Day: April 26, 2022

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Aella: Creating Solutions to Africa’s Problems With Credit

LAGOS, Nigeria, April 26, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Creating solutions tailored to African problems is crucial in addressing the financial wellness of the continent. The peculiarity of the life patterns of the average African begs one to intentionally design and build mechanisms, to tackle financial illiteracy in the underserved communities. Aella has seized the opportunity to develop solutions to such problems by designing a Debt-as-a-Service model in Nigeria.

With over 300,000 agent clusters, Aella has built a nerve centre to empower businesses with credit infrastructure and business capital. Being one of the foremost micro-business lenders, they have continuously built with initiative and provided software and capital that allows individuals become lenders in minutes. This Debt-as-a-service model is powered by Aella’s finance mechanism using decentralized finance.

Aella’s partnership with Nomba, formerly known as Kudi: an agency bank in Nigeria is the first official lending partnership that highlights Aella’s role as a credit aggregator for agents. Consequently, building more products for them and integrating them into their ecosystem. Nomba has expanded its business by leveraging Aella’s credit infrastructure. In six months, Aella has disbursed over $30 million to Nomba agents hitting a milestone.

Another agency lending initiative birthed from Aella’s Debt-as-a-service model designed to boost Nigeria’s lending ecosystem is its partnership with CrowdForce, a technology-driven agent distribution network. This partnership will see Aella facilitate agents’ access to digital financial services for the largely offline population across the country by offering credit. In turn, Aella’s credit infrastructure provides over 60,000 agents with funds to scale their businesses.

Ultimately, Aella’s credit infrastructure operates in two ways; through asset financing and the debt as a service model. One of Aella’s most innovative partnerships is definitely its multimillion-dollar power financing collaboration with Buy Power, a utility payment platform to ease the process of buying electricity for Nigerian residents. Aella’s commitment to financial empowerment will enable Nigerians access power, through its diversifying credit solutions for over 6 million customers across the country with Buy Power. This integration will utilize Aella’s comprehensive technology platform to provide consumers with the opportunity to buy electricity on credit.

These partnerships are crucial to the overall development of the Nigerian economy and at large the African continent. Aella is introducing cost-effective ways for all classes of Nigerians to access credit. Ready access to credit is key to promoting financial freedom and inclusion, particularly among the underbanked population.

Contact: support@aellacredit.com

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Seegene unveils world’s first commercialized ‘3 Ct’ PCR assay

  • Provides Ct value of three targets in one channel; ‘3 Ct’ PCR assay to launch in H1
  • “Dream MDx technology” developed based on Seegene’s 20-year expertise; combines 19 different patented technologies, including DPO™, TOCE™, MuDT™
  • ‘3 Ct’ to lay foundation for automated syndromic testing and make MDx more accessible

SEOUL, South Korea, April 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Seegene Inc. (KQ096530), South Korea’s leading molecular diagnostics (MDx) company, today announced the development of the world’s first commercialized PCR assay applying ‘3 Ct’ technology. The ‘Allplex™ HPV HR Detection’ was showcased at the 2022 European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) held April 23-26 in Lisbon, Portugal.

[Figure 1] Seegene unveils world's first commercialized '3 Ct' PCR assay

In a polymerase chain reaction (PCR), the cycle threshold (Ct) value is used to quantify the concentration of a viral DNA sequence (the target). Due to technological limitations, the conventional real-time PCR technique finds the Ct value of one target in one channel.

But Seegene’s ‘3 Ct’ technology can provide the Ct value of three targets in one channel without compromising sensitivity and specificity. The successful development is based on Seegene’s 20-year expertise and combines 19 different patented technologies, including DPO™, TOCE™, and MuDT™. Using five channels in a single tube, Seegene can provide quantitative data for a total of 15 targets. ‘3 Ct’ has been dubbed the “dream MDx technology.”

The company plans to apply ‘3 Ct’ technology to its entire product line-up, including respiratory virus (RV), sexually transmitted infection (STI), gastrointestinal infection (GI), and urinary tract infection (UTI) assays. Seegene expects ‘3 Ct’ technology to take syndromic testing to another level. By detecting the causative pathogen, level of infection, and potential of co-infection, it will help determine the priority of treatment and enhance patient management. ‘3 Ct’ technology also increases testing capacity. Such features are expected to improve the service and cost-structure of the medical sector once ‘3 Ct’ technology is widely utilized.

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Seegene’s first ‘3 Ct’ technology applied product, Allplex™ HPV HR Detection, is designed to detect 14 high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) types that can cause cervical cancer (See figure 1). It also provides the individual Ct value of each of the types allowing quantitative analysis regarding infection level. Early detection of HPV contributes to the prevention and management of cervical cancer. HPV products from other industry players provide individual Ct values for two high-risk types, HPV 16 and 18.

The Allplex™ HPV HR Detection, planned to be launched within the first half of this year, will come with a significant cost advantage compared to existing HPV products to increase accessibility to PCR testing, which had been difficult previously due to high costs. The product will also be compatible with Seegene’s fully automated AIOS (all-in-one system). The company plans to introduce the industry’s first ‘fully automated, mass, syndromic testing system,’ to lay the foundation for testing anywhere, including large hospitals, C-Labs, and even small and medium-sized clinics, and make PCR testing part of everyday life.

“HPV genotyping is essential for a good follow-up of a patient to observe the emergence, persistence or clearance of each genotype,” says HPV expert Sebastien Hantz, Professor at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Limoges in France. “Seegene is a company very involved in the development of molecular diagnostics tests for the detection of different pathogens. For certain clinical situations, like respiratory infections, syndromic testing is very useful.”

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1804637/image_1.jpg
Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1357790/Seegene_logo_Logo.jpg

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Open Society Condemns Travesty of Justice in Kavala Verdict

New York, April 25, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Open Society Foundations are appalled by today’s Turkish court decision to sentence Osman Kavala—the business leader and philanthropist—to life in prison, even though no credible evidence was ever presented to substantiate the baseless charges against him.

“Today a Turkish judge ruled against Osman Kavala even though there is not a shred of legitimate evidence against him,” said Mark Malloch-Brown, the president of the Open Society Foundations. “This bogus trial has utterly failed to meet the most basic standards for fairness and procedural justice.”

The court in Istanbul also sentenced seven other defendants to 18 years in prison each. The cases against these defendants were also without any merit.

Osman Kavala was first arrested and detained in October 2017. The government has held him, without conviction prior to today, for more than four years.

During that time, Turkish prosecutors have bent over backwards to try to keep Kavala in prison, even having him re-arrested in February 2020, after a previous trial ended with him being briefly released.

“This is not about justice,” added Malloch-Brown. “It is about trying to intimidate and silence anyone who might speak up in defense of human rights in Turkey, including all independent civil society groups.”

In December 2019, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Kavala’s detention was unjustified, and that the case against him was designed to silence him and to dissuade other human rights defenders from speaking out.

Turkey has so far defied the ECHR ruling.

Kavala is an established businessman and philanthropist, known for his support of human rights, the arts, and culture in Turkey. He also served as a board member with Open Society’s foundation in Turkey. (Open Society Turkey shut its doors in 2018 due to harassment from the Turkish government.)

Kavala is expected to appeal the court ruling.

“It is long past time to end this legal farce,” added Malloch-Brown. “Osman Kavala should be released and his name cleared immediately.”

Office of Communications
Open Society Foundations 
(212) 548-0378
media@opensocietyfoundations.org
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Tesla Value Falls $126 Billion Amid Musk Twitter Deal Funding Concerns

Tesla lost $126 billion in value on Tuesday amid investor concerns that Chief Executive Elon Musk may have to sell shares to fund his $21 billion equity contribution to his $44 billion buyout of Twitter.

Tesla is not involved in the Twitter deal, yet its shares have been targeted by speculators after Musk declined to disclose publicly where his cash for the acquisition of Twitter is coming from. The 12.2% drop in Tesla’s shares on Tuesday equated to a $21 billion drop in the value of his Tesla stake, the same as the $21 billion in cash he committed to the Twitter deal.

Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives said that worries about upcoming stock sales by Musk and the possibility that he is becoming distracted by Twitter weighed on Tesla shares.

“This (is) causing a bear festival on the name,” Ives said.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

To be sure, Tesla’s share plunge came against a challenging backdrop for many technology-related stocks. The Nasdaq closed at its lowest level since December 2020 on Tuesday, as investors worried about slowing global growth and more aggressive rate hikes from the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Twitter’s shares also slid on Tuesday, falling 3.9% to close at $49.68 even though Musk agreed to buy it on Monday for $54.20 per share in cash. The widening spread reflects investor concern that the precipitous decline in Tesla’s shares, from which Musk derives most of his $239 billion fortune, could lead the world’s richest person to have second thoughts about the Twitter deal.

“If Tesla’s share price continues to remain in freefall that will jeopardize his financing,” said OANDA senior market analyst Ed Moya.

As part of the Tesla deal, Musk also took out a $12.5 billion margin loan tied to his Tesla stock. He had already borrowed against about half of his Tesla shares.

University of Maryland professor David Kirsch, whose research focuses on innovation and entrepreneurship, said investors started to worry about a “cascade of margin calls” on Musk’s loans.

Source: Voice of America

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Beijing Begins Mass COVID-19 Testing Drive

Beijing has begun mass COVID-19 testing most of its 21 million residents amid fears the Chinese capital will be placed under a strict lockdown similar to the one imposed on Shanghai.

Authorities expanded testing across 11 districts Tuesday after launching the mass testing drive in Beijing’s most populous district of Chaoyang on Monday.

Beijing went on alert last week after 10 middle school students tested positive for COVID-19, sparking widespread panic buying across Beijing Sunday in anticipation of a possible citywide lockdown. Long queues were seen in supermarkets in the city center, as shoppers snapped up rice, noodles, vegetables and other produce, while store workers hastily restocked some empty shelves.

Officials have urged residents in some neighborhoods to work from home, and have started closing some venues such as gyms and theaters.

So far, only 70 positive cases have been reported since last week, including 33 new cases on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Shanghai continues to struggle to contain an outbreak of new COVID-19 cases largely driven by the highly contagious omicron variant, with many of its 26 million residents still under orders to remain indoors. The lockdown has led to angry complaints of a lack of fresh food and medicine throughout China’s biggest city.

Shanghai reported well over 10,000 new coronavirus infections and at least 51 deaths on Tuesday.

Source: Voice of America