More than 1 million cellphone subscribers in the populous African country of Ethiopia have registered for a new mobile money service less than a week after its launch by state-controlled Ethio Telecom, the company has said. The service, called Telebirr, is to be integrated with banks in the coming weeks.
Mobile money is providing a much-needed revenue buffer against disruptions from the coronavirus pandemic for Africa’s big telecoms companies, such as Airtel Africa, MTN and Safaricom.
The African Development Bank (AfDB) is hoping that the digitalization of economies and companies in response to the coronavirus pandemic will help the continent recover quickly from its associated economic shocks. To this end, the finance institution is looking to establish investment banks to accelerate ventures by the continent’s young, tech savvy innovators.
Deadly protests have rocked Senegal in the last week, as anger over corruption and a crackdown on political opponents have come to a head. But they have been compounded by frustration over economic disruptions from Covid-19, a potential warning sign for the region in the months to come.
Liquid Telecom’s recent $620 million bond sale—one of the largest by an African telecoms company—should provide a big boost to the continent’s digital infrastructure, and chip away at a major barrier to more widespread internet access.
Years of water contamination from raw sewage is plaguing one of South Africa’s biggest water bodies, the Vaal Dam, on which about 19 million people depend, according to a report released this month by the South Africa Human Rights Commission (SAHRC).
Despite experiencing substantial growth in internet users in the last decade, Zimbabwe, a country of 14.7 million, still suffers from underutilized mobile internet capacity and low smartphone penetration, according to the latest annual report from the country’s largest telecommunications provider, Econet Wireless.
Five African countries: Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi, South Sudan, and Niger, are among the world’s top 10 nations to be the worst affected by climate change through disruptions to productivity in key economic sectors including agriculture, roads, dams, and other infrastructure according to the new Global Climate Index 2021 released by Germanwatch.
Former US president Donald Trump’s last minute controversial removal of sanctions against an Israeli businessman named in corruption scandals in DR Congo’s mining industry and the jailing of another international commodity broker for bribery in a Guinea iron ore scandal this month shows just how vulnerable Africa’s lucrative resources sector has long been to international operators.
South Africa, which is often identified as Africa’s worst polluter, saw a 1.5% increase in carbon emissions last year, says a study published this month. Africa’s most advanced economy contributes about 33% of the continent’s steadily rising air pollution from fossil fuel combustion, oxidation, and cement production.
The US International Development Finance Corporation has joined a push into Africa’s rapidly growing data storage market with a $300 million investment in the expansion of Africa Data Centres, the data storage arm of Johannesburg-based Liquid Telecom.
Zimbabwe has become the latest African country to make a move to curb hazardous emissions from old vehicles imported from Japan and to make it mandatory for all imported vehicles to be screened for radiation contamination as more African countries seek to reduce environmental contamination from imported pre-owned cars.
As African governments crack down on protestors and opposition leaders in countries such as Nigeria and Uganda, it is emerging that state security agencies in seven regional countries are among 25 around the world using an Israeli surveillance platform to snoop on private communications of citizens.
Tanzania has been blocking social media applications ahead of Wednesday’s (Oct. 28) election, days after the state issued a directive restricting text messaging within the country. This builds on earlier legislation outlawing international press from covering developments in the country without local media partnerships.
Lesotho has become the latest African country to issue regulations on how ordinary citizens use social media. It is seeking to force local social media users with more than 100 followers to register with the Lesotho Communications Authority (LCA) as “internet broadcasters”.
Veterinary scientists have confirmed that a bacterial toxin other scientists say is thriving more because of warming temperatures in water bodies as a result of climate change is the cause of massive elephant deaths in Botswana this year.
Environmental and biodiversity experts in Zimbabwe are demanding president Emerson Mnangagwa’s government put into law a new policy position banning mining in game reserves after the approval of two Chinese companies to explore for coal in the Hwange National Park sparked global outrage.
Zimbabwe is risking the environment and wildlife in its biggest game park after the government, already battling to explain the deaths of 22 elephants, granted coal mining concessions to several Chinese companies in the Hwange National Park.
Zimbabwean authorities are demanding the country’s biggest mobile money platform to give up half of all transaction files for 2020 to law enforcement agents under a crackdown the operator says violates telecom user data privacy rights. It comes as the beleaguered government clamps down on anti-government economic protests and the media, including the arrest of a well-known anti-corruption journalist.
Mobile money platforms have been banned in Zimbabwe as the country’s local currency continues to lose value, with authorities desperately hoping to arrest the decline. But the move has left subscribers and users stranded in an economy which sees a huge portion of transactions flow through mobile money platforms due to long-term cash shortages at the banks.
Once touted by Zimbabwean authorities as the effective solution to the country’s cash problems, mobile money is now being blamed for the rapid loss in value of the country’s Zimdollar currency. The central bank has described the leading EcoCash platform as a Ponzi scheme in court papers seeking to sustain a directive to disable its agent lines.
South Africa has the highest number of dangerous tailing dams—structures constructed, often by mining companies, to store waste in liquid form. The dams are considered hazardous if improperly handled and have resulted in environmental disasters and deaths many times around the world.
Zimbabwe has introduced new bank notes which has led to Zimbabweans forming long queues to withdraw the new money from banks and cash machines. But the effectiveness of the fresh liquidity injection will be tested this weekend when the country will be without its dominant mobile money platform, EcoCash.
Zimbabwe is trying to bring back its “Zimdollar” currency and not for the first time. Ten years since the troubled national currency was essentially destroyed by years of hyperinflation, central bank officials and a few strategic government insiders have been hinting or openly discussing the need for its return.
