Author: Staff Writer

Swift action by the Shoprite Group following the July 2021 unrest and the April 2022 floods in KwaZulu-Natal meant its supermarket operations were back up and trading in record time – and Shoprite Technology played a critical role in making this happen. After last month’s devastating floods, Shoprite Technology managed to get stores and the Group’s distribution centre – critical to its operations in the area – back online within hours. A field technician even braved extreme conditions to successfully install a 3G link after the Group lost all connectivity when its fibre and wireless links were both destroyed. Swift…

TinSky Connect has successfully completed the installation of 15 OneWeb antennas and customer provided equipment at a Satellite Network Portal (SNP) or gateway facility in Accra, Ghana. OneWeb is a global communications network powered through space, enabling connectivity for governments, businesses, and communities. Tinsky Connect was selected as OneWeb’s technical engineering partner for its first west African SNP. The gateway is located in Tema on the outskirts of Accra, Ghana on a site of six hectares. The site is owned and run by ComSys who will continue to host the gateway on behalf of OneWeb. Alan Geldenhuys, Executive Director of…

Distributed Power Africa (DPA), a business of Cassava Technologies, and Électricité de France (EDF), a world-leading electricity company, entered into a partnership to develop hybrid energy solutions for businesses in South Africa. Through a 50% shareholding in DPA operations in South Africa, EDF will fuel the development of distributed energy solutions, starting with a pipeline of more than 75 MW, and enable DPA to provide an improved offering to its Commercial & Industrial (C&I) customers in South Africa. In addition, this investment will allow DPA to generate hundreds of new construction jobs in the country, adding a much-needed boost to…

Cash is still king in South Africa. But according to Anton van der Merwe, COO of leading pan-African fintech enablement partner, Ukheshe Technologies,  its long reign is increasingly under threat as businesses and consumers begin counting the real, hidden costs behind cash transactions. Whether its via cash, credit card, QR, crypto, or a smartphone wallet, financial transactions all take place within a complex system. Some parts of that system make use of coins, notes, or physical cards, while other parts of the system digitally move money between buyers, sellers, banks and other parties. Every payment method comes with its own…

The pandemic has created a Covid-19-apocalypse of unemployment. In the first quarter of 2021, Statistics South Africa reported these alarming figures for youth unemployment: • Youth account for 60% of total unemployment • 46.3% of youth aged 15-43, and over 63% aged 15-24 are unemployed • 40% of graduates aged 15-24, and 15% of graduates aged 25-34 are unemployed • 32.4% of youth aged 15-24 are not in employment, education or training At the same time, the youth population in Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to double to over 830 million by 2050, bringing unprecedented opportunities for entrepreneurship and innovation. With…

Johannesburg based FinTech company, Bitventure, a provider of state-of-the-art real-time automated verification and payment solutions, has acquired industry leading smart payment provider EasyDebit. The acquisition is set to bolster the company’s efforts to protect businesses against fraud while facilitating payment collections to increase cashflow and optimise onboarding processes. Bitventure CEO Junior Biola points out that fraud has become a growing concern in the post-pandemic world. “With online commerce growing significantly, cybercrime and fraud has become a real challenge for many companies. Consider, for example, that according to the 2022 PWC Global Economic Crime and Fraud survey, 46% of companies interviewed…

African insurtech aYo Holdings has taken the next step in its ongoing technology transformation by rolling out a cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to underpin its ambitious growth plans across the continent. aYo, which is 100% owned by MTN, has more than 16 million enrolled customers using its microinsurance products across Uganda, Ghana, Zambia and Côte d’Ivoire, with a vision of growing into the largest financial services technology platform in Africa by providing a range of affordable and accessible micro financial services products. The company’s new Oracle NetSuite ERP system replaces its previous on-premise solution, which was battling to…

South African tech start-up Enlabeler has closed its funding round with venture capital firms Kingson Capital and E4E Africa, as well as the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. Started in 2019, Enlabeler is a data labeling provider that offers high-quality data services, including data classification, annotation and data labeling for businesses globally. Enlabeler is taking aim at the local youth unemployment crisis by providing contract-based employment and growth opportunities for young unemployed people in South Africa and Kenya. The spark of inspiration behind Enlabeler was ignited when Founder and CEO (Chief Executive Officer) Esther Hoogstad wrote a research paper on…

MTN has announced price reductions and more value to customers on its MyMTN Home Fixed LTE and 5G home portfolios. The MyMTN Home Fixed LTE and 5G offers are available until 31 July 2022. “At MTN we are committed to providing connectivity at affordable rates for all South Africans to enable more people to enjoy the benefits of a modern connected world with as little impact on their pockets as possible”, says Mapula Bodibe, Chief Consumer Officer at MTN South Africa. The MyMTN Home Uncapped Fixed LTE and 5G internet promotional deals are shown below: In order to offer even…

Nedbank has made an equity investment into industry-leading technology led emergency response platform, RapidDeploy. The bank is the first South African firm to invest in RapidDeploy, which was established in South Africa after its founders Steven Raucher and Brett Meyerowitz experienced the antiquated, legacy technology that was available within the country’s public safety sector. Raucher experienced a personal tragedy when his brother drowned at sea and, to honour him, he volunteered for the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) of South Africa. This is where he came to realise that the emergency tools available could not achieve what was needed to…