Medsaf lays off all its full-time staff

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Editor’s Note

Week 28, 2023
Read time: 5 minutes

Hello 👋🏾

Have you responded to our 3-minute survey yet? Please do so and return to delve into this week’s top tech stories.

Pamela Tetteh Editor, TechCabal.

Editor’s Picks

Mesaf lays off all its full-time staff

Nigerian healthtech startup, Medsaf has laid off all its full-time employees. Former employees allege that their salaries and benefits remain unpaid.

SomBank & Mastercard launch cards in Somalia

Mastercard and SomBank have joined forces to introduce cards as a means of facilitating payments in the country. They believe that cards offer a superior alternative to the recently launched standard QR code, SOMQR, by the government.

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A super comeback

In July 2022, Union54 halted its services after it experienced a $1.2 billion chargeback fraud. Now the Zambian startup is making a comeback and building its payments service into a chat platform.

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Ethiopia offers a new telecoms licence

Ethiopia has kicked off the bidding process for a new telecommunications licence. Safaricom bought the one the country sold last year and has gained 2.1 million customers in eight months.

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Deadline for crypto license looms

A new crypto regulation in South Africa will see crypto exchanges unable to operate in the country without licences by November 30.

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SA’s Department of Justice breaks the rules

South Africa’s Information Regulator has fined the Department of Justice R5 million ($266,331) for not renewing its licences for antivirus software.

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Bolt gets a CFO

Ride-hailing platform Bolt has picked Mikko Salovaara as its new chief finance officer (CFO). The announcement follows Bolt’s profit gains, having experienced notable growth for the first time since 2018.

Learn more about him.

How social media impacted Nigeria’s elections

The EU Election Observation Mission published its report showing more social media activity during Nigeria’s 2023 elections.

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Kenya has a unified payroll system

The Kenyan president, William Ruto, has ordered the implementation of a Unified Payroll Number (UPN) system in all state agencies to reduce the government’s wage bill and streamline payroll management.

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Starlink isn’t going to SA soon

This week, communications minister Mondli Gungubele reiterated that it must meet the SouthAfrica’s internet service provider (ISP) ownership equity rules first.

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Who brought the money this week?

Nuru, a solar company in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), raised $40 million in equity funding.
MYDAWA, a Kenyan online pharmacy, received $20 million in an undisclosed round from Alta Semper Capital, a private equity firm.
Zuvy, a fintech company, secured $4.5 million in debt and equity funding from TLG Capital.
Egyptian fintech company Masroofi raised $1.5 million in an undisclosed round from undisclosed investors.
Kenya-based B2B company Revivo raised $ 635 K in pre-seed funding from Raba Partnership, Village Global, Musha Ventures, Satgana, and strategic business angels.