Author: Gugu Lourie

Nedbank’s Avo super app continues to attract customers and businesses as it competes with Vodacom’s VodaPay app. Nedbank announced today that Avo has added 500 000 new customers in the past six months to end-June 2022 pushing its total users to 1.5 million. Since its launch in app stores on 19 June 2020, Avo has over 24 000 businesses registered and offering their products and services on this e-commerce platform, up by 37% year-on-year. Avo is a one-stop super app enabling clients to buy essential products and services online and have them delivered to their home, with seamless secure payments and credit enabled by the…

The South African government has published draft proposals to address the widespread theft of copper cable and other forms of metal from public infrastructure that has crippled power supplies, left trains unable to operate and damaged public facilities in many parts of the country. The proposals have been developed following consultations by the Departments of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic), Police, National Treasury, Mineral Resources and Energy, Public Enterprises (including state owned enterprises), and Transport and was published in the Government Gazette today by Minister Ebrahim Patel. The draft measures propose a six-month export prohibition on scrap and waste…

Facebook is shutting down its live shopping feature on October 1 to focus on Reels, the company announced in a blog post. The company said from October 1, 2022, you will no longer be able to host any new or scheduled Live Shopping events on Facebook. You will still be able to use Facebook Live to broadcast live events, but you won’t be able to create product playlists or tag products in your Facebook Live videos. Shifting focus to Reels “As consumers’ viewing behaviours are shifting to short-form video, we are shifting our focus to Reels on Facebook and Instagram,…

Vodacom Group has again demonstrated its resilience in the face of increasing pressure on consumers, increasing revenue by 5.2% to R26.1 billion in the quarter ended 30 June 2022. Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group CEO, said revenue growth was underpinned by a resilient financial performance in most of our markets and South Africa in particular. “Our service revenue growth was supported by a 10.4% increase from our International portfolio and 9.3% growth from our financial services business. The growth rate in financial services was dampened by mobile money levies in Tanzania, and if adjusted for this impact would have been an…

THElatest data released today shows that the value of Vodacom’s mobile money platform, M-PESA, continues to rise at an impressive rate, with transaction values exceeding R5.7 trillion in the quarter ended 30 June 2022. Vodacom also informed investors that M-PESA had attracted 807 000 new customers. M-Pesa revenue grew 11.8% to R1.4 billion and was up 3.4% on a normalised basis. The company added that excluding the impact of the mobile money levies in Tanzania, normalised M-Pesa revenue increased 18.1%, highlighting the strong underlying growth momentum in customer and product adoption. “We added 807 000 M-Pesa customers in the quarter, with…

Vodacom announced today that its Super App, VodaPay, has added 300 000 new users in the quarter ended 30 June 2022. The VodaPay super app is available for download from Apple and Android app stores. VodaPay delivers a digital shopping, lifestyle and financial platform for consumers and businesses. “The rapid adoption rate of our VodaPay super-app in South Africa remains encouraging with 2.8 million downloads and 1.9 million registered users by quarter end,” said Shameel Joosub, Vodacom Group CEO. “Given VodaPay is a precursor to M-Pesa’s evolution and further strengthens our fintech position across our footprint, we remain confident about the…

The Council of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) today announced the appointment of Dr Charley Lewis as the Acting Chairperson. His appointment is effective from 16 July 2022 to 03 April 2023, or until a Chairperson is appointed. The appointment of Lewis comes as ICASA bids farewell to its outgoing Chairperson, Dr Keabetswe Modimoeng, whose last day in office is today. The appointment of the Acting Chairperson is informed by the provisions of section 5(2) of the ICASA Act which provides that “in the absence of the Chairperson, the remaining Councillors must, from their number, elect an…

South Africa’s MTN announced today that it is in early talks to buy Telkom, the partially state-owned fixed-line telephone operator. Africa’s largest mobile phone operator said in a statement it had entered into discussions to buy the entire issued share capital of Telkom in return for shares or a combination of cash and shares in MTN. “Discussions are at an early stage and there is no certainty that the Transaction will be consummated,” stated MTN. “The board of directors of MTN (Board), individually and collectively, accept full responsibility for the accuracy of the information contained in this announcement and certify…

Today, InterNations publishes its Expat Insider 2022 survey, one of the world’s most comprehensive surveys about living and working abroad with nearly 12,000 survey respondents. Overall, the survey report analyzes 52 destinations around the globe, ranking the best and worst countries for expats and offering in-depth information on expats’ satisfaction with the Quality of Life, Ease of Settling In, Working Abroad, and Personal Finance in their respective country of residence. For the first time, the ranking also includes the new Expat Essentials Index, which covers digital life, admin topics, housing, and language Safety & Security Are Main Concerns for Expats…

Bdeo, a provider of Visual Intelligence solutions for the insurance industry, announced that it has expanded its relationship with Hollard and officially launched in the South African market. The two companies entered into a strategic collaboration to help streamline Hollard’s entire end-to-end motor claims assessment and damage repair process. Bdeo’s Visual FNOL technology allows Hollard policyholders to gather evidence of motor insurance claims through a self-guided image and video capture solution and deliver the information to Hollard Assessors in real-time to perform remote assessments. Bdeo’s Visual Estimate technology also estimates damage costs, enabling Hollard Assessors to generate assessment reports and…