| | | | | Today's Menu ☕️
💻 IBM ceases operations in West Africa, transfers functions to MIBB amidst strategic restructuring
🤖 ByteDance's OmniHuman-1: AI Deepfake Model Transforming Photos into Lifelike Videos
🍺 Diageo Sells Majority Stake in Guinness Ghana to Castel Group, Retains Guinness Brand
😩 Bento terminates entire tech team following protests over unpaid salaries
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| | | | | If you haven't subscribed, join over 7,000 people curious about Innovation, New Products, New Technologies in Africa. | |
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| | | | | 💻 TECHNOLOGY | IBM ceases operations in West Africa, transfers functions to MIBB amidst strategic restructuring | | Global technology innovator, IBM, has officially ceased its operations in Nigeria, Ghana, and several other significant markets across Africa. This strategic decision involves the transfer of its regional functions to MIBB, a subsidiary of the Midis Group, a multinational conglomerate specializing in IT and telecommunications with a presence across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. This transition is part of a broader initiative by IBM to implement a new operational model in select African countries, which will take effect on April 1, 2025. | Under this new arrangement, MIBB will be responsible for marketing and selling IBM's extensive range of products and services across 36 African nations. This partnership will enable MIBB's sales network to gain direct access to IBM's offerings, which include software, hardware, cloud solutions, and consulting services. IBM anticipates that this collaboration will foster innovation and stimulate growth within the region, as MIBB assumes responsibility for managing IBM's operations, providing support, and nurturing local customer relationships........…continue reading |
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| | | | | 🤖 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | ByteDance's OmniHuman-1: AI Deepfake Model Transforming Photos into Lifelike Videos | | ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, has unveiled OmniHuman-1, an advanced artificial intelligence (AI) model capable of transforming static photos and audio samples into lifelike videos. With its ability to produce realistic animations, speech synchronization, and natural body movements, OmniHuman-1 is redefining AI-driven video creation and setting new benchmarks in the field of multimodal AI. | This is the newest AI model from another Chinese tech company, coming on the heels of last month's release of DeepSeek by Liang Wenfeng, which shook up the market. | Unlike conventional AI models, which often struggle to efficiently scale movement data while maintaining precision, OmniHuman-1 integrates multiple input sources, including images, audio, body poses, and textual descriptions, to create seamless and fluid animations. ByteDance researchers trained the system on 19,000 hours of video footage, enabling it to synthesize highly accurate facial expressions, gestures, and speech movements......…continue reading |
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| | | | | 🍺 BEVERAGES | Diageo Sells Majority Stake in Guinness Ghana to Castel Group, Retains Guinness Brand | | In a strategic move to optimize its operations in West Africa, Diageo plc has announced the sale of its 80.4% shareholding in Guinness Ghana Breweries plc to the Castel Group. This decision aligns with Diageo's ongoing strategy to adopt a more flexible, asset-light operating model in the region. | Under the terms of the agreement, Diageo will retain ownership of the Guinness brand and other associated products currently produced by Guinness Ghana. These brands will continue to be manufactured locally under a new long-term license and royalty agreement. Diageo will also maintain its role in driving the brand and marketing strategy for Guinness in Ghana, collaborating closely with Castel to ensure sustained growth and development......…continue reading |
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| | | | | 😩 STARTUPS | Bento terminates entire tech team following protests over unpaid salaries |  | Ebun Okubanjo |
| Amid increasing public scrutiny and grave allegations against the Nigerian startup Bento, which specializes in HR technology and payroll management, the company is facing accusations of engaging in fraudulent activities, including the forgery of tax receipts and the failure to remit millions in taxes and pension contributions. This turmoil has placed Bento in a precarious financial position, resulting in the unfortunate delay of January salaries for its employees. In a dramatic escalation of the situation, founder Ebun Okubanjo reacted to employee protests concerning the unpaid wages by abruptly terminating the entire tech team. | The fallout from these layoffs has resulted in a significant disruption to Bento's payroll system, plunging the company into a state of crisis and leaving a group of young engineers without jobs. Okubanjo, who resigned from his position on January 30, attempted to justify the salary delays as a "strategic" decision and dismissed the protests as voluntary resignations. In a controversial move, he deactivated the work emails of the affected employees without compensating them and proposed to distribute the withheld salaries among those who were willing to remain with the company—a proposal that was met with unanimous rejection.....…continue reading |
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| | | | | OTHER STORIES | Egyptian B2B SaaS loyalty platform Prepit has been acquired by its larger counterpart, Dsquares, which has secured a majority stake in the company for an undisclosed sum……...continue reading The UK has become the first country to introduce new laws aimed at protecting children from predators using AI to generate sexual abuse images…..continue reading Alibaba's updated Qwen AI model overtakes DeepSeek's V3 in chatbot ranking……..continue reading
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| | | | | OPPORTUNITIES | Applications are now open for the latest edition of the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP), designed to support startups through comprehensive training, mentorship, and a funding opportunity of US$5,000 Deadline = 1st Mar 2025……..continue reading Global payment card network Visa has announced the opening of applications for the fourth edition of its biannual Africa Fintech Accelerator. Deadline = 15th March 2025…….continue reading Applications are now open for the Timbuktoo MineTech Accelerator programme, a groundbreaking initiative by the Timbuktoo MineTech Hub aimed at driving innovation in mining technology, empowering startups, and scaling transformative technologies within the African mining sector. Deadline = 13th February 2025…..continue reading
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