Author: Akin Naphtal

Airtel Africa has signed a new US$194-million loan facility with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which the company says it will use to connect new subscribers to mobile internet in several African countries. According to Airtel, the loan facility is valid for eight years and will be used to support its operations and investments in the DRC, Kenya, Madagascar, Niger and Zambia. Airtel Africa CEO Segun Ogunsanya said, “I’m very excited to announce the signing of this new loan facility. Not only does this facility align with our focus on improving our balance sheet through localising debt within our operating…

Cloudflare launches new Impact Initiative (Project Safekeeping) for critical infrastructure organisations, beginning in Australia, Germany, Japan, Portugal, and the United Kingdom Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET), the security, performance, and reliability company helping to build a better Internet, today announced a new Impact Initiative to provide Zero Trust security at no cost to small and medium critical infrastructure organisations around the world. This new program, named Project Safekeeping, aims to protect under-resourced organisations that provide a critical community benefit but are at high risk for cyberattacks, with initial efforts focused in Australia, Germany, Japan, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. Matthew Prince,…

Global digital infrastructure company Equinix, Inc. today announced plans to enter the South African market with a US$160-million datacentre investment in Johannesburg, to augment its current footprint in Africa including Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. The new datacentre is expected to open mid-2024. Equinix issued a statement and described South Africa as “one of the largest and most digitally developed nations on the African continent.” The company added that the country is already a strategically important connectivity hub for digital networks and boasts a significant network of submarine communications cables. These strategic links between countries and continents are established at…

Digital Economy Magazine, a leading voice on technology development, has named Chris Fechner, CEO of Digital Transformation Agency of Australia as Digital Economy Personality of the week for the month of Dec 12th-17th 2022 ranking. Digital Economy personality of the week, is a weekly recognition of the top leading CEOS, based on their impact in the industry, innovation, professional experience, exemplary leadership and, achievements, amongst other criteria. READ ALSO: ZELF Launches Anonymous Visa Debit Card with Crypto Recharge to be Accepted in 80m Locations Ericsson, Apple Signs Global Patent License Agreement Microsoft Set To Take 4% Stake in London Stock…

The Bank of England is seeking applications for a sample wallet for a Central Bank Digital Currency. Posted on the UK Government’s Digital Marketplace, the central bank is offering a £200,000 contract to successful bidders for the five-month project. Key deliverables include the development of a mobile wallet app, wallet and merchant website and a back-end server to serve mobile app and website, call the core ledger API and store user data and transaction history. In terms of functionality, the Wallet should incorporate a signup process, a way to update details, and to display balances, transactions and notifications. Other specifications…

ZELF, an American fintech company, has launched an anonymous Visa debit card that can be used as legal tender in 80 million locations around the globe. This amazing initiative by ZELF has incited further excitement within the crypto market and the tech space. Pursuing its goal to democratize access to finance, ZELF, Bank of the Metaverse, has explained that the instant Visa debit card can be replenished with cryptocurrency, and there are other methods of funding the account. This revolutionary product provides users with the freedom and convenience to make secure purchases while preserving their privacy. This latest feature will…

Ericsson and Apple have sealed a multi-year, global patent license agreement between the two companies. The agreement includes a cross-license relating to patented cellular standard-essential technologies and grants certain other patent rights.Furthermore, Ericsson and Apple have mutually agreed to strengthen their technology and business collaboration, including in technology, interoperability and standards development. This settlement ends the lawsuits filed by both companies in several countries, including in the United States District Court of the Eastern District of Texas, as well as the complaints filed before the United States International Trade Commission (USITC). Ericsson’s IPR licensing revenues continue to be affected by…

U.S. tech giant, Microsoft has announced its plan to take a 4 per cent stake in London Stock Exchange as part of a 10-year strategic partnership to improve the exchange’s data and analytics.According to a recent statement, as part of the deal, Microsoft will provide LSEG with data analytics and cloud infrastructure products using its Azure, AI and Teams platforms.The statement stressed further that, “With the Microsoft Cloud and its AI capabilities, the deal significantly advances LSEG’s strategy of building an efficient and scalable platform for its data and analytics business to deliver next-generation services, through improved workflow and greater…

Dutch payments firm PayU has appointed Keren Ben Zvi as its new head of data as it looks to provide merchants with more detailed customer insights to support business growth. Specialising in business analytics, machine learning and data architecture, Ben Zvi has more than 15 years’ worth of experience in data strategy. Prior to joining PayU, she served as vice president of data at digital advertising firm Perion. READ ALSO: North America announce Syncfy, Totem amongst others get fintech funding round-up China reveal plans on developing its digital yuan to protect its interests Cisco in New Launch of the Industry-First…

Syncfy, a fintech start-up building an open finance platform in Latin America, has bagged $10 million in seed funding led by Point72 Ventures. The round also includes investments from JAM Fund, Ausum Ventures, Avalancha Ventures, FJ Labs, MANTIS Venture Capital, and XBTO Humla Ventures, along with angel investors. The company’s platform enables single API access to financial data from over 125 banks, digital wallets, tax authorities, utility providers, crypto exchanges, and blockchains across more than 15 countries in Latin America and internationally. Syncfy says its customers include large banks and enterprise software companies such as BBVA and Intuit, as well…