The roadmap is approved some six months after the country auctioned high-speed internet spectrums to boost broadband and ultra-broadband adoption amid accelerating digital transformation. South Africa recently unveiled its roadmap to shut down its 2G and 3G networks by March 2025. The roadmap, contained in the Ministry of Communications’ next-generation radio frequency spectrum draft policy...

In February 2021, Africell settled the financial obligations to secure its telecom license. Since then,  the operator has invested more than US$150 million to build a high-quality 5G-capable network, with an initial capacity of more than 6 million subscribers. Africell, the first fully foreign-owned telecom operator to provide mobile services in Angola, has already attracted five million...

African and other global leaders meeting in Rotterdam say the continent is at a tipping point for climate adaptation action. Two months to the 27th global climate summit (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt, African and other global leaders have rallied in Rotterdam, to highlight the urgency of climate adaptation funding for the continent. The meetings—co-convened by the President of the African...

The loan will help finance more climate-sensitive projects. It nevertheless brings out questions on how Africa should fund its climate action, which currently relies on mitigation instead of focusing on adaptation.   The IFC will provide a US$150 million loan to help the Kenya Commercial Bank Kenya (KCB) increase its credit to climate-sensitive projects. The credits will mainly focus...

Kiswahili, a language spoken in more than ten African countries, is one of the ten most spoken languages in the world, with over 200 million speakers, according to the United Nations. The council being established and several other initiatives aim to make it more popular, among the younger generation especially.  Uganda is currently moving to establish a national council for the promotion...

Nigerian telecom operators are already burdened with more than 39 taxes. For subscribers, the new 5% tax was to be added to the 7.5% value-added tax (VAT) paid to the federal government, making a total of 12.5% tax. The Nigerian federal government has suspended the 5% tax it was planning to levy on telecom services, including calls, SMS, and data. The move was announced, on Monday, September 5,...

According to a recent report by Uganda’s insurance sector regulator, the life insurance segment has grown faster than non-life in the first half of 2022.  In Uganda, Ush711.6 billion (US$186.5 million) insurance premiums were underwritten in the second quarter of 2022. It is 18.58% higher than the Ush600.1 billion premium underwrote during the same period a year earlier, the Uganda...

 In the WAEMU region, inflation is rising unabatedly in a context marked by a strong US dollar, which sends the Euro-pegged CFA Francs tumbling. Besides food products, the main contributors to the inflation are housing and transportation.  Inflation reached 8.1% in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) in July 2022, the central bank BCEAO reports in its latest monthly...

The loss, which is larger than the figures Monoprix posted for H1-2021, widens the company’s overall losses.  BVMT-listed retail company Monoprix recently posted a TND3.6 million (US$1.1 million) net loss for the first half of 2022. The loss is larger than the TND2.4 million net loss the company posted for H1-2021.   During the period under review, the company's turnover fell...

Weeks ago, Ghanaian telecom workers started negotiating for an improvement in their working conditions. The negotiations hit a dead end in July, with workers accusing their employers of not being willing to negotiate.   Outsourced engineers and technicians working for MTN, Vodafone, and AirtelTigo have started an unlimited nationwide strike today, Monday, September 5. Through their...