Mobile tech and services generated $150 billion in Africa, 725 million unique subscribers expected by 2020

The GSMA study ‘The Mobile Economy: Africa 2016’ was launched at the GSMA Mobile 360 – Africa event held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania from July 26 – 28, 2016. The report highlights the increasing contribution of Africa’s mobile industry to the regional economy, including employment and public funding, and mobile’s role a platform for digital and financial inclusion. Industry overview At the end of 2015, 46% of the population in Africa subscribed to mobile services, equivalent to more than half a billion people. The region’s three dominant markets –…

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Verizon will buy Yahoo for $4.8 billion

US internet firm Yahoo will be sold to American telecoms firm Verizon Communications for nearly $5bn (£3.8bn) in cash. Yahoo will be combined with AOL, another faded internet star, which Verizon bought last year. The deal does not include Yahoo’s valuable stake in Chinese firm Alibaba. The price tag for the deal is well below the $44bn Microsoft offered for Yahoo in 2008 or the $125bn it was worth during the dot.com boom. Verizon said the deal for Yahoo‘s core internet business, which has more than a billion active users…

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Second 7000 USD Seed Funding for STEM Initiatives announced by Miss.Africa

The Miss.Africa initiative from DotConnectAfrica Trust has announced a second offering for its annual Seed Fund  for Tech initiatives in Africa led and founded by Women. In the first round, the Miss.Africa Seed Fund, a sum of Seven Thousand United Stated Dollars (USD 7000) received an overwhelming number of applications of over 90 applicants from more than 18 Countries in Africa across the African continent and anticipates a big turn of applications for the 2016 phase. As statement on the announcement by Sophia Bekele CEO and Founder DotConnectAfrica Group noted that…

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Tech firms ‘Wary of losing EU workers post-Brexit’

British group of legislators have said that Britain must urgently address the post-Brexit concerns of tech companies who fear losing European Union workers to other countries in the bloc. The Business, Innovation and Skills Committee said ministers should use the upcoming digital strategy to set out the impact of the vote to leave the EU on firms’ high-skilled European employees. It also warned that the UK’s position as a world leader in fintech – businesses which use technology to improve efficiency in financial services – could be at risk as businesses may seek…

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QnA: Five critical questions, How industry experts view development of Internet of Things

Google

How do industry experts view the development of the Internet of Things, and what would they change? The Internet of Things (IoT) is evolving rapidly. In these short videos, McKinsey’s Michael Chui poses five critical questions about its development to experts ranging from MIT Media Lab director Joi Ito to Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects group deputy director Dan Kaufman to Cloudera cofounder and chief strategy officer Mike Olson to O’Reilly Media founder and chief executive officer Tim O’Reilly. An extended and edited transcript of their comments about the development…

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Cybersecurity expert warn ‘Pokemon Go’ fans of cybercriminals

The release of “Pokemon Go” has sparked a frenzy among players and prompted a raft of warnings from lawmakers eager to prevent fans from putting their lives in danger. But the fevered anticipation of the game has also created opportunities for attackers, a cybersecurity software firm said. “The vulnerability from ‘Pokemon Go’ is due to the fact that Nintendo didn’t have a global release of the game,” said Michael Petit, Africa, Middle East and Asia head of mobility at Check Point Software Technologies. The mobile gaming app first rolled out…

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WEF Tech. Report 2016: Top 10 African countries ranking in harnessing technology

10 Africa’s most industrialized countries in the World Economic Forum’s Global Information Technology Report 2016 has included Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria among others that have shown an improvement in this year’s Networked Readiness Index (NRI) rankings (see table below) despite a deteriorating business and innovation environment . Finland, Switzerland, Sweden, Israel, Singapore, the Netherlands and the United States are leading the world when it comes to generating economic impact from investments in information and communications technologies (ICT), according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Information Technology Report 2016. On average,…

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