Company News
Telkom Unveils Fraud and Corruption Reporting Platform
Telkom has unveiled a multi-channel whistleblowing platform that allows users to report any acts or suspected acts of fraud, corruption, and irregular conduct within the organisation. The company says that this service is part of the Group’s ethics and corporate governance mechanisms to ensure that the Telkom Group remains a corruption and fraud-free organisation. “Every individual has a responsibility to play their part in rooting out fraud and corruption in our society, communities, and organisations. South Africa was recently ranked #69 out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index for 2020, further highlighting the severity of fraud and corruption in our country,” reads a statement from the telco. “That is why Telkom Group has partnered with safe lin...
Liquid Telecom Announces New Identity in Uganda
Image sourced from MyBroadband Liquid Telecom has unveiled its new identity as Liquid Intelligent Technologies in Uganda. As part of the rebrand, the pan-African technology group also revealed its plan to go from being a telecommunications and digital services provider to a full one-stop-shop technology. Over the last two decades, Liquid has established itself as a leading pan-African digital infrastructure provider with an extensive network spanning over 73,000 KM. This rebrand to Liquid Intelligent Technologies highlights the organisation’s expansion of its Cloud business, Cyber Security services, and other technologies added to its existing telecoms and connectivity capability. This also furthers the Group’s aim of accelerating growth by providing tailor-made digital solutions to busine...
Airtel Africa Names New Group CEO
Image sourced from Khusoko – East African Markets Airtel Africa has appointed Segun Ogunsanya as the group’s new CEO – effective from 1 October 2021. He is taking over from Raghu Mandava who led the telco for the last five years. “We are delighted to appoint Segun Ogunsanya as the Group’s next Chief Executive Officer. He has displayed significant drive and energy in turning around the Nigeria business by focusing on network modernisation, distribution, and operational efficiency. It is this commitment, together with his industry experience, strategic vision, constant customer focus and proven record of delivery that will enable him to continue to deliver our strategic objectives and to lead the Group in the next stages of its development,” says Airtel Chairman, Sunil Bharti Mittal. He goes...
vivo Partners with Jambo Shoppee to Expand Footprint in Kenya
vivo has partnered with Kenyan online retailer Jambo Shoppee to increase its footprint across the East African country. According to a Master Card study on consumer spending in February 2021, it revealed that 79% of consumers in Kenya are shopping more online since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the partnership, vivo is confident that the online visibility of its products will increase – giving potential customers a wider range of choices. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_454.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_454.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } “The Kenyan Smartphone market offers a favourable competitive landscape; with consumers considering online purchasing options, this partnership will give our users a wide range of choice and will see them enjoy the best mobile phones ...
New Partnership Allows South African Uber Drivers to Become Vehicle Owners
Sourced from CNet. Uber has once again partnered with flexible car ownership company – Moove – to give Uber Go drivers the chance to become vehicle owners at an affordable rate. This partnership replicates successful launches in both Nigeria and Ghana. Drivers on the Uber Go platform now have access to brand new Toyota Agyas from as low as R1,599 per week for Flexi Car Weekly Rental and R1,950 per week for Drive to Own deals, including zero deposit, free maintenance and free insurance. “As we recover, we know we need to continue to offer solutions that respond to consumers who are now more price-sensitive than ever,” says Frans Hiemstra, GM of Uber Sub-Saharan Africa. “We also need to continue to offer drivers quality, compact and cost-efficient vehicle choices that will better help e...
Absa Group Appoints New Chief Risk Officer
Absa has appointed Deon Raju as the new Group Chief Risk Officer – effective 1 June 2021. Raju is currently Absa Group Treasurer, primarily responsible for the liquidity risk, funding, capital, and non-traded market risks of the Group. He has been with Absa for more than 20 years, having held roles including in Enterprise Risk, Finance, Investment Banking, Credit Portfolio Management and Global Markets. He is a seasoned banking professional with deep institutional knowledge of the Group, as well extensive and diversified banking experience in business, finance and risk management. Raju is a Chartered Accountant and a Chartered Financial Analyst. He holds a BCom (Honours) from the University of Natal and is currently completing an MSc in Finance at the University of Michigan (Dearborn). “De...
MTN Ghana Promises $149 Million in Infrastructure Expansion
MTN Ghana has revealed its results for the quarter ended 31 March. The telco’s subscriberbase grew by 0.6 million to 25.0 million, as it improved its network and customerexperience. Continued demand for data and increased adoption of more digital payment services supported the active data subscribers’ growth of 0.4 million to reach 11.2 million and MoMo users growth of 0.1 million to reach 10.7 million. Most notably, MTN Ghana revealed that it would spend around $149 million in total CAPEX in the year to meet the heightened need for reliable and resilient voice, data and digital services. “We remain in line with our medium-term target to improve our margins and prudently manage our costs. EBITDA grew by 24.6%, with a corresponding margin expansion of 1.2 percentage points to 54.6%. Th...
Sony Sells 7.8 Million PS5s Worldwide
Sony has revealed that it shipped 7.8 million PlayStation 5 consoles across the world as of March 2021 – this number highlights the company’s ability to mass-produce the console, even though it has been extremely difficult to buy since its launch in November. According to The Verge, Sony’s record fourth-quarter figures bring the overall PlayStation business to a total operating profit of 342.2 billion yen ($3.14 billion) for the 2020 financial year. Sony PS5 System Specs and Features As previously revealed, the PlayStation 5 is running on a system similar to a high-end gaming PC. It features an 8 core Zen 2-based AMD CPU running at 3.5ghz. Its GPU is completely customised and based off of AMD’s next-generation RDNA 2 architecture capable of generating 10.28 teraflops. /* custom c...
PlayStation Network Up and Running After Outage
Sourced from Wikimedia. The PlayStation Network appears to be up and running again after reportedly suffering a global outage. The outage all the categories listed on the PSN’s status page — account management, gaming and social, PlayStation Now, PlayStation Video, PlayStation Store, and PlayStation Direct. According to The Verge, all were marked as being down for about an hour though reports of the outage started rolling in around 20 minutes before the status page lights started turning red. Sony Shows Off Next-Gen PlayStation 5 VR Controllers Sony has shared a sneak peek of its next-generation PS5 virtual reality (VR) controllers. The orb-shaped controllers are expected to play a critical role in changing the way VR games are played. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_001.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: ...
Microsoft Teams Reaches to 145 million Daily Active Users
Sourced from Tech Republic. Microsoft Teams has exploded in popularity since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent remote work exodus. Millions of people have brought their offices home with them, and with that, they’ve turned to Microsoft Teams. In fact, more than 145 million Daily Active Users have turned to MS Teams to be exact. #MicrosoftTeams now 145 million daily active users 🙏💜 – thank you to customers, partners, and team — Jeff Teper (@jeffteper) April 27, 2021 According to The Verge, at the beginning of the pandemic, Microsoft had around 32 million daily active users of Microsoft Teams. That jumped to 75 million in a matter of weeks, and these numbers have more than doubled since even the early days of the pandemic. /* custom css */ .t...
Safaricom Completes Services Upgrade
Sourced from Tech Weez. Safaricom has introduced updates to its airtime top-up, sim swap, tariff migration and activation of new lines services. The updates are expected to increase the telco’s capacity for future innovations. In a tweet, Safaricom says that M-Pesa, calls, data and SMS will all be operational. Customer Notice on Service Upgrade for Saturday 24th April 2021. pic.twitter.com/NCo9j9PUGQ — Safaricom PLC (@SafaricomPLC) April 23, 2021 Safaricom Forced to Split Dividend Payouts by CBK The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has pressured Safaricom into dividing its dividend payouts in order to “shield the weakening shilling when the telecommunications firm seeks dollars for repatriation to foreign investors”, reports Business Daily. Kenya’s local currency has faced immense pressure...
Airtel Africa Refutes Plans to Exit Kenyan Market
Sourced from Comms MEA Airtel Africa has denied reports that it plans to halt operations in Kenya. The rumours were reported by Techweez after Prasanta Das Sarmato, CEO of Airtel Kenya, assessed the viability of the company after The National ICT Policy 2019 was signed. “Equity Participation, a clause in the policy states that only companies with at least 30% substantive Kenyan ownership, either corporate or individual will be licensed to provide ICT services.” The telco, however, has said that it would not be leaving the Kenyan market – “we remain committed to delivering quality and value for money products and services to all our customers whilst ensuring effective, uninterrupted communication is achieved across the entire country.” Airtel goes on to say that it would cont...
