Over 20 drivers of the Lagos state-backed ride-hailing platform LagRide, yesterday, echoed the company’s duty of care to its contractors after one driver, Adebayo Padmore died. 

Padmore tragically collapsed and died yesterday morning while preparing for his shift. A cause of death is yet to be ascertained, but Tumi Adeyemi, the head of the solutions for LagRide, told TechCabal that the company would launch an investigation into the matter. 

To its contractors though, Padmore’s cause of death is certain: a high-pressure environment and unrealistic goals. 

LagRide’s model: LagRide’s lease-to-own model appears generous, offering drivers brand-new GACs (SUVs and Sedans) for a ₦700,000 ($793) downpayment and daily ₦8,900 ($10.08) payments over four years. 

A LagRide dashboard showing daily targets. Image source: TechCabal

But a leaked dashboard reveals potentially problematic terms: drivers must clock 10 hours and 150 kilometres daily which would earn the average driver ₦43,000 ($48.72)—and a mere ₦10,000 ($11.33) take home after expenses. 

 Failing to meet these targets doesn’t result in penalties, but it drops their dashboard into a “negative daily percentage,” according to one driver. 

This raises questions about the feasibility of meeting such demands while managing financial pressures, potentially compromising safety and driver well-being.

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When Wasoko and MaxAB announced their merger in late December, the CEOs of both companies told TechCabal that the new entity would become the “clear B2B e-commerce leader in Africa.” In a sector with well-funded players like Alerzo and TradeDepot, the idea of a category king would have appealed to investors. 

“Shareholders on all sides are extremely excited about what is happening,” said Daniel Yu, Wasoko’s CEO. “This is a 1 plus 1 equals 3.”

While investors may be grinning from ear to ear, employees are learning how disruptive mergers can be. Per the Harvard Business Review, “roughly 30% of employees are deemed redundant after a merger in the same industry.”

The Scoop: Today TechCabal reported that around 400 people, or 10% of the combined workforce of Wasoko and MaxAB, will leave the company because a post-merger reality means that many roles are now overlapping. Most of the employees affected are on the product and engineering teams. 

Employees were told about the job cuts on a Google Meet call, and no recording was allowed, one person present at those meetings told TechCabal. There’s much more to know, like the severance package offered to employees and the state of employee stock options. 

Read more here. 

GIF Source: Tenor

Nigeria’s telecoms regulator today approved the partial disconnection of Globacom from MTN Nigeria today because Globacom owes about ₦6 billion ($6.7 million) in interconnect fees. The disconnection will be implemented in 10 days if Glo does not make good on its payments. 

The technical jargon: “If a call originates from MTN Nigeria Communications Limited, for instance, and ends on Glo Mobile network, what MTN pays Glo Mobile for terminating the call is the interconnect rate.”

The standard interconnect fee for local calls in Nigeria is ₦4.30k per minute, but it adds up pretty quickly. In 2018, for instance, the total interconnect fee owed by Nigerian network operators was ₦165 billion ($186.9 million). 

Where does this leave customers? If a partial disconnection eventually happens, Glo’s 61.39 million subscribers will be unable to call MTN users. However, MTN users will still be able to reach Glo users.

Glo now has 10 days, starting from January 8, to make good on those payments. The telco will also need to pay up on its annual operating levy, which it reportedly owes to the NCC.

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Executives are breaking off from Kenyan startup Twiga Foods, and Daniel Ngungi, head of legal and administration, is the latest to go. 

In a LinkedIn post yesterday, Ngungi announced his departure from the startup. “The 4th of January 2024 marked my last day at Twiga Foods, an organization that was my home for a decade, eight years of which were on a full-time basis,” the post read.

Ngungi’s exit comes days after CEO Peter Njonjo resigned from the company’s board. Yebeltal Getachew, who led Twiga’s East Africa business, also left the company in December. 

The legal head’s departure reinforces speculations that ex-CEO Njonjo was forced out of the company by an investor takeover. At the heart of this is a rocky 2022 which led to a $450,000 lawsuit from one of its vendors. 

Read more.

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Image source: NIBSS

Nigeria banks are seeing reduced queues at the ATM stand. 

Figures from a recently released KPMG report suggest that only 4 in 10 bank customers get money from an ATM.

The sharp decline in these figures suggests that agency banking is now a mainstay in Africa’s largest economy. The figures for ATM usage dropped from 70% in previous years to 40% in the 2023 edition.

Why does this matter? Nigeria’s fintech landscape has witnessed significant shifts with neobanks like Opay, Moniepoint, and Palmpay offering agency banking services. These agents who work on behalf of the banks in their local communities leverage existing retail outlets, kiosks, and mobile networks as well as trust to offer essential banking services like deposits, cash withdrawals, and bill payments to individuals in underserved areas, bringing financial services to their doorsteps. 

Fintech saves the day: The survey also highlighted a 52% increase in digital payments between January and October 2023. This spike was attributed to Nigeria’s ill-fated policy redesign policy which led to a cash crunch. During this period, Nigeria’s legacy banks were unable to keep up with the influx of transactions due to poor banking infrastructure. However, fintechs were there to save the day offering seamless transactions to users. 

Zoom out: While the CBN’s botched redesign policy might have temporarily bumped up digital payments, next year’s figures might tell a different story—at least if another cash policy is not implemented. 

Nigeria’s new stab at a digital currency, the stablecoin cNGN could further lead to decreased usage of ATM if successful. The cNGN, which poses a new way for digital and cross-border transactions, could change the way people rely on cash. However, there are fears that the cNGN project could be another variety of the embattled eNaira project.

Coin Name

Current Value

Day

Month

Bitcoin
$46,725

+ 7.11%

+ 5.55%

Ether
$2,311

+ 5.22%

– 2.49%

Sei

$0.73

+ 19.73%

+ 171.74%

Solana
$98.33

+ 14.09%

+ 35.15%

* Data as of 06:20 AM WAT, January 9, 2024.

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Nigeria has postponed the launch of its stablecoin the cNGN. Punch reports that the stablecoin’s February 27 launch has been put on hold as it’s yet to receive regulatory approval. The Africa Stablecoin Consortium says it is engaging relevant regulatory bodies including the CBN, and will communicate a new launch date once approval has been given.

Deji Alli ARM Young Talent Award (DAAYTA) 2024 for Innovative Nigerian startups (₦12,000,000 in funding) is open for applications. DAAYTA is an ARM initiative, in partnership with TechnoVision’s TVC Labs, that aims at providing young Nigerians with an opportunity to develop innovative startup ventures that add economic value to Nigeria. Apply by January 16.
Applications are open for the World Press Photo Contest 2024 for Photographers Worldwide (5,000 euros cash prize). The Contest recognises and celebrates the best photojournalism and documentary photography produced over the last year, selected by an international independent jury. Apply by January 11, 2024.
Applications are open for the Mastercard Foundations Scholars Program 2023/2024 at the Carnegie Melon University Africa. The programme provides generous financial, social, and academic support for students whose talents and promise exceed their financial resources. Apply by January 15, 2024.

What else is happening in tech?

OpenAI says it’s impossible to create tools like ChatGPT without copyrighted materials
UAE’s fintech Tabby raises $700m from J.P. Morgan, ahead of its planned IPO 
Deal Dive: A Stripe secondary deal worth paying attention to
The fall of Will and Jada’s media empire

Written by: Muyiwa Olowogboyega & Faith Omoniyi

Edited by: Timi Odueso

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