Tech - Keep Africa Informed

Nigeria’s Nollywood Next Gen: Tech Meets Storytelling

KatherineAdmin — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 12:15:05 +0000

Africa’s Film Powerhouse Evolves

Nollywood, Nigeria’s prolific film industry, is undergoing a digital renaissance. Once known for rapid, low-budget prosecutions, the sector is now attracting big budgets, global platforms, and tech-enabled distribution.

Streaming Fuels Expansion

Thanks to partnerships with Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Showmax, Nollywood content is now reaching global audiences. Films like The Black Book and Anikulapo have topped international streaming charts.

From Quantity to Quality

Producers are focusing more on storytelling, cinematography, and post-production. EbonyLife Media, Inkblot Productions, and Anthill Studios are leading this shift, while film schools like Del-York Creative Academy are training new talent.

Empowering a Digital Workforce

Behind the scenes, editions, animators, Screenwriters, and VFX artists are in high demand. The creative tech sector now employs over 300,000 people, many of them youth.

Nollywood 2.0

Nollywood’s evolution shows how Africa can leverage culture, technology, and global partnerships to export its voice and create value across borders.

Flutterwave: Powering Africa’s Payment Infrastructure

KatherineAdmin — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 08:09:02 +0000

A Fintech Giant from Nigeria

Founded in 2016 by Olugbenga “GB” Agboola, Flutterwave has become one of Africa’s most influential fintech companies. Headquartered in Lagos with offices across San Francisco, Nairobi and Johannesburg, the company provides seamless payment infrastructure for merchants, banks, and consumers across 30+ African countries.

Building the Backbone of African Commerce

Flutterwave enables businesses to accept payments via cards, mobile wallets, bank transfers, and USSD, all through a unified API. its flagship product, Rave, supports thousands of merchants, from SMEs to global brands like Uber, Flywire, and Booking.com.

By 2025, Flutterwave had processed over $40 billion in payments, supporting millions of transactions monthly.

Valued at Over $3 Billion

After its $250 million series D round in 2022, Flutterwave became Africa’s most valuable startup, with a valuation of after $3 billion. The company has attracted investors like Tiger Global, Avenir Growth, and Salesforce Ventures.

It has also launched Send, a remittance service enabling fast and affordable cross-border money transfers for African diaspora communities.

Navigating Regulatory Challenged

Despite facing regulatory scrutiny in Nigeria and Kenya in 2022-2023, Flutterwave responded by enhancing compliance, securing licenses, and establishing stronger governance structures; it now holds central bank approvals in key markets, including Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda and Egypt.

The Future of African Fintech

Flutterwave’s goal is to make global payments as simple as sending a test. With a presence in almost every corner of the continent, the company is at the forefront of digitalizing trade, tourism, and e-commerce across Africa.

Hello Tractor: “Uber for Tractors” Empowering Rural Farmers

KatherineAdmin — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 10:30:38 +0000

Making Mechanization Affordable

Hello Tractor, a Nigerian agri-tech startup, is solving Africa's agricultural mechanization gap through a shared economy model. Founded in 2014 by Jehiel Oliver, the company provides a mobile platform that connects smallholder farmers to tractor services on demand often referred to as “Uber for Tractors.”

Booking a Tractor with a Text Message

Using SMS or the Hello Tractor App, farmers book tractors based on land size or specific tasks like plowing or harvesting. The app then matches them with nearby tractor owners. The system boosts productivity, especially during tight planting seasons

Empowering Tractor Owners and Youth

The platform benefits tractor owners, many of whom are first time investors by offering them fleet tracking, usage analytics, and theft prevention tools. Hello Tractor also trains “Smart Tractor Agents,” mostly youth, who act as local coordinators and generate income by managing bookings.

Rapid Expansion and Partnerships

As of 2025, Hello Tractor operates in 13 countries, including Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, and Mozambique, and has facilitated over 500,000 hectares of mechanized farming. Partnerships with John Deere and Heifer International have supported training and financing for smallholder farmers.

The Road to a Mechanized Africa

By unlocking tractor access, Hello Tractor is making farming more productive, climate resilient, and attractive to youth, an essential shift for food security in the years to come all across Africa.

Yassir: The Super App Transforming North African Mobility and Finance

KatherineAdmin — Tue, 13 May 2025 11:58:17 +0000

From Ride-Hailing to Full-Service Platform

Founded in Algeria in 2017, Yassir started as a ride-hailing app and has evolved into a multi-service super app offering mobility, food delivery, and financial services across North Africa. It now operates in Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and several countries in West Africa.

Rapid Growth Across Francophone Africa

Yassiw has grown to serve over 8 million users and tens of thousands of drivers and couriers, its focus on Francophone markets, often underserved by larger tech players, has given it a unique advantage

Its sleek interface and seamless payment integration make it a preferred choice for urban users.

Fintech That Fits the Market

In addition to rides and deliveries, Yassir offers mobile wallets, bill payments, and merchant services. Its fintech arm, Yassir Pay, allows cashless payments within the ecosystem and is expanding to offer microloans and saving products.

Backed by Big Investors

Yassiw raised $150 million in 2022, one of the largest rounds ever in North Africa. Investors include BOND, DN Capital, and the YC Continuity, signaling strong confidence in the company’s “super app” vision

Tech Innovation with Local Roots

Yassir is a homegrown platform tailored to the cultural, linguistic, and logistic nuances of the region. Its continued growth could make it the first North African tech unicorn to dominate both mobility and financial inclusion.

BasiGo Electrifies East Africa’s Public Transport: Over 2 Million Rides and Counting

KatherineAdmin — Sat, 03 May 2025 12:32:13 +0000

In a region historically dependent on diesel fueled minibuses and over burdening transit systems, Kenya's BasiGo is driving a clean energy revolution, one electric bus at a time. Founded in 2021 by Jit Bhattacharya and Jonothan Green , BasiGo has quickly become a rising star in Africa’s growing e-mobility ecosystem. The Nairobi based company has already logged over 1.5 million kilometers in electric travel, delivered more than 21 eclectic buses, and carried 2.1 million passengers as of mid 2025. With recent funding and regional expansion underway, BasiGo is poised to transform East Africa’s transportation sector.

The Spark Behind the Startup

The vision was simple yet radical, electrifying Kenya’s matatu style public buses using clean energy, while making the switch affordable for local bus operators. Jit Bhattacharya, a veteran of electric vehicle innovation at Tesla and Mission Motors, saw Kenya as an ideal proving ground. “Kenya has one of the cheapest eclectic grids in the world,” Bhattacharya says, “powered largely by geothermal and hydro. So the shift to electric vehicles isn’t just about reducing local emission, it's about leveraging renewable power to transform mobility.” Their pilot program began with just a few buses in Nairobi. But within months, commuters began to notice the smooth ride, quieter engines, and lack of exhaust fumes.

The Pay As You Drive Model

Electric buses can be expensive upfront, with price tags topping $200,000. BasiGo solves this with an innovative Pay As You Drive model. Operators lease the buses at a fraction of the cost and pay a daily fee that includes battery maintenance, charging, and servicing. This model has proven highly attractive to the thousands of private operators who dominate East Africa’s transit sector.

Charging Up the Future

To support its fleet, BasiGo has invested in a network of fast charging stations across Nairobi. Each e-bus is capable of traveling over 250 kilometers per charge, enough to handle a full day’s route. Charging takes 2-4 hours and is scheduled during off-peak hours. In 2024, BasiGo partnered with Kenya Power and the government to build additional charging hubs and secure discounted off-peak energy rates. These moves have lowered operational costs and increased scalability.

From Kenya to Rwanda: Expansion on the horizon

In March 2025, BasiGo announced its entry into Rwanda, partnering with kigali-based companies to deploy 20 buses in the capital city. Rwanda's government, which banned the import of used diesel buses in 2023, has shown aggressive support for clean transit alternatives Bhattacharya calls Rwanda “the perfect next step” for BasiGo’s regional ambitions. “Rwanda shares Kenya’s commitment to climate goals and smart urban planning. We see it as a springboard into Francophone Africa as well.”

Economic and environmental impact

According to company data, BasiGo’s fleet has helped avoid over 1,200 metric tons of CO2 emissions. The buses also create cleaner air quality in urban areas and reduced reliance on expensive imported fuel. Economically, the company has created over 150 jobs in manufacturing, engineering, and operations, and supports dozens of small fleet owners. Government officials are beginning to take note. Nairobi’s transportation director, Alice Njeri, recently praised the initiative: “BasiGo proves that green transit isn't a luxury, it's an economic and environmental necessity.”

The Road Ahead

BasiGo is more than just a transportation company, it’s a blueprint for what sustainable innovation can look like across Africa. With smart financing, clean energy infrastructure, and regional cooperation, the electric future is now within reach. And if BasiGo has anything to do with it, diesel fumes and noisy engines may soon be relics of the past.

Thrive Agric: Empowering Nigeria’s Smallholder Farmers with Tech, Trust & Transformation

KatherineAdmin — Sat, 12 Apr 2025 11:31:31 +0000

In a country where over 70% of the workforce is employed in agriculture, one startup is bridging the gap between Nigeria’s smallholder farmers and the future.

Thrive Agric, founded in 2017, has grown from a digital crowdfunding platform to a fully integrated agro-fintech and supply chain enabler. By providing access to capital, data driven support, and guaranteed off-take, Thrive Agric has impacted over 800,000 farmers across 22 Nigerian states as of 2025.

With a blend of technology and trust, the company is reshaping how food is grown, sold, and financed in West Africa.

A Farmer-First Mission

Thrive Agric’s co-founders Ayodeji Arikawe and Uka Eje, met at university with a shared passion for improving agricultural systems. They discovered a massive opportunity: smallholder farmers who contribute over 90% of Nigeria’s food lacked consistent access to capital, markets, and technical expertise. “We realized the problem wasn’t the farmers,” said Eje in a 2024 interview. “It was the system failing them.” Thrive Agric built its model around three core offerings:

Input financing: Seeds, fertilizers, and tools, delivered upfront.
Extension services: Agronomists provide remote and in -person advice.
Marker linkage: Offtake contacts with food processors and buyers.

Farmers repay after harvest, with profits growing season by season

Technology in the Fields

At the heart of Thrive Agric’s success is its propriety platform: a mobile first system that digitizes farm activities, monitors crop performance, and facilitates loan disbursement and repayment tracking. Each farmer is onboard through local agents, who use smartphones to map frames with GPS, create profiles, and collect biometric data for authentication. Framers then receive tailored agronomic support via SMS, voice messages, and occasional in-person visits. In 2023, the startup launched ThriveApp, a user friendly mobile dashboard that allows farmers to:

Monitor loan status and repayment schedules
Access weather forecast
Record yields and input usage
Ask questions in local languages

This digital backbone ensures transparency across the value chain, earning trust from farmers, lenders, and buyers alike.

Scale, Impact, and Gender Inclusion

To date, Thrive Agric’s model has supported:

Over 800,000 farmers, including more than 300,000 women
More than 2.2 million acres of cultivated land
Crops ranging from maize and rice to soybeans and groundnuts

The company partners with food manufactures like Nestlé, Floud Mills of Nigeria and Olam, offering granted offtake at fair market rates. This eliminates price volatility and improves farmer incomes.

Overcoming Setbacks: The 2020 Pivot

Thrive Agric’s journey hasn’t been without bumps. In 2020, the company faces cashflow issues stemming from delayed harvests, pandemic related disruptions, and over leveraged farmer loans. The company temporarily paused repayments to individual investors, triggering a reputational challenge. Rather than fold, the founders restricted operations, improved risk assessment, and focused on institutional partnerships. By 20222, Thrive Agric has not only repaid its obligations but returned to growth leaner, wiser, and more focused.

Growing from the ground up

Thrive Agric isn’t just transforming farming, it’s helping create a more resilient, equitable and technology driven future for African agriculture. With the average Nigerian farmer now equipped with mobile tech, crop insurance and market access, the sector one defines by risk and subsistence is now scalding toward opportunity and abundance. As for maize farmer Kaduna State put it: “Before Thrive, I sold to whoever paid. Now, I know who I plant for and I earn more doing it.”

Kweza: AI-Powered Agritech Supporting Over 100,000 Kenyan Farmers

KatherineAdmin — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 10:31:02 +0000

Smart Farming for Small Plots

Kweza is a Kenya-based Agri-tech startup bringing AI-Powered tools to smallholder farmers. With a focus on affordability and simplicity, Kweza serves over 100,000 farmers through voice- activated mobile platforms accessible on basic phones.

Personalized Advice, Anytime

Using natural language processing and local languages, Kweza offers tailored advice on weather, soil preparation, pest management, and optimal planting times. Farmers can ask questions via voice input and receive actionable insights in return.

Enabling Access to Inputs and Credit

Kweza also links farmers to agro dealers for verified inputs and to financial institutions for micro-loans. AI is used to assess creditworthiness based on farming history, location, and yield projections.

A Data-Driven Agricultural Ecosystem

The platform collects vast amounts of data to support agribusinesses and NGOs with insights into farmer behavior, regional productivity, and risk profiles. This created a feedback loop that strengthens the entire agriculture value chain

Bridging the Digital Divide in Agriculture

Kweza exemplifies how low tech solutions powered by smart backend systems can reach underserved farmers, improve yields, and unlock new market opportunities.