Author: Akin Naphtal

In a bid to accelerate digital transformation in the country’s financial services industry, the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) has launched its Financial Infrastructure Transformation (FIT) programme. The CBUAE says the FIT programme consists of nine key initiatives to boost the UAE’s competitiveness as it looks to become a “financial and digital payment hub”. The programme is set for “full integration” by 2026. For the first stage, the central bank intends to launch a card payment platform “to facilitate the growth of e-commerce and digital transactions in the country”, an instant payments platform, an innovation hub and a central…

Swiss-based digital asset trading and investment firm Scrypt has announced the appointment of Marc Wäckerlin as chief technology officer (CTO). Wäckerlin brings more than 30 years of finance, software development and engineering expertise to the role, Scrypt says. Most recently, Wäckerlin was CTO and executive director at Swiss crypto bank Sygnum where he led the technology system redesign and managed the firm’s team of developers. As a software engineer at SwissSign, he developed client tools for Suisse ID and has “extensive experience” with software development at Siemens Schweiz AG. READ ALSO:Treepz Announce Expansion to Kenya Market, Raises New Investment UK…

Treepz, an organization that was in September 2019 in Nigeria, has announced to the public that it has further expanded its operations in East Africa, with a focus on Kenya. This announcement is coming after over a year it launched in Uganda and Ghana. The expansion to Kenya makes it the company’s fourth country it is operating from in 3 years. This new expansion follows investments made in Treepz in the last couple of months led by GIIG Africa Fund along with MoAngels, Roselake VC, Unpopular VC, Goodwater Capital and BKR Capital. There were also follow on investments from Treepz…

London-based embedded finance platform Omnio has raised €9 million in an ongoing fundraise targeting €12 million, allowing it to support the IPO roadmap for its banking-as-a-service business.The round is backed by fintech software stack developer Opentech and some of Omnio’s existing investors.Founded in 2018, Omnio is a cloud-driven banking-as-a-service platform. It enables financial service providers and others, such as consumer brands, to build, manage and report on retail financial products using digital software. Omnios’ offering includes specific software strands for end-to-end management of credit union banking products (Sercle), and managing loyalty rewards provided by consumer brands (Domec). Currently, the software…

The Digital Economy Magazine, a leading voice in technology, has named Lillian Barnard, CEO/General Manager of Microsoft South Africa as Digital Economy Personality of the week for the month of Feb 12th-Feb 18th,2023 ranking. Having garnered experience with global blue-chip and award-winning top IT and Telecom companies, Lillian Barnard is known to be a woman with positive drive and a great personality, with her endearing leadership skill with an impactful business acumen. In her most recent role, she is actively responsible for managing and leading a group of talented team at Microsoft, where she has spent over 5 years as…

Africa Data Centres, a business of Cassava Technologies, a pan-African technology group, is pleased to announce it is building a second data centre in Cape Town. The new facility will be in the north of the city and will have an IT load of 20MW. Construction is underway, and the facility will be up and running by mid-2024.According to Tesh Durvasula, CEO of Africa Data Centres, the company is building this second facility to meet demand in the region and beyond, “Cape Town is a thriving city and the second largest economy in South Africa. It is regarded as the…

Ghanaian financial platform services provider Fortek has tapped Codebase Technologies for its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Digibanc platform, as it looks to provide “affordable, accessible and transparent” digital financial services on the continent. Fortek plans to leverage the open API banking solutions provider’s Digibanc platform to “augment” its existing services and support new fintechs, banks and start-ups in their go-to-market capabilities for new digital services including instant lending, regulatory reporting, payments and buy now, pay later. It’s hoped the partnership will “accelerate digitisation” and boost entrepreneurship in Africa, grow the economy and broaden financial inclusion for more than 1.4 billion Africans. READ…

The Chief Executive Officer of MTN Ghana, Selorm Adadevoh, won big at this year’s MTN Leadership Gathering conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, winning the MTN CEO of the Year. MTN Ghana also won two additional awards – Best Environmental Sustainable Governance (ESG) Award and the Best Rural Telephony Project. Mr. Adadevoh emergence as the CEO of the Year in the MTN Group did not come as a surprise as his leadership has significantly seen MTN Ghana realising the Group’s Ambition 2025 strategy in spite of the fact that MTN Ghana is under some regulatory constraints due to its significant market…

The Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee says the Chinese spy balloon sent a provocative message to the United States and to the President. And that chairman, one of the most powerful positions in the U.S. House, just so happens to be a Texan, Congressman Michael McCaul. The Republican from Austin says he’ll send a clear message that the move was unacceptable. “What I will be doing as Chairman of Foreign Affairs is stopping the export of technology to China that they then turn around to use in their most advanced weapons systems,” Congressman McCaul said on Inside Texas…

Recently, Orange and the German Development Cooperation have officially announced the launch of the 14th Orange Digital Centre (ODC) in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The centre is a digital ecosystem entirely dedicated to the development of digital skills and innovation. ODCs have been established in Botswana, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Guinea, Jordan, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia. The ODC will provide four strategic programs: Orange says ODCs facilitate international exchange of experience and expertise, “and offer a simple and inclusive approach to improve young people’s employability, encourage innovative entrepreneurship and promote the local digital ecosystem.” Orange Sierra Leone…