brian Odhiambo, Novastar Ventures’ West Africa director, will join TradeDepot’s board as part of the investment.

TradeDepot is a B2B marketplace that connects small businesses, kiosks,, and retailers with global consumer brand wholesalers who supply food, beverages,, and personal care products. To carry out distribution, the corporation possesses warehouses and fleets of drivers.

TradeDepot
TradeDepot warehouse

According to CEO Onyekachi Izukanne, the company had more than 40,000 merchants on its platform last year and currently has more than 100,000.

TradeDepot’s main focus over the last five years has been on integrating technology into the supply chain and onboarding retailers one by one.

The company currently offers a full variety of products to customers who have been onboarded, including digital wallets and financial services, credit and BNPL options.

The BNPL service is integrated into the company’s ShopTopUp platform, which gives retailers access to a credit line for any consumer goods purchased through the app.

TradeDepot, like any other B2B e-commerce platform that offers BNPL services, does not issue cash advances to these merchants. Instead, it delivers customers the things and allows them to pay in installments. The effective interest rate on a monthly basis is over 5%.

“Because of this access, merchants are able to double or triple their typical purchases.” The CEO stated, “We believe that these integrated financial services will be a critical part of this narrative: supply chain on the one hand, and everything linked to financial services to make these businesses run on the other.” “We believe they complement each other. And we’ve spent the last year and a half concentrating on bringing more of these embedded financial products to market.”

When the five-year-old company revealed plans to issue credit in 2020, it established scoring models by financing credit to shops off its balance sheets with equity. According to the company, its BNPL model has resulted in a 200 percent boost in transaction volumes for retailers.

TradeDepot is setting up a debt structure to execute at scale on the back of 18 months of lending to these shops (looking at their purchase history, historical payback performance, and other related data points to predict their creditworthiness).

In Nigeria and across Africa, the vast majority of small and medium-sized enterprises are offline. These industries create $1 trillion in annual sales and $2.6 trillion in nominal GDP on the continent.

TradeDepot Divers
TradeDepot Divers

TradeDepot’s Series B investment is the largest in both equity and debt for any B2B e-commerce platform in Africa right now. The company started out supplying milk to small shops in Lagos, Nigeria, and was one of the first in the field.

Izukanne feels that the rise of new firms that target the market at numerous touchpoints, while also incorporating convenience, and innovative pricing, has made it easier for investors to perceive the value in offline retail digitization.

“If you had a conversation with an investor four or five years ago, there was a lot of education required to convince them why this was an opportunity and why they should come on board,” said the CEO, who co-founded the company with Michael Ukpong and Ruke Awaritefe.

“I believe what we’re witnessing today is the market waking up to that opportunity.” You’ve had more parties coming in, including a few significant ones, and they’re all eager to help you build this. To find the models that work, a lot of iteration is required. And having additional parties hacking at this kind of thing accelerates up innovation in the sector, which is extremely beneficial.

TradeDepot operates in 12 cities. In Ghana, South Africa, and Nigeria(Accra, Johannesburg, and 10 cities in Nigeria). TradeDepot will double down on activities in these three nations and expand its reach across Nigeria, according to Izukanne, in order to capture more of the 5 million SMEs it views as its target market. The debt funding will help the BNPL service be delivered to these retailers.

Deji Alli ARM Young Talent Award (DAAYTA) 2022 for Innovative Nigerian Startups

Abidemi Ogunyemi-Aderibigbe
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Deji Alli ARM Young Talent Award (DAAYTA) 2022 for Innovative Nigerian Startups

Another edition of the DAAYTA for the year 2022 is here again! The Deji Alli ARM Young Talent Award is an ARM drive in partnership with TechnoVision’s TVC Labs which aims at offering young Nigerians an opportunity to build and grow innovative start-up ideas that will add economic value to the country.

The Deji Alli ARM Young Talent Award (DAAYTA) program founded in 2015 is a youth awards initiative in line with ARM’s dedication to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)  in honor of its founding CEO, Deji Alli. The initiative came to be with the aim of bringing together a generation of distinct leaders who will be working together to build a great future.

The goal of the initiative is to provide support to young entrepreneurs that possess intentional ideas which have a positive impact on people’s lives, their communities, and also generate financial returns.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and similar to the previous edition, DAAYTA 2022 final event will be virtual and applications are welcomed from all parts of Nigeria.

Application Requirements

Application deadline is 7th January 2022

The eligibility for the ARM Young Talent Awards are:

  • Applicants must be a Nigerian
  • The age of the applicant must be between 18- 30 years
  • Applications submitted must be applicants original work
  • Applicants must have a minimum viable product(MVP) i.e have users
  • Be capable of sponsoring travel expenses and other associated costs if necessary
  • Applicants (with co-founder/team where they exist) must be available for the 2-day pitch workshop as well as the final pitch event slated for March and April 2022
  • Understand what ARM does and what it stands for
  • Lastly, applicants must be ready to be an ARM Ambassador 

ARM Young Talent Award Prizes

The emerged winner will receive a funding of Twelve Million Naira subject to terms and conditions over a period of 1 year for the outlined purposes:

  • As a contribution to working capital
  • Participation in an entrepreneurial  education program at the Pan Atlantic University’s Enterprise Development  Center in Lagos, Nigeria
  • Receive Five (5) months of acceleration support services by TVC Labs for the development of their venture.

For more information, click here

Pariti, Kenyan Startup Raises $2.85M Led By Harlem Capital

Mena Adediran
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Pariti, Kenyan Startup Raises $2.85M Led By Harlem Capital

Pariti, a Kenya-based platform that builds digital infrastructure for startup ecosystems, has secured $2.85 million in a seed round.

The funding round was led by US-based Harlem Capital and included other investors such as Better Ventures, Diverse Angels, AVG Basecamp, Accelerated Ventures as well as General Market Partners.

Pariti co-founder and CEO, Yacob Berhane expressed his thrill to have Harlem Capital’s participation explaining that Harlem Capital’s goal of aiding underserved startup ecosystems “aligns perfectly” with Pariti’s purpose. 

Pariti connects startup founders in developing markets to resources, capital, and talent. It was founded in 2019 by Yacob Berhane and Wossen Ayele.

According to Berhane, over the past year Pariti has grown by 795%, the growth he credits to the COVID-19 pandemic. He told TechCrunch, “The pandemic was a Black Swan event because we saw a major jump in activity on our platform. Remote staffing and remote investing accelerated tremendously. This was a bet we made a while back but obviously could not anticipate what was coming.” 

So far, Pariti has 880 companies in 42 countries on its platform, which is an increase from the 500 companies recorded earlier this year.  Pariti’s major service is called the Recommendation Engine; startup founders submit their companies to be reviewed and provided feedback from experts on the platform. Afterward, the Recommendation Engine provides custom suggestions the founders can take to improve areas their startup needs help in.  

Pariti also helps venture capitalists and angel investors to find, assess and sign off deals. Some founders have managed to get into global accelerator programmes like the Y Combinator after using Pariti; one of such is Kenyan digital bank Fingo.

Berhane further articulated that, “if Pariti builds this community of founders, investors, and freelancers that have the right mindset to elevate this ecosystem, nobody has to be a gatekeeper. You’re fostering a certain mentality of ‘we will get further together.’ It’s bigger than any one of us.”

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