Author: Tapiwa Matthew Mutisi

Core Chain has initiated a $5 million Africa Innovation Fund aimed at supporting Web3 builders. As a layer-1 blockchain committed to bringing decentralized apps to the Bitcoin ecosystem, Core Chain plans to provide support in the form of grants, technical resources, builder programs, and partnerships with accelerators and institutions. The…

Bank Zero, a digital bank based in South Africa, has announced that it is in the process of developing three new features: Pay Many, Immediate Payments, and Phone Tap Payments. As disclosed by Michael Jordaan, Chairman of Bank Zero, in a post on X, Phone Tap Payments will facilitate the…

The flagship solar-powered electric vehicle charging station by South Africa’s Zero Carbon Charge, initiated in Wolmaransstad, is set to be completed by June 2024. This update comes following the company’s November 2023 announcement of its plan to launch charging stations across the country, powered entirely by renewable energy. The aforementioned…

Access Holdings announced that its subsidiary, Access Bank, is set to acquire a majority stake in Uganda’s Finance Trust Bank. Subject to approval from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Bank of Uganda, Access Bank will hold 80% of shares in the East African Finance Trust Bank. The…

Kenyan payments platform, Pesaflow, and digital payments titan, Visa, have joined forces to enhance digital payments within the Kenyan government. This alliance is poised to greatly boost the efficiency, transparency, and inclusiveness of public services while also fostering financial inclusion. Pesaflow is a platform that provides a unified citizen profile…

Alviere, an international integrated finance platform provider, has been selected by Onafriq, an African digital payments network, to streamline payments and remittances between the United States and Africa. Onafriq cites Alviere’s wide array of solutions, technical expertise, and solid regulatory and compliance approach as reasons for their selection. Being a…

Interswitch, a prominent player in the African digital payment and commerce sector, has unveiled a crucial partnership with OPay, facilitated by the Interswitch Payment Gateway (IPG). This link-up provides OPay users with a streamlined process to effect direct payments for goods and services on merchants’ sites, drawing from their OPay…

The Communication Authority of Kenya (CA) has issued a warning to Telkom Kenya and Airtel Kenya, citing poor service quality. According to the CA’s 2022-2023 Quality-of-Service Performance report, the two mobile network operators failed to attain their coverage objectives. The report highlighted that Airtel Networks Kenya Limited and Telkom Kenya…

Since 2016, Shamba Pride has been focusing on improving last-mile distribution for agricultural inputs and addressing issues of price exploitation and quality for farmers through its digishops merchant network. To date, the agtech company has established a network consisting of 2,700 merchants, spanning 24 counties in Kenya. This represents just…

Africa’s largest bank by assets, Standard Bank Group, with operations across 20 African countries, has joined forces with UnionPay International, a subsidiary of China’s UnionPay, to boost eCommerce in several African nations. This new initiative is expected to increase the adoption of UnionPay, attracting more eCommerce businesses and customers to…

MTN and Ericsson have solidified their partnership, extending it for another decade with a focus on enhancing mobile financial services in Africa. This comes five years after the launch of MTN’s mobile money wallet. Using MTN’s Mobile Money (MoMo) service facilitated by the Ericsson Wallet Platform, the alliance aims to…

Egypt’s state-owned telecommunications company, Telecom Egypt, has become the country’s first mobile operator to secure a 5G license. The National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (NTRA) granted the company a 15-year license, valued at $150 million, to operate 5G. However, the license does not guarantee automatic renewal at the end of the…

After reaching a settlement in a $5 billion lawsuit, Google is making amends by updating the warning displayed when users utilize Incognito mode in Chrome. As first noticed by MSPowerUser, the company has tweaked the disclaimer in Canary to add language that says Incognito mode won’t change how websites collect people’s…

Tech giant Naspers is actively searching for investment opportunities in startups across Africa, aiming to use its vast reach to transform these small businesses into significant entities within the continent. As Naspers South Africa CEO Phuthi Mahanyele-Dabengwa explained to CNBC Africa at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the company…

On Friday, Microsoft revealed that the emails of several top executives and other employees were infiltrated by a hacking group affiliated with a Russian intelligence agency. The tech giant added that the attack, detected on January 12, was carried out by a hacking group known as Midnight Blizzard, or Nobelium.…

Abbreviated third round layoffs took place at Cellulant, one of Africa’s most established fintech startups, in December 2023, culminating in the abrupt resignation of CEO Akshay Grover in January. The exact number of affected employees is uncertain. During the same period, at least four other high-ranking executives parted ways with…

Microsoft’s venture capital arm, M12, has $275 million to invest this fiscal year in its quest to discover the next big thing. While M12 does not account for Microsoft’s significant early investment in OpenAI, it has a sizeable cache to invest, an amount that has remained largely stable over the…

Google has unveiled two new AI tools aimed at enhancing online search functionality. Android users will soon be able to highlight pictures, videos, or text on their screens using ‘Circle to Search’ to learn more about the selected details. The tool will be first available on the Samsung Galaxy S24…

Apple has offered to provide competitors with access to its contactless payment technology in an attempt to satisfy antitrust regulators in Europe. The company’s mobile wallet feature, Apple Pay, exclusively operates on its iPhones, thereby limiting third-party mobile wallet developers’ access to its technology. However, the European Commission identified in…

Microsoft is launching Reading Coach, a standalone app designed to enhance its educational tools in Microsoft Teams. This app, part of Microsoft’s Reading Progress suite, uses artificial intelligence to deliver personalized feedback to users on their reading, including specific advice on how to improve pronunciation. All Microsoft account holders can…