For the second time in a week, Safaricom’s M-Pesa is in the news with one of its products, as the Kenyan mobile money service launches an interest-free loan service for buying goods.

South African technology company Huge Group acquired MVNO Tethys Mobile for an undisclosed fee, a move to bolster its software capabilities and develop a platform that enables companies to launch MVNO services. 

Beleaguered South African operator Cell C has had a reprieve after a vote in which some lenders have agreed to take an 80% loss on their debt.

In a reminder of the changing business models of many operators in Africa, it has been reported that the M-Pesa virtual Visa card, introduced in June, is now undercutting Kenya’s commercial banks in the foreign exchange market.

After mixed messages recently about the cash-strapped state owned carrier, Zambia’s government has finally categorically denied media reports that it has decided to sell Zamtel.

Pan-African e-commerce platform Jumia has announced a partnership with Chinese smartphone manufacturer Realme. The joint aim is to roll out new devices at a time when Africa’s smartphone market is enjoying high growth; this in turn will benefit e-commerce.

Africell, a leading African mobile operator group, has implemented the Answers chatbot solution from cloud communication company Infobip.

The Guinean government said it is a major priority for the state to relaunch operator Guinea Telecom, as a long-term move to reduce the cost of connectivity in the country and spur digital transformation.

The Equiano subsea internet cable has been brought ashore in Namibia just under 18 months after the February 2021 announcement that Paratus Group, together with Telecom Namibia, had been selected to build the cable landing station (CLS) for Equiano.

MTN Group has announced CEO appointments in its Cameroon, Rwanda and Uganda units to support its digital-focused Ambition 2025  strategy for growth.

Airtel Africa has launched SmartCash Payment Service Bank, a wholly-owned subsidiary, to provide secure and reliable financial services across Nigeria.

Togolese regulator ARCEP (Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications and Posts) has imposed a fine on operator Togocom for “serious breaches of its [service] obligation.”

Cash-strapped Zambian state-run telecoms firm Zamtel, which provides a range of services including landline, mobile, FttH and ADSL, is reportedly for sale, though this has been denied by at least one senior government figure.

MTN Nigeria, the country’s leading operator and the leading MTN operator by subscriber numbers, has taken 18 Nigerian banks to court over the alleged unauthorised transfer of ₦22.3 billion ($53.7 million) from an account owned by its recently-licensed mobile money Payment Service Bank (PSB) MoMo.

Zimbabwe’s state-owned fixed line and broadband operator TelOne has released a statement saying that it is faced with what it calls “acute viability challenges”.

The Kenyan Communications Authority (KCA) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Huawei to spur the growth of 5G in the country.  

MTN Ghana has reportedly put back a pilot of its 5G services this year due to the lack of licenses from authorities.

This week has seen the launch of a government-supported innovation to attract investors to Cameroon – in the form of SME-centric apps.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has refused to sign a controversial ICT Practitioners Bill into law.

The debt issues surrounding South African operator cell C are no closer to resolution, although the debtors’ meeting that we reported had been postponed has now been rescheduled.

South African operator Cell C is apparently in talks with its infrastructure partners to deploy 5G on a launch date yet to be disclosed. Cell C secured 10MHz in the 3500MHz band for ZAR288 million (about US$18.2 million) in March after South Africa’s long-awaited broadband spectrum auction finally took place.

Local press reports in Nigeria are full of dire warnings about online retail superbrand Amazon’s plans for growth and how it could affect home-grown online retail. According to recently unearthed documents the company is apparently set to roll out in Nigeria in April 2023.

Zimbabwe is the latest African country planning to set to launch its first satellite into orbit. Next month, or possibly in August, ZimSat-1, a nanosatellite, will be launched from the Japanese KIBO Module – Japan's science module for the International Space Station (ISS).

Payments business Cellulant Zambia has announced a digital payment partnership with five leading Zambian water utility companies; Nkana Water, Kafubu Water, Mulonga Water, Chambeshi Water and Western Water.

MTC has settled a longstanding dispute with the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN) over a series of fees imposed by the regulator between March 2016 and June 2018.

Namibian operator MTC has called for the country’s government to end its ongoing moratorium on the deployment of 5G networks as it lays the foundation for its own fifth generation network.

Is Kenya about to welcome its largest data centre to date? According to US-based cloud hosting company Cloudoon that may well be the case. The company has reportedly secured 6 billion Kenyan shillings (about $51.1 million) for the project.

South African data centre announcements are coming thick and fast. After yesterday’s news from Africa Data Centres comes another initiative, this time focused on edge services, from Open Access Data Centres (OADC), which says it plans to launch nine more edge locations in South Africa.

Togolese regulator ARCEP has issued a formal warning to Moov Africa Togo over its network outages.

South Africa will outright ban retailers from importing and selling 2G devices at the end of March next year as the country pushes to modernise its telecoms infrastructure.

Continuing its fast pace of growth, Africa Data Centres, which boasts Africa’s largest network of interconnected, carrier and cloud-neutral data centre facilities, has announced plans to build its second data centre in Cape Town.