Company News
Vodacom and AUDA-NEPAD Partner to Build Digital Infrastructure to Manage COVID-19 Vaccinations
Vodacom Group has announced that it will work with AUDA-NEPAD to build digital infrastructure to manage COVID-19 vaccinations across up to 55 countries, following successful deployments in South Africa – to manage vaccinations – and in Mozambique, Tanzania and Nigeria – to manage infant inoculations. The roll-out of mVacciNation, developed by Mezzanine, a member of the Vodacom Group, is the first project in a public-private partnership that has been formed between Vodacom Group and AUDA-NEPAD to boost Africa’s digital transformation and build resilience for the post-Covid world. “Vodacom has been at the forefront of helping governments where we operate to curb the spread of COVID-19,” says Shameel Joosub, CEO of Vodacom Group. “Making our mVacciNation platform available to all African coun...
Tanda Secures Funding for East African Expansion
Kenyan-based startup Tanda is expanding its operations after securing funding from early-stage African tech investor HAVAÍC, Zedcrest Capital, DFS Lab, Victor Asemota and three other investors. Tanda has also secured key strategic partnerships with Mastercard and Interswitch which is expected to further accelerate its growth. The company’s expansion comes on the back of successfully pioneering and proving the viability of the interoperable agent and merchant model in Kenya, a model that has only been validated in West Africa prior to Tanda. “Tanda is solving one part of the very deep and complex problem of financial inclusion that is not only Kenyan but a problem across all emerging and undeveloped markets,” says Rob Heath, partner at HAVAÍC. “HAVAÍC believes that the wider Tanda team have...
Microsoft to Acquire Nuance Communications in ‘Biggest Deal’ Since LinkedIn
Microsoft is set to acquire AI software company Nuance Communications – marking Microsoft’s second-largest acquisition ever. The “Nuance deal would be a trophy for Redmond,” according to Wedbush Analyst, Dan Ives. “Nuance is in the midst of an unprecedented strategic turnaround the last few years under the leadership of CEO Mark Benjamin and we believe the company represents a unique asset on the health-care front for Microsoft.” TechCentral revealed that the acquisition could value Nuance at about US$56/share, giving the company an equity value of about $16-billion. “This can really help Microsoft accelerate the digitisation of the healthcare industry, which has lagged other sectors such as retail and banking,” says Bloomberg Intelligence senior analyst, Anurag Rana. “The biggest nea...
ETI Appoints New Group Executive of Operations and Technology
Image sourced from Naija247News Ecobank parent company, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) has appointed Tomisin Fashina as its new Group Executive of Operations and Technology – a position he will now hold in addition to his existing role of Managing Director of eProcess International. “The rapidly accelerating digital adoption by Africa’s citizenry and businesses, together with the explosion in eCommerce across the continent, is driving transformation throughout the banking and payment sectors,” says Ade Ayeyemi, CEO of Ecobank. “Winning across operations and technology is essential for the Ecobank Group’s short, medium and long-term success, and is an integral requirement of our ongoing determination to continue to meet the evolving expectations of our customers. Tomisin is well e...
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...
Facebook Says it Won’t Notify Users Implicated in ‘Hack’
On April 3, Business Insider revealed that more than 530 million Facebook users personal information had been made publicly available in an unsecured database – this included names, email addresses, and phone numbers. Facebook has now disclosed that it doesn’t plan to notify the users whose data was exposed online. According to The Verge, the social media platform “cited two reasons as to why it’s not telling users proactively: it says it’s not confident it would know which users would need to be notified and that users wouldn’t be able to do anything about the data being online”. Facebook believes that the data leak is the result of malicious actors who obtained the data by scraping it from the platform prior to September 2019. “We believe the data in question was scraped from ...
Uber Expands Ride-Hailing Service in Kenya
Sourced from CNet. Uber has expanded its ride-hailing service and online food delivery business to Nakuru, Kenya. According to Business Daily, this move will increase competition in the East African town where taxi-hailing services are dominated by Wasili Cabs and Bolt. “We remain optimistic about the business opportunity in Kenya, and the launch of Nakuru shows our commitment to the region,” says Brian Njao, Uber Head for East Africa. “With the COVID-19 pandemic, we are committed to helping people take essential trips safely while providing more avenues for economic opportunities for Kenyans.” /* custom css */ .tdi_3_d33.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_d33.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } Uber Eats Nakuru has partnered with restaurants including KFC, Java House, Jamia Food ...
5G Rollout in Kenya Escalates as Airtel Upgrades 600 Sites
Sourced from Comms MEA Airtel Kenya has upgraded over 600 sites in Nairobi, Mombasa and Malindi to ensure that they are 5G ready – this comes shortly after rival telco, Safaricom, launched the first 5G commercial services in East Africa. “These 600 sites are now 5G-ready. We don’t have to make any further modifications to the network. We will just get the spectrum and decide when to switch on,” says Prasanta Das Sarma, MD of Airtel Kenya. According to Business Daily, the new 5G network will “give consumers Internet speeds of 700 megabits per second, more than three times faster than the current 4G network, allowing operators to offer an alternative service for homes and offices in areas which are not currently covered by its fibre network”. Sarma also revealed that subscribers can hope to ...
Mastercard Expands Cashless Payment Functionality for Uber MEA
Mastercard has introduced a new initiative focusing on digital payments and advancing financial inclusions for Uber across the Middle East and Africa (MEA). As a regional first, the partnership with Mastercard will enable Uber to drive digitisation across their business operations, leveraging Mastercard’s single infrastructure to meet all types of payments needs across Uber Rides, Uber Eats, Uber Pass, and Uber for Business. It is intended that the partnership will boost cashless payments, drive digital payment acceptance, reward loyalty, while supporting Uber’s continued social impact collaboration. The Economy 2021 report released by Mastercard notes that the economic impact of COVID-19 has introduced permanent changes in digital consumer spending habits, growth of online banking, fintec...
LG to Quit the Manufacturing and Sales of Smartphones
LG has announced that it is closing its loss-making mobile business unit – a decision approved by the board of directors. The tech company says this will allow it to “focus resources in growth areas such as electric vehicle components, connected devices, smart homes, robotics, artificial intelligence and business-to-business solutions, as well as platforms and services”. According to LG, it will still provide service support and software updates for customers of existing mobile products for a period of time which will vary by region and it will also work with suppliers and business partners throughout the closure of the mobile phone business. Moving forward, LG says it will continue to leverage its mobile expertise and develop mobility-related technologies such as 6G to help further streng...
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...
Dimension Data Acquires Cloud Solutions Company to Fast-Track AWS Capabilities
Dimension Data has announced its acquisition of cloud implementation company – Acacia Cloud Solutions. The company believes this move will cement its commitment to invest in cloud services and solutions that meet the digital transformation and hybrid cloud requirements of organisations in the Middle East and Africa region in an increasingly competitive and digital business operating landscape. The acquisition is expected to expand Dimension Data’s AWS capabilities and provide its clients with innovative cloud managed services solutions that deliver relevant optimisation tools and speed to market. This will see both Acacia Cloud Solutions and Dimension Data building more capacity and skills to effectively meet client demand. “Our acquisition of Acacia Cloud Solutions, and our global re...
