Author: Elan

Nigeria-based and Africa’s fastest-growing fintech, Moniepoint Inc., has risen to stardom over the past few years. Founded in 2015 by Tosin Eniolorunda and Felix Ike (following their departure from Interswitch), Moniepoint has evolved from providing payment infrastructure to becoming one of Africa’s leading banking providers, processing over 1 billion transactions monthly, worth approximately $22 billion.  In October 2024, the company secured a $110 million Series C funding round, which elevated Moniepoint to unicorn status. Recently, the fintech company was ranked by the Financial Times as one of Africa’s fastest-growing companies for the third consecutive year, owing to its rapid growth.…

Milwaukee makes dozens of excellent power tools, and you probably own a few of its most popular, big, powerful models. But did you know the company also makes some tiny yet incredibly versatile and useful tools? Whether you’re low on space, looking for something unique, or just don’t want big tools, here are some small Milwaukee tools that produce big results. A big part of Milwaukee’s success, aside from all the awesome tools, is that you can choose between the smaller M12 platform or the bigger M18 lineup. There’s something for everyone, and even the more powerful Milwaukee M18 line…

Jason GoldbergBy SAVCAAt the SAVCA VC Conference 2026, we’re excited to welcome Jason Goldberg – scale-up veteran, serial entrepreneur, and co-founder of ventures including Edge Growth, the Vumela Fund, and Art of Scale.Over the past two decades, Jason has helped founders and leadership teams navigate the challenges of scaling businesses sustainably. Through his acclaimed book The Art of Scale and his work with high-growth companies, he has developed practical frameworks that enable leaders to execute priorities, build resilient organisations, and grow without burning out.Today, Jason is focused on helping businesses harness AI strategically to scale faster, compete more effectively, and…

The African Democratic Congress, ADC, presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, said he is fit and healthy, dismissing age concerns ahead of the 2027 presidential election. “Do I look to you like someone who has reached 80 years of age?” he asked the BBC Hausa interviewer. He had been asked if his age would not affect his ability to provide effective leadership if elected. The interviewer noted that Atiku would be “almost or nearly 80 years old” by the time Nigerians vote in 2027, and asked what he would say to those who considered him too old. He responded: “You went…

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has invested $8 million in the Ventures Platform Pan-African Fund II, targeting early-stage technology companies in Nigeria and four other African countries. The investment is expected to support technology startups with strong growth potential in Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Morocco and Senegal, as part of efforts to deepen access to growth capital, promote innovation and create jobs across the continent. The EBRD said the investment was made under its Early-Stage Innovation Facility II, a €200 million programme through which the development finance institution invests in commercially oriented venture capital funds. The facility…

Local cotton manufacturing moves into surgical textiles as Africa seeks import alternatives and channels more fibre into homegrown factories. African manufacturers are increasingly turning locally grown cotton into high-value medical textiles, offering a domestic alternative to raw exports and expensive imports. The shift is still small compared with the size of the continent’s cotton industry. But it comes as countries across the region are under pressure to produce more of the health products they consume. As demand picks up, it has drawn entrepreneurs along the continent’s cotton value chain who want an early foothold in a market poised for strong…

Polygon has disclosed several previously private security vulnerabilities that could have disrupted its proof-of-stake network, after deploying fixes through two recent hard forks.The vulnerabilities affected Polygon’s Bor and Heimdall clients and included denial-of-service risks, validator resource exhaustion and flaws affecting checkpoint and milestone processing, according to a Thursday disclosure from Polygon Labs’ Validators Support Team. Polygon said the flaws were fixed through the Austin and Kyoto hard forks, which were deployed privately and tested before being activated on mainnet and publicly disclosed. The most severe issue involved Heimdall, where a specially crafted transaction could force validators to perform excessive processing work,…

In March 2023, Adewale Adekomaiya lay trapped in a mangled car in Lagos while passersby filmed and a bystander tried to rob him. That near-death experience shattered his assumption that travel could wait for “later.” Within months, the Senior QA Architect and his wife packed their lives into a €900 ($1,048) digital nomad visa to Malta, spending two years working remotely across seven European countries. Now back in Nigeria with a newborn son, Adekomaiya tells JOHN ADOYI about the true costs of constant mobility, navigating racism abroad, and why his family’s next journey is taking them across Africa. Passers-by stood…

Data visualisation sits at the intersection of two disciplines that rarely talk to each other: data and design. Many dashboards are technically correct and communicatively inert. They show the right numbers but still fail to produce a decision, a direction, or a change in thinking. Meriem Benhabiles explores what changes when you bring structured UX thinking to dashboards and data presentations, from the questions you ask before opening any tool to the decisions that determine whether an insight actually lands.In organisations today, data has never been more available. Dashboards and performance decks exist for almost every function — sales, product,…

coup attempt? Gunfire and explosions were heard overnight from Friday 28 to Saturday 29 August in several parts of Niger’s capital, Niamey, including around the military base next to the international airport. By The Africa Report A general view of the Niamey 101 military base in Niamey, on 15 July 2022. © BERTRAND GUAY / AFP Published on August 29, 2026 at 08:57 am (GMT +1) “There is heavy gunfire and there are explosions around Niamey’s Base 101,” one local resident told AFP, an account confirmed by several other witnesses. At around 5am local time (4am GMT), a resident of…