Year 6 | Edition 1 | 12 January 2023
 
Growth in cashless transactions spurs new and innovative payment solutions

Last year, exciting developments in South Africa’s payments sector were good reason to be cautiously optimistic about 2023 with new products and services setting the pace of the journey to a digital cashless future, says Andrew Springate, CEO of fintech payment solution provider PAYM8.

“The South African economy is under tremendous pressure with rising interest rates, high energy and fuel costs and debilitating power outages. Despite this, increased competition amongst financial services providers can play a significant...

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Global telecom service provider Iristel expands into Kenya

Iristel, a global telecommunications service provider, has announced its expansion into Kenya. This expansion provides Iristel a presence in Africa, as it looks to expand its wide range of communications solutions to new emerging markets.

Company CEO Samer Bishay @SBishayIRIS states: “Today is an exciting day as we are pleased to bring Kenya businesses carrier grade communication solutions. We will begin with our best-in-class wholesale services and expand our product offering in the coming months.” For this initial rollout of our...

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Nokia and Etisalat demonstrate first 100 Gbps fiber broadband in Middle East and Africa

Nokia and Etisalat UAE, branded as etisalat by e& demonstrated the fastest passive optical network (PON) speed in the Middle East and Africa region.

Nokia Bell Lab’s PON proof of concept (PoC) demonstration achieved speeds up to 100 gigabits per second (Gb/s) on a single wavelength, four times faster than the most advanced networks available today. In the long-standing partnership between both technology leaders, they have achieved multiple industry-firsts, including the world’s first single-carrier...

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MTN Benin and Ericsson deploy Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Network Solution in Africa

MTN Benin and Ericsson have partnered to deploy an Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) solution in Africa to address throughput challenges. 

A network management system utilizing AI and ML was designed to address throughput degradation ultimately providing improved customer satisfaction. This is building on the existing Ericsson Operation Engine designed to provide data-driven network operations including state-of-the-art AI-enabled Cognitive Software for network optimization...

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e-Logistic company Jetstream raises $13m to grow cross-border commerce across Africa

Jetstream Africa, an e-Logistic company that uses the technology, networks, and systems to enable African businesses to quickly finance, manage and monitor their regional supply chains, has raised $13 million in a combination of debt and equity financing to help it expand.

Founded in Tema, Ghana and operating across 14 African countries, its core product, pre-financed logistics, enables businesses to rapidly book and monitor door-to-door logistics, financing, insurance and other trade support services online...

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[South Africa] Trelix appoints Harold Rivas as its new CISO

Cybersecurity firm Trellix has announced the appointment of Harold Rivas as its new Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). According to s statement from the company, Harold will be responsible for leading Trellix’s global security and compliance initiatives. 

‘’Harold’s leadership will enable us to protect against threats, manage our compliance needs and third-party risks, and implement industry-wide best practices to protect our business. As a cybersecurity company, our top security role...

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Kenyan fintech Kwara acquires software company IRNET from KUSCCO for an undisclosed sum

Kenyan fintech firm Kwara has acquired IRNET, a software company which is a subsidiary of the Kenya Union of Savings and Credit Cooperatives (KUSCCO LTD) for an undisclosed amount. 

With this acquisition, Kwara has also entered into an exclusive digital solutions partnership agreement with KUSCCO to offer its banking software solutions and mobile banking channels to rapidly increase the growth and profitability of SACCOs in...

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SAP, PwC partnership drives digital transformation and cloud success in West Africa

With more businesses in West Africa adopting cloud technologies than ever before, the region is set to enhance its competitiveness significantly. 

Following years of disruption, and hampered by a lack of legacy investment into technology, West African businesses now have an opportunity to leapfrog tech adoption and leverage the cloud for rapid growth and success. Titilayo Adewumi, Regional Sales Director for West Africa at SAP, says: "Companies across the region are adopting cloud to achieve...

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e-Logistic company Jetstream raises $13m to grow cross-border commerce across Africa

Jetstream Africa, an e-Logistic company that uses the technology, networks, and systems to enable African businesses to quickly finance, manage and monitor their regional supply chains, has raised $13 million in a combination of debt and equity financing to help it expand.

Founded in Tema, Ghana and operating across 14 African countries, its core product, pre-financed logistics, enables businesses to rapidly book and monitor door-to-door logistics, financing, insurance and other trade support services online...

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Women-led startups in Africa raised $203.2M in 2022

A report released by The Big Deal, a research firm tracking startups across the continent has revealed that African startups active on the continent and led by women raised $203.2 million in 2022.

Though still a significant amount, it is 58% less than what enterprises of this sort mobilised in 2021. The report further notes that the reduction of funds raised by these startups in 2022 largely goes against the general trend of the sector. Last year, however, remains one of the most successful years in...

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10 African climate change startups receive $2m investment from Catalyst Fund

Pre-seed venture capital (VC) fund and accelerator Catalyst Fund has announced a $2 million investment in 10 startups developing solutions to improve the resilience of communities most vulnerable to climate change in Africa.

This is the first cohort of startups to receive funding from Catalyst Fund's new $30M investment fund, backed by the financial sector development agency FSD Africa , aimed at helping early-stage founders develop technologies that will make Africa less susceptible to the impact of climate change...

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Yellow Card expands payment feature across Africa

Yellow Card announced that its revolutionary new payment feature Yellow Pay, is now officially available across Africa. With Yellow Pay, customers can send and receive money through the Yellow Card crypto exchange platform, without any extra charges, instantly with just a few taps on their phone.

The company’s Yellow Pay, which was previously available only in Nigeria, uses the Yellow Card cryptocurrency exchange platform to complete customers’ transactions in USDT. “This is more than just a money transfer service - it’s...

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How the biggest international cloud trends impact Africa

The latter half of 2022 was characterised by significant instabilities in the tech industry. E-retailer and cloud giant Amazon announced that it would cut tens of thousands of jobs, social media behemoths Twitter and Meta laid off significant percentages of their workforce, and even Microsoft saw its slowest revenue growth in five years.

“There’s chaos in the industry internationally,” says Andrew Cruise, Managing Director of Routed, a local cloud platform provider and VMware specialist. “The war in Ukraine has kicked off a period of great uncertainty that’s affected global...

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Cybercriminals eye passwords and cloud vulnerabilities with a sharp rise in attacks expected in 2023

The cybercriminal is relentless, often sophisticated, and extremely persistent. In a constantly evolving threat landscape in which cloud adoption continues to grow and passwords are highly coveted by nefarious actors, attacks are expected to increase sharply in the coming year.

However, this is being met with incredible advancement and innovation from the cybersecurity industry says Carey van Vlaanderen, CEO of ESET South Africa. Microsoft published its Digital Defense Report for 2022 which found a 74% increase...

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[Startup Interview] James Adebisi, Founder, Oruis Medical, Nigeria

Orius Medical is a Nigerian health startup that provides mental care and support through psychotherapy and mental health education.  The startup’s founder James Adebisi explains.

Tell us about your startup         

Oruis Medical is healthcare company that provides mental health services in the form of psychological assessment, psychotherapy, and mental health education...

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[Column] Helmut Engelbrecht: Bridging the digital divide is Africa’s answer to youth unemployment

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...

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[Column] Carlo Bolzonello: Cyber defence must be a top priority for South African Business

With big tech now actively advocating for a more online world, driven by a fourth industrial revolution, the Internet of Things and the Metaverse, the average individual has never before had so much of their lives on the Internet – and with this comes the need to secure organisational and personal data. 

Carlo Bolzonello, country lead for Trellix South Africa, discusses the new era of cyber threats and the evolving response needed to keep abreast of it...

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[Column] Mikhail Marchenko: Major fintech trends that will affect online businesses in 2023

Digitalization and technological achievements, which have been observed in the African region for the past decade, have sped up the inevitable processes in fintech, changing its landscape completely: indeed, we have witnessed new challenges and opportunities for online businesses, related to Covid-19 and as well as the wide range of technological breakthroughs in African fintech.

But what are the key fintech trends and factors, which will affect online business in the nearest future, and what a great role Kenya is going to play in this process? Digital lending started in 2012 and ignited in 2015 when numerous players...

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