Author: Akin Naphtal

President Dr Samia Suluhu has issued five key directives which will see Tanzania arrive at an inclusive digital economy, including each citizen acquiring a compulsory unique personal identifier. The unique personal identifier is a number which will be issued to every Tanzanian from the time of birth, enabling people to have access to a full range of services sought within the country. An example of the information includes hospital name, time of birth, sex, weight and many others. Dr Samia disclosed this after launching Airtel 5G and 2Africa Cable Landing Station in Dar es Salaam, recently describing the event as…

The Biden administration will try to slow Beijing’s development of next-generation technologies that could have military and intelligence applications — like advanced semiconductors, artificial intelligence and quantum computing — by limiting some American investment in those sectors in China. An executive order issued by President Biden on Wednesday outlines new regulations that will subject investments by American firms to unprecedented new federal oversight by the Treasury Department. The aim is to ensure that U.S. cash does not support China’s military modernization and potentially threaten the United States. The rules will not take effect for at least a year, and there…

Airtel Money Kenya and Britam have partnered with Inclusivity Solutions a digital insurance provider, to launch a suite of insurance covers tailored to cater to the diverse needs of individuals and families. “This strategic collaboration aims to revolutionize the insurance landscape by providing affordable, market-relevant, and easy access to comprehensive coverage, right at the fingertips of Airtel Money customers.” Part of a statement released today reads. The range of products available includes: Hospital Cash covers provides a policyholder with a daily cash payment of KES. 500 for every night spent at the hospital from the third day for a maximum…

Moove, an African mobility fintech that provides vehicle financing to drivers of ride-hailing platforms like Uber and other gig networks, has raised $78 million in new funding to help expand its operations and investments in the markets it operates, TechCrunch reports. The company through a statement revealed that the new fund included $28 million in equity from both new and existing investors, led by Mubadala Investment Company, $10 million in venture debt from funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, and $38 million in previously undisclosed funds that were raised over the prior twelve months. According to the company’s CEO and…

Airtel Africa signed a strategic partnership with Mastercard to launch a service that will allow Airtel’s mobile phone customers across 14 African countries to transfer and receive funds internationally. The new service is designed for over 100 million mobile phone users of Airtel in Africa in order to bolster stronger cooperation between Airtel Africa and Mastercard in boosting the digital economy on the continent. The new service will present an easier means for Airtel’s mobile users to initiate digital transactions across different countries abroad. Airtel users who will be the beneficiaries of this service will be able to access and…

Nigeria’s internet subscribers grew by 9% in 2022. This is according to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the country’s telecoms regulator in the 2022 edition of its Subscriber/Network Data Annual Report. The document aims to enlighten stakeholders on the state of the telecom industry, its strengths and weaknesses particularly. As expected, many interesting facts were revealed. Given that some stood out, they’ll be spotlighted in this report. The regulator noted that Nigeria’s internet subscribers hit 154,847,901 subscriptions by the end of 2022. This is 12.8 million more than the previous year. The increased access to mobile devices could be the…

SeerBit is developing a unified payment ecosystem that streamlines and simplifies the digital payment process in Africa. The startup’s journey began in 2011 when founder Omoniyi Kolade established Centric Gateway, a pan-African fintech company serving enterprise clients such as UBA Bank, FMCB, Ecobank, and Keystone Bank. While Centric Gateway enjoyed success, the surge in commerce activity across Africa and the increased demand for e-commerce platforms prompted the CEO to recognise the potential for a user-friendly payment solution. He saw the opportunity to create a straightforward plug-and-play model that benefits businesses in both online and offline spaces, catering to the evolving…

As part of the continued roll-out of our enterprise-ready AI and data platform, watsonx, IBM plans to host Meta’s Llama 2-chat 70 billion parameter model in the watsonx.ai studio, with early access now available to select clients and partners. This will build on IBM’s collaboration with Meta on open innovation for AI, including work with open source projects developed by Meta – such as the PyTorch machine learning framework and the Presto query engine used in watsonx.data. This will also support IBM’s strategy of offering both third-party and its own AI models. Currently in watsonx.ai, AI builders can leverage models…

AGAT has proudly introduces BusinessGPT, a groundbreaking solution that empowers users with comprehensive insights by analyzing all company data sources. With its ChatGPT experience, BusinessGPT enables data-driven decisions and activities like never before. BusinessGPT extracts and digests valuable information from a range of company data sources such as emails, chats, meetings, documents, CRM & task management systems, websites, and social media platforms, enabling businesses to streamline their operations and improve productivity. Designed for enterprise BusinessGPT technology addresses the risk of exposing customer data with public AI services such as OpenAI by offering a secure on-prem/private cloud solution. In addition, BusinessGPT…

DSIT is celebrating its six-month anniversary since it was formed to deliver on the clear mission set by the Prime Minister, to ensure the UK is the most innovative economy in the world. During those six months, the department has launched the Science and Technology Framework, backed by over £370 million to boost investment in innovation, to bring the world’s best talent to the UK, and seize the potential of ground-breaking new technologies like AI. The AI Taskforce, backed by £100 million in government funding, was also launched to accelerate the UK’s generative AI sector and keep pace with rapid…