Safaricom’s first infrastructure deal with Ethiopia is a five-year lease agreement with state-owned power utility Ethiopian Electric Power Enterprise to share dark fibre-optic infrastructure in Ethiopia.
Safaricom Crosses 30 Million Monthly Active M-Pesa Customers
From launching Baze Music App to big 5G plans, Safaricom’s mobile money transfer platform, M-Pesa, has now surpassed 30 million users in Kenya.
MTN Rebrands from a Telco to a Tech Company
Africa’s largest mobile network operator, MTN Group, is rebranding from a telecommunications company to a technology company starting with the adoption of a new company logo and tagline to encompass everything the company does.
India Proposes 30% tax on Crypto and NFTs Income and Seeks to Launch Digital Currency
On Tuesday the 1st of February 2022, the Indian government announced plans to impose a 30% tax on income gained from digital assets like cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and will also introduce the digital Rupee starting in the financial year 2022-23.
Blackberry Sells Non-Core Patents for $600 Million
On the 31st day of January 2022, Blackberry announced that it has entered into a patent sale agreement with a consortium of companies under the name Catapult IP Innovations Inc, a Delaware company, pursuant to which BlackBerry has agreed to sell substantially all of its non-core patent assets to Catapult for total consideration of $600 million.
Ford Signs a Five-Year Payment Deal with Stripe for E-Commerce Drive
Ford has signed a five-year deal with fintech giant Stripe, aimed at bolstering the automotive giant’s e-commerce strategy. This agreement is seen as a move to accelerate the easy payment experience for the customers.
Microsoft to Acquire Gaming Company, Activision Blizzard
In what Reuters has described as the biggest gaming industry deal in history, Microsoft Corp is set to acquire Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, to bring the joy and community of gaming to everyone, across every device.
Visa Launches Cloud-based Payment Acceptance Solution
In what can be termed the future of point of sale payment, on 13th January 2021, Visa the launch of Visa Acceptance Cloud (VAC), which will let acquirers, payment service providers, point of sale (POS) manufacturers, and Internet of Things (IoT) players move payment processing software from being embedded in each hardware device to being universally accessible in the cloud.
Finance Act: Amazon, AliExpress and other NRCs to Charge VAT and Remit to the FIRS
On Wednesday, January 5, 2021, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning- Mrs. Zainab Ahmed announced that the Federal Government of Nigeria has introduced a 6 (Six) percent tax (“Tax”) on non-resident companies (NRC) providing services to Nigerian customers.
Blackberry Finally Pulls Plug on its Legacy Phones
On January 4, 2022, Blackberry shut down its services for BlackBerry 7.1 OS and earlier, BlackBerry 10 software, BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1, and earlier versions. The update is notably not applicable to BlackBerry phones based on the Android operating system.