Sunday 18 December 2022
Monday 2 August 2021
Nigerian Startup, Kuda Bank, Raises $55M in Second Round Fund Raising
Nigerian start-up Kuda Bank relied on a new API-based infrastructure with a set of personalized and generally cheaper banking services to compete with existing companies in the country. In the past, it has been growing for several months and is driving its expansion, and now it has completeed another round of funding.
After the impressive growth previously recorded, another round of funding estimated at $500 million commenced. Kuda, a Nigeria-focused bank says it is now ready to be launched in more countries. In the words of co-founder and CEO Babs Ogundeyi, it is creating a new banking service for "Africans on Earth".
Babs said in an interview that we have been deploying a lot of resources in our Nigerian environment. But now we are doubling down on the expansion and our idea is to build a strong team for Kuda's expansion plan. We still believe that Nigeria is an important market and we don't want to be distracted, so we don't want to disrupt these businesses too much. This is a strong market and competition. This is what we feel we need to firmly understand. Therefore, the funds are used to invest in expansion and have more experience related to expansion in the company.
Kuda now has 1.4 million registered users, which is more than double of the 650,000 registered users it had in March, this figure was revealed while announcing the $25 million Series A financing led by Valar Ventures.
The latest round of funding came from existing investors. A collaboration between Valar Ventures and Target Global, it also includes SBI and some former angels who are also involved. At the beginning and end of the B round of financing, Kuda did not take the initiative to raise funds.
"We feel Babs and Musty"- co-founder and CTO Musty Mustapha -"Ambitious on another level. For them, this is always about building a pan-African bank, not just Nigeria Leader," said Target partner Ricardo Schäfer who led the contract. "The prospect of having more than 1 billion people from the beginning really caught my attention."
You may notice that only four months have passed since Kuda's last announcement of financing. Several rounds of stocks raised in rapid succession, sometimes only a few months apart, now seem to be a top priority. Part of the reason is that a large amount of money is now injected into the company, but it is also affected by market conditions. When the company in question shows all the right growth indicators and works in a particularly active field, many people will join when it gets hotter.
Other powerful financial technology companies have emerged around the world based on a model similar to kuda. For example: WeBank in China, Revolut and N26 in Europe, Chime and Varo in the United States (US). In this sense, Africa may be the last untapped region in the banking industry, which is one of the reasons why Kuda appears promising.
There has been a signal to this effect over the years. A 2018 McKinsey report on the African banking industry pointed out that there is a huge interest in digital financial services, and this growth will be driven by rapidly developing middle-class consumers, while at the same time, the available financial service companies will continue to phase out . For most of the population, there are still about 300 million people on the continent without bank accounts. Kuda has established its own service based on these three basic factors.
Kuda is not the only one who builds, grows and grows. Other companies raising funds for new fintech businesses include payment company Chipper Cash and Airtel Africa. But Kuda stands out because it uses its own banking license to build its services. This gives the company another credibility in a continent where customers of already existing banks may develop cold feet towards new entrants.
Kuda’s business strategy will evolve as it hopes to become a regional player. It's unclear which country may emerge Kuda’s next businesss location. But Babs did point out that expansion is on the way. Kuda's first step towards credit through an overdraft line, is a sign of future development.
"We pre-approved overdraft for the most active users," he said. In the second quarter, it obtained the credit ratings of more than 200,000 users and launched a loan worth 20 million US dollars. He said that with a 30-day refund, so far, due to company practices, defaults have been "minimal."
"We use all the customer data we have and assign overdraft rates based on customer activities, so that it is not a burden for reimbursement," he added.
Andrew McCormack, General Partner at Valar Ventures, who co-founded the company with Peter Thiel and James Fitzgerald, said that the immature potential of the market and how Kuda approached it was the reason for his decision to invest in this startup again.
"This is our first investment in Africa, and the rapid growth in the last four months confirms our initial confidence in the team," he said. "As young people in the continent are eager to receive digital financial services, we believe that Kuda's transformative impact on the banking industry will spread throughout Africa, and we are proud to be a part of them."
Facebook develops educational app, sabee to target Nigerian learners
Earlier, Facebook announced it's decision to open an office in Lagos, Nigeria, which will provide the company with a center in Africa - that will become its first office with a team of engineers on the African continent. This new center has launched a mobile application dedicated to education called Sabee, which means “know” in Nigeria’s Pidgin language. The app is designed to connect students and educators in online communities and make educational opportunities more accessible.
This application was briefly released on Google Play by Facebook's internal Research & Development team "NPE Team", which usually focuses on new social experiences in the fields of audio, video, messaging, music, etc.
Although the NPE team’s learning application sometimes informs Facebook’s broader efforts, the team has not yet developed an application that has been upgraded to become a standalone Facebook product. Many of their early apps have been shut down as well. For example: online magazine maker, Hobbi video app, friendfinder Bump, CatchUp caller app, Venue podcast community app, etc. However, Sabee represents a new direction for the NPE team because it is not about building another social experiment.
Rather, Sabee is related to Facebook's broader strategy, which is to start with Nigeria and focus more on serving the African continent. This is a strategic move, and data indicates that by 2030 the majority of the world's population will live in urban centers, most of which will be on the African continent and throughout the Middle East. By 2100, Africa's population is expected to triple and Nigeria will become the second most populous country in the world after China.
In order to meet the need to connect these areas to the Internet, Facebook partnered with telecommunications companies to launch 2Africa, an undersea cable project designed to serve more than 1 billion people in Africa and the Middle East who are still disconnected. Of course, this investments are not a misadventure: Facebook knows that its future growth will come from these demographics. Facebook confirmed their plan and noted that it is still a under test for now.
We should note that according to the "City Dictionary", "sabee" have other meanings in different languages. But the team currently has no plans to change the name because it makes sense in the Nigerian market targeted by the application.
"Nigeria has 50 million students, but only 2 million educators," said Emeka Okafor, Facebook's product leader. "Through this small initial test, we hope to understand how we can help educators build communities so that everyone can receive an education. We look forward to learning with our first batch of evaluators and decided to start there. "
The gap between Nigerian students and educators has a significant impact on women and girls. This is another focus of Sabee, as well as the NPE's hard work team. Throughout the region. The company also wants to explore how to better serve the Group services with backward technology. In this regard, Sabee is working hard to create an experience that is suitable for low connectivity, such as 2G.
We understand that the application is currently in the early alpha testing stage, and the testers who signed a confidentiality agreement with Facebook are not To 100. Currently, no one outside the team can use the app, but the company hopes to expand Sabee to the next stage before the end of the year.
Unable to register on the Sabee waiting list, the application is no longer public on Google Play. Sensor Tower, an app store intelligence company, confirmed to us that its release time was so short that it never ranked on any leaderboard.
Sunday 1 August 2021
Abba Kyari & Hushpuppi: Court proceedings unveil some more dirty details
Nigerian super cop Abba Kyari was also accused of aiding a US $1.1 million transnational cyber fraud together with three other people arrested. When the indictment was announced on July 26, the court issued an arrest warrant for the arrest of Mr Abba Kyari. Mr Kyari denied any wrongdoing in this matter. However, as court documents show, the US government described Mr. Kyari as a "high-risk defendant" when explaining the reasons for requesting an arrest warrant against him.
Hushpuppi (the so-called leader of the international fraud ring) was arrested in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and deported to the United States for trial. He recently admitted to conspiring to launder money, involving in fraudulent schemes and other crimes levelled against him by the FBI. Under the plea bargain agreement, the crime is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, with full compensation and other penalties.
How the fraud started:
A Quatari businessman was looking for a lender who would invest $15 million to build a school in Qatar. Juma is a Kenyan who lives in Nairobi and works with Raymond Abbas, also known as hushpuppi, and he promised the Quatari entrepreneur that he will provide them with loans.
Hushpubbi adopted the pseudonym "Malik" and claimed to be a US banker who would help facilitate disbursement of the loan. Hushpuppi and Juma tricked the businessman into making some financial transfers under the guise of taxes and other charges to speed up loans.
Hushpuppi contracted Mr. Chibuzor to design a decoy website to mislead the Quatari business tycoon into believing the loan has been approved and fund transfer processing. Mr. Innocenti reported that "Mr. Chibuzo was dissatisfied with his share of the crime proceed he received from Hushpuppi and dissuaded the victim businessman from paying other con don (bosses) to hijack the scheme."
While explaining in detail how the Quatari merchant was defrauded. Mr. Innocent said, "Hushpuppi, brought Mr. Kyari into the picture to arrange the arrest of rival financial con don, Mr Chibuzo following his discovery of Chibuzo's plan". After Mr. Chibuzo was arrested, the agent said: “Juma and Abbas persuaded the victim business man to wire above $299,983.58 to their account.”
“Kyari consciously participated in the plan, which allowed Abbas and Juma to continue to deceive without detection. The victim is a businessman and collects money from the company victim after the company victim is laundered," the court document added.
However, Mr. Kyari denied any wrongdoing in connection with this case. He said that he only responded to Hushpuppi's "distress" call, who claimed that Chibuzo wanted to kill his family. He stated that Chibuzo was arrested by his team and later released. According to him, it was discovered that Mr. Chibuzo did not have the kind of assassination plan that Hushpuppi said, but the two had money disagreement. Kyari claimed, "no one asked Hushpuppi for money to handle the case".
Kyari used Chibuzor's phone number to help track down Chibuzor and arrest him. After picking up and locking up Chibuzor, Kyari sent a photo of Chibuzor in police custody to Hushpuppi to confirm.
Nigerian law enforcement authorities said Thursday that they had begun "reviewing" allegations against Mr Kyari, a famous law enforcement officer. The photos of Chibuzor in the prison were sent to Hushpuppi, who eventually transferred fund to Mr Kyari's account. Kyari then transferred a cut to the officer who arrested Mr. Vincent. Kyari provided Abbas with a third-party Zenith bank account details, in which the funds were transferred.
Chibuzor's girlfriend tried to secure his release and even rallied Hushpuppi to obtain funds with which she could secure Chibuzor's release from custody. Hushpuppi informed Kyari of her move and reiterated his resolve to keep Chibuzor incarcerated. Mr. Kyari is said to have told Abbas that he would not allow Mr. Chibuzo's girlfriend to pay to remove Mr. Chibuzo from custody, as he did with any "normal arrest".
After being detained for a time, Chibuzor became very ill. It appeared that he had been exposed to a certain disease in the cell and was sent to hospital for treatment. Kyari sent a photo of seriously ill Chibuzor to Hushpuppi. Hushpuppi replied: "I see Chibuzor is really sick, but i don't sympathize with him for what he did." They both ended the conversation and agreed to release Chibuzor.
The other persons involved in the above case are Bolatito and another Morayo. These people helped these criminals transfer money by providing them with U.S. bank accounts; and they launder money for Huspupi in various ways; some of which include the purchase and delivery of Richard Mille watches worth about $250,000, which Bolitito delivered to Huspupi through Morayo .
List of Influential and notable people born in the month of August
Anyone born in august may be inquisitive and want to know who else was born in the same month. Just incase you are inquisitive too, here is a list of influential nigerian and non-nigerian celebrities born in august.
Nigerian Celebrities born in August
Jesse Jagz: Born Aug 10, 1984
Vincent Enyeama: Born Aug 29, 1982
Oluchi Onweagba: Born Aug 1, 1982
Celestine Babayaro: Born Aug 29, 1978
Ime Udoka: Born Aug 9, 1977
Funke Akindele: Born Aug 24, 1976
Kanu Nwakwo: Born Aug 1, 1976
Jay Jay Okocha: Born Aug 14, 1973
Augine Eguavoen: Born Aug 19, 1965
Samson Siasia: Born Aug 14, 1964
Peter Rufai: Born Aug 24, 1963
Namadi Sambo: Born Aug 2, 1954
Segun Odegbami: Born Aug 27, 1952
Chris Ngige: Born Aug 8, 1952
James Ibori: Born Aug 4, 1949
Murtalo Nyako: Born Aug 27, 1942
Ibrahim Babangida: Born Aug 17, 1941
Beko Ransome Kuti: Born Aug 2, 1940
MKO Abiola: Born Aug 24, 1937 (late)
Tai Solarin: Born Aug 20, 1922
Non Nigerian Celebrities
Lauren Keyana Palmer: Born Aug 26, 1993
Nicole Gale Anderson: Born Aug 29, 1990
Tori Black: Born Aug 26, 1988
Demetria Devonne "Demi" Lovato: Born Aug 20, 1992
Hayden Lesley Panettiere: Born Aug 21, 1989
Jennifer Higham: Born Aug 26, 1984
Laura Haddock: Born Aug 21, 1985
Maddox Jolie:Pitt: Born Aug 5, 2001
Sara Ramirez: Born Aug 31, 1975
Marc Webb: Born Aug 31, 1974
Amanda Schull: Born Aug 26, 1978
Dante Basco: Born Aug 29, 1975
Carly Steel: Born Aug 21, 1982
Gene Stupnitsky: Born Aug 26, 1977
Lisa Ling: Born Aug 30, 1973
Patrick Kennedy: Born Aug 26, 1977
Steffiana De La Cruz: Born Aug 28, 1974
Tammin Sursok was: Born Aug 19, 1983
Melissa Fumero: Born Aug 19, 1982
Frank Falcone: Born Aug 30, 1970
Ashlynn Brooke: Born Aug 14, 1985
Ariadna ThalÃa Sodi Miranda: Born Aug 26 1971
Jason Priestley: Born Aug 28, 1969
Dylan Sprouse: Born Aug 4, 1992
Peyton List: Born Aug 8, 1986
Tracie Thoms: Born Aug 19, 1975
Ashley Suzanne Johnson: Born Aug 9, 1983
Ke Huy Quan: Born Aug 20, 1971
Jennifer Coolidge Aug 28, 1961
Meagan Monique: 8 Aug 1981
Natasha Henstridge: Born Aug 15, 1974
Ryan McDonald: Born Aug 5, 1984
Christopher Gorham: Born Aug 14, 1974
Kara Tointon: Born Aug 5th 1983
Ursula Mayes: Born Aug 9, 1979
Benjamin Géza Affleck: Born Aug 15, 1972
Edward Harrison Norton: Born Aug 18, 1969
Michael Joseph Jackson: Born Aug 29, 1958
Donald Edmond Wahlberg, Jr.: Born Aug 17, 1969
Jay Manuel: Born Aug 14, 1972
Ko Shibasaki: Born Aug 5, 1981
Anthony Anderson: Born Aug 15, 1970
Chris Messina: Born Aug 11, 1974
Sophie Winkleman: Born Aug 5, 1980
Drew Lachey: on Aug 8, 1976
Kyra Minturn Sedgwick: Born Aug 19, 1965
Cleo King: Born Aug 21, 1962
Alberto Gimignani: Born Aug 21, 1961
Brett Cullen: Born Aug 26, 1956
Jennifer Flavin: Born Aug 14, 1968
Halle Maria Berry: Born Aug 14, 1966
Nikki Ziering: Born Aug 9, 1971
Richard Gere: Born Aug 31, 1949
Daniella Van Graas: Born Aug 4, 1975
Kent King: Born Aug 5, 1974
Alejandro González Iñárritu: Born Aug 15, 1963
Emmanuelle Béart: Born Aug 14, 1963
Eric Bana: Born Aug 9, 1968
Kim Victoria Cattrall: Born Aug 21, 1956
Joan Allen: Born Aug 20, 1956
Tanya Wexler: Born Aug 6, 1970
Susan Olsen: Born Aug 14, 1961
Marcia Gay Harden: Born Aug 14, 1959
Rondell Sheridan: Born Aug 15, 1958
Jay Leggett: Born Aug 9, 1963
Jonathan Silverman: Born Aug 5, 1966
James Francis Cameron: Born Aug 16, 1954
Stephen Greif: Born Aug 26, 1944
Anthony Heald: Born Aug 25, 1944
Amanda Bearse: Born Aug 9, 1958
Barbet Schroeder: Born Aug 26, 1941
David William Duchovny: Born Aug 7, 1960
Jim Carter: Born Aug 19, 1948
Raymond Herbert "Ray" Wise: Born Aug 20, 1947
Francine Maisler: Born Aug 5, 1961
Janet McTeer: Born Aug 5, 1961
Melanie Griffith: Born Aug 9, 1957
Tawny Kitaen: Born Aug 5, 1961
Steve Bannos: Born Aug 5, 1960
England, Bernard Rose: 4th Aug 1960
Maureen Denise McCormick: Born Aug 5, 1956
Robert De Niro: Born Aug 17, 1943
Billy Bob Thornton: Born Aug 4, 1955
Steve Martin: Born Aug 14, 1945
James Fargo: Born Aug 14, 1938
Bob Clark: Born Aug 5, 1939
Robert Archibald Shaw: Born Aug 9, 1927
Neil Armstrong: Born Aug 5, 1930
Carl 'Alfalfa': Born Aug 7, 1927
Esther Jane Williams: Born Aug 8, 1921
Parley Baer: Born Aug 5, 1914
John Marcellus Huston: Born Aug 5, 1906
Saturday 31 July 2021
Kidnappers of Baptist high school kids renege, demand payment of additional N50 million
Kidnappers of students from Bethel Baptist High School in Kaduna
Damish have demanded an additional ransom of 50,000,000 Naira for the remaining
83 students in their custody.
The kidnappers allegedly asked their parents to pay a ransom of
about 100,000,000
naira for their children to be released from captivity in
batches. It is reported that the affected parents contributed 100,000,000
naira for the release of their wards, but the bandits eventually released only
28 students and vowed to release the others in other rounds of release.
Our source, a parent of one of the kidnapped children, said that
they are now asking for 50,000,000
to release the remaining 83 students in detention. The source explained
that the parents are now helpless and frustrated with this new development, and
have sold all they have to pay up the 100,000,000 naira that the
bandits initially demanded.
Mr Adamu Jangado, Kaduna-based pastor and Chairman of the
Baptist Conference, denied this statement, saying he was unaware of the new demands
from the bandits. He added that the bandits have not related such information
or any new information to him of late. According to him, "There is no
update yet, and we are still waiting for the remaining students to be released
by the kidnapers."
The Nigerian Baptist Conference explained through its president,
Pastor Israel Akanji, that the church did not pay any ransom for the release of
kidnapped students. It was unable to determine whether the student's
parents or other interested parties paid a ransom for their ward's
release.
He explained: "Some parents, financially endowed and
their associates are working hard to get their wards released, so we can't
really condemn people's behavior when seeking their wards' release, but as a
group, we don't believe in paying a ransom."
Sunday 26 May 2019
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Friday 8 May 2015
Top 10 Richest Bloggers In the World
1. Michael Arrington: $500,000 – $800,000 per month
2. Pete Cashmore: $560,000 – $600,000 per month
3.
Mario Lavanderia, ‘Perez Hilton': $200,000 –
$400,000 per month
4.
Vitaly Friedman: $150,000 – $190,000 per month
5.
Timothy Sykes: Monthly Income: $150,000 – $180,000
per month
6.
Jake Dobki: $80,000 – $110,000 per month
7.
Collis Ta’eed: $55,000 – $120,000 per month
8.
Gina Trapani: circa $110,000 per month
9.
Matt Marshall: $50,000 – $100,000 per month
10. Ewdison Then, ‘Slash Gear': $60,000 – $80,000 per month
Thursday 12 March 2015
Immigration Job and test materials - Nigeria
Download Test Material
Preparing For The Exam
- Follow the link above to download the Nigeria Immigration past question
- Study and prepare for the exam using the materiall
- Familiarize yourself with some current affairs
- Pray very well
- Accept my congratulations! Gbam!
Delta State Civil Service Commission test materials
Download Test Material
Tuesday 4 September 2012
Simple PHP Captcha Script
PHP Image & Captcha
In this tutorial, I will teach you how to validate a simple captcha image. It requires PHP GD2 extension. In case you are testing on localhost, ensure it is enabled first. We will create only two files- NewImage.php which generates the image, and saves value to session, and index.php that does validationIntegrate Credit Card Payment Gateway - Payza
How to Integrate Payza- Part 1
In this tutorial, I will teach you how to customize your website or blog to accept credit card payments or payza e-wallet payment. This you can use in a shopping cart or for selling digital products online.I know you could be wondering why I chose Payza instead of the much favoured Paypal. Well, i have no business promoting the services of a group that deny law abiding Nigerians and me the right to work on their platform. So i will never promote their business or support their growth in Africa. They are illogical people who pretend not to know of the various tricks used by fraudulent Nigerians to run illegal accounts. Back to business:
Watermark a Password Field like twitter