The First African Tech Startup to List on a Major Global Exchange
Jumia
has filed for a New York initial public offering, which could value the firm at
$1.6 billion or more. The pending IPO creates another milestone for Jumia. The
venture became the first African startup unicorn in 2016, achieving a $1
billion valuation after a $326 funding round that included Goldman Sachs, AXA
and MTN. The New York filing did not say how many shares Jumia would sell, nor
at what price. Founded in Lagos in 2012 with Rocket Internet backing,
Jumia now operates multiple online verticals in 14 African countries, spanning
Ghana, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Morocco and Egypt. Goods and services lines include
Jumia Food (an online takeout service), Jumia Flights (for travel bookings) and
Jumia Deals (for classifieds). Jumia processed more than 13 million packages in
2018, according to company data.
SOURCES: TECH
CRUNCH | MONEYWEB
Father of Ethiopian Airlines’ Pilot Lays Memorial Wreath
Yared Getachew, was en route from his adopted home, Ethiopia, to
his country of birth, Kenya. Although he was the youngest captain at the
airline, 29-year-old Yared had completed the route between the East African
nations’ capitals many times. A veteran pilot with more than 8,000 hours of
flight time and more than 10 years of experience, Yared is being remembered not
only as an accomplished flyer but also a “special child.” Yared excelled in
school and returned to Ethiopia for college, later becoming a pilot for the
largest airline in Africa and completing additional training in the United
States. The pilot told controllers he was having control problems before
the Boeing 737 Max 8 jet crashed, according to an account of cockpit voice
recordings from the airline’s chief executive.
SOURCES: VOA
The Passenger who Missed the Ethiopian Airlines Flight
A Greek man said he missed the Ethiopian Airlines flight that
crashed just after taking off from Addis Ababa by mere minutes, in a Facebook
post that has now been shared thousands of times. In a post called “My
Lucky Day,” Antonis Mavropoulos shared an image of what appears to be his
boarding pass and says he arrived at his gate just after boarding had finished
on Sunday morning. “When I arrived, boarding was closed and I watched the
last passengers in (the) tunnel go in. I screamed to put me in but they didn’t
allow it,” he wrote. Mavropoulos says he was transferred to the next
flight to Nairobi but was later told he was unable to board because security
wanted to talk with him after discovering the plane had lost contact.
SOURCES: CNN
The Role that the Museum of Women’s History Will Play in Zambia
It has no physical space and yet it is already changing the
narrative of the role of women in Zambia. Since 2016, its founders Samba Yonga
and Mulenga Kapwepwe have been collecting artefacts that will eventually form
part of the permanent exhibition that will be housed on the second floor of the
Lusaka National Museum. Their collection already includes a digital archive of
5,000 pieces of audio from the colonial and post-colonial period and quilts
sewn in the 1940s that record the entry of Europeans into southern Zambia. The
arrival of colonists not only distorted Zambia’s history, it nearly erased
women’s experiences.
SOURCES: QUARTZ
AFRICA
[WATCH] How Chess is Used to Uplift Children in Lagos
Professional chess player and coach, Babatunde Onakoya says
chess saved him. Now he’s using the game to educate children in Nigerian slum
communities, with some even winning scholarships to study as a result.
Babatunde use the tactics of the game to break down educational subjects such
as maths, but also the idea of patience, strategy and even hope, with Babatunde
being hear stating that “In the game of chess a pawn can grow up to become a
queen, you can grow up to be great even though you are still limited by this
community.” Since the start of the initiative many of the children have been
vocal about the improvements it has made to their lives.
SOURCES: BBC
South Africa’s First Plastic Road
Executive mayor of Kouga Municipality, said the local authority
had entered a partnership with Scottish company MacRebur and South African
civil engineering experts to build ‘the first plastic road’ in Jeffrey’s
Bay. According to MacRebur, its products are made using materials derived
from non-recyclable waste plastic that was destined for landfill or
incineration. “By extending part of the bitumen in the mix MacRebur
products reduce fossil fuel usage, leading to a reduction in carbon footprint
and helping to foster a circular economy.” Non-recyclable plastic waste,
which ends up in the ocean or clogging up landfill sites, is processed into
pellets and used to replace a large component of the bitumen in a conventional
asphalt mix. The result is a road that is stronger and more durable. Water, the
main cause of potholes, does not penetrate it as easily as with traditional
asphalt mixes and it is also more heat resistant.
SOURCES: BUSINESSTECH
Safaricom Strikes a Key Deal
Kenya’s mobile operating firm Safaricom, has secured a deal with
China’s largest e-commerce company. The deal will enable Kenyan shoppers
to buy goods on the Aliexpress.com site, run by Chinese e-commerce giant
Alibaba Group, using Kenya’s M-Pesa mobile payment service for online shopping.
The new partnership with AliExpress will not affect the telco’s e-commerce
platform but seeks to address small traders needs as it continues to expand
M-PESA’s capabilities. M-Pesa was launched in 2007 to offer Kenyans
without bank accounts a network to transfer cash via mobile phones. It now
offers a range of payment services, loans and savings to more than 21 million
people in the country.
SOURCES: AFRICA
NEWS
Rescue Efforts after School Building Collapses in Nigeria
Emergency crews scrambled to rescue dozens of children Wednesday
morning from the wreckage of a three-story building housing a nursery and
primary school that collapsed in Lagos, Nigeria. One video on social media
showed a dazed-looking, dust-covered child being carried on an orange stretcher
as hundreds of onlookers cheered and patted rescuers on the back. Other
videos from the scene posted on social media show piles of giant slabs of
broken concrete. By early afternoon the top two collapsed floors had been
removed by a bulldozer and rescuers stood atop the rubble, throwing aside
children’s backpacks and other school equipment in hopes of reaching children
underneath.
SOURCES: THE
NEW YORK TIMES
A Win for Guinea Bissau’s Drug Unit
Authorities in Guinea-Bissau seized a consignment of
nearly 800kg of cocaine. It is the biggest drug haul in the country in
over a decade. Four suspects – two Nigerians, one Senegalese and one
Bissau-Guinean – were arrested following the seizure overnight on Saturday to
Sunday at the capital Bissau’s northern exit. The drugs were found in a
refrigerated truck registered in Senegal. Police are probing whether army
officers and high-ranking officials were involved. The United Nations said
last year Africa and Asia were becoming cocaine trafficking and consumption
hubs. Guinea Bissau’s mix of weak law enforcement and maze of islands and
unpoliced mangroves helped make it a smuggler’s haven.
SOURCES: AL
JAZEERA
Meeting South Africa’s First YouTube Star
According to Julia Anastasopoulos, the classically trained actor
behind the Suzelle character, the braai pie video was her 10th SuzelleDIY
video. But it was the one that made her a household name overnight. Since then,
she has produced more than 100 videos that blend vaguely useful DIY advice with
humor. With her ear-scalding accent and no-nonsense approach, Suzelle is as
South African as they come. While she continues to add Suzelle videos
when the mood takes her, Anastasopoulos has gone on to star in her own TV show
called Tali’s Wedding Diary in 2017 which follows vain, self-obsessed Tali in
her quest to achieve the perfect wedding — to a hilarious but somewhat pathetic
end. The show, which was the first to be commissioned by South African
streaming service Showmax, saw overwhelming success — it outperformed Game of
Thrones on launch day and recently took home five South African Film &
Television awards.
SOURCES: OZY