Author: Gugu Lourie

South African Convergence Partners, which is owned by ICT industry veteran Andile Ngcaba, has teamed up with global tech giant with Google, International Finance Corporation and Mitsui to invest in CSquared, a broadband infrastructure company headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. The parties have signed an agreement to invest up to $100 million in CSquared’s existing metro fibre network operations in Uganda and Ghana, plus new markets in the future. Convergence Partners’ investment will be housed in Convergence Partners Communications Infrastructure Fund (CPCIF), the only infrastructure fund dedicated solely to information and communications technology in Africa. CSquared, initially started by Google as…

MTN Group announced on Wednesday that its Rwandan operation has been hit with $8,5 million (R111 million) regulatory fine from the Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA). Africa and the Middle East biggest mobile phone operator said in a statement that the fine relates to non-compliance with the directives issued by the regulator prohibiting the inclusion of MTN Rwanda in the MTN South and East Africa (SEA) IT hub based in Uganda. “MTN has been engaging with the regulator on this matter over the past four months,” the company said. “MTN Rwanda is currently studying the official notification and will continue…

By Staff Writer MTN customers can now purchase the much-anticipated Huawei P10, the latest and most advanced flagship smartphone from Huawei, from selected MTN stores from as little as R399 a month. The Huawei P10 Lite and P10 are available on My MTNChoice+ S for R399 and R559 respectively. These deals are inclusive of a monthly provision of 100 minutes, 100 SMSs and 2GB of data. Qualifying customers who sign up or upgrade to any of these deals will also receive a once-off 30GB of data and twice the value of the minutes and data allocated for the first three…

By Alan O’Herlihy, Everseen It’s easy to point to Amazon’s lack of experience in brick-and-mortar retail as an explanation for the difficulties it’s facing as it tries to launch Amazon Go. Retail is not for the faint of heart, so entering the space and trying to transform it seemingly overnight has inevitably resulted in some skepticism—and even a little bit of schadenfreude when the company missed it’s self-imposed, and highly publicised launch date. Retail is not for the faint of heart, so entering the space and trying to transform it seemingly overnight has inevitably resulted in some skepticism—and even a…

Vodacom, South Africa’s biggest mobile phone operator in terms of subscribers, is making money from its niche business to provide funeral, life and device insurance services. The mobile phone operator, which is 65%-owned by British mobile giant Vodafone, provides life and funeral insurance. It also provides device insurance services to both contract and prepaid customers in SA. The company that is valued at R227 billion informed investors on Monday that in generated R612 million from insurance revenue in the year to end-March 2017. The firm added that insurance revenue climbed 12.4% to R612 million and insurance policies rose 28.5% to 1.1 million in the year to end-March 2017.

Vodacom is reaping benefits of investing in the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT has the ability to transform the lives of citizens, providing tangible solutions to many of society’s ills. For more read: Driving business value via one IoT Platform IoT applications in retail, transportation, manufacturing and utilities will offer the greatest growth opportunity as enterprises seek to streamline operations and improve customer experience. Estimates are that by 2020, there will be 50 billion things or IoT devices – smart cars, fridges, toasters, streetlights, heart monitors, chairs, door locks, etc. – connected  to the Internet. But some of this is…

Vodacom, South Africa’s biggest mobile phone operator, has added 3 million new customers in its home market and is making more than R20 billion in data revenues in the year ended March 2017. The telco, which is owned by British mobile phone giant, reported an 8.7% rise in customers in South Africa to 37.1 million in the year to end-March 2017, with 3 million new customers. The firm also generated R20 billion in data revenue in South Africa, reflecting a 19.7% rise compared to the same period last year. The company also saw the number of data customers increase to…

Vodacom announced on Monday that it is buying a 34.94% strategic stake in Kenya’s Safaricom held by its parent company Vodafone Group. The deal is subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals. Vodacom will fund the acquisition of a 34.94% stake in Safaricom by issuing 226.8 million new ordinary shares. The company said the transaction is set to further enhance it as a leading African mobile communication company. Based on Friday’s JSE closing price of R152.49 per Vodacom share, this values the proposed transaction at R34.6 billion. This represents a 5.9% discount to the Safaricom share price on the Nairobi Securities…

For millions of people around the world looking for a comfortable taxi journey, riding in a taxi became a more enjoyable experience – and better for the environment – in 2013 when a taxi company in Japan went all in and converted its entire fleet of conventional taxis to zero-emission Nissan LEAFs. It was the first step in a global electric taxi revolution. Since then, taxi companies in Spain, The Netherlands, Hungary, the UK, Jordan, Mexico and Poland have all adopted zero-emission Nissan electric taxis. Today, Nissan taxis – LEAF, e-NV200 or both – are in service on five continents,…

German pharma giant Bayer is embracing technology to move into the digital healthcare space. The firm is banking on startups to create digital innovations in the healthcare industry. It wants to conquer mobile health and provide much-needed healthcare solutions to South Africans. The pharma company is bringing to South Africa its successful Granst4Apps Programme, which aims to bring promising startups under its wing as part of a global web of startup initiatives. The initiative is an open innovation framework where Bayer aims to collaborate with innovative digital health startups. This platform has been operational for a number of years and…