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Good morning!
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Today we are reporting the latest between telcos and banks over the future of USSD. Our fresh reporting reveals it's about to get even messier with GTCO's CEO, Segun Agbaje calling USSD "clumsy" and not exactly a "state-of-the-art" technology publicly.
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Also, ChatGPT now has an app, but you will need an iOS device to use it.
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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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- Amini has raised $2 million in a pre-seed funding round
- Segun Agbaje said telcos are partly responsible for the 22% decline in GTCO's USSD value
- Nigeria's ICRC said that N5.3 billion will be invested in eCRVS
- Guinea's Colonel Mamady Doumbouya has ordered a new internet shutdown
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Ecosystem
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Segun Agbaje, CEO of GTCO, the parent company of GTBank says that the "punitive cost" of USSD by telcos is partly responsible for a 22% decline in the company's USSD transactions, a damning rebuke of telecommunication companies in Nigeria. “The N6.98 charge is a punitive cost and most people do not want to pay that just to use the USSD. That’s why it has stopped growing,” he said during the company's earnings call.
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The statement represents the culmination of ongoing tensions between the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), the private body that represents the interests of telcos and Deposit Money Banks over a N120 billion debt.
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ALTON says that banks have not cleared their USSD debt for years and recently received approval from the Nigerian Communications Commission to disconnect customers from the service. Many leaders in banking have remained passive until now. Agbaje added that USSD is not a state-of-the-art technology and that internet costs must come down.
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“USSD is a clumsy technology. It’s not state-of-the-art. The best way to have financial inclusion is to crash the cost of data so that data becomes more affordable. Then we can use what is a superior technology,” he said.
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Read Technext's Michael Akuchie full report here.
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- Kenya's Amini has raised $2 million in a pre-seed funding round to solve Africa’s environmental data gap through artificial intelligence and satellite technology, (TechCrunch)
- Flutterwave is reportedly working on Tuition By Flutterwave, a new product that will focus on remmiting tuitions for Africans studying abroad. (Instagram)
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You can get more value for your money when you sell your USDT on Yellow Card.
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Enjoy the best rates and instant withdrawals to your local bank in easy steps. Click the link now to download the Yellow Card app and sign up.
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Policy
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- Nigeria's Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission has announced that N5.3 billion will be invested in developing an Electronic Civil Registration and Vital Statistics System (eCRVS) to improve birth and death registration. (Technext)
- Nigerians will now get 50 MB daily to browse the Ministry of Health, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and WHO websites, as part of the government's plan to incentivise the use of its digital facilities.
- Guinea's interim leader Colonel Mamady Doumbouya who seized power after a coup in 2021 has ordered a fresh internet shutdown in a bid to curtail brewing anti-government protests. (Technext)
- The National Population Commission said it has spent N200 billion on preparations for the 2023 census, which has since been postponed. “It is important to sustain the tempo of the preparation for the census," chairman Nasir Kwarra said. (Nairametrics)
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Social Tech
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- Netflix revealed that the platform’s ad-supported tier has attracted almost 5 million global monthly active users six months after it first launched. (TheVerge)
- A new survey reveals that only 12.5% of Nigerians prefer female drivers when using ride-hailing services. (Technext)
- Elon Musk says that Twitter Blue Verified subscribers can now upload up to 2-hour videos. (Twitter)
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Global News
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- The American Supreme Court said that it would not rule on whether YouTube could invoke a federal law that shields internet platforms from legal responsibility for what their users post in a case brought by the family of a woman killed in a terrorist attack. (New York Times)
- OpenAI has launched its highly anticipated ChatGPT app for Apple iOS only, leaving Android users in limbo. (Technext)
- Amazon says it plans to invest $12.7 billion in cloud infrastructure in India by 2030, joining other global tech giants in betting on growth in the South Asian nation’s digital economy. Between 2016 to 2022 it already invested $3.7 billion in India. (Bloomberg)
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Other stories we are following
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