Africa
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Facebook Pulls Russian Accounts Over Political Meddling in Africa
Facebook has once again caught Russians trying to meddle in the politics of other countries, this time in Africa. The social media giant has pulled a total of 66 Facebook accounts, 83 Pages, 11 Groups and 12 Instagram accounts for “coordinated inauthentic behavior” that used a mix of real, fake and hijacked accounts to shape political news and discussions…
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TEF-UNDP Sahel Youth Entrepreneurship Programme Set to Empower Entrepreneurs in 7 Sahel African Countries For 10 Years
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) have launched a youth entrepreneurship programme for the Sahel region of Africa. The TEF-UNDP Sahel Youth Entrepreneurship programme will train, mentor and financially support 100,000 young entrepreneurs in Africa in 10 years . The goal is to contribute to the overall target to…
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Phuti Mahanyele-Dabengwa Appointed Naspers SA First Female and Black CEO
A little more than 100 years ago, Naspers was created by white South Africans to produce a Dutch-language newspaper. Naspers, now Africa’s largest public company thanks to its investment in China’s Tencent, has appointed Phuti Mahanyele-Dabengwa its first woman, and first black person, as CEO of its SA business ahead of an offshore listing of its valuable…
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Econet, Yara Launch Generation Africa in Bid to Promote Youth Entrepreneurship to Africa
Telecommunications company Econet and a global nutrition leader, Yara International ASA have launched “Generation Africa”, a partnership initiative to inspire young African entrepreneurs to join the agri-food sector for its viable business opportunities. Generation Africa will reach thousands of young people through its “GoGettaz” competition, which will award US$100,000 in prize money to two exceptional business…
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Africa Takes Lead to Ban Plastic Bags in Bid to Tackle Pollution
Tourists visiting Tanzania are being urged to remove plastic bags from their luggage after the East African nation implemented a ban aimed at tackling pollution and protecting the environment. As of June 1, travelers to Tanzania will have to pack very carefully. The country announced the implementation of the second phase of its plastic bag ban on May 16. Visitors are advised to avoid packing…
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African Development Bank (AfDB) Pledges $25bn Towards Climate Programme
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has pledged $25 billion funding towards financing climate change mitigation programmes in the continent for the period 2020- 2025. AfDB president, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, made the announcement in a communiqué by the regional bank last week at the close of the One Planet Summit, which took place in Nairobi, Kenya. …
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Safaricom’s M-Pesa Partners With AliExpress to Enable Kenyan Shoppers to Make Payments Online
Kenya’s Safaricom recently revealed that it had secured a deal to use its M-Pesa mobile payment service for online shopping on one of Alibaba’s platforms, part of a move to expand its most profitable product beyond Kenya. AliExpress customers in Kenya can now pay for goods using M-Pesa following a partnership deal with Safaricom and…
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MTN Group CEO Rob Shuter — We Are The Best Network in South Africa
MTN Group CEO Rob Shuter says that the group’s South African operation has ‘turned a corner’ with a strong set of results. On Thursday (7 March), MTN reported a 10.7% jump in service revenue for the year ended December 2018, with revenue up 6% to R134.56 billion. Operating profit climbed to R23.6 billion, from R20.6…
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Lillian Barnard Replaces Zoaib Hoosen As New MD for Microsoft South Africa
Zoaib Hoosen has resigned as MD of Microsoft’s South African subsidiary and will be replaced by Lillian Barnard, the software giant recently announced. Hoosen, who has been at the helm of Microsoft South Africa for nearly five years, replaced Mteto Nyati in the role. Nyati, who joined MTN South Africa as CEO, is now CEO of…
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Statement On Water Rationing in Harare
Community Water Alliance notes with concern the manner in which City of Harare is implementing its water rationing scheme. Whilst the dwindling water levels in dams particularly Lake Chivero has been the basis for rationing water in Harare, there are procedural issues and legal framework that City of Harare should comply with. We understand that…
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Rwanda in Partnership With OneWeb Launches Icyerekezo Satellite to Connect Rural Schools to The Internet
Rwanda has launched a satellite named Icyerekezo, which will bring internet connectivity to students at Nkombo Island, in Lake Kivu. Rwanda wants to bridge internet connection in rural areas around the country. A satellite named Icyerekezo by students from Nkombo Island in rural Rwanda at Lake Kivu was launched on the 26th of February, 2019.…
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Zim Govt National Data Centre Project 95% Almost Completion
The government says the National Data Centre Project is nearing completion and has called on industry and the continent to invest more in data centers given their importance to regional economies. The Deputy Minister of ICT, Postal and Courier Services, Dr Jenfan Muswere said they are forging ahead with the implementation of the national data center project which…
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DStv Prices to Increase as From 1 April
MultiChoice late on Tuesday confirmed 2019’s DStv price increases for its pay-TV packages, that will see an annual subscription increase of between 1.96% and 6.42% from 1 April 2019. The monthly subscription fee for MultiChoice’s most expensive and cheapest packages will remain unchanged, while there’s a price hike for all of the other DStv packages.…
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Airtel and Telkom Are Merging to Take on Safaricom in Kenya
Airtel and Telkom are merging to create a stronger challenger to the market leader, Safaricom. Indian-owned Bharti Airtel and Telkom Kenya announced a deal to operate under a joint venture company that will be named Airtel-Telkom. The two companies said the deal comprises their corresponding mobile, carrier, and enterprises services but won’t include Telkom Kenya’s real estate…
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The Strive and Tsitsi Masiyiwa Family Foundation Avails $60m for Cholera Fight
The Strive and Tsitsi Masiyiwa Family Foundation and has availed $60 million towards the cholera response in Zimbabwe. Cholera claimed more than 70 lives last year. The commitment from the Econet founders comes on the back of an initial $10 million investment by Econet Wireless Zimbabwe at the onset of the cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe…
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Kenneth Makate Told Not to Accept Anything Less Than R650 Million Compensation From Vodacom
Kenneth Makate has sued his former funders, Raining Men Trade, for fraud and is fighting the company’s claim to a share of his settlement with Vodacom. Raining Men Trade was reportedly placed into business rescue this year after not receiving payment from Makate. The company helped bankroll Makate’s court case against Vodacom which sought compensation…
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Here’s Why These 5 African Countries Have So Far Shut Down The Internet in 2019
After it was confirmed that the Government of Zimbabwe ordered mobile network operators (MNOs) to shut down the internet and social media communication platforms, including WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook, which are widely used by Zimbabweans, the Zimbabwe’s High Court then ordered internet operators to restore service to people in the country after access had been shut…
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Susan Mulikita Appointed CEO of Liquid Telecom Zambia
Liquid Telecom has appointed Susan M’kandawire Mulikita as CEO of Liquid Telecom Zambia to accelerate growth and market penetration across the country. Based in Zambia, Susan joined the company on 14 January 2019 and becomes the first female to join Liquid Telecom’s Southern Africa regional executive leadership team as CEO. Susan is also the first…
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Mohamed Abdel Bassit Appointed as Liquid Telecom’s New Regional CEO for Middle East and West Africa (MEWA)
Liquid Telecom announced that it has appointed Mohamed Abdel Bassit its new Regional Chief Executive for the Middle East and West Africa (MEWA), effective January 1, 2019. Based in Cairo, Bassit will oversee the group’s expansion further into MEWA following the recent news that it is investing US$400m in the Egyptian market and has completed the first fibre network to stretch all the way from Cape Town to Cairo. Mohamed…
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Now You Can Send Money Across all Networks Including MTN Rwanda and Safaricom MPesa
MTN Uganda has today announced that it has completed (the final) Phase 3 which has seen UTL being switched on, making MTN the first telco in Uganda to fully comply with the Bank of Uganda initiative. This year 2017, Bank of Uganda directed all Mobile Money operations in Uganda to be interoperable between the telecommunications…
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Kenya’s Mobile Phone Penetration Surpasses 100% Mark
Kenya’s mobile phone penetration crested the 100 per cent mark, says the Communications Authority of Kenya. It joins Morocco, Namibia and Tunisia, the only countries in Africa to achieve the milestone. The first quarter sector statistics report for the financial year 2018/2019 by CA shows that the mobile penetration – the total number of active…
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iflix Confirms Sale of Kwesé iflix to Econet
iflix, the leading entertainment service for emerging markets, is pleased to confirm the sale of the rest of its African business to Econet Global Limited. iflix first announced the launch of its service in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in June 2017. Following eight months of rapid growth, the company joined forces with Econet Global Limited, which saw…
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M-Pesa Gears up for 1,200 Transactions Every Second
Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore has said the telco is expanding its M-Pesa systems to take 1,200 transactions per second. In a statement, he attributed the recent outage that lasted four hours to the system upgrade. Latest Communications Authority telecommunication sector statistics shows that Safaricom carried out 575,660,251 M-Pesa transactions, moving at least Sh1.58 trillion between…
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Africa’s must-do, can-do decade
By Li Yong, Director General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation Since 2000 the continent of Africa has recorded impressive rates of economic growth. This remarkable performance has been largely driven by the prolonged commodity boom and development assistance. While the continent shows great diversity in the socio-economic trajectories of its countries, growth rates…
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Natalie Jabangwe-Morris: Leadership behind Africa’s leading mobile money transfer service provider
By Special Correspondent Her business acumen and technology background set the stage for her current role at the leadership helm of Ecocash . She was among the 26 African leaders selected for the Tutu prestigious Oxford University Tutu Fellowship from nearly 300 nominees from over 30 countries. Tutu Leadership Fellowship selects candidates who have demonstrated…
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Africa, Europe collaborate in space science and technology
By Byron Mutingwende Africa and Europe are collaborating in space science and technology in pursuit of addressing the growing needs of African countries to access and use Earth Observation (EO) data for the implementation of sustainable development policies on the continent through the integration and deployment of African requirements and needs. Rungano Karimanzira,…
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Moto Republik: Another First by Magamba Network
By Kudzayi Zvinavashe Ever looked up how cool Google offices are and lost yourself imagining how awesome it would working there? Well Magamba Network and its partners is set to go down in the books of history for opening a state of the art community hub, Moto Republik Creative Hub which is the first of…