Author: Staff Writer
As South Africa and the international community continue to intensify efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19, FNB has reaffirmed its commitment to help SMEs and individual customers whose financial position is adversely impacted by COVID-19. The Bank continues to work with the Banking Association of South Africa (BASA), in engaging with the SARB and Government on a variety of solutions aimed at supporting both consumers and businesses through these difficult times. We will make further announcements on the nature of this support in the days ahead. FNB believes that SMEs and an economically viable consumer market are vital to…
To play its part in reducing the impact of COVID-19 on customers,Nedbank says it will offer all clients “individual solutions to cashflow challenges”. The solutions will be available to clients in good standing who are impacted by this pandemic. “We undertake to work with our clients to help them through this period of enormous challenge for all South Africans,” the bank said in a statement. “This undertaking to work alongside and support our clients with suitable individual solutions to cashflow challenges they may experience as a result of COVID-19 extends to any loan agreement they have with us. “This support…
Call blocking by South Africa’s biggest network operators is negatively impacting many local telecoms customers who are finding they cannot always successfully complete phone calls. This is according to Anthony Engelbrecht, Technical Director at an independent telco, Huge Networks. He explains that some clients of SA’s many Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telecoms networks such as Huge Networks, Connection Telecoms and dozens of others are increasingly finding that calls they place are not reaching the intended telecoms user. VoIP operators are typically smaller telcos that came into being as the country’s telecoms landscape was liberalised in the 1990s. Their emergence…
The South African army could be deployed to patrol the streets in a bid to stop the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, according to a report in the Sunday Times. Health minister Zweli Mkhize told the newspaper that the government would gradually impose stricter measures as the virus spreads before the worse case of a national shutdown. “Right now it is restrictions. [We] might have to begin to bring in the army to go out and work around the people, talk to them about hygiene, getting them to go sanitise, and so on,” said Mkhize. It was announced yesterday that…
The time is past when tossing a single coin was already an added value. There are currently hundreds of coins and thousands of tokens in the world of cryptocurrencies, and therefore when a company wants to succeed it must offer not just one coin or one token, but an entire value proposition for an entire ecosystem. This is the case of the proposal that we bring today: Silk Road Coin by LGR Group. What do we understand by Silk Road? Before going in to talk in-depth, we must be clear about what we are talking about when we talk about…
Huawei Technologies has handed over a million rand donation to South Africa’s Department of Health, to support efforts to fight and contain the spread of the Covid-19 virus. Health Minister Dr. Zweli Mkhize who also received a further two million from the South Africa-China Economic and Trade Association, at the Chinese Embassy in Pretoria, says the money will be used for testing and managing the outbreak. The Minister hailed the donation as a very important mark of friendship, solidarity and partnership from Huawei and other Chinese businesses. He went on to say that there has been a huge amount of…
What do grocery shopping, performing a banking transaction, avoiding traffic congestion, booking a restaurant and hailing a ride all have in common? If this question was asked a little over a decade ago, the simple answer would have been a resolute “nothing”. After all, it was only in July 2008 that the entire mobile industry began to revolve around apps. Fast-forward to 2020, and now there is an app for almost anything and everything. With approximately six million apps available in the market today, consumers have uninterrupted access to a richer, hyper-connected experience. These apps have shaped the way we…
Zindi will host UmojaHack Africa, the first-ever pan-African inter-university machine learning hackathon, virtually due to coronavirus outbreak. The UmojaHack Africa competition which takes place on Saturday, 21 March 2020. Zindi will host the first-ever virtual inter-university artificial intelligence (AI) hackathon for students across Africa. Over 70 universities from 17 African countries, with an estimated 2500 students, have registered to participate in the hackathon taking place on Zindi’s online platform. “This level of collaboration and partnership across Africa is very exciting, and it is quite simple for students to join remotely through Zindi. The day’s activities will be live-streamed on our YouTube channel, from the launch…
Red Puppy, the latest South African, 100% black-owned online marketplace platform, today announced the launch of its website, with iOS and Android App to be launch by the end of March 2020. This addition to Red Puppy’s technology suite illustrates the startup’s initiative in bringing effective methods for delivering goods to South Africans. The platform features a variety of vendors displaying environmentally friendly products and will also be an advertising platform for services providers. The South African online shopping industry is a R10 billion market and stand to benefit from the Coronavirus pandemic. Global online giants such as Amazon and…
At Liquid Telecom, we believe that ‘every individual on the African continent has the right to be connected’. This enduring belief is guiding us as we respond to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) outbreak. The health and safety of our people and those of our customers, suppliers and other business partners is paramount. We have implemented robust contingency planning across the business to protect the health of our people and those with whom we come into contact. This includes, but is not limited to, implementing the advice of the authorities, particularly the World Health Organisation and other reliable sources. Liquid Telecom’s focus…