Adeola Ogunmola Sowemimo is the first Nigerian female to fly the Boeing 787 Dreamliner for Qatar Airways, and she flew the Boeing 767 Aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean. Sowemimo hails from Ogbomoso, in Oyo State Nigeria, and graduated from the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology. After her pilot training, she flew off to Florida in the United States for her standard pilot course. On finishing her training at the age of 21, Sowemimo returned to university in Nigeria to complete her education. Sowemimo joined Medview operations Abuja in 2013 till
A young Nigerian has launched a new social media app known as ‘ShapClick,’ a social media platform that aims to take over Facebook, Twitter, and others. The Nigerian app developer, Mohammed Aliyu, boasted that ShapClick would surpass other social media apps because of the installation of more authentication to protect end-to-end encryption of private chat between users and guarantee safety. A spokesman for Aliyu, Mr. Hyacinth Chiweuba, told Vanguard that ShapClick as an indigenous messaging application would enable users to chat and make audio and video calls, including an unrestricted
In times of crisis, it’s especially crucial that governments share accurate, up-to-date information with their citizens and journalists – as social media can play an important role in disseminating urgent information. But we’ve seen time and time again that some leaders have taken liberties to silence their people. Nigeria and Zimbabwe are just examples of countries with governments that have done so in recent years. Back in 2019, Zimbabwe blocked access to social media for seven days as deadly protests swept the country which killed at least 12 people. The government
In April, startups across the African continent raised $413,143,000 across 38 fully-disclosed deals. That means – for this year – April was ranked the lowest in terms of funding announcements made, 41% ($296 million) less than what was announced in March, and 34% ($216 million) less than February’s announcement. Per sector, the top three sectors are energy-tech, fintech, and logistics. Energy leads with $289,800,000 (70.1%); fintech with $53,500,000 (12.9%); and logistics with $34,000,000 (8.2%). But so much more has been happening in the African tech space, and we’ve compiled it all here: Bitcoin
Nigeria’s Autochek has announced its acquisition of KIFAL Auto, a Moroccan automotive technology startup, to drive its expansion into North Africa. This announcement comes months after it acquired the Ugandan and Kenyan operations of Cheki, an online car marketplace. Autochek looks to bring Africa’s sales and servicing of cars online. It also aims to build the financial infrastructure to drive the penetration of auto financing across Africa. In October last year, the firm raised $13.1 million in a seed round and is backed by several investors, including pan-African VC firms TLcom Capital, 4DX Ventures,
UK Minister for Women and Equalities Liz Truss has launched a task force chaired by Anne Boden, CEO and founder of Starling Bank, focused on supporting women-owned businesses. Black entrepreneur and investment manager June Angelides MBE is part of the force. She is best known for starting the UK’s first child-friendly coding school for mums, Mums in Tech, while on her second maternity leave from Silicon Valley Bank. Angelides is also one of a handful of Black women in venture capital. Launching today, the task force will use its convening
South African educational technology (edtech) startup FoondaMate has secured $2 million seed funding in a round led by LocalGlobe, a UK-based venture capital firm, to drive uptake of its WhatsApp and Facebook-based learning chatbot across the globe. How does it work? Foondamate helps students with their revision by giving them immediate answers to questions and access to revision papers, while also guiding them in responses to questions. It aims to level the playing field in education by empowering the 345 million+ students who currently have limited access to internet-enabled education
Facial recognition company Clearview AI, popular for gathering images from the internet to create a global facial recognition database, has been fined more than £7.5 million by the UK’s privacy watchdog. The fine comes just months after a trio of senators called on federal agencies to stop using facial recognition technology built by Clearview AI. In letters signed by Sens. Edward Markey and Jeffrey Merkley, as well as House Reps Pramila Jayapal and Ayanna Presley, the technology was said to pose “unique threats” to Black communities, other communities of color,
“Anyone can make music on their PC now,” laments DJ Sumbody of Ayepyep, Ngwana Daddy and Monate Mpolaye fame. “You don’t have to go to the studio. You get a program, you do beats. If they can master it, it’s a track, it’s out there. It’s simple now.” While preceding genres and music movements have taken advantage of the ready availability of software that can be purchased or digitally cracked to mimic a physical studio, amapiano has been the most radical departure from established and entrenched ways of making, marketing,
In February, Prestige magazine published a list of the top-selling pieces of crypto-art to date, with all entries sharing some common traits – they were all men and all white. And when you look into the news reports of those who’re supposedly ‘killing it’ in the NFT or crypto space most of them look the same. But here at POCIT – we’re all about shining a light on the communities that are sometimes cast to the side and forgotten even when they’re making a considerable impact. Before we begin – for
