On the 1st of March, South Africa based cryptocurrency exchange, VALR announced their $50M series B raise at a $240M valuation led by Pantera Capital. On that same day, Africa’s leading mobile operator MTN announced their purchase of 144 plots of virtual land in Africarare – the first African virtual reality metaverse featuring digital land. …
On 12th January 2022, Warner Music Group (WMG) announced their majority acquisition of Africori – the first major acquisition of the year in the entertainment industry. Momentum has been building toward this as WMG first invested in Africori in April 2020 at the height of the pandemic, followed in December 2020, with Africori signing a …
The global pandemic has had the unintended consequence of speeding up Africa’s digital economy. The transition to digital services and the adoption of transformative mobile technologies have been rapid in the last two years with e-commerce being the biggest beneficiary. This digital transformation has been driven by home grown solutions – some of which are …
The first quarter of 2021 ended on a great note as two African fintech businesses gained unicorn status, a rare fit amidst a raging global pandemic which is finally being aggressively tackled by the speedy supply of much-needed vaccines. Such is the African story – a trail of surprises in the midst of uncertainty. On …
In the midst of the pandemic, Facebook (and partners) announced 2Africa a new subsea cable. About the same time last year, Google also announced a subsea cable called Equaino. It looks like they are trying to save Africa, but this is the problem – we have way too much capacity on the beach and not …
Africa is already connected NOT by Facebook and Google Read More »
In this presentation that i made to the Africa Grantmakers Affinity Group (http://www.africagrantmakers.org) and Grantmakers in Film + Electronic Media (http://gfem.org), I will seek to describe how the African continent has been able to become connected to the Internet in a relatively short period of time, tracing some of the successes as well as obstacles to more robust …
Tuesday, April 10, 12:30 pm Berkman Center Conference Room 23 Everett Street, Second Floor, Cambridge, MA Guest: Eric Osiakwan and Ethan Zuckerman Topic: “Africa’s Internet Infrastructure” Following up from their Luncheon Series talk from last September, Eric and Ethan will discuss current developments in Africa’s Internet and communications infrastructure. We’ll learn about exciting possibilities and …
Berkman Conversation on Africa’s Internet Infrastructure Read More »
Folks, below is exactly what i have being chanting as a way forward in the ownership of the infrastructure; ” The Kenya Government will have a 40 per cent holding in the project, Etisalat 20% and the remaining 40% will go to investors in the East African region. The Government has said it will organise …
Kenyans in multistakeholder owenership of national fiber network Read More »
I woke up to the fluctuating sound of the power system, the generator of the hotel I was staying in had taken over from the national power grid which is loadshedding on an abitrary basis. This is Banjul, the capital of Gambia which recently hosted the African Union meeting. The day before i drove on …
Am sitting in my hotel lobby after a long day of work in Joburg, trying to eat some dinner whiles i deal with e-mail backlog on my laptop…..:-) A friend walks in as he had promised to deliver a copy of the latest edition of the Computer and Communication Africa (CCA) magazine published by AITEC …