Search Results for: mobile

African Fintechs collaborate to interlink mobile money and digital assets

Editor

The African Seychelles-based Securities, Commodities and Derivatives Exchange (SECDEX), and KOINON, the global Digital Coin and Token based payment platform, are pleased to announce a collaboration. The collaboration will foster the intersection of African B2C and B2B payments and dynamic asset conversion between fiat currencies, cryptocurrencies and a broader range of digital assets. This initiative comes at a key time in the mobile payments industry growth. As evidenced by Mastercard’s recent $100million investment in Africa’s Airtel which focuses on mobile payments and financial inclusion. latest partnership combines KOINON’s cryptocurrency digital…

CBK Proposes law for mobile loan apps

Dianne Jacobs
MTN Rwanda

CBK Proposes law for mobile loan apps Digital app lending companies operating in Kenya are set up for a shake-up after the country’s central bank proposed new laws to regulate monthly interest rates levied on loans by digital lenders in a bid to stamp out what it deems predatory practices. If approved, digital lenders will require approval from the central bank to increase lending rates or launch new products. The move comes in the wake of mounting concern about the scale of predatory lending given the proliferation of startups offering…

Mobile banking dominance may slow down as users opt for digital lending apps

olivia Craig
M-Gas Mpesa Central Bank of Kenya

The growing dominance of mobile banking may slow down amid low employment rates and high costs of living which have pushed more Kenyans to rely on digital lending apps to make ends meet, a new report shows. The report by Egyptian investment bank, EFG Hermes, said the surge in digital lending apps has been witnessed over the years as more Kenyans sought to supplement their incomes following a spiral in the cost of living. This is likely to threaten the mobile banking revolution. While more mobile banking and digital loan…

9mobile hosts a Mobile Network Operators workshop

Dianne Jacobs
9mobile

9mobile, the leading telecom operator in Nigeria, in association with Google, and Kirusa, a global leader in communication solutions over data networks for consumers and enterprises, recently hosted a workshop in Lagos for Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), Aggregators, and brands to introduce Rich Communication Services (RCS), and showcase how RCS Business Messaging (RBM) is revolutionizing enterprise communication with their consumers. The workshop was attended by over 50 attendees, including representatives from MTN, Airtel, Glo, GTB, Zenith Bank, Unity Bank, Accion Microfinance, Interswitch, and Infobip, among others. Touted as the next-generation…

5G will support more than 10% mobile connections

Dianne Jacobs
5G

According to the new Cisco Annual Internet Report, 5G will support more than 10% of the world’s mobile connections by 2023. The average 5G speed will be 575 megabits per second, or 13 times faster than the average mobile connection. With advanced performance capabilities, 5G will deliver more dynamic mobile infrastructures for AI and emerging IoT applications including autonomous cars, smart cities, connected health, immersive video and more. For the past 50 years, each decade introduced a new mobile technology with cutting-edge innovations. Mobile bandwidth requirements have evolved from voice…

Afri Ride mobile app launches in South Africa

Dianne Jacobs
Voice App

Afri Ride, a secure ride sharing mobile app with tailor-made solutions for the African traveling community, is now available in South Africa, and will be expanding into other African markets in the near future. Joe Moyo, managing director at the ride sharing app, describes the app as incredibly simple to use. “All that users have to do is, to upload their travel details such as the start and end location, travel date and the number of empty seats that are available, this then allows travelers heading in the same direction…

Increased access pushes for mobile penetration

Dianne Jacobs
MTN Rwanda

Increased access to mobile network signals and exciting product offers by operators continue to drive consumers to own more than one SIM card to take advantage of the diverse services, a report by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) shows. The Sector Statistics Report covering July-September 2019 shows mobile subscriptions are on the upward trajectory standing at 53.2 million, and in effect, pushing the mobile penetration in the country to 11.2 per cent. In the recent years, the Authority has also continued to put in place interventions to enhance access…

The Internet and Mobile taking over the delivery space

Dianne Jacobs
Food

For the longest time, restaurants held takeaways as an afterthought. Well, not anymore. The food catering business has gone past the takeout era and has evolved so much that delivery has become the hot trend in Kenya. The great digital revolution, burgeoning e-commerce and the convenience of mobile money which allows buyers to pay for their deliveries right off their phones, has spurred a whole new industry that is today the food delivery market. And Kenyans, enticed by the convenience of ordering online from their favorite local restaurants and having…

Regulate? Mobile-based online lending firms may be money laundering channels says Central Bank of Kenya governor

olivia Craig
Mobile-based lenders pose money laundering risk, says CBK

Mobile-based online lending firms should be regulated to avoid their usage as channels for introducing illegally-obtained cash into the financial system, Central Bank of Kenya governor Patrick Njoroge has said. In a presentation to parliamentarians Wednesday, Dr Njoroge singled out Tala, Branch and Okash — three highly-popular digital money lenders — as credit-only mobile lending institutions that could be easily used to launder illicit cash. Money laundering, which involves transferring and disguising illegally obtained cash to make it look legitimate, is mostly used by criminals and the corrupt to clean…

A world of new possibilities from Mobile apps to the blind and visually impaired

olivia Craig
Facebook

Ask anyone who was around before smartphones, and they’ll tell you life was different. But for Nutsiri “Earth” Kidkul, who went blind eight years ago, life-changing doesn’t begin to describe the impact of mobile apps. Before specialized apps came along, Kidkul would have to plan and prepare much more for basic tasks like grocery shopping, traveling or reading documents. What’s more, Kidkul often needed assistance from other people to go about her day. “I was always at the mercy of their time or schedule,” Kidkul says. Kidkul uses, for example,…