Pan-African technology group Liquid Intelligent Technologies announced the launch of its shortest terrestrial fibre route between the East to the West coasts of Africa, connecting Mombasa, Kenya to Muanda, DRC.

With the completion of this route, Liquid establishes a new global Internet transit route between Asia and the USA through Africa, avoiding high-risk bottlenecks in the Middle East and Europe. The new route will also serve tens of millions of people in Africa's landlocked cities, towns, and villages...

Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES), an innovator in satellite and multi-transport technologies and networks, has announced that the National Company for Telecommunications Services (NCTS) has selected the Hughes JUPITER™ System to deliver the ground segment requirements for operation of the Ka-band TIBA-1 satellite.

The deployment of the Egyptian government-owned TIBA-1 satellite is a major milestone in the country's mission to connect the unconnected; the Hughes JUPITER System will...

Autochek, the automotive technology company that aims to facilitate auto finance across Africa, has officially widened its operations to Kenya as part of its pan-African expansion. To lead its Kenya operations, Autochek has appointed Bilhah Muriithi as the Country Manager.

Having recently acquired automotive marketplaces Cheki Kenya and Cheki Uganda from ROAM Africa (Ringier One Africa Media), the move into the Kenyan market signals Autochek’s focus on building digital solutions that will increase market...

Just weeks removed from announcing two strategic acquisitions that expanded its footprint into the Asia-Pacific market, Vantage Data Centers is breaking ground on a new data center campus in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Leveraging a $1 billion investment from existing financial partners, Vantage is building an 80MW campus in Johannesburg’s Waterfall City, a thriving business and data center ecosystem in the heart of the continent’s largest data center market. This exciting new development gives Vantage...

Safaricom and the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) have launched the NHIF mini-app within the M-PESA Super App.

The NHIF mini-app will provide all NHIF services through the Super App, empowering customers to access services wherever they may be without visiting NHIF offices or downloading a separate app. Payment and account reconciliation services are already live on the mini-app, with procedure approvals set to become available soon. “NHIF is...

Sendbox has announced the completion of a $1.8 million seed round from investors including 4DX Ventures, Enza Capital, FJLabs and Golden Palm Investments.

With participation from Flexport and YC Combinator as part of its 2021 winter cohort, Sendbox’s total investment raised has now reached $2 million following a pre-seed round from Microtraction and 4DX Ventures in 2018. The Nigeria-based e-commerce fulfillment platform for merchants in Africa says the new funding will be used to expand the company’s...

Kaspersky has unveiled a free platform with tips and tricks for small businesses to help them quickly improve their organisation’s security. 

Known as Kaspersky Cybersecurity on a Budget, the platform provides a set of short but actionable recommendations relevant for any company, as well as specific, but still easy-to-follow tips for different verticals and business needs. This includes data and communication protection, secure use of various digital platforms, website security and much more...

Service, service, service. That’s been the call for businesses that want to keep their clients happy and turn one-time customers into lifelong fans. Now, however, the focus has moved to brilliant customer experience. But what does this mean? And why are we seeing the shift? 

Think about how you do business today compared to just a few years ago. Customer service was measured by metrics like how many rings there were before your service department answered. In addition, were your retail staff smiling and...

Mobile transacting is fast becoming the golden egg of financial services – and nowhere more so than in Africa.

According to the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSMA) 2021 State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money, the number of registered mobile money accounts grew by 12.7% globally in 2021 to 1.21 billion accounts – double the forecasted growth rate. Sub-Saharan Africa makes up the biggest slice of this pie on all fronts – number of accounts (548 million of the 1.2 billion accounts)...

Patient data is essential in healthcare, especially when managing an individual’s care. Safeguards governing the processing and storage of patient data are required and will be bolstered by the introduction of the Protection of Personal Information Act, No 4 of 2012 (PoPIA).

Since this law came into effect on 1 July 2021, all private and public bodies processing personal information are now required to have implemented policies and procedures in order to be compliant. Xperien ITAD specialist Bridgette Vermaak...

African unicorns have made big news in recent months, with four startups having recently reached a $1 billion valuation or more this year alone, taking the total up to seven. Two of the new entrants are in fintech, one in edtech, and one in general technology.

These and other technology-enabled sectors are where emerging market investors are betting a flurry of new African unicorns will follow suit in the near future. Unicorns are privately held, fast-growing startups with a valuation equal...

Last week, Global software giant Oracle announced that it has chosen Johannesburg as the site of its first African data centre. Joburg will be among the 14 locations across Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific, and Latin America that the company says it plans to open cloud regions to support strong customer demand for Oracle Cloud services.

This announcement came at a time when the demand for data centers in Africa continues to rise.  According to Gartner, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) data centre market...