Sam George, Ghana's Minister Of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations, is widely reported to have set what is described as a firm deadline of June 2025 for the Next Generation Infrastructure Company (NGIC) to launch 5G services in the West African country. But will it be met?

Unitel has expanded its mobile network in the municipality of Cachingues to enhance voice and data services delivered over its 3G and 4G infrastructure.

MTN Uganda and PostBank Uganda have reportedly completed a six-month proof of concept (POC) of the operator’s  secure access service edge (SASE) business solution to power the bank’s digital transformation. 

Nigeria’s National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with SecDojo, a cybersecurity training platform, to strengthen the country’s resilience against cyberthreats through what are described as targeted capacity-building initiatives.

South Africa-based MTN Group announced on Tuesday it is collaborating with Meta to enhance the quality and reliability of OTT voice and video calls on applications such as WhatsApp across 12 MTN markets, starting in Nigeria.

Zimbabwe mobile operator NetOne has reportedly struck a deal with direct-to-device (D2D) LEO satellite operator AST SpaceMobile to expand the reach of its 5G services once the satellite network is available in Africa. 

Operator MTN South Sudan, part of the pan-African MTN Group, has secured a 15-year operating license from the country’s National Communication Authority. MTN had previously operated in South Sudan under a Sudanese license.

Zimbabwe’s telecoms regulator is urging the government to introduce mandatory handset registration in a bid to tackle rising cybercrime and improve the safety of mobile money transactions.

Axian Telecom is set to receive a financing package of US$100 million from the European Investment Bank (EIB Global) to help expand its mobile broadband infrastructure across Madagascar and Tanzania.

Somalian operator Hormuud Telecom has announced that its founder and CEO, Ahmed Yusuf, will step down on 1 June, with deputy chairman Mohamed Farah (pictured) set to take the reins. 

While many subsea cable stories recently have been about accidents and repairs in the world’s oceans, two recent stories from India and West Africa are land-based and underline some of the potential pitfalls of inadequate planning.

The announcement late last week that a UAE-based investor Rowad Capital Commercial (RCC) is to acquire a 60% stake in Uganda’s national telecom company, Uganda Telecommunications Corporation (UTel), begs a number of questions that are yet to be answered.

Canada-based network vendor NuRAN Wireless missed its target for new mobile sites deployed in the Democratic Republic of Congo this month citing transit issues.

The Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA) says that state-owned operator Libtelco and the Cable Consortium of Liberia (CCL) will relocate the country’s landing station for the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) subsea cable, which has been suffering from outages blamed on construction work at the current landing site.

Pan-African service provider Airtel and tower company IHS, Africa’s largest telecommunications infrastructure provider, have unveiled a plan to expand network reach in Zambia.

A dispute over a real estate loan that left operator MTN Cameroon unable to get its hands on over US$20 million worth of assets may finally be over.

There’s good news – potentially – for African data centre development with the announcement from Raxio Group, a sub-Saharan African data centre platform, that it has signed an agreement for US$100 million in financing from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group.

The GSMA has elected MTN Group CEO Ralph Mupita as its deputy chair, following the appointment of Bharti Airtel vice chairman Gopal Vittal as chair.

Vodacom South Africa has instituted what it calls a community-based model to secure towers against battery theft. The community of Kamberg in the coastal province of KwaZulu-Natal has partnered with Vodacom KwaZulu-Natal region to implement additional security measures at the operator’s base station sites in the area. 

Satellite services provider Q-KON has reportedly brought South African telecoms player Vox onboard as a reseller of its Twoobii Super Smart Satellite Solutions for enterprise customers powered by Eutelsat OneWeb’s LEO satellite network.

Satellite-direct-to-device (D2D) provider, Lynk Global has had a busy week with the announcement of successful tests of its service in Turkey followed by further positive news – this time in South Africa.

Vodacom Lesotho has expanded its M-Pesa mobile money service to all users in the country, regardless of which mobile network they subscribe to, in a bid to increase financial inclusion.

Zoho, an Indian multinational technology company that makes computer software and web-based business tools, says it has teamed up with online B2B enterprise marketplace Loita Business, part of the pan-African Loita Group, to support small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa.

South African operator Telkom has entered the country’s mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) market through a partnership with a mobile virtual network enabler (MVNE) platform provider.

Bharti Airtel has announced its role as the landing partner for the 2Africa Pearls cable in India, a subsea network connecting Africa, India, and Europe via the Middle East. 

Ethio Telecom has announced a meeting with financial giant Mastercard to explore how the two companies can leverage technology to upgrade digital financial services.

Visiosoft, a South African technology company, says it is working with French firm Kinéis, a space company, satellite operator and global connectivity provider for IoT and automatic identification systems, to bridge the connectivity gap using a satellite Internet of Things (IoT) solution.

Alibaba.com, a major B2B e-commerce platform headquartered in China, and Kwik, a leading digital platform for logistics services in Nigeria, have announced a partnership to support Nigerian exporters.

In what appears to be a first for the country, the Somalia Payment Switch (SPS) payments infrastructure under the Central Bank of Somalia has introduced an instant payment system that includes support for QR payments.

WIOCC Group subsidiary Open Access Data Centres (OADC) reportedly plans to invest up to US$240 million to expand the capacity of its new data centre in Lagos from 1.5MW to 24MW by 2027.