Split of MPesa from Safaricom?

Today’s Menu ☕️

🤖 France’s prominent VC firm Bpifrance establishes foothold in Egypt to boost Africa and Middle East presence
📱Kenyan legislators advocate for division of Safaricom and its mobile money service M-PESA
🤖 Vodafone and Google strengthen alliance to deliver AI-enhanced services to African customers
🤖 Adobe introduces platform to verify authenticity of AI-generated content
💽 Huawei set to open new data centre in Nigeria by October 31

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💵 VENTURE CAPITAL

France’s prominent VC firm Bpifrance establishes foothold in Egypt to boost Africa and Middle East presence

Bpifrance, the leading venture capital entity in France, has strategically established a new outpost in Egypt, marking a significant step in its expansion endeavors across Africa and the Middle East (AME). The French firm has forged a partnership with Sawari Ventures, an Egyptian venture capital company, to facilitate its entry into the regional market and to foster cross-continental collaboration. Additionally, Flat6Labs, a pivotal figure in Egypt’s burgeoning startup ecosystem, will play an integral role in this new initiative.

The collaboration is set to bolster support for growth-stage companies and entrepreneurs in the region by providing them with essential access to capital, resources, and expansive networks. This move aligns with Bpifrance’s ambition to reinforce connections between Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, building a bridge for entrepreneurial and investment activities.

Amidst the rising global interest in African entrepreneurship, this partnership is poised to capitalize on the continent’s startup boom by offering vital financial backing and mentorship to inventive enterprises. The venture also aims to improve financing avenues for French firms looking to penetrate African markets, while simultaneously presenting African startups with opportunities to establish research and development (R&D) operations in France..........continue reading

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📱 TELECOMS

Kenyan legislators advocate for division of Safaricom and its mobile money service M-PESA

Kenyan legislators have reignited their campaign to compel Safaricom, the leading telecommunications provider in the country, to segregate its lucrative mobile money arm, M-PESA, from its core telecom operations. The revival of the campaign is marked by the reintroduction of the Information and Communications (Amendment) Bill of 2022, which advocates for the division of Safaricom into two distinct entities. The intent behind this legislative move is to enhance regulatory oversight and diminish Safaricom’s prevailing market influence.

The bill had previously encountered a roadblock in the Kenyan parliament due to a lack of substantial support, with only a pair of lawmakers endorsing it. Should the bill gain approval, it would mandate Safaricom to legally carve out M-PESA as an independent business entity, a prospect that Safaricom has staunchly opposed.

M-PESA’s significance in the market is underscored by its 31.3 million active users and the remarkable $312 billion (KES 40.2 trillion) worth of transactions it processed between March 2023 and March 2024. The legislative and regulatory bodies in Kenya argue that the separation of Safaricom’s businesses is essential to ensure equitable competition and to bolster regulatory management........continue reading

🤖 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Vodafone and Google strengthen alliance to deliver AI-enhanced services to African customers

Vodafone has announced the extension of its collaboration with Google for an additional ten years, aiming to introduce innovative services, devices, and television experiences to its customers across Europe and Africa. This strategic move is supported by Google Cloud and Google’s Gemini models, which will enhance storage, security, and artificial intelligence capabilities for Vodafone’s customer base and its business partners.

The announcement comes on the heels of Vodafone’s previous partnership with Microsoft, unveiled in January 2024, which was also set for a ten-year duration. The alliance with Microsoft focuses on delivering generative AI, digital services, and cloud solutions to a vast audience of over 300 million businesses and consumers in the same regions. As part of this initiative, Vodafone has committed to investing $1.5 billion in cloud services and AI solutions tailored for customers, developed in collaboration with Microsoft..........continue reading

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🤖 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Adobe introduces platform to verify authenticity of AI-generated content

Adobe has launched a new web application called Content Authenticity, designed to empower creators with a free tool for attaching Content Credentials to their digital works. This innovation aims to protect creative content from unauthorized usage and ensure that creators are properly credited for their work.

Content Credentials function as a digital “nutrition label” for online content, embedding secure metadata that details information about the creator and the origins of the work. Adobe emphasizes that by incorporating details about the origins of someone else’s work into Content Credentials, it becomes easier to trace the content’s lineage once it’s disseminated on the internet.

The company highlighted that this initiative is not only about safeguarding creators’ work but also about enhancing transparency. It allows audiences to delve deeper into the content they encounter online and connect with the creators through their digital platforms..........continue reading

💽 INFRASTRUCTURE

Huawei set to open new data centre in Nigeria by October 31

Huawei Technologies, a global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure, has announced its intention to construct a data centre in Nigeria. This move is in alignment with the nation’s regulations requiring local data storage. The proposed data centre, also known as a ‘cloud site,’ is slated to become operational on October 31, 2024. It aims to offer data storage solutions and computing services to Nigerian enterprises and various industry sectors.

The announcement was made by David Olaiya, the Head of Cloud Fintech Business Development at Huawei Nigeria, during his keynote address at the Fintech Week event held in Lagos, Nigeria. Olaiya revealed that the planned data centre in Nigeria will serve as an extension of Huawei’s cloud services network, which includes an existing infrastructure in South Africa and a data centre in Ireland. The Nigerian facility will be interconnected with these locations........continue reading

OTHER STORIES

• France’s prominent VC firm Bpifrance establishes foothold in Egypt to boost Africa and Middle East presence.……read more

• X receives approval to resume operations in Brazil…….read more

• CBN enhances international supervision of Nigerian banks through foreign regulatory MoUs……read more

• Russian Cybersecurity Giant Kaspersky Closes UK Office After US Shutdown……read more

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