Author: Akin Naphtal

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. has been recognized by Interbrand, a global brand consultancy, as one of the top five in the Best Global Brands 2022. Each year, Interbrand announces the world’s top 100 brands, and Samsung’s brand value was evaluated for USD 87.7 billion, which represents 17% growth compared to USD 74.6 billion in 2021, ranking the company in fifth place for three years in a row. The achievement was based on Samsung’s restored financial performance, which is now near pre-pandemic levels, and higher demand for memory due to an increase in data usage. In 2021, Samsung scored a brand value…

New technologies are reshaping the blood transfusion value chain to bring greater efficiency, traceability and consistency to this life-saving procedure. Blood transfusions are commonly used to provide blood or blood components to a patient who has either lost blood due to an accident or suffer from a medical condition that affects their blood. Typically, blood is donated anonymously and then stored by hospitals or blood banks until needed. Due to the critical nature of the procedure, donated blood must be collected, stored, categorised, and transported using extremely high levels of safety and care. Donors must be carefully screened for a…

Google, US tech giant,has announced a major step towards ensuring the African continent has an improved infrastructure by launching a cloud service. Google Cloud infrastructure was South Africa, and this is the first service in the African continent, the cloud service specifically for the African continent. Commenting on the launch, Niral Patel, director of Google Cloud Africa says they are expanding their infrastructure. Google, announced this recently saying the “Cloud region” will help users, developers, businesses and educational institutions across Africa to move more information and tools online. He stressed further that, “Along with the cloud region, we are expanding…

iLex, a Platform-as-a-Service fintech that designs, builds and operates digital market infrastructures for the US$6 trillion syndicated loans and private credit market, announced today that it has US$10 billion of assets listed on its platform. The number of market participants across APAC and EMEA on iLex has also tripled in the last year. The loan assets are listed in both the primary and secondary loan markets on iLex’s Marketplace TM , which comprises open and private venues to distribute and source loans more effectively. MarketplaceTM has facilitated 2,500 introductions to deal opportunities to date. “Achieving the US$10 billion mark is…

South African ed-tech startup FoondaMate has launched operations in Nigeria on a bid to democratise learning and close education inequality gaps with its AI-powered study chatbot. Founded by Dacod Magagula and Tao Boyle in August 2020, FoondaMate has built a chat-based, AI-powered learning bot that helps students get fast, easy and safe access to study materials and help via open chat platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Its bot is used by over 900,000 students, speaking 11 languages across 30 countries, and in May the startup raised US$2 million in seed funding to help it expand. It has started…

The pandemic’s first year saw an unprecedented 5.4 percent drop in carbon emissions, attributable to people being unable to travel or visit the office. But these gains are being eroded with the end of lockdowns, and a return to business as normal, with carbon emissions, predicted to bounce back to pre-COVID levels. As more people return to the office – even in a hybrid environment – the carbon emissions of buildings and campuses have come into focus. It’s estimated that buildings generate forty percent of global carbon emissions, while building operations are responsible for 28 percent of emissions. Making buildings…

MTN Group and Microsoft has announced a strategic alliance agreement to accelerate digital and cloud transformation working towards a shared vision of driving Africa’s growth. The agreement is in support of MTN’s strategic intent of leading digital solutions for Africa’s progress to support governments, businesses of all sizes and customers using the versatility of Microsoft platforms, solutions and capabilities to accelerate value creation. The agreement centres on transforming and modernising MTN’s communications and technology infrastructure together with harnessing capabilities and building the largest and most valuable platform business with a clear focus on Africa. “We are delighted to be partnering with Microsoft…

Supported by the solid performance of large subsidiary MTN South Africa, MTN Group has reported resilient overall results for the first nine months of 2022, under difficult macroeconomic, geopolitical and regulatory conditions across various markets. Total MTN Group subscribers increased by 6.8% to 285 million; our fintech business’s customer base rose by 23.3% to 63 million; and fintech transaction volumes increased by a third to 9.5 billion. MTN South Africa – which is the second-largest contributor to MTN Group service revenue after MTN Nigeria – grew subscriber numbers by more than 800 000, or 8.1%, to 35.9 million in the period to 30 September 2022. Service…

By Akin Naphtal The digital economy is constantly evolving, with new technologies and platforms emerging rapidly. In order to stay ahead of the curve, businesses need to keep up with the latest trends and developments in the digital space. From the growth of mobile commerce and its impact on businesses and consumers to the rise of artificial intelligence and chatbots and their potential applications in the digital economy, the world is far beyond what anyone could have thought 20 years ago. In this report, we will take a look at some of the key trends and changes in the global…

Amid the myriad global macro developments, it is easy to overlook the quieter revolutionary tides that are turning. One such is the rise of Africa’s digital economy – a trend that is now at an inflection point. The emergence of a new generation of African tech entrepreneurs is heralding a new dawn of opportunities on the continent, with stories that are now as much about ingenuity, solving real problems and great technological achievements as anything else. And international venture capital investors — led by the South African and Nigerian markets — are taking notice and investing in this trend. Africa’s…