Business Archives - Page 2 of 21

May292020 by Lynn WandiaNo Comments

DHL grow its logistics business, by acquiring stake in Mall for Africa’s Link Commerce

The logistics firm DHL has acquired an undisclosed minority stake in Mall for Africa’s Link Commerce, in a bid to grow its logistics business in Sub-Saharan Africa and other global emerging e-commerce markets. The acquisition in Link Commerce, the UK-based e-commerce firm helped it launch its DHL Africa eShop platform. DHL went live with the digital retail app in April, bringing more than 200 U.S. and U.K. sellers — from Neiman Marcus to Carters — online to African consumers. The move to offer Africa eShop to 20 of the continent’s 54 countries comes a month after Africa’s most visible (and well-funded) e-tailer, Jumia, went public. Jumia — which operates consumer retail and online service verticals in 14 African countries — raised more than $200 million in an NYSE IPO. Africa eSho

May282020 by editorNo Comments

Instagram to debut revenue sharing with creators through IGTV ads

Business, Mobile, social media

For the first time in its history, social media platform Instagram will start sharing revenue with creators through ads in IGTV and badges that viewers can purchase on Instagram Live. The company has hinted that ads would come to IGTV for more than a year, often saying the long-form video offering would be the most likely place it’d first pay creators. The new tools that enable video creators to make money, including badges that viewers can purchase during Instagram Live videos and the introduction of IGTV ads. Both launches are considered a test, as the company is limiting the features’ availability during its experimentation phase, it says. Badges will give viewers a way to support their favorite creators while also standing out in the comments, similar to efforts on other live video p

May272020 by Alex ReeceNo Comments

Mobile money transactions spike as users resort to cashless deals

Business, Mobile

Mobile money and data have emerged as the lifeline in revenue growth for African-focused telecoms operators Vodacom Group and Airtel Africa across markets characterized by stiff competition and challenging regulatory regimes. The two telcos this week released full-year results for the year ended March 31 that show impressive growth in mobile money and data earnings amidst near-flat increase in voice revenue. This year, the companies are apprehensive of the impact of the Covid-19, something that has forced Airtel Africa to extend the maturity of $254 million of debt facilities by an average of 18 months in order to improve its liquidity. South Africa-based Vodacom rode on its investment in Kenya’s Safaricom, which is Africa’s second-biggest telco by market capitalization, t

May262020 by Lynn WandiaNo Comments

Uber rival Bolt raises €100m to expand product offerings in Europe & Africa

Business, Mobile, Technology

Estonia’s Bolt, one of Uber’s biggest competitors in the European ride-hailing market, has raised €100m (£88m) in funding to prepare for a post-coronavirus world. This sees the total raised by Bolt top €300m, while its valuation has nearly doubled since May 2018, when it was valued at $1bn. The funding round comes at a challenging time for Bolt, with the coronavirus causing a slump in demand for ride-hailing services that is believed to have had a severe impact on its bottom line. However, today’s news suggests that its efforts to diversify are paying off. “Even though the crisis has temporarily changed how we move, the long-term trends that drive on-demand mobility such as declining personal car ownership and the shift towards greener transportation continue to grow,” said chief exec

May212020 by Alex ReeceNo Comments

WorldRemit Partners with Vodacom Tanzania

Business, Mobile

Leading digital money transfer service WorldRemit has partnered with Vodacom Tanzania to enable nine million M-Pesa customers to receive money directly to their M-Pesa wallets from friends and family living abroad. The new service increases convenience for money transfer recipients in urban and rural areas of Tanzania as they can receive international money transfers directly to their phones, without the need for a bank account or internet connection. Using the WorldRemit app, Tanzanians living abroad in over 50 countries, including the US, UK and Canada, can send money home 24/7 in just a few taps. This saves customers time and money as they do not have to travel to a traditional money transfer agent and pay expensive fees to send money home in cash. Vodacom M-Pesa customers can now...

Apr272020 by editorNo Comments

Visa and Pesapal announce partnership for connected digital payments in Africa

Business, Mobile, Technology

Pesapal will become a Visa Principal Member driving small business acquiring and issuing. Nairobi, April 27, 2020 – Visa (NYSE: V), the global leader in digital payments and Pesapal have today announced a strategic partnership to drive connected digital payments to consumers and businesses in Africa. Pesapal will now become a Visa Principal Member driving small business acquiring and issuing. Pesapal has created Africa's only payments ecosystem that offers Ecommerce, Point of Sale and Consumer applications on one platform. Pesapal recruits and supports businesses to be able to digitize payment collection securely while integrating to business internal systems such as POS, ERP, Accounting and Billing systems. By integrating businesses, Pesapal is then able to drive consumer paym

Apr92020 by Lynn WandiaNo Comments

World turns to Mobile Money in response to COVID-19 Outbreak

Business, Mobile

Kenya’s largest teleco, Safaricom, will implement a fee-waiver on East Africa’s leading mobile-money product, M-Pesa, to reduce the physical exchange of currency in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. The company announced that all person-to-person (P2P) transactions under 1,000 Kenyan Schillings (≈ $10) would be free starting Tuesday for the next 90 days. The move came after Safaricom met with the country’s Central Bank and per a directive from Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta “to explore ways of deepening mobile-money usage to reduce risk of spreading the virus through physical handling of cash,” according to a release provided to TechCrunch from Safaricom. To encourage the use of digital payments over cash, the East African telecom will also allow SMEs to increase their daily M-Pe

Apr22020 by editorNo Comments

Zuku back on top reclaiming fixed internet spot from Safaricom

Broadband, Business

Fixed internet connections in Kenya crossed the 500,000 mark for the first time in the quarter ending 31 December 2019 boosted by growth of the major service providers. Overall, the total number of customers of fixed internet connections rose by 10% from 454,840 in September 2019 to 500,888 as at December 2019. ZUKU reclaimed top spot from Safaricom Home Fibre by adding 23,885 new subscribers to end the period with 175,433 connections. Meanwhile, Safaricom added 11,207 new subscriptions to bring their total to 165,810 connections. This now means that Zuku has a 35 percent market share compared to Safaricom’s 33.1 percent. Jamii Telecommunication’s is third with 17.1 percent market share. Source: Communications Authority Safaricom had overtaken Zuku for the first time in Q1 2019

Apr12020 by Lynn WandiaNo Comments

Peter Ndegwa takes over as CEO at Safaricom succeeding Bob Collymore

Broadband, Business, Technology

Peter Ndegwa is Wednesday set to take over as Chief Executive Officer at Safaricom to succeed Bob Collymore, who died of cancer on July 1, last year, a move that will make him the first Kenyan to run the giant telco. He will be taking over from founding CEO Michael Joseph, who has been holding the position in an acting capacity since. Mr Ndegwa, an alumnus of Starehe Boys Centre and former East African Breweries finance director, will be betting on M-Pesa, data business and Safaricom’s likely entry into Ethiopia to shape the leading telephone services company’s growth in profitability. The 51-year-old incoming CEO takes the reins at a time when businesses have been hard hit by the coronavirus global pandemic, meaning that he might have to work from home on his first

Jan132020 by editorNo Comments

AI should be made part of businesses in 2020

Business, social media, Technology

Artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) have changed the way data is gathered, stored, processed and used; thus, becoming an indispensable part of our life. AI, in its early stages, has revolutionised lives of businesses and people; it has started to show its effects in businesses and the way people work. Many businesses are not aware of how the technologies can be used efficiently to grow enterprise. Artificial intelligence enables multitasking as takes care of all the menial tasks through automation and leave employees to conentrate on more important areas of the business. If organisations fail to make use of the available and newly added AI tools then chances are that they can’t compete well. AI is creating a more effective world, creating jobs, making workpla