Covid-19 and African tech startups roundup [03/06/2020]

The Department of Employment and Labour says the Unemployment Insurance Fund’s (UIF) Covid-19 Temporary Employee/Employer Relief Scheme (Ters) is making good progress on its promise to capture and process May Covid-19 relief benefit applications for employees.

This, while Nigerian edtech Flexisaf has automated nearly 700 schools and tertiary institutions with its edtech products, changing the way schools manage records and data.

With the coronavirus (Covid-19) headlining news all over the world, Ventureburn has launched a regular daily roundup on the virus and how it is affecting Africa’s tech startup sector.

Nigerian startup Flexisaf says it has automated nearly 700 schools and tertiary institutions with its edtech products

Those with any news releases relating to Covid-19 and Africa’s tech startup sector can send these to editor@memeburn.com.

Here then is the latest on the coronavirus and African tech startups:

UIF busy with May claims: The Department of Employment and Labour says the Unemployment Insurance Fund’s (UIF) Covid-19 Temporary Employee/Employer Relief Scheme (Ters) is making good progress on its promise to capture and process May Covid-19 relief benefit applications, the government’s news agency SAnews reported in an article yesterday. The scheme has already paid out R16.5-billion. The department said payments should be made more quickly this time around as the UIF already has the details for most of the claimants.

SA startup delivering meals: Cape Town based startup Yebo Fresh is delivering groceries to township residents during the Covid-19 pandemic. Jessica Boonstra, who founded the startup in 2018, said her team is currently packing about 1000 food parcels daily, amounting to 110 000 meals a day. “Soon we’ll be able to double that volume,” she added. In September last year the startup announced that it had landed investment from angel investors Bas Hochstenbach and Frederik Gerner (see this story).

Nigerian edtech taking off: Nigerian tech company Flexisaf says it has automated nearly 700 schools and tertiary institutions with its edtech products, changing the way schools manage their records and data. The company, which was founded in 2010 by Alameen Ibrahim, Abubakar Manga and Faiz Bashir (pictured above, left to right), charges a per semester subscription fee to schools using its software. It says since the pandemic set in the company has provided e-learning support to hundreds of schools with its free microlearning teaching videos. “So far, we’ve had 647 schools showing interest in our e-learning services compared to maybe 15 or 20 within the same period this time last year. That’s probably ‘dramatic’ in our niche,” points out Bashir.

Read more: Covid-19 and African tech startups roundup [02/06/2020]
Read more: Covid-19 and African tech startups roundup [01/06/2020]

Featured image: Flexisaf founders Alameen Ibrahim, Abubakar Manga and Faiz Bashir (Supplied)