Fifth Africa fintech summit to be held virtually
The fifth Africa Fintech Summit will be hosted virtually this year through the Accelevents platform from November 9t-12th, 2020. The Summit takes place at the backdrop of the global COVID-19 pandemic that has brought unprecedented need for digital trade & finance and positioned fintech as key to economic recovery. This...
Push to save giraffes gets political in the US election
The economic and political setbacks triggered the coronavirus has thrown into disarray conservation of the giraffe, faces threats from poachers for skins and other body parts. Conservation charity Space for Giants is teaming with The Independent newspaper of Britain to protect wildlife at risk of being wiped out by poachers...
Africa’s energy investment potential must look beyond Covid-19
The Covid-19 pandemic, along with its subsequent travel restrictions and historic crash in oil prices, has forced many governments in Africa to defer major final investment decisions. Consequently, billions of dollars of capital that were expected to flow into Africa’s energy industry have been put on hold. While the impact...
African cheetah population faces serious threats from Asian traders
While the elephant is the symbol endangered flora and fauna in the world, obscured from global attention is the threat the cheetah in eastern Africa wilds faces. Illicit trade between eastern Africa and the Middle East has significantly depleted the population to the extent Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) says the...
Blue Prism announces Service Assist to automate next generation contact centres
Blue Prism has announced the availability of Blue Prism Service Assist to address the increasing demands of customer contact centres and call centre agent productivity. The new offering will deliver a real-time, unified 360-degree view of all customer interactions helping free up agents so they can be more responsive, empathetic...
Julian Assange: Governments selectively enforcing laws to punish those who provoke their ire
As the extradition hearing for Wikileaks Editor-in-Chief Julian Assange unfolds, it is increasingly clear that the prosecution of Assange fits into a pattern of governments selectively enforcing laws to punish those who provoke their ire, reports freedom of information defenders Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). EFF now wants computer crime laws...
Huawei, Sunline launch contactless ‘Digital Loan One Box Solution’
Technology companies Sunline and Huawei have jointly released the Digital Loan One Box Solution — a global contactless solution for financial services. This solution will be rolled out across countries and regions such as Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa, where financial inclusiveness is urgently necessary. According...
Cambridge Analytica neither misused data nor colluded with Russia, watchdog finds
Infamous now-defunct data-mining firm Cambridge Analytica did not directly misuse data to shift votes in the Brexit referendum, nor did it work with Russia to meddle in the vote, a three-year UK investigation has found. The organisation, which has in the past 10 years been blamed for electoral mess in...
Coronavirus accelerates need for mobile, self-service banking
The coronavirus has accelerated the need for mobile and self-service banking, with traditional branches seeing a fall in customer traffic, meaning their customer acquisition has also significantly declined. Though it may be tempting to conclude that this will lead to bank branches becoming obsolete, that is not the case. Instead,...
From the Maria Theresa Thaler, to the rupee, to the Kenya shilling
Early use of currency in Kenya commenced with the Arab influence who were among the first to use currency as we know it. In Muscat, they used a silver coin called the Maria Theresa Thaler (MT$), first minted in Austria in 1741 and, not surprisingly, they continued using it when...
