Author: Staff Writer
Google today announced a plan to invest $1billion or R15 billion over 5 years to support Africa’s digital transformation. The investment focuses on enabling fast, affordable internet access for more Africans; building helpful products; supporting entrepreneurship and small business; and helping nonprofits to improve lives across Africa. The announcement was made at Google’s first ever Google for Africa event, held virtually and livestreamed. The planned $1billion investment announced today by Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, will include: Enabling affordable internet access and building helpful products ○ Google is building global infrastructure to help bring faster internet to more…
US Bank announced today that its cryptocurrency custody services are now live and available to their Global Fund Services clients. The services are intended for institutional investment managers with private funds in the U.S. or Cayman Islands who would like a safekeeping solution for Bitcoin – with additional coin support coming soon. NYDIG, a technology and financial services company dedicated to Bitcoin, is the first crypto sub-custodian announced in the bank’s network of providers. “Investor interest in cryptocurrency and demand from our fund services clients have grown strongly over the last few years,” said Gunjan Kedia, vice-chair, US Bank Wealth…
Vodacom Group has kicked off its annual pan-African Innovation Week 2021, running from 4 – 8 October 2021, which will culminate in its fourth Pan-African Innovation Hackathon event. Huawei Technologies is one of the main partners of the Vodacom Group Hackathon. Innovation Week focuses on pan-African innovation, with various speakers covering topics such as Fostering a Culture of Innovation, Disruptive Innovation, and Innovation Best Practice. All Vodacom markets on the continent are taking part in the Hackathon, with multi-market team entrants and prizes totalling R1 million up for grabs, for the most innovative business and consumer solutions. The Hackathon takes…
To kickstart its summer campaign, Telkom has launched postpaid promotional deals and prepaid LTE deals offering more value to customers. On Prepaid LTE, Telkom has introduced: 6GB data at R49 – 3GB anytime data and 3GB night surfer data, valid for 14 days, which replaces the current 2GB + 2GB at the same price; and 15GB data at R99 – 7,5GB anytime data and 7,5GB night data, valid for 61 days for anytime data and 31 days for night surfer, replacing its 5GB + 5GB bundle. “We know that things have been tough, no less in the last couple of…
Discovery is planning to introduce South Africa’s largest “private virtual hospital’ known as Discovery Hospital at Home from January 2022. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital healthcare technologies by patients and healthcare providers. “One example – the use of telemedicine in the USA has seen unprecedented increases in online consultations,” explains Dr Ryan Noach, CEO of Discovery health. “Within our ecosystem, Discovery Connected Care logins have increased more than seven fold, by 763%, since 2019.” At the same time, there is a global need to ease the burden on increasingly overwhelmed hospital systems while providing people access…
Picodi.com team juxtaposed iPhone 13 Pro (128 GB) prices and average earnings in various countries to count how many days people need to afford Apple’s latest flagship. In South Africa, the official price of the basic iPhone 13 Pro (128 GB) will amount to R 21,499. Similar to the previous year, buyers will find neither a charger nor earphones in the box. The only exception is France, where the law requires Apple to include earphones. According to the latest Stat SA data, the average monthly earnings in South Africa is R 23,526 (R 20,160 net). This means that an average South African would have to work…
Integrated ICT and infrastructure provider Vox is continuing with its bundled offering designed to help South African businesses digitise their operations, with business fibre connectivity being combined with cloud-based voice solutions to help enable a hybrid working environment. “According to research, 63% of high-growth companies have already adopted a hybrid work model and 78% of knowledge workers believe they would be more productive if they could choose to work on-site or remotely as needed. We believe there’s never been a better time than now to re-think and re-shape the way we work and collaborate for optimal productivity as well as…
MTN Uganda is pleased to announce our intention to proceed with an initial public offer (IPO) and subsequently list on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE). This follows the requisite approval by the Capital Markets Authority and Uganda Securities Exchange for MTN Group to sell 20% of its shareholding in MTN Uganda to the public. MTN Group owns 96% of MTN Uganda. The listing is in line with the Group’s strategic priority to create shared value, partly through ensuring broad-based ownership in its operating subsidiaries. It is also in line with the provisions of MTN Uganda’s NTO licence, which require its…
TymeBank, one of the world’s fastest-growing digital banks, announced it has entered into a strategic partnership with leading retail giant TFG (The Foschini Group) that will see the introduction of TymeBank financial products and services both instore and on digital platforms for the benefit of TFG’s more than 26 million customers in South Africa. The partnership is expected to deliver the following customer benefits: TFG customers will benefit from TymeBank’s ‘Buy Now Pay Later’ product MoreTyme™, providing an alternative payment option which is interest free over a three-month period Over 600 TFG / TymeBank branded kiosks will be located in…
The commercial property leasing industry is set for a shakeup. For the first time in South Africa, tenants will have the ability to bid for prime office space via AuctionInc’s online auction platform. A derivative of this concept was recently successfully used in the United States and Europe to fill large vacancies in prominent office buildings. The need for a new way of concluding leasing transactions in a stubborn leasing environment served as the catalyst for this innovative concept locally. The South African leasing market finds itself in a difficult position due to an oversupply of office space and flagging…