Swiss software expert Netcetera is enabling secure payments in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia region with their 3DS acquiring server solution for PayTabs.

The 3DS server is an important piece in the puzzle for PayTabs, an award winning payment processing powerhouse, offering social commerce, digital and next-generation payment solutions across the MEASA region. PayTabs has been a formidable player in the payment ecosystem for almost a decade, offering freelancers, SMEs, banks and super...

Kenyan manufacturers have tcalled on Government to address gaps that will hinder them from benefitting from the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). This was during the launch of the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, KAM, Study Findings on the Implications of AfCFTA on Kenyan Products.

Speaking during the event, KAM Ag CEO Tobias Alando observed that whereas the trade agreement provides the best opportunity to realize our regional, national and business goals, Kenya is yet to put in place mechanisms to ensure the...

Vodafone is reportedly selling its operations in Ghana to Telecel Group according to insiders who sought anonymity. The company runs Vodafone Ghana and has operated in that market since 2008. At the time, the company paid $900 million for a 70% stake in Ghana Telecommunications Co., while The government retained a 30% holding in the business.

Bloomberg reports that the company’s chief executive officer has been focusing the group’s interest in Europe and Africa. Vodafone’s African operations are spearheaded by Vodacom group ltd where it owns a 60.5% stake. The first time...

Best Western Hotel Group, BWH, one of the world’s largest hotel companies, is the first to integrate its central reservation system (CRS) with Oracle Hospitality OPERA Cloud property management system (PMS) through the Oracle Hospitality Integration Platform.

 This makes it easy for any hotel within the BWH Hotel Group portfolio – including Best Western Hotels & Resorts and SureStay Hotel Group properties - to adopt OPERA Cloud to simplify and improve operations while delivering great guest...

Public Investment Corporation (PIC), Africa’s asset manager with over $150 billion in assets under management, has given formal notification to make a $100 million equity investment in the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), Africa's infrastructure solutions provider.

The approved investment from the South African pension fund manager follows recent equity inflows to AFC from the Seychelles Pension Fund, the Government of Sierra Leone, the Republic of Togo, the Central Bank of Guinea and further...

On the back of two major interest rate hikes in the first half of 2022 alone and rapidly rising costs, business owners across the country are keeping a close eye on budgets and cash flow where every cent counts.

As champions of financial inclusion and SME growth in South Africa, local fintech Hello Pay is offering merchants, and micro and small enterprises access to competitive, commercially attractive, business loans of up to R250,000 to grow their businesses. The Hello Pay Business Loan is part of Hello...

KCB Group has entered into a definitive agreement with shareholders of Trust Merchant Bank (TMB) to acquire a majority stake in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)-based lender.

The transaction is expected to close by the end of the third quarter of 2022, subject to regulatory, shareholders and other approvals.  This will see KCB acquire 85% of the shares in TMB while the existing shareholders will continue to hold the balance for a period of not less than 2 years after which...

African Micro and small business-focused neobank 4G Capital has gone live on Mambu’s cloud banking platform. 4G Capital says Mambu’s platform will enable it to scale and expedite its digital journey to meet customer business needs.

Since its inception in 2013, the firm says it has delivered more than 1.75 million loans and decided to move to a cloud-native banking platform to help facilitate its ambitions to scale. The move is also expected to help it expand its customer base across Africa and grow its financial services portfolio...

Angola, which recently became Africa’s largest oil producer, is seeking to add more value across the commodity exports spectrum by partnering with the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) as a shareholder and its 35th member state.

AFC’s investment approach is aligned with Angola government’s priorities through its focus on financing instrumental infrastructure projects that promote economic diversification and resource-driven industrialisation. In line with this, AFC recently approved $100 million in financing for...

Nokia today announced that Orange Egypt has opted to modernize its existing Nokia SDM solution to support the operator’s subscriber growth over the next five years.  

The enhancements to the SDM network include a total modernization of the solution with upgraded hardware and ongoing software releases. The new system will allow Orange Egypt’s users to benefit from improved reliability and security, as well as enable Orange Egypt to enhance operational...

The Rockefeller Foundation announced the launch of the Vaccination Action Network (VAN), a $7.4 million locally-led, peer-to-peer learning initiative designed to engage public health decision-makers across sub-Saharan Africa and bolster their efforts to strengthen health systems while scaling up Covid-19 vaccine demand strategies. 

Sabin Vaccine Institute and Dalberg are the secretariat for the network, while Amref Health Africa (Amref) is playing a key role to guide and administer subgrants to local organizations in participating countries so that they can implement vaccine...

IFC and Absa Bank have partnered to support the expansion of housing finance targeting lower-to-middle income households in South Africa. IFC's local currency loan of up to 2 billion South African rand (approximately $124 million) will help expand Absa's affordable housing mortgage portfolio in South Africa, reaching thousands of home buyers.

IFC's partnership with Absa will help address the large affordable housing gap in South Africa, where the housing shortage is estimated at 3.7 million homes. Formal housing solutions are often too expensive for South Africans with low...

By 2027, chatbots will become the primary customer service channel for roughly a quarter of organizations, according to Gartner, Inc. 

“Chatbots and virtual customer assistants (VCAs) have evolved over the past decade to become a critical technology component of a service organization’s strategy,” said Uma Challa, Sr Director Analyst in the Gartner Customer Service & Support practice. “When designed correctly, chatbots can improve customer experience and drive positive customer...

The African Business Roundtable (ABR) and the African Import-Export Bank (Afreximbank) came together last week in a well executed endeavor that is a passion of both organizations - bringing business projects to fruition. 

The ABR came into being 30 years ago with the clear objective of supporting the private sector of Africa, nurturing it to a point of international success and recognition. The Afreximbank, a trade finance bank, has also spent the past three decades committed to assisting African entrepreneurs...

Unicaf is an online and blended learning higher education platform that is dedicated to making higher education of international standard accessible, by offering scholarship opportunities to professionals and young school leavers.

What are scholarship opportunities?

A scholarship could be defined as financial aid that relieves the burden of tuition fees and living costs that students and families have to pay to secure a place in secondary and tertiary education. Considering the rising costs of student expenses and debts, we could nowadays describe education...

The Africa Trade Expo (TATE) presents direct access to African buyers whose main aim is to source the latest products, establish partnerships, and conclude import/export deals. TATE is an ongoing virtual trade show for African businesses to network, collaborate, and enter into partnerships with international manufacturers and exporters. Present your new opportunities, network, build relationships and grow your business in African markets...

Future Foods is a virtual meeting place for importers, F&B managers, retail category buyers, owner-operators, agents, and distributors from across Africa’s diverse and booming market to come to conferences, to network, meet exhibitors, source products, new ingredients, retail shelf-ready products, and the latest processing, packaging, and logistics solutions. Future Foods connects attendees exhibitors across the...

The ever-evolving trends in sectors such as manufacturing, technology, automation and climate change are changing the world of work, and together with it, the skills required to adapt and maintain a competitive edge. 

Skills are the building blocks of any country’s economy. They play a key role in transforming the world in which we live – they enhance employability and increase productivity. Investing in quality skills is known to have reverberating effects on various sectors, such as education, driving...

Banks cannot be everything to everyone. There are limits within formal banking environments that make it difficult for these financial institutions to serve all customers. For instance, many people seeking loans or favourable savings products struggle to provide collateral or afford the fees that would satisfy the regulations and requirements governing a traditional financial institution.

Those individuals often turn to alternatives, such as Micro-Finance Institutions (MFIs) and Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies (SACCOs). In fact, MFIs and SACCOs are very popular across the developing world, where Africa and...

Miners are stepping up to take a more prominent role in the energy transition. According to the United Nations Global Compact-Accenture Strategy CEO study, about 72% of mining and metals CEOs agree that sustainability issues, including decarbonisation, are “very important” or “important” to the future success of their businesses (compared to just 54% across all industries).

For a long time, the mining industry was considered a contributor to the problem of environmental sustainability, but now it is increasingly seen as a critical part of the solution. As a result, many mining companies are now embracing their...

As a new army of remote workers who need flexible "anywhere, everywhere" access grows, an entire continuum of cloud solutions is taking over. Countless laptops and mobile devices continuously connect to services like Microsoft's Office 365 and Salesforce.com or AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform applications.

There is only one problem – the old-school enterprise networks haven't been able to keep up. Since the days of desktops and data centres, many have hardly changed and have been trapped in a cycle of temporary solutions over an...

The curtailment of Russian natural gas deliveries is a source of anxiety for the European Union — and rightly so, given that the bloc has been far too dependent for far too long on Gazprom, a majority state-owned Russian company that serves as a de facto instrument of policy for the Kremlin.

But this anxiety is also a source of potential for African gas producers, as it’s driving European consumers to look elsewhere for fuel. This search has drawn attention to a number of African gas projects that are likely to help Europe...

As the region bets on diaspora remittances to boost respective countries’ national purses and drive economic growth across East Africa, member states are looking at cementing regional partnerships.

Equity Bank Kenya has signed a partnership with NALA Payments Limited, a Tanzanian-based remittance payment processing startup to facilitate diaspora remittances into Kenya. This partnership will allow Kenyans living in the United Kingdom and the United States to send money directly from their banks, through the NALA app, instantly and at...