IT News Africa: Top Stories Of The Week
This week was yet again filled with tech news stories that grabbed the headlines both across Africa and around the world.
South African tech entrepreneur Vinny Lingham joined the BnkToTheFuture board alongside a host of other top executives from around the world.
In other South African news Amazon Web Service Direct Connect launched in South Africa through the Teraco data centers.
Making the headlines in Kenya, Kenyan Airways will now be accepting payment via mobile money.
From all of us at IT News Africa, have a great weekend. The top stories of the week can be found below.
News
Vinny Lingham joins BnkToTheFuture board with host of top executives
On Thursday 14 December 2017, global FinTech, Bitcoin and blockchain online investment platform BnkToTheFuture announced its token sale advisory board, which includes South African Vinny Lingham, who is the Civic CEO, and executives from Smith + Crown, Abra, BitAngels, and more signing on to help BnkToTheFuture launch a tokenized secondary market and due diligence platform for equity tokens. Read More.
South Africa: AWS Direct Connect now available through Teraco data centers
On Wednesday 13 December 2017, Teraco, a vendor-neutral colocation data centre in South Africa, announced the availability of Amazon Web Services (AWS) Direct Connect through Teraco’s Johannesburg JB1 and Cape Town CT1 data centres. This will enable customers to directly access AWS services in AWS infrastructure Regions around the world. The benefits of AWS Direct Connect are dedicated connectivity to AWS Regions, consistent network performance, and reduced bandwidth costs, according to the company. Read More.
Huawei, Xpress Money partner to grow African mobile money footprint
On 13 December 2017, ICT solutions provider, Huawei, announced a partnership with Xpress Money, a money transfer brands, to drive mobile money services to more of the worlds unbanked, with a focus placed on the African market. Read More.
Kenya Airways customers can now book tickets online using mobile money wallets
Digital payments service provider, Cellulant has partnered with Kenya Airways in a bid to provide a variety of mobile and bank payment options to Kenya Airways customers paying for bookings online. Read More.
South African tax collector takes aim at cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin
According to a report by MoneyWeb, The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has opened dialogue with a number of the top technology companies in the world in order to try and enable the tax revenue service to track cryptocurrecy trades more efficiently. It is unclear whether this move to track the trading of these cryptocurrencies is in order to try and formulate regulation around it in the future. Read More.
Top Opinions & Features
5 things to consider before signing a cellphone contract
Junk status. Downgrades. Inflation. Recession. Fuel price hikes. These are terms South Africans are exposed to on a daily basis. The reality is that there’s a great deal of uncertainty about the economy, which means that consumers need to consider their financial well-being. Read More.
7 business and tech trends to expect in 2018
On 13 December 2017, Accenture released its Fjord Trends 2018, an annual report analysing the pressing forces acting internally and externally on organisations and society. Its 11th annual report examines seven emergent trends expected to impact business, technology and design in the year ahead. Read More.
Disruptive innovation: Are we there yet?
Society both likes and fears the concept of disruptive innovation. We like to experience new ways of travelling and creativity in cooking dishes; at the same time, we may be somewhat anxious or even afraid of getting into a self-driving car or eating something cooked by a robot chef. Read More.
How to secure your cryptocurrency
As Cryptocurrencies continue to gain popularity, recent breaches reinforce the need for vigilance and knowledge to protect online assets. In the case of cryptocurrencies, we are presented with a new set of challenges in how security, identity and access are managed. Due to their decentralised nature, cryptocurrencies present both an opportunity and a challenge in terms of how they may (or may not) interact with our current financial system. In terms of those who use cryptocurrencies, it is important to understand how to prevent these digital assets from disappearing into the wrong hands. Cisco has released information on how to keep your digital assets secure. Read More.
What does it take to be a Cloud Climber?
Being clever in the cloud is about transforming the way businesses deploy and manage applications. Firms that continually innovate and build a sustainable cloud strategy deliver significant value to customers and differentiate themselves in a crowded marketplace. Read More.
By Dean Workman
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