Author: Staff Writer

New research from Vodafone Group, Vodacom Group, Safaricom, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) indicates that the successful deployment and adoption of mobile financial services is associated with a positive impact on GDP growth in developing markets as it helps businesses to reduce cost, access credit to invest, and to connect with consumers that were previously excluded from financial services. The econometric modelling research – which examined 49 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America – found that countries with successful mobile money services had an annual GDP per capita growth rate up to 1 percentage point higher than…

The Southern African Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (SAVCA) is excited to announce the appointment of Tshepiso Kobile as Chief Executive Officer, effective 1 November 2022. Kobile succeeds Tanya van Lill, who served SAVCA for over five years. Kobile hails from a financial services background, having served as an investment professional with the Development Bank of Southern Africa and as a property finance manager with Standard Bank. Through her involvement in both the public and private sectors, she has gained unique skills in senior management roles. Her recent position was as the Senior Programme Manager for Catalytic Projects at the…

Proctor & Gamble has rescued the school year for thousands of learners in KwaZulu-Natal. They have been without proper facilities since July last year, when about 130 schools in the province were vandalised, looted and even torched during the unrest. At the time, the Basic Education Department said it did not have the budget to fix the schools, or to provide mobile classrooms. Siphosethu Primary School Principal, Themba Sokhabase, who was visibly shaken by what had happened said at the time, “It is really sad that we find ourselves where we are today, given how hard we worked to ensure…

MTN Group has announced that the network will host an Africa-first virtual concert in Ubuntuland, Africa’s metaverse. In February this year, MTN Group became the first African company to purchase land in Ubuntuland with a vision to create dedicated environments for creating unique immersive experiences for its customers. “The MTN Group’s presence in the African metaverse will be known as altMTN. altMTN allows us to further support our ambition to lead digital platforms and support African innovation, and will, over time featurelivevents, shopping, gaming and learning,” says Bernice Samuels, Executive: Group Marketing at MTN Group. “To welcome everyone to altMTN…

According to billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, it is unrealistic to expect to solve climate change by asking people to live greener lifestyles. Telling people to stop eating meat, drive less, and buy smaller houses is unlikely to be effective, at least not yet. Changing human desires is simply too difficult, and we should look instead to other viable solutions that seek to reduce emissions without demanding people rethink their consumption habits entirely. Offsetting change Gates, who has invested hundreds of millions in climate initiatives through his foundations, noted last year that so-called Green Premiums could be an effective…

Tarsus On Demand is partnering with the SAtion ecosystem and Microsoft to offer a free, day-long business development workshop for 40 small, micro and medium enterprises (SMMEs) based in townships in and around Johannesburg. The workshop, which takes place on November 11, aims to equip tech entrepreneurs with skills and resources to grow their businesses. This initiative builds on the existing agreement between SAtion and Tarsus On Demand to help drive growth and digital transformation in South Africa’s SMME sector. SAtion draws together stakeholders in the private and public sectors to discuss, coordinate and implement Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) projects.…

Hlayisani Capital, which is chaired by former Nedbank chair Reuel Khoza and a majority shareholder, announced today it has bought a minority stake in Tractor Media Holdings, one of South Africa’s leading digital outdoor media owners. Hlayisani Capital said the funds will be channelled towards the acceleration of Tractor’s aggressive digital out of home (DOOH) growth strategy. The funds will also allow for the acquisition of key sites, new portfolios as well as investment in advanced and cutting-edge technologies – ensuring that Tractor remains at the forefront of DOOH media in South Africa. “We believe in growth, we believe in…

In 2018, the University of Limpopo began revamping its enterprise architecture, ushering its ailing IT infrastructure into a new world of efficiency. In 2020, this digital transformation journey accelerated towards the cloud as a more scalable, agile, and reliable solution that could ensure learning continued even in the most remote and locked down circumstances. “This project was very important to education in this country. We are building a modern ICT infrastructure that allows us to grow and service more ambitious young South Africans than we ever could before. As more users demanded access to our online, media-rich learning experience, the…

Wits University has led a national consortium that secured R54 million funding from the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) to co-ordinate a national quantum technologies initiative. Following on a proposal written by the consortium led by Professor Andrew Forbes from the Wits School of Physics, the DSI committed the first tranche of funding up until March 2025 to set up the South African Quantum Technologies Initiative (SA QuTI). It involves establishing quantum nodes at five centres – Wits University, the University of Zululand (UniZulu), Stellenbosch University, the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal (UKZN) and Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) – and eventually…

The world celebrated the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on 17 October. There is a large number of migrant breadwinners in South Africa who send money to their families, and the Post Office has a cost-effective, same-day money transfer service to and from Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Nigeria, Mauritius, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Mozambique and eSwatini ready. The service is available from any post office in South Africa to any post office in the destination country. The transferred funds become available at the destination post office in the foreign country on the same day. The service is offered through the…