Let’s take you on a ride of the events of this week, including the amazing tech events for Software Developers, Programmers, Coders, and entrepreneurs. This week also recorded the Otedola Bridge tanker explosion that has thrown Lagosians and the nation into mourning.
Deadly Explosion Hit Lagos as Nigerians Mourn
The month of June has recorded some not so good news, ranging from the Fulani herdsmen attacks, killings in Jos, and now, a fuel tanker explosion in Lagos.
Tragedy struck on at the Otedola Bridge, Lagos end of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, after a petrol-laden tanker crashed and exploded.
No fewer than 54 cars and commercial vehicles driving behind the tanker on the road were said to have been gutted by fire, during which nine people were reportedly killed.
https://twitter.com/mz_spencer01/status/1012435125760675841
The tanker was heading out of Lagos towards the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway when the crash occurred, causing panic and fear. Many people were feared trapped in their cars and killed in the blaze, while many others sustained burns.
#OtedolaBridge
Hw can a tanker carrying flammable liquid move in d day? Well, there's a common sense solution 2 today's #Lagosfire. Legislators need to pass specified federal legislation mandating public safety measures that regulate the transportation of flammable liquid by road— Women for Christina Ude (@christina4house) June 28, 2018
NG has the most expensively paid senators
NG has the richest pastors
NG has the most security details attached 2 politicians
NG has d highest rate of poverty
NGs are the most active on Twitter
Rant as much as u want here, if there is no action, it's 0#PrayForNigeria #lagosfire pic.twitter.com/Qigon4dPz0— SMA👑 (@adepeju_salami) June 29, 2018
Eyewitnesses, however, confirmed that the death toll might be higher as many people were trapped in their cars with rescue officials still working at the scene. The fuel-laden tanker lost control, fell over and exploded.
Enough of these Needless Deaths! You're in position of Power n Law Enforcement.This is On you.Trailers, containers, Tankers falling on citizens and wrecking havoc in 2018? Why are they Moving during the day and on bridges? It can be your family tomorrow. Enough! #PrayforNigeria
— Dr Omotola .j. Ekeinde , MFR (@Realomosexy) June 29, 2018
https://twitter.com/George16137834/status/1012440638552444929
https://twitter.com/babaebube/status/1011592703149264902
Our condolences to those who lost their loved ones. We pray for a better Nigeria.
Meet Mamamoni, a FinTech Startup that Trains and Funds Low-Income Female Entrepreneurs
In Africa, a lot of startups are attempting to fix the problems caused by the socio-economic conditions in the continent. Mamamoni, is a FinTech social enterprise startup that empowers poor rural and urban slum women with free vocational/financial skills and micro-loans. How interesting it is that low-income women with finance are being empowered to grow their business.
We are empowering low income women with #finance to grow their business. #BankOnHer #Financialinclusion #TEEP pic.twitter.com/yAHEl80I6C
— Mamamoni (@mamamoninigeria) November 2, 2015
Mamamoni was founded in 2014 by entrepreneur Nkem Okocha From growing up poor, to hawking and serving as a housemaid, Nkem knows what the average woman faces in the Nigerian society. Influenced by these experiences, she set out to assist as many women suffering the same fate. she said that “No girl child deserves what she went through because at some point in my life she had very low self-esteem that was how she drew her inspiration to help women.
Flutterwave Officially Launches its Barter App in Kenya
Flutterwave, a Nigerian FinTech company, continues to push its financial innovation all across the continent. The company just launched its payments solution, Barter, in the East African country of Kenya. Although still in beta, these cards make international transactions easy. So think of it as a more flexible domiciliary account.
Barter is a virtual prepay card, loadable via Mpesa. Available on iOS and android. @theflutterwave @WanjikuClara pic.twitter.com/W6oUt7a9OJ
— Mettā Nairobi (@WeAreMettaNBO) June 27, 2018
For payments, the platform uses the Flutterwave API to process international payments in Africa. Barter leverages Flutterwave’s virtual card API and platform to allow users to create an unlimited number of virtual dollar cards. Requiring only a working email and phone number, funds for Barter cards come from your local bank account. Barter virtual cards can facilitate one-time transactions or continuous transactions.
This is a good news for Africa and would go a long way to aid commerce on the continent. For one thing, it frees Africans from the transaction restrictions placed on them by foreign companies such as PayPal.
#CodeLagos: Winners Emerge in the Lagos Code Week Competition for Secondary Schools
During the week, winners emerged from the Lagos code week competition for both Senior and Junior categories of the coding competition for Secondary Schools in Lagos state.
The grand finale of the 4-day coding competition (which started on Monday) took place today at Methodist Girl’s High School, Yaba, Lagos and saw a total of 39 schools – 21 schools in the Junior Category and 18 schools in the Senior Category, slug it out for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd positions for each category.
#Live at the Grand Finale of #LagosCodeWeek, an initiative of the Lagos State Min. of Education aimed at making coding accessible to 1 million young people.
We are proud to be a partner of this initiative which has a total of 39 schools across Lagos in participation. #CodeLagos pic.twitter.com/aCwgBWXMOG
— Remita (@RemitaNET) June 28, 2018
The other two schools that made the top 5 list were Supreme Education High School and Dabitos High School.
Instagram Takes on YouTube with its New Video App, IGTV –But Some Tweaks are Needed
Recently, Instagram delved into long-form video-sharing like YouTube by launching its new standalone video app, IGTV. The app which is built for how you actually use your phone, allows videos to display vertically in full screen and unlike known Instagram where videos are limited to 60 secs, videos on IGTV can be up to an hour long.
Although available as a standalone app (that’s if you want to keep the stories and pictures out of it), IGTV is also integrated into the main Instagram app and can be found on the top-right side of the feed, next to the DM button. Aimed at Internet creators, the app allows upload of up to 1 hour of videos and users can upload even 4K content.
Introducing IGTV, a new app for watching long-form, vertical video from your favorite Instagram creators. https://t.co/7aSMmmAsyB pic.twitter.com/Py8QI1rS23
— Instagram (@instagram) June 20, 2018
IGTV is cool but some improvements are needed. However, it has the potential of becoming the next big thing in video-sharing in the next few months, considering the huge number of Instagram users (about 1 billion).
We look forward to seeing a lot of music videos, reality shows, and much more on the platform.
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