Hi guys, welcome to the Big 5 Daily. Where we bring you the latest in african and world tech news.
South Africa is one the countries to receive a 10 billion USD investment from the Global Community for telecoms, media and technology infrastructure. They are one of the African countries eyed by investors, as they have grown their market noticeably. This news has been welcomed by experts in the country with open arms, as it presents a great opportunity for the country, along with Madagascar and Kenya who are among the main beneficiaries of the deals. Ian Jacobsberg, a partner at Hogan Lovells, said this investment is important for the country’s economy. The country’s fortunes might likely be boosted more because they would play host to influential leaders from the largest TMT firms, investment banks and investors at the annual TMT Finance Africa Conference to be held in Cape Town on 28 March. This is great news for South Africa, don’t you think so?
Vodafone in conjunction with Facebook has deployed Express Wi-Fi to residential areas in Ghana. The Wi-Fi aims to reduce common hitches to internet connectivity like; limited infrastructure and high data costs, which gives small business entrepreneurs and developers, the opportunity to connect and build community. Express Wi-Fi will enable retail entrepreneurs to offer fast and affordable Wi-Fi services at hotspots spread across communities. This partnership will transform an industry that is already making a concerted effort to establish data dominance in the sub-region. Vodafone has already deployed hotspots within Accra for the initiative at areas.
Next on the Big 5 Daily, Kenyan Scouts and Google has teamed up to hold the 2019 edition of Web Rangers. Web Rangers is a youth program for online safety, this is in support of the just concluded Safer Internet day. Up to 1.4 million scouts and 50,000 scout leaders and trainers are to receive the Kenya Scouts Association Online Safety Learners ’Handbook and Teachers’ Guide, which will provide counsel on how to safely navigate online platforms. The program was first launched in Kenya in 2015, prior to that it has been ongoing in other countries. According to McAfee Security, 87 percent of youth today have witnessed cyberbullying, while nearly 69% have experienced it and Web Rangers 2019 edition is set to create awareness on youth’s online safety. We believe this is a great initiative!
Moving on, we have news that Lava Technologies an Indian phone manufacturer announced that it is expanding its global reach by entering the Nigerian market. The smartphone manufacturer launched operations first in Ghana around January before coming to Nigeria. In a statement, the company said that they have brought “Z” and “Iris” series smartphones and “Champion” series feature phones to the African market. The Company plans to employ 95% Nigerian and 5% Egyptians. They said they have phones for every consumer market. This is a big investment and it’s good for the Nigerian economy as well.
Finally on the Big 5 Daily, Facebook has set up a content review center in Nairobi Kenya, and they have plans to work closely with Samasource a digital employer in Kenya to create employment. They plan that the Content Review center will hire up to 100 reviewers who will support Somali, Oromo, Swahili and Hausa by the end of the year. They made this move after they were put under scrutiny for data and privacy violation. Facebook says its content review team members are given a queue of reported posts to evaluate one by one. The reviewers are not required to evaluate any set number of posts, there is no quota they must meet when it comes to the amount of content being reviewed. It is great to see that facebook is taking responsibility for the content distributed on its platform.
With that we round off the Big 5 Daily today, join us next week.