IT News
Airtel Africa Names New Group CEO
Image sourced from Khusoko – East African Markets Airtel Africa has appointed Segun Ogunsanya as the group’s new CEO – effective from 1 October 2021. He is taking over from Raghu Mandava who led the telco for the last five years. “We are delighted to appoint Segun Ogunsanya as the Group’s next Chief Executive Officer. He has displayed significant drive and energy in turning around the Nigeria business by focusing on network modernisation, distribution, and operational efficiency. It is this commitment, together with his industry experience, strategic vision, constant customer focus and proven record of delivery that will enable him to continue to deliver our strategic objectives and to lead the Group in the next stages of its development,” says Airtel Chairman, Sunil Bharti Mittal. He goes...
NETSCOUT Visibility is Enhanced by AWS Expanded Support for Virtual Private Cloud Traffic Mirroring
Risna Steenkamp, General Manager: ESM Division at Networks Unlimited Africa Amazon Web Services (AWS), the world’s largest provider of on-demand cloud computing platforms, has now expanded its Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC) Traffic Mirroring to support additional select non-Nitro Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instance types. As a result of this expansion, NETSCOUT is enabled to provide end-to-end visibility for security and service assurance of even more applications and services that are used in AWS. NETSCOUT, a leading global provider of service assurance, security and business analytics, is distributed throughout Africa by Networks Unlimited. Risna Steenkamp, General Manager: ESM Division at value-added distributor Networks Unlimited, explains, “Nitro is the underlying pla...
Is ICT the Solution to Unemployment in Africa?
Sourced from IDG Connect The socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is especially hard-hitting for younger generations in Africa. The youth are faced with multiple challenges including disruptions to education, training and on-the-job learning. They are further impacted by employment and income losses due to layoffs and reduced working hours. Despite massive obstacles, the employment crisis should be an opportunity for immense transformation. The pandemic has shown that digital technology is now vital for every economy, greatly increasing the potential for Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to solve growing problems of unemployment and skills development across the continent. However, the success of countries’ responses to this crisis, the sustainability of the recove...
vivo Partners with Jambo Shoppee to Expand Footprint in Kenya
vivo has partnered with Kenyan online retailer Jambo Shoppee to increase its footprint across the East African country. According to a Master Card study on consumer spending in February 2021, it revealed that 79% of consumers in Kenya are shopping more online since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the partnership, vivo is confident that the online visibility of its products will increase – giving potential customers a wider range of choices. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_454.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_454.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } “The Kenyan Smartphone market offers a favourable competitive landscape; with consumers considering online purchasing options, this partnership will give our users a wide range of choice and will see them enjoy the best mobile phones ...
Here’s How Many Mobile Users in Kenya and Nigeria are Affected by Stalkerware
Stalkerware affects one out of every 100 mobile users in Kenya and Nigeria, according to Kaspersky Research. The same report reveals that similar malware impacts every four out of 100 South Africans. “Even though these numbers might seem low, especially when it comes to stalkerware, it bears mentioning that this form of attack is focused on specific individuals,” says Lehan van den Heever, Enterprise Cyber Security Advisor for Kaspersky in Africa. “So, unlike general malware that is distributed on a massive scale, stalkerware is a more personal crime that has life and death consequences for the individual affected, for example, a perpetrator can track down their estranged partner with ill intentions, or human trafficking rings targeting children.” Amongst other things, stalkerware can enab...
New Partnership Allows South African Uber Drivers to Become Vehicle Owners
Sourced from CNet. Uber has once again partnered with flexible car ownership company – Moove – to give Uber Go drivers the chance to become vehicle owners at an affordable rate. This partnership replicates successful launches in both Nigeria and Ghana. Drivers on the Uber Go platform now have access to brand new Toyota Agyas from as low as R1,599 per week for Flexi Car Weekly Rental and R1,950 per week for Drive to Own deals, including zero deposit, free maintenance and free insurance. “As we recover, we know we need to continue to offer solutions that respond to consumers who are now more price-sensitive than ever,” says Frans Hiemstra, GM of Uber Sub-Saharan Africa. “We also need to continue to offer drivers quality, compact and cost-efficient vehicle choices that will better help e...
Absa Group Appoints New Chief Risk Officer
Absa has appointed Deon Raju as the new Group Chief Risk Officer – effective 1 June 2021. Raju is currently Absa Group Treasurer, primarily responsible for the liquidity risk, funding, capital, and non-traded market risks of the Group. He has been with Absa for more than 20 years, having held roles including in Enterprise Risk, Finance, Investment Banking, Credit Portfolio Management and Global Markets. He is a seasoned banking professional with deep institutional knowledge of the Group, as well extensive and diversified banking experience in business, finance and risk management. Raju is a Chartered Accountant and a Chartered Financial Analyst. He holds a BCom (Honours) from the University of Natal and is currently completing an MSc in Finance at the University of Michigan (Dearborn). “De...
Top Tech African Entities Collaborate to Boost Digital Transformation for 2021 and Beyond
“To inspire people, don’t show them your superpowers. Show them theirs -” Alexander den Heijer. Africa Tech Week advocates are setting out to do just that. The event is the golden opportunity to showcase what’s hot in tech on the African continent – a platform to demonstrate to the rest of the world Africa’s superpowers. Welcome to the ‘new frontier,’ Africa Tech Week, created in Africa, for Africans, by Africans. The event is taking place on the 5th and 6th of May, and we are expecting an excess of 3000 attendees. Everyone is aware that Africa has faced challenges, and it is together that we can solve them. Africa is a hotbed of potential in terms of measuring and testing concepts and ideas. What we lack in capital, we make up for in passion, resilience and a ‘can do’ attitude. Afri...
MTN Ghana Promises $149 Million in Infrastructure Expansion
MTN Ghana has revealed its results for the quarter ended 31 March. The telco’s subscriberbase grew by 0.6 million to 25.0 million, as it improved its network and customerexperience. Continued demand for data and increased adoption of more digital payment services supported the active data subscribers’ growth of 0.4 million to reach 11.2 million and MoMo users growth of 0.1 million to reach 10.7 million. Most notably, MTN Ghana revealed that it would spend around $149 million in total CAPEX in the year to meet the heightened need for reliable and resilient voice, data and digital services. “We remain in line with our medium-term target to improve our margins and prudently manage our costs. EBITDA grew by 24.6%, with a corresponding margin expansion of 1.2 percentage points to 54.6%. Th...
Samsung Introduces the New Galaxy Book Pro Series
Samsung has unveiled the newest additions to its Galaxy Book Pro Series – including the Galaxy Book Pro 13 and 15 as well as the Galaxy Book Pro 360. “We at Samsung have pioneered countless exciting mobile experiences – new hardware, software, and new ways to help you stay connected and give you the freedom to live your life to the fullest,” says Dr TM Roh, President and Head of Mobile Communications Business, Samsung Electronics. “The new Galaxy Book Pro series offers true mobile computing for the connected world, enabling ultra-light, yet mighty portability, boundless connectivity and a window into your wider Galaxy ecosystem.” The Galaxy Book Pro Series is powered by next-generation hardware, including an 11th Gen Intel Core processor and Intel Iris® Xe graphics. The laptops are equippe...
Most Important Things to Look for in a Gaming Monitor
Since the start of global lockdowns, the gaming industry has been booming. A recent report shows that viewership on Twitch, the most popular live streaming platform for gaming content, reached 6.3 billion hours in the first quarter of this year – that’s more than double what it was during the first quarter of 2020. Now, with more people gaming, the demand for premium gaming equipment has also increased. But not everyone knows exactly what to look out for when it comes to gaming monitors. A monitor is your window to the world of gaming and, considering how much time you’ll be spending looking at it, it’s worth investing in the future of your gaming setup. Ultimately, you don’t want a monitor that holds you back from unleashing the full potential of your graphics card. High- and mid-ra...
Sony Sells 7.8 Million PS5s Worldwide
Sony has revealed that it shipped 7.8 million PlayStation 5 consoles across the world as of March 2021 – this number highlights the company’s ability to mass-produce the console, even though it has been extremely difficult to buy since its launch in November. According to The Verge, Sony’s record fourth-quarter figures bring the overall PlayStation business to a total operating profit of 342.2 billion yen ($3.14 billion) for the 2020 financial year. Sony PS5 System Specs and Features As previously revealed, the PlayStation 5 is running on a system similar to a high-end gaming PC. It features an 8 core Zen 2-based AMD CPU running at 3.5ghz. Its GPU is completely customised and based off of AMD’s next-generation RDNA 2 architecture capable of generating 10.28 teraflops. /* custom c...
