Interview With… is a Zikoko weekly series that explores the weird and interesting lives of inanimate objects and non-human entities.
Today’s Interview With subject is a special guest: The Tech Cabal Daily Newsletter! You probably know it. It is the daily round up of tech news from Tech Cabal, which is delivered to your inbox by 7am daily.
If you don’t know it, that is about to change. In this Tech Cabal x Zikoko crossover episode, you will hear interesting things.
Zikoko: Hello, TC Daily. Finally, we meet.
TC Daily: I have always been here. It’s just you that has been avoiding me.
Avoiding you kwa? TC Daily, plis.
You know what I mean.
I don’t. But first of all, introduce yourself.
I am Tech Cabal Daily. I am a newsletter that contains a round-up of tech news from around Africa. Every day by 7am, I bring you this news if you are subscribed to me.
So you’re like a newspaper vendor, but in the spirit.
If you want to call me that, fine. Think of me as part of your morning routine. Wake up, brush, get your daily coverage of tech-related news and you are well-informed to take on that day with complete knowledge.
But wait oh. Who sent you this work that you are doing?
Tech is changing daily in Africa. Day after day, we hear news of start-ups being founded, Africans signing life-changing deals, and expanding the frontier of technology beyond what is often considered impossible.
For most people, they are after the big news. We saw how you people at Zikoko were falling over yourselves when they announced that Flutterwave was now valued at over $1bn.
Falling over ourselves as how? TC Daily please mind your language.
I am minding it. But you cannot deny that you people did not attempt to toast these tech people. You have been doing it from the days of Paystack. Flutterwave just brought out your desperation.
You wrote articles on places to find a tech bae in Lagos, gifts to seduce a tech bae, how to identify a tech bro, how to start your own billion-dollar tech business. You people even put rocket and butterfly on your Twitter handle.
Even though?! Even though?!
Oh and then there were the quizzes too. Which Nigerian tech company should you have founded? Can you identify the following tech bros and base? Match the logo to the tech company. Honestly, it was a lot.
You people heard $1bn and you became like this:
And so?
It looked like it was all about the money for you.
Okay nau, keep judging us. Shebi you don’t like money.
That’s the thing! For me, it’s not about the money. I am concerned with the bigger picture. For example, Flutterwave has been valued at over $1bn. What does this mean for other tech startups going forward? How does this favour the fintech community?
Another example is the endless Emefiele vs Crypto issue. Or the constantly changing Dollar vs Naira war. You wake up today and you hear that Emefiele has ruled for Cryptocurrency transactions to be stopped. Before people have time to start thinking of the consequences and long-term effects, Access and GTBank are already blocking people’s accounts. Or you hear that CBN is doing a ₦5 giveaway for every dollar you withdraw. What does this mean? How does this concern you as a person? What are the long-term or short-term effects?
These are the things I break down and deliver every morning by 7am.
Na wa. You are trying sha.
Thank you.
But wait oh, is it only breakdown you do? Nothing else inside your morning delivery?
I do more than that. I bring people a comprehensive roundup of technology news on the continent, simplified updates on product, policy, etc in Africa. Here’s my structure: I contain 3 major stories; 1 from Africa, 1 from another African country. In these news updates, you get a face-to-face or a more personal look at the lives and faces of people changing the look of tech through their actions. The one I delivered yesterday spoke about Ebi Atawodi.
Who is that?
Netflix’s Director of Payments for the Europe Middle East and Africa region. She has also worked at Uber and Etisalat before, and now she is at Netflix and will be helping them facilitate seamless payments. It is important that we tell stories of people like her, and of other people in tech.
Uber, Etisalat, and now Netflix. Funds. Time to make a quiz about her.
*deep sigh*
Wo, it’s you that know oh. Let he who does not like money be the first to sigh.
Again, it’s not really about the money. The quality of information matters, because that’s where knowledge comes in. And with knowledge, you make informed decisions.
That’s what I am about.
How has the reception been so far?
Nigerians are trying, but a lot can be better. Many people always see tech as serious and boring except when the money or celebration comes in. They are like, “Serious work? No oh. Money? Yes oh.”
And I am trying to change the face of that by making tech news interesting and fun. Make it something accessible to everyone.
I want to show people how diverse and how interesting tech is.
Pour sugar.
You said?
I said good luck.
Aww, thank you. Have you subscribed?
Doing that now.
Thank you, Zikoko.
Is there anything you’d love to say to the readers of this interview?
[any text from Edwin?]
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