Nigeria’s National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) will issue 13m MasterCard-branded and payment-enabled national ID smart cards as part of a pilot programme. This programme is the largest ever roll-out of a formal electronic payment solution in Nigeria. In the first phase
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) will face off with Amatole Telecommunication Services, the Eastern Cape company that trades as Easttel, on 29 May. This follows a raid by Icasa on the operator’s facilities on Wednesday that led to an interruption in voice and Internet services
The Rockefeller Foundation will pledge close to a US$100m to create digital field jobs in Africa, it was announced at the World Economic Forum on Africa on Thursday. “There is no better place to announce the official launch of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Digital Jobs Africa initiative, a $97m investment,” said the
It appears the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) is not going let up in in its effort to tackle companies it believes are not paying their dues for use of radio frequency spectrum. The authority on Wednesday raided the facilities of an Eastern Cape telecommunications operator, just weeks
Juliana Rotich co-founded Ushahidi, a Kenyan-based nonprofit tech company, in 2008 with the aim of using technology to map reports of violence in the wake of Kenya’s closely contested December 2007 general election. Today, Ushahidi continues to create open-source software
Mobile operator Cell C has slammed the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa), accusing it of being “unable to verify its own information” in relation to the amount of money it owes the regulatory body for its use of radio spectrum. Cell C on Wednesday
The South African Police Service has arrested a suspect said to be a key player in a recent spate of Sim-swap fraud cases. MTN South Africa said on Wednesday that it had participated in a police sting operation that led to the arrest. A Sim swap allows
Korea’s KT Corp appears once again to be in discussions with Telkom, this time over the sale of the partially privatised South African telecommunications operator’s Internet service provider assets elsewhere in Africa. According to a report in Korea IT Times
Eskom is reviewing the implications of electricity regulator Nersa’s decision to grant it a lower than requested electricity tariff hike, public enterprises minister Malusi Gigaba said on Wednesday. “We are studying it in detail, because we need to understand
Kickstarter project BRCK, the brainchild of Kenyan nonprofit technology outfit Ushahidi, hopes to raise $125 000 to build a communications device that connects users to the Internet using any means possible, even when the power is out. And it’s well on its way to achieving its first objective. In little more
