Author: Akin Naphtal

No doubt, Mitwa Ng’ambi who is the current Chief Executive Officer of MTN Rwanda is one of the major tech leaders in Africa owing to her years of experience and her achievements as the CEO of one of the largest telecom service providers in the world. A thinker and innovator, Ng’ambi has been with MTN Rwanda since 2019 and has led the organization through a number of significant milestones including the listing of MTN Rwanda on the Rwanda Stock Exchange, the establishment of the country’s first FinTech subsidiary – Mobile Money Rwanda Ltd, successful campaign #ConnectRwanda.” and the ten-year renewal…

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has announced that coding would be added as a subject in primary and secondary schools in the country. The development has made the country become the first nation in Africa to sanction the study of coding in early elementary and primary schools. “I want to commend the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development for being the driving force behind this historic accomplishment for our country, by incorporating coding as a fundamental skill inside our new Competency Based Curriculum,” President Kenyatta declared at the ceremony. “Competency Based Curriculum.” Additionally, the President of Kenya introduced the National Cybersecurity Strategy…

HAVAIC, a venture capital business based in South Africa, has announced the completion of a pre-Series A investment round of $500,000, a Kenyan company that offers software solutions and digitizes farming co-ops and community banks, known as Savings and Credit Cooperative Organisations (SACCOs) in the region. The twenty million dollars invested in FinAccess will come from HAVAIC’s Universum Core African Fund, primarily concerned with providing capital for early-stage businesses. Post-revenue seed and later-stage development Series A start-ups born in Africa that employ technology to tackle real-world problems on a local, regional, or national scale are eligible for investment in global…

As part of an effort to ensure the provision of qualitative and efficient telecommunications services throughout the country, the Nigerian Communications Commission is set to license Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs). The telecom regulator, NCC stated MVNOs licensing will help generate employment and bridge the gap between the unserved and the underserved in society. It will also further engender competition and provide choices for telecommunication consumers, the commission noted. MVNO is a telecommunications product and service operator that leverages the capacity of a fully Licenced Telecommunications Service provider or Mobile Network Operator (MNO). The MVNO reaches a “Wholesale Agreement” or…

Digital Realty, the largest global provider of cloud- and carrier-neutral data center, colocation and interconnection solutions, today announced the successful completion of its previously announced agreement to acquire a majority interest in Teraco, a leading carrier-neutral data center and interconnection services provider in South Africa, from a consortium of investors, including Berkshire Partners and Permira, in a transaction valuing Teraco at approximately $3.5 billion. The acquisition of Teraco adds South Africa to Digital Realty’s three existing markets on the continent, including Kenya, Mozambique, and Nigeria. The strategic importance of these four markets has been enhanced by the recent and ongoing…

Amazon’s cash-cow cloud division AWS has launched a new service designed to help companies deploy their own private 5G networks — eventually, at least. AWS first announced AWS Private 5G in early preview late last year, but it’s now officially available to AWS customers starting in its U.S. East (Ohio), U.S. East (N. Virginia), and U.S. West (Oregon) regions, with plans to roll it out internationally “in the near future.” But — and this is a big “but” — despite its name, AWS Private 5G currently only supports 4G LTE With AWS Private 5G, companies order the hardware (a radio…

Instacart, the leading grocery technology company in North America, and Chase, the largest co-brand card issuer in the U.S., today launched the new Instacart Mastercard credit card, with Mastercard as the exclusive payments network. With this first-ever credit card from Instacart, cardmembers can earn unlimited cash back with a range of redemption options, along with additional rewards and benefits. The new Instacart Mastercard from Chase, a World Elite Mastercard, offers cardmembers: Accelerated earning opportunities on groceries and everyday purchases 5% cash back on Instacart purchases made at more than 800 national, regional, and local retail brands from more than 70,000…

Nigerian fintech startup TeamApt has completed a major round of financing that has seen it bring on board one of the world’s largest fintech specialists – QED Investors. Launched in 2015, TeamApt was formed to solve inefficiencies in Nigeria’s growing digital financial services market, and has a variety of products. The startup counts 100 per cent of the country’s commercial banks amongst its customers and in 2019 secured a switching licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as well as a US$5.5 million Series A funding round. The startup raised a multi-million US dollar Series B funding round last…

Global provider of solutions for trade facilitation Webb Fontaine and the Niger Chamber of Commerce and Industry, along with its partners, have launched the Niger National Single Window (NNSW) platform to bolster foreign trade. The initiative was launched by Yayé Djibo, representing the office of the President of the Republic of Niger, Colonel Diori Hamani from the General Directorate of Customs and Ousmane Mahaman, Secretary General of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Niger (CCIN). The platform is powered by Webb Fontaine’s technology and is designed to facilitate a cashless and paperless trade ecosystem “reducing the time and cost…

Ghana’s Deputy Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, Hon Ama Pomaa Boateng has opened the training of this year’s Girls in ICT for SHS on Cyber Security and Data Privacy targeted at 100,000 girls. The beneficiary regions are Northern, Bono East, Bono, Ahafo, Volta and Oti for the first phase of the program. The program is organised by the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation (MoCD) in collaboration with the Ministry of Education (MoE); Ghana Education Service (GES) and Huawei Technologies, Ghana. Speaking at the St Mary Girls Vocational Institute – a TVET school in the Northern region, Ms Ama Pomaa Boateng…