West Africa
UN delegation visits Nigeria, Ghana, others over virus pandemic
A delegation of the United Nations led by Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, is visiting Nigeria and three other West African countries – Niger, Sierra Leone, and Ghana to discuss with the governments and other stakeholders on strategies to rebuild after the devastations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. During the visit scheduled for November 8 to 11, 2020, the delegation would meet with President Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. A statement on Sunday from the UN office in Nigeria explained that Mohammed would also join Osinbajo to launch the ‘Nigeria UN Plus Offer For Socio-Economic Recovery: 2020 -2022,’ as an offer for immediate and medium-term support to the government and people of Nigeria in response to the socio-economic challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. It s...
Flying Eagles: WAFU B Zonal U-20 qualifiers postponed due to virus
The WAFU B Zonal qualifiers which will feature the Flying Eagles of Nigeria and six other West African countries billed for Lome, Togo, has been shifted to a later date due to coronavirus. The Togolese Football Federation (FTF) confirmed the postponement of the tournament in a communique published on their Twitter handle on Thursday. The WAFU B Zonal qualifiers which will be the qualifiers for the 2021 Africa U-20 Cup of Nations in Mauritania, was originally scheduled for November 18 to December 2. According to FTF they will engage WAFU and CAF to find a new date for the competition. “The Togolese Football Federation is announcing to the sporting world that the WAFU Zone B tournament scheduled for Lome between November 18 and December has been postponed to a future date following a decisio...
Liberia launches new national carrier ‘Lone Star Air’
Liberian President George Weah on Friday inaugurated a new national carrier for the West African country, named Lone Star Air, about 30 years after the country’s previous airline went bust. Speaking at a ceremony at Liberia’s international airport, near the capital Monrovia, Weah said the new airline would “connect our country to our region and to the world”. “It is my dream, my hope and my ambition that we will very soon see Lone Star Air, the wings of Liberia, flying our flag in international skies, shining so brightly,” said the footballer-turned-president. Liberia’s flag bears resemblance to the flag of the United States but features one star instead of 50. The country was founded in the 19th century with US support as a home for freed American slaves, whose descendants have a long his...
MTN Nigeria Appoints New CEO
MTN Group has appointed Karl Toriola, current VP for MTN Group’s West and Central Africa (WECA) region, as the new CEO of MTN Nigeria – effective 1 March 2021. Toriola will take over as MTN Nigeria CEO from Ferdi Moolman, who has served MTN Nigeria with distinction in this role for the past five years. Moolman will return to South Africa, where he will assume the new role of Group Chief Risk Officer. Toriola has a BSc Hons in Electronic and Electrical Engineering and an MSc in Communication Systems. In his five years as VP of MTN’s WECA region, he has overseen the steady progress of the operating companies in the region, notably the turnaround of MTN Ivory Coast and MTN Cameroon over the past two years. In addition, the WECA markets have made significant commercial and strategic strides, i...
NCC Approves MTN and 9mobile’s Roaming Service Trial in Nigeria
Sourced from the Guardian Nigeria. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has granted MTN and 9mobile permission to trial a national roaming service. According to The Vanguard, this roaming service will allow a mobile subscriber “to automatically make and receive voice calls, send and receive data, or access other services when travelling outside the coverage of a particular network geographical area by utilising the network coverage of other networks”. “The approval requires 9mobile and MTN to configure and test their networks towards simulation for customer experience [and it] covers a few local governments, designated as the National Roaming geographic area, in Ondo State.” Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Umar Danbatta says that “the primary objective of the National Roaming Servi...
Gozem Acquires Delivroum App in Togo
Gozem has announced that it has acquired Delivroum, a food delivery app in Togo. This transaction combines the strength of Gozem’s transportation network with the breadth of Delivroum’s restaurant network, in the hopes of creating an unparalleled food delivery platform in Togo. Founded in 2018 in Lomé, Delivroum was the first dedicated food delivery app in the West African country. And thanks to the Delivroum acquisition, Gozem will be able to broaden its delivery offerings in Togo, to add meal delivery to a bundle of services that includes delivery of groceries, cooking gas bottles, and various other e-commerce items. In the near term, Delivroum operations will not be impacted and Delivroum customers cankeep ordering meals via the Delivroum app as usual. “For Delivroum, it’s a natural ste...
Fake News Impacts 84% of Ghana’s Youth, According to Survey
Nearly nine in ten (84%) of Ghanaian youth polled suggest that the rise of ‘fake news’ breaking out across their country and around the continent has impacted their ability to stay informed, according to the African Youth Survey (AYS). Commissioned by the South African-based Ichikowitz Family Foundation, the survey also indicates that leading social media platforms Facebook and WhatsApp were deemed untrustworthy by over one-third of Ghana’s youth population (37% and 35%, respectively). The AYS is said to be one of the most comprehensive research on Africa’s youth to date. Conducted by PSB Research (part of WPP Group), the study involved face-to-face interviews with young Africans (aged 18-24) men and women, held across the major urban centres of Congo Brazzaville, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, K...
Stripe to Acquire Nigeria’s Paystack
Sourced from Redbubble and iStock. Stripe has revealed that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Paystack, a payments collection company based in Lagos, Nigeria. According to an official statement, Paystack works with more than 60,000 businesses in Nigeria and Ghana to securely collect online and offline payments. It also processes more than half of all online transactions in Nigeria and has plans to expand across the continent, having recently started a pilot with businesses in South Africa. Stripe and Paystack have been working closely together for some time. In 2018, Stripe led Paystack’s Series A financing round and has provided ongoing guidance as the company rapidly scaled. “In just five years, Paystack has done what many companies could not achieve in decades. Their tech-firs...
Women Closing the Internet Access Gender Gap in Ghana
Almost as many women as men use the internet in Ghana, according to a new survey from the World Wide Web Foundation. The study finds men are only 6% more likely to be online than women. This is in sharp contrast to the large gender gap found globally where men are 21% more likely to be online than women, rising to 52% in the world’s least developed countries. In Uganda, which also featured in the study, men were 43% more likely to be online than women. The survey shows that Ghana has made significant progress towards closing the gender gap in internet access, with 29% of women now online, up from fewer than 20% in 2016, according to a previous report from the Web Foundation and the Media Foundation for West Africa. However, the report warns that women using the internet in Ghana still expe...
MTN Appoints New CEO in Liberia
MTN has appointed Rahul De – current CMO of MTN Nigeria – to CEO of its operations in Liberia – starting 1 November. replaces Uche Ofodile who departed Lonestar Cell MTN in July to become the CEO of MTN Benin. With 23 years of experience in the telco space, ranging across multiple geographies, De has spent the last two decades in senior leadership roles driving growth and leading business transformation. “I would like to congratulate Rahul on his appointment,” says Ralph Mupita, MTN Group president and CEO. “Rahul is a seasoned leader renowned for driving innovative digital and FinTech advancement in our business and in the telecommunications industry.” De joined MTN in 2011 as Chief Marketing Officer of MTN Ghana, a position he held for over four years before he joined MTN Nigeria in 2015...
MTN Liberia to Introduce New Voice and Data Surcharge
Lonestar Cell MTN has introduced a mobile voice and data surcharge – these charges are expected to abide by government regulations and directives. In an official statement, the telco says it “wishes to notify the public that in accordance with LTA-Order 0016-02-25-19 issued by the Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA), a surcharge on mobile voice on-net (Lonestar to Lonestar calls) and mobile data services has been introduced”. The surcharges are as follows: On-net (Lonestar-to-Lonestar) voice calls: US$0.008/min (or 0.8 cents/min) Data (per MB) US$0.00065/MB (or US$0.065 cents/MB) “Lonestar Cell MTN understands that these are tough economic times, but we assure you that we still have many products to allow our customers to communicate affordably. We remain com...
ECOWAS likely to decide on lifting Mali sanctions Friday
The West African bloc ECOWAS will likely decide on Friday whether to lift potentially crippling sanctions imposed on Mali after last month’s coup, its mediator said. The mediator, Nigerian former president Goodluck Jonathan, called the 15-nation bloc’s sanctions “unfortunate” during a visit to Mali’s capital Bamako on Wednesday. West African leaders have heaped pressure on the ruling military junta to return power to civilians since the coup toppled president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita on August 18. ECOWAS has used the sanctions, which include closing borders and restricting trade, as leverage in negotiations with the junta. Sticking points in those negotiations have included whether civilians or soldiers will run a transition government until fresh elections. The junta asked for the sanctions...
