Author: Kaluka wanjala

Absa Bank Kenya has launched the “Change Your Story” campaign to encourage consumers to use digital channels and card payments. The initiative is part of Absa’s larger initiative to promote financial inclusion and improve user experiences. Additionally, those who will actively transact through these banking solutions stand a chance to be rewarded, underscoring its commitment to customer-centric innovation. The campaign, running up to 31 December 2024, will feature grand prize draws, with three winners each walking away with KES 1 million. Additionally, there will be weekly draws offering shopping, dining, or weekend getaway vouchers throughout the campaign. To participate in the draw,…

Paymob has announced a $22 million Series B extension round – taking the Company’s total Series B funding to $72 million. The funding was led by EBRD Venture Capital with participation from Endeavor Catalyst.Existing investors PayPal Ventures, BII, FMO, A15, Nclude and Helios Digital Ventures participated in the round, reaffirming their endorsement of Paymob’s business model, strategy and leadership in the regional fintech sector. The extension round follows Paymob’s continued profitability in its core market of Egypt having recorded 6x revenue growth since the initial Series B funding in Q2 2022. The Company’s strong financial position, plus its Series B…

The London Internet Exchange (LINX) has announced that they will be extending their African interconnection platform to PAIX Data Centres in Nairobi, to address the rising demand from the local networking community. LINX Nairobi is a neutral, multi-site interconnection fabric providing peering services and more for networks to improve performance, increase redundancy and lower latency. Launched back in November 2023, the new Internet Exchange Point (IXP) is going from strength to strength with a strong community of local Internet Service Providers (ISPs), global content networks and strategic partners already interconnected, and traffic is starting to build. The team at LINX have…

Check Point has published its Global Threat Index for August 2024. The index revealed that ransomware remains a dominant force, with RansomHub sustaining its position as the top ransomware group. This Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) operation has rapidly expanded since its rebranding from Knight ransomware, breaching over 210 victims worldwide. Meanwhile, Meow ransomware has emerged, shifting from encryption to selling stolen data on leak marketplaces. Last month, RansomHub solidified its position as the top ransomware threat, as detailed in a joint advisory from the FBI, CISA, MS-ISAC, and HHS. This RaaS operation has aggressively targeted systems across Windows, macOS, Linux, and especially VMware ESXi…

The Government of Rwanda, Africa50, and the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA), have officially broken ground on the construction of the 61-hectare smart city development dubbed Kigali Innovation City. This is happening as Kenya’s Konza City is still not completed over a decade since the project started. Rwanda being close to Kenya poses a challenge for Konza as it may find it difficult to attract investors who may see the project as a white elephant and opt to go to Rwanda. KIC will accommodate universities, startup incubators, and accelerators across sectors such as robotics, artificial intelligence, machine…

Liquid Intelligent Technologies has announced the upgrade of its 1,300km fibre route connecting Mombasa to Busia on the Ugandan border, bringing additional multi-terabit capacity and additional resilience to the region.   See: Liquid Intelligent Technologies Launches the first Azure Stack in Uganda This high-speed route and the upgrades to the existing routes between Kenya and Uganda enhance digital connectivity while supporting several other East African countries with greater efficiency and reliable regional connectivity. This expansion allows Liquid to offer 99.99% uptime availability of services between Mombasa and the Uganda border to its customers, further solidifying its role as a leader in…

Visa has awarded Safaricom a payment facilitator certificate, marking a significant milestone in its ongoing partnership with the Telco. This partnership will enhance Safaricom’s merchant ecosystem by diversifying payment acceptance modes through the introduction of card payments that support all card networks via Visa’s CyberSource Payment Gateway. This initiative is part of the continuing multi-year partnership, which began with the successful launch of the M-PESA GlobalPay Virtual Visa Card in June 2022. Through this partnership, Safaricom merchants will have access to and offer a broader range of payment options. Some of the key Highlights of the partnership include: “We are…

By Moses Muthui, Consumer Banking Director, Absa Bank Kenya Back in the early 2000s, paying my university fees meant dressing up and making a trip to the bank to deposit the money in person, and of course, the visit was laced with the greater respect of ‘where money lives.’ Fast forward to today, and the ways of banking have significantly changed, and the future of money is here with us. Modern consumers can effortlessly move money from their bank accounts to mobile wallets using basic or feature phones, while the more affluent transact through their wearable devices. As technology continues…

If you have used an Android smartphone over the last 10 years, you may have used one powered by a MediaTek processor. It is one of the handful smartphone processors we see on most smartphones. MediaTek is the 5th largest global fabless semiconductor company. It is a Chinese company that manufactures chips for smartphones and other home entertainment and IoT devices. Back in the day, MediaTek processors were mostly found on entry level Android smartphones. This has changed and you can now find MediaTek processors on wide range of smartphones in different price segments. In this article, I will be…

As AI workloads pivot to the network edge, the need for enhanced visibility at these remote data centre sites has become increasingly apparent. Recognising this, Vertiv has introduced Vertiv Environet Connect, a cloud-connected and web-based fleet management and monitoring solution. It features a device-agnostic interface that can handle diverse data centre infrastructure equipment across multiple locations, regardless of the manufacturer. Environet Connect is now available in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and in North America. Environet Connect speeds the deployment of remote Vertiv equipment and improves its health and efficiency through mass provisioning and firmware updates of network management cards.…