BD Insider: Letter 34—China is competing with China in Africa

Letter 34, BD Insider: The newsletter arm of benjamindada.com
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Hi, <<First Name>>!

It's less than 40 days to the end of this decade. Unfortunately, 323 startups have also said their goodbyes within the decade. Adios!

Something You Should Know: Africa-focused fintechs have raised up to $728.5 million (₦264 billion) since January 2018.

Card transaction made its debut in Nigeria less than two decades ago. Then, people were stoked to withdraw money over automated teller machines (ATMs) and make payment through point-of-sale (PoS) terminals. But the story has changed today: merchants are dumping PoS for cash payment.

GeroCare, an Abuja-based startup providing subscription-based medical service and care for the elderly, has scooped up laurel and prize-money. First, it was named among the Best of Ecosystems by AfricArena, then, it received $30,000 (₦10.8 million) from Honeywell Group's Itanna Accelerator Programme. Appruve, a Ghanaian startup providing financial identity infrastructure for Africans, achieved similar feats recently.

In the same breath, Hello Tractor—an Abuja-based agritech startup that connects smallholder farmers to farming equipment—won $15,000 (₦5.4 million) at the maiden edition of Bosch Africa's Smart Mobility Competition, alongside Kenya's BuuPass. The two winning startups will be participating in Bosch's three-month accelerator programme.

Boomplay Music has signed a partnership with Sony Music Entertainment (SME) to expand its music catalogues. Through this partnership, SME catalogue will be made available to the 60 million users of Boomplay Music across Africa (Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia). Boomplay Music is owned by Transsnet Music Limited, a portfolio company of Transsnet Group, which is a joint venture between Transsion Holdings and NetEase Group.

After renaming the ministry of communications to the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, the Federal Government is on full-throttle on e-governance (not to be confused with internet governance). Starting from December, Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) will be issuing digital tourist visa (although it's like fast-tracking visa on arrival). Also, President Buhari has approved plans to make the processing of export and import paperless. Welcome to 2019.

FOUR COOKIES SPECIALLY BAKED BY BENJAMINDADA.COM

Parte after parte. Opera has hired former Efritin and Cheki boss, Gbenro "GD" Dara, as Managing Director of OList. GD is one of the doyens of the online marketplace and classified ads business in Nigeria.

We Move. Despite not making a profit from its bike-hailing service, OPay has launched another mobility service, OCar. Why? Because of growth and there is burner cash.

Flight 101, fasten your seatbelt. Your Uber for Helicopter is here. Are you ready?

It takes a village to raise a child. Here are 28 tech communities for designers, developers and product managers.

FIVE COOKIES WE FOUND ELSEWHERE

Quantum computing for the very curious, presented in a mnemonic medium which makes it almost effortless to remember what you read.

Excavating AI: The Politics of Images in Machine Learning Training Set

Do you know the Paypal Mafia? They are now tech kingpins.

How to handle competition and innovate like Apple

A case study on the redesign of Nairaland Forum

📅 COOKIE JAR OF OPPORTUNITIES

Do you fancy SpaceX? Check out these opportunities in the African space industry.

Yo, Dev! Participate in the Android Developer Challenge. And win big from the Android Security Reward Programme.

No chicken in the Chicken Republic & only Kano has rice. Apply for the AgriLab programme by Ventures Platform and the Ireland Embassy.

Fintech is still a bull market. Join Labs by ARM

Don't forget to participate in the 2019 Kingdom Hack(athon). Last year's edition was a huge success.

Plan to attend TechCabal's EdTech and Future of Work Townhall on November 29.

Participate in Hebron Startup Lab's free three-day acceleration programme

Pitch your ideas to the Lagos state government for collaboration and funding

These companies are hiring: Paystack, Visa, Branch, Carbon, Kuda Bank, and SafeBoda

🙂 THAT'S ALL

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