Africa By Region
M-Pesa Africa Appoints New Managing Director
Image sourced from Twitter Safaricom’s M-Pesa Africa has appointed Sitoyo Lopokoiyit as its new Managing Director. He is a “mobile financial services expert who has directly managed mobile money in two of the largest markets in the world – Kenya and Tanzania,” reveals MyBroadBand. Lopokoiyit joined Safaricom in 2011 as head of M-Pesa strategy and business development. He then went on to Vodacom Tanzania in 2016 where he worked as the director of m-commerce, before re-joining Safaricom in 2018. Kenyan Senators Call for Safaricom to Split Senators in Kenya believe that Safaricom should split into two firms – Mobile Services and M-PESA. According to The Star, a split would see the mobile telephony service is regulated by the Communication Authority of Kenya (CAK) and the M-Pesa...
Nutanix Appoints New Senior Director of Multicloud Business Development
Nutanix has announced the appointment of James Karuttykaran as Senior Director of Multicloud Business Development for EMEA. In his new role, he will be responsible for developing strategic partnerships with leading players in the public cloud. He reports directly to Andy Brewerton, Director of Sales Strategy for EMEA at Nutanix. In this new position, Karuttykaran is expected to put his expertise in Nutanix technologies to work for the company’s customers’ multicloud deployment needs. His priority will be to strengthen Nutanix’s relationship with Microsoft to facilitate the deployment of European customers’ infrastructure and workloads on Azure. Karuttykaran joined Nutanix at the creation of the French office in March 2014 as a pre-sales engineer. He quickly rose through the ranks to become...
Are University’s Doing Enough to Address the Cybersecurity Skills Gap
Sourced from International IDEA A global shortage of cybersecurity professionals has become so severe that companies are increasingly at risk from hacking and industrial espionage. Protecting data and defending corporate networks is poised to be one of the most in-demand careers of the future. Yet companies are already struggling to fill job vacancies, and the problem is accelerating. “Every company is going digital, and the first thing they have to ask is how secure are their networks and data,” says Doros Hadjizenonos, the Regional Sales Director at Fortinet. The danger is that cybercrime has grown so huge and lucrative that without enough good guys to keep them safe, businesses and individuals alike are in jeopardy. “If a company doesn’t have the right skills it’s increasing its risk to...
African’s Reluctant to Leave WhatsApp Despite Increase in Cybersecurity Concerns
Africa’s mobile users are increasingly concerned about the mobile risks and the potential for digital identity theft; however, this is not stopping them from using their favourite messaging platforms and applications. This emerged in new research carried out by KnowBe4 among smartphone users in Nigeria, Mauritius, Egypt, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Morocco and Botswana. The survey gauged the opinions of Africa’s mobile users on the recent decision by WhatsApp to update their terms and conditions, sharing metadata with the rest of the Facebook group of companies. The survey found that not only did the majority of the respondents across Africa intend to continue using WhatsApp; but also, that their favourite alternative to WhatsApp was Facebook Messenger. Anna Collard, SVP Content Strategy &...
How Mobile Technology could Provide Food Security for Rural African Communities
Climate change combined with unsustainable farming practices has exhausted African soil — leaving much of the ground unfarmable. In the future, a major reduction in crop yield and productivity is likely to be seen as a consequence of the extreme weather conditions and unviable farming techniques. In fact, the production of maize could decrease by as much as 10%, even if no climate adaptation actions are taken. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_560.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_560.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } According to the African Development Bank (ADB), this is not only unsustainable but unaffordable as the continent spends close to $65 billion importing food — a number that is expected to grow exponentially within the next decade. In addition to the growing lack...
Fixing Your Cybersecurity Issues 1 Next-Gen Firewall at a Time
Stefan van de Giessen, General Manager: Cybersecurity at Networks Unlimited Africa When did you last check your firewalls as a barrier to entry against cybercriminals? And, perhaps more importantly: does your organisation still rely on a legacy firewall, or has it upgraded to a next-generation firewall (NGFW)? And have you considered the ‘Broken window’ principle when looking at your internal cybersecurity posture, in order to have a positive effect on your business processes? These questions are posed by Stefan van de Giessen: General Manager: Cybersecurity at Networks Unlimited Africa, who says, “The broken window theory rests on the idea that a neighbourhood or community that appears to be orderly and well-kept will be less susceptible to crime. Conversely, one that has many broken wind...
Airtel Africa to Sell $200 Million Stake in Mobile Money Business
Sourced from Comms MEA Airtel Africa is set to sell a minority stake – worth $200 million – in Airtel Mobile Commerce BV (AMC BV) to global investment company, The Rise Fund. “The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions including necessary regulatory filings and approvals, as necessary, and the inclusion of specified mobile money business assets and contracts into AMC BV,” reveals the company. According to TechCrunch, this deal values the mobile money business at $2.65 billion with operations across 14 African countries, including Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria. “Our markets afford the substantial market potential for mobile money services to meet the needs of the tens of millions of customers in Africa who have little or no access to banking and financial services, and this dema...
First Overland Fibre Network Deployed in DRC
Liquid Intelligent Technologies has deployed the first overland fibre network in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This expansion is expected to connect millions of DRC citizens and thousands of businesses to the ‘One Africa’ broadband network totalling more than 73,000 kms across the African continent. Furthermore, Kinshasa and most major cities in the DRC are now connected directly to the world, linking to such cities as London, San Francisco, and Singapore, and many other global economic hubs. The DRC route is also part of the first-ever complete East to West network in Africa, offering low latency, high bandwidth fibre connectivity and high availability. “The completion of this project is part of the strategic vision to connect the African continent to the rest of the world,” say...
How Digital Adoption Across Africa Supersedes the World
Sourced from Redbubble and iStock. Although Africa currently trails other regions in terms of digital adoption and maturity, the pace of adoption and infrastructure buildout is happening faster on the continent than any other region in the world. This creates the opportunity to unlock enormous economic potential, according to a new report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in partnership with Casablanca Finance City. “The COVID-19 crisis has also focused minds, accelerating digital adoption among consumers and digital transformation among companies,” says Jan Gildemeister, Managing Director at BCG. “For success going forward, we believe that companies and governments need to coordinate on three fronts: creating scale, nurturing and attracting digital talent, and building ecosystems and innov...
Flutterwave Partners with Paypal to Transform eCommerce Payments for African Merchants
PayPal has joined forces with Flutterwave to allow PayPal users around the world to pay African merchants through Flutterwave’s platform. This collaboration is expected to be ‘instrumental’ in supporting SMEs and freelancers to overcome the many challenges presented by the highly fragmented and complex payment and banking infrastructure, as well as connecting them with more than 377 million PayPal account holders globally. Traditionally, Africa’s eCommerce ecosystem has lacked suitable payment solutions to meet the demand for seamless transactions worldwide, further constraining its contributions to the global digital economy. However, this collaboration hopes to eliminate significant barriers that have previously hindered African consumers and businesses from the untapped potential of cro...
3 Reasons Why African Farmers Should Use the Haller App
Climate change combined with unsustainable farming practices have exhausted the soil across Africa. In addition to the growing lack of arable land, agricultural knowledge and education have proven to be in short supply. With this in mind, the Haller Foundation — a UK registered charity and Kenyan NGO — devised a plan to provide farmers across the continent with the information, skills and infrastructure they need to thrive through an award-winning mobile app called Haller Farmers. Here are three reasons why African farmers should use the app: 1. Haller Farmers has been designed by farmers for farmers /* custom css */ .tdi_3_65f.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_65f.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } Initially launched in 2014 and redeveloped as a native, downloadable...
Uber Offers 1 Million Rides to Teachers Across the World
Sourced from CNet. Uber has offered 1 million rides to teachers around the world to and from vaccination appointments to support the reopening of schools and to protect teachers and their communities. As a member of the Global Education Coalition, Uber worked with UNESCO and its partners during the first wave of COVID-19 to deliver meals to the hardest-hit students in countries such as the UK, Kenya, Mexico and Colombia. With cases of COVID-19 still rising around the world, and many schools either fully or partially closed, Uber and UNESCO are extending their partnership. Together, Uber and UNESCO aim to remove transportation as a barrier to accessing vaccinations for teachers around the world as and when governments allow local teachers to get vaccinated. “We look forward to building...
