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Nedbank, Mastercard Boost Digital Payments in Southern Africa
South African lender Nedbank Group has signed a ten‑year commercial agreement with global payments network Mastercard to upgrade digital payment capabilities across six Southern African markets. The partnership will leverage Mastercard’s technology stack to deliver faster, more secure transactions for retail banking, small‑business commercial banking and merchant services. Nedbank expects the collaboration to boost customer engagement and sharpen its competitive position as the region’s fintech ecosystem accelerates. The deal underscores Mastercard’s commitment to expanding its African footprint.
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Ride-Hailing Fuels Income for 70% of SA Gig Workers
Bolt’s newly released Gig Economy Report, commissioned by the ride‑hailing platform and surveyed by Ipsos, finds that 70% of South African gig workers turn to ride‑hailing for supplemental earnings, while 30% depend on it as their main source of income....
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AfDB Approves $200M Towards Nigeria's Fiber Expansion
The African Development Bank approved a $200 million loan for Nigeria’s Digital Value Chain Infrastructure for Boosting Employment (D‑VIBE) project, known as Project Bridge. The funding will help deploy 90,000 km of open‑access fiber, expanding the national backbone from roughly 30,000 km to 120,000 km...
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Belmoney, RwandaCash Enable Pan-European Remittances to Rwanda
Belmoney, Europe’s first remittance‑as‑a‑service provider, has partnered with RwandaCash to launch a pan‑European digital corridor for Rwandan diaspora payments. By leveraging Belmoney’s PSD2 licence and API stack, RwandaCash can operate across the EU without separate national licences, offering faster, lower‑fee...
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South Africa's National AI Policy Moves Forward
South Africa’s government has released a draft National Artificial Intelligence Policy for public comment, with feedback due by June 10, 2026. Approved by Cabinet on March 25, 2026, the policy outlines six core pillars ranging from talent development to ethical governance and cultural preservation....
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Gitex Africa 2026: Companies Ink Deals to Transform Morocco
Gitex Africa 2026 in Marrakech showcased a wave of telecom and tech partnerships aimed at modernising Morocco’s digital infrastructure. Inwi teamed with China Mobile International to deploy the country’s first private 5G network on a 52‑hectare industrial site in Nador,...
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SA Startup Refiant Raises $5M to Advance Sustainable AI
South African‑founded AI startup Refiant secured a $5 million seed round, led by climate‑tech investor VoLo Earth Ventures, to accelerate its nature‑inspired compression technology. The platform claims to shrink massive AI models—such as a 120‑billion‑parameter network—so they can run on a...
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Digital Realty, IXPN Launch New Internet Exchange PoP in Nigeria
Digital Realty has activated a new Internet Exchange Point of Presence (PoP) for the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN) at its recently commissioned Lekki data centre in Lagos. The addition expands IXPN’s footprint to 12 data centres across the...
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MTN Completes Mobile Money Spinoff in Ghana
MTN Group has completed the structural separation of its Ghana mobile‑money business, merging MobileMoney Ltd with the newly formed MobileMoney Fintech Ltd (MMFL) effective 31 March 2026. The spin‑off satisfies Ghana’s Payment Systems and Services Act 2019 and places the fintech operation under...
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MTN to Invest $1.3B in South Africa by 2028
MTN South Africa announced a R21.8 billion ($1.3 billion) investment plan through 2028 to expand its ICT infrastructure, building on a $404 million network spend in 2025. The rollout targets broadband connectivity, entrepreneurship and digital‑skills development across the country. MTN highlighted its $321 million...
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Cisco Appoints Shane Heraty as VP of MEA-TRC
Cisco announced that Shane Heraty will assume the role of vice‑president and general manager for its Middle East, Africa, Türkiye, Romania and CIS (MEA‑TRC) region on May 1 2026. Heraty brings three decades of technology experience, including more than 20 years at Cisco...
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AI Gender Bias: Taking Women Off the Back Foot
Artificial intelligence is increasingly exposing gender bias that disadvantages women in hiring, finance, healthcare, and public safety. The bias originates from historical, skewed data and algorithms that amplify those patterns. Africa’s relatively late AI adoption gives the continent a rare...
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Hot Startup of the Month: South Africa's Chocolate Tribe
South Africa’s Chocolate Tribe, founded by former lawyer Nosipho Maketo‑van den Bragt, has evolved from a Johannesburg startup into a pan‑African VFX and animation studio serving global clients such as Netflix and Disney. The company now employs over 30 creatives...
Africa's Crypto Market Matures, Fraud Rate Drops 28%
Africa’s crypto ecosystem is entering a phase of regulated maturity, with platforms prioritising verification accuracy over onboarding speed. Fraud rates fell 28% year‑on‑year to 2.6% in 2025, while average verification time dropped from 25 to 18 seconds. Mobile‑first KYC solutions...
Cassava Deploys 'AI Factory' In SA, More Countries in the Pipeline
Cassava Technologies Group has begun rolling out its Nvidia‑powered “AI Factory” in South Africa, marking the continent’s first sovereign AI production hub. The company plans to replicate the model in Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt and Morocco, targeting local language models such...
