![[Africa Tech Review] Duncan Mochama: Oracle to build its first African data centre in Joburg](Images/Key Persons/DuncanMochama-IncentroAfrica.JPG)
[Africa Tech Review] Duncan Mochama: Oracle to build its first African data centre in Joburg
Global software giant Oracle this week announced that it has chosen Johannesburg as the site of its first African data centre. Joburg will be among the 14 locations across Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific, and Latin America that the company says it plans to open cloud regions to support strong customer demand for Oracle Cloud services.
Nearly four months after the launch of its Tier III facility at Appolonia City, Accra, Ghana, MDXi, a MainOne company, also this week announced the expansion of its data center facilities in Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria. In South Africa, Cybereason and Google Cloud announced a joint collaboration between the two companies to create and bring to market unprecedented Extended Detection and Response (XDR) across endpoints, networks, cloud, and workspaces.
To meet the ever-growing demand and network resiliency requirements, Djibouti Telecom announced that it has started the construction of a New Cable Landing Station in Djibouti City. Orange also inaugurated the 5th Orange Digital Center in Africa and the Middle East region.
African startups were also on the news this week. Nigeria's Eden Life announced that it has completed a $ 1.4m Seed round, led by UK-based LocalGlobe, along with participation from Samurai Incubate, Future Africa, Village Global, Rising Tide Africa, and Enza Capital. Payday, a Pan-African financial technology company raised one million dollars to build out what they believe will be the “PayPal” for Africa. Pan-African fintech startup and digital bank Carbon Bank partnered with Network International, an enabler of digital commerce across Africa and the Middle East, as part of its plan to boost its digital payment offering. Google also announced it plans to invest up to $50 million in African early- and growth-stage startups via its Africa Investment Fund.
AfricaNenda, an emerging and independent Africa-led coalition of dedicated digital payments experts on also launched a new digital financial inclusion advisory platform aimed to expand financial access in the continent.
In Angola, Africell, the fourth mobile operator in the country, selected Angola Cables to provide wholesale IP transit and connectivity solutions for its network. Liquid Intelligent Technologies through its innovation and partnerships arm Liquid Labs, partnered with Africa Legal, an organization that connects legal professionals across the African continent to launch three online courses on legal technology.
Out of the more than 206 000 mobile malware attacks blocked by Kaspersky solutions for the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa (META) region in just 6-months measured, between January to June 2021, over 30 000 of these attacks combined originated from Nigeria (14 071), Kenya (10 697), and South Africa (5 499). This is according to a new report released by Kaspersky this week. A separate report released by Sophos also revealed that companies in the manufacturing and production sector are the least likely (at 19%) to submit to a ransom demand to have encrypted files restored and the most likely (at 68%) to be able to restore data from backups.
Other top highlights of the week include Cellulant’s Board of Directors announcing that Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Akshay Grover, has been appointed as Group CEO and Director of Cellulant with effect from 1 October 2021, Safaricom announcing that NHIF services will now be available through the Super App and Volante Technologies, the global player in cloud payments and financial messaging partnering with MDSL, a specialist in the integration of turnkey banking solutions in the Middle East, to enhance and automate banking payments in Egypt.
Duncan Mochama is the solutions consultant at Incentro Africa.
