Company News
Visa Could Soon Allow Users to Settle Payments with Cryptocurrency
Image sourced from Headquarters Office Visa has revealed that it could soon let customers settle transactions using cryptocurrency. According to Reuters, the company has launched a pilot programme that uses USD Coin – a stablecoin that is pegged directly to the US dollar – across its payment network. “We see increasing demand from consumers across the world to be able to access, hold and use digital currencies and we’re seeing demand from our clients to be able to build products that provide that access for consumers,” says Cuy Sheffield, Head of Cryptocurrency at Visa. This comes shortly after crypto-enthusiast and Tesla founder, Elon Musk confirmed that the electric car company will now accept Bitcoin as a form of payment – news that has caused the price of Bitcoin to rise 5%. ...
DiDi Ride-Hailing Service to Rival Uber in South Africa
Image sourced from Reuters DiDi Chuxing Technology Co has announced it would launch a ride-hailing service in South Africa. The Chinese company already has more than 600 million users across Asia, Latin America & Russia. In a statement, DiDi says it “understands the challenges [South African] communities and the transportation industry face with the evolution of urban mobility (rideshare) and as a result is committed to creating the freedom and convenience to go places, open up horizons and give access to new experiences through our platforms.” The company then reveals that it’s now on a mission to help South Africans “move freely and to unlock their potential and that of the cities they live in”. UberGo Launches in South Africa Uber has launched its low-cost ride-hailing service ...
Bolt Kenya Launches Food Delivery Service to Rival Uber Eats
Bolt has officially launched a new food delivery service in Kenya after announcing this plan in 2020. So far the service – which aims to give users access to restaurants and menus from the palm of their hands – has partnered with around 200 restaurants, including KFC, Big Square, Pizza Mojo, Urban Gourmet Burger, Debonairs Pizza, Steers, Ohcha Noodle Bar, The Chef House, Wings Kenya Alchemist, Shokudo Japanese, Barista & Co, Mercado, Awash Ethiopian restaurant, Charlie’s Bistro and Bao Box. “Food delivery has been a popular request for quite some time and we are glad to bring this service to the millions of people who are using our platform. The infrastructure and experience we have built up with our ride-hailing business give us a good platform to expand and diversify our services,” s...
Nutanix and CLC Africa Partner to Provide Digital Skills Across East Africa
Image sourced from Glassdoor Nutanix and Computer Learning Centre (CLC AFRICA) have joined forces to provide access to technical and sales skills across Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia and Rwanda. The partnership is expected to help provide access to valuable certified digital training to a region where demand for hyper-converged and cloud solutions is growing. “As legacy environments come to their end-of-life, African businesses are rapidly upscaling their environments to software-defined environments based on hyper-converged infrastructure solutions that will ready them for the cloud,” says Rowen Grierson, Sales Director for Sub-Saharan Africa at Nutanix. “We are delighted to announce that CLC is now an official ATP for the region. Their experience in training, the quality of their ins...
Nutanix Appoints New Channel Director for Sub-Saharan Africa
Nutanix has appointed Andrew Gill as Channel Director for Western Europe & Sub-Saharan Africa (WEURSSA). Responsible for leading all channel and OEM activities in WEURSSA, Gill will oversee Nutanix’s go-to-market relationships with resellers, distributors, regional system integrators and technology partners in the region. Additionally, he will play a key role in driving channel-focused initiatives such as Nutanix Cloud Bundles, a strategic and unified offering to access Nutanix enterprise cloud software and solutions, while providing partners with greater value and autonomy through the sales channel. This unified management bundle enables Nutanix to expand access to its solutions, with an offering that meets the needs and budgets of any company as an essential addition to their En...
Amazon Appoints Former Exec as New CEO of AWS
Image sourced from CNBC Amazon has appointed Adam Selipsky as the new CEO of cloud-computing division, Amazon Web Services (AWS). Selipsky succeeds Andy Jassy who is set to become CEO of Amazon after it was revealed that Jeff Bezos would step down this year. “Adam is not a new face to AWS. Back in 2005, Adam was one of the first VPs we hired in AWS, and ran AWS’s Sales, Marketing, and Support for 11 years (as well as some other areas like our AWS Platform services for a spell). Adam then became the CEO of Tableau in 2016, and ran Tableau for the last 4.5 years,” writes Jassy. “Adam brings strong judgment, customer obsession, team building, demand generation, and CEO experience to an already very strong AWS leadership team. And, having been in such a senior role at AWS for 11 years, he know...
Airtel Africa to Sell $200 Million Stake in Mobile Money Business
Sourced from Comms MEA Airtel Africa is set to sell a minority stake – worth $200 million – in Airtel Mobile Commerce BV (AMC BV) to global investment company, The Rise Fund. “The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions including necessary regulatory filings and approvals, as necessary, and the inclusion of specified mobile money business assets and contracts into AMC BV,” reveals the company. According to TechCrunch, this deal values the mobile money business at $2.65 billion with operations across 14 African countries, including Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria. “Our markets afford the substantial market potential for mobile money services to meet the needs of the tens of millions of customers in Africa who have little or no access to banking and financial services, and this dema...
First Overland Fibre Network Deployed in DRC
Liquid Intelligent Technologies has deployed the first overland fibre network in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This expansion is expected to connect millions of DRC citizens and thousands of businesses to the ‘One Africa’ broadband network totalling more than 73,000 kms across the African continent. Furthermore, Kinshasa and most major cities in the DRC are now connected directly to the world, linking to such cities as London, San Francisco, and Singapore, and many other global economic hubs. The DRC route is also part of the first-ever complete East to West network in Africa, offering low latency, high bandwidth fibre connectivity and high availability. “The completion of this project is part of the strategic vision to connect the African continent to the rest of the world,” say...
Google Reduces Play Store Fees for Developers by up to 50%
Image sourced from Pymnts Google has revealed that the service fee charged to Play Store developers could be reduced by up to 50%. The tech giant believes this is will help developers build sustainable businesses. “We work with partners every day to understand the challenges they face and help them bring their innovative ideas to life. Getting a new app off the ground and into orbit is not easy!” reads a blog post from Google. This why, starting from 1 July 2021, Google will reduce the service fee Google Play receives when a developer sells digital goods or services to 15% for the first $1M (USD) of revenue every developer earns each year. “With this change, 99% of developers globally that sell digital goods and services with Play will see a 50% reduction in fees. These are funds that can ...
Dropbox Users Can Store 50 Passwords for Free
Image sourced from TheStreet Dropbox’s password manager will soon be available to all users – the service will store up to 50 of the most important passwords in one secure place. “The Passwords app remembers your usernames and passwords on all your devices—so you don’t have to. And zero-knowledge encryption ensures only you know your passwords, not Dropbox,” reads a blog post from Dropbox. “We’re excited to help make the passwords experience easy for everyone, so in early April we’re rolling out Dropbox Passwords to all Dropbox users. Now, with a free Dropbox Basic plan, you can try a limited version of Passwords.” The software company says that users can access these passwords anywhere with automatic syncing on up to three devices and soon they will be able to securely share these passwor...
Uber Offers 1 Million Rides to Teachers Across the World
Sourced from CNet. Uber has offered 1 million rides to teachers around the world to and from vaccination appointments to support the reopening of schools and to protect teachers and their communities. As a member of the Global Education Coalition, Uber worked with UNESCO and its partners during the first wave of COVID-19 to deliver meals to the hardest-hit students in countries such as the UK, Kenya, Mexico and Colombia. With cases of COVID-19 still rising around the world, and many schools either fully or partially closed, Uber and UNESCO are extending their partnership. Together, Uber and UNESCO aim to remove transportation as a barrier to accessing vaccinations for teachers around the world as and when governments allow local teachers to get vaccinated. “We look forward to building...
South African Luno Users to Earn Interest on Bitcoin and Ethereum
South African-founded Luno will let customers earn interest on Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDC – allowing users to earn passive income on their cryptocurrencies. These cryptos are now available in the platforms savings wallet. Users can expect up to 4% interest per annum on Ethereum and 7.6% per annum on USDC. The interest will be earned and paid in cryptocurrency. “Luno research last year showed that over a third of those surveyed (35%) were not earning any interest on their traditional cash savings at all, so growing savings options and making saving simple and accessible is a priority for us,” says Luno Africa GM, Marius Reitz. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_5e5.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_5e5.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } “The same research from last year found 54% are not e...
