May, 2016 - itbusinessdirect

Kenyan Public Libraries Offering Free Internet To Over Half A Million Members

May 31, 2016 Dianne Jacobs

The public libraries in Kenya will start offering free Internet to over half a million library members from June, ItNewsAfrica reports. The Internet will be provided by Liquid Telecom Kenya and the Communications Authority of Kenya who will connect 46 branches of the Kenya National Libraries Services. Mr. Ben Roberts, the CEO of Liquid Telecom Kenya said, “The demand for Internet services is growing exponentially in Kenya. Connecting the public libraries means everybody will now have access to digital and online information – including e-government services, research, education services and…

Uber Is Expanding To Ghana, Tanzania And Uganda

May 27, 2016 Dianne Jacobs

Uber Africa launches Uber Cash in partnership with Flutterwave

Uber is branching out to more African countries. The car-hailing company said that it plans to start operating in the capitals of Ghana, Uganda and Tanzania within a month, AP reports. With operations in Nairobi and Mombasa in Kenya, Lagos and Abuja in Nigeria and five cities in South Africa, this move will further increase their presence on the Continent. Uber’s existence in Africa has not been a smooth journey. It has been met with resistance from existing taxi drivers who deem it as competition. Incidences in Kenya of Uber drivers being…

MIT Global Startup Lab Program Applications Are Now Open

May 26, 2016June 2, 2016

The MIT Global Startup Labs Program is headed to South Africa and tech entrepreneurs, both new and established have until the end of May to submit their new and innovative tech ideas. The joint initiative by MIT, WITS University and the Johannesburg Center for Software Engineering (JCSE) will see students gain first hand experience in the entire process of developing tech startups. Since 2000, MIT Global Startup Labs has been sending over 150 MIT instructors to teach over 2,000 students in 14 countries through partnerships with universities in emerging regions.…

Increased Potential For Cyber-Crime Attacks In Africa

May 24, 2016June 2, 2016

There is potential for increased cyber-crime attacks in Africa as cyber-criminals target mobile devices, Techmoran reports. This deduction comes from the quarterly analysis of the global Threat Index by Check Point® Software Technologies Ltd which also revealed deep disparities in the threat environments in Africa. African countries that were highly ranked in the index include Namibia and Malawi which were second and fourth positions respectively and Nigeria which had moved up two positions from the 18th to the 16th. Kenya, on the other hand had dropped from the 45th position to the 69th…

VC4Africa Releases Its Annual Venture Finance In Africa Report

May 23, 2016May 24, 2016 Dianne Jacobs

The 2016 Venture Finance in Africa research has been released by VC4Africa and it shows that growing investor interest in African startups is resulting in tangible investments. Data from the 2016 research shows that the total invested capital more than doubled from almost $27 million to almost $73 million, secured by 224 ventures who took part in the survey. The average amount invested per venture also increased from $200,000 to $326, 000. The data from the report showed that in terms of the number of ventures, ICT was leading with…

The 10 Startups To Pitch at Seedstars World South Africa Have Been Announced

May 23, 2016May 24, 2016 Dianne Jacobs

It’s an interesting month for startups in South Africa as Seedstars World, a global seed-stage startup competition begins its tour this week in Cape Town. The ten startups that will pitch to a panel of judges have been selected for the event that will take place at Workshop 17 as techmoran reports. After the pitching, the top three startups out of the ten will be invited to Johannesburg where they will compete against the best startups from Durban and Soweto. After these competitions, one startup will be named the most…

Vodacom Nigeria Trains 25 Female Students on IoT

May 20, 2016May 24, 2016 Dianne Jacobs

Vodacom Nigeria trained 25 female students on IoT as part of its support for the Girls In ICT program, Vanguard reports. The students learned how IoT is used in ensuring people’s safety and in securing the world today. The girls got a chance to tour the company’s facilities which exposed them to the importance of connectivity and data security. Vodacom hopes that by training female students in matters ICT, they will help in demystifying the myth that ICT is a male dominated field and in so doing encourage more female…

2016 Innotribe Startup Challenge Winners Announced

May 19, 2016May 20, 2016

The winners of the 2016 Innotribe Startup Challenge were announced yesterday in Mauritius. The winners were South Africa’s Hello Paisa, a low cost international money transfer solution and The Sun Exchange, which deals with crowd lending for solar energy and Cameroon’s WeCashUp, that deals with mobile money transfer across Africa. The three each received a 10,000 USD cash prize. They also received invitations to attend Sibos, SWIFT’s annual global financial services conference that will take place in Geneva from the 26th to the 29th of September, techmoran reports. Sido Bestani,…

Bill Gates To Give the 14th Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture

May 18, 2016May 19, 2016 Dianne Jacobs

This year, the Annual Nelson Mandela lecture will be delivered by Bill Gates, the Nelson Mandela Foundation in association with the University of Pretoria has announced. The lecture which will be delivered on July 17th, the eve of Nelson Mandela day, will focus on the theme, “Living Together”. The lecture is one of the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s programmes that seek to honor the late Nelson Mandela. In line with this, the lecture seeks to raise topical issues affecting South Africa and the rest of the world. Encouraging dialogue often about…

New ICANN CEO Göran Marby Will Take Over This Month

May 17, 2016May 20, 2016

Fadi Chehadé’s replacement Göran Marby, will begin his job as the new ICANN CEO and President from May 23, next Monday. He takes over form Fadi Chehadé who was at the helm of ICANN since 2012. Mr. Marby, before his appointment served as CEO and founder of Appgate, Swedish security software company (now Cryptzone in US), where he grew the organization to a global company with customers in 35 countries and operations in the U.S. He has over 20 years of experience that he brings to ICANN being a senior executive in…