the round-up

ARTICLE by STEVE MBEGO & KEVIN Namunwa

What’s Trending The Latest News From The Continent

the round-up

Mastercard To Bring Crypto Trading Capabilities To Banks

Mastercard has introduced Crypto Source, a new programme to enable financial institutions to bring secure crypto trading capabilities and services to their customers.

In partnership with regulated and licensed crypto custody providers, Mastercard’s financial institution partners will gain access to a comprehensive suite of buy, hold, and sell services for select crypto assets, augmented with proven identity, cyber, security and advisory services. This Crypto Source offering is complemented by Mastercard Crypto Secure to bring additional security to the crypto ecosystem and support card issuers in their compliance with complex regulations. Now, Mastercard’s suite of cryptorelated offerings for banks and fintech includes: support to enable buy, hold and sell of select crypto assets • Security management including Mastercard’s identity solutions, crypto analytics, transaction monitoring, antimoney laundering, ‘Know Your Business’ and lifecycle stages, cybersecurity, and biometrics • Crypto spend and cash out capabilities offered through a range of products, including crypto cards, open banking, and cross border services. Financial institutions would also be able to offer additional functionality using Mastercard’s technology such as digital receipts and loyalty solutions • Crypto program management including program design, product development and technology implementation, as

well as go-to-market optimization and marketing consultancy services, providing end-to-end support for banks, fintech and issuers to offer crypto programs at scale

“At Mastercard, trust is our business. What we are announcing today is a connected approach to services that will help bring users safely and securely into the crypto ecosystem. Our recent investments in this space, such as the acquisition of CipherTrace and Ekata, are providing us with a unique set of capabilities to help provide our customers and consumers with the most technically advanced solutions available in the market,” said Ajay Bhalla, President, Cyber & Intelligence at Mastercard. To support this programme, Mastercard is expanding its partnership and work with Paxos Trust Company, a leading regulated blockchain infrastructure platform. The partnership aims for Paxos to provide crypto-asset trading and custody services on behalf of the banks, while Mastercard will leverage its technology to integrate those capabilities into banks’ interfaces, resulting in a seamless experience for the consumer. Over the past few years, Mastercard has been working alongside its customers and partners to bring new services and capabilities that help make crypto more accessible, safe, and secure. These efforts have been complemented with the addition of new technologies through Finicity, Ekata, RiskRecon and CipherTrace. This unique combination of services provides eligible financial institutions the opportunity to directly manage crypto asset investments for consumers. Mastercard also continues to support banks, governments and others through its crypto and digital currencies consulting services. Mastercard Crypto Source is currently being prepared for pilot programmes. Additional details on broader availability will be made available later.

Konza to Partner With VMware For Emerging Tech Talent

Konza Technopolis Development Authority (KoTDA), held a meeting with US-headquartered VMware, an innovator in enterprise software and cloud computing, to discuss areas of partnerships and collaborations. A VMware team led by Robert Condon, EMEA Head of Government Relations and Public Policy; Lorna Hardie, Senior Director of Sub-Saharan Africa; and Everline Wangu Kamau-Migwi, Senior Territory Manager East Africa, agreed to explore aligning around capacity building for emerging tech talent and data centre solutions in the region. Discussions were also held around the potential of working with KoTDA around the IASP World Conference 2024.

Speaking during the meeting, Robert Condon and Lorna Hardie said that VMware is impressed with the vision behind Konza Technopolis as well as the ambition and insight displayed by the Kenyan government in driving innovation through such initiatives. “A leader in multi-cloud, we are delighted to explore areas of cooperation and collaboration with the Authority. A key technology provider to several Kenyan government departments and agencies, alongside providing software and services to private sector organisations such as Safaricom, we are delighted to be taking this first step together with Konza on building Africa’s smartest city. This is the first step towards aligning on shrinking the IT skills gap in Kenya, which will ultimately have a positive effect on the country’s employment market,” Lorna said.

Josephine Ndambuki,the Chief Manager Business Development, and Innovation, said that Konza is keen to work with VMware to help bridge the skills gap and to develop the number of youths entering the tech space. She added that Konza is positioning itself to better support the government’s digitalisation efforts through its national data centre. A recent study by UNESCO and Africa Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) notes that by 2030, a huge percentage of jobs in Kenya will be dependent on digital skills and the adoption of 5G network cloud technologies and data centre solutions.

KoTDA has partnered with local and international software vendors and solutions providers to provide bundled software solutions to complement Konza’s National Data Centre services. Onboarding of the software and cloud vendors has been finalised. The partnerships include technology, MSSP, innovation and R&D, managed consulting services, and reseller partnerships. As part of the Phase 1 anchor projects, the Authority has completed the implementation of a neutral carrier tier III data centre currently being operationalised to support the government, business enterprises and smart city facilities with cutting-edge cloud computing products and services. The Konza National Data Centre is a facility located in a smart and sustainable city with assured multiple internet connectivity points and a reliable power supply.

the round-up

African Women Trail World In Digital Finance Skills

A new report has revealed persistent barriers in the digital finance sector that limit women’s economic empowerment in Africa while recommending policy responses to overcome them. Commissioned by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the latest edition of the biennial African Women’s Report was published. The report analyses the digital finance ecosystem in Africa to examine all its components and how they impact women’s economic prospects. Barriers

The report pinpoints five key issues affecting the use of digital finance as a catalyst for women’s economic empowerment in Africa. • Despite having more mobile money services than anywhere else in the world, women’s access to digital services, mobile and internet in Africa is limited due to illiteracy, cost, skills gap, and social norms. • While impressive gains are made in improving women’s digital finance skills, Africa still lags compared to other regions. For instance, the share of women with digital finance skills in North Africa has doubled from 12.5 per cent in 2014 to 25.7 per cent in 2018 – surpassing the global average of about 20 per cent. However, the same figure stands at only 12 per cent for the entire continent.

• Only 33 per cent of women in Africa have a formal bank account compared to 43 per cent of men. This gap, together with limited access to economic assets, escalates women’s vulnerability and exclusion from profitable sectors and formal jobs. Fourth, social norms as well as inherent biases in financial practices, products and services adversely impact women. • The lack of women’s participation in decision-making processes, as well as in financial and technology fields, means digital finance policies and products are unlikely to include women’s perspectives and meet their needs. In addition, in some African countries, women are nine times less likely to have formal identification than men, which impedes their ability to access, own and use digital finance services freely and safely. Speaking about the report, Edlam Yemeru, Ag. Director of ECA’s Gender, Poverty and Social Policy Division said, “Africa is a global leader in several transactional technologies such as mobile money but there remains considerable scope to scale up digital finance and ensure that women can take full advantage of the resulting opportunities. This requires addressing a number of barriers related to connectivity, digital literacy, cost, laws and culture.”

She continued, “Our report takes a holistic approach in looking at the digital finance ecosystem and defines policy options for governments to develop the sector further and accelerate financial inclusion while paving the way for women’s economic empowerment – leaving no one behind.”