Zambia’s telecoms regulator has cancelled Vodafone’s local licence for its lack financial and technical capacity, it said. The move comes after Afrimax, an African telecoms provider hired by Vodafone to offer 4G data services, released a statement in July saying its shareholders had failed to recapitalise it.
Spreading like wild fire
Kenyan mobile money transactions jumped 47% this quarter, with $20.3 billion transferred via Kenyan mobile money services in the three months to the end of June. Safaricom’s market share slipped to 63.5% during the period from 65.4% last year, while India’s Bharti Airtel was up 24.6% from 21.4%.
Brave new world
South Sudan has launched mobile money services in the country in an attempt to shore up an economy ravaged by five-years of civil war. The move hopes to reach unbanked villagers in rural areas, but high rates of illiteracy, a scarcity of ID cards to register and poor network connection all need to be overcome first.
Scaling up
Kenya is building two utility scale solar plants to supply green energy to around 300,000 homes. Co-funded by the European Investment Bank, the project will cost $147 million and generate a combined capacity of 80MW.
Megahub
Nigerian innovation centre and seed-fund CcHub has acquired Nairobi based innovation space iHub to create mega African incubator. The two hubs will keep their names, and deepen their pool of investors with access to pipeline in Nigeria, Kenya and Rwanda.
Border brawl
Nigeria and Benin are locked in a trade dispute just two months after signing the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA). Nigeria has shuttered the border with its smaller West African neighbour to curb the smuggling of rice and other products.
