Neowin News Feed for: Africa

If you own Meta smart glasses, subcontrators in Africa can see everything you record

Paul Hill — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 06:46:02 +0000

The UK's data regulator, the ICO, is writing to Meta after an alarming report found that subcontractors in Africa can see way too much of people's private lives. Read more...

Bill Gates says he'll donate 99 percent of his wealth to Africa

Hamid Ganji — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 15:16:01 +0000

While the US administration has cut off USAID funds for Africa, Bill Gates says he wants to donate most of his wealth to African countries. Read more...

Massive 2Africa subsea cable lands in the UK improving connectivity

Paul Hill — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 10:48:01 +0000

Vodafone has announced that the world's biggest subsea cable, 2Africa, is now connected to the UK via Cornwall in the south of the country. The cable links Europe, Africa, and South Asia. Read more...

Google's Umoja undersea cable will connect Africa and Australia for the first time

Paul Hill — Thu, 23 May 2024 16:26:01 +0000

Google has announced a new undersea cable called Umoja, which will connect several African countries and the continent to Australia for the first time. It will increase the continent's net resilience. Read more...

Vodafone partners up with Microsoft to improve its processes using AI and Cloud

Karthik Mudaliar — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 10:00:01 +0000

Vodafone is joining hands with Microsoft to harness the power of AI, Cloud and other digital services in an attempt to "transform the customer experience" across Europe, the UK, and Africa. Read more...

Microsoft will help expand internet access to 40 million people in Latin America and Africa

John Callaham — Wed, 17 May 2023 14:16:01 +0000

The Microsoft Airband program has expanded its reach once again, bringing internet access to 40 million more people, mostly in rural locations in Latin America and African countries. Read more...

Microsoft announces new initiatives to bring high-speed internet to Africa and more

Karthik Mudaliar — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 06:56:01 +0000

Microsoft has announced new partnerships and initiatives for expanding high-speed internet access to 20 million people in Africa and provide training for digital skills to the youth and women. Read more...

Microsoft accused of engaging in bribery by former employee

Usama Jawad — Sat, 26 Mar 2022 10:06:01 +0000

In an exposé, a former Microsoft employee-turned whistleblower has recounted his experiences of how the company engages in hundred of millions of dollars in bribery in the middle east and Africa. Read more...

The Global South could miss out on billions under new global tech tax

Paul Hill — Wed, 20 Oct 2021 23:04:02 +0000

The new global tax on big multinationals has come under fire for having too low a rate. Nations in the Global South could be disadvantaged as they prefer larger corporate taxes to fund budgets. Read more...

Africa's largest fintech platform, M-Pesa, hits 50 million users

Paul Hill — Tue, 07 Sep 2021 22:42:01 +0000

Vodafone has reported that its M-Pesa financial services platform has passed 50 million users after 14 years of operations on the African continent. It had 25 million users in 2016. Read more...

Twitter is opening an office in Ghana to establish its presence in Africa

Usama Jawad — Tue, 13 Apr 2021 04:52:01 +0000

Twitter has announced that is opening an office in Ghana to establish its official presence in Africa. The aim is to invest in local communities and engage with them to fuel public conversation. Read more...

KaiOS teams up with Justdiggit to connect rural communities

Paul Hill — Thu, 25 Feb 2021 19:40:01 +0000

KaiOS Technologies has partnered up with Justdiggit, a Dutch foundation that focuses on fighting desertification, to help Tanzanian farmers preserve their livelihood against the climate change threat. Read more...

HMD Global closes funding round with $230 million

Paul Hill — Tue, 11 Aug 2020 15:56:01 +0000

HMD Global has announced that it has closed its latest round of funding after raising $230 million. With the capital, it plans to grow in new markets and become a "holistic mobile service provider". Read more...

UK launches Tech for Growth to bring financial services to Africa

Paul Hill — Tue, 28 Jul 2020 03:48:01 +0000

The UK government has announced the Tech for Growth programme which aims to boost financial services in the Global South using technology. In the first year, the programme will focus on Africa. Read more...

Loon starts providing service to Telkom Kenya customers

Paul Hill — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 19:50:01 +0000

Loon has announced that it has begun providing internet service for customers of Telkom Kenya. This will help those especially who are in rural areas away from cities where it's hard to get connected. Read more...

Slimmer lite version of Opera News launches in 40 countries

Paul Hill — Tue, 24 Mar 2020 15:16:01 +0000

Opera has launched Opera News Lite for those on data- and storage-restrictive plans and devices. It comes in at just 1MB and uses less data to retrieve news stories resulting in a faster experience. Read more...

UK supercomputer set to help fight African locust outbreak

Paul Hill — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 12:48:01 +0000

The UK is funding a supercomputer which helps to track devastating locust swarms. It also uses predicted weather data to work out where the locusts will move to next, giving farmers time to prepare. Read more...

Facebook takes down Russian accounts targeting African countries

Namerah Saud Fatmi — Wed, 30 Oct 2019 19:30:01 +0000

Social media giant Facebook removed a network of accounts, pages and groups from the platform today. These accounts were run by Russians who hid their identities and meddled in African politics. Read more...

Microsoft's Office 365 services are now available from its Africa datacenters

João Carrasqueira — Thu, 25 Jul 2019 14:48:01 +0000

Microsoft has announced that Office 365 services are now available from additional locations thanks to its datacenters in Africa. The company first launched datacenters in the region back in March. Read more...

Microsoft launches first datacenters in Africa

Hamza Jawad — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 17:14:02 +0000

Microsoft's opening of new datacenters in Africa make it the first global provider to deliver cloud services to the continent. Azure will also be generally available in these new cloud regions. Read more...

Amazon Web Services to open data centers in South Africa in 2020

Paul Hill — Thu, 25 Oct 2018 12:46:01 +0000

Amazon Web Services has announced that it plans to expand into South Africa in the first half of 2020. The expansion will help businesses in Africa deliver their services with a lower latency. Read more...

ProtonVPN expands into Africa with new South Africa servers

Paul Hill — Fri, 24 Aug 2018 00:40:02 +0000

ProtonVPN has announced four new servers for South Africa. It's the first time the firm has opened VPN servers in Africa. All four VPN servers will require you to have a paid ProtonVPN subscription. Read more...

Telkom Kenya partners with Loon LLC to launch commercial service

Paul Hill — Fri, 20 Jul 2018 17:14:01 +0000

Loon LLC and Telkom Kenya have entered an agreement to launch Loon's balloons to help connect everyone in the country, even those out in the more rural areas that are difficult to connect. Read more...

Alphabet in talks with Kenyan telecom operators to deploy Loon

Paul Hill — Thu, 05 Jul 2018 13:44:01 +0000

Project Loon could very well be coming to Kenya to provide connectivity for those in rural areas. Alphabet is currently in talks with telecoms in the country working out contracts. Read more...

Uganda imposes tax on social media platforms to 'stop gossip'

Usama Jawad — Fri, 01 Jun 2018 12:30:01 +0000

It appears that the Ugandan government has found a way to prevent its citizens from excessively using social media. The country has passed a law which imposes a daily tax on social media users. Read more...

Spotify targets Africa with its launch in South Africa

Dreyer Smit — Tue, 13 Mar 2018 12:28:01 +0000

Music and movie streaming services have descended upon the South African market, with Spotify becoming the latest to enter the market currently dominated by Google, Apple, and Deezer. Read more...

Microsoft donates PC to Ghanaian teacher after photo goes viral

Sharath Ravishankar — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 11:26:01 +0000

A teacher's blackboard mockup of Microsoft Word recently prompted a Cameroonian entrepreneur to reach out to Microsoft to furnish the educator with hardware and resources to support his efforts. Read more...

Interview: A lively chat with Microsoft's Dona Sarkar, chief of the Windows Insider Program

Andy Weir — Sat, 11 Feb 2017 02:11:39 +0000

Dona Sarkar spoke with Neowin about the Windows Insider Program, Surface Phone (!), Insider MVPs, Windows 10 Mobile, how Microsoft is approaching technology in emerging markets, sleep, and lots more. Read more...

Microsoft UK CEO Michel Van der Bel announced as new Corporate Vice-President for EMEA

Andy Weir — Mon, 18 Jul 2016 13:42:01 +0000

After announcing that its UK CEO would be stepping down from that role this year, Microsoft has announced his appointment as its new Corporate Vice-President for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Read more...

Ghanaian company sets up Bitcoin farm in Africa, claims to be first

Paul Hill — Tue, 15 Mar 2016 02:30:01 +0000

A pioneer of internet in Africa, Nii Quaynor, has announced the establishment of a Bitcoin producing farm on the continent. He claims that it is the first mining facility in Africa. Read more...

Acer's new Windows 10 Mobile flagship, the Liquid Jade Primo, launches next month for €569

Andy Weir — Mon, 04 Jan 2016 14:35:27 +0000

The Liquid Jade Primo will finally go on sale in February - five months after it was first announced. The new Windows 10 Mobile flagship will launch first in EMEA, with prices 'starting at €569'. Read more...

Android 5.1 Lollipop rollout begins for HTC One M9 in Europe, Middle East and Africa tomorrow

Andy Weir — Mon, 03 Aug 2015 19:42:01 +0000

HTC has revealed that, from August 4, the Android 5.1 Lollipop update will continue its rollout to the One M9 flagship with availability in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Read more...

AfriLeaks aims to expose abuses of power in Africa

Jett Goldsmith — Wed, 14 Jan 2015 04:14:01 +0000

AfriLeaks, a new whisteblowing website backed by 19 media outlets and modeled after Assange's groundbreaking Wikileaks, aims to expose corruption in Africa through anonymous whistleblowing. Read more...

Facebook wants to bring free internet to Africa

Vlad Dudau — Mon, 17 Nov 2014 10:10:01 +0000

Facebook is supposedly partnering with Avanti, a British satellite operator, and together they plan to bring free, or at least very affordable, widespread internet access to large swathes of Africa. Read more...

Microsoft expands African white spaces Internet project to South Africa

John Callaham — Mon, 29 Jul 2013 16:05:24 +0000

Microsoft has announced a new expansion of its 4Afrika Initiative that will bring high speed Internet, via the white spaces wireless method, to the Limpopo province of South Africa. Read more...

Intel backs wireless Africa plan

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 21:49:38 +0000

Craig Barrett, chairman of Intel, believes that Africa needs to embrace wireless broadband since it is "cheaper, easier and more efficient to communicate wirelessly." Less than 1% of Africans have access to broadband and only... Read more...

Africa starts to tap solar energy for IT

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 23:20:07 +0000

Governments and development organizations in Eastern and Southern Africa are starting to adopt solar energy to bolster energy resources for Information and Communication Technology in rural areas. The e-school project in Africa is already using... Read more...