Author: Akin Naphtal

In a demonstration of its efforts in promoting and building a sustainable intellectual capacity among Africans, Africa Digital Economy Forum (ADEF) a forum promoting Africa’s digital economy agenda has kicked off its maiden Spelling Bee Competition to support educational development in Africa. ADEF Spelling Bee Competition is a literacy program to teach students the effective pronunciation of words, their meaning, and proper context of usage in the English Language. The Spelling Bee creates a platform for students from diverse backgrounds including public and private schools to engage and compete fairly in order to emerge as winners of the competition. The…

Mastercard is working on introducing a bank card payment option in the public transportation in Baku, Avsar Gurdal, Mastercard General Director for Azerbaijan and Turkiye said. “For over 10 years, Mastercard has been developing urban solutions and reshaping the public transportation experience. We are uninterruptedly working with the partner banks in Azerbaijan to enable the use of bank cards for the payment of public transportation fares in Baku,” he said. According to him, Mastercard intends to contribute to securing the leading position for Azerbaijan in the region’s cashless economy. He stressed that Mastercard’s primary mission in Azerbaijan is to increase…

Upholding its commitment to close the disability divide in employment, Microsoft today announced a collaboration with EnAble India to unlock 100,000 opportunities for persons with disabilities (PwDs). The initiative, called “Inclusion To Action”, aims to provide an opportunity platform, bringing together more than 100 organizations in the country across financial services, manufacturing, retail, and tech sectors to work together on various tech skilling, mentorship, internship and employment initiatives to achieve economies of scale in the common goal of economic empowerment for PwDs. Confronting several barriers to equal opportunities at work, people with disabilities experience higher rates of unemployment and socio-economic…

As contactless technology continues to grow in more than 90 million Mastercard card acceptance locations, Tap on Phone is being launched worldwide. Mastercard supports 131 Tap on Phone projects, 14 in the Latin American and Caribbean region, and many others under development. Locally, the partnership with Ton, Stone’s solution aimed at microentrepreneurs and the self-employed, now enables transactions with unlimited value. “Stone was the first Brazilian company – and one of the first in the world – to launch this novelty. Now we are ready to scale the product, with all the quality and safety that our customer deserves. TapTon…

eNaira, a Central Bank of Nigeria digital currency launched in October 25, 2021 has risen to N4bn as disclosed by the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Godwin Emefiele at the grand finale of the eNaira Hackathon yesterday, in Abuja. “Since the launch of this great initiative, the eNaira has reached 840,000 downloads, with about 270,000 active wallets comprising over 252,000 consumer wallets and 17,000 merchant wallets. In addition, volume and value of transactions on the platform have been remarkable, reaching above 200,000 and N4bn, respectively.” He said. eNaira is used just like cash. The eNaira wallet is…

Hardy Pemhiwa, currently the C.E.O of Cassava Technologies South Africa, is a seasoned board-level practitioner with extensive senior management experience across Eastern and Southern Africa in financial services, development banking, telecommunications, media and infrastructure. As part of his dedication in transforming Cassava Technologies into a global technology company, Hardy Pemhiwa pioneered the innovation of the Haven Cyber Technologies, to protect African enterprises and the acquisition of Telrad which increases their revenue by over 20% and brings further geographic diversification of their operations. Today, casava technology ecosystem has a broadband network fibre of over 100,000km across Africa. With his six years…

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has extended the 5G roll out deadline for Mafab Communications to January 23, 2023 due to the delay in receiving its Unified Access Service Licence and Numbering plan. The launch date was expected to commence on August 24, 2022 as set by the NCC after MTN and Mafab Communications emerged winners of the 3.5GHz spectrum licence for the deployment of 5G technology in Nigeria last December is being delayed as a result of late issuance of UASL to Mafab Communications. A statement issued by Mafab, reads “In line with the conditions of the 5G licence,…

As a means to tackle insecurity and prevent scam, the fintech innovator, palmplay, launched Wallet Safe Workshop, a monthly campaign for payment security awareness training to enable customers have a vast knowledge of their security and how to avoid being scammed. The company plans on using both online and offline channel to create awareness and expose examples of social media and telecom fraud. They will also implore fraud warning education for students and the elderly, and provide procedures on how to effectively use the mobile wallet accounts in combating and managing communications fraud. The number of frauds attempts in Nigeria…

Israeli cybersecurity firm, NSO Group, has disclosed the stepping down of its co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Shalev Hulio, from his position as part of an in-house restructuring in the firm. According to Reuters, there will be a cut of about a hundred employees from its workforce, and the Chief Operating Officer (COO), Yaron Shohat, will act as an overseer of the firm’s affairs until the appointment of a new CEO. Mr. Hulio has stated that the restructuring is a part of the preparations for the company’s elevation to new heights. He will continue to serve on the company’s…

IT firm, Accenture, has announced its continued partnership with the Changi Airport Group, operators of Singapore’s Changi Airport. The new three-year agreement is said to continue to positively impact the operations and experiences at the airport. Both firms seek to capitalise on several novel technologies available to enhance engagements with travellers throughout the times they are at the airport till when they depart. Staff at the airport will get some knowledge and skills on the use of these technologies. Senior Vice President for Enterprise Digital Ecosystem & Business at CAG, Hung Jean, says they prioritize the wellbeing of customers and…