مرحبا,
Victoria from Techpoint here,
Here's what I've got for you today:
- Visa and Pesaflow to improve digital payments in Kenya
- Onafriq partners Alviere
- Microsoft faces a cybersecurity breach
Visa and Pesaflow to improve digital payments in Kenya
Kenya’s payments platform, Pesaflow, and Visa, a digital payments giant, have partnered to improve digital payments within the Kenyan government.
This collaboration could significantly improve the effectiveness, transparency, and inclusivity of public services while also encouraging financial inclusion.
Pesaflow is a platform that offers a single citizen profile and easy access to more than 5,000 services from more than 100 Ministries, Counties, Departments, and Agencies within the Kenyan government.
It is a division of Webmasters Kenya, the company that created the online citizen portal eCitizen, which provides a range of services to Kenyans.
Pesaflow's solutions offer platforms for government services and a dependable way to collect payments from the public.
Now, the platform wants to advance its services by providing improved solutions to the public sector and citizens utilising government services via Visa's network and security infrastructure.
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The partnership will focus on creating simple and user-friendly digital payment systems, including digital and virtual cards and secure gateway services.
The Visa Government Solutions team will collaborate closely with Pesaflow to digitise government services and integrate Visa solutions. The focus is on giving citizens several payment options and making it easier for the government to collect taxes, leading to better financial management, cost savings, and public services.
Onafriq partners Alviere
What’s the news? Onafriq, a digital payments platform in Africa, has partnered with Alviere, a US-based fintech company, to enable seamless payments and remittances from the United States to Africa.
Why Alviere? Per Onafriq, the company’s expertise, regulatory compliance, and position as a licenced money transmitter in the United States make it suitable.
So? Onafriq will use the Alviere HIVE platform and regulatory framework to handle payments from the US and its territories while staying compliant with stringent anti-money laundering, sanctions, and fraud criteria for US financial institutions.
What about the company? Founded in 2009, Onafriq, formerly MFS Africa, connects mobile money systems to banks and other financial institutions.
Growth? Onafriq says its network includes over 500 million mobile wallets, 200 million bank accounts, and 400,000 small and medium-sized businesses throughout Africa.
Anything else? The CEO and Founder of Onafriq, Dare Okoudjou, highlights the joint endeavour to expedite cross-border payments, noting that the alliance will guarantee prompt and safe remittances in addition to enhancing financial accessibility and economic well-being for Africans.
Microsoft faces a cybersecurity breach
Microsoft has disclosed that Russian government-backed hackers Midnight Blizzard, also known as Nobelium, were responsible for a security breach in its system.
The tech giant revealed the incident in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, outlining the breach's scope and impact.
A hack that targeted email accounts used by senior management, cybersecurity, legal, and other departments happened between late November 2023 and January 12, 2024.
The hackers used a password spray attack to access a legacy non-production test tenant account. They then used the account's permissions to compromise some corporate Microsoft email accounts, successfully extracting several emails and their attachments.
Microsoft stated that the primary target of the breach was information about the hacking group Midnight Blizzard itself. Plus, it’s in the process of notifying affected employees whose email accounts were accessed.
Furthermore, Microsoft stated that the security breach did not affect customers and was not caused by vulnerabilities in its products or services.
What’s more, there is no proof that the threat actors had access to source code, AI systems, production systems, or customer environments as of the disclosure. It plans to notify customers if any additional action is deemed necessary.
Last week on Techpoint Africa
- Bank Zero wants to make banking in South Africa seamless with 3 new features
- X, formerly Twitter, launches audio and video calls for Android users
- Egypt’s FriendyM raises $2 million to scale its services nationwide
- Bosta, an Egyptian logistics startup, secures new funding to continue its expansion plans
- Togocom, a Togolese telco, gets $60.2 million to improve Internet connectivity
- Nigeria’s Broadband Alliance to promote Internet access across 7 Nigerian states in Q1 2024
- Safaricom employee charged with fraud for allegedly stealing over $186,600
- MultiChoice announces new subscription fees and launch date for Showmax 2.0
- 5 reasons why Nigerian businesses don't have insurance
- The Nigerian Insurance Industry: the ₦2.3t market and more
- Nigerians purchase life insurance more than any other form of insurance
- Nigerian fintech startup, GladeFinance, is in talks to be acquired
- Iyinoluwa Aboyeji is building Africa's Y Combinator but without the money
- Vodafone and Microsoft to invest $1.5 billion in Africa and Europe
- Canza Finance secures $2.3 million to acquire licences from financial regulators across Africa
- Zebra CropBank gets funding to enhance post-harvest options for farmers in Africa
- Paycorp partners Triple-A to facilitate crypto withdrawals in South Africa 2 months after launching CryptoExpress
- Egyptian fintech startup, Zeal, raises $4 million funding to expand its technology in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa
- 5 problems Google is solving with AI in Africa
- Cell C is considering slashing its workforce by 40% to reduce costs
- UNDP and Africa launch $1 billion Timbuktoo initiative for a startup revolution
- GhIPSS and Visa plan to expand payment services in Ghana
- Egyptian banks impose card limits for travellers due to forex challenges
- Convergence Partners to acquire Datacentrix for improved client operations
- Patricia plans to repay customers in 2 to 5 years for "expectation management purposes"
- Egyptian healthtech startup Yodawy raises $10 million to scale
- Paratus South Africa and Eutelsat OneWeb launch connectivity services to drive business growth
- South Africa's TymeBank turns first-ever profit nearly five years post-launch
- General Atlantic to acquire Actis, creating a $96 billion diversified investment platform
- Amazon Prime to lay off and end African content production amid Showmax dominance
- Telecom Egypt becomes the first telco to get a 5G licence in the country
- Nigeria's telecom regulator grants Glo 21 more days to settle interconnect debt with MTN
- South African fintech Ukheshe secures full ownership of EFTCorp in another acquisition
- Fintechs are making the headlines this week
- Paystack now allows merchants in Ghana to send funds via Transfer to any local bank
- Access Bank to acquire 80% stake in Uganda’s Finance Trust Bank
- Expert shares how employers win employees' hearts with insurance benefits
- Seedstars gets $10.5 million from AfDB one week after a $30m commitment from EIB Global
What I'm reading and watching
- Rwanda plan could fail first test in Lords as peers move to thwart Sunak’s bill
- How to Spot Logical Fallacies (Featuring Joe Rogan and Ben Shapiro)
- The Greatest God Debate In History | Jordan Peterson vs Matt Dillahunty
- Bleachers - I Wanna Get Better
Opportunities
- Anderson Optimization is hiring a Node Software Developer. Apply here.
- Statespace is looking for a Product Manager. Apply here.
- Tangent is hiring a Mid Weight Product Designer. Apply here.
- Self Financial is currently recruiting for multiple positions. Check them out here.
- Hive.co is hiring a Senior Software Developer. Apply here.
- Cere Network is looking for a Technical Product Manager. Apply here.
- Phantom is actively recruiting for multiple roles. Check them out here.
- A.Team is hiring a Senior Independent Software Developer. Apply here.
- Dapper is hiring a Product Designer. Apply here.
- Kenyan startups focused on embedded finance, future fintech, SME productivity tools, and content like local gaming and mobile advertising can apply for Safaricom’s Spark Accelerator programme. For more information, check this out.
- The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) is looking for an editor to support the Arthur F. Burns Fellowship. Apply here.
- Application for the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) Class of 2025 is now open. Check out the one-year, fully sponsored, graduate-level programme in tech entrepreneurship here before March 18, 2023.
- Do you live in Nigeria and work with a local or foreign company? Whether it's remotely, on-site, hybrid, full-time, part-time or as a freelancer, @TheIntelpoint is trying to understand the Nigerian workspace: how you work, and toxicity in the workspace among others. Please, fill out the questionnaire here.
- Explore this website to find multiple job opportunities in Data that align with your preferences.
- If you are a software engineer, creative designer, product manager, design researcher, or a techie looking for an internship role, please, check out this website.
Have a productive week!
Victoria Fakiya for Techpoint Africa.
