Welcome to the maiden edition of Nairametrics’ tech news roundup. This is a weekly compilation of all the main tech events and activities that made news within the week.
This column is specially designed for investors in Nigeria’s ever-growing tech ecosystem, as well as enthusiasts of all things tech.
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We begin with the latest about Linda Ikeji TV (LITV), the much-anticipated online streaming service that finally launched, yesterday.
Linda Ikeji, the leading Nigerian female Techpreneur and owner of the platform, Linda Ikeji’s Blog, tweeted on Thursday, June 7th, that “Linda Ikeji TV debuts tomorrow June 8th at 12 noon! Finally!”
https://twitter.com/lindaikeji/status/1004788135824273408
LITV will be the live TV arm of Linda’s growing online media empire which is adjudged one of the biggest in Africa and the world at large. The platform has, over the months, been uploading its contents on YouTube. But it will now go live, taking on the likes of IrokoTV in a competition that will definitely be interesting to watch.
The online TV platform was originally scheduled to be launched on June 1st but was pushed in order to sort out some issues. The platform will feature lots of reality shows, cooking shows and movies.
Glo and 9mobile are losing their subscribers
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) reported this week that Globacom and 9mobile are losing their internet mobile subscribers, even as their competitors (MTN and Airtel) continue to gain more. Globacom and 9mobile lost a combined total of 471,782 subscribers in April 2018, while MTN and Airtel gained 718,803 and 366,254 new subscribers, respectively.
According to the NCC subscriber operator data report, Nigeria’s active mobile telephone users increased to 160 million in April, with internet users reaching 101.2 million in the same period, up from 100 million in March.
The reported increase in the number of mobile telephone lines (a total of 160,081,051) marked a 107.5% increase, up from 148,854,338 recorded in March.
Edo State Government all set to launch state-backed innovation hub
The Edo State Government has announced that it will launch a state-backed innovation hub on June 14th, 2018. The hub, which will be named Edo Innovation Hub, is a partnership between the State Government and the following technology companies: Siemens, Microsoft, Tech4Dev, Impact Hub, Curators University, and Hotels.NG. It will be located at the Institute of Continuing Education (ICE) in Benin.
Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, said that the Hub will offer incubation and pre-incubation programmes, acceleration programmes, business clinics and co-working facilities.
The hub will be equipped with computers and supported with high-speed internet connectivity.
Facebook said that a software bug was responsible for its latest privacy disaster
The software bug had supposedly led to the public revelation of posts belonging to as many as 14 million users. The privacy glitch happened in May; the alleged bug was said to have been active for ten days. During this time, millions of Facebook posts were automatically made ‘public’ without users’ consent.
Facebook has since fixed the problem. A statement released by the company’s Chief Privacy Officer, Erin Egan, said that “this bug did not impact anything people had posted before – and they could still choose their audience just as they always have.”
You can now enjoy one hour-long video on Instagram
Instagram users can now share one hour-long video on their pages. The company hopes that this new feature will allow for more creative flexibility, as it positions itself to effectively compete with YouTube.
The move is, however, a tentative one as Instagram “could ultimately decide against radically extending the maximum running time of videos on its platform.”
You may well know that the platform is currently limited to have only 60 seconds-long videos.
Africa Development Bank partnered Facebook, the Rockefeller Foundation and Microsoft to launch a coding employment programme that is aimed at empowering as much as 50 million youth innovators across Africa.
The initiative, which was recently launched at the African Innovation Summit in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, is expected to ultimately create about 25 million jobs across sectors in the next seven years.
Microsoft is partnering with First Bank to empower SMEs in Nigeria.
The companies announced that they will work together towards creating a favourable environment for entrepreneurs in Nigeria to do business and excel. According to a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the companies, the partnership will, among other things ensure that SMEs can access value-added products/services, business support services, access to premium content, business networks, and capacity building.
Facebook announced “follow up programme” for upcoming gaming creators.
The initiative is specifically targeted at gamers who are establishing their online communities on Facebook.
With the “follow up programme”, gaming creators will not only be availed the opportunity to access live streaming features, they will also have the opportunity to earn money.
FirstBank has joined forces with Europe-based digital money transfer service WorldRemit for instant money transfers to all First Bank accounts in Nigeria.
The new strategic partnership considerably expands WorldRemit’s footprint in the country and allows its customers in over 50 countries to send money to First Bank accounts directly from their phones. The deal supports WorldRemit’s plan to serve 10 million customers connected to emerging markets by 2020.
