Author: Staff Writer

IBM, American Cancer Society (ACS), the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) and the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), today announced a new alliance to help improve access to high-quality cancer care and treatment in Sub-Saharan Africa called Allied Against Cancer. The Alliance will support a network of African oncology experts and technical assistance partners to help improve the quality of cancer care, including collaborating closely with the African Cancer Coalition to establish priorities and execute these initiatives locally. There are more than 800,000 new cancer cases each year in Sub-Saharan Africa and incidence is projected to double by 2040. And…

MTN South Africa announced on Monday morning that it has signed a new long-form roaming and services agreement with Cell C, subject to certain conditions precedent. In May 2018, Cell C signed its first roaming agreement with MTN, providing Cell C with 2G, 3G and 4G roaming services on MTN’s network in select areas of South Africa. The new agreement will see this access expanded to enable Cell C to roam on MTN’s network in all areas of the country. This is aligned to MTN’s strategy to further develop the group’s wholesale business and will allow both MTN and Cell…

Luno’s CEO Marcus Swanepoel, speaking at AfricaCom 2019, has outlined how the implementation and use of cryptocurrencies will be an important part of Africa’s future. Luno can see that as cryptocurrencies develop over the next ten years, they can become part of everyone’s lives, solving many of the issues currently associated with existing fiat currencies. Commenting after his keynote at AfricaCom, Swanepoel said: “Cryptocurrencies are on a growth path which can help solve the fundamental problems of the existing monetary system, which in many parts of Africa is not fit for purpose. At the moment we tend to hear about…

Safaricom and Huawei have jointly received the prestigious Most Innovative Service “the Business of Tomorrow” award at AfricaCom 2019 in Cape Town. Safaricom and Huawei Executives at AfricaCom 2019, winners of “Most Innovative Service” Award. George Njuguna, IT Director, Safaricom (Left) and Stanley Shen, Director Safaricom KAD at Huawei Kenya (right) This award recognizes the two companies for offering the new revolutionary Mobile Money Overdraft service, known as “Fuliza”. This service enables users with insufficient funds in their M-PESA accounts to borrow money to complete their M-PESA transactions. The service was officially launched in January 2019 and has been gaining…

Dale Capital, a Mauritian-listed private equity investment holding company, has completed its inward listing on the ZAR X stock exchange. The firm said this listing will enable South Africans to invest in a growing group with an attractive return in a tax-effective jurisdiction. Dale Capital wishes to raise $2 million (about R30 million post the listing), says Norman Noland, founder and CEO of Dale Capital. “By enabling participation for South African investors through this inward listing, we are diversifying the group’s capital base, improving liquidity for existing shareholders, and providing a diversified investment spread for investors as a result of…

Rand Merchant Investments, through its FinTech investment arm, AlphaCode, has taken a 25.1% stake in Guidepost, a high-touch diabetes health and InsurTech innovator that is poised for international expansion. The funding will be used to bring in key executive skills, further develop Guidepost’s differentiated clinical technology and scale the business locally and globally with insurance partners. Guidepost is a technology platform that enables highly personalised, data-driven diabetes management at scale.  The timing of this investment is marked by World Diabetes day on 14 November. It achieves radical clinical improvements in just four to six months of working with patients and…

Huawei will introduce the Kunpeng-powered cloud services to African customers by the end of December, the Chinese tech giant announced on Wednesday. The Kunpeng-powered cloud services and Partner Program 2.0 were launched at AfricaCom in Cape Town. The services will offer 15% faster multi-core computing power and a 30% higher performance/price ratio than the industry average, the company said. It added that these cloud services offer an unprecedented capability to meet the ever-shifting requirements of a diverse range of public and private institutions. Speaking at the Huawei Cloud, AI Forum, Rui Houwei, President of HUAWEI CLOUD Africa, noted the significance…

Sentech is introducing its new broadband offering known as Sentech Connect, South Africa’s biggest digital content services provider disclosed on Monday at AfricaCom. The state-owned company said the new broadband service will digitise healthcare, education and government services in underserviced and rural areas, bridging the digital divide with fast reliable broadband connectivity. The company said the broadband offering will range from a bandwidth of 10mbps-100mbps, allowing for the creation of Smart Classrooms; Smart City Services; Smart Clinics and Hospitals; the Internet of Things (IoT), and Public Safety Initiatives. These solutions will make use of various networks ranging from broadband to ultra-narrow…

MTN wants to bridge the digital divide by ensuring that rural people in Africa and the Middle East are connected to the internet through its network, Africa and the Middle East-biggest mobile phone operator disclosed on Tuesday. At AfricaCom, MTN revealed its innovative rural connectivity strategy. The company said it is amongst the Pioneers of OpenRAN – the technology which enables operators to achieve cost-effective deployments allowing for greater connectivity to previously unconnected areas. MTN announced it has deployed over 200 commercial rural sites across its footprint, using OpenRAN technology. The operator added that it is projecting to deploy more…

Vodacom Business is extending its pan-African network to Miami in the United States, the enterprise unit of Vodacom Group said on Tuesday. The company said it is extending its network through the new undersea South Atlantic Cable System (SACS). SACS is the first to directly link the African continent’s southern hemisphere with South America. This new trans-Atlantic route offers a significantly cost-effective and faster way for African-based American multi-national corporations to connect back to the United States, reducing latency by up to 40%. “Vodacom Business is undertaking this investment to shorten the distance between the American and African continents. The…