Author: Akin Naphtal

Kenya’s biggest telecommunications operator, Safaricom, has launched a virtual payment card with Visa Inc, offering more than 30 million users of its M-Pesa payments system access to global e-commerce platforms. The launch of the M-Pesa GlobalPay Visa virtual card follows a partnership between the two companies forged in 2020 to develop “products that will support digital payments for M-Pesa customers.” M-Pesa, launched 15 years ago as one of the world’s first mobile phone-based money transfer services, has evolved to account for roughly half of Safaricom’s annual revenue. Through Visa’s digital processing network its users will now get access to more…

The Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Danbatta, has promised the new leadership of the West Africa Telecommunications Regulators Assembly (WATRA) of the unflinching support of the Commission towards advancing the socio-economic agenda of the Assembly for the sub-region. Danbatta gave the pledge during a recent courtesy visit of the new executives of WATRA, led by its new Chairman, Sekou Oumar Barry of the Republic of Guinea. Barry came to vist Danbatta in company of the first and second Vice Chairmen of the Assembly, representing Mali and Sierra Leone respectively; as well as the…

Data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has revealed that 832 mobile subscribers ported their numbers to the MTN network in April 2022. The subscribers moved from other mobile networks of Globacom, Airtel, and 9mobile. This was done through the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) instituted by the telecoms regulator, which allows customers to change their service providers without changing their number. The data shows data Airtel also received 354 customers from other networks, while 9mobile welcome 131 customers through porting. Globacom also saw 112 customers moved to its network from other operators. But just as the operators gained some new…

Google is set to merge two of its audio and video-calling platforms- Google Duo and Google Meet, into a single platform. The technology company says it is integrating both features to create a more unified communications service. The platforms will be merged in a two-step process where Google Duo will get all the features of Google Meets first. Google Duo will be renamed Google Meets later this year Meet has become a more powerful platform for official meetings, group calls, and chats for organisations in the last couple of years. On the other hand, Duo has been more of a…

Subscriptions for internet across mobile, fixed, and VoIP networks in the country increased to 148 million in April this year. Statistics obtained from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) reveals that telecom operators recorded 2.5 million new subscriptions in the month. Despite losing 13.8 million internet subscriptions between January to May last year due to the government’s suspension of SIM registration and activation between December 2020 and April 2021, the telecom operators in the industry have risen above the challenge to gain a remarkable ground, with mobile network operators taking the lead. Records of December 2020 showed that subscriptions across all…

The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has praised Vodafone Ghana for its enormous support for sustainable development in the Ashanti Region. According to him, apart from Vodafone’s support for the prestigious Asantehene Open Golf Championship, it has introduced interventions that benefit everyone, especially women and children, for which he commended the company. Otumfuo Osei Tutu II said this when the senior management team of Vodafone Ghana paid a courtesy call on him at the Manhyia Palace last Friday. The purpose of the visit was to announce plans to extend the sponsorship of the Asantehene Open Golf Tournament, which Vodafone has…

Olayiwola Osoba is a member of The Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK, and a member of the Advertising Practitioners Commission of Nigeria AppZone, Sub-Saharan Africa’s payment infrastructure company, today appoints Olayiwola Osoba as its new Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Communications. Osoba joins AppZone from Tek Experts, where he led Marketing and Corporate Communications across the company’s Africa region. In his new role, Osoba will oversee the marketing, branding, and storytelling efforts at AppZone. Founded in 2008, Appzone, Africa’s no.1 Fintech Software Engineering firm has evolved into a payment infrastructure company. Its Layer-1 Blockchain network digitises fiat payments and…

MTN Ghana is the leading telecommunication provider in Ghana with a strong presence since 1996. As of now, the company has 25 million active customers, 12 million of those have data plans which means they own a smartphone, and 11 million do their financial services through Mobile Money. “MTN has always been a leader in technology and distribution, customer experience as well as in giving back to the society through our corporate social responsibility,” said Mr. Selorm Adadevoh, the CEO. “We introduced technologies such as 3G, 4G and Mobile Money ahead of our competitors and we have managed to establish…

Minister of Communication and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, says the Ministry would not extend the set deadline for the nationwide SIM card registration exercise. Consequently, she said all unregistered SIM cards would be deactivated by the end of July this year, and advised mobile phone users yet to register their SIM cards to do so. Mrs Owusu-Ekuful gave the caution during the climax of the Ahafo Regional celebration of the Girls-in-ICT Initiative held at Acherensua in the Asutifi South District on the theme “Access and safety.” The Girls-in-ICT initiative, one of the flagship programmes of the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation…

In another move to bolster Fintech aspirations in Africa as part of its Ambition 2025 strategy, the MTN Group has appointed Andrew Goodrich as Executive for Banktech, part of the Group’s Fintech team, effective 1 June 2022. Goodrich joined MTN in 2019 as a General Manager for Banktech & Beyond Payments division, and, according to MTN, has added value to its digital banking strategy. “We are delighted to welcome Andrew into his new role within the Group Fintech Team. Andrew is no stranger to MTN and his wealth of experience in the financial sector, will ensure we continue to make…