African digital payments provider DPO Group Kenya has received official approval from the Central Bank of Kenya to operate as a Payment Service Provider (PSP) in the country. The National Payment System Act requires all PSPs to undergo a rigorous license application process in order to provide payment services in Kenya.

Founded in Kenya, DPO Group has been operating successfully throughout Africa since 2006. The Group says it has worked closely with regulators across the continent to acquire new licenses and certifications as requirements have changed in...

Nigerian fintech moblity startup Moove has announced its launch in London as part of its global expansion through a new partnership with Uber. 

Moove has launched in Europe with a 100% EV rent-to-buy model that provides access to brand new, zero-emissions vehicles for a flat weekly fee. The startup aims to be the largest EV partner on Uber’s platform in London with plans to scale to up to 10,000 vehicles by the end of 2025, creating sustainable earnings opportunities and contributing to the...

MTN Group has announced the appointment of Christian Bombrun as CEO: Digital Platforms, effective 1 September 2022. 

Christian takes over from Minnie Harris, who has been acting in the role since April 2022. Minnie, who has been double-hatting over the past four months will now focus solely on her responsibilities as Chief Financial Officer (CFO): Digital Platforms. In his role, Christian will be responsible for designing, implementing and maintaining the long-term...

Pezesha, a Kenyan fintech that has built a platform where small and medium enterprises can access funding has raised $11 million in a pre-series A equity and debt funding.

The funding was led by Women’s World Banking Capital Partners II with partners such as Verdant Frontiers Fintech Fund, cFund and Input Output Global (IOG) among other VCs. The startup was founded in  2017 by Hilda Moraa who Is also the CEO.  The fintech integrates its services with other lenders, allowing micro, small and medium enterprises...

Softline, the global IT and digital transformation solutions and services provider has announced the launch of its Innovation Growth Programme. As part of this initiative, Softline has unveiled plans to recruit c. 350 talented specialists in key vendor solutions such as Google, AWS, Apple, Cisco, and VMware among others. 

This new initiative is aimed at strengthening Softline’s capability to offer customers bespoke multi-cloud solutions which address a full range of digital transformation and cyber-security requirements. The move is targeted at high...

Microsoft has appointed Kunle Awosika to the position of Managing Director for the Africa Transformation Office (ATO). Kunle takes over from Wael Elkabbany, who is taking up a new role as Microsoft’s Africa Regional Cluster.

Kunle was one of the three pioneer team members when Microsoft opened its Nigeria office and has played various roles in the company, including Director of Enterprise Business, Country Manager: Microsoft Kenya and Director: Small and Medium Corporates, Emerging Markets. In these roles, he...

Innovation plays an ever-increasing role in growing Africa’s emerging technology ecosystem. In fact, A study by Briter Bridges and AfriLabs identified at least 1031 innovation hubs as operational across Africa as of October 2021 and the interest to establish new ones is widespread.

These hubs range from incubators and accelerators to co-working sites supporting transformative economic growth and development in the region through innovation and entrepreneurship. The Briter Bridges and AfriLabs study...

Today’s generation do everything from ordering meals to scheduling doctor’s appointments on their mobile phones or online. To better meet their needs, Eyowo has unveiled its Digital First payment offering – the Better Card – which is certified by Mastercard.

As one of the pioneer partners in Nigeria to join Mastercard’s Digital First Card Program, Eyowo brings a best-in-class digital banking experience to its customers. This includes digital access to card information, unsurpassed payment security...

Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com, Inc. company has announced that Pick n Pay Group, a retail business operating in South African and other selected African countries, has migrated its entire on-premises information technology (IT) infrastructure to AWS.

Pick n Pay worked with Lemongrass Consulting—an AWS Premier Consulting Partner with Migration and SAP Consulting Competencies—to migrate its on-premises SAP environment to AWS and implement a modern SAP HANA platform. Moving...

Rohde & Schwarz develops, produces and markets innovative information and communications technology products for professional users.

The independent company has an extensive sales and service network in more than 70 countries. In addition to its established business fields, Rohde & Schwarz has made substantial investments in future technologies such as 6G, quantum technology, the industrial internet of things (IIoT)...

Africa Data Centres, a business of Cassava Technologies, a pan-African technology group, announced it has broken ground on the expansion of its Samrand facility in Johannesburg, from 10MW to 40MW of IT load.

Tesh Durvasula, CEO, Africa Data Centres:  ''The expansion will happen in multiple phases. The construction of the first phase is starting today and will deliver 20MW across eight data halls by 2023. The next phase will include an additional 10MW of IT load by the end of 2025. The infrastructure will...

SYSPRO, a global provider of industry-built enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, announced Jaco Maritz has been named global CEO, while Co-founder Phil Duff will be stepping into the role of Executive Chairman.

Supported by a strong executive team, Maritz will drive the business strategy and vision while overseeing the daily operations of the company. SYSPRO will remain a privately-owned business. Duff confirmed that Maritz’s appointment is a result of a transition plan that was implemented when he...

Vodacom Financial Services has launched VodaLend Cash Advance, a product that gives customers quick and secure access to money when they need it most.

VodaLend Cash Advance is the latest product to be added to the VodaLend financial services suite, which includes VodaLend Compare, Voucher Advance, and Airtime Advance. The new addition is geared towards underbanked consumers who need quick and barrier-free access to funds, whether it’s an emergency doctor’s visit or topping up pre-paid electricity...

Grey, a fintech started by two Nigerians to simplify sending and receiving foreign payments for Africans, has raised $2 million in seed funding. 

The seed funding round included participation from Y Combinator, Soma Capital, Heirloom Fund, True Culture Fund, angel investors Alan Rutledge, Samvit Ramadurgam, Karthik Ramakrishnan, and other high-profile investors. According to the CEO, Idorenyin Obong, with this new round of capital, they plan to launch into new markets and extend their product...

After announcing plans to launch commercial operations in Ethiopia within the year, Safaricom has now started large-scale customer pilot of its network in Dire Dawa.

Dire Dawa is a city in eastern Ethiopia and according to Safaricom, the pilot will be on 2G, 3G and 4G networks. Customers in the city will be able to purchase Safaricom SIM cards and choose their preferred number starting with the 07 prefix. The SIM cards according to a statement from the telco will be available in branded shops and will include offers for...

MTN Rwandacell (MTN Rwanda)  announced the launch of MTN Unicall, a new product that is set to streamline the integration of enterprise communication services under the Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC) product umbrella.

A first of its kind in the market, MTN Unicall provides a consistent unified user interface and user experience across multiple devices. These products, SIP Trunk, Hosted PBX (Office lines) and Hosted Call Centre integrate all communication services easily and conveniently, allowing...

The Smart Africa Alliance welcomes Cenfri as an international non-profit member to advance Smart Africa’s digital transformation initiatives.

With a mission to accelerate sustainable socio-economic development on the continent, the Smart Africa Alliance has committed, as part of its flagships projects, to develop of a master plan for e-commerce and e-payments. Cenfri, with its focus on inclusive financial systems and welfare-enhancing digital economies, will join forces with the Smart Africa...

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...

Businesses are responding to the hardware needs of the fourth industrial revolution in exciting ways – particularly in Kenya, where many startups and businesses are embracing the latest technologies for their IT infrastructure.

Sitting at the heart of that infrastructure is the importance of data, and although some overlook it, businesses need to take data storage seriously for the sake of business continuity...

It is sometimes too easy for the world to wrongfully assume that Africa lags too far behind the global cloud innovation revolution happening. That is a fundamentally flawed outlook. 

As of 2021, our continent accounted only for USD 1.2 billion of the global public cloud market, it has more than doubled in the past three years and continues to grow exponentially year on year. Soon, Africa will be among the world’s leading cloud innovators, and countries like Kenya will be at the forefront...

Since the start of the pandemic, digital transformation has become a core objective and top priority for nearly every business in the world.

From enabling remote and hybrid work environments to shifting customer-facing operations to digital channels and implementing data and analytics to better understand a volatile and highly unpredictable business environment, digital transformation has featured prominently in boardrooms over the past two years. Even as the world races to a return to...

As the digital transformation continues to stride across Africa, it is clearing the way and opening vast swathes of potential for its nations, businesses, and citizens.

The continent stands on the cusp of a tech explosion with several nations having achieved sustained growth in internet-driven GDP (iGDP)2 – in many cases doubling from 1.5% to more than 3% since 2012. Some experts put the economic growth in Africa at US$180 billion, and if trends continue it could rise to US$712 billion by 2025. The flow of trade into...

5G deployment across Africa has been very slow despite telecom operators around the world having rolled out the network since 2019. As of May this year, only 6 African countries had rolled out the 5th generation network. And even at that, most of these launches are not even commercial. 

Some of these countries include South Africa and Kenya among others. South Africa initiated its plans for 5G network in 2019 through mobile operator Rain, while Kenya’s Safaricom kicked off the journey to this network in March 2021...