During the U.S-Africa Business Forum, Visa has announced a pledge to invest $1 billion in Africa over the next five years to advance resilient, innovative, and inclusive economies across the continent.

Visa’s expanded investments demonstrate the company’s long-term commitment to Africa’s growth potential and will help enable greater access to digital payments as an entry point for expanding formal financial services for individuals and merchants. Visa Chairman and CEO Alfred F. Kelly...

MTN South Africa and MTN GlobalConnect, in partnership with the 2Africa consortium, which includes China Mobile International, Meta, MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, center3, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone and WIOCC, have announced the landing of the 45 000km 2Africa cable in Yzerfontein and Duynefontein, South Africa.

For MTN GlobalConnect, this landing is the first in a series of six across five countries: South Africa (two), Sudan, Cote D'Ivoire, Nigeria and Ghana, will allow MTN GlobalConnect to showcase, in a tangible manner, the importance of...

Vodacom Group has announced that its purchase of a 55% stake in Vodafone Egypt from Vodafone Group has cleared all outstanding regulatory and procedural hurdles, making this transformational deal unconditional and officially completed. Vodacom expects to consolidate Vodafone Egypt into its financial statements over the remainder of the financial year.

In November last year, Vodacom announced an agreement to acquire 55% of Vodafone Egypt for an equity consideration of circa R48.1 billion (US$2.738 billion), which has now been successfully settled through the issuance of 241 976 243...

Telecoming, an international company specializing in sport and entertainment monetization technologies, has reached a strategic agreement with MTN Group to monetize its sports offer in 21 countries. The impact of the deal opens up a potential market of more than 280 million African users.

This is the second major global agreement that Telecoming has signed with a telco group, following the one reached in 2019, also for the distribution and monetization of entertainment and sports services. The company, therefore...

Digital infrastructure company Equinix, announced plans to enter the South African market with a $160 million data center investment in Johannesburg, that augments its current footprint on the African continent in Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. The new data center is expected to open mid-2024. 

With its South Africa expansion, Equinix is entering one of the largest and most digitally developed nations on the African continent.1 Already a strategically important connectivity hub for digital networks, South Africa boasts a significant...

Orange, one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators, and Medusa Submarine Cable System, the Mediterranean subsea neutral and independent infrastructure operator, are joining forces to offer an open and high-performance interconnection solution to all partner operators of the Medusa cable.

8,760 km long, Medusa will be the first and longest submarine cable to connect the main Mediterranean countries. The system will connect the two shores of the Mediterranean and provide access to telecommunication infrastructure that is...

DKK Partners, a fintech company, which specialises in emerging markets (EM) and foreign exchange (FX) liquidity, has opened a Ghana operation. The office, which will serve as a hub for the booming African market, will be led by entrepreneur Sam Nti, who joins as director, and will include an additional four full time staff.

The expansion comes following a record year of trading for DKK, with the company’s revenues rising to £63m – up from £3m the previous year. The new operation will be based in The Atlantic Tower building at Airport City, in Ghana’s capital...

Caroline Mutuku is the new General Manager for Glovo Kenya. The multi-category platform announced her appointment on Wednesday. Mutuku joins Glovo from Swvl which paused its daily operations in Nairobi this year where she also served as the General Manager from December 2021.

Her other previous experience includes; six years of management consulting at McKinsey & Co. where she focused on developing strategies, facilitating execution, and building digital capabilities for banks and financial regulators across...

Nigerian online store Taeillo has announced a $2.5 million funding round from Aruwa Capital, a growth equity and early-stage investor. The online furniture startup was founded in 2018 by Jumoke Dada and now says demand has increased significantly for some of its most popular products.

Taeillo sources raw materials from local suppliers and turns them into furniture pieces such as sofas, beds, chairs and tables which it then sells to individual customers and businesses. This model allows it to execute as both a...

Jumia Technologies has announced the closure of its Dubai office as the company remodels its business following years of loss-making and a constantly evolving eCommerce marketplace.

The company is moving its top managers from Dubai to the African countries they oversee, with most going to Morocco, Kenya and Ivory Coast. The 60-person Dubai office will henceforth be disbanded. “As we are an Africa-focused company, we want our leaders to be based with customers, vendors and employees,” said Jumia’s acting head Francis...

The Government of Kenya through the ICT Authority today launched Free Public Wi- Fi at Wakulima Market situated in Nairobi County’s Muthurwa area. The initiative presided over by Cabinet Secretary for ICT & the Digital Economy, HonEliud Owalo aims at enabling the public access affordable, efficient, fast, and reliable internet that is vital for economic and educational development.

The launch of public Wi-Fi hotspot at Wakulima Market follows November’s launch of a similar successful initiative at the Nairobi’s City Market with today’s event coinciding with the 2022 Jamhuri Day celebrations where technology and...

The BlueOrchard Sustainable Assets Fund (BOSAF) and the OP Finnfund Global Impact Fund I will provide $20 million debt investment to support the growth of Africa Mobile Networks (AMN), a telecom provider focused on rural Sub-Saharan Africa, in bringing network services to an estimated 35 million people.

Mobile network access and connectivity are instrumental to promote financial inclusion and support the development of rural populations in emerging economies. In numerous African countries, daily activities such as transferring money, taking...

Finnfund has invested $3.4 million in KaiOS Technologies, maker of KaiOS, to bring affordable mobile connections to Sub-Saharan Africa. It has been estimated that 3.4 billion people in emerging markets do not use internet despite living in areas with mobile broadband coverage.

One of the greatest barriers to mobile internet adoption is the cost of a smartphone, often being more than 20% of monthly income. KaiOS brings mobile connectivity to millions of people in emerging markets by providing an operating system that...

Kenyan consumers have expressed a strong desire to buy more discretionary products during the festive season while coming out of the pandemic.

However, Christmas and New Year's Eve holidays for many online businesses are not only a pleasant time that you can spend summing up your achievements of the year, planning your long-term prospects, and making gifts to your employees, clients, and loved ones. Unfortunately, at the end of December online fraud reaches its peak. Online...

Apart from fueling one of the greatest financial crises in modern memory, the COVID-19 pandemic also fundamentally changed the world of work. Due to the circumstances the outbreak created, digital transformation was essentially forced upon companies.

Survival depended on adopting technological practices, online platforms, and digital solutions that many businesses would’ve preferred to adopt over several years, not within a few months. This means that the digital transformation wave...

Startups have become vital engines of change that can have an outsized impact on an economy. They are crucial in fueling innovation and enhancing economic and digital competitiveness. They improve access to products and solutions while significantly contributing to employment.

In recent years, amid global economic volatility and uncertainty, Africa's startup ecosystem has shown continued growth, attracting record amounts of funding. According to the African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association...

When the early days of the pandemic pushed industries across East Africa into survival mode, it sparked a wave of cloud adoption that has swept through the region. 

Focused at first on ensuring business continuity, investment into cloud technologies and digitalisation has since helped organisations in the region build greater resilience and unlock new business models and revenue streams. Even the most reluctant businesses and their customers have now come online. One of the reasons is that the benefits of greater...

In 2022, ransomware continued to reign king and became one of the most common and dangerous threats facing healthcare organisations and software supply chains. The war on Ukraine created heightened concern over zero-day threats wreaking havoc for organisations worldwide.

The cyber gang Conti with Russian-linked ties managed to disrupt financial operations throughout Costa Rica, and it seems there is no end in sight to the hacking group Lapsus$, which has proven itself to be a formidable threat actor...