Author: Staff Writer

Africa Day was established to celebrate and acknowledge the progress that Africa has made in the last 58 years. It’s an important milestone on the South Africa calendar, and with good reason. Although the continent doesn’t have as many unicorns and successful businesspeople and ideas as the developed world can claim, South Africa’s entrepreneurs are ahead of the fray when it comes to promoting economic growth and building platforms that increase access to Africa’s vibrant and promising markets. Two South African Fintech businesses that have scaled, or are planning to, beyond our borders and into the continent are MFS Africa…

Volvo Car SA reported its highest ever premium segment share in April 2022, demonstrating the local market’s growing appetite for electrified vehicles from the Swedish marque. In March 2022, Volvo Cars South Africa  announced all model ranges within its local line-up had gained some option of electrification – comprising mild-hybrid, plug-in hybrid and all-electric variants – in line with Volvo’s global ambitions of transforming into a fully electric car company by 2030. The very next month, Volvo Car SA achieved a record of over 12% share of South Africa’s premium segment, up from the 10.7% figure reported a year prior…

Tyme Group has announced a series of leadership changes as it embarks on the next chapter of its growth strategy. This follows TymeBank’s rapid growth in South Africa, where the bank is becoming entrenched as the credible alternative to legacy banks as it continues to make a real difference in the lives of consumers with its low-cost banking offering, high levels of customer satisfaction and the successful introduction of several products and services since launching in February 2019. At the same time, Tyme Group, which has always aspired to be a multi-country business, is strengthening its position as an international…

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…