Safaricom M-Pesa announced on Monday it is partnering with Ethiopian fintech startup LakiPay Financial Technologies to enhance digital payment services in Ethiopia.

Wholesale connectivity provider WIOCC has joined forces with iColo, a carrier-neutral data centre provider, in a strategic colocation agreement aimed at accelerating the growth of internet service providers (ISPs) in Mombasa, a coastal city in southeastern Kenya, and across the country.

The Zambia Tourism Agency (ZTA) and operator Airtel Zambia have signed what the two groups describe as a landmark memorandum of understanding (MoU) to enhance tourism planning and development using anonymised telecommunications data.

SpaceX’s LEO satellite operator Starlink has officially launched services in Niger, while also obtaining its operator licence for Chad some four months after the licence was approved.

Ugandan MPs have adopted a proposal for a single SIM card policy, which aims to simplify communication across the country’s networks. It also means, in theory, that mobile phone customers will not need to carry multiple SIM cards or handsets.

Pan-African telecommunications and network services provider Paratus Group has announced that, having secured the necessary regulatory licenses, it has launched a new division called Paratus Tanzania through a joint venture with Tanzanian company Green Telecom.

Intelsat and MaxIQ Space are expanding efforts to deliver Intelsat’s Africa Space STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) Program to schools in four different countries across Africa.

Tech giant Microsoft has announced two major investments – in South Africa and India – though with two very different focuses. One involves cloud expansion. The other involves afforestation. 

Botswana  is the latest African country to successfully send a satellite into space with the recent launch of BOTSAT-1.

Subsea cable provider Seacom tapped satellite firm Q-KON to enhance its LEO satellite services, and bolster the resiliency of its network across its footprint in Africa.

Nigerian last-mile connectivity and tower operator Hotspot has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a consortium led by solar-power company Clear Blue Technologies to deploy 312 solar powered mobile sites across Nigeria.

The mobile payment group Safaricom M-Pesa, along with another, unnamed financial service provider, has signed a service level agreement (SLA) with the Ministry of Health of Ethiopia to transform healthcare payments through a secure, efficient and scalable digital payment system.

Uganda has been making headlines in the digital commerce world recently thanks to news involving two of its leading operators, Airtel and MTN, and leading payment enablers Network International and Mastercard.

High altitude platform stations (HAPS) are back in the news at MWC25 with an announcement from AALTO, an Airbus subsidiary which designs, manufactures and operates the Zephyr HAPS. AALTO says it has completed successful connectivity testing in Kenya on behalf of its customer Space Compass Corporation and partner NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s leading mobile operator.

The Africa Group of Six (G6) – a coalition of African mobile network operators – says that while they have made considerable progress in their collective goal to expand mobile coverage in sub-Saharan Africa, 60% of people who live in covered areas can't afford handsets to use mobile services.

Hytera Communications, a provider of professional communications technologies and solutions, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Cable & Wireless Seychelles (CWS), the country’s pioneering quad-play telecommunications operator at MWC.

International operator Orange Africa and Middle East (OMEA) and satellite operator Eutelsat have announced a strategic partnership to bridge the digital divide through satellite connectivity in Africa and the Middle East.

Red Hat, a provider of open source solutions, has announced at MWC25 that Kenyan operator Safaricom has deployed Red Hat OpenShift as a common cloud platform for applications, including the M-Pesa mobile payment system.

Operator MTN South Africa, and LotusFlare, a provider of a cloud-native digital commerce and monetisation platform for communications service providers, are to partner to support strategic initiatives in the South African market.

There’s been a major boost for broadband expansion in Nigeria with news that eleven states have agreed to waive right of way (RoW) fees.

Delegates at the International Submarine Cable Resilience Summit in Abuja, Nigeria on Thursday outlined steps for stakeholders to cooperate in tackling the issue of subsea cable resilience in the wake of network outages that have plagued countries around the world.

iXAfrica Data Centres unveiled the first phase of its NBOX1 hyperscale data centre in Nairobi on Wednesday, and has also signed a deal with Kenya Internet Exchange Point (KIXP) to establish a peering PoP at the facility.

Ethio Telecom launched seven new cloud-based enterprise services on Wednesday – ranging from banking and push-to-talk communications to cattle management – which it says are designed to streamline operations and elevate customer service.

Teraco, a provider of interconnection platforms and vendor-neutral colocation data centres, has announced that it has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with South Africa-based integrated energy aggregator NOA to supply wind-powered renewable energy to Teraco’s data centres.

Popular social media platform TikTok says it has launched a feed dedicated to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) in over 20 countries across sub-Saharan Africa.

The African smartphone market grew 9% to 74.7 million units in 2024, as easing inflation across the continent boosted consumer purchasing power.

From the legendary Maasai warriors to the annual great migration of wildebeest and zebra, Kenya has no lack of cultural and natural wonders. One thing the country does lack, however, is the application of digital technologies. According to data from the Communications Authority of Kenya, just 58% of Kenyans were connected to the Internet in 2024.

Safaricom is the market-leading operator in Kenya, and one of the most widely recognised operator brands in Africa. This status was not easily won – the operator has consistently led with innovation, while keeping the experience of its customers at the core of its offering.

Amid public backlash, MTN Nigeria has reversed course on a move to increase the price of its 15GB data plan by 200% and issued an apology to customers, saying the tariff hike was a “mistake”.