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M-Pesa Africa Appoints New Managing Director
Image sourced from Twitter Safaricom’s M-Pesa Africa has appointed Sitoyo Lopokoiyit as its new Managing Director. He is a “mobile financial services expert who has directly managed mobile money in two of the largest markets in the world – Kenya and Tanzania,” reveals MyBroadBand. Lopokoiyit joined Safaricom in 2011 as head of M-Pesa strategy and business development. He then went on to Vodacom Tanzania in 2016 where he worked as the director of m-commerce, before re-joining Safaricom in 2018. Kenyan Senators Call for Safaricom to Split Senators in Kenya believe that Safaricom should split into two firms – Mobile Services and M-PESA. According to The Star, a split would see the mobile telephony service is regulated by the Communication Authority of Kenya (CAK) and the M-Pesa...
Facebook Says it Won’t Notify Users Implicated in ‘Hack’
On April 3, Business Insider revealed that more than 530 million Facebook users personal information had been made publicly available in an unsecured database – this included names, email addresses, and phone numbers. Facebook has now disclosed that it doesn’t plan to notify the users whose data was exposed online. According to The Verge, the social media platform “cited two reasons as to why it’s not telling users proactively: it says it’s not confident it would know which users would need to be notified and that users wouldn’t be able to do anything about the data being online”. Facebook believes that the data leak is the result of malicious actors who obtained the data by scraping it from the platform prior to September 2019. “We believe the data in question was scraped from ...
South Africa to Receive 20 Million Doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine
Image sourced from TimesLIVE Pfizer is set to distribute 20 million doses of its COVID-19 Vaccine to South Africa – starting mid-April. This comes after the pharmaceutical company managed to resolve contractual conditions that weren’t in line with South Africa’s normal procurement policies, revealed Department of Health deputy director-general, Anban Pillay. According to Bloomberg, the Pfizer-BioNTech version will be “used to kick-start the rollout after a decision not to use AstraZeneca Plc’s shot, which was found to offer little protection against mild forms of COVID-19 in a local trial”. AstraZeneca Vaccine Only ‘Minimally Effective’ Against South African COVID-19 Variant, says Researcher The AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine has proven ‘minimally effective’ against the South African variant...
Instax Mini 40 to Launch in South Africa
Fujifilm has announced that its newest entry-level camera, the Instax Mini 40 instant camera, would soon launch in South Africa. The Mini 40 embraces the old-school look and feel of film cameras thanks to its all-black leatherette body combined with a classic silver frame. Despite its retro looks, the Mini 40 incorporates the latest technology, as found on Instax’s Mini 11 and Square SQ1 instant cameras released last year. With the ‘Automatic Exposure’ function, for example, the Mini 40 automatically optimises the shutter speed, flash output and other settings according to the overall shooting conditions. This allows for balanced prints that are correctly exposed in both bright outdoor and low-light indoor environments. Users can also activate the ‘Selfie mode’ for taking selfies and ...
Uber Expands Ride-Hailing Service in Kenya
Sourced from CNet. Uber has expanded its ride-hailing service and online food delivery business to Nakuru, Kenya. According to Business Daily, this move will increase competition in the East African town where taxi-hailing services are dominated by Wasili Cabs and Bolt. “We remain optimistic about the business opportunity in Kenya, and the launch of Nakuru shows our commitment to the region,” says Brian Njao, Uber Head for East Africa. “With the COVID-19 pandemic, we are committed to helping people take essential trips safely while providing more avenues for economic opportunities for Kenyans.” /* custom css */ .tdi_3_d33.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_d33.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } Uber Eats Nakuru has partnered with restaurants including KFC, Java House, Jamia Food ...
5G Rollout in Kenya Escalates as Airtel Upgrades 600 Sites
Sourced from Comms MEA Airtel Kenya has upgraded over 600 sites in Nairobi, Mombasa and Malindi to ensure that they are 5G ready – this comes shortly after rival telco, Safaricom, launched the first 5G commercial services in East Africa. “These 600 sites are now 5G-ready. We don’t have to make any further modifications to the network. We will just get the spectrum and decide when to switch on,” says Prasanta Das Sarma, MD of Airtel Kenya. According to Business Daily, the new 5G network will “give consumers Internet speeds of 700 megabits per second, more than three times faster than the current 4G network, allowing operators to offer an alternative service for homes and offices in areas which are not currently covered by its fibre network”. Sarma also revealed that subscribers can hope to ...
Yahoo Answers to Shut Down in May
Image sourced from Android Headlines Yahoo Answers is officially being shut down after almost sixteen years of helping people around the world connect and share information. According to the platform’s website, it will be available in read-only mode from 20 April 2021 and officially shut down on 4 May 2021. A statement sent to active Yahoo Answers users reveals how Answers, once a key part of Yahoo’s products and services, has become “less popular over the years as the needs of our members have changed.” “We launched Yahoo Answers sixteen years ago to help people around the world connect and share information. With you and millions of other users, we built the best place on the web to ask and answer questions on a variety of topics, creating a community of global knowledge sharing. Wh...
LG to Quit the Manufacturing and Sales of Smartphones
LG has announced that it is closing its loss-making mobile business unit – a decision approved by the board of directors. The tech company says this will allow it to “focus resources in growth areas such as electric vehicle components, connected devices, smart homes, robotics, artificial intelligence and business-to-business solutions, as well as platforms and services”. According to LG, it will still provide service support and software updates for customers of existing mobile products for a period of time which will vary by region and it will also work with suppliers and business partners throughout the closure of the mobile phone business. Moving forward, LG says it will continue to leverage its mobile expertise and develop mobility-related technologies such as 6G to help further streng...
African’s Reluctant to Leave WhatsApp Despite Increase in Cybersecurity Concerns
Africa’s mobile users are increasingly concerned about the mobile risks and the potential for digital identity theft; however, this is not stopping them from using their favourite messaging platforms and applications. This emerged in new research carried out by KnowBe4 among smartphone users in Nigeria, Mauritius, Egypt, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Morocco and Botswana. The survey gauged the opinions of Africa’s mobile users on the recent decision by WhatsApp to update their terms and conditions, sharing metadata with the rest of the Facebook group of companies. The survey found that not only did the majority of the respondents across Africa intend to continue using WhatsApp; but also, that their favourite alternative to WhatsApp was Facebook Messenger. Anna Collard, SVP Content Strategy &...
How to Add Stickers to Fleets on Twitter
Image sourced from Mission Statement Academy Twitter is making it possible for users to add stickers to their Fleets. In a new update, both Android and iOS users will be able to add stickers by simply tapping the smiley face icon on the bottom row of their screen. “Fleets just got an upgrade,” reveals Twitter in an official tweet. “Now you can express yourself in the conversation with stickers. Add GIFs and Twemojis to a Fleet by tapping the Slightly smiling face icon, on Android and iOS.” Your Fleets just got an upgrade. Now you can express yourself in the conversation with stickers. Add GIFs and Twemojis to a Fleet by tapping the 🙂 icon, on Android and iOS. pic.twitter.com/Ihh9ZZh70a — Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) March 31, 2021 Twitter is Testing a New Way to Post Imag...
How Mobile Technology could Provide Food Security for Rural African Communities
Climate change combined with unsustainable farming practices has exhausted African soil — leaving much of the ground unfarmable. In the future, a major reduction in crop yield and productivity is likely to be seen as a consequence of the extreme weather conditions and unviable farming techniques. In fact, the production of maize could decrease by as much as 10%, even if no climate adaptation actions are taken. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_560.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_560.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } According to the African Development Bank (ADB), this is not only unsustainable but unaffordable as the continent spends close to $65 billion importing food — a number that is expected to grow exponentially within the next decade. In addition to the growing lack...
Free Healthcare Webinar: Patient Journey and the Digital Twins
Delivering high-quality care for patients starts by connecting data from admissions to discharge. By transforming live data into actionable metrics, the healthcare sector can make more insightful decisions to streamline and digitise workflow throughout the patient journey. On 14 April 2021, Zebra — a leading healthcare technology solutions provider — will introduce MotionWorks™ Healthcare and virtually demonstrate how to streamline workflows and significantly reduce costs in healthcare facilities as well as identify patterns to enable intelligent predictions. Under the theme “Patient Journey and the Digital Twins” this free and innovative webinar will empower the healthcare sector with technology solutions that enable them to instantly connect, collaborate and communicate with colle...
