All Tech News

A number of new offerings underline the growth of fintech-related businesses across Africa, a trend also highlighted in a recent report by a major consulting group.

Analyst company Dell’Oro Group predicted the emerging AI Systems Security (AISS) market will grow from zero to US$8 billion by 2030 as enterprises shift to AI technology across their operations.

MTN Nigeria’s margins reportedly face a potential US$87.5 million hit as diesel prices rise, a situation that may have been exacerbated by the war in Iran, although the removal of fuel subsidies in 2023 has also played a part.

Two companies headquartered in India – Pixxel, a company that builds and operates advanced imaging satellites, and artificial intelligence technology company Sarvam – have announced a strategic partnership to develop and build India’s first orbital data centre satellite.

The EllaLink submarine cable system and Mauritania have announced the successful landing of a new subsea cable in Nouadhibou, giving the country a second direct, diverse and secure connection to European and international digital hubs.

Space solutions company SES has announced that it will provide service on its high-capacity medium-Earth orbit (MEO) satellite network O3b mPOWER to Petrobras, the Brazilian state-owned oil company, to connect multiple new floating production, storage and offloading systems (FPSOs).

Satellite operator Speedcast's Brazilian operation, SC CapRock, says it has developed and implemented a hybrid solution for mining company Mineração Taboca to provide more resilient connectivity for its operations in a remote area in the Amazon.

Burundi’s state-owned telco Onatel has signed a US$5.9 million contract with PAFEN Burundi to deploy 4G in underserved rural communities.

Algerian telco Djezzy has signed a strategic partnership deal with startup accelerator Algeria Venture and tech startup Taubyte to launch a full-stack AI development workspace for startups, developers, young talent and project leaders.

The continuing drive to use smart data analytics to improve network performance has again been in the news, this time thanks to telecommunications and ICT provider Ooredoo Qatar, which has announced the launch of a service called Smart Wi-Fi Analytics.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced on Sunday it will back two new initiatives priced at US$70 billion total to connect power grids, expand cross-border electricity trade and improve broadband access across Asia and the Pacific.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) said on Thursday that it will take several months to fully restore services for its Middle East (UAE) Region (ME-CENTRAL-1) after its data centres in the UAE and Bahrain sustained damage due to the war between the US, Israel and Iran.

Kenya, South Sudan, Uganda and Rwanda agreed on Thursday to move forward with a plan to launch a regional satellite to boost connectivity in East Africa’s northern corridor.

Sierra Leone is ramping up efforts to strengthen digital infrastructure through satellite-enabled solutions, as part of a wider strategy to expand nationwide connectivity.

MTN Nigeria has secured shareholder approval to sell its stakes in fintech subsidiaries MoMo Payment Service Bank and Yellow Digital Financial Services to parent company MTN Group.

Data centre operator Princeton Digital Group (PDG) has announced the acquisition of a new site in Indonesia for its latest hyperscale data centre campus, JC4.

The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE),  the Costa Rican government-run electricity and telecommunications services provider, has awarded a contract relating to its 5G network to tech giant Ericsson.

Hyperscale data centre platform AirTrunk has announced plans to invest about US$3 billion to develop two new data centres in Malaysia, to be called JHB3 and JHB4.

GLN International, a cross-border payment infrastructure provider in Asia and a subsidiary of Korea’s Hana Bank under Hana Financial Group, says it has launched a nationwide QR payment service in Vietnam in partnership with local payment processor NAPAS.

Malaysian telco U Mobile has partnered with Pavilion Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) to enable seamless 5G-Advanced indoor coverage in high-traffic commercial and lifestyle locations in Kuala Lumpur.

ZTE announced on Wednesday that Dominican Republic fixed-line telco Wind Telecom has commercially deployed its Smart Cloud Platform (SCP) and intelligent home solutions that it says will deliver a better smart-home experience for residential users.

Afghan Wireless Communication Company (AWCC) has reportedly launched Afghanistan’s first trial of 5G in Kabul, six weeks after the telco began testing the technology.

Thailand’s National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) has approved a request to install a subsea cable landing for the TalayLink project, a regional digital infrastructure initiative backed by Google Cloud.

Independent infrastructure investment manager I Squared Capital has announced that it has agreed to acquire Elea Data Centres, one of the largest carrier-neutral data centre platforms in Brazil.

Airtel Africa is lining up a potentially sizeable IPO of its mobile money business, with the deal expected to raise between $1.5 billion and $2 billion, according to a Bloomberg report citing people familiar with the matter.

AI company Pleias and the GSMA announced on Tuesday they have released CommonLingua, an open-source language identification (LID) model that they say will help close the African language gap in AI.

AI computing company Blaize revealed on Tuesday it has signed an MoU with Nokia and IT services provider Datacomm Diangraha to accelerate deployment of hybrid AI inference inference infrastructure in Indonesia.

It is being widely reported that Indian multinational conglomerate Reliance Industries (RIL) is planning to invest more than US$17 billion in setting up a 1.5-gigawatt data centre cluster and a captive solar battery storage system in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

Telkom Indonesia announced on Monday that it has launched a next-gen agentic AI platform that it says will accelerate digital transformation via intelligent automation, business process integration and data-based decision making.

Saudi Arabian telco Zain KSA announced on Sunday its digital platform Yaqoot is partnering with Huawei to upgrade Yaqoot’s BSS to boost operational efficiency and make its digital services more competitive.

Pan-African infrastructure and services group Axian Telecom announced on Monday it has signed a partnership deal with Oracle to unify its ERP across its portfolio.