Author: Albert Nangara

South Sudan and Djibouti have signed an MoU to lay fibre optic cable from Djibouti to South Sudan’s capital, Juba, via Ethiopia. Djibouti’s fibre optic is not the first telecommunications infrastructure that South Sudan is connecting to. In January 2020, Liquid Intelligent Technologies (LIT) announced the installation of a 200km fibre backbone to connect the Uganda border to Juba.

Authorities believe additional data capacity will enable the country to successfully implement its digital transformation strategy by making broadband internet connectivity more affordable. South Sudanese officials said the agreement would ensure that region is connected to the international community and reduce the high cost of the internet.

South Sudan’s Ministry of Information, Communication Technology and Postal Services said South Sudanese and Djibouti government officials would establish a technical committee to oversee the project.…

Zimbabwe has been experiencing intermittent power generation shortfalls due to an ageing plant at its Kariba hydropower station and the main coal-driven power generators at Hwange.

According to Crisis 24, Zimbabwe will likely remain susceptible to rounds of load shedding through 2022 and possibly beyond if additional power production capacity is not made available. In mid-June, a circular from Meikles Hotel in Zimbabwe said that they have been operating on generator power for about a week and were now offering guests buckets of hot water to bath with. This is also one of the effects of the increased power cuts evident, although it is a few months apart.

Crisis 24 added that temporary commercial and communications disruptions are possible while load shedding and unscheduled disruptions are taking place; cellular and mobile services could be affected. Traffic disruptions and longer driving times are possible during these periods due to malfunctioning traffic …

Online payment solutions are immensely beneficial for their users, both customers and merchants alike. Online payments help reach global customers, reduce the cost of transactions and provide payment security (compared to cash payments). They create a more pleasant experience for the users who need not rush to banks and malls to buy or pay for their needs.

Pan-African fintech giant Flutterwave has kept its promise about Google Pay, as users of the global payment service can now use it for transactions with merchants on Flutterwave’s stores.

Google Pay was designed to enable users’ safe, seamless, contactless payments. It uses near-field communication (NFC) technology to facilitate fund transfers for retailers in physical stores. Users can also save their card details into the Google Wallet service and make online or in-app payments.…

Kenya is benefiting from a shift in US foreign policy towards Africa as the global economic giant scales up its presence on the continent to counter rising Chinese influence. China has grown into Kenya’s biggest bilateral lender and source of imports, which grew 9.0 per cent to Sh227.9 billion and accounted for 18.2 per cent of the total import bill in the six-month period.

Kenya is among African nations benefiting from a U.S. shift in foreign policy as it scales up its presence on the continent. The U.S. trade office said the two countries are developing a road map of engagement in agriculture, digital trade, customs procedure and other areas.

However, according to an article by The East African dated September 24, 2022,  American technology giants want the Biden administration to compel the Kenyan government to abolish the digital services tax (DST) as a condition for a new trade deal.…

Investing in ETFs or exchange-traded funds is equivalent to investing in all constituents that are part of an index directly.

According to Forbes, the yields or returns generated by ETFs replicate the benchmark index. It gives investors an opportunity to benefit from diversity, flexibility and scope for growth that comes from ETFs being traded on stock exchanges.

An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a marketable security that tracks an index, sector, commodity, or another asset which can be purchased or sold on a stock exchange the same way a regular stock can.
Zimbabwe became the fifth country in Africa to list an ETF, with South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, and Egypt also currently trading the instrument.

Zimbabwe became the fifth country in Africa to list an ETF, with South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, and Egypt also currently trading the instrument.…

Tanzania is not immune to the unrest afflicting northern Mozambique, which has occasionally spilt over the border, so any decision to push ahead with the onshore project will also be made regarding the security situation.

According to the Jornal Domingo online reports, President Filipe Nyusi said it is necessary to exploit the advantage of the countries being neighbours, especially concerning the negotiation of contracts for the exploitation of hydrocarbons. This item is, in fact, one of the great weaknesses of the States.

Mozambique will be the first of the two countries to export liquefied natural gas, which should happen in the coming days, through the Coral Sul offshore project, in Area 4 of the Rovuma Basin, concludes the ‘Domingo’ online report.

According to figures from the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC), a global data visualization tool for international trade, as of 2020, Tanzania exported US$114 in Crude Petroleum, making it …

Partnerships have largely driven technology innovation and global collaborations among tech companies, and Alibaba Cloud is not slowing down in committing itself to such partnerships.

System integrator Business Connexion (BCX) has announced a strategic partnership with Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intellectual backbone of the Alibaba Group, to bring the best-in-class cloud technologies to local businesses in South Africa to drive local digitalization.

• System integrator Business Connexion (BCX) has announced a strategic partnership with Alibaba Cloud
• The two parties sealed an exclusive distribution contract to grant BCX exclusive rights and authority to distribute Alibaba Cloud’s products and services in the country.

According to Selina Yuan, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence International President, “Partners have always been a key focus for Alibaba Cloud, and we are committed to providing them with strong support for our ongoing co-creation and value-add – both technologically and commercially – to further empower our customers.”

According to …

CyborgIntell Africa says it will work closely with financial institutions and other enterprises to help them rapidly develop, deploy and operationalize AI applications at scale.

A statement says the CyborgIntell platform addresses the key challenges companies face in the data science/machine learning lifecycle – from data selection and modelling, and operationalizing AI, to managing risk and governance.

“AI is a powerful and transformative technology, yet many companies across the world find it difficult to unlock its full potential. More than a third (36%) of organizations take more than 90 days to deploy data science machine learning (ML) projects, while the failure rate of such initiatives is estimated to be 85% across industries,” said McLachlan, CyborgIntell managing director.…

Insurance provides farm income stability by compensating the losses to the farmers in a timely and efficient manner. It ensures that the farmer is kept on the farm doing what they know and loves best, farming, thereby contributing to food security.

The majority of the farming community in Africa generally operates on thin margins. Most do not have title to land or any bankable assets that they can use as collateral to access finance for the much-needed inputs. By using the insurance policy as collateral, the farmers can access the finance they need, source the right inputs on time and be more productive per unit area, thereby contributing to the food security of their country, apart from also creating their own margins.

The National Bank of Commerce (NBC) in Tanzania have an Agricultural Insurance product in collaboration with Jubilee Insurance Company, aimed at protecting farmers, fishermen, and livestock keepers in …

Smartphone adoption in Africa remained sluggish in the latter part of the last decade. This is beginning to change as a combination of pandemic-driven demand for better connectivity and improved affordability of smartphones drive uptake.

According to a report by GSAM, by the end of 2020, 495 million people subscribed to mobile services in Africa, representing 46 per cent of the region’s population, an increase of almost 20 million in 2019.  It is estimated that 615 million people in sub-Saharan Africa will subscribe to mobile services by 2025, equivalent to 50 per cent of the region’s population.

• Utilizing the development of mobile digital technologies can assist farmers in gaining access to essential data and information needed to solve certain farming management systems and underlying constraints.
• It is estimated that 615 million people in sub-Saharan Africa will subscribe to mobile services by 2025, equivalent to 50 per cent of the