Author: Tapiwa Matthew Mutisi

Airbnb recently announced that its employees can choose to work remotely through the end of August 2021, even if some of its offices reopened as COVID-19 restrictions ease. The company said it would provide a $300 stipend for home office equipment, with an additional $200 to cover ergonomic equipment. Airbnb…

Chadwick Boseman, who played Black icons Jackie Robinson and James Brown before finding fame as Black Panther in the Marvel cinematic universe, died on Friday of cancer. He was 43, died at his home in the Los Angeles area with his wife and family by his side. Boseman was diagnosed…

DOB Equity, a Dutch family-backed impact investor in East Africa, has made a further investment in Tanga Fresh, the biggest dairy processor in Tanzania. This additional investment from DOB will help Tanga Fresh expand its production in the long-life milk market. There has been an increasing trend of East African…

Joseph Sullivan, Uber’s former chief security officer has been charged with obstruction of justice over accusations that he attempted to cover up a 2016 hack of the company, which exposed the personal details of 57m users and drivers. Prosecutors said Joseph Sullivan, 52, hid the breach from the relevant authorities,…

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said that major mobile network operators, MNOs, in the country recorded 9,077 cases of service outages on their networks in the second quarter of the year, resulting in unexpected disruptions to operators’ network quality of service (QoS) delivery and intermittent quality of experience (QoE)…

Data breaches exposing millions of personal records are becoming the new normal. The data acquired by Atlas VPN revealed that data leaks reached an all-time high, rising by 492 per cent to a record 27 billion in the first half of 2020. The research showed a total of 2,037 publicly…

PesaKit has announced the public launch of its app-based platform for mobile money agents, available on Android. Since its beta launch in November 2018, the PesaKit app has already empowered 2,500 agents to make smart decisions on their day to day operations, resulting in a 20% increase in profits and…

Experian South Africa and the information regulator have released a joint statement regarding the recent data breach which resulted in the personal information of millions of South Africans being compromised. The personal information of as many as 24 million South Africans and nearly 793,749 businesses were exposed in the data breach. Experian…

Glovo, the on-demand delivery startup, has reported an increase in deliveries and cashless payments on its platform in Kenya since the onset of Covid-19. The Barcelona-based startup applied a raft of protective and precautionary measures to its delivery operations at the beginning of the pandemic, including no contact delivery drop-offs…

Blue Label Telecom has provided an update on Cell C’s turnaround strategy, which revealed that Cell C has lost nearly a third of its subscribers between June 2019 and May 2020. While this big reduction in subscribers may concern some investors, Blue Label Telecom highlighted that it did not have…

MoneyGram International, a global leader in cross border P2P payments and money transfers, announced a partnership with leading fintech payment network, Thunes, which will enable MoneyGram’s customers to seamlessly send money directly to mobile wallets and bank accounts globally through the MoneyGram platform. The global partnership will see additional payment…

MFS Africa, a pan-African cross-border payments company, has announced a partnership with MoneyGram, a global player in cross-border P2P payments and money transfers and this partnership will enable MoneyGram to leverage MFS Africa’s reach to mobile wallets and bank accounts across the continent. MFS Africa provides its partners with an…

Huawei Kenya launched their new initiative UniTech Talk a regular lecture series for University lecturers, students and tech enthusiasts to share the latest technologies, industry trends, development policies and insights. During the pandemic, the technology sector has played a critical role in minimizing disruptions to the economy and creating new…

Facebook Inc. is adding a new shopping section to its main app, part of a broader push to capitalize on the increase in online shopping in the midst of the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak. The new section, Facebook Shop, begins rolling out across the U.S. on Tuesday. It lets people browse…

According to by, reports Gartner, smartphone sales decreased by 20.4% in the second quarter of 2020 which should come as no surprise to us due to the global coronavirus pandemic. Sales totalled 295 million units compared with the 370 million sold in the same period last year, and Gartner attributed the…

Facebook plans to launch its dedicated news section in a number of new countries within the next year, the company announced in a blog post. Called Facebook News, the portal rolled out to users in the United States earlier this year and will now become available in other countries sooner than expected. Facebook…

EY has announced yet another remarkable trio of wins at the 2020 Microsoft Global Partner of the Year Awards: Global Advisory Services Partner of the Year, Global Energy Partner of the Year and Global Financial Services Partner of the Year. Recognized as one of the top Microsoft partners across the…

Vodacom is currently facing a spate of subscriber complaints regarding airtime disappearing from accounts due to rogue Wireless Application Service Provider (WASP) subscriptions. Of great concern were reports from two Vodacom customers who found that Vodacom’s own WASP had subscribed them to content services without their consent. MTN faced similar challenges with…

Entries are now open for the MTN Business App of the Year Awards, the premier app development competition in South Africa. The MTN Business App of the Year Awards celebrates local talent and disruptive thinkers, and have been held on an annual basis since 2012. A selection of prizes is on…

Nedbank Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Raisibe Morathi has resigned from the company and will join Vodacom as its Group CFO from 1 November 2020 and her resignation will take effect from 30 September, and she will also be appointed to the Vodacom Group Board. “As one of the most experienced…