VenturesNow

Paystack secures $8 million Series A funding round

Published

5 years ago

August 29, 2018

Nigerian fintech startup, Paystack has just announced a Series A funding round to the tune of $8 million.

Being a payment platform that it is, thousands of businesses are integrated with Paystack’s API. With the new round, which surprisingly is backed by American payment company Stripe, Paystack will have the enablement to connect more businesses across the country.

Specifically, its focus is on integrating the wide range of options that are appealing to Nigerians when it comes to making and accepting payments.

There are other strategic investors in this Series A round and they include the likes of Visa, Chinese online giant and parent of WeChat, Tencent and a plethora of other companies.

In December 2016, Paystack secured seed investment of $1.3 million from investors across the globe, including SPARK. It turns out Tencent also participated in that round.

Having come a long way from that once a baby company that got $120,000 from Y Combinator, Paystack is building a global and truly digital company from Nigeria.

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Nigeria’s central bank governor, Godwin Emefiele suspended by President Tinubu

Published

14 hours ago

June 9, 2023

Ifeoluwa Dada

Nigerian president, Bola Tinubu has suspended the country’s central bank governor, Godwin Emefiele.

The office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation announced the suspension of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) head on Friday evening.

The director of information at the SGF office, Willie Bassey, in a statement, said the suspension was with immediate effect.

The CBN under Emefiele announced new designs of the N200, N500, and N1,000 notes in December. The implementation of the policy was however controversial as it launched an era of cash scarcity which some observers say was targeted at then ruling party’s candidate, Bola Tinubu, and some believe limited his chances.

Tinubu has signalled going in a different direction. During his inauguration speech, he pledged to pursue unification of the exchange rate windows and backed ease of repatriation of funds for foreign investors, policies that have not been favoured by the CBN under Emefiele.

Former president Muhammadu Buhari reappointed Emiefele for a second and final term of five years in 2019. He was appointed by former President Goodluck Jonathan in February 2014, hours after he announced the suspension of his predecessor, Sanusi Lamido.

He was the managing director of top Nigerian bank, Zenith Bank before his appointment .

VenturesNow

Ghana records 32% increase in gold production in 2022

Published

16 hours ago

June 9, 2023

Ifeoluwa Dada

West African country, Ghana has returned to top of gold production on the continent after displacing South Africa following a 32% increase in 2022.

According to the president of the mines chamber, gold output rose to 3.7 million ounces in 2022 from 2.8 million ounces the previous year, as a result of growth in the output of both large and small-scale sectors.

Joshua Mortoti, while addressing members of the Ghana Chamber of Mines at an annual general meeting revealed that “The large-scale gold sub-sector recorded its highest output in the country’s history in 2022.”

He further revealed that the expansion of production at existing mines facilitated the large-scale sector’s gold output up by 13% to 3.1 million ounces last year from 2.7 million ounces in 2021.

Over 77,620 ounces of gold were sold in 2022 under the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme, a scheme launched by the Bank of Ghana to boost reserves.

Mining is a major economic activity in Ghana and a key contributor to the Ghanaian economy. Gold mining accounted for 48.4% of gross merchandise exports in 2020.