Our proverb of the day:

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Kidnapping gangs have spread terror across Nigeria - how will this affect this month's elections?

The amount of accessible funding for start-ups in Africa is growing fast, but lots of it goes to the more developed economies of South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Kenya. We speak to business owners in Nigeria and Uganda and compare their experiences of getting into business.

Nnamdi Okoh is the co-founder of Terminal Africa, based in Lagos. He explains the process of getting onto an accelerator programme and how the advice and financial support has allowed him and his brother to turn the business from a side hustle to a full time job.

AbdulMalik Fahd investigates why Lagos has become such a hub for new business on the continent and Tom Jackson the co-founder of Disrupt Africa, a hub for start-up news, explains why investment opportunity is growing so quickly and what this means for business.

Kaivan Khalid Satter is the founder of Asaak, an asset financing company for motocyles based in Kampala, Uganda. He explains how tough it was to raise funding at the beginning and tells us how he’s now managed to raise more than 30 million dollars in funding.

Producer/presenter: Hannah Mullane

(Photo: Nnamdi Okoh. Credit: Nnamdi Okoh)

Real Madrid beat Egypt's Al Ahly 4-1 to reach the final of the Fifa Club World Cup in Morocco.

That's all for now from the BBC Africa Live team, but we'll be back on Thursday morning Nairobi time.

Until then you can find the latest updates on the BBC News website, or listen to our Africa Today podcast.

A reminder of Wednesday's wise words:

Click here to send us your African proverbs.

And we leave you with this photo of Al Ahly and Real Madrid fans ahead of the Fifa Club World Cup match in Morocco's capital, Rabat:

Image source, Getty Images

A Somali survivor of the huge earthquake which struck southern Turkey says his family are being taken care of by locals.

Jose Tembe
BBC News, Maputo

A Chinese-owned private security firm has been closed in Mozambique’s port city of Beira for alleged involvement in money laundering.

The attorney general’s office (PGR) accuses the owner of Panda Security, Jiye Zhuo, of defrauding the state of about $13m (£11m) through tax evasion.

Another of his firms, the Thian Hai petrol station, was closed by the authorities two months ago, also on allegations of money laundering.

The PGR also suspects him of financing terrorism, forging documents, conspiracy and environmental crimes. Mr Jiye has not commented on the allegations.

In response to the latest closure, more than 3,000 of Panda Security’s workers demonstrated, demanding two months of back pay.

It is unlikely that they will receive their money, as their employer's current whereabouts are unknown.

But a PGR spokesperson told journalists that he would be found. "The administration of justice is gathering evidence to hold him, his associates and all those who contributed to his various crimes, accountable."

Richard Kagoe
BBC News

The authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo say the number of people killed during the latest protest against UN peacekeepers has risen to eight, with 28 others injured.

The military governor of North Kivu province said the peacekeepers fired in self-defence when protesters attacked their convoy as it was returning to the city of Goma on Tuesday evening.

Several UN trucks were set on fire and looted.

Over the last year, there have been several protests against the UN peacekeeping force which is widely criticised for failing to stop rebel attacks in eastern DR Congo.

Last July more than 30 people were killed during protests.

Kalkidan Yibeltal
BBC News, Addis Ababa

The UN says it has helped 50,000 people return to their home areas in northern Ethiopia’s war-hit region of Tigray, three months after a peace deal was signed.

Around two million people were forced to flee their homes during the two-year conflict.

The war created a humanitarian emergency and one academic study last year estimated total civilian deaths - caused by the fighting, starvation and lack of health care - stood at between 385,000 and 600,000.

The head of the UN refugee agency, Filippo Grandi, made the announcement at the end of a three-day visit to Ethiopia.

He said everyone he had met in Tigray’s capital, Mekelle, wanted to go back home, but this would be easier to achieve in some areas than others.

“Peace will be successful if people go back home,” he said.

Humanitarian access to conflict-affected regions had increased since the deal, but relief efforts still needed to be accelerated as the needs remained “very big in northern Ethiopia”, Mr Grandi said.

Kennedy Gondwe
BBC News, Lusaka

Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema has commuted the death sentences of 390 prisoners to life imprisonment.

The announcement follows Mr Hichilema’s decision last December to abolish the death penalty.

Home Affairs Minister Jack Mwiimbu told a media briefing that following the amendment of the penal code, no court could now impose the death penalty.

But the law could not be applied retrospectively so some prisoners still face the death penalty unless pardoned by the president, the national broadcaster quoted him as saying.

It is not known how many people remain on death row.

Human rights campaigners have hailed Mr Hichilema for his decision to scrap the death penalty. The last execution carried out in the southern African nation was in 1997.

Shingai Nyoka
BBC News

Image source, AFP

Algeria, Egypt and Tunisia are among African Union countries that have sent aid and technical assistance to the Turkish-Syrian border.

Kenya has committed to sending aid and called on trained medical workers to volunteer their services.

Africa’s largest non-governmental humanitarian organisation, Gift of the Givers, has also dispatched teams of rescue workers and equipment to help the huge international rescue effort.

More than 11,000 people in southern Turkey and northern Syria have been killed in the 7.8 magnitude quake, with officials quoting 8,574 deaths in Turkey and 2,660 people confirmed dead in Syria.

Guy Bandolo
BBC News, Yaoundé

Image source, Yango

Cameroon has suspended the taxi-hailing app Yango until further notice.

The transport ministry said it had failed to obtain a licence and criticised it for using private vehicles for the transport of the public and commercial goods.

The decision comes in the wake of numerous complaints from transport unions angered that Yango drivers do not pay tax.

But users of the app are unhappy about the suspension as an increase in fuel prices has led to hikes in the cost of public transport.

One consumer union said the app offered affordable prices and guaranteed user safety.

Yango is the only ride-hailing app used in Cameroon - and has been available in the capital, Yaoundé, and the city of Douala since November 2021. It has thousands of daily users.

The deadline to stop using old naira notes was Friday but banks did not have enough new currency.

Mike Thomson
BBC World Service News

An Egyptian court has sentenced one man to death and 11 others to life imprisonment after convicting them of links to the Islamic State group.

Six more were jailed for between 10 to 15 years.

All were said to have either led or joined a terrorist group between 2015 and 2019.

In recent years jihadists - some inspired by IS - have carried out a wave of attacks in the Sinai Peninsula and others areas of Egypt.

Mass trials of this kind there are not uncommon there.

In a single case last year, 215 defendants received sentences ranging from 10 years to the death penalty.

Akisa Wandera
BBC News, Nairobi

A Kenyan court has ordered that 41 Ethiopian nationals should remain in custody for another six days pending investigations into how they entered the East African nation.

They were arrested on Monday at a house in the capital, Nairobi.

Two suspected people traffickers - a Kenyan and an Ethiopian - were also detained.

The head of Kenya’s Transnational Organized Crime Unit, George Mutonya, told the BBC that the Ethiopians did not have the right documentation to prove their legal status at the time of the police raid.

Kenya is often used as a route for illegal migration to neighbouring countries like Tanzania and further afield to South Africa and also countries in the Middle East.

Christian Atsu's agent says the footballer's whereabouts are unknown, a day after it was reported he was pulled from the rubble of a building "with injuries" after the Turkey earthquakes.

The family of Chinenye Vera Okonkwo, 33, from Nigeria, say she was a "wonderful young woman".

Osob Elmi
BBC News

Image source, Reuters

The United Nations has warned there is a strong possibility of famine in Somalia from April as current weather forecasts indicate a sixth consecutive failed rainy season.

It says more than seven million people continue to be affected by the country’s longest and most severe drought in decades.

At an event in the capital, Mogadishu, the UN, the Somali government and humanitarian agencies said the international response so far was insufficient. They have appealed for more than $2.5bn (£2bn).

The drought has so far forced more than 1.4 million people from their homes and destroyed at least 3.5 million livestock.

“Somalis have zero contribution to the climate change but we are facing this dire consequence,” the country’s special envoy for drought response said at the event.

More on this topic:

• One boy's fight to save his family from starvation

Patricia Oyella
BBC News, Kampala

Image source, AFP

The Ugandan government has refused to renew the mandate for the UN's human rights office, a decision condemned by campaign groups and the opposition.

The foreign ministry said the operations of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) should end as its services were no longer needed.

In a letter to the OHCHR, dated 3 February, it said the government was committed to "the promotion and protection of human rights".

Its decision reflected "the prevailing peace throughout the country coupled with strong national human rights institutions and a vibrant civil society with the capacity to monitor the promotion and protection of human rights throughout the country", the letter said.

Human rights defender Livingstone Sewanyana says the decision does not come as a surprise and raises questions about the government’s commitment to human rights.

He says the monitoring of human rights issues can still be done but the absence of the OHCHR creates a dent in expertise and resources.

The UN office was established in Uganda in 2006 with an initial mandate of monitoring human rights in conflict-affected areas in the north and north-east.

That mandate was expanded to cover the entire country in 2009. In 2020, the OHCHR opened a regional training centre.

There have been frequent crackdowns on those opposed to President Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power since 1986.

The opposition says dozens of its supporters were detained and tortured after the 2021 election.

In recent years, there has also been concern about restrictions on the freedom of expression and assembly through legislation.

Richard Kagoe
BBC News, Nairobi

Image source, AFP

A court in western Kenya has denied bail to the prime suspect accused of killing LGBTQ activist and fashion designer Edwin Chiloba.

Appearing before a high court judge, Jacktone Odhiambo denied murdering his friend in Eldoret, where he was a university student.

The police prosecutor said the two lived together as partners.

Mr Chiloba's body was found in a metal box, dumped on the roadside near Eldoret in early January.

Kenya’s chief pathologist said he had "died from asphyxia, which caused by smothering".

The murder sent shockwaves through the LGBTQ community in Kenya, where homosexuality is taboo and gay sex is punishable by up to 14 years in prison, although that law is rarely enforced.