General News
GOBELINS, Netflix Offer New Scholarship Opportunities for African Animators
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Netflix and GOBELINS have announced that they will be offering six Master’s scholarships to African students for their September 2023 intake. This is to be done as part of a joint effort to increase the pipeline of new Animation talent in Africa.
The scholarships will benefit six students who will successfully be admitted to GOBELINS’ Master of Arts in Character Animation and Animated Filmmaking.
This two-year course taught in English is designed to enable students to reach a professional level notably in directing and storytelling in a multicultural environment.
In addition to exercises in writing, storyboarding, and complex animation (mixed techniques and interacting characters), students participate in an open-themed end-of-studies film in conditions similar to a professional environment.
The scholarship will cover the tuition fees for the entire length of the program (2 years) and some of the living costs in Paris.
Registration has begun and the applications will be closed on the 2nd of March 2023. The scholarship selection will be announced at the end of April 2023, for students to begin their academic year in September 2023.
General News
Accion MfB Partners DBN to Promote Women-inclusive Financial Services
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Accion Microfinance Bank has partnered with the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) to promote accessible and innovative financial solutions, with a special focus on empowering women entrepreneurs.
This initiative was announced during the bank’s first Customer Forum for the year 2025, which held virtually under the theme, “Unlocking Opportunities for Growth,” garnered the participation of Accion MfB’s Managing Director and CEO, Taiwo Joda; DBN’s Chief Operating Officer, Bonaventure Okhaimo; Accion MfB’s Chief Commercial Officer, Stephen Olalere; and Chief Digital Officer, Paul Ehiagbonare.
Joda announced a new loan initiative developed in partnership with DBN, exclusively designed for women entrepreneurs. This new product, Joda said, reinforces the bank’s commitment to gender-focused financial inclusion.
Joda said, “This initiative marks a significant milestone in our loan offerings, ensuring that women have the financial resources needed to grow their businesses and thrive. With these enhancements, we are providing customers with a more efficient and secure digital banking experience.”
On his part, Okhaimo, while speaking at the forum emphasized the importance of leveraging financial technology to drive business scalability. “We must find ways to harness these platforms to support MSMEs, enabling them to grow sustainably while contributing to the broader economy.”
Meanwhile, Acting Head of Marketing Communications at Accion MfB, Anita Oguni, expressed the bank’s commitment to supporting businesses, entrepreneurs, and individuals through tailored financial solutions.
General News
OnePipe Launches PaywithAccount: Revolutionizing Payment Collections in Nigeria
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For many Nigerian small business owners, cash flow isn’t just a challenge—it’s a constant battle. Whether it’s schools struggling with delayed tuition payments, logistics firms dealing with inconsistent driver remittances, or cooperatives managing member contributions, the process of collecting payments remains inefficient, unpredictable, and time-consuming.
A study by PwC revealed that 48% of Nigerian Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) have experienced delayed payments due to different reasons, with 33% of affected businesses reporting severe consequences.
Traditional systems often involve manual invoicing, repeated follow-ups, and high transaction fees, leaving business owners with less time to focus on growing their operations.
In response to this challenge, OnePipe has launched PaywithAccount, a direct-from-account payment solution that helps businesses automate and simplify collections, reducing delays and improving cash flow predictability. With PaywithAccount, businesses can collect payments directly from customer bank accounts—securely and automatically—without the need for cards, manual reminders, or complex reconciliations.
For entrepreneurs across Nigeria, the ability to receive payments on time means the difference between survival and growth. “As a school owner, I want to focus on my students, not spend hours tracking unpaid fees,” said Mrs. Olumide Ashade, Founder of King’s Court School in Lagos.
“Many of our parents pay in installments, but managing these payments manually has been stressful.
“A solution like PaywithAccount means we can offer flexibility to parents while keeping our finances in order.”
“Reliable repayment is the backbone of growth for lenders. At Lendsqr, we understand that payment delays are a significant problem for lenders”, said Adedeji Olowe, Founder, Lendsqr.
“We have helped many of our lenders transition from debit cards to PaywithAccount which reliably ensures loan repayments are on schedule.”
“At NIBSS, our core vision is to empower the financial ecosystem to innovate within the framework of interoperability, ease of connectivity, collaboration, and cost-optimization,” said Ngover Ihyembe-Nwankwo, Executive Director of Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems PLC (NIBSS).
“PaywithAccount is another heartening example of what happens when industry players leverage these guardrails to enhance the overall quality of our nation’s digital payment system.”
For Ope Adeoye, CEO of OnePipe, this is a commitment to empowering Nigerian businesses. “Small businesses are the backbone of our economy, but too many struggle simply because getting paid is a challenge,” said Adeoye.
“We believe financial technology should remove obstacles, not create them.
“PaywithAccount helps businesses worry less about collections so they can focus on what truly matters—growth, innovation, and serving their customers.”
With PaywithAccount, small businesses across Nigeria can now eliminate the stress of late payments, automate their collections, and take full control of their financial future.
For more information about PaywithAccount, visit www.onepipe.io or call 02013438444.
General News
OpenAI’s Weekly Active Users Surpass 400 million
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ChatGPT developer OpenAI’s weekly active users surged past 400 million in February, a company spokesperson told Reuters on Thursday, highlighting rapid growth in the adoption of artificial intelligence tools.
The Microsoft-backed startup had 300 million weekly active users in December. Its paying business users also crossed 2 million in February, more than doubling from its last update in September.
The upbeat numbers come weeks after China’s DeepSeek launched an AI model it said could match or even outperform Western rivals at a fraction of the cost, stirring doubts about U.S. dominance in the generative AI space.
But a surge in demand for DeepSeek since then has caused outages at the small startup.
There have also been questions around how DeepSeek was able to obtain Nvidia’s H800 chips, used to train AI models, even though Washington had banned their exports to China.
OpenAI reported a twofold increase in developer traffic for its reasoning models over the last six months and a fivefold surge for its o3 model since its launch in late January.
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