Nigeria plans to equip 1,500 students with tech skills — and other top stories

Here are the top stories we are covering today in Africa and the Middle East region.

• Nigeria plans to equip 1,500 students with tech skills
• Zscaler in talks to acquire cyber startup Avalor
• Visa partners with Pesaflow to enhance digital payments in Kenya
• Bank Zero unveils three new features to streamline banking in South Africa

Nigeria plans to equip 1,500 students with tech skills

The Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy is launching a very exciting initiative called Build-A-Thon.

This program aims to equip 1,500 secondary school students with tech skills, in a four-day immersive learning experience.

Students from 150 schools in Owerri, Maiduguri, and Abeokuta will be participating in this program, which is sure to be a valuable opportunity for them to learn and develop their tech skills.

Zscaler in talks to acquire cyber startup Avalor

Zscaler, the American cybersecurity giant, is in negotiations to acquire the Israeli startup Avalor for somewhere between $250-350 million.

Avalor has crafted an open data platform capable of seamlessly integrating data from a variety of sources, including data lakes, SQL databases, and more. The platform then normalizes and analyzes this diverse data for enhanced insights.

This acquisition could be a game-changer for Zscaler, giving them a greater foothold in the Israeli cybersecurity scene and access to Avalor's innovative technology.

Visa partners with Pesaflow to enhance digital payments in Kenya

Visa and Pesaflow are teaming up to revolutionize the digital payments landscape in Kenya.

This partnership could potentially streamline government payment systems and foster financial inclusion, which is great news for the country's economy.

Pesaflow is a division of Webmasters Kenya that provides a unified citizen profile and convenient access to 5,000+ services from 100+ Kenyan government Ministries, Counties, Departments, and Agencies.

Bank Zero unveils three new features to streamline banking in South Africa

Bank Zero, a South African digital bank, is working on rolling out three new features to improve the banking experience for its customers. The three features include:

• Pay Many: This feature will allow customers to easily make multiple payments to different recipients at once.
• Immediate Payments: This feature will enable customers to make instant payments to other Bank Zero customers, making the process faster and more convenient.
• Phone Tap Payments: This feature will allow customers to make payments by simply tapping their phones against compatible devices, making payments even more seamless.

These features are part of Bank Zero's ongoing efforts to make banking in South Africa more user-friendly and hassle-free.

Follow all of Techloy's coverage of the technology news happening locally and globally and get up to date with what's happening in the key markets within the region.