Company News
Huawei and TPAY Join Forces to Drive App Monetisation
Huawei and TPAY have partnered to make it easier for content developers to monetise their apps on Huawei Mobile Services (HMS). This collaboration is expected to allow local MEA developers to fully utilise HMS’s In-App-Purchase (IAP) kit through TPAY’s direct carrier billing (DCB) service. This means that HMS users can pay for apps with just their mobile number. As a result, developers will get 100 per cent DCB coverage. “We are very excited to launch this strategic partnership with Huawei which will equip local and global developers with the tools they need to better monetise their services through In-App-Purchases capabilities,” says Sahar Salama, Founder and CEO of TPAY Mobile. “This agreement further extends the value of TPAY for top global merchants who are aspiring to scale their bus...
Citrix Appoints New VP of Emerging Markets
Citrix has appointed Amir Sohrabi as Area VP of Emerging Markets. He reports directly to Sherif Seddik, Senior VP and MD Citrix EMEA. With over two decades of experience in sales management, business development, strategic planning and marketing, Sohrabi will drive the acceleration to cloud of customer environments in the region enabling both business continuity and digital transformation to new work models, including remote working. “It is an exciting time to join Citrix,” says Sohrabi. “I am looking forward to helping Citrix customers across Emerging Markets build and implement innovative cloud and digital strategies.” Before joining Citrix, Sohrabi most recently served as both COO and Head of Digital Transformation for Central and Eastern Europe and Middle East & Africa regions at S...
Paratus Activates Network Line Connecting Johannesburg to Maputo
Paratus announced that it has completed a new terrestrial crossing to Mozambique by lighting up a 750km route from Maputo, through Eswatini onwards to Teraco Isando DC in Johannesburg. “It has taken months of meticulous planning and we experienced significant delays due to the pandemic sweeping across the globe. This week, we were able to commence with link testing and the first live traffic traversed the link,” says Rolf Mendelsohn, CTO of the Paratus Group. “Prior to activating this shorter route, the majority of traffic to Maputo would need to go via Mtinzini on either the SEACOM or EASSY cable systems. Latency is halved from 18ms to 9ms. For this route we decided to deploy the latest Infinera coherent technology, operating at 100Gb wavelengths.” Barney Harmse, CEO of Paratus, says, “Th...
Mellanox Sponsors Award-winning Showjumper
As part of NVIDIA, Mellanox Technologies, a leading supplier of high-performance, Ethernet and InfiniBand networking solutions for servers, storage and hyper-converged infrastructure, is currently sponsoring award-winning showjumper, Mellanox My Hot Chocolate, and his owner and rider, Belinda Duke. It is a wonderful example of the phrase ‘Small is mighty’ – and an innovative, ‘right-brained’ kind of idea to unpack. Duke is a Product Manager at Networks Unlimited Africa, which distributes Mellanox’ intelligent interconnect solutions throughout the continent. She explains, “NVIDIA is in the business of being fast, innovative, agile and forward-thinking. The Mellanox SN2010 switch is small but it does a huge job. Mellanox My Hot Chocolate is a small horse but he is a proven winner. Bigger doe...
Bolt Expands Ride-hailing Service in Kenya
Ride-hailing service, Bolt has announced that it is expanding into Kenya with a new offering – Bolt Lite. This new service aims to make rides more affordable to users in Nakuru and Kisumu. Bolt expects this more affordably priced category will “increase the number of rides and decrease the time drivers spend waiting for the next order,” writes Gadgets Africa. “We launched Bolt Lite in Nairobi in 2019 to give customers more options to choose from,” says Ola Akinnusi, Country Manager at Bolt. “With Bolt, we can meet their dynamic needs while we continue to provide affordable and convenient transportation services to everyone. We have seen tremendous support from both our customers and drivers. We are looking into meeting the increasing demand from Kisumu and Nakuru for the same service.” The...
MTN Group Appoints Acting CFO
MTN has appointed Sugentharan Perumal as acting Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO) – this comes as the telco’s former CFO, Ralph Mupita, takes up his new position as Group CEO. A chartered accountant for over 15 years, Perumal has extensive financial and accounting experience. He has served as an external auditor of MTN Group and held various key executive and board positions within the group. He is currently acting CFO of MTN South Africa and previously held the CFO position at MTN Irancell. “The board is confident in the wide-ranging experience and knowledge of MTN that Sugen brings to the role,” says Mupita. MTN also announced the appointment of Dineo Molefe as the CFO of MTN South Africa, effective 1 December 2020 – she will replace Perumal. Molefe is a chartered accountant and j...
Twitter Rolls Out New Quote Tweets Feature
Sourced from Wired. Twitter has officially launched its new Quote Tweets feature – after initially testing it just last week. The feature allows Twitter users to see how many times a specific tweet has been retweeted with a comment. “Tweets about a Tweet add more to the conversation, so we’ve made them even easier to find,” says the social platform. “Retweets with comments are now called Quote Tweets and they’ve joined the Tweet detail view. Tap into a Tweet, then tap “Quote Tweets” to see them all in one place.” Tweets about a Tweet add more to the conversation, so we’ve made them even easier to find. Retweets with comments are now called Quote Tweets and they’ve joined the Tweet detail view. Tap into a Tweet, then tap “Quote Tweets” to see them all in one place. pic.twi...
Vumatel Appoints New CTO
Fibre network operator, Vuma has appointed Francois Swart as its Chief Technology Officer (CTO), a role that it believes will bolster the company’s continued focus on innovation and industry leadership. Swart, who has more than 30 years experience in the telecommunications industry believes that customer-centricity is the cornerstone of working in this industry and that it is important to never lose sight of who the end result of innovation, investment and solutions are for. Dietlof Mare, CEO of Vuma, says “Francois brings to our leadership team a unique experience and skillset that spans IT and telecommunications and we look forward to the role he will play in shaping our company’s technology portfolio.” /* custom css */ .tdi_3_e45.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_e45.td-a-rec-img ...
MTN Introduces Month-to-Month Contracts
Sourced from The Techie Guy MTN has introduced a month-to-month payment option that aims to give customers “control of their spend commitments”. With no lock-ins, no credit checks and no complicated paperwork, MTN Month-to-Month is available to anyone that either doesn’t want to be tied to a contract or who is unable to get a long-term contract due to not meeting minimum requirements. New or existing customers simply need to choose the package they want and opt for the month-to-month payment option, allowing them to experience the MTN network without a 24-month obligation. All they will be asked for is their name, SA ID and debit order details should they opt to pay via debit order. “These are uncertain times for many, so with this product, we are responding to our customer’s needs with gr...
Liquid Telecom Appoints Group Chief Business Officer
Liquid Telecom has appointed Clayton Naidoo as new Group Chief Business Officer (GCBO). He will be responsible for driving growth, innovation and strategy in the enterprise market across the Group’s holdings. Naidoo will join the Liquid Telecom team in this role on 1 October 2020. A seasoned ICT professional, Naidoo has more than 14 years of experience in the industry. Prior to joining Liquid Telecom, he worked at Cisco in several key leadership positions. Most recently, he was General Manager – Sub-Saharan Africa, covering 31 countries. “We are thrilled that Clayton will be joining Liquid Telecom as we progress in our journey to solidify our position as a leading digital services provider across Africa. Clayton’s vast experience in the global ICT sector and his commitment to strong indust...
MultiChoice to Deepen Investment in Ethiopia
MultiChoice has announced its intentions to “significantly increase its investment in Ethiopia which is recognised as having huge growth potential with its large population (second only to Nigeria)”. MultiChoice has operated in the country since 1992, and the company is looking to significantly expand its reach, investment in people and infrastructure, and its support of Ethiopian content and content creators. This includes investing heavily in local content as part of the Group’s hyper-local content strategy. “Our commitment to Ethiopia can be seen throughout our tenure. Unlike many other businesses, we remained in the country since we launched our local operation nearly 30 years ago. We have built a truly Ethiopian business which has delivered solid results for us over the years. The str...
South African Crypto Exchange Reaches 5 Million User Milestone
Luno has announced that has registered over 5 million customers in over 40 countries and has now made its platform available in Australia. The launch comes shortly after the crypto exchange revealed it would also be available in the UK. Marius Reitz, Luno’s GM for Africa, says that key factors in the decision to enter the Australian market also included the young age of the population as well as disposable income. “Our African expansion is moving steadily forward and we recently launched in Zambia and Uganda. Luno is on an expansion drive and the Australian crypto landscape ticked many of the boxes on our checklist.” Australia has seen a five-fold increase in the number of fintech companies in the past five years. Almost 60% of the digitally active adults in the country are considered fint...
