![[Africa Tech Review] Nixon Kanali: African governments are contributing to the achievement of digital transformation](Images/Key Persons/Nixon_Kanali_.jpeg)
[Africa Tech Review] Nixon Kanali: African governments are contributing to the achievement of digital transformation
One of the contributions to digital transformations in Africa has been support from governments. One of the specific objectives of Africa’s Digital Transformation Strategy is to create a harmonized environment necessary to guarantee investment and financing in order to close the digital infrastructure gap. And this is exactly what a number of African governments have been doing.
This week, the Kenyan government announced plans to deploy 100,000 Kms of fibre optic infrastructure across the country. The recommendations are contained in Kenya’s Digital Masterplan 2022-2032 unveiled at the ongoing Connected Summit 2022 in Diani, Kwale County. It also revealed plans to establish 1450 Village digital hubs for citizen digital literacy training, film production and public access to government services across the country. At the same time, the country’s ICT Authority and tech firm Oracle signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to introduce a specialized training programme for graduates from the Presidential Digital Talent Program. The Communications Authority of Kenya also this week connected 14 sub-locations to mobile network services in West Pokot County, as it seeks to avail communications services to 101 areas across the country under the Universal Service Fund (USF) to the tune of KES 1.1 billion.
Still in Kenya, ICT leaders at the annual Connected Summit 2022 cited the Konza National Data Centre as an accelerator of digital transformation in the country, rallying stakeholders to leverage its offerings. Amazon Web Services also announced plans to launch an AWS Local Zone in the country.
PesaLink this week also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Mastercard to transform the digital payments sector in Kenya. Stanbic Bank Kenya and the African Guarantee Fund for Small & Medium-sized Enterprises (AGF) signed a Loan Portfolio Guarantee Facility to increase financing for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) across the country.
In South Africa, Crypto company Luno announced that its exchange platform has hit 10 million customers in over 40 countries. Founded by two South Africans Luno says the latest one million customers were onboarded in just six months. Despite 5G disinformation in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new report released this week revealed that 5G population coverage in the country grew from 0.7% in 2020, to 7.5% in 2021. FNB banking also entered into a new partnership with Aura that will see the bank’s customers access instant emergency response services, anywhere, anytime via the FNB banking app.
This week, Microsoft announced a new partnership with GreenHouse Labs to facilitate the acceleration of African startups that are at the pre-series A stage. Samsung Electronics announced that the company successfully applied N-ERP, the next-generation ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning1) system in its 120 offices across the world.
Other top highlights of the week include Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Associations (ECCSA), launching the Ethiopian Chamber Digital Service (ECDS), and Sasai Remit and Qoki Zindlovukazi partnering to introduce cross border payment channel from UK to South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Nixon Kanali is the Tech Editor for Africa Business Communities.
