South Africa on Friday secured its first credit rating upgrade in nearly 20 years after S&P Global raised the country’s foreign-currency long-term sovereign rating to “BB” from “BB-“, citing stronger growth prospects, an improving fiscal outlook and reduced contingent liabilities following better performance at state power utility Eskom. National treasury has worked to arrest rising…
Fred Zhou, CEO of Honor South Africa. (Photograph by Lesley Moyo) Honor wants to move from being a handset maker to becoming a leading AI-enabled device business. According to Fred Zhou, CEO of HONOR South Africa, the start of this journey is all about delivering intelligent AI handsets. “For so many, these mobile devices are…
Gaby Magomola Digital bank Revolut has appointed former African Bank CEO Gaby Magomola as chairman of its South African subsidiary, all while the digital challenger pursues a formal banking licence with local regulators. In a statement on Friday, Revolut said it has submitted its “section 12” application to the Prudential Authority of the Reserve Bank…
The rise of genAI tools has introduced new risks. AI adoption is exploding across Africa, but without proper readiness assessments and controlled adoption, it can present new risks to organisations. This is according to Kejendree Pillay, Microsoft Portfolio Manager at First Distribution, one of the leading Microsoft CSP distribution companies across Africa. Speaking during a…
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Kent Nishimura/Reuters “China is going to win the AI race,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told an AI summit in London earlier this month. The Taiwanese-born boss of the chip maker, the world’s most valuable public company, believes the Chinese are already just “nanoseconds” behind the Americans and well placed to overtake…
Deven Moodley, executive head: VAS, FS and mobile at Pick n Pay. Pick n Pay customers collectively spent a monthly average of R1.4 million in crypto-currency over the past 12 months, across its retail stores nationwide. According to the retail giant, Bitcoin payments are following mainstream retail trends, as more crypto holders are now using…
Businesses that are required by law to collect know-your-customer (KYC) information are set to benefit from improved speed and reliability as digital identity systems become more commonplace in Africa. The banking, insurance and automotive sales sectors are among the key beneficiaries, though areas such as driver’s licence issuance, qualifications verification and criminal record checks are…
Social media platforms have enormous power to direct traffic based on their algorithms. South Africa’s Competition Commission has ordered social media platforms YouTube, Meta, TikTok and X to significantly invest in supporting South Africa’s media sector, to restore fairness, transparency and sustainability in the media ecosystem. This is one of several key remedies proposed by…
Discovery Bank CEO Hylton Kallner Discovery Bank’s Thursday announcement of a deal with cryptocurrency platform Luno, which will allow the former’s customers to trade cryptocurrencies online, is yet another sign that cryptocurrencies are becoming mainstream in South Africa. The move follows another deal announced in October between Scan to Pay and MoneyBadger that allows users…
The SABC introduced its own freemium-based, over-the-top platform in 2022. The South African Broadcasting Corporation’s (SABC’s) goal is to generate R200 million annually through monetisation of its video streaming platform SABC+, says chief operating officer Lungile Binza. However, the public broadcaster is still far from achieving that target, the COO acknowledged. Binza spoke yesterday at…
