🏦 Nigeria Added to Mercury Bank's Prohibited Account List

Today’s Menu ☕️

🏦 Nigeria among 15 African countries added to Mercury Bank’s List of Prohibited Account Opening Countries
⚠️ FSCA Issues Urgent Fraud Alert Over Impersonation on Telegram
🏆 GamerG emerges winner of 2024 CEMEA Visa Everything Initiative final
🤖 Meta unveils biggest Llama 3 AI model, touting language and math gains
🌾 Kenyan-Based One Acre Fund Raises $1.4 Million to Expand Support for East African Farmers

If you haven't subscribed, join over 7,000 people curious about Innovation, New Products, New Technologies in Africa.

🏦 BANKING

Nigeria Added to Mercury Bank’s List of Prohibited Account Opening Countries

Mercury Bank, a U.S.-based fintech firm known for its banking services for early-stage startups and tech founders, has recently restricted Nigerian founders from opening accounts on its platform. This decision, notably lacking a detailed explanation, has generated significant concern and speculation within the Nigerian entrepreneurial community.

The only official communication from Mercury states, “We currently can’t open accounts for founders living in the following countries and regions,” with Nigeria being one of the listed countries. This vague reasoning has led to widespread conjecture regarding the underlying causes of this restriction..…....continue reading

Register your teenager or ward for the Teenage Data Analytics Bootcamp

Click here to register now

⚠️ SOCIAL MEDIA

FSCA Issues Urgent Fraud Alert Over Impersonation on Telegram

The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) of South Africa has recently issued a critical warning regarding a fraudulent Telegram channel that is misleading the public by impersonating the Old Mutual Limited Group. This alert comes as part of a broader effort by the FSCA to combat financial fraud and protect consumers from unauthorised financial activities.

According to the FSCA press release, the fraudulent Telegram channel has been falsely presenting itself as an official communication channel of Old Mutual Limited, a well-known financial services group. This scam has been designed to deceive individuals into believing they are engaging with a legitimate entity, potentially leading them to provide sensitive personal and financial information.

The FSCA has emphasised that the fraudulent channel is not affiliated with Old Mutual Limited in any capacity. It is operating without authorisation and is not recognised by the FSCA or any other regulatory body. This deceptive practice is part of a larger trend of financial fraud where scammers use credible names and brands to gain the trust of unsuspecting individuals....…....continue reading

Register for the upcoming Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO-I) Certification Training

Click here to register now

🏆 STARTUPs

GamerG emerges winner of 2024 CEMEA Visa Everything Initiative final

Rashid Haddadin of GamerG emerged as the winner of 2024 CEMEA Visa Everything Initiative (VEI) final that was livestreamed on Tuesday at 9.30a.m GMT. The Jordan-based startup beat four other fintech regional finalists from Central Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (CEMEA) including Bahrain-based CnpSecure, Qatar-based Tess Payments, South Africa-headquartered Nomanini and Nigeria-based Advantage Health Africa. 

GamerG is a Jordan-headquartered digital-first online gaming tournament platform. The start-up organizes daily tournaments for monetary rewards, employing skill-based matchmaking technology to connect gamers and level the playing field. It offers convenient digital payment gateways across wallets, cards, and bank transfers.

The regional winner will compete for the global win during the TechCrunch Disrupt event in San Francisco on October 28, for the chance to receive a grand prize of $100,000. Nigerian startup, Drugstoc, won the 2023 Visa Everywhere Initiative (VEI) Global Finals...…....continue reading

🌾 FUNDING

Kenyan-Based One Acre Fund Raises $1.4 Million to Expand Support for East African Farmers

Kenyan-based social enterprise One Acre Fund has received a $1.4 million investment to help smallholder farmers in East Africa. The funding is from Impact Bridge Asset Management, a Spanish fund manager focused on social impact investing, through its IB Impact Direct Debt fund, which totals $54.4 million (€50 million).

This support will enhance One Acre Fund’s ability to provide essential services to around one million farmers, including seeds, fertilizers, and training. The organization’s efforts aim to increase farmers’ incomes and food security. This new investment will enable further expansion and impact in the region.…....continue reading

🤖 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Meta unveils biggest Llama 3 AI model, touting language and math gains

Meta Platforms released the biggest version of its mostly free Llama 3 artificial intelligence models on Tuesday, boasting multilingual skills and general performance metrics that nip at the heels of paid models from rivals like OpenAI.

The new Llama 3 model can converse in eight languages, write higher-quality computer code and solve more complex math problems than previous versions, the Facebook parent company said in blog posts and a research paper announcing the release.

Its 405 billion parameters, or variables that the algorithm takes into account to generate responses to user queries, dwarfs the previous version released last year though is still smaller than leading models offered by competitors.

OpenAI's GPT-4 model, by contrast, is reported to have one trillion parameters and Amazon is investing in a model with 2 trillion parameters....…....continue reading

Do you know you can join and follow us with Innovation Village on our WhatsApp Channel?