Search Results for: digital center

Rush to Digitization during the COVID 19 Crisis Should perpetuate financial exclusion

Editor
Digitization

Rush to Digitization during the COVID 19 Crisis Should perpetuate financial exclusion.The economic effect of the current global COVID-19 lockdown will be severe. An essential focus for supporting the economic rebound is to invest in efforts to deepen economic integration and further lower trade costs. Digitization, and the creation of specialized ecosystems, will be the single most efficient approach to reduce trade cost on a global scale, which will benefit all countries currently impacted by COVID-19. A robust technical infrastructure and end-to-end digital processes (“paper-less”) are key elements to safeguard…

Online retailers sales see their highest growth on record in April

Dianne Jacobs
Amazon CloudFront Edge

Online retailers are seeing Black Friday-like sales due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their business. According to new data from Adobe’s Digital Economy Index, U.S. e-commerce jumped 49% in April, compared to the baseline period in early March before shelter-in-place restrictions went into effect. Online grocery helped drive the increase in sales, with a 110% boost in daily sales between March and April. Meanwhile, electronic sales were up 58% and book sales have doubled. The data comes from Adobe’s index of the digital economy, which analyzes more…

Facebook to equip locals with journalistic skills

olivia Craig
Facebook

Internet giant, Facebook is partnering with Kenya’s Aga Khan University (AKU) to equip locals with digital journalistic skills to tell their Kenyan stories. The six months ‘Video Journalism Fellowship’ to be hosted at the AKU’s AKU’s Graduate School of Media and Communications(GSMC),Nairobi with beneficiaries attached to local media houses to sharpen their reporting skills. Speaking at the launch event, GSMC Interim dean Alex Awiti said the AKU-Facebook partnership redefines citizen journalism where Kenyans will tell real-life stories using their smartphones to capture video content. “Mobile journalism is a growing form…

US online Black Friday sales biggest ever?

Dianne Jacobs
Black friday

Online sales on Black Friday in the United States hit a record $7.4 billion this year, with a large number of transactions made from smartphones, according to data released Saturday by Adobe Analytics. The figure was a 19.6 percent increase over last year and the second biggest day of online sales ever, the company said, just below the $7.9 billion consumers spent on last year’s Cyber Monday, which follows Black Friday. This year, 39 percent of online purchases were made from smartphones, a 21 percent increase from last year. “With Christmas now…

Windows 7 end-of-life: Study Shows 59% of IT Professionals Have Not Migrated All Their Users to Windows 10

Windows 10

Ivanti, the company that unifies IT to better manage and secure the digital workplace, today announced survey results that capture the pain points and priorities of IT professionals when faced with migrating user devices to Windows 10. Surprisingly, 59% of IT professionals report that they still haven’t migrated all their users to Windows 10, despite the imminent end of regular support for Windows 7 on January 14, 2020. As many as 39% will not be completed with their Windows 10 migration projects in time for the January deadline. The study…

Cellulant’s super payments app Tingg unveiled in 8 African countries

Tingg Celuulant

Cellulant the African fintech company has Tuesday announced the launch of Tingg, an all-in-one, multi-functional consumer super app that will include a wide array of payment, commerce and financial services into a single platform that will revolutionize the way customers interact with digital payment services in the continent. The pan-African payments firm has been quietly building a payments super app to bring bill payments, remittances, lending, group investments, food and gas orders in one app in its eight markets across Africa. The firm has now announced a major rebrand of…

Mastercard puts a spotlight on gender diversity and female entrepreneurship

Editor
Mastercard puts a spotlight on gender diversity and female entrepreneurship

As part of its commitment to supporting the advancement of gender diversity and inclusion in Africa, Mastercard hosted the second edition of its ‘Together We Lead’ event, bringing together celebrated women leaders to discuss the critical role of female entrepreneurs in Africa. Amanda Dambuza – entrepreneur and author, Lee Ann Lancaster – Chief Growth Officer of Mama Money, and Dr. Adriana Marais – physicist, technologist, astronaut candidate with the Mars One Project and founder of #ProudlyHuman, joined a panel discussion hosted by Shamina Singh, Executive Vice President, Sustainability & President,…

Microsoft opens first Africa Development Centres in Nairobi and Lagos

Editor

It was almost three decades ago that Microsoft opened its first offices in Africa. In this time, they witnessed incredible growth on the continent – more internet connectivity, more digital capability and more innovation. Africans have expanded the applications of technology, changing the way communities bank, farm and even access healthcare. As the next step on Microsoft’s journey in Africa, and to better understand a continent rapidly adopting technology in the cloud, and at the edge, Microsoft launched its first Africa Development Centre (ADC). With two initial sites in Nairobi,…

How AI could bring a difference in 2019

Staff Writer

In 2019, artificial intelligence (AI) will increasingly become a mainstream presence in our work and personal lives, inspiring our purchase decisions and digging deeper into business outcomes and events. At the same time, expectations surrounding AI will also grow, as calls for transparency and fair play become too loud for businesses to ignore. Here are four ways we see AI making a difference in our lives in the new year: AI gets warm and fuzzy. Conversational AI is fast becoming a fact of life; already, 20% of U.S. adults have access to smart speakers in their homes. Google…

Sky.Garden: Revolutionizing Kenya’s E-Commerce Sector

Dianne Jacobs

Upon noticing that the economic sector in Kenya only caters for the top tier in the economic pyramid which leaves little room for individuals and businesses that exist within the lower segments of the economy to reap the benefits of online transactions, Sky.Garden decided to come up with a sophisticated eCommerce platform that they can use to expand their geographical reach. ITBusinessDirect spoke to Isaac Hunja the Chief Marketing Officer about their work. How can you define the technology sector in Kenya? I would describe the technology sector in Kenya…