Author: Akin Naphtal

German companies want to boost their activities in Africa this year, especially in areas such as green hydrogen and liquefied natural gas, with 43% planning to increase investment in the continent, a survey seen by Reuters showed. The poll of members of the German-African Business Association also showed that a further 39% of the association’s members aim to keep their spending levels in Africa stable. “The majority of companies want to expand their activities in the coming year,” association head, Christoph Kannegiesser said. “It makes sense, because the continent is still on a growth trajectory.” German companies invested about €1.6bn…

As part of its strategic drive to support financial institutions, agricultural and technology companies, Mastercard and US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) have teamed up to grow their presence in Africa through Mastercard Community Pass – a programme that addresses unreliable connectivity, low smartphone ownership and lack of consistent identification or credentials in rural communities on the African continent. The collaboration was announced at the US Africa Leaders Summit. To this end, the DFC has pledged to support potential investments of up to $50m in organisations within the Community Pass network which includes Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique and Mauritania, as…

Amazon’s CEO Andy Jassy announced in a memo that just over 18,000 roles will be terminated at the company. Several teams are impacted; however, the majority of role eliminations are in the Amazon Stores and PXT organisations, he said. The eliminations come after Amazon announced big job cuts at the end of 2022. Jobs were cut across its Devices and Books businesses, and there was a voluntary reduction offer for some employees in its People, Experience, and Technology (PXT) organisation. “S-team and I are deeply aware that these role eliminations are difficult for people, and we don’t take these decisions…

Fast internet throughout South Africa is key to many benefits, including the ability to work remotely in remote areas, increased access to education and technology, and more. Increased bandwidth speeds are essential, as the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) takes us into a more connected and digitised future. Fast connectivity has become a basic need, and the adoption of 5G is critical given the faster bandwidth and lower latency it offers. However, there are complexities, pros and cons, and some concerns about health issues related to radio frequency radiation in this context. Here is an overview of the pros, cons and…

Ericsson’s global leadership in climate performance and reporting has been recognized by the independent non-profit CDP (formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project) by being named in its annual ‘A List’ – the top ranking possible. CDP’s annual climate disclosure and scoring process is widely recognized as the gold standard of corporate reporting. Based on data reported through CDP’s 2022 Climate Change questionnaire, Ericsson is one of more than 280 of companies that achieved an ‘A’ out of more than 20,000 companies scored. READ ALSO: India’s Bank HDFC Partners with Microsoft as part of its Digital Transformation Journey Microsoft Launch…

HDFC Bank, India’s largest private sector bank, is partnering with Microsoft in the next phase of its digital transformation journey and unlocking business value by transforming the application portfolio, modernizing the data landscape and securing the enterprise with Microsoft Cloud. HDFC Bank as a part of its Future Ready strategy is developing in house IPs as well as partnering with several companies including FinTechs’ to co-create technology IPs. The bank will leverage Microsoft Azure to consolidate and modernize its enterprise data landscape through a Federated Data Lake to scale its information management capabilities across enterprise reporting, and advanced analytics using…

Microsoft Corp. is preparing to add OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot to its Bing search engine in a bid to lure users from rival Google, according to a person familiar with the plans. Microsoft is betting that the more conversational and contextual replies to users’ queries will win over search users by supplying better-quality answers beyond links, said the person, who did not want to be named discussing confidential product roadmaps that remain in flux. The Redmond, Washington-based company may roll out the additional feature in the next several months, but it is still weighing both the chatbot’s accuracy and how quickly…

Zimbabwe’s government has given the country’s National Broadband Plan the thumbs up, and officially approved the strategy to roll out broadband services nationally within the next seven years. The country aims to reduce the cost of broadband access from the current rate of 10.1% of a Zimbabwean’s average monthly income, to 2%. According to an August 2022 Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) report, in Zimbabwe, the average price of 1GB of data is US$4.92, with the cheapest plan being US$1.73 and the most expensive being US$12.92. READ ALSO: Top Tech Predictions and Trends Impacting Australia in 2023 Nokia and…

Australia is a nation of innovators, and the tech future of the country is looking brighter than ever from cutting-edge artificial intelligence and robotics to 5G connectivity and beyond, Australia is set to be a global leader in the tech space in 2023. The Benefits of Investing in Technology for AustraliaWith the right investments and innovation, Australia has the potential to be a world leader in the technology sector. Even though there are some economic concerns, we predict that businesses will keep investing in the infrastructure that supports the soaring interest in digitalisation, since firms are now more dependent on…

Nokia deploys next-generation fibre technology for a smarter, faster and greener Australian National Broadband Network. Fiber PON is capable of supporting high bandwidth consumer services, industry 4.0 applications, business connectivity, 5G transport and smart city services. Nokia and NBN Co today announced the deployment of Nokia’s next-generation broadband platform and its Altiplano Access Controller to deliver a smarter, faster and greener nbn® network. The deployment is the first for the Lightspan MF-14 in the Southern Hemisphere.MF-14 is a revolutionary approach to fiber access technology, based on advanced hardware and split software. It is the only solution suitable for providing massive…