[Africa Tech Review] Duncan Mochama: MTN Rwanda selects Ericsson to deploy a Network Operations Center

There was some interesting news on African telcos that we covered this week. In Rwanda, MTN Rwanda selected its longtime partner Ericsson, to deploy a Network Operations Center (NOC). The five-year contract will support MTN Rwanda to focus on enhancing consumer experience through Ericsson’s Managed Services solution that will deliver automation-driven Information Technology (IT) operations.  Airtel Money announced some new upgrades to its Airtel Africa Developer Portal to help drive better efficiency for businesses to engage in seamless mobile money activity. In South Africa, IHS Holding Limited signed agreements to acquire 5,709 telecommunication towers from  MTN. 

This week Ericsson also launched its Intelligent Automation Platform, a service management and orchestration product that enables any mobile network to be intelligently automated. Orange also announced that its employee subscription plan has attracted 64,000 subscribers. In Kenya, Safaricom unveiled a new campaign dubbed Mwelekeo Ni Internet, which will see the service provider introduce new data offers, add more affordable 4G devices to the Lipa Mdogo Mdogo device financing plan. MTN announced that its instant messaging app Ayoba has reached three million monthly users in Nigeria. 

Cloudmania, an exclusive provider of Cloud Partner Programmes in Africa, this week opened its doors in 13 countries across the continent. In Kenya, Microsoft reaffirmed its commitment to assisting Kenyan financial services providers in their digital transformation by providing specialized Cloud solutions. At the same time, Microsoft also announced that it has appointed Wael Elkabbany to lead its newly established Africa Transformation Office (ATO).

African startups were also in the news this week. African blockchain disruptors and early-stage startups joined CV Labs Global Incubation Program Batch_03. Nigerian healthcare startup Helium Health (Helium), announced it has completed the acquisition of Meddy, the GCC-based doctor booking platform, which has operations in Qatar and the U.A.E. illumigyn, world's first remote gynecological imaging platform, announced its new distribution agreement with Peramare Pharmaceuticals Nigeria, to deploy 5,000 Gynescopes in Nigeria by 2026. The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) selected 4,949 entrepreneurs from across Africa for its 2021 Entrepreneurship Programme. AURA, South-African security and medical response marketplace secured $4.7 million in a Series A funding round, led by  MultiChoice Group (MCG). In Kenya, fintech startup Kwara opened regional offices in the Western, Central, Rift Valley and Coastal regions of Kenya as part of their expansion in the country. 

Cellulant, a Pan-African payments company, this week also partnered with one of Zambia’s fish distributors, Lake Harvest to enable mobile payments in all their outlets through the Tingg one-stop digital payment platform. Leading blockchain ecosystem Binance announced 10 Fundamental Rights for Crypto Users that can serve as a guiding hand in regulatory discussions and the development of global frameworks for crypto markets. In South Africa, Mastercard partnered with Home Remitt to bolster affordable international money transfers. 

Other top highlights of the week include Samsung partnering with the Government of Rwanda through the Ministry of ICT and the Ministry of Education to equip the Rwanda Coding Academy, UNICEF and Jumia announcing a partnership in support of Giga’s work to connect every school to the Internet and every young person to information, opportunity, and choice and Nigeria’s Co-creation Hub, Africa's largest innovation hub and Ojoma Ochai announcing the launch of a new Creative Economy Practice

We also published two interviews with James Claude, the CEO of Global Voice Group (GVC) and Alioune CISS, the Chief Executive Officer at Webb Fontaine. 

Duncan Mochama is the solutions consultant at  Incentro Africa.

www.incentro.com