Search Results for: innovation

SA’s new AI association will promote innovation and education

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SA’s new AI association will promote innovation and education

SAAIA seeks to encourage stakeholders in the adoption of responsible AI for the commercial and societal benefit of the citizens of South Africa with a primary focus on economic growth, trade, investment, equality and inclusivity. The founding advisory board of SAAIA comprises notable entities such as Michalsons and Webber Wentzel law firms, the Western Cape government, Tshwane University of Technology, the Technology Innovation Agency, and various AI start-ups, including Zindi. Dr Nick Bradshaw, the founder of SAAIA, stated, “Our research has shown that AI and related automation technologies are currently…

TECNO new innovations to meet Africans needs

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  For the past 15 years, many aspects contributed to Africa’s rapid economic growth. Mobile phones were critical in leading to this growth. Transsion, a Chinese-led group that started in Africa and focuses on emerging markets outside of China. Its brands, such as TECNO, are household names on the continent, where it is today the single biggest smartphone seller. Transsion’s vice-president, Stephen Ha, puts this down to designing phones specifically for the needs of the African consumers. In 2008, it made a strategic decision to focus exclusively on Africa, before…

COVID-19 crisis could accelerate African businesses toward innovation and digitization

olivia Craig
Mali based insurtech startup OKO Finance helps rural farmers access crop insurance innovation

McKinsey recently released a report titled, “Reopening and reimagining Africa: How the COVID-19 crisis can catalyze change,” which recommends policies aimed to help Africa use the crisis as an opportunity to create a recovery that features a more inclusive economy, more competitive industries, and more resilient services The report recommends using the pandemic as an opportunity to accelerate digital transformation across the continent. Figure 1 highlights a number of industries poised for swift growth in digitization following the pandemic. Among these, some are already relatively digitized, such as information and…

DCA Digital Academy announces the COVID-19 Universities eHealth Innovation Essay Writing Competition

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DCA Digital Academy announces the COVID-19 Universities eHealth Innovation Essay Writing Competition

Almost overnight, remote work has become the new norm, the mainstream. Companies, schools and other institutions around the world are encouraging their staff, students to work from home to prioritize the health and safety of their workforce and communities, from the effects that have resulted from the COVID-19 global pandemic. To help navigate the challenges of studying remotely and be beneficial to the whole global conversation on health and wellness, the DotConnectAfrica (DCA) Digital Academy has announced an essay writing competition for university students to participate and use the special…

Fuji Xerox rebrands to Fujifilm Business Innovation

Dianne Jacobs
Fuji Xerox

Fuji Xerox has re-branded and will be known as Fujifilm Business Innovation as of 1 April 2021 as part of the company’s plans to focus on its existing businesses and expand into new business areas such as cloud, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things. Affiliates and sales companies in and outside of Japan will also change their names respectively on the same date, but Fuji Xerox said their new names will be revealed at a later date. The re-branding comes as the company also announced it would not be…

Vivo partners with OPPO and Xiaomi in new innovation

Dianne Jacobs
Vivo

Smartphone giant Vivo has partnered with OPPO and Xiaomi to bring an innovative new wireless file transfer system to consumers around the world. An initiative of the newly formed “Peer-to-Peer Transmission Alliance”, the new system enables seamless cross-brand file transfer with just one click. The new wireless file transfer system will allow consumers of these three brands to easily transfer files between their mobile devices without the need for any third-party applications or network data, supporting a wide range of files, including photos, videos, music, documents and more. The move…

Innovation that will help with the provision of clean water

Dianne Jacobs
DPA

Kenya’s quest to fulfill the need for clean water mainly in rural areas could be finally met after five university students invented a solar-powered water desalinator. The group calling itself, The Greatest of All Time (Goat), which comprises students from Kenyatta University, University of Nairobi and Strathmore University was unveiled at this year’s IBM Digital-Nation Africa: Smart Water Challenge. Goat’s innovation also uses Internet of Things (IoT) sensors to prevent water pipes from bursting by keeping the piping system fully functional. The team which won a paid internships with IBM…

Kenya ranks 3rd in Sub-Saharan Africa in the 2018 Global Innovation Index

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Orange

Kenya has won the third place in Sub-Saharan Africa in the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2018 coming after South Africa and Mauritius. Kenya achieves high levels of innovation relative to its level of development, a continuous performance since 2011. Strengths for Kenya are access to credit (especially microfinance loans), innovation linkages and exports of creative services, such as R&D financed by abroad, workforce efficiency and printing and other media. Now in its 11th edition, the GII is a detailed quantitative tool that helps global decision makers better understand how to…

Intellectual Property protection: The key incentive to innovation

Dianne Jacobs

Intellectual property rights , patents in particular , are perhaps most critical in industries characterized by high fixed costs of development and low marginal costs of production. Intellectual property (IP) protections are fundamentally about encouraging the innovation that drives human progress. And these protections have been extraordinarily successful contributing to rapid increases in global living standards over the past two centuries The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) took a deeper look at the latest data on the strength of IP laws and the amount of innovative, creative output around…

South Africa launches Artificial Intelligence Industry Association

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Artificial Intelligence

South Africa, known for its burgeoning technological landscape, is taking a significant step towards embracing the potential of artificial intelligence (AI). The South African Artificial Intelligence Association (SAAIA) will be officially launched on July 19, 2023, in partnership with the esteemed Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), a prominent hub for AI innovation in South Africa. The association’s mission is to engage individuals and organizations, provide research and analysis to inform decision-making, assist with policy-making, connect buyers and suppliers, support SMMEs, attract foreign investment, help African tech companies access international markets,…