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Good morning!
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The layoffs have hit Accenture, as the company said yesterday that it will cut 2.5% of its workforce, about 19,000 jobs in the next few months. Jack Dorsey's Block, owners of Cash App has been accused of fraud by a research firm. Meanwhile, Terra CEO, Do Kwon was arrested at an international airport in Podgorica, Montenegro.
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Below are the tech stories and news you need to know to start your day, carefully curated by Technext.
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Summary of the news
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- Kenyan Court has stopped Meta and Sama from firing over 260 content moderators
- Accenture has announced that it will cut 2.5% of its workforce, about 19,000 jobs
- Terra CEO Do Kwon was arrested at an international airport in Podgorica, Montenegro
- A research firm has accused Jack Dorsey’s Block of fraud
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Ecosystem
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- Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures has announced the first close of a $43 million pan-African venture fund, TechCabal reports. According to the firm, the fund will invest in tech-powered startups that have raised revenue and are addressing some of the continent’s pressing challenges with scalable solutions.
- Rwazi has raised $4 million in seed funding to provide businesses with accurate market intelligence on Africa and other emerging markets, Techpoint Africa reports. “We are rolling out new products this year that support different languages because this has been a barrier to our growth in these regions,” CEO Joseph Rutakangwa said.
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Payments in Africa is complicated, Kora makes it easy. Build your custom payment experience with Kora. Accept payments in NGN, KHS, GHS and USD, make payouts and get access to same-day settlement anywhere in the world. Africa is waiting.
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Policy
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- Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar (PDP) has filed an election petition accusing INEC of deviating from the Electoral Act and technologically manipulating results. Atiku claims that INEC reconfigured the Bimodal Verification and Accreditation System (BVAS) with software that rigged the election in favour of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, TechCabal reports.
- Nigeria's currency in circulation hit a record low of N982 billion in February 2022, down from N1.39 trillion in January 2023, following the CBN's monetary policy to phase out old currency notes, Nairametrics reports. The reduction in currency outside banks is expected to improve the potency of monetary policy tools and curb high inflationary trends in currency.
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Social Tech
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- Telegram has launched a new feature to ensure that users who are crypto enthusiasts can transfer Tether through chats swiftly, Technext reports. The latest development has attracted loads of positive comments on the internet. In a tweet, the TON blockchain team wrote: “Imagine being able to buy and sell crypto via a messaging app. Now imagine it’s already here,” adding the link to the wallet.
- Meta has been temporarily barred by a Kenyan court from engaging its new content moderation subcontractor, Majorel, pending the hearing of a new case, filed by 43 content moderators yesterday over illegal sacking and blacklisting, TechCrunch reports. The court had earlier banned Meta and its Kenyan outsourcing partner Sama from firing over 260 Kenyan content moderators.
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Global News
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- Accenture has announced that it will cut 2.5% of its workforce, about 19,000 jobs in the next few months, Technext reports. The company say that the decision is due to the global economic downturn and the battle against the rising costs that have hit the IT industry. The company is expected to incur staff severance costs of $1.2bn and a further $300mn of expenses from the “consolidation of office space.”
- Terra CEO Do Kwon was arrested at an international airport in Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro yesterday with falsified documents, according to Filip Adzic, the Minister of Interior, Technext reports. Adzic added that they were waiting for official confirmation of Kwon’s identity.
- China said it would oppose efforts by the United States to force a sale of TikTok, the New York Times reports. The comments, made by China’s commerce ministry yesterday, came hours before TikTok’s chief executive was scheduled to testify before Congress. A commerce ministry spokeswoman said at a news conference that China would “firmly oppose” the sale of the app. Forcing such a transaction would “seriously undermine the confidence of investors from various countries, including China, to invest in the United States,” she added.
- Yesterday, Hindenburg Research accused Jack Dorsey’s financial technology company, Block of fraud; including overstating its user base and failing to stamp out fraud and illegal activity on its platforms — particularly Cash App, its mobile payment service, the New York Times reports. “We think Block has misled investors on key metrics, and embraced predatory offerings and compliance worst practices in order to fuel growth and profit from facilitation of fraud against consumers and the government,” Hindenburg wrote in its report.
- The UK Parliament banned TikTok on local networks and staff devices, adding to high-profile restrictions on the video-sharing platform in western nations amid mounting security concerns, Bloomberg reports. “Cyber security is a top priority for Parliament,” the legislature said in a statement. “The commissions of both the House of Commons and Lords have decided that TikTok will be blocked.”
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Latest in funding
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Polygon is a decentralised Ethereum scaling platform that enables developers to build scalable user-friendly dApps with low transaction fees without ever sacrificing security.
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Other stories we are following
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