TechNigeria: A weekly digest of what went down in Nigeria’s tech space

With Elon Musk emerging as the world’s richest man, displacing Amazon founder Jeff Bezos; the week goes down in history as a significant week where tech continues to determine who remains as the foremost, richest personality.

Home, in Nigeria, we recorded new launches in the industry and saw the opening of another opportunity window for entrepreneurs within the industry through the Tony Elumelu Foundation. Amazon and Aella, during the week, entered into partnership to offer unbanked Nigerians access to credit facilities.

Below is a digest for the week, highlighting the major tech build up.

Incubation programme for tech startups

During the week, Ventures Platform Hub’s social impact group, Ventures Platform Foundation, has launched a new incubation programme targeting Nigerian startups.

Being a pro-government initiative, the newly formed venture hopes that the venture will support startups utilising tech to establish accountability and transparency within the Nigerian government’s Covid-19 response.

Amazon partners Aella

Nigerian single-point financial service and payment solution provider, Aella App, announced during the week of its new deal working with Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) to empower unbanked Nigerians through quick access to credit and other financial services.

Read also: TechNigeria: A weekly digest of what went down in Nigeria’s tech space

According to the duo, the development will see Aella utilising Amazon Rekognition for identity verification. The Amazon Rekognition, which is a fully managed computer vision service, enables developers to analyze images and videos for a variety of uses, including face identification and verification, media intelligence, custom industrial automation, and workplace safety.

TEEP opens call for application

Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP) has opened calls for applications for the seventh edition of its opportunity window to provide African startups with training, mentorship and US$5,000 in funding.

Run by the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), the programme is a 10-year, US$100 million commitment to identify, train, mentor and fund 10,000 African entrepreneurs by 2024. Aside accessing funding, successful candidates will also gain access to the TEF network of startups.

Nigeria’s Spleet expansion plans

Also, Nigerian prop-tech startup Spleet sets out plans to expand venture into Ghana, Rwanda and Kenya. This development comes as the venture transits towards an Airbnb-style self-hosting model for Nigerians travelling abroad.

Reports established that the four year old startup was founded from the need to find rentals with flexible payment options in Lagos as opposed to the usual one or two year upfront payment options.

Remarks

These stories, and many others, made headlines during the week.  Join us next week for another edition of TechNigeria.

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