General News

With the aim of exchanging information and ideas on how the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) can assist on-going efforts, by the Gambian government, in strengthening and improving ICT-related services to its citizens, the Acting Secretary-General Gisa Fuatai Purcell welcomed Honourable Ebrima Sillah, Minister of Information, Communication and Infrastructure, of Gambia and Kalifa Bojang, Deputy Head of Mission, from the High Commission of Gambia, to the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) headquarters.

On the sidelines of the second edition of the Google for Nigeria event which was held in Lagos, Google announced that it will deploy 200 Wi-Fi terminals in 2019 across fives Nigerian cities: Port Harcourt, Abuja, Kaduna, Enugu, Ibadan. The equipment will be installed in markets, bus stops and bus stations, shopping centers, universities and more. More than 10 million people will be covered by high-quality Internet services, said Juliet Ehimuan-Chiazor, Google Nigeria country director.

Recently, iWayAfrica, a pan-African provider of satellite telecommunications services and solutions in Africa, has signed an agreement with Avanti Communications Group, a satellite operator and provider of satellite data services in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The agreement will allow iWayAfrica to deploy satellite broadband services from Avanti's HYLAS 4 satellite to consumers and businesses throughout sub-Saharan Africa.

A new technology hub that has been created in the heart of Lagos represents the burgeoning technology and innovation scene - that is attracting significant investment and interest from global giants - that recognize the opportunities presented by this emerging market of young, connected Africans.

mCash will relaunch soon in Nigeria thanks to the collaboration of Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS), MTN Nigeria, sixteen banks and major mobile telcos. The mobile payment platform was first launched in 2016 with the aim of making low-value retails payments and extending e-payment options to low-income buyers and sellers whose transactions are made in cash.

E-marine, the leading company in providing marine engineering and installation services for submarine cables in the region, bagged a contract from Huawei Marine Networks to install the “Mauritius and Rodrigues Submarine Cable System” (MARS), which covers a distance of 700 km connecting two islands in the Indian Ocean.

The “free roaming” project has finally started between the G5 Sahel countries. It is a process of removing telecom roaming charges between the G5 Sahel countries: Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Chad. The permanent secretariat of this regional cooperation and development body has adopted a roadmap for 2019, which will be presented to the various Heads of State.

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa launched a space agency, hailing it as a “milestone” as he campaigns ahead of elections at the end of the month.

Central Bank of Egypt is on its way to attaining its digital transformation aspirations by digitizing 100 million documents using scanners from Alaris, a Kodak Alaris business, with the aim of scanning another 500 million documents over the next 5 years. The digitization of documents has resulted in a number of benefits including huge cost savings in terms of storage space, quick and easy document retrieval and completion of certain processes in a few minutes as opposed to weeks.

In early June 2018, Vodacom Tanzania and Azam Telecom have each secured a spectrum license for the 700MHz band auctioned by the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA).