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AfICTA e-NEWSLETTER

25/May/2022 Vol 137

Register Now to Participate in the 15th WAIGF

The West Africa Internet Governance Forum (WAIGF) Secretariat calling the west African Internet Community to register for the 2022 West African Internet Governance Forum Happening at Accra Ghana from the 26th – 27th of May 2022 in a hybrid format. WAIGF 2022 which is the 15th edition, aims to promote Internet Governance issues in West Africa through a multi-stakeholder process. The Theme of this year's meeting is "Digital Sustainability: Data Innovations for Post Covid Recovery"

AfICTA - Africa ICT Alliance in partnership with the WAIGF would be organizing a powerful session titled.

Attend the 2nd Egyptian Virtual B2B Matchmaking

Dear African Companies,

EiTESAL, representing the Egyptian ICT Industry is organizing the Second Edition of its international business-to-business matchmaking Virtually, from 27 to 28 June and hence seeks to connect with the ICT industries all over the African continent for the dream of Digital Africa to be a reality. EiTESAL believes that without African technology, the dream will never be true. 

Mergers, acquisitions, or partnerships are... Read more

Schedule for ICANN74 Policy Forum Meeting Now Available

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has published the schedule for the ICANN74 Policy Forum taking place 13–16 June 2022 in The Hague, Netherlands. The meeting comprises nearly 100 sessions and will be conducted during regular working hours in the Central European Summer Time Zone (CEST, UTC+2).

Advance registration is required to access the schedule and participate in the meeting. Attendees must confirm their intent to participate... Read more

Uganda Pens Deal with Airtel, Huawei to Cultivate Tech Talent

The government of Uganda has entered into a MoU with Huawei to provide adequate skills, training and certification courses such as 5G, AI, cloud, security, data communications and others that are required by employers to Uganda Institute of Communication Technology (UICT) students and ICT officers.

Uganda’s Minister of ICT and National Guidance Chris Baryomunsi.Uganda’s Minister of ICT and National Guidance Chris Baryomunsi. Uganda’s Minister of ICT and National Guidance Dr Chris Baryomunsi launched what is described as a talent cultivation partnership MOU between his Ministry and Huawei... Read more

Botswana’s Govt Ups the Digital Stakes

Botswana’s government has announced the imminent introduction of several measures to help the country extend connectivity reach and achieve digital equity.

The country’s Minister of Communications, Knowledge and Technology, Thulagano Segokgo said the government intends to increase geographical coverage of mobile signals, as well as levels of penetration, to extend the reach of fixed services to rural and previously under-services areas.

The Minister added that his Ministry... Read more

Register to Join AfICTA  (Africa ICT Alliance) Today

Hi, are you concerned about the realization of a Digital Africa? If yes, AfICTA (Africa ICT Alliance) welcomes you to register and join other group of concerned IT National Associations, Companies, Multinationals and Organisations in Africa to engender the realization of the digital Africa and the Sustainable Development Goals - SDGs.

AfICTA is a 35 member nations' alliance, in partnership with the African Union, with the vision to fulfill the promise of the digital age for everyone in Africa and to connect IT players on the continent.

Kenya: State Seeks to Control Safaricom Call Charges

The rates that Safaricom charges rivals for terminating calls on its network are to be controlled by the government in a bid to protect the small telecommunications firms.

Under new regulations that seek to bar dominant telcos from making profits from mobile termination rates (MTRs), Safaricom will charge fees to cover only the costs of interconnecting calls from its competitors.

The Kenya Information and Communication (Interconnection) Regulations 2022 set the stage for the Communications Authority of Kenya... Read more

Adanian Labs Announces a New Cohort of African Tech Startups Incubated in their 2022 Venture Building Program

Since its inception in January 2020 Adanian Labs, the “start-up that builds start-ups” has fast-tracked its value proposition in Venture building across the African continent by providing a platform for African Tech start-ups to access key resources, financing, and scale. 

With Pan African co-founders Bendon Murgor, (Kenya), Irene Kiwia (Tanzania), and John Kamara (Nigeria) at the helm, Adanian Labs is on a mission to build 300 impact-driven tech start-ups that are commercially viable and are positioned to accelerate the growth of African economies.... Read more

Zimbabwe’s Telcos Agree to Share and Share alike

MNOs in Zimbabwe have reached consensus on infrastructure sharing following years of intense negotiation.

According to official sources, Econet, NetOne, and Telecel are now sharing over 260 transmission sites in compliance with the infrastructure sharing policy introduced by the Zimbabwe government in 2016. 

NetOne plans to leverage Econet Wireless’ footprint, while Econet will utilise Netone’s infrastructure to extend its reach in untapped areas. Post and Telecommunication Regulation Authority of... Read more

Africa’s Software Development Skills Remain in Short Supply

Kenyan tech parastatal, the ICT Authority, has signed an agreement with online e-learning platform Kodris Africa to introduce a coding and programming curriculum in selected schools in the East African country.

The curriculum will be followed in schools affiliated to the government’s Digital Literacy Programme, under which over 1.2 million laptops were distributed to 22,000 schools.

The ICT Authority said the deal forms... Read more

MoMo PBS Limited Formally Commmences Operations in Nigeria

The MTN Group announced on Thursday that MTN Nigeria’s fintech subsidiary, MoMo Payment Service Bank (MoMo PSB) formally commenced operations.

This comes after the company’s successful pilot test that was initiated on 16 May 2022 in commemoration of the GSM operations on 16 May 2001 and the company’s listing on the Nigerian Exchange Limited on 16 May 2019.

MoMo PBS currently has an agent network of over 166,000 active agents and digitised partnership infrastructure. The company says that... Read more

LinkedIn Has Increased Membership Fees in Kenya

LinkedIn, an American employment-oriented social network service company, has increased membership fees and rates that viewers pay to access premium services by up to Sh 1,400 ($12.03) per account.

This comes after Kenya introduced a 16 percent value-added tax (VAT) on digital transactions for foreign companies through the Finance Act of 2019, according to Business Daily.

“We want to provide you with an important tax update related to Kenya tax that will impact your LinkedIn purchase(s). Kenya has... Read more

Oracle to Open New R&D Lab in Morocco

Oracle plans to establish a new branch of Oracle Labs, Oracle's advanced research arm, at Casanearshore Park in Casablanca to house up to 100 researchers. 

Researchers at the new facility will use Oracle’s cloud, AI, and machine learning technologies to tackle the most pressing challenges facing business, science and the public sector.

According to Oracle, the team will collaborate with Morocco’s technology sector to support the identification, exploration, and transfer of new technologies that can advance Oracle's customer's businesses... Read more

Vodacom Tanzania Leverages M-Pesa’s Reach to Catapult Health Insurance Service

Vodacom Tanzania Plc has partnered with insurance firm Milvik to offer health insurance services from Jubilee Insurance and MO Assurance via the M-Pesa platform. 

According to the operator, the health insurance bundles from these partners “will have easy accessibility and are available on Vodacom’s M-Pesa platform.”

The bundles are expected to streamline the process for health treatment in the country. The packages introduced include coverage for hospitalisation, personal accident, Life and a bundled product (Faraja Yangu).... Read more

Dijbouti Telecom Welcomes the Landing of 2Africa Submarine Cable

On Friday 13th May 2022, Djibouti Telecom took a giant step forward welcoming the landing of the new submarine cable named 2Africa.

An important ceremony was organized for this purpose at the beach Siesta under the patronage of the Minister of Communication in charge of Posts and Telecommunications, Mr. Radwan Abdillahi Bahdon and in the presence of Djibouti Telecom representatives.

This ceremony also saw the attendance of several representatives from the Smart Africa Alliance staying in our country as part of a seminar on... Read more

Ghana’s Rural Telecom Facilities to be Upgraded to 4G

In a recent announcement, Prince Ofosu Sefah, the administrator for the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communication (GIFEC) disclosed that the agency is on a path to upgrade the country’s telecom facilities to 4G in its rural telephony program.

As the minister was alluding to, although we want to complete the 2016 sites before the end of next year, GIFEC also have other exciting stuffs coming up. We shall be rolling out more to have a full coverage of the entire country.

We are hoping that in the second phase... Read more

Ransom Discussion not even a Consideration Says Bank of Zambia

Zambia’s Central Bank said has not and will not negotiate a ransom with a group known as Hive, believed to be behind a recent cyber-attack on the Bank’s IT systems.

The Bank’s ICT Director Greg Nsofu said there was little in the way of data loss as a result of the attack and that only some test data may have been leaked.

Nsofu said, “All of our core systems are still up running and knowing that we had protected our core systems, it was really not necessary to engage in a ransomware conversation. So, we pretty much... Read more

EXCLUSIVE: Opportunity within Ethiopia’s Nascent Fintech and Mobile Payments Industries

With its population of 115 million, Ethiopia offers investors in Fintech and telecommunications a clear opportunity to scale. These markets are described as nascent, relative to market size, and continue to attract local and international players.

One example is Nigerian mobile payments and financial services company Paga, founded in 2009. In March this year, Paga announced regulatory go ahead from the National Bank of Ethiopia for it to launch its online payment gateway in the country... Read more