Innovation Village Newsletter
Posts
🆔 Nigerians Without NIN May Soon Be Denied Credit Access

🆔 Nigerians Without NIN May Soon Be Denied Credit Access

Plus: 🚙 Kenya’s Peach Cars Raises $11 million

Innovation Village
June 23, 2025

Today’s Menu ☕️

🆔 Nigerians Without NIN May Soon Be Denied Credit Access
🚙 Kenya’s Peach Cars Raises $11 million to Transform Trust in Africa’s Used Car Market
🪓 Ivorian-Founded Fintech Bizao Placed in Compulsory Liquidation by French Court
🔌 Open Access Energy Raises $1.8 million to Power South Africa’s Digital Energy Infrastructure
🤖 Apple’s AI Ambitions: Perplexity Talks Signal a Strategic Pivot
🩺 Dr. Vipul Patel Conducts Africa’s First Robotic Telesurgery Remotely from Florida

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

🆔 IDENTITY MANAGEMENT

Nigerians Without NIN May Soon Be Denied Credit Access

Nigeria is set to overhaul its credit system by linking all borrowing to individuals’ National Identification Numbers (NIN), a bold reform aimed at fostering accountability and financial inclusion. Under the leadership of Uzoma Nwagba, MD of the Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation (CREDICORP), the government is building a unified credit database that integrates records from banks, fintechs, and microfinance institutions.

Each citizen will have a unique credit score anchored to their NIN, making anonymous borrowing nearly impossible. This initiative is designed to reduce defaults, enforce consequences for poor credit behavior, and instill a culture of financial responsibility. Programs like YouthCred also seek to empower young Nigerians with early access to structured credit.

Beyond financial discipline, the policy supports local manufacturing and job creation by tying credit eligibility to the purchase of locally made goods. With a credit gap of N183 trillion, public-private collaboration will be key to ensuring the success of this national framework..…...…continue reading

TRAININGS!!

Attend Our Upcoming 2 Day Product Leadership Training

Product Leadership Training equips experienced product managers and leaders with the tools and knowledge needed to effectively guide product teams and drive business growth through innovative product development. The focus is on strategic thinking, leadership skills, and an in-depth understanding of product lifecycle management.

Click here to register now

🚙 MARKETPLACE

Kenya’s Peach Cars Raises $11 million to Transform Trust in Africa’s Used Car Market

Peach Cars, a Tokyo-founded startup operating in Kenya, has raised $11 million in Series A funding to expand its digital used car platform across East Africa. Led by Suzuki Global Ventures and backed by JBIC, Gogin Capital, and UTEC, the round marks the largest of its kind in Africa’s mobility sector to date.

Peach Cars is addressing the fragmented and often untrustworthy used car market by offering a data-driven platform that enables direct buyer-seller transactions, 225-point vehicle inspections, real-time pricing, and embedded financing. Founded in 2020 by Kaoru Kaganoi and Zachary Petroni, the company has grown rapidly, serving thousands of Kenyan customers.

Its vision extends beyond car sales to building a trusted ecosystem covering ownership, maintenance, logistics, and auto financing. With fresh funding, Peach plans to expand beyond Nairobi, grow its product and engineering teams, and launch regional inspection hubs, setting a new standard for transparency in African mobility........……continue reading

🪓 FINTECHS

Ivorian-Founded Fintech Bizao Placed in Compulsory Liquidation by French Court

Bizao SAS, the Paris-based parent company behind one of Francophone Africa’s top fintech startups, has been placed into compulsory liquidation by a French court as of May 27, 2025. Once backed by €8 million in Series A funding and active across Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Cameroon, and more, the company aimed to simplify B2B payments across Africa’s fragmented financial systems.

Despite claims that African subsidiaries remain operational, the parent company’s collapse raises concerns about platform continuity, IP ownership, and investor confidence. Bizao’s fall, following similar struggles at Lipa Later, signals a broader reckoning in Africa’s fintech sector, where rapid cross-border expansion faces mounting legal, operational, and financial pressure. Key investors have yet to comment on the company's next chapter.......……continue reading

🔌 ENERGY

Open Access Energy Raises $1.8 million to Power South Africa’s Digital Energy Infrastructure

Open Access Energy, a Cape Town-based startup, has raised $1.8 million in seed funding to expand its digital energy infrastructure across South Africa. Backed by E3 Capital, Equator VC, and Factor[e] Ventures, the funding will accelerate the rollout of its platforms, Amptera and EnergyPro, which enable real-time energy trading, smart metering, and electricity wheeling—critical functions as South Africa shifts toward decentralised power generation.

With the country opening up its energy market to private producers, OAE’s tools offer much-needed transparency and automation in a historically centralised and inefficient system. CEO Gerjo Hoffman emphasises that digital infrastructure is key to enabling municipalities and independent power producers to collaborate effectively.

The company’s software helps match supply and demand more efficiently, easing grid pressure and accelerating clean energy adoption. As energy reforms continue, OAE is positioning itself as a foundational player in enabling South Africa’s transition to a smarter, more resilient energy economy. ..……continue reading

🩺 HEALTHTECH

Dr. Vipul Patel Conducts Africa’s First Robotic Telesurgery Remotely from Florida

In a historic medical milestone, a prostate cancer patient in Angola underwent a robot-assisted prostatectomy while the surgeon — Dr. Vipul Patel — operated from Orlando, Florida, over 7,000 miles away. The procedure, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), marks the first-ever transcontinental robotic telesurgery trial

The patient, Fernando da Silva, was diagnosed in March and successfully treated in June using a high-precision robotic system that filters signals via fiber-optic cables between Orlando and Luanda, passing through Brazil. Remarkably, the system maintained a latency below 140 milliseconds — imperceptible to the surgeon.

Dr. Patel, Director of the Global Robotic Institute at AdventHealth, highlighted the humanitarian potential of the breakthrough: extending surgical expertise to underserved regions and even enabling interventions in ambulances or rural hospitals. He also emphasized that on-site backup teams were present in case of technical failure—ensuring patient safety at all times ..……continue reading

🤖 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Apple’s AI Ambitions: Perplexity Talks Signal a Strategic Pivot

Apple is reportedly exploring a potential acquisition of Perplexity AI, a rising star in conversational search, signaling a serious push into AI-powered search technology. Though no formal offer has been made, reports from Reuters and Bloomberg suggest Apple’s M&A head Adrian Perica has evaluated the move, reflecting Apple’s growing urgency to compete with Microsoft’s ChatGPT and Google’s AI offerings.

Perplexity, recently valued at $14 billion, offers a privacy-conscious “answer engine” that cites sources and powers its Comet browser using GPT-4.1, Gemini, and more. Its acquisition could reduce Apple’s $20B annual dependency on Google for default search, but legal risks loom—Perplexity faces lawsuits from News Corp and others over alleged copyright violations. Integration would be complex and could provoke antitrust scrutiny.

Yet the payoff is clear: deeper control over AI, user privacy, and native integration into Safari, Siri, and Spotlight. If successful, this could mark Apple’s most ambitious AI move since acquiring Beats in 2014, and a pivotal shift in its strategic direction..........…continue reading