News — technology

A smart bra device developed in Nigeria can detect breast cancer early, potentially saving African women long journeys to access screening services, its inventor says.Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer among women in Sub-Saharan Africa, with 129,000 new cases diagnosed in 2020. Only around half of women here live for more than five years after being diagnosed, with late diagnosis a major factor, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).Robotics engineer Kemisola Bolarinwa, who developed the smart bra, hopes it will be instrumental in addressing the barriers to early detection of the disease.

The inventor hopes the device will be ready to market in July this year, after a four-year journey. The engineer and her team started work on the design in 2018 and by February 2020 had come up with their first prototype. Since then, the company has developed ten more, she says. The smart bra was developed using ultrasound technology, she explains, and the chargeable, battery-operated device comes with mobile and web apps that can display where a tumour is on the breasts. Bolarinwa says it is her dream to see many African women saved from breast cancer, adding that her invention could save the stress of women travelling long distances to cities for cancer screening.

The invention, she says, has received the approval of Nigeria’s Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, and the Communications Commission. Bolarinwa says her team will consider affordability when the smart bra is finally produced for the market, but delays in getting raw materials shipped from overseas and a lack of funding have been a challenge.The project is funded with revenue from the company’s first-ever product, a global positioning system (GPS) necklace device that alerts wearers’ families and friends of their movements, to help navigate insecurity in Nigeria.

Peter Akwaboah first made his mark in sports. While in high school in Ghana, he was a multisport athlete. When he reunited with his family in the UK, sports was still an integral part of his personal development. 

However, he knew coming from a country with limited resources, his chances of succeeding among his peers who had everything was daunting.

“My peers were better, faster and stronger, given they had access to better facilities,” he says, according to this blog. Nonetheless, it did not deter him from seeking excellence. And true to his character, he managed to be part of his school’s athletic team.

Akwaboah was an unused substitute in his school’s athletic team. In one competition, he was asked to replace a colleague who didn’t show up. He grabbed the opportunity and set a new record in the high jump category and subsequently represented the UK in global competitions.

“‘This is my big chance,’ I thought—a chance to show everyone I am good enough. I dug deep, remembered everything I had learned in training and went for it. I broke the school record that day,” Akwaboah recalls.

Born in the UK, Akwaboah was brought to Ghana at a young age. He reunited with his family as a teenager to pursue higher education. He went to the University of Birmingham in the UK, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a Master’s degree in Engineering.

He joined Morgan Stanley in 2015 as Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Operations. Before joining Morgan Stanley, he worked as a software developer for many financial institutions in Europe.

After working at Morgan Stanley for a year, he became the Global Head of Shared Services Operations which includes managing the firm’s settlement and payments infrastructure. What’s more, he had an additional role as the chair of Morgan Stanley’s payment risk steering committee and member of the Federal Reserve Bank’s (FRB) Payments Risk Committee.

Akwaboah is now the new chief operating officer for Morgan Stanley’s technology and operations division. In his new position, Akwaboah will oversee the operations and technology strategy for the firm, including a team of 300 people.

“He brings significant experience, knowledge, and leadership skills to this strategically important role having led teams and worked across technology and operations functions during the course of his career,” Rob Rooney, the head of technology, operations, and firm resilience, said in a memo, according to the Business Insider.

Akwaboah has previously worked at Deutsche Bank in a number of Technology roles, including KPMG and IBM. He also worked at Royal Bank of Scotland for 10 years with his most recent role in the Asia Pacific as Chief Operating Officer responsible for Operations, Technology and Corporate Services across the region.

Finding business opportunities are one of Akwaboah’s hallmark. Thanks to his involvement, Morgan Stanley became one of the banks to co-lead a $3 billion bond sale for Ghana. Before that, the firm had never executed a deal with the government of Ghana.

Being separated by geographical boundaries does not limit Akwabaoha’s ability to undertake philanthropic activities in his country of origin. He is one of the major supporters of a hospital called the Foundation of Orthopedics and Complex Spine in Ghana. The hospital specializes in providing complex spine and joint replacement surgeries to adult and pediatric patients age 9 to 25.

In 2019, Akwaboah was honored with the 2019 Corporate Leadership Award at the FACE List Awards gala during the Pan-African Weekend.

In 2019, Jaydyn Carr’s mom, Nina, gave him 10 GameStop shares that cost $6 apiece as a Kwanzaa gift. At the time, he was only eight years old. Fast forward to 2021, Jaydyn, 10, is in the middle of a stock surge.

Share prices of GameStop tumbled following bets placed by Citron Research and Melvin Capital that the gaming company will collapse but a group of social media users rallied and skyrocketed the prices of the struggling company from single to triple digits at the blindside of Wall Street.

As a result, GameStop stock rocketed from below $20 earlier this month to more than $400 Thursday. Amidst the GameStop trading frenzy, Jaydyn is reeling from excitement after selling his shares for about $3,200 on Wednesday, the San Antonio Express-News reports. 

“My phone was going off, because I have GameStop on my watch list,” Jaydyn’s mother Nina said of watching prices skyrocket. “I was trying to explain to him that this was unusual, I asked him ‘Do you want to stay or sell?'”

According to Nina, she has been teaching Jaydyn about trading. “Any time I learn something, I show him as well,” she said. “I wanted to pass on the knowledge I have now because I learned it late in life. I want to give him a step up.”

Commenting on how they plan to use the money, Nina said $2,000 of the funds will be kept in Jaydyn’s savings account while using the $1,000 for more investment. “I have to train him to let him know you can’t just buy anything, you have to read the charts,” Nina said.

Jaydyn has expressed more interest in trading after his big win. He is reportedly considering investing in Roblox, an online game hub set to make its market debut.

Meanwhile, online trading platform Robinhood has restricted trading in GameStop due to the rabid buying by small investors, thegrio reports. Per the restrictions announced, investors would only be able to sell their positions and not open new ones in some cases, and Robinhood will try to slow the amount of trading using borrowed money, thegrio added.

Also, Robinhood noted that trading in stocks such as AMC Entertainment, Bed Bath & Beyond, Blackberry, Nokia, Express Inc., Koss Corp. and Naked Brand Group would be affected by the latest restrictions.

Africa’s digital future is gradually taking shape. In the last decade, the continent has pursued aggressive digitalization in a bid to formalize its economy and also take advantage of the economic and social benefits it brings.

For instance, in the banking sector, banks have initiated a number of digital solutions to make banking easier for their customers. However, the rate of digital penetration is still at the nascent stage in many Africa states. 

In Nigeria, one entrepreneur is seeking to accelerate digital banking. Oke Afolabi is the co-founder of Global InfoSwift Consulting Limited (GICL), a Lagos-based IT company that provides solutions and services to Nigerian financial institutions and beyond. In his role as CEO of GICL, Afolabi provides strategic direction, articulates a corporate vision, mission, and strategy as well as values that define the culture of the team.

“Everything is changing and the newer generation are coming up with these great ideas, so banks need to evolve too,” said Afolabi, in an interview with Nigerian media. “It’s been nice that I can make an impact. I hope that I can leave a legacy like Martin Luther King Jr. says ‘never follow where the path may lead rather follow where there is no path and leave a trail.'”

InfoSwift also partners CR2, an African market leader in digital banking solutions, to provide banks with Digital, Self-Service and Payments solutions to grow their business, optimize their customer service cost and deliver an enhanced customer experience.

CR2, which is based in Ireland, enables over 100 banks in 60 countries to seamlessly connect and engage with their customers on the most critical banking channels today.

Global Infoswift’s partnership with CR2 is an ongoing successful relationship that has highlighted the importance of the self-service channels in supporting Nigeria’s retail banking growth, with the deployment of CR2’s BankWorld Suite of products, according to PRwire.

The partnership enhances the impact and effectiveness of action through combined and more efficient use of resources, it promotes innovation and it is distinguished by a strong commitment displayed by both parties in jointly delivering projects like Access Bank Plc. which is currently one of the biggest banks in Africa.

Afolabi places his work within the context of the potential for growth in Nigeria’s digital economy. Africa’s biggest economy is looking to prepare its young population for the digitalized future by offering federal-backed services expected to accelerate innovation in different sectors of Nigerian life.

A 10-year National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy expected stated that significant improvement in the current broadband penetration of 35.4% is critical for the development of a digital economy in Nigeria. For every 10% increment in broadband penetration, Nigeria expects to grow its GDP by 1.6%.

“We’re a massive country,” said Afolabi, adding that more than half of his country’s population are younger than 24. We’re growing, and we have this huge, youthful population. What’s going to happen when the country’s economy relies on these people to drive it forward? How will they fund themselves and be aware of their finances?”

In May 2013, Afolabi facilitated a financial service seminar in Ireland to inspire Irish businesses to see opportunities in Nigeria. This resulted in the Irish government making it possible for many Irish businesses to enter Nigerian markets.

Beyond seeking to accelerate digital banking, Afolabi is a sought-after speaker who provides mentorship for the youth, start-up seed funding, and entrepreneur development.

Mike Bellot cannot easily erase from his memory the tragic loss of his cousin in Haiti through a fire outbreak. Bellot’s cousin was then in the university studying to become a medical doctor. During a late-night study, by candlelight, he dozed off.

The unattended candle started a fire which consumed the home and killed him in the process. “After that, many parents in the rural areas in Haiti don’t allow their children to study at night because they are living in a constant of the house to be on fire,” Bellot said. “And it was not too long before some of the students started dropping out of school.”

Following the incident, Bellot, who was then studying global politics and international trade at Tamkang University, Taiwan, set out to create a solution that could lead to the provision of cheaper, accessible and cost-effective power in poor homes not only in Haiti but across the globe.

In Haiti, electricity is unavailable to many citizens. According to one publication, only about 40 percent of Haitians have access to electricity, with an average annual consumption of just 21 Kilowatts (KWH) per person. Although Haiti has substantial renewable energy potential, the country still faces significant challenges in gaining access to clean and renewable energy.

Bellot’s passion to create a solution to provide cheap, sustainable and accessible light was not limited to only Haitians but to the over one billion homes worldwide that do not have access to electricity to enable their children to study at night.

Bellot co-founded Solo Bag, which has integrated a solar panel, integrated battery, USB port, GPS tag for tracking, and an integrated LED lamp, enabling students who do not have access to electricity to safely and cost-effectively study and do homework during the night.

The bag also provides enough energy to enable families to charge their mobile phones or other electronic devices. According to Taiwantimes, the bag “can store enough energy from one hour of exposure to the sun for six hours of light and charge two mobile phones.”

Bellot was featured on Forbes as among ten Haitians helping to reinvent Haiti’s narrative. He was also among the 100 winners of Meaningful Business in 2020 and the Young International Chamber (JCI-Haiti) selected him as The Most Outstanding Young Person of the Year in 2019.

In 2019, a local school in Haiti, The Joseph School, announced that it will provide Solo Bags to its students and staff. “The Joseph School is investing in the Solo Bag for all our students and staff starting this fall. Since we know most of our students do not have access to regular electricity, we truly believe this will help our students be safer and more successful,” the school said in a statement.

Mubarak Muyika grew up with his aunt following the demise of his parents when he was only 11 years old. His dad was a civil servant who died when he was two years old while his mom was a high school teacher who passed away when was 11.

In high school, Muyika developed a passion for technology. While a student at Friends School Kamusinga, he won two awards in Kenya’s national science fair, the annual Kenya Students Congress on Science and Technology.

At age 16, Muyika ventured into entrepreneurship, focusing on technology. His first creation was “enhanced petrol tracker,” a tracking database to monitor mismanagement of oil resources by tracking oil tanker movement, oil flow and demand, according to Africa Middle East. His creation was well received and was duly recognized as the best student in the computer exhibit category at the annual Kenya Students Congress on Science and Technology.

He was spotted by one of Kenya’s richest men, Chris Kirubi, and offered a scholarship to study at Harvard, an offer he surprisingly turned town because he wanted to continue with his entrepreneurship drive.

He also built a functional website for a book publishing and distribution company owned by his guardians. He later taught himself PHP, Java and HTML which helped him to design an interactive website for the business.

In 2011, Muyika founded his own company known as Hype Century Technologies & Investments Ltd. The startup offered services such as web designing and web hosting in East Africa with a market focus on Small to Medium size businesses. In the following year, Muyika received the Anzisha Prize for young entrepreneurs for his work in Hype Century.

The success of his startup began attracting the attention of international investors. One of such investors was Jignesh Patel, who invested in his growing business with a 25% stake. In 2013, Muyika sold his 60 percent stake in the company in a deal that made him a millionaire at only 19. By the time he left the company in May, it had 14 employees handling about 1,800 domains.

“By May after our first financial year, we had about 1,800 domains which represented clients in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan and some in the RC (Republic of the Congo). That was something that I can say is the biggest achievement, in terms of where the company is today,” Muyika spoke about Hype Century’s success.

After relinquishing his stake in Hype Century, he launched a new venture called Zagace. It is an online business management toolkit for small and medium-sized companies. It has Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) capabilities, enabling its users to manage their inventory, accounting, human resources, and communications through a series of integrated apps.

In 2015, Muyika was featured on Forbes Africa’s 30 Under 30 as one of the most promising young entrepreneurs from Africa. ‘‘Mr Muyika is enterprising and focused, I recommended him to Havard University but noticed that entrepreneurship came first and he had no obligation to pursue the course,” said Kenyan businessman Kirubi.

If the retail industry wasn’t already in the midst of a transformation, 2020 with the coronavirus pandemic and the rise of contactless shopping would have ensured that. But one Black woman tech founder was already upending the status quo. In Episode 11 of the SistersInc. podcast, “Driving Innovation,” Dawn Dickson-Akpoghene shares how she’s shaping the future of retail with her smart vending technology company Popcom.

Despite now being one of the most well-known and successful founders in the Black tech space, Dickson-Akpoghene wasn’t originally planning for a professional life in that field.

“I went to school for IT and that was after I went to school for journalism. I got into tech because I started to see how the internet was disrupting media,” she says. “I wanted to be competitive in the job force—I had no intention of being an entrepreneur yet, I wasn’t thinking of starting a business. It sent me down a rabbit hole that changed my life.”

Instead of becoming the next VJ on MTV or BET as she had first dreamed, Dickson-Akpoghene became a serial entrepreneur. She’s a four-time founder. And now, with Popcom, she’s the one doing the disrupting, turning vending machines—the last thing you might think of as innovative—into the future of retail.

“We make the software that makes the vending machines smart. We partner with vending manufacturers to integrate our software to be able to collect customer data at the point of sale,” Dickson-Akpoghene says. That data can be anything from foot traffic to customer demographics to conversion rates, achieved using technology such as AI, computer vision, and robotics.

“Just imagine all the tools available on Google Analytics and Shopify and e-commerce, bringing those tools to the real world,” she continues. “Vending is so antiquated and there’s such a lack of data and innovation in the vending space. We really want to bring that innovation to allow retailers to sell direct to customer using vending machines.”

To hear more about Dickson-Akpoghene’s approach to innovation, including how she came up with her groundbreaking—and now patented—idea and how she’s breaking the mold even when it comes to financing her company, check out Episode 11 of the SistersInc. podcast.

Having taught mathematics for a number of years, Brittany Rhodes noticed that Black girls struggled to catch up and so she developed an app to help close the gap. She created Black Girl MATHgic to teach young girls in 3rd grade-8th grade to fall in love with math and also help them overcome math anxiety.

Black Girl MATHgic is a monthly subscription box service designed to increase math confidence in girls. Every month, subscribers get a box containing a math lesson, items to make learning tangible and fan, a profile of a Black female mathematician, and an affirmation to boost self-confidence.

Rhodes officially launched Black Girl MATHgic in 2019. Since then, she has sold over 1,100 boxes to over 30 states in the U.S. and she is now processing orders to Canada. Rhodes recently secured a $5,000 equity-free grant from HBCUvc and PledgeLA, which she plans to invest in a business manager.

Her initiative appears to be attracting the attention of more organizations that are committing more funds to assist her to expand her movement. Rhodes is a recipient of American Express’s “100 for 100” program established to invest in the future of Black women entrepreneurs in the U.S. The initiative is being run in conjunction with fundraising platform IFundWomen of Color.

She received $25,000 from the program to expand the capacity of her Balck Girl MATHgic initiative. Aside from the grant, she will also receive business education, mentorship, marketing, virtual networking, WorkSpaces by Hilton hotel reservation credits and more to help her expand her business. 

“I am so honored and grateful to be chosen as a ‘100 for 100’ program recipient! This opportunity couldn’t have come at a better time as I prepare to grow my team and launch new products to continue to build math confidence in our next generation,” she told Yahoo news. 

According to her, the initiative will not only provide cash for her enterprise, but will help her enhance her website, roll out new marketing initiatives, and publish children’s books.

“American Express is proud to support the highly talented and innovative entrepreneurs selected for our 100 for 100 program, as they kick start their ventures and keep the momentum going so their businesses can continue to evolve,” said Clayton Ruebensaal, EVP Global B2B Marketing, American Express. 

Apart from Rhodes, 99 other Black women entrepreneurs also received the $25,000 grant to expand their businesses. The entrepreneurs selected for the grant cuts across sectors such as fashion and beauty, food and beverage, finance, fitness and wellness, home goods, apparel, technology, social good, according.

For Alioune Ndiaye, chief executive of Orange Middle East and Africa, and a tele­coms veteran since the 1980s, the past few months have presented a challenge to rival any seen in the industry’s recent history. 

“This pandemic has had a tremendous impact on our lives, on our jobs, on our families and activities – it’s impossible to overstate how much change we’ve had to withstand since March,” says Ndiaye. 

As the coronavirus hit the company’s 18 markets throughout the region, businesses and customers facing lockdowns and home-working sparked a huge increase in data use, putting a strain on the operator’s mobile and fixed broadband infrastructure.  

“Some of our countries have seen data traffic increase by 60% in only one or two weeks, usually during the lockdowns, and this has put our mobile and fixed networks under some stress, but thanks to all our previous investments we could withstand the sudden increase with almost no decline in quality or availability of our services, and this could explain why we’ve been resilient in our financial results,” he says.   

While the pandemic has buffeted corporates across the continent, Orange Middle East and Africa revenues grew 3.8% year-on-year in the first half of 2020 to €2.8bn ($3.3bn) and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation rose by more than 7%. The regional performance was driven by a 40% increase in 4G customers year on year to 27.9m, by broadband, and by mobile money service Orange Money. 

“Data usage by mobile phones has nearly doubled in a year. There were three phases – acceleration in the second quarter, more stable progression in the third quarter and a renewed progression from September,” says Ndiaye.  

Data revenue grew by 26% in the second quarter, while home working contributed to the number of fixed broadband customers increasing 31% year-on-year to 1.4m, enabling fixed broadband revenue growth of 33% in the second quarter. Yet adapting to this surge in demand has been an immense technical challenge for Orange, says Ndiaye.

Annual infrastructure investments of €1bn helped it to withstand the pressure at the height of the pandemic, but the firm has had to further boost its technology and work more closely with the US tech giants who account for the majority of its traffic. 

“The huge increase in traffic was mainly on Google and Facebook content, so we had to work closely with these players in order to better control the impact on our networks. This rapid increase in international capacity also had to be implemented on submarine routes in Morocco and Jordan, and we also increased our capacity on satellite in the DRC and Central African Republic. Some data network cores had to be resized and we did this in Jordan, Morocco and Senegal.” 

As well as improvements to physical infrastructure, Ndiaye also had to oversee an operational restructuring as Orange attempted to meet customer demand while  adapting to remote working and new in-country regulations. 

“We set up a crisis committee in each country chaired by the CEO of the operation in the country. We also updated our national business continuity plans to comply with new requirements. We cancelled all seminars and events and used barriers in physical workspaces and changed to digital modes where possible. The entire ecosystem of our operations had to adapt – this crisis has really exceeded in its form and scope the working hypothesis we had until now.” 

Data consumption and mobile money fuel growth 

As well as thrusting the telecoms sector to the fore as a critical communications medium for governments and citizens, the pandemic is accelerating industry trends that have long been brewing in Africa, including increased data consumption and smartphone ownership, widespread mobile money adoption and the installation of broadband for homes and businesses. Orange is positioning itself to capitalise on these shifts, says Ndiaye. 

“Our digital portals show traffic increased by 40% and data usage by business customers went up in many of our countries. We have started reflecting on the impact of the crisis, particularly the increase in teleworking for companies and employees, most clearly formulated in the widespread demand of B2B customers to increase the flexibility of the office and adapt to the uncertainties inherent in this crisis. This reflection could lead us to keep the traffic going, going forwards.” 

Nowhere is this acceleration more evident than in mobile money. Orange Money’s active customer base totalled 19.6m by June 30, having registered 18.9% year-on-year growth as governments encouraged citizens to avoid physical cash. Revenues for the service grew 12.5% in the second quarter of the year.

Orange is planning to build on this momentum through this year’s launch of Orange Bank Africa, which will work with Orange Money to offer a range of savings and microcredit services which will allow customers to borrow as little as CFA5,000 ($9) using their mobile phone. 

The bank aims to attract 10m customers and €100m in net banking income within 5 years. The first commercial launch will be in Côte d’Ivoire before branches open in Senegal, Mali and Burkina Faso, subject to approval from BCEAO, the region’s banking regulator.  

“We are relying on growth levers like mobile money and banking,” confirms Ndiaye.  

Nigerian startup Autochek is aiming at playing a pioneering role in building a digital infrastructure to coordinate the sales, servicing and vehicle records of the auto market in Africa.
“We’re basically focused on technology solutions to build the rails of [Africa’s] automotive sector to run on. We’re focusing on three foundations of the market: transactions and trading, maintenance, and financing,” Autochek CEO Etop Ikpe told.

It’s different in the type of technology we’re building and that it’s asset-light. I don’t have any inventory. I don’t buy cars. I don’t transact any [physical] cars. I don’t own any inspection locations. I don’t own any dealerships,” he said.

Autochek this month raised a $3.4 million pre-seed round co-led by TLcom Capital and 4DX ventures in a bid to digitize Africa’s automotive sector. It plans to use the fund to expand its operations and geographic scope. 

Autocheck has over 20,000 unique vehicles as well as more than 12,000 dealers and private sellers. Currently, it operates only in Nigeria and Ghana. It is planning to start operations in Ivory Coast, Senegal, South Africa, Kenya, Egypt and Algeria.

“Acquisitions are going to be a core part of our expansion strategy,” said Ikpe. Also, the startup is exploring to add associated auto-related services, such as insurance and blue book pricing products.

Racial disparities within the healthcare system due to to the lingering effects of systemic racism prevent thousands of Black and Latinx patients from receiving the adequate service they deserve. One Black woman is seeking to change that by establishing a new tool to help marginalized groups connect with doctors from their communities.

Kimberly Wilson is the founder of HUED, an app created to help Black and Latinx patients connect with doctors of colors for healthcare services. Wilson created the company after her own health scare exposed her to the disparities many like her face.

“As a 30-something, I was traumatized by this experience, and in that, I realized my story is the same as countless others, though many are unequipped to be their own self-advocate,” said Wilson. “That was when I developed a solution for improving the patient care experience.”

Wilson says the COVID-19 pandemic has only given more exposure to the disparities Black and Latinx patients face when seeking healthcare services leading more consumers to the app. “Where investors and other stakeholders were uninterested and unbothered by the work that HUED was doing, even just a year ago,” she explains, “there’s been a spotlight on healthcare that is helping us to validate a problem that we’ve sought to address well before this moment in time.”

The health app recently partnered with Vaseline and award-winning actress Regina King to collaborate on a search tool to help people find dermatologists and other specialist doctors of color. “Through this partnership, we co-created a search tool with Vaseline specifically focused on helping people identify and connect with dermatologists of color and those experienced in treating skin of color,” said Wilson.

“The online platform will also offer educational resources that provide expert recommendations on how to treat and monitor skin at home, understanding when to seek a dermatologist for proper care, and how to best prepare for an appointment with the right questions and what to expect.”

Wilson went on to say that she hopes the services can help combat these disparities as a start to reform the system and help those within the community. “HUED’s solution not only reduces the economic toll of payers (resulting from racial disparities),” she says, “but also drastically improves health outcomes for people of color by allowing patients to search, review, and book culturally competent physicians that specifically understand their physical, mental, and cultural needs.”