Here are last weekend’s top headlines on startups, entrepreneurship, innovation and tech around Africa.
Hotels.ng is now profitable, expands across Africa. Having raised over $1.5m in venture capital since 2013, Nigerian online hotels booking platform, Hotels.ng revealed over the weekend that it is finally profitable as a business.
In the wake of this, the company has decided to export its successful business model across Africa, on both hotel bookings and flights, by launching Hotel.africa and Fly.africa.
With over 10,000 hotels across 320 cities already listed on the Nigerian platform, Hotel.africa will be the company's Africa focused brand which has over 25,000 properties listed across many cities in Africa. Fly.africa is focused on flights within and outside the continent. The company has partnered with local hotels and airlines across Africa to accelerate its growth across the region.
The goal is to make "every hotel in Africa available to be booked online", by growing inventory from 25,000 to 100,000 within the next 4 years.
70% of government websites hosted abroad. The Punch reports that about 70% of government websites designated as either gov.ng or mil.ng are hosted in other countries, according to data from the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA).
This is despite previous revelation that Nigeria loses ₦60 billion annually to hosting websites abroad and commitment from government to put a stop to this.
China to acquire a stake in Nigeria's satellite operator. The Export-Import Bank of China and the China Great Wall Industry Corporation -- both state-owned Chinese firms -- have reportedly made an offer of two satellites worth $550m in exchange for a stake in NIGCOMSAT, Nigeria's state-owned satellite operator. Read more on TechCity.
Egypt’s top Islamic cleric has issued a fatwa against bitcoin. On the first day of this year, Egypt’s Grand Mufti Shawki Allam rang in 2018 with a sternly worded fatwa (religious edict) that Bitcoin trades lead its users to “fraud, betrayal and ignorance”. Read more on Quartz Africa.
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