Author: Chris Anu

Graphic: Xsolla Xsolla, a global video game commerce company that helps developers launch, grow, and monetize their games, today announced the expansion of Airtel Mobile Money as a local payment method to include Tanzania and Madagascar. This growth builds on Xsolla’s existing Airtel Mobile Money coverage in Africa, extending secure, mobile-first checkout experiences to more players in two of the continent’s rapidly digitalizing markets. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251218866029/en/Mobile money has become a cornerstone of everyday life across Africa, powering billions of transactions annually and improving financial inclusion for millions of people in both…

US President Donald Trump. Brian Snyder/Reuters After celebrating Donald Trump’s second presidential term by swilling cocktails and partying to Snoop Dogg at a pre-inauguration event in January, the crypto industry went on to notch major legislative and regulatory victories this year. But the party may not continue into 2026. Among the industry’s biggest wins under Trump’s crypto-friendly second administration were the Securities and Exchange Commission’s swift move to rescind stringent crypto accounting guidance and dismiss Joe Biden-era lawsuits against Coinbase, Binance and others, as well as the passage of a landmark law creating federal rules for dollar-pegged crypto tokens. Crypto…

Bitcoin turned 16 this year. (Picture: Freepik.) Geopolitical events throughout 2025 – such as US president Donald Trump’s election win and the subsequent implementation of trade tariffs – may have been market-moving catalysts, but their impact on Bitcoin as an investment play hasn’t been binary.Bitcoin climbed to a record high of about $126 000 (R2.1 million at this morning’s exchange rate of R16.75 to the dollar) in early October 2025, before sliding to a low of about $85 000 (R1.4 million) in late November, and is ending the year at around $87 254 (R1.46 million).In some instances – such as…

Online education platform Coursera will acquire rival Udemy in an all-stock deal, valuing the combined company at US$2.5-billion, as the industry consolidates after a post-pandemic slowdown and heightened investor scrutiny. Udemy shareholders will receive 0.8 shares of Coursera for each held, valuing the company at about $930-million. Coursera shares were up about 4%, while Udemy jumped nearly 22%. Prosus, the Amsterdam-headquartered subsidiary of South Africa’s Naspers, holds 12% of Udemy’s shares, according to it website. Coursera and Udemy bet that a combined platform will be better positioned to capture corporate demand for workforce training, particularly in artificial intelligence, data science…

Transnet-run Port of Durban is the busiest in sub-Saharan Africa. (Photograph: Wikimedia.) Loss-making Transnet has until noon on Monday to pay Gijima R60 million for work done between July and September this year following failing in its bid to end a R1.5 billion tender.Transnet’s agreement to pay Gijima follows a ruling earlier this month in which acting judge AJ Minnaar refused Transnet leave to appeal an October High Court decision that it could not force Gijima to hand over management of its core enterprise IT systems.The payments, under six invoices, have been made an order of the court. This order,…

US President Donald Trump US President Donald Trump enshrined the American goal to put humans back on the moon by 2028 and defend space from weapon threats in a sweeping executive order issued on Thursday, the first major space policy move of his administration’s second term. The order, issued hours after billionaire private astronaut and former SpaceX customer Jared Isaacman was sworn in as Nasa’s 15th administrator, also reorganised national space policy coordination under Trump’s chief science adviser, Michael Kratsios. Titled “Ensuring American Space Superiority”, the order calls on the Pentagon and US intelligence agencies to create a space security…

In 2026 AI factories will redefine resiliency and disaster recovery. ( Image created using ChatGPT) As artificial intelligence (AI) adoption accelerates across enterprises, 2026 is expected to be a turning point for how organisations design resiliency and disaster recovery.Central to this shift is the emergence of AI factories – purpose-built environments that combine compute, data, software and operational workflows to industrialise AI at scale.This is according to John Roese, global CTO and chief AI officer at Dell Technologies, outlining AI predictions for 2026 in a report titled: “From big bang to light speed: the AI revolution continues.”With firms increasingly embedding…

SpaceX’s Starlink said one of its satellites experienced an anomaly in space on Wednesday that created a “small number” of debris and cut off communications with the spacecraft at 418km in altitude, a rare kinetic accident in orbit for the satellite internet giant. “The satellite is largely intact, tumbling, and will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and fully demise within weeks,” Starlink said in a post on X. The company said the satellite, one of nearly 10 000 in space for its broadband internet network, quickly fell 4km in altitude, suggesting some kind of explosion occurred on board. Policy officials and industry executives…

The e-tag can be loaded and topped up at selected mainline toll plazas. Road users who will be travelling long distances on national roads this festive season are encouraged to avoid the hassle of waiting in long queues at toll gates by using an e-toll tag. According to the South African National Roads AgencyLimited (SANRAL), SA is one of the first countries in the world to introduce the use of automated lanes and automated payment on its toll roads, where motorists only need to register one account.This speeds up the traffic flow at toll plazas on the freeways, eliminates waiting…

Between 2016 and 2024, there were 193 internet shutdowns imposed in 41 African countries. This form of social control is a growing trend in the continent, according to a new open-access source book. It has provided the first-ever comparative analysis of how and why African states use blackouts – written by African researchers. The book, co-edited by digital rights activist and internet shutdown specialist Felicia Anthonio and digital researcher Tony Roberts, offers 11 in-depth case studies of state-sponsored shutdowns. We asked five questions about it. How do you define an internet shutdown and why do they happen? Put simply, an…