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Yesterday, there was a typo in our headline on Kuda’s funding. Kuda’s valuation is valued at half a billion, not a billion. Considering how much they’ve grown in the past few months, a billion dollar valuation is not far off so watch out for our “Told you so” moment later. 
We also found a new addition to our new appointments section: Eritrea’s Welela Dawit was recently appointed the new CFO of Microsoft South Africa! 
In today’s edition:
- COVID’s gift to Telecoms
- Zuri Health’s cure
- Support the Nigerian Startup Bill
- Khula is planting a new seed
COVID’S GIFT TO TELECOMS
What’s that saying about storms having silver linings?
Well, if anyone can see the silver lining of COVID-19, it’s Nigerian Telecoms. Their revenues rose by 12% in 2020.
How did that happen?
First guess, a lot of netflix and chill.
Since the first case of the coronavirus disease was confirmed in Nigeria in February 2020, nationwide lockdowns and movement restrictions meant more people spent time on their phones. Businesses were also forced to alternative working models so this meant virtual workspaces (and Zoom fatigue).
Add in the plethora of festivals, seminars, workshops, and masterclasses, and you’ve got a significant increase in internet consumption. In fact, the number of active internet subscriptions increased from 125.98 million in December 2019 to 154.29 million in December 2020, a 22.5% increase.
How much are we talking about here?
Just south of $3 trillion dollars.
According to the Nigerian Communications Commission’s recently released 2020 Subscribers/Network Data Report, the telecoms industry reported a collective revenue of ₦2.889 trillion ($7.05 billion) compared to ₦2.516 trillion ($6.14 billion) made in 2019.
The report further disclosed that revenue generated by GSM operators increased by 12.33%, from the ₦2.02 trillion ($4.93 billion) recorded in the previous year to ₦2.27 trillion ($5.54 billion).
Read more in Michael Ajifowoke’s Nigeria’s telecoms operators revenues rose by 12% in 2020
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ZURI HEALTH’S CURE
In Africa, there are five thousand patients to one doctor, and the numbers may just keep increasing as doctors, understandably, emigrate to greener pastures.
Access to quality medical health care is a problem, and it probably won’t stop anytime soon if medical professionals keep leaving.
So what’s Zuri Health doing about it?
They’re helping both doctors and patients. Zuri Health is a mobile application that allows patients to chat with doctors, buy medication from pharmacies, book labs and diagnostic tests or have doctors visit them at home.
Zuri Health is giving doctors a side-hustle, and patients easy access to healthcare. It’s like Tinder on for drugs and health. With the app, you can search for doctors in your vicinity, and engage their services.
Okay, so where is Zuri Health?
The company officially launched in Kenya earlier this year and aims to provide affordable and accessible healthcare solutions via mobile technology with dedicated apps, wap, and SMS services. Since then, they’ve engaged the services of 250 doctors across the country so far.
They’re looking to expand into more African countries including Senegal, Zambia, Mozambique, Angola, and Cote D’Ivoire and they’ve secured partnerships in some of these countries to bring their dreams to fruition.
Read more in Zuri is improving access to healthcare in Africa with technology
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SUPPORT THE NIGERIAN STARTUP BILL
The Nigerian presidency and Tech ecosystem players are working to create a Startup bill. Why? Regulation is critical to the growth of any industry, and Nigeria’s booming Tech industry is. This is why stakeholders in Nigeria’s tech ecosystem are working with the presidency to create a Startup Bill.
What will the bill do?
It will help create an enabling environment for tech-enabled businesses across the country, joining the likes of Senegal and Tunisia as African countries with laws encouraging startup innovation.
You can visit the website to find out more about the bill.
How can you support?
You can volunteer by sending an email to partners@venturesplatform.com or contribute to what goes into the bill by sharing your feedback suggestions via this form. Inform your friends and network about the Nigeria Startup Bill. You can also follow the bill’s progress on Instagram, Medium, and LinkedIn.
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KHULA IS PLANTING A NEW SEED
Is it a bad pun, yes, yes it is.
But it’s a great way to report that South Africa’s Khula has announced a $1.3 million seed round to scale its operations across the country.
Backstory
Khula, a startup founded in 2016, provides tools and platforms to support the growth of businesses in the agriculture supply chain.
Here’s the problem its founders saw: Africa occupies 60% of the world’s farmable land yet its agricultural production is lower than continents with less arable lands. Most farmers don’t have direct access to the end-users and have to take a route of downselling to wholesale aggregators, who then distribute to retailers. By the time the product gets to the consumer, it’s gathered a significant increase in price value, sometimes as high as 200%.
How are they solving this?
Khula’s solution lies in creating an ecosystem that allows farmers access pre-approved services and suppliers that better prepares them for dealing directly with consumers.
This new approach has helped 3,000 farmers access 100 services and suppliers.
The startup has garnered multiple recognitions including getting into Google for Startups Accelerator class 6. It also won the African leg of the KPMG Global Tech Innovator competition.
Now the company has announced a $1.3 million funding round led by one of Africa’s largest agrochemical companies, AEICI, and E Squared Investments.
Damilare Dosunmu has more in South Africa‘s Khula raises $1.3 million seed to scale its agriculture ecosystem solution
On Thursday, August 5, Endeavor Nigeria will be hosting a webinar to discuss Having a vision and sticking to it. Join Endeavor board member, Mitchell Elegbe (Founder & GMD, Interswitch), who will share how/why companies that succeed and endure create a clear vision, and then stick to it through the vagaries of time on their journey to scale! Don’t miss this one — register today here.
WE’RE ON GOOGLE NEWS!
Last month, we were officially recognized as a news source on Google News.
As the largest news aggregator, Google News brings you stories based on your likes and interests.
So basically, if you like what TechCabal does and you’re interested in all the techy things we shine a lot on, you’ll be seeing a lot more from us on your page.
Be the first to know when a post comes up:
All our posts will now come up on Google News when you search for news about us, certain keywords, or even our writers, but you can kick it up a notch and let your homepage do the work for you.
Follow our publication and get notified when a new post pops up.
Here’s how.
Google us, no really, search for TechCabal on the Google News app, select the publication with our logo, and click on the star-shaped button on the upper right corner.
Or you can find us by clicking this link.
What else we’re reading
- In 2020, female-led startups received only 2.35% of venture capital funding. Oui Capital may be changing that number in Africa. 66% of Oui Capital’s 2020 investments went to female-led startups; here’s the impact some of these wonderful startups are making.
- Ever been in a zoom meeting that was suddenly invaded by trolls? Well, Zoom lied about offering end-to-end encryption, it sold user info to Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn. Now the company will be paying $85 million in settlement fees thanks to zoom bombing.
- Fake news is causing problems all over the world and this Angolan startup wants to help stop it. As part of the Facebook Zero Initiative, Simplux Tecnologias has launched Nuxo, a machine-learning AI that helps people quickly identify fake news.
- Catalyst Fund has announced the six startups for the ninth collection of its Inclusive Fintech Programme. Here are the three Africa-based startups who made the cut.
- Small-scale agricultural businesses need the right support; Microsoft’s 4frika, and IFC have just launched a new initiative that may provide some. Learn more about their push to support Africa’s agri-food sector here.
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Written by – Timi Odueso
Edited by – Daniel Adeyemi
The post TechCabal Daily – COVID’s gift to telecoms appeared first on TechCabal.
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I am the CEO of 9JAGISTLAND.My name is Adedeji Timothy and my co-owner is Oyekola Damilare.This blog is born out of our passion to educating to people in all aspect of internet life.We are enthusiastic about writing posts and articles online.
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