American multinational financial services corporation, Visa is entering a new strategic partnership with Paga to make mobile payments more secure and convenient.
American multinational financial services corporation, Visa is entering a new strategic partnership with Paga to make mobile payments more secure and convenient.
This partnership will allow Paga account holders to transact on Visa’s global network and reflects Visa’s plan to expand in Africa working with the continent’s top startups. The deal doesn’t include investment in the startup, but it is expected to drive larger payment volumes for both companies.
“We want to digitise cash, that’s a strategic priority for us. We want to expand merchant access to payment acceptance and we want to drive financial inclusion,” said Otto Williams, Visa’s Head of Strategic Partnerships, Fintech and Ventures for Africa.
“Based on the partnership we’re going to launch QR codes and NFC [payments] into the market in Nigeria — alternative ways of receiving payments than bringing out a physical card,” said Tayo Oviosu.
Africa Tech Summit London, has announced that the 2020 London edition has been rescheduled and will take place on October 22 at London Stock Exchange.
Africa Tech Summit London’s fifth edition was scheduled for May 22 and is now changing due to growing concerns related to the coronavirus (Covid-19).
“The health and well-being of our delegates, partners, and staff is our priority. Given the evolving context, the best course of action is to postpone Africa Tech Summit London until October,” said Andrew Fassnidge, Founder of the Africa Tech Summit event series.
“We believe the new date will provide our partners and delegates better opportunity to plan accordingly in a more stable environment for everyone, and we look forward to connecting tech leaders, corporates and investors in London in October”.
MultiChoice is partnering with Microsoft South Africa across various solutions including Azure, Microsoft 365, D365 and security services.
“We are moving towards a data and analytics-driven organisation,” says Brad Eliot, Group CIO at MultiChoice. “Our data warehouses have content that facilitates understanding of our subscriber preferences. We are modernising our data warehouses and Microsoft is helping us with their existing technologies.”
“At the same time, we are looking to see how we can modernise our data structures by looking at Azure data services. We are currently looking at proof of concepts for technologies such as sim apps and hyperscale.”
Kenneth Mwangi, a satellite information scientist working for the Intergovernmental Authority on Development Climate Predictions and Applications Centre (IADCPAC) in Nairobi, says researchers are running a supercomputer model to be able to predict breeding areas of locusts that may have been missed by ground search teams. These missed areas could be the epicentre of a new swarm of not sprayed with insecticide.
“The model will be able to tell us the areas in which hoppers are emerging,” says Mwangi. “We will also get ground information. These areas can become a source of an upsurge or a new generation of hoppers.” Adding that these breeding areas can become very difficult and expensive to control if given enough time.
The UN has described the great locust swarm that bred with reckless abandon across Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia as “extremely alarming”. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation warned that a second hatch of the insects was imminent and that it could threaten the food security of 25 million people across the region as the cropping season comes into fruition.
