The 11th edition of the Africa Fintech Summit will be held in Nairobi, Kenya in 2024, said Zekarias Amsalu, the co-founder of Africa Fintech Summit at the ongoing 10th edition of the summit in Lusaka, Zambia.
Andrew Barsden, the summit’s lead organiser, says the relaxed visa requirements for Africans announced by President William Ruto will help make the event much more open and inclusive to more people.
Barsden shared that in 2024, the event might be spread over three days to facilitate more networking opportunities for delegates.
Barsden says they are also looking at including numerous excursions in the country for delegates.

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MFS Africa, the African fintech platform has rebranded to Onafriq.
CEO Dare Okoujou, says the facelift was due to trademark challenges in the US. Aside from the challenges with the trademark, the Onafriq CEO says the group wanted a name that reflects its true ambition as the business had expanded beyond just mobile financial services and had become an omni-channel platform across Africa and beyond.
Onafriq acquired US-based fintech company Global Technology Partners (GTP) for $34 million in cash and shares.

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The South African franchise of WeWork has announced that its operations are independent of WeWork Global’s bankruptcy filing in the US.
Reuters reported that global coworking space provider WeWork Global was planning to file for bankruptcy in the US.
The company, which was valued at $47 billion in 2019, was reportedly struggling to repay debts over $15.9 billion.
The company has struggled since it announced its plans for an IPO in 2019 when questions were raised over the viability of its business model which involves WeWork acquiring properties on long-term leases, and renting them out to others on a short-term basis.

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Zambia has announced plans to open a smartphone factory in the country by June 2024 to reduce the prices of the devices for citizens.
Zambia’s minister of technology and science, Felix Mutati, has announced the country’s plans to open a smartphone factory by June 2024.
Mutati stated that Building the gadgets in the country will enable us to reduce the cost of smartphones in the country and hence foster inclusivity when it comes to connectivity.
Mutati further added that access to smartphones would boost the reach of fintech startups in the country as the devices are enablers of access to fintech services provided by the startups. In another effort to boost connectivity.
Mutati also stated that the government plans to construct over 100 community digital centres nationwide.

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FTX founder and CEO Sam-Bankman Fried was convicted of looting $8 billion of customer assets from his now-bankrupt cryptocurrency firm. A 12-man jury found him guilty of two counts of fraud, and five counts of conspiracy.
Bankman-Fried’s sentencing has been set for March 28, 2024, and he faces decades in prison. He will also face another trial next year as prosecutors charge him with foreign bribery and bank fraud conspiracies.
The sentencing comes almost exactly a year after Bankman-Fried’s firm crashed on November 11, 2023.

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Showmax, the MultiChoice streaming service announced that it would discontinue its streaming services outside Africa by December 1, 2023.
This means Showmax users outside the continent will no longer be able to access the service by then.
The company says for the moment, they will be focused specifically on the African market and on meeting the needs of our growing customer communities across the dynamic continent.”
This move comes weeks after the company also announced the shutdown of its paid tier Showmax Pro which offered users access to live sports and news from SuperSport.

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Elon Musk says X posts that are corrected by Community Notes, the platform’s crowd-sourced fact-checking system, will become ineligible for revenue share.
He says the idea is to maximize the incentive for accuracy over sensationalism.
The billionaire executive also noted that any attempts to weaponize Community Notes to demonetize people will be immediately obvious because all code and data is open source.

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Botswana’s president, Mokgweetsi Masisi, emphasised the need for diamond-producing nations like Botswana to incorporate technology into the sector to foster sustainability.
Masisi says the use of innovations such as drone-assisted surveying to advanced water management systems could help preserve the world for generations to come.
The President says the use of blockchain technology for diamond tracing could make the diamond supply chain more transparent.
The government in March 2023 bought a 24% Stake in HB Antwerp, a diamond cutting and technology company based in Antwerp, Belgium.

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South Africa, international marketplace Airbnb launched a $500,000 fund geared towards supporting tourism in Africa.
Per Velma Corcoran, the company’s regional lead for MEA, says the fund will be used to help governments, entrepreneurs and tourism organisations identify and unlock new tourism opportunities across different communities in Africa.
The funds will also be dispersed via awards and grants given to local stakeholders.
The company will also give access to the City Portal to 10 more African countries, including South Africa.
This portal is a new tool for local governments and tourism organisations to learn about Airbnb in their communities and find ways to boost tourism.

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Drivers of ride-hailing platforms in Kenya are taking advantage of the situation.
The drivers urged the National Transport and Safety Authority not to renew the licences of ride-hailing platforms Bolt and Uber until the companies act on submitted complaints.
The NTSA earlier declined Bolt and Uber’s requests to renew their operating licences. The regulator says the ride-hailing platforms were charging illegal booking fees and higher commission rates than the NTSA benchmark allows.

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