[Africa Tech Week] African telcos showing commitment to cater for increased demands from their consumers

The telecom industry continues to grow in Africa as operators try to cater for the increasing demand for better services from their consumers. Safaricom announced that it is rolling our its 400G network making its network among the first in the world to commercially deploy the solution. In Egypt, Telecom Egypt announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Nokia to introduce 5G network and test use cases.

In South Africa, rain and Nokia announced the launch of the country’s first commercial-ready 5G network in Cape Town, following the deployment of the first 5G site last November. Eseye, a global provider of IoT services announced a partnership with MTN, the leading Africa Mobile Network Operator (MNO) to deliver globally connected IoT cloud solution. Vodacom also announced tariff changes to various plans and packages, including a reduction in out-of-bundle rates by as much as 70%, as well as an update on initiatives linked to ICASA’s new end-user and subscriber service charter requirements.

This week, Jumia signed an important partnership with technology leader Xiaomi at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, giving millions of users in Africa easy access to Xiaomi products. This announcement came just a month after Pernod Ricard, the world's second largest wine and spirits’ company present in 13 African countries, also announced a new partnership.

MultiChoice Group which comprises of MultiChoice South Africa, MultiChoice Africa, Showmax Africa, and Irdeto this week also listed on the JSE's Main Board, the first JSE listing in 2019. In Kenya, the company unveiled a new mobile app that it says will put the power of self-service in customers’ hands. Known as MyDStv, the application has been specifically tailored to the Kenyan market to ensure...

On matter banking, leading digital money transfer service WorldRemit partnered with Diamond Trust Bank for digital money transfers to Uganda. Bank of Abyssinia (BOA) also entered into a similar partnership with WorldRemit for digital money transfers to Ethiopia. Barclays Bank announced that its Kenya’s mobile loan app, Timiza smashed its download target within five months, pointing to increased appetite for banking apps by the Kenyan consumers.  Standard Chartered completed a simultaneous multi-market launch of its digitally-led retail banks in Tanzania and Ghana, with Kenya’s roll out scheduled to occur shortly.

Orange partnered with KaiOS Technologies and UNISOC to launch Sanza, a $US 20 phone with voice recognition in 16 countries in Africa and the Middle-East. Early this month, Telecom Egypt and Orange Data signed new agreement on bitstream access services enabling Orange Data as the first operator to sign this agreement to provide its customers with higher speed internet.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) this week warned that smaller businesses could be excluded from world government’s plans to make business transactions digital.

Liquid Telecom Kenya deployed  Internet of Things (IoT) network in Western Kenya and Nyanza to monitor and protect freshwater fish populations.  The company also recently connected Gertrude’s Children’s Hospital in Nairobi to Dadaab refugee complex. The community of approximately 250,000 refugees.

MainOne announced a metro fibre infrastructure project in two states of Nigeria, with support from Facebook. As part of this project, MainOne is building and operating approximately 750 km terrestrial fiber infrastructure in Edo and Ogun States, two of Nigeria’s fastest-growing states. The company also recently selected TE SubCom to extend cable system to francophone region.

 

 

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