Top Stories
E-Livestock and Mastercard Launch Blockchain-Based Solution to Aid Farmers in Zimbabwe
Image sourced from Feed Navigator. E-Livestock Global today launched a first-of-its-kind solution powered by Mastercard’s blockchain-based Provenance solution, empowering Zimbabwean farmers to prove the origin and health records of their cattle, while reducing risks to buyers. First-of-its-Kind A first in the Middle East and Africa, the solution brings new hope to Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector after an outbreak of tick-borne disease in 2018 led to the death of 50,000 cattle. The lack of a traceability system has seen Zimbabwe unable to export beef to lucrative markets in Europe and the Middle East in recent years, reducing export earnings from beef, which are important to the country’s economy. The E-Livestock Global solution brings end-to-end visibility to the cattle supply chain. Commer...
Remote Working Leads to 78% Increase in Cyberattacks Worldwide
Even though social media platforms are flooded with news of companies proudly presenting the fact that they are permanently shifting to a remote-work environment, they usually do not mention the fact that the pivot has created major issues for their security. Unpatched personal devices, erratic employee behaviour, and inadequately protected home networks create many loopholes for threat actors to exploit. What the Stats Say Carbon Black, a company that provides workload protection services surveyed 3,542 CIOs, CTOs, and CISOs to find out if WFH (work from home) resulted in an increase in cyberattacks. Respondents were from various industries and 14 different countries. The survey was published in June 2021. The study shows that a whopping 96% of enterprises in France saw a significant incr...
MTN to Launch OpenRAN Network in Africa
MTN Group is leveraging its expansive footprint across Africa to test and ultimately deploy OpenRAN – an innovative technology that will enable it to launch new services more quickly, cost-effectively and seamlessly, supporting future strategies in line with the company’s Ambition 2025: Leading digital solutions for Africa’s progress. MTN plans to modernise its radio access networks using OpenRAN. This is in line with one of five vital enablers of MTN’s strategy: to build technology platforms that the company believes are second to none, thereby allowing for the rapid expansion of 4G and 5G population coverage across its markets. With up-to-date technology, MTN expects a reduction in its power consumption and associated carbon emissions. This, in turn, supports its plans to decarbonise its...
Ghana Sees Huge Surge in Digital Communications with COVID Pushing Customer Experience
Image sourced from Goobjoob Education. To a large extent, enhancing the customer experience (CX) has been a game of catch-up for most organisations in Ghana, until the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic which significantly accelerated the uptake of digital channels by enterprises last year. As the pandemic drove consumers to avoid traditional physical interaction with brands, so many corporates were forced to move their services and products online. For example, many insurance companies that used third-party agents before the pandemic are now adopting digital channels at a significant rate. This is to allow customers to buy policies online, via Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) or through a mobile app or website. Not only was the adoption of digital channels significantly accel...
3 Freshest & Latest Trends for Cloud Security in 2021
Sourced from InfoWorld. With cloud security continuing to be a hot topic in 2021, Fortinet and Cybersecurity Insiders decided to ask cybersecurity professionals around the world and across all industries for their latest insight. The brand new 2021 Cloud Security Report reveals how more than 500 cybersecurity professionals —from technical executives to managers and IT security practitioners — are responding to security threats in the cloud, how their organisations are using the cloud, and the best practices they are prioritising. Let’s take a look at some of the key findings. 1. A Diverse Digital Landscape – The Role of Cloud Security First, and perhaps not surprisingly, organisations continue to rapidly adopt the cloud to meet key business objectives. And that trend doesn’t...
Windows 10 is Being Retired – What We Know About Windows 11
Sourced from The Sun UK. /* custom css */ .tdi_4_993.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_4_993.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } Windows 10 Home and Pro are set to be retired on 14 October 2025, no doubt as a harbinger to the launch of Windows 11. Pro Educations and Pro for Workstations versions of the OS are also included in the date. This comes according to Microsoft’s official Windows 10 life cycle page, however, this information doesn’t appear to be new. A PC Magazine article from 2015 reflects that Windows 10 has been slated to be retired in 2025 since the year of its release. This is in line with Microsoft’s policy on operating systems – 5 years mainstream support followed by another 10 years of extended support. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_ac2.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.t...
Standard Bank Partners with Microsoft to Boost Innovation and Drive Growth in Africa
Image sourced from Regent Lighting. /* custom css */ .tdi_4_3c0.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_4_3c0.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } Yesterday, Standard Bank and Microsoft announced a strategic partnership to accelerate the digital transformation of Africa’s largest financial institution and further drive the continent’s growth. The Bank’s growing investment in the Microsoft Cloud will enable the innovation, efficiencies, and resilience required to respond to market dynamics and customer needs. This partnership builds on the 30-year relationship between the two companies and involves migrating workloads, applications, and platforms to Microsoft Azure to drive organisational efficiencies, as well as workforce collaboration with Azure, PowerApps, Workplace Analytics and Micros...
IT Teams Facing Cyber Threats in 2020 – 5 Vital Insights
Image sourced from CIO. “Around the world, 2020 was an unprecedented year for IT teams,” said Chester Wisniewski, principal research scientist, Sophos. IT professionals played a vital role in helping organizations to keep going despite the restrictions and limitations necessitated by COVID-19. Among other things, they enabled education institutions to move learning online, retailers to switch to online transactions, healthcare organizations to deliver digital services and care under incredibly tough circumstances, and ensured public entities could continue to provide essential services. Much of this will have been done at high speed, with limited equipment and resources available and while facing a rising tide of cyberattacks against the network, endpoints and employees. To say things were...
“Yellow Card” Seeks to Shake Up Cryptocurrency in Kenya
Image sourced from Kryptocurrency. /* custom css */ .tdi_4_770.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_4_770.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } Yellow Card, a leading Africa-focused finance platform for trading cryptocurrencies has finally arrived in Kenya. The company claims it already has offices in 9 African countries, allowing customers from Nigeria, Botswana, Cameroon and South Africa, and others, to buy and sell crypto through its platform. “Yellow Card is a cryptocurrency exchange on which you can buy or sell supported cryptocurrencies with your local currency,” reads Yellow Card’s official website. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_776.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_776.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } The company “offers a secure cryptocurrency wallet with which you send,...
Ethiopian Government Selling a 40% Stake in Ethio Telecom
Image sourced from Africanews. The Ethiopian government has announced a new tender process to begin the sale of a 40% stake in the state-owned telecommunications company, Ethio Telecom. The sale is still in its very early stages with the selection of a successful bidder expected only at the end of a significantly lengthy process. According to reports, the government plans to retain a 55% stake in the operator while the remaining 5% will be offered to domestic investors through an initial public offering. This new proposed sale of a large minority stake in the telecom comes as part of the Ethiopian government’s plan to liberalise the country’s monopoly in its telecom sector. Another key piece of the plan is for two foreign carriers to be granted licenses to operate in the vast, nearly-untap...
Take Control of Your Company’s Digital Transformation – Register for #DTF2021
Join the DTF 2021 as an attendee – https://itnewsafrica.com/events/event/digital-transformation-congress-webinar/ Change is Inevitable Digital transformation is as inevitable as the passage of time. The new will replace the old, as the axiom goes. Business leaders and company executives must evolve their organisations, or risk extinction in the future when attempting to transform too late proves too little. One doesn’t need to go far for practical examples of this. In 2020, companies either adapted to the new normal or contemplated filing bankruptcy. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic was an unprecedented and entirely unexpected event. Remember when “Remote Work” was just a novel idea? Time will continue to present these events – these unexpected drastic changes, and forward-minded l...
MTN Deploys “First-of-its-Kind” Infrastructure Advancing Network Automation in Uganda
Sourced from TheTechieGuy (https://thetechieguy.com/) MTN Uganda and several members of the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) have signed an agreement that will advance network automation in the country and abroad using TIP’s Disaggregated Cell Site Gateway (DCSG). This first of its kind network deployment in Africa will see MTN evolve its Transport Network and turn it into a future-proof asset that will seamlessly enable its network transition to 5G. Transport Network transmits data traffic between points within a network that enable access to the internet. Through Ambition 2025, MTN’s strategic blueprint, Network-as-a-Service (Naas) is one of five scale platforms for growth that contribute to leading digital solutions for Africa’s progress. TIP’s Disaggregated Cell Site Gateway (DCSG) DCSGs ul...
