Author: Gugu Lourie

Techcentral broke the news that Allied Mobile is in talks to buy large independent cellular service provider GloCell, according to sources. Two well-placed sources with knowledge of the situation told Techcentral that a number of companies are believed to have expressed an interest in acquiring GloCell, with Allied International Investments, part of the Allied Mobile group of companies, on the verge of securing a controlling stake of roughly 75% of the service provider’s equity. Last November, cellular product distributor Allied Mobile Africa secured $55 million (R800 million) funding deal with the Public Investment Corporation (PIC). The company said the debt funding facility was to…

Phuthuma Nhleko will stay on as interim executive chairman of MTN. He took temporary charge of Africa’s biggest mobile phone operator last year on 9 December after Sifiso Dabengwa resigned over a $5.2 billion (over R74 billion) fine imposed by the Nigerian authorities. “He will stay on until he fulfils his mandate,” Chris Maroleng, MTN’s spokesperson told Reuters. However, the mobile phone giant said in its 2015 integrated annual report that it envisaged the appointment of the new CEO would be made by the end of June. Dabengwa left the mobile phone operator after a $5.2 billion (over R74 billion) fine imposed by…

Robotics and automation technologies present new opportunities for South African organisations to vitalise and even completely redefine their Business Process Services (BPS) functions. By Rajesh Sehgal, Global Head of Quality & Process Excellence, Wipro BPS and Gavin Holme, Country Head, Africa, Wipro Technologies With robotics at the centre, organisations are able to scale faster, enter new markets or industries and become more fluid and responsive to customer needs. Robotics is driving what we could succinctly refer to as an evolution from ‘efficiency’ to ‘effectiveness’ What does this mean? Firstly, robotics offers far greater value than just simplifying and automating what were…

Improving productivity continues to be a priority for many organisations and as such, IT transformation is top of the agenda when it comes to boosting business performance. A recent study commissioned by Riverbed Technology found that companies are increasingly leveraging cloud computing, with 96% of executives using cloud-based enterprise apps at work today. However, moving to this environment is simultaneously causing a growing number of issues. By Wimpie van Rensburg, Country Manager for Sub Saharan Africa at Riverbed Technology The underlying concern comes down to poor application performance, ultimately brought about by organisations’ migration to the cloud. 89 per cent…

The rest of the world has long believed that Africa can’t produce its own scientific inventions. This myth can be traced back to the time of slavery and colonialism – systems that led even Africans themselves to think that nothing good could come from the continent. By Stewart Maganga The myth is cemented by history books. These are replete with stories of scientific innovators from the developed world. I am not suggesting that the role these people played should be dismissed altogether. They contributed enormously to the modern world. There must, however, also be room to celebrate African innovators who have…

South African-based Naspers on Wednesday announced its first investment targeting the Education Technology (EdTech) market. Through its Naspers Ventures division, the company led a $15 million Series B investment in social learning network, Brainly. Naspers also announces opening of San Francisco office – aimed at tapping U.S. technology companies for strong global growth. “Over 60 million students in 35 countries interact with Brainly every month.” said Michal Borkowski, CEO of Brainly. “We are convinced that our partnership with Naspers will allow us to accelerate this exciting growth globally, and double down on our focus in the United States.” Naspers is…

40 lucky MTN subscribers stand a chance to walk away with R100 000 over a period of 13 weeks with MTN’s Wish It! Love It! Win It! Competition. Through this campaign, MTN will select three lucky subscribers a week who will each pocket a R100 000 cash prize. The competition runs from 1 May until 31 July 2016 and is open to new and existing MTN PayAsYouGo and Contract subscribers. To qualify for the MTN Wish It! Love It! Win It! weekly draw competition, subscribers need to either purchase a PayAsYouGo device with a minimum value of R200, recharge…

Telkom on Wednesday unveiled a partnership with Eastern Cape business incubation centre Propella FutureMakers Hub in Port Elizabeth. This is the second business incubation centre to be unveiled under FutureMakers, Telkom’s enterprise development programme, after the Bandwidth Barn in Cape Town. “The heart of the FutureMakers mission is to enable, empower and inspire entrepreneurs, particularly within technology, by providing ongoing support and coaching, in order to grow young, small businesses into big businesses,” said Ian Russell, Telkom’s chief administration officer. “Ultimately, by supporting innovation throughout the technology sector, we can create jobs, improve digital access and develop a stable and…

Envestnet | Yodlee – a New York Stock Exchange-listed data aggregation and data analytics platform powering dynamic, cloud-based innovation for digital financial services – has clinched a strategic partnership with AlphaCode, a collaborative club for next generation financial services entrepreneurs in South Africa. By Staff Writer The strategic partnership between Envestnet | Yodlee and AlphaCode aims to improve the quality of financial tools available to the African startup economy working on creating powerful financial solutions. Mobile payments have grown enormously over the years in Africa. In 2014, the market generated US$656 million and is expected to double to US$1.3 billion…

MTN Group today announced the appointment of Babak Fouladi as Group Executive: Technology and Information Systems. In this role, Fouladi will lead the delivery of MTN’s network and information technology strategy across the Group. On joining MTN, he will temporarily assume responsibility for the vacant Chief Technology Officer role in MTN South Africa, until a permanent appointment is finalised. Fouladi is a senior executive with global experience in the telecommunications, media and ICT sectors. He is highly skilled at building and leading strong teams to drive and implement strategic concepts and deliver networks, complex systems and applications. He joins MTN…