Tech Crawl: Sudan embraces digital payments, Uber Africa launches Uber Cash with Flutterwave, NBC to regulate VOD platforms, more

It’s another week of smepeaks Tech Crawl. The month seems to be running faster than Usain Bolt yet interesting things keep happening. Let’s begin with what’s happening in Sub-Saharan Africa as Sudan embraces digital payments. 

Sudan embraces digital payments to drive financial inclusion

To accelerate its transition from cash to digital payments, the Republic of Sudan announced plans to join the United Nations ‘Better Than Cash Alliance’ to increase financial inclusion and transparency.

The government has said that moving from cash to responsible digital payments is central to the country’s economic recovery and reform strategy.

It will be critical to the success of the recently announced Sudan Family Support Program, which will provide monthly direct digital transfers to around 80% of Sudanese families. 

The programme seeks to spur economic growth, reduce poverty, and improve food security and health throughout the country.

Uber Africa partners with Flutterwave to launch Uber Cash

In partnership with Flutterwave — a B2B payment gateway network — Uber launches Uber Cash digital wallet feature in Sub-Saharan Africa. 

The feature will enable riders and active remittance partners to top up Uber wallets using the payment options available on Flutterwave’s network.

Uber Cash will reportedly be available this week and next for Uber’s ride-hail operations in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda and Ghana, Ivory Coast and Tanzania. 

National Broadcasting Commission to regulate original local content on Netflix, iROKOtv, PayTV

The amended version of the 6th edition of Nigeria’s National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) broadcast code could spell trouble for PayTv and video-on-demand platforms. 

According to the revised NBC code, online broadcasters will be required to register with the Commission and this will prevent PayTv and video-on-demand platforms from making their content exclusive. It will also force them to sub-license content at prices the commission will regulate.

The platforms will be compelled to sub-license their content to other broadcasters in Nigeria. And any platform that infringes the provision will be given the chance to comply or be liable to a fine of nothing below ‎₦10 million.

Facebook launches Messenger Kids across Sub-Saharan Africa to help parents supervise their children’s online activity

Facebook has rolled out Messenger Kids, a video chat and messaging app that helps children connect with friends and family in a fun, parent-controlled space. 

The Messenger Kids has been designed for children between the ages of 6 to 12 years. On the app, there are two new features that aim at helping kids connect with their friends and family.

Once their account is set up by a parent, kids can start a one-on-one or group video chat. The home screen shows them at a glance who they are connected to, and when those contacts are online.

With Messenger Kids, recently added or blocked contacts can be monitored, a log of images and videos in chats can be seen as well as the most recent photos and videos your child has sent and received in their inbox.

There are no in-app purchases and it is available to download for free from Apple Store and Google Play Store.  

Twitter wants you to read stories before you retweet them

In recent times, Twitter has been doing a lot to give users control over their conversations on the app. Just last month, Twitter launched a test that allows users to limit who can reply to their tweets.

To curb misinformation on the platform, the microblogging platform has announced that it will begin testing a new feature that will remind users to think before retweeting stories they haven’t read.

With the feature, before a user retweets an article, Twitter may prompt them to open it before they do so. This is currently limited to Android users in English.

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