In 1900, the average American lived for less than 50 years. Over the last century, improvements in medicine and public health have contributed to a steady increase in life expectancy. Life expectancy at birth is now 76 for men and 81 for women.

The increase in longevity has been so consistent that it’s permeated actuarial science for life insurance and annuities. The Society of Actuaries has for many years incorporated an assumption that longevity will keep improving over time.

Data over the last five years, however, indicates that this trend may be decelerating, and 2016 saw a rare decrease in life expectancy. Talented entrepreneurs seem undaunted! The fact that the U.S. life insurance industry collected $151.4B in premiums in 2015 has a number of them (including SoFi) extremely focused!

Finally, some futurists such as Aubrey de Grey believe that we don’t need coverage, we will continue chipping away at the aging process until we reach “longevity escape velocity” and live to 1,000. Aubrey does, however, fail to point out how to deal with the dodgy Salmon Mousse you might get served at a holiday dinner party.

All the leading telcos in Nigeria have joined together to launch a mobile payment system called mCash.

The solution designed to facilitate low-value retail payments, grow e-payments by providing accessible electronic channels to a wider range of users and to further enhance financial inclusion in Nigeria, by extending e-payment benefits to Payers and Merchants at the bottom of the pyramid where usage of cash has been predominant.

The solution proposes to aid payments to Merchants (Sellers) for commodities and services. It leverages the NIBSS Instant Payments infrastructure (NIP) for immediate fund delivery to Merchants accounts and the mobile telephone USSD technology which in recent times has become the most accessible channel for financial and non-financial transactions.

Financial Institutions have a choice of allowing their respective customers to access this new service with the mCASH general short code 402 or with their own custom short codes. Either way there are no USSD charges to pay.

It works on all networks.

With the aim of stimulating Africa’s largest economy, the African Development Bank (AfDB) approved a $600 million loan for Nigeria on Wednesday.

According to a Reuters report, the loan will be part of a larger $1 billion stimulus package. In order to qualify for the remaining $400 million, however, Nigeria will have to implement fiscal reforms, Ousman Dore, the AfDB Nigeria director, disclosed.

“The economic recovery plan that the government is working on must be a package of comprehensive reforms, including even exchange rate policy, the consistency with regards to the monetary policy and structural reforms,” Mr. Dore said.

He explained that if Nigeria implements such reforms, the remaining $400 million could be approved by the bank early next year.

Nigeria entered a recession in August of this year, largely due to its overdependence on crude oil, the price of which has been plummeting since 2014.