[Africa Tech Review] Nixon Kanali: Microsoft continues its massive investments in Africa
Microsoft has been all over the news in Africa over the last few weeks. The tech giant continues to make massive investments in the continent and last week, after three years of successful operation in Kenya, its premier engineering hub, the African Development Centre (ADC) relocated to its own offices in Nairobi, Kenya. The company also announced that the new offices will also host the Microsoft Africa Research Institute (MARI), its first on the continent.
Earlier, in the week, it also launched season 3 of its Africa Development Center (ADC)-sponsored Game of Learners (GOL) digital and coding competition for university students in Kenya and Nigeria. It also recently announced a new partnership with West Africa’s solar-based internet service provider, Tizeti, to roll out high-speed Airband internet infrastructure in Oyo State, in Nigeria.
This week, in Kenya, Konza Technopolis Development Authority (KoTDA) and the Association of Startups and SME Enablers in Kenya (ASSEK) signed an MoU to enhance innovation and support startups in Kenya. Tushop, a Kenyan social-commerce platform that enables group-buying of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) raised $3 million in pre-seed funding, while on-demand transport platform Bolt rolled out the second edition of its Women in Tech internship program in Kenya.
Still, on startups, Swedish AI Fund (SAIF), an NGO providing financial aid, grants and scholarships to AI projects announced a new fund targeting AI startups in Africa. Cairo-headquartered e-sport startup Eksab raised $3M Seed funding round, bringing the company’s total investment to date to $3.7M. Still in Egypt, on-demand bus-hailing company Swvl announced a new partnership with African fintech mobility startup Moove to scale Moove’s revenue-based vehicle financing model across the MENAP (Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan) region. Cameroonian health technology start-up Waspito also announced that it has raised FCFA 1.7 billion in funding. Andela announced the launch of its new platform, designed to create a more direct, personalized, and successful hiring experience for both talent and recruiters. French-Nigerian B2B startup Kwik, a fast-growing provider of SaaS logistics services to social vendors and e-commerce platforms in Africa successfully closed its $2 million Series A round.
Kenya’s leading telco Safaricom this week partnered with Gulf African Bank to launch Halal Pesa, the first Sharia-compliant mobile and digital financial product. At the same time, Telkom Kenya and PEACE landed a new submarine cable connecting Asia, Europe and Africa has landed in Mombasa, Kenya. Liquid Intelligent Technologies announced the acquisition of a fibre pair on the Equiano subsea cable, allowing Liquid to transport traffic up to 12 Terabits in Western and Southern Africa.
On matters fintech, i2c, the provider of digital payment and banking technology, announced its partnership with Visa, the world's leader in digital payments, as a fintech processor in the MENA (the Middle East and North Africa) region. Equity’s business transformation through innovation and digitization efforts continued to face off the legacy banking model. The number of transactions via digital channels stood at 1,247.6M while 40.8M transactions accounted for branches and ATMs in the 2021 Financial Year. Mastercard and Network International re-affirmed their shared commitment to drive the adoption of digital payments and support emerging markets’ transition to a cashless economy by announcing a strategic partnership with NBS Bank plc in Malawi. The company also announced a growing list of leading partners, including BNPL specialists and globally recognized brands, further expanding Mastercard Installments. In Kenya, Lipa Later, a payment option that allows customers to purchase commodities through affordable monthly instalments on-boarded Hotpoint as a new retail partner. Payment service provider DPO Group announced three partnerships with companies in the digital payments sector including Mastercard.
Back in Kenya, USIU-Africa, Kenya Bankers Association and Serianu unveiled an industry-led training program to add 2,000 cyber security professionals in Kenya. Safaricom-owned mobile health platform M-TIBA also announced a new partnership with Jubilee Health Insurance to provide health insurance to over 3,000 lives via their Group Micro Health Product.
In South Africa, McAfee Enterprise’s former cloud division officially launched as a new entity – Skyhigh Security.
Other top highlights of the week include The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) launching of the Instant Payment Network and “InstaPay” mobile application and Absa Group signing agreements with MEST, CiTi and Grindstone, to support and collaborate in initiatives that are aimed at growing emerging technology and other businesses in Africa.
Nixon Kanali is the Tech Editor for Africa Business Communities.