Africa > West Africa > Communication

Communication / ICT in West Africa

  • Kenya, Nigeria & S. Africa: biggest winners of Google's Africa tech training

    KENYA, 2017/09/09 Alphabet Inc’s Google aims to train 10 million people in Africa in online skills over the next five years in an effort to make them additional employable, its chief executive said on Thursday. The U.S. technology giant as well hopes to train 100,000 software developers in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa, a company spokeswoman said. Google’s pledge marked an expansion of an initiative it launched in April 2016 to train young Africans in digital skills. It announced in March it had reached its initial target of training one million people.
  • Submarine cable deployed in Angola to link Africa to South America

    ANGOLA, 2017/09/09 The project of deploying the initial submarine telecommunication cable in the South Atlantic ocean linking Africa to South America has been launched in Angola’s capital Luanda. The launch of the fibre-optic South Atlantic Cable System (SACS) follows months of marine survey that was completed by multinational telecommunications company Angola Cables in April.
  • Cybersecurity in spotlight as Ghana pushes ahead with ICT development

    GHANA, 2017/08/01 Ghana has stepped up efforts to bolster its fast-growing ICT sector with the signing of a new transaction strengthening cybersecurity protections. n June the Bank of Ghana (BoG) announced it had contracted a private provider, whose name has not from presently on been made public, to help fasten the data of all banks registered under its system.
  • Africa: South Africa and Ghana Celebrate Success of African Network of Telescopes

    GHANA, 2017/07/14 The Ministries of Ghana and South Africa announce the combination of 'initial light' science observations which confirm the successful conversion of the Ghana communications antenna from a redundant telecoms instrument into a functioning Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) radio telescope. Ghana is the initial partner country of the African Very Large Baseline Interferometer (VLBI) Network (AVN) to complete the conversion of a communications antenna into a functioning radio telescope. The 32-metre converted telecommunications antenna at the Ghana Intelsat Satellite Earth Station at Kutunse will be integrated into the African VLBI Network (AVN) in preparation for the second phase construction of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) across the African continent.
  • Five billion people in the world use mobile phones, 436 million in sub-Sahara Africa

    BOTSWANA, 2017/06/15 The number of mobile phone subscribers in the world has reached five billion, according to the research arm of the world mobile industry organization, GSMA. But sub-Sahara Africa is the least penetrated with 436 million incomparable subscribers, the organization says in a press release copied to ghanabusinessnews.com. The GSMA defines a ‘incomparable mobile subscriber’ as an individual person that can account for multiple ‘mobile connections’, that is SIM cards. According to GSMA Intelligence, the world’s five billion incomparable mobile subscribers today account for approximately 7.7 billion mobile connections – excluding mobile-to-mobile (M2M).
  • 3 Ways Digital Technology Can Transform Africa Into a Global Power

    BOTSWANA, 2016/11/03 Africa is home to some of the world’s greatest digital innovations. From medical applications to inventions aimed at enabling the continent’s educational system, the continent is not just experiencing a digital revolution, but it’s as well solidifying its place as world leader in science and technology. The number of young people creating life-changing digital applications in Africa continues to grow. In Mozambique, counselors are using Short Message Services to spread awareness about HIV/AIDS, while in Nigeria a Do It Yourself generator that can produce six hours of power just from a liter of urine was invented by a group of 15-year-old girls. And in Zimbabwe, a 24-year-old engineering student has managed approaching up with a machine that turns plastic into diesel.
  • Nigeria: Arrested Ringleader Of Global Network Behind Thousands Of Online Scams

    EUROPEAN UNION, 2016/09/01 The chief of an international criminal network behind thousands of online frauds has been arrested in a joint operation by INTERPOL and the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), according to INTERPOL.. The 40-year-old Nigerian national, known as ‘Mike’, is believed to be behind scams totalling additional than USD 60 million involving hundreds of victims worldwide. In one case a target was conned into paying out USD 15.4 million.
  • Responding to the demand for reliable data collection in Africa, mSurvey raises seed funding

    KENYA, 2016/08/27 mSurvey, a Kenya based startup specializing in mobile data collection, has raised seed capital as it looks to expand its survey business in partnership with retailers in sub-Saharan Africa. Safaricom, Cross Culture Ventures, and the Virgin Group’s Alpha Angels joined an investment round in the four year old business. “It’s a seed round. I can’t disclose the all, but part of it comes from the $1 million Spark Venture Fund Safaricom set up to invest in high increase startups,” said mSurvey CEO Kenfield Griffith. “We’ll use the funds to drive price add to merchants using Safaricom’s Lipa Na M-Pesa [bill pay and digital payments] service and to further fuel increase in Africa and other emerging markets,” he added.
  • AFRICA 2016 POPULATION AND INTERNET USERS STATISTICS FOR 2016

    BOTSWANA, 2016/08/13 Africa is the second-largest continent, after Asia, in size and population; located south of Europe and bordered to the west by the Atlantic Ocean and to the east by the Indian Ocean.
  • Orange invests $85M in Africa Internet Group, Africa’s first billion dollar tech firm

    AFRICA, 2016/07/24 There’s additional money for Africa Internet Group (AIG), the Rocket Internet-backed company that became Africa’s initial tech unicorn last month at the same time as it landed a $326 million investment at a valuation of additional than $1 billion. AIG today revealed that it has taken an additional €75 million (around $85 million) in additional cash from new investor mobile giant Orange. Beyond the new capital, the transaction marks a strategic partnership between the two that will help AIG push and promote its a lot of businesses — which include online sales site Jumia, Uber rival Easy Taxi, Hellofood and travel booking site Jovago — across the 12 nations in Africa where Orange and AIG share a mutual presence.