Author: Akin Naphtal

QNB Group, one of the largest financial institutions in the Middle East and Africa, has launched a new biometric payment acceptance solution for merchants in Qatar. The technology is based on proprietary facial verification technology developed by PopID and supported by Visa through tokenization. This innovative solution allows customers to authenticate payments for goods and services through facial verification, without the need for a physical card or mobile phone after initial enrolment. Customers can create their profile by taking a selfie of their face using their smartphone, enter their phone number and card details. The technology then tokenizes the card…

Bitnob, a fintech firm that aims to make financial transactions easier for Africans, has launched its virtual dollar card. The digital card enables users to make seamless online payments, with the option to create a card for free and fund it with up to $10,000. Additionally, users can customize their cards, track transactions, and freeze cards for security or to prevent unwanted bills. The Bitnob virtual dollar card has been designed to address the hardship caused by restrictions on international transactions using naira debit cards, as implemented by the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2022. This has made it difficult…

Ride-hailing giant Bolt has announced plans to invest €500m ($530m) in Africa over the next two years. The investment is expected to provide “earning opportunities for 300,000 drivers across the continent.” In Kenya, the company plans to invest Ksh13.4bn ($100m) to expand to more cities, providing affordable, high-quality services to customers and earnings for drivers. According to Linda Ndung’u, Bolt Kenya’s country manager, “Bolt shall double down on increasing its footprint across Kenya by expanding its services into more cities and town centres. This will provide access to affordable and quality services to customers whilst providing earning opportunities for drivers…

Telecom giant Vodafone Group Plc has concluded the sale of its 70% controlling stake in Vodafone Ghana (Ghana Telecommunications Company Limited – GTCL) to Telecel Group, following regulatory approval and the agreement of the Ghanaian Government, as a minority shareholder. The move marks the most significant development for the Ghanaian telecoms firm since 2008 when Vodafone Group Plc took control of GTCL and formed Vodafone Ghana. Telecel Group is a leading Africa-focused telecommunications company specialising in integrating telecoms with fintech, e-commerce, and tech startups, with a history dating back to 1986. This acquisition provides Telecel Group with the opportunity to…

Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) has announced the recent appointment of Josephine Anan-Ankomah, a Ghanaian Banker as the Managing Director of Ecobank Kenya. The announcement of her appointment follows the approval from the Central Bank of Kenya. She replaces Cheikh Travaly who retired at the end of 2022 after attaining the mandatory retirement age of 60 years in accordance with Ecobank Group policy. By the appointment, Mrs Anan-Ankomah would also serve as the Regional Executive, Central, Eastern and Southern African (CESA). She will be responsible for leading and growing the Bank’s business in Kenya and the wider CESA region constituting 18…

Telefónica, Ericsson and Qualcomm launch the first commercial mobile 5G millimeter (mmWave) network in Spain in Hall 3 at MWC 2023, Barcelona. This technology milestone will allow compatible user devices partners to access the Ericsson-powered Telefónica 5G mmWave network during the event. At the event, Qualcomm Technologies will showcase the broad range of global 5G mmWave devices powered by Snapdragon mobile platforms that drive industry advancement forward. Telefónica is the only service provider in Spain that has acquired a full 1GHz spectrum, which will make Telefónica the first company able to offer in the future download speeds beyond 5Gbps, and…

Co-Creation Hub (CcHUB), Africa’s largest innovation hub, has launched a $15 million accelerator program named “The Edtech Fellowship Program.” It will back and support 72 startups across Nigeria and Kenya for the next three years, according to a statement from the company. The program aims to amplify the impact of edtech startups and support founders who offer tech solutions to address learning innovation in an educational sector riddled with a plethora of issues. The sub-Saharan region has the most children out of school with about 98 million children and young people excluded from education, per this report. Even for those…

Japan will start a pilot programme to test the use of a digital yen in April, joining a growing number of countries seeking to launch their own central bank digital currencies (CBDC), the Japan central bank announced recently. The long-anticipated move follows two years of experiments that the Bank of Japan (BOJ) has been conducting to decide on issuing a CBDC and to move Japan closer to issuing a digital yen in the next several years. In the pilot program, the Bank will develop a system for experiments, and conduct simulated transactions with private entities in the test environment.The programme…

Ride-hailing platform Bolt has announced it has exceeded one billion rides on its platform across seven African countries, where it operates ride-hailing and delivery services. The Ride-hailing app also announced its plan to invest €500 million ($572 million) in its operations on the continent over the next two years, according to a recent announcement. The company’s investment in Africa will be used to expand services on the continent and create opportunities for over 300,000 new drivers and couriers to join the platform in 2023. Bolt Business, the corporate travel arm, has already been launched in five African countries, providing local…

By Chris Sharp, CTO, Digital Realty Predicting the future is hard. Predicting the future of technology and data center technology is even harder. Technology – by design – evolves so rapidly, often in response to our ever-changing needs as a species. Take the global health pandemic, for example. Under normal circumstances, producing a vaccine can take anything from ten to 15 years. The development of the COVID-19 vaccine took under a year, highlighting the power of technology and innovation. 2022 was an interesting year for advancements in data center technology. Despite being a year of both recovery and rediscovery, technological…