All Africa articles – Page 10
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Partnerships & AlliancesStill no date for Safaricom Ethiopia launch
STE indicates it is close to reaching network-sharing agreements with Ethio Telecom. Changes to national payments law should pave way for M-PESA.
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Partnerships & AlliancesVodacom signs “exclusive” deal with Visa in South Africa
New contract builds on similar deal between Safaricom and Visa for M-PESA. Visa payments option likely to be available as a virtual card integrated into the recently launched VodaPay Super App.
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Partnerships & AlliancesOrange leans on DT buying ties to counter inflation
Executives lay out anti-inflation toolkit in macro risk-inflected Q1 results call. BuyIn joint venture with DT highlighted as having an important role in dampening cost pressures. African ops described as “resilient” to Ukraine war shockwaves.
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Network & InfrastructureVodacom Tanzania targets rural areas with fibre investment
TZS 25bn investment secures use of government-owned fibre infrastructure. State wants 80% population coverage by 2025. OpCo aims to offer increased access to healthcare, education and “financial inclusion”.
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Network & Infrastructure“A serious tragedy”: Vodacom begins repairs following SA floods
KwaZulu-Natal flooding declared an emergency with more than 300 dead. Vodacom cites ‘social contract’ in ZAR 3m relief donation. Operators begin network restoration, with power outages a core issue after backup batteries washed out.
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Partnerships & AlliancesM-PESA gets interoperability boost in Kenya
Airtel, Telkom, and Safaricom customers granted access to M-PESA till payments. Central Bank of Kenya says first phase will “deepen digitalisation” for businesses. Airtel Money and T-kash equivalents still some way off.
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Venturing & InvestmentsUK’s rebranded BII embarks on new impact investing
British International Investment (BII) embraces broader digital strategy.
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Operations“A country with enormous potential”: Safaricom poised for Ethiopia launch
Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia aims to go live on 9 April 2022. Hopes to add M-PESA within the next 12 months. Over 300 staff recruited to work in the country.
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PremiumElsewhere in Vodafone Africa: corruption in Lesotho?
Allegations of corruption in Lesotho said to be hampering 5G deployment; Vodacom appeals Please Call Me High Court ruling.
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Products & ServicesM-PESA not threatened by talk of central Kenyan e-money
A central digital currency would not step on M-PESA toes, says MD Sitoyo Lopokoiyit, but cooperation key to finding efficiencies in a market dominated by Safaricom’s e-money offering. M-PESA at 15: 51 million users in seven markets; Kenyan strength; Super App prospects on the horizon, as is competition.
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PremiumSetback for Vodacom in Please Call Me legal battle
High Court orders operator to pay inventor 5% of Please Call Me revenue. 20-year dispute not over yet, but end is in sight.
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PremiumSafaricom builds up for Ethiopian launch
Ethiopian OpCo signs up VMware as telco cloud partner, and flags Huawei and Nokia as main network suppliers. Second data centre opened. Talks begin with rival Ethio on network access. Ethiopia’s Ministry of Finance anticipates service launch “sometime in April”.
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PremiumJoosub says ‘all systems go’ for spectrum auction
Telkom secures court hearing dates in April 2022, after the auction is due to take place. President Cyril Ramaphosa says auction will start by early-March 2022. Six operators apply to take part, including MTN, Telkom, and Vodacom.
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PeopleVodacom payment specialist XLink appoints MD
Majority-owned secure payments processor XLink Communications appoints Thanusha Govender with a ‘stay-the-course’ mandate. Former Absa strategy lead replaces stalwart Marnewick.
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Venturing & InvestmentsSafaricom energy ally Circle Gas lands big Japanese backer
Deal with conglomerate Marubeni Corporation comes with prepaid LPG startup planning to expand beyond Safaricom-supported deployment in Kenya and into new markets in Africa and Asia.
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OperationsSafaricom Ethiopia splashes out $100m on first data centre
Located in capital city Addis Ababa, the installation accounts for one third of a total $300m investment pegged for first year of operations. Data centre, which will house “core network infrastructure”, was built in China and transported to Ethiopia. Rabacal indicates the same business model will be used for ...
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PremiumAuction fate unknown as Telkom mulls interdict U-turn
Spectrum auction may still go ahead, despite initial Telkom protests. Vodacom and MTN unite with South African regulator to fight deferral. Telkom offers to withdraw its interdict, provided rivals are open to an “expedited review” of its complaints. Any delay would represent a sixth postponement of the auction, currently ...
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Suppliers & SCMSafaricom lauds TIBCO for service and network advances
Kipkirui says microservices and cloud-native APIs from longstanding partner is key in helping OpCo to become an “insights-led, tech-driven company”. Adds that Safaricom has been able to maintain “maximum value” from capex invested in TIBCO. OpCo aims to migrate entire TIBCO BPM stack from on-prem to public cloud by ...
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PremiumElsewhere in Vodafone Africa: Safaricom expands Lipa Mdogo Mdogo
Safaricom brings China’s Transsion into device financing fold; SODAQ teams with IoT.nxt; new Vodacom buddy Dark Fibre Africa goes on cost-cutting drive.
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Public AffairsEthiopia presses pause on third licence contest
Regulator initiates another stoppage after interested parties request delay over RFP “concerns”. Move adds to sense of turbulence around Safaricom’s planned entrance into the country during 2022.