Author: Staff Writer
Nigeria is at an inflection point where it needs to adopt enabling technologies at scale to support high growth in the telecommunications and digital sectors. Using the right technology as a catalyst, these sectors can support financial inclusion and widespread economic growth. Gur Geva, founder and CEO of iiDENTIFii, a world-leading biometric authentication platform, says, “Biometric technology is a crucial consideration in Nigeria’s ongoing digital expansion. If financial institutions, telecommunications companies and the public sector adopt enterprise-grade biometric authentication, they can provide services to Nigerian consumers safely, efficiently and at scale.” iiDENTIFii is in the process of rolling out its…
Telkom and the University of the Witwatersrand today signed a partnership agreement to establish the new Telkom Industry Solutions Lab. This is a commercial research and development (R&D) facility designed to accelerate synergistic collaboration between industry and academia. This collaboration will bring together multidisciplinary teams from Wits, the Telkom Group and beyond, and will pave the way for cutting-edge innovation in telecommunications and the development of transformative digital solutions for various industries. The new initiative was officially launched today at a ceremony where Jonas Bogoshi, Telkom’s BCX CEO, and Wits University Vice-Chancellor and Principal Professor Zeblon Vilakazi, signed the agreement…
UiPath, a leading enterprise automation software company, has collaborated with the Media, Information and Communication Technologies Sector Education and Training Authority (MICT SETA) in South Africa to develop the first national qualification in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region. The initiative aims to provide the workforce of the future with valuable tech skills and will potentially have a positive impact on youth unemployment by creating new jobs in software development, setting up for further growth the expanding automation ecosystem in South Africa. “South Africa has seen the emergence of a strong automation ecosystem, which…
South Africa’s long awaited and highly anticipated rapid payment programme (RPP), PayShap, offers huge potential to boost digital payments and, when used in conjunction with technologies such as Chat Commerce, could serve as a real game changer for businesses. But the disparity in launch pricing from local banks could hinder uptake, blunting the effects of the initiative, says Chat Commerce and mobile messaging leader, Clickatell. “Instant account-based payments like PayShap are designed to help individuals and businesses improve cash flow by cutting the time to process payments from days to seconds. Who would say no to instant access to funds?…
Since its launch in November last year, the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT has had a massive impact in just a few short months. Already, some schools have banned it as students quickly employed the bot to take shortcuts in their schoolwork, while debates rage on whether the bot will or won’t replace copywriters. It can also write code – so well, in fact, that when Google fed it a series of coding interview questions, its answers would have qualified it for an entry-level engineering position with annual compensation of $183,000. But Saša Slankamenac, Architect at Dariel Software, doesn’t agree…
As more South Africans look for alternative energy sources to cope with loadshedding, Massmart, in partnership with Retail Credit Solutions (RCS), has introduced a solar energy funding solution for its customers. Massmart said in a statement the funding is available in the form of a loan of up to R250 000, which can be released within 24 hours through a convenient application process. The retail group offers flexible payment plans, where fixed monthly repayments can be tailored to the customer’s monthly expense budget. To achieve this the repayment period can be extended from 12 to 60 months. Varsha Dayaram, Senior…
Santam, South Africa’s short-term insurer, has entered into an alliance with MTN South Africa, that will see the company purchase the mobile telecommunication firm’s device insurance book. The acquisition, and alliance, is aimed to support MTN South Africa in broadening the reach of device protection to their clients, in line with the importance of devices in the lives of customers. MTN South Africa’s device insurance book currently has just over 400 000 policies and an annual Gross Written Premium value of nearly R400 million. Tavaziva Madzinga, the Santam Group CEO, said the acquisition was an opportunity to expand the company’s…
At the heart of the digital transformation of South Africa’s healthcare sector is the drive to improve the safety and care of patients. The world is moving towards the vision of ‘Smart Hospitals’ where even the hospital bed can serve as a data-collection and analysing device that monitors a patient’s well-being in real-time and creates alerts in anticipation of a patient requiring assistance. In the current healthcare environment, patients will encounter many care touch points, with data being created at each point along this journey. Health-related data is amongst the most private and sensitive of datasets, and there are a…
The new all-electric Lexus RZ 450e is the first model to be developed by the company as a Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) from the outset. With it, the intention is not simply to deliver zero emission, all-electric driving, but to re-invent the BEV driving experience. To achieve this, the car has undergone extensive track testing and refinement at the Shimoyama Centre in Japan, a venue that is soon to be Lexus’ new global headquarters. The RZ is not a vehicle that simply adopts battery electric power in lieu of a conventional engine; it adapts exciting new technologies to enhance performance…
Eskom said on Tuesday that due to some recovery in generation capacity over the past 48 hours, loadshedding will be reduced to Stage 3 from 05:00 on Wednesday until 16:00. Thereafter, Stage 4 loadshedding will be implemented until 05:00 on Thursday. This pattern will continue as illustrated, until further notice. A further update will be published as soon as any significant changes occur. Over the past 48 hours, the repairs to the damaged towers from Cahora Bassa in Mozambique were completed and restored to full capacity. We have successfully returned to service a generating unit each at Arnot, Grootvlei, Kriel,…