AfICTA e-Newsletter (November 27th, 2019)

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AfICTA e-NEWSLETTER 

27/November/19 Vol 77

Register to Attend 7th AfICTA Summit

Invitation to Participate in IGF Workshop #293

This is a special invite from AfICTA - Africa ICT Alliance Secretariat to you to participate in the IGF Workshop #293 titled “Unlocking the Digital Potentials of Developing and Least Developed Countries”

Date: Thursday, November 28, 2019

Time: 16:40 - 18:10 (GMT +1)

Venue: Room III Sonnenallee 225, 12057 Berlin, Germany 

Theme: Digital Inclusion 

Organizer: AfICTA - Africa ICT Alliance...  Download  details

Funke Opeke joins experts to discuss broadband development at Startup South

MainOne’s CEO, Funke Opeke, presented a keynote speech at the Startup South Conference held in Uyo on November 1, 2019, on the theme “Unlocking the Next 60 Million: Making Broadband Accessible and Affordable”. The conference was a 4-day event created to inspire a generation of young founders, innovators and youths to build scalable and investable businesses across the South-South and South-East states to accelerate development. 

The conference initially conceived as a community project, has evolved into a platform that... read more

We need a better web to help secure children’s basic rights

As the World Wide Web and the Convention on the Rights of the Child both turn thirty, the web can help to secure children’s basic rights.

Three decades ago, as the 1980s came to an end, revolution was in the air. The Berlin wall came crashing down and the dust that rose from it carried the hopes of a generation of Germans for reunification and peace — and a sign of hope to a watching world. 

At the same time, 700 miles away at the CERN laboratory near Geneva, a young software engineer named Tim Berners-Lee was focused on his own revolution... read more

Kenyan Communications Authority to investigate Safaricom network outage

Over the weekend, Safaricom experienced nationwide network outages – restricting up to 31.8 million consumers from calling, using MPESA or texting, all across the country. Safaricom faces KES 449 mln fine by telecom regulator Safaricom risks facing fines after nationwide network outages over the weekend. 

During the outage, the company said in an official statement, “Please note that we are experiencing intermittent network challenges affecting a number of services in our network including voice and data for some customers. We are working to restore all services as soon as possible. We are sorry for any inconvenience and thank you for your... read more

How to drive down storage costs even when data volumes are exploding

As data volumes continue to increase exponentially the value of data is more critical to business than ever before. Yet IT budgets are constantly being squeezed and since enterprise storage makes up a significant proportion of IT costs, it is often one of the first targets of budget cuts. 

The scenario is a familiar one for CIOs, as they need to do more with less and ensure that data is protected and highly available while spending less money on storing it. 

Data Storage providers are now faced with the conundrum of catering to exploding data volumes and providing businesses with the necessary performance for analytics and intelligence whilst driving down storage costs. Fortunately, there is a solution....  read more

Jumia, Facebook team up to empower Nigeria's SMEs

Jumia and Facebook have collaborated to empower small and medium scale enterprises in Nigeria with free training on business growth accelerators, effective customer engagement strategy and advertising. 

According to the companies, 'hundreds of Jumia sellers' attended the empowerment programme, hosted recently at Facebook's NGHub.

Attendees learnt how to list and sell products on the e-commerce platform via the seller centre, factors that affect sales on Jumia and top factors that determine pricing. ... read more

With KQ and Ethio Telecom, Kenya and Ethiopia Pick Each other's Brains

Yesterday my friend Henok lamented about Ethiopia taking baby steps in the space of Fintech and mobile money compared to 'advanced' Kenya where Sh300 billion has been transferred in nine months this year. I jokingly asked if we could swap mobile money and national airline management teams and ideas. Yet that is actually happening.

Ethiopia is currently seeking investors to set up two telecommunications companies. It also plans to privatise its incumbent monopoly, Ethiopia Telecom, and have it compete with the new entrants who have all been given targets to serve the 90 percent of the... read more

What will it take for Africa to drive US$5-trillion digital economy?

Africa has the numbers, a desire to innovate and utilise technology, as well as the technical skill sets and resources to fully realise a digital economy – but the continent has to foster and sustain a technology ecosystem, relevant platforms, effective regulation and infrastructure to do so.

This is according to Paul Scanlan, chief technology officer, Carrier Business Group, Huawei Technologies, who spoke at the opening of AfricaCom 2019 hosted in Cape Town this week.

The growing need for connectivity and the technologies that underpin Africa's journey to...   read more

Africa's mobile data revenue to double by 2024

Mobile revenue in Africa will rise from $54.31 billion (R804 billion) in 2019, to $67.12 billion (R994 billion) in 2024. This is according to the Africa Digital Outlook 2019 report from market research firm Ovum.

The research, which looks at the state of Africa's telecommunications market, found data revenue on the continent will more than double in the next four years, from $14.91 billion in 2019 to $31.42 billion in 2024, growing at a significantly faster rate than voice calling. However, due to the overall growth in the mobile market and... read more

Egypt: GSMA welcomes 5G-focused global spectrum treaty

The GSMA has welcomed the international spectrum treaty adopted by the World Radiocommunication Conference 2019 (WRC-19), which organisers say will unlock the potential for game-changing 5G services globally.

Organisers released a statement which confirmed that the conference, which recently concluded in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, identified much-needed spectrum "for a broad range of new ultra-high-speed and ultra-low latency consumer, business and government services."

"Innovative 5G services that rely on the. .. read more

Jack Ma Foundation dishes out cash to African 'netpreneurs'

Alibaba founder Jack Ma, through his foundation, on Sunday hosted the inaugural Africa Netpreneur Prize Initiative (ANPI), awarding R15 million ($1 million) in prize money to 10 entrepreneurs from across the continent. 

The Jack Ma Foundation hosted the annual pitch competition, with 10 finalists selected from across the continent after showcasing their business ideas. 

The finalists received grant funding from the Jack Ma Foundation and will have access to the netpreneur community of African business leaders to. .. read more

Ghana, Uganda to pilot GSMA-backed connectivity solutions

Over a period of 18 months, Vodafone Ghana and MTN Uganda will work with Fairwaves Inc., iSat Africa and NuRAN to test new mobile internet connectivity solutions for unconnected rural communities in Africa. 

This project is an initiative of the GSMA through its Connected Society Innovation Fund for Rural Connectivity that awarded grants of up to £330,000 to Fairwaves Inc., iSat Africa and NuRAN.

According to the GSMA, the goal is to deploy mobile broadband networks in rural areas. These will provide low-cost mobile internet coverage through...  read more

Nigeria: NCC intervenes in telco govt dispute

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has intervened on behalf of telecommunication service providers in a stand-off between companies and the Minister of Communication Dr Isa Ibrahim Pantami over data prices.

In November 2019, telcos ignored a directive by the Minister ordering them to reduce the price of data in the country within five days.

In a statement, the minister claimed that Nigerians were not enjoying internet services despite the high cost of data in the country. ..  read more

Mali: Orange workers strike over shareholding

Workers at Orange Mali have concluded a two-day stay-away to press home their demand for a revaluation of their shareholding in the telecoms company.

The strike, which began 20 November 2019 and ended 21 November 2019, was in response to the company's failure to increase the workers' shareholding in the company from 4.5% to 10%.

According to the Orange Mali Trade Union, workers had engaged company management "for months", in addition to embarking on peaceful action - including wearing red armbands to express their. ..  read more