The consortium of financing partners includes: VentureBuilder, which led the round, a grant from United States African Development Foundation (USADF) and a debt facility from Cordaid Investment Management (Cordaid). Energy+, which was founded in May 2017, will channel the funds towards scaling its off-grid business across Mali, by expanding its “pay-as-you-go” and cash sales offering available through its retail network. The funding will go a long way in ensuring Energy+ is able to expand its services into remote and underserved regions of Mali....

The 8, will over the course of three-months have the tools they need to connect with customers and make shopping online a seamless experience. They will be joined by counterparts from Europe, the Middle East and Latin America to help create a unified shopping experience across all Facebook apps. During the virtual program, the 36 selected startups will have access to a dedicated Facebook mentor, comprehensive training, Facebook’s suite of products and technologies, and a valuable network of product experts and fellow founders to connect with....

She has been working on Ghana’s energy industry and slowly but surely her efforts has been expanding. Salma is ambitiously building Ghana’s biggest solar farm, called Blue Power Energy which is meant to open in March 2019 with 100 megawatts of energy. If all goes well, it will be one of the largest in Africa which which also means she will be creating employment opportunity for Ghanaian people. Her passion was beyond making money, her main goal is to provide cheap energy to Northern Ghana through the solar farm....

Microsoft has cut sales and earnings guidance for the current quarter, citing the impact of foreign exchange rates. The software giant said in a securities filing on Thursday that it now expects fiscal fourth-quarter sales of between $51.94 billion and $52.74 billion, down from its prior guidance of $52.4 billion to $53.2 billion. The quarter ends June 30. The company’s shares fell 2.6 per cent in early trading to $265....

After a fresh coat of paint, it’s now the time of Office to get a makeover before a major redesign in a year or two. Microsoft 365 and Office 2021 customers now have a unified interface with all of the company’s other programs, thanks to some minor tweaks made by the Redmond corporation. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote all have windows with rounded corners and polished buttons, just like Windows 11....

The changes to Xbox Game Pass were announced in a tweet by the company. According to the tweet, changes have been made to its logo, which now includes “for PC” – which was previously on a small box on the left – and will now read as PC in the front. Microsoft is diluting the Xbox brand and moving away from the Microsoft brand. Microsoft appears to want the Xbox brand to be at the forefront of its online and streaming efforts....

Microsoft Viva, the new platform is designed to help employees learn, grow and thrive with new experiences that integrate with the productivity and collaboration capabilities in Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams. Having seen how much work has evolved in the past year, the new platform helps to combat pain points like meeting fatigue and a lack of balance between work and life. Viva helps customers reimagine the employee experience by focusing on the power of the people....

This burgeoning number of digital TV consumers comes hardly a year ahead of the June 2015 global digital migration deadline. According to CAK, towards the end of the first quarter, some 738,300 set-top boxes were sold, for the subscription and free to air decoders. Digital Kenya, whose task is to supervise digital migration said that the country has no choice but to change from analogue to digital terrestrial TV broadcasting by June 2015....

Today the maternal death rate remains high, despite some progress, at 342 mothers per 100,000 live births – nearly 90 per cent of which are attributed to inadequate quality of care. “I cannot imagine them giving birth without the support of a skilled health professional”, said Mark Epeyon, a community health volunteer at the Katilu hospital in Kenya’s Turkana County. Since November, the motorbike ambulance has protected lives that would have been lost without prompt transportation to their nearest health facility....

The latest from the company is the time based internet plan designed and launch specifically for streaming of videos on YouTube. The YouTube Video Streaming data plan was not announced officially by MTN but many users and subscribers of the network have reported to have received a notification in the form of a SMS from the telco company notifying them of a new internet plan – YouTube pack. On further investigation, it was obtained that the newly introduced YouTube plan comes in two types or categories and all users on the “Yellow” network can subscribe to the plan irrespective of the tariff a user is currently on, or moves to....

With its theme ‘Maximizing the digital dividend’, they gave companies that have flourished in making use of famous social media sites such as YouTube,Twitter, Google Plus and Facebook awards to show their relevance. The categories of the awards included best website and radio on social media, corporate brand on social media and digital financial service, among others. MTN won five of the awards including the brand of the year award though most people did not agree that MTN’s ‘Egg hunt’ certainly beat Smart’s ‘Give us a name’ or Airtel’s ‘Uganda Cranes we believe’ for the best corporate digital campaign award....

Earlier this year, Netflix planted its flag in the gaming industry. The company made it clear that video games would be part of its plans to expand its platform. We weren’t sure how long it would take for the plans to bear fruit, but the wait is apparently already over. On Thursday, Netflix announced a limited release for two mobile games on Android — Stranger Things: 1984 and Stranger Things 3....

With a fully English user experience and a wide range of locally curated playlists, music fans can enjoy the vast catalogue of music and playlists on the free tier. With personalized music recommendations for you from day one, and an easy-to-use interface, users can enjoy unprecedented access to both the music they love and the favourites they’re yet to discover. Simply put, it’s the best way to get music for free!...

The funding round is led by Africa HealthCare Master Fund (AAIC), and other investors include Chicago-based venture firm Vested World and the German Development Bank (DEG). Nobuhiko Ichimiya, Director at AAIC stated that, “We are very excited to be part of the Drugstoc journey. The pharmaceutical market in Africa has enormous growth potential and we are glad to back a company well-positioned to be a key player in the sector’s growth in sub-Saharan Africa....

With products such as license plate verification, VerifyMe continues to bring relevant products to market to help power growth in the fintech, insurance, and services industries. These industry-enabling products are made possible by continued digitalization in government agencies such as FRSC and their continued mandate to enable growth in the digital economy. According to Esigie Aguele, Co-founder/CEO, VerifyMe Nigeria, the plate number verification service is designed to fill the need for trusted real-time data within Nigeria’s burgeoning vehicle and asset verification market....

The funds will be used to expand into other African markets, including Kenya, Egypt, Ghana, and Cameroon. According to CEO Fehintolu Olaogun, CredPal launched a point-of-sale consumer credit solution linked to e-commerce sites for lower-to-middle-income earners in 2018. The notion of BNPL was new at the time, especially in Nigeria. CredPal experimented with a new credit giving via cards, which experienced an increase in utilization despite low uptake. Customers can use CredPal’s BNPL services to shop for items ranging from electronics, particularly smartphones, to furniture and groceries at a member institution using one of two methods: a credit card or a mobile app....

Showlove, founded in 2020 by Chikodi Ukaiwe, Joshua Biyere, and Seye Bandele, simplifies the process of requesting, giving, and receiving gifts and cash, as well as helping African businesses in marketing their products and services. The startup aims to establish a fun community, or social network, where people can express their wants and needs with a small group of people or the general public. Thousands of vendors, SMEs, and hypermarkets are also connected via APIs....

The two parties will leverage the power of telecommunications, including 5G networks, to connect the unconnected and identify innovative use cases, as well as business models. Announcing the partnership in Nairobi-Kenya, Nokia further noted that the MoU will lay ground for both organizations to better help governments shape telecom policy, develop talent and promote inclusion and diversity. This includes women, as well as the underprivileged in both rural and urban areas....

With three years of Android TM upgrades, and three years of monthly security updates, the X20 has a 64MP quad camera with renowned ZEISS Optics with AI & depth-based imaging technology. Nokia X20 has a 32MP front facing camera on a crisp Full HD+ punch-hole display and is powered by the atest Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 480 5G Mobile Platform. Wrapped in the beautifully golden Midnight Sun or classic Nordic Blue colour options, the handset runs Android TM 11 software straight out of the box, will provide you with a fast efficient, and effective mobile experience....

With the latest round of funding, Eclipse has raised over $60 million to date with investors including Seth Goldman, the Chairman of Beyond Meat and Founder of Honest Tea; Alexis Ohanian, the Founder of Reddit; Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed, green tech venture capitalist; and Y Combinator, the world’s top tech accelerator. The new funding will fuel the rapid growth of the business in retail and food service, accelerate R&D on Eclipse’s proprietary plant-based dairy platform, build the brand’s world-class team, and drive awareness for Eclipse as the world’s first true dairy replacement....