The idea for this article came to me after finding major breaking news on Tekedia, about BlackRocks’ $12.5bn acquisition of Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP)
None of the Web3/Blockchain/Crypto writers on LinkedIn seemed to have picked up on it. So I decided to create a list of resources to help the sectors content creators.
Considerations and Metrics:
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Geography: The news platform must have a significant (though not exclusive) focus on Nigeria. It does not need to be owned by a Nigerian, or operated from a Nigeria centric Web domain.
Web3/Blockchain/Crypto – The platform does not need to exclusively cover these topics, or even be purely a news platform, but it does need to sufficiently lean into the sectors geo centric news in order to justify being a ‘go-to’
Execution Medium – It must have a website and presence outside of Social Media or Third Party Platforms.
Reach – I must have been able to find it relatively easily by conducting a search. LinkedIn is a business engagement platform since inception, so I searched LinkedIn using keyword combos and also used a browser search engine.
Presence and Stability – It must have at least one salaried or paid contributor in addition to the owner. Many people own their own domain and do a news blog off it, as an alternative place to curate their content rather than a third party such as substack or medium. They then leverage those for online platform content. It isn’t their main source of income.
Impartial Content – I previously issued an article – How the online pandemic of advertorials is killing web 3 projects...
It’s really important readers have confidence in content, so substantial editorial content (journalist impartial reports nobody paid to have published) are a major metric for me deciding the relative ranking of a virtual publication.
Ease of Use – Simplicity and Intuitiveness of design and layout; Leadership/Ownership Visibility; Transparency on author identity and publishing dates.
So, without further adieu, on to the 10 picks:
Tekedia Institute was started by Ndubuisi Ekekwe, initially as an online ‘Biz-tech’ tertiary education provider with a strong African focus. The platform inter-relates also with Tekedia Capital, a VC business. It provides a mix of publicly available content within its scope.
Content comes from the owner himself, current students, faculty, alumni, and it has several ‘staff’ writers.
Nobody in my LinkedIn circle of content creators seem to have picked up on BlackRock’s $12.5 billion takeover of Nigeria’s GIP. (Global Infrastructure Partners).
Some may say it’s not exactly Blockchain/Web3/Crypto, but given the history of Nigeria in the crypto space, (once top crypto day trader before CBN over-reach) and BlackRock’s ETF move, I don’t think getting a huge anchor in the country is a mistake.
It’s easily more relevant than covering the breach of the SEC account on a NON WEB3 social media platform. Perhaps $12.5 billion is too small for some content creators to get out of bed for!
As a ‘Tekedia Fellow’ I do a lot of my content from the platform in the first instance. But in this case, the piece came from the great staff writer – Samuel Nwite.
I’ve known Peter Oluka, the owner of TechEconomy for several years as a detailed individual who leaves no stone unturned when digging into a story.
Peters publication frequently unveils breaking news stories and gives visibility on developments many of the more globally known platforms which I dub ‘The Apex Rags’ are covering.
TechEconomy also covered the BlackRock/GIP story.
It has a general tech focus, and an outstanding content throughput. Joan Aimuengheuwa is a lead staff writer.
Naira is the currency of Nigeria, so the name ‘Nairametrics’ is fairly self-explanatory. It seems like its been creating Nigeria related business and tech metrics forever!
If you’ve ever commissioned an expensive global metrics report from some management consultants, they have probably got the ‘Nigeria’ component for free by visiting Nairametrics!
The site over the years has evolved into a diverse source of content, with articles grouped logically over a wide range of categories, which includes tech.
It has both house and guest writers. Tolulope Popoola is the Editor.
Business Remarks is a Nigeria focused virtual content publisher with a range of comment, opinion, and breaking stories across a range of topics headed : BUSINESS, BANKING & FINANCE, ENERGY, TECHNOLOGY, POLITICS, EDUCATION, INTERVIEWS, HEALTH, TRANSPORTATION and MARITIME.
The headings each have drop down menus, which reveal relevant sub sectors. If there is something new reported in the Blockchain/Web3/Crypto space, it’s quite easy to find it quickly. Bukola Olanrewaju is Editor and a lead writer at Business Remarks Nigeria.
Techpoint Africa claims a geo coverage of East and West Africa. It’s very transparent about who is involved, and has 20 staff with pictures. It’s currently based off Allen Avenue in Ikeja, Lagos. It’s also got guest writers and their names are clearly put to their content.
I recognise most names on the site as being Nigerians.
It’s got a solid enough throughput to justify its ranking when compared to the many Nigerian meme sites that are around.
It was first based at Yaba Lagos, and was originally founded by Adewale Yusuf
Techcabal is on the map for several years, and probably longer than my memory gives it credit for.
The layout is user friendly with quick links to headings ‘Fintech’, ‘Cryptocurrency’, ‘Moonshot Conversations’ and ‘The Next Wave’
It’s also got a toggle between light and dark mode, which is a useful feature, and links to Social Media handles are very visible in the ‘footer’ section. The great layout is somewhat left down by the most recent content on the Fintech section being a week old, while at the Cryptocurrency section is two months.
There is newer content on the landing page, but its definitely got lower content density than some of the others.
Content has creators clearly stated but information about leadership is absent. ‘Advertorial’ content all has the author given the title ‘Partner’ which is a great step towards conflict of interest transparency.
Tech Next gets a lot of points for me for that sort of super-clean uncluttered look. Dark/Light toggle is very visible. The Social Media icons were displaying as rectangles instead of their image, which is probably a browser compatibility issue.
It seems they hibernate on weekends as there is some content from two days ago, but none today or yesterday. Noted, but not a huge drawback.
It’s got an interesting landing page inset column entitled ‘This weeks’ leading conversations’. Custody on content is unclear, with some having a named author, while others carry the proxies – ‘Technext’, ‘Staff Writer’ or ‘Guest Contributor’.
There is a tab saying ‘LOAD MORE FRESHLY PRESSED’ but those are actually older than the ones on pole display.
The site clearly tags ‘Sponsored Content’ which is a huge plus for transparency. No owner/leadership info though.
Tech Dot Africa covers breaking tech news, articles and opinion in Tech generally. It evolved from ‘Mobile Africa’ an online news site set up in 2004. It appears to be owned/managed by one ‘Ajao’ family as content to date seems to have all been authored by folk whose last name is ‘Ajao’, a Nigerian last name. Oluniyi D. Ajao is by far the largest contributor with rare appearances made by others. The site however, has a reasonable new content release rate.
Techdigest is a general tech site. Authoring of all content seems to be claimed by either Abbas Badmus or published under the general ‘Techdigest’ heading, leading me to suspect it may be the unpaid pursuit of one person.
It has no ‘about’ page or other information about who is involved. It did however, surface easily for me in search tests. It also sustains a reasonable rate of content throughput, in particular covering the Africa Stablecoin Consortium Delay of the cNGN Launch, yesterday.
Blockbuild Africa has a nice clean layout, with both the light/dark mode and Social Media links clearly visible.
Compared to the purely news/content platforms among the others, it’s got the most Pan-African coverage, with the others heavily leaning towards Nigeria.
Some of the visibly ‘featured’ content conspicuously positioned, is clearly dated content. It does, however, have an inset column ‘Recent Posts’ which helps, though no content seems to have dates on them, which makes their currency unclear.
Content chain of custody is also unclear, with posts simply carrying the owner ‘Blockbuild Africa’ or ‘Guest Creator’. The weakest link among the picks, but still a step above many of the ‘one author wonders’, out there, and useful to check once in a while, for content that flies under the radar of the big ‘Apex Rags’, like Cointelegraph or Decrypt.
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