Africa CEO Network NEWS | 12 November 2021

Diversified global media, marketing and technology company Entravision has acquired 365 Digital, a digital advertising solutions company headquartered in South Africa. This investment provides Entravision with a geographic foothold in Africa, as the Company looks to expand its breadth of digital services to new emerging markets.

Headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa, 365 Digital maintains exclusive sales representations with TikTok, the leading destination for short-form mobile video and brand…

Liquid Intelligent Technologies launched OneVoice for Cloud PBX offering in six key African markets. This is part of the organisation’s investment as it partners with its customers in their digital transformation journeys that have accelerated due to the pandemic.

The OneVoice for Cloud PBX solution will assist businesses irrespective of their size in their telephony and collaboration needs. The solution is powered by a single integrated platform  converting  legacy PBX telephony system into a cloud-based…

InfraCo Africa, part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) and Helios Investment Partners (Helios) are working together to establish a pan-African investment vehicle: Climate, Energy Access and Resilience (CLEAR).

CLEAR will fund climate-aligned infrastructure and growth businesses whilst also working towards achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The initiative will address the growing demand from domestic and international investors for sustainable investment opportunities that can help to close…

African telecommunications group Econet, announced the launch of Cassava Technologies, bringing together Econet’s digital services and digital infrastructure product segments encompassing fiber broadband networks, data centers, renewable energy, cloud & cybersecurity, fintech, and digital platforms.

Cassava Technologies, headquartered in London, is Africa’s first integrated tech player of continental scale at the forefront of technology innovation, with operations and activities in most African countries. Its product segments provide digital…

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange, JSE, has joined the Race to Zero Partner Initiative through the Net Zero Financial Service Providers Alliance (NZFSPA), and the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) to promote and champion sustainability measures within South Africa, and internationally,  and has committed to supporting net zero by 2050.

These alliances encourage the financial sector to align with a target to limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 oC and use their respective mandates in achieving this goal…

The Capital Markets Authority (CMA) has announced the grant of licenses to HFM Investments Limited and Windsor Markets (Kenya) Limited to operate as non-dealing Online Foreign Exchange Trading brokers lifting the number of entities in this space to six.

In a statement released to newsrooms, the CMA Chief Executive Wyckliffe Shamiah noted, ‘the Authority is pleased to grow the pool of licensed entities that can offer non-dealing online foreign exchange trading services to investors…

National Bank of Kuwait – Egypt (NBK-Egypt) has provided a finance of EGP 850 million to Madkour for Projects Company, one of the national companies in the field of energy and infrastructure projects, for the purpose of carrying out the works assigned to the company by the Ministry of Housing to replace and upgrade medium and low voltage electricity networks in some villages of Markaz Esna and Markaz Armant in Luxor Governorate.

The financing agreement was signed at NBK-Egypt’s head office in the presence of Mr. Yasser El-Tayeb, NBK – Egypt Vice Chairman, Managing Director & CEO, where the agreement…

Tlou Energy and hydrogen technology partner Synergen Met (SM) are working on combining large, established natural gas reserves with abundant solar energy to produce green hydrogen at the Lesedi Power Project in Botswana, to provide a complementary range of cleaner and greener power generation options.

Tlou has secured a 10MW Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Botswana Power Corporation, and power dispatch under this PPA will help displace existing carbon-intensive power…

Globeleq, Africa’s independent power company and the majority partner in the Ikamva Consortium, has been selected to contribute more clean and renewable wind and solar projects across the country.

The six wind and six solar PV projects will total 1,274 MW of generation capacity adding to Globeleq’s nine majority owned and operated wind and solar assets in Africa, which have a total capacity of 450 MW.  Globeleq and its partners in the Ikamva Consortium were named by South Africa’s…

Emirates announced the reintroduction of its flights to Algiers, Algeria, as of  9 November. Flights from Dubai to Algiers will operate twice a week.

The resumption of flights to Algiers boosts Emirates’ African network to 21 destinations, and represents a full restoration of the airline’s operations into North Africa. With the easing of travel restrictions, and the acceleration of passenger demand, the airline is advancing its plans to expand its presence across Africa, and will operate 116 weekly flights into the continent…

IFC, Proparco, the French Development Institution and Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF) are partnering with Ciments de l’Afrique (CIMAF), a subsidiary of Omnium des Industries et de la Promotion (OIP), to help the company boost its production of cement in West Africa to meet growing demand for housing and infrastructure in the region.

IFC arranged a €161.25 million financing package for CIMAF, which includes a loan of €92.5 million from IFC’s own account, a parallel loan of €33.75 million from Proparco, and a B Loan…

The collaboration of government with industries is crucial for economic progress, be the market large or small. Nigeria knows this and is taking steps to work closely and create better transparency in one of the country’s most robust industries – oil and gas – by mandating ownership disclosure of oil assets.

Free trade on the continent, and indeed within Nigeria, remains an issue of concern. Implementation of the Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) depends to a large extent on Nigeria’s enforcing its protocols. This becomes a tall order, seeing as local trade…

The manufacturing sector in Africa plays a significant role in driving economic growth, job creation, and lifting people out of poverty. When the pandemic hit, the sector, just like all the other sectors recorded a massive decline in output.

Manufacturers decided to prioritise cost reduction while at the same time increasing revenue. With the Fourth Industrial Revolution underway, manufacturers as Francis Wainaina, Senior Product Manager at SEACOM East Africa said in a recent column are being pushed to embrace technological…

The world of international trade is currently dealing with a perfect storm of challenges on multiple fronts. This is having adverse consequences for global supply chains, many of which rely on exports to and imports from China – where much of the friction is emanating from.

With the rollout of global vaccination programmes continuing at a healthy pace, there has been cautious optimism that economic activity will continue to recover and return to a semblance of normality. However, as it stands, the trade…

As Africa’s economy recovers from the impact of the pandemic, how are ports keeping up? Not quickly enough — according to The Star’s (Kenyan Newspaper) report “Africa’s Ports: Rapid Transformation”.

The report points to the fact that the existing infrastructure at many ports is insufficient for current demand. At the same time, port congestion is a critical challenge for ports across the continent. In August, Nigeria’s main port experienced server failure, which slowed port operations, including goods…

Disposing of old electronics has become a business critical process with the introduction of new laws and regulations. Companies need to implement a sustainable IT asset program by engaging with a reputable IT asset management company that can provide the effective recovery, reuse and retirement of redundant IT assets.

Sustainability means keeping IT assets in use for as long as possible instead of disposing of them at an early stage. It’s time to move away from the traditional linear model by…

Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks have been on the rise in Africa the last few years. The latest figures from SEACOM, a leading pan-African ICT service provider released this week revealed that these attacks increased by 300% in 2021, compared to the same period in 2019.

At the same time, Nokia 2021 Threat Intelligence Report released this week shows that banking malware threats are sharply increasing as cybercriminals target the rising popularity of mobile banking on smartphones, with plots…