Friday, 09 December 2022

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Hey guys. It's Dennis here.

The CBN will not have its way, at least not as quickly as it had thought. The House of Representatives in a session yesterday with CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele suspended the new withdrawal policy.

All through the week, Nigerians have taken to social media to call out the aggressive limits of withdrawals that the CBN said would take effect in January.

In a letter to financial institutions, the Nigerian apex bank said that bank withdrawal limits for individuals and organisations will be 100,000 and 500,000 Naira respectively.

The letter also stated that ATMs shall only dispense 200 naira notes and withdrawals will be capped at 100,000 Naira per week, with a 20,000 naira maximum per day. PoS withdrawals will be capped at 20,000 Naira daily.

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Below are the tech stories and news you need to know to start your day, carefully curated by Technext.

Summary of the news

Moove has raised an additional $30 million
A top Theranos executive has been sentenced to nearly 13 years for fraud
The House of Reps has ordered the CBN to suspend its new cash withdrawal limits
Twitter will reportedly charge $11 on iOS for Blue subscription

Moove raise $30 million

Moove, mobility fintech and Uber’s largest vehicle supply partner in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa has raised a $30 million investment fund through its first Sukuk issuance, Technext reports. This is barely a week after the mobility company was said to have laid off some members of staff, a news that the company has denied.

The new investment round was led by Franklin Templeton Investments (ME) Ltd and in total, the mobility fintech startup has now raised over $230 million in funding.

Speaking on the importance of Moove’s services in the UAE and the issuance of the Sukuk, Mohieddine Kronfol, CIO of Global Sukuk and MENA Fixed Income, Franklin Templeton, said:

Franklin Templeton is pleased to lead this innovative Sukuk transaction that simultaneously complements our global Sukuk and Sharia-compliant private market strategies while supporting the development of mobility and fintech ecosystems in the UAE initially, followed by more markets in the future.

Commenting on their expansion plans with the debut Sukuk issuance, Ladi Delano, co-founder and co-CEO of Moove said:

This financing is a milestone for Moove – our first Sukuk issuance which showcases our growth and sustainability as a global company. Equally important is that this furthers our mission to build the biggest EV ride-hailing fleet in the region, to drive forward mobility electrification and enable cities to reach their net-zero targets.

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Theranos executive 13 year sentence

Ramesh Balwani, the former chief operating officer of the failed blood-testing start-up Theranos, was sentenced on Wednesday to nearly 13 years in prison for defrauding investors and patients about the company’s business and technology, the New York Times reports.

Mr. Balwani, 58, and his convicted co-conspirator, Elizabeth Holmes, 38, the founder of Theranos, had promised that the start-up would revolutionize health care with machines and tests that could detect some illnesses using just a few drops of blood. But those claims were false, and Theranos became a tale of Silicon Valley’s ambition and hype run amok.

Mr. Balwani, also known as Sunny, was convicted in July of 10 counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Judge Edward J. Davila of U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California sentenced Mr. Balwani to 155 months, which is 12 years and 11 months, as well as three years of supervised release. Mr. Balwani must surrender to custody on March 15.

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House of Reps order CBN to suspend new cash withdrawal limits

In a stunning turn of events, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been ordered by the House of Representatives to suspend the new cash withdrawal limits it announced on Tuesday, Technext reports.

After the announcement on Tuesday, the house invited the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele for a session with lawmakers yesterday who grilled him on policies that the body has introduced in recent times.

In a letter to financial institutions, the Nigerian apex bank said that with effect from January 9, 2023 bank withdrawal limits for individuals and organisations will be 100,000 and 500,000 Naira respectively. The letter also stated that ATMs shall only dispense 200 naira notes and withdrawals will be capped at 100,000 Naira per week, with a 20,000 naira maximum per day. PoS withdrawals will be capped at 20,000 Naira daily.

The new policy was immediately met with condemnation from elected officials including the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, APC – Yobe North, who said on the floor of the Senate yesterday that this aggressive move towards a cashless society is premature and not thought through.

Twitter to charge $11 on iOS for Blue subscription

The Information reports that Twitter has informed some employees that it plans to change the pricing of its Twitter Blue subscription product to $7 if users pay for it through the web and $11 if they do so through its app for iPhones, according to a person briefed on the plans.

Twitter had previously said it plans to charge $7.99 for Twitter Blue, which was then only available for purchase through Apple’s App Store.

The change in pricing is likely a reflection of the 30% cut that Apple takes on revenues from apps for iOS, its operating system for iPhones and iPads. Late last month, Elon Musk, Twitter’s new owner, began criticizing Apple over its commissions on transactions on its platform and said that Apple had threatened to remove Twitter from its App Store. Musk later backed away from those criticisms following a meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook at the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif.

According to TechCrunch, when Twitter launched its new subscription plan with a verification mark on November 9, it charged users $7.99 per month. If Twitter were to offset App Store fees, it should charge $10.38 — but the new price change of $11 sounds like a rounded-off figure.