Connect with us

VenturesNow

Nigeria’s Zone Tech Park is armed with $6.5 Million to turn ideas into ventures

Published

on

Zone Tech Park, a new venture builder for start-ups in Nigeria, has officially opened for business and is already turning great ideas into products and services.

According to Bolaji Olagunju, its founder, “African startups are faced with significant challenges that hinder their growth. Zone Tech will change the status quote and help individuals and their businesses to realise their full potential through education, venture building and strategic enterprise support.”

To date, US$6.5 million has been invested in Zone Tech Park to build the infrastructure and environment needed to help African startups scale and compete globally.

Zone Tech Park is open for start-ups at all stages in their life cycle, from those that are a great idea on paper to those with customers already on-board. Its co-working space is FREE for start-ups, which are not charged for access to the tech hub’s multitude of services and advisers.

Read Also: Rensource Energy raises €500,000 to solve Nigeria’s electricity problem

Zone Tech Park also promises to plug its start-ups into a network of more than 400 corporations, giving them direct access to market, helping them to avoid bottlenecks, strike deals faster, and scale quicker. Zone Tech Park will support its start-ups in preparing for funding rounds by giving access to a network of potential investors, accelerator programs, and ecosystem architects.

The hub is also promising an experienced in-house engineering team of 20+ software developers and designers, and entire finance, legal, marketing, sales and fundraising teams.

Prior to its official launch, Zone Tech ran a small pilot program and has built Peerless, a learning management system that already has 10,000+ users and revenues of 100,000 USD and Outwork, a staff on-demand solution with 7,000+ users.

VenturesNow

Congo DR: President Tshisekedi visits China for mining renegotiations 

Published

on

The President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Félix Tshisekedi is currently on a visit to China to strengthen his country’s partnership with the Asian giant.

An official of Congo DR, Erik Nyindu Kibambe, while addressing journalists in Beijing, revealed that the trip was meant to be for the renegotiation of mining contracts. Kibambe maintained that talks were going “wonderfully.”

The president had previously promised to renegotiate mining contracts, in particular, the one signed in 2008 with China by his predecessor, Joseph Kabila (2001-2019), for better terms in favour of the country.

The president was received by a cheering audience and a line of honour and jubilant children between meetings with Mr Xi and Premier Li Qiang.

Mr. Li told Mr Tshisekedi that he believed “China-DRC relations will surely achieve greater development and benefit both peoples.”

A statement by the Chinese foreign ministry revealed that the countries were upgrading “the bilateral relationship from a win-win strategic cooperative partnership to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership.”

Congo is one of the most natural resource-rich nations, holding massive untapped deposits of minerals including cobalt, copper, diamonds and gold amounting to approximately $24 trillion.

China is a major investor in the country where it leads the lucrative mining sector with firms like Sicomines.

Continue Reading

VenturesNow

Kenya, IMF agree terms for $3 billion Extended Credit Facility

Published

on

Kenya has reached an agreement that could unlock more than $3 billion of new financing with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The international lender and the country said the agreement could help relieve pressure on government finances in East Africa’s largest economy.

The agreement is the fifth review of Kenya’s External Credit Facility and Extended Fund Facility arrangements, an extension of the program and augmentation for access under a 20-month Resilience and Sustainability Facility.

Under the agreement, Kenya will get access to $544 million through the Resilience and Sustainability Facility, which is intended to support climate change adaptation and resilience. A total of $3.5 billion had been committed to funding for Kenya under the three facilities, and its executive board would likely consider the staff-level agreement in July.

The IMF stated that the medium-term outlook for the Kenyan economy remained favourable, although the economy had been strained by a challenging external environment. The IMF maintained that the planned fiscal consolidation was appropriate, while also protecting priority social spending.

“Exchange rate flexibility and proactive monetary policy will remain critical to preserving macroeconomic stability and supporting market confidence against the backdrop of a challenging global economic outlook and continued uncertainty in international financial markets,” IMF said in a statement.

Kenya has insisted that it would not default on its debt repayment obligations despite delayed payment of civil service salaries.

The country in April revealed plans to issue a new Eurobond to manage 2024’s maturity of a Ksh270 billion ($2 billion) 10-year bond.

Continue Reading

EDITOR’S PICK

Uncategorized7 hours ago

Kenya, Russia sign deal to boost trade cooperation

Kenya’s presidency has revealed that the country is set to sign a trade pact with Russia focused on boosting cooperation...

Sports9 hours ago

Ndidi, Iheanacho, Daka suffer relegation with Leicester City

The three African players at Leicester City, Nigerian internationals, Wilfred Ndidi and Kelechi Iheanacho, as well as Zambian striker, Patson...

Tech9 hours ago

Nigeria’s identity verification startup, Youverify takes expansion drive into Kenya

Nigeria’s identity verification regtech startup, Youverify has taken its African expansion drive into Kenya after successfully launching its operations in...

Metro9 hours ago

WHO tells Zambia to grow sustainable crops instead of tobacco

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has admonished the Zambian government to encourage farmers to plant more food crops instead of...

Metro9 hours ago

Ugandan President, Museveni signs anti-gay bill into law

The Ugandan anti-gay bill which was presented by the parliament to President Yoweri Museveni for assent has finally been signed...

Culture10 hours ago

South African amputee dancer, Musa Motha dazzles at ‘Britain’s Got Talent’

South African amputee dancer, Musa Motha has entered the history books at the “Britain’s Got Talent” reality show after leaving...

Politics10 hours ago

Bola Tinubu sworn in as Nigeria’s 16th president

Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been sworn in as Nigeria’s 16th President on Monday, May 29 at Eagle Square in the...

Politics11 hours ago

Embattled Senegalese opposition leader, Sonko arrested

Embattled Senegalese opposition leader, Ousmane Sonko was arrested on Sunday by the police during a march across the country. Last...

Politics14 hours ago

Mali warns United States against disinformation against it

The military government in Mali has asked the United States to desist from disinformation about the country and its defence...

Behind the News1 day ago

Behind the News: All the backstory to our major news this week

In the past one week, there were lots of important stories from around the African continent and we served you...

Trending