Author: Gugu Lourie

Absa has partnered with local training NGO WeThinkCode_(WTC_) to probe the transformation of South Africa’s digital skills landscape by focusing on practical ways of reforming youth employability. Together, they are rewriting the future of technology students by focusing on candidate selection and matching, a demand-led curriculum, retention and ultimately the employment of graduates. This collaboration looks beyond potential candidates being strong in maths and science, for example, to see if they show other aptitudes for coding and programme design. The relationship between Absa and WeThinkCode_ has deepened since they first partnered in 2016 and the collaboration is tailored to become…

The Nigerian government has initiated a review of subscriber registration and ordered mobile operators, such as MTN, to suspend sale of new SIM cards. In a statement on its website, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said in line with the government desire to consolidate the achievement of the SIM Card registration exercise of September, 2019, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami), has directed the NCC to embark on another audit of the Subscriber Registration Database again. “The objective of the audit exercise is to verify and ensure compliance by Mobile Network Operators with the…

Seacom announced on Thursday it has tapped Oliver Fortuin, MTN Group Chief Enterprise Officer, as its new CEO. Fortuin, who will replace Byron Clatterbuck, will take over the reigns on January 4, 2021. He has worked for over two decades in the ICT sector, across South Africa and the rest of Africa, with industry-leading organisations such as IBM, BT, and, most recently, MTN. “The Seacom team has built an excellent data connectivity platform in the markets where we operate. We now hope to expand upon this, as well as to develop more industry-leading services that today’s corporate customers in Africa…

South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) has no dedicated staff assigned to assist with the grant funding appeals process of the Special R350 COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD). Bridget Masango, a DA Shadow Minister of Social Development, reveled on Thursday that SASSA was relying on 10 staff members to deal with appeals, in addition to their other responsibilities. “That is 10 people who need to assess thousands of rejected applications.” This was revealed in a Parliamentary question submitted by the DA to the Minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu. In winding down the system, both the final payment date and…

The shares of Etion spiked Wednesday on anticipation of the struggling JSE-listed company announcing disposal of its various operating subsidiaries/divisions. The diversified digital technology company announced the end of October 2020 that it is considering selling off business units to create shareholder value for its investors. Etion stock open on Wednesday at 35c share, up 2.94% giving the company R191 million market value. The stock has spiked 17% in the past seven days. In the past 30 days, Etion stock swelled by more than 112% and more than 200% in the past 90 days. “The upward stock push driven by…

The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) has issued its 2020 South Africa FinTech  study, which points out that the financial technology market is growing fast. The study uncovered that there are 220 active and operational FinTechs in South Africa and this number is expected to grow as technology adoption increases. The pace of change and innovation in the FinTech space in South Africa is rapid and on the rise. It has become even more so in the last year as the effects of the global coronavirus pandemic drove widespread digital adoption and catapulted upstart FinTech firms into the mainstream. This…

Communications Minister Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams has signed her performance agreement with President Cyril Ramaphosa promising to cut data prices by 50%. “As stated in the State of the Nation Address on 13 February 2020, President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed performance agreements with all Ministers to strengthen the capacity of the State and increase accountability, “These agreements – which are based on the targets contained in the Medium-Term Strategic Framework – will be made public so that the people of South Africa can hold those who they elected into office to account. The agreement between Ndabeni-Abrahams and President Ramaphosa was signed on…

South African Convergence Partners, which is owned by ICT industry veteran Andile Ngcaba, has spent R75 million ($5 million) to acquire an additional stake in fast-growing FinTech Player Channel VAS. Convergence Partners exercised preferential and exclusive rights to acquire the stake as a result of an intra-consortium rebalancing of the holdings of another member of the Ethos consortium through which Convergence Partners is partially invested. Last week private equity firm Ethos announced that it has sold its 1.4% stake in FinTech player Channel VAS. The company said it has has sold a 1.4% stake in Channel VAS at a consideration of $5 million (R76.6 million). Ethos…

New Wave, a company co-owned by ICT industry veteran Phumlani Moholi has been awarded a contract for smart power management by SqwidNet, an Internet of Things (IoT) network operator in South Africa. Moholi’s company said this partnership will see New Wave undertaking to deploy and manage 1500 CabiSense devices in Sqwidnet’s network over a period of 3 years. “CabiSense is a network and power infrastructure solution that we’ve created and manufactured locally. It is designed to enhance the monitoring and management of network elements remotely in a manner that’s geared towards improved cost-efficiency and increased network availability,” says Moholi, an…

MTN Group announced on Friday it had appointed Tsholofelo Molefe as a new Group Chief Financial Officer (GCFO). Molefe has resigned with immediate effect at Telkom.Molefe, joined Telkom on 1 July 2016 as Deputy CFO and was appointed as Group CFO two years later. In her two-year tenure, she derisked the balance sheet, optimised working capital management through structural changes and enhanced the capital allocation framework to focus on return on investment. Prior to working at Telkom, Tsholofelo was the Finance Director at Eskom as well as the CFO for First National Bank’s Personal Banking division. She is also a…

Telkom announced on Friday it has appointed Dirk Reyneke as the acting chief financial officer (CFO) after the resignation of Tsholofelo Molefe. Molefe will also join the MTN Group board and take over from Sugentharan Perumal who has been acting in the position of GCFO since 1 September 2020. Perumal took on that role following the appointment of Ralph Mupita as MTN’s new president and CEO, replacing Rob Shuter. For more read: MTN Taps Telkom CFO As New Finance Chief Reyneke, current CFO of Openserve for the past 18 months will take over the position of Telkom Acting Group CFO,…

Netstar, a subsidiary of JSE-listed technology company Altron, has set up an office in Malaysia and is exploring expansion opportunities in Indonesia. The company pioneered the vehicle tracking and stolen vehicle recovery industry in South Africa in 1994. Netstar operations extend into Botswana, Ghana, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and Zambia, and the organisation has customers throughout the rest of Africa and Australia. “We have set up an office in Malaysia with a local partner and are looking at expansion throughout South East Asia with Indonesia being the next market we are focusing on, our Australian operation has offices throughout that country,”…

Media group Media24 announced on Thursday plans to buy out all shareholders of Welkom Yizani, its black economic empowerment share scheme.  The media group is proposing to pay R15.70 per Welkom Yizani ordinary share. The proposal is subject to the approval of Welkom Yizani shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting scheduled for 22 January 2021. Investors paid in a subscription of R10.00 per share at the establishment of the scheme in 2006. Then scheme’s shares were listed for trading on an over the counter platform on 9 December 2013. The shares were stuck at R10.00 for more than a year and…

Vodacom announced on Wednesday that pre-orders for new Apple iPhone 12 family, including iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone 12, and iPhone 12 mini are set to begin on Friday, 11 December. The sales of the iPhones  is set to start on Friday, 18 December 2020. “Vodacom is excited to soon offer the eagerly anticipated new iPhone 12 family, including iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPhone 12, and iPhone 12 mini,” the Vodafone-owned company said in a statement. The newly designed iPhone 12 models feature expansive edge-to-edge Super Retina XDR displays for a brighter, more immersive viewing experience,…

South Africa’s private equity firm Ethos announced on Wednesday that it has sold its 1.4% stake in FinTech player Channel VAS. The company said it has has sold a 1.4% stake in Channel VAS at a consideration of $5 million (R76.6 million). “In line with the Board’s stated strategy of optimising capital allocation and enhancing shareholder value, Ethos Capital has sold a 1.4% stake in Channel VAS at a consideration of US$5 million (R76.6 million),” the company said. “The sale consideration has valued Ethos Capital’s stake in Channel VAS at $36.7 million (a 16% premium to the valuation as at…

South African FinTech group Capital Appreciation Limited (Capprec) today delivered strong growth for the six months ended 30 September 2020 boosted by ongoing acceleration in digital transformation and electronic payments. Capprec said on Wednesday revenue grew by 15% to R323.7 million and EBITDA by 20.2% to R81.6 million. The group’s headline earnings increased by 7.8% to R54.2 million. In the prior period, Capprec concluded and successfully executed a transaction that included the share repurchase and cancellation of 245 million shares. The lower number of shares in issue benefited headline earnings per share (HEPS), which grew by 29.7% to 4.45 cents…

Herotel, South Africa’s junior fibre network operator, on Monday announced the milestone of reaching 100 000 subscribers with its fibre and fixed wireless networks. Founded in 2014 with the stated goal of providing a single national fibre and wireless broadband provider that can better service South Africa’s growing internet connectivity needs, Herotel acquired around 39 owner-operated businesses and 45 000 customers over a four-year period. Operating in over 400 towns, Herotel is at the forefront of building, selling and maintaining its own next-generation fibre and fixed-wireless networks across the country, which requires servicing areas that many other industry players have not…

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) announced today that it had approved the amendment of the ICT COVID-19 National State of Disaster Regulations to extend the validity period of the temporary assignment of the radio frequency spectrum. In April, ICASA assigned a temporary emergency spectrum to telecommunications operators to ensure connectivity for all during the National State of Disaster period. The regulator has extended the temporary emergency spectrum to telecommunications to no later than 31 March 2021. The initial date within which the temporary spectrum was supposed to be returned to the Authority was 30 November 2020. “The…

Toyota South Africa Motors (TSAM) has selected Vodacom as partner to provide in-car streaming services. The new streaming service will be available to Toyota Connect and Lexus Connect. In August 2019, Toyota South Africa teamed up with Altron and Vodacom Business, to roll-out connectivity features and in-car Wi-Fi on all new Toyota and Lexus models. Known as Toyota Connect, the new connectivity hub will be housed within the MyToyota App which was launched in 2014. The technology allows Toyota owners access to a myriad of convenience, connectivity and safety benefits. Through its subsidiary, Netstar, Altron jointly designed and developed the…

The outgoing boss of Etion, Teddy Daka, has been appointed as the non-executive chairman of the struggling JSE-listed company. The appointment is effective from 1 February 2021. The diversified digital technology company announced earlier this month that Daka has resigned as CEO of the group. His resignation is effective from 31 January 2021. Daka replaces Dr Snowy Khoza, the chairman of the group, who will resign on 31 December 2020 from the diversified digital technology company. The company also announced the appointment of Nerishini Naidoo as the Group Chief Financial Officer with effect from 1 February 2021. The JSE-listed firm…

The latest data released today by MTN shows the value of MTN MoMo (mobile money) transactions was $61,2 billion (R926 billion) in the first half of 2020. Africa’s largest mobile phone group said in the first half of 2020 processed 11 752 MoMo transactions a minute across its markets, up 28% from 9 193 transactions a minute in 2019. The group said it remains committed to leveraging its technology to enable a cashless Africa. By the end of September 2020, nearly 42 million people were regularly transacting on MTN MoMo across 16 markets. This compares to 38 million active users at the end…

The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) has published new research proposing how should FinTechs handle non-traditional (alternative) data on the provision of financial services in South Africa. There’s currently no protection for South Africans who exposes their alternative data to FinTechs, and the use of these non-traditional data is not regulated. Alternative data has grown in prominence in South Africa and is increasingly being used by FinTechs and traditional financial institutions in serving customers. FinTechs are making use of external data like social site postings, search engine keywords, online transactions, photo albums, and group chats to gather insights about consumers’…

M-Pesa has become the first mobile money provider in Africa to join the Financial Taskforce established by United for Wildlife, a coalition of charities that works to tackle the illegal wildlife trade. United for Wildlife was created in 2012 by The Royal Foundation, led by Prince William, The Duke of Cambridge. It has brought together conservation organisations, governments and global corporations to protect endangered species like elephants, rhinos, tigers and pangolins so they can share our world with future generations. Organised crime has become one of the greatest threats to animals in Africa and other continents. The illegal wildlife trade…

Vodacom – which generates less than 2 metric tons of carbon per terabyte of data a year – says it plans to halve its carbon footprint in South Africa by 2025.   “We have, for many years now, been working on reducing our carbon footprint,” says Shameel Joosub, Vodacom CEO.    “We have made meaningful progress over the last decade. For example, in South Africa in 2012, we generated 27.6 metric tons of carbon outside per terabyte of data.”     “Today, we are consuming less than 2 metric tons of carbon dioxide per terabyte of data. While we are pleased with…

MTN, Africa’s largest mobile phone group, has increased its shareholding in mobile-micro-insurance firm aYo through acquisition of additional shares. In 2017, South Africa’s third-biggest insurer Momentum Metropolitan and MTN launched aYo, a micro-insurance joint venture. “The share of start-up losses has declined following the strategic decision to reduce our shareholding from 50% to 25%, with MTN’s shareholding increasing to 75%,” Momentum informed investors on Tuesday. “The change in shareholding is still subject to certain conditions precedent.” The insurer also disclosed that aYo has 10 million registered policyholders in October 2020 with over 50% active. The company also operates in Ghana and…