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Dell Technologies Graduation Project Competition for Senior Undergraduate Students

Sopuruchukwu Elizabeth Mba
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Dell Technologies Graduation Project Competition for Senior Undergraduate Students

Dell Technologies Graduation Project Competition for senior undergraduate students in the Middle East, Russia, Africa, and Turkey.

Dell Technologies graduation project competition is an annual undergraduate student competition organized by Dell Technologies. The competition is intended to spark the creativity of students for their graduation projects to play an active role in the Transformation of IT and get the opportunity to shine and win prizes.

If you are a senior student who is working on your graduation project in any of the below topics in the Healthcare, Well-being, and Education sectors, you are welcome to join Dell Technologies Graduation Project for a very exciting ride!

The targeted topics: IoT, AI, Multi-cloud, and 5G.
*For Specific use cases please refer to Use cases and References Page.

 Eligibility & Criteria

  • Students who wish to participate should be in their senior year and should be enrolled in any academic Institution in the Middle East, Russia, Africa, and Turkey.
  • Students should have a faculty member as their supervisor.
  • Students should be non-governmental employees and full-time university students.
  • The authenticity of the information provided by the students should be validated by the head of his or her department.
  • Students should be listed only in one project.
  • All communication between Dell Technologies and the project team will be done through the project academic advisor and the designated team leader.
  • Each competing team should consist of a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 6 members.
  • One of the team members should be selected as a team leader with the following responsibilities.

Team Leader duties:

  • Act as the sole contact point between the student team and the Dell Technologies team for the Envision the Future competition.
  • Play the role of “Project Manager”, as defined in the professional literature and refined by the team.
  • Lead the team to set up –and implement- communication mechanisms that ensure a complete and transparent exchange of information.
  • Coordinate team meetings and schedules.
  • Make sure that team members communicate with each other as scheduled and in a professional, and well-documented way.
  • Lead the team to set up –and implement- proper and effective mechanisms for conflict avoidance and resolution.
  • Monitor and document the progress of the project.
  • Make sure that project activities are conducted –and the deliverables are submitted- in accordance with the project plan and in full compliance with the instructions of the academic advisor.
  • Work with enthusiasm, motivate team members, and keep high morale and work ethics.
  • Provide information to and from the team.
  • Coordinate meetings and their schedule.
  • Envision the details of the project including its objectives and constraints.
  • Make sure that team members communicate with each other as scheduled and in a professional way.
  • Ensure that all members contribute meaningfully to each meeting and to the project as a whole in terms of content and times.
  • In case of conflicts, he/she should lead resolving it soon by compromise, discussion, or through an external arbitrator.
  • Record and monitor the progress of the project as scheduled.
  • Make sure that deliverables are submitted as instructed by the team advisor.
  • Manage the settlement of the WebEx during the competition.

The originality and novelty of the ideas are the core of our competition and one of the important pillars. Plagiarism which is taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own is against the ethics of our competition.

Prizes & Benefits

Winners of the competition will receive cash prizes as below:

  • First place will receive a cash prize of $5,000.
  • Second place will receive a cash prize of $4,000.
  • Third place winner will receive a cash prize of $3,000.
  • All the Top 10 team members will get recognition certificates for their achievements.
  • We will be offering a mentoring opportunity by Dell Experts for our finalists’ projects (who will pass the interim phase to the final one).
  • A formal award ceremony will be organized at one of the major Dell Technologies events in the region. All the members of the winning team and their academic advisor(s) will be invited to attend the ceremony along with senior officials from their university/college.

How to Participate

Students are invited to submit their project abstracts in areas related to the advancement of technology and applications related to the following focus areas: Use cases in AI, IoT and Multi-Cloud and 5G.

Competition Phases

The competition consists of 3 phases:

  • Project Abstract Submission:
    Submission window: 15th of November till 30th of December 2021.
    Announcement of Shortlisted Projects 20th February 2022.

Get the abstract evaluation form here.

  • Interim Design Report Submission:
    Submission deadline: 5th of March 2022.
    Announcement of The Top 20 Finalists: 26th of March 2022. Teams will be offered a technical mentorship from Dell Technologies.
  • Final Report Submission:
    Submission 25 July 2022.
    The Winners Announcement – 4th September 2022.

Determination of Winners:

All the documents submitted to the competition are blindly reviewed and evaluated by international professors and experts who reside outside the region. Each document is reviewed by at least two different evaluators.

How to Apply?

Click here to apply

 

 

 

 

 

TechGirls Program for the Next Generation of Women In STEM

Sopuruchukwu Elizabeth Mba
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TechGirls Program for the Next Generation of Women In STEM

TechGirls program for the next generation of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is an initiative of the U.S Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

TechGirls connects and supports the next generation of women leaders in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics by providing them access and opportunities to advance their skills and pursue their dreams.

Since 2012, TechGirls has trained and mentored 343 teenage girls (ages 15-17) from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestinian Territories, Tunisia, and Yemen.  In 2019, the program expanded to include young women from Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan).

In 2022, the program will expand to support approximately 111 young women from 36 participating countries and 25 U.S. peers in a dynamic four-week U.S.- based experience with an 8-month mentoring program (including pre-and post-exchange).

The core of the program is a 27-day experience in the United States in partnership with Virginia Tech University (tentatively scheduled for July 2022). TechGirls participate in an interactive technology and computer camp, then travel to one of the following cities (Austin, Chicago, Cincinnati, Denver, Detroit, Portland, or Seattle) for job shadowing at a tech company, and homestay and community service experiences. The TechGirls programming yields a multiplier effect as participants return home to educate their peers and create community-based projects.

TechGirls is packed with skill-development workshops and interactions with America’s most innovative tech professionals as well as 40 hours of study at a Tech Camp with our partner the Center for Enhancement in Engineering Diversity at Virginia Tech.  The TechGirls program offers a rich cultural immersion experience, improves the participants’ ability to enter tech fields, and encourages them to pursue higher education in fields where women are underrepresented.

Eligible Countries

TechGirls will be competitively recruited and selected from the following regions/countries and territories:

  • Sub-Saharan Africa (AF) – Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, and South Africa.
  • East Asia and Pacific (EAP) – Cambodia, Fiji, Indonesia, Mongolia, Taiwan, and Vietnam.
  • Europe and Eurasia (EUR) – Albania, Cyprus, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Turkey.
  • Middle East and North Africa (NEA) – Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestinian Territories, and Tunisia.
  • South and Central Asia (SCA) – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
  • Western Hemisphere (WHA) – Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Suriname.
  • The United States of America.

Requirements

Students eligible to apply are those who:

  • Are between the ages of 15 and 17 at the start of the exchange July 7th, 2022;
  • Have demonstrated advanced skills and a serious interest in technology, engineering, and/or math in their academic studies;
  • Intend to pursue higher education and/or careers in technology;
  • Have strong English language skills;
  • Exhibit maturity, flexibility, and open-mindedness;
  • Will attend at least one additional semester of secondary school upon their return to their home country; and
  • Are committed to completing a community-based project upon their return home.
  • Preference will be given to those who have limited or no prior experience in the United States. You are not eligible if you have traveled to the United States in the last three years as part of any other ECA exchange program.

Please note that family members of U.S. Embassy or Consulate staff. U.S. Department of State employees, family members of the administering organization, or partner organizations are not eligible to apply.

TechGirls encourages people with diverse backgrounds and skills to apply, including individuals with disabilities.

Benefits

Covered costs:

  • Visa Fee.
  • Roundtrip international airfare from participant home country to the United States.
  • Housing during the program.
  • Double occupancy dormitory accommodations.
  • Meals during the program.
  • Breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
  • Local transportation to group program events.
  • Cultural events organized by Legacy International.
  • Emergency health insurance.

A safe environment:

At TechGirls, we encourage youth leadership and responsibility and create an environment of trust. We clearly explain the schedule and expect TechGirls to be on time and ready for each activity.  The schedule created helps everyone gets the most out of the three-week intensive learning experience.

Supervision: TechGirls are supervised 24 hours a day. An environment is created to address problems and concerns swiftly. Staff assists youths with cultural adjustments, mentors, and counsel as needed. Staff are First Aid and CPR certified to speedily address any health care needs.

Respect for all Religions: The TechGirls staff make sure that the students wishing to practice specific religious observances are given the space and opportunity to do so. The daily schedule is structured to allow for the five daily prayers for Muslims. On Fridays, we allow time for a longer prayer time at mid-day or for attendance at a congregational Jummah prayer. For those who attend regular Sunday services, we make arrangements for you. Regarding dietary rules, we make sure to carefully show each participant what is halal at buffets and try to arrange meals at halal restaurants when possible.

Selection Timeline

The 2022 TechGirls application will open on November 16, 2021, at 12:00PM EST and close at 12:00PM EST on January 15, 2022. Semifinalists will be contacted via email on/around March 1 for the next stage of interviews. Final decisions will be made in early April.  All applicants will be notified of the results of their application.

How to Apply?

Click here

 

 

The Standard Chartered Women in Tech Incubation Program

Sopuruchukwu Elizabeth Mba
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The Standard Chartered Women in Tech Incubation Program

The Standard Chartered Women in Tech incubation program is Africa’s leading incubator program for female-led and founded businesses. It aligns with calls for more diversity in technology, entrepreneurship and for more opportunities for women to develop entrepreneurial and leadership excellence. This speaks to the bank’s Sustainability and Community Engagement strategy and focuses on supporting innovation, infrastructure, and technology.

The Standard Chartered Women in Tech incubation program is an initiative of Standard Chartered Bank Zambia in partnership with BongoHive, following the successful implementation of the Women in Tech program in Kenya, Nigeria, and Bahrain to mention a few.

The key objective of the Standard Chartered Women in Tech incubation program is to help Zambian women entrepreneurs or business owners who want to or are using digital technology to grow their business but lack the necessary support. The program is designed to provide targeted support in areas of business operations, digitization and digital transformation, accounting, and financial management. The outcome of the program is to support female-led entrepreneurial teams with training, mentorship, and seed funding.

Successful applicants will begin their journey with a 3-month incubation program followed by a 6-month acceleration program for selected participants from the incubation program.

Who Can Apply?

We are seeking to recruit the best entrepreneurial minds of women-led startup teams using digital technology as a key driver of innovation in business.

  • The business owner must be of Zambian nationality.
  • The business must be based and operating in Zambia.
  • The business must already be using digital technology, or have a clear need to incorporate digital technology to enable their business to grow.
  • The business must have been registered with PACRA for at least 3 months.
  • The business owner may be seeking support for customer, product, and/or business model development.
  • Key persons of the business (preferably 2 founders) must be available to undertake the 3-month incubation program from March to May 2022.
  • The top 5 winners of the incubation program must be able to attend a 6-month acceleration program from July to December 2022.
  • The prize fund is primarily for building digital technology and any balance to be used in the business.

Benefits

  • Business incubation: Three (3) months of learning experience in business management and operations.
  • Personalized mentorship: Personalized mentorship for all participants and their business needs.
  • Planning and support: Access to legal, accounting, financial planning & tech support.
  • Networking and expert help: Access to networking opportunities with fellow successful applicants and industry experts.
  • Funding opportunities: $10,000 equity-free grant seed funding for the top five (5) finalists from the incubation program to assist with the implementation of technology in their businesses.
  • Alumni opportunity: An opportunity to join BongoHive’s supportive Alumni Network.
  • Continued support: Six (6) months ongoing support from Standard Chartered, BongoHive & a network of coaches and mentors to assist with go-to-market strategies and scaling-up for the top five (5) finalists.

Program Timeline

Call for applications: 22 Nov 2021 – 16 Jan 2022.

Application shortlisting: 17 Jan – 28 Jan 2022.

Shortlisting announcement: 31 Jan 2022.

Bootcamp (top 40): 7 Feb – 11 Feb 2022.

Bootcamp pitches: 14 Feb – 18 Feb 2022.

Top 10 notifications: 21 Feb 2022.

Incubation phase: 7 March – 23 May 2022.

Demo day and award ceremony: 9 June and 16 June 2022.

Acceleration phase (post-incubation support): 20 June – 20 Dec 2022.

How to Apply?

Click here

 

 

 

 

 

ARC Financial Services Targets the Fintech Ecosystem With R1.5 Billion Transaction

Boluwatife Aponmade
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ARC Financial Services Targets the Fintech Ecosystem With R1.5 Billion Transaction

ARC Financial Services, a sister company of billionaire Patrice Motsepe’s African Rainbow Capital, has gone into agreements to acquire Crossfin Technology Holdings, as part of a combination of associations of businesses led by Ethos Mid-Market Find I, in a R1.5 billion transaction. With R1.5 billion transactions, African Rainbow Capital aims to strengthen the Fintech industry. 

ARC FSH is going to acquire 37.33% of Crossfin Technology Holdings via the association, for a consideration of R600 million which is going to assume a combination of acquisitive capital from the already existing growth capital and shareholders for identified transactions.

The group is said to commit to providing acquisition and growth capital in a R1.5 billion business transaction. “The transaction includes the provision of acquisition and growth capital to enable Crossfin to deliver on its vision of investing in fintech solutions in selected markets on the African continent.”, the group said.

Crossfin said it supports companies that focus on solving particular everyday pain points that are not well covered by existing products in the market. It works in industries that are set to grain from the growing trend towards the usage of digital payments over cash.

“Crossfin’s portfolio and healthy partner ecosystem create exciting opportunities to integrate a broad suite of financial products and services to support local merchants and consumers on multiple levels”, Crossfin said.

Presently, Crossfin’s portfolio processes more than 134 million cards and 20 million mobile-enabled payment transactions annually, with an aggregate value of more than R79 billion.

African Rainbow Financial Services had said, “The transaction strongly positions Crossfin to leverage new technologies as they emerge”, Adding that the deal is in sync with Arc Investments’ goals so as to establish an ecosystem of financial technology-related businesses.

Drive Conference 3.0

Ahmadu Sulaiman
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Drive Conference 3.0

The Drive conference 3.0 is a free global conference created with the purpose of driving relevant and impactful conversations on the latest global trends, insights, and new learnings in the Creative and Tech ecosystems. The aim of the conference is to educate and inspire participants in these ecosystems to strive for phenomenal results.

Drive Conference 3.0

The Drive Conference 2021 is slated to be held as follows:

Theme: “Evolve: the Future of Creativity and Tech.”

Date: Sat, November 27, 2021

Time: 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM WAT

Location: Ozone Cinemas Sabo Yaba Lagos, 1-11 Commercial Avenue, Lagos, LA 023401

There is becoming a thin line between the Creative and Tech Ecosystem, and it is expedient we start having conversations to bridge this gap. The Drive Conference is that bridge.

The conference will be honored by different speakers around the world, to share their experience on the theme of the event, “Evolve the future of creative and tech”

The Drive Conference is a yearly event powered by Ace Creative Academy and its Partners. The first edition of the Conference was held on November 30th, 2019 with the theme: 2020 – Think | Create | Innovate. The conference was impactful with over 400 participants attending both physically and online.

However, in 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the event was virtual with speakers from various parts of the world. The Theme of that year’s event was: The Disrupt – Leveraging on Emerging Global Opportunities.

This year promises to be revolutionary as the event will be both physical and virtual with the theme – Evolve – The Future of creative and tech. Ensure you register today. You cannot afford to miss this.

For more information and registration, click on the link: https://driveconference.drivehub.ng/

OnePipe Raises $3.5 Million in Nigeria to Expand Its Embedded Finance Offering

Boluwatife Aponmade
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OnePipe Raises $3.5 Million in Nigeria to Expand Its Embedded Finance Offering

OnePipe, a Nigerian Fintech company, has raised $3.5 million to expand its embedded financing product.

Fintech API infrastructure players came into the African technology scene last year, whereby they ushered in Plaid-like services to businesses and developers. The attention on these new companies, especially from venture capitalists moved into this year, each player raised large seed to Series A rounds.

OnePipe, a Fintech API company with a different agenda from the others joins the list today, they raised $3.5 million seed in order to double down on their embedded finance offering.

Co-lead investor in OnePipe’s $950,000 pre-seed round last year, African impact-focused VC Atlantica Ventures, also co-led this current seed round, along with Tribe Capital and V&R Associates.

New investors like Saison Capital, Norrsken (the fund of Klarna founder Niklas Adalberth), The Fund, and Two Culture Cap also participated. Already existing investors such as Chris Adelsbach, Techstars, Acquity, P1, Ingressive, DFS Lab, and Raba followed with new checks, as well as other angelic investors.

OnePipe’s fore plan was to create an API gateway that will connect banks and financial technologies under a uniform standard, an initiative that would allow the company to perform core open banking, but Ope Adeoye, Founder and CEO that describes himself as the company’s chief plumber, on a call with TechCrunch, said that upon continuous integration with financial institutions, it has become clear that the company needs to pivot, since it wasn’t generating a lot of demand cycles.

Having already struck partnerships with a few banks, OnePipe decided to take a step back before plunging into the world of embedded finance.

OnePipe is currently in partnership with six banks due to the fact that, unlike open banking and data aggregation plays, where a company needs to collaborate with almost all the banks in the country they operate, it is not necessarily the same with companies that offer embedded financing.

The CEO had said, “The caveat goes like this, the moment you make a positioning play for banking as a service, all you really need is one partner bank that lets you go deep because the embedded finance (offering) is about the depth and not breadth.”

“If you go for data aggregation or open banking in general, then you are going for breadth, not depth. So, on our side, we said we’d rather go with tier two and tier three bands, where once you describe the concept to them, they get it. It powers their growth and is more valuable to them, unlike other larger financial institutions”, Ope Adeoye said.

Running API infrastructure on behalf of these partner banks and assisting them in getting them monetized, OnePipe works with non-financial institutions to launch and double-sell a lot of financial services such as credit, accounts, and payments within their offerings.

As such, an FMCG startup, for example, can plug into a bank’s API being managed by OnePipe and begin to issue accounts to customers, this will allow them to make payments through those accounts and access credits when they need them.

Nigeria-Based Busha Secures $4.2m Seed Funding to Scale its Crypto Exchange

Abidemi Ogunyemi-Aderibigbe
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Nigeria-Based Busha Secures $4.2m Seed Funding to Scale its Crypto Exchange

Nigeria-based digital platform Busha secures $4.2m seed funding to scale its crypto exchange. Busha app which helps with the purchase, sales, and storage of cryptocurrency  via its mobile app has raised a seed funding of $4.2M in a recent round led by Jump Capital

The Nigeria-based digital platform Busha was founded in 2018 by Michael Adeyeri (CEO) and Chief Product Officer (CPO) Moyo Sodipo. The platform which currently holds about 2-10 employees claims to have over 200,000 users and looking to onboard one million Africans into the cryptocurrency economy.

“Our mission is to onboard the next one million Africans into the cryptocurrency economy. We have seen the significant difference in the financial freedom that Cryptocurrency can make in the lives of our over 200,000 users, and we are strongly motivated to expand across the continent,” said Michael Adeyeri, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) at Busha. 

The startup having scaled across Nigeria and its recently secured $4.2m seed funding will aid to deepen its market positioning across West Africa and the Globe. The round also featured Cadenza Ventures, Blockwall Capital, CMT Digital, Greenhouse Capital, Raba Capital, and other investors.

Busha recently launched a revamped version of its app which has features such as minimum purchases for as low as 50 cents for a more inclusive offering, one-click limit orders, and automated recurring buys. 

The Nigeria-based digital platform Busha intends to launch a savings feature that allows users to earn interest on their cryptocurrency from next month and early next year. Also, it will allow users to spend cryptocurrencies at selected online and offline retail outlets. The latter is under development in partnership with SureGifts, a gift card company.

With the rapid adoption of Cryptocurrency in Africa, the inclusive offering from Busha is right in line with the company’s stated mission which is to make crypto accessible to a broader population and reduce entry barriers. 

“We take pride in being the first in the market to introduce laudable and tangible innovations such as instant payouts and 24/7 human customer service,” said co-founder and chief product officer Moyo Sodipo.

“This funding will go a long way in empowering us to do more, improve on our security, and take a definitive leadership position in our target markets.” 

What the Nigeria-based digital platform Busha seeks to offer with its platform will surely appeal to young Nigerians who are increasingly trading crypto in a bid to have better financial mobility and create wealth opportunities amid the harsh economic realities. 

For the records, there are over a million registered accounts from Nigeria on Paxful, an international peer-to-peer P2P bitcoin marketplace. That accounts for more than 25% of the platform’s customer base, with Nigeria being the second to the US by the volume of bitcoin which is being traded.

Peter Johnson, partner at Jump Capital also stated that “We believe Nigeria and the African continent are one of the most promising places for cryptocurrency in other to create room for significant impact in the financial freedom to millions of individuals”

With more Africans getting involved in the crypto realm, Busha plans to leverage on the resources from its new investors to offer “market-beating prices and returning more value to its customers while maintaining proactive compliance and regulation,” the company said.

“We are happy to partner with the Busha team to continue to enhance their market-leading product offering.”

South Africa’s Mobiz Nabs $4m to Expand Personalized SMS Marketing Into the US

Hassan Barakat
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South Africa’s Mobiz Nabs $4m to Expand Personalized SMS Marketing Into the US

South Africa’s Mobiz nabs $4m to expand personalized SMS marketing into the US. In 2014 two passionate digital marketers with a wealth of mobile experience founded Mobiz and introduced an innovative way of thinking about mobile marketing.

Mobiz has taken mobile communication and engagement to the next level by building a new technology that effortlessly incorporates hyper-personalization into dynamic landing pages.

HAVAC, Futuregrowth, Launch Africa, Allan Gray E-Squared Ventures, CapaciTech, and Endeavor’s Harvest Fund have all invested in its pre-Series A round of $ 4 million.

South Africa’s Mobiz Nabs $4m to Expand Personalized SMS Marketing Into the US
South Africa’s Mobiz Nabs $4m to Expand Personalized SMS Marketing Into the US

The funding comes as the company prepares to grow into the United States and increase its marketing, sales, and account management activities. A portion of the funds will be utilized to hire new employees in South Africa and to support the company’s commercial expansion into the US.

After seven years, the company has over 100 clients, including MultiChoice, Experian, HomeChoice, and New Balance.

According to Mobiz’s website, 98 percent of SMS messages provided by the company are read within three minutes.

The company said that these messages range from offers and specials and loyalty programs to crisis communication and ticket sales.

Mobiz is focusing on offering its service to small and medium businesses after gaining a considerable market share in the South African SMS marketing industry. The intended market, however, is the United States, not the African country where the company started. The company sees potential in the small and medium business sector in the United States, according to Chen, because “its solution is easy to use and fit for the enormous market opportunity in the United States.

We see an opportunity in the way we’ve disrupted our space in South Africa. As a result, we’d like to assist a large number of SMBs in quickly creating stunning client encounters that are tailored at scale and clickable on their platforms. That is our premise, and we are very optimistic that it will be realized.”

According to a survey by Grandview Research, the SMB market in the United States is estimated to reach $12.5 billion by 2025, with a CAGR of 20.3 percent.

Part of this rise, according to Chen, is due to the ineffectiveness of email marketing in the United States (similar to SMS marketing in Africa), where clients are bombarded and spammed.

In the US, however, SMS marketing has more value because users must give permission to receive regular SMS messages from marketers and businesses. Customers who give them access genuinely want to engage, which is good news for these businesses.

“This has changed the way marketers think about things now that they no longer believe that more is better.” Now it’s about connecting to the individuals who truly want to buy from you, investing more money to acquire them in a consent-based manner, and then engaging with a very high return investment in the most direct channel, which is SMS,” stated the CEO.

Because of the information obtained from templates used on the platform, small and medium enterprises, such as a coffee shop, can quickly learn which type of coffee 100+ clients prefer. These firms’ conversions, results, sales, and engagement rates all improve as a result of this dynamic and rapid personalization.

The startup is launching this month, with more than 200 beta users in the United States presently using the platform.

Partner at HAVAC Grant Rock, an early backer of the startup, said his firm has been very impressed with Mobiz’s performance in South Africa. However, as the company expands beyond borders, it will have to consider pricing as it competes with incumbents such as Textedly and TextMagic. Its subscription fee starts at $29 per month and increases depending on the number of SMS businesses and marketers want to send.

Chen also mentions that now that the company is fully focused on the US market, plans are in the works to raise a new Series A round in the coming months.

100 Bitcoin African Startups To Benefit Under New Initiative By Binance

Abidemi Ogunyemi-Aderibigbe
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100 Bitcoin African Startups To Benefit Under New Initiative By Binance

As a result of the partnership between Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and CV Labs Global Incubation Program on November 23, in Nairobi Kenya, 100 Bitcoin African startups will benefit under the new initiative by Binance.

The program, which aims to drive the adoption of blockchain in Africa and also investment in greater blockchain applicability so as to solve problems and new market creation.

The partnership is looking to invest in 100 Bitcoin African startups over the next four (4) years. It will focus on startups that will be working across fintech, supply chain, healthcare, government sectors, and more as long as it is built on blockchain.

Binance Smart Chain (BSC) is a community-driven effort of community developers and investors and recently achieved a Billion dollars ($1B) growth fund to aid the drive of blockchain and the adoption of cryptocurrency.

Till now, BSC’s generated investment funds have seed-funded more than 55 projects with up to $1M, a round-up of 60 projects have been incubated under the Most Valuable Builder program with more than 200 startups receiving a boost in terms of funds, hackathons, and grants.

CV Labs, the incubator arm of CV VC on the other hand, has already incubated 22 successful global technology teams aiding their success pathway.

The partnership between BSC and CV labs is looking to do greater than they have individually done before in driving the adoption of blockchain in Africa. As Brenton Naicker, head of Business Development & Partnerships for Africa at Binance has rightfully said;

“The show of interest from African startups has been immense, outpacing their global counterparts in terms of applications received for funding. This just reiterates the need for accelerators, incubators, and other support structures for the budding African blockchain ecosystem,” 

Obaseki Inaugurates Science, Technology Development Committee

Hassan Barakat
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Obaseki Inaugurates Science, Technology Development Committee

Obaseki inaugurates science, technology development committee, Prof. Kessington Obahiagbon as the chairman.

Godwin Obaseki, the governor of Edo state, recently inaugurated Obahiagbon as the chairman of the Edo State Scientific, Technology, and Innovation Committee, which is responsible for designing a strategy to make the state science, technology, and innovation hub.

While inaugurating the committee at Government House in Benin City, Obaseki stated that the initiative is part of the government’s attempts to leverage technology to foster growth in many sectors of the state.

“As you are all aware, today’s world is all about technology, and any state or government that fails to capitalize on scientific advancement and knowledge will be left in the dark. The COVID-19 era has demonstrated that technology is critical for any state that wants to endure the pandemic’s dislocations.” Obaseki stated.

We are fortunate to be associated with specialists and pioneers in the field of rapidly advancing science and technology.” We felt these individuals should be brought together as a group to assist us in articulating the direction we should go in terms of constructing a new scientific and technological society.” He added.

Some of the committee’s areas of reference, according to Obaseki, include assisting the state in developing a science, technology, and innovation policy in accordance with the National Policy of Science, Technology, and Innovation.

“The group should also aid the state in formulating a strategy to increase grassroots understanding of science, technology, and innovation.”

“They should help establish a strategy that would make Edo State the national and international hub for science, technology, and innovation.” We can now spread technology across Nigeria if we become a tech hub. The committee should also assist in the development of a plan for the deployment of science, technology, and innovation through public-private partnership collaborations,” he said.

Prof. Obahiagbon responded by thanking Obaseki for the privilege given to the committee to serve the state.

“I assure you that the committee will do everything possible to place the state on the map in terms of science, technology, and innovation,” he stated.

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