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Cisco Global Problem Solver Challenge 2022

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Cisco has a commitment to impact the lives of 1 billion people by 2025, and as such, they look to empower global problem solvers who can keep up with the digital economy.

Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Integral to the growth of Silicon Valley, Cisco develops, manufactures and sells networking hardware, software, telecommunications equipment and other high-technology services and products.

The 2022 edition is the 6th annual Cisco Global Problem Solver Challenge. This programme aims to acknowledge ideas that utilise technology for social impact by early-stage startuppers across the world.

The rewards of this programme are meant to foster the adoption of new technology that aids economic development and resolves social or environmental issues.

Who can Enter?

Persons who use digital/tech-based solutions to impact society or the environment. The focus of impact comprises water, food security, healthcare, education, financial inclusion, and the environment, amongst others.

When is the Deadline?

February 11, 2022

What are the Prizes?

  • $250,000 Grand Prize: a single team will be the grand prize winner
  • $75,000 Regional First Runners-Up: three teams will receive this cash prize each
  • $50,000 Second Runners-Up: three teams will claim this each
  • $10,000 People’s Choice
  • $15,000 Cisco Employee’s Choice 

Special Prizes

  • $100,000 Climate Impact and Regeneration Prize
  • $50,000 Climate Impact and Regeneration Prize Runners-Up 
  • $50,000 HBCU Startup Prize

Programme Timeline

  • November 30, 2021: Applications open
  • February 11, 2022: Applications close
  • April 26, 2022: Semi-Finalists are invited to submit
  • May 20, 2022: Semi-Finalist submissions close
  • July 5, 2022: Finalists announced and People’s Choice Voting opens
  • July 29, 2022: People’s Choice Voting closes
  • August 23, 2022: Winners announced.

For more information, visit the official website here.

To apply, click here.

Interswitch Supports DevFest Lagos, Reiterates Commitment to Boost Nigeria’s Tech Ecosystem

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Interswitch has reaffirmed its support for Nigeria’s tech ecosystem by sponsoring Developers Festival (DevFest) Lagos 2021. Africa’s leading integrated payments and digital commerce company announced that it will be collaborating with other tech companies in Nigeria to sponsor the festival holding on Friday, December 3, at the Landmark Event Centre in Lagos.

The homegrown technology business that has been announced as a platinum sponsor, plans to use the sponsorship to give a platform for tech aficionados to interact, share ideas, and innovate. This sponsorship demonstrates the company’s dedication to enhancing the professional development of Nigerian tech enthusiasts, hence contributing to Nigeria’s continuous advancement in the global tech scene.

The yearly event is one of the most well-attended developer conferences in the world, attracting thousands of developers to network and celebrate the role of technology in today’s world. The focus of this year’s event will be on issues concerning the future of blockchain, mobile and web development, design, cloud computing and machine learning, and other trending topics.

The event would be held at Google Developers Group Lagos. The group provides an opportunity for developers to form a community and discuss their common interests while also generating ideas for bringing about change – both locally and worldwide – using technology.

Developers will learn more about emerging technologies and their applications during the event. Cherry Eromosele, Interswitch Group’s Group Chief Marketing & Corporate Communications Officer, spoke about the sponsorship and emphasized Interswitch’s commitment to helping Nigeria’s IT sector.

“As a technology firm, we are aware that technology will be at the heart of most of the continent’s solutions, including payment,” she said. As a result, one of the ways we contribute our quota to the development of African talent and the localization of emerging technologies to effectively participate in the fourth industrial revolution is by supporting the developer’s community. DevFest Lagos has been selected as one of those touchpoints by Interswitch, which is continually looking for chances and venues that promote conversations around technology in Africa. As a result, the Interswitch Group’s unwavering commitment to growing Africa’s immense IT potential and supporting platforms that promote this purpose cannot be questioned.”

The event will feature famous subject matter experts in the IT field who will lecture on a variety of topics related to technology. For nearly two decades, Interswitch has championed innovation in the payments business in Nigeria, investing in the development of tech talent on the continent.

InterswitchSPAK is one of these initiatives that trains and nurtures the best of Nigeria’s sharpest minds in STEM vocations, giving them problem-solving skills and financial help to achieve their professional goals.

The major payments company is pushing a better developer and software engineering experience through its engineering staff, as well as giving a platform for developers to learn about the payment ecosystem’s intricacies.

Shamba Pride Raises $1.1 Million to Support Expansion Across the Country

Shamba Pride has raised $1.1 million to support its expansion across the country and to launch its solution to over 1,000 shops.

Shamba Pride is a Kenyan agri-tech startup company that offers one-stop online to offline tools and technology to agricultural input distributors by providing them with the requisite skills to offer quality products, services, and information to their farmers.

The agri-tech startup also offers smallholder farmers and village-level farmers access to improved quality inputs, educational information, financial services, and market insights and connections through their women and youth-owned Digishops powered by technology.

The startup company raised its $1.1 million funding investment from Seedstars Africa Ventures and Gray Matter Capital. The fund will enable the company to reach larger markets by empowering hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers to boost their revenue and increase productivity.

The chief executive officer (CEO) and founder Samuel Munguti said by transitioning from traditional and informal to technological trading Shamba Pride is revolutionizing rural distribution channels for African farmers.

Existing last-mile agro dealer businesses can use Shamba Pride to digitalize their operations and provide excellent products and services to smallholder farmers at an affordable price.

The approach creates a network of informed micro-entrepreneurs who serve the smallholder farmer community, helping them to boost agricultural productivity, keep their jobs, and increase their household income.

“We are excited to have Seedstars Africa Ventures and Gray Matters Capital join the Shamba Pride family. Our momentum to revolutionize last-mile distribution systems for African farmers has gained new momentum. The investment will propel our national growth to service hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers while creating a reliable community of smart micro-entrepreneurs offering improved services to farmers,” said Samuel.

According to Maxime Bouan, a partner at Seedstars Africa Ventures, talented African early-stage entrepreneurs continue to face funding challenges despite offering concrete tailored solutions.

“We are convinced Shamba Pride’s online-to-offline model is perfectly suited to tap into a huge market opportunity by upskilling existing value chains and finally offering farmers the quality counterparts they deserve. Beyond capital, we will continue to actively support the company through additional market linkages and corporate partnerships within Africa and beyond to guarantee farmers obtain the best value,” he further stated.

Dataphyte Secures $100,000 in a Seed Funding Round

Dataphyte secured $100,000 in a seed funding round. The announcement was made on Thursday by Dataphyte. Dataphyte is a media, research, and data startup company based in Nigeria. The company, established in November 2020 is significantly leading data innovation, data analysis, and sharing relatable stories.

The Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF) made the seed funding round. MDIF is a non-profit investment fund that supports independent media in countries where freedom to independent media is under attack.

MDIF provides technical support and advisory services for media groups in addition to assisting them with affordable debt and financial equity.

MDIF’s program director for Africa & MENA, Bilal Randeree, said, “We are delighted to have made our first investments in Dataphyte and Zitamar News, two highly impressive media companies that provide important services to the people of Nigeria and Mozambique,”

Dataphyte said the investment will be useful in building digital products and enlarging the company’s business in data journalism. Dataphyte has so far built three excelling products and has supported the media ecosystem with open data resources and capacity building.

“The purpose for us is to apply data to respond to three existential challenges in Nigeria and Africa as a whole. One, lead a successful business model mix for data journalism; two, offer data analytics and information services to the corporate and development sectors and lastly to support the government in its adoption of data and technology for public policy and good governance,” stated the founder of Dataphyte, Joshua Olufemi.

The company, known as the first journalism platform, recently launched DATAPLEX – a data merchandise platform – as well as its training academy platform.

According to the company, they aided the Ekiti State government in building an open data site as part of their commitment to work with the government to make socioeconomic and public finance data more available.

Adenike Aloba, the managing editor of Dataphyte said the company has prospects of using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to power its journalism.

UK-Africa Technology & Innovation Summit

The UK-Africa Technology & Innovation Summit organized by SSCG is a digital and technology development in accelerating innovations, transferring of knowledge, partnerships, and investments between the UK and Africa.

Join the summit to connect with like-minded business leaders, investors, and entrepreneurs, to get recent updates, insights, perspectives, strategies, and the best practical practices.

About the Uk-AfricaTechnology & Innovation Summit

Due to the recent pandemic, Covid- 19, it is believed and expected that economic growth across Africa will be delayed as well as the rest of the world for years to come. But, the rate at which technology and digital opportunities across Africa are on the rise as well as unlocking new innovations and opportunities are highly commended despite the Covid-19 restrictions.

The resilience of Africa’s internet economy along with the growth in the population of private consumption, great developer talent, private and public investment in digital infrastructure, connectivity, and the new policies and regulations put in place by the government continues to drive the economic growth.

The rising number of technology and digital economy-based companies are creating avenues for significant economic growth that will aid the creation of a new source of value, business growth, innovative products, job creation, entrepreneurship, financial liberation and contribute to overcoming Africa’s challenges of future development.

Details of Event

Date: Feb 17, 2022

Time: 10:30 am – 15:00 pm GMT

Ticket: £16.76 – £27.54

Location: Online Event

Agenda of the Event

10:30 – 12:00 GMT SESSION 1: TECH ECONOMY AND MARKET

  • Rethinking and unleashing digital, tech innovation and e-Conomy in Africa – African Union (AU) digital transformation strategy for Africa
  • Maximizing Africa’s $180 Billion digital economy innovation and technology investment opportunities
  • Revealing the potentials of Africa’s prudent innovations and informal innovative SME sector
  • Steering the growth and scaling up of tech SME businesses and companies
  • Diving into Africa remote economy, virtual services, E-Services, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), and E-commerce sectors
  • Speeding up innovative Knowledge Transfer and partnerships (KTP)
  • Aiding Africa’s connectivity, networks, and telecommunication

To be discussed by:

Dr. Benjamin Kwasi Addom – Adviser, Agriculture and Fisheries Trade Policy (Digital) at The Commonwealth Secretariat

Prof John Ouma-Mugabe – Professor of Science and Innovation Policy, University of Pretoria and Director, Foundation for Innovation and Technology (FIT)

Ben Roberts – Group Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, Liquid Intelligent Technologies

Fargani Tambeayuk – Head of Connectivity Policy, Africa at Meta

12:00 – 13:30 GMT SESSION 2: INVESTMENT, FINANCE AND FINTECH

  • Sponsoring R&D, African tech start-ups, digital SME businesses, and innovations technology start-ups VC investment ecosystem: Angel investors, venture capitalists, FDI and DFI funding
  • Banking and financial technologies: Defi, FinTech, Digital Currencies, and Crypto peer-to-peer trading
  • Investing in digital trials and technologies

To be discussed by:

Ben White – Founder and CEO At VC4A, co-founder ABAN and AfriLabs

Kagiso Mothibi – Head: Fintech Unit & Innovation Hub, Financial Sector Conduct Authority, South Africa

Ogugua Osakwe-Adegbite – Head of Strategy and International Expansion, M-PESA Africa

13:30 – 15:00 GMT SESSION 3: TECHNOLOGY, DIGITAL, AND INNOVATION

  • Leveling up technological advancement, adoption, modernization, and digital transformation
  • Processing digitalization and digitization technologies and innovations
  • Discussing smart cities, offices, homes, and factory technologies
  • Health Tech, innovation, EdTech, MedTech, and digital medicine
  • Business collaboration and management systems by Cloud, Edge Computing, AI, IoT, Blockchains, ML, VX, VR, ERD, Data Centres, TaaS, SaaS, PaaS, DigCom, GovTech
  • Energy, smart grids, electricity distribution, and energy efficiency management system
  • Clean Tech, sustainability, and circular economy management innovations
  • Looking into the emergence of digital solutions for the development
  • Transport, mobility (MaaS), logistic and supply chain management technologies
  • Discussing Cyber security, attacks, data protection, and digital tech security threats

To be discussed by:

Ifeoma Malo – CEO, Clean Tech Hub Nigeria

Nanko Madu – Director of Programmes at AfriLabs

Gift Agboro – Acting Deputy Country Director at the UK-Nigeria Tech Hub

Julio Malikane – Technical Specialist, Digital Health & Education at United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF)

Joylynn Kirui – Senior Cloud Security Advocate, Microsoft

Click Here to buy tickets.

Please Note:

By registering to attend this event, you consent to hold of your personal data and usage of event images in line with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance. Be assured that your data will be kept confidential and only be used to keep you updated on any events activities by SSCG.

For further inquiries and partnership, please email info@sscg-group.com.

Egyptian Fintech Startup KlickIt Closes Its First Round of Investment

Egyptian fintech startup KlickIt has closed its first round of investment in an investment round led by EFG Finance and Camel Ventures – the venture capital arm of DFIN Holding. The funds will be used to develop the value-added services available on the KlickIt platform.

KlickIt is an Egyptian-based digital collection platform whose operations involve payment management driven by the ethic of plug-and-play. It was founded in 2017 by Saeed Talaat, Hashim Ibrahim, Youssef Galal, and Walid Abou Elnour.

The platform operates integrated systems that digitize and enhance end-to-end payment processes through which clients are provided with revolutionized digital payments services. Their clients range from private to public educational entities in Egypt and across the globe.

KlickIt’s co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO), Saeed Talaat, expressed gratitude to their investors.

“We’re very proud to be backed by substantial entities like EFG Finance and DFIN’s Camel Ventures, and we thank our investors for their continued support and trust in us,” he said.

CEO at EFG Finance, Walid Hassouna said he was proud to be part of the investors in KlickIt and backing his team.

“They have been proving their determination, grit, and ability to overcome challenges and to crack a highly lucrative market. We believe the future of availing financing through valU on Klickit will provide superb and accessible services to their customer base and help catalyze the growth of the company,” he stated.

The concluded first-round financing will be used to expand and improve the KlickIt tech stack. And as well as to develop and bring together value-added services for the company’s broad network of schools, institutions, and rapidly rising client base.

During his speech, Saeed revealed the company’s plans for the investment round, “With this investment round, we look forward to solidifying our tech stack and scaling our services. Our partnerships over the last year with GEMS, Banque Misr, and most recently the Egyptian Ministry of Education, have been essential to our growth, and we plan on leveraging these experiences to spearhead the next chapter in our journey.”

Currently, KlickIt has successfully processed EGP500 million (US$31.8 million) and is reputed to be the choice partner for over 55,000 educational entities, including notable institutes, schools, and nurseries.

UNESCO ICT in Education Prize 2021 Call for Nominations

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UNESCO has opened up nominations for the UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of ICT in Education 2021 edition. This year’s theme is The Use of Technology to enable Inclusive Crisis-resilient Learning Systems.

This award seeks to celebrate and reward innovators creating, developing, and building technology-based methods for promoting quality education. The focus is on expanding and fostering learning opportunities for every individual in fulfillment of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal 4 on Education.

UNESCO observes that technology has the ability to enhance teaching and learning and also increase access to good education. The UN agency further observes that about 95% of the world population has the potential to gain from educational services based on digital solutions.

This Prize was established in 2005 and is supported by the Kingdom of Bahrain. A jury picks the best two projects as the prize winners.

What is the Prize?

Prize winners get:

  • $25,000 
  • A medal 
  • A diploma given at the UNESCO Paris headquarters

Can I Apply?

The following are allowed to apply; individuals, institutions, non-governmental organisations and other entities.

What Are the Eligibility Requirements?

  • The project should have been run for at least 1 year
  • The project and organization should not have any affiliation with UNESCO or have received prior funding from UNESCO
  • The technology/digital tools used by the project should be open and free.

 What is the Selection Criteria?

  • Relevance to the Thematic Focus: The project correlates with the objectives of the Prize and is relevant to the theme of the year’s edition
  • Innovation: The project uses innovative technologies to provide accessible and inclusive tools
  • Evidence of Impact: The project has to have evidence of impact
  • Potential for Replicability and Scalability: The project should prove that it can be replicated in other scenarios or have the potential to improve and scale its impact
  • Inclusion and Equity: The project should apply innovative technologies to advance inclusion and equity in education, as well as take consideration of marginalized groups, learners in crises, and learners with disabilities.

When is the Deadline?

February 18, 2022

Go here to apply.

FemTechConf -Women in Tech Q1 Summit

The global FemTechConf community is coming together again with the Women in Tech Q1 Summit. Over the past 2 years, 25,000 + women,  TGNC, and partners have attended the online event to learn, network, and grow together.

The FemTechConf community expects over 15,000 awesome techies to hook up and grow in an inclusive environment at the Women in Tech Q1 Summit.

Over 30+ wonderful speakers will be onboard to share their knowledge and experience on various topic areas such as diversity, communication, inclusion, team building and management, Impostor syndrome, career growth, and lots more.

DETAILS OF EVENT

Date: 27th Jan 2022, at 12:00 WAT to 28th Jan 2022 t 17:00 WAT

Add to calendar

Location: Virtual Event

Registration: Free

SPEAKERS

Opeoluwa Okosun – Oracle’s Deal Manager

Soukayna Ikhiche – Sales Specialist at Spryker Systems

Nancy Marangu – Community Advocate for ConnectAID

Jasmine Viccarro – Sales Cyber Risk Big Data Engineer at Cognizant

Nastasia Neumann – SumUp’s Lead Talent Acquisition Partner 

Sophia Chambers – Software Engineering Manager at Sky

Sara Colón – Partner at BNS&K Law

Clare Palmer – The Founder and Creative Coach at Claritybyclare.com

Clara Okoro – The Founder and COO at My Beautiful Africa

Alina Holcroft – Administrative and Financial Head of Research Direction INSA Strasbourg

Ben Ventham – Talent Acquisition Global Team Lead | IT, Data & Digital at AstraZeneca

Paula Quinsee – A Growth Mindset Catalyst and Relationship Coach

Rahmat Omolabake Afolabi – 2021 Diana Awardee ( in Digital literacy in rural communities) and Youth Hub Conference Team (World Health Organisation)

Courtney Robertson – Design and Dev Advocate at GoDaddyPro

Aneta Kowalczyk – Android Developer at Clearscore

Also, we will be having

FemTechConf Community – Discussing how we came into Tech (Heartwarming and inspiring stories from members of the FemTechConf community around their path to entering Tech and the hurdles they faced)

Prior partner organizations include:

Zalando, GoDaddy, Accenture, Amazon Web Services, Delivery Hero, SinnerSchrader, Tuxera, and more.

FemTechConf community would love to have YOU on board either as an attendee cheering from the audience or directly participating as a speaker.

Interested in becoming a speaker? speaking@femtechconf.com

Interested in becoming a partner? partnerships@femtechconf.com

You can as well check out their social media handles and follow.

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

LINKEDIN 

To register for the event kindly use this Link

Next Decentrum Victory Square Portfolio Company Launches Crypto Pharaohs An Iconic NFT Collection

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Next Decentrum, a Victory Square Portfolio Company, has launched Crypto Pharaohs, an iconic NFT collection.

Victory Square Portfolio company is a company that provides access to a diverse portfolio of technology companies in main factors for the next generation of investors. The key sectors include Web3, Gaming, NFTs, Creator Economy, and the Metaverse. Victory Square is glad to announce that portfolio company, Next Decentrum has launched Crypto Pharaohs which is an iconic collection of digital collectibles (NFTs), Crypto Pharaohs was inspired by the culture and heritage of ancient Egypt.

Crypto Pharaohs was created out of love for the Egyptian culture and the fascination of its ancient civilization. It is a limited NFT collection of 7006 cryptographically distinct and majestic collectibles, robotically brought to life and blessed with power and magic.

Hussein Hallak, Founder and CEO of Next Decentrum has said, “We are thrilled to launch an NFT collection that brings together great storytelling and stunning visuals to pay tribute to the most remarkable and awe-inspiring civilization to ever exist”. Hallak said, “Crypto Pharaohs is part of our digital content strategy to extend the utility and experience of our NFT platform to a wider audience”.

The collectibles were developed with the assistance of the leadership team at DAF, a leading digital solutions fintech company revolutionizing the Egyptian healthcare sector. The teams on the sides of both companies are planning and working on many projects drawing inspiration from the rich Egyptian art and culture scene.

“We are delighted to work with the team at Next decentrum who have a great passion for art and culture. With the global popularity of NFTs, this project is a brilliant first step to bring Egyptian art and culture to the Metaverse”, Hatem Kandeel, CEO and Founder of DAF said.

Crypto Pharaohs will be launched in a series of NFT drops with unique experiences and rewards. Collectors from everywhere in the world will be able to claim Crypto Pharaohs with the Momentable platform. An appropriate NFT platform developed by Next Decentrum on the Flow blockchain.

Lead Product Designer at Next Decentrum, Anne Morgan said, “As an avid gamer and Egyptology buff, this collection was an absolute pleasure to work on. Our aspirations are for this collection to become a game where collectors actions have an impact on the big challenges we face in the real world”.

A group of collectors will help shape the project guideline and base it on the growth and milestones achieved, Next Decentrum plans on developing Crypto Pharaohs into a journey that unfolds as a P2E (Play to Earn) game, whereby collectors fight the forces of evil in the real world.

Play-to-earn games use NFTs to distinctly identify characters and items in the game. Players earn characters, participate in the games, and sell characters and items to other players so they can generate income.

Next decentrum’s strategic progress in the NFT and P2E markets comes as a result of working with the team closely and accelerating their go-to-market plans at Victory Square. This is a piece of good news for Victory Square who is an early investor and owns 18.32% of Next Decentrum.

Investment One Financial Services Limited Announces Investment in Paycode

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Investment One Financial Services Limited (Investment One), one of Nigeria’s leading financial services providers, has announced through its Venture Capital subsidiary, Investment One Vencap Limited, that it has taken a stake in Paycode.

Paycode is a provider of technology solutions that use biometric digital identity to guarantee proof of life and enable low-cost, last-mile delivery of basic financial services. The South-African based company solves three major difficulties for the unbanked and underserved by offering low-cost solutions to individuals who lack formal identity and live in places with limited or no mobile or internet access.

Paycode provides a platform that combines biometric digital identity and payments in one easy platform, allowing access to basic financial services such as cash payments, mobile money, remittances, insurance, microloans, airtime, power, and social subsidies.

“We see Investment One as so much more than just an equity partner to Paycode,” said Ralph Pecker, CEO of Paycode. Investment One is a major and forward-thinking participant in Nigeria’s financial services sector, which is a critical growth area for us. We believe that bringing them on board would help us achieve our expansion goals in Nigeria much more quickly and that we will be able to deliver an exceptional return on their investment.”

The technological USPs of Paycode was appealing to Investment One, a valuation that focused on current revenues and users while reasonably discounting cashflows (in an environment where fintech valuations have noticeably sky-rocketed during 2021) and the scope for growth in Nigeria through projects already won. Paycode’s potential growth trajectory in Nigeria alone was analysed by Investment One to determine its relative value. The majority of Paycode’s active customers are currently in Ghana, Zambia, and Mozambique, but the pipeline in larger countries like Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo is a crucial growth driver.

“Our investment in Paycode reflects both our desire to provide exceptional returns for our clients and our commitment to bringing financial services to Nigeria’s underserved sectors.” Nicholas Nyamali, Managing Director of Investment One Group, said, “Paycode’s unique approach to solving the most complicated challenges of the financially excluded aligns well with our own innovative DNA.”

Paycode is planning a Series A capital round in the first quarter of 2022. Currently, it has over 6 million card users enrolled, a Mastercard alliance, and a robust pipeline of fee-driven grant and social programs.