Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Remo Casilli/Reuters In 2014, Amazon introduced its first smartphone, hoping to take on Apple and Samsung. Instead, the Fire Phone, overseen directly by founder Jeff Bezos, was scrapped in barely over a year, one of Amazon’s highest-profile flops. Now, Amazon is dialling up a new phone. The latest effort, known internally…
Scaling AI responsibly remains an ongoing challenge for banks. (Image created via ChatGPT) South Africa’s top banks are intensifying their digital arms race, with client acquisition and transaction volumes continuing to increase, driven by mobile-first platforms. This is according to PwC’s Major Banks Analysis, which provides an overview of how local banks are leveraging technology…
The Callisto tanker sits anchored in Port Sultan Qaboos as the traffic is down in the Strait of Hormuz, amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Muscat, Oman, March 12, 2026. Benoit Tessier | Reuters Brent crude oil held above $100 on Friday as the Iran war heads toward its third week, with oil tanker…
Sim Tshabalala, Standard Bank Group CEO. Standard Bank Group witnessed growth in digital retail clients in South Africa, for the 2025 financial year. This, as the JSE-listed financial services group reported headline earnings of R49.2 billion and delivered a return on equity of 19.3%. According to results released today, the bank’s digital retail clients grew…
The recent escalation in the Middle East has reintroduced a geopolitical risk premium into global markets, as investors price in the chance of supply disruptions and wider regional instability. For South Africa, the transmission channel is primarily through oil prices rather than direct trade exposure, since the country is not a major direct exporter to the Gulf…
Benchmark index plummets as much as 12.2 percent, eclipsing single-day plunge after 9/11 attacks in 2001. Listen to this article | 2 mins info Published On 4 Mar 20264 Mar 2026 Click here to share on social media share2 Share plus2googleAdd Al Jazeera on Googleinfo South Korea’s stock market has suffered one of the steepest falls in…
The Free Market Foundation (FMF) is demanding that a national 20% tax for online gambling proposed by the national treasury be withdrawn and reconsidered within South Africa’s existing decentralised regulatory regime. It said the proposed tax will undermine provincial authority and overburden legal gambling operators, and risks driving consumers further towards unregulated offshore platforms, which…
Abuja — The 2026 edition of the Afro-Caribbean Investment Summit (ACIS) will focus on boosting trade, investment, and private sector partnerships between Africa and the Caribbean, targeting a combined market valued at $40 trillion across Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas. Chief of Staff of Aquarian Consult Ltd, Serumun Ubwa, disclosed this while briefing journalists…
Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, speaking with CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 20, 2026. CNBC Amazon shares closed up more than 1% on Tuesday, snapping a nine-day slide that shaved billions off of its market cap. The stock shed roughly 18% of its value between Feb. 2 and Friday, marking…
BluEnergy Trading, a subsidiary of JSE-listed Blue Label Telecoms, has been granted a multi-year energy trading licence by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa). This landmark authorization allows the group, historically recognized for its prepaid airtime distribution and its majority stake in mobile operator Cell C, to officially buy and sell electricity. The…
