iAfrikan BYTES

Gugu Zikhali, Head of Transaction Products: Mass Market at First National Bank of South Africa talks about the bank's newly launched digital banking solution targeted at the unbanked and underbanked. Zikhali explains what motivated the bank to launch the eWallet eXtra mobile bank account and its features.

During August 2017 Nigeria's Hotels.ng announced a partnership with Akwa Ibom State Government for a remote internship programme. We caught up with Neo Ighodaro, CTO at Hotels.ng, to understand what the remote internship entails and what motivated the partnership with Akwa Ibom State.

Shaun Durandt, General Manager for Southern Africa at HMD Global talks about Nokia's return to Africa. Durandt explains the motive behind HMD Global deciding to re-launch the Nokia brand of phones as well as touch on the dynamics of the mobile phone industry and how HMD Global hopes to navigate them.

A quick discussion between Balungile Belz and Oluwatobi Asehinde, Founder and Managing Director of Nigeria's Vibe Web Solutions, about the importance of keyword research for digital businesses. Tobi explains that "It all comes down to knowing what people want, and we don’t guess at this, but only by proper keyword research can we realistically know what people are looking for."

Linda Khumalo, Founder of the South African Digital Content Organisation explains briefly what the fourth industrial revolution is all about. Linda also takes us on a short history of the previous three industrial revolutions dating back to the 1800s.

Envir Fraser, Chief Strategy Officer and Principal at Investment company Convergence Partners​, speaks about the key trends they have observed and what they think 5G means for Africa. The trends were focused on technology infrastructure mostly. He also touched on the changing models of Data Centers, OTT service providers, FinTech, Bitcoin, Security and Privacy.

Yarik Turianskyi and Steven Gruzd speak to Balungile Belz to explain how technological advances can help improve the state of governance in Afrika. Revolutionary technological advances over the past decade have provided new opportunities for establishing deeper links between citizens and state institutions. The question is can they help Afrikans on their quest for better governance?

Tefo Mohapi caught up with Marcello Schermer, Regional Manager for Africa at Seedstars, to get an update on what we can expect at the Seedstars Summit 2017 and what Seedstars has in store for Africa in 2017.

Mimi Mefo reports from Douala, Cameroon on the Internet shutdown in the English-speaking North-West and South-West regions of the country. Mimi also gets reactions from residents of Cameroon affected by the Internet shutdown and what impact it is having on their lives and businesses.

Sean Obedih speaks to Balungile Belz to discuss the state of angel investing in Afrika. Sean runs the London-based private investors club NewGenAngels. NewGenAngels is a members-only investment Club for high liquid professionals and sophisticated angels, Ultra High Net Worth Individuals, venture capital firms, family offices and angel networks with an interest in Africa.