Author: Kaluka wanjala

Absa Bank Kenya has announced the appointment of Diana Mwaniki in the acting capacity of Chief Financial Officer (CFO), effective 1 July 2026, pending regulatory approval.  The announcement follows the appointment of Yusuf Omari, the incumbent CFO, as Interim Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer after the resignation of Abdi Mohamed as the MD and CEO of Absa Bank Kenya. Ms. Mwaniki assumes the role after serving as the Bank’s Head of Financial Decision Support since joining Absa in September 2022. She will lead the Bank’s finance function, providing strategic financial leadership and oversight as Absa continues to execute its growth strategy and deliver sustainable value for customers, shareholders and…

Google Cloud hosted its inaugural Cloud Summit in Africa at the Sandton Convention Centre in South Africa, gathering 3,000 business leaders, developers, public sector leaders, and partners. Anchored by the central theme, “Building for Africa with Google Cloud,” the summit builds upon Google’s 2025 launch of its Johannesburg Cloud Region. At the summit, Google Cloud launched a number of new initiatives for Africa, including new infrastructure, a new applied AI lab, expanded connectivity to the continent, and other investments in the region. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa opened the summit, stating: “Today’s Google Cloud Summit affirms Africa’s position as a…

Visa has announced new capabilities across Visa Accept and Visa Direct aimed at expanding how smartphones can be used to accept and send digital payments. This will help small businesses manage transactions without requiring additional payment hardware. The new capabilities are designed to make it easier for businesses to accept customer payments and make payouts using devices they already own. “Every tap, scan and swipe is now a defining moment in the customer relationship, and small businesses can’t afford for payments to get in the way,” said Shahebaz Khan, Senior Vice President and Head of Commercial and Money Movement Solutions…

Liquid C2 has achieved gold-level status in Google’s Verified Peering Provider (VPP) programme. The accreditation places Liquid C2 among a select group of global network providers recognised for high-performance, reliable peering with Google. It also positions the company as the most widely peered gold VPP partner across Africa. The enhanced peering infrastructure reduces reliance on congested public internet routes. This enables a more direct access to Google services and significantly improving performance. This translates into faster load times, lower latency and more stable connectivity when using tools such as Google Workspace, Google Cloud and AI-driven workloads. Liquid C2’s VPP qualification…

Vodafone Kenya Limited has completed the acquisition of the Government of Kenya’s 15% stake in Safaricom. With this, its shareholding in the telecommunications giant to 55% and making it the majority shareholder. The transaction was completed on 30 June 2026 through a block trade on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) and marks the conclusion of a deal first announced in December 2025. The completion follows regulatory approvals, the fulfilment of all conditions precedent and the lifting of legal barriers that had temporarily delayed the transaction. In a public announcement, Safaricom said the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) granted Vodafone Kenya an…

If you’ve ever bought traditional stocks before, you’re familiar with the practical side of owning shares in a publicly listed company. Open a brokerage account, place an order during market hours, and shares sit in that account until it’s time to sell. The system works well, but it can be rigid for some investors: the benefits of owning shares – dividends, voting rights, lending – stay within the brokerage environment, while trading is capped by market hours. A new format is now emerging, one that takes the familiar idea of stock ownership onto the blockchain. Tokenized securities, which are now…

Airtel Kenya has appointed Djibril Tobe as its new Managing Director. He is succeeding Ashish Malhotra, who is taking up a new role as Chief Executive Officer for Africa at Indus Towers. Tobe brings more than two decades of experience across the telecommunications, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and consulting sectors, having worked in multiple African markets. Before his appointment, he was the Managing Director of Airtel Congo B. Before that, he held several leadership positions within the Airtel Group, including Managing Director of Airtel Chad and Commercial Director at Airtel Burkina Faso. His career also includes leadership roles at Expresso…

Open Startup has unveiled The Science Road, a new strategic direction aimed at accelerating science, deep technology and research-led innovation across Africa by helping promising ventures transition from research into globally competitive businesses. The announcement marks the organization’s 10th anniversary since its founding in Tunisia in 2016 and signals a shift toward supporting startups developing solutions in healthcare, climate technology, artificial intelligence (AI) and related sectors. According to Open Startup, The Science Road consolidates its existing programs into a unified acceleration platform designed to connect African scientists, entrepreneurs, investors and industry partners. The initiative also introduces Openers First, a new…

Safaricom’s fixed internet market share has grown to 35.5% and its fibre subscriber base has reached 941,501 customers, according to the latest sector statistics released by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA). The telco added more than 83,000 new fixed broadband subscribers between December 2025 and March 2026, according to the regulator’s Third Quarter Sector Statistics Report for the 2025/26 financial year. This pushed its market share up from 34.9% recorded in the previous quarter. According to the CA, Jamii Telecommunications Limited (Faiba) remains the second-largest provider with a 20.1% market share, followed by Wananchi Group (Zuku) at 11.1%, while…

Deloitte, IBM and Red Hat have announced a strategic collaboration aimed at helping enterprises strengthen the security of their software supply chains. The partnership brings Deloitte on board as an integration collaborator for Lightwell, an enterprise open source security initiative developed by IBM and Red Hat. The collaboration combines software engineering, cyber risk management and automation to help organisations identify, prioritise and remediate vulnerabilities faster without disrupting business operations. The announcement comes as enterprises continue to rely on a growing mix of internally developed applications, open source software and third-party commercial software. This interconnected software ecosystem has expanded the attack…