Business Archives - Page 2 of 50

Jun112019 by editorNo Comments

Jiji acquires their main competitor OLX

Business, Mobile, social media, Startups

Today Jiji, one of the largest marketplaces for classifieds in Africa, has acquired their main competitor on the African market, OLX, and their businesses in Kenya, Ghana, Uganda and Tanzania. The acquisition means Jiji will now be able to access 300 million people across five markets. This is something of a coup for a company originally from Ukraine, pulling off an acquisition in one of the world’s last huge, relatively untapped regions. The transaction is supported by one of Jiji’s principal investors, Digital Spring Ventures. Joining Jiji's family will allow OLX users in these countries to benefit from Jiji’s market-leading products and services. OLX's reach, combined with Jiji’s own proprietary search and delivery algorithms, will create a beneficial combination - giving users a

Jun102019 by Lynn WandiaNo Comments

Safaricom to target new liberalizing markets once it fully acquires MPesa from parent Vodafone

Business, Internet, Mobile

Safaricom is working on a joint venture with Vodacom Group to acquire the MPESA brand from Vodafone. The deal, when finalized, will cost the two companies $13.4 million. According to Collymore, acquiring the rights to MPESA will allow the partners to expand the platform’s footprint in Africa and develop more local products. “We are watching Ethiopia closely because as we see the liberalization of the markets, both the mobile payments market, the telecoms market and the banking sector, we think there could be opportunities,” Collymore said. Speaking to The Africa Report in February, Collymore had said a successor should be, “Someone who understands the financial sector a lot more, if we are to occupy the fintech space, and someone who is not going to be scared of going into other mark

Jun62019 by Lynn WandiaNo Comments

Kenya’s Cooperative Bank to briefly shutdown banking services for weekend IT upgrade

Business, Technology

Cooperative Bank of Kenya will switch off banking services over the weekend for IT upgrade. In a notice published on the dailies on Thursday, the bank notified its customers and the general public that it will be upgrading its IT network to improve system performance and provide faster banking services. “All our banking services will be switched off from 10.00pm Saturday 8th June to 8.00am Sunday 9th June 2019,” the lender said. On the affected days, customers will be unable to use the bank’s ATM, mobile banking, VISA Card, agencies, Saccolink, account to Mpesa, Kenswitch, and all other services.

May282019 by editorNo Comments

Kenya’s BuuPass Brings Convenience to CommutersThrough APIs & Partnerships

Business, Mobile, Startups

Kenya's BuuPass formerly known as Magic Bus, has fast grown into a startup making major strides, partly thanks to a $1 million cash prize they won from Hult Prize but mostly, the success can be attributed to the kind of partnerships they have been able to form the two years the startup has been in existence. Over 2,000,000 tickets including #MadarakaExpress sold so far on #BuuPass @buupass #DigitizingTransportKE @SafaricomPLC @Safaricom_Care #Mobility #PSV #Transport #SeamlessMovement pic.twitter.com/NXmTRd9zEE — bank·a·ble (@mbuguanjihia) May 28, 2019 So far, the Nairobi-based startup offers ticket booking services for Easy Coach and something that I learnt when I met up with the founding team, Sonia Kabra and Wyclife Omondi, BuuPass is also behind Kenya’s SGR online ticketing pl

May272019 by editorNo Comments

Why Tech giants like Google and Microsoft are flocking to Africa

Business, Internet, Technology

Now approaching 226 million, the number of smartphone connections across Africa has doubled over the last two years, according to a report published by GSMA on Africa's mobile economy. This leap coupled with the growing number of technology hubs and companies in major African cities is a boon for tech investors. It's why Microsoft and Google are not the only international technology companies staking their claims on the continent. Thanks to one of Google's many products, TensorFlow, rural farmers on the continent can diagnose diseased plants by taking a photo of it. TensorFlow came with the launch of Google's artificial intelligence (AI) center in Accra, Ghana's capital city earlier this year. The center, one of the multinational tech company's many investments in Africa, is compr...