Sun King has expanded its offering to underserved consumers across Africa, combining the launch of its own smartphone and solar-powered fridge-freezer with the scale-up of its clean cooking technologies and services. Sun King is known for powering homes and businesses with solar kits delivered through pay-as-you-go financing. The company is now extending that approach to Sun King–designed smartphones, clean cooking solutions, and refrigeration, making essential technologies affordable through small, flexible payments. From pay-as-you-go solar to pay-as-you-go smartphones The company recently launched the Sun King EZ 1, its first smartphone designed for and assembled locally in Africa. Africa’s smartphone economy is…
Author: Montage Africa
By Rédaction Africanews Nigeria’s data protection regulator has opened an investigation into Chinese-owned e-commerce platform Temu over suspected violations of the country’s privacy laws. The Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) said on Tuesday that it is examining how Temu collects, uses and transfers personal data belonging to Nigerian users. The probe follows concerns about possible breaches involving cross-border data transfers, transparency, accountability and compliance with data-minimisation rules. The investigation was ordered by the commission’s National Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer, Vincent Olatunji, who warned that companies found to have broken the law could face penalties under the Nigeria Data Protection…
Nigeria’s foreign ministry has issued an urgent warning over what it describes as the increasing illegal recruitment of its citizens to fight in foreign conflicts. It comes after Ukrainian officials said they found the bodies of two Nigerians who they said were killed in combat last year. Nigeria has not confirmed those deaths but in a statement on Sunday, foreign ministry spokesperson Kimiebi Imomotimi Ebienfa revealed that “several Nigerians who have fallen victim to such unfortunate situations were deployed to combat zones after being misled and coerced into signing military service contracts”. Kenya has issued a similar warning to its…
Mr. Barry Faure, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Diaspora of the Republic of Seychelles, paid a courtesy call on H.E. Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, Chairperson of the African Union Commission, on February 11th at the African Union Headquarters. The Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC) welcomed the Minister and congratulated him on his appointment following the United Seychelles’ success in the recent polls. He reaffirmed the Commission’s commitment to working closely with Seychelles to promote Africa’s shared values, unity, and the comprehensive development agenda of the continent. He recognised Seychelles as a beacon of good governance in the region. The discussions…
More than 6,000 people were killed in just three days when Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized the city of el-Fasher last year, according to victims and witnesses cited in a UN report. “It was like a scene out of a horror movie,” recalled one person, who saw bodies thrown into the air as RSF fighters opened fire on 1,000 people sheltering in a university building last October. The report cites evidence of mass killings, summary executions, torture, abductions and sexual violence against civilians. These amount to war crimes and possible crimes against humanity, it says. The RSF has…
Europe has taken its first concrete step into Namibia’s emerging lithium sector in a move that could have a significant impact on the global battery race. The European Investment Bank signed a cooperation agreement with Andrada Mining, committing up to $2.4 million to advance the Uis lithium project toward a bankable feasibility study. The bank will also provide technical assistance. With the International Energy Agency warning that 55 new lithium mines will be needed by 2035 to meet soaring demand for the metal, Brussels is scrambling to secure supplies outside China’s dominant grip. Namibia, already famous for diamonds and uranium, sits…
African governments are turning to technology to solve a massive tax problem. With foreign aid drying up, nations are scrambling to generate revenue from their own economies but roughly 85% of workers operate in the informal sector, making traditional tax collection nearly impossible. Digital tools now offer a solution. Countries like Rwanda use electronic billing machines that push tax compliance down the supply chain, while Kenya’s eTIMS system sends sales data directly to tax authorities in real time. However, the approach carries significant risks. When Ghana introduced a levy on mobile transactions, users simply returned to cash, undermining financial inclusion…
By AFP Local fisherman Abubakar Usman’s 59-kilogramme monster catch was the major highlight of the UNESCO-listed Argungu fishing festival, which returned Saturday after a six-year hiatus because of the insecurity in northwestern Nigeria’s Kebbi state. Thousands of people, including a handful of women and children, defied the blistering 39-degree heat to take part. Fishermen from Nigeria’s West African neighbours Niger, Chad, and Togo also came to compete. The fishing festival was first staged in 1934 by the then traditional ruler of Argungu, Muhammad Sama. It was held to mark an end to a century-old history of hostility and distrust between…
By Rédaction Africanews with AFP After a French tourist was found dead on Friday during a group visit to Chad for the International Festival of Saharan Cultures, the tourist group has now arrived at the military airbase of N’Djamena to leave the country. A French tourist who went missing in northeastern Chad after heading off to visit an oasis in the desert has been found dead “after a fall”, Chad’s tourism minister told AFP on Friday. The 70-year-old man – from the city of Dijon, according to a French newspaper report – had been missing since Wednesday. He was part…
By Rédaction Africanews Former US president Barack Obama has reacted to a racist AI-generated video depicting himself and his wife Michelle Obama as apes. The video was shared by current US president Donald Trump, who claimed that he had not seen the part of the video showing the Obamas. Donald Trump is not known for liking Barack Obama. He usually refers to his predecessor exclusively as “Barack Hussein Obama”, emphasising Obama’s second name. But Trump’s recent sharing of a racist social media video depicting both Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama with ape bodies seems to mark a…