technology news
MTN Nigeria Subscribers Grow to 76.5 Million
Sourced from TheTechieGuy (https://thetechieguy.com/) MTN Nigeria has published its financial year results – ending December 2020 – which reveal an increase of 12.2 million mobile subscribers to total 76.5 million. The telco also recorded: Active data users increased by 7.4 million to 32.6 million Service revenue increased by 14.7% to NGN1.3 trillion Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) grew by 9.7% to N685.7 billion EBITDA margin declined by 2.5 percentage point (pp) to 50.9% Profit before tax (PBT) grew by 2.6% to N298.9 billion Earnings per share (EPS) rose by 0.9% to N10.1 MTN Launches Supersonic AirFibre in South Africa MTN has launched its Supersonic AirFibre offering in South Africa. The product is said to overcome distance and a lack of infrastruct...
Vodacom Launches First-of-its-Kind Mobile Health Service in DRC
Vodacom and Mondia have partnered to launch ‘Mum & Baby’ across the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Mum & Baby is a free-of-charge mobile health intervention service that provides subscribers with maternal, neonatal and child health information designed to encourage good health practices amongst pregnant women, mothers, partners and caregivers. Mondia creates Mum & Baby’s tailored content in the local language and includes expert articles, videos and information-sharing SMS messages. Mum & Baby’s future enhancements in the DRC will provide interactive tools including a due-date calculator, an immunisation calendar, medication reminder, medication safety information and other health tools and services. “Accessing healthcare services in Africa can be challenging, and ...
Legal Tech CEO Shares 10 Leadership Tips for Women
Women in Tech (WIT) Conversations is an all-women virtual forum launched recently to spark interaction and impart professional insights for the advancement of women in the South African tech space. A collaboration between legal technology firm, LexisNexis South Africa, and information technology vendor, Dell Technologies, the sessions see some of South Africa’s foremost women in technology sharing their professional experiences. Those interested in attending the next WIT Conversations event on Monday, 8 March 2021 at 14:00, commemorating International Women’s Day, can register here. During the first event in the series, held on on 18 February, LexisNexis CEO and Chairperson of the Board, Videsha Proothveerajh, shared insights under the theme, Love Lessons in Leadership. /* cust...
3 Reasons Data Management can Unlock the Value of Healthcare Data
Data in the healthcare sector is heavily regulated, with numerous laws and regulations governing how data needs to be processed, protected and retained. This has become more important than ever in light of the COVID-19 crisis, which has made healthcare data an increasingly attractive target for cybercrime. However, the pandemic has also highlighted the need to be able to analyse and share data effectively, as the world strives for improved treatment protocols and ideally an effective and safe vaccination. Data management has become a critical tool to unlocking the value of healthcare data, during the pandemic and beyond. Here are three ways effective data management can provide value: /* custom css */ .tdi_3_0c4.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_0c4.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0...
Jumia to Expand Food Delivery Service in Africa
Jumia is set to expand its eCommerce offering to include food delivery. According to the company’s co-CEO, Sacha Poignonnec, 20% of all transactions across the Jumia platform is already made up of food and this is growing quickly. He also revealed that the service will expand to Egypt following the exit of Uber Eats. TechCentral writes [Poignonnec’s] comments come “after a year where demand for delivered meals and groceries has exploded worldwide as restrictions to contain the coronavirus kept people indoors”. And while countries in Africa have taken longer than others around the world to adopt this trend – due to limited access to affordable Internet solutions – Jumia is making waves to expand before other eCommerce goliaths – like Amazon – do. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_bce.td-a-rec-im...
Luno Reaches 7 Million Users Milestone
South African-founded Luno has officially recorded seven million customers (wallets) – just seven weeks after reaching the milestone of six million customers. The business believes this growth is due to the simplicity of its online and mobile platforms, offering education, bank-grade security and self-regulation. It is actively working with regulators and banks to safely increase access to cryptocurrencies. Luno was ranked in the top six cryptocurrency exchanges worldwide in the latest CryptoCompare Exchange Benchmark and also received the top tier AA rating. South Africa is one of Luno’s strongest markets and the appetite for cryptocurrency trades continues to grow. Reaching seven million wallets demonstrates the growing adoption of cryptocurrencies across the globe. /* custom css */...
Telkom to Support Community-Led Coding Programme in South Africa
Telkom has partnered with the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies to hand over a community lab as well as a community-led coding programme to the Alice community in Eastern Cape, South Africa. As part of the Digital Skills Development Programme, Telkom has identified 25 unemployed youth aged between 18-35 with IT background from the community to partake in a month-long coding programme. The youth will be provided with laptops and software. The company has also donated a fully fitted computer lab and a comprehensive educational content platform to enhance digital skills and online learning at Healdtown High School in Fort Beaufort. “The Telkom Foundation’s mission is rooted in meaningful and sustainable community upliftment and development,” says Sarah Mthintso, Head of Te...
4 Ways to Use Your Smartphone Better
Sourced from Getty Images. Smartphones are glued to the palm of our hands for most of the day, perhaps to keep up with the latest social media updates or to keep in contact with family, friends and even clients. Whatever the reason may be, smartphones are here and, let’s be honest, we probably wouldn’t survive a day without them. With this in mind, here are four ways to make the most of your screen time: 1. Record important information When it comes to remembering things, it often goes in one ear and out the other – despite our best efforts. To make sure that you remember important dates, meetings, or other events, use your phone’s calendar. Most of them will allow you to sync with your email calendar, which means that there’s no excuse for forgetting. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_7c6.td-a...
Telegram Introduces Auto-Delete and Expiring Invite Features
Image sourced from The Independent Telegram has released a new update that includes an auto-delete timer for messages in any chat, as well as new flexible invite links. Auto-Delete Messages Telegram users can now enable an auto-delete timer in all chats, which will automatically erase messages for all participants either 24 hours or 7 days after sending. Auto-delete only applies to messages sent after the timer is set, earlier messages will stay in the chat history. Unlike in Secret Chats, the countdown starts when messages are sent, not read. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_130.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_130.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } To enable the timer on Android, tap ⋮ > Clear History then choose a duration. On iOS, press and hold a message, tap Select > Clear C...
Twitter Considers Charging Users for Exclusive Content
Image sourced from Mission Statement Academy Twitter is exploring a subscription-based model – called “super follows” – where users can charge followers for access to exclusive content. “Exploring audience funding opportunities like Super Follows will allow creators and publishers to be directly supported by their audience and will incentivise them to continue creating content that their audience loves,” reveals a Twitter spokesperson. The social platform’s Head of Product, Kayvon Beykpour says that the exclusive content could include anything from tweets and direct messages to audio conversations and newsletters. “We also think that an audience-funded model, where subscribers can directly fund the content that they value most, is a durable incentive model that aligns the interest of creat...
Haller Farmers: Restoring African Land for Over 50 Years
The Haller Farmers app is taking advantage of Africa’s increasing mobile penetration by equipping the next generation of farmers with knowledge, information and education through technology. The app — which was developed for farmers by farmers — takes its unique name from UNEP Global 500 Laureate, Dr Rene Haller, who has spent the last 50 years experimenting with nature to restore life to degraded landscapes. Since the 1970s, Dr Haller has used science and careful observation to allow barren quarried landscapes to be transformed into abundant and diverse forest ecosystems, sanctuaries for endangered species, and resources for local African communities. An example of this is Haller Park, a former limestone quarry that is now a flourishing hub of biodiversity. The 7km² landscape is curr...
Digital Advertising Ready to Take-Off in South Africa
Advertising is big business. Ever since the first banner ad way back in 1994, we’ve been consuming this digital content on almost every major platform we use, seeing countless images and videos throughout the average workday. It’s also worth noting that digital advertising spend is on the up constantly, too. The global Mobile Advertising market size is projected to reach $5.13 billion by 2026, growing from $4.16 billion over 2020 – working out at a CAGR of an astonishing 21.6% over the next five years. The U.S. mobile advertising market alone is expected to grow by a fifth, reaching approximately $70 billion in spending – an overwhelming 75% of all digital advertising spend. It’s the same in Europe – in 2021, £16.21 billion was spent in the UK. In a couple of years, calculations have estim...
